You're incredible! I hope you know how happy it makes me to see your amazing reviews :) It's the only thing that keeps me going, haha ;)
I want to tell you that I'm sorry if I can't describe all monsters in detail, or the fighting, because I don't really know much about these ancient monsters at all. I will do some research about the giants later, but right now, this is the best I can do. And I will go through the PJO/HoO-books, see how Riordan describes the fighting so well, and try to do the same :) Hope you're okay with that.

ENJOY!

Chapter 33 – They're waiting

LEO

The sound of fighting ringed in Leo's ears as he followed the other demigods through the forest, toward the city. He felt sick to his stomach.

What if they lost? What if they couldn't save Percy and Annabeth? What if they would all die?

Leo realized that the fate of the world depended on them. If he and a bunch of other demigods failed, it would result in that the world would go back to the chaos before the gods ruled it. Millions of lives would end if they didn't get Gaea back to sleep.

He really started to freak out.

Suddenly, he felt a hand clasp his own. Leo looked up to see Hazel, her face filled with the same pain and fear he felt inside.

Leo glanced over at the other demigods. Piper and Jason were walking next to each other, Piper desperately clinging on to Jason's arm. Nico's eyes were darker than usual, and he pulled out something from his pocket; a small toy that looked like a statue of some god. Leo was surprised over the tears he saw filling Nico's eyes when he looked at the statue. Frank's knuckles were as white as milk, his grip around the bow so tight that Leo was worried that it would break. Even Coach Hedge looked slightly angry, or maybe even scared.

With a warm feeling in his belly, it struck Leo that these people were his friends. A year ago, he had been on the run from another foster home, eating food he found in garbage cans to survive. He had been miserable, thinking that he never would find a real home. And now, he was on a quest to save the world with people that had went through just as horrible things as him; outcasts that finally had found a place they could call home and people they could call friends and family. Hazel was right; he wasn't alone. These people would do anything for him, and Leo would do the same for them.

He glanced at Hazel, whose hand still had a tight grip around his own, and made up his mind. Leo was going to stay strong. He had come this far, and he wasn't going to give up now. His friends needed him; he had to stay strong for their sake. For Hazel's sake.

Leo straightened and squeezed Hazel's hand. When she raised her head, he smiled encouraging toward her. For a second, her eyes lit up, but then an especially loud scream from the city made her face change from hopeful to painful.

Slowly, Leo made his free hand catch fire. Pins and needles tickled under his skin. Small, orange flames licked his fingers, danced in his palm. He had always thought of his fire-powers as a curse, something that caused his mother's death. And sure, it was a curse, but right now it was a gift. It was a gift from his dad, a power that only he had, something he could control and use toward enemies. Flames that could kill and save.

"The prophecy will come true now." Piper suddenly said hoarsely. "Seven half-blood's shall answer the call-"

"To storm or fire the world must fall-" Jason said grimly.

"An oath to keep with a final breath-" Frank grumbled.

"And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death." Nico finished. "Yeah, it will."

Hazel's shoulders slumped.

"Do we even have a chance?" She asked. "I mean, if we win, we have Khione and Melinoe to beat too. Right now, it seems like whatever we do, it will end badly."

Leo hated to see her like this. Vulnerable, scared, thinking that it was hopeless. But it just made him even surer of that they had to do this.

"It doesn't matter." Leo said loudly. "We have to try. If we die, well, then we died doing the honorable thing. If we don't try, we will die anyway, right? There is a chance that we will win this war. And even if it will end with us dead and chaos in the world and the Western Civilization collapsing, we'll die knowing that we tried. We'll just have to hope that we get in to Elysium for that; I heard the Fields of Punishment doesn't throw as good parties."

He realized he had held his breath under the whole speech, so he started to cough. Very heroic.

The others were just staring at him, which made it even more awkward.

"Leo is right." Jason broke the silence. His expression had changed from grim to determined, his eyes filled with fighting spirit. "This is our chance to do the right thing. If we die, we die, but if we success we will save the world."

Piper smiled at Leo to show that she agreed. Frank nodded, but his eyes were on Leo and Hazel's hands, which made Leo feel a little uncomfortable. Nico put the small statue in his pocket again and took a new grip around his sword, looking ready to fight. Coach Hedge grinned.

Leo squeezed Hazel's hand nervously, not knowing how she would react. Then, suddenly, her arms were wrapped around him in a tight hug. He was afraid she had started to cry, but she was smiling.

"Elysium, here we come." Hazel said with a huge, very cute smile.

Jason smiled and Piper hugged his arm. Frank raised his bow, looking a little miffed (Leo wasn't sure if he had realized that Hazel and Leo was a couple, but he didn't care that much). Coach Hedge swung his baseball bat, so Nico was forced to jump out of his way, but they were both smiling.

Leo grinned and pulled out a big hammer from his toolbelt, raised it to the sky and said:

"Elysium, here we come!"

The others did the same. For a second, the battle-cry echoed in the forest, but then it drenched in the sound of more screaming mortals.

