I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK ! Sorry, but I needed to do that after not updated for such a long time xD. While I was away, well, I wrote the longest and most "fast paced" chapter yet! :D This chapter took a really, really long time to write, so please review and tell me what you think ^.^
Also, I will update on Friday, when my new story is going to be release. It is called: Friday Nights With Gleeson Hedge. It's basically a comedy story I wrote of Coach Hedge interviewing different characters of the series. There will be a new chapter every Friday!
This chapter was insanely long so I haven't gotten around to editing ALL of it, so sorry if their are any mistakes :(
Recap:
1. Leo invents a machine to talk with Percy
2. Morpheus causes everyone except for Leo to go into a deep sleep. Leo isn't effected because Iris saves him
3. Leo goes to Morpheus's lair to destroy the machine that is causing everyone to sleep
4. Leo destroys the machine but also sets the building on fire
5. While he is escaping he finds Eris and saves her as well and brings her to the ship
6. Everyone is saved but Leo is about to reveal a secret to his past.
AND NOW, THE CHAPTER EVERYONE HAS BEEN WAITING FOR...
Leo V
Forget building the Archimedes sphere, Leo wished he could build a time machine and fix everything. But then again, Leo would have never met Eris. The girl was, according to Leo, nice, sweet, and smart, oh also the fact that she was a mechanic! What more could he ask? But then again, he had just met her and didn't really know her, well actually, he didn't know a thing about her. Whenever Leo would try to have a conversation with her, she seemed so busy in her own world. Their conversations went something like this:
Leo: Uh, hey, what's up?
Eris: Yeah
Leo: You feeling better?
Eris: Good one!
Leo: Your hair is on fire
Eris: Ha-ha, so sweet of you!
Well, Leo thought she needed some time on her own, actually, everyone seemed to be needing some "alone time", so Leo had begun working on the ship and repairing it. He had started with the engine room and had almost fainted when he saw the condition of it. Oh, no, the engine was fine, the ROOM was a mess, and the fact that their fuel had been stolen, as well as some parts of the hull. No problem, right? Well, the ship would only last a couple more days before she would go down.
Leo sighed and rang the bell and turned on the intercom.
"Guys, meet in the lower deck in 5 minutes!" he said.
Then he did another quick check of the room and made a mental list of items they needed and then began to walk over to the deck. Once he arrived he was greeted by exhausted faces who looked like they would fall over by even the slightest blow of wind. Leo decided it was up to him to "motivate" the group.
"Uh guys, so I was checking the engine room and uh…" Leo cleared his throat, "Well, we're missing some parts and unless we don't get them, we won't be flying anymore. But I still don't know who stole the parts, my guess is that its Vitruvius but I don't know HOW he could have done it"
Everyone was quiet in the room. Even Jason. Leo sighed and decided to move on.
"I going to take the ship to the closest city, and I'll need you guys to pick up some parts and come back by midnight" said Leo and began writing down notes.
"Wait, what are YOU going to do?" said Frank, frowning.
Leo grinned. "I, will be giving you all orders, taking care of the ship, and making sure the Argo II isn't in flames when you guys come back…Now, Jason, Piper, Hazel, and Thalia, I need you guys to find some motor oil, filter, and battery. While Nico, Frank, Rachel, and Grover will go and get some fuel. Ok, now off you kids go!" he said, handing them each a list and a map he had gotten hold of. He had also put circles every store he thought, that carried supplies.
As he handed them their Microphones and supplies, everyone in the room began grumbling. Everyone except Leo, which made him smile.
"C'mon guys, make a plan, I'll be in direct communication with you. So be out when the alarm goes off again, I have my own work to do and need to land the ship" said Leo, and left the room.
It was approximately 4 hours later. Leo had set everyone off on their missions and was alone in his room working on some designs he had found, by Archimedes. Man, that guy was a genius. He made technology that should have been way ahead of the roman knowledge. Ah Romans…
Leo also wondered how everything was going at Camp Jupiter. Well first of all, they were all on a course to attack Camp Half-Blood, and were even probably plotting Leo's assassination. Leo was starting to hate all of this attention!
He had his Microphone turned on loud so he could hear his team talking and communicating with each other. Occasionally, Jason would run into a monster, or Frank would get into a very hardcore fight with a cat, so Leo had to help.
As for now, everything seemed nice and quiet and at peace. Here he was, working away, Festus and Buford taking care of keeping the ship "safe" by keeping a lookout (since they had landed), and Eris was resting in Annabeth-no-Rachel-err…ERIS's room. Leo hoped his friends were doing okay down in Tartarus. Leo knew for a fact that he could never survive what Percy and Annabeth did. But then again, Leo had his own dark secrets…
"NO, I WILL NOT, think about it" he muttered to himself and shook his head. His flashbacks began coming back. Well, Leo knew that he had never done anything evil in his life. Fate just had a good way of playing with this emotions. He was not a bad man, he did what he thought was right, and it was right.
Leo decided to take a little break and go eat something, so Leo decided to finish up his work. He had been working on Archimedes Sphere, and had been trying to modify it. He called it: Leo's sphere. He drilled the first screw into the side of the sphere that was facing the door and then opened the door, exited, and closed the door behind him.
See, the awesome thing about the Argo II was that he could basically get any kind of food he wanted, thanks to an idea he had. Wanted a burger? DONE. Wanted an aluminum can? ( One of Grover's favourites). Done!
This time, Leo decided to settle on getting a pizza and began munching it down. He took a stroll around the Argo II to see if the ship needed anymore repairs. Luckily, the engine was the only thing that was missing parts.
