Chapter Text
Zoë didn’t explain, instead she rained eerily silent all of their ride, which went well into the sunset. Leo was happy when they finally touched down Percy seemed to be too, riding a boar was not fun. It really messed up his back.
He had no idea how many miles they flew (Or galloped) but the mountains quickly faded away into the background and soon enough they were flying across the desert.
When night fell, the big boar came to a stop at a random creek bed they had found and started drinking, then ripped a cactus out of the ground and chewed it like the needles didn't inconvenience him at all.
“This is as far as he’ll go,” Grover told them, “We need to get off while he’s eating.”
It didn't seem like anyone needed convincing. They slipped off the boars back while the big boar was eating. The smaller boar however stayed tight to Leo, eyeing the others suspiciously, They all walked away for a rest, and the young boar came to.
“I guess we can’t get rid of the winged boar– Uh, Gull?” Percy asked, as the Bigger boar ate its third Saguaro.
“I don’t think so,” Leo said, “Gull is looking for her owner, and apparently we’re heading in the same direction.”
Percy nodded.
The bigger boar, now finishing its muddy water,r let out a squeal and then whirled around and galloped out east.
“It seems to like the mountains better,” Percy guessed, carefully watching the big boar gallop away.
“I can’t blame it,” Thalia said, “loo.k”
Looking ahead of them was a two-lane road mostly covered in sand, on one side, there was a ghost town, complete with boarded-up houses, and a run-down taco shop, that looked just as old as Zoë. A post office with a board saying Gila Claw, Arizona hanging above its doors. Right beyond that were hills, so many hills. Leo was not looking forward to climbing them until he looked again.
“Oh my gods!” There was so much scrap metal, there were old cars, appliances, it was his dream place, the best part it seemed to go on forever.
Percy saw what he was staring at, “Whoa,”
“Yeah, whoa,” Leo said in awe.
“Something tells me we’re not going to find car rentals here,” Thalia said, turning to look at Gull. “Any chance Gull could take us?”
Grover shook his head, “Gulls are too small, we barely fit on the previous boar. Gulls are even smaller.”
Grover then suddenly sniffed the wind, then looked nervous. He fished his acorns out of his pocket and threw them in the sand, then played his pipes. They rearranged themselves in a pattern that seemingly made no sense to Leo, but Grover looked concerned
“That’s u,s” Grover said, “Those 6 nuts right there.”
“Which one’s me?” Percy asked
“The little Deformed one,” Zoë suggested
“Oh, shut up,”
Leo laughed, and the two of them acted like siblings, and it was hilarious. But his amusement was soon cut short by Grover saying in a serious voice: “That cluster right there,” he pointed to the left, “That’s trouble,”
“A monster?” Thalia asked, which Leo really hoped that wasn't the answer.
Grover looked uneasy, which was not a good sign. “I don’t smell anything, which doesn’t make sense…” he trailed off, “But the acorns don’t like our next challenge…” he trailed off again, his eyes looking towards the junkyard.
–
They decided to set up camp for the night; no one (aside from Leo) wanted to go dumpster diving in the dark.
“Your loss,” Leo said, watching Zoë and Bianca produce six sleeping bags and foam mattresses out of their backpacks like magicians. He wondered if they were enchanted or not. Their bows had to be enchanted as well, because they just appeared when they needed them like a genshin impact character.
Unfortunately for Leo’s friends, which didn't have the power of heat, it got chilly quite quickly, so Grover and Percy had to collect old boards which Thalia zapped with electricity to make a fire, after realising how hesitant Leo was to make fire. Pretty soon they were all comfy or at least he and Gull were comfy.
“You're like a little night light, you know,” Leo told Gull, who huffed in response,”
“The stars are out,” Zoë commented
Leo looked up and gasped.
“Amazing,” Bianca breathed, “I’ve never seen the Milky Way,”
Leo nodded and agreement that it was truly something
“This is nothing!” Zoë huffed, “In the old days, there were more. Whole constellations have disappeared because of human light pollution,”
“You talk like you’re not human.”
