Chapter Title: The Parable Of Colton And Leo

If there was any word that could describe Colton after the fiasco that just occurred at Camp Jupiter, looking like he was angry and about to kill Leo Valdez was somehow not one of them. If anything, Colton just looked upon him as if Leo was part of the biggest regret of his life. It was.. bizarre to say the least, given what Colton has been like in the past.

As for Leo, the look on his face seemed to say that he wished he could invent a time machine to be able to go back two hours and undo what had happened. Either that, or he could invent a Slap-Leo-in-the-Face machine to punish himself, though the look on his face also seemed to say he doubted it would hurt as badly as the look Annabeth was currently giving him.

"One more time," she said. "Exactly what happened?"

Leo was slumped against the mast. His head definitely still throbbed from hitting the deck, that much I could tell. All around him, his beautiful new ship was in shambles. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits, which had really made Coach Hedge mad. Their bronze dragon figurehead, Festus, was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball, and some of the aerial oars had been knocked out of alignment or broken off completely, which explained why the ship was listing and shuddering as it flew, the engine wheezing like an asthmatic steam train.

He choked back a sob. "I don't know. It's fuzzy."

Too many people were looking at him: Annabeth, Coach Hedge, Clarisse, me, Kayla, Travis, Connor, Colton, Luke, Ethan, Clara, and Frank. Most of the rest had already gone below deck to fix things as best as they could down there.

Leo definitely wasn't sure what to make of Frank, if the next look on his face could speak volumes to that.

Annabeth crossed her arms. "You mean you don't remember?"

"I..." Leo looked like he was trying to swallow a marble. "I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."

Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes, with his cap pulled over his horns, he looked like a P.E. teacher. The way the old satyr was glowering, I honestly almost wondered if the coach was going to order Leo to do push-ups right then and there.

"Look, kid," Hedge said, "you blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."

Colton's face morphed into one of bewilderment. "Why the fuck are you watching cage matches..?" he asked in disbelief.

Hedge turned to him. "I love me some wrestling.." he simply said back. "Cut a satyr some slack."

"Coach," Annabeth said, "why don't you make sure all the fires are out?"

"But I already did that — and the others are down there fixing stuff."

"Do it again."

The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn't crazy enough to defy Annabeth. Really, none of us were that crazy except for perhaps Colton if he felt like he needed to.

"He definitely seems a bit unhinged.." Colton muttered, and to be fair, this was actually his first time encountering Coach Hedge. So it was very understandable why he would think this way.

"Gee, you think..?" Connor said back.

Annabeth knelt next to Leo. The look on his face almost made me think he currently thought of blondes as much too smart and much too dangerous. Though then again, he might as well have equal feelings towards redheads given that Kayla did sock him in the nose after he tried to ask her out knowing that she was already taken.

"Leo," she said calmly, "did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or—"

"No." Leo could have lied and blamed that stupid Roman, and I would have believed him, but I doubted that he wanted to make a bad situation worse. "The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on the camp. I did."

Frank scowled. "On purpose?" I had to admit, he definitely had the fire of an Ares kid in him. Given his abilities and accomplishments, it's no wonder that Kayla said Colton thought quite highly of him — as did Percy too.

"No!" Leo squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, yes...I mean, I didn't want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me—"

"A cold feeling." Annabeth's tone changed. She sounded almost scared — and it seemed so un-Annabeth-like too. Even Luke seemed very concerned out of the corner of my eye while Colton simply just sighed — almost as if he knew what.

"Yeah," Leo said. "Why?"

From belowdecks, Beckendorf called up, "Annabeth, we need you."

The look on Leo's face was now one of very complete concern.

As soon as they'd gotten on board, Piper had taken Jason below. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad — hopefully he would make it. I was hoping hard, I'll admit — I kinda like the guy. And then again, there was Grace — not referring to Jason here, just the girl named Grace — that Leo had knocked out cold during what the fuck happened back at Camp Jupiter.

I hoped she was okay too.

"They'll be fine." Annabeth's voice softened just to reassure Leo that Jason — and Grace — were both going to be okay. "Frank, I'll be back. Just...watch Leo. Please."

Frank nodded.

If it was possible for Leo to feel worse, he seemed like he did from the way his face now looked. Annabeth now trusted a Roman demigod she'd known for like maybe at least less than a hour, more than she trusted Leo.

Kayla now left to follow Annabeth below deck, being a healer as well due to being one of Apollo's kids and all.

Once she was gone, Leo and Frank stared at each other. It was more or less an awkward starring match. That was about the best way I could probably sum this up.

"So," Frank said. "Your name isn't Sammy?"

Leo scowled. "What kind of question is that?"

