When Piper woke up she didn't know where she was. Something large and warm was beside her in bed. She rolled over to see Jason, lightly snoring. Of course. Cabin one. She remembered last night on the rooftop with Jason. Talking about Leo. Piper had known it was a war. She had known there would be casualties and deaths. But Leo? He had always seemed so indestructible. But he was gone. Accept, despite what Hazel and Nico told her, Piper didn't think he was dead. Because although she was no child of hades, she couldn't help but think that she would have felt something if he was gone. But she didn't. She didn't.

Piper sighed and rolled out of bed. Quietly, so as not to wake her sleeping boyfriend, she slipped outside for some air. It was a mild night. Outside the camps borders, near Thalia's tree and the sleeping dragon, Pelos, guarding the golden fleece, it looked freezing, but the magical boundaries kept the camps temperature bearable. Looking around the silent, sleeping camp Piper noticed a figure sat at the edge of the lake staring as the sun began to rise. She made her way to the shadowed silhouette, and as she approached she realised it was Annabeth.

"Couldn't sleep?" Piper asked, sitting down next to her friend. Annabeth shook her head.

"when do we get a break? I thought we did, after the battle of Manhattan. But then Percy went missing and we were plunged into another war. And now it seems like we finally have peace, and I'm just waiting for the illusion to shatter."

Piper only nodded. She hadn't been in the battle of Manhattan, but knew it had been a close fight between the demigods and the Titans, with the Gods to preoccupied with Typhon to help. She knew that Annabeth would have died if not for Will Solace because she took a poisoned dagger for Percy. She had a vague idea about what happened to the previous Aphrodite councillor, Silena, that she had died, and she knew that in the end one of Annabeth's friends, Luke Castellan, had sacrificed himself, sending Kronos back to Tartarus. Piper understood that war wasn't pretty. She'd fought in the giant war, after all.

Beside her, Annabeth sighed. "we lost so many, to so many wars, too many quests, monsters that will eventually come back anyway. You didn't feel the hopelessness that overwhelmed you down…there."

Piper shifted uncomfortably at the brokenness in Annabeth's voice when she spoke of Tartarus, so she changed the subject. "He's not dead. Leo is not dead."

Annabeth turned to her, eyebrows raised. "What?"

"you know how when Percy disappeared" Piper struggled to find the right words to explain without sounding completely mad. "and you knew he wasn't dead. It's like that. And even Nico said his death felt different. It must have felt like that because he somehow managed to take the physicians cure."

Annabeth looked at her with pity. As though she didn't believe her, but wanted to. That was when they saw the dragon. Its metal scales gleamed gold and it made loud whirring sound as it descended with a crash, causing all the cabins (but Hypnos cabin, who were still sleeping) to spill outside, weapons in hand, many in pyjamas. Annabeth and Piper scrambled to the front of the crowd where Festus crashed, when a pretty girl with amber hair climbed gracefully down, cradling the small, bony and worryingly limp form of Leo Valdez in her arms.

"Please" she called out. "Somebody help. He needs immediate medical attention." Her face was streaked with tears. Will Solace pushed through the crowd, with a few other Apollo kids behind him. They took hold of Leo, before carrying him to the infirmary. The amber haired girl hurried after them, and the rest of the seven and Nico minus Frank and Hazel followed.

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Inside the infirmary, a tired Will Solace turned to the others. "he'll be fine. At the moment, he just needs rest. But he should be dead. What happened, exactly?"

Annabeth explained the part of the physician's cure before the amber haired girl – Calypso – answered. "He crashed on Ogygia, before we had to stop on the way here to fix up Festus. That's when we were attacked by empousa. He would have died, but I used some healing magic to sustain him until we arrived here." She finished her explanation as Annabeth went over to the water fountain to iris message Hazel and Frank at camp Jupiter. You could hear Hazels screams from across the room. "We are coming down there as soon as possible. We just need clearance from Reyna. She'll probably want to come down too. Bye!" She was grinning broadly as she waved a hand through the mist.

"Who knew dying would make me so popular? Look at you, huddled round my sick bed."

"LEO!" Piper barrelled into him, knocking him down into the pillows with a huge hug, before punching him hard on the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?" Leo complained. Piper gave him an incredulous look. "Perhaps for making me think you were dead?"

Everyone else had their turn reuniting and hitting Leo but Nico, who merely nodded. Leo frowned "where's Hazel and Frank?" he asked.

"They're coming over from camp Jupiter" Jason answered, and Leo nodded before asking his next question. "Where's Calypso?"

"I'm here" Calypso stepped forward and took the hand Piper wasn't already holding, and smiled.