Wow, we're at 31 reviews already?! Oh my gosh! That's amazing! You guys rock! :D Thank you for all the support!

Hopefully I'll keep updating every week, or maybe *fingers crossed* more than once a week? But I'm almost to the end of my pre-written chapters, so I don't know . . .

Anyway, have a chapter!

Disclaimer: I'm really liking this voicemail-disclaimer thing. It tells you I'm not RR, I don't have to think of a new clever disclaimer every time, and it even subtly asks for reviews! It does it all! :P Anyway . . . "Hello, dearest readers. I do not own PJO. I am not Rick Riordan. Not male. Don't have gray hair. Don't have a book published. I claim rights to nothing except the plot." *pause* "This message will be repeated for each chapter. Please leave a message after the tone."

Part III

"Glad?" Leo said out loud. "I didn't think you were capable of feeling that emotion."

I am very glad, Leo Valdez, Gaea said, not fazed a bit. I am glad that I have one half of the sacrifice I need, and I am glad that you will not be on the Argo II to try and stop me from awakening. Without your knowledge of that ship, your friends will not be able to use all of the . . . modifications you made. Your hard work will go to waste, and I will rise. That makes me very happy.

"Annabeth is there," Leo said confidently. "She's a genius. She'll figure the weapons out."

I doubt that, Gaea chuckled. Your friends Percy and Annabeth have come back from Tartarus . . . changed. They are hardly suitable for fighting, or figuring out much of anything. As for Nico di Angelo, I am afraid that he is also . . . out of commission.

"I don't believe you," Leo claimed, trying not to let his voice waver with panic. "You're lying. Nico is alive."

Oh, he's alive, Gaea said dismissively. But there are other ways to disable a demigod.

"What did you do to him?" Leo yelled.

Nothing. She sounded amused, but it was a dangerous, chilling kind of amusement. He did it to himself. It takes much effort to counteract the forces of the earth. After the strain you put yourself under, you should know that.

"You mean . . . " Leo grinned triumphantly. "We did close the Doors!"

Perhaps. But it does not matter in the end. I have already sent my armies into the mortal world. They will overcome your friends quickly. And I have no need to send more forces to your reinforcements at Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. Gaea laughed, and it was like an earthquake had shaken all of Tartarus. They will destroy each other soon enough.

Leo felt guilt settle deep in his stomach. She was saying that just to get to him. She knew the civil war was his fault. No, it's not, he reminded himself quickly. You didn't fire on New Rome – one of those stupid eidolons did, working on Gaea's orders. It's her fault – not yours. Gaea's laughter continued to rocket around, and suddenly, Leo was done with her jibes and insults. He frowned. "I don't see how this is funny. At all. And I'm the king of funny, milady Dirt Face." He looked at the ground, imagined that her ugly sleeping face was sticking out of it, and ground his heel into the spot where her nose would be.

Almost instantly, he felt a clod of dirt slam into the side of his head. He staggered, but the chains holding him to a pole kept him from falling over. When his vision eventually cleared and his ears stopped ringing, Gaea was still talking to him. You will not speak to me in that way, Leo Valdez, she admonished, as if she was scolding a kindergartner. You will stay relatively cordial. Otherwise, I may decide to just kill you now. And that would mean making two of your friends my sacrifices, instead of one. Who should I choose? Your siblings, Nyssa Steel and Jake Mason? Or . . . No, I have a better idea. Nyssa Steel and Harley Robertson.

Leo's stomach twisted in on itself. She would stoop that low? She would kill a kid that hadn't even reached middle school yet? He wanted to smash her imaginary nose in again, but he forced himself to refrain. He knew that Gaea didn't make threats lightly. If she promised to do something, it would happen.

You know, Leo Valdez, I think that I will make use of you while you are here, Gaea told him mockingly. In a day or two, I will have you Iris-message your foolish friends and give them false hope and misleading directions. It will be entertaining to watch them flounder and misuse your weapons during the next attack I send to them.

"You can't make me do that," Leo said, grinding his teeth together. "What can you threaten me with? Death? You're planning on killing me anyway."

Gaea laughed again. Leo looked up nervously, afraid that a stalactite was going to break off from the ceiling and come crashing down on his head. Maybe. But there are other ways to convince you. Torture is a reasonably reliable method.

Leo gulped, but stared down the darkness bravely. "Torture, huh? Bring it on, Mother Nature."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then something came walking out of the gloom. It was at least seven feet tall, humanoid, and wearing a tailored suit. The man (monster?) smiled at Leo, stretching the wrinkles that crossed his face in hideous ways. "Hello, godspawn," he said. "Would you like to sample one of my very comfortable water beds?"

