Leo's POV

Damn. . . I fucked up. . .

I wish I could go back two hours and undo what had happened. Either that, or invent a Slap-Leo-in-the-face machine to punish myself. But I doubt that would hurt as badly as the look Annabeth was giving me.

She had her hands on her hips, staring me down. "One more time," she said. "Exactly what happened?"

I slumped against the mast dejectedly. My head was still pounding from Peri judo-flipping me.

She sat next to me, hugging her knees to her chest, looking incredibly guilty even though this whole mess really wasn't her fault. I'm not even sure why she insisted on taking part of the blame. This was my fault. All my fault.

All around me, my beautiful warship was in shambles. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits, which had really made Coach Hedge mad. Festus was coughing up smoke like a hairball, and I could tell from the groaning sounds on the port side that some of the aerial oars had been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely, which explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as we flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.

I choked back a sob at all the destruction around me; destruction that I had caused.

"I don't know." I murmured. "It's fuzzy."

Too many people were looking at me: Annabeth (I hated making her angry; that girl scares me). Coach Hedge with his furry goat legs, and his baseball bat (did he have to carry that everywhere?), and the newcomer, Frank.

I'm still not sure what to make of Frank. He looked like a baby sumo wrestler, but I'm not stupid enough to say that aloud. My memory was still hazy, but I'm pretty sure I saw a dragon land on the ship- a dragon that had turned into Frank.

Annabeth crossed her arms, her eyes going back and forth from me to Peri. "You mean you don't remember?"

"I. . ." There was a lump in my throat the size of a marble. "I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."

"It wasn't all his fault!" Peri spoke for the first time since I've been conscious. Apparently, she had flown the Argo away from Camp Jupiter at tip-top speed, figuring out how to control it. Presently, she had the warship on autopilot as Annabeth interrogated us.

Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes with his cap pulled over his horns, he looked just like he used to at the Wilderness School, where he'd spent a year undercover as our P.E. teacher. The way the old satyr was glowering, I wondered if he was going to order me to drop and give him twenty push-ups.

"Look, kid," Hedge said, "you blew some stuff up. You killed some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."

Coach Hedge turned to Peri, shaking his index finger at her like you would scold a little kid. "And you, missy-"

Annabeth touched her temple, exasperated. "Coach, why don't you go make sure all the fires are out?"

"But I already did that."

"Do it again."

The old satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn't crazy enough to defy Annabeth.

The daughter of Athena knelt down to our level. Her gray eyes were as steely as ball bearings. Her blonde hair fell loose around her shoulders, but I didn't find that attractive. No, Annabeth was scary. I have no idea who came up with the stereotype of dumb giggly blondes, but they deserved a slap in the face. Ever since we'd met last winter, I thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous. Peri only confirmed that.

"Leo," she said calmly, "did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or-"

"No." I shook my head. I could have lied and blamed that stupid Roman, but that would have just made a bad situation worse. "The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on Camp Jupiter. . .I did."

Frank scowled. "On purpose?"

"No!" I squeezed my eyes shut. "Well, yes. . . I mean, I didn't want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it."

Peri nodded. "There was something wrong with him. Like something took over his body."

I agreed and continued. "I got this cold feeling inside me-"

"A cold feeling." Annabeth's tone changed. She sounded almost. . . scared.

"Yeah," I nodded my head. "Why?"

From belowdecks, Percy called up, "Annabeth, we need you."

Oh gods. Please let Jason be okay.

As soon as they'd gotten onboard, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad. I've known Jason longer than anyone at Camp Half-Blood. We were best friends. If Jason didn't make it. . .

"He'll be fine." Annabeth's expression softened. "Frank, I'll be back. Just. . . watch them. Please."

Frank nodded.

If it were possible for me to feel worse, I did. Annabeth now trusted some Roman demigod she's known for, like, three seconds more than she trusted me.

Annabeth disappeared belowdecks, leaving Frank, Peri, and I alone. I looked Frank up and down.

He looked pretty odd in his bedsheet toga, with his gray pullover hoodie and jeans, and a bow and quiver from the ship's armory slung over his shoulder. I remembered the time we met the Hunters of Artemis- a bunch of cute lithe girls, including Jason's hot sister Thalia, in silvery clothes, all armed with bows. I imagined Frank frolicking along with them. The idea was so ridiculous it almost made me feel better.

Almost.

"So," Frank began awkwardly, "Your name isn't Sammy?"

I scowled. "What kinda question is that?"

"Nothing," Frank said quickly. "I just- Nothing. About the firing on Camp Jupiter. . . Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn't want the Romans getting along with you guys."

I wanted to believe that, I really did. I was grateful to this kid for not hating me, though. But I knew it hadn't been Octavian. I had pressed the button to fire the ballistae. Part of me knew it was wrong. I'd asked myself: What the heck am I doing? But I'd done it anyway.

"My name isn't Sammy either," Peri murmured, and I gave her a wry smile.

I felt restless sitting there doing nothing, I needed to do something productive. My hands needed to be busy.

"Look," I said to Frank. "I should go talk to Festus and get a damage report. Is that alright with the warden?"

He helped Peri and me up before grunting, "Who is Festus?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Peri smirking.

"My friend." I said. "His name isn't Sammy either, in case you're wondering. Come on. I'll introduce you.

Fortunately, the bronze dragon wasn't damaged. When we reached the bow of the ship, Festus whirred to life and turned to greet us. Frank yelped and jump back, like, fifty feet. Peri laughed at his reaction, but I think Frank is now scarred for life.