"Nothing," Frank said quickly. "I just— Nothing. About the firing on the camp...Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn't want the Romans getting along with you guys."

Leo wanted to believe that, the look on his face really did. And that's when Colton spoke up. "Yeah, he did.. and that's what Gaea wanted too.." he said, catching everyone on the deck by surprise.

"Would you mind enlightening the class to what you know, dear brother..?" Clarisse said, her eyes perking up in interest. Colton simply nodded.

"While it may have been Leo that fired on Camp Jupiter, I know for a fact it technically was not him in control of his own body. As I was heading towards the forum, I noticed his eyes went golden for a moment — almost as if there was someone else in control of him.." Colton revealed, shocking perhaps everyone on the deck including Leo. I turned to look at his face, and lo and behold, he was probably the most shocked at the fact that the one who we all figured was going to bury the guy alive for trying to take Kayla from him was sticking up for him in his defense.

"..it was just like the truck driver on the quest for Argonaut. I don't have any doubt about it, Leo was possessed by an eidolon — most likely sent into the area by one of the giants or Gaea to help turn the two camps against one another.." Colton concluded, before for one of the rare times in history, Colton Reynolds actually looked mad at himself for once. "..and I didn't even think of such a scenario. Gods, I am so stupid — I feel like a failure."

Clarisse looked at me and I nodded, and we both just went over and hugged our brother. To our surprise, Frank did too. "You're not a failure to us, Colton.." Clarisse said. "..you're the brother I don't think I could have ever deserved, yet am eternally grateful for."

"Yeah same.." I said to him. "A lot of our siblings.. hell, a lot of the others' siblings back at camp wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for you."

There were tears that streamed off of his cheeks for a few moments as he hugged us back, but eventually he calmed down. "Thanks guys.." he muttered, feeling better and starting to turn to head for the stairs down into the bowels of the Argo II.

Just then, a piece of paper flew out of nowhere and smacked Colton in the face just as he was about to go down to be with Kayla. Taking it off his face, he looked at it for a moment and then he screamed — as if he was in a horror movie, which instantly took everyone by shock, surprise, and immediate concern.

"COLTON! COLTON! What's wrong..?" Kayla shouted, at the head of a large group as almost everyone except Beckendorf — guess he was looking after Jason and Grace — came up to the deck while Colton just stood there, holding the paper in his hands.. twitching.

We all gathered around it and what was on it was probably the last thing any of us wanted to see at this time — with already one prophecy uttered so far this day.

Another prophecy.

And it went like this:

When Summer 2009 abounds..
Nightmares to Demigods abound.

Dancer walks with King and Queen..
and must evade the fear inside and beneath.

Monster King to lift his fist..
Magic's son to greatly assist.

Phobia waits along the path..
seeking to alter that which is great.

Through the horrors and trauma they must go..
to fall the four which terrify all.

We all looked at Colton, whose face simply morphed from shock to frustration and then to rage before he simply huffed, "I am so fucking over this.."

"Oh great.." Percy muttered. "Just what we need."

"I'm starting to become convinced now that Colton is a divining rod for prophecies.." Michael said a little bit too loudly, causing Colton to turn and simply glare at him before backing off.

"Gee, you think..?" Travis added.

Kayla just hugged Colton from behind and said, "We can deal with that later, once we got the ship repaired — right now, we need to focus on repairing damage. Get moving, people!" As if she had sway over the people on here, everyone else who had come up from the lower deck now scattered back down to the lower deck.

Those words seemed to snap Leo — who had jumped to his feet when Colton screamed — out of his funk, as the son of Hephaestus now seemed to look ready to go to work so to speak. It was almost instantaneous, as if had you blinked, you would have missed the change.

"Look," he said, "I should talk to Festus and get a damage report. You mind... ?"

Frank turned to him, confused. "Who is Festus?"

Colton's eyes now lit up with interest. "Ah.. this one.." he said.

"My friend," Leo said. "His name isn't Sammy either, in case you're wondering. Come on. I'll introduce you."

Fortunately the bronze dragon wasn't damaged. Well, aside from the fact that last winter he'd lost everything except his head—but safe to say, it seemed like Leo didn't count that, given what he did with it.

He led Frank, with Colton basically hand in hand with Kayla a little bit behind them, down at least a dozen yards or more and when they reached the bow of the ship, the figurehead turned a hundred and eighty degrees to look at them. Frank yelped and backed away.

"It's alive!" he said.

Colton simply looked stunned from what angle I had to view him.

Leo would have laughed if he hadn't felt so bad. "Yeah. Frank, this is Festus. He used to be a full bronze dragon, but we had an accident."

"You have a lot of accidents," Frank noted.

