Thanks to anyone who faved or followed and buckle up for another sad chapter. Also, I won't be copying the all of the scene word for word as I am going to have to adjust the tenses/words slightly to make it work in the style of the rest of the story.

Catsrawesome : Thank you for all the reviews and for the fave :)

Awesometacos : I'm glad that I kept them in character and if you live off of hurt/comfort then you will probably love this chapter.

Winekita : Thank you for being constructive with your criticism, I appreciate it. Honestly, I got so carried away with writing that I kind of forgot to edit. I'm sorry for that and once I've finished this chapter I will go back and edit the previous chapter. I will never be offended by criticism if it is constructive, especially if you point out ways to fix it.

Fantasiedreamar : Sorry but this chapter is also going to be a sad one, happy memories will come soon though.

The chosen sea's : You are not alone with the painful feels or the forbidden crush on Leo :)

Our Mismatched Socks : I'm glad that you liked it and I'll be working on fixing the paragraphs.

Nyx's Fist : I'm happy that you like it even it's like an addiction :)

TeamLeo'sVeryOwnFlinxShipper : I know! It annoys me that Leo confesses something like that and they don't even question it. In this story they will be a lot more attentive.

QueenofLothlorien : You'll find out about James soon (and thanks for catching the reference).

Killua minamoto : There may be some more child abuse scenes in the future and there will definitely be more scenes in foster homes (and I do understand you so don't worry).

Abigail the Hedgehog : Sorry for making you cry (though thanks for saying that it's sweet/emotional).

Great Faith : Yep poor Leo has such a sad past :(

Latias876 : No he didn't deserve all of the suffering, though it makes him even cuter in my eyes.

Disclaimer : Leo's still not mine. Sob.

Leo's P.O.V

Leo couldn't believe that Hera had showed them that! As if they didn't already see him as weak, they had just seen him getting beaten up and not even trying to defend himself. He tried to struggle out of the group hug and just managed to poke his head over the towering form of Frank Zhang. What he saw sent a chill through him that was colder than anything Khione could have produced. His friends seemed to realise that Leo had gone completely still as they released him slowly. Some part of his mind noticed that Percy had already turned towards the screen, but the rest of him was too deep in denial to notice Piper also turning to the screen and gasping slightly. The cold feeling in his stomach was suddenly replaced by a burning rage that spread throughout his scrawny frame. He refused to watch this, and he wouldn't let his friends watch it either.

Within seconds, Leo was attacking the tv with a mix of hammers and flames. His anger and pain fuelled him and his fire was growing hotter and hotter. He noticed absent-mindedly that his friends were backing up to avoid his fire. Frank looked terrified and Hazel was clutching her coat where Leo assumed Frank's lifeline was kept. He knew he should stop, he was putting his friends in danger, but the anger inside of him was all-consuming. Hera had shown them his evil aunt, one of his stints in a sewer and his abusive foster mom. She couldn't expect him to watch this. He couldn't. Tears of sadness, frustration and pure desperation evaporated as soon as they formed due to the insane level of heat that Leo was emitting. He was now only faintly aware of his friends crying out to him, as he attempted to destroy the current source of his misery. And failed. He wasn't doing any damage to the goddamn telly!

Flames enveloped him completely, then he suddenly felt dizzy. His legs gave out on him, and he collapsed to his knees, breathing heavily. The fire gradually died down to reveal his friends staring at him in horror.

His last thought, before he passed out was "Great, now they definitely know how dangerous I am". His world turned black.

Piper's P.O.V

Piper was still shaken over the previous memory. Leo had been beaten by that evil witch. How dare she hurt Piper's unofficial little brother? What gave her the right to touch Leo who was such a cheerful, kind person?

As the group hug dissolved, Piper realised that Leo had gone completely rigid. At first, she thought it was because Leo hadn't been expecting them all to hug him like that, but her gaze followed his to the screen and she realised that the next memory was probably going to be much worse. She was about to turn back to comfort Leo when he erupted into flames and began attacking the screen viciously.