"It's alive!" he cried, sweat drops appearing on his forehead.

I probably would have laughed too if I weren't feeling so bad. "Yeah, Frank, this is Festus."

Peri came up so close to Festus I thought she might fall off the side of the boat.

"Hey, Leo," She said as she examined the bronze dragon, sniffing occasionally.

"How'd you find Festus?" She asked, but before I could respond she came up with something on her own.

"Ooh! I bet he was trying to attack Camp Half-Blood, right? But then, you fought him and almost slayed him, huh? And then, you used his head as a warning to all other dragons not to mess with the almighty Captain Leo, right? But then, along the way you became friends with this majestic creature, and your now the bestest of friends, huh? Isn't that what happened?"

I gawked at her for coming up with the most far fetched idea ever.

"No," I said finally. "Yeah, I found him in the woods of Camp Half-Blood, but he wasn't hurting anybody. I fixed him up, and he helped us on our quest last winter. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but we had an accident."

"You have a lot of accidents," Frank noted.

I arched my eyebrows at Frank. "Well, some of us can't turn into dragons, so we have to build our own."

"Yeah, that was flipping awesome, Frank!" Peri exclaimed. "You were all like, 'RAWR, BITCHES! I'M FRANK THE DRAGON!'" She nodded her head to herself. "Defs mathematical!"

His cheeks went all rosy, and he looked at his shoes. "It's really not as cool as you say. . ."

"Are you kidding?!" She exploded with excitement. "That was so varsity! I'd kill to have those powers! Frank, you are the shiznit, and don't let nobody tell you any different!"

I scowled at this Frank-is-awesome parade. I crossed my arms and cut in, "Anyways, I'm going to check in with Festus now."

I turned to the bronze dragon, and he creaked and whirred.

"Ugh," I said before turning back to the other two. By the guilty look on her face, I could tell Peri understood what Festus had said.

"Could be worse, but the hull is compromised in several places." I said, but I don't think Frank knew what I was talking about. "The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again. We'll need some repair materials: Celestial Bronze, tar, lime-"

"What do you need limes for?" Frank asked, his baby face scrunched up in thought.

"Dude, lime. Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other- ah, forget it. The point is, this ship isn't going far unless we can fix it."

Festus made another click-creak noise I didn't quite recognize. It sounded like AY-zuhl.

"Oh. . . Hazel," Peri deciphered, and I nodded in agreement.

Frank gulped audibly. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's good." Peri said, patting him on the back. "Festus says her horse is following us below. No need to worry 'bout your lady."

I sputtered a little. "She's your girlfriend?" They were so different, I really couldn't see it.

Frank chewed his lip. "Yes." He didn't seem too sure about it in my opinion.

"Yeah, what's up with the lack of PDA with you guys?" Peri asked, punching him lightly on the arm. "Gods, can I get a little smooch action from time to time?"

Frank's face went as red as a tomato, and he sputtered for something to say.

I decided to help the poor guy out and take the focus off of him. I coughed loudly and continued with the status report, much to the relief of Frank.

"The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won't be able to lift off again until we repair, so we'll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies."

Frank scratched his head. "Where do you get Celestial Bronze? You can't just stock up at Home Depot."

"Festus can do a scan in the area, and then when we get there, if my hunch is right, Peri will be able to find its exact location."

"Oh yeah!" She said. "I can do that, breezily!"

"Wait, what?!" Frank gasped, marveled. "Did I miss something?! Peri and Festus can scan for magic bronze?! Is there anything this dragon can't do?"

You should've seen him when he had a body. I thought, but said nothing aloud. It was too painful, remembering the way Festus used to be.

I peered over the ship's bow. The Central California valley was passing below. I didn't hold out much hope that we could find what we needed all in one place, but we had to try. I also wanted to put as much distance as possible between myself and New Rome. The Argo II could cover vast distances pretty quickly, but I could almost guarantee that the Romans had a few tricks up their own purple sleeves.

Behind us, the stairs creaked, and we all turned to see Percy and Annabeth climbing up, their faces grim.

My heart stumbled. "Is Jason-?"

"He's resting," Annabeth said. "Piper's keeping an eye on him, but he should be fine."

Percy gave me a hard look. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"

"Man, I-I don't understand how it happened. I'm so sorry-"

"Sorry?!" Percy growled angrily and advanced on me, ready to pound me into Leo-bits. My legs trembled, and every part of me screamed, Duck!

Peri jumped in front of me protectively, glaring at Percy in a menacing way that I had no idea she could pull off. Percy was way taller than her, but she didn't back down. Her hands were by her sides, but her fists were balled. She had a calm anger about her as they glared at one another.

"Oi!" She said. "Turbo, cool your jets."

Was she. . . Was she going to fight for me- just like that?

Annabeth grabbed her boyfriend's arm and pulled him back, ending the standoff. Peri gave one last grunt before stepping to the side a little, but she still kept part of her body in front of me protectively.

"We'll figure it out later." Annabeth said, her hands now intertwined with Percy's trying to keep him calm. "Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What's the situation with the ship?"

Slightly shaken, I told Annabeth about the damage and the supplies we needed. At least I felt better talking about something fixable. I was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial Bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

"Perfect." I sighed with relief.

"What's perfect?" Annabeth said. "I could use some perfect right about now."

I managed a smile. "Everything we need is in one place. Frank, why don't you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your lady friend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah."