Hi, gang! Happy Monday! Well, you know, as happy as a Monday can be. Especially if you've got a killer headcold like I do. So here's an update to try and brighten everybody's day a little bit :) I could definitely use it, at least.

Thanks to all of you, as always! Enjoy!

XX
LEO

Leo had spent so much time working on Festus in the past year that it had become like a second nature to him. Upon more detailed inspection, the collision damage wasn't as bad as it appeared from the outside. Sure, most of the dragon's hide was dented or scratched. And okay, he was missing an eye and a chunk of his tail. And the only sound he could make was a dull, oily sort of gurgle. But inside everything was more or less intact, for which Leo was extremely grateful. A lot more complex equipment went into the dragon's internal control mechanism and hyper-cooling hydraulic power containment chamber, and if pressed Leo wasn't at all sure that he could find the proper replacements in the nearest Indiana city.

But as it was, no part of the system was damaged beyond simple repair. The most time-consuming task was actually banging out the dents in the bronze and covering the few gaping tears with whatever scrap metal he could get his hands on in town. But those tasks hardly required much concentration, which left Leo with more than enough time to think about that last dream, and what it might have meant.

It was different from the rest, that much was obvious. Before, he'd always woken up after Nyx had spoken to him. It was like her voice triggered something in his mind that forced it back to the realm of consciousness. But this time, it hadn't happened that way. The dream had continued—and why, he had no idea.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. He did have one idea—his father. It had been Hephaestus' voice that had called out to him in the dream, he was sure of it. The god had told him that his fire would protect him, and it had. Apparently, Nyx's black flames were no match for the power of the god of fire—the power that Leo had inherited. Had Hephaestus made the dream continue so he could give Leo that advice, or had he been trying all along and the dream had just never gotten that far?

Either way, it raised an important and slightly unnerving question: Why did Leo's father find it necessary to tell him how to fight Nyx's fire? Was it just so that he wouldn't be a slave to the fear the recurring dream brought him? Was it so that he could summon his own fire again without flinching away from it? Or—and Leo hoped more than anything that this wasn't the case—was he meant to come across this dark fire in real life? Did Hephaestus want his son to be prepared for something he knew he was soon to face?

This called to mind what Nyx had said in the dream—the jibe about escaping a 'prison of flame'. Wasn't there a similar line in Rachel's prophecy—'sleep entombed in fiery jail'? What if that line meant that one day Leo's nightmare would come true—that Nyx would trap him in a prison of flame? Summoning his fire to free himself was difficult enough in the dream; he had a feeling it would be even harder in reality.

Leo was so wrapped up in thought he didn't hear the approaching footsteps later that afternoon, and when a voice behind him asked, "How's it coming?" he jumped so high he smacked his head on the inside roof of Festus's cargo chamber.

Swearing under his breath in Spanish as his eyes started to water, Leo climbed out of the cargo chamber, from inside which he'd been welding a piece of scrap metal over a particularly large slice through the dragon's left flank, and twisted around on his knees. Reyna was standing behind him with her arms crossed, eyes surveying the automaton as if assessing his progress.

"It'd go a lot faster without any additional head injuries," he responded wryly, rubbing the stinging back of his head.

Reyna's eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch. "Maybe you should be more careful," she said matter-of-factly.

A few choice replies sprang to Leo's mind, but he bit them back and looked away. What was she doing here, anyway? He'd told her and Nico that he didn't need any help. And since when was she alright being alone with him anywhere? Nico had said she'd seemed worried about him earlier. Well, if she was here to pry information out of him, she'd be leaving disappointed. He'd told her about the dream once, and the aftereffects had been astronomically unpredictable and—in retrospect—disastrous. He wouldn't be making that mistake again.

"I'll be done in another hour or so," he said after a slightly electric silence, remembering again his decision to try and be as normal as he could with Reyna. "We should be back in the air before you know it." Reyna nodded, eyes still traveling over the mass of metal behind Leo. When she didn't move, he looked sideways at her and said, "You don't have to stick around, you know. I don't usually work with an audience." She breathed out sharply and her mouth twisted sideways, like she didn't believe that for a second. But still, she didn't move or speak.

Irritated, Leo stood up and asked, "Where's Nico?"

"Off in the forest. He didn't say, but I think he's keeping a lookout for any more of Nyx's pets."

