Caleo - Finding Calypso

19 / Between Seconds

"Woah, wait up. I'm dying?" I said. "Since when? And what signs?"

"Think, Leo Valdez. You're meant to be smart."

So I did think.

"What,you mean the pains in my chest, and um... my fire powers? They've not not been working?"

There was no reply.

"You're the one who wants to talk to me!" I snapped, "So talk! Show yourself!"

There was a soft buzzing in my ears. The hairs on the back if my neck stood on end.

I turned around and saw a tall, elegant figure standing behind me, dressed in a full length grey cloak with a hood covering their face.

In one fluid motion she (you could tell it was a 'she') raised both hands and pushed back the cloak.

It took me a few minutes for my brain to actually process what I was seeing.

Because it just plain didn't make sense.

The lady standing in front if me was...

...Calypso.

Creamy smooth skin, hazel eyes, a smatter of freak led across her cheeks and long chestnut hair.

"Calypso?" I asked finally.

Amusement danced through the lady's eyes.

"No, Leo Valdez." she said, "I can understand your confusion. My sister and I do look very similar."

Wow, backtrack, what?

"Your sister?" I said stupidly.

She didn't even bother repeating herself.

"Ok." I said, my brain working over-time to process everything. "So, can we go back to the part were I die?"

"You've been poisoned." she said obviously.

"Um, ok... So why are you helping me?" I asked.

"At this camp of yours, they teach you about the Titans?" she asked, I nodded. "They teach you that they are evil?"

"Well, yeah, they are." I pointed out.

"All of then? All the time? Leo Valdez, I am Maera, daughter of Atlas. Am I evil? Am I worse than the gods? I love sister Leo Valdez. More than the gods love their brothers and sisters. Being the daughter of a Titan does not make me incapable of love. You know this."

My eyes teared up slightly at the last remark.

"She loves you, Leo Valdez. So so much. And I know that you love her and that you will take care if her. So I have been helping you. To help her."

"If you love her so much?" I asked, suddenly suspicious, "Then why didn't you help her all that time she was trapped on Ogigia?"

She paused for a minute, considering her answer before saying,

"The time was not right. My sister needed to learn a lesson. Our father lost the war. The gods won. She needed to realise that our father could not help her, but the gods could. She needed to learn to be loyal to the gods."

"So now you decide to help me rescue her. You've not exactly been doing a very good job of that have you? My friend was stabbed. I've been forced to betray my friends. And when I actually find Calypso, she's with that boy! How exactly have you helped!?" I ask angrily.

"I got your memories back for you after Nemesis stole them." she says calmly. "I guided you when you were lost. I have protected you from the tens of monsters who would have hunted you. And I have been fighting the poison planted inside you, slowing it's progress, but not able to stop it completely."

"Oh yeah," I say, "I forgot about the poison. Tell me again how I got poisoned in the first place?"

Anger still bubbled inside me, threatening to erupt, but if this lady, Maera, is my only chance to get back to Calypso alive, then I need all the help she has to offer.

"There is ice, inside you, Leo Valdez." Maera says, suddenly serious, "Planted there by the Ice Princess Khione. It has been spreading through you. Trying to consume and destroy you."

"But I defeated Khione." I argue. "She tried to freeze me, but I stabbed her."

"You were to late. The damage was already done. You should be dead by now from the Ice Witches poison. I have kept you alive but my power is limited and now, it begins to fail. If you return to the mortal world, as you soon must, then death with claim you and you will leave Calypso alone. I cannot allow this."

"So you'll help me?" I ask hopefully, "You'll cure me?"

"I cannot." she said sadly. "There is a magic at work here, greater the Khione's. Greater than mine. I can't keep you here for long. You will return to your world. And then, you will die."

A/N - I've been on holiday which is why I haven't updated for ages. Sorry. But I do have a life, impossible though it may be to believe.

I've made this chapter extra long, so hopefully I am now forgiven?

Next update will be really soon.

To those of you who are screaming - FROZEN!!! Believe if or not, I actually came up with the story line before I watched the film.