{Lina}
LINA WAS ANGRY. Angry at Piper, but also angry at herself. She knew that they might be in danger but she still let her emotions get the best of her and she stormed away. She had only gotten to the sewer when she already regretted her actions. She had only stayed there for a few minutes, calming down, before she got into the elevator again. It was as the doors were opening that she heard Piper's yell and her head snapped up towards the direction of her voice before looking down. She was horrified at the sight of the two boys battling against the dragons and had immediately jumped down to help them.
It was only until the underground mall was no longer in her sight that Lina noticed Piper sending her small glances every so often. She wanted to snap at the girl, to blame her but she couldn't knowing it wasn't Piper's fault. It was her own, she never should have left them. But those glances, they annoyed her.
Finally deciding on ignoring the girl, Lina sighed and laid her cheek on Jason's shoulder. She had a lot on her mind with this quest. Questions popped up, like how did Khione know her? How did any of the people they've met know her? Will she keep meeting people that supposedly know her? And why was Jason glancing at her so often?
She could tell something bad, she wasn't sure that was the exact word to describe it, had happened while she was gone. Both boys seemed tense, but withdrawn at the same time as if they were apologetic. Lina wanted to ask what had happened, she was way too curious but it seemed like a bad memory so she didn't. She could hear Piper and Leo saying something up front but she couldn't quite hear so she let it go.
Suddenly Leo spoke, "We're going to have to put down soon," he warned. "Couple more hours, maybe, to make sure Medea's not following us I don't think Festus can fly much longer than that."
Lina nodded. "Yeah," Piper also agreed. "Coach Hedge probably wants to get out of his canary cage, too. Question is—where are we going?"
Lina slightly perked up at the thought of finally meeting the satyr she had heard so much about.
"The Bay Area," Lina glanced at Leo as he guessed. "Didn't Medea say something about Oakland?"
Lina looked at the trio curiously wondering what they were talking about. She figured it was something she missed from her leaving.
Jason's voice brought Lina back. "Piper's dad," Jason put in and Lina's eyes widened. "Something's happened to your dad, right? He got lured into some trap."
Lina watched as Piper let out a shaky breath. "Look, Madea said you both die in the Bay Area." The blonde didn't miss the glance Piper gave her. "And besides ... even if we went there, the Bay Area is huge! First we need to find Aeolus and drop off the storm spirits. Boreas said Aeolus was the only one who could tell us exactly where to go."
Leo grunted. "So how do we find Aeolus?"
Jason leaned forward pulling Lina along with him. "You mean you don't see it?" He pointed ahead of them, but Lina couldn't see anything just the regular old sky and judging but the looks of confusion the others couldn't either.
"It's like a vapor trail," Jason said. "Except it's glowing. Really faint but definitely there. We've been following it since Chicago, so I figured you saw it."
Lina could barely hold back a snort and the rest of her laughter.
Leo shook his head. "Maybe Festus can sense it. You think Aeolus made it?"
"Well, it's a magic trail in the wind." Jason said.
Lina could feel her body shaking.
"Aeolus is the wind god. I think he know we've got prisoners for him. He's telling us where to fly." Jason finished and he peered down curiously at Lina's shaking figure.
Lina couldn't help it. Once they had started talking about glowing wind trails and such her mind had turned into a joke rest stop. It took everything for her not to blurt one out as they carried on with this somber mood. Lina moved her hand to grab Jason's as she tried to anchor herself and stop her laughter.
Luckily it seemed as Piper had already fallen asleep when Lina came down from her laughing fit. Her hand still clutching Jason's. His eyes looking at her in confusion as he waited for her to explain herself.
"So are we not going to talk about how Superman here sees glowing magic trails in the sky." Was all that left Lina's mouth.
A snort and a deep sigh was all she heard before her eyes closed, tired from her laughter.
. . . . . .
{Leo}
In his dream, he heard a voice full of static, like a bad AM radio: "Hello? Is this thing working?"
Leo's vision came into focus—sort of. Everything was hazy and gray, with bands of interference running across his sight. He'd never dreamed with a bad connection before.
He seemed to be in a workshop. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw bench saws, metal lathes, and tool cages. A forge glowed cheerfully against one wall.
It wasn't the camp forge—too big. Not Bunker 9—much warmer and more comfortable, obviously not abandoned.
Then Leo realized something was blocking the middle of his view—something large and fuzzy, and so close, Leo had to cross his eyes to see it properly. It was a large ugly face.
"Holy mother!" he yelped.
The face backed away and came into focus. Staring down at him was a bearded man in grimy blue coveralls. His face was lumpy and covered with welts, as if he'd been bitten by a million bees, or dragged across gravel. Possibly both.
"Humph," the man said. "Holy father, boy. I should think you'd know the difference."
Leo blinked. "Hephaestus?"
Being in the presence of his father for the first time, Leo probably should've been speechless or awestruck or something. But after what he'd been through the last couple of days, with Cyclopes and a sorceress and a face in the potty sludge, all Leo felt was a surge of complete annoyance.
