Chapter 25

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Rick Riordan does.

Prophecy #1:

One shall venture alone,

Meets two more only to fall in the dome,

Encounter will, one who is lost,

But to win the war, find they must,

The one who's eyes show the storm,

Or in consequence flame be crushed,

The fire is lost as the land reforms,

Hope be left on the hopeless,

Rather than the world becomes breathless

Prophecy #2:

Silver arrows strike at no notice,

War begins with the goddess's sleep,

As the fire extinguishes in her keep

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Leo Valdez was used to fast. So many things in his life had happened fast. Fast was how his mother died, fast was how he'd escaped every foster home, fast was how he'd learnt he was a demigod, fast was how Annabeth died, fast was how he died. Honestly, he'd never really known slow. He didn't want to, really. Slow was painful. And as much as he had expressed his love for suffering in the past, he'd rather stay away.

But. As much as he'd thought that he'd seen the fastest things could go bad, he'd just faced a new record.

In just a few moments, he'd fallen into the fissure.

One second, he was above land. That second wasn't even over when he'd felt a weird, chilling feeling– and he was suddenly reminded of every bad fast, which was almost all of them. And it was like slow-motion, to emphasise that slow sucks. And for the first time in the whole being of the great McShizzle, he was scared.

Leo remembered when he'd asked people at Camp about what they preferred: fear, or terror. They always said it was the same. But, oh gods, it wasn't the same. He was perfectly fine with terror: fast, adrenaline, reactions. He'd never quite known fear, except for the time his mom died– so, naturally, the fates had decided to give him a reminder of how it felt. He didn't know what happened, why it happened, and more importantly who did it. But, like everything slow in the world, it absolutely sucked. It–like he hadn't emphasised 'slow equals bad' enough– was slow, seeping into him like water, stealing thought, practically rendering him useless. It was the kind of fear that paralysed someone, and it was the most horrible feeling he'd ever experienced.

The piece of machinery in his hands fell from his hands, not making any sound as it collided with the earth floor. It didn't exactly land, actually– it smoothly sunk down, like the ground was water. He remembered thinking he was going to sink down next, but he wasn't able to move.

If he lived, and anyone asked him about it, he'd say some sort of weird and powerful force paralysed him. He wouldn't admit that, in fact, all it did was bring him back to every bad moment in his life, changing the tempo to make it so much more worse. He would never admit that he'd felt fear tear its way into him, and because of that he just did nothing, and just stood there as the ground beneath him cracked. For gods' sake, he didn't even scream.

In his mind, burned a face belonging to someone he didn't know but recognised. He recognised it from one of the recurring nightmares he had. The son of Hephaestus only had time to inhale sharply before the ground split open in a neat crack format, engulfing him in the earth.

And then he came back to his senses, the fear in him dropped away, leaving him with something else he was much more familiar with: the sheer terror of falling in a fissure in the earth. He made a panicked, high-pitched noise that sounded like a squeak, and grabbed onto a ledge, in an attempt to pull himself up. It didn't work. It felt like the ground was pulling him down, sucking him in, like a vacuum cleaner would. Unfortunately, it wasn't a vacuum cleaner. That would've been easy– just shut it off, or if it was too far away make another remote control to do it. It made it slightly harder to get away when one had no idea who or what was behind the force dragging them into the ground.

The hole was on top of him was quickly closing up, and silent panic surged through his veins as he dug his hands into the dirt, needing to get a hold. The dread weighing him down along with the vacuum cleaner force was quick to drown away, and he was thrown into a swivet. The top of the trench closed up, blocking his view of the sky. Then the hole started filling itself up, dirt and rocks nearing him until it was suffocating. His hands started slipping.

No, I cannot let go. Unless I want to be sucked into some sorta vacuum cleaner. Which I do not. So I do not let go.

At that moment, a frivolous thought went through his head: wait, if I'm calling this tripled-gravity thing a vacuum cleaner, does that make me dust?

Shut up, he told himself, and he didn't need to, because another wave of terror came over him as his grip slipped, one hand falling, and he was left dangling by the four fingers on his left hand. An array of curse words went through his head, which would've left an Irish sailor gaping in awe.