Zoë raised her eyebrow, “I am a Hunter. I care what happens to the wild places of the world. Can the same be said for thee?”
“For you,” Thalia corrected, “Not thee.”
“Not this again,” Leo sighed.
“But you use you for the beginning of a sentence,”
“And in the end,” Thalia said, annoyed, “No thou. No thee. Just you,”
Zoë clearly fed up and exasperated through her hands up,” I hate this language, it changes too often.”
“Does it really?”
“When you live as long as I have, yes!”
Grover sighed as he looked up at the stars, “If only Pan were here, he would set things straight.”
Zoë nodded sadly.
“Maybe it was the coffee,” Grover said, “I was drinking coffee, and the wind came. Maybe if I drank more coffee…”
“Sorry to interrupt, but who’s Pan?” Leo asked.
Grover looked like he had been stabbed. “You don’t know who Pan is!?”
“Woah, Grover, calm down,” Percy said, “He’s known to this demigod thing, you can’t expect him to know Pan. Besides, Grover, do you really think that was Pan? I mean, I know you want it to be him,”
“He sent us help,” Grover insisted, “I don’t know how or why. But it was his presence. After this quest is done, I'm going back to New Mexico and drinking a lot of coffee. Its the best lead we’ve gotten in hundreds of years. I was so close,”
Everyone went silent for a moment, not wanting to squash his hopes, but Leo was still confused.
“Again, who is Pan?”
Zoë turned to Leo, “Pan is the god of the wild.”
“Ah, and Grover likes him because?”
“Satyrs are like Pan’s children,”
Leo nodded, “That makes sense… I guess,”
Everyone sighed, probably happy they didn’t have to explain any further.
“What I want to know,” Thalia said, looking at Bianca, “is how you destroyed one of the zombies. There are a lot more out there somewhere. We need to figure out how to fight them.”
Everyone nodded in agreement except Biacna, who shook her head, “I don’t know. I just stabbed it and it went up in flames,”
“Maybe there’s something special about your knife?” Percy asked.
They all turned to Leo.
“Why are you all looking at me?” he asked
“You're a Hephaestus kid,” they said, like that explained everything.
“And???”
“Never mind,”
Percy turned back to Bianca, “Maybe you have to hit the skeleton in a certain spot,”
“So they might be like that one dude that was invincible aside from his heel?”
Percy shook his head, “I saw them pop up, so they weren’t bathed in the river Styx,”
Zoë sighed, “Never mind. We will find the answer. In the meantime, we should plan our next move. When we get through this junkyard, we must continue west. If we can find a road,we can hitchhike to the nearest city. I think that would be Las Vegas.”
“We’re going to Vegas?” Leo said excitedly, “Does that mean we get to gamble?”
But before he could continue any planning, Bianca cried, “No! Not there!”
Leo studied her face, and she seemed really freaked out, like a rattlesnake had snuck into her sleeping bag.
Zoë frowned. “Why?”
Bianca took a shaky breath, “I… I think we will be there for a while. Nico and I, when we were travelling and… I can’t remember…”
“That’s not concerning at all,” Leo said as Percy’s face grew serious
“Bianca,” he said, “The hotel you stayed at was it possibly called the Lotus Hotel and Casino?”
Her eyes widened. “How did you know that?”
“Oh no,” Percy said, worry lacing his voice like he’d just discovered a disturbing truth
Before Leo could ask what the Lotus Casino was,s Thalia beat him to the question
“Wait. What’s the Lotus Casino?”
“A couple of years ago,” Percy started, “Grover, Annabeth, and I got trapped there. It’s designed so you never want to leave. We thought we stayed for an hour, but when we came out, five days had passed, time had slowed while we were in there.”
Leo’s eyes widened
Bianca shook, “No,” she said, he voice trembling, “No, that’s not possible.”
“You said somebody came and got you out,” Percy continued
“Yes,”
“What did he look like? What did he say?” Percy pushed
“Okay, dude, calm down.”
“I really don’t want to talk about this,” Bianca said, her eyes shone with fear, like a wave of realization came crashing down onto her.