Leo looked at the ground incredulously. "How is a nice bed torture?"

"Oh, it's not," the man assured him. "It's very comfortable . . . as long as you fit, of course. If you're not six feet tall exactly, I'm afraid I'm going to have to, uh, stretch you a little."

"Stretch me?"

"Just until you're six feet tall," the man said in what was supposed to be a comforting voice. "You have to fit, you see. Anyone who lays in one of my beds has to fit."

Leo's mouth went dry. Not for the first time, he cursed the gods for making him so short.

The man pulled Leo's chains away from the tree and dragged him across the dead grass. His head knocked against a couple of rocks and dirt clumps, but right now, those were the least of Leo's problems. "So – ow – what is your – ow – name?"

The man's chapped lips stretched into a smile that revealed disgusting yellow teeth. "My name is Procrustes," he said. "Your friend Percy Jackson knows me well. He was the one who sent me down here almost five years ago. I was hoping that I would be able to meet him today, but you are the next best thing, I suppose. After all, you are still a customer, and I love all my customers."

Before Leo could come up with a plan, Procrustes stopped. He pulled Leo to his feet and pushed him into a bed with hot pink sheets and a red heart headboard. The bed clashed hideously with the darkness of Tartarus. Gods of Olympus, please don't let me die in something so ugly, Leo prayed. "Don't you have any other models?" he asked, trying not to sound desperate.

Procrustes looked angry. "Other models? I used to have other models! I had an entire store! Crusty's Water Bed Palace, I called it! But that Jackson demigod tricked me into being tied to my own merchandise, and then killed me! The gods only know what happened to my wares. This is the only bed that fell into Tartarus with me." Then he got control of himself, and his face smoothed out. "But it is a wonderful water bed, godspawn. It has countless special features. Once I make you the correct size, we can talk about its amazing specs."

"Amazing specs?" Leo asked, stalling for time. "What amazing specs? Why can't we talk about those now?"

Procrustes laughed. "I'm sorry, Leo Valdez. I have special orders from Gaea to start the procedure as soon as possible. But do not worry. You won't die down here – I think. Monsters can't, but then again, you're no monster, boy. Unfortunately for you."

Leo gulped. That was encouraging.

"Ergo!" Ropes lashed to Leo and pulled him tight. Leo gasped in pain as they stretched cramped muscles that Leo hadn't been able to use for days.

Procrustes tutted. "You are several inches too short, Leo Valdez! How inconsiderate! Well, we'll soon fix that. Usually I start the stretching on a low setting, but again, Gaea has special orders for you. Be happy, godspawn. Haven't you always wanted to be taller?" He smiled again, making Leo shiver.

Then the ropes really started tugging at his spine. Leo had never been burned by fire, but if he had, he imagined it would hurt just a little less than this. Leo felt like his vertebrae were tearing apart. He screamed.

Nico jerked upright, eyes wide. Leo's shouts of pain still rang in his ears. Nico had had dreams about Tartarus before, but they had always been about his past experiences. Now he saw what Leo was going through right now, and it was worse than any of the old dreams.

For a second, Nico considered getting up and finding Hazel, just so she knew he was okay, but he dismissed the thought. Right now, the most important thing was getting in touch with Leo. So he collapsed back into bed and closed his eyes once more.

"Leo! Leo, can you hear me?" He was sure he was hallucinating. The pain was making him imagine things. But why would he imagine Nico's voice, of all people?

"Can you hear me? Blink twice for yes."

Leo hesitated, and then blinked twice. "Oh, thank gods. Listen, Leo, I overheard Gaea. I know that she wants you to mislead us, and because of that, you won't be able to. You can stop this torture. Just tell Gaea you'll do it. You can trust me. I won't let the others pay attention to the false stuff she forces you to tell us."

Leo screwed up his eyes in confusion. The ropes were agony – not only did his spine feel like it was breaking in two, but they were chafing into his wrists, on top of it all. The pain stopped him from thinking clearly, but he knew there was no way in Hades that Nico could've magically appeared in Tartarus, just to tell him that. "You're… lying," he got out through clenched teeth. "A Cyclops . . . mimicking Nico . . . Trying to confuse me . . . "

"I'm not!" the-voice-that-sounded-like-Nico protested. "Leo, you have to listen to me! You don't have to keep getting . . . getting stretched like that! You don't have to protect us! We understand!"

Leo ignored the voice and focused on not screaming. His vision was bathed in red and crowded with black.

