A/N: So many people haven't been happy that the demigods didn't win or whatever, and I get that – but there is a plan guys, just tag along. It's going to be all right. Also, to make up for the unmentionable wait you guys had to endure, here is an extra (and I mean extra, like 59 page extra) long chapter.

Parties, Cinnamon, Monsters

(LEO)

"Ladies," I greeted, opening the door to our common room to a couple of Slytherin girls who had just delivered the password knock.

"Good evening," Welcomed Lucas - my present idol after that stunt he pulled with Clarisse, complete genius – appearing at my side, which caused the girls to suddenly begin giggling.

"Come in," I urged, motioning them forwards. "Take a load off," I said.

"Put your feet up," Lucas suggested.

"Ask our bartender for a drink," I said, pointing at Clarisse (Lucas snorted slightly).

"No love potions aloud," Lucas warned, wagging a finger while pointing out a potion induced love-struck Ravenclaw girl following a disgusted Nico around the common room.

"And don't eat or drink anything those two brothers give you," I advised.

"Seriously, they might spike your drink with a foreign substance," Lucas added, the girls started shaking their heads at the Stoll brothers.

"Have fun," I said.

"Shine like the sun," Lucas rhymed.

"Don't make a pun," I continued.

"You are my son," Lucas turned to me.

"I'm… stun?" I asked, my eyes closed in failure.

"Wrong tense bro," Lucas shook his head. "Anyways, just have fun you guys," Lucas said to the girls who were all in different states of laughter.

"You guys are cool," a blonde one said as they passed through us into the party.

"We aim to please." I assured her.

The abrupt thunder and the increase in the force of the rain currently lashing on the common room windows didn't have any effect on the party. It's a good thing us demigods know how to celebrate a loss just as well as a win, and there is only one simple answer: an extensive amount of alcohol. There was loud music pouring from the speakers built by yours truly, and the crowd was dancing, drowning their sorrows with liquor, sadistically counting all the money they had made betting on our failure, or making speeches. Of every kind. Task-related, or otherwise – we'd had three love poems so far.

As the party moved on to the early mornings, and the lightweights had all gone to sleep, me and Calypso – breathless from the dancing for the last half-hour or so – collapsed onto one of the couches surrounding the fire and tried to participate in the conversation the seven, Nico and Lucas were currently engaged in.

Lucas was shuffling money.

"Where did that come from?" Asked Hazel.

"I may or may not have a gambling blessing." Lucas replied shamelessly.

"Isn't it called a gambling problem?" Annabeth questioned him.

Lucas made a show of demonstrating the stacks of bills in his lap, "obviously not, since I always win."

"Ah. I see." Jason deadpanned, "you bet on us failing."

"The odds were better." Lucas shrugged.

"What do you think the closest thing to flying is?" Percy burst out randomly, head lolling against Annabeth's shoulder.

"Flying." Answered Jason immediately.

"I didn't include sons of Zeus in the 'you,'" Percy grinned at Jason, "douchebag. Or their girlfriends." He added, with a meaningful look at Pipes, who had just opened her mouth to speak.

"Swimming, less gravity and all that," answered Annabeth thoughtfully.

"I would have said sky-diving," said Lucas and I grinned at him, utterly infatuated.

"Gods, get a room why don't you!" Cried Calypso, smacking my arm and glancing between Lucas and me.

"I sense a bromance in the making," observed Piper, glancing between Lucas and me.

"What's a bromance?" Asked Hazel, furrowing her brow.

"A sort of brotherly romance between two friends," explained Annabeth. "Percy and Jason have one." She frowned, "he has one with Grover as well. Exactly how many of these bromances do you have?" Annabeth asked, turning on Percy.

"Er…" Percy shifted.

"Man-whore," Lucas whispered and when Percy winked at him Annabeth threw up her hands and huffed, "the beginning of another one!"

And half to prevent the oncoming argument and half to… well - I answered Percy's question. "The closest thing to flying?" I paused thinking, closing my eyes and thinking of cinnamon, "looking at Calypso."

I opened my eyes and ignoring all the 'aww's from the girls and all the groans from the boys I looked at her. She was blushing, her eyes sparkling and I truly felt as if I was afloat, a faint tingling going through my body spreading from my chest onto the tips of my fingers, I smiled at her. But then, just before she smiled back, for a fleeting moment Calypso glanced sideways. Sideways towards Percy. Just for a millisecond. A crack. I frowned confusedly, and while she was smiling I saw apprehension in her eyes at my frown. As if I had noticed something she wasn't prepared to share. Apprehension. Why was she uneasy about the glance? She opened her mouth to explain, to cover up, to refuse – to what, I never knew. Muttering excuses while I rose I stumbled a bit, tripping over my own feet. Flushing an embarrassed red at the faint chuckles I walked towards the staircase that would lead to my bedroom. I needed to leave, because the implications of that glance were too many for me to think about in public. Why in the hell was she looking at Percy? There was only one reason I could think about and I… needed out. Now.

"Leo?" I heard her ask when I reached the staircase, hesitantly, as if she was approaching a cornered animal.

"You still love him, don't you?" I asked, uttering out loud the only emotion behind the glance I could think of and the worst possible situation my imagination could create, expecting a laugh and feel her arms twine around my middle and hear her whispering that I was an idiot in my ear.

Well, I was in for a letdown.

No response. Hesitation. "That's not - "

"Look Calypso, I'm really tired so just…" I squared my back, refusing to turn around, when you love someone you only have so much resolve until you break, you give in. Seeing her, even fleetingly, would have probably shattered my resolve into a million pieces, "just leave me alone, okay?"

I never stuck around to hear her answer.

I escaped.

Ran away. From the girl I love.

Really hero-like, Valdez. Just great. No wonder Calypso might not be… as invested as you are in the relationship.

What had just happened?

I swallowed at the sudden tightness in my throat and rubbed my eyes, they were feeling prickly.

Friday: First day after the 'just-leave-me-alone' fiasco.

Feeling Status: Feelings are swirling: regret, anger, loss? And a little bit of 'I-knew-this-would-happen-eventually.'

Dreams: Ha, funny. I didn't dream, because I couldn't sleep. I had dark bags under my eyes and every time I sat down I had to force myself to keep my eyes open. The reason for my recent inability to lose consciousness? Calypso, but not because I was utterly infatuated like before – this was all The Glance's fault. I had spent the whole night, and watched the sun rise trying to reason that it was all just a big misunderstanding, but I couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't, that I had perceived it exactly as my worst fears imagined. And it wasn't only The Glance, but Calypso's reactions afterwards, as if she had been caught with her hand stuck in the cookie jar, as if she was guilty.

Calypso: On the way to the Great Hall I saw her trying to approach me, I ran away. Again. I sense a pattern. (Her eyes seemed a bit red-rimmed, is it bad that I felt a sort of satisfaction in seeing her hurt at least a fraction of what I was feeling?).

Plan for the day: Retreat into my sanctuary, the workshop. Inspiration might strike; if that fails Festus is always available for a little fly-around. Also, try to get some sleep; I seem to have acquired the ability to hallucinate out of sleep deprivation thanks to the ongoing dilemma that's currently ongoing in my mind.

UPDATE

Walking along the Hogwarts gardens I was ambushed. There I was idly meandering completely unaware to the stalking panther that was shadowing my movements and her impressive espionage-esque talent. I was about to turn a corner when she trapped me, I sighed and already I knew that escaping was futile.

"I'm listening." Piper started, tapping her foot.

"Really to what?"

"You."

"Me?"

She nodded in confirmation and when I didn't give her any information she narrowed her eyes shrewdly, looking me up and down. "This wouldn't have anything to do with Calypso, would it?"

I shook my head.

"Or you wallowing in misery?"

"I do not wallow!"

"What's wrong?" Piper asked, ignoring me.

"Nothing, I'm fine."

"Really, well when somebody says they're fine it usually means that they're considering jumping out a window." She glanced at me. "And your shoulders hunched in defeat certainly doesn't make me believe you."

"That's very poetic." When Piper scoffed out an 'obviously' I continued, "and that window really is looking more and more appealing every second."

She dragged me over to a bench about ten paces away, sat me down and started pacing in front of me, "Calypso obviously feels as if she's done something wrong - " (I tried to ignore the slight kindle of hope that started somewhere deep in my chest) – "And you're miserable as well. So. I'm just going to remind you one more time that I am the daughter of the goddess of love, and if you don't tell me what happened I will be forced to make my own conclusions." She straightened her shoulders, "And they will probably be right." Piper added proudly and I nodded.

"Look, Pipes." She sat down at my tone, and I told her just about my fears about Calypso still being in love with Percy, but not about The Glance. I don't know why, but I didn't want her to know just yet that I had an example, an explanation for my feelings and insecurities. Piper remained impassive, looking at me, not speaking – just listening. When she didn't ask any questions about why I was concerned about Calypso now of all times, I was glad, I don't know how she would take it, if she would be objective. "And the point is that Calypso was," I frowned, "or is in love with Percy and I'm not sure she might be completely… invested with me."

When Piper started to protest, I continued, "I mean look at Percy, two time savior of Olympus – and who am I? The seventh, the outcast." I scoffed, "not to mention the good looks he has, I mean that boy basically radiates rays of beautifulness." Piper was silent for a second and then burst out.

"Pull your shit together." Piper said.

"Um. Excuse me?" I tilted my head looking at her as she jumped up and started pacing again. She paced, five steps to the right, turn, five steps to the left, turn. This went on for five minutes.

"Should I just leave?" I asked her.

"Look there are three courses of action that are available to us." She stopped directly in front of me, ignoring my question.

"One." She held up her first finger, "you can talk it out with her like adults and move forwards – see what she feels about you, about Percy and then try to resolve it." When I desperately started shaking my head she rolled her eyes but continued.

"Two." She added another finger, "we avoid her. Take every possible precaution to make sure you don't make contact with her." When I started thinking about that one, and nodding she snarled "coward," at me. I shrugged; I was already familiar with that adjective.

"Three." The final finger rose up, "we take her out." When I opened her mouth and shouted at her that we were not, under any circumstances, going to kill Calypso, she rolled her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time and continued. "Not like that, idiot, although if you're open to it?" She trailed off and when I shook my head she just shrugged and muttered "Your choice."

"Take her out… How?" I asked, intrigued.

"Cut her off."