While he ate and walked, he thought of all the things him and his friends had been through. How could one big misunderstanding cause such a big war? He remembered making the Argo II from just a couple of supplies he was given. He had felt so proud when the ship was finally completely finished, and when they had all set sail to the roman camp. But then, thing began to do down. They had lost the trust of the Romans, they had lost Percy and Annabeth, they had lost Coach Hedge as well. Who was next?
Leo remembered when he arrived at the camp and had begun training. One day he had asked Chiron, why there weren't any houses or "older people" who lived at the camp. The old guy had simply responded, "Most don't live that long, if they do, they go and live in the real world". The real world? What world was Leo in right now?
Leo finished eating and walked back to his room to work on his inventions again. He reach his door, it was open, and he stepped in, and then he pulled out his screwdriver to fix some screws.
But then, a cold feeling washed over Leo. Leo had remembered, when he had left the room, he had drilled a screw that was facing the door, but now, that same screw was facing the opposite side. It was a sphere, so other people wouldn't notice any difference, but Leo knew better.
He gasped and dropped his screwdriver and turned around. Didn't he close his door after he left? Yeah, he did, but when he had entered the room, the door was already open.
"Oh no…" he said and ran to his computer.
He should had known. It was so obvious and the clues were right in front of him. The missing parts of the engine, a diversion to get Leo alone in the ship, the door open and the sphere facing the wrong way…
Leo turned on his microphone.
"Guys… all of this, everything," said Leo, "It was a trap all along, someone is here, they've been with us and watching us all along, and they've been stealing from us."
There was no reply and the microphone was dead. Leo slammed his fist on the table and cursed a lot of people for making all of this possible.
He turned his computer on and just as he suspected, someone was interfering with the Argo II's communication, so basically, Leo couldn't contact anyone using the microphone.
And just as Leo thought that things couldn't get any worse, well, you know what happens next right? The lights of the Argo II went dead, as well as his computer, and all Leo could see was pitch black. Then the computer turned back on and Microsoft Word had turned on all by itself. Leo went closer to his computer to examine it. He gasped as he saw someone typing in words into Leo's screen. On the screen, it read:
THINK ON YOUR SINS.
Then Leo felt the ship rocking back and forth as if it had been hit.
If there was anyone else in the room, they wouldn't understand what the message meant, but Leo understood it. It was a trap to get Leo alone and confront him all along. Somewhere on this ship, was someone lurking around, ready to kill, and Leo only had a little while HE became prey.
Leo shoved his head into his hands.
"I can't do this I-" he said.
But then he remembered that he was the good guy, and he wasn't all alone on the ship. He had Buford, Festus…AND ERIS! She could be in trouble! Leo knew that this was "revenge" for a "deal" he had made with Gaea. Well sometimes, deals had to be broken, and this was Leo Valdez and this was HIS ship.
Leo jumped up. His determination rising.
"Oh, you just messed with the wrong person" he said.
Leo was actually beginning to feel bad for whoever had hijacked his ship. Looking at the map of the Argo II, hundreds of plans and ideas began forming in his mind. Maybe this would be a good time to "test" some new inventions on these guys, thought Leo. Then another thought hit his head, where was Eris? She could have been captured by whoever was on board, or she could be in danger. Destroying enemies would have to wait, Leo had to rescue Eris first.
Leo took some extra batteries he found in his room and stuffed them into his tool belt. Then he grabbed his flashlight and walked towards the door. Just as he was about to leave, he plucked a hair from his head, (which was probably worth millions because he was Leo), placed it on top of the door and shut it, so if anyone would enter the room while Leo was gone, the hair wouldn't be on the door anymore because it would have fallen.
"Sometimes, you're just too smart, Valdez" Leo muttered to himself as he began walking down the narrow hallway. He could definitely smell gasoline on the ground and knew that if he didn't act fast, the Argo II would be in flames soon.
Leo could see the faint outline of Eris's room but he heard no noise and saw no movement. He edged a little closer and placed his hand on the knob, getting ready to turn it. He took a deep breath and was just about to charge into the room when someone from the other side swung the door open and punched Leo right in the face.
Leo was thrown to the ground and his flashlight went spinning away. As the light was spinning, Leo saw that the person who has attacked his was…Eris.
"Whoa, Eris! It's me, Leo! Chill dude…" said Leo, rubbing his head.
Leo couldn't see much through the dark but he thought he could see Eris's cheeks turn red.
"What happening? The light, go?" she said in broken English.
"Yeah, that's the thing. We're under attack, and I came to bring you to my room, I…have a plan" said Leo
However, Eris just tilted her head in confusion, her brown eyes even seemed to sparkle in the darkness .
"Attack?" she said.
Leo just sighed, picked up the flashlight, took her hand and began leading her back to his room. While he was leading the way he thought about who would actually try to take over the Argo II, and well, whoever it was, was doing a very good job at it. Leo also knew that this had to do with a "deal" he made a long, long time ago. Whenever he thought about it, it made him feel sick and nauseous.
Leo shook his head when he realized that he had been standing in front of his door for a couple minutes now, he looked over at Eris who was regarding him with a curios look.
"Uh…just checking, if the door was safe…" he said, but then bit his lip after he realized how stupid it was, "They can be…dangerous"
She kept staring at Leo. "Okay"
Leo shined the flashlight on the door and saw that his hair strand was still in place, meaning that no one had been in his room. He then turned the knob and led Eris inside. After they were both in and the door was locked, he went through some of his inventions and picked out a heat-seeking radar he had built for fun and placed it on the ground. He then turned the machine on to see if he could find anyone on the ship and unfortunately, he found nothing. Why is that unfortunate you ask? Well, he knew for sure that someone was aboard the ship, but if the heat-seeker couldn't find anyone, then that meant that their enemy was much more powerful…and not human.
