I am really, really sorry about how late this is. I've fallen behind with all of my stories, and I know that I have no right to make excuses, but I kinda lost my muse for a little while. To make it up to you, this chapter will be longer than usual. I hope that you all can forgive me :( Oh, and at the bottom of this chapter there will be something I think you'll all be interested in so please read the bottom author's note. Thank you to anyone who faved or followed despite my remiss attitude. Warning for menion of gang violence.
Connwaer Heap : Don't worry, you didn't offend me. But don't judge the incident too quickly, the Leos are sneaky little devils and all may not be as it seems.
Neon Wish Likes Pine Trees : Meow :)
Cecld16 : Thank you, and you'll have to wait till the end to find out whether or not the original Leo will remember what had happened.
Zoethezany III : I'm honoured that you think I'm good enough to be your role model, I hope that I'm a good one:) And dam, I missed that opportunity!
Bluecookiedough : Poor Fourteen indeed. I'm glad that you liked the bonding moment with Hazel, I want to convey relationships between the Leos and all of the seven so I'm glad that it's working.
ObsessedwReading : Thank you :)
Melancholy's Sunshine : Depressing seems to be my speciality ;) Percy has a massive big brother complex, though the rest of the gang aren't much better with their older sibling tendencies so yes, Leo will most definitely be smothered. Leo's gay gang leading adoptive dads would not be happy with the Beasts. Not at all.
Lyra : I was, I was just stupid an forgot! Sorry, I'm usually quite good at remembering things like that. Hopefully I'll be able to remember in the future.
Lord of Potatoes : Oh no, this waiting session was even longer than usual, I haven't killed you have I? (Nice use of dam by the way).
The chosen sea's : Ooh, that might just happen in Reunions, thank you.
Saint-Less : Thank you, I'm happy to hear that you love it.
Killua minamoto : What was your idea, if you don't mind telling me? And yeah, it must be kind of humiliating for them, being shown up by two kids like that. The reactions are going to be very fun to write.
Sky-chan : It's fine, and I'm glad that you understand the motives behind Leo's actions, I was worried that everyone would think that I was making him seem a little psychotic when I really just wanted to portray how the situation wore him down until he snapped.
Ira-chan : Thank you, and don't worry, I've been on a zip line before. I've been really lucky and I've gone on lots of adventure holidays with school and with my old guide unit. I'm very happy that you liked the chapter and I hope that you like this one just as much.
Sidda : Ah, I do like Jeff, I just happen to like Leo better, sorry. And I would love to be Blaze's girlfriend :) And although he is a humungous troll, we cannot kill him for he was the one to gift us with Leo in the first place. It would be rude to kill him after he gifted us with such a precious being ;)
Kris Awesomeness : He shouldn't, but Leo has a habit of feeling guilty over stupid things.
Kaylee : Thank you, and here is the update.
Mystery : Thanks, and I hope that this chapter is worth the wait.
Sidda : I'm here, albeit very late. And I'm sorry but I don't have one :( I do like Jeff, I just love Blaze/Leo more, please don't hate me.
Disclaimer : If the series was mine then it would never end. There would just be endless Leo and Grover spin offs. I also don't own the video "Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows" (search it on Youtube if you want to watch it).
Frank's P.O.V
Frank was uneasy, and it wasn't just because of the information that they had just been provided with. The whole thing had just felt too ... he loathed to say easy - the splinters in his arms attested to just how difficult it had been to get to this situation - but that was how the ordeal felt.
After all of the fuss the Leos had put up, this whole thing seemed sort of anticlimactic. Frank understood that these Leos were younger than the Leo that he was used to dealing with, and therefore more insecure, but it still seemed like they had been overreacting a little bit.
And then it dawned on Frank why he was feeling uneasy.
"You're holding something back." Piper had evidently came to the same realisation as he had, but she had managed to say it just before he could. The Cherokee girl was squinting at the teens who both had their eyes trained on the ground.