Pin me in the horrible-people-section, Fields of Punishment here I come! I considered it. I considered cutting her off. Apart from me, Calypso has struggled a little bit to make friends, she doesn't fit in, and she feels isolated, out of place. I was helping her with it and… well The Glance happened. Without me, she was alone – cutting her off would make her feel that much lonely. Lonely, not alone, because I know that you can be alone but be completely fine with it. It was being lonely that really got a person. And gods save me I still cared about her. A lot.

I shook my head and muttered "Option Two," through my parched throat, admitting that I was now officially avoiding it made it… real.

"All right." She looked at me and for the first time I noticed a flicker of worry in her eyes, I forced a smile, it probably came off as more of a grimace, but you have to give me points for trying, at least.

"Come on Beauty Queen! I'm hungry." I said, swinging my arms around her shoulder and steering us towards the kitchens.

"But lunch already finished." She frowned at me, obviously doubting my mental facilities.

I rolled my eyes, "I'm friends with the Stolls."

"Ah." She nodded, "so where are these kitchens?"

That make other people believe I was fine. Conceal. That was my real plan of action.

Saturday: two days have past since The Glance.

Feeling Status: the anger has sort of diminished, now it's mainly a feeling of regret… and a bit of insecurity as well.

Question that has been keeping me up at night: why the hell did The Glance happen? Does she still…. no. I can't think like that. Seriously need to try to get some sleep, eat a bit of ambrosia to keep going. Why am I not sleeping?

Calypso: I didn't see her yesterday since my accomplice (Piper) had informed me that she was sheltering in the library. Today in the morning going down to breakfast we almost bumped into each other, I hastily closed my face off and when Calypso opened her mouth to speak I brushed past her (her eyes were definitely red-rimmed today. I made her cry. Gods, I'm destined for Tartarus).

Breakfast: I was sitting there at the large table, talking, concealing (I couldn't help but notice Calypso about five spaces down from me). When I was suddenly aware of what pastry there were plates and plates of. You want to know how the universe is laughing at me? Cinnamon rolls. The intoxicating smell made my stomach clench and my head feel woozy, I left the table running, that scent was going to overwhelm me. But to escape (again) I had to pass… her… and her particular cinnamon aroma wafted over me, even more powerful than the pastries. I stumbled a bit and ran off faster, but not before I heard an idiot mutter "trouble in paradise." And problems there were.

When I went past through the Great Hall's doors, looking wildly for a direction in which to run I noticed a wizard couple discussing something a few meters to my right, they turned at my heavy breathing with concerned brows, they opened their mouths to say something, but I couldn't take their pity so I ignored them. I quickly paced off to the right, going again to the Hogwarts gardens, stuffing my fists in my pockets. When I sat down on the bench that Piper and me had used yesterday I bowed my head down and sighed in relief, apart from the workshop this place was rapidly becoming my sanctuary. And I knew that I was probably overreacting were The Glance was concerned, only that to me it seemed like a perfectly reasonable way to act. Ever since I rescued Calypso from that cursed island there was always a subtle, tight, ever-constant clench in my gut. Anticipation. I knew this would happen. I knew that Calypso could never stop loving Percy; I was just ignoring that fact – until Thursday night. When Calypso glanced at him it was like my fears had been confirmed. She still loved him. And I didn't blame her for it, who would choose me?

"Are you okay?" I heard the question being asked from somewhere to the right.

I scowled, prepared to tell Piper to go away, but when I raised my head it wasn't Piper it was looking at. Black hair, grey eyes, pretty face. "Who are you?" I asked her, being a tad rude, but honestly at the time I didn't care.

The girl in question raised an eyebrow, "Samantha," She continued looking at me, "you?"

"Leo," shrugging my shoulders I saw no reason to omit the information.

"Well, Leo," She started rubbing her wrist, as if she was self-conscious, "me and Will were around the Great Hall's doors innocently chattering when you appeared through them as if the devil itself was on your heels. I was concerned, I repeat: are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

"Why do you care?"

Sam sat down besides me, sighed, grabbed a twig and started drawing figures in the dirt. "I care because… because if I didn't I would consider my humanity lost. Besides one good deed a day and all that shit. But look, we don't know each other, we're basically strangers to each other, so if you tell me to shove it I'll leave, but I care because you look as if you need somebody to. So I'm reporting for duty, consider me your professional listener, no judgment, no gossip, just spill your guts."

"Why should I tell you?" Again with the rudeness, great job Valdez.

"Because you need me to." I frowned and Sam continued, "there's a reason you haven't told your friends yet why you're wallowing."

"I don't wallow!" Gods, why does everybody keep saying that? "Why are you interested anyways?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"You need somebody to listen, and if you keep it in much longer you'll explode."

I remained silence.

"I know how you feel, Leo, I can help you," Sam murmured.

And I did. Somebody new, a fresh face. I hadn't told Piper about The Glance because… I don't know, maybe I didn't want her to think of me as a bigger failure than I already am. But Sam just offered to be my professional listener. And gods save me I needed to tell somebody.

"Don't you have class?"

"No."

I raised my eyebrow.

"Okay," Sam raised her hands, "I have Divination, which isn't really a class, followed by a free block, which means you have an ample amount of time to tell me whatever you need."

"But you don't even know me," I said.

"Isn't that the point?" She asked, drawing a spiral in the dirt.

And I told her, everything, starting with how Percy landed in Calypso's island and finishing with The Glance. As I recounted the events Sam continued to draw anything that came into her mind in the dirt, not looking up, nodding and frowning accordingly. When I finished she was silent for a second and then finally looked up at me.

"You really love her, don't you?" She asked me and I nodded and gulped at the sudden tightness in my throat. "Leo, from what I can tell you're an amazing guy." I frowned at this, "you are brave, funny, super smart, among other things." I waited for the 'but' that would surely come, "but," ah, there it is, "despite all these amazing traits, you're insecure. You put everybody above yourself, why?" She looked up at the sky, "I think it's because you have an inferiority complex, you think everybody is better than you, you think you're a failure."

Did I? I probably did, but at least I accept the truth rather than tell myself I'm not a loser, only to be disappointed down the road.

"But why would Calypso…" I breathed in, "love me, when there's guys like Percy around. That's why The Glance happened, didn't it? She finally realized that she's too good for me. She probably never - "

"You broke her out of prison!" Sam burst out, looking scandalized.

"What?"

"One of my amazing mottos is:" she grinned proudly, "find somebody that would break you out of Azkaban, wizard prison," she added for my benefit "and marry them."

"Why?"

"Why," she scoffed, shaking her head, "They're willing to risk everything, put themselves on the line for you so you can be together, so walls won't separate you. They're basically breaking any metaphorical barrier that stands between you." She looked at me, "only that it wasn't metaphorical in your case."

"But -"

"But nothing Leo!" She interrupted, "I ask you: did Percy break Calypso out of her island? Did he threaten Zeus into submission? No. He probably forgot about it, you're the one who freed her. What else does a girl want?"

"Percy?"

"I will admit, he's good looking. But this isn't about him; it's about you and your girlfriend. Your. Girlfriend. Calypso." She rolled her eyes, "not to mention that Percy and that blonde girl…" She trailed off.

"Annabeth," I supplied the name.

"Percy and Annabeth are meant to be, they both love each other incredibly much." She nodded, "if Calypso really does love Percy, which she doesn't, it would be unrequited love. You just need to make her see."

"But The Glance!"

"The Glance is a concern." She nodded, "but you didn't ask her about it yet, you didn't give her a chance to explain."

"But what is she says… she doesn't…."

"You need to brave."

"But I'm not!"

"Yes you are, Leo." Sam said, "plus you need to ask yourself. Who do you think Calypso would break out of prison, you or Percy? Because you already broke her out, now she needs to break you out of these chains of insecurity you seem to have acquired."

Me or Percy.

I wanted to say me, I really did.

But…

No.

I had to think of all those moments me and Calypso had shared.

Not about The Glance.

I needed to trust, to believe, to hope she would break me out of prison.

I needed to believe in Calypso.

"Thank you." I said with sincerity at Sam, "I really needed that. You're a really decent person, you know that?"

"I'm aware 'decent' is one of my characteristics, yes."

Now that I had a new plan of action: ask Calypso who she would break out of prison, I decided to enquire some things from my professional listener.

"So you were with a 'Will' when I escaped from the Great Hall, right?"

"Yes." There was a faint blush tainting her cheeks, if I was not mistaken.

"Huh." I smirked, "would he break you out of Azkaban?"

"Too soon to tell." She sighed, "I hope so, though, he shows promise."

"Well, if you're in the middle of an emotional turmoil send me a note and we'll meet in the Professional Listening Bench."

"That's a thing?"

"It is now."

"Great, I'm glad I met you, Leo, you seem 'decent' as well." She glanced at her watch, "And I'm officially going to be late for History of Magic, wish me luck." She stood up, saluted and with a wave she was off, battling time to reach her class in time.

I had to believe she would break me out of prison.

But to find out, I needed to ask her.

Let the new plan begin.

UPDATE

It's eleven at night and Calypso still hasn't made an appearance in the common room. With the newfound peace that Sam had given me I was finally prepared to sleep, and since I haven't done much of it lately I was yawning uncontrollably. Shrugging I decided to ask her tomorrow at breakfast.

"GET UP DEMIGODS! LET'S GO, LET'S GO, LET'S GO!" I heard the deep shouts and faint sounds of baseball bats crashing down trying to pierce the deep haze of my beautiful, merciful sleep. "VALDEZ I WANT YOU UP NOW, DON'T MAKE ME COME GET YOU!"

I sat up, rolling through my bed, grabbing a hammer from my toolbox pouch and igniting my hand, ready for battle. When I saw it was just Coach Hedge I relaxed, breathing out, releasing the tension that had strung my body tight when I was roused from my sleep.

"ZHANG. ZHANG. ZHANG. WHY ARE YOU STILL SLEEPING? ARE YOU DEAF?" When Frank just rolled over a little bit Coach Hedge's eyes blazed with the challenge and he started swinging his bat down on the one of the poles supporting Frank's bead. He made a dent. But obviously not on Frank's consciousness. "I GIVE UP. JACKSON." He pointed his bat at Percy, making him widen his eyes in trepidation, "WAKE HIM." Coach pointed at Frank. While Percy frantically tried to rouse Frank, Coach Hedge starting scorning, "AND HE'S THE GODFATHER OF MY CHILD. I'M DISGUSTED."

