Shatter my heart but please don't break it

Flu

PIPER

"ANNABETH!" Percy flashes to Annabeth's side right as she goes limp and catches her. "Annabeth! Wake up!" He shakes her a little, and the dracnae hisses.

"Percy, just get her out of here for right now! She can't fight like that. Keep an eye on her until she's in fighting condition." Percy nods and scoops her up wedding style, oofs, and hurries down the stairs.

I whip out Katoptris and lunge into battle. The dracnae hisses and slashes her spiked tail at me. I jump over it, and stab. She dodges, and twists my arm. I kick her in the gut and she doubles over. I take the opportunity and stab her in the neck. She wails and crumbles to dust.

Now that the doors are closed and Thanatos is freed, we don't have to scatter the dust. But out of force of habit, I grab the shark® mini vacuum and suck all of the dust into it. I sheath Katoptris, and empty the ashes into the wind.

"Nice work Piper." Reyna claps me on the back and I smile.

"Thanks." Annabeth comes up the stairs with a green face holding her stomach.

"Uhhh." Percy strokes her back, not at all fazed by the possibility of catching her illness.

"I think I might have the flu." Annabeth moans.

"Aw. You poor thing. Okay, well just stay downstairs in your cabin and I'll make you some hot tea with honey and sugar." Annabeth frowns.

"I think that's meant for a cough." She says, but Rachel shushes her.

"Don't worry. I can whip up this little potion that works wonders on the flu." Az puts a hand on her shoulder and whispers something in her ear. Rachel's eyes widen, then her expression goes back to normal.

"Yeah, I'll just, uh, whip it right up!" Annabeth's eyes squint, then she shrugs her shoulders.

"Okay. Whatever works. Thanks Rache." Rachel smiles wide and hugs her tightly.

"Hey guys," Leo calls from the control panels.

"What's up?" I walk over and look over his shoulder at the screen which tells Leo something that I can't quite decipher.

"We're here."

"Here? As in, Mt. Olympus?" Leo nods.

My palms start sweating in overtime. I wipe them on my shirt, and try hard not to notice how hard they're shaking. Gods, I feel like I have Parkinson's disease.

"Alright then. I'll go grab my nectar and ambrosia." I stalk down to my cabin and stock up a fanny pack with nectar, ambrosia, advil, water, dissinfecting wipes, iodine, salt, multipurpose pocket knife, pepper spray, energy bars, and ace bandages.

"Piper?" Jason walks up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist.

"Hey Jase." I smile lightly as he kisses my shoulder.

"You okay?" He asks, and I sigh.

"No. Not in the least. I mean, all I ever wanted was a normal life, even before I found out about the gods. I at least thought that I would be an average daughter of Aphrodite. Then I can charmspeak, and most of my siblings can't. Then I'm one of the seven demigods from the prophecy. And now, I have Helen's curse. Geez, I mean, nothing in my life is average, or normal!" I flop down on the bed and Jason looks at me with these adorable puppy eyes.

"I wish I could tell you I know, but I don't. But right now, I need my crazy hot abnormal girlfriend to help take down Gaea. Can you do that?" I look into those big baby blues, and sit up.

"Yes. I can." He kisses my forehead, but I take his face and plant my lips on his.

"Now go get your stuff ready." I hit his arm in a "get moving!" gesture and ascend the stairs to the upper deck.

Everyone has their weapons with them, and a fanny pack full of nessecities for... Whatever we're going to do. Put Gaea back to sleep? Fight monsters? Giants? Who knows. Apart from Annabeth, who's in no condition to fight, and does not look like she's going to recover from the flu anytime soon.

"Okay guys. If we don't all . . . Make it out, I want to share my final thoughts with you." We all go around, saying what we love the most about everyone, hugging, kissing, and wiping tears away with the backs of our hands.

As we lower the drawbridge type thingy, I swear I can hear Gaea's laughter far off in the distance carried by the wind.

It's that laugh that fists my hands, that squints my eyes, that raises my chin, and that lights the fire of rage in my heart.

You wanna go Gaea? Because I'm coming. I'm basically already there.

"Ready or not, here we come." I sheath Katoptris lead the way to the top of Mt. Olympus.

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LEO

Annabeth looked at us all wistfully as she downed the drink that Rachel gave her. Despite how much we needed her, she wouldn't bounce back from the flu in time to press snooze on Gaea's alarm clock with the rest of us. Besides, someone needed to babysit Hedge so he wouldn't destroy the ship.

If Annabeth hadn't pulled away to puke, we would've never have gotten Percy and Annabeth to stop kissing goodbye.

Piper's expression is scary. I've seen before. On Az.

It was the face she made before she started screaming at the siren who took the form of that Greek man.

It's a cold expression mixed with anger, hurt, and vengence.

I'm frightened.

Gaea better be prepared for what she has coming. 12 angry demigods and the angry oracle, all super powerful, three of whom are her daughters, 7 girls, five guys, and all out to get her. Yikes.

Our feet hit the ground, and instantly Az, Flora, and Fauna's faces all get a concentrated look. Tight lips, clamped jaw, furrowed brow, the works. All side effects of keeping the earth we walk on solid.

Jason falls in step with me.

"Hey Jase." Jason rubs his golden coin.

"Hey Leo. Ready to save the world again?" I laugh.

"For the bakillionth time, demigods need to save the world. I swear, when we get back to the wilderness school, if one prissy poular girl talks crap about her "alcoholic father" I'm gonnna set their hair on fire."

"How is that relevent?"

"She'd have saved their butts from oblivion, and in return they'll make fun of her movie star dad. It's just so unfair to her, to us, to see her trash talked like that time and time again, you know? I just want to take their skinny little butts and kick 'em all the way to Tartarus." Jason laughs dryly.

"I know what you mean. There's this one girl in Thalia's hunt that's always up on everyone's cases about being the oldest, she's fifteen, and bossing her around. But Thalia struck her down with a lightning bolt, so I don't know how to feel about that situation." We exchange stories for a little while longer, and then Az swears loudly and if a sailor were there, he probably would've washed her mouth out with lye soap.

Then, I see the ginormous cyclops standing fifty yards away from us, smack dab in our path armed with a spiked club.

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HEY GUYS!

I UPDATED! WHOO HOO! SO SO SO SUPER DUPER sorry for not updating faster, I've just been WAY super lazy lately.

Questions: How will they defeat Gaea with Annabeth out sick?

Why did Annabeth faint?

How do they plan to deal with this cyclops?

Well, I gots to gosies.

Toodles!

Ciao,

~ Maggie Poop