A/N: OMG GUYS WE'RE AT THE BEGINNING AGAIN! Anyone who needs a refresher course should double back to chapter FIVE okay?
Sorry this is late, just got back from a ballet concert (Peter Pan for anyone who's interested, it was actually phenomenal, Tinkerbell's feet barely touched the ground I swear) but here we are: UPDATE!
See? It was an ILLUSION guys, all is well, don't stress, this is a strict Caleo zone, promise.
Happy Friday and I'll see you on MONDAY!
Thanks for reading guys ;)
Shy x.)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The first time Leo set forth on a quest by himself, Chiron came to see him the night before with a solemn expression and cryptic advice that Leo was beginning to think centaurs were known for.
He was putting the finishing touches on Festus, making sure his supplies were packed in tightly with a load of food, rope, weapons and anything else Leo thought he might possibly need. His friends had left for the night, telling him that they would see him tomorrow to wish him well and he was alone in Bunker Nine with a cleaning rag and some Monster Repellent that Connor had given him from the camp store. He had his doubts about the concoction and its effectiveness but Tyson had started giving the dragon a wide berth since he applied the first layer so he figured it couldn't hurt.
"One more night buddy and then we're off." Leo muttered to the dragon who expelled steam from his nose in pleasure. "I know, I want to get going too. She's waiting for us."
The dragon automaton had spent most of his rebuild listening to Leo talk about Calypso when they were alone, about Ogygia, what it looked like, felt like, where he thought it might located. Leo knew Festus was a machine but since Piper had revived him with charmspeak, he seemed to be a little more…vibrant than previously. Leo was sure that his talk would help Festus find the phantom island.
The astrolabe had been tricky to rewire because it was custom built by a guy who had been long dead by the time GPS was invented but it came together nicely. Leo had shaved piece by piece off the crystal until it fit perfectly in the gap of the astrolabe. The white stone now pulsed with an eerie sort of glow and the device occasionally hummed like it was eager to set sail, so to speak.
Festus sent more steam out his nostrils and Leo nodded, absently. "I know. It was close there for a while, huh?"
The council had decreed that as they were indeed bound by their oath to Percy on the River Styx, Calypso would be released from her curse though they were vague about the when and how. When Hermes arrived, he'd been in full favour of letting Leo find Ogygia and bring Calypso back though Hera had pointed out that the curse magic was incredibly strong...
"We cannot simply unbind it for her." She stated, plainly. "It must be broken. The terms of her imprisonment have been interwoven over a long age."
"Broken how?" Leo had argued.
"By you." Hera replied, her steely eyes thoughtful. "If you find Ogygia, hero, then we will revisit the issue."
"I agree." Demeter supplied. "If he finds the island twice then he will have broken half the curse anyway."
"Only a god can send a hero to Ogygia, Demeter." Hephaestus had grumbled but Zeus seemed not to hear the words.
"Then it is done!" he boomed, electricity crackling through his beard. "Leo Valdez, if you can find the phantom island, we will release Calypso from Ogygia's curse."
"With a few conditions, of course." Hera added, mysteriously.
"Oh, this is much better than I thought!" Aphrodite sighed, dreamily. "A valiant quest to earn the lady's love! Oh yes, this will do quite well I think."
"Hang on a minute-" Leo began, hotly but Zeus clapped his hands and suddenly Leo was back in Bunker Nine, questions about Hera's stupid conditions still on the tip of his tongue.
The clip clop of hooves broke him out of his concentration. "He is quite a masterpiece." Chiron admired, studying Festus' still form. Leo had yet to connect head to body for the sole reason that he didn't want to lose the dragon and waste time looking for him in the woods. "You should be proud of yourself."
"When he makes the journey, I'll gloat for a week." Leo said. "I'll make one of those bumper stickers that say My Dragon Goes to Ogygia and Back! like a proud papa."
Chiron chuckled. "I'm sure you will. Leo, I must ask how you intend to land on Ogygia?"
Leo shrugged and gestured to the humming astrolabe and glowing crystal. "The crystal has a magnetic field that draws it to the island and Odysseus' astrolabe is designed to use that field to form directions that then allow Festus to organise into a flight path." He explained, basically.
The centaur nodded, thoughtfully. "It sounds quite steady."