"Look, Leo, it's really me," the-voice-that-sounded-like-Nico pleaded. "Would a Cyclops know that I found you leaning over the railing of the Argo II one night, completely passed out from exhaustion, and I had to pull you back before you fell? Would it know that you saved my life that time a giant bird-thing dive-bombed me and you shot it out of the air with fire?"

Leo's eyes shot open and he looked around frantically. But Nico was nowhere in sight. "Fine," he muttered. "If you're real . . . where are you?"

"This is, uh, a dream-message or something," Nico told him. "I don't know what the technical term is. But in them, you can hear but not see me."

Leo wanted to ignore the voice-that-sounded-like-Nico, but the offer was too tempting. "You won't let the others believe a word I say?" he asked anxiously.

"I won't."

"Swear on the Styx?"

"I swear on the Styx, Leo! Now, for all the gods' sakes, get Gaea to call off the torture!"

With that, the voice-that-sounded-like-Nico faded. Leo writhed in pain for a few more minutes, and then it was all too much. He was too weak to hold out any longer. Feeling like a traitor, he called out, "All right . . . Gaea! You win! I'll . . . do . . . what you want!"

Immediately, the ropes slackened. Excellent, she purred. I knew you would see sense eventually, Leo Valdez.

Now that he wasn't being pulled in two different directions, the water bed really did feel wonderful - but Leo wasn't about to be tricked again. He rolled off the bed and crashed to the hard ground before passing out.

Nico woke up again. This time, he went to find Hazel right away, ignoring how weak he felt. The others had to know about Gaea's plans as soon as possible. He had no idea when she might put them into action.

"Whoa, slow down, Nico," Percy said. The kid was sitting in a chair, looking as pale as the sail that was flapping overhead. Annabeth was still absorbed in the notes on Leo's wall, but everyone else had assembled around the son of Hades. "So Leo's okay? You know that for sure?"

Nico winced. "I wouldn't say he's okay," he told them. "He's Gaea's prisoner, and he's just been stretched half to death. But he's alive."

Hazel sighed in relief, looking like the sky had just been lifted off her shoulders. "At least there's that."

Piper nodded, but she looked uncertain. "What were you saying about him sending an Iris-message, Nico?"

His eyes clouded. Percy figured that it hadn't been easy for him to dream about Tartarus again, or to see Leo stuck down there. But his voice didn't waver as he said, "Gaea's forcing him to IM us and tell us false information about the weapons he built. He was being hurt because he refused, so I told him that he could do it, and we just wouldn't believe what he was telling us. I just hope . . . Well, he wasn't entirely sure that I was real," he said ruefully. "I hope he trusted me."

"Assuming that he did," Percy said, "we should expect an Iris-message from him sometime soon?"

Nico nodded.

"Then I'd better get Annabeth. That sounds like something we should all be here for."

As soon as Percy convinced Annabeth to take a break and dragged her onto the deck, Leo popped into life right in front of them. Although they had been expecting it, each demigod still gasped in surprise at the sight. "Hey guys," he said, looking down at the ground. "I escaped from my chains for a minute – Gaea captured me – but I have to make this quick before she finds out that I'm gone." The words rang falsely in Hazel's ears, but she still forgot why he was there for a moment. In those two seconds after he appeared, she was sure that he was just calling to tell them that he would be out of Tartarus any minute.

"How . . . An Iris-message . . . ?" she asked in spite of herself. "There's no sunlight down there."

"Oh, you know . . . I pulled a flashlight and a spray bottle out of my tool belt, used one hand to spray, one hand to shine the light, and my foot to flip a drachma into the rainbow. I'm flexible like that." Leo looked nervous and uncomfortable. Just by looking at him, Hazel could tell that Nico had been right about Gaea's plan.

Finally, Leo lifted his eyes to them. When he saw Percy and Annabeth looking more or less all right, he broke into a sudden grin. "I'm really glad to see you guys are okay," he told them. It was the first thing the son of Hephaestus had said that the assembled demigods knew was true.

"We're glad to see you're okay," Piper said hoarsely. "We've been worried for days. . . ."

For a while, no one spoke. Leo seemed to be drinking in the slight sunlight that filtered through the Iris-message. Then he cleared his throat abruptly. "So, uh, I called because I wanted to make sure that you guys knew how to use the tools I made."

