Chapter Text
Percy waits until they're nearly through the junkyard, giving her every chance to put it back on her own. But with the gates in reach, he catches Bianca by her elbow, forcing her to a stop. "Hey!" The young Hunter yelps, as offended as she is confused.
He meets her gaze firmly. "Put it back."
Bianca freezes, drawing in on herself as he releases her. The other three have stopped as well, looking back, Zoe suspicious, Thalia aggravated. "I - I don't know what - " She begins, eyes wide and darting around his face.
Percy doesn't let her get further, catching her wrist this time. Zoe says something in the near distance that he ignores. His fingers reach underneath Bianca's sleeve, catching the little statue she'd snuck under there. She doesn't resist, letting him pull it back out, though her dark eyes are threatening to fill with tears. The black marble is cool in his palm. With only a glance of inspection, Percy can guess which of the gods it's meant to depict. It's a faulty representation, a trait that seemingly carries across all the Mythomagic figurines.
"You tried to steal something?" Thalia demands, the rest of the group joining them now.
As Grover takes the figurine from Percy, Bianca begins trying to defend herself. "It's just a stupid statue. They couldn't possibly miss it!" She crosses her arms tight over herself, trying to make herself small. In that instant, Bianca looks less like a Hunter of Artemis, and a lot more like the twelve year old girl she really is.
"You knew the rules," Zoe scolds. "It is not a matter of whether it would be missed. Why would you do this?"
She hesitates, so Percy adds his guess. "It's for Nico, isn't it?"
Bianca flinches. "It's the only one he doesn't have," she confirms, eyes locked on Percy's. "I thought - maybe if I gave it to him - " Her voice falters, cracking as she finishes, quiet as a whisper. "Maybe he wouldn't hate me forever." He watches her fingers twist into the fabric of her jacket, ducking her head again as she seemingly tries to hide.
"That was stupid," Thalia states. Percy sends her a frown, which is predictably ignored.
"We'll get him another one somewhere," Percy vows, reaching out again to rest a hand on Bianca's shoulder. "By normal means. I'll help him understand everything." When she glances up through her lashes, Percy thinks there's a tinge of hope to Bianca's eyes. She takes the statue again when Grover offers it silently. Bianca stares at it a long, pained moment, before sucking in a deep breath - and throwing it far into the junkyard. He thinks a weight seems to lift off her shoulders. When their eyes meet again, Bianca offers him a shy smile.
With that settled, they all turn, passing through the junkyard. Percy thinks they all share a breath of relief.
That's when they hear the creaking, the groaning of metal moving, and something begins to rise from the earth. "You're joking," Percy deadpans, as a somewhat misshapen automaton giant, bronze dulled by the elements, stands.
"We didn't take anything!" The daughter of Zeus shouts - to the warrior, to the gods themselves, Percy isn't sure which. Her frustration is the more energized cousin of his own exasperation, though she's starting to stumble backwards like the rest of them. Percy wonders for a moment if maybe it won't be bothered to chase them far.
The metal screeches unpleasantly as the head turns, expressionless face locking onto the group. He dashes those hopes.
Percy allows a split second to think on the fact, half the time when the quest group gets briefly separated, he ends up beside Bianca. They peek around the boulder they've stopped behind for shelter. Talos is briefly more occupied with the other three, Grover frantically trying to grow grass to slow the giant's movements down. It accomplishes little but some irritation, buying Thalia and Zoe opportunities to dart forward, trying to pierce the metal carcass.
"We need to come up with a plan," Bianca voices, sizing the situation up with matching trepidation.
If there's a method for defeating deranged, mechanical creatures in the myths, Percy hasn't stumbled across those legends. He's near to asking if she has any clever ideas, when a tug in his gut distracts him. His eyes fixate on a patch of the dry desert ground. It's insanity, Percy knows, but when he reaches, it's confirmation that he's sensing what he thinks he is. "Water," the son of Poseidon voices aloud, a little stunned.
His friend shoots him a sideways look. "I think we're a little low on that, right now," Bianca counters, fingers tapping anxiously along the frame of her bow.
He shakes his head, pointing out the area to her. "I mean I can feel water, there." Percy glances back to Talos, his own mental gears turning. "That thing is guarding a desert junkyard. What do you think the chances are that it's waterproof?" Tipping his head to the side, he meets eyes with Bianca again.
For a few seconds, she just looks at him like he's gone nuts, which Percy deems completely fair. Along with it being far from the first time Bianca has given him that particular look. Extenuating circumstances notwithstanding, it's a nice change of pace from Annabeth looking at him like he's stupid. Bianca's dark eyes slide back to Talos and the rest of the group then, more considering.
She adjusts the strap of her quiver. "Even if the water isn't enough to short-circuit him, it can act as a conductor for Thalia's lightning," she decides, completing his half-formed plan. "What do you need me to do?"
Percy takes in a breath. He'd controlled water here-and-there, but never like what he'd have to do now. "I may or may not pass out from this," he warns her, sheepishly. "Let the others know to keep Talos distracted, and try to herd him that way. I'll handle the rest." As he reaches further, he can feel the water responding, as if it were being woken from a slumber. In the span of a blink, Bianca vanishes beside him. He takes that to mean the timer's started.
Talos's outside is functionally waterproof, but the crevices Percy sends the water shooting through prove less so, sparks soon dancing across the giant warrior. He thinks for a second that Thalia's given it a shock, before his vision goes briefly black.
The ground is dusty beneath him when Percy snaps back to consciousness a few seconds later, metal creaking as Talos begins to collapse. On shaky legs, he forces himself up, trying to move further away before a stray section can turn him into a Percy-pancake. Bianca catches him as he reconvenes with the others, steadying him before he can face-plant. "It worked!" She cheers, grinning out over the destruction left in their wake.