Percy failed to wake Frank. Even when he poured a section of the lake on him. I raised my eyebrows, impressed. Why the hell isn't he waking up? Before Coach Hedge blew up however, I had to solve the problem.

"Stolls?" I looked at them, pleading with my eyes.

"We got it, bro." Travis nodded at me as Connor started rummaging through his bag and finally pulled out a cube.

"Will you do the honors, brother of my heart?" Connor handed the cube to Travis.

"It would be my pleasure." Travis pressed a button and threw the silver cube in Frank's bed.

A synthetic voice filled the room: "Three."

"Wait." Connor's eyes widened, "was that the prototype?"

"Two," said the mechanical voice.

"I think it might've been." Everybody in the room that wasn't part of the Stoll clan exchanged fearful glances.

"One."

"Cover you ears!" The Stolls shouted in gleeful unison.

A mighty bang blew threw the room, and quite possibly the castle, shattering our eardrums. At the same time a white light filled the room, but strangely no heat came from it.

"AHHHHHH" Frank started shouting, tangling himself on the bed sheets in his haste to leave his bed and quite promptly falling onto the floor. Meanwhile the Stolls were scribbling notes on some clipboards.

"Too much noise?"

"Just a tad."

"I'm so glad George showed us the no-heat effect, really brings it to another level."

"I liked the countdown."

"No good for battle, but it could work in other situations."

"Quite right."

The Stolls then moved towards Frank who was still breathing heavily in the floor staring at everyone with wide eyes. Travis bent down while Connor continued to jot down information in the clipboard.

"Heart rate?"

Travis put a finger against Frank's pulse point, he waited for a second furrowing his eyebrows and then, "a bit brisk, but no lasting damage."

"To be expected. Eyes?"

Travis shown a flashlight part of the pranking toolbox I gave him for his birthday and nodded, "looks fine to me. He had his eyes closed though, so maybe we should do another test to be sure. Everything else seems fine to me."

Travis stood up, the Stolls shook hands and then Connor said, "we need to tell George about this, he's going to be pissed we didn't test it with him."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures." Travis said glancing at Coach, who was looking at the twins with a proud sort of expression on his face.

"WHAT JUST HAPPENED?" Frank finally seemed to have woken up from his shock. "DID YOU JUST THROW A GRENADE AT ME?" Frank's eyes got even bigger if it was possible, "ONE YOU HAVEN'T EVEN TESTED BEFORE."

Connor started lobbying, "now Frank, if our calculations were correct - "

"Which they were." Travis added.

"You were never in any danger!" Connor nodded, "besides a wizard helped us. Coach Hedge told us to wake you up, and nothing was doing the trick."

"Percy even shot water at you." Travis said, directing the heat towards Percy.

Frank noticed that he was soaked from head to foot as if he had ran in the rain for hours and started glaring at the water-shooter, Percy scowled at Travis and muttered, "traitor." Travis shamelessly shrugged.

"Why weren't you waking up anyways?" I curiously asked Frank.

"Um… I was tired… so I might or might not have gone to sleep in the mentality of a bear…" Frank flushed a bright red.

"But it's almost winter." I tilted my head sideways, "bears hibernate in winter."

"Er – I guess they do." Frank was determinedly looking at the floor.

"ARE YOU ALL DONE CHATTING, OR SHOULD I BRING SOME TEA? MAYBE SOME SCONES?" Coach Hedge burst out, looking scandalized.

I glanced out of the window and saw the sun rising, "Coach. What time is it."

Coach Hedge ignored me, "FIRST OF ALL. YOU," He pointed at Frank, "HOW DARE YOU NOT WAKE UP WHEN I ASK YOU TO. SECOND OF ALL: I WAS TOLD TO WAKE YOU UP. YOUR TASK IS IN TEN MINUTES. MEET IN THE GREAT HALL."

"Wait, you mean as in like… a tournament task?" Jason asked, "But there was no mention of it! No time to prepare!"

"OF COURSE I MEAN A TOURNAMENT TASK. STOP STARING AT ME AND GET READY." Coach Hedge glanced at his watch, blew his whistle, and shouted, "EIGHT AND A HALF MINUTES NOW. IF YOU DON'T MAKE IT IN TIME I WILL THINK OF A PERSONAL PUNISHMENT MYSELF!"

With that inhumane threat hanging over our heads, we hastily scrambled to brush our feet, stumbled into clothes and run out of the door as quick as we could. We ran through the hallways, the portraits either shouting abuse or encouragement, depending if they went to sleep early or not. When we reached the rotating staircases Jason was the first one to board the treacherous staircase, and it started rotating. Away from the Great Hall. He looked back at us, his eyes wide with the apprehension that he might not make it in time.

"It's too late for him." Travis deadpanned.

"He's already in the staircase." I agreed.

"We need to save ourselves." Percy nodded.

"We shall always remember you, Jason Grace, and your valiant sacrifice." Connor shouted gleefully while saluting an outraged Jason.

"Bye Jason! Have fun!" we shouted, already halfway down the other stairway that would lead us to our salvation from Coach Hedge's deadline.

As we continued to run through hallways and hidden passages that the Stolls have mysteriously acquired the knowledge off, we finally turned the corner that would lead us two hallways away from the Great Hall. Why is this school so big? As we continued running, skidding through sharp turns, a wall of wind knocked us off our feet, thirty seconds away from our target, and two hallways away.

"You forgot I could fly, assholes." Jason shouted from above us, soaring towards salvation.

"Foul play!" I shouted while the Stolls started throwing things at Jason that looked like little colorful balls, but when they made an impact they exploded paint.

We got up and we ran, straining to push our bodies faster, and when we finally made it to where everybody was assembled (breathing a bit heavily, I admit) Coach Hedge raised an eyebrow as he regretfully tore his eyes from the wristwatch he was examining.

Coach tortured us with the unknown until he finally relented, "you made it." A collective sigh of relief and high fives were exchanged through our group.

"Look Travis, they work!" Connor exclaimed (it seems that today is the day the Stolls are trying out their prototypes, gods save us) when he saw Jason, dripping from head to toe in paint of various colors, everything from green to blue to pink to yellow. Everybody started roaring with laughter, except Jason.

Jason looked at himself, screwed up his face as if he was concentrating and suddenly his paint coat started lifting. Controlling the air he put all the different colors and started rotating them in a whirling sphere. It was beautiful, all the colors flashing, one shade of green instantly replaced by a vibrant turquoise. He then started to make different small shapes, curved, straight, the torchlight making the whole scene even more magical. It was a fascinating display, then he put all the paint in tiny droplets and froze them there, as if colorful rain had fallen and hanged motionless in place. When he smirked at the astounded expressions in our face he levitated all the paint and threw it out of a window.

"Show off." Piper scoffed as she and the rest of the girls walked towards us, "although very pretty."

"Thanks Pipes." Jason grinned at her, kissing her briefly.

Coach made his way over to us. "Go to breakfast, you have twenty minutes to eat everything you want, then Ms. McGonagall will give you the next piece of information," Coach started herding us towards the dining hall. When we entered we exchanged puzzled frowns and smiles with the wizards, who seemed to have been awoken this morning with a more lenient time schedule, since they didn't have their buttons in their shirts done up wrong, like mine.

When we sat down Clarisse instantly started spearing the bacon into her plate, "I think they're going to make us fight them 'til death."

"You mean you hope they'll make us fight them to the death," Percy corrected.

"What happened to 'diplomacy solves everything' and 'war isn't that great,' Clarisse?" Travis asked.

"I'm going to kill Lucas." Clarisse grumbled unconsciously checking the sharpness of her knife.

"You have to admit, it was pretty funny," I asked Clarisse and instantly regretted it thanks to her stare, if looks could kill.

"Has anyone seen Nico?" Percy asked and when all of us shook our heads he continued, "because I just thought that it was kind of unfair to him, you know, because of Coach waking us all up and he's in the same room as us since he's not part of the competitors, right? But I just noticed he wasn't there."

"He probably asked a ghost to show him to the best room in the castle or something," Hazel said, "he told me that he's already slept in a Slaz… um… what's his name again? Oh yeah, Salazar Slytherin's room."

"Makes sense."

"Anyways, what do you think they'll make us do?"

I turned to Annabeth, "Yeah, what do you think they'll make us do?"

"I honestly don't know. I'm also not sure why they woke us up at this ungodly hour. Usually there's some sort of audience, you know?" Annabeth pondered.

"We have to win guys." Piper noted.

"We're only one task behind, even if we do lose there might still be a chance of making it back." Jason said.

"I know, but I think Lucas is going to bet against us again, and he has to stop making money over our failures," I said.

"Too true."

"Competitors! Please gather around the staircase in front of the Great Hall." McGonagall called down at us.

As we moved a faint tingling of nerves began to form, anticipation. I started tapping my fingers against my toolbox, already imagining different scenarios and what sort of tool I would have to pull out.

"You might be wondering why this task is starting at this hour, the reason is that it's going to take you some time to get into position after your portkey into the location, and once you're there the rest of the school is already going to be up and eating breakfast, watching you perform." McGonagall looked around, "each competitor will have a backpack that will help him or her with a map that will lead you to your starting position, once there you will be given further instructions. Wizards, if you get in trouble just shoot up red sparks with your wands, demigods there are flares included in your bag." McGonagall paused, "I wish you all good luck, extra luck if you're a man." We all frowned to each other, but I already had a little inkling of where this was heading. "When you return, again by portkey, the school will be waiting for you outside in the grounds."

Coach Hedge came over to us, and gruffly said, "good luck and don't embarrass me," He handed us a discarded shoelace and said, "This is actually a really cool piece of magic: everybody in the team needs to touch it and you'll be relocated to your task position." We each strained to touch some part of the shoelace and then there was a sharp pulling at my navel, my heard started swimming and suddenly I couldn't see the Great Hall anymore.

"Whoa," was the first thing I said when we landed. Obviously I was the only one (with Frank, who was never very apt in the balance department) who landed sprawled on the floor. I looked up and around, we were in a sort of tropical jungle, vines hanging down – which I grabbed to help me up – the oppressive heat already apparent, the ever-present noises of the jungle as a soft background, the tall trees shielding the sky that was, if I had to guess, a forget-me-not blue.

"Whoa indeed." Annabeth agreed, already fumbling through her backpack, "alright, a water bottle, granola bars, matches, a map, a first aid kit, flares, ropes, and our weapons, which we brought with us."

