Calypso

I was not in the mood for an OCD statue god.

But of course, the Romans wished us to be at this meeting. And to do that, I had to pass Terminus, god of borders and protector of New Rome.

"Perseus Jackson!" The statue barks. "Who are these imposters that you bring into New Rome?!"

Percy sighs. "This is Calypso, Piper and Leo. Reyna wants us for a meeting."

Terminus huffs. "Very well."

He then glares at me. "You, girl! Why is there a hole on the left of your top?!"

I sigh and pick at the red hole in my top where you can clearly see white bandages through. "I got stabbed, problem?"

Terminus huffs again. "Fine. But next time try to centre the hole. Or make one on your right side as well."

I try not to glare too hard at the statue.

"I'll keep that in mind next time I'm about to be stabbed. How's right through the heart for you? Or is that too much to the left as well?"

Terminus stares at me. "Was that attitude?"

I glare back and open my mouth to respond but Percy cuts me off. "No, of course not."

"Good," Terminus says. "Now where's my assistant? Julia! Julia!"

A six year old girl with pigtails skips over. "Yes, Mr Terminus?"

Julia spots Jason and launches herself at him. "Jason!"

Jason easily catches Julia and balances her on his hip. "Hey Julia. Have you been good for Terminus?"

Julia nods eagerly. "Yes! Look, I lost my tooth!" Julia points at a gap in her front teeth.

Jason ruffles her hair. "Did the tooth fairy come?"

"Yes! I got one den- den- den-" Julia struggles.

"One denarii?" Jason asks smoothly.

Julia nods so fast that I worry her head might fall off. "Yep!"

"Julia, go fetch the weapons tray," Terminus orders.

Jason sets Julia down and she scampers off. She comes back with a tray that already has a few golden knives, as well as a familiar silver ring.

Looks like Thalia will be there too.

Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Frank and Hazel all put their weapons in the tray.

"You have to get rid of your weapons so no one gets murdered in the meeting," Percy explains, pulling a face.

Hesitantly I pull of my necklace, the only memory I have of Zoë, and place it gently in the tray. Piper and Leo place down their daggers and we move away.

Julia giggles and hugs Jason's legs before he goes. "Bye Jasy!"

We all burst into laughter. Jason turns pink and quickly detaches the six year old from his leg.

"Shut up," Jason mutters.

"Okay, Jasy," Leo teases, making me laugh louder.

Leo grins at me, pleased, and I smirk back.

I grab Leo's arm. "Race you there?"

"But your wound-" Leo starts.

"And you've got bruised ribs," I cut in. "I'd say we're even."

Leo shrugs. "Alright."

"Okay. Three, two, one," I count down.

At one we both take off towards the big white-domed building. I run quickly, already a few steps ahead of Leo. When I reach a full metre ahead, I suddenly stop and stick out my foot. Leo comes crashing down to the ground next to me and I burst into laughter. I help Leo up and he glares half-heartedly at me.

"Let's wait for the others," I laugh.

We turn and watch the others take a steady jog towards us.

"Calypso!" Percy calls. "You shouldn't be running, your side-"

I turn and walk into the building. All the chairs in the room were already filled by senators. Reyna stands at the head of the table. Reyna tightly smiles at me when I enter, closely followed by the rest of the Eight.

We stand awkwardly at the back of the room and I wince as the pain in my side flares up. I probably shouldn't have raced Leo but being injured is already- well, boring.

Jason's right, Leo is rubbing off on me.

Thalia, comes up to Percy, grinning.

"Hey Kelp Head," Thalia says, pulling Percy into a hug.

"Hey Thals," Percy replies. "How've you been?"

"Good. We've gotten a load of new Hunters."

"Quiet," Reyna orders, once everyone is in and the doors are shut.

"As this is an emergency meeting, we must skip formalities," Reyna says curtly.

"First, we must thank Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Hazel Levesque and Frank Zhang for traveling to Alaska and freeing Thanatos-" Reyna is cut of by a ghost clearing its throat loudly.

