The trip was long and the demigods had to fight a large sum of monsters along the way, but finally they managed to get to the Empire State Building.

Percy shuffled his feet in the elevator, "You're sure your dad's gonna be here?"

"No," Leo replied, "But there's a very good chance he's on Olympus so this is our best bet of finding him."

Piper rested a hand on Leo's shoulder to comfort him. He'd been acting differently lately. They all were different, each grieving for Hazel and Jason in their own ways, but Leo was acting even more closed off and serious than any of them expected.

They waited awkwardly, listening to the music. A cover of It's Tough to Be a God played and they all recognized the voice to be Apollo's. Percy rolled his eyes, "Those gods have got it so hard don't they. It must be real tough sending demigods to do all their work for them."

Annabeth face-palmed as the door opened and they were met with Hephaestus, who frowned at them.

"Were you thrown off a cliff as a baby?" the god asked, giving Percy a glare.

"No sir," Percy said quietly, looking down to hide the grin plastered on his face.

"In that case I'll have you know that I was, in fact, tossed off a cliff, so I do, in fact, 'have it tough'."

Annabeth patted Percy's shoulder in a comforting way and smiled at Leo's dad.

"Mr. Hephaestus," she began, "You said you had a time travel device?"

The god nodded, "Yes. I'd like Leo to come in with me and we can look at it."

Frank noticed Hephaestus giving Leo a long and thoughtful look. The mechanic gulped and nodded.

"Sì," he said, "I can go with Hephaestus. Then we can go save Jason and Hazel." He looked at his dad meaningfully, "Just give me a moment with them."

Hephaestus shrugged, and walked away.

"Is something wrong?" Piper asked, "You seem…"

"Distant," Frank said.

Leo shook his head quickly, "No, no! I'm fine! Everything's fine! Just nervous about if the machine will work is all."

Annabeth left Percy's side to give Leo a hug, "You're incredibly talented and I know you and your father can work the time machine. And we'll all be here to help you, Leo. Once we're in the past, you won't be the only one working to rescue our friends."

"Of course," Leo said with a weak smile.

"We can share the responsibility," Frank continued.

"I know," Leo replied, "I should probably go now. My old man and I got some stuff to do now."

He turned to leave but was stopped when Piper grabbed his arm. She leaned forward to whisper in his ear, "Stay safe, Leo."

Piper let go with a smile and waved at Leo. "See you later!"

He gave her one last look before running off to his father. As soon as they walked out of view, Leo buried his face in his arm and sobbed. Piper knew his plan. Maybe she didn't know all the risks, but she still was supporting him. She had faith that he would make the right decisions once he went back to the beginning.

"Dang it, Pipes. You know me too well," he half cried, half laughed.

Once he was done, Leo looked up at Hephaestus, "Well, where's the blueprints? We want to get this thing built as soon as possible."