I hope you guys enjoy this story (it's a little different and I'm not entirely happy with the ending, but I think it works).
Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns the PJO/HoO series.
This ship, it has a duty.
And where we are bound, she cannot come.
One day at shore... ten years at sea.
It's a heavy price for what's been done.
…
Depends on the one day.
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
The chaotic clash of waves on waves on waves had long since become familiar. Leo barely glanced down at his spinning instruments – too much had happened for him to trust them again.
"Soon," he muttered, his voice hoarse. "Soon."
"Leo, are you sure?" Piper rested her hand on his arm. "We can keep trying to get the gods to listen. It'll be easier."
"You don't have to do this on your own." Jason said, his eyebrows bunched together in concern.
"I do." Leo refused to meet their eyes as he fiddled with the controls of the newly remodeled Argo II. "We just fought a war, guys, you don't need to get caught up in another impossible mission."
Jason wrapped and arm around Piper's waist. "We're your friends, Leo, of course we do."
But he could see in their eyes that what they really wanted was for him to turn away, give up this hopeless dream. To rest at last after the war had been won.
They couldn't understand, so he had to go alone.
A mist kicked up around the ship, but he could still feel the baking heat of the sun. The monotony of the ocean was rooted into him until he inhaled mist and exhaled sea spray. His mouth was always parched, his stomach was always rumbling. He ate and drank what he could, found refuge as the isles when they appeared.
It had been too long since land had graced his horizon.
"Are you hiding from something?" Leo asked.
The girl glanced cautiously up at her father, and he squeezed her hand in return.
"This world is full of refugees," he answered simply.
"But this island isn't on my maps!" Which was why, for a moment, Leo had thought…well.
The girl's wide brown eyes scrutinized him. "You can see the monsters. We're all from a world of monsters."
"Who are you?" He gestured to the haphazard town, filled with men, women, and children who toiled in silence, but sang when the skies grew dark and the stars lit across the sky.
The man clapped a hand on his shoulder. "There's more than one set of legends in the world. I think it's time you move on from us lad, before it all comes crashing together."
He tried to argue. "I've never heard of you."
"Not everyone is a great hero." The girl's tone was teasing but sad, like she knew. "We just don't exist in the same world that you're from. We're in between."
"Between what?" Leo asked, but she shook her head. In a desperate effort, he said, "Do you know where Ogygia is?"
"What?" The girl frowned. "Another strange land?"
"Perhaps." The man looked thoughtful. "The name seems oddly familiar, but I can't place it. I'm sorry. Good luck on your quest, lad."
Remember.
He was losing the color of her eyes, the scent of her hair. He was losing the reason he had set out on this voyage.
There was a life back at home, but it was merely the land he had come from. Most days he couldn't remember any names. The sea had tossed them from him, sent him drifting between one world and another.
In between.
He saw no reason to try to find his way back. But there had to be a reason to keep moving forward. There was something, some spark inside of him that kept his hands at the wheel, scanning the seas, shouting curses at the boiling black thunderclouds when they threatened to sweep him away from the only life he had.
I'm coming back for you.
"A fire user?" The ocean spirit laughed, sea foam curling around his legs. "You're out of your element."
"I'm looking for someone." Leo kept the flame in his hand burning, urging it to climb higher.
"Where do you expect to find anyone in this sea of nothing?" The spirit didn't seem angry, but amused at his situation. At his torment.
"Can't you help me?" he shouted. "All my maps have thrown me off course! My compass isn't working!"
The spirit leaned forward, grinning. "Are you sure the place you're looking for is real?"
He laughed heartily before vanishing in a burst of spray.
The mist closed in.
"Her name is Calypso," Leo whispered to himself. It was the one thing he refused to let himself forget. He paced the upper deck, limping from an old leg wound. That one had been from a sea serpent. No, a typhoon monster.
Ah, did it really matter?
Lost and found and lost again, the days blurred in and out of focus. Leo clung to the railing, barely venturing below deck. He would so afraid he would pass her in the night, that would be that, he would be sailing forever.
Forever is a long time.
Leo tried to remember why he loved her, but his funny-guy teenage self was worlds away. Calypso – Calypso – was the reason it would be worth it, he prayed it would all be worth it. Even if he didn't know who he was praying to anymore.
The bedraggled girl stomped out onto the deck.
"What'dycha steal me fo'?"
Leo sighed, turning around to lean up against the control panel, arms crossed.
"I didn't," he explained. "Your pirate friends left without you."
"They didn'! They woun't!" She reached for her sword, then swore angrily. "Wher'dycha put it?"
He held up his hands. "Relax, I've got your sword. And maybe you should start believing me because it looks like you're stuck here for a while."
Her face went pale, and she slumped against the door.
"Hey, maybe we can find them again. Who knows?" Leo shrugged.
"Idiot," she spat. "Y'don't find each other 'gain in these wa'ers. 'Means 'm lost."
