xxxxXxxxx

LEO

Leo's head still swam from seeing the ghost of his mother. Her hand was as cold as morning dew, but he felt her touch. He wanted to throw his arms around her, but there wasn't time before she thrust the skeleton's word at him and he was through the creepy door.

The sight of Percy and Annabeth on that alter, without clothes, covered in blood made Leo want to barf. Then it made him want to parboil those skeletons down to nothing in his father's forges for doing that to his friends.

He wanted to charge and save them both. But the tile underneath was solid marble, and Leo was wearing heavy work boots and carrying a giant sword. There was no way he could be stealthy.

Then the ghost guy had poofed right next to Jason with a mischievous smile that Leo wore himself when he was planning something dangerous, but awesome. Ghost guy then poofed behind what Leo knew to be Gaea (dirt cape, earthworms, who else would it be?)

"Remember me?"

Leo wondered what in Hades that meant, how the ghost of a teenager knew the evil queen. But then the screaming started. At first it sounded like Annabeth. But then he realized it came from Gaea. As the scream grew, it changed from a teenage girl sound, to a loud unearthly wail that shook the stone and knocked over the baroque style buffet table against the wall at the base of the staircase.

That was all the distraction Leo needed, He rushed down the marbled floor with Jason and slashed through the skeletons that had finally noticed them and charged. The sword Leo had evaporated the skeletons to dust with one perfectly balanced slash. He would've taken time to bask in the awesomeness of this weapon if he wasn't busy being terrified.

The cloaked figure was butt ugly, with a face to match. Dirty and cracked like garden sculptures that had been left out too long in the sun. Her smile wasn't any better. Even all her appearances in mirrors and earth hadn't done justice to her grotesqueness.

"I'm afraid you're too late little Leo Valdez!" Gaea spoke to Leo like they were cabin mates. "I am already awake!"

Leo watched as the ghost boy sliced through the manacles on Annabeth's hands with his sword. He talked to her in a soft voice as he did this, stroking her hair. Leo heard Annabeth croak. "Luke?" in bewilderment.

"Silenna hurry!" the ghost boy shouted.

The beautiful ghost girl from outside materialized beside Percy's head.

She dug her dagger tip into the locks and they sprang free. Percy's body was thrown over Annabeth, and the ghost girl 'Sienna' gently rolled him off of her. Percy wasn't moving; but even in unconsciousness, his grip was tight on Annabeth's arm.

"Percy," The ghost carefully pried his fingers off of Annabeth. Her eyes were sad; tears ran down her translucent face.

Leo turned to Gaea, he raised the skeleton's sword high. "I don't care about how late you slept in Dirt Face!" He stared right into Gaea's cracked disgusting looking smile.

Behind him he saw Jason move in between Annabeth and the ghost of Luke. He removed his shirt and covered it over Annabeth's exposed chest, lifting her off the alter. Frank and Hazel came around to Percy and put his arms over their shoulders and took on his weight. Percy's body hung limply between them, in nothing but bloody boxer shorts.

"You're not doing anything else to my friends!" Flames shot out of Leo's hands, 3 feet high and dangerous like the kind that burned down the factory with his mother inside.

"Mio, control your power!" His mom's ghost appeared beside him. Her hand was on his shoulder her eyes proud, strong, and so like his. "You must get your friends out safely first; do not waste your time on this trash!"

Gaea looked affronted at the ghost of his mom. "Foolish mortal, you dare talk to me that way!"

"You are trying to hurt my son you Diablo!" His mother's ghost spatat Gaea like she was just a school yard bully picking on her. "I am not the one who is foolish!"

The flames extinguished from Leo's palms at the sound of his mother's defensive voice telling off the mother of the Titans.

It was no contest. He had the scarier mom.

Leo drew his sword high and stared down the clump of dirt who thought she could rule the world and hurt his friends without repercussions. "Bring it on Muddy May!"

Not exactly a battle cry. But Gaea rose to the challenge; and it went to Hades.

