Hey, guys guys guys! Guess what? I now have over 100,000 words in this fanfic! *happy dance* I'm so proud of myself. And you guys, too, because you're the ones who kept me going all this time.

Leoiscool: Gods, I'm scared now. It's like you stole my idea notebook. ;)

Rajell Cellar (guest): I'm pretty sure I'll finish before the actual Blood of Olympus comes out, but if I don't, yeah, I'll continue.

Smile (guest): Thanks again for the review, and all the super nice compliments. Glad you like it.

Leessa13 (guest): Wow, Uruguay? Really? That's so awesome; I feel all accomplished now. Anyway, thanks for the review and compliments!

drinkingthestarswithbob: Yes! Yes, you should! Are you planning on updating soon, cuz I can't wait much longer! :)

Divergent-R-Us (guest): Yeah, that would be really cool. I wonder if there is a spot like that? And thanks for the ideas, they're really great!

Reese123: Awww, thanks. Your review made me smile. But, you know, his will probably end up being the total opposite of mine. And I doubt he'll have Calypso POVs...sorry, I can't accept compliments like that easily. I always feel weird and try to deny them.

On to the chapter, now.

Chapter LV

Leo

Leo didn't mean to dump all his problems on Annabeth, but as he finds himself telling her his worries, his fears about finding Ogygia again, he has to admit he feels a lot better. It feels as if a huge weight has been lifted off his chest. He doesn't have to carry his secret alone anymore.

Every once in a while, Annabeth touches his shoulder reassuringly, and she never takes her eyes off him. She continues to listen attentatively to every word he has to say, her eyes full of sympathy.

When he finally finishes and just sits there in silence, rubbing his eyes, she squeezes his shoulder reassuringly.

"Oh, Leo..." She starts. "I-I can't believe you were carrying this around on your own. Why didn't you tell us?"

"At first, I just...didn't want to talk about it. But then, it became more because I thought everyone would tell me that it was impossible, that I wasn't going to be able to do it. And I couldn't face that, not when I'm already..." He trails off, looking down at the papers on his table.

"Already what, Leo?" Annabeth prompts gently.

"Already having trouble keeping hope." He mutters quietly. "I don't know if I'll even survive the war yet, let alone be able to rebuild Festus and find a way back to Ogygia. I know no one's ever found it twice. I know I'm probably stupid to try. But I didn't need anyone telling me that." He looks up at her, desperately searching for some hope, some assurance that he wouldn't fail. "And I'm the first one who ever went to her island without already having someone else, I'm the first to fall in love with her and be willing to try and get back to her...so that has to mean something, doesn't it?"

"Leo, you will survive the war. You will rebuild Festus. And you'll find her, and you'll free her. I'll help you." She tells him, and he feels like he used to whenever his mom gave him a hug-completely sure. Sure that there was someone out there who cared for him, and that they would always be there for him.

"How can you be so sure?" He asks her, as his confidence starts to waver again.

"Because I know you, Leo." She says simply. "And I know you won't stop until you do free her." They share a long look, where lots of things pass between them-but Leo is assured most of all because of the steely determination he sees in Annabeth's gray eyes.

"Thanks, Annabeth." He tells her, completely sincerely.

"You're welcome." She replies briskly. "Now, let me see that astrolabe."

Leo hands it to her obligingly, and she proceeds to look it over, studying it intently from every angle. "I already repaired what I could find wrong with it. Some of the pieces were loose or had broken off completely-I replaced the missing ones and tightened the others. And I polished it and re-etched the markings, sicne they were kind of faded..."

She glances up at him. "And you still can't get it to work?"

He shakes his head. "No. And I can't figure out what else could be wrong with it." He hears his frustration creep into his voice, but he doesn't care. It's so irritating for him not to be able to fix something, when all his life, that's been the one thing he's always been good at.

Annabeth's brow furrows in concentration, and it seems to him that she stares at the astrolabe for ages, but finally, she looks up, her eyes filled with puzzlement. "I can't find anything either." She sounds just as frustrated as him.

Leo can't help but feel disappointed-he already knew that she was unlikely to find something if he hadn't himself, but he couldn't help but hope.

Annabeth sets the astrolabe back down on the table. "Well, we can work on that more later. In the meantime, what else have you been working on? You said you were going to rebuild Festus. Any blueprints or plans for that yet?"

"Well..." He digs through his papers and pulls out one of the piles-his main blueprints for Festus and then more detailed versions of specific parts. The control disk, for example, and the gears and special features inside his body.

Annabeth pores over them as if they were a particularly interesting book-who knows, maybe blueprints to her are like books. After she's finished looking over all of them, she grabs her pencil, taps the eraser thoughtfully against her chin, and then starts scribbling.

Leo watches her in growing amazement, occasionally commenting things like, "That's genius" and "Why didn't I think of that?" Annabeth, for the most part, ignores him.

Eventually, she starts scribbling less often, slowing down the speed of her writing, and instead starts to just look over the papers again, checking everything that she already has, Leo assumes.

"Why do you have such a complicated process for heating the metal? Couldn't you just do it the normal way? It'd take less time." Annabeth asks.

Leo looks at the part she's referring to. "Yeah, it'd take less time, but if I heat it this way," he taps the paper with his pencil, "then the metal will be lighter, thinner-but stronger, too."

