"Fly on, fly on to the hest when the Bold's navy is hot for you, fly on, and you'll reach the edge of the world. And what's there, you'll find, when your hold is dry, and your beams are shrinking, and your teeth are loosening, is a new world, a miraculous land where you can hide, that will save you from the navy, but kill you, kill you in its own way."—Usrigoth, New World by Steven W. White.


ACTS OF DEFIANCE


I. IN A QUIET LUCID DREAM

Ashes fell like snow on Leo's eyelashes. Consciousness slowly took over his body like lapping waves, and he exhaled, opening his eyes and breathing out the pressure building in his chest. The world was a blurred view of a first-person shooter video game. He made out flashes of red, yellow, and white. Fire didn't faze him, but he still felt the unbearable heat. His body was numb and he couldn't turn his head. His ears rang, and his mouth tasted blood.

Leo kept blinking. He regained his senses slowly even if he couldn't move. The ringing was gone, and it was replaced by the sounds of swords clashing and fires roaring all around him. His eyes sharpened enough to see familiar battle disasters—buildings and vehicles on fire, puddles of blood and flesh inches away from his head—but he wasn't ready for what he saw next.

Piper lay besides him, her eyes glassy and unmoving, an arrow deep in her neck, jutting out in the air. The ashes stuck floated down to her hair. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't breathing. She wasn't breathing.

He croaked but couldn't say a word. No. He clawed his way to her side, his fingers scratching the ground. His chest hurt, and his legs wouldn't act. His ears rang with silence, muting the screams and battle cries. No, this can't be happening.

He reached out for her hand, her fingers still gripping her dagger. Leo saw his reflection in her kaleidoscope eyes, the colors now dimmed and gray. "P-Piper," he strained, clenching the wound in his stomach when he spoke. Pain hit him like a javelin freshly ripping through his body, and the feeling wasn't pleasant.

A figure flew above their heads and landed near the fire. A man with long, dark hair and pearly white wings approached them slowly, putting his bow behind his back and drawing his sword from his scabbard. Leo recognized the winged man's facial features as he moved closer; tall, beautiful, with glowing red eyes, and it ignited Leo's natural instinct to run away.

He struggled to open Piper's fingers, taking her dagger. But before he could, the man kicked the weapon away and stepped on his hand. Leo groaned in agony as the angel grind his shoes against the palm and the rough gravel of the floor. His knuckles cracked under the pressure.

The man raised his sword above Leo's head. Leo turned to face the sword, the tip of the blade pointed between his eyes, his breath slowing. His body didn't comply with his will. He lay there helplessly staring at the man, eyes half-open, half-closed. That's it? The end?

The man must have read his thoughts. He whispered, "No," before bringing the blade down.


Leo was embraced by Death once. Experiencing it again, it was familiar territory. The falling sensation, his body hitting water in the dark, all of it he had gone through before. When he floated there facing the ceiling-if there was a ceiling at all, he wondered if he could find Piper here. Nobody was falling from the sky, and this seemed to be his personal afterlife before going to the Underworld. Maybe it was a pit stop, somewhere to reflect on what he did, before he was judged by the three kings.

Leo thought that if Piper was here, they would probably be wondering what the fuck happened in the last few minutes up on the surface, rather than reflecting on their merits. But as he took in the situation more, his heart sank like a stone going down to the bottom of the river. He was dead, and there was no clever plan to escape. This time he couldn't come back to life.

Not long after the fall, light shined down on him. He rose from the water and floated up. The world turned slowly, then quickly, like spinning a basketball on the tip of his forefinger. Leo's brain rattled in his head, his stomach gurgled violently. That was strange. When people were dead, they couldn't feel anymore. But he had the urge to turn into a garden sprinkler, spraying whatever he ate last.

The spinning finally stopped. All around him was nothing but a dark void. Air blew in every direction. When he felt goosebumps rising, he looked down and found that he was naked. It was nothing to worry or be self-conscious about. He was dead, of course, so it wasn't like he would bring his clothes with him in the afterlife. Until he heard a woman's voice behind him. "You're not dead, child."

Leo jumped and faced the direction of the voice. A woman in a simple shirt and jeans stood with her arms crossed, her expression grim. Her face...staring at her face was making him dizzy. Her features, her hair, they changed. She transformed in front of his eyes, taking on the faces of the women Leo met in his life. First, he thought she was the snow goddess Khione, then she turned into Calypso and she stayed that way for a long while before changing into the women Leo was temporarily infatuated with in the past.