Percy's gaze is fixed on Zoe Nightshade's face. It's nearly as grey as her lieutenant's circlet.
"Where's Thalia?" He questions, making Bianca come up short, looking over the rest, realizing now that they're a member short.
"There was a service hatch," Zoe answers, voice trembling. She's staring unblinking at the carcass. "Twas foolish, I told her. She ignored me."
It takes a second, but the meaning of those words sinks into him, turning the world icy cold around him. Bianca's hold on Percy's arm turns nearly bruising. "No," she chokes out, wavering gaze darting between Zoe and Grover. "I told her Percy had a plan. I told her to wait!" Her voice cracks on the last sentence, one hand coming up to cover her mouth. There's tears starting to fall on Grover's cheeks.
He forces strength back into his body, pushing past his own shock. "We have to search," Percy tells them, firmly, making his legs move toward Talos's remains. "There's still a chance she could be okay." Whether or not it's a fool's hope, he clings to it. They didn't get along very well most hours of the day, but Thalia was still his friend, and he forced himself to believe in her odds. Thalia had survived too much to die here, to something so insignificant. He curses meddling gods in his head for pointing them in this direction to begin with.
"We will not," Zoe interrupts, still rooted in place. "The prophecy, Perseus."
Percy has to stare at her a moment before he realizes what she means. One shall be lost in the land without rain.
"We look," Bianca declares, beginning to move forward as well now. "We have to at least try."
Percy drives the next day. Zoe and Bianca both sit in the back of the old pick-up, at first. He thinks they both cry. Grover sits up front with him, both of them silent as the world passes by, Grover watching with unseeing eyes. If Percy could think of something to say, he'd try to offer his friend some comfort. When he lets himself think, though, all he can think about is how they'll explain this to Annabeth. She'll be devastated, especially after Luke's betrayal.
He wants to strangle a daughter of Zeus. If Thalia had just listened to what Bianca said, trusted in him and his plan, she'd be alright. They'd probably be laughing about everything. Now, there was nothing, no trace of her among the rubble. They'd searched until daylight broke to no avail. It had been exactly as the prophecy stated - Thalia was lost. He'd had half a mind to march back into the junkyard, find that statue, or anything else useful and valuable. Nothing would have equaled their friend, but at least there would have been something to show for it.
They have to pull over at one point when there's smoke coming out from under the hood. Percy grumbles as he gets it propped open, trying to fan away some of the smoke to try and see what was wrong.
"Do you even know what you're doing?" A voice asks from his left, and Percy glances aside to see Bianca's joined him. Her eyes are bloodshot and red-rimmed. Hours later, her color still hasn't quite returned to her, streaks down her dirty cheeks where tears had run. She must have undone her braid somewhere along the way. Her hair's a mess from the wind as a result, shorter, wispy pieces curling this way and that.
"Kinda," Percy answers, frowning at the truck's guts. "I help my mom with her car. Can't always trust what a mechanic tells you," spotting the problem, he reaches in to fix it, voice slightly muffled as he finishes, "especially a woman on her own." He stands upright again with a sigh, too tired to care as he brushes his hands off onto his pants. Percy holds the keys out to Bianca, forcing something akin to a smile, or the nearest he can manage. "Wanna crank it for me and see if that worked?"
Bianca smiles slightly as she takes the keys from him.
As they get going again, Bianca joins Percy in the cab this time, Grover in the bed with Zoe. It's quiet between them for a little while. She's the one who breaks it, leaning against the door on her side.
"It's my fault," Bianca voices blankly, one quiet sniffle. "If I hadn't tried to take that statue - "
"This isn't on you," Percy cuts in, surprised by the stern tone of his own voice. "Talos was probably always going to attack, regardless on whether we even touched anything. There must have been some kind of proximity sensor or something." He sighs, rubbing one hand over his aching eyes. If there were any destined to fall, the tears hadn't come to Percy, yet. It probably wasn't entirely safe for him to drive, even overlooking the fact he was only fourteen and his mother had only just started teaching him.
He'd gotten a glimpse of Zoe's driving when she wasn't grief-stricken, though, and he had limited faith in Grover's capabilities. If Bianca could even see through the windshield with her feet on the pedals, Percy would be shocked.
"Zoe's angry with me," she voices after a while, barely above a breath. "She's right. I'll never be a good Hunter if I don't learn to let go of Nico. I just - " Bianca sucks in a breath, the words choked as they tumble the rest of the way out. "He was all I had for so long. I'm all he has. It's not that easy, to just leave him in my past. I still love him."
Percy sits on it a minute, tucking away all the things he'd like to say to Zoe Nightshade right about then. Did Bianca not have enough weighing on her already? "It's hypocritical, you know." From his peripheral, Percy sees Bianca turn to face him. "Artemis literally called her own brother to transport her Hunters to camp the day after we even met her. You shouldn't be expected to act like your brother doesn't even exist." He keeps as much of his attention as he can on the road, fingers curling and uncurling around the steering wheel.
"You know that's not how it works," Bianca contradicts, but the softness of her voice doesn't seem as sad now.
He shrugs. "I'm just saying it's not fair. I know I don't really get things between you and Nico, but ... I understand." Percy cuts his gaze momentarily her way, suddenly starting to feel skittish under her focus. "I didn't at first, but I'm starting to. Nico will as well." If he was honest, Percy still didn't really understand her draw to the Hunters. When this quest was over, and the Hunters left again, he was starting to think he'd miss Bianca.
He can hear the smile in her voice. "Thank you, Percy."