First of all, I am SO sorry. I know it's been over two weeks since I updated, and I know that House of Hades came out yesterday, so most of you have probably finished it already and are all set to complain about how this story probably conflicts with the canon timeline now...

I'M SORRY. I could give you a long excuse, but you probably don't care, and anyway I have more to say in this author's note, so all I'll say is I had the triple threat problem: school, extracurricular activities, and a bit of writer's block. In addition, about half of this chapter didn't save in Doc Manager for some reason, so I lost it and had to retype it, so this isn't really as long as I had wanted originally OR my best work, even though you TOTALLY deserve my best after my long hiatus... It's also unedited because I wanted to get it out as soon as possible, so typos are a huge possibility. I'll go back and fix them soon... Once again, I'M SORRY.

However, I am NOT abandoning this story, despite its probable irrelevance now. I WILL KEEP WRITING IT, and if you want to keep reading and reviewing it, that would be lovely. :) It will be finished as soon as humanly possible.

Secondly, I HAVE NOT FINISHED HOUSE OF HADES. I HAVE NOT EVEN GOTTEN IT YET. SO PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE NO SPOILERS IN YOUR REVIEWS OR PMs, OR... OR... I MIGHT CRY AND THEN SPONTANEOUSLY COMBUST. Okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration—I don't cry that often, and I've never spontaneously combusted before—but you get the point. NO SPOILERS AT ALL(even tiny ones), PRETTY PLEASE WITH AMBROSIA ON TOP.

Um, also I apologize for the heavy use of caps lock in this author's note... I just wanted to make sure everybody saw that...

Anyway, incredibly long author's note aside, thank you so much for the reviews! I can't believe we're almost at 100 already!

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO. In case you haven't gotten that by now. :)

Part VII

"Please," Leo begged, straining against his chain to get as close to the empousa as he could. "I can walk now, I swear. Please let me go back there and use the bathroom again."

"He'll make this whole clearing stink if you don't," Reyna warned. "Please spare us all that."

"It's not like you're much better, Praetor," Leo protested, sparing her a glare. "Don't pretend that you don't need to go too."

Reyna flushed dark red. She didn't answer, but that was all the confirmation Leo seemed to need. "See?" he said, turning back to their guard. "Maybe you should let both of us go."

The empousa Leo was appealing to didn't budge, but the one across the clearing did. "See sense, Peiliona," she said. "Worst-case scenario, they try to escape and Elinore gets to whip one or both of them again." Reyna saw Leo wince before he could help himself. She didn't blame him. Memories of her own punishments were flashing through her head at the moment. "Best-case scenario, nothing happens. I'll even come with you."

Peiliona hesitated. "I . . ."

"Perfect." The second empousa came over and started undoing Leo's lock. "Don't make me regret this, godspawn," she hissed threateningly, using the chain to yank him to his feet. "Even think about escaping, and you'll beg for another whipping as lenient as the last one."

Leo gulped. "Wouldn't dream of it. Promise."

He saw Peiliona drag Reyna upwards as well. The praetor did a convincing job of stumbling to get her balance. "Sorry, sorry," she gasped when Peiliona growled at her. "I'm just . . . hungry. Weak. Sorry."

Leo could feel the empousa behind him loosen her grip on the chain, and why wouldn't she? If he and Reyna were barely strong enough to stand, how would they run? Leo suppressed a smile. These idiots didn't know what they were in for.

Reyna had Leo's arm around her shoulders for the entire journey, since he was feigning weakness to lull the empousae into relaxing their guard. They fake-stumbled along together, one of them occasionally tripping to keep up the act. In reality, Reyna was used to hunger—after all, she had spent over two months as a prisoner on a pirate ship, and they hadn't exactly been generous with their distribution of rations—and Leo seemed fine as well, even though she couldn't imagine where he got his strength from. But the frailer they looked, the greater their advantage, so Reyna let Leo continue to collapse onto her . . . even though the weight of his body on her back was almost enough to make her blush. Almost.

"We're here, godspawn," Peiliona announced eventually. "Go do your business—in separate directions."

Reyna felt Leo freeze, but she had prepared for this announcement. "I . . . I'm sorry, Peiliona, but I don't think Leo can stand on his own. He'll need my help to get to the, er . . ." This time, she flushed red on purpose. "You know."

"Oh, go ahead," the second empousa sighed, giving Reyna's chain a little shake. "There's nowhere to run anyway."