That's when the adrenaline kicked in. He could feel his heart beating faster, and he suddenly forgot how suffocated and claustrophobic he felt. Some dumb vacuum cleaner isn't going to suck this flamin' hot diamond away, Leo thought, and hauled himself up with his four fingers, not really feeling the strain on them. He dug his other hand in the soil, and pushed himself against the ground which was, in a way, literally falling on him. His hands scratched the rocks and dirt surrounding him, and he felt shudders pass through him every time his nails scraped a rock with a scratching noise, but he didn't stop. And he made progress much faster than he expected. Thing about adrenaline rushes: he practically became immune. So he didn't acknowledge or care that his body was screaming, as he climbed upwards, while underground. And then the tip of his hands reached right where the fissure had closed, and with a grunt, he put it through the dirt, the air cool on his skin.

Thank gods, he thought, getting up, the adrenaline fading way to be replaced by relief.

If he could go back in time, he would've told himself to stop trying. Because what happened next was extreme, even for him. It had been a false hope, that he was safe from the vacuum-cleaner force. He felt a forceful tug down his leg, harder than the triple-gravity he'd been facing before. It was a sudden jerk, a hard one, and all thoughts disappeared from his head. It was like his body was being ripped, bone apart from bone, tendons being torn away. The worst part was, for a second, he still tried to hold on. The one time he actually listened to his brain was when he was going to get his body pulled in half. His vision turned blurry and he finally let out a scream with a voice he didn't recognise, and let go. Because, if that's what it took to keep his body intact, he'd do it.

And he was dragged down, the valley getting deeper as he fell. And the pain never stopped, it continued, growing with his dizziness from the speed he was falling, mixing with the ripples of anxiety that managed to wriggle it's way into his mind, even with all the pain taking up most of the space.

Only after a second or two, Leo hit something: something liquid. A river, or lake, and he sank to the bottom. He tried to get up, but the water seemed to be keeping him down. His pain multiplied to the point it was all he could see, all he could think. He waited for everything to go black, for him to go unconscious and be relieved from his pain. It didn't happen. And it hurt like hell.

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Percy was wildly searching for Leo, a part of him still trying to process the turn of events, when he heard a scream coming from behind him. Leo's scream. Which barely sounded like his own. Just hearing it, he flinched, and he could've sworn he heard a crack, too.

His head shot in the direction of his sound, and his heart was beating so hard and loud that his chest hurt. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Calypso freezing as if she'd turned to ice, her reaction more slow and dreading compared to his own. The air was still around him, but it felt like it was pushing him towards the place, forcing him into a panicked run. The daughter of Atlas was quite the opposite, and she stood unmoving, swirls of fear and anxiety revealing themselves in her face.

Percy did not see nothing. He noticed the upturned dirt in a faint line. Even though he hadn't expected to see Leo okay and in front of him, and he'd known that he'd probably disappeared in the fissure, it still made his heart's beating amiss.

Schist, no...

Calypso slowly joined him, and stared at the upturned soil as if she was seeing someone die. And, from how deep the fissures had been, chances were...

Percy, no. You don't think about that.

"Why didn't you help him?" He blurted.

"What?" She said, her voice dim. She turned to face him, and one part of his mind noticed that her skin was pale, and she looked close to passing out. That information didn't register in him as he couldn't bite back the accusations.

"When I fell in, you saved me. Couldn't you have done that with Leo?" She looked stunned for a second, and he didn't let her respond. "You could've found out where he was, but you didn't."

"I–"

"Why didn't you?" His temper was getting the best of him, and he clenched his arms in fists to keep them from shaking. "He was the one who got you out of Ogygia, you know that, don't you?

He continued, not caring for Calypso's reaction, "You were perfectly capable of doing it, yet something– I dunno, your ego for helping out more than once?– stopped you from doing it! You could have so easily just–!"

"Shut up," she snapped. "I know, okay? But I cannot do it! Leaving Ogygia puts limits on my sorcery, and I cannot do anything else with it after the stunt you pulled with falling in that–!"

