This one is just slightly shorter than the last chapter.

Leo was overwhelmingly the favorite for a male character, so here he is. (Well, after Hazel, there he is.)

Hazel

The room was completely filled with white smoke at this point in the battle, and Hazel was finding it harder and harder to quickly defeat the monsters. Her sword arm was getting tired, and her energy was depleted to the point where she could barely summon more than a few scattered emeralds or rubes—forget about manipulating the Mist! Before, the demigods had been advancing upon the spirits, but now they were hard-pressed to even just hold their ground, as more and more of Lyssa's forces attacked unrelentingly.

Hazel advanced a step, unwilling to give up ground (classes at Camp Jupiter had taught her to never retreat in an enclosed space unless completely necessary), but a screaming manticore jumped in front of her with thin vapor trailing out of a stomach wound that must have been one of the others' doing. Hazel stabbed the monster and it disintegrated into smoke. One more down, about a million more to go… Hazel sighed an instinctively deflected a blow from a dagger from behind, spinning to face her attacker. Hazel was expecting a humanoid monster-Furor, since those were the only spirits she'd seen so far that could actually use a weapon with some degree of skill. And that blow would've almost certainly been fatal if administered with enough force. But the attacker wasn't a monster at all; it was a young girl, even younger than Hazel, who was already the youngest of the Seven. Hazel clumsily dropped into a defensive stance, staring at the little girl, who barely reached up to Hazel's shoulder in height.

Demigods and monsters… Nico said they were demigods and monsters… oh gods… demigods are Furores too… Hazel examined the little demigod from head to toe while still in a battle stance. She—Hazel still had trouble thinking of the innocent-looking little girl as a spirit or a Furor—had shoulder-length, wavy dark hair, and looked to be around eight or nine years old. Whether that was petite for her age, or tall, Hazel couldn't tell. Her eyes were a startling shade of green, and they were opened widely and inoffensively. She almost looked like a miniature Percy. Well, if Percy was a girl… Hazel smiled slightly at the thought and scanned the rest of the girl. She wasn't wearing armor; instead, she was dressed in a loose blue tunic with a belt around her waist. Her dagger ruined the picture. It was wicked-looking, with one edge finely and smoothly crafted with what had to have been painstaking care, but the other edge was jagged and serrated sharply. It might have once been gold or bronze, but now it was completely caked with dirt, dust, and dark reddish-brown splotches that looked suspiciously like blood.

"Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto. Why are you resisting us? My patron wishes only to help you," the girl said sweetly. Her voice… it was so smooth, like the clean edge of her dagger. Hazel, snap out of it!

"No! I won't join you," Hazel growled forcefully. She's a Furor, not a demigod… But still, the girl's innocent demeanor haunted Hazel. "Why would you join your so-called 'patron'?"

"I was hunted, persecuted, because they said I was a witch. I'm not, but you are, aren't you, witch girl?!" Hazel gulped. How could the girl know about what people called her back then? The girl continued. "They hung me, because I was different. Just because I could make grapes grow. They made me suffer, so now I'll make you suffer."

Before Hazel could process that, the girl moved with astonishing speed, aiming the tip of her dagger at Hazel's heart. A primal scream of rage sounded from somewhere behind Hazel, and everything after that seemed to move in slow motion, frame by frame. A dark blur of gray fur—a wolf! The wolf ran at the girl, growling. The dagger spun in the air, thrown by the Furor, catching the morning light—it was morning already, or maybe mid-morning, judging by the sun's brilliance. The dagger rotated slowly, then dropped, twisting and turning in the smoke-filled air, the tip of it pointing at Hazel. The blur of fur saved her again, jumping up gracefully and smacking the dagger out of its original course, and into a new one. Paralyzed, Hazel watched as the dagger plunged directly into the girl's heart.

And then time started again, and Hazel unfroze, ran to him, and hugged Frank tightly. He was, of course, the wolf that saved her. "Thank you," she whispered into his shoulder. "Thank you, Frank." He was always there for her, always there to help her. He saved her life! And so Hazel tried to put all of that into her words, her simple yet meaningful words. Thank you.