Leo walked back to his map and began circling locations he thought someone could be hiding while Eris kept watched the hall intently. After about a few minutes, Leo jumped when he heard a ringing sound. He and Eris both silently looked at each other and then to where the sound was coming from.
The ringing noise was actually from a phone Leo had found a while ago. He had decided to keep it because he thought some of the parts might have been useful. It was a mystery how someone was calling Leo when there was no connection…
Leo took a deep breath once more and walked towards the phone thinking that whoever was hijacking the ship wanted to have a "conversation" with him. It was an old white cord phone he had "borrowed" from a store. Well, what was so dangerous about a handset other than the coat of dust it was covered in? He was just about to pick up the handle of the phone when Eris put a hand on his shoulder.
"Leo, NO!" she said and pointed at the wall, "Look"
At first, Leo couldn't see anything odd about the wall.
"Yes, Eris" he said as if talking to a little girl, "that is a wall, and this is the floor…OH and that over there? That is a door" he said jokingly.
Eris just sighed and grabbed the flashlight from Leo's hands. She then walked towards the wall and began poking it.
Curious, Leo walked towards her to take a look at what she was actually doing. From a distance, it looked like she was just scraping the wall…like a cat, but Leo realized that there was something ON the wall. It appeared to be a small "thread" attached to the wall. The thread was connected to the phone and was running along the walls to who knows where?
Leo pulled the wire off the wall and began taking it off to see where the wire was coming from. After a couple minutes, he was still pulling wire off of the walls. He seemed to be going in circles, with Eris following behind. Then Leo's screen began flashing with an annoying "beeping" sound.
Fearing the worst, he looked at the screen. It read:
Where do you keep your ammunition? That wire IS pretty long, by the way…
Leo gasped as he understood what the message intended. Again, it was a message that only Leo could understand the message, which meant that HE was being targeted. Someone was angry, and they wanted their revenge…
The phone continued to ring as Leo began frantically searched the spot where the wire began and when he found it, his worst suspicions had been confirmed. The wire was connected to the phone and was running out of a hole that had been drilled. Leo guessed that this wire was leading ot the supply room. It was were all of the Argo's ammunition and explosives where kept.
He took out his blade and peeled off some rubber layer of the wire. When the layer had been removed he saw two other wires inside. One was blue…and one was red…
"Oh no" he said, and shook his head.
Eris seemed to realize what the problem was as she seemed shocked herself. It was a bomb. Someone had rigged a bomb on the Argo II.
"Leo, just cut the wire that leads to the detonator…the red one" she said.
Leo shook his head. "Look closely…the wires are spray painted and we actually have the detonator with us" he gulped, "It's the phone…when someone picks it up...the ship goes in flames. And there is no way to disarm it"
Leo had never been taught anything about bombs, but he seemed to know everything about them. Both wires had been connected to the detonator/phone, and some jerk had hotwired the wires together in some places. The phone probably even had a tilt switch which meant that if they tried to move anything it would take less than a second for the room to be in flames.
Well, I know what you're thinking, Just don't pick up the phone! That was easy to do, but as Leo began to examine the phone, he saw a timer that read: 19:57, so they didn't have much time.
And to make matters more worse, the screen flashed again and it read:
Keep your promises next time.
Then, the radar began to make some weird noises and when Leo looked over, he saw several tiny dots moving rapidly on the Argo II. There was an squadron coming aboard the ship!
"Oh man," Leo said and began forming a new plan. He would not lose this battle! This was HIS ship, and hijacking it made him angry. There was only one person who could do all of this. A person who wanted Leo to keep his "oaths".
"Ok Eris…here is what we do…" he began.
The plan was quite simple actually. Eris defends the ship, while Leo handles the bomb and whoever was hacking them.
He sent Eris off with a dagger he had found and began preparing for his own little battle that was to come.
He brought over mirrors from his friend's rooms and placed them all around him, so no one could find the real Leo. He then brought out some bleach and Laundry Detergent he found in a closet and placed it behind him.
While he was working, he heard footsteps coming towards his room and took cover. The door slowly opened and in came Eris, looking exhausted by unhurt.
"Water men! Everywhere!" she panted, "I found this…for you"
Eris walked over and handed Leo a wooden crossbow with a couple of arrows left. Leo took it and thanked her.
"Are…are you sure you…do this?" she said.
"I positive, and besides, what can go wrong?" said Leo, grinning.
"Ok" said Eris and was about to leave when she stopped and looked back at Leo.
"Be…safe" she said, and walked off.
Leo hoped that he actually would be safe and that everything would be fine. For the time being, Leo sat on his chair…and waited…and waited, and waited.
After about a couple minutes, all noise seemed to die down and a cold chill passed through the room. Leo raised his head and looked at the ceiling which seemed to be called out to him. It's time, he said.
The radio in his room, which was actually Coach Hedge's turned on by itself and began turning channels. Then it switched to FM and an eerie voice of a girl came out.
"I'm coming" she said, and the room shuddered.
As the room began to shudder even more, Leo found himself going into a flashback. It was a memory of a long time ago…it was before his mom had died.
Leo flashed back into reality and noticed that he was shivering
Leo shook his head. "Can't think about that past now, can I?" Leo told himself.
Just as he finished, Leo's table that was beside him began shaking beside him and soon, the whole room was shaking! He could no longer hear the sounds of the fight coming from outside and he hoped that Eris was following according to plan. Leo still had a couple cards up his sleeve and was not going to give up that easily. If Eris could do her job, then they had a chance of winning this fight. Determined, Leo waited calmly…like a boss…
Soon, Leo could notice a mist forming directly in front of him. It was a greenish type of mist and smelled like a rotten egg. Leo had to restrain himself from gagged, but seriously!