Gaea's body rose like bread dough, until she was as tall as the entire second story of the house part of the cave. "Very well Leo Valdez; if that is what you wish!"

A jet of red hot lava exploded from the ground behind Gaea and burned Leo like acid rain. He cried out, the sword shook in his hand, but he didn't drop it. His mother's ghost tried her best to fend off the heat from him, but the lava went through her.

Leo didn't know how his mom or the other ghosts could decide what went through them and what didn't. But he could sense his mom's frustration as Leo cried out from the pelting lava that scorched his arms.

"I'm okay mom!" Leo called to her pale form beside him. He raised his sword higher. "You know what I wish Gaea? That you'd shut. . fugly. face! " He brought the blade down on Gaea's head.

The Titan Queen evaporated like a dust storm, shattering both the marble ceiling and the volcano crater. Pieces of stone and rock smashed huge holes through the top landing of the staircase, toppling whole chunks of it.

Behind Leo; Jason, Hazel and Piper had taken cover behind the lower staircase landing; trying to shield Percy and Annabeth's battered bodies from the worst of it.

"This is my world!" Gaea's voice thundered like an earthquake. "My domain!" Rocks the size of cars dropped from the sides of the crater, smashing through the alter, crushing some of the skeletons into dust. Other skeletons watched, shocked like : How could mom do that?

"No on thy life!"

Percy finally roused; He struggled weakly out from under Frank's shoulders. His eyes were glassy, but they widened in shock at the sight of the hunter ghost. "Zoe?"

The ghost of the hunter smiled at him and notched an arrow into her massive bow. "We have thy back Percy; Do not fear!" Her arrow sailed high and sailed right up Gaea's 30 feet, and nailed her right in the middle of her forehead.

The Titan Queen looked cross eyed at the arrow growing out of her head like a tree branch. She plucked it out with rage. She blasted a wave of rocks at the hunter. But the ghost merely vanished like a soap bubble and reemerged behind her. "Thou has missed me Dirt Face! Thou is a poor excuse for a queen!"

Gaea roared louder. "No one says' thou' anymore Artemis Brat!"

"No one tries to take over the world anymore either!" The ghost of Luke called over from where he shimmered into existence beside Jason. "That is so First Titan War!"

Gaea turned her attention to Luke. She eyed him like he was an enemy worthy of her. "My son chose foolishly Hermes trash!" Or maybe not. "You were a poor vessel to contain him!"

Luke's ghost stood protectively over Annabeth and Percy, his glowing sword held tight in his hand. "What can I say Gaea," Luke swung his glowing sword with an expert precision Leo had never seen; not even with Jason or Percy.

Beckendorf's ghost shimmered into being beside Luke's. Silenna, the beautiful girl ghost came beside Beckendorf, she gripped his hand and the other gripped her dagger. Beside her emerged another ghost, dark hair, Camp Half Blood T-Shirt, with a quiver of arrows on his back, one notched into his bow, aimed right at Gaea.

Luke's ghost stared at his companions and Leo saw a smile tug at his lips."I guess I was always a better Camper then a Titan."

Luke raised his sword, and the ghosts of the fallen Camp Half Blood members rushed at the Titan Queen, slashing and letting loose with all the weapons they had.

Gaea roared and shook the volcano.

An RPG suddenly sailed over their heads and blew a hole into the floor.

"Get them out!" An Asian woman, another ghost, dressed in desert fatigues, knelt on the ground with the RPG launcher still smoking over her shoulder.

Frank's eyes widened and this time he was the one who uttered: "Mom?"

A rumble shook the crater, the lava river suddenly began to bubble furiously around the ghost of Mrs. Zhang. The lava simply moved through her like she were made of air.

Two more figures emerged beside her, a woman with Hazel's honey colored hair and dark eyes, and a second woman, hair jet black, woven into a netted bun in a dress of blue polka dots.

"Nico!" the woman in the dress shouted.

"Hazel!" the woman Leo knew was Hazel's mom shouted like a rhyme over the other ghosts. "The Doors! Get to the doors! We will hold them from this side!"