"Letus," Reyna says loudly, glaring at the ghost.

"And we must also thank their friends, Jason Grace, Piper McLean, Leo Valdez and Calypso for bringing the Greeks to help us in battle and for all helping to destroy the Titans Persaeus and Lelantos."

So I suppose Reyna went to the trouble of learning our names, then.

"Now we must discus their quest. The prophecy of Eight-" Reyna is instantly interrupted by whispers and hushed voices.

Reyna raises her voice. "It has been decreed by Lady Juno herself that these are the demigods that the prophecy spoke of."

Demigods and demi-titans, I mentally correct Reyna.

Reyna looks around. "Does anyone have anything to add?"

Reyna's tone isn't encouraging, but a scrawny, blonde boy that Percy has already identified as Octavian stands up to speak.

Percy told me about Octavian. He's a power-craving, egoistical, boy, that uses his words to cause nothing but trouble.

"And here it comes," Percy mutters.

Needless to say, the last hour wasn't fun. After a lot of arguing and yelling, the Senate finally decided to let us go in peace and agreed to fight alongside the Greeks against Gaia.

We finally walk outside and retrieve our weapons.

"Where's the Argo 2?" Leo asks.

"It's docked up there," Percy says, pointing upwards where you can see the ship about 40 metres in the air.

Leo whistles. "That's pretty high."

"Yeah," Piper agrees. "How do we get up there?"

Leo winks at me and I smirk.

"Bye!" I say, grabbing Leo's hand and teleporting us onto the Argo II.

Leo and I burst into laughter and peer over the edge where we can see the others. I think it's Percy who yells curses at us.

I laugh again and back away from the edge, heading downstairs.

Leo catches my arm, still grinning. "Where are you going?"

I can't help but smile back. "To my room. I've teleported way too much today."

I reach my room and look around the familiar scene of Ogygia. I carefully lay down on my bed, minding my side. I'm asleep in seconds.

I wake up to knocking on my door. I yawn and sit up, stretching. Immediately my side throbs and I quickly lower my left arm.

My door opens and Leo pokes his head in. "Hey. It's seven o-clock. I thought I'd better wake you for dinner, we missed a lot of meals on the quest. Sorry you only got to sleep for a few hours."

I stand up. "It's fine, Leo. What are we having?"

"Some of the deer that you killed," Leo replies, leading me towards our small dining room. Well, I say dining room. It's also our kitchen and laundry. There isn't much space for such rooms on a ship.

I laugh. "It's called venison, Leo."

"How's your side?" Leo asks, changing the subject.

"Hurts a bit," I reply. "But it's fine."

We enter the room and I sit down next to Piper. Leo sits next to me.

Percy half-heartedly glares at me. "That was not funny before, Calypso."

"Okay, dad," I mutter, earning a round of laughter from Leo.

"Yeah," Jason puts in. "Do you know how heavy two metal dragons are?"

I roll my eyes and direct my attention to a small table marching around and delivering everyone their food.

"Leo, isn't that the table that you were playing with at the Cyclopes lair?" I ask.

"Yes," Leo says proudly. "That's Buford."

Percy chokes on his drink. "A Cyclopes lair?" He coughs out.

"Yeah," Leo confirms. He pops a piece on venison into his mouth. "Hey!" Leo says. "This is really good!"

I take my plate off Buford and take a bite, "It's a bit hard. Someone overcooked it."

"Sorry," Percy interrupts. "Back to the Cyclopes lair?"

I give him an irritated look. "What about it?"

"Cyclopes are really dangerous," Percy protests.

"I know Cyclopes are dangerous," I say, calmly. "I just killed like a hundred of them."

"Though," I say, taking a sip of water. "Leo has first hand experience in how dangerous they are. He made a very interesting discovery about them."

Leo glares at me. "I thought we weren't going to bring that up?!"

"No one said anything of the sort," I say in mock surprise.

"What happened?" Frank cuts in.