"OLD SPICE! WOMAN…have you heard of it?" said Leo, waving his hand in front of his nose. He could see a figure appearing through the mist but he could see anyone. However, he had a good idea who it was.
Leo slumped back on his chair and smiled. "I thought it would be you. The smell, the horrible entrance…yep…welcome to my ship. Now get off!" he said.
The room seemed to grow colder and Leo wondered if he had gone too far. The walls seemed to be turning green and withering. It was as if they were yelling at him in his mind. Run while you can! they said.
At this point, Leo was beginning to get a little uncomfortable. He was about to speak up again when the shadow began moving forward. But unfortunately, whoever it was, didn't really have good vision because they tripped over a wrench that had fallen.
"Oh curse this wretched ship! I can never get my entrance right!" the figure went on and on and began rambling like a klutz. It was a woman's voice, that Leo knew, and that only confirmed his suspicions. The figure stepped out and looked at Leo right in the face.
"My name," she said, "Is Styx…ruler and goddess of the river Styx and keeper of Oaths."
Leo restrained himself from bursting out laughing. The woman had a crazed look on her face and her hair looked as if it had gotten stuck in a vacuum cleaner. He arms seemed to be changing form from water to skin which was kind of freaky. Her eyes were light brown and seemed to glow in the dark.
Leo stood up and raised his hand. "Nice to meet you stick…my name is branch!"
Leo began laughing while Styx's eyes seemed to ignite with fire. Anger raged through her as she stomped her foot and crossed her arms. This woman was reminding Leo of Annabeth when he had first seen her in a frantic search for Percy.
"You must learn to respect elders Leo Valdez. I suspect you know why I am here? Good, because now…it is time! No one can escape from an oath made to the Styx, and Gaea shall have her way and be victorious!" she said triumphantly.
Her words caught Leo's attention.
"Wait…do you WANT Gaea to win? I thought you were on our side? In legends it said that you used to work for Zeus after he gave you rewards?" he said.
"Yeah? Well the gods are such jerks lately! And Gaea does give better benefits! The Styx sides with those who help it the most, and you, Leo Valdez must complete your promise!" she said.
Then she opened her hand and a bag popped up. She then opened the bag and pulled out an Ipad and began tapping into it.
"Says here that you made an oath with Gaea. I'm not going to say what that promise was, because you should already know," she said, "And know this Leo Valdez, I can only enforce and make you keep your oath, but it is up to the fate's on what your sacrifice will be…and you do realize that the fates are cruel"
"Oh poor you! Persuaded to make a promise to the river Styx at such a young and innocent age! Where was your "nanny" then, huh? Where was Hera to protect you?" she taunted, "Oh that's right! She only cares about a perfect family…and you are not part of the perfect family. Leo you are always being used…and what the vengeance goddess said was true. You ARE the seventh wheel!"
Leo decided to ignore what the goddess just said.
"So why are you doing all of this? And how are you hacking the Argo II systems? Is someone else helping you or something?" he said.
"The underworld shall unite and help Gaea for her cause! By force if necessary! Gaea is giving large prizes if I can make you complete your oath by today…and promise me Leo, you WILL complete your "deed" today!" she rambled.
"C'mon man, I thought you were on my side! My friend even took a bath in you! Which is…gross…but really! Ever heard of Percy Jackson? Well' he isn't gonna be happy when he hears about this!"
Wait…what was this promise Leo had made to Gaea? Well, he had never told anyone this and didn't plan to tell anyone as well. It was a very big mistake he made, a very long time ago…
While Styx was talking, he began slowly, moving back to where he kept his liquid bleach and laundry detergent. He just needed to distract the goddess a little while longer and his plan would work.
After hearing what Leo said about Percy, Styx began rambling on and on about how he was a jerk and how he was the only person brave enough to bathe in her river.
This was perfect! He had distracted the goddess for a while so he could work on a quick trap he had made up himself. He silently prayed to his father that this would work and that Eris had done her job.
Leo quickly turned his back on the clumsy goddess while she seemed to be in her own world and kept nagging. He opened the bleach container and poured it into a small tank. The tank was from an old scuba diving suit he had kept from a long time ago. Then he opened the laundry detergent and then poured it into the tank as well and closed the lid quickly. He then summoned fire and carefully hovered his fire hands over the tank to warm it up. He looked at the pressure gauze of the tank which was going crazy high, which was a good thing.
Then he stuffed his mini gas mask into his pocket and faced the goddess.
"So what do you want from me, Styx?" said Leo.
The goddess regarded Leo for a moment and then looked at him in the eye. When she did this he could feel his insides melting in fear, but he made himself stay strong.
"Resurrection." she said, "I want to resurrect the past. Your oaths! And your mistakes you made!"
"Well I'm afraid, you'll just have to wait" he said.
Leo smiled and picked up the tank. Then he smashed it on the ground and instantly, yellow gas began to fill the room and started burning Leo's eyes.
The goddess seemed to understand what was going on and threw another fit. She began throwing things around the room including Coach Hedge's radio which hit the wall and then fell on the floor. It then began playing Gangnam Style from the local radio station. It kind of fit the mood…kind of…
"Styx…I want you to meet Mr. Chlorine Gas…it's science but you wouldn't get it. You just lost the little IQ you had left." said Leo and put his gas mask on.
"Oh and another thing. You were part Naiad weren't you? So you have water running in you. Well I'm afraid too much chlorine can poison you water! This must really suck for you!"