Fifteen looked up, and although his mask was nearly flawless, the slight strain to his smile ruined his attempt at appearing innocent.
"No we aren't. We just told you the whole incident, wasn't that horrific enough for you?"
"You're lying." Jason spoke simply, his tone free of any accusation. Fourteen still tensed up. He looked up, eyes wild and fearful.
"Can't you just accept what we've told you? Can't you just leave us alone?" Fourteen snapped, practically reeking of desperation. Frank noticed the way Annabeth was giving the Leos a piercing stare, and he hoped that it wouldn't make them worry even more. Frank of all people could understand that violence was sometimes necessary, although he often resented his heritage he was still a son of Mars. All children of Mars had violence in their blood, even more so than any other demigod. War was in their nature, and even though Frank didn't embrace this as many of his half siblings did, he still couldn't deny that it was a part of him. Especially with the continued arguing of his father's split personalities in his head.
"We want to help you guys, to do that we must understand exactly what happened." Percy's voice held exactly the right amount of comfort and strength. Frank was amazed at how easily Percy and Jason slipped into big brother mode. Sure Frank felt a little protective of Leo normally, he had gotten a lot closer to the Latino after they had watched his memories, and he felt even more protective now that they had four younger Leos to deal with, but Frank doubted that he'd ever be a big brother in Leos eyes. He wasn't as strong as Jason and Percy and although he understood Leo a lot better now, Frank still wasn't very good at dealing with him. Maybe their personalities were doomed to clash, but Frank was still saddened.
Though if he couldn't be as good of a brother to Leo as Jason and Percy were, he'd just have to be a dam good friend to make up for his failings.
Frank focussed on the teens again.
A solitary tear had made its way onto Fifteen's face, and as Frank watched the single tear dripped down onto his collar.
"Fine, but when you know what we have done, please don't treat the kids differently. They don't know about this yet, and you can punish us for this however you want but please leave them out of it." His voice would have been detached if it wasn't for the note of pleading that rang through his words.
"We aren't going to treat any of you differently no matter what you tell us! You're our friend, and whatever you did in the past will never outweigh that fact." Hazel's words were heartfelt and Frank found himself nodding in agreement with his girlfriend.
"And we aren't going to punish you for something that you've been clearly punishing yourself for." He added. Fourteen's lost gaze fixed on him, and Frank shivered as more tears spilled over the younger boy's cheeks. Fifteen glanced at each of the older demigods, as if mentally assessing them. The Latino cringed away from Annabeth who was still glowering at him as if she was mentally dissecting him.
Frank was a little bit intimidated by the older demigod, she always seemed so intense and put together, but Frank knew that she was a good person and probably didn't mean to make Fifteen feel bad.
That was why Frank whispered that she should probably tone down the death glare instead of yelling at her to knock it off. Frank knew that the Leos were in a really bad emotional state right now, and they didn't need to be scared by Annabeth. The blonde girl looked at him in surprise before schooling her face into a more neutral expression.
"I wasn't glaring at them on purpose, I was just trying to figure out what they were omitting from their story." She murmured back, and Frank smiled to show that he wasn't judging her. To be honest, pointing it out was for her benefit as well as for the Leos, one of the reasons that Leo had always seemed to be distant from Annabeth was because of the disastrous Eidolon incident in which Annabeth had treated him as an enemy.
"We lost control of our powers." Fourteen suddenly blurted out. He then covered his mouth, eyes horrified.
" ¡Maldición! Couldn't you have softened that blow? (Damn it!)" Fifteen yelled at his cowering counterpart. A whirlpool of fear welled up in Frank's stomach. Of all of the seven, Leo's powers were the ones that most scared Frank. One single flame could take his life in seconds, turning his life force to cinders. Fire was one of Frank's biggest fears, even with his piece of wood safely stored with Hazel.