"What does the map say?" Percy asked scooting up behind Annabeth and leaning his head against her shoulder, looking at the map.

We looked at her and Annabeth frowned for a few more moments and then said, "alright so we are here," she pointed her finger at a spot in the map, "and we need to go over there. But I have to idea where North is, so it's a bit hard."

"Jason? Can you tell us - " Travis started but Jason was already in the air, flying over the trees into the sky above.

While we waited until Jason came back we started speculating, "what the hell was McGonagall on about? Men beware." Connor started.

"Do you think she's sexist?" Hazel asked, but the idea seemed absurd, so we all shook our heads. There had to be another reason. The sound of branches rustling brought our gaze back up into the sky, Jason was descending.

"Okay, the forest stretches as far as the horizon, so I went up higher and I still couldn't see an end to it. I also didn't catch sight of the wizards, but north is that way." He pointed to somewhere off to our left and Annabeth instantly turned around to make more calculations off to our next destination.

"What do you think our task actually is?" Asked Clarisse.

"Only one way to find out," I replied, and then motioned to Annabeth with my arm, "lead the way, Ms. Chase."

"It would be my pleasure, Mr. Valdez." Annabeth started, glanced at her map once more and then finally started walking. I hoisted the bag up higher up my shoulder and followed her out of our clearing.

"Jason, how many more hours of sunlight did you say there were?" Piper asked.

"I didn't, but about 12. Judging by the temperature I would say we're not in the northern hemisphere, summer is just starting, which means longer days."

"Alright, let's start walking. We each have one liter of water, but each person has to administer it on their own, I'm not going to do it for them." Clarisse nothing short of growled.

And then we walked, stepping over fallen tree trunks, brushing vines off our path. There was little talk, each lost on their own thoughts – mine were specifically focused on Calypso, and what I was going to say to her. Needless to say, the speech changed every thirty seconds.

"Alright, we're here." Annabeth finally stopped looking around.

"Does the map give any other instructions?" Travis asked, examining our little clearing.

"No, but we do." The unfamiliar voice came from somewhere above our heads. We brandished our weapons, retreating into a protective circle defending our backs.

"And who might you be?" Hazel called up.

About ten women in leather outfits dropped down from the trees into a crouch with an ease that only a battle-hardened warrior could achieve. One of them stepped forwards, "Hello demigods."

"Kinzie?" Percy asked incredulously, instantly capping Riptide. "What are you doing here?"

"I should have guessed you would have been part of the competitors, Jackson. Hazel, how are you doing?" The girl who was apparently called Kinzie asked while coming over and hugging Hazel but just sort of glared at Percy and Frank.

"Kinzie! How are you? We're okay, totally digging the whole 'stuck in a mysterious jungle with no way out' thing." Hazel laughed and hugged the mysterious girl in return.

"Uh, sorry for being rude -," Jason apologetically started.

"Then don't be," a brown haired woman barked at him.

"But who are you?" Jason continued before he realized the response he was getting from the women who jumped out of trees.

"Why should we tell you?" Returned another one, glaring at Jason. "And men don't speak in our presence unless we give them permission."

"This must be why McGonagall wished us luck," I mumbled and suddenly there was a knife against my throat and I had no idea how it had gotten there.

"I said." Said the black haired one that had snapped at Jason, digging the knife a little deeper so it just drew blood, "No. Talking."

I opened my mouth to say okay, but then realized what they would do to me if I uttered another syllable and firmly closed my mouth with a snap.

"Good boy," the crazy woman holding a knife against my throat purred, she patted my head and walked back to the circle of mysterious women with a little bit of a swish on her hips.

"We're part of the Amazons, Chiron asked us if we could help with this task, and we agreed." Explained Kinzie.

"Oh, so you're the ones that imprisoned Percy and Frank," Piper nodded, "hello then, how are you?"

"Also thank you for putting Percy in prison," Annabeth stepped forwards and shaking Kinzie's hand, "really helped diminish his ego."

"I don't have an ego!" Percy protested.

"Did I give you permission to talk?" Annabeth turned around and closed the space between her and her boyfriend, an angry glare on her features, and put a single finger under Percy's jaw and forced it up – closing it. Percy made a little strangled sound and Annabeth smirked in a satisfied sort of way, but when she turned back around I saw her wink at Piper and Hazel who were discreetly giving her admiring thumbs up.

Kinzie looked Annabeth up and down, "you would be good as an Amazon," Annabeth smiled at the idea and even snorted a little bit when she caught sight of Percy's horrified expression at the idea.

"Right, so we're in Brazil given that the Amazon rainforest is in it," Jason started, eager to get back to the competition.

"Dude, shut up! They're going to beat us up!" Frank shouted at Jason, smacking him in the head.

"You snagged a good one," Kinzie commented to Hazel.

Hazel frowned, "How did you…" she started.

"I can tell." Kinzie said, smiling. "Okay are you ready?" she asked, and when we all nodded (the boys mutely and the girls with confident yeses and sures) she motioned to one of the other Amazons.

The blonde one started forwards, handed Annabeth a piece of paper and said "anything that you encounter alive in this forest is an enemy and an obstacle to reach your goal. Even the wizards." And with that they all jumped up, grabbed onto the vines, scaled up, and were lost in the branches.

Kinzie stayed behind for a second, "I really want you ladies to win," she said, and I didn't fail to notice that she said 'ladies' instead of guys. And then she was gone. All the boys exhaled sighs of relief.

"Thank you," Percy called up. He turned to his girlfriend, "what does it say?"

"Uh, I can't read it," Annabeth frowned in frustration, "it's in English. Dyslexia"

"Hand it here," Frank motioned, and when he had it in his hand he read it out loud. "Find the monster with your precious stone, retrieve it, shoot the green flares into the sky."

"Is that it?"

"It seems so." Frank started turning over the parchment, searching for more direction. "It seems there's no room for dramatic flair in this competition."

"What monster do you think we're looking for?" Hazel asked.

"A monster." Travis replied.

"Alright, then what sort of stone do you think we're looking for?" Hazel continued.

"A precious one." Connor replied.

"Thanks, very helpful." Hazel said sarcastically.

"I'll go see what time it is," Jason suggested and once again flew up. He returned moments later, "It's about two in the afternoon." He said, my stomach growled in agreement.

"Should we take a break, eat, form a plan?" Clarisse suggested, already sitting on the floor and shifting through the contents of his backpack.

We all muttered our assent, I flopped down onto the floor, "so, how do we find this monster?"

"I think we should spread out and look for it, cover more ground." Started Travis.

"But what if somebody alone finds it and they can't take it down, what then?" Argued Jason, "or they get into some sort of trouble?"

"We need a sort of homing device," I whispered, already searching through my toolbox. I took out ten different compasses and started taking them apart, adding eight more arrows to the already existing two and a button at the bottom of the compass. I took out the new software I've been working on from my toolbox and attached it to the inner workings of each compass, both synching them together and giving them the commands they needed. I then added a little red light to each arrow and added the finishing touches. "There, done." The whole process had taken about ten minutes, I looked up and noticed everybody watching me work and I blushed slightly at the attention. I threw a compass to each, keeping one to myself.

"Alright, genius, what do they do?" Clarisse asked.

"They're homing devices." I said, and when I didn't elaborate everybody groaned.

"I'll bite," Percy sighed, "Leo, my kind friend, what do these 'homing devices' as you call them actually do?"

"You see all the different arrows?" When everybody nodded I continued, "notice that they each has a light attached, it's not on right now, and a name? Well each corresponds to one of you. When you get into trouble, or find the monster, just the press the button here," I demonstrated the button. "The light from your arrow will light up red, and the compass will lead you to it. Like if you're to the left the arrow will turn that way, etcetera." I finished, "so do you like it? I mean you can't communicate through them, but for ten minutes I think they're pretty neat."

"They're amazing," Annabeth said in a hushed voice.

"Really great, bro." Travis nodded in confirmation.

"Glad that we have a mechanical genius in our midst!" Connor continued, and I started blushing so much at the praises that they stopped, thankfully.

"Alright, let's split into five pairs of two, and spread out outwards in different directions." Said Percy.

"Remember to keep the homing device always handy." Advised Annabeth.

"What happens if we ran into the wizards?" Asked Piper.

"Bind them?" Suggested Jason. We nodded, but then Clarisse made another suggestion, "torture them for information?"

"No!" Hazel looked outraged, "no torturing!"

"I'll just ask them, then." Clarisse relented.

"Pairs?" I asked.

"I'll go with Annabeth," Percy instantly said.

"Only if you concentrate." Travis raised his eyebrows.

"Oh, I can concentrate, I'm not sure about Annabeth though," Percy assured us. "She can't concentrate with me around."

"Is that a competition, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth raised, one single elegant eyebrow. She stepped really close to Percy, and whispered in his ear, "I might take you on that challenge."

Percy suddenly became really red and flustered, he stepped back really quickly, "yeah, so, um… er… I want… wh… what was I saying?" He continued staring at Annabeth, losing his train of thought.

"Never begin a war you can't win, dude." Jason shook his head.

"Just keep him in check, will you?" Piper grinned at Annabeth, who smirked in return.

"Um, keep what in check?" Asked Percy, still staring at Annabeth.

"Disgusting." Clarisse scoffed, and I nodded in agreement. When she saw my nod Clarisse raised her eyebrows in outrage "you and Calypso are the exact same, hypocrite."

At the sudden and unexpected mention of Calypso my stomach both started fluttering with butterflies and clenched with the realization of our fight (if you could call it that, more like avoiding) I noticed Piper glancing at me worriedly and forced a smirk into place.

"Right, who wants to be part of Team Leo?" I asked.

"I'll go," said the person I least expected to offer.

"Clarisse?" I asked in surprise.

"What, you could be useful, and you're handy building stuff," Clarisse shrugged. I raised my shoulders in return, and briefly wondered if this was her ploy to finally murder me.

The rest of the pairs went as expected.

"Jason?" Asked Frank.

Jason grinned at Frank clapped him in the shoulder and said, "hey, you could turn into an eagle or something and we could soar the skies heroically." Frank grinned at Jason's idea.

The Stolls turned to each other at the same time and said in unison, "partner in crime?"

Piper hugged Hazel, "that leaves us together, Hazel." While Hazel, who still hadn't gotten used to so much public display of affection, hugged her hesitantly in return.

