Born Again

[5: side effects may include ]

Have you ever been somewhere that feels like paradise? Where the air is so crisp that you've never breathed anything better. Where the ocean so clear that you could see your feet at the bottom of the sand. Where the mood feels so right, you'd never want to change it?

Yeah, Leo neither.

The second Leo felt his toes touch sand (everything on him had burned in the fire, so when he entered the underworld his shirt and pants were singed at the corners, and his shoes were missing) he looked up. There was Calypso, giving a smile so big the world grew brighter. She had bags at both of her sides, and her hair was tied back with a bandana.

"You came."

Leo walked up to her and embraced her. "Of course I did."

That was when he fell unconscious. His eyes rolled to the back of his head, and his body fell forward and put all of his weight of Calypso. Of course, his weight barely hit one-hundred pounds, so she easily layered in down in the sand.

Leo knew he wasn't dead, but somehow he was in the underworld again. Bianca was staring at him, confused and Silena was face palming.

"Leo you can't be back here!"

"I don't want to be here," Leo looked around. "I was just on Ogygia, how did this happen?"

Bianca shrugged before looking through some books. Silena and Beckendorf were bouncing reasons off of each other, and both didnt get anywhere.

"Maybe its side effects." Luke said after a moment. They all stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"That... actually makes sense." Bianca looked at him with a smile. Luke tried to think about how young her grin was, and how Annabeth used to smile the same way.

"Okay," Leo said slowly, putting his hands up. "This is just side effects. I'll keep coming back to the underworld for a few minutes of fun. And--" He was cut off by a resurgence of energy filling his body. With a gasp of breath, his eyes opened to see Calypso standing above him. Her eyes were wet as she suddenly stopped shaking him to wake up, and instead grabbed his shoulders.

"What was that? Your heart, it stopped."

"Yeah," Leo drawled the word out and pulled his hair behind his ears. "Just some small side effects."

"Small?" Calypso raised an eyebrow before helping him stand up. "I'm glad you're not really dead. Should I be expecting more of your slightly dead naps?"

"I think so."

-

For a few weeks, they got no where. At first, Leo spent more time dead than alive. The first day was the worst, he would only spend a few seconds alive before dying. By the second day, his record was five minutes. Calypso put a hydrating charm on him so at least he wouldn't actually die.

After one week of Leo staying there, strange things started to happen. Before, Ogygia was monster free. Everything on the island was so dandelion happy, besides being an eternal prison. Now, invisible monsters have been attacling them. While Leo remains useless since he's barely alive, Calypso puts up a protective charm around the two of the them.

After two weeks, things got even stranger. At that point, Leo could stay alive for a few hours at most. He was teaching Calypso some modern day things for when she returned, when something crashed on their roof. They rushed outside only to see Festus, returning loyally to his creator. While trying to drag the bronze dragon, it start to rain poison.

The water hit their skins, only to burn them. Leo had never been burned before dying, but the poison wasn't fire. It started to make their skin turn red then black, then no skin. By the time they managed to get Festus inside, their skin was intense with pain.

"What do you think caused it?" Leo asked. He was repairing Festus, seeing as the dragon was barely functioning. Festus had been through as much as Leo had.

"Maybe it's the curse being lifted." Calypso pulled her hair out of her face so she could help Leo in whatever way she can. "Maybe it's the side effects of my prison."