LOST IN TRANSLATION

"love died down like embers"

THE CORRIDOR OPENED INTO A VAST ROOM WITH TWENTY-GOOT CEILINGS AND ROWS OF SUPPORT COLUMNS. It looked like the same parking-garage-type area Ariadne had seen in her dreams, but now much more crowded with stuff.

The creaking and rumbling came from huge gears and pulley systems that raised and lowered sections of the floor got no apparent reason. Water flowed through open trenches, powering water wheels that turned some of the machines. Other machines were connected to huge hamster wheels with hellhounds inside.

Suspended from the ceiling were cages of live animals—a lion, several zebras, a whole pack of hyenas, and even an eight headed hydra. Ancient looking bronze and leather conveyor belts trundled along with stacks of weapons and armor.

"What is it?" Piper whispered.

Percy didn't see the giants, so he gestured for his friends to come forward and take a look.

About twenty feet inside the doorway, a life size wooden cutout of a gladiator popped up from the floor. It clicked and whirred along a conveyor belt, got hooked on a rope, and ascended through a slot in the roof.

Jason murmured, "what the heck?"

They stepped inside, Ariadne scanned the room. There were several thousand things to look at, most of them in motion. About a hundred yards away, she spotted a raised dais with two empty oversized praetor chairs. Standing between them was a bronze jar big enough to hold a person.

"Look." She pointed it out to her friends.

Piper frowned. "That's too easy."

"Of course," Percy said.

"But we have no choice," Jason said. "We've got to save Nico."

"Yeah." Percy started across the room, picking his way around conveyor belts and moving platforms.

The hellhounds in the hamster wheels paid them no attention. They were too busy running and panting, their red eyed glowing like headlights. The animals in the other cages gave them bored looks.

They jumped over a water trench and ducked under a row of caged wolves. They had made it about halfway to the bronze jar when the ceiling opened over them. A platform lowered. Standing on it like an actor, with one hand raised and his head high, was the purple haired giant Ephialtes.

Just like Ariadne had seen in her dreams, the Big F was small by giant standards—about twelve feet tall—but he had tried to make up for it with his loud outfit. He'd changed out of the gladiator armor and was now wearing a Hawaiian shirt that even Dionysus would've found bulgur. It had a garish print made up of dying heroes, horrible tortures, and lions eating slaves in the Colosseum. The giant's hair was braided with gold and silver coins. He had a ten-foot spear strapped to his back, which wasn't a good fashion statement with the shirt. He wore bright white jeans and leather sandals on his...well, not feet, but curved snakeheads. The snakes flicked their tongues and writhed as if they didn't appreciate holding up the weight of a giant.

Ephialtes smiled at the demigods like he was really, really pleased to see them.

"At last!" he bellowed. "So very happy! Honestly, I didn't think you'd make it past the nymphs, but it's so much better that you did. Much more entertaining. You're just in time for the main event!"

Jason and Piper closed ranks on either side of Percy and Ariadne. This giant was smaller than a lot of monsters they had faced.

"We're here," Percy said, which sounded kind of obvious once he had said it. "Let out friend go."

"Of course!" Ephialtes said. "Though I fear he's a bit past his expiration date. Otis, where are you?"

A stone's throw away, the floor opened, and the other giant rose on a platform.

"Otis, finally!" his brother cried with glee. "You're not dressed the same as me! You're..." Ephialtes's expression turned to horror. "What are you wearing?"

Otis looked like the world's largest, grumpiest valley dancer. He wore a skin-tight baby blue leotard that Ariadne really wished left more to the imagination. The toes of his massive dancing slippers were cut away so that his snakes could protrude. A Diamond tiara was nestled in his green, firecracker braided hair. He looked glum and miserably uncomfortable, but he managed a dancer's bow, which couldn't have been easy with snake feet and a huge spear on his back.

"Gods and Titans!" Ephialtes yelled. "It's showtime! What are you thinking?"

"I didn't want to wear the gladiator outfit," Otis complained. "I still think a ballet would be perfect, you know, while Armageddon is going on." He raised his eyebrows hopefully at the demigods. "I have some extra costumes—"

"No!" Ephialtes snapped.