"Now you show up?" he demanded. "After fifteen years? Great parenting, Fur Face. Where do you get off sticking your
ugly nose into my dreams?"
The god raised an eyebrow. A little spark caught fire in his
beard. Then he threw back his head and laughed so loudly, the tools rattled on the workbenches.
"You sound just like your mother," Hephaestus said. "I miss Esperanza."
"She's been dead seven years." Leo's voice trembled. "Not that you'd care."
"But I do care, boy. About both of you."
"Uh-huh. Which is why I never saw you before today."
The god made a rumbling sound in his throat, but he
looked more uncomfortable than angry. He pulled a miniature motor from his pocket and began fiddling absently with the pistons—just the way Leo did when he was nervous.
"I'm not good with children," the god confessed. "Or people.
Well, any organic life forms, really. I thought about speaking to you at your mom's funeral. Then again when you were in fifth grade ... that science project you made, steam- powered chicken chucker. Very impressive."
"You saw that?"
Hephaestus pointed to the nearest worktable, where a shiny bronze mirror showed a hazy image of Leo asleep on the dragon's back.
"Is that me?" Leo asked. "Like—me right now, having this dream—looking at me having a dream?"
Hephaestus scratched his beard. "Now you've confused me. But yes—it's you. I'm always keeping an eye on you, Leo. But talking to you is, um ... different."
"You're scared," Leo said.
"Grommets and gears!" the god yelled. "Of course not!"
"Yeah, you're scared." But Leo's anger seeped away. He'd
spent years thinking about what he'd say to his dad if they ever met—how Leo would chew him out for being a deadbeat. Now, looking at that bronze mirror, Leo thought about his dad watching his progress over the years, even his stupid science experiments.
Maybe Hephaestus was still a jerk, but Leo kind of understood where he was coming from. Leo knew about running away from people, not fitting in. He knew about hiding out in a workshop rather than trying to deal with organic life forms.
"So," Leo grumbled, "you keep track of all your kids? You got like twelve back at camp. How'd you even—Never mind. I don't want to know."
Hephaestus might've blushed, but his face was so beat up and red, it was hard to tell. "Gods are different from mortals, boy. We can exist in many places at once—wherever people call on us, wherever our sphere of influence is strong. In fact, it's rare our entire essence is ever together in one place—our true form. It's dangerous, powerful enough to destroy any mortal who looks upon us. So, yes ... lots of children. Add to that our different aspects, Greek and Roman—" The god's fingers froze on his engine project. "Er, that is to say, being a god is complicated. And yes, I try to keep an eye on all my children, but you especially."
Leo was pretty sure Hephaestus had almost slipped and said something important, but he wasn't sure what.
"Why contact me now?" Leo asked. "I thought the gods had gone silent."
"We have," Hephaestus grumped. "Zeus's orders—very strange, even for him. He's blocked all visions, dreams, and Iris-messages to and from Olympus. Hermes is sitting around bored out of his mind because he can't deliver the mail. Fortunately, I kept my old pirate broadcasting equipment."
Hephaestus patted a machine on the table. It looked like a combination satellite dish, V-6 engine, and espresso maker. Each time Hephaestus jostled the machine, Leo's dream flickered and changed color.
"Used this in the Cold War," the god said fondly. "Radio Free Hephaestus. Those were the days. I keep it around for pay-for-view, mostly, or making viral brain videos—"
"Viral brain videos?"
"But now it's come in handy again. If Zeus knew I was contacting you, he'd have my hide."
"Why is Zeus being such a jerk?"
"Hrumph. He excels at that, boy." Hephaestus called him boy as if Leo were an annoying machine part—an extra washer, maybe, that had no clear purpose, but that Hephaestus didn't want to throw away for fear he might need it someday.
Not exactly heartwarming. Then again, Leo wasn't sure he wanted to be called "son." Leo wasn't about to start calling this big awkward ugly guy "Dad."
Hephaestus got tired of his engine and tossed it over his shoulder. Before it could hit the floor, it sprouted helicopter wings and flew itself into a recycling bin.
"It was the second Titan War, I suppose," Hephaestus said. "That's what got Zeus upset. We gods were ... well, embarrassed. Don't think there's any other way to say it."
"But you won," Leo said.
The god grunted. "We won because the demigods of" —again he hesitated, as if he'd almost made a slip—"of Camp Half-Blood took the lead. We won because our children fought our battles for us, smarter than we did. If we'd relied on Zeus's plan, we would've all gone down to Tartarus fighting the storm giant Typhon, and Kronos would've won. Bad enough mortals won our war for us, but then those young upstarts, Percy Jackson and Li—"
"The guy who's missing."
"Hmph. Yes. Him. He had the nerve to turn down our offer of immortality and tell us to pay better attention to our children. Er, no offense."
"Oh, how could I take offense? Please, go on ignoring me."