"Yeah, I've been studying—uh, I've been studying them, but I was a little confused." Leo had cut Annabeth off by looking at the ground underneath him pointedly. By the thankful look he shot her when she changed what she was going to say, Annabeth could tell that Gaea didn't know about the notes that he had written all over his walls. How could she? He hadn't been on the ground at the time. Annabeth hid a smile. That was one advantage they had over Gaea. Mother Nature thought they were hopeless at managing the Argo II without Leo onboard. But the son of Hephaestus had left instructions.

"Well, that's why I'm here," he said, forcing a smile. "To tell you how they work! So, uh, first I guess you need to know the access code for the Archimedes sphere." He started fiddling with the hem of his shirt before he kept going. She watched his fingers with interest and surprise, then started typing on her laptop. "The code is, uh, Thirteen, Apollo, Heracles, Kappa, Nine, Epsilon, Alpha." Annabeth nodded like she believed him, but she wasn't fooled. He'd written the real access code near the beginning of his notes. "And if you want to build an amazing secret weapon that Gaea will never see coming . . . " He looked down and fiddled with his shirt some more. "Try Diana, Eight, Minotaur, Eota, Chimera, Beta, Four."

"I understand, Leo," Annabeth told him, putting as much meaning into those three words as she could manage.

He glanced up at her, read her expression, saw her laptop, and grinned. "Good. Then I guess I'll see you . . . " His face closed off, and he looked away. Annabeth knew why. The son of Hephaestus had no idea if he would ever see any of them again.

Hazel let out a gasp. "Leo . . . Your hair . . . "

When he had turned, the other demigods could see that Leo's hair was plastered to his skull. It wasn't just water or sweat that held it in place, though – it was blood. And that blood covered half of his head.

"Gods, Leo, what happened to you?" Jason asked.

Self-consciously, Leo's fingers brushed his skull, and he winced. "Oh, that. It's just . . . You know . . . Cranberry juice."

"Right," Piper said, glaring at him accusingly. "And your shoulder isn't really bent at a funny angle, it's just—"

Something brown slammed into that shoulder, and Leo cursed and stumbled. "So, I've got to go," he told them hurriedly. "Be safe." Something else hurtled towards him. This time, he fell forward, straight into the Iris-message, and the son of Hephaestus was gone.

"Leo!" Piper cried out before she could stop herself.

"That didn't look good," Frank muttered.

"He's in Tartarus," Nico told him sadly. "It probably wasn't good."

Hazel sighed. "It's too bad that whole message was just one of Gaea's tricks. At least we saw that he was alive, but . . . with Gaea watching his every word, Leo couldn't tell us anything."

Annabeth smiled suddenly. "That's where you're wrong, Hazel."

The others turned to her in astonishment. "What?"

"Gaea was watching his every word," Annabeth explained, "but the real message Leo gave us wasn't spoken. Didn't you notice how much he was fiddling with his shirt?"

Percy nodded. "I thought he was just nervous," he said.

Annabeth shook her head. "Whatever his other fingers were doing, his left index finger was tapping out a pattern. It was Morse code."

Piper's eyes widened. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I wrote it all down." She showed her laptop to them. She had transcribed every one of his dots and dashes onto a Word document. "Just give me a second to get a good translator."

In reality, it took her about thirty seconds. When she was done, she quickly skimmed the message, and her triumphant expression earlier faded into a worried crease between her eyebrows.

"What is it?" Piper asked anxiously.

Annabeth read it out loud. "Don't listen me. Gaea trick. Tell camp keep lookout, Gaea wants girl sacrifice. Don't touch ground. Be ready, big attack coming for you. Good luck. Bye. Sorry couldn't help more." She looked up at the others. "He repeated it twice, just to be sure."

The others were silent for a while, their thoughts rolling as one – worry for Leo, fear for their respective camps, and nervousness about the big attack competing for space in their brains.

Eventually, Percy stood up, frowning. "If there's a big attack heading our way, we should prepare for it. Annabeth, have you learned anything from Leo's cabin?"

She nodded, smiling grimly. "Gaea's expecting us to blow ourselves up with a faulty code. Instead, I'm going to introduce her army to a whole new weapons force."

"Good," Jason said, getting to his feet. "Meanwhile, I'm going to get a message to camp like Leo suggested. It sounds like Gaea's willing to settle for any girl demigod now, not just one of you three."

Hazel paled. "If Gaea still rises, despite everything . . . "

Frank hugged her shoulders comfortingly. "She won't," he promised. "We'll figure it out."

Just then, Festus started creaking and whirring like crazy. Annabeth tilted her head and listened (Leo had left the equivalent of a Festus-dictionary in his notes as well). She frowned. "We'd better figure it out fast. That was the radar. Gaea's army is an hour out and gaining on us."