The purple haired giant faced Ariadne. He grinned so painfully, he looked like he was being electrocuted.

"Please excuse my my brother," he said. "His stage presence is awful, and he has no sense of style."

"Okay." Percy decided not to comment on the Hawaiian shirt. "Now, about our friend...0

"Oh, him," Ephialtes sneered. "We we're going to let him finish dying in public, but he has no entertainment value. He'd spent days curled up sleeping. What sort of spectacle is that? Otis, tip over the jar."

Otis trudged over to the dais, stopping occasionally to do a plié. He knocked over the jar, the lid popped off, and Nico di Angelo spilled out. The sight of his deathly pale face and too-skinny frame made Percy's heart stop. Ariadne couldn't tell whether he was alive or dead. She wanted to rush over and check, but Ephialtes stood in her way.

"Now we have to hurry," said the Big F. "We should go through your stage directions. The hypogeum is all set!"

Jason raised his gold gladius. "We're not going to be part of any show," he said. "And whats a hypo—whatever-you-call-it?0

"Hypogeum!" Ephialtes said. "You're a Roman demigod, aren't you? You should know! Ah, but I suppose if we do our job right down here in the under-works, you really wouldn't know the hypogeum exists."

"I know that word," Piper said. "It's the area under a coliseum. It housed all the set pieces and machinery used to create special effects."

Ephialtes clapped enthusiastically. "Exactly so! Are you a student of the theatre, my girl?"

"Uh...my dad's an actor."

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes turned toward his brother. "Did you hear that, Otis? I expected the Daughter of the Vines to know, as she is a girl of theatre."

Ariadne scowled. "Not a chance."

"Be nice!" Ephialtes scolded. "At any rate, my girl, you're absolutely right, but this hypogeum is much more than the stageworks for a coliseum. You've heard that in the old days some giants were imprisoned under the earth, and from time to time they would cause earthquakes when they tried to break free? Well, we've done much better! Otis and I have been imprisoned under Rome for eons, but we've kept busy building our very own hypogeum. Now we're ready to create the greatest spectacle Rome has ever seen—and the last!"

At Otis's feet, Nico shuddered.

"So!" Percy said, hopping to keep the giants' attention on him. "Stage directions, you said?"

"Yes!" Ephialtes said. "Now, I know the bounty stipulates that you and the girl Annabeth should be kept alive if possible, to keep the Daughter of the Vines in line, but honestly, the girl is already doomed, so I hope you don't mind if we deviate from the plan."

Ariadne's mouth went dry. "Already doomed. Is she—"

"Dead?" the giants asked. "No. Not yet. But don't worry! We've got your other friends locked up, you see."

Piper made a strangled sound. "Leo? Hazel and Frank?"

"Those are the ones," Ephialtes agreed. "So we can use them for the sacrifice. We can let the Athena girl die, which will please Her Ladyship. And we can use three of you for the show! Daughter of the Vines will be chained and swallowed by the Earth! Gaea will be a bit disappointed, but really, this is a win-win. Your deaths will be much more entertaining."

Jason snarled. "You want entertaining? I'll give you entertaining."

Piper stepped forward. Somehow she managed a sweet smile. "I've got a better idea," she told the giants. "Why don't you let us go? That would be an incredible twist? Wonderful entertainment value, and it would prove to the world how cool you are."

Nico stirred. Otis looked down at him. His snaky feet flicked their tongues at Nico's head.

"Plus!" Piper said quickly. "Plus, we could do some dance moves as were escaping. Perhaps a ballet number!"

Otis forgot all about Nico. He lumbered over and wagged his finger at Ephialtes. "You see? That's what I was tell you! It would be incredible!"

Otis looked at his brother imploringly. Ephialtes tugged at his chin as if considering the idea.

At last he shook his head. "No...no, I'm afraid not. You see, my girl, I am the anti-Dionysus. I have a reputation to uphold. Dionysus thinks he knows parties? He's wrong! His revels are tame compared to what I can do. That old sting we pulled, for instance, when we piled up mountains to reach Olympus—"

"I told that would never work," Otis muttered.

"And the time my brother covered himself with meat and ran through an obstacle course of drakons—"

"You said Hephaestus-TV would show it during prime time," Otis said. "No one even saw me."

