Leo Valdez was one of the scrawniest sons of Hephaestus. He was thin with barely any muscle. He had long curly hair with pointy ears. He was Hispanic and had a mischievous grin on at all times. He looked like a Latino Santa's elf. His hand were always moving as if he was on enough caffeine to give a heart attack to a water buffalo. He was known as the jokester of Camp Half-Blood. But, unknown to many, he joked around to hide his sadness. He smiled to hide his pain. He didn't want anyone to think he was weak. He was tired of feeling weak. Of being alone…

He woke up one morning in Bunker 9. He had slept there because he was working on Festus non-stop for two days and three nights. He always did this. When he was working on something, he stayed up till it was done or until his body collapsed from exhaustion. Last night's cause of sleep was the latter. He was not yet finished with the giant bronze dragon. He didn't know where the plans for the dragon were, so he was currently building him from scratch. He was missing the vocal box (he wanted Festus to communicate with others) the emotion function (he wanted the automaton to feel) and the reason function (he wanted him to think for himself)

When he woke up, he looked around. Sighing, he realized he fell asleep. Immediately, he got a Five Hour Energy from his tool belt and drank it. He felt the energy kickstart him. He went off to work on Festus. He installed the vocal box, downloaded the emotion and reason function into his mainframe. He worked until noon. He finally finished and stretched. He was finished. He felt his eyes droop as he slumped against the back of the dragon. He fell asleep, the last 72 hours catching up to him.

He woke again, this time, the lights were off in the Bunker. He was on the floor. He looked around and summoned a small ball of flame in his hand to see what was going on. He moved it back and forth to see. He jumped back when he saw crimson eyes look right into his. He yelped and jumped back, landing hard on his back. They seemed to glow in the dark, two orbs of beautiful crimson. They looked human, but he was unsure of if it were a monster or demigod. He lit his hand on fire once more, willing the fire to get brighter and hotter, making the fire illuminate the entire room. He squinted his eyes, as the light of the fire was reflected off of all the bronze and metal in the room.

Confused, he moved his normal hand to feel around. He felt the bronze plating of Festus' leg. He tapped the closest wall with his hand and the entire Bunker immediately lit up. He turned around and jumped back. Next to a sleeping Festus (he knew the dragon was sleeping because of the smoke coming from its ears and nostrils) was a grown woman, easily around twenty, curled on the floor, looking right at him. Her intelligent crimson eyes bore into his brown eyes, his filled with fear… and sorrow.

The woman would have crawled to him, but she had a tarp over her body. He then noticed that she was naked. He blushed and rushed to the other side of the room and made flexible armor as quick as he could. He lined the inside with leather so the mystery woman wouldn't feel cold by the metal. He then gave it to her, looking away like the gentleman his mother taught him to be. 'Good job, mijo', he could hear her saying to him. He waited until she was done. when he looked back, he sighed a bit. Who was this woman? Where did she come from? He was very confused.

She tugged on his sleeve and he looked at her. She was beautiful. Her skin had a golden bronze tan to it. Her eyes were large and crimson, like big rubies. Her hair was long and went down her back, black waves cascading down from her head. Her lips were plump and had crimson lipstick on. He realized he was staring and glanced away.

"Who are you?" he simply asked. He was still looking away, waiting for an answer. However, no words came. However, there was a tapping. Repetitive tapping. It was in a pattern he was very familiar with. His mother taught him it when he was younger. It was Morse Code. He listened and payed attention to the longs and shorts. He connected the dots and his eyes widened. The message said "I am your dragon" He turned to the woman. "F-Festus?!" she shook her head. She tapped again.

"I'm Faye, actually. You never checked my gender" she grinned as she tapped the last of it. He blushed hard. He never knew what to check for so he always assumed that the dragon automaton was a male. He was reduced to a sputtering mess. Then, Faye started giggling, her laugh sounding like violins to him. He smiled softly.

"S-So… should we take you to the Big House and enroll you into the Camp?" she nodded, smiling. Her teeth were a bit sharp, but only slightly sharper than usual. She was very happy that she could spend time with Leo, the man he loved. She never felt emotion before, but, when Leo added the emotion function, she found that she loved the son of Hephaestus