"It is." Leo admitted, proudly. I'm hearing a but…
"But Ogygia is encased in godly magic." Chiron said, his face taking on a solemn look. "It is bound by ancient rules."
Ah, there it is.
"I know, I know." Leo grumbled, setting his Monster Repellent down and climbing on top of Festus to screw in a stray wire. "No man ever finds it twice, yada yada. I'm gonna do it."
"I have no doubt you will." Chiron replied, steadily. "But you should keep in mind that Ogygia's rules extend beyond its phantom nature."
"What does that mean?" Leo moaned, sick of mysterious suggestions. "Can anyone around here just talk normally?"
"Think it over, Leo. It'll come to you." With that, Chiron left the workspace and Leo was left to wonder yet again what any of it meant.
Jason looked unhappy as Leo did his last supply check. "I still think we should go with you." He muttered as Leo checked over Festus from head to tail. Every part of him was functioning correctly and Festus had had the morning to get used to his new body. He seemed to like it.
"Are you kidding?" Leo mocked. "If you come along, she'll take one look and toss me to the curb."
"Very funny." Piper deadpanned as she hugged her friend tightly. "Just go bring her back, Leo."
Frank and Hazel were there as well, the pair of them looking vaguely curious about the dragon which they'd never seen as a whole until now. "So you're going to fly...where?" Hazel asked as Festus blew steam at the group, playfully.
Leo patted the mechanical monster's thick neck. "He'll tell me where." He said, confident in Festus' new guidance systems. Both Percy and Annabeth looked uncertain but said nothing, silently supportive.
"Sure." Frank said, watching the dragon with wary eyes. "If you need help-"
"I won't." Leo cut in, smirking. "Festus has a brand new weapons system and his motor function is increased to 200%. He'll be able to fight off anything we come across and if not, we'll fly well out of the way."
"But if you do," Frank pressed. "Send us a message. Don't be stupid Valdez."
"Ye of little faith." He muttered but he appreciated the unspoken support.
"Leo?" Piper said, gesturing to her right with a tilt of her head. Leo followed her away from the group slightly.
"What's up Beauty Queen?" he said, smiling.
Piper returned it with a small smile of her own but she looked concerned. "Leo, I don't want you to think I'm trying to tell you not to go but- look, from the sounds of things, this is a pretty serious curse."
His smile turned down at the edges a little. "It's just a curse, Pipes. We've handled them before."
"Yes but those were curses the gods wanted us to solve." She pointed out, gently. "And you're alone this time."
"I'll be fine." He stressed.
"You'd better be," she said with a threatening note in her tone. "I just want to make sure you're prepared."
"Prepared for what?" he mumbled, warily.
Her pretty swirling gaze turned sad. "Leo, the gods could still say no."
"They promised." He said, simply. "And they said they'd 'reconsider' the matter when I reach Ogygia. You're worrying too much Piper."
"Maybe." She accepted, ruefully. "Probably. You're my friend and you're one of the smartest, craziest, damn stubborn people I know. I'm probably being paranoid. But be careful okay? This is complicated and weird and the fact that my mom mentioned the words valiant and quest during that meeting doesn't fill me with a whole lot of confidence."
"I thought your mom liked me." Leo complained, but he was trying hard to keep the conversation light. He had to get back to Calypso. He had to find Ogygia and set her free. He had to figure out what those last seconds on the beach with the fire light in her hair and the feel of her mouth against his meant.
Piper grimaced and hugged him tightly. "She does like you. That's the point. I'm just saying be careful, please."
Leo wrapped his arms around Piper's shoulders and thought back to the day they'd met at Wilderness School where he thought she was pretty much the most awesome, perfect girl he'd ever laid eyes on.
Of course, he thought that about almost every girl but it was different with Piper McLean. Standing in front of her now, she was still awesome and perfect. She was one of his best friends, a piece of his little homemade, demigod family. Piper was looking out for him.
But he couldn't promise her he'd be careful, not when that meant accepting in some small place that things might go wrong.
This was a quest riddled with so many what-ifs and potential catastrophes that thinking it might not work out was like inviting the situation to worsen. And Leo refused to do it. Not only because of his oath which even now sat heavy across his shoulders and seemed coiled around his throat. But because it wouldn't be fair to him or the girl he left on the beach and more than anyone, Leo wanted this to be fair for her.