"Well, this spectacle will be even better," Ephialtes promised. "The Romans awkward wanted bread and circuses—food and entertainment! As we destroy their city, I will offer them both. Behold, a sample!"

Something dropped from the ceiling and landed at Percy's feet: a loaf of sandwich bread in a white plastic wrapper with red and yellow dots.

Percy picked it up. "Wonder bread?0

"Magnificent, isn't it?" Ephialtes eyes danced with crazy excitement. "You can keep that loaf. I plan on distributing millions to the people of Rome as I Obligerate them."

"Wonder bread is good," Otis admitted. "Though the Romans should dance for it.0

"Maybe," Ariadne ventured, "you should bring our other friends here. You know, spectacular deaths...the more the merrier, right?"

"Hmm." Ephialtes fiddled with a button on his Hawaiian shirt. "Not. It's really too late to chamber the choreography. But never fear. That circuses will be marvelous! Ah...not the modern sort of circus, mind you. That would require clowns, and I hate clowns."

"Everyone hates clowns," Otis said. "Even other clowns hate clowns."

"You would know," Ariadne muttered.

"Exactly," his brother agreed. "But we have much better entertainment planned! The three of you will die in agony, up above, where all the gods and mortals can watch. But that's just the opening ceremony! In the old days, games went on for days or weeks. Our spectacle—the destruction of Rome—will go on for one full month until Gaea awakens."

"Wait," Jason said. "One month, and Gaea wakes up?"

Ephialtes waved away the question. "Yes, yes. Something about August First being the best date to destroy all humanity. Not important! In her infinite wisdom, the Earth Mother agreed that Rome can be destroyed first, slowly and spectacularly. It's only fitting!"

"So..." Percy began. "You're Gaea's warm-up act."

Ephialtes's face darkened. "This is no warm-up, demigod! We'll release wild animals and monsters onto the streets. Our special effects department will produce fires and earthquakes. Sinkholes and volcanoes will appear randomly out of nowhere! Ghosts will run rampant."

"The ghost thing won't work," Otis said. "Our focus groups say it won't pull ratings."

"Doubters!" Ephialtes said. "This hypogeum can make anything work!"

Ephialtes stormed over to a big table covered with a sheet. He pulled the sheet away, revealing a collection of levers and knobs almost as complicated-looking as Leo's control panel on the Argo II.

"This button?" Ephialtes said. "This one will eject a dozen rabid wolves into the Forum. And this one will summon automaton gladiators to battle tourists at the Trevi Fountain. This one will cause the Tiber to flood its banks so we can reenact a naval battle right in the Piazza Navona! Percy Jackson, you should appreciate that, as a son of Poseidon!"

"Uh...I still think the letting us go idea is better," Percy said.

"He right," Piper tried again. "Otherwise we get into this whole confrontation thing. We fight you. You fight us. We wreck your plans. You know, we've defeated a lot of giants lately. I'd hate for thing to get out of control."

Ephialtes nodded thoughtfully. "You're right."

Piper blinked. "I am?"

"We can't let things get out of control," the giant agreed. "Everything has to be timed perfectly. But don't worry. I've choreographed your deaths. You'll love it."

Nico started to crawl away groaning.

Jason switched his sword hand. "And if we refuse to cooperate with your spectacle?"

"Well, you can't kill us." Ephialtes laughed, as if the idea was ridiculous. "You have no gods with you, and that's the only way you could hope to triumph. So really, it would be much more sensible to die painfully. Sorry, but the show must go on."

Sure, her father was the god of revelry and out-of-control parties. But Ephialtes was all about riot and ruin for pleasure.

Percy looked at his friends. "I'm getting tired of this guy's shirt."

"Combat time?" Piper grabbed her horn of plenty.

"I hate Wonder Bread," Jason said.

"This is a waste of time," Ariadne spat, flipping her sword in her hand. "I'm ready to go find something else to do."

Together, they charged.

***

THINGS WENT WRONG IMMEDIATELY. The giants vanished in twin puffs of smoke. They reappeared halfway across the room, each in a different spot. Percy sprinted toward Ephialtes, but slots in the floor opened under his feet, and metal walls shot up on either side, separating him from his friends.

