Hope you guys read my apology. And that there are no hard feelings :)

So this chapter is pretty long, but I wrote it while I still had writer's block, so it might be pretty bad. Idk.

ANYWHALE ON WITH THE STORY

Jen's POV

I gritted my teeth, waiting patiently for the inevitable attack to come. The chill came again, and with it all the memories of what I'd just done with Leo–how I'd even been prepared to tell him that I loved him. How I'd been stupid and reckless, and how now I would pay for it.

The chill came again.

And again.

And again.

But still no claws.

I'd kissed Leo a thousand times in five minutes. The attack was probably building up.

I waited. But still no claws came.

The sudden realization that hit me was overwhelming. The curse, I thought. The curse is broken.

My hands flew to my mouth to stop myself from squealing in joy. The curse. It's broken.

I gripped the bed. The chill came again. But still no claws. The curse…is broken?

I can be with Leo. We can be together. The curse…it's broken. Right?

No claws were coming. Which meant that the curse was broken. Right? I mean, if it was still valid, I'd have been clawed by now. And I wasn't being clawed. Right? Right?

Why were the chills still here? Why would the curse break so suddenly? Why did I still feel wary about this, like something wasn't right?

'Because this isn't over yet.'

Deep breaths. Deep, deep breaths. Gabe.

'You're lucky. My mentor's letting you off this time. Something about having sympathy or whatever.'

Your mentor cursed me, and now sympathy's an issue?

'Again, consider yourself lucky. That would've been the worst attack yet.'

Stupid mentor.

'Also, you might wanna hurry it up a bit. My mentor's getting a bit impatient and frustrated that you haven't figured out how to break the curse.'

Wait, was I meant to break this stupid curse?

Could I break this stupid curse?

How? I asked Gabe in my head.

'Yeah,' I could hear the sneer in Gabe's voice. 'Nice try.'

Leo's POV

Perks of being me: when you get kidnapped, you can burst into flames and burn your captor.

That's what I tried as soon as I felt arms going round my body. One was to pick me up, the other was slung around my mouth to muffle my shouts. I squirmed, but whoever this was, they were good.

I began to panic. Where was the rest of the crew? Had they been kidnapped too? Who even was this person?

And why won't he burn?

Whoever he was, he didn't hadn't covered my eyes. I could see as we headed towards the steps, probably to take me above deck, probably to throw me off the ship…

I did not expect to go down.

We did. My captor headed down the stairs confidently, never breaking stride no matter how hard I squirmed. I only realized when we were in front of the doors of the stable that I wasn't burning anymore. I'd been so confused I must have stopped.

'Lmmmmgurrrhh!' I yelled. ('Let me go!') I was too tired to try and light on fire again. The day had been too eventful.

'Okay, jeez,' said the kidnapper, and he kicked open the doors to the stable, setting me down as well.

Wait. I recognized that voice.

'What the Hades, Percy?' I grunted, pushing myself to my feet. I'd landed on my hands and knees, even though Percy had set me down gently. What? I'd expected some weird Ancient Greek pirate with an equally weird backstory and some weird demands.

'Chill, Leo, it's just us,' I heard Jason's voice say. I looked up to see the rest of the crew sitting on the floor in a ring. Percy, from behind me, brushed off one of his arms exasperatedly.

'What's going on?' I asked, as much confused as I was annoyed. 'Why couldn't you guys just tell me we were having an emergency meeting?' I looked round. 'And why isn't Jen here?'

'Jen's the reason we're having an emergency meeting,' Percy said. 'And you wouldn't have been able to keep it from her if we'd told you.'

'Yes I would!' I defended myself, though the rest of the crew was shaking their heads like they didn't believe me. And I wasn't sure I did either. 'Whatever,' I muttered, sitting down next to Piper. 'How come you didn't burn, anyway?' I asked Percy.

He shrugged. 'Son of Poseidon, the water or something makes me harder to burn. I probably would've gotten burnt if you'd been on fire for more than three seconds, but you completely relaxed when we were past Jen's door.'

'I-' Too late. Everyone was already snickering.

