It looks like you guys are really enjoying both sequels, and I'm happy that you have chosen to stick with this story. And just a warning, this one is going to be a lot darker than the previous one, so if you are particularly sensitive then I would advise skipping this chapter. Thank you for all of the faves and follows.
Kittehx1: But his ex is dead (though that doesn't mean much in Percy Jackson ;) ).
DamnYouPeopleWithCoolUserNames : I'm sorry that you don't understand it. Basically Knowing Leo follows on pretty directly from LAL, the events from LAL will be pretty key to the plotline. This is more of a collection of oneshots based around Leo meeting people from his past again. I'm glad that you like both ideas though.
Melancholy's Sunshine : Thank you, and they could be pretty interesting ideas to explore so I might do a James part two or something.
B.E by Erin : Don't worry, all of those characters that you mentioned will come back.
Zoethezany III : Teehee, I'll take it that you like the idea J
QueenMoolace : Thank you, and I'm happy that you think I've started off well.
Sidda : Both of those will be in it later J And I've replied to that review as well.
Patrick : Thank you for the suggestion, and Teresa will definitely be making a reappearance.
Connwaer Heap : I liked James, he was one of my favourite OCs from LAL.
Cupcake Gal : Brotherly moments are so adorable.
Toolazyforname120 : I enjoyed the crossdressing as well. Jazz and Alvin will both be making an appearance in later chapters.
BlazingFlames22 : I didn't know that gap years were more common in England, and I hope that the PM cleared it up for you.
Guest : Ah, I'm sorry if I messed that up. Please just pass it of as a silly mistake if I did.
Disclaimer : Oh what wouldn't I do to own Leo Valdez.
Leo scowled fiercely as they flew on Festus over his home state. Jason was sitting directly behind him, and Nico was seated behind Jason. Leo had been looking forwards to a relaxed day in Bunker nine, and now he was flying back to Texas.
He still wasn't exactly sure why this event had come about.
He had been sitting at a table with the rest of the seven (Frank and Hazel had been visiting from Camp Jupiter) along with Nico Di Angelo. Suddenly, Rachel Dare had come staggering along, spewing green smoke.
He had been told that Zeus had granted Apollo "probationary forgiveness" (whatever that meant) in light of the war being won, and one of Apollo's first acts as a free God was to slay the beast that had been watching over the spirit of Delphi.
So Rachel's powers had been restored, and the future had apparently decided to mug her whilst Leo was trying to enjoy his toast. The prophecy had been as follows :
"The fire, the lightning and the child of the dead,
Must go forth in Hades' stead,
To remove the spirits from the Lone Star State,
And end a young girl's tragic wait."
That had certainly brightened up Leo's day, especially when the camp had unanimously decided that he must be fire whilst Jason and Nico must be lightning and the child of the dead respectively.
Nico had looked as murderous as Leo felt, though whether that was about the quest or the amount of paperwork that his father had been dealing with ever since the incident with the Doors of Death, and Jason appeared long suffering.
To be honest, Leo had been exhausted and fed up with being an errand boy for the Gods - he had died for them last quest - but he knew that he had to be the cheerful one.
So he had leapt up, declaring that he "loved nothing more than oh so cheerful prophecies served with his breakfast, before heading off to prep Festus for the flight.
The other delegates trudged after him, Jason mournfully eyeing his girlfriend and Nico appearing completely disinterested.
The ride so far had been in complete silence, and Leo had decided to just keep his concentration on flying Festus, instead of trying to probe the thoughts of his friends.
That's why he almost tumbled off when Jason spoke up.
"I wonder why me and Leo are needed for this quest. I mean, Nico makes sense, with it being spirits and all, but why us? Wouldn't Hazel have made more sense?" Leo subtly regained his position on the dragon, and shrugged slightly.
"I don't know, but I suppose that we'll find out when we get there. Speaking of getting there, you sensing anything death breath?" He could feel Nico's glare sizzling into his back, but the other demigod replied anyway despite his loathing for the nickname.
"We should land in about ten minutes, then we'll be within walking distance of the disturbance." The son of Hades replied, and Leo nodded, focusing on the watch that he had strapped onto his wrist for the journey.
After ten minutes had passed, Leo landed Festus carefully, eager to make a safe descent.
