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After the “Incident Which Should Never Be Named” (as threatened by a sopping wet Clarisse) in the Counsellor Meeting that morning, Leo had been looking forward to a nice, quiet day of working on the Argo II, hopefully finishing up the minor pending work on the hull. Just Festus for company, a couple of his siblings for assistance, maybe Piper or Jason to chill with after a hard day’s work. A nice, quiet Sunday.
But of course, Leo made plans, and not one but twelve gods laughed.
“Yeah, no.” Piper pulled herself up from underneath Buford the Table, where Leo had managed to pull Jason and Piper, the minute Harley burst into Bunker Nine, threatening utter demolition with his godsforsaken contraption. “I’m out, Leo. This is the third time that stupid thing has threatened to explode in this week alone, and each time all we’ve done is hope that by sheer dumb luck it doesn’t blow up. It’s gonna happen sooner or later, and I am not going to be here for it.”
“Oh, have some faith,” Leo said, although frankly he didn’t have much himself. He didn’t make a move to get out from his hiding place next to Jason. “Harley knows what he’s doing. He’s not going to let us get blown up by a robot. If he was going to kill us, it would be by a more complex invention than a basic assemble-it-yourself robot kit even Jason could build. Think bigger and cooler like—like a—what are kids into these days? Transformers? Like a transformer. Like Megatron.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel better.”
Piper sounded so dry. Leo stuck his tongue out at her.
Jason frowned. “What do you mean by “even Jason could build it”?”
“I mean that even you could build it, Jason. Kind of self explanatory.”
“If Jason had built it, I would have already scrammed from here,” Piper said over Jason’s half-hearted protests. “He manages to fry video game consoles. His ability to mess up technology is unparalleled. Harley on the other hand got his three chances. Bye guys.”
Leo caught Piper’s hand just as she turned to stride out of Bunker Nine and used it to pull himself up. Piper sighed, but stood there and allowed Leo to rise to his feet. Behind them, Jason crawled out from underneath the refuge of Buford.
“The point is the robot hasn’t blown up on all three chances,” Nyssa said, grinning as she walked up to them. Jake and her had immediately ducked under another work table on the other side of the bunker. Piper sighed again. Nyssa‘s grin grew wider. “It’s fine. Jake’s been doing some tweaks on it since Harley got it as a Christmas gift. They’re finally getting somewhere with it.”
“I thought you guys put all other projects on hold until you finished the Argo II?” said Jason, eyes flitting from Nyssa to Leo.
Leo shrugged. “We take breaks , Jason. We’re only human. Half-human. Whatever.”
“You took a break from building...to build?” Piper asked.
“Don’t question our methods, please.”
Piper threw her hands up in surrender. “You said you guys had something to show us?”
“Oh, yeah,” Nyssa said brightly. “Despite all the...breaks, we have been making a lot of progress on the ship. In fact—Leo you’ll be doing the honours?”
Leo smiled at his sister, ignoring the way his stomach suddenly jumped in nervousness. He made a gesture at his friends, hopefully to indicate a cheery come on guys! but his hands felt shaky and sweaty, a strange amalgamation of nerves and excitement. They followed him a little ways inside. Nyssa said something to their brothers, and Harley came bounding behind them, Jake following a little more carefully, still leaning on his crutches.
Leo approached a work table littered with blueprints and scraps of graph paper. It was old, covered with all kind of unholy marks from accidents that had taken place decades ago, but it was still incredibly sturdy.
Jason raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is this another Buford—?”
“It isn’t,” Leo promised. He patted the work table to prove its lack of sentience. He picked up a piece of paper from the scattered pile and brandished it in front of them. “Look familiar?”
Jason took the blueprint Leo was holding out to him. “It’s the Argo II.”
“Uh huh.” Leo cleared his throat. “Okay! So you guys are the very first non-Cabin Nine witnesses to this, so you’ve gotta keep this on the down low till we finish testing. That said, no matter how the testing goes, you’ll still be on board this ship, so really, it makes no difference.”
Piper raised her hand. “If testing goes badly you’ll have to fix it, right?”
“Yeah,” Jake said. “If it goes really badly and we have the time.”
“It won’t,” Leo reassured Piper. “It’s going to be perfect. But anyway, moving on! As the first boarders of this kick-ass ship we thought you guys deservedly first look at how it’s coming along.” He indicated the blue print in Jason’s hands. He mustered up some bravado he wasn’t really feeling. “Want to see glory brought to life?”
Without waiting for an answer, Leo took a few short steps over to the tarp covered Argo II and pulled down the covers.
It looked magnificent. It was spectacular in size and beauty, Leo’s greatest invention yet. There was still some tinkering left to do, but all in all, most of the heavy duty work on the trireme was finished—it stretched 200 feet in length, its newly completed hull bright and shiny, with giant crossbows and banks of oars, a Greek ship from the storybooks.
