Weirdhead: It definitely has a lot of potential I think- especially since Octavian would have been exposed to Percy since childhood and I'm a strong believer that how someone grows up impacts who they become.
The Official Clarisse: Ah yes, it begins! And I shall count your vote.
Undeath9087: Yep, all because Piper didn't break her ankle. Still, they're not totally out of danger yet. I've counted your vote, and I just love making people wonder what's gonna happen- you have to wait a good few chapters yet though.
Guest: So I wish I could address everything but there'd be so many spoilers so I have to watch what I say! As for your questions about the different options, with Option 2 Percy and Octavian would purely be friends, and as I've said in other answers, Octavian would be a better person than in cannon, the name thing is stuff I still have to figure out but I appreciate all of your points. Also, Bianca already left the hunt after the war, partially out of guilt for delaying her dad and partially because she realised that she needed to figure things out herself.
Guest2: Your vote's been counted. And I have ideas as to how the two camps would meet. And I get what you're saying though in the AU Octavian and Percy would have known each other from a very young age- I'm of the belief that a lot of his personality would have been formed in childhood- he'd have a different childhood. After all Luke in the books is very much not a nice guy, in my AU he's awesome and a genuinely good person.
Black' Victor Cachat: Yep, and it makes their friendship that bit stronger- that level of trust.

Poll:
Option 1: 2
Option 2: 1

Leo hadn't taken long to find his beloved dragon, but he would have been much happier if Festus hadn't landed on porta-potties- he'd known what had happened but still, gross.

Though it wasn't quite so bad as he'd been expecting- they didn't seem to have been used in a long time, and the fireball from the crash incinerated most of the contents; but still, there were some pretty gross chemicals leaking out of the wreckage. Leo had to pick his way through and try not to breathe through his nose. Heavy snow was coming down, but the dragon's hide was still steaming hot. Of course, that didn't bother Leo.

He pressed his lips together into a thin line as he examined his dragon- he seemed to all be in one piece, which was good. There wasn't even a dent which meant that the fireball explosion had probably been from the pent up gasses inside of the toilet units and not from Festus himself, but that didn't answer the obvious question, which he really wanted answered.

What in Hades name had happened and why had his dragon malfunctioned so badly mid-flight? It didn't make any sense to him- Festus was in perfect working order. He certainly shouldn't have just conked out like that and Leo was determined to find out what had gone wrong.

He pressed his lips together into a thin line as he clambered up to Festus head and carefully opened the control panel- after all with no visible sign of why things had gone wrong, checking that would be his next best bet of getting answers.

And get answers he did. Instantly.

The wiring had frozen over. And Leo knew, he knew for a fact that it had been okay before- he took care of Festus, he was careful with him, but something had caused a flash freeze inside the dragon's skull, where it should've been too hot for ice to form. The ice had caused the wiring to overload and char the control disk.

And Leo was not stupid- not even remotely- his fingers curled into fists and he let out a low snarl- there was no way it was a coincidence- it had to be Khione- it couldn't have happened naturally, it just wasn't possible, so that meant that someone had done it to his dragon and the only person with motive and the ability to do that was Khione.

He stepped back slightly, taking a deep breath as he did, letting his fire flare up around himself- thank the gods for his fireproof clothes, maybe it was kind of stupid but it always felt good burning when he was angry- even if it was only for a minute or so- as it was this time since he let the flames flicker away as he leaned in closer to the dragon, running his fingers over the still hot metal. "It's gonna be okay buddy." he mumbled the words as he looked at the control disk, "Everything is going to be fine- gods I should have brought the spare but I didn't think to grab it. Remind me to fireball that bitch for this if we see her again okay?" he carefully examined the damaged disk. He could replace the wires. That wasn't the problem. But the charred control disk was not good. The Greek letters and pictures carved around the edges, which held all kinds of magic, were blurred and blackened.