But this wasn't the time to dwell on that. Fourteen had drawn his legs up to his chest and was shaking on his chair. Leo feared his powers even more than Frank did, and these kids hadn't been convinced that their fire could be helpful yet.
Fifteen was shooting panic filled gazes at Fourteen, the older demigods and the door. Frank shifted so that the younger boy's view of the door was obscured, hopefully preventing an escape attempt.
"How?" Annabeth's voice was calm, and this eased a little bit of the tension in Fifteen's shoulders. Fourteen withdrew even more, however.
"I was finally leaving the stupid place. All of my stuff was packed into my backpack and I had taken out most of the most dangerous gangs. I thought that my message would have been heard loud and clear by all gangs. But apparently Beast was too dumb to heed the warning." A stifled sob echoed from Fourteen, and Jason sat down by him, pulling the crying Latino into a hug. Fourteen struggled, but Jason restrained him gently until the young boy collapsed onto his shoulder, still sniffling. Frank marvelled at how easily Jason had gotten fourteen to accept his comfort. Frank could only assume that Fourteen was too exhausted to put up more of a struggle. The world had not been kind to the son of Hephaestus and he probably needed this hug desperately.
And then Frank realised that Fifteen could probably use some mental fortification as well. He shifted round and laid a (hopefully) comforting hand on the kid's shoulder.
"At the outskirts of town I stopped and turned around to have one last look at the hellhole of a city. I was met with a crowbar to the face." Everybody winced.
"Luckily it didn't do too much damage as it only glanced me, but it still split my lip and caused a small fracture in my cheek. Spitting blood to the side, I tried to make out my attacker. It was Beast. He was still bearing some evidence from the alley brawl, but that wasn't the worst thing. The look in his eyes was crazed. I had single-handedly ruined the Beast's rep, no one wanted to deal with the gang whose rogue member had attacked, and defeated, all of the worst gangs in the city. That meant no illicit alcohol trading, no secret weapons dealing and no one would warn them if news of a police crackdown got out. Beast wasn't too happy about this. And he intended to make me feel his unhappiness." Fifteen shifted the tiniest bit into Frank, and Frank took this as a sign to step up his comforting duty. He slipped his arm around the boy, and although Fifteen remained mostly unresponsive to this action, Frank felt him lean back ever so slightly.
"We sparred for a bit, but I was mostly testing the waters. I knew that I could take him out, I had taken out his entire gang before, but I was unsure as to whether or not he had anymore weapons. If he did then it could have turned nasty really fast. Instead it turned out terribly because he didn't have another weapon but he did have a picture." Fifteen choked on a sob here, and Frank gave in to his desire to just embrace the Latino properly.
"Although I didn't really like the foster home that I had been in, I couldn't forgive what had happened to them. We were both a little bloody when he whipped out this picture. They had... they had..." Fifteen broke off here, tears cascading down his face. Unexpectedly, Fourteen picked up the tale in a monotone voice that grated Frank's ears with its falseness.
"The Beasts had attacked the family that I had been staying with. The picture was of them after the assault. None of them were dead but they were all pretty banged up. I had refrained from attacking children. They had not. One of my foster siblings had been eight." Frank heard his fellow demigods gasp, and when he looked up he saw that both Piper and Hazel were crying. Percy's eyes also looked suspiciously misty, while Nico had slunk back into the shadows, his eyes glowing with misery and an understanding that sometimes life just wasn't fair.
Frank pushed down his own sense of sadness. He needed to be strong for the distraught past Leos.
"It was all my fault! Once again I had gotten people hurt. Sure I hadn't really like them, but I hadn't wanted them to get hurt either!" Fourteen virtually wailed this sentence, his tone shifting from monotone to pure distress, before shrugging Jason away. Small tendrils of smoke rose from his hair, and Frank prayed that they naturally died down. If Fourteen noticed them in this state then it would make him even more upset.
