Leo thought that Aphros looked like his brothers except he was blue and had terminator like abs and arms with a sword strapped to his side. He had blue-black frizz which was thick enough that even lobster horns were vague. Leo then asked Aphros if the Afro was the reason they called him Aphros.

Everybody face palmed when they heard Leo's question.

"To be fair, it was something that even you'd wonder if you saw him." Leo defended himself.

"Honestly, he's not wrong." Hermes admitted with a sheepish grin. "I almost asked him that myself."

"I'm going to have to tell him what it means." Triton snickered.

Aphros didn't understand what Leo meant and Leo asked him which creatures they were to which Aphros replied that they were Ichthyocentaurs and were half brothers of Chiron. Leo exclaimed that Chiron was a friend of his.

"That's very flattering, Leo." Chiron smiled warmly at Leo and the demigod grinned at him.

"He's also our agony aunt." Chris nodded with a grin. Chiron laughed lightly.

"I suppose that is true." He chuckled.

Aphros didn't completely believe Leo and told him that Hazel had already said the same thing and they were going to verify it. Leo didn't like the sound of that but he followed Aphros and thought about how there was no point in trying to escape. He looked up and saw what might have been the sun and wondered if the ship was fine and if his friends had sailed off without them.

"Of course we won't leave you behind." Piper said, upset that Leo would even think such a thing even if there were a few skirmishes among the crewmates.

"Yeah but like, the quest was kind of time bound. It was an option that I considered when I was thinking about it." Leo explained.

"Don't even think about such options." Jason chided. Leo chuckled.

"Yes sir." He said and saluted.

Leo wasn't sure how deep in the ocean they were and though it felt like it wasn't too deep, he didn't want to swim up to the surface because he'd heard about how people who did that developed nitrogenous blood and that was something that Leo didn't want.

"Firstly, it is possible for us to grow plants at a much deeper level than you'd expect. Secondly, good choice of not trying to swim up to the surface. You'd definitely die if you tried that." Triton said, holding up 2 fingers.

"Well, that's good." Leo said "Not the dying part…the not dying part." He clarified quickly.

Leo followed Aphros and was too intimidated to ask questions. Aphros took him to a town of sorts which amazed Leo by how beautiful and lively it was with Hippocampi, Cyclops, Mermaids and Mermen engaging in daily routine. Despite everything he had seen, Leo had always thought that Mermen were silly fictional characters similar to the Smurfs and Muppets.

"Well, excuse you." Triton said, holding up a hand to his chest with mock offense. Leo gave him a sheepish smile. Triton burst out laughing at that seeing as he was already trying to control it.

"I guess I know what to dress up as for Halloween now." He said.

"Remind me to take photographs in high quality." Poseidon told his son amusedly and Triton snickered.

However, Leo thought that these mermen did not look human at all. He realized that it was a training camp and Aphros looked proud of the camp. He boasted that they had trained all the great mer-heroes and asked Leo to name any one. Leo asked if he should name somebody from Little Mermaid or something.

Everybody burst out laughing.

"Bro has no filter." Travis snickered.

"Really?" Triton asked Leo dryly.

"I didn't what I was supposed to say! That's the only time I saw mermen." Leo complained.

"Not that!" Triton said, throwing his hands up in mild exasperation but he was on the verge of laughing again.

"He's seen Little Mermaid hasn't he?" Apollo grinned at Triton who nodded.

"Yeah, Delphin and I showed it to him." He said.

Aphros denied that and said that they'd trained heroes like Triton, Glaucus, Weissmuller and Bill.

The sea gang grinned at Triton who looked smug.

"Bill seems nice." Percy said nonchalantly making Triton pout and punch his brother in the arm, making Percy laugh.

"I don't like him very much." Triton said.

"Bill or Percy?" Poseidon asked amusedly.

"At the moment, both." Triton said and winked at Percy to let him know he was joking but there was no need for that because Percy was already laughing his head off.

