I'm back! Sorry, but I went to Washington D.C over the weekend and my teachers have been piling work on us for a while, so... then, there's exams next week. I'll try to update, but I apologize if they're slower than usual for a few weeks.
WARNINGS: LANGUAGE; AWFUL NIGHTMARE THAT INVOLVES CHARACTER DEATH
I also did get the idea of Jason's death from NBrokenShacklesN, but there are some distinct differences, but I thank him/her for the inspiration.
Disclaimer: I own nada.
"What the hell happened to you?" Percy demanded. "After I fell, the mortals came down, but you didn't!"
"We thought you went to Hades the hard way," Grover added.
Leo sighed. "It looks like I just made a dangerous enemy," he said before launching into the story on what happened after Percy fell: Echidna recognizing him as her enemy; the Manicores appearing; Leo just barely being able to defeat them. The only thing he didn't tell them was about his fire, saying instead that he got lucky with the Manicores; he wasn't ready for them to know yet.
Annabeth was in awe. "You defeated three Manicores? But that's, like, impossible!"
Leo shrugged. "It actually wasn't that hard; the Manicores were not on top of their game today."
"Yeah, but-"
Before Annabeth could finish that sentence, Leo's adrenaline vanished and the exhaustion caught up with him quickly.
"Shoot, Leo, sit down. You look like you're about to pass out," Grover stated, concerned.
Leo obliged, literally collapsing into a train seat and trying to rid himself of the dizziness. "I guess I used too much energy fighting those things."
Annabeth nodded. "Fighting one Manicore would take almost every ounce of energy you had. Fighting three? I can only imagine."
Leo nodded. "Would you guys mind if I slept for a bit? I'll answer all your questions when I wake up."
The trio nodded, but Leo was already fast asleep.
Then, as if thinking with one mind, the Lightning Thief Trio said in unison, "There's something he's not telling us."
He was standing on a battlefield, the grass charred and blackened beneath his feet. The world was up in flames, fire spreading from building to building at an impossible speed.
But the worst of all was Jason.
Jason was lying on the ground at his feet, his blood splattered all over the ground and Leo's clothes. Jason's limbs were spread out at odd angles, and an arrow jutted out of his gut. His eyes were wide open and empty... dead.
"J-Jason," Leo stammered, falling to his knees beside his best friend.
He remembered Jason's death very clearly. Jason had been flying over the army with explosives that he lobbed down at the monsters. Leo had been at the ship with Piper and Annabeth; Annabeth had been keeping them aloft while he worked the cannons and Piper stood guard, cutting down any monster that got too close to the ship.
He'd been the only one to see it. Annabeth had been busy trying to operate the ship; Piper had been battling some kind of flying beast; and all the others had monsters of their own to worry about.
Some monster had shot an arrow at Jason, who hadn't seen it due to cutting down some kind of bat- thing that Leo didn't recognize. The arrow buried itself in Jason's ribcage.
"JASON!" Leo screamed as his best friend fell through the air. A CRACK! rang through the air as Jason hit the ground, and laughter spread among the monsters while Piper screamed in agony.
None of them saw the body. None of them wanted to, and now, here he was. It was worse than Leo imagined.
He cradled Jason's head in his lap. "It's not real, it's not real, it's not real," he whispered, hysterically.
"All your fault," a voice said. Piper was standing over him with her dead, glazed over eyes- the emptiness that came after her boyfriend's death.
"N-No, Piper, it's not."
"Yes, it is. You should've been more careful, should've saved him," she muttered in a broken, hysterical voice.
"N-No. No, Piper, I'm sorry. I tried. I'm sorry," he sobbed. "Please, forgive me."
"Only Fate can forgive you now, little one." The ground shook as the voice reverberated through it.
"Dirt Woman," Leo hissed. "Leave us alone, bitch!"
"You shall burn in hell!"
The ground split open, and skeletal hands of decayed bodies reached towards him. He recognized a few of the graying faces that glowered out at him. Annabeth... Percy... Frank... Hazel...
"Your fault... your fault... BURN IN HELL, MURDERER!"
"NO!"
Leo jolted awake so fast that he didn't see Grover until his forehead clashed with the satyr's.
"Oh, gods!" Grover muttered, stumbling back. "Geesh, that hurt."
"Sorry, Grover. You alright?"
