I'm back with the second chapter! This is only the beginning but I hope you're liking it so far.

Let's see where Themis's words gets Leo and Calypso in this supposedly not-meant-be relationship.

Welp, you can get to the story now :)

Chapter 2

"Help," Leo croaked, his voice hoarse and barely audible. The hard rocky surface was hot beneath his damp, bloodied shirt, and all he could do was look to the side and breathe shallowly, trying make out where he was. Trying to make out what this horrible, empty, scorched place was.

It can't be Tartarus, can it? Unfortunately, his vision was blurred, which wasn't helping him discern his surroundings, and there was a faint aching sensation in his right shoulder. Where is everybody? Leo thought. Where am I?

He pressed his elbow against the ground to push himself up and cried out as something sharp pierced his skin. Leo shook his head, blinking, trying to clear the hazy glaze in his eyes. As he sat up, the world tilted before it righted again. It took a moment, but he could finally see with better clarity the browns and reds of this place as well his arm, for it had a thin trail of blood trickling down it from his elbow to his hand.

Glass. It was everywhere on the ground. He was sitting on broken pieces of it right now. Leo tried inhaling deeply, and choked. The air burned his nostrils like it also consisted of a billion solid shards and fragments. A sudden spasm sent flaring pain up his right shoulder when he coughed. "Help," he rasped again even though there was no one around. Gods, what is this place? He stood up and almost instantly stumbled over. Suddenly, his vision glitched like static noise on a TV screen. He squeezed his eyes shut and covered his ringing ears, falling to his knees.

His mind raced, filling up with questions as fear rose in his chest. The noise stopped in the next second, and Leo opened his eyes to the same glass-littered terrain, the blood red horizon. "What's happening?" he whispered to no one. "Why am I—" the static and ringing cut in again. He shook his head, groaning, before it abruptly switched off, like it was never there.

"Stop, please!" he yelled to the air above him, hands still flat over his ears. "If—if you put me here—if one of you decided to just—" Another burst of pain erupted on his shoulder and Leo clutched it as blood seeped through his fingers. His teeth gritted as he then recalled something: the memory of a dagger flying through the air. And now he's sent here, to a place that wanted to kill whatever thing still alive. Raising his head up again, he pleaded to the Gods, "Stop hurting me." He gasped. "Please. Wh—where's everyone? Where is Calypso?" His eyes scanned the glinting pieces of glass. "Why am I here?"

He wasn't going to die in this place. Though he was immune to fire, he wasn't going to die in a place where heat would engulf him like flames. He wasn't going to die in this stifling atmosphere. He wasn't going to die in hell. Leo was sure now. That was where he was, wasn't it? Tartarus? It was where Percy and Annabeth had been. Where they barely survived.

Damn memory gaps. How did he get here? Who made him get here? And where the heck is everybody?

Leo sat down defeatedly, burying the fingers of one hand in his hair. He didn't care about the glass, it didn't cause such a big difference to his current state. The feeling of slippery, warm blood trickling from his shoulder down his body was almost unbearable. His clothes was sticking to his skin, wet blood soaking through dried blood, his energy being sapped into this deadly atmosphere. He licked his parched lips. All he wanted… all he wanted was to save someone he cared for. Someone imprisoned on the same island for thousands of years. Gods. I just wanted to make things better, Leo thought, suddenly responding to the voice he heard on the Argo II. Then he started to feel wetness on his cheeks. He rubbed at his face. Was he crying? Here? Ugh, carajo. Why am I doing this? he asked himself. Wallowing in all this desolation, he'd soon be even more broken than the glass on the ground.

I'm not staying here, he thought.

I'm getting myself out.

But how? Suddenly remembering, Leo looked down. Hope was like a balloon deflating in his chest. He didn't have his tool belt, or a weapon. Just himself. Alone in hell. Alone in his thoughts.

Another episode of static vision and ringing ears hit then, making his fingers curl into the earth, but this time, it didn't stop.

"Wake up, hijo." His mother stood at the window, smiling down at him squinting against the brightness of the sunlight. "Hora de levantarse, it's a new day today."