The most breathtaking part of the ship though, was its masthead. Bronze and massive, Festus’ head gleamed under the artificial lights of Bunker Nine, a looming dragon head that spewed roaring flames. Leo allowed himself to admire the ship for a second more before turning to his friends. “So. What do you guys—OOF! Harley, bro, you have already seen this.” His little brother had slammed into him in excitement, throwing his arms around Leo’s mid-section in a crushing hug. Leo patted Harley’s head. “Pretty neat, huh?”
“Okay— wow ,” Piper said, eyes as big as saucers as she took in the sight of the (mostly) completed Argo II. “Guys, Leo, this...this is—“
“One spankin’ hot war machine,” Jake offered, getting a light jab from Nyssa for his troubles.
“It’s amazing, Leo,” Jason said. He sounded stunned. “It’s perfect.” He gave Leo a wide, blinding smile before turning to Nyssa and Jake. “Really, guys...this is perfect.”
“Well, you’ve got Leo to thank for that,” Jake said. “He really held it altogether throughout the entire project.”
“Aw, guys,” Leo said, Harley still hanging on to him in a vice grip. He tried his best to smile at his siblings and friends.
“We clearly made the right choice for Head Counsellor,” Nyssa chimed in. “Party cabin, you said? Well, we hadn’t managed to build anything after the curse, let alone fix Festus and build an entire Greek war ship from scratch. Not since the war. Not since Beckendorf.”
“Okay, guys,” Leo untangled himself gently from Harley’s embrace. He gave a small laugh. “That’s enough gassing me up for today. Don’t want my head to get so big it can’t fit inside the cabin doors—speaking of which!” He turned to Piper and Jason, and forced some brightness into his voice. “Want to take a look inside? It’s pretty cool; has a mess hall with a holographic scenery and eight mini cabins, and stables for the pegasi. I’ll give you a tour.”
Jason studied his face for a moment too long. “Okay.”
“Cool,” Leo said, already moving forward, “Come on in then—“
“You guys coming too?” Piper asked Nyssa.
“It’s okay,” Leo said quickly. “I’ve been boring them with the finer details for weeks now. If you want, you guys can carry on to lunch without me. I’ll join you later.”
“You sure?” Jake asked. “We can wait for you if you want.”
“I’m sure,” Leo promised. “It’s getting pretty late, the others are probably waiting for us. You three go ahead. I’ll show Jason and Piper around.”
“If you say so,” Nyssa said, tugging along Harley. “Don’t be too long alright?”
“You got it, ma’am.” Leo waited till his siblings exited Cabin Nine, waving goodbye at him and his friends. It was only when they were well out of earshot that Leo turned to his friends. “Okay, so there’s still some work to do, but let me show you—“
“Just a minute,” Piper turned to him and raised an eyebrow. She was leaning against the work table studying Leo’s face with intent.
“What was that about?” she asked, not unkindly.
“What was what?”
“You looked kind of uncomfortable there,” Jason noted. “Everything alright, man?”
Of course his friends had noticed. Leo hadn’t been doing that great a job of hiding his nerves after all. His siblings had probably picked up on it too.
“Nyssa and Jake seem really happy and proud of you,” Piper began. “And Harley too, but he usually is anyway. I don’t know them that well, of course, but they seem...lighter. Happier than they’ve ever been.”
“They also seem nice,” Jason volunteered.
“Yeah, no, no, they are,” Leo said. “They are nice. Real nice. They’re good people.”
“Just not your day?” Piper asked.
Leo fiddled with his tool belt zipper. “No, it’s not anything. I just…” He sighed. “They are sweet. And nice. And happier than before. They’re also very proud of me—“
“So are we.”
Leo smiled. “Thanks guys. That means a lot. But yeah. They’re really good. Good siblings. It’s just—“ He twisted his hands together. “It’s weird? I have so many siblings all of a sudden. And they all like me. They’re proud of me and they like hanging out with me and they’ve made me cabin counsellor. They trust me. They trust me to lead, and they trust me to build giant Greek triremes for world ending quests. It’s just been a long time since I’ve had family so warm and welcoming. I’ve missed it.” Family so trusting.
“Oh, Leo,” Piper started.
Leo shrugged and went over to join Piper, seating himself on the work table. “And, there’s also. They’ve all known each other for so long. They’ve lived through a war together and have all these inside jokes...they take time to explain them to me, but it’s not really the same. I’ve got such huge shoes to fill, and they’re all expecting me to—I don’t know, live up to the last counsellor, Beckendorf, who seems to have been this all-round amazing guy, and I don’t know. I feel like I’m setting them up for disappointment.”
