Ta-da! Another Sammy Leo chapter! Toned down the romantics a bit, mostly because I don't want EVERY chapter in his POV to be him flip-flopping his feelings for Espie for a majority of the chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognize as canon. The twins are mine.


XII

SAMMY LEO

Sammy Leo shook the key in his hand violently. "Come on," he growled. "Activate! Float! DO SOMETHING!"

The red key didn't do squat. It was deceptively acting like a normal key. And that pissed Sammy off to no end.

Sammy threw the key onto the ground. He was going to stomp on it in frustration, but then felt his inner Mars taking over his emotions. He halted and straightened up, breathing in and out deeply. Pure anger was not going to help this situation.

Meanwhile, Annabeth had let Jason rest against the rail of the ship and was now picking up the key. She weighed it in her hand, her stormy grey eyes carefully analyzing the key as if it were a Rubik's Cube. She had a look like, Perhaps there's a combination to activate it. Maybe press random areas.

Leo tossed Jason a PB&J and walked over. He took the key and also started analyzing it. His look was more like, If I take this apart and dissect it maybe then it will work.

"Huh," he mused. "That's never happened before. Maybe you held it wrong?"

Sammy rolled his eyes. "How could I possibly hold it wrong? There's no specific way to hold a key!"

The Latino man held his hands up in surrender. "Easy, big guy. Just making an observation."

Espie took the key next to see if setting fire would do anything. Unfortunately, it didn't.

Lacy's eyes glowed green as she took it when she tried activating it via sea powers. Nothing.

Bobby grabbed it and examined it like his mother had. He shook his head and handed it to Tulio.

The second the key touched Tulio's hand, it glowed and shot into the air. Red words were scrawled across the space between the teens and adults.

A fight to the death is not required,

To rescue the pure Roman's sire.

The key gently floated back down and settled in Tulio's palm, pointing Northwest.

Tulio blinked. "Uh…okay…?"

Sammy was equally confused. Why was it Tulio could activate it and not me?

Annabeth placed a hand on Sammy's shoulder. "Let's just assume the key takes a while to activate. Or maybe it waits until the previous holder gains more strength."

Sammy glanced over at Jason, who seemed to be standing without support now. He was just finishing off the sandwich, looking around with a confused expression.

Sammy sighed. "No point in wondering. Let's just go. Pure Roman's sire. That's definitely my dad. Out of all of us legacies, I'm the only one with pure direct Roman blood. Everyone else is either fully or half Greek."

"Right." Leo clapped his hands. "Alright, Tulio. Since the key has decided it likes you, you can drive to wherever it is we need to go. Papi needs to check on the engine."

He turned and punched Jason lightly in the arm before heading below deck. Jason rolled his eyes and yawned. He gave a small salute and followed the son of Hephaestus downstairs.

In fact, Bobby, Lacy and Espie headed below deck as well. Sammy cursed himself when Espie went down right as he remembered he wanted to confess his love to her.

Sammy sighed and looked at Tulio, who was already juggling the confusing controls at the helm. He put his hands in his pockets and walked over to the legacy of Hephaestus.

"Hey," he tried.

Tulio gave a nervous smile. "Elephant on the ship: I really don't know why the key—"

Sammy clapped a hand on to his back. "Whatever, man. It happened. Nothing I can do about it. But when we reach our destination, it's probably gonna be me leading the way."

"No problem with that," Tulio conceded. "I'm not one for leading."

"You're also not one for quests," Sammy joked. "Yet here you are."

Tulio gave an impish grin. "Like you guys could handle Icarus without me."

"We have your dad."

"If Mom wasn't missing, too, it'd probably be just Espie with you guys. I wouldn't be coming along if Mom was still at home with Zac and Aria."

Sammy shook his head. "But Leo would still come. Jason and Piper are his best friends. Plus, there's my mom and dad, who cared for your dad a lot. Leo wouldn't not search for them."

Tulio shrugged. "Fine. But I still wouldn't come."

"Regardless," Sammy said, getting back to the topic. "I want you to come along when I go get Dad."

Tulio looked at him like he was an alien. "Excuse me? I don't think so."

"You're my best bud, Tulio." Sammy Leo ruffled Tulio's hair. "And I have a feeling I'm gonna need you. Maybe the key was trying to tell us that you were going to play a part in Dad's rescue. After all, that wasn't much of a clue like with Annabeth's and Jason's."

"Hey," the demititan said. "No fights to the death sounds like a pretty big hint to me! It means someone's not gonna die!"

"I'll give you that."

Tulio sighed. "Fine, I'll go. But, only if we can bring Espie."

"Will she want to go on two mini-quests in a row?"

The demititan looked at him with a smug smile. "I'm not wanting her to come just to make me feel better. You need to get those lovey-dovey feelings out in the open."

Sammy felt his face heat up. "Shut up."

He turned on his heels and went back to the railing next to Icarus the dragon. Behind him, he knew Tulio Valdez was grinning triumphantly.


About an hour later, Sammy Leo could see the lights of a bright city. Even in the dark, he could tell which city it was.

He turned around and nodded to Tulio. The demititan nodded and announced over the ship's intercom: "Hey, guys! We've arrived at our destination. Espie, Sammy wants you and me to accompany him. And, if we really need one, I guess one of the adults can come along. But, I wouldn't trust any of our parents to behave here," he added playfully.

Soon, Espie was gazing at the city of lights with wide eyes as they walked down the gangplank. Sammy could feel the excited ADHD part of her, and it was affecting him. He wanted to jump up and down and run in circles, her feelings were that strong.

Jason was right behind them. He was still feeble in a way, but he wanted to accompany the kids this time since Leo and Annabeth had each had a turn. One glance at the city and all the adults agreed that the kids were not allowed in on their own, regardless of how many were in the group.

They were old enough for solo quests, sure, but the adults were just concerned for their kids' safety.

After all, what parent would willingly send their kids alone into the Las Vegas Strip at night?


A/N: Welp...yup...VEGAS BABY!

Saspie: 15

Espark: 12

Saspie's still in the lead, but Espark has gained a good following, too! We're nowhere near where I will reveal who will be the true pairing, so keep on voting! If you've already voted, please don't resubmit your vote. Once is enough and I don't want you guys cheating. There's no prize for voting for the correct ship, so there's no reason to double-vote :3