Zoë sat forward suddenly. Her face showed clear concern. “You said that Washington, DC, had changed when you went back last summer. You didn’t remember the subway being there,”
“Yes, but–”
“Bianca,” Zoë said just as seriously, “Can you tell me the name of the President of the United States of America?”
“Don’t be silly,” Bianca said, as she told them the correct name
“And who was the president before?”
“Why does that matter?” Leo asked, but no one was paying attention to him, as Bianca thought.
“Roosevelt,”
Now, Leo was originally from Mexico, but even he knew that was not the right answer
“Theodore or Franklin?” Zoë asked what didn’t make sense to Leo since neither of them was the previous president.
“Franklin,” Bianca said, “FDR”
“Like FDR Drive?” Percy asked, but now it was his turn to be ignored
“Bianca,” Zoë said, “FDR was not the last president. That was about 80 years ago,”
“That’s impossible,” Bianca said, “I-I’m not that old,”
“Bianca,” Leo started, but realised now wasn’t the best time to point out that being a demigod was technically shouldn’t be possible.
Thalia’s eyes saddened, and Leo didn’t really understand why, but he decided not to pry.
“It’s okay, Bianca. The important thing is that you made it out safe.”
“But how?” Percy asked, which was seriously not the time to be asking that question. “We were only in there for an hour, and we barely escaped. How could you have escaped after being there for so long?”
“I told you,” Bianca said, her eyes glazing over with tears, “A man came and said it was time to leave. And-”
“But Who? Why did he do it?”
Before Leo could scold Percy for how insensitive he was being. Leo sensed something and turned around only to be hit in the face with blazing light that was coming form down the road. He then realised it was barreling straight for them
“Move!” Leo yelled as they grabbed their sleeping bags and dove out of the way as a white limousine came to a stop in front of them.
Biacna and Zoë drew their bows as a sword came right above Percy's throat.
Percy luckily was able to back away very slowly as the owner of the sword got out of the car.
“Woah,” Leo said, “hey dude let’s not threaten people with a sword,”
He ignored Leo, which was starting to become a very annoying pattern that he was getting sick of.
“Not so fast now, are you, punk?”
The man was buff, with a crew cut, a black leather jacket, black jeans, a white muscle shirt (which looked stupid if Leo had anything to say about it,) and combat boots. His wrap around shades hid his eyes, which honestly looked cool as hell.
“Ares,” Percy growled.
The war god glanced at them, then turned back to Percy, “At ease, people.”
He snapped his fingers, and their weapons fell to the ground.
An Idea snapped into Leo’s mind, god proof weapons, why? He didn’t know, but seeing a god so easily disarmed them scared him.
“This is a friendly meeting,” he dug the blade a little deeper under Percy’s chin, “Of course I’d like to take your head for a trophy, but someone wants to see you. And I never behead my enemies in front of a lady,”
“That’s sexist,” Leo muttered
“Ah, my brother’s spawn, you look just like him,” Ares said with a snarl
“Thank you?” Leo said confused
“That wasn’t a compliment ya little fuck,”
“Damn no need to be so aggressive,”
“Watch your tone, little boy.”
“Hey, back off.”
Ares turned, looking over Thalia, “Well, well. I heard you were back,”
He lowered his sword and pushed Percy to the ground.
“Thalia, daughter of Zeus,” Ares mused. “You’re not hanging out with very good company.”
“What’s your business, Ares?” She said, “Who’s in the car?”
Ares smiled, “Oh, I doubt she wants to meet the rest of you, particularly not them,” he jutted his chin at Zoë and Bianca. “Why don’t you all go get some tacos while you wait?”
“Excuse me?”
“We will not leave him alone with thee, lord Ares,” Zoë said,
Leo nodded, he was getting the feeling that Ares would chop off Percy’s head if they left him alone, hell, the man, no, god had already admitted to wanting to do that
“Besides,” Grover added, albeit nervously, “The Taco place is closed.”