He couldn't afford to accept the worse possibility. Every part of him surged forth instead, humming with energy and the back of his head was whispering in his ear that he was going to see her again, he was going to see her turn red with irritation, he would get to hear the sound of her voice even if it was yelling at him, wrap her in a hug until he was sure she wasn't another of his daydreams, until he was absolutely positive she was real and alive and kicking-
Now he had to go find his own awesome, perfect, irritating as hell girl, all on his own.
"I'm gonna find her, Pipes." He said instead, half-smiling with a hint of mischief written in his dark eyes. "You just wait. I think you'll get along."
"She thinks you're utterly crazy and sort of ridiculous right?" Piper shot back, pushing him back towards the group. "Of course we're going to get along."
With that, he scrambled up the side of the dragon and took his place on Festus' back. "I'll be back soon. Hopefully." He added in an undertone as he waved goodbye to his friends. "C'mon buddy, let's go." He told the dragon and with a single beat of his huge wings, the automaton burst into the air, soaring high above the Camp.
Leo waved once more and thought he spotted Chiron saluting him in the distance but before he could look again, the crystal pulsed brightly from the back of Festus' skull. The astrolabe's ring trembled and suddenly went still, anchored to a single direction while the guidance system analysed the information. The dragon's head swung to the east like a bloodhound picking up a scent and without another moment, they took off across New York.
Even with Festus' extra engine capacity, Leo didn't want to press the dragon any further than was necessary so the journey was slow. They took the ocean route across the Atlantic which didn't provide much of a chance for rest stops but every now and then they'd spot some tiny spit of island and Leo would rest while Festus' solar charges regenerated.
He felt like he might explode with all the thoughts and ideas and fears racing beneath his skin but he did his absolute best to push them away and focus on the problems at hand.
After a solid day of travel, Leo passed over Casablanca in Morocco and the ground below him suddenly lit up in golden bursts, the opposite of the dark, slick ocean he'd grown used to. He decided against trying to land in the city. It looked crowded and far too populated for his liking so he took Festus a little further inland to hide for the night. The city slipped away into a patchwork quilt of red striped earth, farming stations and the occasional smattering of lush green crops.
Leo continued further, making sure he was far enough away that he couldn't be spotted by any accidental gazes, even this late at night. He didn't really feel like trying to get a hotel room or rent a bed somewhere in another language so he camped, sleeping against Festus' side with the same bed roll Calypso had provided.
He struck up a small fire, confident that no one would come looking for them on the edges of the city. The unfortunate thing about going on a quest alone was that there was really no one to talk to keep boredom and distraction at bay.
Unable to really relax, Leo finally relinquished hold of his thoughts and they shot off in different directions around his head. Questions like how Festus was doing after his (second) maiden voyage, how the guys were doing back at camp, how the astrolabe was coping with the new guidance system, memories of building the system in the echoed centre of Bunker Nine and one sort of similar to it on a white beach with glittering waves and scrutinizing supervision- all of it bounced against the inside of his skull, fuelled by the rush of finally setting off after so many weeks of work.
As the evening fell into night, Leo dug into his food supplies and tried to calm down a little more- Annabeth had taught him strategies for dealing with his distracted attention span, using the infamous focus Athena's kids were so good at. He tried to answer each question or address each thought one at a time and let the rest go until only the really persistent worries remained.
For Leo, those worries alternated between Hera's mysterious conditions, Chiron's advice and the look in Calypso's eyes when he left. Piper's words revolved intermittently, especially her mention of Aphrodite liking him. It replayed over and over, alongside Percy's off-handed mention of the love goddess and how she'd once promised to make things 'interesting' for him.
Leo really, really hoped Aphrodite was going to go easy on him, but then again, she'd also once said he wasn't her first choice for Calypso anyway.
The horrible thought hit him as the campfire began to draw low. "Please don't let her have another hero already." He murmured aloud, glancing up at the bright stars overhead. Please don't let her have forgotten me already.
He knew it was in his head but for a moment he thought he could smell sharp cinnamon on the wind, like a snappy reply straight from Ogygia. Leo grinned absently at the thought and pushed the idea of a (strongertougherhandsomebetter) hero out of his mind. Calypso is waiting for me. He repeated, the mantra taking on new meaning now that he was on his way. And I'm coming.
