Enjoy!

Frank

Frank was in shock. He'd heard that Leo had sort of resented Percy for a bit about Calypso, but… that was just… wow. And then Percy had yelled about Leo's mother… Frank hadn't even liked Leo all that much, but seeing the genuine hurt on Leo's face had been painful for the shape-shifter as well. Anyway, speaking of Percy, Frank thought he looked terrible. And that wasn't even a comment on Percy's facial features.

"Oh gods, what have I done… holy Poseidon!" Percy's expression was drawn taut and he muttered to himself in low tones as he paced in tight circles around the training room. Frank winced; wasn't Percy getting dizzy? "What the hell have I done? I gotta apologize…" There was some incomprehensible mummers that Frank wasn't sure he wanted to hear, and then Percy cursed a final time. "...damn it!" With a sudden roar of anger, Percy punched the wall, leaving behind a small but noticeable dent. Frank cringed. That must have hurt, though Percy showed no visible signs of that. He merely stopped pacing and examined his hand coolly, almost detachedly.

"Percy?" Frank asked Percy tentatively. He'd never seen the older demigod like this before, not even on the quest to save the entire world. "Uh, are you okay?"

"No! I'm not okay! I probably just caused Leo to have a breakdown!" snapped Percy, resuming his pacing, now looking almost maniacal. Piper and Annabeth shot alarmed glances at each other, and had a silent conversation with their eyes that Frank could neither make head nor tail of. Must be a girl thing... Apparently the eyeball conversation produced adequate results, as Annabeth nodded in a satisfied way, though she still looked slightly wary of Percy, who thankfully didn't notice.

Piper nodded back at the blond demigod. "Percy?" she asked. When he didn't respond, she asked again, more forcefully. Frank had to admire her bravery; he wasn't sure what exactly Percy was capable of right now. He was one of the most powerful demigods, and the power of the sea was controlled mainly by emotions... Then he saw the slight, almost unnoticeable, tension in Piper's shoulders, which were almost completely covered by Jason's arm. I wonder if Percy knows how scary he is right now… wondered Frank.

"What?" growled the demigod in question. His voice was loud, snapping, and wrathful. Wrathful at who, Frank couldn't be sure. However, seeing the hurt look on Piper's face, Percy relented slightly, pausing in his pacing. "Sorry, I don't know what's gotten into me…" Percy trailed off, an anguished expression crossing his features. "Gods…"

"Why don't you go to your cabin and relax or something? You're probably very tired right now," Piper stressed "tired", charmspeak creeping into her voice. Her charmspeak was so powerful that Frank had to actually struggle to not head out for his cabin to take a nap. With difficulty, Frank watched as Percy nodded mutely and strode out of the training room, now rubbing his temple wearily. Annabeth watched him leave sadly. Frank saw, out of the corner of his eye, that she held out an arm as if to stop her boyfriend, but then dropped it again.

Just then, a very worn-out and stressed Hazel came back in, providing a welcome distraction. Frank put his arm around her shoulders, and raised an eyebrow at her. Hazel sighed, and Frank realized with a start that her eyes were red-rimmed. "He locked himself in the engine room. And h-he's…" he voice broke. "It sounds like he's destroying everything in there. And I think he's crying, too." A somber silence greeted this news. Frank couldn't believe his ears. The cheerful, happy-go-lucky Latino Santa's elf destroying the engine room of the Argo II, his pride and joy, and even worse—crying?! Frank hadn't realized that Leo had been so badly wounded (mentally), and he suddenly felt a rare rush of compassion for the son of Hephaestus. (That was a first.)

Suddenly, Jason yelled out, breaking the silence, his anguish filling the room like a thick cloud of fog that couldn't be seen through. Frank hadn't even realized that Jason was there, that was how quiet he was.

"DAMN YOU! WHOEVER YOU ARE, YOU'RE A SADISTIC MANIAC, YOU — — —!" A long, continuing string of cuss words that would even make Arion wince followed the outburst. Every syllable was punctuated with a sob. Jason sank down against the nearest wall and stared blankly into space, all his energy used on his explosion. Frank pretended not to notice him blinking away tears, and let Piper handle it. That was all he could do. He felt helpless, but he had to stay strong.

"Jason—Jason! Please calm down! We need you! Please!" Piper begged, sliding down against the wall so she was next to Jason again, and hugging him. Frank felt Hazel trembling besides him, and pulled her closer, stroking her hair absentmindedly. Nico, the silent son of Hades, was absentmindedly fingering his Stygian iron sword, though not in a warlike way. Just... thoughtfully. Frank didn't see that Nico was actually fighting an internal battle—follow Percy or not? (Staying won.) Meanwhile, Annabeth's steely gray eyes seemed to be calculating something as usual, though Frank noted that her body language showed she was hurting inside. Ever since Frank had become the praetor of the Twelfth Legion, he'd started noticing those things more often. (It really helped with Senate meetings, when everyone was arguing over each other.) At that moment, Annabeth cleared her throat.