Reyna nodded as meekly as she could manage, then adjusted Leo's arm and started walking forward. Wincing with every step, the son of Hephaestus limped along beside her. Part of Reyna wondered if some of that wincing wasn't really fake, but she didn't have time to interrogate Leo about his health. He had claimed that he was fine, and she had no choice but to believe him. After all, they were down to thirty-six hours before Octavian would begin the march on Camp Half-Blood. They couldn't waste any more time. They had to start escaping now.

As soon as they were out of sight behind a group of stalagmites, Reyna ducked out from under Leo's arm. "Okay," she said as she moved, hoping to hide her awkwardness, "what do we do now?"

Leo relaxed his arm, looking at it with almost . . . disappointment? "Now," he said, "you go do your business over there, and I'll do mine over here."

Reyna's entire face burned red. "Oh my gods," she said. "Leo, what are you—?"

"Come on, Rey," Leo said, grinning. "Those empousae bought our story for a reason. Look me in the eye and tell me it doesn't have an ounce of truth."

She couldn't. "That's what I thought. Don't worry, Reyna," he added, still grinning idiotically. "It's a perfectly normal function of the human body."

Reyna would have smacked him, but she still doubted that his back was fully healed. "Fine," she growled under her breath, "but you'd better stay way over here."

His smile widened. "Don't worry, Reyna," he repeated. "I will look forward to once again being blessed with your presence."

Reyna decided it was best not to comment. She simply rolled her eyes and hurried off.

She found Leo in the exact same position she had left him in, leaning sideways against a stalagmite and grinning in her direction. "Stop that," she hissed. "You look like an idiot."

"I know," he said, still smiling broadly.

She gave him a withering glare, wasting precious seconds of their time until he finally got the hint and stopped. "Gods, Valdez . . ." she muttered under her breath. "Sometimes, I just do not understand what goes through your head."

Unfortunately, Leo heard her. "Neither do I, Praetor," he answered with a smirk.

Not comforting, considering he had formed their entire escape plan.

Reyna drove the thought out of her mind. "Whatever," she said. "Now how do you plan to get these chains off? Does your tool belt have bolt cutters?"

Leo shrugged slightly. "Doesn't matter if it does," he informed her. "They're too forceful. The empousae would feel the shaking when the chain was cut and instantly know something was up."

Reyna resisted the impulse to shake him. "Okay," she said instead. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

Surprisingly, Leo seemed to hesitate at her words. "Well . . ."

"Come on, Leo," she said, trying not to sound too impatient. She didn't think it worked. "We don't have much time. I don't care if your method of removing chains is illegal or crazy or whatever. Just do it."

Leo took a deep breath. "Okay," he said finally. "Just . . . be prepared."

And with that, he lit his hand on fire.

At the last possible moment, Reyna remembered not to cry out in surprise. Instead, she choked on air.

"Holy Bellona!" she whispered as soon as she found her breath again. "What the Styx—?"

Leo kept his eyes on her chain as he narrowed the flames on his hand into one, bright blue, compact flare. Carefully, he trained the fire as close to her ankle as he could without burning her skin off. As shocked as she was, Reyna appreciated the foresight. She did not want to be lugging around a length of chain as she ran off.

Finally, the chain link he was holding up melted, and he extinguished the flame and caught the rest of the chain in one smooth motion, keeping it from clattering to the ground. With that movement, Reyna found her voice again. "Explain," she managed to say. "Do . . . do other children of Hephaestus do that? Control fire?"

Slowly, Leo shook his head, eyes still trained downwards. "Not in about three hundred and fifty years," he said carefully. "Since one of us—you know, fire users—started the Great Fire of London." The last part came out in a rush.

When Reyna didn't answer immediately, Leo sneaked a glance upwards to gauge her expression. Seeing how nervous he looked, Reyna managed a reassuring smile. His eyes widened, and he quickly looked down again. "So you're not mad?" he asked, seemingly to Reyna's shoes.

"Surprised, yes," she admitted. "Mad, no. How could I be? You're using your fire to help us escape."

As if in confirmation of her words, Leo's chain snapped. He caught the loose end and set it gently on the ground. Then he straightened and grinned at her with giddy relief. "You're right," he said. "Now I suggest we go do just that."

Reyna nodded and followed Leo as he turned and hurried off at a crouch-run, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. It wasn't hard. After all, it was Tartarus they were rushing through.

Reyna had no idea where they were going, but Leo didn't hesitate along their twisting path. Eventually, they came to a giant stalagmite with a length of nylon rope wrapped around it. Leo deftly untied knots and unwound the rope until he had lowered his contraption to the ground.

