(A/N: GUYS! IT'S THE LAST CHAPTER FROM HOUSE OF HADES ARE YOU EXCITED I'M SO EXCITED!
*ahem*
Anyway, thank you once again to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited or followed this story, you guys are actually amazing readers!
It doesn't go back to the 'real time' immediately after this chapter but it'll get there. Be patient please, lovely readers. It'll get there, I promise.
Thanks for reading!
Shy )
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
The first time Leo landed in Malta, he was tired, weakened and had managed a fantastic tan, even for him. He was also driving himself out of his mind thinking about a certain dark eyed goddess who had kicked him off her island after all.
The raft had proved safe-ish, its magic functioning to some extent. Several times Leo tried to plug in directions to the east or north but the raft's will was stronger than the Archimedes sphere and it simply sailed along, uninhibited by the winds or currents.
No food or water appeared to him, which he thought was strange for a magical raft that was meant to take care of him. Leo realised the irony that his project which had taken so long and so much effort was all but useless but the supplies Calypso had gathered in an afternoon and the canvas sail she'd woven for him were what kept him going.
It was around half a day of sailing, during which Leo had to steady the raft with the rigging a few times when it rocked dangerously or seemed ready to crash into debris and ocean flotsam. He remembered what Calypso had said about the magic being unstable. The raft worked, Leo began to realise. But it worked like someone had fed it six shots of Mr D.'s cranberry vodka mixes (the ones he wasn't allowed to drink) before letting it loose on the open seas.
Keeping his eyes out for land and trying to keep the boat together took most of his energy, particularly when the raft began to flail, slowing down and speeding up just as the sun began to blossom on the horizon. It chased the night sky away, replacing it was a blazing hot daylight that pounded down against his skin. Leo accessed the sphere's power and managed to create a kind of motor that kept the raft's power going until it finally reached its destination.
The island appeared as a kind of glowing speck on the horizon and at first, he worried that he'd found the second unchartered island in the world. But as it grew bigger, Leo realised the island was made tall by seawalls at least sixty feet tall with a bursting city on top. Churches with domes and pointed spires, long buildings of golden-coloured stone were all tightly packed together above the harbour.
When he finally made it to the docks, Leo guzzled the last of the water and set to trying to guide his tiny raft towards the longest jetty, amongst fishing boats and expensive looking yachts. His raft scratched the side of one particularly shiny white boat though Leo made sure to pull in as far away from it as possible, sticking as far out as he dared. The Argo II would see it and know he was there. He hoped. At this point, it was anyone's guess.
His muscles trembling from having to forcibly steer the raft in, Leo grabbed one of several spare coils of rope and tied off the ship with a knot that looked like a three year old had done their best to tangle the rope as much as possible. He didn't particularly care, Leo decided, disconnecting the Archimedes Sphere and taking one of the supply bags with him. It wasn't like the raft was going to get him home.
As he pulled himself onto the wooden jetty, an old man in some kind of uniform appeared with an irate expression. "Tieqaf! Inti ma tistax tħalli dgħajsa tiegħek hawn mingħajr ma tħallas!" he grunted, angrily.
Leo held up his hands, clueless as to what the man wanted and more tired than he'd been in a while. "English dude?" he asked, blankly. "Seriously, you don't even wanna know the day I've had."
The man's moustache twitched. "Not free! No leaving boats without payment!" he said in heavily accented but overall, pretty good English.
Leo scratched his head and glanced down at the extra coil of rope in the supply bags. He heaved it out and handed it over for inspection. The old man checked it over and tested the strength, his eyes registering surprise and pleasure. "This will do." He said, simply.
The sun growing hotter as the morning passed, Leo looked up towards the city walls which had a good view of the sea. "Anywhere up there I can hang out for a while?" he asked, squinting up at the umbrellas perched along the walls for cafes.
The old man peeked into Leo's bag, watching the fresh fruit, flask of grape juice and fluffy bread with interest. "Come with me." He ordered, jerking his toward the entrance to the city. "For that, I will show you best coffee in Valletta!"
The old man introduced himself as Yannick and for the remainder of Leo's supplies, handed him forty euros and a free ride up to the top of the city walls. He gestured to one of the outside cafes with bright red umbrellas over the tables with a crooked finger. "Best place for coffee!" he insisted as Leo said goodbye and asked for a table.
The waitress and baristas spoke fantastic English mixed with some of that native Maltese he'd heard Yannick speak in so Leo dutifully ordered a cup of plain coffee and sat out on the nearest table overlooking the harbour, knowing that he'd eventually have to find a phone or use the Archimedes sphere to alert the Argo II.