"Is that necessary?" Annabeth asks, cocking her head to the side like a curious owl.

"Not really, no, but I wanted to do it in case he has to land in the water. That way, he won't immediately sink to the bottom. And he'll be able to get up into the air again with almost no trouble." Leo points out.

Annabeth nods. "Yeah, I can see how that might come in handy, especially since you're going to be searching for an island..." Her eyes scan the page again, and then she flips to the next one. "What about this? It's the control disk, right?"

"Yeah. That's my main worry right now. It's what caused him to go crazy while he was at the camp-and when he crash-landed, the circuitry was almost completely fried. I've been using the Archimedes' Sphere and his scrolls to work on it, but I still have no idea how Festus' creator originally made it. And without the original blueprints, I'm going to have to pretty much make it from scratch. All I have to go off of is his old control disk, which isn't much use, since it's so far beyond repair." Leo explains to her.

"This is seriously complicated." Annabeth comments, still looking at the page.

"Tell me about it." Leo grumbles.

"It looks pretty good so far, though." She adds. "Although you might want to add a few things to keep it from getting fried again."

"I'd been wondering how to do that, actually." Leo admits.

"Well, use both metals-Celestial bronze and Imperial Gold-that should help reinforce it a bit..." She squints at the paper. "Although from what Jason's said, Imperial gold can be really sensitive-if it cracked, it might make the whole thing explode."

"If I use it more as reinforcement-thin bands in certain places-it should tone down the danger, even if it doesn't eliminate it completely." Leo points out.

"That could work...Wow, this circuitry really is crazy complicated." She closes her eyes and then opens them wide again. "And my stupid dyslexia is making it worse." She grumbles.

"You have dyslexia?" Leo asks. He could barely imagine Annabeth having trouble reading; she did it all the time. Of course, pretty much all of her books were in Ancient Greek, so he supposes that probably helps...

She looks up. "Yeah. You do too, don't you?"

Leo shifts uncomfortably. "Yeah. But since we're dealing with machinery, mechanics, that's usually enough to keep my brain calm enough to be able to deal with all the complicated stuff."

"Makes sense, since your dad's Hephaestus." Her eyes brighten suddenly, and she sits up straighter in her chair. "Hey, Leo, could your dad have a copy of the original blueprints?"

"I dunno. He might." Leo admits. He never really thought about the possibility before.

"Would he give them to you if he did?" She asks.

"Maybe if I asked. But since I'm guessing he's just as schizophrenic as all the other gods, I can't exactly ask him now." He tells her.

She waves her hand through the air dismissively. "No, not now. It wouldn't do you much good now anyway, you have a bunch of other things you're working on. You probably wouldn't have a lot of time to study them as carefully as you need to. But later, when we got back-do you think he might give them to you then?"

"If he has them. But even then, I'm not sure why he would." Leo says.

"You're his son, why wouldn't he? Besides, you're one of the Seven, and he's talked to you, hasn't he? Most of your siblings never even get to see him. That has to mean something." She points out.

"I guess." Leo agrees reluctantly. He doesn't really like talking about his father; it's kind of a sore subject. "Wait..." He remembers something. "He might actually want to help, since it's for Calypso. She mentioned that he was one of the gods that visited her from time to time."

Annabeth smiles triumphantly. "See, Leo? He'll be happy to help you."

Leo smiles back, but it fades slowly as another thought comes to him, one that fills him with dread. "Hey, Annabeth?"

"Yeah, Leo?" She doesn't seem to notice anything's wrong; she's already looking back through his blueprints of Festus.

"Please...don't tell Percy, okay?" He pleads, his voice filled with desperation. She looks up then, a curious look on her face, but when she looks into his eyes, she seems to understand. Her expression softens.

"Leo, he would help you too. You two might not exactly be best buddies, but we're all in this together-now, and afterwards. You can't do everything we've done together and not feel close to each other-and trust me, Leo, that extends to after the quest as well. How do you think Percy and I got so close?" She tells him. He just looks at her pleadingly, and she sighs. "But if you don't want me to, Leo, I won't. I promise. But if you're worried about his reaction, he'd be happy for you-and for Calypso too."

"It's not his reaction I'm worried about." Leo mutters. He didn't mean for Annabeth to hear, but she does anyway.

"It wasn't his fault he had to leave Ogygia. If he had stayed, a lot of people would have died. We probably wouldn't be where we are now. And even though he only ever talked to me about it once, I know it's one of the things he's always felt the most guilty about. His biggest what if. And he also told me that she was one of the reasons he asked for what he did after the Second Titan War." Annabeth says.

Leo doesn't reply. He knows Percy had his reasons for leaving Calypso-good ones. But he can't help the anger that bubbles up inside him every time he thinks of how Percy abandoned her.

"I won't tell him, Leo." Annabeth promises. "But you should."

Leo is spared from having to reply by the alarms, which ring shrilly throughout the ship.

Annabeth sighs. "Great."

"Monsters?" Leo guesses.

"What else?" She asks. She stands up and draws her sword, and Leo follows suit, pulling a hammer from his tool belt.

Then, together, they charge up the stairs to save the day. Just your typical activity to strengthen a friendship-right up there with slumber parties and marshmallow roasting.

I am disappointed in how this chapter turned out. But hey, this means next chapter has some action on the Argo-and then we finally get back to the boys.