"Alright, should we take this way?" I suggested to Clarisse. But before we left I turned to the group and said, "if it's sundown and we still haven't found the monster, Percy and Annabeth you press the homing devices and we'll follow them, that way we can all be together through the night and then make new plans in the morning if they don't work."

"Safety in numbers," Clarisse nodded, "that's really smart, Valdez, I guess I didn't choose suicide when I volunteered to be with you."

"Thanks."

"Alright, see you guys." Clarisse waved her spear and we disappeared into the jungle, the trees obstructing the clearing from view after a few paces.

"We've been walking for hours," I complained to Clarisse, who was in the front of me, cutting vines savagely to have a clear path.

"Shut it," Clarisse whispered savagely as we entered a little clearing, "I think I heard something."

And when I concentrated I did indeed here a faint rustling of leaves, loud breathing off to our right. We continued as usual, walking, albeit slowly, not wanting to tip off our trackers that we were onto them.

A cough. I rolled my eyes, whoever was trying to sneak up on us obviously didn't know what they were doing.

"Zacharias! Shut up!" I heard a whisper somewhere off to our right.

Clarisse stumbled and crashed onto the ground and started muttering really rude words that I will not repeat because my mother raised me right. I raised my eyebrow, Clarisse wasn't clumsy. "Oh my gods, Clarisse! Are you okay?" I shouted, in an overly loud voice.

When I slid next to her she whispered, "Look as if you're examining my calf, as if I bruised it." When I started doing that she started whispering furiously, eyes skittering while she watched the forest. "Alright, there are four wizards, all in a sort of arc coming towards us."

I started smirking, "I don't like those odds."

"I know," Clarisse replied eyes crinkling in a what-some-would-describe-demonical smile, "I feels sorry for them."

"Remember Clarisse, no torturing."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes, "just shoot a fireball at them."

"If you say so." I turned around and in the movement, lit up my hand and threw at the wizards. Of course I made sure that it wouldn't hit anything, but the wizards didn't know that.

Among the shouts there was two cool-headed wizards that shouted, "Augamenti!" And effectively doused the fire with water coming out of their wands before it could do any real damage.

"Well, well, well," called Clarisse, on her feet and with her spear appearing in her hands, "who do we have here?"

Four wizards stepped out: Zacharias, the whisperer, Harry, Luna and Draco.

There was a moment were we all stood still, appraising, watching, tense. Clarisse broke it. With a war cry she shot forward already and with a few well-placed blows of her spear, Zacharias was on the ground moaning and clutching his head. I grinned, finally a chance to unleash the frustration of the past few days. Clarisse was currently engaged in a fight with both Harry and Luna, blocking all their spells by deflecting them with her celestial bronze spear. She was grinning like a maniac, parrying and shifting, getting a taste of these wizards. That left one. Draco.

"Stupefy!" I heard a shout from somewhere behind me. I spun around, and the adrenaline made it seem as if everything was happening in small motion. The spell came ever closer, and making a quick calculation I determined I wouldn't have time to bring up an object with celestial bronze from my toolbox, the times didn't add up. I started dodging to the side, but that too would be too slow. Seeing no other choice I brought up my hand as if to stop the spell and brought a thin layer of fire around my hand to protect my skin from the oncoming spell. The tantalizingly beautiful streak of red light made contact, sizzled, and didn't break through my thin shield.

Time sped up.

Draco having seen me effectively stop his spell duck behind a tree. I glanced about, checking up on Clarisse. Harry had a nasty gash in his forearm and Luna was breathing heavily, but I could also tell that Clarisse was wearing thin. I grabbed the prototype I've been working on and threw it at Luna; her eyes rolled and fell onto the ground. I ran towards Draco and when I reached the base of the tree I took a deep breath and stepped around to face Draco, only that he wasn't there.

"What the…" I muttered looking around when I heard the faintest of creaks above my head. One of the things I learnt at Camp Half-Blood: always look up. I reached into my toolbox; pulled another prototype and threw it up, hitting Draco. He gave a surprised shout, and then the device kicked in. He fainted. As he fell I caught him, making sure his head didn't get the worst of his fall, and started dragging him towards our little clearing.

"Are you finished?" Clarisse asked me. I nodded and hauled Draco over to where Clarisse was tying the rest of our 'prisoners' with the multiple vines hanging from the trees.

"First time in a real fight against wizards." I commented, "How was it?"

Clarisse grinned, "Amazing, it's really new." She started getting excited, "I loved the way I would have to stop not only physical approaches but the spells as well, really challenging."

"What are we going to do with them?" I asked her, looking around the clearing for any other sign of an ambush.

"First: what happened to Draco and Luna?" She asked, examining them.

"Nothing serious, I just made them faint, they should come around in a few minutes."

I finally looked at the four teenagers in our custody, wondering why they weren't saying anything, and I was horrified to say the least.

"You gagged them?" I shouted in outrage, "Clarisse! What did we talk about?"

"This is a task I'm determined to win," she shamelessly defended herself.

I strode over to where both Zacharias and Harry were alert and watching us, and when I got closer I noticed how brightly their eyes were shining at the barbarity of their gagging.

"I'm so sorry!" I apologized, "Clarisse takes these things really seriously."

"You gagged us!" Zacharias shouted, his accent even more prominent in his anger.

"Yes I did." Clarisse strode forward and leant against a tree. "Now let's get back to business, where are the rest of your teammates?"

"We don't know." Harry replied. "And the whole tying up thing? Not that great. Loosen it a bit?" Zacharias nodded in agreement.

"Yeah right," Clarisse snorted, "so you can escape."

"What's your task in this challenge?" I asked, driving the conversation into an area that would profit us.

"We were told we had to find a monster with a - " Zacharias started.

"Shut it!" Harry shouted, "we're not saying anything else."

But they didn't have to. "We need to get the same precious stone, it's a sort of who gets it first thing." Clarisse started.

"We need to tell the others." I suggested, searching for my compass.

"No, we need to meet up at sunset anyways, and this doesn't affect our course of action," Clarisse reasoned. "I say we continue to search for the thing, and every wizard we encounter we tie them up, so our chances of getting it increases."

"And we just leave them like this?" I gestured to the wizards, two of whom were starting to regain consciousness.

"Yes, leave their wands five meters away, so they can't get to them."

"I'm disgusted at their behavior," Zacharias commented to Harry.

Harry nodded in agreement and muttered, "Americans."

"We can still hear you, you know that right?" I asked them and when they nodded I asked another question, "And you also know that Clarisse doesn't like insults and will probably maim you, right?"

"Oh we know," Harry grinned happily, but Zacharias gulped and looked at Clarisse's spear and back to her again.

"Alright, so we'll leave you your granola bars and water at a reachable distance," I told them.

"Thanks." Zacharias nodded his head.

"I'm not happy," Harry said in a remorseful tone, "I'll be sure to check 'unsatisfied' in the customer cards."

"Fine." Clarisse snapped at them, her patience wearing thin at staying still so long, "We need to go." She told me and when I didn't immediately start running in the direction she was pointing at she barked, "Now!"

"OK," I held my hands up in surrender, "I really am sorry about this." I told the wizards

"It's fine." Zacharias assured me.

"It's not fine," Harry said at the same time, "I will probably have to stop being friends with you."

"Who said we were every friends," I grinned at Harry.

"Ouch," Harry said while grimacing, "right in the ego."

I laughed, told them I'd see them later and started walking extremely fast to catch up with Clarisse who hadn't bothered to either wait for me or say goodbye to the wizards.

"So," Clarisse started when we were walking side by side, "four wizards to take care of."

"That leaves only six to compete against." I said.

"Thanks for the fast math, genius," Clarisse snorted. We fell silent, and having no specific destination, we just walked in one direction: forwards.

And then, as I knew they would, my thoughts turned over to a girl. Calypso. We had to work together, past these issues. We needed to talk, communicate, that's what people in relationships do, don't they? And what if she was still in love with Percy? I don't know what that meant for our relationship, but I was determined to fight for it, to see it through to the end.

I can still remember how she looked when I rescued her from her island. I landed with Festus on the beach, but wanting to surprise her I snuck to the gardens, where I knew Calypso was going to be. And when I saw her it was like everything was okay, like everything in the world, every problem, was righted. I had completed my promise. She was kneeling in a flowerbed, tending to the roses and humming a small tune to herself. But the song wasn't necessarily happy. It was melancholic, sad. As if she was only singing to hear something, to break the silence. She sighed, pushing back a stray piece of hair but her hands were dirty, so she left a trail of dirt along her face.

"Calypso," I breathed. She turned around and I finally saw her eyes. A week after the war it was like losing myself in the colors of caramel and flecks of gold, finally allowing myself to relax.

But emotions flickered through her eyes: surprise, happiness, love, gratitude. And disappointment, for the faintest of moments.

Disappointment.

The faintest clench in my gut started when I saw that emotion cross her eyes.

And it remained there.

At the moment, I dismissed the thought from my mind as I rushed to her and hugged her and she kept on whispering "you came back, you came back," over and over again.

But now that I think of it: was it disappointment that I was the one who rescued her. Was she expecting, wanting, somebody else to do it? Somebody like Percy?

I shook my head, I had promised myself (and my professional listener) that I would talk to her, ask her if she would break me out of prison. I had to know first.

"The light is blinking." Clarisse said, bringing me out of my thoughts, and indeed, the arrows christened Jason and Frank were blinking and the arrow was shifting to the left.

"They might've found the monster." I said and looked at Clarisse,

"Or those idiots might be in trouble," Clarisse snarled, obviously thinking that it was a possibility. Becore I knew it we were both acting, running towards the direction the arrow was pointing at, tearing through the plants hindering our path.

The arrow changed the direction to the right, and we adjusted our course accordingly. And after a few more minutes of running, and me thinking that I should start training more I saw flashing lights, heard voices shouting, and the din that only comes in a fight clanged loudly in my ears.

"Wizards." Clarisse started grinning.

We started approaching more carefully, keeping our step light and lingering in the shadows. When we approached the site were the fighting was taking place, we observed. Jason and Frank were back to back, their weapons mere blurs in their hands as they wielded them with deadly precision. Not attacking, just defending themselves from the onslaught of spells. It seems the wizards split their competitors into two teams of four and then a single unit of two. Hermione, Ginny, George and Ernie were all shooting spells at the duo at the same time.