What really stood out, despite all the familiar faces, were the eyes. Warm and cool colors swirled around her pupils. Kaleidoscope eyes.

Of course. "Aphrodite," Leo said quietly.

A small amount of mist clouded her head like powder, and the face of Piper McLean stayed. But she was older, more confident, and full of authority, not like the Piper he knew. But no joy hinted in her expression, and she reminded him of Hera, the queen of the gods. Her features morphed slightly, but his friend's face maintained itself much to his comfort.

"What do you mean I'm not dead?" Leo pressed. "What...what happened?"

She walked forward with her arm outstretched, two fingers pointing at him. Leo backed away, but the tips of her nails touched his forehead, and he and the world flushed down like water to the drain hole.


When his senses came back, he was screaming. Electricity shot through his veins, numbing every part of his body. Leo stumbled out of the bed and sprawled on his stomach on the carpet. He saw his hands in front of him, all bandaged like a mummy. The electric shocks didn't stop when he crawled; pain shooting up and down and every time he moved, it intensified.

Someone yelled over his voice. "Frank! Frank! He's awake!"

Two hands touched his back and it just made his agony worse. He swatted those hands away violently and wobbled to stand up. His vision dimmed and then sharpened, making out images in adistance. He was in a small red room, and a black woman with long curly brown hair stood near him, her arms up defensively. "Leo, it's alright!"

No, it's not alright. A thousand voices screeched inside Leo's mind, repeating a woman's name over and over again. Nothing is alright. He held his head and burst out of the room, running blindly across a wide elegant hall. The sunlight passing through large windows was warm on his skin. But he didn't stop to appreciate that. He had to find this other woman that the voices kept telling him. He wanted to make sense of this.

Ahead were two large oak doors with beautiful carvings. To Leo, the words EXIT flashed across the surface of the wood. He reached out for the knobs, but two large hands grabbed his arms and pulled him away. Leo struggled from their grasp, elbowing his captor to the chest and stomach. "Get off me!"

"Leo, calm down!" The man's voice boomed. He was a huge and tall Chinese man, his body built together with fat and muscles. "It's just us!"

"I SAID GET OFF!" Leo threw a backwards kick to the man's groin. The bulky man let go and dropped on the floor, hands cupping the area between his legs. Leo gave another good kick to the head and watched his prison warden plant his nose on the wooden floor.

Two more figures appeared, running down the grand staircase, yelling his name and telling him to stop. Leo backed himself to the doors, hands searching for the doorknobs, when someone stabbed him behind the neck.

A syringe stayed deep under his skin before the black woman took it away, her eyes apologetic and afraid. "I'm sorry, Leo."

He stared at her wide eyed and stumbled sideways, a hand on the back of his neck. One leg caught the other and he fell down without any form of grace. Leo tried to blink the sleep away, but the last thing he saw was the woman kneeling besides the Chinese man, waking him up.


Leo remembered nothing except for two things; his own name, and another woman's name. He was better when he woke up again, and the man and the woman from his previous escapade were watching over him, tending to his wounds. They gave him some food. He made no attempt to run away this time. The voices were gone, and he wasn't being electrocuted by an invisible force. He didn't speak; his tongue was sore. He cooled it off with the delicious meal they gave him and a fruit drink, but they said that it was ambrosia.

Another hour's nap, and he was ready to talk.

"You really don't remember anything? Not even us?" the woman said. "Not even our names? Any name at all?"

One name, but he wasn't ready to reveal that. Leo shook his head, sitting up on his bed. "I'm sorry."

The Chinese man kept rubbing his face, which was purple and bulging from Leo's kick. "It's no use, Hazel, we won't get anything from him. It's Percy and Jason all over again."

Jason... Now that was another name Leo was familiar with, and it was just coming to him. "I...I think I know a Jason."

They turned to him expectantly. The Chinese man said, "Really?"

Leo strained to dig anything in his mind. Anything that triggered him to think that he knew a Jason. There was a trace, but it was gone now. "Not...not really."

