4/29/20

New chapter. Writers block sux.

All characters belong to Rick Riordan.

Word count: 668

An Icy Guest

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Leo POV:

Leo was manning the helm with Annabeth. She was reading the texts Leo retrieved from the workshop of Archimedes. Leo couldn't read the texts himself, because they were in Greek, but Annabeth was more than happy to transcribe them for him. Leo was working on Festus, the figurehead of the Argo, who had been turned of for maintenance.

Annabeth had changed after Percy fell. She seemed more, fragile like she was about to burst into tears constantly. She was quick to anger, even more so than when Percy was missing, while the Argo was still being built, or so Piper says. He hadn't been around other people much during his stay at camp, instead working on getting the Argo II up and running as fast as possible.

The Argo had been sailing through near-blizzard conditions for quite a while now, a complete opposite of what should be expected. It reminded Leo of Khione, the smoking hot ice goddess he, Jason, and Piper had met in Quebec, before she tried to kill them all by siding with Gaia.

Wait, she had sided with Gaia, and this blizzard did feel eerily similar to hers. Leos stomach sunk. He quickly replaced everything he had taken out of Festus and closed the panel he had been working in.

"Annabeth," Leo started, his voice deadly calm, "Get the others up here, stat, we have company inbound." She nodded and hit the alarm button on the control board. Klaxons sounded as the crew raced up the stairs, brandishing weapons and crooked armor. They looked around, trying to locate the reason the alarms sounded.

A cold breeze drifted across the ship, sending shivers up the spines of all the crew. Frost crept along the floor. Jason tried to move but frost engulfed him, freezing him in place. Leo burst into flames, but it was too late. Ice covered every member of the crew except for him.

The snow swirled and condensed into three figures. Khione stepped out of the snow, her two brothers on each side. Leo brought out a flaming ballpoint hammer from his toolbelt.

"The child of fire." Khione sneered.

"In the flesh." Leo joked. Khione gestured at Annabeth and her brothers moved forwards.

"Hey!" Leo shouted. He threw his flaming hammer at one of the brothers, Zethes, but he just dissolved into the snow as it hit him, before reforming, "What do you want!" He tried to run towards Annabeth but the wind howled, pushing him back. He blasted blue fire at the other brother, Cal, and he stumbled back, his clothes smoking.

Khione fixed her frosty gaze on him, "A sacrifice to wake the earth mother." Her brothers grabbed Annabeth and disappeared into a puff of snow. Khione surveyed the rest of the crew and made her way towards Jason. The wind slightly died down and Leo could move. He wouldn't be able to stop Khione by herself, but if he could get Festus back online…

Leo rushed towards the control panel. His hands flew across it, pressing buttons and pulling levers. The ship started to hum and Festus eyes lit up. The control panel grew warm under his hands as Festus came back online.

"Hey Ice Witch!" Leo yelled. Khione stopped looking over Jason and glared at Leo, "Say hello to Festus!" her eyes widened as Festus turned around and blasted white-hot fire at her. She screamed as fire engulfed over her. She stumbled back, severely burned. Khione glared at Leo before bursting into snow. The blizzard burned out and the sky cleared. The ice melted off the other crewmembers. Jason was first to be freed. He looked around and noticed that Annabeth was missing.

"Leo? Where Annabeth?"

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New chapter! Sorry, it's not very long but I didn't have much to say today.

Voting will only be up for another two chapters.

Bring Zoe back?

Yes: 17

No: 10