THE PROBLEM WITH LEO VALDEZ

Disclaimer: thanks Uncle Rick for making such great characters


THIS STORY IS CURRENTLY BEING EDITED. SLOW, SLOW, BUT HERE WE GO

11/05/16

Finishing this will kill me, folks.


CHAPTER: VI
LEO

Eidolon 1, Leo 0

"Am I interrupting something?" Jason's voice sounded from behind Leo, making the boy wince. If he had been there the whole time... Leo didn't want to think about that. Jason would probably think that he'd officially gone nuts, that he was completely out of his head-

Oh.

Even with the Eidolon in power, Leo still managed to grin. Maybe Jason would clue in and realize that his friend, his dearest pal, was acting as a costume for the Eidolon. Maybe he'd tell the news to Piper and she could do the whole 'Imma charmspeak you outta here!' thing like she did last time.

At that moment, Leo felt a little bit of hope.

"Just talking to myself." he found himself saying, his hands waving the words away. "What's up... again?"

Jason's shoulders drooped a bit. "I think you need help, too." he admitted, taking a few steps toward his friend. "Were you just-"

"I'm fine." The Eidolon insisted, cutting Jason's sentence short. He sounded so confident as the words were said for him, but Leo could sense a slight feeling of worry beginning to boil. This was it, he thought. With a burst of excitement, Leo realized that the thing was beginning to feel nervous. This was the breaking point!

Leo wanted to tell Jason to keep questioning the stupid thing. Set up an interrogation room, fire questions at him like a machine gun. If he could just get the Eidolon to-

Do not bother yourself with such plans, demigod, the thing growled inside his head. I cannot be beaten simply by being asked a few questions.

Whatever, freak, Leo thought back, willing his right arm to move so he could slap himself across the face. His hand twitched slightly, but that was all.

"You don't look like yourself." Jason said carefully, his face layered with worry.

Leo wanted to shout with joy. If he could, he knew that he'd have the biggest grin on his face at the moment. Jason wasn't as stupid as Leo gave him credit for.

"I think I might be coming down with a cold or something, but I-" The Eidolon began, but stopped when it recognized the sudden change of expression on Jason's face.

Leo felt his stomach twist, but it wasn't his own fear that he was feeling.

Jason looked furious. "Your eyes."

Leo's hands clenched into fists and then suddenly it was like he was out of his body, looking down on what was going on but not really being where he was supposed to. He glanced over to look at his face. With a wave of unease he saw that his eyes were burning a bright golden colour, not brown. Whatever the Eidolon was doing to mask itself, it was failing.

Panic began to rise in Leo's chest. The Eidolon wasn't as powerful as it had thought it'd been, but what did that mean for him?

It was going to do something.

"How did you get back on the ship?" Jason demanded, using the authoritative praetor voice that he probably used to talk in back at Camp Jupiter.

The Eidolon gave a sick chuckle. "Demigods are so stupid." it snickered, showing Jason a smile. "I'd love to explain just how idiotic your kind really is, but unfortunately there's not enough time to waste."

At that moment, Leo knew what the Eidolon was going to do.

He tried to shout a warning to Jason, to tell him to get the heck out of there, but of course he couldn't say anything. The thing controlling him didn't even budge.

He watched helplessly as his hands caught fire and felt his heart sink as its colour shifted from orange to red, and then to a horrifying blue-ish white. The Eidolon wasn't planning on just hurting Jason, it was going to full on burn him to ashes.

The flames reflected in Jason's eyes as he watched them grow.

Leo hoped that his friend would get running soon. He didn't have his weapon with him, he didn't think any of the other demigods were below deck, and Leo highly doubted that he would summon lightning while on the ship.

Not to credit the Eidolon or anything, but Jason was doomed.

"Leo," Jason said cautiously, holding his hands out in front of him. "You wouldn't do this."

"That is true, I do not think he would." the Eidolon said, giving a simple shrug. He took a few steps forward as he cast another wicked grin at the son of Jupiter. "However, I am more than willing to do it for him."

Jason's face was fixed with concentration. "He wouldn't let you hurt a friend."

Leo felt sick to his stomach when he witnessed his face gleaming with anticipation. The golden coloured eyes seemed to glow just a tad bit brighter, as if the Eidolon's excitement fueled them like coals.

"I believe you give the fool too much credit." it hissed, and right as the words were escaping his mouth, a blast of fire was shot at Jason.

Leo figured that Jason was used to having things thrown at him, but that didn't stop the sickness that was washing over him. His friend dived out of the way, not even fazed by nearly being burnt to a crisp. He was fine, unharmed, but Leo hated watching himself do something like that.

"Gaea will not be pleased that I killed you, son of Jupiter!" the Eidolon said, the shrill sound of excitement clearly audible in his voice. Slowly, as the thing went on, Leo noticed a change in the sound that was coming out from his lips. "But the job will be done much quicker! You are lucky I spare you the painful, agonizing torture that the Earth Mother has planned!" it shrieked, shifting to one note to another.