Leo told him that that it was impressive that he taught Bill and guessed that Aphros taught combat but Aphros was exasperated that everybody thought that. He taught life skills. Leo asked amusedly if that included sewing and cookie baking and Aphros confirmed it and claimed that it was important to learn.

"Honestly, he's not wrong about the sewing part." Will said seriously. "You don't always have a healer with you and even though its not very similar, it is important to know basic sewing in case you need to give emergency stitches till you reach a healer." He explained.

"Huh." Leo said as he thought about Will said. "I didn't think of it that way."

"Even the cookie baking could be important. Well, cooking in general. You don't always have readymade food or money to buy at a restaurant." Katie mused.

"That's true. I remember Leo also made tacos when we were all hungry during our quest. We'd probably have been weakened without the food." Jason nodded.

"Every skill is useful in some way or the other at the end of the day. It can be something that is more obvious and yet, sometimes the least obvious skills are the ones that can make a huge difference." Chiron smiled at the campers.

Aphros told him that if he would let Leo live, he might share his brownie recipe with him.

"That is so not fair!" Triton complained. "I've been asking him for that recipe for ages and he won't give it to me." Poseidon patted his son's shoulder to make him feel better and Triton pouted at him.

"I'm going to have to talk to him about this." Triton decided.

"All the best. Hope you get it." Leo grinned at him.

"You could just take it from us." Percy told Triton amusedly.

"Nope." Triton said, popping the 'p'. "I'm going to ask him itself." He said.

"I wish Aphros all the best." Poseidon shook his head.

"That's hurtful." Triton said dramatically.

Aphros informed Leo that Bythos taught combat. Leo asked him if they called this camp, - 'camp fish-blood'. Aphros hoped that Leo was joking and told him the actual name of the camp which was a series of sonar pings and hisses. Leo said that it was silly of him to not know that.

The younger gods shook with amusement as they imagined the scene.

"I love how Leo is throwing so much sass at Aphros and he's just not even bothered." Connor laughed.

"He's taking it literally…except the little mermaid thing." Pollux chuckled.

"That's why its extremely fun to prank him because he just doesn't expect it." Triton informed everybody. The Hermes gang's eyes lit up.

"Is it now?" Hermes grinned mischievously. Triton grinned at him and nodded with a wink. Hermes got a glint in his eyes that gave everybody a feeling that Aphros wasn't going to be having the same colored hair the next day.

Leo started telling the truth to Aphros starting from the beginning including his childhood to the quest of the Argo II. In the middle Aphros took out metal spikes, freaking Leo out but Aphros just started knitting with seaweed yarn.

"I did not expect that." Silena said with raised eyebrows.

"He's really good at that stuff too." Leo said approvingly.

"Is he pretty chill or like does he get scary?" Rachel asked Triton.

"He's mostly chill but its scary when he does get angry." The sea prince answered. Rachel nodded in understanding.

Leo completed his story and Aphros told him that he believed him as he detected no lies from Leo and that his story matched Hazel's.

"That was…convenient." Clarisse said in surprise

"Leo's lucky he didn't lie. Wouldn't have been so convenient had he gone down that route." Triton informed her. Leo swallowed.

"Wise move number 2." He said dryly.

Aphros told Leo that Hazel was fine and they had brought them there only because they weren't sure which side they were on because they had been pursued by Keto's monsters. He told Leo that the ship was damaged but not terribly. He told Leo that the monster was a skolopendra and that he approved of throwing fire in its mouth.

"It was actually really smart." Amphitrite smiled at Leo. "It was probably the easiest way to get rid of it as well." She said. Leo blushed under the praise.

"Thank you." He said with a smile.

Leo told Aphros that he had never heard of the monster to which replied that Leo should consider himself lucky for that. Aphros told Leo that they had obscured his friends' vision to hide the camp and that they would have had to take measures if the crew was a threat.

"That doesn't sound so good." Lee said with an alarmed expression.

"Its not anything good either." Triton said grimly.