'Whatever,' I repeated, turning to Piper. 'What about Jen?'

She creased her eyebrows. 'We wanted to try and figure out the dream. We all had it, right?'

'Right,' we answered in unison, besides Coach Hedge, who was leaning against one of the stable doors, angrily chewing some hay. He hadn't gotten the dream; probably since he wasn't a demigod.

'Ok, so we should probably start the meeting by saying what actually happened in this dream.' Piper looked nervous; like she didn't want to be the one leading this. 'Uh…anyone wanna…'

Jason squeezed her hand. 'It was your mom. I think you should.' Wow. Was that actually why they were making her do this?

'Uh…ok,' Piper said. She still looked nervous, but started telling us the dream we knew too well. 'Her face–Aphrodite's–was all we saw. She started talking…and what she said was clear, but made no sense at the same time.'

'Cut to the chase, McLean,' Coach grumbled, picking his teeth with a piece of hay.

'Ok, ok,' Piper stammered. She must be more scared about this dream than any of us, I thought. 'I don't remember this part that well, though.'

'I do,' Annabeth spoke up. Percy's arm was around her shoulders; they'd been inseparable ever since they got back from Tartarus. 'A demigod. In the school I will show you. She will be vital in your quest…as much as she will hinder it. She needs to stay with you. For as long as she needs to.'

A silence fell over us. No matter how many times we heard the…was it a prophecy?…it was always enough to scare the freaky-deakies out of us.

'Dang, Piper. No offense, but your mother is one creepy, messed-up lady.'

My joke lightened the mood with a few laughs, but the atmosphere was still grim.

'Anything about the way she looked?' Coach offered, munching on an apple (where'd that come from?).

'I think she looked different to all of us, because, y'know, Aphrodite,' Percy contributed. 'I couldn't see much, just that her face was grim.'

I nodded, realizing something. Aphrodite from my dream had long, black hair. Jen had long, black hair.

'The day after, our ship was on course to Arizona. More specifically, to Jen's school.' Jason clarified what we all knew. 'And Coach sniffed her out, Leo talked her into coming here, and we set off to Greece again.'

'We had to, because Aphrodite said she'd be vital in the quest,' Hazel said from my other side.

'Also because Aphrodite's a god,' I said. 'In this war, I don't really want to anger any more gods than are necessary.'

'So how would she be vital…'–Percy wondered out loud what we all had at one point–'…but hinder us as well?'

'Maybe one thing about she'd do would be vital,' Annabeth said, 'but something about her would hinder us.'

'Her godly parent just has to be the same as one of us,' Frank muttered. 'I mean, c'mon guys, hinder us? How else would she hinder us except by making the ship go slower? Or making the sonar fail? I'm telling you guys, she needs to be off the ship.'

'Prophecy's are weird, Frank,' Annabeth said exasperatedly. 'I've dealt with enough to know. Hinder could mean any number of things.

Frank scoffed. 'It was pretty dam clear to me.'

'If she's meant to hinder us, then it doesn't really matter, does it?' Hazel said, trying to convince her boyfriend.

Frank looked at Hazel, nodded, then looked at the rest of us. 'There's something we didn't tell you guys.'

'What? What is it?' Annabeth asked, shocked. Everyone looked surprised too. We weren't meant to keep secrets.

'I…had a dream. There was a girl, standing on the deck of the Argo II, and monsters were jumping on behind her. Like, thousands. Just jumping on, until the deck was crawling with them.'

I shuddered. Talk about the creeps.

'That's a bit weird,' Jason agreed. 'But what does that have to do with-'

'The girl…she looked just like Jen.'

A silence fell over the entire group. If Frank's dream was what we thought it was…then Jen really was behind the damage.

'She doesn't know,' I defended her weakly. 'I mean, if it is her, she doesn't know. She's not doing it on purpose. She would never put us in danger.' She would never put me in danger.

'Leo's right. She saved our lives today, with the wind spirits. She wouldn't have done that if she wanted us to be in danger,' Percy added.