The walls started closing in on him like the sides of a vise grip. Percy jumped up and grabbed the bottom of the hydra's cage. He caught a brief glimpse of Piper leaping across a hopscotch pattern of fiery pits, making her way toward Nico, who was dazed and weaponless and being stalked by a pair of leopards.

Ariadne was stuck in a pit of maze walls, outrunning three large boulders attempting to crush her. She hopped from one wall to another while her sword cut down automaton gladiators arriving from nowhere.

Meanwhile Jason charged Otis, who pulled his spear and heaved a great sigh, as if he would much rather dance Swan Lake than kill another demigod.

The hydra snapped at Percy's hands. He swung and dropped, landing in a grove of painted plywood trees that sprang up from now where. The trees chance positions as he tried to run through them, so he slashed down the whole forest with Riptide.

"Wonderful!" Ephialtes cried. He stood at his control panel about sixty feet to Percy's left. "We'll consider this a dress rehearsal. Shall I unleash the hydra onto the Spanish Steps now?"

He pulled a lever, and Percy glanced behind him. The cage he had just been hanging from was now rising toward a hatch in the ceiling. In three seconds it would be gone. If Percy attacked the giant, the hydra would ravage them city.

Cursing, he threw Riptide like a boomerang. The sword wash designed for that, but the Celestial bronze blade sliced through the chains suspending the hydra. The cage tumbled sideways. The door broke open, and the monster spilled out—right in front of Percy.

"Oh, you are a spoilsport, Jackson!" Ephialtes called. "Very well. Battle of here, if you must, but your death won't be nearly as good without the cheering crowds."

Ariadne heard it from across the arena. Her eyes rolled upward, pouncing off a wall as all three boulders crushed into one another while a resonated sound sent the ground rumbling. She knew her boyfriend and friends were in desperate trouble, but stuck over twenty feet below the ground they stepped on proved a challenge, especially when surrounded by tile and compact metal slates.

Meanwhile Ephialtes laughed as he pushed buttons on his control board, cranking the conveyor belts into high gear and opening random animal cages.

The hydra charged around the hamster wheel. Percy swung behind a column, grabbed a garbage bag full of Wonder Bread, and threw it at the monster. The hydra spit acid, which was a mistake. The bag and wrappers dissolved in midair. The Wonder bread absorbed the acid like fire extinguisher foam and splattered against the hydra, covering it in a sticky, steaming layer of high-calorie poisonous goo.

As the monster reeled, shaking its heads and blinking Wonder acid out of its eyes, Percy looked around desperately.

"I know!" Ephialtes cried out happily. "We can start with explosions along the Via Labicana! We can't keep our audience waiting forever."

In a flash, three looming shadows fell over the theatre, swallowing the ground in a stony gray as Percy held his breath. The hydra barreled toward him, blocking his view of the giant. All right hydra heads loomed over him, ready to melt him in a pool of sludge.

The hydra was pounded to the ground by three large boulders made of a marble that seemed to be smoking, or it was the steam from the acidic-Wonder bread much covering the monster. The hydra vaporized instantly beneath the musty stone while a figure landed on top, breathing heavily.

Unfortunately, the recoil of the boulders shooting all over the room. A chunk of ceiling collapsed and crushed a waterwheel. More cages snapped off their chains, unleashing two zebras and a pack of hyenas. A grenade suddenly exploded over Ephialtes's head, but it only blasted him off his feet. The control board didn't even look damaged.

Across the room, sandbags rained down around Piper and Nico. Piper tried to pull Nico to safety, but one of the bags caught her shoulder and knocked her down.

"Piper!" Jason cried. He ran toward her, completely forgetting about Otis, who aimed his spear at Jason's back.

"Look out!" Ariadne's yelled, sliding off the rocks she stood upon.

Jason had fast reflected. As Otis threw, Jason rolled. The point sailed over him and Jason flicked his hand, summoning a gust of wind that change the spear's direction. It flew across the room and skewered Ephialtes through his side just as he was getting to his feet.

"Otis!" Ephialtes stumbled away from his control board, clutching the spear as he began to crumble into monster dust. "Will you please stop killing me!"

"Not my fault!"

