An update in only a week? Are you amazed? Because I'm amazed. :P

Anyway, I couldn't help but notice that I got way fewer reviews for last chapter than I normally do, and I'm not sure why. I hope it's just because school+life=craziness and no free time, but I'm worried that it's because something was wrong with last chapter? Please review this one, even if it's a short review, just so I know if I fulfilled (or hopefully exceeded) expectations! (And please review if you don't like it as much, too, so I know how to improve in the future.) Thanks, guys. :)

I thought about splitting this into two (again) because it's so long, but I didn't feel like there was a good place to stop that would evenly distribute the word count, so you guys get an extremely long chapter instead! Enjoy!

(And still no spoilers for BoO, please!)

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO/HoO.

Part XXIII

HOW DARE YOU DESTROY MY SON! Gaea roared, raising her arms dangerously. HOW DARE YOU DESTROY ANY OF MY CHILDREN! I WILL SINK YOU ALL INTO THE GROUND, NEVER TO BE SEEN AGAIN. YOUR BONES WILL TURN TO MUD WITHIN MY EMBRACE. NO ONE WILL EVER KNOW THAT HUNDREDS OF PATHETIC DEMIGODS AND THEIR MEASLY PARENTS DIED HERE—

"Like hell we will!" Behind her, Percy struggled to his feet, lifting Riptide and rolling his shoulder with a grimace. "Jason, Leo! The death ray!"

The words passed straight through Leo's ears as his body shook with fear. Gaea was strong. Gaea was threatening him. Gaea was glaring at him with eyes like boulders—eyes that were almost entirely open. It was like Tartarus all over again—no, it was worse than Tartarus. Gaea was even more awake this time. Worse, he wasn't the only one in danger anymore. Oh gods, what was he supposed to do—?

And then he heard the creak of a bronze mirror turning beside him, and Leo was able to tear his gaze away from Gaea long enough to see that his siblings were positioning their mirrors as well. Leo looked at the furious look on Jason's face, and slowly, the ice holding his feet to the ground started to melt away. "Damn it, Gaea, you're the one who's going to melt into the ground today!" Jason yelled. "You're finished!" And a blast of lightning arced around the various mirrors and blasted through Gaea's head.

It didn't do much damage, of course—fresh mud just filled in the gap the lightning had created—but the momentary flash of pain on Gaea's face somehow gave Leo confidence. "Nice shot, Grace," he said with a grin. "My turn." And flames coursed out of his hands and blazed into that awful earth goddess.

Annabeth felt helpless as she watched the battle between her friends and Gaea unfold. Leo had been shooting flames for just a few moments before the fire—both in his hands and in his eyes—started to dull with exhaustion and apprehension. Annabeth could only watch as he staggered, the flames spluttering out in his hands, as Gaea laughed . . . but then Piper brought the Argo II closer to the ground, and Festus breathed fire onto the nearest bronze mirror, adding his strength to Leo's inferno. And then Frank morphed into a dragon and began to shoot some flames of his own into the mix, and Leo's eyes seemed to clear and his body straightened and he blasted fire with renewed vitality. Annabeth breathed a sigh of relief when before long, Gaea was being pummeled with a conflagration that was nearly as bright as Jupiter's lightning.

Speaking of lightning, Jason and Jupiter were sending some impressive strikes down on Gaea's head at random intervals, which bore deeper and deeper into her with each burst of electricity. Meanwhile, Hazel and Nico had somehow found each other in the midst of the confusion and were standing side by side. While Nico brought up skeletons who clawed at Gaea's earthen robes, Hazel used her powers to draw up rocks and precious metals that piled around Gaea. Together, their abilities started to pull Gaea back into the ground. And while fire blasted into Gaea's stomach, Percy shot a steam of pressurized water as hard as any sword into her back, using the rainwater from Jason's and Jupiter's storm to fuel it. In fact, the rest of the seven were bombarding Gaea from all angles, so that Annabeth couldn't find a single place where she could jump in and be useful.

That, on its own, wouldn't be a problem. Annabeth knew her fatal flaw was hubris, but she still wasn't stupid enough to force herself into the fight if she wasn't needed. She wasn't so prideful that she would complicate an already-dangerous fight by getting in the way.

No, the problem was that Gaea had an endless supply of dirt available to counteract the blows and injuries that the rest of the seven was dealing her. No matter how many times they hit her, her body regenerated—sometimes even stronger than it had been before. That meant she was free to keep swiping at Annabeth's friends, so that they kept having to dodge and lose their concentration. And every time Gaea attacked, Annabeth feared that her friends wouldn't quite be fast enough.