Then Leo turned to check Reyna's reaction. He seemed pleased by the fact that her mouth was hanging open. "You like it?" he asked cockily.

"Gods of Olympus," was all Reyna could think to say. "How are we going to carry that thing through Tartarus?"

"Do not doubt my abilities, Praetor," Leo answered automatically, but he had already swiveled back towards his machine.

"I thought I was farther . . ." he muttered, so quietly Reyna was sure she hadn't been supposed to hear.

"What do you mean?" she asked, careful to turn her worried shout into an anxious hiss. "You don't have enough time?"

There was a long pause before he answered. "I never said that," he said, laying down and pushing himself underneath the machine as he spoke. His voice was slightly muffled by the metal in the way. "It'll be fine. Just . . . go patrol the area or something, okay? Make sure there aren't any monsters around. Come back in, I don't know, two hours or something. Hopefully I should be done by then."

Reyna decided not to comment on the discouraging "hopefully" he had thrown in there, or on the strange fact that a lowly repair boy was ordering around a praetor of Rome. Instead, she said, "Give me a screwdriver."

That was enough to make Leo look out from under the contraption, bonking his head in the process. He frowned up at her, rubbing his skull. "Why do you need one of those?"

"Oh, come on, Valdez," she said with a dazzling smile. "I know I'm good, but even I can't defeat an entire army with my bare hands."

At that, Leo's mouth tilted up at the corners. "I wouldn't be so sure about that," he said, reaching into his belt and handing her the tool as he spoke. Then he poked his head back underneath the device. "After all, you're Reyna Concessi. You could probably defeat an entire army with one bare hand."

His voice was hard to understand through the metal contraption, especially when he was speaking so quietly. He probably wasn't even talking to her—just muttering a measurement to himself or something. Reyna was most likely imagining that his next words sounded like a certain phrase she had never expected to be directed her way. In fact, she almost certainly was. Still . . .

No, Reyna thought to herself. Stop.

She turned on her heel and strode off to inspect their perimeter, silently berating herself. She was being ridiculous. There was no way Leo had said that to her. He hadn't.

Still, the words kept spinning through her head, whirling in a circle as pointless as a hamster wheel.

"You're Reyna Concessi. You could probably defeat an entire army with one bare hand.

"It's one of the many things I like about you."

"There has to be another way," Annabeth insisted, striding across the deck. Everyone else was gathered around her with equally worried expressions on their faces.

"There has to be." Her eyes grew steely, and her voice hardened. "What about my mom's statue? I went through Styx to get that Parthenos, and then I fell into hell to keep it safe. All because I was promised that it could bring our camps together. Gods, that hunk of metal has to be good for something. We can use it to make peace."

"Annabeth . . ." Hazel looked hesitant to bring up the problem looming over all their heads, but in the end, she kept going. "Maybe if we brought it back to your camp, it could settle the rivalry. But . . . gods, there's no time. It took us four days to sail across the Atlantic Ocean. There's no way we can make a return trip in one."

Annabeth shook her head. "We can use it to make peace," she repeated. "We just have to figure out how." She dropped silent, pacing and thinking while the others watched her. Finally, a hint of an idea dropped into her brain.

She stopped pacing. "We can't all make the journey in a day," she said slowly. "But shadow travel is instantaneous." She whirled around. "Nico, do you think you could—?" The words died on her lips as soon as she got a good look at the son of Hades. He still wasn't back at full strength—maybe he would never be—and he was so skinny that you could practically see his bones under his skin. There was no way he would survive a journey across the ocean, shadow-traveling with a massive statue and a demigod passenger. Gods, she wasn't even sure he would survive the journey by himself.

He looked at her sadly and opened his mouth—to apologize for being weak, maybe, or worse, to lie and say he could do it—and Annabeth knew she had to cut him off before he spoke. "Forget I mentioned it," she said quickly. "It wouldn't work anyway. The Parthenos probably wouldn't convince the Romans that we want peace, since most Greeks thought they had stolen it in the first place. Gods, maybe they think Romans had stolen it, and our retrieving it was stealing from them. It's Octavian. Who knows what Styx he would come up with."

"You're right," Hazel answered, sneaking a glance at her brother. He looked secretly relieved to be let off the hook. "The only question is . . . what are we going to do? How are we going to unite our homes?"

Home.