Otis had barely finished speaking when a rogue vine hit the ceiling above Otis and exploded in a beautiful shower of light. Colorful sparks pirouetted gracefully around the giant. Then a ten-foot section of roof collapsed and crushed him flat.

Jason ran to Piper's side. She yelped when he touched her arm. Her shoulder looked unnaturally bent, but she muttered, "Fine. I'm fine." Next to her, Nico sat up, looking around him in bewilderment as if just realizing he'd missed a battle.

Sadly, the giants weren't finished. Ephialtes was already re-forming, his head and shoulders rising from the mound of dust. He tugged his arms free and glowered at Percy and Ariadne.

Across the room, the pile of rubble shifted, and Otis busted out. His head was slightly caved in. All the firecrackers in his hair had popped, and his braids were smoking. His leotard was in tatters, which was just about the only way it could've looked less attractive on him.

"Percy!" Jason shouted. "The controls!"

Percy unfroze. He uncapped his sword, and lunged for the switchboard. He slashed his blade across the top, decapitating the controls in a shower of bronze sparks.

"No!" Ephialtes wailed. "You've ruined the spectacle!"

Percy turned alley. Ephialtes swung his spear like a bat and smacked him across the chest. He fell to his knees, the pain turning his stomach to lava.

Jason ran to his side, but Otis lumbered after him. Percy managed to rise and found himself shoulder to shoulder with Jason. Over the dais, Piper was still on the floor, unable to get up. Nico was barely conscious.

Ariadne swung her sword and sliced Otis's ankle, causing him to stumble. Her victory was won over fairly quickly when the sand beneath her feet began sinking quickly, sending her down toward the floor and almost at her waist as her sword was laughed across the arena, large hand gripping her neck in a loose grip as it pulled her out.

Ephialtes smiled apologetically. "Tired, Ariadne Phoenix? As I said, you cannot kill us. So I guess we're at an impasse. Oh, wait...no we're not! Because we can kill you!"

"That," Otis grumbled, picking up his fallen spear, "is the first sensible thing you've said all day, brother."

Ariadne kicked her legs in vain as her lungs burned due to the lack of air. She was becoming dizzy, figured dancing in a field of smoke while it sounded like they were underwater.

Gaining a slight sense of hearing, she picked up on her boyfriend.

"That's right," Percy said. "You're north dead. I don't care if we have a god on our side or not."

"Well, that's a shame," said a new voice.

To his right, another platform lowered from the ceiling. Leaning casually on a pinecone-topped staff was a man in a purple camp shirt, khaki shorts, and sandals with white socks. He raised his broad-brimmed hat, and pjo role fire flickered in his eyes. "I'd hate to think I made a trip for nothing."

She dropped to the floor and gasped.

Her father never had a calming influence, but suddenly everything got quiet. The machines ground to a half. The wild animals stopped growling.

The two leopards paced over and butted their heads affectionately against the god's legs. He scratched their ears.

"Really, Ephialtes," he chided. "Killing demigods is one thing. But using leopards for your spectacle? That's over the line."

The giant made a squeaking sound. "This—this is impossible. D-D—"

"It's Bacchus, actually, my old friend," said the god. "And of course it's possible. Someone told me there was a party going on."

He looked the same as he had in Kansas. Bacchus was meaner and leaner, with less of a potbelly. He had longer hair, more spring in his step, and a lot more anger in his eyes. He even managed to make a pinecone on a stick look intimidating.

Ephialtes's spear quivered. "You—you gods are doomed! Be gone, in the name of Gaea!"

"Hmm." Bacchus sounded unimpressed. He strolled through the ruined props, platforms, and special effects.

"Tacky." He waved his hand at a painted wooden gladiator, then turned to a machine that looked like an oversized rolling pin stuffed with knives. "Cheap. Boring. And this..." He inspected the rocket-launching contraption, which was still smoking. "Tacky, cheap, and boring. Honestly, Ephialtes. You have no sense of style."

"STYLE?" The giant's face flushed. "I have mountains of style. I define style. I—I—"

"My brother oozes style," Otis suggested.

"Thank you!" Ephialtes cried.

Bacchus stepped forward, and the giants stumbled back. "Have you two gotten shorter?" asked the god.

