The Greatest of Olympus

Chapter 4 - Leo

Leo was furios. For weeks he had been trying to duplicate the outstanding and precise work Charles Beckendorf had put into the creation of Festus, but it never worked out for him. He knew how to make the bodies. He even knew how to turn a ship into a dragon! It was the heads that were so complex. Leo never even had to repair Festus head. He never even had seen the inside of the dragons head. Ever since Piper had awakened the mechanical creature with her charmspeak, Festus was acting more like a real dragon, but with feelings and mood swings. It was almost, as if he were a real human.
He refused to let Piper put him back into a "coma" again because he was afraid he wouldn't wake up. Leo tried to find Beckendorf's documents and papers, but it was like they were vanished off the face of the earth. Just like the Archimedes sphere and..
Leo tensed. He didn't want to think about Calypso right now. She had left him just after their arrival at camp. After finding out that Leo was mortal, she had told him that she would never recover from his death if she fell inlove with him. She had decided to move to Olympus and wait for her true love there. The girl had told Leo that she was greatful for his sacrifice, but politely rejected all his attempts to make her stay. The son of Hephaestus was a mess. He was reassuring everyone that he was fine and forced himself to smile and cracked jokes, just like the old days, but cried sometimes when nobody was watching. Who could blame him? He basically died for that girl, but apparently she didn't think he was good enough for her. The members of the Argo II could see that Leo didn't take the break up lightheartedly. They were constantly checking up on him and were asking if everything really was ok, they didn't believe his lies. Once Piper had caught him curled up on the ground of Bunker 9 , sobbing like a baby. She comforted him and Leo made her promise to never tell anybody about that incident.
The demigod sighed and sat down on
the cold floor of Bunker 9. He looked at his watch. It was 2am. Festus was sleeping. Every time he exaled dark smoke came out of his nose. There was petrol dripping from his mouth corner like drool. The cleaning harpies were already outside, so there was no chance for Leo to get out and walk to his cabin. He would have probably slept here anyway. Bunker 9 was like his save haven from everything. The quest of last summer made them all feel low. The 7 had to deal with nightmares and paranoia. Some of them still had injuries from the several fights during their journey. Annabeth's ankle still ached when strained and Piper had problems with her shoulder. They didn't really talk about it, but it was pretty clear that they were all not feeling their best. Leo liked Bunker 9, because it reminded him of all the great memories they had while building the Argo II. All the hopes and uncertainty they had for the future. Now the great prophecy had been fulfilled and they were expected to live their normal lives again. Yeah well maybe I should go to the library and look for a book  that explains how to get back into an every-day-normal-life routine when you had spend the summer flying on a ship, fighting off monsters on the Atlantic Ocean to kill mother nature, who turned out to be really evil and crazy and wanted to kill you too.  Leo thought to himself. I should probably go do that.
The boy yawned and rubbed his eyes. That's when he realised how tired he actually was. Leo decided to stand up and walk over to the matress he had placed in the back of the room alongside with a pillow and a blanket, for nights like these, when he lost track of time and had to sleep in the bunker. He took off his tool belt and got into bed on his back and stared at the ceiling. He was only wearing his Camp Half-Blood t-shirt and a pair of shorts. It was September and the weather was supposed to be cold, but Camp Half-Blood had this magical shield that gave the camp a warm climate even in winter.
Leo's eyes were starting to get heavy. He clapped twice and the lights went off. He had to get some rest before going to the study session he had with Jason, Piper and a couple of other Campers. Since the demigods decided to stay in camp, unlike Percy and Annabeth who are in Manhattan with Sally Jackson, they are obligated to study for themselves at camp. The Athena cabin created a study schedule he didn't really understand. It was Piper who told him that the Sophomores were going to meet up in the library to research stuff about old philosophers. It was a group project thing or something.
Leo closed his eyes. He unconciously trembled a morse code until he fell asleep:
I miss you.