"I looked up from the picture, and I was beyond angry. Those cowards had attacked innocents to get to me. I was even more furious than when I had been attacked in the alley, because at least I had been attacked because I was associated with a gang. That poor family had been attacked solely to get to me." Fifteen hiccupped through another bout of tears.
"That was when Beast started staring at me in terror. I didn't understand why until the picture in my hand began to burn. It burned swiftly, and I dropped the ashes which scattered into the wind. And then I looked into Beast's eyes. I could see from my reflection in them that I was haloed by fire, and small flames crackled over my hands. I looked like a monstruo, like the diablo that my aunt called me. And at that moment, I felt like it as well, I felt like some sort of wrathful demon. I had the power to exact vengeance for what he had done to me, my foster family and the other people that his gang had terrorized." Fourteen halted here, his voice raw and etched with agony. It was obvious to all of the demigods that he regretted these feelings, that this incident had emotionally scarred him. No wonder he had been acting like such a brat, the poor kid sounded as if he despised himself.
"He fell to his knees then, watching me with unadulterated terror. And then one of the sparks from my hand managed to catch onto his sleeve. It went up in flames, and for a moment I just watched. I thought that maybe he deserved this for setting me up and for harming civilians. But then I regained my senses. I yelled at him to stop drop and roll which he did, but he was already burnt. It was only first degree, the flesh didn't even blister, but it was still a burn. It was still a sign that my powers are demonic, that all they are good for is hurting people. I ran then, leaving him behind to gape at me in fear. Leaving him to his petty world of gang fights and violence. I never looked back to see if he was alright. And I can't say that at that point I truly cared if he was." Fourteen drew in a deep breath. Then, both he and Fifteen pulled away from the older demigods who had been comforting them. It seemed as if a bit of their bitterness had returned as they looked at the older teens with both regret and stubbornness.
"Still think that you wont ever treat us differently, that your opinion of us will never change?" The words held so much emotion. It was obvious that Fourteen intended for them to be mocking, but his terror of being rejected echoed clearly in the words.
"I think that we all can agree that this changes nothing." Frank's eyebrows almost obtained orbit as he realised that Annabeth was the one to say this.
"How? How can you say that? We just told you about how much of a monster we really are. Why would you still accept us?" Fifteen's voice held less emotion than Fourteen's, but Frank assumed that this was more because he had had longer to perfect his controls rather than an actual lack of emotion.
"You say that you didn't care if he was okay at first, but if you truly didn't care then why are you beating yourself up over it? If you sincerely believed that you did nothing wrong than why were you so desperate to keep this from us?" Piper's voice was steady as a rock as she looked both Leos square in the eye. The Leos seemed shocked by this outlook, and they turned to each other, holding a silent conversation as they mulled over these questions.
"You guys seriously don't think that we are monsters?" Frank's heart shattered at the fact that the teens sounded so much like neglected children at this point.
"Of course not. We love you guys." Hazel stated this simply, and Frank was proud of his girlfriend for putting so much conviction into this confession. Apparently this was exactly the right thing to say as the Leos once again broke into tears, but with watery smiles shining through. True smiles.
This beautiful bonding moment was interrupted by Coach Hedge's booming voice.
"I AM GOING TO MURDER YOU LITTLE CUPCAKES, DON'T THINK THAT I WONT JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ONLY PINTSIZED VALDEZS!" Giggling accompanied these casual death threats, and it was getting closer. Percy rolled his eyes, waiting behind the door or a few seconds before opening it quickly and pouncing on the giggling baby Leos.
"And what have you two been up to?" Frank stifled his own laugh at the fact that Percy sounded exactly like a mother who had to deal with rambunctious children regularly.
The kids eyes surveyed the room as they dangled in Percy's grips, and their eyes swiftly alighted upon the teen Leos who were wiping away the last of the tears.
"Is everything okay now?" Six asked, his voice quavering slightly, his face worried. Eight looked equally concerned until the teens flashed them reassuring smiles.
