The Fire In Me (A Leo Valdez Love Story)

The Goddess of Knowledge Makes My Brain Swell Up

Hephaestus?! But, how could that be? I made a quick look towards Leo, who had presumed to sink to the ground, looking shocked. I ran over to him, and wrapped him up in a big hug, as big as I could get it. He just sat there, that look of shock permanently disrupting his face. I started crying. Crying about everything that we had been through together, everything we had said to each other, everything we had done together, and how all of that could be lost with one wrong turn.

Then Leo put his arm around me, and all my worries melted away. My tears ceased to flow down my cheeks, and I sighed with relief. Then someone else put a hand on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Jason, his blonde hair shimmering with the sun. I got up, and Leo and I held hands until we were up in the air on Festus, and then I put my arms around him.

We flew (or ran, in Arion's opinion) back to our forest haven where we battled the Hecatonchire. We let our animals play in the meadow, but kept a close eye on them, just in case they got swept away by the wind or got sucked into a hole in the ground. We ate our lunch, but no one really felt like eating. We were all staring at Leo, who was nervously nibbling on his sandwich. Finally, Annabeth cleared her throat, trying to get Leo to speak. Leo looked up quickly, and sighed.

"Alright," he said. "I guess now I'm the captain of this crew, since my dad is the Necklace thief." No one opposed, so he continued. "I know that we're all scared and tired, and I'll let you guys sleep tonight. But we have a god to deal with, so we'll need a plan of action." He looked at Annabeth hopefully, but she just looked down at her and Percy's linked hands. Leo let out a puff of breath, and then said, "Well, I'm going to get some shut-eye, and I recommend you guys get some sleep too. We'll need our brains working if we're going to defeat my dad." For a second, I thought he was going to break down and cry, but he turned his head and went to go polish Festus. So much for getting some shut-eye.

Everyone tucked into their sleeping bags, though I assumed none of them could sleep. I just looked at Doro, stroking its flat end, looking at the lightning bolts streaking across its surface. I could hear Leo's gauze singing softly next to me. That helped me fall asleep.

I dreamed about Doro being huge, slashing at a giant machine with a burly man behind it, pulling cranks and levers. Doro struck the machine with lightning, and the machine collapsed, leaving the burly man stark naked. He vanished from sight, and I saw Leo trying to get Festus to wake up. I saw Percy opening his blue box and falling down, paralyzed. I saw Hazel surrounded by shadows, and her trying to blast them with her staff, but they closed in on her, and she screamed. I heard myself screaming too in real life, and I shot up, panting.

Soon Leo was by my side, pulling me into his arms, and whispering soft things in my ear. I just whimpered, and held onto him, the only sane thing in my world. It wasn't fair, how Leo treated me! He was always caressing me, and comforting me, when his dad had plotted to destroy our home. I've never comforted him like this, but now that I thought about it, it wasn't really my job to comfort. It was a man's job to protect his woman, and the woman would provide for the man. I've provided for him plenty of times, most of them saving his life.

Leo brought his sleeping bag over, and we slept together like we did that night before we left for Hermes. But this time, we didn't wake up to startled yells. We woke up with the sun, or a little before, actually. The sun was just peaking over the horizon when Leo and I woke up. That's when I had an idea. 

Quickly, I went over to Annabeth and slipped her silver book into my hands. I opened it, thinking of what we needed. But then, I came up blank. What did we need? But right as I thought it, I knew what we needed. We needed hope. We needed strength. And most of all, we needed knowledge straight from the head of the goddess herself.

Almost immediately, my head felt clearer. I felt myself putting the pieces together, figuring out a plan, making sure no flaws were left behind.  My mind filled up with all the answers, even though I as myself couldn't see them quite yet.

But then, something happened.  My head started to hurt.  With everything that I was learning, my brain couldn't keep up with it all.  It was just too much!  I started yelling, trying to tear my eyes away from the book, but it kept coming, knowledge after knowledge.  I started screaming for help, but it seemed that no one could hear me.  It was just me and the goddess.

Just when I thought that my brain would physically explode, someone slammed the book shut, and I toppled to the ground, gasping.  I looked up to see Annabeth's steaming face.  She looked extremely annoyed, and I smiled nervously, but then cried out in pain.  I grabbed my head, and fell back, writhing and kicking.  I had the worst headache in the world. 

Quickly, Annabeth grabbed the Phoenix Gauze, and wrapped it around my head.  Instantly, the pain eased, and I fell asleep to the sound of Zeus' lullaby.  When I woke up, seven pairs of eyes were looking down on me, some looking worried, others not so much.

I tried to sit up, but spots danced in front of my eyes.  Annabeth eased me back down, and fed me some ambrosia.  It tasted like buttered popcorn.  Sitting up wasn't so hard, and Jason and Percy helped me up.  I wobbled, but could stand if I leaned against a tree.  Everyone kept asking me one question:  What happened?  I tried to explain, but my head still hurt.  What I could say was that when I opened Annabeth's book, Athena gave me a plan of action.  The only problem was, I didn't actually know what the plan was.  I just knew it was there.

So Annabeth proceeded to grab my head, focus, and then let go with the whole plan in her mind. Seriously, why couldn't I get any cool psychic powers?

"Well," Annabeth began.  "My mother thinks that fighting the god on our own would be foolish.  I think we've ruled that out, mother."  She said this looking up at the sky with an annoyed expression.  "But, she doesn't think that it would be a good idea to team up with another god either.  That could start a war between the gods of Olympus."  Annabeth closed her eyes, then opened them, and continued. "She thinks that our best option is to try to talk some sense into  him."  Everyone raised an eyebrow. Talk some sense into him?  I don't think talking to a psycho god that tried to destroy a camp and probably plotting to destroy us was such a good idea.  But Annabeth just lifted her chin defiantly, and walked off.  We all looked at each other.  This wouldn't end well.

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After I could walk again, we rode off to find Hephaestus.  Or, at least, we tried to.  Eventually, we just rested on a mountain in the Rockys (yeah, we'd really flown that far) not knowing what to do. 

But after a while, Hazel's eyes slowly widened.  She looked like she was on to something, and I came over and asked what was wrong.  She looked down at her black staff, and said, "...I wonder..." She grabbed her staff, and shook it.  Immediately, it started glowing.  That wasn't new.  What was new was when she lifted it up to the sky, and concentrated, it started glowing only when pointing in a certain direction.  We had found our way to track Hephaestus.