Leo was about to suggest that she'd be more help to Nico than she would to him when her eyes shifted to meet his and she asked abruptly, "What was your dream about?"

He tried not to scowl. So that was it after all. "Like I said, it was nothing important. Just a nightmare. Not exactly gonna help us find Hypnos. Why so interested?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.

She seemed to tense a bit, her gaze intensifying, and before he could be glad about catching her off guard she responded, "Because I can tell you're lying."

Leo felt the smirk slide from his face. Before the war, Annabeth had told him that he and Reyna had one major thing in common—both of them hid their emotions and fears behind masks. Evidently, these masks didn't seem to work as well on others like them.

"Look," he said firmly after a short pause, "I don't want to talk about it, okay? And honestly, I'm surprised you even care. You've been avoiding me ever since that night last month and you won't tell the truth any more than I will. You want to know what's going on in my head but I don't think you even know what's in yours—"

"Let's have a sparring match," Reyna interrupted suddenly, a vaguely anxious and uncomfortable look in her eyes.

"What?" Leo asked blankly, staring a bit dumbfounded at the sword she'd drawn without his noticing. "You're kidding, right?"

But her expression refuted that assumption immediately. "One-on-one. Come on."

"I don't think so."

"Afraid?"

"Yeah!" Leo stared at Reyna, not quite believing what he was hearing. "I've seen you fight. No offense, but you're pretty ruthless. And I like all my limbs the way they are, thanks."

"Not to the death," Reyna said with an air of impatience. "I just want to see if you're still any use in a fight."

Despite the fact that Leo had been worrying over this himself recently, hearing her say it made it sound particularly offensive. He wasn't going to fight her to prove anything. That may have been her MO, but it sure wasn't his. "I don't fight with a sword," he said a bit lamely, eyeing the weapon she held at the ready.

"Then I won't, either," she answered surprisingly, tossing the sword aside and instead drawing a golden dagger. "I'll use this. You can use anything from that tool belt, even fire if you want."

Now this was just getting amusing. She was actually that desperate for a fight? "You really think you're that much better than me?" he asked dryly. "Look, I've got to finish fixing Festus. You want to get out of here, don't you?"

"You can spare a few minutes. This won't take long."

Leo rolled his eyes, turning resolutely back toward the dragon. "Ooh, confidence. Scary."

"How about this?" Reyna persisted. "If you lose, you tell me about your dream."

Leo froze. So that was her angle. She believed without much doubt that she could beat him and wanted to use that as the perfect excuse to get him to talk to her. He still didn't fully understand why she cared so much, but it was clear now that she wasn't backing down anytime soon. He needed a plan, and fast.

Not keyed in on Leo's thought process, Reyna continued without pause, "And if I lose…"

She trailed off thoughtfully as an idea suddenly struck him, and before she could come up with anything he finished, "You tell me why you really came on this quest."

Reyna visibly tensed, her fingers tightening on the hilt of her dagger. "I told you why," she said in a voice of obviously-forced calm. "This affects—"

"You told me a believable excuse," Leo corrected her, turning fully to face her and eyeing her with a small smirk. "You forget, Reyna—I can spot a cover story just as well as you can. We're liars, you and me. And liars can't fool each other."

She was quiet for a long minute, staring him down as if looking for weakness or trying to see if he was bluffing. She must not have found what she was looking for, though, because she finally said stiffly, "Fine. So do we have a deal?"

Leo's eyes flitted to the blade of Reyna's dagger. Part of him insisted that fighting her—friendly or otherwise—would be a bad idea that was likely to end in serious injury and, if this bet was followed through, his being forced to spill the beans. But on the other hand, if by some chance he did beat her, he could finally get to the bottom of why she'd suddenly joined this journey after a month of mysterious, cold indifference. She was offering him the use of his tool belt and his fire. Surely with both he might have a shot. So was it worth it?

"Alright, Your Highness," he decided with a grin. "You're on."

Know what comes to mind? That gif of the guy with the chair that's like "Dis gon b gud" hahaha (If you don't know what I mean, google 'dis gon b gud'. Seriously, haha).

Next chapter was so much fun to write. I'll throw it up Thursday or Friday. Want it sooner rather than later? Then drop me a review and tell me! Enough of 'em might change my mind.

Later days!

-oMM