'We can't kick her off the ship anyway, we don't know yet if she's been here as long as she needs to,' Jason pointed out, looking around the group. 'How are we even meant to know when she's been here long enough?'

'I have a feeling it'll be obvious,' Piper said. The feathers in her hair shook as she shook her head. 'I don't have any obvious feelings right now.'

'Maybe she'll be vital later, like she'll do something to do with her godly parent that no one else can do. And that'll save us. Maybe?' Percy suggested.

'Maybe,' Piper pondered aloud. 'Maybe it's more of an emotional thing.'

'What do you mean?' Jason asked, turning to look at her. The crew went silent, looking at Piper. She twirled her hair on a finger and continued.

'Aphrodite deals with emotions, right? What if Jen's meant to change someone in here? Make them right…emotion wise?'

I cocked my head. 'Confused.'

Piper cocked her head, copying me. 'Maybe one of us is unstable. Maybe Jen needs to get close to them, make them stable enough to finish this.'

I raised an eyebrow, cocking my head even more. 'Still confused.'

I saw now that Piper was smirking. I could hear the others snickering behind me. 'She sure is getting closer to someone more than the rest of us, huh?'

Yup. The time for discussing the prophecy was over. 'Are you calling me unstable?'

'We just noticed that Jen's been spending a lot of time with you, even now that you're on the ship. What's that about?'

I laughed, trying to throw it off. 'You guys really aren't letting this go, are you?' I asked, remembering how they'd been trying to do this earlier at breakfast.

'Nope,' Percy said, grinning. 'We need to know what's going on, Leo.'

Coach Hedge crunched his apple core noisily, then gave a long, loud burp. 'I'm gonna go to bed if we're done here,' he announced, already halfway to the doors. When he left, all eyes turned to me again.

'C'mon, Leo,' Jason prompted. 'We know something's going on.'

'How would you know something's going on?'

Piper rolled her eyes. 'Leo, not only am I one of your best friends, I'm a daughter of Aphrodite. That's two ways for me to be able to get a romantic vibe off the two of you.'

Oh, gods. She'd called it a 'romantic vibe'.

I shrugged. 'I have no idea what you're talking about.'

'I'll shoot straight, then. How do you feel about Jen?'

Oh, gods. Why. 'We're friends.'

'Answer this one question, and we'll let you go upstairs and sleep. How do you feel about Jen?'

'I think she's great–funny, smart, friendly-'

'Leo. How do you feel about Jen?'

Charmspeak. Why oh why did she have to use charmspeak.

'You'll let me go if I tell you?'

Eager nods all around. These weirdos.

'I'm head over heels in love with her,' I said, getting up. 'Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll just go up to bed.'

Jen's POV

'Argh!' I woke up screaming. The watch next to my bed said it was nearly one in the morning. I tried to tell myself that it was just a dream, just a nightmare. But it'd been horrible. So, so horrible...

I realized I wouldn't be able to go to bed that night. Well. Not alone, anyway.

I was on my feet heading to the engine room almost before I realized it.

Leo's POV

Zzzzzzzzzzzz.

Jen's POV

I knocked on his door, not expecting him to answer. He didn't. So I simply let myself in, and the soft hum of the engine welcomed me.

He was on his bed, fast asleep, snoring gently. His body was turned to the side. One of his legs was sticking out, and his covers, which were up to his neck, rose and fell with each breath.

In other words, Leo Valdez looked even cuter when he was asleep.

I tiptoed to his side and tapped his back. 'Valdez,' I whispered.

He turned over groggily. 'It was the monkeys...' He muttered in his sleep.

I let out a really loud laugh before slapping my hand over my mouth. Oh, Leo. He wasn't even awake and he was already cheering me up.

My laugh woke him up. He opened his eyes, blinked, and turned to face me. 'Jen?' He asked.

'What did the monkeys do, Valdez?' I asked, trying to hold in my laughter.

Leo looked confused. 'What monkeys?'

'You were just talking in your sleep.'

'You were watching me sleep?'

'I...' Ugh. 'I just got here.'

'Why are you here?'