Even worse, the earth goddess didn't seem to be tiring at all. In fact, her anger grew each time she was hurt, which just made her more awake than ever—

Annabeth froze, the first inklings of a plan flooding into her brain. But before she could fully develop it, the moment she'd been fearing happened. Frank-the-dragon darted forward so he could aim his fire more directly at Gaea . . . and the earth goddess reached out and snapped his left wing with one fluid motion. He careened through the air, and Annabeth's heart nearly stopped when she realized how useless his right wing was at stabilizing his flight. She had to look away when he hit the ground with a crunch.

Still, the bile rising in her throat at the sound didn't stop Annabeth from racing towards her friend, heedless of the fire, lightning, and water burning, zapping, and whizzing by inches from her body. She was relieved when she realized he was breathing . . . and conscious, by some godly miracle. He'd reverted back to human form and was twisted in on himself in obvious agony, but he was conscious. "My gods, Frank," she muttered, crouching at his side. "How bad is it?"

"Honestly?" he said, flinching when she reached out a hand. "Probably worse than you think. But forget about me," he continued, before Annabeth could say anything else. "We've got an earth idiot to defeat, and you're the daughter of Athena here. Any brilliant plans for us?"

"I can't believe you can form such coherent sentences," she mumbled, barely hearing him. "It's already incredible that you're even awake—"

She stopped short, thoughts spinning like hamster wheels in her brain. Awake?

Suddenly, the plan she'd been pondering snapped into instant focus. Annabeth looked at Frank and grinned, silently thanking him for being conscious. Otherwise, she might never have figured this out. Everything hinged on one important detail. Gaea wasn't tiring. With each new injury, her anger only increased and strengthened her awareness. In other words, fighting Gaea wasn't working at all.

It only made her more awake.

Leo was grateful for the two camps of demigods that were keeping Gaea's army at bay. He was glad that his friends were there to back him and the rest of the seven up. Really, he was. But it did make the tiredness pressing down on him more embarrassing.

It was a struggle just to keep a meager stream of flames going. Leo could feel his concentration—and his consciousness—slipping. Then Gaea reached out with one furious arm and broke Frank's wing, sending him crashing to the ground. The worry for his friend, added to the emotional and physical exhaustion he was already feeling, was the last straw for Leo. He fell to his knees, still feebly sending a trickle of fire tumbling out of his palms, and found just enough lucidity to wonder why Gaea hadn't died by now . . .

And then Reyna was somehow at Leo's arm and telling him to stop. "It's okay, Leo," she muttered, closing her hands around his wrists. "Annabeth's just called for silence. Take a break."

Leo was only too happy to comply. He sagged against Reyna, so tired that he almost forgot to flush at the contact. But he was still awake enough to hear the strange commands that Annabeth was calling out.

"Stop fighting as if you're trying to kill her!" she yelled. "You know we can't do that! It's impossible to kill the earth!"

A hideous smile sprouted onto Gaea's face. Giving up, daughter of Athena? she gloated. Have you finally seen sense? Do you prefer to die a peaceful death over a violent, painful one?

Annabeth laughed. "Hardly," she said. "I never said we would surrender, Dirt Face." She smirked viciously. "I just said we couldn't kill you. I never said we couldn't defeat you."

At that, Gaea actually started to look nervous. Grasping at straws, are we? she blustered. Making up ridiculous theories to try to cling to hope?

Annabeth just shook her head. "More like discovering a . . . quieter way to end your pathetic attempt to rise to power."

Piper was the first one to realize what Annabeth meant. All of a sudden, a voice came crackling out of the Argo II. "Gaea!"

If Leo squinted, he could just make out a figure with choppy brown hair at the helm, holding a megaphone to her mouth. (Leo took a moment to thank the gods for Coach Hedge—no one else would have thought to bring a megaphone on this quest.) He smiled, expecting her next words to ooze persuasiveness and tell Gaea to stand still and let them destroy her. But Piper surprised him, just as Annabeth had. "Come on, Gaea," Piper said gently. "Relax. You don't have to keep fighting us. Just go to sleep. Take a nap for a millennium or two."

And in that moment, Leo understood. It was what the gods had been telling them for the entire quest. They couldn't kill Gaea—she was the earth they stood on every day, after all. The most they could do . . . was force her to go back to sleep.

The noises of fighting stilled as demigods realized what Annabeth's plan was. They knew that the clang of metal against metal would agitate Gaea and keep her conscious. Luckily, their efforts from earlier in the day meant that Gaea's entire army was nearly destroyed—and the monsters that remained were dispatched silently with swords or knives against their throats.

