SANITY; heroes of olympus

04.12

[act four; chapter twelve     -     bob says hello]

Andy, with her arms wrapped around herself, stared up at the Athena Parthenos. She just stared, wondering how, in the retrieval of the statue, she somehow ended up in Tartarus. How the Fates had been cruel enough to do that to her.

Leo's new mechanical hoist system had lowered the statue onto the hillside with surprising ease. Now the forty-foot-tall goddess gazed serenely over the River Acheron, her gold dress like molten metal in the sun.

"Incredible," Reyna admitted.

She was still red-eyed from crying. Soon after she'd landed on the Argo II, her pegasus Scipio had collapsed, overwhelmed by poisoned claw marks from a gryphon attack the night before. Reyna had put the horse out of his misery with her golden knife, turning the pegasus into dust that scattered in the sweet-smelling Greek air. Maybe not a bad end for a pegasus, but Reyna had lost a loyal friend. Andy figured that she'd given up too much in her life already.

She figured they all had.

The praetor circled the Athena Parthenos warily. "It looks newly made."

"Yeah," Leo said. "We brushed off the cobwebs, used a little Windex. It wasn't hard."

The Argo II hovered just overhead. With Festus keeping watch for threats on the radar, the entire crew had decided to eat lunch on the hillside while they discussed what to do. Andy, however, had only picked at the food, not sure she could stomach it. All she wanted was to shower, change her clothes, and sleep for days. But then again, she was scared of sleep, afraid of what tricks her mind would play on her.

"Hey, Reyna," Annabeth called. "Have some food. Join us."

The praetor glanced over, her dark eyebrows furrowed, as if the invite didn't quite compute. It was strange to see Reyna without her armour. It was on board the ship, being repaired by Buford the Wonder Table. She wore a pair of jeans and a purple Camp Jupiter T-shirt and looked almost like a normal teenager—except for the knife at her belt and that guarded expression, like she was ready for an attack from any direction.