They burned his burial shroud a few days ago, about two weeks after the others. They should have known that they wouldn't feel the same sense of closure when they watched his shroud be eaten by the flames. It felt wrong- Leo Valdez couldn't burn and he couldn't be captured well enough in anything that did. Leo was the fire. It didn't actually hit them that he was gone until the flames died down, with nothing left to consume. That was when the tears fell.

Still, they found themselves hoping. As long as no body was found, they found themselves focused on the small possibility that he is out there somewhere, alive and well. None of them would admit this out loud, but they all knew the others were holding out for a miracle as well.

Jason and Piper were about to leave for Camp Jupiter to start planning construction for the shrines for the minor gods and goddesses.

What was left of the seven gathered to see them off. Piper was getting teary eyed as she hugged everyone goodbye. They hadn't even known each other that long, but the seven had been together through unimaginable things. They formed a bond that was incredibly strong, and for them to separate means the bond will start fading into a memory. Of course they would keep up with each other and visit both camps, but it would never be the same, especially since one link in the chain was gone completely. Their best days together were over, and none of them wanted to be the ones to officiate that, but Jason and Piper had work to do.

Everyone seemed on the verge of tears. Piper had only Hazel left.

"Frank and I will meet up with you in a few days. We just wanted to stay a little longer." Hazel told her. She and Frank had come back from Camp Jupiter for Leo's ceremony and they couldn't bring themselves to leave again just yet. Piper nodded and brought her into a hug, whispering into her ear. "If you see him, smack him upside the head for me."

Hazel gave a chuckle that turned into a sob. She lowered her voice. "Nico told me the other day he snuck down to the Underworld just to make sure and he couldn't find him. He didn't want to tell anyone in case he missed, but I can't let you leave without knowing that."

Piper pulled back and stared Hazel in the eyes, barely containing a grin. Leo Valdez was not in the Underworld.

With that, Piper let go of Hazel and waved back to the rest before she put her hand in Jason's and turned to get on the pegasus they were riding to Camp Jupiter.

Just as Jason was about to mount the pegasus, he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned to see a fire in the sky, and when that died down he could see the glint of light bouncing off metal. His eyes widened as slowly the shape of a metal dragon came into focus.

"No way." Jason whispered. He and Piper started walking away from the pegasus and back towards the others. "He did it." He said, his voice still low. The next time he practically yelled it. "He did it! My gods, Leo did it! He's back!" He hugged Piper and spun her around, dancing and laughing. Similar expressions of joy were displayed by the rest of the seven, and all around camp people were looking into the sky and whooping and hollering. A crowd started to form near the Seven, everyone wanted to see the hero's return.

Leo was getting closer and closer to landing. He gave one last sigh and mumbled "Here goes nothing" as he plastered a fake smile on his face. He wouldn't want them to see how upset he was and get suspicious. They didn't have to know what was going to happen to him, they had enough to worry about. Besides, it wouldn't be the first time he had fooled them with a fake grin and a few jokes.

When he landed Festus, people were already gathering around. "Guys, please, let a hero have his space. Don't worry, you'll all get a chance to get the Valdezinator's autograph." He gave a slight chuckle before hopping down and offering Calypso a hand to help her off. She gave him a bizarre look, probably wondering why he suddenly was in such a good mood after barely speaking for days, but she took his hand anyway.

He had barely managed to help her down before he was basically tackled by Piper. She crushed him in a hug and harshly spoke into his ear. "Don't you ever do that again, Valdez." He laughed because he felt a ridiculous amount of charmspeak in her words. He wasn't going to be able to leave them any time soon without letting them know he was okay first. He felt a second person join the hug, then another. He pulled back from the slowly growing group hug and held up his hands.

"Ladies, please, wait your turn. There's plenty of me to go around. Besides, I think you're starting to make my girlfriend jealous."

Jason had just started to look mock-offended at being called a lady for joining in the hug when his attention was shifted towards Calypso. Piper was the first to go up to her and shake her hand.

"So this is the girl Leo was brooding over. Nice to meet you."

Calypso looked mildly uncomfortable with the situation and kept shooting Leo odd looks, but she blushed and replied to her. "It's nice to meet you. Leo talked about his friends a lot on the island."

And so it went like this, people hugging Leo and moving on to introduce themselves to Calypso. Hazel smacked him in the face before hugging him. "You couldn't have told us you were okay before you left? Frank and I were so worried because we- we let you do that, we just let you go through with your ridiculous plan. Leo, don't you dare do that ever again."

Leo was surprised to see Frank crying when he went to hug him. "What's the matter big guy, you spent most of our adventure wanting to get rid of me." Frank only hugged him tighter. "Alright dude, are you happy I'm back or are you trying to squish me to death?"

Frank pulled back and blushed. "Sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"Hey man, it's alright. Just try not to squish my girlfriend when you say hi to her, okay?"

Frank nodded and Jason finally got his chance to have a word with his best friend. He nearly crushed him in a hug. "Geez, I just got done telling this to Frank. You guys are going to squish me to death and that would be pretty stupid. Leo Valdez- comes back from the dead only to die from being hugged too hard. Doesn't sound all too awesome."

Jason pulled back but kept his hands on Leo's shoulders and stared into his eyes. Leo felt the urge to look away. "How did you do it? No one was with you, how-"

"Come on buddy, if I tell you now I'm gonna have to tell everyone individually. We'll have story time later, and you can tell me why you and Piper were trying to hitch a ride out of here on a pegasus before I got back." He gave a fake pout. "Were you trying to avoid me? How rude. Now move along, you're holding the line up." He pushed him out of the way to reveal Percy and Annabeth, who hugged him at the same time.

"Saved the world and survived. I knew you could do it." Percy said into his ear at the same time Annabeth asked "I tried to think of any way you could have survived and I came up with nothing. I guess you outsmarted me." Leo actually laughed at the idea. No one outsmarted Annabeth.

They pulled back and went on to talk to Calypso together. Percy started by apologizing, but Calypso stopped him.

"I don't blame you for leaving. You had to. Besides, it took a little longer than it would have if you checked up on the gods and their promises, but I am off the island."

Annabeth cleared her throat. "I don't blame you for cursing me. I probably would be bitter too if I had to spend thousands of years alone on an island."

Percy spoke up. "So, no hard feelings between us?"

"No hard feelings." Calypso agreed.

Nico walked up to Leo. "I sensed your death."

"Yeah, well I did die at one point, so…"

"But I couldn't shake this feeling that something was different. So I went down to the Underworld to look for you, and my father- he wouldn't talk to me about what happened. So I looked all over Elysium for you and-"

Leo's face fell and he mumbled something under his breath. Nico stopped abruptly.

"Wh-what?"

"Nothing." He tried to put on a smile again, but he couldn't seem to make it as convincing as before. He went to talk to Piper again, who slapped him this time, but Nico knew what he heard. He hoped he was wrong, though.

"You were looking in the wrong place anyway."