But first, he had to rest, his muscles tense and face hot from the trip. He leaned back in the chair, feeling like he should be working or doing something but with an utter lack of energy to do so. It was almost disturbing; at least, he would've been if his attention hadn't been consumed with other things. He sipped at the coffee but he couldn't taste it. Usually caffeine would've sent his ADHD through the roof and made him extra fidgety but Leo's thoughts were too focused on the memory of Calypso's face when she pushed him onto the raft.
"That didn't happen."
"Okay."
"Get out of here."
"Okay."
To anyone else, it seemed kind of harsh and mean. But all Leo could think about was the utter defeat in her eyes and the tension in her voice as she held in tears. She didn't think he was coming back. She really, honestly believed she'd never see him again.
He drank more coffee and watched the harbour, feeling out of place among all the people in the café. He'd only spent what? A week? Two on Ogygia? How could it have felt so long? Time doesn't flow the same way here, she'd told him with scorn in her voice. It will pass differently than the outside world. Leo could hardly believe he missed her snarky little remarks and the smug little smirk she would send him when she was proven right.
And she'd kissed him. Kissed him. His first kiss and it was from a trapped goddess on a phantom island who he may or may not have fallen a little in love with during his stay. Because honestly, how could he not have? She was perfect in all the ways gods typically were and imperfect in all the ways he liked.
Leo sighed, an unfamiliar weight, he instinctively knew was the Stygian oath he'd sworn, settling on his shoulders. She liked him back. Loved him even. She must have, to make the raft appear. At the same time, there was an entire world to save and his friends to rescue from Tartarus and a crazy earth psycho to rebury and so many things that needed to happen before he could find her again and even then, he had what? A rusty astrolabe and a piece of clear crystal to help him.
But gods help him, he missed her so badly that he even ordered another round of coffee without even thinking about it.
At that point, Leo realised he was in rough shape.
The morning passed and he felt a little less weary that by the time the Argo II appeared about half a mile from the island as if from nowhere, Leo mustered a smile that his friends were at least safe from the ice-crazy goddess Khione. He could see Festus' bronze head on the prow, proud and glowing in the afternoon sun and the figures of his friends appearing on deck as the ship slowly moved into the bay.
Leo from two weeks ago wouldn't be waiting around while his ship was in sight. He would've been pacing the docks and launching himself at the hull the second it came close enough. It probably would've been a pretty spectacular reunion- praises, promises never to part and interrogation as to how his friends had been treating his baby in the time he was away, would be involved.
Instead Post-Ogygia Leo was dreading having to explain to his friends why he looked like someone had run over his puppy. Post-Ogygia Leo stayed where he was, trying to pull some kind of composure together as he watched his friends disembark and begin the trek up to the city walls.
"Pull it together, Valdez." He ordered himself in a mumble. "They can't know about her." Leo couldn't tell them about Calypso, not yet. He was still having trouble believing the whole thing was real himself.
When they eventually found him, Piper was the first to reach him, bulldozing into him with a tight hug. "Leo! Gods, where have you been?" she exclaimed with a beautiful bright smile.
Coach Hedge was next, his grin swapping to a deep scowl. "Valdez! You ever disappear like that again, you little punk, I'll knock you into next month!" he growled in his own special way.
Nico shook his hand with a half-smile and Frank slapped him hard on the shoulder, looking pleased to see the demigod alive and in one piece. Leo realised they had no idea if he'd survived or not, even though he'd been confident that with four other demigods besides Jason and Piper, there was no way Khione could've utterly destroyed the Argo II and his friends. The relief was evident in their smiles and relaxed shoulders.
"We thought you were dead!" Hazel said, kissing him on the cheek with a smile he would've blushed at before. Before Calypso, Ogygia and two of the most confusing, amazing weeks of his life. Now, it felt much the same way it had with Piper, like a sister or a really good friend.
He tried to force a smile to match their relief. "Hey guys. Nah, nah, I'm good."
He couldn't quite meet any of their gazes and when he caught Jason's thoughtful look out of the corner of his eye, Leo realised his composure wasn't exactly air tight. The others made themselves at home at his table, Jason taking the seat immediately to his right. They grinned at each other, expressions of happiness and relief although Jason began to look curious.
"Hey man, what happened?" he asked in an undertone.
Jason was his best friend. There were few people in the world he trusted more than the blonde Superman-demigod son of Jupiter and if he were to tell anyone about Calypso (about the island, about the crater, about how she'd screamed at him, cursed him, about how he'd thought she was a pain in the neck, entitled bratty goddess the first time they met, about her garden, about how she made him laugh, about how she'd kissed him like it was the first and last time, how it had been hours and he still missed her so badly), it would be him. But he couldn't bring it up here, Leo tried to convey with a glance around the group. He couldn't explain it all to his friends, his allies, and have them look at him with sympathetic, sad expressions: Stupid Leo Valdez who falls for any girl who looks at him. Stupid Leo who is going to be the seventh wheel until the end of freaking time.