The voice was no longer Leo's.

Although it made Leo feel slightly better; the noticeable difference between himself and the Eidolon now freaked him out more than comforted. It was like... it was like Leo Valdez wasn't even there anymore, and he was only just now beginning to feel it.

The next string of things that the Eidolon shouted at Jason became a blur to Leo. The words were muffled, tuning in and out like it somehow he was listening to a radio that had a bad connection.

"They'll hear you!" Jason snarled at him. He didn't look the least bit worried when Leo's hands slammed down against his throat in their attempt to choke him. "What will you do when the others come down here and see you?"

"Oh, they wont be able to." The Eidolon spat back, clutching Leo's hands tight around the boys neck. "Count your blessings, Jason Grace, for this shall be your death."

Jason's face began to turn slightly purple, but his eyes remained locked on to the golden ones of the Eidolon. "Just wait." he choked out.

Leo was amazed and horrified at his friends courage. If their places were swapped, he was sure that he'd be thrashing and kicking and freaking out. He'd probably shed a tear or two while he was at it, too. Heck, he'd be the complete opposite of the calm that was Jason Grace.

Calm? Jason was the master of calm. But what in the name of Hephaestus was the guy waiting for? Leo didn't care if he roughed up his body a little bit if he managed to stop him from killing him. He'd take a broken jaw and a black eye if needed.

Five seconds later, thanks to the sound of a sword unsheathing, Leo understood what Jason had been expecting.

He turned his head the same moment the Eidolon turned his actual, real life body's head, and their expressions read the same thing.

Confusion.

Standing behind them, looking very much welcomed but incredibly deadly, were Percy and Annabeth. The son of Poseidon held Riptide in his hands, a weapon Leo never thought he'd be so glad to see, and Annabeth had her drakon bone sword up and ready to fight.

Leo wondered if they had been below deck the whole time. If so, they sure took their sweet time to get their butts in gear.

"How did you-" The Eidolon asked, momentarily taking his attention away from Jason. His hands loosened and immediately the son of Jupiter took that short second to push him off and pin him to the ground.

"Get over here!" he snapped at Percy and Annabeth. "Help me hold him down."

The pair rushed over, Annabeth taking his wrists and Percy taking his feet while Jason literally sat on him. Any other time Leo would have sworn profanities that even Ares would have been proud of at them, but for now Leo felt nothing but gratitude. He was stopped.

"What's going on?" Annabeth demanded, glaring daggers at Leo. The boy wished that she could see where he really was, out of his own body like a snail out of its shell, but the whole concept was like a huge brain-jumble.

"Eidolon." Jason gasped, still winded from his lack of oxygen.

Percy scowled. "We know that, look at his eyes! She means how?"

"You cannot defeat me, children of-"

"Gods, shut up!" Annabeth snapped, then gave a nod to Jason.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Jason said. "There was only three of them, wasn't there? Piper didn't miss any?"

"The last ones said Gaea only sent three." Percy muttered, eyeing Leo suspiciously.

Over here, Leo thought helplessly.

Annabeth shook her head. "There could always been more, but what we have to focus on is getting this one out." she said, jabbing a finger towards Leo's face.

Something flickered in the golden eyes of the Eidolon, and Leo felt his consciousness shift again. This time his eyesight blurred a bit, hiding the fact that there was a smile sneaking it's way onto the boys face.

Annabeth noticed the problem before he did.

"His hands." She gasped, whipping backwards because she was the closest one to them. "Percy, Jason, get-"

The two boys barely had time to scramble out of the way as Leo's body erupted into flames.

Jason yelled out a few Latin curses and Percy began spitting out Greek insults like he had grown up with the famous Party Ponies that Leo kept hearing about. Together, they sounded like a chorus of rogue bikers, ones that surely Ares would smile upon.

With all the odes to Ares today, Leo wondered why the god wasn't bothering to help them.

"For that, all of you will burn!" The Eidolon's hissy voice screeched out, diving towards Annabeth first.

Percy's eyes widened and he tried to reach out to grab one of Leo's arms. "Stop!" he shouted, then added another couple of choice words as his hands made contact with the flames. He leaped back, clutching his palm. "Mother of f-"

"Use the plumbing!" Jason barked at him, gesturing a hand towards the walls.

Percy shot him a glowering look. "Do you mind? We have a bigger problem than a bathroom break, Jason!"

"The water in them, Jackson!" Jason snapped, "Use the water!"

Percy's mind registered and he gave a nod.

As the son of the sea god tried to concentrate, the Eidolon wasn't giving in to any mercy. The flames around him had died down a fair bit now, but the thing had made a wall of them around him and Annabeth, blocking Percy and Jason from helping her.

