I'm back after so long... I'm ashamed.

Guest:you mentioned that Leo is the same age as Percy and Annabeth, so he will have a bond with them instead of Piper and Jason. Well, I have a way around that, but you'll have to wait until the Last Olympian to find out. (I know- I'm evil)

Disclaimer: For the last time, I don't own anything. Why must you make me say it?

"Hello, Leo Valdez."

Leo almost screamed at the sudden sleepy voice that invaded his dreams, but he swallowed the yelp that made its way up his throat. After he did that, he focused on his surroundings and almost cried.

It was Camp Half-Blood after Gaea took over. Everyone of the seven except Leo, Hazel, and Frank were dead by that point, so they were the only ones to return to camp and in a way, Leo was grateful for that.

The cabins were burned to the ground. The bodies of the dead were sprawled across the smoldering grass and the Big House was still burning with red-hot flames. Chiron himself lay on the porch, burned into a barely recognizable mess covered with burns and without a doubt dead. Thalia's tree had been cut down to just a stump with puddles of blood and flakes of purple scales that had once been Peleus lay scattered around it.

Leo wanted to vomit, but he managed to stagger forwards and Hazel and Frank did the same as they began to gather up the dead to give them a proper burial.

As Leo turned over one body, Leo Valdez screamed, startling the other two demigods because Leo hadn't shown any emotion since Jason died all those months ago.

It was Harley Davids, his youngest brother, the kid that had looked up to him when he was at camp before the quest. His face was covered in bruises and his little body was broken with limbs twisted at odd angles and a sword jutting out of his gut.

"Harley," he sobbed.

"Leo," Hazel whispered, moving to place a hand on his shoulder, but before she could, a voice interrupted them.

"The poor child of Hephaestus... both of them, really. Harley, who's last prayer was that his big brother would save him and Leo Valdez, finding the body of his little brother on a field of blood and death," Gaea's voice made the earth tremble.

Leo looked up at the sky, now murky brown and green, and yelled at the top of his lungs, "I HATE YOU, GAEA! YOU GOT MY LITTLE BROTHER, MY FRIENDS, EVERYONE KILLED! I PROMISE YOU, I WILL DEFEAT YOU IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"

Leo's statement was said with such rage and truth that it even frightened the daughter of Pluto and the child of Mars.

Gaea chuckled. "Good luck with that, Leo Valdez. I think I'll let you suffer a little bit longer, but the other two are just getting in the way of completely and utterly breaking you."

The earth erupted in a cloud of dirt and mud and earth (solid chunks that smacked Leo in the head and broke a few of his bones).

When the air cleared, Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang were gone.

Leo awoke with a gasp and found himself almost cracking his forehead against Grover's.

"Woah, buddy!" The satyr yelped. "You slept through the night."

"And you kept watch the entire time. Trust me, I know from personal experience that going too long without sleep can cause bad things to happen," Leo said, remembering that time he stayed up all week working on the Argo II and nearly got his head taken off during sword fighting before passing out and getting locked in the Infirmary.

Grover smiled, feeling touched at how concerned this guy had been for him. "No, Percy, Annabeth, and I alternated, but you looked like you needed your rest, so we left you be."

"Thanks," Leo lied. He actually wished they had woken him up and interrupted his dream; out of everything, that was the thing he didn't want to remember most.

"Did you have a dream?" Grover asked, bluntly.

Damn it, he'd forgotten satyrs could read emotions!

"Yeah."

"What was it about?"

"Just... memories," Leo replied, vaguely. "Are the others up yet?"

Grover knew Leo didn't want to talk about it, so he didn't push him. "Not yet. I'm gonna wake up Annabeth and have her wake up Percy."

"Why her?"

"Percy's really cranky in the morning."

"Have Annabeth do it, then."

Grover laughed. "Agreed, brother. Here, help me wake up Annabeth."

Leo sat up to do so, but froze when he saw the sight before him.

"Poodle," he stated and sure enough, a bright pink poodle sat before him, situated with its paws upon the ground and his head rested atop them.

"Yap!" It barked happily and bounded over to hop into Leo's lap.

"He likes you," Grover stated the obvious. "Something about you having good character."

"Excuse me?" Leo asked, petting the poodle when it nudged him.

"Dogs are good judges of character, and apparently, you have good character," Grover explained.

"Well... thank you, Mr. Poodle, " Leo muttered. "How very kind of you to analyze my character," he said, sarcastically, a little weirded out that a satyr can read his emotions and a poodle can judge his character. What next? A cat that can smell his fear?

... Don't answer that.

"Oh, how rude of me," Grover said when the poodle yapped at him in irritation. "Leo, meet Gladiola. Gladiola, this is Leo Valdez."

"Hello," he greeted, a little hesitantly. "Why is Gladiola at our camp site?"

"I'll explain it to you after I wake the others up." Grover walked over to wake Annabeth.

She sat up and started rambling off questions. "Are there monsters? What time is it? Is Seaweed Brain still asleep? And why is there a poodle on Leo's lap?"

"One, there are no monsters," Leo began. "Two, it is..." he checked his watch, "8:33 AM on the dot. Three, yes, Percy is still asleep, and we need you to wake him up. And finally, this is Gladiola. By the way, you have way better attention than I do. It took me like five minutes to notice her-"

Gladiola yapped angrily.

"Him," Leo corrected. "Now, wake up Seaweed Brain and Grover will tell us why there is a poodle in our camp site."

Annabeth nodded, still staring at the poodle like it may turn into a monster and eat her.

Percy didn't mention that, so Leo prayed that would not happen.

Could that even happen? Probably, I mean with everything that happened during the war, nothing could really surprised Leo anymore.

He would never forget those little mischievous dwarves/monkeys (he still didn't know what they were) that pantsed him! Or that time he walked in on Jason singing the Superman theme song in the shower. That had been embarrassing for both of them.

"Leo?"

"Huh?" Leo looked up, and saw that his ADHD was acting up again because now, Percy was awake (looking very cranky with a bad case of bed head as Grover had promised) and Gladiola was yapping to get Leo's attention.

"Sorry, I'm back. What were we talking about again?" Leo asked.

"Why the poodle is here," Percy answered.

The poodle yelped.

"He has a name, Perce," Grover said.

"Okay, why Gladiola is here," Percy snapped. Wow, he is cranky. Then again, Leo had known that from his time on the Argo II with the son of the sea.

Grover explained that he'd come across Gladiola in the woods and they'd struck up a conversation. The poodle had run away from a rich local family, who'd posted a $200 reward for his return. Gladiola didn't really want to go back to his family, but he was willing to if it meant helping Grover.

"How does Gladiola know about the reward?" Percy asked.

"He read the signs," Grover said. "Duh."

"Of course," Percy said. "Silly me."

"So we turn in Gladiola," Annabeth explained in her best strategy voice, which Leo and future Percy called her 'Wise Girl' voice (behind her back of course; not even they were stupid enough to say that to her face). "We get money, and we buy tickets to Los Angeles. Simple."

"Not another bus," the raven haired boy said warily.

"No," Annabeth agreed.

She pointed downhill, toward train tracks Leo hadn't been able to see last night in the dark. "There's an Amtrak station half a mile that way. According to Gladiola, the west-bound train leaves at noon."

How'd you like chapter three? Review!

Trivia:

How old is Harley?