The three demigods clambered off of his back, and Leo patted him on the head.
"Remember, you hear the safety whistle, and you come flying to the rescue, fires-a-blazing." Festus nodded, huffing a small cloud of smoke into Leo's face. Leo was used to this, and the smoke didn't really bother him anymore anyway.
He did have to squash down some uncomfortable memories of a mid-air explosion though, and he silently prayed that his friends wouldn't pick up on the slight dip in the mood.
Stealthily, they made their way to wherever Nico's death senses where leading them. Leo gulped, and suddenly the reason for Jason's necessity on the quest became apparent.
Anemoi Thuellai swirled around madly, some retaining a vaguely human form whilst others were all horse.
Spirits of the dead danced between them, cackling madly and others wept on the ground.
The demigods turned towards each other, worry etched onto each of their faces. This task was not going to be easy.
"So, I'll take the Ventus while you take the spirits?" Leo nodded and then decided to try and lighten the mood a little.
"Yeah, you take the evil espressos while me and Nico take the dead people. Great." From the evil eye that came from both of his friends, Leo could tell that his humour wasn't appreciated at the moment.
They stood up, unsheathing their weapons (Leo had forged Jason a new sword) . Leo hefted his club hammers, and they charged into battle.
Leo felt guilty taking out the spirits who were sobbing, he had no clue why Gaia had let some of them out, but he was fine with taking out the spirits who were tearing around like maniacs.
The three worked in almost sync, with Leo and Nico smashing/slashing their way through spirits whilst Jason diverted the monstrous coffee drinks.
And then Leo heard a voice that caused him to freeze, almost having his head torn off by a particularly rowdy spirit if it wasn't for Nico's intervention.
"Valdez!" Nico chided, but Leo was too busy trying to locate the source of that voice to concentrate on his friend's chastising words.
Leo finally spotted her, kneeling at the fringe of the sobbing group of spirits. Face stained by tears, eyes ringed in black. And in her arms, the spirit of a baby began to wail, as if sensing the distress of it's mother.
Layla rose slowly, eyes locked onto Leo's. Leo walked towards her, almost in a trance.
Nico tried to yank him back, but Leo dodged his outstretched hand with ease, cutting down any spirit that happened to stray into his path.
"Layla." He muttered, and he heard Jason curse.
"The fields of Asphodel were so lonely, Leo." Layla glided towards him, the spirit of her unborn child nestled into her arms.
Her youthful face contrasted the haunted eyes that stared at Leo desperately.
"I couldn't even remember who I was, who my child was. But my patron, she woke me up, and promised that I would see you again if I fought with her. And then she lost!" Maniacal laughter followed this statement. Leo shuddered, and then the battle tailed of behind him.
Jason leapt forwards and grabbed his arm. Layla hissed.
"I was free though, free to come here and wait for you. The boy who cared for me even after I betrayed him with another, even after I conceived with another." Nico's hand wrapped around his other arm.
"Leo, don't listen to her, we have to send her back. Gaia has turned her into a Mania."
"You don't understand!" Leo ripped his arm out of his friends' grip.
"Leo..." Jason trailed off sadly, but Leo didn't care.
Layla was crying again.
"I still love you Leo. And I know that you still love me. Stay with me. Don't make me go back to that place of endless nothingness." She pleaded, her voice as lost as the night when she had turned up on his doorstep, pregnant and terrified. Leo had never dealt with her crying well.
"Please don't cry, Layla." He begged. Suddenly, Jason lunged forwards, and Leo saw the flash of a blade bearing down on a wide eyed and helpless Layla and her defenceless baby.
The blade fell, but instead of ghosting through the spirit of Layla, it instead bit deep into flesh.
Leo gasped in pain, and Jason drew back in alarm, eyes horrified and glued to the wound marked on Leo's flesh from the very blade that he had gifted to his friend.
"Le...Leo!" Jason stuttered in shock and a twinge of shame and regret danced beneath the utterance.
Leo turned away from the terrified eyes of his friends and looked deeply into the eyes of his first girlfriend. The beautiful, crazed eyes of his first love.
A crystalline teat slid down his cheek as he stared at the wraith that was once a young girl.
she didn't seem to realise that Leo was crying from emotional pain instead of physical, as she moved in and gently sealed their lips together in a kiss.
