CHAPTER III

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LEO WAS FRUSTRATED.  HE HAD FIGURED  that Archimedes's scrolls would be easy to understand for a son of Hephaestus.  After all, Archimedes was one. But, much to Leo's dismay, it was just the opposite. It wasn't even in English.

Leo was always a sucker at Greek. When he was at camp, Annabeth had been the Greek teacher. But, with her broken down into hysterics over her boyfriend, she obviously was not fit for the job. And the person he got was an impatient Hermes kid who kept swapping his wallet and did not appreciate his jokes. So, now, he only knew two words in Greek. And they weren't  nice words.

With the two best Greek speakers in....that place,  Leo had nobody to turn to. And it was all my fault., Leo thought as he attempted to clean up his worktable. If only he hadn't opened that stupid fortune cookie, their two best leaders wouldn't be in hell.

That's right, Leonard Valdez. He stopped wiping his table with a rag and flinched when Gaea used his full name.  They will be excellent sacrifices to wake me. But don't worry, their death will  be quick, just like your mother's.

 "Don't. You. Dare. Mention my mother! I will get you one day, DirtFace, and it won't be pretty! So, GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He threw a wrench across the  room and slid down the wall to the floor. He buried his face in his calloused hands and sobbed silently. Gaea was slowly tearing him apart. He hadn't left his room in days, and e basically had been living on energy bars. The hours of sleep he rarely got we never rest full.

When somebody opened the door and sat next to him, he wiped the tears from his eyes as much as he could and looked over to where Jason was siting. He had a concerned look on his tired face.

"Gaea strikes again, huh, Repair Boy?"

Leo nodded meekly.

Jason sighed. His eyes had deep bags under them. "Leo, we can't keep beating ourselves over this. I know Percy and Annabeth wouldn't want us to."

Leo tinkered with a small bird he had made out of metal scraps, assembling it and then disassembling it. He gazed across the workshop with a faraway look in his eyes.

"Gaea is trying to tear us apart from the inside. She is going after our deepest  feelings and regrets. If we keep sulking, Leo, she will succeed."

"I know, Jason. I....I am trying to fight back. But I'm getting nowhere. The Archimedes scrolls don't make any sense. The spheres seem to have gone asleep. I don't know how long I can do this." A lone tear escaped his eye and ran down his face, making a line through the sweat and grime.

Jason stood up. "Well, it's time you eat something. Energy bars aren't doing you any good. " He said, pointing to Leo's stomach. Leo was amazed it actually could get any smaller.

Jason walked out the door while Leo called everyone to a meeting. "Hello, peeps of the Argo II. This is your awesome supreme commander talking. Please join in the mess hall for a meeting. Thank you." He was not as peppy as usual. Everything was so depressing; no amount of lame jokes could lift anybody's spirits up.

He walked up through the hallway and wiped his hands and face with a wet rag. As he walked into the mess hall, he immediately  noticed the morose atmosphere. Jason was sitting at the head of the table, opposite to where Percy sat. Piper was scowling at the ceiling.  Nico was in the far right corner, looking as creepy as usual. Frank was hand and hand with Hazel. He frowned at Leo as he walked past.

Jason sat up and  took a deep breath. "We need a plan. We have been sitting in the same spot for over three days. We can't sit here and mull over what we could have done to save Percy and Annabeth."

Piper spoke up. "What are we going to do first? Save our friends or the camp? Because I  think that both camps are gonna rip each other apart, and if we don't intervene, we both," She said, looking at Frank and Hazel, "Will not have a home to return to."

"She's right." Nico stood out of the shadows. Leo shrank back a little bit more. This kid just freaked him out. "I have seen both camps at war. They are different in their own ways, but both are very powerful."

Jason nodded. "We will-" Everyone jumped when a loud CRASH sounded below deck. Somebody, or something, was on the ship.

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So Jellybeans.........did you like it? :D Leo, like Percy, is fun to write......but not when they are depressed. It makes me depressed. Next up is Hazel. Comments are VERY welcome.  Thks!!! :P

~<>EagleEye~<>  XD XD XD