Famiglia Per Sempre

The End

Talos started attacking the group just as they tried to leave. It was evident someone had attempted to steal from the junkyard. Accusations, however, were cut short as the automaton advanced.

"Come on!" Percy told Bianca.

      But she stayed frozen. From her pocket, she brought out a small metal figurine, a statue of a god.

"It... it was for Nico. It was the only statue he didn't have."

"How can you think of Mythomagic at a time like this?" Percy said.

There were tears in her eyes. Bianca was scared. For the first time in her life, she was scared to loose it. An immortal huntress faced mortality, not wanting to loose all the possibilities of her future.

"Throw it down," her brother suggested a bit frantically, desperation in his voice. "Maybe the giant will leave us alone."

She dropped it reluctantly, but nothing happened. The giant kept going after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing Grover by a few feet, but scrap metal made an avalanche over him, and then he was out of sight.

"No!" Thalia yelled.

She pointed her spear, and a blue arc of lightning shot out, hitting the monster in his rusty knee, which buckled. The giant collapsed but immediately started to rise again. It was hard to tell if it could feel anything. There were no emotions in its half-melted face, but Percy got the sense that it was about as ticked off as a twenty-story-tall metal warrior could be.

He raised his foot to stomp and Percy noticed his sole was treaded like the bottom of a sneaker. There was a hole in his heel, like a large manhole, and there were red words painted around it, which he deciphered only after the foot came down:

FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY.

"Crazy-idea time," Percy muttered.

Bianca looked over nervously. "Anything."

Percy quickly told her about the maintenance hatch. "There may be a way to control the thing. Switches or something. I'm going to get inside."

"How? You'll have to stand under its foot! You'll be crushed."

"Distract it... I'll just have to time it right."

Bianca's jaw tightened. "No. I'll go."

"You can't! You're new at this! You'll die, and I can't let that happen!"

"It's my fault the monster came after us," she said. "It's my responsibility. Here." She picked up the little god statue and pressed it into her older brother's hand. "If anything happens, give that to Nico. Tell him... tell him I'm sorry."

"Bianca, no!"

But she did not listen. She charged at the monster's left foot.

      Percy went after her, trying to stop her, trying to catch up. But Talos got in his way.

Percy watched in slow motion as Thalia, Grover, and Zoë distracted Talos. He tried to help, but his brain would not cooperate. All he could think of was how Bianca was in danger, how he should have stopped her before it was too late, how desperate he was for his sorellina to come back to him safe and sound. Percy no longer cared if she wanted nothing to do with him anymore. He just wanted her alive and safe and happy.