Suddenly a sinking feeling hit Leo like a ship torpedoed into the water. There had been no time before, no time to question why Nico had taken so long below deck before they went ashore. No time to question why all the ghosts that had come to the island.

"Mother!" Hazel screamed for her mom at the same time Leo screamed for his.

Leo's mother's dark eyes emerged from behind a wall of lava. "Listen to Mrs. Lévesque! Gaea cannot reform completely if she does not leave here!"

"No!" Leo shouted above all the noise shattering above. "Mom no! I can't-"

"Our lives are done!" Rosa Valdez's ghost shouted to her son. "But yours aren't! You must keep going!"

There was no time to do anything but run. Skeleton warriors began to fall from the second level of the house and crack through the tiles with their feet. More leapt down from the crumbling staircase.

Leo slashed through them, ducking and slicing off arms, legs, pelvis's and feet, until he was back at the ghostly form of his mother.

He threw himself on her. He half went through her figure, and a rush of cold vapor attacked him. But in that instant he also smelled machine oil, the smell of her soap, and the bread she baked on her day off.

"The volcano's erupting!" Luke's ghost shouted. He and the other ghosts of Camp Half Blood were pushing Gaea towards the lava pit. The lava began leaping higher and higher around the Titan Queen like it wanted to end her as much as they all did.

The Earth Queen's screaming roars blasted hot lava at Leo's face, scorching him. "The sacrifice is too great Leo Valdez!" Gaea's voice spoke to him directly. Swords clashed and rocks fell around him. "These ghosts will remained trapped in here with me if you leave! An eternity in Tartarus for me to take out my revenge!" She was sunk back in the lava up to her knees. She shot back up with a blast of lava so hot that even the ghosts backed up from it.

"Don't listen to her!" His mother's voice shouted above Gaea's rumbling one. She looked down at him. "We all knew of the sacrifice; we came to end this with you and your friends!" The other ghosts, especially the ghosts of their moms looked on, watching them, eyes fierce, loyal.

"I am so proud of you." His mom touched his cheek with cold fingers.

Tears scorched their way down Leo's face, burning in the wake of the lava. He tapped a message into the air in Morse code.

'I love you.'

She smiled, warm, proud, everything that Leo missed. "I will always love you my mio."

Leo smiled back, then turned and threw his Calvary sword right at Gaea's face.

The flat of the blade it her right in the center of her face and smacked a bunch of dirt and bugs lose from her mouth and eyes. The Titan stared at him like he had lost his mind.

Which he had; but that was besides the point.

"It's going to be a long eternity for you Dirt Face!" Leo proclaimed.

"Hurry!" the ghost of Beckendorf shouted from the lava pit. The ghosts were doing their best, but even with all their combined strengths, Gaea was managing to rise higher and higher.

Zoe climbed up on top of Gaea's neck and started beating it down like a Whack-a-Mole with her bow.

Silenna's ghost gripped Gaea's hooded cloak like she was disgusted by her sense of fashion. She stabbed her dagger right in one of Gaea's eyes."This is for Luke, and for that Drakon!"

"Filthy demigods!" Gaea screamed. "Release me!" She started to sink again, her cloak turning to ash inside the lava.

"Sorry, not negotiable," Beckendorf's ghost gripped tightly to those flailing robes. "What's your second option?"

Gaea roared like a den of angry lions. She was now up to her waist in the lava. A pool of black ash circled her where her robe had once been. "I will have my vengeance! Mark my word vile children of the Gods!"

Leo dodged his way back through all the skeletons, slashing and fighting, watching the ragtag band of ghosts hold of the Titan Queen. He caught up with Jason who was running with Annabeth's limp body in his arms. Frank and Hazel hoofed just as fast with Percy. His feet dragged and slid limply on the ground.

"I got him, you take point!" Leo took Hazel's place, shouldering Percy's dead weight, and handed her the sword.

Hazel grabbed the hilt of the sword, whipped around and slashed through a dozen skeletons on their tails with one move that blew them all to dust.