"Luckily, its not something we have to worry about then." Percy grinned.

Leo was sure that taking measures didn't mean more brownies and what scared him more was that these people were able to hide the camp from Percy despite his Posiedonish powers and so he reasoned that these were not fish dudes to mess with.

"Poseidonish powers." Percy snorted in amusement and the sea gang was chuckling.

"Its sad that it doesn't mean more brownies though." Jason sighed, making the seven nod in agreement.

"I don't even want to know what they mean by that then." Nico shook his head.

"I could tell you but then everybody'd freak." Triton told Nico with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeahh, we're good." Hazel swallowed.

Leo asked if they could leave and Aphros said they could after they interrogated Gank.

"Who now?" Clarisse asked with a smirk, knowing exactly who Aphros meant and Frank buried his face in his hands.

"Gank." Leo confirmed.

"I cannot believe that you hid your real name from me all this while." Clarisse told Frank, shaking her head.

"I can't believe that my actual name is Gank. I thought it was Frank." Frank played along.

"I think you should grab a bottle of water for this." Ares started dramatically. The younger gods burst out laughing at the exchange.

Aphros informed Leo that they may give them some warnings and Hazel paddled towards Leo as she laughed with the mermaids who were with her. Hazel thought the place was amazing and Aphros left both of them near the ridge, making Leo believe that Aphros trusted them.

"I have a feeling that whether or not he trusted you, he wouldn't have completely freaked about leaving two demigods near the ridge when he had a whole camp of mermen, mermaids, cyclops and all. If you would have tried something, I highly doubt that it would be you two leaving alive to be very honest." Reyna said grimly. Leo and Hazel grimaced, knowing that Reyna was right.

"That's dark. But its probably true." Dakota sighed.

Hazel told Leo about her meeting and how Aphros and Bythos were fascinated by her and Arion and how the mermaids had written their phone numbers on her arm in waterproof ink to keep in touch. Leo wondered how they even got connection in the middle of the Atlantic.

"Exactly!" Percy agreed with Leo. "I never understood how phones work from there and you're not going to believe it but the connection is insanely clear. Like its clearer than me calling you from the Poseidon cabin to the Hephaestus cabin. Its ridiculous." Percy complained.

"How does that work?" Tyson asked Poseidon curiously. Poseidon smiled at his son.

"We've got our ways." Poseidon winked at him. "I'll show you when we go to Atlantis." He told Tyson whose eyes brightened.

Leo thought that Hazel looked much more confident than in the flashback and told her that they still hadn't talked about it. Both of them agreed that it was a little weird and too much to process. Hazel was anxious about how she would talk to Frank but Leo told her that he talked to her and clarified everything.

"That was actually pretty helpful. It was better hearing it from you because for some reason I thought that it was your fault even though it was neither of your faults." Frank told Leo.

"Yeah, I get it. I know that you trusted Hazel but not me and me not saying anything would have just made it worse and might have even created a problem between you and Hazel. To be honest, apart from it being painful for you two, it would have caused an insane amount of guilt for me as well." Leo admitted.

Leo told Hazel about how Frank freaked out when he summoned fire and Hazel seemed like she knew why. Leo noticed how she always wore a jacket and he had thought that it made horse riding easier for her but then he remembered the stories that he had heard at CHB and began to recall a myth about a hero whose life depended on firewood to Hazel. Due to her reaction, he realized that Frank had the same problem and so he asked Hazel if Frank had given him her his piece of firewood for safekeeping.

"That's impressive especially seeing as Frank's situation isn't the most common one and there was only one other case that you'd heard of was similar to Frank's." Apollo smiled at Leo and nodded approvingly. Leo couldn't help but grin at the praise.

Hazel told Leo that she couldn't talk about it and Leo began asking questions about whether or not the firewood would be safe in an ocean and if the air kept it safe or not. Hazel assured him that the wood didn't get wet and then told Leo that she's not supposed to talk about it. Leo couldn't help but imagine being in Frank's shoes and how delicate Frank's life was as it was dependent on a piece of wood and how it would feel trusting somebody with it. Leo shuddered as he thought about why Frank didn't like him because he was a guy who could control fire and it seemed like he was moving in on Hazel.

