Chapter Text
LEO
Leo wasn't sure how it was possible to get lost while riding on the back of a magical, mechanized miracle dragon, but, of course, Leo excelled in doing the impossible. He'd died and came back to life. He'd found Calypso, on her magical, "impossible to find more than once" island of Ogiya, and was currently flying a fully functional bronze dragon that had been nothing but a head only a day ago. Or at least, Leo hoped it had only been a day. What with his death and his (seemingly) short time on the timeless island of Ogiya, it could have been years since he'd last seen his friends. But with luck, it had only been a few days. After all, Leo did excel in the impossible. But, currently, the impossible is not what he wanted. What he wanted was to get back to Camp Half-Blood. But apparently, that wasn't going to be so easy.
"Right," Leo said. "So, I'm not saying we're lost, but-"
"We're lost." Calypso finished. "Perfect, Valdez. I finally get off my island after gods know how long, and you manage to get us lost while riding your magical bronze dragon-"
"Chill, sunshine!" Leo said, trying to sound confident (He didn't think she was buying it). "I know the basics of where we are-"
"Oh yeah? Where then?" Leo glanced behind him, catching a glimpse of Calypso's face. Gods of Olympus, even when she was annoyed she was beautiful. Leo cleared his throat quickly, trying to clear his mind.
"Yeah, I know where we are," he said. "Overland!" Calypso groaned and thumped her head against Leo's back. Leo grinned to himself. He wasn't technically wrong. For the longest time, they'd been flying over the ocean, and Leo had been worried that they'd suddenly appear over Calypso's island again. But, after hours of flying, they'd reached land. Leo and Calypso had been excited, until Leo realized that he had absolutely no idea what part of the world they were flying over. They could have been in China for all he knew. Calypso had been on her island for the last couple millennium, so she was even less help than he was. And Leo had pretty much no clue what most countries looked like from the air, and there were zero recognizable landmarks.
Now that Leo thought about it, it was actually kind of weird. No matter where they were, there should be some sort of landmark somewhere, but there was nothing. Except for that weird glow in the distance, which Leo had started heading for a couple minutes back. It looked sort of like the lights of a city, but he couldn't imagine what sort of would be so far out in the middle of nowhere. There weren't even any houses or animals or even any plants. Leo had a sudden flash of fear. What if the reason he couldn't see any recognizable landmarks or anything was because there wasn't anything for him to recognize? What if, by some sick twist of fate, he had been on Calypso's island for thousands for years and this was some future society and all his friends were long dead, having lived their whole lives believing Leo had died in that explosion? That would seriously suck. And, as if Leo didn't have enough to worry about, Festus was making weird noises. And smoking slightly. And Leo really wasn't in the mood to crash land his dragon in the middle of a wasteland. Leo felt his nose growing hot with anxiety. Hadn't he gone through enough just to get to where he was right now?
He was so deep in thought, he almost fell off Festus when he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. He twisted around and to see Calypso looking at him with a serious expression on her face.
"It'll be fine." She spoke with such certainty, Leo immediately felt better. He wondered vaguely if Calypso knew how to charmspeak. He gave a smile.
"Thanks." She smiled back at him at him for a moment. Then, her eyes locked on something over his shoulder and grew wide.
"What," she gasped, "Is that?" Leo turned, and felt a grin stretch wide across his face. There, dead ahead, was the Empire State Building, standing tall in the midst of New York City itself. Leo glanced around, and nearly fell off the dragon for the second time in as many minutes. The weird, featureless land they'd been flying over for the past half hour had disappeared, like they had flown through a portal into a different world. The only thing behind them were the buildings and streets of New York. But Leo decided that that was beside the point. There were more important things to freak out about.
"Aw, YES!" Leo howled. "Camp Half-Blood HERE WE COME!"
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JASON
It had been a year, almost to the day, since Leo had died. Jason exhaled, and sat back on his hands. From his perch on the roof of the Zeus cabin, he could see all the way down to the beach. He glanced up at the night sky, and, for the thousandth time, imagined a bronze dragon swooping down out of nowhere, with Leo on its back, grinning his manic grin. Heck, he even wished to see Leo falling out of the sky with his clothes on fire, screaming bloody murder. Then, at least, he could do something. But it wasn't going to happen. He knew it wasn't, but he couldn't stop wishing. He needed to get it together, especially now.