It seemed that blocking the airway was the Eidolon's favourite method of killing, because his hands were firmly clamped around Annabeth's neck, just as he had done to Jason. Burns stretched well down her arms and continued with a few ugly blotches on her face. Looking at her made Leo wince. He turned his attention back to Percy, desperately hoping that he was getting somewhere with the pipes.

Sure, the ship wouldn't take kindly to a flood, but... oh holy Hephaestus. Dread dawned on Leo like a wildfire.

The engine room.

The big one was way below deck, yeah, but Leo couldn't risk ruining it. It hooked up to pipes, explosives, and the whole new computer system he had just installed a few days ago. He had tied that baby in with Festus' brain, and the gods know how often the dragon got hit with crummy luck. He was only a head now, if that proved any points.

It was either the ship or-

'But I guess you care more about your ship than your friends,' Frank had accused him of once. Leo remembered how much those words had stung, how horribly they seemed to be true at the time. Maybe it was true, since Leo had seriously just considered saving his ship over his friend, but he was going to make it false... and still kind of true. He had spent ages working on the Argo II, and it was the only thing his friends had to keep them going.

Leo's mind raced for solutions. He just had to push the Eidolon to back off, right? The plan didn't sound too hard. All he had to do was come back enough to stop what was going on.

Piece of cake.

Leo began to focus, which was somewhat of an impossible task for him to do. He knew his brain was nuts, it was true he had a comically short attention span. This, however, was serious. Lives were at stake, Festus was at stake, lots and lots of drachmas to pay off the Stolls for their shipping services were on the verge of going to complete waste.

He tried to find an anchor. That was what people did in this situations, right? They needed something to pull them back. Unfortunately, the only person Leo immediately thought of was the one who was dead. Not exactly much of a comforting thought.

He thought deeper. Who else did he really care about? Obviously there were his friends, one of which was in the danger of ceasing to exist, but he didn't really need them all, did he?

He'd miss them if they disappeared one day, but Leo was sure that he'd be able to move on.

Then, Leo realized, that was wrong.

If he let something, some monster, use his body to kill his friends off, he knew that there was no way he'd be able to keep going. He'd carry the weight of knowing he allowed himself, even if being controlled, to commit such a foul act.

Annabeth. What would happen if she ended up dying because of him? Leo would be furious with himself. He'd spend every minute thinking of all the ways he could have prevented it. He'd already let her fall into Tartarus because he'd been too preoccupied with something else, he couldn't let that happen again.

Percy. Leo knew that he'd be devastated. He refused let something like that happen. Percy was his friend, more than that, a hero. Honestly Leo couldn't count how many times the guy had saved everyone's asses. How much of a failure would he be as a friend if he let the guy go?

Jason. Jason was a lot of things; like too strict sometimes or too serious when Leo tried to lighten the mood. He might think of himself as some almighty Roman who didn't need anyone, but he allowed himself to make friends, and Leo didn't plan on misusing that type of trust.

Hazel. It wasn't just because Leo's great-grandfather and her had flirted it up, heck, that wasn't even part of the reason at all. She was a good kid, and she had Nico to come back to and friends who were waiting on her in Camp Jupiter. She was the youngest, too. How would Leo live with himself if she died again because of him?

Frank. Leo wasn't even sure if he liked Frank, but the big guy didn't deserve even the tiniest amount of what the Eidolon had planning. He was a good guy who put up with Leo constantly stepping all over him, who found the courage to lead his friends to victory in battle, and who didn't think twice about putting his life on the line even though it literally depended on a stick. If Frank was going to die, it definitely couldn't be because of something so dishonoring as being murdered by a five-foot-six, lanky, pointy eared Latino freak.

Piper. There was a book full of things that Leo could list off on what she was, but choosing just one felt better. Piper was his friend even before either of them knew that they were part of a freaky-deaky prophecy. Piper had held out her hand to him on their first days of Wilderness School together and told him that it was either be friends with her, or be trampled by the more popular kids. Leo had refused that offer, and on the second day he had been trampled by exactly who Piper had predicted. On the third day, Leo and Piper had teamed up to get back at them and then laughed about it in detention.

Leo couldn't live without any of them. Not without Annabeth or Percy. Not without Jason, Hazel, or Frank. And he certainly couldn't live without Piper, his best friend long before they were dragged into a world of wars and monsters.

He couldn't let the Eidolon hurt Annabeth, not now or ever. He couldn't let it move on to one of the others. Leo wouldn't let that thing win.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, Leo felt something tugging at him from the direction of where his body was. He saw himself freeze on the spot, watched as the flames dissolved into the air, and his hands let go of their grasp around Annabeth's neck.

Thankfully, finally, Leo realized that he was back in his own body. The Eidolon had been pushed aside. His relief didn't last for too long, though, because the next second after that Leo felt someone slam into him, knocking him to the around.

