Storm and Fire

Sacrifice

Leo's POV

I've been lying to all of my friends. Just my closest ones. 

I was going to tell them about the astrolabe. I was going to tell them about what I did in Ogygia. What I said. But I just couldn't. 

Percy was the only one of us who's ever been on that god's forsaken island besides me, and I know he'd think I was insane for swearing on the styx to coming back. Annabeth and Piper wouldn't have it, and Jason... I couldn't tell him.

I had never seen Frank cry before, and it wasn't a sight I would ever welcome again. Especially crying on my behalf. I was right to tell him and Hazel about my plan. They understood why I had to do it. It was Piper who suggested that the "'world" we'd be defeating from the prophecy could be Gaia herself. And I couldn't let Jason sacrifice himself to kill her. Not after everything she's done. And not when I have an opportunity to save Calypso.

It was hard, keeping it from Piper and Jason. I know they could tell I was hiding something. And my frequent meetings with Frank and Hazel probably weren't helping my case. Whenever Jason tried to bring up the prophecy, I turned him down immediately. I knew what would happen. I would make it happen. And he can't be a part of it. After we retrieved the physician's cure, my plan was finally in motion. Secretly I installed the cure into Festus's hidden panels and crafted a fake.

Hazel looked like she was going to be sick when she took it from me. I felt guilty for including her in my deception, but I needed this plan to be foolproof. I needed everyone to feel okay. At least until it was time to pop their bubble.

Now that all I had to do was wait, it became easier to act like everything was fine. I still made my stupid jokes. I mocked Piper as usual, and teased Jason about his new glasses. 

They thought I was back to normal. 

It must've just been the stress. 

They weren't wrong. It was the stress. Just not for the reason they think. Every night I would check the astrolabe that I installed in Festus' brain. I'd stare at the crystal from Calypso's cave, and how it reflected that orange that the celestial bronze would give off all over the deck.

On top of the whole "sacrificing myself to fuck off to a magical island" thing, I was also secretly completely rebuilding a metal dragon on the lowest deck, which I promptly closed off to everyone but me for "plumbing" reasons.

The closer I got to success the more exhausted I looked. It didn't help that Gaia haunted my every waking and sleeping moment. Her dirt face is permanently burned into my mind, always there, like she was watching me. I had to end her.