When they finally reached the edge of the forest, all courage and bravery drained out of Leo.

The city was in ruins. Roofs and other parts of the houses had been ripped off by the monsters. Half the city was on flames. Mortals were running around in terror, screaming and crying desperately for help. Leo didn't even dare to look at the dead bodies that were lying everywhere, covered in blood.

Hazel gasped and tightened the grip around Leo's hand.

The worst, though, was the monsters. Leo didn't know much about different mythological creatures, but he knew these weren't normal (not that monsters ever had been normal, but you understand). These were ancient, and thousands times scarier than those Leo ever faced.

There were huge drakons that made people fall down dead with just a look with those paralyzing eyes. Chimaeras that were about twice as big as usual were crushing bodies under their enormous feet. Those were the only monsters Leo recognized.

"What was the plan again?" Hazel gulped, trying to sound stronger than she looked, but no one even cared. Everybody's eyes were glued on the scene in front of them.

"Find the House of Hades, free Percy and Annabeth, fight giants, go home." Piper said weakly.

"And kill some more monsters!" Coach Hedge grinned like a madman.

"That's about it." Nico agreed. Though even he was looking a little paler than usual, he was the only one who managed to get his eyes off the city. "We gotta hurry."

"Do we even now when Gaea is going to wake the giants up and stuff?" Leo asked. "Like, what time?"

Nico shrugged helplessly.

"Will it be like with the twin giants?" Frank asked with a shaky voice. "Will we need gods on our side? And how will it even happen?"

Everybody turned to stare at Jason and Piper. They were the only ones, besides Percy, who had been there (even if Piper hadn't fought).

"I don't know." Jason said slowly. "Percy and I were on the verge of breaking down when Bacchus came. And he didn't even help at first; he just sat there and watched us. It made us quite angry. I think that anger was what made us keep fighting, and when we had proven us worthy the god's help, he joined us."

No one said anything. The silence between them was thick. Not thick enough to make anyone forget about the sound of screaming, growling and crashing from the city, but thick enough to make Coach Hedge understand that it wasn't the time to speak or swing his bat.

"C'mon." Nico said at last. "We… They're waiting."

He didn't say "we have to find the House of Hades" or "we have to save Annabeth and Percy"; he didn't even say their names, because it was just hopeless. Everybody knew that they had to find the House of Hades and save them, anyways. But Nico saying "they're waiting" was something they didn't know, something they weren't sure of, something that gave them all hope and doubt which both just made them more determined to try.

Leo turned to flash Nico a grin, and noticed again that the pale boy had his hand in his pocket, probably gripping something. Leo remembered the small statue that obviously meant much for Mr. Death Kid. Leo couldn't deny he was a little surprised.

He would probably dwell more on it, if it wasn't for the huge roar that told them all that a monster had noticed them.

"RUN!" Jason yelled, and the group scattered just as the monster (which Leo seriously didn't know what it was) shot a column of hot, white fire at them.

Leo had a small flame dancing on the sleeve of his shirt, but it didn't matter. The spot where the group had stood on a few seconds ago was on fire, and everybody had run in different directions. Leo looked desperately around him to see where the others had gone, until he heard Piper's voice behind him scream:

"LEO, LOOK OUT!"

He was just going to say that fire couldn't hurt him when a big thing (that he later realized was the monster's tail) swished by him and missed by a few centimeters. Leo gulped.

He turned and ran to Piper, who seemed to be the only one who had run to the same direction as him. The fire spread, and soon some of the trees on the edge of the forest were on fire too. Leo could hear the shrill screams from the dryads as their homes burned.

"Where are they?! Are they hurt?!" Leo asked Piper, trying to see over the high flames that blocked his view of the other side. Where was Hazel?!

"You can run through and check?" Piper suggested half-heartedly.

Leo snorted.

"And leave you alone, Beauty Queen? No way. You would probably just attract more monsters, and when you tell them you're not single, they will try to kill you, Jason and the rest of us too."

Piper's cheeks flushed with red.

"Stop it, Leo! We have to find them." She added worriedly. "What if Jason is hurt?"

The monster roared again.

"What if anyone is hurt?"

"You know what I mean." Piper said and stomped her foot impatiently. "How are we going to kill the fire?"

Leo stared helplessly at the flames, when an idea struck him.

"Do you think you could charmspeak the fire?" He asked Piper slowly.

She looked at him like he had gone crazy, but before she got the chance to speak they got interrupted by a big monster-paw-hand-thing with huge claws that was aiming right for them. They barely survived this time, and the monster actually cut Leo's shirt.

"Are you okay?!"

"Yeah." Leo stammered and stared down at the big cut in his shirt. Thankfully, the claw hadn't rasped his skin. Who knew how poisonous that thing could be.

"And what do you mean with 'charmspeak the fire'?!" Piper asked, her voice almost drowning in the sound of the fighting around them. Apparently, the rest of the demigods and the satyr on the other side of the fire were putting up a fight with the monster, because it had completely forgotten about Piper and Leo now. "That's ridiculous!"