"Oh, so it's my fault now?! Yes, let's all blame Percy because some random hole from the ground erupted beneath his feet and he fell in! Because that's all his fault, right?!"

"What the hell? Do you have a problem with a fact?! And why are you talking about yourself in third person–?!"

"Why do you have a problem with that– oh, wait. I just forgot that you'll blame anyone but yourself–!"

"Shut up!" Her voice was so loud that his ears hurt, and it effectively silenced him. Both of them stood silently, and though a second ago he was giving glares that could kill, he avoided eye contact as his face went stiff with embarrassment.

What the hell, Percy? He scolded himself.

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That little magic trick Calypso did had taken a bigger toll on her than she'd thought. Exhaustion wrapped itself around her like a heavy blanket, and she was getting increasingly irritated. Percy yelling at her wasn't helping. Especially when Leo had just disappeared to who knows where.

So when she finally couldn't take his blaming, she yelled so loud that even her throat hurt. His gaze went to his feet, and his face flushed, like he just realised what he was doing. Calypso still found him a little cute when he did that, but not even a shadow of her feelings for him remained. She liked Leo. But she'd left him, of course, and all chances for a happy ending with him. Which was just as well, she knew she wouldn't get a happy ending, and there was no point dragging the son of Hephaestus down with her.

"Uh, sorry–"

"Shut up," she snapped, ignoring the tiny thought in her head: petty much? She was still angry at Percy, though. He had just placed the blame of everything on her, so obviously it'd be long before she calmed down.

Despite that, she forced her tone to be calm and said, "We need to figure out where he's gone. You have any idea?"

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Leo couldn't see past the darkness surrounding him. Maybe he could, but there was nothing past it. Endless darkness.

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Percy thought back to the list of all gods that could have some control on the ground.

Annabeth would've known this.

The thought was a pang in his chest, and he was reminded of the void in his life. It was something that he could never fill up, and it would haunt him forever. Only Annabeth could fill that void, but she wasn't there– she was the void. She was the taunting in his head, reminding him every second of what he lost.

And the void would never fill itself.

A murmur escaped his mouth, "Annabeth would've known...."

"What?"

"Nothing."

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Camp Half Blood had gone crazy, trying to look for Percy and Leo. Nico was one of them, unfortunately.

"I am going to kill them," he said as they fished out drachmas to Iris message him, an idea they'd just realised of, courtesy of the Athena cabin.

"You are not," Will said forcefully. "I'll do it first."

Nico would've shot back, but he glanced at Will a little warily. He was mad at them. Oh, Valdez and Jackson were so dead, he thought, almost feeling a little sad for them.

Nah, they deserve it.

A little smile crossed his face at the thought of their faces when they got Iris-messaged. They were obviously okay– they were two of the demigods who defeated Gaia, one of them even having cheated death. So he got out a drachma from the Athena cabin as Will made a spray from a water gun. A pretty big water gun, actually.

"Will!" He protested as he sprayed the water towards him, of all places. It soaked his camo tee before he managed to yank it out of his hands.

"Oh," he said, grinning. "Didn't see you there. Sorry."

In response, Nico opened the latch at the back of the water gun, and emptied it on top of his head. He silently thanked his luck for it having so much water inside as it soaked his hair and the top of his camp t-shirt. He also wished he had a camera to capture the look on his face, because it made his day.

"Hey, I just soaked your t-shirt a little bit, you can't just–!"

"But I did." This time, it was Nico's time for a fake-innocent grin.

He scanned the room for a second, before suddenly running towards one of the bunk beds, taking a water bottle, unscrewing it, and throwing it on him.

Throwing it.

It was a metal bottle.

So, besides getting soaked, Nico was hit in the gut by a metal bottle.

"Wha- Ow!" He clutched his stomach. Will was concerned for about three seconds, until he realised that there was no serious injury. Nico, desperate for a comeback, summoned a skull and threw it at him.

"Nico! A skull? Really?"

"Yes, really. Now wait for the ribs."

"The rib-?" Will's sentence was cut short when Nico summoned rib bones and started chucking them at him, one bone at a time.