Before long, Piper's soft voice was the only sound on the battlefield as she did her best to lull Gaea to sleep. Then, at Annabeth's command, Jason and Jupiter started up a soft pattering of rain around the earth goddess. The drizzling noises calmed her. The hateful look on her face started to fade away. At the same time, Percy took the water they had called from the sky, gathered it together, and spilled it down the rocks that Hazel had called to the surface earlier in the fight. It babbled down the stones like a creek. Before long, Poseidon came to stand next to Percy and joined in, taking some of the excess water and shaping it into waves that evoked soothing ocean-like noises. Even Aphrodite appeared at Piper's side aboard the Argo II, and their voices mixed into one gentle cadence. All of the sounds they made combined softly and surprisingly beautifully. Gaea had to blink hard to keep her eyes open.

Still, she wasn't asleep yet. Leo decided that his contribution to this war wasn't quite over. He struggled to his feet, shrugged off Reyna's worried hand, and stumbled closer to Gaea, warding off every warning light in his brain. Using his last shreds of strength, he started a gentle, crackling fire at Gaea's feet, sounding as comforting as a campfire at Camp Half-Blood (without the off-key singing; that'd probably be counterproductive). After a few moments, he realized that he was being flanked and turned in surprise. His dad was looming at his left, smiling down at him . . . and Lady Hestia, the Last Olympian that Percy had mentioned when he talked about the Titan War, was standing at his right, looking ten years old and as lovely as a home-cooked meal. They added to the flames Leo had created, but the resulting blaze felt more like a fire crackling in a homely hearth than a mighty inferno.

Together, storm and fire cascaded into a symphony. One that more closely resembled a lullaby than a battle cry.

With all of the quiet, gentle sounds attacking her senses, Gaea never stood a chance. Her eyes slowly drooped shut. As soon as they closed, her tall, menacing body crumpled. She folded in on herself and sunk back into the ground.

Onboard the Argo II, Piper voiced the words that everyone was thinking.

"To storm or fire, the world must fall . . . asleep."

Leo almost cursed the irony. After all of the hard-fought battles and ceaseless struggles they'd gone through, this was all that needed to happen? In the end, Western civilization was saved with a whisper, not a boom? He shook his head in amazement. Gods. That would have been nice to know last December.

Still . . . for a few tense minutes, it seemed too good to be true. Everyone stayed silent, and Leo, Percy, Jason, Piper, and their parents (plus Lady Hestia) kept up the sounds, just in case Gaea decided to rise up again. They all watched the dirt where she'd once stood apprehensively.

But Gaea stayed asleep. In fact, it looked like she would remain asleep for quite some time. And at the revelation, the entire battlefield erupted into a wild cheer.

Orange and purple shirts blended together as demigods hugged random strangers with pure joy, amazed that they'd finally won. The gods faded into the background and watched with small smiles as their children celebrated. Leo's friends grabbed each other and hugged with relief. Then they looked towards Leo and beamed at him before heading over, probably to hug him too . . .

Only Leo didn't think he would last that long. Now that his duties were complete, he forgot how to stand. "Wow, no wonder that earth-scum went back to sleep," he muttered, almost to himself. "That sounds like a really good idea—"

"Not so fast, Repair Boy." From out of nowhere, Reyna caught Leo as he collapsed. "No passing out on me," she said sternly. "We're getting you back on your precious warship first. You can go to sleep in that lovely infirmary you built."

Leo cracked a smile. "Yes, ma'am, Praetor, ma'am." He glanced up at her and was almost taken aback by how amazing she looked, with hair streaming out of her braid, dirt streaked across her face, and two screwdrivers dangling from her free hand. Leo's glance turned into a stare, packed full of emotions that he was too exhausted to conceal.

Reyna flushed—or at least that was what it looked like, although Leo was pretty sure Reyna found the concept of blushing beneath her queenly praetor-ness. But before she could say anything, the rest of the seven gathered around Leo and helped Reyna prop him up. "We did it, Leo," Hazel told him, her eyes shining. "Holy Styx, we actually did it!"

"Heck yeah we did," he said, smiling and avoiding Reyna's gaze. He couldn't look at her without remembering . . . everything. And he couldn't remember everything now. Not while other people were here.

They'd have to wait to talk about everything until they were alone.

It took hours for Reyna to find Leo alone. He passed out as soon as they deposited him in an infirmary bed, and Will Solace shooed them out so he could finish evaluating all of the injuries that "the dumb-ass" had probably hidden from him earlier. Even when he finally let everyone back in, the said dumb-ass was still unconscious. Reyna was almost worried, but then Will told her the idiot was only catching up on the peaceful rest he'd missed out on while in Tartarus, and Reyna grudgingly admitted that he was probably right. Gods only knew that she'd had enough trouble sleeping in the mortal world.

