AN: welcome back even though it wasn't a long wait. Leo may be a little OOC but he'll still end up as Leo

Leo opened his eyes, still smelling the fire and still feeling the ash in his throat. He looked to be in a surgery room, a man in black scrubs looking him over. Red eyes, tall, thin.

"Who the hell are you?" Leo greeted.

The man looked to Leo, his eyes boring into Leo's. He didn't speak, didn't make a move.

"M'kay, well, you're a little freaky and I want to go home." Leo tried to sit up but found that he was strapped to the table. "What is this? Some play at a scary movie?"

"Leo." the man spoke from behind his scrubs. The only way Leo knew it was him was because they were alone in the room. "Your father has been waiting for you."

"My father is dead, you asshole. Nice try, though." Leo tried to sit up again. "Damn, give me a screwdriver and I'll be out of here in a minute."

"Your father has been waiting for you," he repeated. He sounded like a robot, his voice holding no emotion. "Please remain still as he comes."

Leo could smell fire again, this time stronger. "I'll burn you to a crisp, you asshole! Let me out!"

The man in scrubs took a step back. "Please relax, Leo. You're burning through your restraints, now."

Leo smirked at the sound, not stopping. The power he had been scorned for in life, the power he had been shut away for. Now, he could use it for his escape again.

"Please relax, Leo." the man's voice was less robotic. "Your father is coming, Leo."

"Your father is coming, Leo." Leo copied. "Please relax, Leo." He pulled one of his arms free of the now smothering restraints, fire covering his tan flesh. "Please remain still as he comes, Leo. Don't catch us all on fire, Leo."

He pulled his other arm free. "Why aren't the fire alarms going off? You have a pretty nasty system here, you oaf." Just as he sat up the metal door opened, revealing a man larger than the last. At seven feet tall, he towered over anyone that walked through the hallway behind him. Lumbering over to Leo, his black scrubs caught fire.

"Leo, please put the fire out." he sat in the chair by the table Leo laid on, not seeming bothered that he was now almost engulfed in flames. "It doesn't smell very good."

"What the hell are you?" Leo backed away from the man, almost hanging off the edge of the table. "Look, I know I'm dead. I'm not an idiot. I don't have a heartbeat. I don't have the wavelengths associated with dreaming. I'm dead, I get it. But what does that make you? I'm not good with souls but I've done some research on mechanical inventions. You've got something fueling you, don't you?"

"Just as you do, my boy." the man who claimed to be his father was anything but what Leo expected. He was large, animated. Leo was thin and nimble. Two different people, two different souls. "I've got fire where my soul should be, just as you do."

"What do you mean?" Leo felt his eyes flash, felt his blood boil. How could this man possibly know the reason of Leo's oddness?

"I'm your father, as I said. You can call me Hephaestus." he laughed, a deep laugh that seemed to vibrate through the room. "I've been waiting for you to die. You can help us on our quest."

"Your quest?" Leo felt the fire burn through his arms, burn through his legs. "You better explain before I burn this place down. I'm smarter than I look. This isn't the normal afterlife, is it? So I'm guessing you're not human, or at least, not anymore. You must be where the fire came from."

Hephaestus didn't have red eyes. No, he had fire in those black sockets. "We've been working for the key to immortality. We're almost there, but we need you, I'm afraid."

"What sick bastard would want to be immortal?" Leo stood up, cursed himself for not having a toolbelt in the afterlife.

"We've mastered it. Almost." Hephaestus also rose to his feet but Leo remained taller, having been standing on the table. "We can only go back as babies, I'm afraid. But you, you can build us a new body, a body that will never age. I know you can."

Leo shook his head. "That's sick. What's in it for me?" His mind began to race, a blueprint already spreading out in front of him. He knew he could do it, but he wasn't sure he wanted to.

"Do you have a choice?" Hephaestus gestured around them. "You're in my territory, now. Don't worry, it'll be fun. You'll have your own workplace. Food, drink, whatever you want."

"Whatever I want?" Leo could feel the fire in his own eyes. "I want a workshop like mom used to have. To the very last detail."

Hephestus tilted his head. "Done. Is it a deal?"

"It's a deal." Leo kept his fingers crossed behind his back.