"Neeks! That's a lil' extreme maybe- Ow! Ow! Ow!"

"Take that!" He threw the last bone at him. Unfortunately, he didn't notice that he'd picked up the water bottle again.

So, yeah, that had been quite unfortunate for him the next few seconds. That was just before Piper came inside the cabin to check on what was taking the two of them so long. "Boys!" Both of them turned to see the daughter of Aphrodite sending them a glare, though her mouth twitched.

Nico immediately started defending himself, "He sprayed water at–"

"It was just a little bit, he emptied the whole–"

"He threw a metal bottle–!"

"He threw bones–!

"Then he threw the–!"

"And a skull!"

The whole time, Piper's eyes darted between both of them, the amusement clear in her expression. "Okay, okay. Both of you, take a truce. Remember why you had that water gun: to IM Percy and Leo. And then maybe kill them."

"The water gun's empty," Will said, giving Nico a look that clearly said 'and it's your fault'. His mind started deciding on some colourful words to call him later.

Piper blinked in response, before she said, "What?– it was filled with 2 litres of water! Gods. Remind me to never trust you two on Iris Messaging people again. Just go to the lake and refill it." With that, she rolled her eyes and left.

Nico took hold of the empty gun, and both of them simply stood there for a few seconds before Will said, "Last one gets shoved into the lake." Then the race began, the son of Apollo wisely grabbing onto his arm as he sped on, knowing that he'd shadow-travel. And he had been planning to teleport his way to victory, so he cursed his boyfriend for being so smart.

He complained about it while running, "You're pulling me behind!"

"There are no rules!"

"Ugh!" Nico said, but he had to fight back a smile as an idea crossed his head at the statement.

He let Will win, and pushed him into the lake.

Revenge is sweet, he thought, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Boys!" Piper chided, apparently having been waiting for them. Of course she had.

"No regrets, Solace!" He shouted at the blond who was getting out of the lake, completely drenched. "Also, since you're already there, fill this for me will ya?" He said, and threw the gun at him, who successfully caught it, simultaneously giving him one of those 'I'm-going-to-get-you-later' glares. He jokingly made a mental note to lock the Hades cabin shut when sleeping.

A few seconds later, Will came with the gun, and was about to spray it at him, with the whole thing going to be repeated again, when Piper said, with full charmspeak in her voice, "Both of you, stop acting like idiots. Just make the IM now. Then you can do whatever you want."

Yeah, he should probably focus a bit, he thought. He could trouble Will later.

Damn you, Piper.

That's when he felt it. A soul land in there. And he knew whose soul that was, it belonged to someone who'd already died once.

A sudden coldness hit him at the core, and his muscles went rigid as he stiffened. His expression shifted as his features froze in shock and horror. No, there is absolutely no way. There was no way it happened.

But it just did. Merda, merda, merda, no.

Will frowned, "Neeks? What happened?"

He couldn't find himself able to respond, the horror of it still grasping at him. Leo Valdez had just fallen–

–in There.

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Then, finally, Percy realised. When he himself had almost fallen in the fissure, he'd seen a glimpse of red...

The realisation struck like a heavy weight dropping on him.

No.

No.

Oh gods, no.

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Sometimes, Leo just hated how he had the ability to feel pain. 

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[A/N:]

[Okay, so. For the first time I have a chapter longer than 5 minutes XD. Also, I get that this is kinda cringey [*cough* solangelo fight *cough*] so, sorry 'bout that. And now I have finally overcome my writer's block. So... Yes, now I know exactly what is going to happen. And I know the reason. Yes, the reason is sensible [somewhat] and links to Annabeth's death.]

[Also, I low-key get anxiety while writing cause my parents sometimes wanna know what I do the whole day, and they can easily access everything I do, no matter if I change my passwords. So... Yeah, I deleted all the one-shots I wrote for fun in a panic, so... yeah. I still pray they don't read what I write for fun, because there is no way that they'll approve lol.]

[Anyway, moving on from that. That's it for the chapter! Hope ya like it, and c ya!]

~Adios!