Their shoulders slacked in disappointment. Leo gave them grief even after the lengths they took to care for him. He felt guilty for kicking the chubby man's face. He wanted so much to remember. From the way they acted around him, all three of them were clearly great friends. The woman put on a smile. "I'm Hazel Levesque. This is my boyfriend." Hazel held the Chinese's arm. "Frank Zhang."

"Hi," Frank said. Leo waved his hand in greeting. "I'm really not used to you being so quiet," he added sheepishly.

Hazel sat down on Leo's bed. Only now did he noticed a striking attribute to the woman's beauty; her golden eyes. "What about Piper? Do you remember Piper McLean?"

Piper McLean. That was the other woman's name. So they knew her. "Yes!" He said loudly. Both Hazel and Frank jumped. "I mean yes, I do, that's the only thing I remember. Who is she? Where is she? Why do I remember her?"

Hope and pain shone in Hazel's eyes. "She's your friend. Our friend. We found you two together in the middle of a battlefield." There seemed to be a follow-up, but she wasn't saying it.

Frank picked up from where she left. "Leo, you... You and Piper were dead. Christ, a sword had gone clean through your brain, Leo. You're supposed to be dead, but when we collected you, Hazel had a vision. Someone said you're not dead, and that you'll wake up soon. We don't know who was that. So we just...patched you up and waited."

"We cleaned your wounds with nectar." Hazel found her voice again. "And when you started breathing, you were healing by yourself with the help of some ambrosia we gave you through injection, because you weren't really willing to swallow anything, through the mouth or nose when you were sleeping."

Leo snorted, leaning back to his bed frame. He didn't understand half of what they said. Visions? Ambrosia? He stared down at his legs. He set those thoughts aside, focusing on one thing. "So...that wasn't a dream then. I can remember how I was killed, it's crystal clear to me, and..." He touched his temples. "And, that's it."

Hazel and Frank looked like they had more to say, more to ask, but they were holding back. Maybe they were trying to make it slow and easy for him due to his amnesia. Leo was thankful for that. He was afraid of what else they might say.

He moved his fingers from his temples to his forehead. His whole head was covered with bandages, hiding his hair under it. "Piper... Is she okay?"

Hazel nodded. "Yeah, she's safe. She hasn't woken up yet, but she's breathing. Percy and Annabeth are looking out for her. She's upstairs."

On the bedside table was a tray, bottles of medicine, bandages, a bowl of water and towels, and a box of disposable syringes. He didn't exactly forgive Hazel for just stabbing him in the back just like that to stop him in his panicked state, because that was fucking dangerous and he could just die again if she missed the neck and stabbed his eye instead, but he didn't voice it out. "Can I see her?" he asked her.

"Well, sure, but are you okay? There's a doctor coming his way to see you and Piper. He wouldn't recommend you going out yet."

Leo threw the blanket to the side and put his feet on the floor. He was well enough to run and fight Frank off, so he thought he was fair enough to climb up the stairs to see this Piper. But when he stood up, pain jolted from his sides and down his legs. For a moment, he was paralyzed. Leo buckled down to the carpet face first, and fell asleep.


The next morning he was much better than the previous days. Memories came to him slowly and gradually, in the form of dreams, daydreams, and visions. Frank and Hazel were ready to load him with information about demigods and the other magical side of the world that they were currently experiencing, but he stopped and told them that he knew the basics, and about his memories coming back in a slow but steady rate.

Despite the improving mental recovery, his body wasn't catching up. He moved and acted like a zombie. He wasn't healthy enough for the stairs, so there was no seeing Piper McLean that day either. When he got out of his room, he shuffled slowly, guided by a man named Nico di Angelo. Leo didn't remember much of him. That, or they weren't close friends in the first place.

The two-storey mansion he was staying in was deeded to Nico, located on the top of a large hill, overlooking Los Angeles, California, not too far from the actual Hollywood. This was known to be a place dangerous for demigods, but apparently he took this as a challenge. Nico, Hazel, and Frank lived together, wanting to get out of Camp Jupiter to see other sights, but at the same time staying close to it. How a nineteen-year-old was able to afford a luxurious place like this, Leo could never guess.

Percy Jackson was there with them. When he heard that Leo was up and kicking, he came down from Piper's room just to say a couple of words. "You were dead. You literally shitted your pants."

This was one of the first few things Leo heard in the morning, and he didn't like it. Percy acted buddy-buddy with Leo like he didn't know about his memory wipe. It made Leo uncomfortable, but he didn't mind. Leo wanted to find out about himself from other people, depending on the way they acted around him. "Please, whatever details you're armed to tell me, just save it."