"Yeah. I don't think I have a concussion, so..."
"Oh, come on, my head is not that hard. Besides, it's hollow. There's nothing up there," Leo joked.
Grover rolled his eyes before he adapted his concerned look. "What were you dreaming about?"
"Oh, nothing. Just... a past monster attack gone wrong."
"Can a monster attack go right?" Grover snorted.
Leo smiled, sadly at him. "It can when everyone gets out alive."
A pregnant pause descended upon the compartment.
"Leo, I'm sorry," Annabeth said, making Leo jump, as he hadn't noticed her or Percy during the conversation.
"It's okay. It was a long time ago." Yeah, four bloody years in the future!
"Who were they... if you don't mind me asking?" Percy said.
"Just some friends. A daughter of Aphrodite and an undetermined child. Good fighters, but in the end, it wasn't enough."
Nobody said anything. Is there really anything they could say?
"Come on, we're rolling into Denver," Leo said, pointing out the window, before standing up to exit the compartment.
The trio exchanged glances, but they decided to wait until after the quest to ask questions. They couldn't afford distractions right now.
"Let's try to contact Chiron," Annabeth said. "I want to tell him about your talk with the river spirit."
The trio had told Leo all about the river spirit (although he already knew). It made him think of the time his dad sent an automation to speak with him when he, Piper, and Percy got separated on a mini quest that occurred after Jason's death but before Percy and Annabeth's. Now, that was an interesting event.
"We can't use phones, right?" The son of Poseidon asked.
"I'm not talking about phones."
The four of them walked downtown until they stumbled across a do it yourself car wash. While keeping their eyes open for patrol cars, Annabeth lead them into the stall farthest from the street.
"What exactly are we doing?" Percy asked, as Grover took out the spray gun.
"It's seventy-five cents," he grumbled. "I've only got two quarters left. Annabeth?"
"Don't look at me," she said. "The dining car wiped me out."
Leo reached into his pocket and handed Grover a quarter. Being on the run, Leo had learned how to save his money, and he had fifty dollars and dozens of coins he'd saved before running away from his past foster home. He would've gladly paid for food, but he was knocked out when Annabeth bought lunch.
"Excellent," Grover said. "We could do it with a spray bottle, of course, but the connection isn't as good, and my arm gets tired of pumping."
"What are you talking about?" Percy asked.
Grover fed in the quarters and set the knob to FINE MIST. "I-M'ing."
"Instant messaging?"
"Iris-messaging," Annabeth corrected. "The rainbow goddess Iris carries messages for the gods. If you know how to ask, and she's not too busy, she'll do the same for half-bloods."
"You summon the goddess with a spray gun?"
Grover pointed the nozzle in the air and water hissed out in a thick white mist. "Unless you know an easier way to make a rainbow."
Sure enough, late afternoon light filtered through the vapor and broke into colors.
Annabeth held her palm out to Percy. "Drachma, please."
The son of the sea handed her the golden coin, and she tossed it into the mist.
"Oh, goddess, accept our offering," Annabeth chanted. "Half Blood Hill."
For a moment, nothing happened, but then, he appeared.
Leo recognized him from a picture on Annabeth's cabin wall back on the Argo II. He was tall and muscular with tan skin and short blonde hair. He wore an orange camp shirt and shorts, and a sword was latched to his belt. If Leo didn't know any better, he's have mistaken him for Jason, but Jason's eyes were an electric blue while this guy's eyes were shards of sky. Jason also didn't have an ugly scar running down the side of his face.
Leo knew it without an ounce of doubt. He was staring at Luke Castellon, the hero turned villian turned back to hero.
Leo had only met Luke once (as weird as that sounded). He'd met his ghost when Nico had summoned a ghost army, and Luke, along with Leo's half brother Beckendorf, Jason, Connor Stoll (who died during battle), and numerous others, had volunteered to fight among them. The battle had been bloody, and that was all that Leo really remembered. He didn't want to remember the rest.
"Luke!" Percy called in surprise.
"Percy!" His scarred face broke into a grin. "Is that Annabeth, too? Thank the gods! Are you guys okay?"
"We're ... uh ... fine," Annabeth stammered. She was madly straightening her dirty T-shirt, trying to comb the loose hair out of her face. "We thought-Chiron-I mean-"
"He's down at the cabins." Luke's smile faded. "We're having some issues with the campers. Listen, is everything cool with you? Is Grover all right?"
