Haunted || Leo Valdez

63 - We Win One and Lose Two

As soon as Rebecca, Leo, Hazel, and Frank arrived on the deck of the Argo II, an Iris-Message appeared before them. It was Anne and Henry, the latter trying to wipe what looked like pie filling off of his face.

"Anne!" Rebecca exclaimed. "How was the meeting?"

"Illuminating," Anne replied. "We're a few blocks away."

"We'll wait up," Rebecca said. "See you in a few minutes." She swiped through the Iris-Message and turned to Leo.

"Heard everything," He told her. "I'm gonna get us fired up so we can head for the Colosseum as soon as they get on."

He rushed off to the helm and set a course for the Colosseum. Then he heard Rebecca and Hazel talking.

"I'm so sorry I didn't listen to you," Hazel said. She sounded devastated. "I just... I thought I knew what I was doing."

"It's okay," Rebecca said. "It's not your fault. It's mine. I got him into a dangerous situation in the first place. We went to the Underworld thinking we could go anywhere we want, but it didn't work that way. It's my fault we got captured."

Hazel hugged her tightly. "It's not your fault. You couldn't have known. We'll save him. I know we will."

Anne and Henry climbed on board a few minutes later, and they were off to the Colosseum.

"So what happened during the meeting?" Rebecca asked.

"We met the Queens," Henry said. "We talked about the prophecy. Anne of Cleves shoved a pie in my face. There were lots of references to the musical."

Anne just nodded, as if Henry had laid out every detail of the encounter. Leo figured that was as good as they were going to get at the moment. They didn't really have time for a play-by-play when Nico was on the verge of death and Rome was about to be destroyed.

When they arrived, Leo noticed there were thousands of ghosts filling the seats of the Colosseum, cheering as Percy and Jason battled Ephialtes and Otis. Bacchus sat in the emperor's box. A nymph in a nurse's uniform was tending to Piper's arm on Bacchus' right, and on his left...

"Nico!" Rebecca exclaimed, her voice shaky. She rushed for the spyglass to get a closer look. Leo followed her. As Coach Hedge fired the ballista at the giants, Leo looked through the spyglass. Nico looked pale and weak, but he was alive.

Rebecca hugged Leo, which was completely fine with him. "He's alive. He's alive. Thank the gods, he's alive."

Leo wasn't sure how to respond, but he just held Rebecca, rubbing circles on her back as she tried to calm down.

The Argo II docked just outside the Colosseum and they disembarked. However, before they could help fight, the show was over.

"...And, ah, good luck with that other little matter," said Bacchus before he vaporized in a cloud of mist that smelled faintly of grape juice. Rebecca sprinted straight past Percy and Jason and threw her arms around Nico, sobbing in Italian. Nico embraced his sister and buried his face in her shoulder, shaking.

"Was that Dionysus?" Hedge asked Percy. "I love that guy!"

"You're alive!" Percy said, grinning. "The giants said you were captured. What happened?"

Leo shrugged. "Oh, just another brilliant plan by Leo Valdez. You'd be amazed what you can do with an Archimedes sphere, the Malignant Spirit, a girl who can sense stuff underground, and a weasel."

"I was the weasel," Frank said glumly.

"Basically," Leo explained, "I activated a hydraulic screw with the Archimedes device—which is going to be awesome once I install it in the ship, by the way. Hazel sensed the easiest path to drill to the surface. We made a tunnel big enough for a weasel, and Frank climbed up with a simple transmitter that I slapped together. After that, it was just a matter of hacking into Coach Hedge's favorite satellite channels and telling him to bring the ship around to rescue us. Rebecca sent gold up the tunnel we made and forced the earth apart, making it wide enough for us to get through. After Hedge got us, finding you was easy, thanks to that godly light show at the Colosseum."