The rest of the seven (minus Frank, who was currently being tended to a few cots down) stayed at Leo's bedside for over an hour, still obviously amazed and pleased that they'd finally gotten him back. Reyna knew how they felt.

Still, they eventually dispersed to visit Frank, join the impromptu celebrations that people had already begun, and (hopefully) decompress. Even Reyna was forced to leave Leo's side to find each member of the Twelfth Legion and confirm that he or she was still alive . . . which unfortunately meant that she also learned about every single casualty that they'd suffered during the day-long battle. She'd known every one of them . . . and had even considered some friends.

The only bright spots were seeing how many of the legionnaires did make it through, being comforted by the survival of the ones she'd helped personally, and encountering an awkwardly grateful Andrew the Totally Awesome in the middle of her heartbreaking roll call.

"Praetor Reyna!" he yelled when he saw her pass by. She spent five terrified seconds thinking that somebody was calling to inform her of yet another death and almost pretended not to hear . . . But gods, she was glad when she decided to turn and face the pain head-on.

"Andrew?" she breathed, half in surprise and half in relief.

He grinned back at her, too giddy to even remind her about the epithet attached to his name. "You remember my name?"

Reyna rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. "You're totally awesome," she reminded him with a wink. "How could I forget?" She frowned at him. "But I thought I told you that you didn't have to call me Praetor?"

"Yeah . . ." he said, dragging the syllable out. "But it's a cool word."

She wasn't able to help the laugh that burst out of her, despite the grief that'd been weighing her down. It was refreshing to display some semblance of the joy that the throngs of demigods around her were feeling. They'd lost friends too, but they were all choosing to focus on the ones they had left . . . for the moment, at least. Reyna wondered if she should follow their example.

"I'm glad to see you're all right," she told Andrew.

"How could I not be?" he shot back, crossing his arms. "Like you said, I'm totally awesome." He hesitated then. "Are . . . are you okay, Praetor Reyna? The war's over. Why do you look . . . sad?"

She tensed up, not wanting to ruin Andrew's good mood by being depressed in the face of their victory. "Oh, I'm fine," she lied. "Just tired from all the fighting. That's all."

To her surprise, he gaped. "But you're Praetor Reyna," he said. "I thought you didn't get tired!"

Reyna almost laughed again. "Everyone gets tired," she answered. "Percy does too."

His mouth dropped open even wider. "Percy Jackson gets tired?" he said in awe. "I had no idea."

Reyna ruffled his hair affectionately. "We're just people, kid," she said. "Just wait. One day, you're going to be as legendary as Percy, and people are going to think you're perfect too. But you'll still be tired sometimes." And grieving, and confused, and hopeful, and wondering if a certain stupid repair boy is ever going to wake up. And if he'll be anywhere close to okay when he does.

"No way," Andrew said belligerently. "When I'm as famous as Percy Jackson, I'm going to be too busy showing off my awesomeness to get tired."

Reyna chuckled. "Whatever you say, Andrew."

He beamed, and she turned to walk away, but he grabbed her arm before she could. "Reyna . . ." he added more softly. "Today was hard."

For the first time in the conversation, Reyna saw Andrew's happy, confident attitude crack a little bit. She was shocked to realize that maybe he'd lost people too . . . only, who was she kidding? They'd all lost people today.

Before he could protest, Reyna reached out and drew him into an awkward hug, his elbows digging into her ribcage. "Today was hard," she agreed. "But we made it. And I'll bet you that a bunch of demigods are looking up from Elysium happily right now."

Then she released him and fussed with his hair again. "Now find Travis and Connor and go prank somebody," she said as sternly as she could. "Celebrate."

He laughed, darted off, and shouted, "Yes, Praetor Reyna!" over his shoulder. "You celebrate too!"

But Reyna was the world's biggest hypocrite because she didn't take her own advice. Instead of celebrating, she found herself giving up on the remainder of her list (fifty names of people who may or not have been alive were too painful for her to look at right now), wandering back to the Argo II, and finding her way to the infirmary.

Leo was still asleep when she walked in . . . but for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to leave while he looked so still and helpless on that cot—not when she knew that before Tartarus, Leo had never been more than half a joke away from a grin or a laugh. She took one look at him, sighed, and sunk onto the metal folding chair waiting expectantly next to his cot. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Annabeth had put it there. That blonde always seemed to know what was going on with Reyna before Reyna even knew it herself.

You didn't get any sleep two nights ago, Annabeth had told her the other day, and I know you were planning on staying up all night yesterday too. If it takes hanging out in Leo's room to get you to pass out, then so be it.