Ares snapped his fingers and suddenly the inside lights of the taqueria sprang to life, the boards flew off the door, and the closed sign flipped to open! “You were saying, goat boy,”
If this guy hadn’t just threatened his friend, Leo would have totally asked how he did that
“Go on,” Percy told them, “I’ll handle this.”
Percy was not fooling anyone with his false confidence.
You heard the boy, he’s big and strong,” Ares said mockingly, “He’s got things under control.”
They all, minus Percy, reluctantly went to the taco shop.
“So what was that about?” Leo asked as he ate.
“A few summers ago,” Grover started, “Ares and Percy dualled and Percy ended up winning,”
Leo’s eyebrows almost shot off his head, “But isn’t Ares a god? How did he lose!?”
Grover shrugged, but then said hurriedly as he saw Ares' eyes staring at him, “Also, it would be wise if you didn’t bring that up.”
“Why?”
“The Gods get upset if you remind them of their failings,” Zoë explained, saving poor Grover from getting roasted by Ares' piercing glare.
They all finished their food and stepped out of the taco shop, but as soon as they did, it was gone, actually the whole town was gon,e and they were standing in the middle of a junkyard with Percy a few feet away and the limo nowhere to be found.
“What did she want with you?” Bianca asked, once Percy had told them about his meeting with Aphrodite
“Yeah, what did she want with you?” Leo said, feeling a bit jealous of Percy for meeting the goddess of love and beauty.
“Oh, uh, not sure,” He said, “She said to be careful in her husband’s junkyard. She said not to pick anything up.”
“Who’s her husband? Whoever he is, he must be really cool,” Leo said, and they all turned to him with a pitying look.
“Her husband is your dad,” Thalia said bluntly
“I’m sorry, I think I misheard you. I thought you just said it's the deadbeats.”
“You really shouldn’t insult the gods,” Grover said, and Percy just laughed.
Zoë sighed and then narrowed her eyes like a light bulb went off inside her head, “The goddess of love would not take a special trip to tell thee that. Be careful, Percy. Aphrodite has led many heroes astray.”
“For once, I agree with Zoë,” Thalia said, “You can’t trust Aphrodite.”
“Oh, so they can say the gods are untrustworthy, but I can't say their deadbeat's,” Leo murmured
“So, how do we get out of here?”
“How can you tell?”
Zoë rolled her eyes, which Leo could see surprisingly well in the light of the moon. Maybe it was because of his glowing eyes, but Percy seemed to also see it.
“Ursa Major is in the north,” She sai,d then pointed, “Which means that must be west,”
She pointed west, then at a northern constellation, which Leo couldn’t tell apart from the other thousand stars.
“Oh, yeah,” Percy sighed, “the bear thing,”
Zoë looked offended like someone had just shot her favourite bow, “Show some respect! It was a fine bear. A worthy opponen.t”
“You act like it was real.”
Leo was going to point out that a few minutes ago they were talking to a god that weren't supposed to exist, but he shut his mouth.
“Guys!” Grover said, “Look!”
They reached the crest of the mountain of metal. Piles and piles and piles of metal, there were broken heads of bronze horses, metal legs, some looked like they were failed prosthetics and others like they were made for human statues, smashed chariots, shields, swords, and various other weapons, along with some normal everyday stuff, like cars, refrigerators, washing machines, computers, all seemingly made out of precious metals and jewels
“Whoa,” Bianca said, “That stuff… some of it looks like real gold.”
“It i,” Thalia said grimly, “Like Percy said, don’t touch anything. This is the junkyard of the gods.”
“Junk?!” Grover picked up a beautiful crown made of gold, silver, and jewels, but it was broken on one side like an axe had split it. “You call this junk?”
He picked off a point and began to chew, “It's delicious!”
“Grover!” Leo yelled
Thalia swatted the crown out of his hands, causing Gull the squeal in surprise, “I’m serious!”
“Look!” Bianca said as she raced down the hill of mental, tripping over bronze coils and golden plates. She picked up a bow that glowed silver in the moonlight, “A hunter’s bow!” she then yelped in surprise as the bow began to shrink and became a hairclip shaped like a crescent moon, “WOAH! It’s just like Percy’s sword!”