The word clicked in Annabeth's brain. She remembered New York, and her mother, staring sadly at a map of the subway station. Sacked, her mother had said. Looted like a trophy and carted off—away from my beloved homeland. I lost so much. I swore I would never forgive. . . . At the time, Annabeth had thought her mom had been talking about her identity as Athena or Minerva, but now she wasn't sure. A trophy, carted off from my beloved homeland. . . . More of the conversation rushed into her head. If I could find the route . . . the way home, then perhaps . . .

Annabeth turned to Hazel and hugged her. "You're a genius!" she exclaimed.

Hazel looked confused. "But I didn't have an answer . . ."

"The way home," Annabeth explained. "My mom wants to get revenge on Rome because they looted the Parthenon and stole her statue, remember? They took away what made her Athena, the goddess of war, strategy, and wisdom. She's wanted revenge ever since. I bet her negative energy is egging on both sides. But if we returned the Parthenos to Athens . . ."

Jason's eyes widened. "And put it back inside the Parthenon . . ."

"My mom would be back in her home territory," Annabeth continued, nodding. "She would become Athena again. And then maybe the 'wisdom' part of her identity would kick back in, and she would realize just how bad it would be for civil war to break out between camps.

"She's an influential goddess," Annabeth finished. "Her input could be enough to make the other gods see sense—and in turn, to make Octavian see sense."

Frank's eyebrows furrowed. "Annabeth, I understand what you're saying. But what will the mortals think when a forty-foot-tall statue—one that's been missing for a thousand years—suddenly appears in the middle of the Parthenon?"

"It doesn't matter," Annabeth said firmly. "Athens is only half a day's flight away. We can't make it to Camp Half-Blood in time, but we can make it to Athens. This is our only chance."

Percy reached over and took Annabeth's hand. "Then we can do it," he promised, grinning at her reassuringly. "Set our course for Athens, Captain Chase."

"Leo!"

He stuck his head out of his machine and instantly saw Reyna sprinting towards him, braid streaming out behind her. If she was forgoing stealth to yell at him . . . Leo jumped out of the machine and quickly gathered up all of his tools, stuffing them into his belt's pockets with one hand and using the other to adjust a few screws on the contraption. By the time Reyna had reached him, Leo was all packed up and ready to move—which was fortunate because it seemed like they needed to do just that.

Reyna skidded to a halt, panting. "Gaea . . . sensed machine . . . army . . . coming . . ."

Leo nodded, taking in her disheveled state and slight limp as she spoke. "I thought you were going to kill some monsters with my screwdriver," he said lightly, trying not to panic. "Where is it?"

"I did," Reyna answered, still gasping for air. "I was scanning . . . perimeter . . . saw army . . . went around them . . . killed ten Cyclopes . . . threw screwdriver . . . hit crack in stalactite . . . brought it down . . . crushed thirty or so monsters . . . was a distraction long enough . . . to get a decent head start . . ."

Leo whistled softly. "Forty monsters with a screwdriver, Praetor?" he said. "Not bad." He hesitated. "I don't want to rain on your parade, but . . . just to give you a heads-up, you can't kill monsters down here. 'Killing' them actually transports them to another location in Tartarus, so . . ." He shrugged. "You might see them again soon enough."

"Okay," Reyna said, taking the news calmer than Leo had expected. "Doesn't really matter—I took them out of commission temporarily, which is good enough down here. But the real question is, how in Mars's name are we going to get this machine all the way to the entrance/exit to the Underworld?"

Leo bent down and picked up the nylon rope he had left on the ground, swinging it over his shoulder. "Easy," he said. "We drag it."

Reyna stared at him like she was waiting for him to break into a grin and shout, "LOL JK!" or something. When he didn't, she furrowed her eyebrows. "Okay, I know you've hit your head a couple times," she started, "so are you sure you don't have a minor concussion or somethi—?"

Leo snorted. "I'm not crazy, Praetor. This thing isn't as heavy as it looks, promise. Besides, we don't have that far to go."

Reyna tilted her head. "How would you know that?"

Instead of answering, Leo jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Reyna followed the direction he was pointing in, and her mouth dropped open.

Random objects littered the floor of Tartarus, starting about a thousand feet away from where she was standing—and they weren't just the rocky debris that Reyna knew she had to watch out for with every step. These were everyday items, ranging from pacifiers to cowboy boots to cell phones to rubber duckies. And the farther away from Reyna they got, the more condensed the items became . . . almost like . . .

"It's a trail," she whispered in amazement. "A trail leading all the way to the entrance to the Underworld."