"Why don't they do anything?" Clarisse whispered to me, already knowing that a single demigod could easily overpower a wizard.

"Because the nut jobs are having fun," I shook my head. And indeed they were laughing, yelling suggestions to the wizards and insulting each other in the process.

"Grace, you seem to be getting slower!" Frank shouted, merrily blocking a shot to his… um… groin.

"Please tell me you blocked that one, Frank, I wanted to be your kid's godfather," Jason shouted, blocking two spells in the same stroke.

"I would never torture my kid with a godfather whose nickname is Sparky." Frank shook his head.

"I told you not to call me that!" Jason shouted, tripping Frank in retaliation.

"Foul play!" Frank shouted in outrage, stumbling but staying on his feet, "unprovoked aggression!"

Jason didn't reply because he was a bit too busy blocking a very well aimed spell at his head, "very good shot, Hermione!" Jason shouted in appreciation.

"Who are these blokes?" Ginny asked Hermione.

It was George who answered, "demigods."

"I hope that's not an insult, Weasley," Frank shouted.

"Yeah!" Jason agreed, "But, in all seriousness, George, Frank is a bit weak on his left side, he can't block anything from a certain angle."

"Traitor!" Frank shouted, "I'm the son of Mars, I can block anything from any angle." And he reinforced the statement with another perfect and dignified block. "Besides, at least I don't hold my sword weird, Jason."

"I do not!" Jason self-consciously adjusted his grip a little bit.

"This has gone on long enough," I whispered to Clarisse who nodded. We grabbed vines, snuck around the back and I took a steadying breath.

I gripped the vine tighter as I sprung from my hiding spot. I heard the warning shouts from the wizards as I tightened the make shift rope around Ernie's body, and hitting him again with the prototype, making him go unconscious. I decided then and there to call it the Sphere of Dreams.

"Hey! Grace, Zhang!" I shouted, and the turned in unison, I threw them each on Sphere of Dreams and told them, "Hit the wizards with this! They'll go unconscious!"

Clarisse had already dealt with Ginny, who was sprawled on the ground with a peaceful sort of frown on her brow. Turning around at my call really tested Jason and Frank's reflexes. Not only did they have to catch the Sphere of Dreams, but also block the renewed force from the spells, who had been cast at when they weren't focused on the fight.

"You catch!" Jason shouted at Frank, who transformed into a hawk and caught both Spheres of Dreams in his talons. Jason slid onto the ground, rolling around and when he came up bringing his sword up to block the other spell.

"Where did he go?" Hermione shouted, not having noticed the transformation as she was focusing on Jason, George was in the same state of confusion. I grinned; Frank had just landed behind them with a small sound.

"You weren't paying attention to me," Frank pouted as he stun them with my amazing Sphere of Dreams."

"His ego has just taken a great hit, thank you," Jason nodded and Frank shot him a glare.

"Dude, these things are incredible," Jason commented to me, taking one from Frank and examining it. I shrugged.

"Yeah, really cool," Frank frowned, "but try not to startle us in a fight next time."

I nodded, a faint blush appearing.

"Another four unconscious wizards in our care," Clarisse commented, lifting Ginny and carrying her to where Hermione and George were laying.

"What are you talking about?" Jason frowned, "and why are you here?"

"Your compass lit up," I took out the object in question, "and we were 'ambushed' - "

"If that's what you want to call it," Clarisse snorted derisively as she interrupted me.

"So anyways we took them out and tied them up," I shrugged, "don't know for how long those vines are going to last, though."

"Great, so we only have two more wizards we have to compete with." Jason nodded.

"Did you find out any other information?" Frank asked, his tactical mind already adjusting to the alterations in the dynamics of the game.

"Yes," Clarisse said, "we're finding the same stone as the wizards."

Jason was about to respond when the shadows of the forest shifted, four new animals arrived to our little clearing.

We all shifted around, grabbing our weapons (one of my hands was ignited, the other was holding my faithful hammer) and instantly relaxed at the sight.

"Horses," Jason sighed in relief.

The horses were beautiful, all gleaming coats and shining eyes. The came towards us, and I approached them, wanting to stroke them, when the one closest to me lunged. As it came towards me, it bared its teeth and cut my arm as I recoiled back. Sharp. Ouch. "Shit!" was the only thing I could utter.

"Leo!" I herd Frank shout, the demigods moved into a defensive position, but the horses nickered as if they were laughing at our pitiful attempts. The stepped ever closer as I ran back to join my companions, but we were uncertain, how did we fight them? We certainly didn't want to go for the kill.

We heard sudden crashing though the forest, and heavy breathing. Suddenly Percy and Annabeth were in the clearing and Percy was standing between those devils horses and us. He raised a placating hand and was obviously communicating in his Poseidon way with the horses. Percy pointed his thumb back at us and shook his head, and I had an inkling that he was saying something along the lines of 'I apologize for these idiots, they really shouldn't be let out of Camp.'

The horses ignored him, trying to get around him and suddenly he raised an eyebrow, as he made a suggestion telepathically, the horses suddenly shrunk back in fear. Percy stepped forwards, and raised his other hand, as if he was going to summon something, the horses starting neighing in terror, and left in a hurry, fighting with each other to be the first ones out of this clearing.

"What did you say to them?" Annabeth asked him.

"I threatened them with seashells," Percy deadpanned. We all raised our eyebrows but decided not to question the fears of satanic horses.

"How did you find us?" Clarisse echoed the question from earlier.

"The homing device thingy," Percy explained, "also when we got closer I was able to hear the thoughts of those horses, and I was worried to say the least."

"What were those things anyways?" Jason asked.

"Flesh-Eating horses." Annabeth said.

"Ouch," I grimaced, as another shot of pain shot itself through my arm.

"Leo, are you okay?" Frank asked, the rest of our little group crowding around me.

"Yes," I nodded, "I just can't get my backpack off." I struggled against it, but moving my arm just made it hurt more.

"Here," Annabeth laid a placating hand on my shoulder. She motioned for Percy to turn around; when he did she reached in and grabbed the First Aid kit. She sternly told me to sit down, and started examining the wound. "Nothing serious, just as superficial wound," she muttered to herself, "just disinfectant and dressing should do it."

As she set out to complete her course of treatment, we caught up.

"What happened to you guys?" Jason asked Percy.

Percy took a deep breath and launched into his story."So there we were, right?" Percy started, "just walking, completely innocent, where a swarm of these little blue fairies come out of nowhere and start attacking us! They were completely sadistic, like they started pulling at Annabeth's ponytail, and - "

"The idiot ran away screaming." Annabeth deadpanned.

"You what?" I asked incredulously.

"Shouted something like, 'I did no sign up to be eaten by little horrible creatures!'," Annabeth recounted, "and then ran away."

"I did not ran away," Percy defended himself hotly.

"What were you doing then?" Asked Annabeth, "hopping away perhaps?"

"Or maybe skipping," I said, hiding my grin from Percy's glare.

"I saved you," Percy said to Annabeth.

"Yeah, only because there was a pool of water nearby." Annabeth raised a finger to Percy. "I can't believe it, you were going to leave me to die with the tiny blue fairies!"

"I knew you had a weakness," Clarisse grinned. "But I would have never imagined that it was fairies. This might just be the greatest moment of my life."

"They were not fairies!" Percy shouted, and trying to change the subject asked, "What were they, actually?"

"They don't sound like a Greek monster," Jason said.

"Describe them?" Came the voice from behind us.

"Hello, Ginny," I grinned at her, "do you feel okay? Water, food?" Motioning to Frank, where he was filling up our water bottles from a little stream that was running next to our clearing.

"No thanks, I would be better if you untied me, though," Ginny raised her eyebrows hopefully.

"Sorry," Jason shook his head, "not taking any chances."

Ginny nodded, "those sound like pixies." She said to Percy. When everybody looked at her she rolled her eyes, "those 'monsters' that were attacking you, they were called pixies, very deadly."

"Pixies," Percy growled out their name, Ginny's sarcasm lost on him, "how anything blue could be evil is beyond me."

"Wait, I don't think we're concentrating on the right thing," I said, wincing slightly as Annabeth applied anti-disinfectant non-too gently on my arm, "you, the great hero Percy, ran away from pixies?"

"How big where they?" Jason asked Annabeth.

"Tiny. Literally tiny." Annabeth replied.

"Percy…" Frank started but couldn't finish due to his sudden stream of laughter and suddenly we were all snorting and coughing in laughter like a bunch of idiots, even Percy was chuckling softly.

"Are we talking about pixies?" Asked Ernie, and when we all nodded he screwed up his face thoughtfully, "yeah, they were really hard to fight," ("See!" Percy yelled) "when I was twelve." Ernie finished.

Percy's triumphant yell died down, our laughs got louder.

However we all quieted down to hear Percy explain himself. "There were thousands of them! And like they moved around leaving no way out while they laughed at me. And they were so mean to me! Like they pulled on my ears, and tried to trip me, one even tried to take my backpack from me! They're the devil's spawn. Honestly there's no other explanation, they're like…" Percy waved his hands around, trying to find an example, "like bunnies! Completely evil!"

"You hate bunnies?" I asked.

"Dude." Jason shook his head.

"Not cool." Frank added, also disapproving.

"I don't hate them," Percy defended himself, "I just think they're vicious. With their red eyes and huge front teeth."

"Huge," I muttered, and we all shook our heads again.

Percy continued talking, "Well, maybe bunnies aren't the best example," (Damn, right they aren't), "baby owls! Those are completely barbaric," Percy shuddered, "one time, this owl tried to…"

"What do you have against owls?" Annabeth demanded, she was bandaging my arm and she pulled a little bit harder than necessary. She cut off my circulation.

"What don't I have against baby owls," Percy corrected.

"I can't even look at you right now," Jason shook his head, turning around to demonstrate his point. As he was turning however, he froze "Guys! Monster!" He whispered, drawing out his sword slowly.

When I moved my head to see over Annabeth's shoulder my eyes widened in fear. A huge three-headed dog stood at the edge of our clearing. His gleaming coat was gleaming in the sunlight, easily letting us see his taut array of well-toned muscles. Each head was growling really deeply, the sound felt like it was reverberating in my bones, a little bit of foam dripping down from his very scary mouth that was currently letting us notice his huge teeth. His black beady eyes were all glinting with anger, and his huge tree-trunk like legs were all bent as if he was ready to pounce.