He stroked her hair, and for a moment they were alone, away from the fighting. It was just them, and only them. They ignored the smoky air between them, and kissed. "I'm sorry," he said huskily, pulling away, and Hazel could hear the catch in his voice, and the harshness of his breathing.

"You saved my life. There's nothing to be sorry for," Hazel replies softly, trying to convince herself as much as Frank. She was a Furor, she repeated in her mind over and over again, like a mantra. She—it—was a Furor. But the girl's words kept echoing in Hazel's mind. Witch girl… how did she know about my past life? They hung her because she had demigod powers… oh gods, it's so true… mortals do that and more…

"Holy Mars!" Frank yelled suddenly, his eyes widening comically. Hazel jerked back in surprise, yanked from her thoughts. "I got a rainbow going, and connected an Iris-message with camp! I left them hanging!"

Now that Hazel thought about it, there was only one window in the room, and it was small, to boot. There was no way all of the sunlight reflected on the girl's dagger could've been from that. She grabbed Frank's hand and sprinted to the light-filled corner of the room. Sure enough, there were anxious faces peering out of a spray of water that was coming out of an exposed, burst pipe.

Questions started flying at them, and Hazel took a deep breath. Then she started with the tale from the very beginning, while Frank guarded her from the Furores.

"We're somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and—" a thunderous roar cut her off.

"An Iris-message?! Wait—no, no!" Furor knocked Frank aside like a rag doll, glaring at Hazel. Then, suddenly, her form shifted, and she changed into her Greek form. "Wha—" Someone ran towards them, and suddenly tackled Lyssa.

Leo

Leo had done many stupid things in his life (lives?), but this definitely made the Top Ten list. (Honestly, it was kind of sad that he even had a list.) Killing a power-hungry primordial goddess by exploding into a fiery ball miles above the earth? Psh, that was too mainstream for him. Leo just had to run to the screaming, I'm-in-a-really-bad-mood-so-it-would-not-please-me-if-you-tackle-me goddess and tackle her. At this rate, Leo was going to end up dying. Again.

Lyssa swayed to one side, obviously unused to being on the receiving end of a NFL-worthy tackle. But then—she fell. On top of one scrawny Super-sized McShizzle, who, by the way, did not appreciate being a personal mattress to a maniacal goddess. Or any goddess, for that matter. Except Calypso… Calypso was hot… like him. I have fire powers… so I'm hot. Heh, that's funny, I need to use that later… why is everything black? Why does my head hurt? Ow…

"Not funny, Valdez!" someone called. Oh. He must have said that out loud. "Yeah, you did," the same person said. That was weird too. And why was there the sound of metal in the background? Was he at the camp's forges? No, there was no fire around, no heat except from somewhere across the room, where something that sounded suspiciously like a monster was growling. Hey, what's that noise? It almost sounded like Piper was trying to wake him up. Was he asleep? "Shut up, Repair Boy!" Yep, Piper. Suddenly, Leo's eyes flew open and he woke up. He was being dragged across something. The floor.

"What the Hades?" Leo muttered, catching whoever was dragging him by surprise. And then, of course, they dropped him. "Hey, ow! Watch the head!" he rubbed his head and felt not one, but two giant lumps (that was gonna hurt) and sat up. Leo nodded to Piper's apology. He grabbed her outstretched hand (it took a lot of effort to resist pulling her down with him) and stood up, scanning the room for what he missed while unconscious.