"I'm right here," Grover called. He held the nozzle out to one side and stepped into Luke's line of vision. "What kind of issues?"
Luke opened his mouth to explain, but then, he noticed Leo. "Who is-"
"Oh, where are our manners?" Annabeth said.
"Probably back at the St. Louis Arch," Leo interrupted. "I'm Leo, Leo Valdez, child of Hephaestus. We kind of ran into each other, and long story short, I became part of the quest. And you are?"
"Luke, Luke Castellon, child of Hermes, but- what's that noise?"
Sure enough, a big Lincoln Continental pulled into the car wash with its stereo turned to maximum hip-hop. As the car slid into the next stall, the bass from the subwoofers vibrated so much, it shook the pavement.
"I'll take care of it.'" Annabeth yelled back, looking very relieved to have an excuse to get out of sight.
"Grover, come on!
"What?" Grover said. "But-"
"Give Percy the nozzle and come on!" she ordered.
Grover muttered something about girls being harder to understand than the Oracle at Delphi, then he handed Percy the spray gun and followed Annabeth.
Percy readjusted the hose so he could keep the rainbow going and still see Luke.
"Chiron had to break up a fight," Luke shouted to the two demigods over the music. "Things are pretty tense here, Percy. Word leaked out about the Zeus-Poseidon standoff. We're still not sure how-probably the same scumbag who summoned the hellhound. Now the campers are starting to take sides. It's shaping up like the Trojan War all over again. Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo are backing Poseidon, more or less. Athena is backing Zeus."
In the next stall, Leo heard Annabeth and some guy arguing with each other, then the music's volume decreased drastically.
"So what's your status?" Luke asked the pair. "Chiron will be sorry he missed you."
Percy and Leo told him pretty much everything, including Percy's dreams and how Leo had joined the quest and defeated the Manicores. Leo wished that Percy had left some of those parts out because now, Luke was staring at him with that somewhat impressed, somewhat suspicious and somewhat mischievous look, like he was planning something. Damn it, Leo had wanted to stay out of Luke's bad books. He hadn't wanted to look like a threat.
"Hide your strengths until you need them," Annabeth had told him way back when he was building the Argo.
Leo was relieved when the beeper went off, signifying the goodbye about to be made.
"I wish I could be there," Luke told them. "We can't help much from here, I'm afraid, but listen ... it had to be Hades who took the master bolt. He was there at Olympus at the winter solstice. I was chaperoning a field trip and we saw him."
"But Chiron said the gods can't take each other's magic items directly."
"That's true," Luke said, looking troubled. "Still ... Hades has the helm of darkness. How could anybody else sneak into the throne room and steal the master bolt? You'd have to be invisible."
The trio was silent, until Luke seemed to realize what he'd said.
"Oh, hey," he protested. "I didn't mean Annabeth. She and I have known each other forever. She would never ... I mean, she's like a little sister to me."
In the stall next to them, the music stopped completely. A man screamed in terror, car doors slammed, and the Lincoln peeled out of the car wash.
Leo snickered. "Just like Piper."
Percy looked at him, weirdly, and Leo clamped his mouth shut. Please, don't ask.
In that moment, Leo was grateful for Luke because he interrupted what would've been a very awkward conversation.
"You'd better go see what that was," Luke said. "Listen, are you wearing the flying shoes? I'll feel better if I know they've done you some good."
"Oh ... uh, yeah!" Percy lied. "Yeah, they've come in handy."
"Really?" He grinned. "They fit and everything?"
The water shut off. The mist started to evaporate.
"Well, take care of yourself out there in Denver," Luke called, his voice getting fainter. "And tell Grover it'll be better this time! Nobody will get turned into a pine tree if he just-"
But the mist was gone, and Luke's image faded to nothing.
Annabeth and Grover came around the corner, laughing, but stopped when they saw Percy's face.
Annabeth's smile faded. "What happened, Percy? What did Luke say?"
"Not much," Percy lied. "Come on, let's find some dinner."
What did you think? Over 2,530 words total! Wow, I think it was worth the wait, and just wait until they meet Ares.. *rubs hands together and snickers. Whispers, "and the real torture begins"*
You weren't supposed to hear that. Whoops.
Bye!