Before Leo can answer, I start speaking, "I think we should both recount our quests. I'll speak for our quest first."

And so I start, pausing only to have a piece of venison or a sip of water. I start with our send off from Chrion and move onto the Cyclopes lair. I explain about the Hunters and Enceladus. I recount our friendship with Lit. I talk about the Wolf House and Khione. Finally, I finish with the battle at Camp Jupiter.

"Wow," Percy says after a long silence. He turns to Jason. "You took a poisoned arrow for Thals?"

Jason nods and Percy grins at him in gratitude. "Thanks, man. Thals is like a sister to me. It would've killed me if she died."

Percy then turns to me. "Thanks too, for Thalia."

Annabeth nudges him. "Piper and Leo, thank you as well."

Percy frowns at me. "So, what, you've killed one giant and three Titans?"

I blush. "Lit killed Enceladus. And I only killed Krios and Lelantos. Leo killed Perses and Khione, though."

"Yeah," Leo pipes up. "You mixed it up. Calypso almost got killed by Perses. Not the other way round."

I glare at Leo.

"I wish I could meet Lit," Annabeth says. "He sounds really nice."

I smile. "He's a good friend. I wish we'd had the chance to say goodbye properly."

"Everyone at Camp Half-Blood was really impressed with him," Piper says. "I think Lit will like it at camp."

"Alright," I say. "Percy, you can speak for your quest."

Half and hour later, Percy has finished his story.

I volunteer to stay behind and wash the dishes and Hazel helps me. She's really sweet when you get to know her, and I think Percy took pride in boasting about her achievements on the quest.

After I'm finished, I wander around the ship, eventually climbing up to the crows nest, like on my first night here. After a few minutes I am joined by Leo.

"Hey, Cal," Leo says cheerfully.

"Hey," I reply.

"How's your side?" Leo asks.

I lift up the side of my new top. "I think I stretched my side too much when I climbed up here. The bandages need changing," I say, looking at the blood stained bandages.

"I can do that," Leo says optimistically. "Lemme go grab some bandages."

Leo disappears down the ladder and I'm left in silence.

Leo's head appears at the top of the ladder after a few minutes. "Got the bandages!"

I look at him doubtfully. "Are you sure you can change them? I can get Annabeth or Hazel to do it."

Leo clutches at his chest. "You have such little faith in me."

I look at him.

"I got dared to spend a week helping out in the infirmary. I know my stuff."

"Alright," I say.

I start to unwind the bandage. The wound is still open but it's not gushing blood. The blade had cut right through my side. We had decided that it was best not to stitch it up because it would most likely be gone in a few days, due to ambrosia and nectar.

I'm only supposed to have a bit of nectar a day, just so I don't go up in flames. But otherwise, the wound looks okay. Well, it's covered in blood, but it should be fine.

I glance at Leo to see him turning pale.

"I though you said you'd be fine," I say smirking.

"Come on," I continue. "It's just a bit of blood."

Still no answer.

"Have you got any wipes?" I finally ask.

Leo snaps out of his stupor and hands me some wipes. I wipe away the blood around the wound but leave the dried blood that's around the edges of it. I take some nectar from Leo and pour it over the wound. Hopefully, it should close up with some nectar tomorrow.

"Can you do the bandages now?" I ask, removing the bloody wipes.

Leo nods and expertly wraps up my side.

"Thanks," I say. "We should head to bed."

Leo gestures with a flourish to the ladder. "Ladies first."

"Oh, okay," I say, grinning. "You can go, then."

Leo grins at me. "Gracias. Soy muy bonita."

I laugh. "Leo, you are not a pretty girl."

"You know Spanish?" Leo asks, heading down the ladder.

I nod, following him down. "And Italian, Morse Code and sign language."

"Cool," Leo says, reaching the bottom of the ladder with a thump. "I know sign language and Morse Code too!"

We reach my room and we both stop.

"Buenas noches," Leo says before continuing to his room.

"Goodnight," I say back.

-SAW