Leo nodded, offering her a half-smile—which was strange when compared to the wide, blinding grin that he usually wore, but Reyna was so excited by this concrete escape route that she didn't pay too much attention to that. "You know how the Styx is polluted with all sorts of unfulfilled dreams?" Leo asked. Reyna nodded. "Well, I'm guessing this stuff is kind of like that, in a way. People's possessions that found their way to the Underworld somehow—through sewers, earthquake fissures, whatever—and then were pulled into Tartarus from there. In general, the objects with the lightest masses traveled the farthest, and so are closest to us, but there are exceptions to that rule. I think that's because you have to calculate in other factors, like the object's density and material and surface area and—" Leo rambled on for a while before he noticed the blank look on Reyna's face. At least he had the grace to look sheepish about it. ". . .Of course, all that doesn't really matter. What matters is that we can use these objects to make our way out of here. We, uh, should probably get going."

Just then, a voice rumbled through Tartarus. Godspawn! You have two minutes to surrender, or you will feel pain beyond your most petrifying nightmares. My army is closing in around you. Surrender, or you will beg for August 1st to come faster, so that your torturous punishment can end and you can die.

Reyna had never heard a goddess sound so angry—or so awake. Quickly, she bent down and slung the other end of the rope over her shoulder. "Yes, Leo Valdez," she said, trying not to panic. "We should definitely get going."

But to her surprise, the son of Hephaestus hesitated. "We'd never make it."

Reyna stared at him. "Are you saying we should surrender?" she asked incredulously, her tone harsher than she'd intended. "Just . . . give up?"

"What?" Leo said. "No way! I just meant . . . I'll stay behind and distract them. You go on ahead."

Reyna was so shocked, she dropped her end of the rope. Three days ago, she wouldn't have hesitated to leave the Greek camp-bomber behind, especially if she had to in order to save her legion from making a terrible mistake that would cost them all of Western civilization, but now . . . Now that she had realized just how kind, funny, and selfless that Greek camp-bomber really was . . .

"No," she said, surprising herself as much as Leo. "You said yourself that this machine is lighter than it looks. We can do it."

"Reyna," Leo said calmly, "we can't."

At those words, Reyna couldn't take it any longer. He was too good. She couldn't let this happen. "No, Leo!" she said firmly. "I'm not going to leave you down here! I'm not! That's final!"

"What?" Leo said again. "No! I didn't mean . . ." He paused for a split-second. "I'll catch up with you as soon as I can. This is temporary. Gods, Rey, I'm not that heroic." He grinned at her. "I'll just come around from a different direction and use my fire to light up a false trail, creating a distraction and leading the monsters away from where you're actually going. Then I'll put up a wall of fire or something, make it look like we're trying to hold them off for as long as possible when really you're long gone. The monsters that are immune to fire will be able to get through, but by then I'll be gone. I'll circle around and come find you."

"But—"

"Aw, come on, Rey," he said. "It'll be fine. After all, I have to come find you again." He grinned a second time. "It would be rude and unchivalrous to make you drag that machine all the way to the entrance by yourself."

Reyna shook her head, carefully hiding how relieved she was. "Unchivalrous isn't a word, Repair Boy," she informed him instead.

"Ah, sure it is," Leo countered. "If I make it so."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Valdez." She bent down and picked up her end of the rope as Leo dropped his. Hefting it over her shoulder, she straightened and turned to look at him, her expression softening before she could help herself. "Be safe, okay, Valdez?"

"'Course," Leo said. "I told you, I'll come back. It's necessary for the sake of chivalry."

With a comment as ridiculous as that one, Reyna was able to find her sarcastic mask again. "Very well, Sir Fire Hazard," she said dryly. "Be sure to hurry back. I mean . . ." She put the back of her hand to her forehead dramatically, head tipping back as she spoke in falsetto. "I'm obviously a helpless damsel in distress. I'll need you back to rescue me from the dungeon."

Reyna was rewarded by Leo's dumbfounded expression. "You . . . have a sense of humor . . ." he said in amazement.

A monster roared with bloodthirsty anger, the sound closer than Reyna would have liked. "You learn something new every day, Valdez," she said, turning away from him before he could see how nervous she was to leave him on his own. "At least, that's what I've heard. Of course, I am the exception. With all of my worldly knowledge, I obviously know everything already."

"Obviously." Reyna could tell from his tone that the son of Hephaestus was grinning. "See you in a bit."

Suddenly, Reyna had the urge to say something serious, to offer some last-minute advice, to part ways more formally.

She turned around to do just that.

But Leo Valdez was already gone.