The goddess looked around in shock and then began waving her arms around as if to disperse the gas around her, but it was no use…the pressure was too high and more gas was pouring out. Styx gave one last cruel look to Leo.
"You stopped me Leo, but you cannot stop my minions and the fates from completing your oath. MARK MY WORDS!" she said and disappeared, but before she did, she snapped her fingers and ignited the gasoline below her. Just as she did that, Leo pushed the emergency sprinkler button that he had installed in every room in case of a fire. But now, instead of water, he heard the sound of gas coming out and instantly, the fire was wiped out clean.
Leo smiled. Eris, the genius mechanic had done it! The plan was that she would empty the water tanks from where the sprinkler system got water from and fill it with Carbon Dioxide, which got rid of the fire. Oh science…
The goddess roared and then disappeared.
Leo had little time to pause and congratulate himself for what he had just done. Put the continuous ringing of the phone told him he didn't have much time left until the bomb went off.
He grabbed his crossbow and headed out the door, carefully looking out for any enemies. Eris, by the looks if it, had done her job. The plan was that she would distract and stall whoever was attacking the ship while Leo would try to communicate with Jason and disarm the bomb.
He ran towards the ammunitions room and took a look at the bomb. It wasn't so complicated as he thought it would be. I pipe-bomb was connected to the wire and was ticking away. The bomb appeared to be old and had rust all over it.
Another plan began forming in Leo's head. He smiled again.
"This is way too easy" he said, and in the background, Gangnam style played which was kind of weird but funny as well.
The bomb was very, very old by the looks of it and had rust over it. This all just made it easier for Leo to diffuse the bomb. He couldn't cut any wire without risking an explosion, but he could cut the pipe bomb since it was all rusty and weak. The bomb only blew up when there was pressure in the bomb, so if he could release the pressure by cutting the bomb, well then…
He brought out a small knife and began cutting away and soon, he was already halfway done. Luckily, his head hadn't blown off yet…so everything was good. He was about to cut off the last part of the bomb when he heard a noise in the hallway. It was someone yelling and running.
Leo quickly finished cutting off the bomb and pulled out his crossbow. Then he entered the hallway slowly.
He saw two figures, and one was being taken hostage by the other one. There was someone wearing a jacket and a scarf (similar to what Eris had been wearing), and was sitting on the chair. The other figure seemed to be a man who was yelling something to the hostage. Leo guessed that one of them was Eris but he wasn't sure. He decided to take aim of the person holding the other person hostage. because it was clearly an enemy considering that all of his friends were gone and away from the ship.
He heard the yelling increasing from the one
Leo loaded his celestial bronze crossbow and aimed down on the enemy. He could hear some muffled yelling sounds coming from somewhere in the hall and he thought it was from the person sitting in the chair…who was probably Eris.
Leo took a deep breath and then…pulled the trigger. The crossbow sent an arrow flying to the enemy and pierced his/her hip and sent they person instantly to the ground.
Then, Leo ran up the person who was tied up, totally ignoring the person on the ground. When he saw who the hostage was, he wanted to scream. The "hostage" was no one! It was just a pile of socks stuffed into a winter jacket!
"Oh no…" said Leo as he turned to the person who lay on the floor.
Leo turned the victim around and gasped. The person who he had shot was none other than Eris!
"I…they froze me…here, and recorder" she panted, " when you fire"
Leo looked around and saw that the "yelling" he had heard was coming from a tape recorder.
At this point, Leo felt like punching something really hard. How could he have done this? He had shot his own friend! Leo also became angry, because he knew that someone had made this trap. And someone had lured Eris over here so that Leo would accidentally shoot her.
"I am…so sorry Eris" he said.
Eris, out of words, pointed to her bag that lay on the ground beside her. Leo quickly grabbed It and pulled out the only thing that was in there. A canteen full of…Ambrosia!
Leo's eyes widened. "So you're a demigod!" he said.
Eris weakly nodded and then smiled. "Daughter of…Hades."
Leo held Eris's hand while she drank the Ambrosia. Almost instantly, her face regained her color again. She kept telling Leo to go and carry on with the plan, but he couldn't just leave her hear could he? But then again, Leo had a ship to save now.
Leo looked at Eris in the eye.
"I'll be back for you okay?" said Leo. He squeezed Eris's hand. "I promise."
He was about to leave when he saw something that caught his eye. Inside Eris's bag was a sparkle of light, as if something was shining in there.
He looked into the bag and saw two small daggers, identical to each other. He grabbed them by the handle. While he was examining them, the dagger rotated when Leo pressed a button on the handle. The blades then extended and rotated outwards.
He realized what these blades were…well, he didn't know what they were called. Which was weird because he should have known. Well, at least he knew how to use them. He pressed the button on the handle again and the blades went back to their original form. He then tucked them into his sleeve and tested them out. He pressed the button using his wrist and the daggers popped out of his sleeve.
Leo decided to use these for a while. He then put his hood he was wearing over his head and began walking along the hall. He smiled as he looked at the daggers. (Assassins Creed maybe…?)
"Oh this is going to be fun" he said.
He continued walking on the hall when he heard noises coming from mess hall he had built. Leo stopped in front of the open door and poked his head inside.
He saw a man with a scruffy beard and buzz cut talking to someone through iris-message. They seemed to be arguing about something. Around the man were smaller, shorter, men who all seemed to be switching phases from water and skin. One second, they looked like they were regular people but then they would switch into looking like large blobs of water.
Leo had no idea who these guys were, but he DID know that these were the people responsible for hijacking his ship.