Percy laughed and slapped Leo's back. "Don't worry, I'm glad you're back and in case you're wondering, we've already burned them, you and Piper's trousers."

The doctor that Hazel and Frank told him was actually Nico's boyfriend, Will Solace. Seeing a blond haired, blue eyed person reminded Leo of someone else, he couldn't put a finger on it.

After checking up on Piper upstairs, Will performed basic checkup routine on him. "Alright, let's do some mental exercise, since I hear you're getting some memories now." Will cleared his throat and sat down on a couch opposite of Leo. To Leo's left was Nico, and further down were the large windows he saw a few days ago. They touched the ceilings, and beyond those windows was a balcony, separated by glass doors. Bright blue skies stretched out above and pigeons flew freely. "Let's start with pre-school level questions. Tell me your name, your age, your mortal parent, and the year we are in today."

Leo muttered his answers. It was kindergarten all over again. "My name's Leo Valdez, I'm...twenty-one years old. My mortal parent's name is Esperanza Valdez, and the year is 2014."

"Great. Now tell me about these things."

Will asked questions and Leo answered them. A few he got right, many he couldn't answer since his mind was still three-fourths empty. Frank and Percy emerged from the kitchen carrying trays of everyone's breakfast: fried eggs, toasts and bacon. For some reason, Leo's brain nagged about how there was no vegetarian-friendly option in his plate. He didn't know why. But the food was great and he was ravenous; he was torn between eating it slowly to savor the taste, or finishing it all in one gulp. "Who's the chef of this fine cuisine?"

"Me," Frank said. Leo gave him a thumbs-up.

The empty plates were taken away, and it was back to business. Will Solace was quiet for a moment, arranging his tools on the coffee table between them. Everyone else watched. "Let's change your bandages, especially around your head," Will said. "Where you were apparently stabbed by a sword."

Percy, Frank, and Nico helped removed the old bandages and placed them in a container. While Will put ointment and nectar on his healing wounds and unrolled fresh new bandages, Frank gave Leo a mirror. "You should see your face, it's hideous."

Leo half-smiled, half-sneered, and took the mirror from his hands. He wasn't in a hurry to know what he looked like in real life. Far too many things raced in his head to worry about his complexion. But he turned up the mirror and stared at his own reflection; he had nothing to say about himself. Just your average Latino man, not too ugly but not too handsome, with black hair sporting a crew cut and brown eyes. The three day old stubble on his face wouldn't be visible if there was no sunlight. He scowled at the large vertical scar between his eyes, which hasn't healed yet. He just needed a horizontal one across it, and it would be Ash Wednesday forever to Leo.

He saw something else though, other than the small scars around his lips, eyes, and cheeks. On his right temple was a red mark, an "A." He rubbed it a few times to see if it would come off, like a temporary tattoo. "Hey." Leo tapped at the mark with his finger. "What's this?"

Percy was placing the old bandages in a plastic bag when he looked up to Leo. "What's what?"

"This, on my head. What's this?"

"Your...your brain?"

"I'm serious." He rubbed his forehead more. It was itchy. "If this is a permanent tattoo you gave me when I was dead, well, it's not funny."

"It's okay, Leo, slow down." Frank took the mirror from him. "We really don't know what you're talking about. What are you seeing?"

"This...this letter." Leo traced it on the same spot. "There's an A. You really aren't shitting me about this, right?"

Percy and Frank looked at each other confusedly and shook their heads. Will leaned towards Leo and checked his forehead. "Maybe only you can see it, Leo. But we don't like being left out, so we're going to need a special cream, powder, or something to make it visible to us, but I don't know what would work, and if I had any, I didn't bring them."

"You're not being helpful."

Will ignored him, took notes, and sat back down in his seat. "Certain names and words trigger your mind. If we try recalling your last moments before your death and amnesia, we might get all your memories faster. Frank and Hazel told me you reacted when they said Jason's name."

Leo blinked. His brain throbbed and it felt like he was given a hard slap across the face. "Jason...Grace, right?"

"That's right," Nico said besides him. "He's your best friend. You, Piper, and Jason met in Wilderness School, at Arizona, back in 2009."

"We...we did?" He blinked again. "W-we did."