"If you killed her, Valdez..." Percy's voice growled in his ear. "If you killed her, I swear I'll-"

"Percy." Jason snapped at him as he knelt down beside Annabeth. "Take a second to cool down, okay? It wasn't him. It wasn't-"

"Oh yeah? Someone had to let that thing back onto the ship! Who do you think gave it permission?" Percy hissed, shooting an icy glare at Leo. "What exactly do you think you're doing, Valdez? This isn't some stupid game you can play!"

Leo didn't try to tell him to shut up, but he did try to explain. "Percy, there was more than just three. The one that you saw was entirely-"

"You think you can lie your way out of this?!" Percy shouted, tears clearly visible in his eyes. "You almost killed us, Leo!"

Jason shook his head. "We're fine and Annabeth is okay. Calm down."

Percy's head snapped towards his direction. "She's breathing?"

Jason gave a nod, and Annabeth uttered something that sounded like an ancient Greek curse word.

Leo could literally see the relief wash over Percy. He felt a bit of it himself, too. Knowing that he had come back in time gave him hope that he could do it again if it ever happened. Percy scrambled off Leo and hurried over to where Annabeth lay.

To Leo, Annabeth's face stilled looked fairly purple, but every second it was beginning to go back to its original colour.

Thank the gods, Leo thought as he pulled himself into a sitting position.

Jason stood up and looked over the scene around him. "Percy, you can take Annabeth to the sickbay and get her some ambrosia for her burns." He said, using his Roman-y voice again. "Leo, we're going to get Piper."

"McLean? For what?"

"To bake a cake." Jason replied, folding his arms over his chest. "What do you think? She's the only one who can get the Eidolon out of you."

Leo nodded quickly and shot to his feet. He was a bit embarrassed that he hadn't remembered that, since it was a pretty important thing to remember at the moment.

"Right, right okay."

Percy scooped up Annabeth and headed down the hall. Jason and Leo were about halfway up the stairs when the son of Poseidon shouted back at them.

"The doors locked!"

"What?" Jason sounded like he didn't believe him.

"The door won't open, Jason. What else would I mean?"

Jason narrowed his eyes and tried to open the door leading up to the main deck, but the doorknob didn't even turn.

Leo felt guilty when his friend immediately gave him a suspicious glance, like he was somehow the reason why the door was locked.

"Did you do anything?"

"No."

"Sure." Percy huffed, now walking towards them, Annabeth still in his arms. "How can we trust you?"

Leo wanted to think that it was just because the guy had been through Tartarus, but he seriously wasn't appreciating how he was acting like Leo had a monster hiding under his skin. It was true, but a little respect would be nice.

"Why would I lock myself down here with you three?" Leo snapped.

Percy scowled. "Do you really want an honest answer?"

Leo clenched his jaw. "I wouldn't hurt you guys on my own. Get that in your head."

Jason frowned at them. "Percy might be right, Leo."

"What?" Leo snarled, a look of disbelief on his face as he turned towards Jason. "Why am I suddenly the big bad wolf here?"

"You've got an Eidolon in you," Jason reminded him, as if he needed any reminders. "so why shouldn't we be quick to judge? I mean, for all we know this couldn't even be you right now."

Percy glared at Leo as Jason continued.

"Eidolons can alter their hosts thoughts without even needing to fully possess them. You could have locked the doors from the outside thinking there was a logical reason behind it, but really it was just the Eidolon having you do it."

Leo furrowed his eyebrows. "I would have remembered that. And besides, everything in the ship relies on the main system. No keys, no flip locks, it's the computers that handle everything."

"Since when?" Percy demanded.

Leo shrugged. "Since I realized how much easier it would be if everything did it's job without me telling it what to do. It's a set up program, Percy. Perfectly safe."

"You didn't give it some weird living ability that Buford has, right?" Jason asked, lowering an eyebrow.

Leo shook his head. "Nope. I mean, Festus sorta helps it along but-" he paused, thinking, then he face-palmed. "Oh, man." He groaned, rubbing his temples. "Guys."

"Another one could be controlling the system." Percy said what Leo was thinking, his voice so low it hardly sounded like him.

"It would explain why the computers weren't working right earlier. Piper had said there was something up with them." Leo muttered, feeling a knot form in his stomach. He couldn't believe they all had been so blind. They were supposed to be heroes here, saving the world and being smart. They couldn't let such important details slip past them.

Jason looked like he was deep in thought. Every second or two he'd mumble something, but neither Leo or Percy could catch what he was saying.

"... Call for Frank." Annabeth said, her eyes cracking open. "He can break the door down, can't he?"

"Well yeah if he were a bear-" Leo said, then let out a sigh when he registered his own words. "Oh."

Percy was just about to open his mouth when the lights flickered off, and the four of them were absorbed into the darkness.