Reyna shook her head, dropped her chin into her hands, and waited for Leo to wake up.

Leo opened his eyes slowly, wondering why his leg felt so heavy . . . and then he looked down and saw a mass of dark hair resting on it. Before he could think about who that dark hair might belong to, he yelped and jerked backwards—and Reyna Concessi shot up, almost toppling out of the metal chair next to his bed.

He stared. "Were you just sleeping on me?"

"What? No! I . . ." Reyna yawned abruptly and rubbed her eyes with her battle-scarred hands. "Okay, maybe," she admitted.

Leo figured that he should probably find that funny, but instead he just felt mildly uncomfortable. Reyna' battle armor was crooked, and her purple shirt underneath was rumpled. Her eyes were still half-closed with sleep, and her braid was coming undone. Leo knew Reyna hated displaying this vulnerable side of her, and he wasn't sure how lightly he needed to tread. Besides, that everything they needed to talk about was still hanging over his head, keeping him from thinking straight.

"Leo?" Reyna said, yanking him out of his thoughts.

"What?"

"Aren't you going to make fun of me for falling asleep on you?"

His ears reddened. "Um . . . no. I, uh, figured you could use the rest. It's been a long day."

Reyna frowned slightly. "Oh." There was a pause. "Um, thank you?"

"No problem."

More silence. Leo couldn't believe his own cowardice. Since when had making conversation become a challenge for Leo Valdez, walking comic relief and jokester extraordinaire? Why were things so awkward between them now?

Flashes of memory from earlier in the day spun through his head, and Leo flushed again, remembering. Right. That was why.

All of a sudden, something occurred to him, and he broke the silence before he could stop himself. "Wait," he said anxiously. "I said it was a long day. I . . . I'm not wrong, am I? Has it been longer than a day?" His eyes widened. "Oh, gods, have I been out for weeks?"

"Months, actually," Reyna told him. But before he could do more than heave one panicked breath, she cracked a smile. "Yeah, right. I can't believe you thought I was telling the truth. Don't be ridiculous, Leo. I wouldn't be here if you'd been out for months—and not if it'd been weeks either. I have better things to do with my time."

Leo couldn't help but remember that a few weeks ago, he would have taken a comment like that from Reyna with total seriousness and a heavy dose of fear. Now, his first urge was to laugh. To laugh! Gods, everything was so different now.

"I'm wounded, Reyna!" he said dramatically, clutching at his heart and flopping onto his back. "You cause me physical pain with your insults!"

"Oh?" she snickered. "I don't think that's possible. But I mean, I can cause you actual physical pain if you want—to test your hypothesis." But once again, the threat didn't seem mean.

He stuck his tongue out at her. "It's not very nice of you to threaten people."

"It's not very nice of you to worry people by getting seriously injured and then passing out either," she shot back. And just like that, the conversation turned serious.

Leo sighed. "Sorry," he muttered.

By the time he mustered up the courage to peek at her facial expression, Reyna was looking down and picking at his bed sheets. "You shouldn't apologize for something like that," she said softly. "It wasn't your fault." Then she straightened almost forcibly. "Besides," she added, "you were right. You've only been out for a few hours. You didn't give me time to really freak out."

Leo glanced down, trying not to dwell on the fact that Reyna had been worried about him. It shouldn't have surprised him—not after how she'd acted in Tar . . . when he'd first gotten injured (Leo gulped and shoved thoughts about that place into the back of his mind) and earlier today. But it was different to hear her admit it out loud. To admit it even now, after the war ended and they were no longer in constant danger.

He thought about the worried, relieved, pained expression on Reyna's face when she'd seen him for the first time in almost two weeks this morning, and then he quickly stopped thinking about it before he gave himself any false hope. Hoping to distract himself, he plucked nervously at the cast around his broken arm and fished around for something else to talk about. "So . . . war's over. We won, right?"

Reyna snorted, obviously just as ready to change the subject. "Yeah, we won. Don't go sounding too excited about it."

That surprised him into a laugh. "Sorry, Praetor. I'm happy, I promise. It's just . . ." He pulled a face, fingers still flitting around his cast. "I can't build stuff with a broken arm."

Reyna rolled her eyes and shifted in the metal chair, probably trying to get comfortable. "Even if your arm wasn't broken, you wouldn't be building stuff right now," she told him briskly. "You look like Styx, Leo." Leo couldn't help but hear the way her voice cracked on Styx and notice that her eyes were shining sadly as she looked at him. He hated being the reason she was so upset.