Back at camp that would have been an annoyance- but it would have been a manageable one, Lou Ellen was an expert these days- the only demigod child of Hecate that would have been able to beat her when it came to magic had been Alabaster, and he was dead now and good riddance to him. She'd have been able to reapply the magics easily enough. As it was he was going to have to hope they weren't damaged. And it really, really didn't help that he had to work without his right hand right now, as much as he could anyway.

Well, at least he had his toolbelt- he would forever be grateful to his siblings for that little gift before his first quest. "Right," he muttered, brushing the snow off his shoulders with his uninjured arm

"Gimme a nylon bristle detail brush, some nitrile gloves, and maybe a can of that aerosol cleaning solvent. "

The tool belt obliged. Leo couldn't help smiling as he pulled out the supplies. He remembered giggling with Percy when they'd tested it- when she'd declared that it was totally like the Tardis or Hermione's bag in Harry potter.

And Leo had teased her for that- which had worked right up to the part where she'd pointed out that he was just as much of a secret nerd as she was because he'd understood the references.

As he let himself remember less stressful times he began cleaning off the control disk. While he worked, snow collected on the cooling dragon. Leo had to stop from time to time to summon fire and melt it away, but mostly he went into autopilot mode, his hands working by themselves as his thoughts wandered.

He wasn't sure how long he'd been working on the control disk when he let out a frustrated huff, "Useless. So much for being important Valdez-" he didn't really mean it of course, he was just frustrated- it wasn't an easy job, fixing the control disk, and he'd been so stupid to forget to bring the spare. "What good are you if you don't even remember the spare control disk-"

"You're wrong, Leo." the voice made Leo tense, his eyes going wide- he'd heard it before, it was painfully familiar.

He fumbled his brush and dropped it into the dragon's head. He stood, but he couldn't see who'd spoken. Then he looked at the ground. Snow and chemical sludge from the toilets, even the asphalt itself was shifting like it was turning to liquid. A ten-foot-wide area formed eyes, a nose, and a mouth—the giant face of a sleeping woman.

She didn't exactly speak. Her lips didn't move. But Leo could hear her voice in his head, as if the vibrations were coming through the ground, straight into his feet and resonating up his skeleton.

"They need you desperately," she said. In some ways, you are the most important of the seven—like the control disk in the dragon's brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing. They will never reach me, never stop me. And I will fully wake."

Leo's eyes narrowed, his fingers curling into fists as he gritted his teeth, "You're her. You're Gaea. You murdered my mom you- it was you that day it was your fault- I blamed myself for years until Percy and- and it was you it was your fault you did that because you thought it would break me but it didn't I'm stronger than that I'm too strong for you."

The face shifted. The mouth formed a sleepy smile like it was having a pleasant dream. "Ah, but Leo. I am your mother too—the First Mother. Do not oppose me. Walk away now. Let my son Porphyrion rise and become king, and I will ease your burdens. You will tread lightly on the earth."

"I don't want to tread lightly." Leo grabbed the closest thing he could find, a porta-potty seat, gripping it tightly, his hands bursting into flames, "I want to watch you burn! Now leave me the fuck alone!" he threw the seat at the face- and it was burning even as he did, and the toilet seat sank into the liquid earth. Snow and sludge rippled, and the face dissolved.

Leo stared at the ground, waiting for the face to reappear, his heart pounding in his chest.

And not for the first time he wished he had his family- had Luke or Annabeth- they were the leaders- hell even Nico would have been a comfort at this stage- and gods but he wished he could see Calypso- he missed her more than he had the words to say.

And he wished he had Percy- his big sister- he loved all of his siblings of course but- well, Percy had been different, all of them knew that, she was the glue that held their family together. If she was here now she'd know what to say- and she'd have probably found a way to kick the crap into the stupid mud face of Queen Dirtface- and she'd be high fiving him for the whole Queen Dirtface thing. He found himself smiling sadly at that thought. He loved her so much and he missed her so much- he could go days without thinking about it usually and then it hit him all over again. But this quest was going to be very hard with the reminders.

He was, annoyingly enough, yanked out of those thoughts by a sound in the distance, coming from the direction of the factory.

Leo leapt to his feet, his eyes wide as the bellows of fury echoed across the yard.

