Sorry my lovelies for not updating yesterday!
I finally got my House of Hades! YEY!
It's awesome in my opinion, but there's something I would like to make clear:
I already had the whole concept for this fanfic before HoH came out.
I don't know if there will be (I haven't finished the book yet) but if there are any
similarities between HoH and The Light in the Sky, those are purely accidental.
Also there might be a few contradictions, but well, that's what fan-fiction is all about isn't it?
Just something I wanted to say.
So I hope you enjoy this and maybe leave a little review for me to read ;)
I still don't own any characters etc except my OCs.

Chapter thirty-six: Damage
~Leo's POV~

Being woken up by a huge crash was not something you'd want when you were aboard a ship which was supposedly in the middle of the Atlantic, with no coast for miles and miles around.
Sadly, that was exactly what happened the next morning.
Leo had been peacefully dreaming about some demons chasing him over a hillside (for him, that was pretty peaceful) when an almighty crash had rocked the whole boat, and then made it stand still.
Still, as in not moving.
Leo hurriedly put on some clothes, not caring that his shirt was on back to front, and raced up onto
deck.
What he saw made his stomach drop to his knees.
In front of the Argo II was a giant stretch of land, clustered with clumps of trees and deserty wasteland. The ship had sailed straight into the island, crashing hem first into its rocky shoreline. Alarms started wailing, and the others ran outside as well, looking around wildly for the threat. Coach Hedge had his baseball bat at the ready, swinging it in a wide arc, shouting "Come on, you filthy monsters! I feel like killing something before breakfast!"
Piper had to dodge the bat, and hissed "Stop that!" at the satyr, making him drop his weapon immediately.
"What happened?" Annabeth asked, her hair like a messy blonde halo around her head. Behind her
Percy stood, Riptide at the ready but sleep still evident in his eyes.
"We've run a ground" Leo grumbled, already punching commands into his controls.
"Yeah, I kinda gathered that" Annabeth said impatiently "What I mean is, how could that have happened?"
Leo had no idea how it could have happened. The radar on the Argo II was more than excellent, and
even if, by some infinite possibility, it had stopped working, then Festus would have warned them in time.
Unless the island had appeared out of nowhere so fast that neither the radar nor the dragon had picked up on it, Leo couldn't explain the crash.
He told the others this, and they all looked at one another helplessly.
"There must be a reason this island stopped us" Penelope said, walking to the edge of the deck to
have a closer look at the landmass before them. "Any ideas what this place might be?"
No one had, not even Annabeth.
"Leo" Percy, who was now looking more awake, said "How long will it take to repair the ship?"
Leo took a moment to calculate. Just underneath Festus's head, there was a massive dent in the ship,

made by an impossibly strong bolder. Several leaks seemed to have appeared in the ship's hull, and
a few supports had been unfastened or broken upon impact.
"Maybe two hours" Leo guessed, already thinking of all the things they'd need to repair the damage.

"Okay, we'd better get started. Piper, - " Jason said, but Annabeth interrupted him
"Some of us should score the island, just in case there really is a reason we've landed here. Maybe one of the gods wanted us to find this place."
Nobody contradicted her, but Frank murmured "Doesn't mean the place's friendly", a statement with which Leo silently agreed. Even if some god actually had made them strand on this desolate place, that didn't necessarily bode well for them. He'd had too much experience with what the gods would call "help".
Still, Annabeth's proposal made sense, and so he said "You're probably right. I'd go, but I'll need to supervise the repairs. Frank and Annabeth, I could really use your help."
The two demigods nodded, which left Piper, Percy, Jason, Hazel and Penelope to decide who would

go ashore.
To his surprise Penelope spoke up first "I'll go. I can feel magic around here, maybe I can find out more about the place."
Leo didn't like the idea of letting Pen go on that island unprepared for what was waiting there. The last time she'd gone on an unknown island was still vividly imprinted in his memory, and he really
didn't want that to happen again.
But he could hardly order her to stay.
"I'll come, too" Percy said just as Jason stepped forward "I'll go with you."
There was a tiny awkward moment, something Leo had noticed happening between Jason and Percy
every now and then. He could kind of understand it, but right now they had more important problems than who was this month's stronger demigod.
Thankfully, Annabeth seemed to be thinking along the same lines and said "Great! The three of you
can go together then."
Leo saw her shoot Percy a look that said something like get a grip and the son of Poseidon went slightly red and looked at the floor.
"Shall we leave in, say, ten minutes?" Penelope proposed and the two boys nodded.
They all dispersed, Leo giving out orders to the crew members who were remaining aboard. Before he got to work himself though, he went to his room and fetched something which he'd built last night. At the time he'd had no idea why he was making it, but now he was glad he had.
Walking to Penelope's room, he gripped the tiny circle of bronze tightly in his hand, and knocked.
"Come in" Pen's voice said, and maybe it was his imagination or but it sounded a little unenthusiastic.
"Hey" he said lamely, standing in the door.
"Hello" Penelope was just packing a little leather satchel, and didn't look up at him.
"I came to gave you this" Leo said, and walked up to her, holding out the bronze circle in his hand.
Penelope took it, turning it in her hand, still not lifting her gaze. "What is it?"
"Emergency signal transmitter. I'm making them for all of us, but, well, that was the first one I got finished."
He waited for her to say something, but she just continued turning the little device in her hand.
"If you're in trouble, you just press the middle and we'll get a distress signal. That way we'll know if
you guys need help."
"Thanks, Leo." Pen put the transmitter into her pouch, and swung the whole thing across her shoulder. Why wouldn't she look at him? He didn't want things to be like this between them.
"Be careful, okay?"
"We will." Pen's voice was much more distant than usual, and she kept her eyes fixedly on a point just left of Leo's head.
Sighing, he turned and walked to the door, but something made him stop and he turned around, unable to stop himself from asking "Penelope?"
He didn't often use her full name, and maybe it was this that made her finally meet his eyes, or maybe it was the obvious desperation in his voice.
"We're okay, aren't we?" Leo hated himself for asking such a question, but he needed an answer.
Penelope's bright eyes clouded over, and Leo thought he glimpsed a terrible sadness in them for a second.
When she spoke, her voice was grave "I don't know Leo. I don't know."
With this she walked past him out of the room, not turning back.
When Leo walked onto the deck as well, Jason, Percy and Penelope were already in the air, flying towards the unknown.
I don't know. The words hurt more than Leo had thought they would.
Something had happened between yesterday morning and now, and he had no idea how to make it okay again. All he knew was that he needed to try, even if that meant forcing Penelope to tell him what Aphrodite had told her.
Leo remained deeply immersed in thought while he worked, and didn't talk to anyone, except to give orders. He was so preoccupied, he didn't hear the noise at first.
When he did, fear raced a cold path down his spine, and he cursed himself for not paying attention.
The buzzing sound that was now ringing clearly was the sound of an alarm. The emergency signal transmitter he'd given Pen.
The sound could only mean one thing: Jason, Percy and Penelope were in serious trouble.