Tomorrow was the first annual Coming Together Of The Camps. Which was a crappy name, but none of them had been able to think of anything better. Jason had been working on this idea for a really, really long time. And what better day for the camps to come together than on the anniversary of the day when the camps first came together? Without, like, trying to kill each other and stuff. A lot of work had gone into it, and he wanted it to go perfectly. But he just couldn't focus. He felt bad somehow, planning such a big event on the day his best friend died. But what could he do?
"Hey." He jumped slightly, and glanced down at Piper, who was curled up on the roof next to him.
"Hey." She smiled at him, but he could just see worry in her eyes.
"You ok?" She asked.
"Yeah... No." Jason stared off into the night. "I just... Can't stop thinking about..."
"Leo." Jason nodded, and Piper put her hand on his arm. "I know," she said. "Me too."
"I just... I kind of feel like the worst asshole right now." Piper knit her eyebrows.
"What? Why?"
"I mean, come on!" Jason said. "Planning some huge celebration on the day he died? How disrespectful is that?"
"Hey." Piper's grip on his arm tightened. "Do not beat yourself up over something like that. You did not choose that day to be disrespectful. You chose it because it was symbolic, and important. Besides, think about it. It's Leo! He would probably be pleased that there's a party on his death day, the goof." Despite himself, Jason smiled.
"He'd probably criticize the lack of explosions planned." Piper laughed.
"That is definitely something Leo would do." They grinned at each other, and for a couple seconds, they could almost forget their sadness. They could almost imagine Leo, sitting just beside them, cracking stupid jokes. But that was only for a couple seconds. Jason exhaled heavily, then stood, brushing off his jeans.
"We should probably go to bed." He said. "It's late, the Romans will be here first thing in the morning, and if the cleaning harpies catch us, we're dead meat." Piper smiled.
"Literally."
"Yeah," Jason offered her his hand, helping her up. "Want me to walk you back to your cabin?"
"No, it's ok. I can go more quietly by myself, probably." Jason nodded.
"I'll see you tomorrow morning."
"Yeah. 'Night."
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PIPER
Piper had a leaf in her nose. She resisted the urge to sneeze and slowly moved her face away from the bush she was crouched behind. A couple feet away from her, a small horde of harpies were squawking and fighting over what appeared to be a dead squirrel, but Piper was trying her best not to get a closer look.
Normally, despite the threat of the murderous cleaning harpies, sneaking in and out of cabins after curfew wasn't all that hard, and campers did it all the time. But Piper had had the luck of strolling straight into the harpies on her way back to the Aphrodite cabin. Normally, she would have taken the longer, safer way route, but had decided to take a path when she spotting Drew Tanaka and her new girlfriend from the Hecate cabin holding hands and sitting together in Piper's secret path. Piper had chosen to give them some privacy, but unfortunately, that detour had sent her straight into the harpies' path, which led to her up-close-and-personal experience with this very nice bush.
Now, she crouched there, waiting for them pass. As she listened to their rustling wings and screeching, she thought about how inconvenient it would be if they killed her right before the 'first annual coming-together of the camps', or, as Connor Stoll was trying to get people to call it, "Half-Blood Con". It would honestly be really disappointing if they ate her. She'd been looking forward to seeing Hazel and Reyna and everyone else for months, not to mention how Jason and the rest would feel if she suddenly died... She stiffened suddenly, as a horrible thought crossed her mind, the kind that made her wish she could remove her brain and throw it into the Long Island Sound. It was currently past midnight, which meant it was already the day of the anniversary of the Greeks and Romans came together - and the day of Leo's death. If she got killed right now, Jason would lose his two best friends, on the same day, exactly a year apart. It was a stupid thought, she knew. The harpies were too stupid to find her, and even if they did, she could easily charm-speak, or even fight her way out. But the idea of it was just so twisted and horrible that she ended up holding her breath until they finally moved away, and then sprinted full tilt back to the Aphrodite cabin, where she threw herself into her bunk.
She noticed at that point that she had tears in her eyes, and quietly cursed herself. She has swore to herself that she wouldn't cry today. She couldn't. She couldn't make Jason worry about her when this was such a important day for everyone, especially him. She bit the inside of her mouth angrily, forcing back tears. This wouldn't be how Leo would to be remembered, she told herself. He would want to have his memory cause laughter and happiness and vague annoyance. Annoyance was, as he would say, his speciality. Choking back a watery laugh, Piper rolled over and forced herself to sleep.