Leo quickly formed a plan in his brain. He would sneak around the room and, one by one, take out the guards and then interrogate the man who was speaking to the iris-message.
There was a guard standing beside the door so Leo moved quickly and stabbed the water-blob-guy in the chest. Almost instantly, the guy disintegrated into dust with a look of pure horror. Leo looked at his (celestial bronze) daggers. "Sweet," he said. But he knew that soon, these monsters might come back, so he had to act fast.
He moved towards the other guard who also, was taken by surprise. Unfortunately, the guard was smart enough to let out a scream and alerted all of the other guards, including the man talking on the iris message.
Soon, everyone was looking at Leo, speechless, and confused.
"Uh…hi" he said.
After that, all of the guards went into a frantic craze to kill Leo. Some charged at him, and some began crying and well, sucking their thumbs. Their leader began yelling orders. These guys weren't brave…
Their lack of confidence gave Leo, confidence. Leo charged the men who were charging him and began stabbing them one by one as he ran, yelling like a mad man.
For the first time, with the weapon, Leo felt himself alive and felt renewed in energy. He ran even fast as time seemed to slow down for him. He stabbed every water-dude as he ran. It was as if the blade was feeding him energy…
Soon, Leo had cleared out most of the guards and was doing well when things too the turn for the worse. As Leo finished stabbing another guard, he felt someone grab him from beside. When Leo turned around, he was greeted to a nice punch in the face. Well that sucked. Couldn't he punch anywhere else?
When Leo regained a proper vision from the punch, he saw the man with the beard looking at Leo, smiling as if Leo were an amusing puppy.
"You put on a good fight, but not good enough for me" said the man, "We are the underworld mercenaries, and Styx has…hired us. The men you just "killed" are from the underworld. They will be back soon enough."
Then Leo noticed that the man also had a Wii controller in his hand. His eyes widened.
"Yes, Leo" said the man and pressed a button on the Wii remote. The ship began to hum as the engine turned on and the ship was raised into the air. "You performed well with the dagger. Then I challenge you! A fight of the blade. JUST YOU AND ME!", his voice rising.
"B-but the ship doesn't have enough fuel and energy to stay in the air for that long" croaked Leo.
"Well then we better hurry. And doesn't the captain always go down with his ship" said the man, his eyes sparkling.
The man grabbed Leo by the collar.
"But first, your friends are getting a little worried that you haven't spoken to them for a while…why don't you tell them what you're up to? And that things are just fine!" he said.
The man opened a tap and placed his hands over it so a mist came out. He then threw an drachma into it and muttered a few words. Soon an image began appearing in the mist.
The man looked at Leo. "Remember: no funny business"
The image of Jason appeared, with Piper behind him who seemed to be yelling to someone else. Jason looked exhausted and had grime all over his face.
"Leo!" he said, "What happened? We got the supplies but we couldn't communicate with you. Is there something wrong?"
Leo looked at the man, who nodded at Leo. "Uh, yeah…everything is fine" he said, "I was just fixing the Argo's communication lines and they should be working soon, and uh listen…I have to go now and work on some new inventions I've been…planning. Just bring the supplies okay?"
Jason nodded. "Yeah sure man, talk to you later.
The image began faded away and soon, Leo could only see Jason's face. "Oh and Jason…don't worry. stay in nice and chill" said Leo.
Jason's eyes crackled with confusion and surprise, however he didn't say anything. Leo hoped that Jason had gotten the message. "Nice and Chill" was their secret emergency code that Leo had used when they had been taken hostage by the twin giants. It meant that something was wrong.
The man, however didn't seem to notice anything weird.
"Good, now I see you have completed your…promise that you made to Styx…" said the man, "I must kill you now"
The promise? If anyone else was listening in the room, they would have been confused but Leo know what "promise" the man was talking about. Anger coursed through Leo and before he even had the chance to think, he lunged at the man and began stabbing him.
The first two hits were severe but then the man blocked the other ones and sent a couple of blows from his blade as well. Leo quickly dodged and was about to sneak behind the man when he fell over. When Leo regained his balance and was about to get up, he noticed that there was a blade pointed to his neck.
Leo had lost, and the man had won. But no! Leo heard a rumbling coming from the hall and soon, the door was burst open by…Buford! The walking desk rolled over to the man and tackled him. The distraction was all that Leo needed to take the man down.
Leo, while the man's back was towards him, sprung out and stabbed the man through the heart and killed him. Then Leo slumped down against the wall, panting heavily and thinking about what he'd just done.
Buford came over and began to tap Leo on the shoulder. The table's tone appeared to be nervous and frantic.
"Buford…what's wrong?" said Leo.
The table said nothing but just rolled over to the door and signaled for Leo to follow. Leo, confused, got up and began following Buford down the hall.
Soon, Buford led Leo to the place where he had last seen Eris. There was just one problem. Eris wasn't there!
Then Leo understood what was actually going on. A horrible, horrible, ending to the plot. Leo slammed his fists against the wall and raced to the upper deck. While he was running, he had time to check his crossbow for how much arrows he had left. It was only one…
When Leo arrived at the deck, his heart stopped for a second. To his right, he saw a water-dudes carrying the unconscious Eris away and were about to throw her off! To his left, he saw another water-dude who was disassembling Festus from the Argo II! The problem was that the guy was almost done and soon, either Festus would have been thrown off the ship, or Eris.
Leo was too far away to run to the people and they would probably just start working faster. He brought out his crossbow. There was only 1 arrow left, and 2 people who needed help. Leo realized that he would have to make a decision on…who to save.