Leo was super impressed. He'd kiss her if he hadn't become kind of friends with Frank. And if they weren't still running for their lives from an erupting volcano and an evil band of skeletons.

The doorway was still opened only a sliver. Jason went sideways with Annabeth, trying not to injure her further.

"Need a hand?" The ghost of Luke shouldered the door open and bright sunlight poured through.

Annabeth came around in Jason's arms. Her gray eyes looked up at the ghost. "Luke," she reached out to touch his face.

The ghost reached out and set a hand on the top of her head. "Hey Annie."

"You were-" Annabeth's voice was stalling out like an out of tune radio. "Isle of Blest-"

"And miss all the action?" Luke's ghost smiled sadly. "Not a chance."

Annabeth's eyes glazed over with tears, before they glazed over completely and she dropped back limply against Jason.

"-beth?" Percy was barely conscious, but that was the first name on his lips.

Luke turned to Percy. "They've got her Percy." A look passed between the ghost and the live demigod. "You did good."

That statement seemed to deflate Percy and he too fell still; his weight almost toppled Leo and Frank.

Leo got a good look at the ghost. Slender, tall, elfish features like he'd seen on Connor and Travis Stoll. The realization of just who this was came over Leo as an angry battle cry erupted from the lava pit. Skeleton warriors in full Greek battle gear began running towards them, swords brandished.

"Hurry!" The ghost of Luke Castilian waved them out into the daylight.

Leo and Frank pushed Percy's limp form through the door. Hazel and Piper tumbled out afterwards. Then Jason and Nico.

Jason, Hazel and Frank set Annabeth and Percy down on the ground. They looked so still, that Leo was scared for one moment that they weren't breathing.

The porch was absent of skeletons, but a mass of swords poked their way through the hole, slashing wildly, trying to find demigod flesh to kill. A sword flew out and missed Leo's head by centimeters, giving him a buzz cut.

Hazel slashed through the elbow of one of the skeletons and it's severed arm fell to the porch, still gripping its sword.

Leo could still see Luke's face, Beckendorf's ghost joined him, and the ghost of Frank's mom. Over Mrs. Zhang's shoulder, Zoe and Silenna were holding down Gaea, now up to her neck in the lava. Her scream was horrendous.

Leo wanted to tell them 'thank you'.

"Close them!" Luke's ghostly face became more transparent as the sunlight hit it.

Leo threw himself at the door; his 'thank you' remained unborn on his lips.

Hazel jumped in beside him, bracing the massive doors with her back. Frank did the same on the other side. Piper reached over them, stepping on top of Leo's shoulders like it was a cheerleader's pyramid and pushed hard. Nico pushed from the left, Jason from the right.

Weapons and swords flew at them through the gap in the door. Even when the gap grew smaller, swords still managed to scrape by the door post, raining sparks down on Leo's already burned arms and face.

Even with all of their combined weight, the door was barely closing.

The lines of that stupid prophecy kept ringing through Leo's head, about the Seven Half Bloods answering the call to end Gaea's rising. But Percy and Annabeth- they were in no condition to hold the doors closed.

And it was like the doors knew it. Like they weren't going to close without four extra hands.

"Keep pushing!" Leo's grunted through a strained voice.

A bloodied arm came behind Jason's, with a hand of clearly broken fingers.

Leo looked in shock at Percy on his feet beside Jason, holding the doors. Beside him was Annabeth's smaller arms, cut clean up from her shoulders to her wrists, leaking blood. They both looked half dead. But they braced the doors with the rest of them.

Leo felt a resistance on the other side, the ghosts pushing from inside the House of Hades.

'An Oath to Keep with a Final Breath.'

Annabeth gave half distressed wheezing noises, which started to dissolve into whimpers. Percy was sweating buckets and he was shaking so hard Leo felt in through the door. But neither one of them let go.

Leo felt like the joints in his shoulders turn to liquid pain. But he didn't stop. He pushed until he had no breath in his body. He had no idea how long they had to keep going, or if he would even know when the doors closed. But the sight of Annabeth and Percy, battered and beaten and bloody, not giving in, gave him strength to continue.