"Oh, that's low," Ephialtes growled. "I'm quite tall enough to destroy you, Bacchus! I almost crushed your daughter with my bare hands. You gods, always hiding behind your mortal heroes, trusting the fate of Olympus to the likes of these."

His foot knocked against Ariadne's gut while she gasped. Her body rolled, grunting on the ground once Percy lifted her up to her feet, holding her tightly.

Jason hefted his sword. "Lord Bacchus, are we going to kill these giants or what?"

"Well, I certainly hope so," Bacchus said. "Please, carry on."

Percy stared at him. "Didn't you come here to help?"

Bacchus shrugged. "Oh, I appreciated the sacrifice at sea. A whole ship full of Diet Coke. Very nice. Although I would've preferred Diet Pepsi."
"And six million in gold and jewels," Percy muttered.

"Yes," Bacchus said, "although with demigod parties of five or more gratuity is included, so that wasn't necessary."

"What?"

"Never mind," Bacchus said. "At any rate, you got my attention. I'm here. Now I need to see if you're worthy of my help. Go ahead. Battle. If I'm impressed, I'll jump in for the grand finale."

"We speared one," Percy said. "Dropped the roof on the other. What do you consider impressive?"

"Ah, a good question..." Bacchus tapped his thyroid. Then he smiled. "Perhaps you need inspiration! The stage hasn't been properly set. You call this a spectacle, Ephialtes? Let me show you how it's done."

The god dissolved into purple mist. Piper, Nico, and Jason disappeared.

"Pipes!" Jason yelled. "Bacchus, where did you—?"

The entire floor rumbled and began to rise. The ceiling opened in a series of panels. Sunlight poured in. The air shimmered like a mirage, and Ariadne heard the roar of a crowd above her.

The hypogeum ascended through a forest of weathered stone columns, into the middle of a ruined coliseum.

Ariadne's eyes blinked in fascination. This wasn't just any coliseum. It was the Colosseum. The giants' special effects machines had gone into overtime, laying planks across ruined support beams so the arena had a proper floor again. The bleachers repaired themselves until they were gleaming white. A red and gold canopy extended overhead to provide shade from the afternoon sun. The emperor's box was draped with silk, flanked by banners and golden eagles. The road of applause came from thousands of shimmering purple ghost, the Lares of Rome brought back for an encore performance.

Venta opened in the floor and sprayed sand across the arena. Huge props sprang you—garage-size mountains of plaster, stone columns, and life-size plastic barnyard animals. A small lake appeared to one side. Ditches crisscrossed the arena floor in case anyone was in the mood for trench warfare. Percy and Ariadne stood together facing the twin giants.

"This is a proper show!" boomed the voice of Bacchus. He sat in the emperor's box wearing purple robes and golden laurels. At his left sat Jason and Nico and Piper, her shoulder being tended by a nymph in a nurse's uniform. At Bacchus's right crouched a satyr, offering up Doritos and grapes. The god raised a can of Diet Pepsi and the crowd went respectfully quiet.

Percy glared up at him. "You're just going to sit there?"

"The demigod is right!" Ephialtes bellowed. "Fight us yourself, coward! Um, without the demigods."

Bacchus smiled lazily. "Juno says she's assembled a worthy crew of demigods. Show me. Entertain me, heroes of Olympus. Give me a reason to do more. Being a god has its privileges."

He popped his soda can top, and the crowd cheered.

***

FIGHTING GIANTS WAS ONE THING. Becoming a simple prop for her own father was something else.

Ariadne remembered the hatred that Luke Castellan displayed years ago, when they had returned from their very first quest.

The Olympians had been drawing lots for who could use them next.

Maybe the gods were better than the Titans, or the giants, or Gaea, but that didn't make them good or wise. It didn't make Ariadne bow down to her father and his godly family.

Unfortunately, she didn't have much choice in this stupid arena battle.

Ephialtes and Otis made his decision easier by attacking. Together, the giants picked up a fake mountain as big as Percy's New York apartment and hurled it at the demigods.

Ariadne and Percy bolted. They dove together into the nearest trench and the mountain shattered above them, spraying them with plaster shrapnel. It wasn't deadly, but it stung like crazy.