Oh, how Leo wanted to study how that bow worked as he rushed over to Bianca.
Zoë’s face turned grim. “Leave it, Bianca.”
“But–”
“It is here for a reason. Anything thrown away in this junkyard must stay in this yard. It is Defective. Or cursed.”
“But if I could just–”
“No buts. Drop it.”
Bianca set the hair clip down sadly while Leo mourned the loss of a new project to work on.
“I don’t like this place,” Thalia said, gripping her spear so tight it looked painful.
“You think we’re going to get attacked by killer refrigerators?”
“I mean, I wouldn’t put it past the gods,” Leo said jokingly.
Thalia gave both of them a hard look, “Zoë’s right, guys. Things get thrown away here for a reason. Now come on, let’s get across the yard.”
“That’s the second time you’ve agreed with zoë,” Percy muttered, and Leo thought Percy was about to get slapped, but Thalia ignored him.
They all started picking their way through the hills and valleys of metal. It seemed to go on forever, it honestly would make a pretty good backrooms level. If they hadn’t had Ursa Major to guide them, they would’ve been so lost, as all the hills seemed to be the same. Although all the metals felt different, so Leo didn’t think he would be too lost.
Leo would be lying if he said that they left stuff alone, but there was so much cool stuff. Percy found an electric guitar shaped like Apollo’s lyre, which Percy picked up before receiving a glare from Thalia,. Grover found a broken tree made of metal. It had been chopped to pieces, but some branches still had golden birds that, when touched, whirled around and tried to flap their wings. And Leo… Leo picked up everything he could, fascinated by everything.
Finally, they saw the edge of the junkyard (Or the yard of magic metals, as Leo called it) about half a mile ahead of them were the lights of the highway, but between them and the road.
“What’s that!” / “What is that…” Leo and Bianca both said, but in very different tones.
Ahead of the,m there was a hill a much bigger and longer than any of the others. It was like a metal mesa length of a football field, and as tall as the goal post. At one end of the mesa was a row of thick metal columns, tightly wedged together.
Bianca frowned as Leo’s eyes widened, “They look like–”
“Toes…” Grover said.
Bianca and Leo nodded, “Really, really large toes,”
Zoë and Thalia exchanged nervous looks.
“Let’s go around, far around.”
“Couldn’t agree more!”
“But the road is right there!” Percy protested. “Quicker to climb over?”
Ping.
Thalia quickly hefted her spear, Zoë drew her bow, and Leo drew his swords. Only then did they realise that it was Grover throwing a piece of scrap metal at one of the giant toes. It made a deep echo, like the columns were hollow
“What did you do that!?” Zoë damned as Leo put away his swords.
Grover cringed under her gaze, “I don’t know. I, uh, don’t like fake feet?”
Thalia rolled her eyes, then looked at Percy, “Come on. Around.”
After several minutes of walking, the group finally stepped out into the highway, a very abaddon but thankfully well-lit stretch of asphalt.
“We made it out,” Zoë sighed, “Thank the gods.”
That jinxed them, because at that moment they heard a very loud sound like a million trash compactors crushing thousands of metal pieces
Leo covered his ears and twirled around. Behind them, the mountain of scrap was boiling and began to rise. The ten toes tilted over. The giant bronze giant rose from the pile of metal in full Greek battle armor. It was taller than a skyscraper. It gleamed menacingly in the moonlight. The metal behemoth looked down at them, its face partially deformed, the left side completely melted off. Its rusted joints creaked eerily, and across its chestplate read the words WASH ME in ancient Greek
“Talos!” Zoë gasped
“Who– who is Talos?” Percy stuttered out
“One of Hephaestus' creations,” Thalia said, “But this can’t be the original. It's too small a prototype, maybe. A defective model,”
“It doesn't look defective!” Leo yelled as one of the metal hands moved to the sword on its belt. The sound that came from the unsheathing of the metal blade was like nails on a chalkboard. The blade was easily 100 feet long, and getting hit by it most certainly meant death or, at the very least, serious bodily injury.
