Zoe and Bianca stared at me in awe. "Y-You stood up to Ares!" Zoe said, stepping back. "That was so cool!" Bianca said, running up to me. "Meh, done it before" Zoe looked as if she was going to faint. Thalia turned to Percy. "Is she always like this?" Percy nodded. "You have literally seen me kill your half-brother. By the way, do you still have the heart?" Thalia unzipped her bag and tossed me a Ziploc with the heart inside. "Thanks, this'll be useful" "HOW?!" Zoe asked. "Easy, if I cut it in half, one side produces nectar and the other poison, incredibly useful weapon" "I'm going to be sick" "No, you're not. We need to head west" "Why?" Percy asked. I glared at him. "That's where Hephaestus's junkyard is, Jackson. Aphrodite told me to head there earlier" Grover paced around nervously. "Did she tell you anything else?" "Yeah, don't touch anything. Most of the stuff there is either dangerous or cursed" "Doesn't that fall under the dangerous category?" "Whatever. Zoe, can you stop throwing up, please? We need to find Ursa Major."

Why is it Percy finds it absolutely necessary to fight with Zoe?

     "Both of you knock it off!" I yelled. Zoe and Percy stopped arguing. "Lilly, are you alright?" I shook my head. "I'm fine. But please stop, we need to keep going" Zoe nodded. "Right. West is that way" "Guys," Grover broke in. "Look!" We'd reached the crest of the junk mountain. Grover ran off into the junkyard. "Wait up, G-Man!" Percy yelled, chasing after him. Bianca, Zoe, and Thalia chased after him. Viktor grabbed my hand. "Come on!" "Fine, but only to make sure Grover doesn't eat anything" Towers of gold and silver littered the area, metal legs from statues were mixed into the piles. "Whoa" Bianca spun around in awe. "Some of this.... it looks like real gold" "It is" I said, examining a crown of jewels. Grover was chomping down on another crown. "Grover, get that out of your mouth!" "Um, Lilly?" "Yeah?" "Please tell me you see what I'm seeing" I walked over to him. "What are you-" He pointed to a large metal... toe.

      "That's not good" Viktor said, poking at one. "Let's go" We moved around the toes to the other side. After several minutes of walking, we made it to the highway. "We made it out," Zoe said. "Thank the gods" I stopped. "Lilly?" Viktor turned to me. "Something's wrong" A noise like metal being crushed came from behind us. A bronze giant was standing, dressed in full Greek battle armor. On his armor chest, someone had written in the dust with a large finger WASH ME. "Talos!" Zoe gasped. "Who-who's Talos?" Percy stuttered. "One of Hephaestus's creations, " I said. "But not the original. A prototype, yes. The original, no" "A defective model" Thalia agreed. Talos didn't seem to like the word defective. He drew his sword from his belt. "Someone took something," Zoe said. "Who took something?" She stared accusingly at Percy. He shook his head. "I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a thief" Bianca said nothing. Talos took a giant step towards us, closing half the distance and making the ground shake. "Run!" Viktor yelled. We split up (Have these dingdongs never seen a horror movie?!) Thalia drew her shield and ran further onto the highway. Talos swung his sword, taking down power lines, sending sparks flying. Zoe's arrows whistled through the air at the giant's face. He brushed them off with ease.

    I had followed Percy and Bianca. That dream had messed with my head. "You took something," Percy said, whipping around to Bianca. "That bow" I looked around. I spotted the bow she had picked up when we entered. "She didn't. But something is missing" Bianca pulled out a small statue of a god. "It... it was for Nico, it's the only one he doesn't have" Mythomagic... I grabbed her shoulders. "Drop it, just drop it" She hesitated. "Throw it down now!" Percy yelled. The giant was going after Grover. It stabbed its sword into a junk hill, missing him by a few feet. An avalanche of junk fell on top of him. "No!" Thalia yelled. An arc of blue lightning shot from her spear at the giant. Talos fell back but proceeded to get up again. He raised his foot to stomp. I noticed some writing on the bottom. FOR MAINTENANCE ONLY. "Crazy-idea time" Percy said. "Anything" Bianca and I said. He explained about the maintenance hatch. "There has to be switches inside, something to turn it off" "You'd have to get under the foot!" I said, shaking my head. Even for me, this plan was crazy. "I'll go" Bianca said. I stared at her, terrified. "No, no. You both stay here-" But Bianca stood up and pressed the statue into my hand. "Give that to Nico. Tell him... tell him I'm sorry" "BIANCA, NO!" She ran towards where Zoe was. "Get it to lift its foot!" Zoe shot an arrow into Talos's nostril. "Bianca, STOP!" I screamed, chasing after her. Talos lifted its foot, and she ripped open the hatch. "NO!" I shot at the giant. "Go Bianca!" Percy yelled. He looked terrified. "She is inside?" Zoe exclaimed. Bits of metal fell off of Talos's metal skeleton. "Look out!" Viktor yelled. We dove out of the way. Talos fell to the ground. "BIANCA! NO!" I screamed, running towards the collapsed giant. "Lilly!" Viktor chased after me.

We searched until sunrise. Zoe sat on the ground and wept. Thalia threw down her spear. "We-we can keep searching, she's still-" "NO, SHE'S NOT, PERCY!" I yelled. He took a step back. "Remember the prophecy. 'One shall be lost in the land without rain' " I sobbed. "She's gone. Bianca's dead" Viktor wrapped his arms around me. We sat there for what felt like an eternity. I sobbed harder. 'Protect Bianca.'

I had failed. And I had a feeling that I couldn't bring her back.