The crowd jeered and shouted for blood. "Fight! Fight!"

"So, got any miraculous ideas up there?" Ariadne called over the noise. Her sword had reappeared and her face was less pale, but a bruising wrapped around her neck.

Dividing was the natural course—fighting the giants one-on-one, but that hadn't worked so well last time. It dawned on him that they needed a different strategy.

"We attack together," Percy said. "Otis first, because he's weaker. Take him out quickly and move to Ephialtes. Bronze and gold together—maybe that'll keep them from re-forming a little longer."

Ariadne smiled dryly.

"Why not?" she agreed. "But Ephialtes isn't going to stand there and wait while we kill his brother. Unless—"

"Some tough soil," Percy offered. "And there're some water pipes running under the arena."

Ariadne understood immediately. She laughed, and Percy smiled.

"On three?" she said.

"Why wait?"

They charged out of the trench. As she had suspected, the twins had lifted another plaster mountain and were waiting for a clear shot. The giants raised it above their heads, preparing to throw, and Percy caused a water pipe to burst at their feet, shaking the floor. Ariadne sent a wad of vines against Ephialtes's chest. The purple-haired giant toppled backward and Otis lost his grip on the mountain, which promptly collapsed on top of his brother. Only Ephialtes's snake feet stuck out, darting their heads around, as if wondering where the rest of their body has gone.

The crowd roared with approval, but Ariadne suspected Ephialtes was only stunned. They had a few seconds at best.

"Hey, Otis!" Percy shouted. "The Nutcracker bites!"

"Ahhhhh!" Otis snatched up his spear and threw, but he was too angry to aim straight. Jason deflected it over Percy's head and into the lake.

The demigods backed toward the water, shouting insults about ballet.

Otis barreled toward them empty-handed, before apparently realizing that a) he was empty-handed, and b) charging a large body of water to fight a son of Poseidon was maybe not a good idea.

Too late, he tried to stop. The demigods rolled to either side, and Ariadne kicked his back, using the giant's own momentum to shove him into the water. As Otis struggled to rise, Ariadne and Percy attacked as one, like they had done so many times before. They launched themselves at the giant and brought their blades down on Otis's head.

He exploded into powder on the lake's surface like a huge packet of drink mix.

Percy churned the lake into a whirlpool. Otis's essence tried to reform, but as his head appeared from the water, Ariadne called vines and shoved him back to dust again.

As if on cue, the plaster mountain exploded behind them. Ephialtes rose, bellowing with anger.

Ariadne and Percy waited as he lumbered toward them, his spear in hand. Apparently, getting flattened under a plaster mountain had only energized him. His eyes danced with murderous light. The afternoon sun glinted in his coin-braided hair. Even his snake feet looked angry, baring their fangs and hissing.

Percy tried to keep the lake churning.

Ariadne and he met the giant's charge. They lunged around Ephialtes, stabbing and slashing in a blur of gold and bronze, but the giant parried every strike.

She was tired. Exhausted from the fight below, and almost following unconscious a few minutes prior.

"I will not yield!" Ephialtes roared. "You may have ruined my spectacle, but Gaea will still destroy your world!"

Percy lashed out, slicing the giant's spear in half. Ephialtes wasn't even faxed. The giant swept low with the blunt end and knocked Percy off his feet. Percy landed hard on his sword arm, and Riptide clattered out of his grip.

Ariadne stepped inside he giant's guard and ignored Ephialtes's parried strike. She cut the giant's chest, before the tip of his spear sliced down her chest, ripping the top of her orange shirt. She stumbled, wincing at the thin line of violet down his sternum. Ephialtes kicked her backward.

Up in the emperor's box, Piper cried out, but her voice was drowned in the roar of the crowd. Bacchus looked on with an amused smile, munching from a bag of Doritos.

How he could eat watching his own daughter fight to the death was sickening.

Ephialtes toward over Ariadne and Percy, both halves of his broken spear poised over their heads. Their plan had failed, with both of their swords skittered across the arena floor.

She saw a shape above the Colosseum—a large dark oval descending rapidly.

From the lake, Otis yelled, trying to warn his brother, but his half-dissolved face could only manage: "Uh-umh-moooo!"