Lyssa was lying on the ground, unmoving, a dark shadow shoved to one side of the room like a broken toy. Did I knock her out? Leo wondered. Most of the Furores were gone as well, but a few remained. The smokiness of the air was a lot less too, which Leo was grateful for. Fighting monsters was hard enough, but fighting them while you could barely see a foot in front of your face was like… fighting Clarisse at Camp Half-Blood. Dangerous, and likely to get you killed. Annabeth, Frank, Hazel, and Nico were fighting them, and without their advantage of numbers, the spirits were losing badly. Jason and Percy were still fighting each other with a variety of (weird) tactics. As he watched, Leo saw Jason burn a hole in Percy's shirt with lightning. Percy responded by soaking Jason in the plumbing water (Leo was getting tired of fixing that thing!) and yelling something about Jason's mother. Shit, that's low… Jason flung back with an insult to something that Leo couldn't hear, but made Percy punch Jason in the face. Leo mentally groaned and could only watch as the two demigods continued sparring—considering how they were fighting, it was a miracle neither was dead. Yet. Nico's pessimism is catching, Leo reflected.

"What the hell did I do, Pipes?" Leo asked. "Did I actually knock out Lyssa?" he imagined what a great story that would be later, if they survived. And then Valdez tackled the evil goddess and single-handedly saved all of them! Yeah, right, that would totally happen. Piper yanked him back to reality.

"You knocked Lyssa unconscious, and yourself in the process," Piper looked like she was trying not to laugh. Leo gave her an A for effort, but an F for acting. "Her concentration on the Furores waned, so most of them dissolved right away. The others are fighting the rest of them, but before she fell, Lyssa managed to trap Percy and J-Jason in an invisible room thing so we can't stop them. Nico already tried, but I think Lyssa's the only one who can get them out of there… that, or she'll only let one of them out if the other's dead…" Piper's voice lost its humor. Leo squeezed her hand lightly, and she gave him a faint smile. Then he asked about the Iris-message, because, after all, that was why he'd tackled Lyssa in the first place—to keep the all-important message going. "Hazel told them who took us and where we are, but the connection cut after that," Leo nodded thoughtfully and reached into his tool belt, and pulled out the golden netting.

It was perfect timing—the remaining Furores got killed, and the demigods fighting them immediately headed for Leo and Piper, like moths to a flame. A flame! Hey, I'm a flame, so does that mean they're moths? I would pay money to see Percy's face if I called him a moth… crap. I hate ADHD sometimes. Percy… Leo instantly sobered.

The demigods all gathered around, looking the worse for wear. Frank had nasty scratches and cuts all over, Annabeth was sporting a large, hastily applied bandage on her head, Hazel had serious-looking burns on her arms, and Nico looked like he'd been though a meat processor. Leo wasn't even exaggerating on that. Nico was paler than usual, his arms were bloodstained, his sword arm hung limply at his side, and judging from the wince on his face, a bone was probably broken. Leo knew; he'd broken plenty himself. Piper was limping—why didn't I see that earlier? Leo himself was still feeling slightly woozy and unsteady, not to mention the cuts on his back from one of the monsters, a particularly vicious one. But he'd had worse. They were a bedraggled group, for sure. But it was the best they could do, so it would have to work.

"Okay, guys, we need to be ready when Lyssa wakes up. Someone needs to taunt her and get her back into her Roman form, 'cause this net, while awesome, can't capture a shadow," Leo paused for a breath, aware (uncomfortably) that everyone was watching him. Wait, since when had he been uncomfortable with people watching him? That was new. "Then, we capture Furor, force her to tell us how to free Percy and Jason, and…" Leo froze. The shadow formerly slumped on the ground, was rising. And judging by her narrowed eyes, Lyssa had heard everything.

"Really? You wish to capture me with that netting, and perhaps force me to free your two friends over there?" she laughed, a cold chuckle that made Leo's insides boil. "Actually I think that the net shall be a very useful cage for you pesky demigods! You plan was just pathetic, although I don't suppose I could expect any more from you, Valdez," Leo hated bullies. And essentially, Lyssa was just a very large bully, albeit a scary one. This is going to be the new #1 on my Top Ten list… Leo exchanged a glance with the other demigods, hoping they would catch on.

"I don't think so, lady!" he yelled, and clutching the golden net like a battering net, he charged straight at Lyssa, whooping like a maniac.

I'm laughing so hard at that image.

Update is on Wednesday or Thursday.