"Is that Cerberus?" Clarisse whispered incredulously. Breaking the stony silence that had been present every since the unwelcome appearance of the mystery dog.

"It can't be," I reasoned, also whispering, not wanting to startle it, "what would guard the Underworld? Remember what Hades is like?"

"Mean?" Percy suggested, "a horrible uncle."

The ground trembled a little bit in warning, the branches shook, and the dog barked, stepping forward as if to attack but not yet sure of himself. It stepped backwards and forwards, confused by the trembling in the ground, and I found myself pitying this dog, this huge three-headed animal that could cut off my head in a single bite. I reasoned that I had a thing for dangerous and big creatures, like Festus. I stood up, and crouching so not to startle it I stepped cautiously to him, speaking in a low and reassuring voice.

"Hello there. My name is Leo Valdez, universally known as a handsome conqueror of hearts." The dog was looking at me now, but I only had one of the three heads tracking my movements. "What's your name? You know I don't think you're a monster." Two heads trained on me, "I think that's just because you're big and scary, in the best possible way," I assured him, "you're misunderstood. It does suck to be misunderstood, am I right?"

I was right besides him, looking up at him, the dog looking down at me. I blinked, confused as to why I hadn't been killed. I could feel the eyes of my teammates incredibly boring eyes into my back. He hadn't attacked yet, so I guess that's good. I raised my hand as if to pet him when…

"Ahh!" I heard a shout behind me; the wizards who hadn't noticed the dog yet because of our whispering and staying still had apparently just caught sight of him. Ernie was shouting "Monster! Get him away! Away!"

"Shut up Ernie!" Ginny shouted desperately, "You idiot!"

When I was approaching him the dog was still indecisive, with Ernie's shout he made his choice: mutilate all humans in sight. He barked and one of his heads went down as if to bite me. I started running, but I was completely unprepared, it was all too fast. I felt his teeth sink around my middle, tearing and sinking into my abdomen. Ouch. Again. The dog rose the head that was holding me, shook me a bit for good measure, and threw me to the side. Into the tree. Headfirst. Ouch. Again. Times Two. I slid down the trunk, the blood loss already apparent and my the dog's spit making everything ten times grosser.

"Leo!" I heard everybody shout and I saw everybody move as if to help me but Annabeth stopped them, seeing the dog moving forwards.

"No! Deal with the monster first! Percy, Jason, Frank, Clarisse go fight the monster, if he gets too close the wizards and you can't stop it shoot the red flare into the sky. I'll take care of Leo and the wizards and then I'll join you." She shouted, everybody nodded even though they sent me looks of concern before leaping into fighting like only a demigod could transition into.

Annabeth ran over to me and flopped into the ground besides me, "You know it's really rude that after I fix your arm to go and get yourself injured again." She scolded me.

Everything went black again for a second; I shook my head to remain awake, "Sorry, I was always a bit rude."

"More like charmingly irresponsible." She corrected me.

"Thanks," I said, my vision swimming, "how bad is it?"

"Bad." Annabeth didn't sugarcoat it.

"Great, I've had worse." I moved as if to stand up but she basically shoved me back into the ground, not making any favors for my pounding head.

"You stay here," She ordered me, "and don't you dare play hero, Valdez."

"Okay." I said, because honestly I didn't think I would be able to get onto my feet. Annabeth stood up and began running over to untie the wizards, but halfway she turned around and shouted at me that if I stood up she would kill me herself, before hurriedly untying all the wizards. Honestly, didn't she trust me?

Annabeth then ran and untied Ginny and Ernie, the only wizards who were conscious. She motioned to Ginny to go help the demigods in fighting the monster while she told Ernie to help her drag the unconscious wizards into safety.

The ones who were restraining the dog were fighting a losing battle, they were straining, but it was too much. Jason and Frank were taking one head together and they weren't making jokes anymore, they were sweating and their brows were furrowed in concentration; Clarisse and Ginny were both attacking the same head, and the combination of the spells and the spear together was fascinating to watch, they rolled, jumped and lunged, but they were both gradually slowing down; Percy was the only one fighting alone, and doing the best, he kept laughing or grinning when the dog got particularly close to him, as if he was longing for a challenging fight.

Suddenly the dog began to slow his movements became more sluggish but when Clarisse made the first dent in his defense and shallowly cut him in the shoulder with her spear the dog re-doubled its efforts. He wasn't hurt, he was angry, and he barked and growled and resumed his attacks on the tired demigods. It didn't hurt the animal in any way, but it gave the dog the resolve it was looking for, he barked and growled and resumed his attacks on the tired demigods. When Jason and Frank backed off a little bit, instead of catching its breath, the dog's middle head rose, and as Frank and Jason looked on in confusion it barked once and then shot a fireball at them.

Yes, that's right.

A flaming, orange and red, huge, fireball.

Is this a ploy to kill us?

It was directed in the direction of Frank, Percy and Jason and as they dove out of reach they all shouted at the same time. With each having a different pitch of voice it was like a harmony of shouts. Then, weirdly, all of the six eyes of the dog blinked. Sleepily. I frowned, could it be…

I didn't have time to consider the absurdity of my idea. My friends were losing.

I started throwing things out of my toolbox. I pulled out all the separate pieces of wood that would help me build what I had in mind, the top, the sides, the bottom, the stick, and the end part. If I took them all out separately, they came in an already shaped form; so then I took six strings, a hammer and nails. Honestly, this was kid's play for me; I didn't even have to make calculations or measurements. I quickly hammered in all the nails in their corresponding places, and then strung the strings in record time. I'm losing my edge: it had taken me five whole minutes to make a makeshift guitar.

I glanced up for the first time and saw that the demigods and wizards were doing even worse than before; Annabeth had joint Percy after she had made sure that the wizards were safe and had instructed Ernie to keep watch – they were fighting like extensions of each other, covering each other's weak spots and warning each other when the dog tried to bite, Annabeth and Percy had a sort of flair when they fought together, when you watched it seemed as if they were dancing, each stroke perfect. Clarisse once told me (she had also warned me that if I repeated this to anybody she would cut off my… well) that to her, it was like they were creating art, all new moves and spinning and lunging. But at the present, they were tiring. Everybody is. Ginny even asked if she should shoot red sparks once. The problem is that they were fighting cautiously, they didn't want to harm the dog in any way, especially for a tournament. The dog had no such reservations, he lunged, tried to bite and growled in the most threatening way. Everybody's body was made of patterns of bruises, scratches and small, bleeding, cuts.

I needed to help them, to at least try my crazy idea. With the help of the tree behind me, inch by inch, I rose to my feet, wincing as the deep cuts around my middle started bleeding profusely again, after what seemed like hours I was finally swaying in my feet. I tried to take a step forwards but my vision went black and then a moment later it was dotted with blinding, flashing, stars. Groaning, I started walking towards the fighting, slowly, painfully.

"Leo! What are you doing?" I heard Annabeth shout.

"Is that a guitar?" Clarisse asked incredulously, "are you serious?"

I tortuously made my way to a spot where I was sure the dog would hear me if I started playing. Lucas had taught me three chords, and I played them, over and over again. They were very basic, but it would still be considered music. Highly criticized music, but music all the same. The dog blinked sleepily again and his movements slowed, and then one head yawned, and then another one, and all three were dropping onto the ground as if the weight of gravity was too much for them. The body soon followed the three heads, collapsing onto the ground with such force that the branches above us shook and rustled, a few leaves even began floating and swirling down. The competitors stepped back in confusion at the sudden lack of an opponent.

"What the…" Ginny started but then she seemed to realize something, "Leo!"

"Never would have guessed," Clarisse shook her head while grinning, "Leo the hero to win over a three-headed dog shooting fireballs by singing it to sleep."

"You're amazing!" Shouted Annabeth while running over to me and hugging me with enthusiasm. "Leo the genius." She added proudly.

"Ouch," my vision swam as Annabeth hugged me. Pain, pain, pain. That's what I felt as the bite marks around my torso started leaking blood. I tried to remember all the times where I had worse injuries, to try and diminish the pain but it didn't work. Everything went black and I felt the sensation of falling.

Somebody was slapping me.

"Wh - " I shook my head to try and clear it, "Why are you slapping me."

"Sorry," Apologized Annabeth in a tone that left me no doubt that she was not in the least bit remorseful, "you passed out."

And then I remembered the pain, and noticed the sudden lack of it. I frowned, "Did you perform some type of voodoo magic on me to fix my injuries?" I asked the people crowding round me.

"No, just real magic," Ginny grinned at me, "I took care of the scars around your abdomen and the headache you had."

"Thanks," I said to Ginny and she nodded in return. "Wait." I stopped and asked another question, "you mean to tell me I don't have any scars?"

"None at all," Ginny grinned.

"Oh no." I groaned, "There'll be angry comments in the Team Leo fan page!" I moaned, covering my head with my eyes.

"You have a fan page?" Ginny said amusedly.

"Yes," I said, "I didn't make it." I defended myself against the questioning glances that were being shot my way.

"So," Ginny was clearly interested in this topic, "who is part of Team Leo?"

"Basically the entire Greek mythological world," I said, "and some of the Roman as well."

"And they like scars?" Frank raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"I don't decide their tastes!" I said, crossing my arms.

"Obviously neither do they," Jason commented, "if they're part of Team Leo."

"Please," I scoffed, "as if they would ever choose to join the Sparky Cult."

"Why does everybody insist in calling me Sparky?" Jason said.

"You're a son of Zeus," I explained.

"It's an occupational hazard," Percy joined in, "like Seaweed Brain. Just accept it, dude."

I noticed the guitar on Percy's hands and his ability in playing it, "hey, so my idea worked!" I exclaimed, feeling a bit proud of myself.

"Yes it did," Percy grinned hugely, "really smart, Leo. Sorry by playing the guitar but you passed out so the dog started to wake up again."

"You're not horrible at playing the guitar, suprisingly," Clarisse grudgingly admitted to Percy.

"I picked up a few things," Percy faintly blushed at the compliment.

"Better than Leo anyways," Clarisse assured him.

"Ah, what an accomplishment," Jason said sarcastically.

"I did just save all of your lives." I exclaimed in outrage, "while injured!"

"That's no excuse," Annabeth shook her head, "I would have said thank you if you hadn't shattered my ear drums."

"You hugged me!" I protested.

"To make you stop playing," Annabeth shrugged, ignoring my broken heart, "who taught you to 'play' anyways?"