Her worry sky-rocketed as the heat increased. They were all backing away from their out of control friend, but it was getting hotter, as if they were getting closer to the flames. She remembered what had happened the last time Leo produced such an intense flame to use against Ma Gasket, and how he had almost collapsed afterwards. This was so much worse. At least back then it had only been one stream of fire. Now his entire body was wreathed in dancing flames that were hotter than Hades.

She was dimly aware that her friends were all trying to get Leo to snap out of it, but she was frozen. The brief glimpses of Leo's face revealed that he was in so much emotional pain. And Piper couldn't believe that she had never noticed just how depressed her friend was.

The fire tornado was slowing down, and Piper witnessed Leo fall to his knees in the midst of the dying embers. His eyes flicked up to meet the gazes of her friends and the pained look in them filled Piper with horror. And then Leo's eyes rolled back into his head and he toppled forwards. Jason lunged forward instinctively and caught him, just in time to stop Leo's head cracking on the floor. Her boyfriend gently placed the unconscious demigod onto the miraculously unsinged couch before turning to the others with pure anguish in his eyes. Piper shuddered as she surveyed the rest of her friends. Hazel was sobbing into Frank's arms, and the big guy was just staring numbly at Leo. Annabeth's hand was clenched in Percy's, and it was hard to tell who out of the two of them needed the comfort most.

Piper felt like flinging herself into Jason's arms, but she couldn't. She had a goddess to shout at.

"What in the name of Hades do you think you are playing at, Hera!" Piper felt the astonished looks from her friends, but at this moment, Leo was more important. And to protect her friend, Piper was willing to unleash the rage of the Queen of Olympus a million times over. No one hurt someone that Piper loved (and she did love her annoying, little, smart mouthed brother) without facing the consequences.

"I do not believe that this is a game, McLean." Hera's voice was calm as she teleported into the room, but her tone broached no argument. Naturally, the demigods didn't care about this.

"Then why are you hurting Leo so much?" Piper unintentionally allowed some charmspeak into her voice, but Hera simply stared down at her. In fact, a look of annoyance flitted across her face as she silently appraised the demigods before her.

"You accuse me of hurting the boy which shows just how little you know of him," The demigods bristled with anger at the accusation, but Hera continued regardless, "The pain has been with Leo since before you met him, the child is just good at hiding it. I am not hurting him, I am trying to help you understand what he has gone through."

Hera shook her head and disappeared. A table bearing ambrosia replaced her, and the goddess gave them a final message, her voice echoing throughout the room which she had just departed from.

"Feed that to him and he will awaken. Once you have gotten through this memory, I will give you time to comfort him."

Piper didn't want to force Leo into facing this, but she knew they needed to get it over with so that they could help Leo move on. She strode over to the small table with determination and took the supplies over to Leo, before tenderly helping him to swallow small portions of ambrosia.

After a few tense moments, the small Latino sputtered awake. He glanced up at Piper before flicking his eyes to the screen. His hand clenched. His head dipped and his shoulders slumped in resignation.

"She's making us all watch it, isn't she?" The statement was quiet and the tone was emotionless. Piper pulled him into a hug. Shimmering brown eyes turned up to her in shock, and Piper realised that Leo had seen the horror on their faces and thought that they hated him.

"We were worried about you, repair boy. We're here for you." Her words were spoken fondly, and Leo relaxed into the hug a little more. The others drifted back onto the couch in the same positions as before, except for Percy and Jason. As Piper was hugging his right side, where Jason had been sitting previously, Jason took the spot on the left instead and his arms wrapped around his best friend and his girlfriend. Percy ignored he couch and sat in front of Leo like a loyal guard dog, his head resting gently on Leo's knees to remind him that they were all there for him. It started.

In the memory, eight year old Leo walked with his mother from the workshop, through the warehouse and into the break room. His mom reached into her pocket, clearly searching for something (Piper assumed that she was looking for her keys), but gave up after a few minutes.