He cursed loudly, that was not a human sounding noise- loud, deep and terrifying- he'd heard familiar noises- though he couldn't quite place what monster it actually was.

Piper and Jason were probably in trouble- gods he'd been stupid to leave them alone- but he'd needed a break and some air to think about the whole situation- it was so far above his pay grade. He didn't lead quests- he had to be responsible for Piper and Jason even if it was technically Jason's quest. And he had no clue how they were going to save Piper's dad and Hera, but he just knew that they had to try because that was what Percy or Annabeth or Luke would have done.

And now, now he had to try and rescue Jason and Piper from the gods only knew what- except- his eyes narrowed as he stared towards the factory, was that- he raised his hand, holding it so that his eyes were shielded from the sun as he peered towards the factory- to be more specific the air above it- and his mouth dropped open in shock what he saw- that was Jason and Piper, Jason was flying them up into the air, clearly escaping from whatever was making the bellowing noise.

Leo would have taken a moment to consider what to do- if it wasn't for the fact that there was a scraping crunching noise of grinding metal and Leo winced as he saw the huge metal doors that led into the factory bending and then getting torn away entirely- and okay that did not look good- and it looked even less good when three very very big and scary looking Cyclopes's.

They were a lot bigger than Tyson- and a lot scarier, the two smaller ones were each ten feet tall, with hairy muscular bodies. One of the monsters wore a chain mail loincloth that looked really uncomfortable. The other wore a ragged fuzzy toga made of fiberglass insulation, which also would not have made Leo's top ten wardrobe ideas. Other than that, the two monsters could've been twins. Each had a brutish face with a single eye in the centre of his forehead.

The third was a female- she was several feet taller than the others, and even beefier. She wore a tent of chain mail cut like one of those sack dresses Leo's mean Aunt Rosa used to wear. What'd they call that—a muumuu? Yeah, the Cyclops lady had a chain mail muumuu. Her greasy black hair was matted in pigtails, woven with copper wires and metal washers. Her nose and mouth were thick and smashed together, like she spent her free time ramming her face into walls; but her single red eye glittered with evil intelligence, he could see that much even from this distance- they were currently distracted by Piper and Leo's getaway- but that wouldn't last for long, and Jason probably wouldn't be able to fly himself and Piper to safety, Leo could tell that while the winds were nowhere near as bad as they had been- another thing that made him think that it was Khione who had been responsible for Festus' flash freeze- they still weren't easy for Jason to control.

Leo moved quickly, scrambling back to Festus' open control panel- thankfully he'd just about finished with the control disk- it wasn't quite as perfect as he'd have liked but it was the best he'd be able to manage on the road so he'd done pretty good as far as he was concerned.

He quickly slotted it in place, muttering curses under his breath- it was tricky to do it quickly with only one arm, connecting it all up, and he only just stopped himself from letting out a whoop of victory when he pulled down the cover of the hatch, securing it- and then he felt Festus coming to live, the soft rumble of the machinery as he scrambled back down to the front seat, glancing up to the sky where Jason and Piper were clinging to one another, and he let out an annoyed curse under his breath when he saw Jason have to dodge a large piece of metal that had been thrown at him, and he was pretty sure Jason was looking for a way out- and Leo leaned over Festus' neck, "Hey, hey Festus, c'mon buddy- let's go save the day-"

Then Festus was moving, lifting his head and rising up- and the Cyclopses must have heard the movement because all three of them turned to look and Leo heard the lady Cyclops yelling "Torque! Sump, get him!" but even as they came towards him Festus was taking off, and Leo let out a whoop.

"Screw you guys!" he flipped them the finger as he soared above their heads, Festus breathing fire down at them- it wouldn't burn them but still- before he turned his gaze towards Piper and Jason, who were flying towards him and Festus, Jason looking incredibly relieved and Piper laughing loudly.

"Leo you're a lifesaver!"

"Get in losers, we're going shopping!"

"Did you just make a Mean Girls Reference?"

"Annabeth and Rachel basically live with us, they watch chick flicks! And it's a good movie!"