“Someone took something!” Zoë said urgently. “Who took something!?”
She stared at Leo and Percy accusingly
“I am a lot of things, but I am not a thief!” Percy said angrily
They all turned to Leo, “Hey! I didn’t steal anything!”
Bianca didn’t say anything, and Leo figured out that she was the guilty party pretty quickly, but he didn’t want to rat his friend out.
“Run!” Grover yelled.
That was a hopeless endeavor, with all this crap in there way they would get stuck far to quickly.
They split up, similar to what they had done with the Neamean lion. Thalia drew her shield and held it up as she ran down the highway. The giant swung its sword, taking down power lines, which exploded into sparks that Thalia was almost caught in.
Zoë’s arrows whirled towards the creature's face, but they shattered harmlessly against the metal. Grover brayed like a baby goat and started climbing the mountain of steel and gold.
Leo could vaguely see in the distance Percy and Bianca fighting, but he couldn’t pay attention to that right now.
He poured all his concentration into controlling Talos. “MOVE!” Zoë yelled, breaking his concentration, and it was a good thing she did because the giant robot was about to slam its sword down on him.
Leo ran and grabbed some scrap metal, and with some type of adrenaline rush, super strength, he shaped it into a boomerang. Now, Leo had no idea how to use it, but he’d watched enough ATLA as a kid, so it was worth a shot.
He threw and… It completely missed its target.
“Well fuck,” Yeah it was not as easy as it looked. Time for plan B, trying to control Talos.
He stretched out his hands and clenched them. Talos stopped momentarily, then he was hit with a wall of muscle
“OW!” he yelped, “what was that for!” Leo said, getting to his feet,
Zoë pointed, and he saw power lines wrapping around Talos’s calves, sending jolts of electricity up Talos’ spine, that would have surely killed him if Zoë hadn’t knocked him down.
Then he saw her.
“What are you doing?” Zoë yelled
“Bianca, you're going to get yourself killed!”
But what either of them said didn’t matter: “Get it to raise its foot!”
Zoë shot an arrow at the same time Leo used all his willpower to force the monster still, so it hit its target.
It raised its foot and just before it was about to smash Percy, Grover came to his rescue.
He quickly played his pipes, and the music sent another line flying towards Talos.
Grover should’ve run, but he couldn’t; he looked exhausted, he took two steps, and collapsed.
“Grover!” Thalia and Percy yelled, rushing over to him, but they were too late.
The monster raised his sword to crush Grover, but then he froze.
“Did you do that?” Zoë asked.
Leo shook his head, then a sinking realization hit him like a truck
Zoë seemed to have come to the same horrified realization: “She is inside!”
The monster staggered around as they all sprinted.
“How will Bianca get out!?”
None of them could answer that question as the giant dropped its sword.
“Look out!” Percy yelled, but it was too late.
The metal giant started to deconstruct, much to Leo's horror, as more electricity shot up the giant's body, and he felt his eyes tear up. As the metal fell to the ground with a horrid clang.
Then his left arm came loose too, and Leo had a sinking feeling as a few tears began to run down his cheeks
Talos began to run.
“WAIT!” Zoë screamed as they ran after Talos, but they couldn’t catch up. The only one who could was Leo, who was in some sort of adrenaline-filled rage. But he couldn’t do anything.
The giant collapsed.
Zoë sat on the ground and wept. Leo was heartbroken, a silent stream of tears running down his face. He wanted to scream, to cry, to punch someone, to punch Percy, to punch himself. Thalia yelled in rage and impaled her sword in the giant's metal face
“Bianca…” sobbed Leo. Burying his face in his hands. Gull brushing up beside him in sadness.
“We can keep searching!” Percy said desperately, “It’s light now. We’ll find her.”
Leo wanted to punch him, didn’t he understand Bianca was dead?
“No, we won’t,” Grover said miserably, “It happened just as it was supposed to…”
“What are you talking about?” Percy Demanded.
Grover looked up at him with big watery eyes, “The prophecy. One shall be lost in the land without rain,”
Percy looked devastated.
They were in the desert, and Bianca was gone.