Sweat from Piper's body dripped from her hair hand and fell on him like rain. Leo would've said something like 'gross!' if his mind wasn't focused on the singular task of pushing the doors shut.

The last remaining slivered gap in the door disappeared and the heavy metal closed. and A jolt raced up the doors like an electrical current, throwing them off.

Leo tumbled backwards into Piper and Frank like an out of control bowling ball. Jason caught them both and righted them before they fell off the porch.

Annabeth dropped her hands and stumbled backwards; her eyes dazed. She fell to her knees on the porch.

Percy stumbled forward to catch her, but he was so weak that he couldn't reach her before he too started to fall.

"Percy!" Hazel tried to grab them both, but they were too far away to reach at once.

"Annabeth! Percy!" Leo made a grab for Annabeth, and the same time Jason grabbed Percy.

They both were thrown down with them from the force of their dead weight.

"Annabeth?!" Leo's arm was smeared with blood from long gashes in her arms and legs. She was covered in cuts and bug bits, no clothes except for blood stained underwear, and she was so pale. Leo wanted to throw up.

Her eyes opened, such a faded gray that they looked almost white. They darted around weakly "Percy-Percy-"

"Annabeth-" Percy's weak voice called out to her where he was on the ground beside Piper's knees.

Percy didn't open his eyes, but he reached out the hand that was covered in blood bent at a 45 degree angle, drawing it out along the porch trying to find her.

"She's right here Percy," Leo took Percy's hand and brought it out as far as it could as Jason did the same for Annabeth. "She's right here man."

Percy's fingers brushed Annabeth's and they curled around her hand. "Annabeth."

Two tear tracks broke through the blood and grime on Annabeth's face and she gripped to Percy's hand.

The porch began to shake and rattle like a bomb had gone off. Pieces slats from off the roofed Portico began to fall around them.

Jason deflected a piece of wood with his sword before it could fall on Percy. "The volcano's had it! It's going to erupt! We have to get them on the ship!"

"It's back on the beach!" Piper yelled in frustration, like she wanted to kill someone for their lapse in judgment. Namely, all of them.

"We have to carry them!" Jason shouted above the ever increasing roar of the volcano. He turned to Leo. "Grab Annabeth, I'll get Percy!"

Leo scooped up Annabeth with Frank's help. She had such a death grip on Percy, Leo had to pry her fingers apart from his. "He's right behind you," Leo assured, trying to keep his voice even as he stared at the broken state of her body. There wasn't even time to give them any ambrosia. The lava river that encircled the House of Hades began to erode away the rock, widening it, until it became like a river when it overflowed. Lava started to lap at the edges of the porch, catching the wood on fire.

Jason hefted Percy over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, having to dodge a piece of the roof as big as a door that fell from the ceiling.

"Jason!" Leo shouted through all the dust and rising lava.

"I'm good!" Jason shouted back. "Move!"

"Where?!" Leo could see the lava rising all around them, slats of the porch began to catch fire. They were trapped on the porch like a sinking island. Leo held onto Annabeth's dead weight and tried not to scream in frustration. They had risked everything, and now they were going to be burned alive on this island.

Frank was trying to form into something, but he blurred into a dozen different things, like he had a short: Dragon, horse, cat, warthog.

A giant shadow and a familiar roar came from the sky. The shape of the Argos II hovered 10 feet in the air front of them. Coach Hedge was at the helm in his wooden battle gear.

A rope ladder fell over the side of the ship.

"Get on! What are you waiting for?" Hedge screamed down to them.

Seeing the ship seemed to give Frank the strength he needed. He transformed into a giant golden eagle the size of the ones at Camp Jupiter.

Leo turned to place Annabeth on Frank's back; but a shadow jumped down from the deck. Blackjack glided down from the ship and landed heavily on the porch.

He whinnied high and sniffed at Percy's hair, snorted, and dropped down on his forelegs. He gestured with his head to his back.