"It would be if the Coach wasn't threatening to murder you. What have you done?" Eight and Six exchanged perfectly innocent smiles that didn't fool the demigods for a second. Frank had to give them props for effort though, they might have been able to pull off their angelic double act if it wasn't for the fact that Coach Hedge had already labelled them as the perpetrators, and even if he hadn't they still would have been the main suspects.
They all filed out, apparently they were all harbouring the desire to see what the little pranksters had done to the Coach.
As the satyr had been ordered to keep the kids in the games room, it was there that everyone headed. Six and Eight had seemingly given up on proclaiming their innocence, they were now just sniggering in Percy's arms.
Jason was first to reach the games room, and so he was first to witness whatever had happened to Coach Hedge who was still bellowing out threats and punishments that ranged from a thousand pushups to a whack from his cudgel.
The son of Jupiter instantly burst into laughter, which really heightened Frank's urge to see what was going on. If it got Jason - one of the more reserved demigods - to laugh so unabashedly then it must have been pretty funny.
It took a little shuffling for all of the demigods to make their way into the games room (though they thankfully avoided getting caught in the door cartoon style) but when they were all able to see Coach Hedge, they were able to understand Jason's mirth.
The Coach had been handcuffed to one of the shelves that held up numerous games that had either been generously "donated" by the Stolls (who had generously "liberated" them from numerous game shops) or actually bought by Piper and a few of the other demigods. While the games themselves probably weren't heavy enough to prevent Hedge from ripping it away from the wall and storming after the mischievous imps, the shelf had been fitted with heavy metal slots in an attempt to prevent the games getting damaged in the case of an attack. These combined with the weight of the actual shelf and its fixings to the wall had been pretty effective in keeping the raging goat man immobile.
At one point during his babysitting duties, Hedge had clearly fallen asleep. This fact was attested to by the handcuffs (which explained how the kids had been able to produce them so quickly in their scheme to take down the two older Leos) as well as the make up that was liberally painted over his face. Hedge was sporting two very red cheeks, neon pink lips, a generous coating of eyeliner and orange eye shadow.
His horns had been painted red with lipstick and they were covered in orange sequins and gems. He looked like a make up bomb had exploded in his face and this was the outcome, random shades and smudges all over his face.
To top this of, the huge television screen that dominated the room was playing Pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows repeatedly. A mirror had also been affixed to the screen so that Hedge could admire his new look.
"We were going to make you pink and fluffy, but you have two horns so you can't be a unicorn." Six actually had the gall to sound disappointed about this, causing Coach Hedge to grind his teeth together menacingly.
"Did you go rifling through my makeup?" Piper's tone was dangerous, and Frank heard Six and Eight gulp nervously, their giggling trailing off abruptly.
"Well, we were bored and we wanted to know what was going on but we were stuck on the boat while you looked for Fourteen. You shouldn't have ditched us." Eight voice quaked a little as Piper's full glare was directed at him. And then it was replaced by confusion as Piper began to laugh again.
"You really are pain in the butt little brothers." The children sent her a tentative smile.
Coach Hedge growled.
"Instead of blabbering on about how brotherly they are, why don't you get me down from here so I can whack 'em good and proper in payment for this?" Percy fixed hedge with a small glare.
"No whacking the kids Hedge."
"Not even a little bit?" Although his tone was a little disappointed, Frank knew that Hedge would never harm the little Leos. Even if they really had outdone themselves with this little scheme.
"Not even a little bit." Annabeth reaffirmed for her boyfriend. Coach Hedge grumbled as Eight cheerfully produced the key needed to release Hedge from his cuffs.
"You little cupcakes are lucky that I'm not allowed to whack you demigods." The satyr harrumphed as he stormed out of the room to wash away all traces of the kid's mischief.