"Lucas."

"He might be an amazing player but he sure as hell isn't a good teacher," Frank shook his head, "Come on dude, get up, we need to start searching for that precious stone thing," he held his hand out to me and I used it to help me up.

I grabbed my backpack from the ground and was about to follow the others in walking out of the clearing when I noted the dog's gash in its shoulder.

"You guys?" I called, and everybody stopped, looking at me, "are you sure its shoulder is okay?"

"Fairly." Clarisse said.

"Honestly it just tried to kill us, why do you care?" Percy said while his hands moved a little bit more rapidly along the strings of the guitar, beautiful junctions of notes floating from it.

"Hold up a sec, okay?" I pleaded, "I just want to make check."

"That kid boggles my mind," Jason said, shaking his head.

"Did he forget the dog basically was halfway to eating him?" Clarisse asked.

"Leo likes animals." Annabeth commented, looking at me.

I had gotten to the shoulder and even though the dog was sleeping, it still made me jump in fright whenever it snored or made a sound. I quickly checked that the wound was superficial and that nothing serious had been damaged.

"The dog's fine," I assured them.

"Thanks," Clarisse rolled her eyes, "I'll sleep easier at night."

"Come on Leo!" Jason huffed, looking up to see how much sunlight we had left.

"I'm going," I said, chuckling. I hoisted my backpack higher up my shoulder patted the dog briefly and turned. Somebody caught my eye, however.

A glint.

"Leo!" Clarisse shouted.

"Come on, man, let's just get out of here," Frank said.

"I think I found something," I shouted excitedly and running over to the only head that had a collar around its neck.

"Great," Annabeth said resignedly.

"We'll be here for ages," Frank groaned.

"What did you find, Leo?" Percy asked across the clearing, obviously the only one interested in my findings.

I didn't answer for I was too busy searching. I ignored the huffs and groans from the impatient teenagers behind me and dropped to my knees, looking for it on the underside of the collar.

Bingo.

I pulled it out, a green stone the size of my palm was clutched in my hand. On one side it said, Congratulations, victor and on the other one it said, sorry if the dog was a bit too violent. I grinned, ah the sense of humor.

"Leo?" Ginny asked tentatively, "what is that?"

"That my friends." I announced dramatically, "is our ticket out here." I showed them the stone with a flourish and felt a personal sort of satisfaction in seeing their jaw drop and their eyes widen in surprise.

"This little douchebag," Clarisse muttered, the first one to recover, "doesn't even try and single-handedly wins the tournament."

I couldn't reply to her due to the fact that Frank and Jason were both hugging me and laughing, muttering things like "you're amazing, Valdez," and "my gods, I'm friends with a genius!"

Annabeth and Ginny smiled at me in a proud sort of way. I grinned back over Frank's shoulder, who had just hugged me again.

"Leo, the hero," Percy grinned at me, "Hey that rhymes! Sort of. I would be over there, hugging you in a super manly way, but I need to continue playing."

And call me vain and superficial, but when Percy calls you a hero its… it's special. I grinned hugely in reply. Honestly, I didn't know what was so special, but that didn't stop me from grinning like an idiot.

At my request Ginny shot the green sparks into the sky and suddenly different discarded items appeared in front of us, a lost cap of a pen floating in front of me. We all grabbed it on the count of three and suddenly the hook in my navel was there again. My vision blurred again, and this time it wasn't because of my injuries. Abruptly I was in the Hogwarts grounds, staring at a mass of grinning and cheering students. Cheering for me.

"The demigods win!" I heard an announcer shout, and the crowd roared their approval.

"My man!" I heard and suddenly everybody was hugging me, and among the shouts of the people watching I heard my teammates telling me that they were so proud, and that I had won it, and that they were so happy to have me on their team. And everybody was so nice, and even though I didn't think I had done anything special, everybody else seemed to think so and it was just…. Joyful.

But I had to sort something out before I could properly enjoy myself. I disentangled myself from my over-demonstrative teammates and when they protested I explained that I had to find Calypso.

Piper looked up, grinning, when I made the announcement "Good luck," she told me and when I didn't immediately leave running she shouted at me to go, making shooing motions with her hands.

I spotted Lucas on the crowd and made a detour from my mission, "Hey, bro." I greeted him.

"You were so good!" He said doing that whole I'm-a-boy-so-I'm-not-going-to-hug-you-but-I-am-going-to-hug-you-just-with-an-added-pound-on-the-back-for-extra-masculinity thing.

"Why are you happy?" I said, tearing away from his 'hug', "You did just lose a lot of money from gambling, right?"

He showed me a stack of bills, "I wouldn't say lost." He grinned, "the only thing I did lose, however, is my affection for you."

"What, why?" I protested.

"'Come on guys, let's win this so Lucas can lose all his money!'" He imitated me.

"But you didn't, how?" I asked, ignoring the painful imitation of my voice pitch.

"Gambling blessing, kid, not gambling problem." Lucas smiled and showed two rows of perfect, straight teeth.

"I'm not a kid,"

"I'm just joking, of course you're not. But you're still younger than me." Lucas relented.

"Yeah, by how much?" I asked, curious.

"Two years, is my guess." Lucas said, "anyways, shouldn't you be celebrating with a certain someone?"

"Hey, that's right!" I said, remembering Calypso, I clapped Lucas on the shoulder, "I'll be seeing you, thanks for congratulating me."

"You deserve it, bro." Lucas said, he then peered over my shoulder and pointed, "Look, Calypso is that way."

"Thanks." I said in gratitude.

"Just go."

And I did.

To say it was hard to reach Calypso would be an understatement, the colors were all so bright and everybody was smiling and clapping me in the shoulder and telling me that I had done great and other nice compliments that. Somebody had started playing music and it was a driving beat for my heart, thun thun thun-thun. I was, after days of uncertainty and melancholy, finally happy – and in that moment I truly believed that I was a hero, that Calypso could love me. It was like the sun had just shun through the clouds, or that grass had resiliently poked up from under the snow.

I finally caught sight of Calypso, so terribly beautiful that my heart leaped when she caught sight of me and gave me a slight smile. I grinned hugely in return, striding forwards before I stopped right in front of her, breathing heavily.

"Hey," I whispered, drinking her in, the tiny freckles along her nose, slight flecks of gold in her eyes. I sighed. I had just wasted a few days avoiding her, the perfect girl, when she might not even be guilty. Looking at her, with her trademark jeans and a white shirt poking through a deep green cardigan which clung to all the right places and a cute little hat on top of her waves of caramel colored hair, I… It was a bit hard to breathe.

"Hey Leo," She touched my arm, hesitantly, "we need to talk."

"Alright," I relented, but not before I gave her a soft kiss on the tip of her nose. Calypso sighed, but didn't smile like I was currently doing, she just bit her lip and frowned, but I didn't read too much into it, it was probably Calypso not being used to PDA. There already was a rosy tinge to her cheeks staining her cheeks, but I did notice them flame a little bit more with my little kiss, her caramel eyes finally getting a bit of a shine in them, but it wasn't happiness I was seeing.

The music was still playing loudly in our ears after she led me to a relatively secluded grove of trees. "Leo," she turned around and looked at me.

"Calypso," I imitated her serious tone.

"I have something to tell you," we both said at the same time. I grinned, she frowned.

"This is serious." She said and her voice was detached somehow. The tone in her voice made my insides writhe; it's wasn't the emotion behind her voice, but the lack of it.

"I know," I said.

"Alright then you go first," Calypso relented.

I took a breath, and suddenly there was so much to ask her, and so little to tell her that I didn't know how to start. Calypso looked at me impatiently, and as I struggled to find the words I just came out with it,

"Calypso, would… you… er… me?" I asked her.

She looked at me, raising an eyebrow.

Come on Valdez, just ask her.

"Would you break me out of prison?" I asked, closing my eyes at how it sounded.

"What?" Calypso looked at me incredulously. "Leo, I told you this was serious," She shook her head as if disappointed in me.

"But it is…" I started to explain but she cut me off.

"Look, I actually have something important to tell you," Calypso cut me off, waving my explanations away as if they weren't important, "I… Leo… Your remember how I used to be… er… in love with Percy?"

I reeled back as if she had slapped me, this couldn't be happening. The drums in the music pounded louder.

Calypso continued in a rush, her eyes tearing up a little bit, "well at first I thought I could ignore it but… I can't." It felt like she had stabbed me, "I loved you too, but I love him as well. I realized it the night where you… um – told me that looking at me was like flying. And I don't know… I need to figure it out… I need time."

"Time?" I whispered hoarsely, the words tasting like ashes in my mouth.

Calypso nodded, "To figure everything out, I'm sorry, but you deserve somebody that will be completely in love with you." Her tears flying freely now, she leaned in, and kissed me. And the kiss tasted like regret, broken promises, it tasted like betrayal. It tasted like broken glass and the jagged sharp thing currently shattering my ribcage. The smell of cinnamon overpowered me and suddenly Calypso wasn't the only one that was crying.

She breathed in and went past me, but in a last attempt to fight I reached out and took hold of her arm, "Don't go…" I pleaded, my vision blurry, "I don't know… what I'd do without you… please." I whispered the last word with my whole heart behind the plea.

"Sorry Leo," Calypso whispered, her voice choked, emotionless "Don't make it harder than it needs to be," And then she shook off my hand, gave me a last kiss on the cheek and left, her back straight and her legs carrying far and fast. Away from me. And suddenly the smell of cinnamon wasn't present anymore.

And for a wonderful, glorious, moment what had just happened didn't sink in.

And then it did.

Calypso had just broken up with me.

It was as if somebody had doused a bucket of ice-hot water on my head, spreading from the tips of my head to my extremities, taking feeling and leaving…

I felt…

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing. I looked through the branches of the grove and the once vibrant oranges, reds, and purples looked grey. Everything was grey. The trees, the sunset, the little birds flying around in the sky. Grey, grey, grey.

Calypso had left, and taken the colors with her.

The music reached an unquenchable rhythm, the thudding of the drums louder than ever.

The music was the only thing reminding me that the world a heartbeat.

That I had one too.

A/N: So….. Oops. My hand slipped and caused me terrible heartache. (Tell me what you thought and any constructive criticism would be really welcome). IMPORTANT: I'm thinking of making the next chapter from the point of view from one of the new characters, I'll try it out. Tell me what you think.