"That's funny" she said, frowning. "I know I had them. Wait here, mijo. I'll only be a minute." She smiled at him before walking back into the warehouse.

Piper wasn't sure if it was the term of endearment "mijo", the assurance that she'd "only be a minute", or the loving smile that set Leo off, but when he broke into noiseless sobs, her arms tightened around him. Jason also tightened his hold and Percy leant a little heavier on the Latino's legs. Piper was determined to help Leo through this. She was slightly startled when Hazel slipped of the couch and sat next to Percy, resting against both Leo and Percy. Annabeth sat on the other side of her boyfriend, and although she didn't join the others in resting on Leo, she did reach up and squeeze his knee gently. Frank looked a bit lost for a minute, he was too big to join the huddle, but then his face brightened slightly as he turned into a Labrador puppy and sat on Leo's lap. Leo let out a wet snort before running one of his hands through Frank's fur.

A few heartbeats after Leo's mom had left the room, the interior door slammed shut. A second later, the exterior door locked itself.

"Mom?" Leo looked worried as he called for his mother. Something heavy crashed inside the warehouse. Little Leo ran over to the door and started pulling and kicking it, but the door wouldn't open.

He yelled "Mom?" again before tapping a message frantically on the wall. As with the Spanish in the earlier videos, subtitles came up for the morse code. "You okay?"

"She can't hear you," a voice said (off screen the demigods who had heard Gaia's voice before tensed).

Leo turned to face the woman dressed in black robes with a veil covering her face.

"Tia?" He asked. The woman chuckled, slowly and gently, as if she were half asleep.

"I am not your guardian. Merely a family resemblance."

"What - what do you want? Where's my mom?"

"Ah ... loyal to your mother. How nice. But you see, I have children, too ... and I understand you will fight them some day. When they try to wake me, you will prevent them. I cannot allow that."

Both Piper and Jason hissed "Medea" and the others, except for Leo, looked at them in confusion.

"She's the one who told Gaia that I would try to stop her" Leo's voice was shaky with tears, and his fingers continued to drag through puppy Frank's fur. Frank allowed it, he had obviously realised that Leo needed something to do with his hands.

"I don't know you. I don't want to fight anybody."

Everyone looked saddened at that, as demigods they didn't really have a choice. It was fight or be killed and it had been that way forever. Still, hearing an innocent child version of Leo confess that he didn't want to fight hurt all of them. He obviously wanted to live his life in peace but Gaia had to mess up his life.

Gaia muttered "A wise choice." Leo's eyes widened, he had evidently realised that Gaia was asleep and that her clothes were made of dark, churning earth. Her barely visible, sleeping face was surrounded by a curtain of dust. It looked as she had risen from the grave.

"I cannot destroy you yet," Gaia murmured. "The Fates will not allow it. But they do not protect your mother, and they cannot stop me from breaking your spirit. Remember this night, little hero, when they ask you to oppose me."

"Leave my mother alone!" Fear was visible on Leo's face as Gaia shuffled forward in a way more reminiscent of an avalanche than a person.

"How will you stop me?" She whispered as she walked straight through a table, her particles reassembling on the other side. She loomed over Leo. His hands caught on fire.

A sleepy smile spread across Gaia's face, as if she'd already won. Little Leo screamed in desperation and flames covered the room. He lost consciousness. The screen, mercifully, went black.

Leo was shaking rather violently, and Piper noticed Jason subtly expunging small fires on the boy's trembling body.

"It's okay, Leo, it's over." Piper had hoped to comfort Leo with her words, but the opposite seemed to happen. Leo sprang up, dislodging puppy Frank who yelped before landing on Percy's head. Leo scrambled away from the group (an impressive feat considering how closely they had all been sitting.)

"No, it's not over." His hands fisted into his hair tightly. Everyone was watching him with concern and, admittedly, some confusion. Piper was about to ask what he meant, when Leo whirled around. The tears were still streaming down his face, erasing previous tracks and forging their own, but his eyes were now angry.