"I mean, my gods," she continued. "You have broken ribs, and recently-dislocated shoulders that are being supported by slings, and a bunch of unhealed cuts, some of which Will had to stitch shut, and a head injury that's probably a serious concussion, and—"

He couldn't stand to hear her worried tone any longer. "Yeah, point made," he said quickly, cutting her off. "I just feel like I should be doing something."

She frowned at him. "The war's over! Nobody needs you to do things anymore, and nobody wants you to! Holy Styx, Leo, take a break. You have to heal eventually."

Leo deflated at her words. "Yeah, I know," he admitted. There was a pause, neither of them knowing exactly what to say next. Leo opened his mouth to ask how the other members of the seven were doing . . . and then a specific event from the final battle rushed into his head in a bright, painful memory, and he cursed and glared at her. "With everything else that was going on, I forgot! How could I forget?! How could you let me forget?!"

Reyna furrowed her eyebrows. "What did I let you forget?"

His mouth dropped open. "Isn't it obvious? What else could I have forgotten?! Frank got smacked out of the sky, and I never saw what happened to him! Is he okay? Why haven't you told me if he's okay yet?" Leo started to lift his left hand, but Reyna grabbed it before he could wave it around for emphasis (which was probably a good thing, since it'd make his recently-dislocated shoulder throb again). The contact lasted approximately three seconds, and then they both seemed to realize that they were holding hands.

Reyna let go immediately. "Um . . . Frank's fine." She latched onto the safe conversation topic. "He has scratches and bruises all over the place, and apparently a snapped wing as a dragon translates to an arm that's broken in three places when he's a human, but he was treated hours ago. His arm's even more trussed up than yours, but the last time I saw him, he looked pretty happy."

Leo nodded slowly. "That's good. What about Jason and his dumb dad?"

"His dumb dad, the king of the gods?" Reyna questioned with a smirk.

"Oh, come on, Praetor," Leo complained. "Don't go all 'we must be respectful to the gods' on me now—"

"As if," she said vehemently. "I was just surprised you didn't use stronger language. After ignoring his son for his entire life, the bastard deserves it."

"Oh." For an instant, Leo felt like melting into his cot and disappearing. Was it possible—was she still into Jason—? But no, her tone leaned towards 'protective of a friend', rather than 'worried about a love interest'. And there was no hint of wistfulness and betrayal in her eyes, like there usually was when Leo mentioned Jason.

Reassured, he laughed. "Wow, reina. I didn't have you pegged as the irreverent type."

Reyna made a face. "Well, after Jupiter closed off communications with Olympus and we had to work in the dark for months without any real guidance and they stood by while we made stupid mistakes and started up ancient rivalries, and when they refused to help us while we struggled on quests and tried to save you from Tartarus, I haven't exactly been in the mood to show respect."

Leo frowned as soon as she mentioned Tartarus, missing the rest of what she said. For once, the word evoked more confusion than terror. "What do you mean, they didn't help when you tried to save me from Tartarus? When you tried to rescue me today?"

To his surprise, Reyna froze at his words. "Um . . . I guess I'm mad about today too," she said hesitantly, "but I was actually talking about the night . . ." She shook her head, looking away from him. "Never mind. You were asking about Jason and Jupiter?"

Leo frowned again, but he didn't press her. Honestly, he was a little scared to hear the answer. Their friendship was teetering between a known ledge of predictability and a mountain of confusion and possibilities at the moment, and he was too afraid to say anything that could tip the scale either way. He wasn't sure which destination of their friendship scared him more. "Yeah, I was," he said cautiously. "Has one of them killed the other yet?"

"Not quite," she smiled, obviously just as relieved to get on common ground, "but last I saw, they were having a pretty intense conversation. Don't worry, though," she added. "Jason was doing all of the yelling, and Jupiter was mostly standing there looking ashamed."

Leo grinned. "Jason's yelling at his dad for all the things he did wrong, and his dad is actually listening? I'm so proud." He sniffed and blinked pretend tears out of his eyes. Then he hesitated. "Are . . . are you sure Frank's all right? He wouldn't have been shooting fire so intently if I had been able to keep up the stream of flames better—"

"Oh, shut up, Leo," Reyna said bluntly. "Stop thinking everything's your fault. Frank could have breathed fire just as easily if he'd been farther away. It was his decision to get closer to Gaea, not yours. Feeling guilty is a pointless waste of time." Her tone softened a hair as she looked at him. "Frank is fine, though, really. Like I said, he's pretty happy." She grinned mischievously, and even though Leo knew it was a ploy to get his mind off of Frank's injury, he couldn't help but appreciate the gesture. "When I last saw him, he was sitting with Hazel and . . . talking."

Leo snorted, willing to go along with the lighter conversation topic. "Ten bucks says they're not talking now."