"I got marooned. Long story." He said, casually with a shrug. "How about you guys? What happened with Khione?"
Coach Hedge burst into a retelling of the conflict, starring Piper as a badass kung fu queen who singlehandedly annihilated the army of Boreads from the Argo II. Piper herself looked embarrassed and cut in several times to correct the satyr.
"Coach! It didn't happen like that at all!" she finally interrupted, exasperated. "I couldn't have done anything without Festus."
The name of his favourite flying monstrosity caught his attention. "But Festus was deactivated."
Piper looked sheepish. "Um, about that. I sort of woke him up." She continued, explaining how her crazy Beauty Queen mind control voice had permanently rebooted the dragon.
"Shouldn't be possible…" But the idea caught his attention without meaning to as Leo began to realise the possibilities of a rebooted Festus. "Unless the upgrades let him respond to voice commands. But if he's permanently activated, that means the navigation system and the crystal…"
The crystal's magnetic properties, which he'd noticed on Ogygia when fixing Calypso's curtain rod, could be amplified by a rebooted Festus. And the astrolabe could be installed in the dragon's navigation system once he was fixed. Maybe.
Excitement flickered to his fingertips as easily as flames could. The crystal could work-
"Crystal?" Jason echoed and Leo flinched, jolted out of his thought process.
"Um nothing." He covered, quickly. "Anyway, what happened after the wind bomb went off?"
Hazel took over while the waitress appeared to go over their orders. Leo paid for the sodas and club sandwiches which tasted phenomenal on the warm day. Frank began to fidget with a pamphlet shoved beneath the napkin dispenser while his girlfriend explained how Piper kicked Khione the White Witch's butt back to Narnia with less martial arts but no less praise for her friend's heroism. Piper herself kept touching Leo's arm, smiling happily that he was back and Nico stood guard, studying the tourists for any hint of monstrous attributes.
He tried to focus on the conversation but his thoughts were caught up in the idea of Festus and the crystal, which still sat in the pocket of his army jacket close to his heart. He remembered how Hazel had kept Frank's piece of tinder in the same place on her jacket and began to realise just how much trust there must be between the couple for her to take on something so important.
As it was, Leo couldn't imagine giving the crystal over to anyone else. It was his way back to Ogygia, his chance to return where no hero had ever returned before. His oath bore down on him even now, an ever-present weight across his shoulders and the crystal seemed to hum in response.
He could tell his mood was bringing the team down so when Hazel mentioned the venti horses Jason used to travel to Malta, Leo couldn't resist a whistle. "Hot-air horses? Dang, Jason. So basically, you held a bunch of gas together all the way to Malta and then you let it loose."
Everyone cracked a smile except for Jason who sent him a suffering frown. "You know, it doesn't sound so heroic when you put it that way."
"Yeah, well. I'm an expert on hot-air. I'm still wondering, why Malta?" it was the one question he'd had about the raft and its tenacious choice of destination. "I just kind of ended up here on a raft, but was that a random thing or-"
"Maybe because of this." Frank laid down the pamphlet and tapped on a cartoon picture of a pretty Greek maiden crying tears as a boat sailed away in the distance. "Says here Malta was where Calypso lived."
The words made his hands twitch and he felt pale all of a sudden. "W-what now?" Calypso lived here? Here in Malta? Ogygia was close? The urge to search the horizon was strong even though he knew logically it wouldn't make a difference.
The Roman shrugged. "According to this, her original home was an island called Gozo-" Ogygia, Leo wanted to snap. It's called Ogygia. "-just north of here. Calypso's a Greek myth thingie right?"
Sure, he added snarkily in his head. Sure, she's just a myth thingie. She's also a gardener, she likes weaving, she wears torn jeans and has a voice that brings things to life, does it mention that anywhere? She's completely unafraid of dirt and grime, she's trapped for a mistake she made before most of the world was even discovered and she's pretty much perfect except for when she's not, then she's just so amazing-
"…Do we get to fight her? 'Cause I'm ready." Coach Hedge was saying when Leo shut his internal commentary up.
The idea of fighting Calypso was so ridiculous and sad because not only could she probably kick his butt with her pinkie, but finding Ogygia was said to be impossible for one man, let alone six demigods and a bloodthirsty satyr. "No," Leo said, in a low voice, studying the tiny teardrops of the Greek maiden cartoon. "No, we don't have to fight her, Coach."
But I have to find her. After this, after all this is done, I have to find her. "Leo, what's wrong?" Piper asked, concerned. "You look-"
"Nothing's wrong!" he stood up, summoning back his energy forcibly. Sometimes the only way to be better was to pretend until you believed the lie. "Hey, we should get going. We've got work to do!"