"I've been lost for a while now. Maybe we'll both get lucky." Still, a chill ran down his spine.
Leo vaguely recalled the travelers he picked up – Johnny, the spunky runaway demigod in the early days of his journey, Verda and Nathaniel, the brother and sister whose parents were killed by sea monsters, Nora, the pirate girl who had lost her way of life, and Tanyo, the quiet scholar looking for evidence that old stories were true and lost civilizations were real.
He left them all eventually, or they left him. Dropped off at an island, joined the crew of another ship, left in the middle of the night (he still didn't know how), and one swallowed by a beast that had coiled around the Argo II.
Soon, he figured, their names would be gone too.
They all spoke to him about the way their world worked – disjointed, never the same path twice. They all shook his head when Leo told them he had a specific destination in mind, so he told himself he wasn't sad to see them go.
"This is a highly mythic place," the healer told him as he shifted awkwardly on the floor, legs crossed. "You might find the answers you're looking for. The gods sometimes come here. All gods, of all times."
"The gods?" he frowned.
"Oh dear." She shook her head sympathetically. "You've been at sea too long, haven't you?"
He swallowed and closed his eyes, hoping he might finally see an answer.
He hadn't properly slept in days. A strange feeling had rooted itself deep inside of him, urging him to only doze in moments when the fog covered his line of vision.
Leo slumped against the control panel. Some of the wires had long since rusted, and he recalled that the dragon masthead was supposed to move. Oh well, machines break, don't they?
Open, shut, open, shut. As he slipped on the edge of sleep, the view in front of him blurred.
"I've heard of you," Romo, the little boy, scowled. "Ma tells me legends that come in from the ships. You're the Searcher, the one who never gives up even when it's hopeless." He kicked the lopsided ball. "Stupid story."
"Why?" Leo caught the ball on his ankle and kicked it back.
"Because you need to give up sometimes! Or else you'll spend your whole life only ever doing one thing!"
"What if it's worth it?" he murmured.
"What if it's not?" Romo shot back. "Is it true you're just looking for some girl?"
"She's not…" He shook his head. "She's not 'some girl'. I swore an oath I would find her again. An oath that can't be broken."
"What happens if you break it?" the boy asked curiously.
"I don't know."
"Maybe you already did. Maybe that's why the gods left you to wander the seas forever."
The waves sounded different when he woke, and a strange singing filled his mind.
"Shhh, you're safe."
The voice sounded familiar. It sounded so familiar.
Leo opened his eyes.
She smiled at him, sad but welcoming.
"What's your name, hero?"
He sat up, seeing his boat rammed into the sand of a beautiful island.
"It's you. It is you." Leo reached out a hand to touch her hair, but she caught his hand and held it.
"I don't understand." She raised her eyebrows. "Do I know you?"
Her name…her name…
"Calypso." The word tumbled from his mouth. "I came back for you."
She dropped his hand, and her eyes widened. "Oh no…"
Leo stumbled forward. "They told me I couldn't. You told me I couldn't, but I did…"
Calypso pressed her hands to her mouth. "I said no man ever finds Ogygia twice. And I was right."
"What?" Leo whispered. "But I'm here."
She gently took his hand again. "But you're not the same man."
He swallowed. "You didn't recognize me."
"I'm so sorry." Calypso shook her head. "You never should have tried to come back."
"But I'm here now," he insisted. "I – I love you."
A tear slipped down her cheek, but even so she took a step forward and kissed him.
"You've changed so much," she murmured.
A smile spread across his face, and he took her other hand. "But now we can have our own happy ending. Here."
For a moment, her face lit up, but then her expression slowly crumbled.
"My curse still stands, Leo Valdez. All travelers can never stay." She stepped away, her soft curls falling to hide her face.
"We don't have to listen to what the curse says!"
"Last time…" Her words were barely audible. "You wanted me to leave with you. Now you want to stay? What about your friends? What about your world that needs saving?"
"I-" His voice caught. "I've been at sea for too long."
Calypso ran her hands through her hair. "I shouldn't have put this idea in your head in the first place. How long were you traveling for?"
"I don't know."
She tilted her head. "You've grown up."
He shrugged. "Maybe."
"There are some rules that have to be followed. You won't be able to stay, they won't let you. Something will change. Something will always change." Her voice broke.
"Has anyone come since me?" he asked quietly.
She nodded. "One."
His stomach clenched. "You've moved on."
Calypso reached out and rested a hand on his shoulder. "The truth is, I live in the present. But I also never really move on. It might be confusing, but-"
This time he was the one to kiss her.
His arms were still around her waist when he said, "Will you let me stay?"
"You can't stay forever."
"For as long as I can, then."
She touched his cheek. "But if it isn't that long? Was the long journey really worth it?"
Leo stared off into the distance for a heartbeat, trying to remember a world that didn't exist for him anymore.
His gaze returned to her. "I guess it depends."