“You’re not,” Jason said. “You’re a great counsellor. They just know it already.”
“I’m good with machines,” Leo said. “I’m good with building stuff, and making inventions, and building Greek triremes; and that may be okay for the cabin of a metalworking god. But it’s not enough. I still need to lead . And I’m...I’m not good with people.”
Not in the way head counsellors were supposed to be. Not in the way siblings were. His father’s words rang in his ears. Give me a machine any day.
“You’re good with us,” Jason said.
“Jason,” Leo said, but he couldn’t find anything else to say so he just sighed.
“If it means anything, I feel like that too, sometimes,” Piper said after a while. “Everyone in the Aphrodite cabin, all of the older campers in general...I feel they’re expecting someone else. And I thought, maybe they wanted someone else instead of me, but it’s more like they’re expecting Silena. It’s difficult not to feel like a fraud.”
“Wow, Pipes,” Leo said, feeling a smile begin to form on his face. “No one went as far as fraud .”
Piper rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean.”
“ I feel like a fraud,” Jason said, mournfully, getting startled snorts from both Piper and Leo. “Not just with Thalia. Everyone here sees me as some—Percy replacement. And Percy seems to have been everywhere, done everything, been friends with everyone. I just seem to be some harsh reminder. Plus someone not supposed to be alive .”
“I’m sure it’s the same at your Roman Camp,” Leo said. “People constantly sizing him up, comparing him to the memory of you. We’ll be meeting him soon enough.”
“You think he’ll be nice?” Piper asked. “I mean if they all like him so much, he’s got to be nice, right? We’ll have to quest with him.”
“He blew up a volcano once, apparently,” Leo said.
Piper tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “He can still be nice.”
They lapsed into a quiet, comfortable silence. At some point Piper’s head had come to rest on Leo’s shoulder and Jason had slid down to the floor, leaning against Leo’s legs.
“You think it would have been easier?” Piper asked them. “If we had got to know everyone here before the war? As just regular campers instead of the new prophecy kids?”
“Maybe,” Jason said. “I don’t know if I would be here though. Under different circumstances.”
“And we couldn’t have that,” Leo said, jostling Jason’s shoulder lightly. That earned him a small smile.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway,” Piper said. “This is what we got. And it’s not bad. They’re good people, and today’s Counsellor Meeting was fun—“
“We have very different definitions of fun.”
Piper ignored him. “Everyone’s just a little tired I guess. It being their second war in as many years.”
And they probably missed them. Leo thought. Grief workEd in weird ways. “I’d have like to know him. Beckendorf.”
“Me too,” Piper agreed. “And Silena. She seemed like someone who would have had more answers.”
“We’ll have time,” Jason said. “After this quest. We can figure things out. All we have to do is survive this prophecy. Beat Gaea.”
“Easy peasy,” Leo said.
Piper’s smile was the ghost of a grin. “Things are going to change again, aren’t they? With the Romans, with Percy Jackson...things are constantly going to be changing.”
So many things had already changed. Most for the better. Some for the worse. Leo felt decades older than he was, but this he wouldn’t give up for anything: sitting with Jason and Piper, knowing for once in his life after his Mom, he had people to fall back on. Knowing for once that he had friends he could count on with his life. He had a chance at a home too. Siblings, friends, a different life. There was a prophecy that threatened pain, a war on the horizon, Gaea rising. Most days those reminders was a lingering black burn on the edges of his brain, taunting him as he worked on the Argo II. What was this all for? What were they going to find when they set sail?
But sometimes...if Leo tried hard enough, he could imagine a good life on the other side of all of it. He would come back to Camp, hopefully connect more with his siblings, maybe (ugh, why did Piper have to put it into words) feel less like a fraud. And Piper and Jason. He’d have them.
To storm or fire, the world must fall.
Leo quashed the bad feeling in his chest down and squeezed Piper’s hand. Maybe Nyssa was right. He had a responsibility now, more than ever, to ensure that this quest went smoothly. More than that, he had a responsibility to keep this team together.
“Hey, we’ll be fine,” he said, to both of them. “Things are going to change. Maybe massively. Probably massively. But we’ll be fine. We always are.”
“Yeah,” Piper said. “I guess. And in any case, we have each other.”
Soon, they would set sail to the Roman Camp; pick up Percy Jackson and their new quest mates. The Argo II would be tested, and so would they, travelling to the ancient lands for one final showdown with the earth mother. There wasn’t much they could do about it, not much they could learn in these few weeks they’d have before the journey. But still.
“We have each other,” Leo agreed.
Huh. He thought, as Piper snuggled her head deeper into his side and Jason drew closer, beginning to ask questions about the Argo II. A nice, quiet Sunday after all.