Instead, Leo tried to think of what would happen when (not if, when) he arrived on Ogygia's soft sandy beaches. Would she be grateful? Did she think he would return? What if it was simply her curse that made her like him? What if she decided she hated him again when it broke? More terrifyingly, what if she didn't?
Would she want to live at Camp Half-Blood with him? Would his friends like her? What if she didn't like them? What if she saw Percy again and realised she still had feelings for him?
The questions were relentless as they buzzed around his head. He thought of Annabeth telling him to focus on an answer and an unlikely image suddenly drowned out the buzzing: a wooden raft appearing on the waves, gently bobbing against the beach. Rafts only appeared for heroes Calypso fell in love with. Regardless of what might have happened since or before, at one point, for a space of time, Calypso had loved him.
Which meant, however small, he had a chance that no other had ever had. Other heroes could come and go but they'd never returned because they weren't him. They didn't have an astrolabe or the crystal key or a mechanical dragon permanently awakened by charmspeak. They didn't have his tenacity or skill. They weren't as persistent and they didn't like (love?) her as much as he did because they hadn't tried as hard as he was trying.
He was going to succeed where every other had failed. "Calypso's waiting for me," he told himself, drowsily as the night grew long. "And I'm coming." Leo fell asleep with a grin on his face and the memory of her in her red Greek chiton, hands on her hips and yelling at him, in his head.
A/N: So…what do you think?
Small Bob: My update schedule is Mondays and Fridays if that helps, this is just a teensy bit late :D really glad you liked it and no, this is a strict Caleo-Only zone, don't even worry. Anyway, hope you liked this chapter and thank you for reading!
Z: Seriously? Cause the fandom hates Gaea an awful lot. You are stinking amazing and thankyou for taking a second to review :D There were probably more typos because I rushed to post it, similar to what I'm doing this chapter too. If you see any seriously obvious ones, please point them out to me, they'll drive me crazy til I find them all. Anyway, thank you for reading!
Cecld: Gaea is so so so evil, she needs to be annihilated in Blood of Olympus immediately. I kind of gloss over her defeat- this chapter goes back to where it dropped off in chapter five so it's like an enormous flashback- and now we're in a nice post-war world where Leo is off to find Ogygia. Again. Anyway, hope you like chapter eighteen and thanks for reading :D
Tara Luna Apple: Here you go, more UPDATE :D Thanks for taking a minute to review!
Ilovethisfanfic: Aww, don't cry, here have some- well, not happy Leo, but determined-very-very-eager Leo :) I would be so pissed if Uncle Rick kills of Leo. Words would not adequately express my rage and frustration. Anyway. Happy Friday and thanks for reading!
Guest: thanks, happy Friday!
Winonabcd: FALSE ALARM it was an illusion, Leo is safe and off to go find Calypso, promise. Settle yourself, find the proper sentences and enjoy this chapter, it's less…nerve-wracking than the last one. THANK YOU FOR READING, WONDERFUL REVIEWER :D
Fluff-is-awesome: Okay, so I keep forgetting you don't have PMing so here's my response to your last review, sorry it's a bit late :( : You wonderful reviewer, seriously, I love reading your messages they make my freaking day! I really loved responding to reviews, it makes me feel like I'm having a conversation over the week even if keeping up with all of you guys is a touch tricky. I will PERSERVERE AND FIND A WAY I PROMISE! Anyway, I usually just hear something or read something and if I'm dissatisfied with how it's portrayed or explained by the author, I like expanding on little details others ignore. I agree, it's like seeing the scene in your head, I just kind of tweak it until I feel comfortable with it and then I try to write it down in a style that feels right. That sounds ridiculous I know but it's really just how I've practised on this site so far. I read a bit of other fics but I guess I try to keep from imitating others so I tend to ok up a lot of fanart on Tumblr. I think there's a lot of scenes and ideas that the Caleo fandom experiences commonly and that's why there's a bit of overlap between other stories in this one. I'm just way too obsessed with writing it all out and editing and editing and editing and posting it on this site. Anyway, I'm so glad you like it and I'm sorry this reply is a bit late, your review was actually lovely thank you. Hope you like chapter eighteen and HAPPY FRIDAY!
*deep breath* Alright, on to the next chapter on MONDAY, thanks for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing, you are all stars in my Caleo-fandom-sky.
Shy