Leo's mind buzzed as an image of Layla, alive and so very in love with him sprang into his mind. The image shrieked for Leo to move, and he did, leaping backwards just in time to avoid his heart being pierced by a small, previously concealed dagger.
The insane eyes followed his movements as the spirit cackled.
"Join me forever, Leo." She lunged forwards again, and Leo cart wheeled away. His friends moved to attack, but he shouted at them to leave it to him.
"Sorry Layla, but I can't join you yet." The crazed laugh reached an even more painful pitch.
"Your name is already scrawled on Death's list. He claimed your soul once, if you choose to stay with me then I can keep your soul here forever. We can avoid true death forever!" Leo shook his head.
"Oh Layla, nothing good ever comes from cheating death." He murmured. And then her eyes flashed from the needy, emptiness that they had been previously to a deep burning rage.
"Yet you have died and come back. Are their different rules for demigods? Am I not good enough to walk again?" Leo flinched at this, while his friends snarled.
"I died at fifteen*, and my child died also. Yet you get to live again while I had to stay in that dreary prison for what felt like an eternity! If you ever loved me, you'd save me from that place. But even when you found out that it was possible to bring back spirits from the dead, your thoughts didn't turn to me." The spirits words were slightly garbled at this point as she raved, and Leo realised with absolute sorrow that Layla was a spirit of revenge as well as being a Mania.
Another image of Layla flickered into his head. She was mouthing something at him, but he refused to believe what she was telling him to do. There had to be another way! There had to be or... or he didn't know what he'd do.
"I couldn't Layla..."
"WHY NOT!" She screamed, eyes wild and dangerous. She hurtled towards him again, baby in one arm and dagger in the other.
The image came into his head suddenly, with blinding intensity.
"I'm sorry." The fragment of Layla whispered as Leo felt a blade enter his stomach. His demigod instincts kicked in before the blade could lodge to deeply, the wound was incredibly shallow.
He whirled the blade forwards, plunging it deeply into the spirit of the wraith.
Her eyes widened in complete disbelief, and Leo instantly removed the blade, a guttural noise of despair emanating from his throat.
His friends, who had both shouted out when the blade cut Leo, now ran forwards to support Leo as he fell to his knees, dagger soiled with hi sown blood falling to the ground.
Layla's spirit sparkled in front of him for a moment, and the insane look filtered out of her eyes.
"Thank you." She smiled at Leo radiantly, and he choked on his tears.
"Layla..."
"I'm free from the insanity now."
"But you became a Mania, your soul." Her eyes turned sad, and she turned to Nico.
"Will you return my child safely to the underworld, please?" Nico nodded dumbly, and Leo shook with tears.
"You'll go to the Fields of punishment!" He wailed, and Layla grimaced at him, before brushing away a stray tear and kissing him softly.
"I became a monster Leo. I would be grateful if that was indeed my destination, but that is not where monsters go." Leo went cold, refusing to belief that Layla would go to Tartarus. Too many of his friends had suffered there. He knew what he had to do.
"I'll turn myself in to Thanatos! Hazel traded her place in Elysium away to keep her mom safe, I can do the same for you." Jason mad ea nose of protest, but Layla laughed gently.
"I don't deserve your help. You're a hero Leo. Just not mine." Leo wiped away some of his tears, and he shook his head resolutely. Nico's voice surprised him.
"If she comes with me willingly then I can return her to the Field's of Asphodel where she belongs. She has caused no real harm on this plain, and her madness was partially a result of Gaia's meddling. As the son of Hades, I can call in a few favours." Leo's spirits rose, and he tackled Nico in a hug.
"Thank you."
He then turned towards Layla, who was watching them in shock. She smiled, but her eyes brimmed with tears.
"You were always too good for me, Leo." She whispered, and Leo pulled her into a final kiss.
"I never thought that." And then Nico grabbed Layla and her child.
"At least we get to say goodbye this time." Leo's eyes welled up as he said his final goodbye.
And then Leo was left, sobbing into Jason's arms.
Waah, I'm really sorry for how dark that was! The mood just struck me, and I kind of went with it. There may be an aftermath for this some time in the future, but for now, Layla's reunion is over.