"Mighty understanding of you ..." Hephaestus frowned, then sighed wearily. "That was sarcasm, wasn't it? Machines don't have sarcasm, usually. But as I was saying, the gods felt ashamed, shown up by mortals. At first, of course, we were grateful. But after a few months, those feelings turned bitter. We're gods, after all. We need to be admired, looked up to, held in awe and admiration."
"Even if you're wrong?"
"Especially then! And to have Jackson refuse our gift, as if being mortal were somehow better than being a god... well, that stuck in Zeus's craw. He decided it was high time we got back to traditional values. Gods were to be respected. Our children were to be seen and not visited. Olympus was closed. At least that was part of his reasoning. And, of course, we started hearing of bad things stirring under the earth."
"The giants, you mean. Monsters re-forming instantly. The dead rising again. Little stuff like that?"
"Aye, boy." Hephaestus turned a knob on his pirate broadcasting machine. Leo's dream sharpened to full color, but the god's face was such a riot of red welts and yellow and black bruises, Leo wished it would go back to black and white.
"Zeus thinks he can reverse the tide," the god said, "lull the earth back to sleep as long as we stay quiet. None of us really believes that. And I don't mind saying, we're in no shape to fight another war. We barely survived the Titans. If we're repeating the old pattern, what comes next is even worse."
"The giants," Leo said. "Hera said demigods and gods had to join forces to defeat them. Is that true?"
"Mmm. I hate to agree with my mother about anything, but yes. Those giants are tough to kill, boy. They're a different breed."
"Breed? You make them sound like racehorses."
"Ha!" the god said. "More like war dogs. Back in the beginning, y'see, everything in creation came from the same parents—Gaea and Ouranos, Earth and Sky. They had their different batches of children—your Titans, your Elder Cyclopes, and so forth. Then Kronos, the head Titan—well, you've probably heard how he chopped up his father Ouranos with a scythe and took over the world. Then we gods came along, children of the Titans, and defeated them. But that wasn't the end of it. The earth bore a new batch of children, except they were sired by Tartarus, the spirit of the eternal abyss—the darkest, most evil place in the Underworld. Those children, the giants, were bred for one purpose—revenge on us for the fall of the Titans. They rose up to destroy Olympus, and they came awfully close."
Hephaestus's beard began to smolder. He absently swatted out the flames. "What my blasted mother Hera is doing now—she's a meddling fool playing a dangerous game, but she's right about one thing: you demigods have to unite. That's the only way to open Zeus's eyes, convince the Olympians they must accept your help.
And that's the only way to defeat what's coming.You're a big part of that, Leo."
The god's gaze seemed far away. Leo wondered if really could split himself into different parts—where else was he right now? Maybe his Greek side was fixing a car or going on a date, while his Roman side was watching a ball game and ordering pizza. Leo tried to imagine what it would feel like to have multiple personalities. He hoped it wasn't hereditary.
"Why me?" he asked, and as soon as he said it, more questions flooded out. "Why claim me now? Why not when I was thirteen, like you're supposed to? Or you could've claimed me at seven, before my mom died! Why didn't you find me earlier? Why didn't you warn me about this?"
Leo's hand burst into flames.
Hephaestus regarded him sadly. "Hardest part, boy. Letting my children walk their own paths. Interfering doesn't work. The Fates make sure of that. As for the claiming, you were a special case, boy. The timing had to be right. I can't explain it much more, but—"
Leo's dream went fuzzy. Just for a moment, it turned into a rerun of Wheel of Fortune. Then Hephaestus came back into focus.
"Blast," he said. "I can't talk much longer. Zeus is sensing an illegal dream. He is lord of the air, after all, including the airwaves. Just listen, boy: you have a role to play. Your friend Jason is right—fire is a gift, not a curse. I don't give that blessing to just anyone. They'll never defeat the giants without you, much less the mistress they serve. She's worse than any god or Titan."
"Who?" Leo demanded.
Hephaestus frowned, his image becoming fuzzier. "I told you. Yes, I'm pretty sure I told you. Just be warned: along the way, you're going to lose some friends and some valuable tools.
But that isn't your fault, Leo. Nothing lasts forever, not even the best machines. And everything can be reused."
"What do you mean? I don't like the sound of that."
"No, you shouldn't." Hephaestus's image was barely visible now, just a blob in the static. "Just watch out for—"
Leo's dream switched to Wheel of Fortune just as the wheel hit Bankrupt and the audience said, "Awwww!"
Then Leo snapped awake to Jason and Piper screaming and Lina's colorful language.
hi it's your least favorite author back with another chapter. i'm sorry i was gone for so long i had a huge case of writer's block and literally did not want to continue the book but i have gotten over it and have blessed you all with another chapter. i want to thank a lot of you for your comments they really helped me and pushed me to keep writing. ALSO THANK YOU ALL FOR 22k READS OMG. i hope you guys don't mind the p.o.v switch i just thought Leo's dream was really important in the book which is why i wanted to include it. ANYWAY enough of me babbling on, see you lovelies in the next chapter!!!!