EPILOGUE

LEO

Everyone was shocked when a massive gold dragon crashed into camp. In part because even for demigods this was a strange occurrence but mainly because none of us expected to see the dragon and its rider ever again, much less for them to crash-land on the Hade's table which, thankfully, Nico had not been occupying at the time.

"Leo Valdez is back! Now I've just been dead and didn't fancy it too much, so please refrain from killing me!" Leo shouted to the dumbstruck campers.

"Leo? Oh my god you idiot!" Piper yelled as a scrawny figure jumped down from his perch on the dragon, grin in place. Percy was more surprised to see the beautiful girl that slid down after him. A girl who he also thought he'd never see again.

"Two months! You were gone for two months! You never called, you never wrote, you never Iris messaged! We thought you were dead!" Piper's yelling was bursting the eardrums of the campers.

"Beauty Queen, great to see you!" Leo said as she ran towards Leo and enveloped him in a bone-crushing hug, Jason following suite. When they broke apart there was a resounding slapping sound as the daughter of Aphrodite's hand connected with Leo's face.

"Okay, I probably deserved that." He said, blinding smile still present. The Romans came next. Hazel hugged him and planted a quick kiss on Leo's cheek, Frank shook his hand somewhat hesitantly and Reyna simply gave him a curt nod and a small smile.

"Good to have you back bro!" Percy exclaimed, holding out a fist which Leo happily bumped. Annabeth hugged him much to everyone's surprise.

"Death Boy! Have you grown?" Leo asked as he ran over to a startled Nico who was standing off to the side with Will Solace.

"I'm not sure who you are but you're with Nico so you must be great!" He continued, putting his arm around an even more surprised Will.

"Oh, we're not... Um..." Nico stuttered out through his furious blush, a blush identical to Will's.

"Really?" Leo was quickly dragged back to the centre before either of the demigods, now shyly looking everywhere but at each other, could reply.

"Join the betting pool mate," Jason commented with a pat on the back. Leo finally noticed Calypso who was observing from beside Festus.

"Oh yes! This, my friends, is the goddess Calypso, no longer stranded on a shifting island!" Leo said excitedly. Then he kissed her to mixed reactions; most were startled but Hazel looked happy for him.

•••

Leo had spent the entire afternoon explaining his month long disappearance. Sitting down for the campfire was quite a relief. Calypso sat beside him, his arm around her and Festus was safely waiting to be repaired in Bunker 9. The seven, plus Reyna, Nico and Calypso, had gathered towards the edge of the campfire to just enjoy being together again, though Nico seemed to be more prioritized on watching the Apollo cabin lead the sing-a-long.

"Well, I've told you guys what I've been up to, your turn now!" Leo announced, breaking the silence.

"I've built ten temples across the two camps," Jason started.

"Percy and I are staying here for a year and then we're going to move to New Rome and go to college there." Annabeth said.

"I redecorated the Hades cabin," Nico added, to Leo's surprise. In the short time he'd knew the son of Hades he had never seen him engaging willingly.

"I'm official praetor now, with Reyna of course." Frank said.

"Guido has agreed to be my steed," Reyna said. Leo had no clue who Guido was but he assumed this was good thing. The Apollo children dispersed as the sing-a-long came to an end. Will came over and sat next to Nico; the two immediately starting a quiet conversation. Leo raised his eyebrows at Jason instead of directly asking. The only response was a shrug and a smile. They all drifted back into a comfortable silence as the fire crackled away.

•••

The peace and quiet of the demigods remaining at the campfire was interrupted when Rachel Elizabeth Dare sat bolt upright, cutting of her conversation with Tyson and Ella as green smoke started spurting out her mouth. Leo had only seen this once before and that had resulted in him, Piper and Jason almost being killed. Multiple times. Rachel turned to face Nico and Will and spoke in an echoing voice,

"Six shall travel to the mountain of doom,

To prevent the rise of eternal gloom.

The fate of the Gods in the Earth child's hand,

And the traitor will burn in the land of the damned."

Rachel collapsed and no one moved, silence once again engulfing the camp. Percy broke it,

"Well, Apollo's back." Everyone glared at him.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Hey guys, thanks for reading!

This was written for part of my English assignment. I have no idea how my teacher managed to notice all my punctuation mistakes and not the two misspelt words and the word that doesn't actually exist. So essentially this was a group beta effort!

I do plan to make a follow up story to this one sometime in the future, focusing on some more of the secondary characters and Nico. But that may not happen for a while!