"A week ago, Jason went missing," Percy joined in. "You and Piper are looking for him, but it seemed like he just disappeared from the face of the earth."

The pain was coming back. Dozens of images crossed his mind. Disappeared from the face of the earth. He remembered someone else say that. A woman. A goddess.

"W-what happened to him? To Jason?" Leo held his head. "Is it just me and Piper looking for him? What about you guys?"

Frank looked down. Percy placed his hands inside his pockets. "We want to help you," Percy said. "But around the time Jason disappeared...all of sudden there are just spurts of battles everywhere. Demigods against demigods. People we don't know fighting each other. But they are definitely half-bloods, just like us."

"We don't know who they are," Nico continued. "And where they came from, but wherever they go and fight, there's chaos everywhere. Collateral damage. And we want to control it."

"We're trying to put an end to all the fighting," Frank added. "We want to investigate, but we couldn't get close to them. They just wouldn't stop, and when they do, they just disappear with no traces to where they retreat for the day. You and Piper were caught in the crossfire of one battle." His expression grew dark. "But it looked like they were after you."

Out of the depths of his subconscious, an old Leo Valdez started to crawl out from the bottom of his brain, like a worm. A maggot. It's all our fault, it whispered. We started all of this.

"Leo," Will said, staring at him intently. "What happened? Why did they attack you?"

"I...I don't know." Yes, you do. "I don't remember."

"You have to, Leo. You and Piper are the only ones who got close to them. You were right in the middle of the fight. Who attacked you? Do you remember them? Do you see any familiar faces?"

An angel with glowing red eyes entered Leo's mind. And fire and pain and the spinning. The voices were back, whispering to him incoherent things and words. Good and bad memories crashed down to his shoulders and it was nauseating. Bile was rising to his throat. He blocked off his ears and shut his eyes tightly. Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop, MAKE IT STOP.

His friends were shaking Leo. "Hey, dude, stop that. You're really freaking us out," Percy said, looking really worried.

Their touches stung him like bees. He pushed them away. "Don't touch me! Stay away!"

"Whoa, it's okay! We're sorry," Frank said quietly but he couldn't hide the panic in his voice. his hands were up. All the men were standing, moving a good distance away from Leo. "Calm down. It's going to be alright."

It's not alright. Leo shook his head frantically. Nothing is alright.

Hazel's voice broke out from all the tension that ensued between the men. "Guys! GUYS!"

They stopped talking to each other and turned to her. She stood at the bottom of the staircase. "Piper's awake."

Everyone held their breaths as eyes looked everywhere, and they halted on two girls climbing down slowly on the stairs. A blonde woman, Annabeth, held another woman closely to her, whispering softly.

The men raced up and flocked the women, leaving Leo walking limply to the base, besides Hazel. For the first time ever since he woke up, he had a good look of Piper McLean. There was no need describing her, because Leo remembered her face. It was coming to him now, in a way that wasn't killing him.

She locked eyes with him, sometimes glancing down to watch her step. Percy and Frank asked if she remembered them. Piper wordlessly said no. Will Solace checked for her pulses and breathing patterns while walking backwards. Nico chided him, telling him that he might fall if he kept doing that.

She took one last step and she was standing face to face with Leo. Her hair matted her forehead, but her eyes sparkled. "You're okay," he murmured.

Piper was as pale as Nico di Angelo, but she really was okay. "You're Leo...right?"

"Yeah," Leo said. "And you're Piper."

She smiled in response, and pulled him to an embrace. Everyone backed away politely. This took him by surprise, but he hugged her back. Leo remembered Piper's pale, lifeless body a few nights before. He didn't remember much about her, but his body digressed. From the way his heart ached the moment he saw her, and when he started crying quietly when they were in each other's arms, he knew he didn't want to see her like that again. Not anymore.


A/N: I had to take down the old AOD that was written back in 2012, because it had a bad start. So here it is, the proper introduction to a multichapter fan fiction that I kept in the back of my mind for many years. This fic is my love letter to you my readers, fellow shippers, and my friends who's still with me for so many years. You know who you guys are. Thank you for being awesome. And I'd like to give my special thanks to my beta-reader Hazelle More. With her amazing proofreading and first-aid knowledge, she made the chapter even better and I'd be lost without her. Edit 6/6/15: revised a passage due to factual inconsistencies.