Blood of Olympus FanFic {completed}

60: LEO

CH 60- LEO

The entire battle seemed to have been paused, as a loud and terrible rumbling laughter shook the cavern. Demigods screamed and quite a few of them passed out on the spot. Monsters disintegrated. Even the giants covered their ears, in obvious pain. As for the gods, most of them had sat down on rocks, or were conversing in whispers, looking worried and prepared for the worst.

Finally Enceladus stood up, hovering drunkenly over everybody. "You know what this means!" he crowed. "The Earth Mother's awake!" 

Raucous laughter almost as terrible as Gaea's filled the cavern again. Leo waited until it died down, his anger rising in his chest like fire. Maybe it was because he remembered Enceladus kidnapping and torturing Tristan McLean - who had died for Leo and his friends - but he wanted nothing more than to kill Enceladus.

"You know what?" he said, his voice much louder than it usually was. "I think I like my enchiladas toasted."

And he shot fire at the giant who twisted in agony as it burnt him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Athena stab through the flames right at the giant's heart, and... Enceladus collapsed, most certainly dead.

The other giants backed away from Leo in shock. 

"You killed him!" one howled.

"No," said a cool female voice. "We did." And Leo looked over at Athena who was giving him the smallest of smiles. "I do enjoy a witty death," she said.

Leo looked over at his father, Hephaestus, who was looking disgruntled.

"Leo!" Jason and Percy were sprinting towards him. Percy was sporting a bloody lip, and Jason was wincing and holding his left arm gingerly.

"Hey, I can fix that," Apollo said, stepping forward and flashing a blinding white-toothed smile. He waved his hand, and suddenly Percy's lip was back to normal, and Jason was no longer wincing.

"Thanks," Jason said, and Percy nodded, agreeing.

"Don't sweat it, guys. Do you wanna hear a sonnet?"

"I thought you were into haikus," Percy countered.

"Nah, haikus are lame. Sonnets are much cooler. Like, I wrote this one the other day called Swag..."

"Maybe we'll save it for later," Jason interrupted, and Apollo looked slightly crestfallen. "The point is Gaea's awake. So why are we sitting around in the room instead of trying to fight her?"

"Because we can't, genius-boy," snapped a voice and to Leo's surprise it was Aphrodite who had spoken. "There are powerful enchantments on that door - enchantments that will only have increased, now that Gaea's awake. They will only enable anyone to get in once all seven of you have braved the room... which will be even harder, now that Gaea's awoken."

"So what are we waiting for?" Leo asked. "Jason, Percy... come on!"

Neither of them moved. 

"Leo," Jason said. "If whatever we have to face in that room when Gaea was slumbering was hard to beat, it's probably impossible to face it if she's awake. To top it, we don't even know what we have to face."

Leo couldn't believe that Jason - the bravest guy he knew - was saying this. "So?" he demanded. "We did it before: like I said, we need fire water and air to fight Earth!"

"What are you trying to say?" asked Athena, looking more and more interested.

"I'm saying that Percy, Jason and I should go into that room together. When we fought Gaea together, we managed to save everybody."