Reyna rolled her eyes. "Frank and Hazel aren't like that, Leo." Then she smirked. "Percy and Annabeth, on the other hand . . ."

Leo's mouth dropped open. "Dioses mis!" he said exaggeratedly. "What an insinuation! I am scandalized!"

She rolled her eyes again—apparently, she felt that was the most appropriate response to anything that came out of his mouth. "You sound like a character in a soap opera," she informed him loftily. "And I wasn't insinuating anything. They're not talking because they've probably started eating by now."

As if on cue, Leo's stomach roared like one of his prototypes for the Argo II's engine. "Don't talk to me about food," he moaned. "I feel like I haven't eaten in days—and actually, I probably haven't." He sighed. "Will sucks for claiming that I have to take things slowly and 're-acclimate' to a normal diet or whatever. I want dinner." He stared at the door to the infirmary longingly, noticing that Reyna's mouth twitched into a grin as he did. He was absurdly pleased to realize that he'd almost made her laugh. "Is there seriously food out there?"

Reyna nodded. "It's apparently a 'celebration banquet,'" she said. "Courtesy of the gods, as thanks for our role in defeating Gaea and her giants."

"Oh, how generous of them," he muttered sarcastically. "So they are good for something after all?"

She nodded again. "Demeter materialized some awesome baked goods—her cake tastes better than ambrosia."

Leo snorted, but he couldn't hide the fact that he was practically drooling. "Cake," he breathed. "I'd kill another giant to get my hands on a piece of that cake—if I could lift my hands to get that cake to my mouth, that is." He looked at her enticingly. "Will you please get me some cake, mi reina, mi reina favorita—"

He cut off abruptly when he saw Reyna's face. It was full of emotions that he couldn't quite read, but there were definitely a lot of them, and he didn't know what to do about that. All he had done was call her su reina . . . but he'd done that plenty of times already. Why was it affecting her so much now? Unless . . .

No. He shoved that thought out of his head. He had to stop thinking about her like that—like Reyna and Leo was even a remote possibility. She'd saved his life, but that didn't mean anything. She saved a bunch of people's lives. And if she'd been especially determined to make sure he was all right . . . well, that was only natural. He'd saved her life too, after all. She probably just hadn't wanted to owe him anything.

But it was so hard not to think about the possibility of Reyna and Leo whenever they were together. Because she was smart, and strong, and fearless, and incredibly badass, and unbelievably beautiful, and sometimes she even had a sense of humor, and making her laugh felt like a victory as impressive as defeating Gaea, and—and she was so far out of his league that thinking this way was as painful as getting his arm broken all over again. Only worse—because this time the pain dug straight into his heart.

At that thought, Leo set his jaw and steeled himself to face her anger and rejection. He was tired of skirting around the everything that they needed to talk about. At this point, confirming that she wasn't interested would be less painful than dreaming hopelessly. Then his heart would be broken once and for all, rather than getting stabbed relentlessly with impossible possibilities.

It was time to broach the topic of everything. Leo took a deep breath and blurted out, "You know, everything's been happening so fast since I got here—you know, to Athens—that I haven't really, you know . . ." He gulped. "I haven't gotten a chance to, uh, thank you."

Reyna frowned, obviously taken aback by the sudden subject change. "What? Why would you need to thank me?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "Are you thanking me for saving your camp? Come on, Leo, you don't have to thank me for that. You know there was no way in hell I was going to let Camp Jupiter attack you guys when you did nothing wrong—"

"I'm not talking about that," Leo said, flushing deep red. "Although I'm glad as Hades that you did that too. No, I, uh . . . I just realized I never thanked you for, you know, earlier. That was . . . really smart of you."

"What are you talking about?"

Reyna looked genuinely confused, and that hurt Leo more than any rejection could. She didn't even think her . . . her declaration was worth discussing? It was that unmemorable? It was that shallow and obviously fake?

The smile on Leo's face grew hard, carefully frozen into place. "You know what I mean," he insisted. Don't make this harder than it already is, mi reina. "Pretending that . . . that you were in love with me, so Gaea wouldn't kill me right away?"

He looked at her shakily. "That was really smart of you. You saved my life, Reyna."

Reyna's heart stopped for a beat or two. "You . . . you heard that?" she whispered.

That possibility had never even entered her mind. She'd been so sure he was unconscious. It was the only reason that she'd been brave enough to confess something so insanely personal, and to find out that he'd heard the entire thing . . .

She couldn't look at him—she couldn't—but she heard his voice crack as he said, "Yeah . . . but you don't have to worry about it. I mean, I'm grateful, obviously—I'd be dead without you—but . . . I know you just said it to save my life. Like I said . . . it was really smart of you."