Frank looked at Leo in surprise, not expecting Leo's train of thought to go in this direction and actually try to understand anything about Frank especially after everything that he had said to Leo. The thought also made him feel guilty about how he never actually tried to understand anything about Leo while the son of Hephaestus had. He wanted to apologize again but he wasn't sure about what or exactly what he would say and so he kept quiet and settled for the giving the son of Hephaestus a grateful smile, hoping that that would convey what he wanted to say to Leo.

Leo smiled back at Frank, letting him know that he knew what Frank was trying to say. It made him feel as if they were now on an actual path to friendship rather than just having a sort of incomplete friendship where the will to actually understand each other was absent. He knew that they weren't completely there yet but he knew that they were closer than they had ever been.

Leo no longer felt jealous of Frank's ability to turn into animals because of the whole firewood thing that came along with it and he thought about the last line of the prophecy about storm and fire. He knew that either Jason or Percy was the storm but he was the fire and he was a wild card. Leo thought about mistakes that he had made and how easy it would be to set Frank on flames for him.

"Dude, I know we didn't have the best relationship then and that I didn't exactly tell you about the firewood and I can't say anything about myself in the past but I can tell you now that I would trust you with that firewood just as much despite your fire powers because I know that you would protect it with everything you have even if that meant fighting fire with fire at the end of the day." Frank told Leo genuinely

"I don't know why you'd trust me with that irrespective of however our relationship is. If I were you, I wouldn't trust me." Leo sighed.

"Leo, even I didn't trust myself and that's why I gave it to Hazel because I felt like I'd probably somehow manage to set it on fire by dropping it into a bonfire or something. You did a lot to keep my lifeline safe even though it wasn't your responsibility. That's something I was grateful for then and I am now and I always will be." Frank told Leo, furrowing his eyebrows, now getting concerned over Leo's self esteem. He had no idea that Leo didn't believe in himself and he hated the thought that he might have contributed to it. Damn, he did contribute to.

Leo nodded slowly as if trying to believe what Frank was saying and when he finally did he smiled at Frank.

"Thanks man. That means a lot." He said. Frank nodded.

"Of course. I'm just stating facts."

Leo was startled out of his thoughts as Bythos and Aphros came back with Frank. Bythos told them that they were free to go, while, Aphros told Leo to tell Percy Jackson not to worry about the aquarium and that they would see to it by sending somebody to free the creatures. They thought about sending Bill to do it and told Leo that they were grateful to Percy for letting them know about it. Leo suggested that they talk to Percy in person as he was the son of Poseidon.

Percy began to pout as he remembered that he didn't get to talk to them but at least he'd find out the reason now. The rest of the seven couldn't help but chuckle after looking at Percy, remembering how disappointed he was that he didn't get to talk to the Aphros and Bythos.

"Its all right Perce. At least, it looks like they have a genuine reason for not meeting you as it couldn't be dislike seeing as they mention their gratitude towards you." Jason tried cheering Percy up.

"Yeah." Percy sighed.

Aphros and Bythos shook their heads and explained that it was sometimes the best thing to not interact with Poseidon's brood as even though they got along well with him, sometimes politics with undersea deities could get complicated and that they valued their independence but they requested Leo to nevertheless thank Percy.

"Oh." Percy said as he understood the explanation and nodded in understanding, looking happier. "At least they didn't hate me for some reason." He said.

"Yeah, they explained the entire complexity to me when I was training there. Initially, they were a little hesitant so even I was kind of disappointed but like, it was much better when they explained it." Triton smiled at Percy, understanding what Percy might have felt when Aphros and Bythos didn't want to meet him.

