"So, who's here right now? What happened while I was gone?" Leo asked as they entered the camp. Hazel sighed.
"A lot has happened. You were gone for about a week. Obviously we didn't destroy each other, and Gaea is dead. Octavian is, too. His cape got caught in his onager and he fired it. Thank god" She whispered the last part. Leo grinned.
"I wondered why that fireball was screaming like a girl."
Hazel and Calypso laughed. Hazel looked at her and tried to remember her story.
"So…you were put on an island because your dad is Atlas, right?" Calypso nodded.
"Ogygia. My curse was that heroes would drift ashore on the island. But they always had to leave as soon as I…fell in love with them. None of them came back, because it is impossible to find your way back to Ogygia." Calypso was speaking as if she had said this millions of times, and she probably had.
"Well, not entirely impossible, right?" Leo said.
"Oh…so does that mean you and Leo are, um…" Hazel looked between the two.
"No." They both spoke at the same time.
"Okay then…how did Leo find his way back to your island?"
"Remember that thing I found with all of Archimedes's stuff in the Pantheon when we were in Rome? I found out that it works with a crystal from Ogygia. So I built it into Festus, and after we destroyed Gaea, I had Festus give me the cure, and I followed the crystal to Calypso." He shrugged. "Easy."
"Right…so, anyway, you wanna go see Frank?" They had been walking down a cobblestone path, and were almost at New Rome.
"Not really. But sure." Leo said, and Hazel raised her eyebrows.
"Okay…follow me" she said, and they walked into New Rome. Well, tried to.
"Halt! No weapons allowed inside the Pomerian Line!" A white statue of a head yelled. Hazel rolled her eyes.
"Oh, come on, Terminus."
"Hand over your weapons! That includes that toolbelt of yours, young man." Leo was surprised.
"How do you know…wait a minute." He looked closer at the head. "You teleported onto out ship, didn't you?"
"Yes, I did! I couldn't allow you to land a warship in the middle of the city! Julia!"
A little girl ran out from behind the statue with a tray.
"All weapons, please." She said with a smile. At Leo's uncertain look, she added, "They will all be safe until you exit the city."
"Fine." Leo unclipped his toolbelt and dropped it on the tray. "That's all I've got." He took a step towards the city.
"WAIT! What is that golden thing?" Leo looked down at Festus, who was now in 'transportation mode'.
"Uh, dude, it's my suitcase."
"That is most certainly not a suitcase!" Terminus bellowed. "That is a metal contraption!"
"Well, he-it's not a weapon" Leo stammered. Shoot, he thought. (A/N-Well, that's not what he thought, but this fanfic is rated K+). "So I can take him inside with me, right?"
"No! Stay still until I conduct my physical examination!"
"With what, exactly?" Calypso said.
"Silence!" Terminus yelled. He began to scrutinize the three demigods and the 'suitcase'. After what seemed like hours to Leo, the statue allowed them to pass into the city.
"Wait. So, do you guys, like, live here? In the city?" Leo asked.
"No. Me and Frank were going to eat lunch at our favorite cafe. I was supposed to switch with Sam when we saw Festus." Leo guessed that Sam was the blond kid from the bridge.
"Oh" Calypso replied shyly. "Are we interrupting your date?" Hazel shook her head.
"Oh, no. Not at all. We eat lunch there every day with our friends. Oh! I should probably let the others know you're here! Why don't you two go meet Frank, and I'll get Piper, and Jason if he's available. Then you guys can go to Camp Half-Blood after lunch if you like. I bet they'd like to see you too." She took a breath as they turned a corner. "Okay, Frank should be right over there under that green awning. I'll be right back!" She turned and ran down another road. Calypso and Leo looked at each other awkwardly, and Leo shrugged. They continued walking until they reached the restaurant. Leo saw Frank sitting at a table with six chairs. He was chatting with another demigod, a boy with jet black hair and glasses.
"Hey, what's up, Zhang?" Frank looked up. And nearly jumped out of his seat.
"Ahhhh!" He yelled. Leo chuckled.
"Oh, come on, man. Am I really that scary?"
"Um…no. Not at all. I just, uh, you know…"
"Thought I was dead?" Frank averted his eyes.
"No…"
"Whatever" Leo shrugged. He sat down next to the stranger.
"Um, should I, like, leave or something…?" The boy said nervously.
"Oh! Yeah, so this is Luke, son of Vulcan. I guess he's kind of like you, Leo. Vulcan is Hephaestus's Roman form, so I guess you guys are, well, I don't know." Frank said awkwardly, glancing between the two boys. Leo grinned and held out his hand.
"Hey, cousin. Or whatever." He shrugged. Luke smiled and shook his hand.
"So…do you by any chance have control over fire?" Leo said quickly. Frank's eyes widened. Luke shrugged.
"Yeah, I guess. We can't create it, though. We can manipulate heat and fire, and sometimes lava if it's available."
"Cool! Can you control this?" Leo held out his hand and a flame flickered into existence on his palm.
"Woah, dude! That's awesome! Can every son of Hephaestus do that?"
"Um, not exactly…it's kind of like a special gift from my dad. It basically destroyed Gaea. Well, I guess your former Augur helped with that too" Leo replied. "I basically died too, but my mechanical dragon, Festus, brought me back to life with the Physician's Cure, which our whole group almost died getting the ingredients for. But I didn't go back to camp after that, and the others didn't know that I had made Festus's body again (long story) so they thought that I possibly hadn't gotten the cure. So, that's why my friends think I'm dead." He finished with another big smile. Luke stared with his mouth open. Finally, he said:
"You-you…you have a mechanical dragon? And you made it?" Calypso couldn't help but laugh. Leo blinked. He had almost…forgotten that she was sitting in the chair next to him.
"Um…yeah. As a matter of fact, I have him with me" Leo said, and showed Luke the gleaming golden suitcase that he had brought with him. "I can collapse him into this. Makes it a lot easier. Especially when you're trying to sneak him into the city." He said slyly. "He's not a weapon, I swear!" He added hastily at Luke's look. But it was too late.
"WHAT?" Terminus yelled in fury as he appeared next to the table. Leo gulped. Uh, oh…
A/N: Haha ;). Another cliffy. Sorry 'bout that (not really), I will try to get the next chapter up soon! For some reason it won't let me indent my paragraphs, so I apologize if it looks weird. Also, I've been having weird problems uploading stories, I have already contacted ...so in the meantime, I will be working as hard as possible to write as much as I can, bc I will be taking a lot of time to post, and there may be typos or weird things in my chapters, please just ignore them. Super sorry, guys...please stick with me here!