"Gaining?" Percy asked. "How?"

Festus made a few more noises. As Annabeth translated his squeaks, her frown deepened. "I don't know how it's possible," she told the rest of the seven (plus Nico). "But they're flying."

Leo woke up. Once again he was chained to something big and heavy (he couldn't see exactly what it was in the darkness), his head was pounding, and he was still trapped deep in Tartarus. But honestly, he didn't give a Styx. In fact, he was happy enough to smile. Annabeth had understood his Morse code message, and he was sure she'd translated it by now. His friends wouldn't try to use the fake codes he'd given them, they would prepare for the massive attack, camp would be warned about Gaea's plans to abduct a girl camper, and everyone would be fine. Gaea wouldn't win. That more than outweighed whatever problems Leo was facing right now.

Suddenly, the chains around Leo tightened, cutting off his air a bit. He choked for a moment before forcing himself to breathe shallowly. "Gaea," he gasped out, "what do you want?"

Queen Dirt Face appeared in the ground at his feet. Her eyes were still closed – thank the gods – but Leo could feel her power growing. If he could move even an inch, he would've scooted backwards. As it was, he had to content himself with shrinking as far back into the something-big-and-heavy as he could manage. Nothing from you, Leo Valdez, she said, chuckling. He swore that that lady was going to collapse Tartarus with one of those laughs someday. He just hoped it wasn't while he was there. At least not at the moment. I just thought you might like to know who will be sacrificed with you on August 1st.

Leo's grin dropped off his face. "But – I thought–" He mentally kicked himself and didn't finish the sentence.

You thought your friends would warn your camp after the message you tapped out to them? Gaea asked, sounding amused. Leo's heart nearly stopped. Yes, Leo Valdez, I noticed your Morse code. But it really doesn't matter. Even if Annabeth won't use your false codes, she still doesn't know the real ones. Leo was about to smile at that – Gaea didn't know how wrong she was – but he hid it at the last second. He didn't want Mother Nature getting suspicious. Besides, your friends may have warned Camp Half-Blood, but do you really think your camp would have shared that information with Camp Jupiter? The two are not really on speaking terms, after all. . . .

That time, Leo was ninety-nine percent sure his heart did stop. "You . . . got a Roman . . . ?" he choked out.

Oh, yes, Gaea said with evident pleasure. As I grow stronger, I've realized that I don't need two demigods out of the seven for my sacrifice – just one. You will fill that slot nicely. But I did not choose just any female Roman to be the other half of the sacrifice that will wake me. No, I had one particular girl in mind.

Leo's throat went dry. He started to smoke with worry. "You're not saying . . . "

Gaea's eyes were still closed. . . . But when she smiled at Leo, displaying a set of disgusting dirt teeth, Leo got the feeling that she was more awake than ever. Leo Valdez, you will be sacrificed on August 1st – and this girl will die alongside you.

Two Cyclopes lumbered into the area with something human-sized between them. One was holding a torch so that Leo could see. He could feel the world spinning around him as his brain processed what he was seeing. This was bad. This was unspeakably, horrifically, indescribably bad.

Leo stared into the obsidian eyes of Reyna Concessi, lone praetor of Rome.

"BEEEEP."

That was the tone. Now please record your message. :)

EDIT: Okay, so I've gotten SO many reviews from people that felt the need to tell me about this story's deviations from canon that I felt the need to point out that of course this story deviates from canon, I started writing it before HoH came out. OBVIOUSLY. (In case the whole "Leo-closes-the-Doors-of-Death" thing didn't make that clear.) So remarkably small details that don't fit with remarkably small details mentioned in HoH are going to be in this fic (*cough I KNOW "CONCESSI" ISN'T REYNA'S LAST NAME cough*), and I'm not planning on going back and changing them all because this story is not meant to comply with events that happened in HoH. The entire setup of this fic does not comply with HoH. So stop telling me that. I KNOW.

*sighs* Sorry for that rant, everyone. Just felt the need to point that out before yet another person sends me an entire review that tells me nothing of how they enjoyed the story (or if they did at all) and instead fixates on the last name that I made up for Reyna in August 2013.

Okay, that's all! Thanks for reading through all this, and for clicking on this story at all, and I apologize again for the angry tone in the above paragraph. I'm just... kind of sick of that. Sorry. (And I hope that didn't scare you off from reviewing! I'd love to hear what you thought of the story itself - compliments, [constructive] criticism, whatever. Other than that whole points-out-minor-details-that-are-obviously-going-to-conflict-with-HoH-canon thing, I'm really open to whatever you guys have to say! :))