"I'm sorry that you were disappointed with not meeting them, Percy. Its just that we don't really visit each other's residence. Its not that there is any animosity among us but its like they said, they value their independence as well as sometimes, the politics start interfering. Triton had to be trained and so they made an exception which worked out well enough but sometimes they still tend to get apprehensive about my children." Poseidon smiled at Percy who nodded.

"Yeah, I get that. It makes sense. Its just that I didn't know that so I thought it was some personal problem." He said. Poseidon nodded and clapped Percy on the shoulder, glad that his son understood.

Aphros told them that they'd all they can to help them cross the Atlantic but they'd have to be careful of the Mare Nostrum. Bythos told Frank to focus on his breathing when he was transforming into animals and Frank looked embarrassed.

Even the current Frank looked embarrassed as his ears flushed red but he still grinned sheepishly.

Aphros told Hazel to visit again with Arion and told her that he understood her worry over Nico. He assured her that even though he did not know where Nico was she would know when she was close to him and that he must be saved. Bythos agreed and told them that he felt that Nico was essential to the quest.

"That he was." Percy grinned at Nico.

"Yep. Couldn't have done it with you." Jason smiled at Nico, knowing that the book would probably talk about the whole scene with Cupid and how uncomfortable for Nico that could get but he knew that he'd be there for him and even if the others didn't know, even they'd be there for Nico.

"Ahh. What would you all do without me?" Nico sighed with an extremely dramatic hair flip. Percy snickered as did the others.

"Oh I don't know…maybe we'd have known less swear words in Italian." The son of Poseidon told him amusedly. Nico snorted.

"I have a feeling you taught me more swear words than I taught you." He said.

Aphros told Leo that he should remain close to Hazel and Frank as they'd be facing mechanical difficulties in the future and called him the brave navigator of the Argo II while telling him that he had gifts for Leo. Leo told Aphros that he preferred to refer to himself as 'captain' or 'supreme commander'.

The seven, Nico and Reyna laughed.

"All hail the supreme commander!" Percy shouted.

"Hail the supreme commander." Chorused the other seven, Nico and Reyna with the most of the others joining in as well. Leo grinned and saluted everybody, adding to the laughter.

Aphros proudly gave Leo a basket of brownies and informed him that it included the recipe and the trick was to not add too much butter. He further told him that he had kept a recommendation letter to Tibernius as well which would be needed by Annabeth. Leo was confused about the letter and Bythos explained that it might help with the quest for the Mark and though, Tibernius was a proud god, a recommendation letter meant a lot to Romans and might convince Tibernius to help.

"That's really nice of them." Chiron smiled warmly, glad that his half brothers had thought about Annabeth. She had always been like his daughter and it made him lose sleep when he thought that he won't be able to help her while she was on the quest. He was glad that at least his half brothers were able to be of some help.

"I love how they specified that 'it might hopefully convince him'." Chris raised an eyebrow.

"You can't be certain whether or not he would accept it. Its kind of subject to a few things." Artemis said.

"Looks like recommendation letters is something that the Romans are awfully fond of." Grover commented, making Percy and Annabeth laugh.

"Yeah, but one is normally enough and we don't have to do a quest for that." Percy said and raised an eyebrow at Zeus who raised an eyebrow right back at Percy.

Bythos took out three pearls as wished the demigods 'good sailing' and threw a pearl at each of them and balls of energy formed around them as the three demigods started rising through the water. Leo thought of them as hamster ball elevators as they gained speed and rocketed through the water.

"Hamster ball elevators." Poseidon mused "I like that name." he grinned finally.

"Its very oddly accurate." Hades agreed.

"They seem similar to the ones that we used-" Annabeth started, gesturing to Percy, Grover and herself "-to leave the underworld during the lightning bolt quest." She said.

"They actually are pretty similar except the ones that I gave would get you back to the sea no matter where you were. The ones that Aphros and Bythos used are the ones that are actually used as a sort of elevator to exit their camp." Poseidon explained. Annabeth nodded as she understood.

"Chapter's done." Zeus said.

"I'll read." Demeter volunteered.