Chapter 1
It was nine o'clock at night. Leo sat on the railing of the Argo II watching the sky. The sun had already set and the stars glittered like a handful of diamonds that were scattered on a piece of black velvet. Leo put his hand in his pocket and took out the crystal from Calypso's island. He ran his fingers over it. Smooth, then rough, then smooth again. That was how his life was. Things would and could go right, but then there would always be something that went wrong. He met Calypso, but he had to leave, either because of fate or because of her curse. He had promised her that he would come back for her and he would. He slipped the rock back into his pocket.
"Yo, camp-bomber," a voice broke into his reverie. Leo did a double-take, Reyna glowered in a bright yellow shirt paired with pants that were an unfortunate shade of green.
"Did you just call me camp-bomber?" He asked, perplexed.
"You bombed my camp," she threw back at him, "What am I supposed to call you?"
"You could try my name?" Leo smirked.
"Whatever," She replied with an answering smirk on her own.
Handing him two Snicker bars, she took a seat next to him on the railing.
"Careful," he warned.
"I can take care of myself, son of Vulcan," Reyna replied, not unkindly.
There was an unusually bright moon that night, and as he unwrapped the candy and took a bite, Leo focused on watching the sky again. Hearing footsteps, Leo turned around and was greeted by Nico pacing on the deck dejectedly, but was anyone surprised really, the kid was always gloomy! His normally pale skin looked even paler in the moonlight.
"Hey, death-face!" Leo called out to him.
"What did you just call me?" Nico walked over to them, and Leo gulped. Maybe teasing the son of Hades wasn't the brightest idea he had yet.
"Death-face, cuz your face looks like death." Leo explained, and then smiled, "Here eat a Snicker. You're not you when you're hungry." It looked like neither of them had gotten the reference and Leo sighed and handed Nico a Snickers bar. Nico unwrapped it and joined Leo and Reyna on the ship's railing.
All of them sat together in silence only broken occasionally by chewing noises. But as Leo reflected, he realized this was a companionable silence. As the moon grew brighter and the time later, the stars slowly fell from the sky one by one.
"Falling stars," mused Reyna, "Not a good omen."
"What do you mean?" Leo turned to her.
"According to legend, seeing falling stars is a bad omen."
"Huh," Leo stated, "I've heard it's supposed to be good luck."
Nico said nothing, but just looked on as the stars streaked across the sky.
After a few more minutes of this, Leo broke the silence.
"You know something guys?" Leo asked them, "Have you heard of Calypso?"
"Yes," Reyna said at the same time Nico said, "The goddess whose island Percy was stranded on."
"Percy was on her island?" Reyna asked.
"Yep," Leo said, "So when Khione came and tossed me into the air, I landed on her island."
"Wait," Reyna asked, "So according to her legend, she fell in love with you right?"
Leo nodded at her.
"And I'm guessing you fell in love with her." Nico finished.
"Huh, you two might actually be brighter than you look." said Leo.
Reyna "playfully" threw a punch at Leo, "So? What about it?"
"Well," Leo said, "Right now, I'm brainstorming on how to find her again. Any ideas?"
Piper was walking to her room, at a little past half past ten, when she heard voices. She drew her dagger and carefully walked up the stairs to the surface of the ship.
She got there just in time to hear Nico say, "What if we sent Hazel to ask Persephone for some of her pearls?"
"No," A voice that sounded a lot like Leo's contradicted, "Then we'd have to tell Hazel why."
"Hey," Reyna said, "What if we went?"
As Piper leaned in to hear more, she felt a tap on her back. She whirled around with her dagger in front of her. The others stood behind her, all of them armed. Piper guessed Coach Hedge had gone to bed already, that satyr could really sleep through anything.
"Are they monsters?" whispered Annabeth.
"No," Piper replied, "It sounds like Leo, Reyna and Nico."
"What?" Percy asked, perplexed, "I didn't know they were friends."
"Why don't we just see?" Frank said coming to the front of their little group.
The heroes all slowly ascended, all the while holding their weapons in front of them. As they stepped into the moonlight, the sight that greeted them was three demigods facing away from them sitting on the ship's railing with their feet swinging into the sky. Leo was writing at lightning speed in a little book nestled in his lap. Reyna was looking at what he was writing and occasionally interjecting some words.
"Ahem," Annabeth cleared her throat.
"Yeah?" Leo turned around, "Oh," He said. As he said this both Reyna and Nico turned around and stood up.
"I didn't know you guys were friends," said Jason, with an unreadable expression on his face.
"That's cause we're not," said Leo.
"Yeah," agreed Nico.
"We're just…allies." said Reyna.
"In a fight against a" Leo started.
"Common enemy." Finished Nico.
"Really?" Said Percy with a mischievous expression on his face, capping Riptide.
"No trate de cualquiera de los planes sin nosotros." Reyna said laying a hand on Leo's shoulder. "Y recuerda que para mantener la seguridad."
"Sí, sí. Lo que sea." Leo replied with a grin on his face.
And with that, Reyna nodded to the rest of them and walked away with a slight smile on her face.
"Well, good-night then." Nico said with a ghost of a smile, to Leo and the rest of them. He walked away in the opposite direction.
"So?" Piper said to Leo.
"Yeah Festus?" Leo shouted out into the darkness, "Oh look, Festus needs something. Good-bye!"
Then the only ones remaining were the six heroes standing in a semi-circle.
"Those three being friends? I didn't see that one coming." Said Hazel.
The rest of them nodded.