"Well, some of us can't turn into dragons, so we have to build our own." Leo arched his eyebrows at Frank.

"So.. this is the legendary Festus I have ever heard so much about.. he certainly lives up to his reputation.." Colton said warmly.

"Yeah, he does.." Leo replied. "Anyway, I revived him as a figurehead. He's kind of the ship's main interface now. How are things looking, Festus?"

Festus snorted smoke and made a series of squeaking, whirring sounds, which none of us other than the guy who had used the last few months to how to interpret this machine language could decipher. Other demigods could understand Latin and Greek, but Leo — he could speak creak and squeak.

"Ugh," Leo said.

"I don't like the sound of that.." Colton muttered.

"I mean, could be worse," Leo replied, "..but the hull is compromised in several places. The port aerial oars have to be fixed before we can go full speed again. We'll need some repair materials: Celestial bronze, tar, lime—"

"What do you need limes for?" Frank asked.

"Dude, lime. Calcium carbonate, used in cement and a bunch of other— Ah, never mind. The point is, this ship isn't going far unless we can fix it.." Leo said back.

"That much is obvious, for sure.." Colton added.

Festus made another click-creak noise that Leo seemed to not recognize at first. It sounded like AY-zuhl.

"Oh...Hazel," he deciphered. "That's the girl with the curly hair, right?"

"Yes" Colton replied.

Frank gulped. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's fine," Leo said. "According to Festus, her horse is racing along below. She's following us."

"We've got to land, then," Frank said.

Colton just looked at Frank curiously. "Something happen on the quest with Luke and Percy that I wasn't told about..?" he asked him.

Frank looked away. "No.."

Leo studied him. "She's your girlfriend?"

Frank chewed his lip. "Yes."

"You don't sound sure."

"Yes. Yes, definitely. I'm sure."

"Well then.." Colton said before hugging him, with Kayla simply smiling. "Congrats bro."

Frank seemed to smile now as well.

Leo raised his hands. "Okay, fine. The problem is we can only manage one landing. The way the hull and the oars are, we won't be able to lift off again until we repair, so we'll have to make sure we land somewhere with all the right supplies."

Frank scratched his head. "Where do you get Celestial bronze? You can't just stock up at Home Depot."

"Festus, do a scan."

"He can scan for magic bronze?" Frank marveled. "Is there anything he can't do?"

The look on Leo's face really seemed to say, you should've seen him when he had a body. But for obvious reasons, he didn't say that. It was too painful for him, remembering the way Festus used to be, and to be brutally honest, sometimes it was just painful for the rest of us to watch.

He peered out over the ship's bow. The Central California valley was passing below. I didn't think he was holding out much hope that we could find what we needed all in one place, but then again, there was nothing else we could right now but to try. Hopefully, the Romans didn't follow right on our heels — I was really hoping. They didn't seem like the people to have ways to travel vast distances ahead of opponents, but then again — I could be wrong.

Behind him, the stairs creaked. Percy and Annabeth climbed up, their faces grim.

Leo's heart seem to stumble, if the look on his face when he turned around said anything. "Is Jason—?"

"He's resting," Annabeth said. "Piper's keeping an eye on him, but he should be fine."

Percy gave him a hard look. "Annabeth says you did fire the ballista?"

"Man, I—I don't understand how it happened. I'm so sorry—"

"Sorry?" Percy growled, before Colton walked over and smacked him on the back of the head. "OW! What the hell was that for..?"

"While it was him that fired, it wasn't him that was in control of his own body.." Colton said back. "Dude was possessed. I'll explain later, because right now, we have bigger issues to handle."

Annabeth put a hand on her boyfriend's chest. "He's right on the last part. Right now, we have to regroup and make a plan. What's the situation with the ship?"

Leo's legs were trembling before Percy. His skin seemed to tingle, and it looked like he was about to duck as if Percy was about to throw a punch at him or something. Dude was scared shitless.

He told Annabeth about the damage and the supplies they needed. At least he seemed to feel better talking about something fixable.

He was bemoaning the shortage of Celestial bronze when Festus began to whir and squeak.

"Perfect." Leo sighed with relief.

"What's perfect?" Annabeth said. "I could use some perfect about now."

"Pretty sure we all do.. at this point.." Kayla muttered, though it mostly seemed to go unheard by everyone else.

Leo managed a smile. "Everything we need in one place. Frank, why don't you turn into a bird or something? Fly down and tell your girlfriend to meet us at the Great Salt Lake in Utah."

Frank simply looked at Leo like he had lost his mind.

(A/N: And there you go! Another chapter and Colton can't seem to catch a break with prophecies — hints of things to come and characters to bring in on this one, so this should be very exciting to write! See you in the next one!)