Hazel didn't look convinced. "But…where did you go? Where did you get those clothes? How-"
"Jeez, ladies! I appreciate the concern but I don't need two extra moms!" he teased, jubilantly.
Beauty Queen gave a hesitant smile. "Okay but-"
"Ships to fix! Festus to check!" Leo listed, cheerfully. "Earth goddesses to punch in the face! What are we waiting for? Leo's back!" he spread his arms out with a wide grin. Goddesses with pretty smiles to find.
Thankfully, Jason slapped his shoulder in agreement. "Leo's right. We should get going."
Not even a moment after Frank swallowed the last of his sandwich, Hazel gasped, staring off to the horizon. "Guys…"
Leo looked but nothing appeared out of ordinary to him. Coach Hedge and Piper seemed to agree with him although Nico and Jason looked wary.
"That can't be…Greece is still hundreds of miles away." Nico muttered, cautiously.
"You think it's Epirus?" Jason asked him, brow furrowed with suspicion.
"The House of Hades is open for business." Nico nodded, grimly. Leo wasn't an expert on doom, gloom or the underworld but he was going to take a stab in the dark that the House of Hades being 'open for business' was not a good thing.
"It's begun." Hazel murmured after a rumble of thunder echoed out over the water, drawing odd looks from the tourists enjoying the sunny, cloudless day.
"What has?" Leo asked, warily.
"Gaea's final push. The Doors of Death are working overtime." She explained, looking solemn herself. "Her forces are entering the mortal world, en masse."
"Well never make it." Nico stated with a scowl. "By the time we arrive, there'll be too many monsters to fight."
"We'll defeat them. And we'll make it there fast. We've got Leo back. He'll give us the speed we need." Jason stated, his voice low but firm. A leader's voice. A leader's words. With a quick glance to Leo, he cracked a small smirk. "Or is that just hot air?"
Leo's mouth split into a crooked grin, a rush of energy filling him from head to toe. If the Doors of Death needed to be shut, then they would shut them. Percy and Annabeth would get out of Tartarus. Leo would see the end of Gaea's awakening. He would set things right alongside his friends, finish out this quest and when all was safe, he'd find Calypso again. He didn't forget what Gaea had said about destroying Ogygia. Calypso couldn't leave on her own so if Dirt Face woke up, she would be in just as much danger as Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter.
Leo's resolve hardened. He refused to be Odysseus, an old man making a half-finished astrolabe in Ithaca, muttering in his sleep. His tenacity dug its heels in and refused to budge on the matter. Gaea would be sent back to her mattress to sleep away another few eternities. And Calypso would never be his 'biggest what-if'.
"Time to fly boys and girls," he said, cheerfully with a wide grin. "Uncle Leo's still got a few tricks up his sleeves!"
(A/N: Yes, yes he does.
Tieqaf! Inti ma tistax tħalli dgħajsa tiegħek hawn mingħajr ma tħallas!
Maltese for Stop! You cannot leave your boat here without paying!
However, I have it on so and so authority that the Maltese speak excellent English, so let's run with it okay?
Alrighty, guest review time ladies and gentlemen!
Fluff-is-awesome: Alright, I know you're not a guest reviewer but you keep leaving these wonderful reviews and I CAN'T PM YOU BACK SO HERE IT IS: Thankyouthankyouthankyou you amazing reader! I'm so glad you like the amount of detail and depth to the character, I always worry it's too much or too little but hearing that my chapters and dialogue have substance is like the greatest compliment a fanfic author can hear! Now, as for the Caleo fandom, I draw a lot of inspiration from the fanmixes, fanart and headcannons which are swarming all over the internet and I'm so, so, so glad I can contribute to it and that people can enjoy it! Also, fake canon? Man you are the BEST. As for ruining it, cross your fingers, from here on out I start making up things. THANK YOU FOR READING, WONDERFUL READER! P.S. She's totally trying not to and she's totally failing, poor lucky girl.
Z: Love, the Fates, curses- all fickle and occasionally marked for tragedy. And also, calm yourself friend, happy endings are the only endings I want to write. Promise. Maybe. No seriously, promise. Thank you for reading and I hope you liked chapter fifteen too!
Tara Luna Apple: BRING FORTH THE TISSUES! I'm sorry I made you cry friend, I promise it gets better…eventually. Just a little sad bit for a little longer. I hope. THANKS FOR READING! Hope you liked chapter fifteen :D
Winonabcd: Hello again! Don't worry, it's enough that you read them, taking a second to review is just extra-wonderful! IMEXCITEDBECAUSENOWWEGETTODEVIATE! Hope you enjoyed chapter fifteen!
THANKS FOR READING EVERYONE, YOU'RE LOVELY ALL OF YOU! Next update is on FRIDAY and begins to deviate JUST A LITTLE. To test the waters, so to speak. Happy Monday!