"Don't worry, brother!" Ephialtes said, his eyes still fixed on the demigods. "I will make them suffer!"

The Argo II turned in the sky, presenting its port side, and green fire blazed from the ballista.

"Actually," Ariadne said. "Look behind you."

Her and Percy rolled away just as the explosion rocked the Colosseum.

The Argo II was coming in for a landing. Ephialtes lay charred and groaning on the arena floor, the sand around him seared into a halo of glass by the heat of Greek fire. Otis was floundering in the lake, trying to reform, but from the arms down he looked like a puddle of burnt oatmeal.

Percy staggered over to Ariadne and gripped her waist. The ghostly crowd gave them a standing ovation as the Argo II extended its landing gear and settled on the arena floor. Leo stood at the held, Hazel and Frank grinning at his side. Coach a hedge danced around the firing platform, pumping his fist in the air and yelling, "That's what it talking about!"

Percy turned to the emperor's box. "Well?" he yelled at Bacchus. "Was that entertaining enough for you, you wine-breathed little—"

"No need for that." Suddenly the god was standing right next to him in the arena. He brushed Dorito dust off his purple robes. "I have decided you are worthy partners for this combat."

"Partners?" Ariadne growled. "You did nothing!"

Bacchus walked to the edge of the lake. The water instantly drained, leaving an Otis-headed pile of mush. Bacchus picked his way to the bottom and looked up at the crowd. He raised his thyrsus.

The crowd jeered and hollered and pointed their thumbs down.

Bacchus chose the more entertaining option. He smacked Otis's head with pinecone staff, and the giant pile of Otismeal disintegrated completely.

The crowd went wild. Bacchus climbed out of the lake and strutted over to Ephialtes, who was still lying spread-eagled, overcooked and smoking.

Again, Bacchus raised his thyrsus.

"DO IT!" the crowd roared.

"DON'T DO IT!" Ephialtes wailed.

Bacchus tapped the giant on the nose, and Ephialtes crumbled to ashes.

The ghosts cheered and threw spectral confetti as Bacchus stride around the stadium with his arms raised triumphantly, exulting in the worship. He grinned at the demigods. "That, my friends, is a show! And of course I didn't something. I killed two giants!"

As their friends disembarked from the ship, the crowd of ghosts shimmered and disappeared. Piper and Nico struggled down from the emperor's box as the Colosseum's magical renovations began to turn into mist. The arena floor remained solid, but otherwise the stadium looked as if it hadn't hosted a good giant killing for eons.

"Well," Bacchus said. "That was fun. You have my permission to continue your voyage."

"Your permission?" the couple snarled.

"Yes." Bacchus raised an eyebrow. "Although your voyage may be a little harder than you expected, Daughter of the Vines."

"What?"

"You might try the parking lot behind the Emmanuel Building," Bacchus said. "Best place to break through. Now, good-bye, my friends. And, ah, good luck with that other little matter."

The god vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice.

None of them could miss the fear in her eyes. Her heart anguished in thought of her own father knowing what cruel fate awaited her around the next door, not hesitating to lock her out and watch from those damned godly windows. Hardly bearing truth of the matter she was facing.

In honesty, Ariadne Aidan Phoenix knew her own father no longer loved her, because if he had, then her hand would no longer be shaking with the blood she had spilled too many times for him.

authors note:

I'm so sorry this is late! I was in Colorado with my dad for vacation and it was so much fun! I'll trying to include pictures next chapter

Please forgive me! I'm also going to take a break once MOA is finished so I can focus on school starting soon, my mental health, and also other ideas striking my brain! can't believe I'm gonna be a fucking junior that's terrifying! Also, me and my friend group have split up so now I'm only talking t one of them and the other two have ignored me, but I've met another girl in my grade who is super pretty and wants to hang out so new friends!!!

Q: What are you most excited for when I post my MHA fic

A: the relationships you get to see at the beginning and how they span over the series

Q: I know I love enemies to lovers and all, but I want to try another trope, so any ideas????

A: I was thinking maybe like instead of straight up enemies to lovers, more like enemies at first glance-but mostly competition and a desire to prove themselves to one another???

always make sure you guys eat and sleep and drink lots of water! take care of yourselves!

loves you guys!