Leo set Annabeth over Blackjack's bare back. Jason placed Percy behind her. Their hands dangled in the air. At the last moment, Leo grabbed Annabeth's hand and closed it in Percy's.

Blackjack snorted again like he was satisfied, and took to the air, disappearing behind the deck of the Argos.

"Leo, hurry!" Hazel called from where she was already on Frank's eagle sized back. She was helping Nico on. Leo ran over a lava burst that sprayed up from the porch and jumped onto Frank's back, gripping tightly to Franks feathers.

Frank called something that sounded like 'what in Hades?' in eagle talk.

"Sorry man!" Leo shouted above the erupting volcano.

Frank swiveled his head around and glared at him through bright yellow eyes, and then Leo felt himself being hefted into the air under giant beating wings. They rose high into the sky, arching towards the deck of the Argos. Leo could see Jason alongside them, Piper holding tightly to his blood stained shirt.

Below them, lava broke through the porch and tore it apart, catching the entire thing on fire. The House of Hades began to swirl around like a reverse tornado. The porch began to break apart. The columns dropped like felled trees, and the entire house was sucked down into a vortex of flames.

They landed heavily on the deck of the warship.

Coach Hedge bounded over to them, his hooves beating out a percussion rhythm on the wood. "Get this tin can in the air!" The satyr waved his cudgel at them.

Leo leapt off Frank's back just as he transformed back into Frank, so the last few seconds of it were just awkward.

He moved carefully around Annabeth and Percy who were being tended to by Piper and Hazel on the deck with canteens of Nectar. He jumped on the command center, punched the Wii Controllers, pulled the gold throttle to activate the jet engines and the Argos surged forward so fast that Leo almost toppled overboard.

Festus swiveled his massive golden head around and emitted a series of squeaks and clicks, red eyes flashing almost like an excited puppy to see Leo's face.

"Yeah!" Coach Hedge stared down at the House of Hades that was half gone into the rock like quicksand. The lava now reached up to the roof, flames shooting out through the chimney. "Take that Dirt Face! Coach Hedge and his crew owned your Dirt Face!" He waved his cudgel around like a victory flag.

The once quiet volcano on the island was no longer dormant. Whatever number was used to measure the force of a volcano, Leo was sure this eruption passed it by a million and one. Smoke blew thick and noxious with the smell of sulfur. Lava shot high into the air, almost at the level of their ship. A few errant splashes landed on the railings, singing it with burns, some parts of the wood burst into small flames.

Nico and Jason rushed to the railing and beat out the little flames before they could catch anymore onto the wood.

Leo veered them to a hard right to avoid anymore of the spewing molten lava The ship rose higher and higher away from the island, until it started to vanish in the black cloud of smoke. He steered them west. Once they reached 10 miles out, he decreased the speed to a calmer 100 miles an hour and set Festus on Auto Pilot.

After the Greek coastline vanished on the horizon, he allowed himself to turned from the controls.

Hazel and Piper still knelt by Percy and Annabeth who were lying underneath the masthead. The girls were alternating between cleaning their wounds with the Nectar and giving them mouthfuls to drink along with squares of ambrosia. There was so much blood on their bodies that the Nectar seemed to do nothing to clean it off.

"Are-" Leo found his mouth dry as dust. They were so still and pale. He swallowed to clear away the cotton ball feeling. "Are they-"

"They're alive," Hazel's eyes met his and Leo almost fell over in relief.

"Awesome!" Leo smiled so widely he could feel his facial muscles scream in protest. "Next stop, home – gotta stop Jason's ex from flattening it!" He caught a quick mock scowl from Jason before he turned around.

The sun was warm, the sky blue, but the smell of ash hung in the air. Leo stared out over in the direction of the Santornini Islands. Festus made a series of clicks and groans, telling him that there was no sign of danger, so far.

Leo's smile lowered like a deflated sail. Hot tears rushed down his face as he stared out over the blue water in the direction of Greece. "I'll always love you too mom."

The wind of the Mediterranean Sea blew warm and salty as Leo dropped to his knees by the controls and cried.