"We live in a world of monsters, gods and ghosts. We're on a quest to close some doors to save the world. My idea isn't ridiculous at all." Leo snorted. "By the way, you have charmspoken the earth, remember? This is exactly the same... I think."

Piper glared at him, and Leo suddenly remembered all those times back at Wilderness School when he had sneaked in to her dorm and copied her essays. She would always find out anyway, and then all he could expect as a thank you for telling the teacher that it had to have been someone else than Piper who copied Leo's essay, forged her signature and put it in her bag so she would give it to the teacher and look bad was that glare and a lot of yelling. Good times.

"Leo, that was different! It was life and death and…"

Her voice trailed off, and Leo grinned triumphantly. She apparently realized that this was life and death too¨.

"Well, I'm just gonna stand here and watch as you sing the fire a lullaby. Do something good."

Piper glared at him again, and if she hadn't known that Leo was right, he was pretty sure she would have killed him right on the spot. Or maybe she would do it anyway. Slowly, Leo backed away from his friend a little.

She rolled her eyes.

"Fine." She snapped. "Don't you dare to drift off; I will need your help. Maybe you could try to control the fire or something."

Leo got another brilliant idea.

"Hold on a sec." He reached down to his toolbelt and pulled out a pair of big, bright yellow earplugs that looked like headphones (you know, those you use when you're working with those really loud machines). He put them on, ignoring Piper's big eyeroll, and gave her thumbs up.

Leo couldn't hear what Piper said and he didn't really care; he had his eyes focused on the flames. How the heck was he going to control them?! He could barely control the flames he summoned himself. Leo hadn't a clue on what to do.

"Okay, then." He muttered to himself, even though he couldn't hear his own voice. Weird. "Er, hi flames. I'm Leo. I kinda need you to stop…er… burn. Or something. If you could just let me and Piper over to the other side so we can help our friends. We have an important quest that we have to finish."

Leo had never felt that ridiculous or lame in his whole life. He was talking to a fire.

But, believe it or not, the flames died a little. Not much, but you could definitely see the change. Leo didn't know if it was his small-talk or Piper's powerful charmspeak that had calmed the fire down, though.

"Yeah, exactly like that!" Leo complimented the fire, deciding that if it had been his talking, there was no reason to stop. "A little more, please. I'll promise that you get to burn as soon as Piper and I are on the other side with our friends again."

Gods, Leo really hoped no one could see him right now. He glanced over at Piper, but she wasn't paying him any attention; she wore a super-concentrated look on her face and her eyes were staring directly at the bright, orange flames. Sweat pearls were running down her face, but Leo wasn't sure if it was because of the heat of the fire (that he didn't feel) or concentration (which he didn't feel either).

"Sorry. I lost focus." He apologized to the fire, thinking; I just apologized to a fire. I should be disqualified from this quest because of complete madness. "Uh, where were we? Right. Please calm down. I know this is pretty awkward, a total stranger telling you what to do. Fire is kinda… Independent. But I know quite a lot about it, I can summon fire, actually. I know you want to stop burning, but just for a moment? I guess you flames maybe have some rules or rights and stuff – Okay, that's it."

Leo turned to Piper, took off his earplugs and said:

"I'm speaking about the rights for flames to burn. I'm going insane over here. Please hurry up."

Piper scowled.

"It's calming a little, but not enough to let us go through."

"And we can't go, you know, around it?"

She pretended to think.

"Hm, on the right side we have an enormous monster that wants to eat us for breakfast. On the left side, we have a forest that's burning and probably some very angry dryads too. Can we go around the fire?"

Leo got the sarcasm, but still looked desperately around. The monster was still busy fighting with the others. Piper was probably right. The dryads would blame them and maybe chase after them, and Leo had far too much experience of crazy nymphs chasing him to know that it wasn't anything he wanted to go through again.

The worst thing, though, was that he knew that this maybe wasn't going to kill them. This was something that just would slow them down.

They're waiting.

"Come here." Leo said suddenly. Piper walked closer to him, confused.

"What-"

Leo wrapped one arm around her and held her close.

"Leo…?"

"Be ready to run at three, okay?!" Leo said seriously.

Piper's eyes widened when she understood what Leo wanted them to do. She started to shake her head and try to sneak out of his grip.

"No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to run through the fire. I'm not fire-immune like you! I'll die!"

"One…"

"Leo, I told you-"

"Two…"

"We're not doing this, Leo!"

"THREE!"

Ignoring Piper's protests, Leo took a harder grip around her (not really knowing what he was doing) and ran straight toward the wall of fire in front of them.

Now, please don't kill me. I didn't want to make it a cliffhanger, but the chapter would get so long if I didn't finish XD Hope you liked it anyway! I gotta say I'm happy with Leo in this chapter, he was a little goofy and happy again (or maybe I just made him weird and OOC, sorry if that's the case).

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