I took a deep breath, the details of the night rushing back to me. 'I had a bad dream.'

In the dim light of the room, I saw Leo nod sympathetically. 'It's a demigod thing.'

He sat up, the covers falling from around him. I had to catch my breath, because I'd just realized that most boys, Leo not excluded, slept shirtless.

'Um, why exactly are you here though?' Leo asked, confused. It took me a few seconds to reply because I was still stunned at his bare chest.

Leo smiled, and brought a hand to right in front of my face. He set it on fire and studied my face in the new light. 'You're blushing.'

'I...' I had to take a second to catch my breath. 'I feel safer when I'm with you.'

A light dawned on his face. He extinguished the flame in his hand and took my face in it. 'Do you want to stay here the rest of the night?'

I nodded mutely. Yes, going to bed next to a shirtless Leo would be difficult and brain-melting, but going to bed alone would be impossible.

He scooted across his bed a bit and lifted the cover for me to go underneath. It was warm already, and I was made even warmer when he wrapped his arms around me. As we lay back down on the bed, I rested my head on his bare chest, drawing in comfort from his scent.

I felt Leo kiss the top of my head. 'Go to sleep, Jen.'

'You really shouldn't kiss me,' I protested weakly. 'We're not dating.'

'You don't plan on going to sleep, do you?' Leo asked, kissing my head again.

'I…I'm still kind of shaken up, to be honest.'

'Tell me about the dream. Maybe it'll calm you down.'

I nodded, then took a deep, deep breath of Leo-smell. 'I…I was standing on deck. I was just standing there, I couldn't do anything. And…everywhere I looked, monsters were jumping on. All kinds. Stymphalian birds, hydras, some weird snake like thing…and I just couldn't stop them. No matter what I did.'

I felt Leo freeze beneath me. Uh-oh. What'd I done now? 'Valdez?'

He clenched me tighter. 'Valdez? What's wrong? Do you know what it means?'

'No,' he answered, his voice sounding weak and scared. 'No. I'm not sure. I…you couldn't do anything to stop them?'

'No, I tried, but all I could do was stand there.' I craned my head up to look at him. 'Why? Why do you ask?'

'It's nothing,' he assured me, though his voice told me it was definitely not nothing. 'That was a weird dream, but we should probably get some sleep now. Big day tomorrow. I've got to fix the masts, and you've got a whole day of training.'

Why was he changing the subject? 'Valdez, do you know anything about the dream?'

'No,' he shook his head vigorously, looking at me desperately. 'You couldn't do anything to stop them.'

'Yeah, but-'

'Ok, I can't lie to you. The truth is…well, Frank had pretty much the same dream. He saw you standing on deck, with monsters climbing aboard all around you. But it's different. You couldn't do anything to stop them.'

'Frank?'

'Look, we can tell the rest of the crew tomorrow, ok?' His arms pulled me closer, like he was scared. 'Nothing we can do about it now. Nothing even they could do, probably.'

I nodded again. This demigod stuff was more complicated than I thought. 'Valdez?'

'Yeah?'

'I'm scared.'

I felt him kiss the top of my head again. 'I'll be right by you in this whole thing. I promise.'

He promised. And before he told me he couldn't lie to me. Leo Valdez's good nature made me feel even worse about keeping something from him. Keeping something as big as Gabe from him.

I don't deserve him. I don't deserve him I don't deserve him I don't-

'Jen?'

'Yeah?' I snapped out of my thoughts, looking up into Leo's eyes. They looked almost glassy in this light.

'Goodnight,' he said, kissing my head. Warmth flew over me.

'Goodnight,' I said, reaching up to kiss his chin. It smelled like him.

And I fell asleep to the sound of the engine.

So. That happened.

Thoughts on the dream? On the way to break the curse? On anything in this chapter?

Hope that wasn't as cringeworthy for you as it was for me.

But yeah. I don't think I'll be able to update till Wednesday. Maybe not even then. I'll try my best though.

Please review! (Btw someone pointed something out to me in a review–you can review even if you don't have a fanfiction account! It'll just review as a guest.)

Peace out, fish trout.