Everyone began to file out again, and Frank was about to depart when a hesitant hand snagged his wrist. As he turned to see what was up he noticed Fourteen talking quietly to Jason and Hazel in one corner of the room. He wondered what that was about but shrugged it off in favour of finding out who was trying to get his attention.
It was Fifteen, a shy smile on his face as he shifted awkwardly, one hand gently preventing Frank from leaving the room.
"Thanks. You know, for before?" Frank felt a smile creep onto his own face in acknowledgement. He hadn't thought that the distraught teens had paid much attention to who exactly was comforting them, but here was Fifteen thanking him for it, and Frank assumed that Fourteen was thanking Jason and Hazel similarly.
"No problem. You looked like you needed a hug." Frank bit his tongue then, realising that these words may have been too blunt, but to his surprise, Fifteen snickered softly.
"I suppose I did." Frank basked in the happiness radiating off of Fifteen. He was proud of making the younger teen laugh.
"I have a question for you though." Frank hummed to show that he was listening.
"Would the Coach really hit one of us?" It was Frank's turn to giggle.
"Hedge may not look or act like it, but from what I can tell he is really just a big softy. He cares for all of us, though I think that he has a bit of a soft spot for you, Jason and Piper."
"Why?" Fifteen inquired, shifting inwards so that he could hear more. The other three left the room, Fourteen clapping Fifteen on the back playfully as he exited, jauntily humming about pink fluffy unicorns.
"Apparently he was sent to retrieve you three and bring you back to the Greek camp. He was captured though and Annabeth fetched you. then you three went on a quest to rescue Hera and on the way you managed to find him. He accompanied you to the end of the quest and was volunteered to be our chaperone on this quest." Fifteen's eyes were wide and Frank expected to be bombarded by tons of questions so he held up his hand to stop the barrage that was about to batter him.
"I'm not the best person to ask about this. If you want to know more then it's probably best to ask Piper or Jason." Fifteen nodded thoughtfully.
"Thanks." He proclaimed again, and Frank nodded in acceptance of the other boy's gratitude.
He didn't expect to be yanked into a quick hug, the flame wielder's warm arms twined around his shoulders in a brief hug.
Fifteen flushed as he withdrew, muttering a quick bye before scampering after the others who were once again holding a meeting in the dining room, this time to discuss some of the things that the four Leos may want to know about what was going on.
Frank felt an even brighter smile than before creep upon his face as he watched the current oldest Leo dart down the corridor towards the dining room, his cheeks red and tiny flames creeping over his nose.
Maybe Frank would have to rethink his stance on whether or not Leo would ever be able to see him as an older brother.
With this thought cheerfully bouncing around in Frank's brain, the son of Mars followed after the fiery Latino.
General P.O.V
A snarl could be heard as a cruelly beautiful goddess eyed these events from Olympus. She glared down at the demigods who had been her main source of entertainment for a short while. With her sister's meddling, she had expected the demigods to turn upon the four young versions of her nephew.
She had expected glorious conflict to arise, both mentally and physically. Her eyes narrowed as she honed in on the smiling bunch gathered in their pathetic meeting room. The war that was playing out within the heads of her fellow Gods could not satisfy her lust for fighting.
She would have to throw a spanner in the works, cause some strife between these puny mortals.
A wicked smile spread over her lips as she noticed the innocent, untainted child that the brats were calling Six.
"Oh he will do. He will do nicely." Her cackles rang around her room as she planned her beautiful mental war against the seven.
After all, Gaia would reward her greatly if she managed to tear the seven apart, staring straight with one of the most important members. her devious grin grew even wider.
Oh yes, Gaia would be very pleased with her work.
I am once again very sorry for how late this is. I do bring you something interesting though. Otaku1325 sent me a link that I think you should all check out. /p/dreamworks-disney-to-make-a-percy-jackson-and-the-olympians-heroes-of-olympus-cartoon-tv-series-tvpercy . I put the link in bold for you. I'll see you all next time :)