"It's not over until Earth Lady's dead, and you don't seem to understand how dangerous I am. I killed my own mother, yet you don't seem to realise that I can't control myself. I mean, Frank and Hazel still hang out with me when I could literally kill Frank with a temper tantrum. Why do you keep me on-board the Argo? I'm sure Annabeth could learn to fly and repair it, and lets face it, no one needs me there personally. I'm the seventh wheel." At the end of his tirade, Leo stood, hands balled into fists at his sides and flames weaving through his messy hair.

Everyone stared at Leo in shock. Was this really how Leo felt? Piper felt her own hands curl into fists as she realised that they had all coupled up and allowed Leo to feel this way.

"I hate Nemesis" Hazel hissed this vehemently as she ran up to Leo and forcibly pulled him into a hug. Leo tried to pull away, and Hazel let him though she gazed at him fiercely. Piper was still trying to get over Leo's confessions, never mind the fact that Hazel could hate someone so viciously.

"What she said was true, I don't belong with you guys."

"Don't you dare say that." This time it was Jason that shocked Piper, as the anger in his voice was evident. Leo looked into Jason's stormy, blue eyes, and the sadness in their depths visibly stunned him. He shifted and one of his hands reached into his toolbelt to fiddle with some wires.

"Without you, we wouldn't be here. We wouldn't have had transport for this quest or to rescue Hera without you." Jason was staring at Leo, obviously hoping that Leo would acknowledge his own self worth. Leo's eyes turned defiant.

"The Romans wouldn't hate us if it wasn't for me." All of the demigods cringed at this (especially Percy and Annabeth who had given Leo the hardest time over that).

"You were possessed Leo." Piper broke in soothingly.

"I was weak!" Leo practically spat those words at his friend, who was stunned at this admission. Then Leo sagged, his posture drooping. The fight had left him with those words, and he sank to the floor.

"If I was stronger, people wouldn't be able to use me. My mom would still be alive, Medea wouldn't have turned me against Jason and the Roman's would be our friends." Leo was crying quietly, and his knees were tugged to his chest, the project in his toolbelt once again forgotten.

"Leo, you're one of the strongest people I know." Percy sat next to the smaller boy, and placed an arm over his shoulders. When Leo shook his head before burying it into his knees, Percy shifted so that he was sitting in front of him. Piper marvelled at the gentle way Percy lifted Leo's chin so that their eyes met.

"You have been through so much yet you are always ready with a joke or a quip to make a situation seem better. If you were weak then you wouldn't be able to keep smiling, yet you smile to almost spite your past. Gaia didn't break you, Leo."

Leo took a shuddering breath, and Jason joined the duo on the floor.

"Dude, you fought three cyclopses on your own to rescue me and Piper and you used your head to get out of the situation with Narcissus. You are way stronger than you think."

Piper decided it was her turn.

"Leo, you ate those brownies that Jason made in the Wilderness school without needing a paramedic, you can't deny that only someone who was strong could manage that." Leo looked at Piper with a watery smile while Jason pretended to be mildly offended.

"Those brownies were pretty lethal," Leo's smile grew and the relief was palpable when he started joking about Jason's failed cooking attempts. Leo was back, and he may not be completely all right yet, but at least he wasn't trying to destroy anything in a mindless rage anymore.

"And you seem to have pretty decent control over your power, but we all have accidents sometimes," Leo gave Percy a very disbelieving look when he said that.

"I'm serious, I once blew up the camp's toilets when I lost control." They all laughed at that, but then Leo's face turned serious again. They all stiffened in anticipation of another confession.

"I have a question, Annabeth." Annabeth looked over at him, warily.

"If octopus goes to octupi, and cactus goes to cacti, why doesn't cyclops go to cyclopi?"

Piper face-palmed.

I think that this was my longest chapter yet :) So all of Leo's issues have been sorted, or have they ;) Hope you enjoyed, and as always, please feel free to review.