"Let's move somewhere else. The dining room, maybe? W-we shouldn't stay here." There was no arguing with her, not that any of the demigods wanted to. Frank actually had had pretty good memories practicing sparring in this very room on the real Argo II, but now? Those memories were nothing. Nil. Nada. Null. Negated. The six demigods still left in the training room nodded and left the room behind. Unfortunately, the memories of what had occurred remained.

"So," began Annabeth when everyone was seated at the dining room table. (Frank and Nico sat on either side of Hazel, and on the other side of the table, Jason and Annabeth did the same with Piper, respectively. For the first time, Frank noticed how lost Annabeth looked without Percy there next to her.) "First thing is—"

Jason interrupted. "I want to know who the sadistic voice belongs to so that I can throttle them for hurting Leo and Percy." The cold tone he took was, if possible, even scarier than Percy and Leo's "duel". Frank couldn't help but shiver slightly in his seat. Jason wasn't anybody to be toyed with. He was the son of the most powerful god, and the one-time leader of not one camp, but both. Frank half-expected one of the girls to protest, but no one did. That was a mark of just how bad the situation was, that even Hazel didn't argue. Speaking of Hazel… Frank gave her hand a squeeze from under the table. He saw that Nico was doing the same on the other side of Hazel. Frank gave Nico a small smile, which the son of Hades returned hesitantly.

"Those white glows…" Piper mused softly. "They reminded me of something, like those eidolons at the beginning of our quest." Frank nodded. Suddenly, a puzzle piece had fallen into place, and everything clicked.

"But the eidolons possessed people. These glows—auras—whatever—they… well, I don't know how to explain it, exactly, but they just influenced Leo and Percy," Frank furrowed his brow, and continued upon seeing that everyone was listening intently to him. "Like, I know Leo used to be angry at Percy about Calypso. The auras just brought out those feelings. Does that make sense?"

Everyone nodded, but Hazel spoke up. "That just makes it even worse when they started fighting, doesn't it?" Frank looked down, because Hazel was absolutely right.

Annabeth tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear, trying to change the subject. "So… these auras bring out anger?"

Nico communicated for the first time, his voice barely more than a whisper, "I've seen those glows before."

Next to Frank, Hazel suddenly sucked in her breath. "Oh gods, Nico, are you sure you want to..?"

"I need to, Hazel," Nico stated flatly, resigned. Frank leaned forward in anticipation. Where could Nico have seen the glows, and why did Hazel have such a reaction to him saying that? Glancing around at the four other curious demigods (Jason was scratching his head), the son of Hades sighed heavily. "I saw them when I was in… when I was in Tartarus." Oh, gods... Frank saw Annabeth's breathing grow shallower, and she replied softly.

"I remember them too, now. They were surrounding some of the older spirits. I didn't really pay much attention to them, but some spirits was angry; some were just insane. I think they're in the Fields of Punishment, too." Nico nodded in agreement with the daughter of Athena, absentmindedly brushing his fingers against his dark hair.

"But then the question is, what do the auras do, exactly?" Piper piped up, her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Frank thought of the events of earlier. Leo and Percy had been angry with each other... almost murderous. They definitely hadn't been in their right minds, that was for sure. But that begged the question: what mind were they in?

Frank spoke again, not entirely sure of his theory. "Based on what Leo and Percy did under the auras' influences... I think the auras take pent-up anger or rage and force it out, or something of that sort." Gods, I sound like Mars now, thought Frank. Maybe that was a good thing, in this case.

Annabeth's eyes grew wider, and she stood up without even seeming to realize it. Her grey eyes sparkled, not with humor or wit, but with dawning comprehension. "But then… I know this! Then the voice belongs to…"

A sudden voice made everyone jump.

"Lyssa. I am Lyssa, goddess of rage, madness— and not to mention fury! You Romans might know me as Furor. And those 'auras', as you call them, are my Furores, my spirits, who influence the victim, whether it be to madness or simply rage." The voice wasn't unfamiliar, yet it still sent chills down Frank's spine. It was almost even worse that Gaea's voice. He couldn't tell whether it was male or female. Then again, if it was some sort of god, which was more than likely... voices were probably nothing to disguise.

"Honestly, you ought to call yourselves lucky that I didn't decide to do the madness treatment on you! Actually, that's an idea!" An eight-foot tall shadowy figure that was hard to make out suddenly materialized, and Frank pushed away his chair in his haste to stand up. The figure radiated insanity and raging madness. The smoky designs within the shadow swirled around mystically, although not alluringly. Frank scrambled backwards, not even caring that he had knocked his chair down in order to get as far away as possible from the malicious goddess. A low chuckle could be heard, and several of the demigods flinched.

"I just came to wish you good luck for tomorrow." And Lyssa disappeared with a flash of white light, leaving the group dumbstruck.

Lyssa is the goddess and personification of rage, madness, and fury. She has a little army of spirits called Furores, named after her Roman form, Furor. My interpretation of her is just that— my interpretation. Greek mythology is up to anyone's interpretation, right?