Leo continued to lay there, blinking away the glaring morning light. He was feeling lethargic, not at all like getting up, just like staring at his mother through half-closed eyelids.

"Wake up, Leo." His mother nudged him as the curtains shook back and forth repeatedly, constantly altering the brightness of the room by themselves. His brows furrowed. "Wake up, Leo, please."

Wait, Leo thought, That isn't the voice of my mother.

"Please!"

Leo lurched upright, crying out when his forehead banged hard against something.

Calypso yelped, jerking back. "Leo!" she shrieked, quickly recovering from the strong contact of their heads. She hurried closer to him, her eyes wide with frenzy.

He brought a hand up to rub above his brow and instantly bit his lips. Wrong arm, he thought, grimacing. He recognized the metallic taste now on the tip of his tongue.

"Leo." Calypso wrapped her fingers over his, searching his face with deep concern. "Talk to me." She sounded terrified.

Leo looked up. "Are you okay?" he asks.

Calypso's face contorted as if she was trying not to cry. "I was, no, I was scared to death. Leo—Gods—do you know where we are? No, of course you don't. I thought—there was a titaness, she wanted—I thought you might—" Tears erupted down her face. She wiped them away hastily with the skirt of her dress, which was smeared with small patches red. My fault, she mouthed, bottom lip trembling. I'm so sorry.

Leo's brows knit together. "Don't be," he whispered.

She wrapped her arms around his him, and he tried his best to hold her without causing more pain to his shoulder. Oh gods, what are we getting into? he thought, smelling the scent of sweat and cinnamon from her. His mind was still a blank.

"We were teleported here, somehow, and I'm not sure where 'here' is," Calypso explained calmly, pulling back to look at him with poorly-disguised misery. "But it's where Themis is. She is the goddess of law. I—" Her voice broke, becoming lower and more quiet. "I don't know what to do."

Jarring them both, Themis's voice boomed. "Leo Valdez, what have you seen?"

Leo turned back, and he was met with the startling image of a large goddess seated on a white throne statue. "What?"

The titaness remained still, her head inclined towards them.

"Did you—did you put me down there?" Leo demanded. "Why is this happening? This isn't normal—"

"What you did wasn't normal. What did you see… down there?"

The titaness knew something, Leo could tell from her pause. His heartbeat raced. "I—I saw nothing."

"Don't be like that," chided Themis. "Perhaps an easier question: where were you?"

"I was…" he faltered. Themis's golden scale caught his attention then. Confused, Leo remained silent.

"Not willing to answer the question? I shall do it for you." The scale ever so slightly tipped over, becoming more imbalanced. "Tartarus. You were in Tartarus, weren't you?"

He felt Calypso's grip tighten on his hand, as if she wanted to keep him from leaving her.

"Your punishment is to be decided," Themis said.

"No…" Calypso whispered.

"What did I do?" he protested. "Why—why aren't the gods doing anything?"

"They don't care," Calypso replied flatly.

Themis resumed, "I may not be one of the twelve olympians, but I am the goddess of justice. I have been responsible for maintaining order for millenia. This is no different. The demigod will not die." Her raised voice filled the air, cutting Calypso off. "He was in Taurus, but there were no monsters, just the land and air of Tartarus." Her balance scale shifted, becoming a bit more even. Her head shifted slightly towards Calypso. "You want to help him? Don't break this promise: you will not return the feelings the boy have for you. I am not to kill your emotions, you can have them. But if are to show them to him, no matter the circumstance, the demigod's life will be on the line."

Leo turned. Calypso paled, looking like she was just punched in the gut.

The pair of scales readjusted themselves, and Themis returned to her original sitting position, with her back straight and stiff as a metal rod, head facing forwards. "That is your price, fulfill it, or suffer the consequences."

What? Leo's mind screamed. She's not allowed to— He opened his mouth to object when a gust of wind engulfed them. The last thing he saw was the rippling, translucent form of the Greek titaness through the deafening gale before he was whisked away with Calypso.