Leo only had a few seconds left to decide what he would do. He was too far to run and save BOTH of them. And he only had one arrow. He noticed that Festus was looking at Leo right in the eye. They looked at each other for a moment, and Leo seemed to have a flashback of every good moment he had with the dragon.
Festus seemed to realize what the problem was and began beeping and ticking away. Leo knew that Festus was saying something is Morse code but the only word he could make out was: "Goodbye".
Leo knew what to do then. Leo took his crossbow and aimed at one of the guards who was about to through Eris overboard. He fired and sent the guard into dust, he then looked over at Festus who now, was gone. Leo ran as fast as he could and slammed into the other guard and took him out.
Afterwards, he raced to the deck to look under the ship to see if he could find Festus, but unfortunately, the dragon was…nowhere to be seen.
A wave of grief came over Leo. He had lost his dragon and best friend Festus. And then he remembered his promise that he had kept with Styx and cursed her for letting this happen. What was the promise he had shared? Well, Leo didn't want to tell anyone that.
He went back to the mess hall and retrieved the Wii remote and began lowering the ship back to the ground. The power had come back and Leo contacted his friends and soon they were here.
Leo, exhausted, explained what had happened while his friends were gone. Then he received rounds of praise for his quick thinking, however, Leo didn't even care. He later, excused himself and went back to his room.
In his room, Leo went back to working on his new inventions to distract himself and keep his mind off things. Styx's voice kept ringing in his head. She had been sent by Gaea, which was bad, to make him fulfil a promise, which was even more bad.
Leo was interrupted by a knock on his door and in came Piper. She had seemed to distant ever since Annabeth had disappeared and usually kept to herself…and Jason.
"Uh hey" she said and looked at Leo.
Leo paused what he was doing and looked up at her. "Oh, sup?" he said.
She took a deep breath and took a seat on a chair that was next to her. "Okay, I'm not sure, but I didn't really understand what happened when we left. What you told us was that Styx hijacked a ship because Gaea told her too and then there were these mercenaries." she said.
"Yeah, that's about right" said Leo and resumed in his work, completed uninterested in Pipers words.
"But…Styx just doesn't come out of the blue and hijack ships, no matter WHO tells them too, and they didn't really take anything so what would their motive be? And no offence, but you don't look so good, but I know you've been through a lot and…and Festus is gone" she ranted.
"Listen, I'm just as confused as you are, and I'm just tired…that's all" said Leo.
"Are you really, Leo? Look at yourself!" she said.
"Hey! That's not very nic-" he began but he was interrupted by Piper.
"That's not what I meant. Ever since we came back, you haven't even spoken to us properly and just went back to your room. Your sweating like you're a criminal and you're hammering a nail with a wrench." she said.
Leo looked down and saw that she was right. He had a bent nail in his hand and was hammering it with the end of a wrench. Leo took a steady breath, went over and sat down beside Piper.
"Look, I'm fine, just very tired" he said. Leo tried to smile but it just came out as a wince.
Piper pointed to Leo's computer screen that was still turned on to Microsoft Word. "Then what does 'think on your sins' mean?" she said.
Leo knew that she had a very good point. He looked at Piper and noticed that there was no way he was going to win and he had no choice now….
He decided to tell his story, HIS TRUE story of how his mother had died. What he had told his friends was the truth, but only the "partial" truth.
He began off telling his story, of when he was eight and he had had an argument with his mother. While he was telling her his story, he felt himself sinking back into a flashback.
It was a warm but foggy day, and Leo was only eight years at the time. He had started seeing small "visions" and hearing voices in his head but he had no idea where they were coming from.
Leo was playing outside that day, even though his mom had told him not too. He was angry, he was angry that he could never see his father, and that his "nanny", who he later found out to be Hera, was being so hard on him.
Leo had been playing outside all alone when he heard her. It was Gaea. At the time, her voice had sounded so caring and sweet, she sounded like she wanted to help Leo.
"Great danger awaits your family, my child" she softly spoke, "I can…help you…"
"W-who are you" said Leo, covering his ears.
"I can…help you…you mother is in great danger! My name is Gaea, and I am here to save you!" she said, "Make a deal with me, and I will not let your mother die in the hands of a stranger. Oh Leo! Poor Leo, if you could see what fate your family has…"
"What deal?" said Leo, sounding terrified.
"Oh…a very small deal. Your mother will not die in the hands of a Stanger…but you must return the favor…you must promise me that when the time comes, you must destroy the thing…most valuable to you…and you must swear…on the river Styx"
At this point, Leo was totally confused. He didn't know what the Styx meant nor what the deal was on…but he wanted to save his mother. He DID have visions of people dying and he often heard voices trying to warn him.
"I… swear…?"
"Wait, wait, hold on a sec" said Piper, interrupting Leo as he recounted the story. "So you hear a voice that tells you to swear on the river Styx. The deal is that Gaea saves your mother from being killed by 'stranger' and in return, you have to sacrifice the one thing that is most valuable to you" said Piper.
"Yeah, and that's basically what the deal was, and that's why Styx came here today. I think she is working with Gaea since she has control over the underworld." said Leo.
However, Piper still didn't sound convinced. She shook her head.
"Leo…you also said before…that, uh, when your mother died, Gaea visited you and talked to you…did this have anything to-" she began but Leo stood up, to show her that he wasn't interesting in talking anymore.
"Leo, look at what's happened. Look at everyone around you. We are going to do this together and if there is a problem, you can tell us. Is this all really about the deal…or something else?" she continued.
At this point, Leo wanted to run away again. He hated when he had to remember his past.