Reyna's thoughts spiraled wildly, knocking together in disarray. Part of her—the part that had faced more Styx in her childhood than anyone should have to deal with, and the part that didn't distribute trust lightly after being left to lead the legion by herself twice in the space of a year—whispered that this was the perfect opportunity to back off. He wasn't expecting anything of her. He didn't think her words had meant anything. She could save herself the pain and lock all of her emotions into a container the size of her heart before they could spin out of control and destroy her. That was the sensible thing to do—to shut him down now and act like Leo Valdez had never affected her.

But then she made the mistake of looking at him, and the pain she glimpsed in his eyes cut her more deeply than the gryphons' attacks had earlier in the day. "Reina?" he said anxiously when she just stared at him, not knowing how to respond. "You know I'm serious, right? You really don't have to worry about it. I know it didn't mean anything, I know you were just returning a favor, and . . ."

He kept rambling, but Reyna lost track of his spiel. All she could think about was her initial reaction to learning that he'd been captured. She hadn't even thought of hesitating to run after him and bring him back to his home. It had seemed like her only reasonable course of action.

I'm not going to just leave him down there! she'd told Nyssa. You didn't see what it's like. You don't know what he's going through right now. I have to go get him, and I have to bring him home, and I have to make sure the godsdamned idiot is okay because my gods after everything he's done I owe him at least that much!

Reyna remembered how hard it had been to fight back tears that night, and how hard it had been for Nyssa to talk her out of doing something rash, ridiculous, irresponsible, and potentially suicidal . . . and she smiled. Because how crazy would she have to be to think that ignoring emotions like those would make them go away? Nothing she did could help her pretend that Leo Valdez had never affected her. He made her feel like nobody else could, and there was nothing she could do to remedy that.

Besides, she didn't think that she wanted to anyway.

"Reina?" he said, breaking into her thoughts. "Reina, are you going to say anything? I'm kind of doing a lot of the talking right now. A response would be nice . . ."

Reyna couldn't stand listening to his broken voice any longer. Before she could think about how absolutely insane she was being, she flung herself off her folding chair—the stupid thing wasn't comfortable anyways—and threw her arms around him.

"Don't be ridiculous, Leo," she breathed. "Tu eres mi chico de fuego. How many times have I told you that? Did you really think it didn't mean anything?"

He gaped at her. "But then . . ."

"Damn it, Valdez," she said, halfway between a laugh and a sob, "what I did this morning wasn't an act. I hadn't planned it out. I just saw you lying there, you stupid stupid loyal idiot, and I couldn't let Gaea kill you, and I just . . . I just blurted out the only thing that I thought could possibly protect you. The truth."

She saw hope slowly grow in his shattered eyes, as much as he tried to dampen it. "So you're saying . . . ?"

"Yes, yes, you stupid repair boy," Reyna said, leaning back from him a little. "Gods, I don't know how I managed to fall in love with such a ridiculously idiotic—"

Before she could even finish her sentence, Leo pulled his good arm out from his sling, wrapped it around her back, and yanked her down towards him. Reyna's brain function deserted her. When their lips met, she had no idea what she was supposed to do next.

Luckily, Leo didn't seem to know either. He dropped back onto his pillow pretty quickly, blushing and not quite meeting her eyes. He coughed awkwardly. "Sorry about that."

Reyna sighed and tilted her head further downward, forcing him to look at her. "Stop apologizing," she murmured.

At that, he grinned suddenly—and it was like his standard-Valdez-smirk had turned a thousand times brighter in the last two seconds. "Sorry."

Just like that, any lingering tension between them dissolved. "You're hopeless," she informed him, not bothering to hold back her smile.

"I am hopeless," he agreed, still grinning infuriatingly. "I'm hopeless, and I'm ridiculously idiotic, and I'm a stupid repair boy, and I don't care at all porque soy también tu chico de fuego, and I'm fine with being all those things—good and bad—if it means I'm allowed to kiss you again."

He raised an eyebrow at her in a silent question. And when she didn't protest, his eyes lit up like one of his blazing fires. And he kissed her again.

So I'm sure RR wrote that final battle much better than I did . . . but oh well, I wrote it! And hopefully you guys enjoyed it! I feel like it's slightly anticlimactic . . . but that seemed realistic to me, since most wars end anticlimactically, with people too exhausted and pained and grieving and relieved to be celebrating. And hopefully this was still exciting enough (especially because of the Leyna ;)).

In other news, THE LAST CHAPTER should be coming soon! Get ready for the epilogue and the end of this monstrous story. :')

And tell me what you thought of this ridiculously long update!