Author's Note:
Sorry it took me SO long to update! I was on vacation and didn't have enough of an internet connection to write. But thank you for your patience, and here is the next chapter!
Ugh. I hate nightmares. Was Leo's first thought when he realized he was dreaming. It was a very warm, dimly lit room that was filled with hazy smoke.
"Good thing this ain't a nightmare then."
Leo almost didn't recognize Hephaestus at first. It was no surprise really. Gods almost never visited their kids. Hephaestus was no different.
"Yeah, yeah. I know what you're probably thinking and I don't wanna hear it, Leo," the god sighed, limping over to his son. "Anyway, I bet you're wondering why I brought you to my workshop."
"That's a good bet," Leo said stiffly. Even if it was his dad, gods were still dangerous. He didn't want to say anything that would cause more trouble than he'd already cause.
"It's 'cause we've been doing some experiments since the Titan War. You know Kronos?"
"I didn't know him, but Percy told us he wasn't a very great guy. Ate his children and started wars, or something like that," Leo answered. He, of course, knew exactly who Kronos was. But it wasn't like anyone actually expected him to know anyway. Leo was the funny kid. Not the smart one.
Hephaestus huffed, "Yeah, well I was one of those people he ate 'or something'."
The god guided Leo to a table in the workshop, which was covered in blueprints. "Let's see," he said, flipping through the pages until he found the right one. "Well, Kronos had a lot of control over "time" and Athena and I did a lot of studying and we may have found out a way to temporarily undo a certain stamp of time. Since we really need you heroes on this quest, all seven of you that it, we thought-"
"You can reverse time so the crash never happened in the first place!" Leo cried, tears of relief and excitement forming in his eyes.
"...Yes," Hephaestus answered, sad that his big reveal was interrupted, "But it's dangerous. Zeus doesn't approve, so you'd be going against him, technically, but with reversing time, he'd never even know we did it. The only person who will remember is you. The person who uses this device."
"So it won't be a problem then!" Leo figured, "That's amazing! We need to build this right now!"
"It's already started, but there is a downside to this method."
Leo put his hands on his hips. Of course there was a downside. "Which is?"
"Well, the Fates," Hephaestus started to explain, "They already cut both Jason and Hazel's strings. Both of them are technically dead."
The short boy bit his lip. "And I'm constantly being reminded of this."
"Oh," Hephaestus waved his hands to stop Leo from overthinking it, "It's not that! It's just that, the Fates are probably going to try and cut your thread instead."
"So…" Leo squeaked, "I'll die?"
"That just about sums it up! But of course, right now as you dream, you're also falling from the sky, so you'll probably die either way unless your friends manage to save you now."
As he stared at his father, Leo's brain was turning fast as he brainstormed what to do.
"How long until the Fates cut my string?" he inquired.
Hephaestus shrugged, "Could be any amount of time really. No way of knowing for sure."
Leo nodded nervously. "All right."
Was it worth it? Trading his life for Hazel and Jason back? He'd just be turning that 50 percent chance he'd die for the prophecy into a 100.
"I'll do it." Leo said confidently, "Let's go back to the future."
Hephaestus gave him a significant look. "Don't."
"Alright, fine," Leo chuckled anxiously, "Cause if I'm dying those aren't going to be my last words."
Before you review something like "I thought you weren't going to kill any more of the Seven?" or "Oh no Leo!" just remember that (Blood of Olympus spoilers duh) does actually die. This is just kinda tying into the canon story a little bit.
Thanks for reading! -Apollo