"You wanna hear something? Answer me this. how, how can you go around and face the fact that you just killed someone. A person who had a whole life in front of them and you just…took it! That's right, you can't, and then they tell you to be strong, when they have no clue what you've been through. This job is black and white. Either you kill someone, or you don't, and when the time comes, will you be able to kill someone who was closest to you?" said Leo as he sat back down again. He was beginning to sweat heavily again and was breathing hard. He looked at Piper in the eye.
"How can you live, knowing that you were tricked to kill your own mother?" he said. "She was a good person- was only 35, and she tells me before I go to sleep: 'And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years. The next morning when I wake up, I began seeing the visions again and heard the voices. A saw Gaea and freaked out. It was her plan all along, to make me kill my mother myself. That day, when I had set the building on fire, Gaea had kept her promise and had made ME kill my own mother."
"And do you know how that's like? Whenever I look at a fireplace, I see my mother dying, whenever I hear Gaea, it reminds me of all the pain she caused. I hate her, Piper, and I've always been a puppet of the gods. What's wrong with me? She had a whole life in front of her and I took it" he said.
"Leo, the job is black and white, but how you feel isn't. It wasn't entirely your fault that your mother died, and there is nothing wrong with you. I see an inventor, a genius, an annoying person, but most of all, I see a man who cares about his friends more than he does in himself" she said.
"And Leo…you said that Styx came here today to 'finish the oath', well…did she?" asked Piper.
"The promise…was that I would lose the one thing most valuable to me, what haven't I lost?" said Leo.
He was going to speak again but he was interrupted by the Argo II's intercom that blared to life. Through the intercom, there was no voice that came, just an assortment of clicking and beeping. It was a very familiar sound, and Leo knew exactly what it was.
Leo's eyes widened as he jumped up and opened his door.
"Piper, get everyone to meet me in the hall as soon as you can" he said and ran off, leaving Piper alone.
A few minutes later, the sounds continued over the intercom and everyone had assembled in the hall. They all had confused and tired faces and looked as if they would fall over any second.
Leo pulled out a piece of paper and a pen and began writing down what he heard. What exactly were the beeping sounds? Well, they were about to find out soon.
"Uh Leo…can you tell us why there are annoying sounds coming through the intercom?" said Frank, rubbing his head.
Leo looked up excitedly. "Guys…listen to the sounds carefully….what do you hear?" he said. As he expected, no one understood what they were hearing. But then someone in the room spoke up.
"That is Morse Code" someone said.
Leo looked around and saw that the voice was from Eris, who was leaning on the doorway. She looked weak but fine. Leo guessed that Rachel had fixed her up.
"That's right" said Leo, "And it says: 37° 57′ 0″ N, 23° 42′ 0″ and that sound IS very familiar"
But at this point, no one had any idea what Leo was talking about..
" That's Festus! I don't know how he's doing this but I think he's broadcasting his coordinates to us so we can find him!" said Leo, "He's alive and okay!"
"No way," said Thalia as she tried to listen to the sounds. "Well then let's go get him and then-"
"Hold it!" said Piper, cutting Thalia off. At first, Leo thought that she was going to tell everyone about the conversation she had with Leo, but instead she said something else.
"Leo said something about Styx working together with Gaea, and soon, all of the underworld would be under Gaea's control" she said.
"That's right" said Leo.
"Bad," said Nico, "Bad, bad, bad. Oh, I should have seen this coming. Guys, the last time I talked with my father-er-Hades, he…well he didn't look so good, and now that we know that Gaea is planning on taking over the underworld first…my father and his army would be the first targets for war."
Then it hit Leo. Why hadn't he thought of this before? It was so obvious and now the prophecy was making sense. This had been Gaea's plan all along and no one had noticed.
"Gaea wants to take control of the underworld, and has made the gods weak by causing the Greek and Roman demigods to fight. There is no way for us to go to Hades personally and warn him, because all of the gods are going through a meltdown. We might have to go… secretly undercover." said Leo, a plan already forming in his head.
"Wait…go where exactly?" said Piper.
Leo smiled after a long time.
"We get the 10 keys, and then rendezvous with Percy and Annabeth. After that, we better hope that Chiron can get things under control with the other demigods because there is going to be a big war in the underworld and we are going to go help. The prophecy makes sense now." said Leo.
"Uhh…GO WHERE EXACTLY?" said Frank, sounding inpatient.
Leo looked at all of his friends and thought about their long, very long, journey to come. All of the battles that were waiting for them. And finally, maybe, they would defeat Gaea and the giants.
He looked over at everyone. "We'll go," he said, "To the House of Hades".
WHOA, was that an awesome ending or what?! So yeah, this chapter was basically giving hints on what this story will be about. Some things to think about: Who were the mercenaries of the underworld? Who were the "water dudes"? Is Leo telling the FULL truth? And HOW did Festus survive the fall...? These questions will be answered in the next chapters. Oh and, please don't actually try to mix bleach with laundry detergent. It probably won't do anything but...
Q/A:
1. Thank you for the medal...means a lot. :D
2. The Gangnam style was for you, Oreo, thanks for the idea :)
3. Percy will be "unpossessed"...I'M JUST KIDDING, HE'S KEEPING HIS POWERS!
4. Thanks for all of the reviews, I couldn't find any information on whether Satyrs have a soul. If they had no soul, would their hair be red? o.O I'm just kidding, but thanks for the reviews, I'll try to fix up the mistakes :)
Well that's all for this chapter. I hope you liked it! If you did, then why not review, follow, or maybe even favorite? Every time you press the follow button, you will receive a FREE air guitar. Awesome deal.
HEY YOU! YEAH YOU...DO YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER? THEN WHY NOT PRESS THIS NICE BUTTON BELOW?