Leo wasn't about to budge. "Hazel, I thought we had already decided that I need to be alone when I set off the explosion."

"But if you're going to be up there alone, who's going to give you the antidote?" Hazel asked, her fingers tugging lightly at her cinnamon toast curls. Leo just grinned his trademark impish grin.

"What? I won't be alone. I'll have Festus! That's all the help I'll need."

Frank drew his eyebrows together. "How is a dragon supposed to administer-"

"Trust me Zhang, I've got it all figured out." Leo interrupted, tapping his finger to his temple.

Frank didn't look too reassured. "Still…"

Leo looked up from the scrap metal he'd been fiddling with and put his hand over his heart. "Aw, are you worried about me?"

Frank didn't find that funny. "Of course I'm worried Leo! You're my friend! A-and now you want me- and Hazel- to help you steal a vial of Physician's Cure so when you die a fiery death, you can maybe-"

Leo held his hands up to stop Frank, "Alright, alright man, jeez, just- follow me." Leo hesitated for a moment, beg ore leading them to the engine room, where the body of the rebuilt Festus was held. He climbed up into the saddle, and motioned for Frank and Hazel to join him.

"Why are we here?" Hazel asked.

"Look there. Do you see that?" Leo pointed to a scale a few inches away from them.

"It looks like a bronze scale. Like all the other bronze scales," said Frank, and Hazel hummed in agreement.

Leo muttered something under his breath, something like 'Why can't they all be like Annabeth?' or possibly 'Y cans the banana breath'. Then he dug his nails under the scale and tugged. The scale slid to the side to reveal the space below it was hollowed out. In it was some sort of contraption.

"When I- uh, die, this little syringe will pop up and stab me. Then bam! Leo's back, and on his way to Ogygia."

Frank and Hazel didn't say anything. Then Frank pulled out something from his pocket and handed it to Leo. A gold drachma. "If you make it, when you get off the island give us a call."

Leo took the coin and tucked it safely in his tool belt. "Yeah, definitely." Then he saw the worried expressions on his friends' faces. "I'm going to be okay. Don't even worry about it.

"Well, I guess this settles it," Hazel breathed. And the three of them sat together in silence.

..…..

Michael Kahale got a strange glint in his eye. Nico pushed Will behind him, anticipating an attack, but it never came. Michael grabbed Octavian. Octavian struggled, but it was futile.

"Kahale, what the hell are you doing?!"

"Sorry Octavian. Reyna's back."

..…..

The next day there weren't many answers.

After the explosion, Piper and Jason- free-falling and unconscious- were plucked out the sky by giant eagles and brought to safety, but Leo did not reappear. The entire Hephaestus cabin scoured the valley, finding bits and pieces of the Argo IIs broken hull, but no sign of Festus the dragon or his master.

"Do you think he did it?" Hazel whispered.

Frank paused a moment before answering. "I don't know. I guess we'll have to wait and see."

"We have to tell them."

"Soon."

All the monsters had been destroyed or scattered. Greek and Roman casualties were heavy, but not nearly as bad as they could have been.

Overnight, the satyrs and nymphs disappeared into the woods for convocation of the Cloven Elders. In the morning Grover Underwood reappeared to announce that they could not sense the Earth Mother's presence. Nature was more or less back to normal. Apparently, Jason, Piper, and Leo's plan worked. Gaea had been separated from her source of power, charmed to sleep, and then atomized in the explosion of Leo's fire.

An immortal could never die, but now Gaea would be like her husband, Ouranos. The earth would continue to function as normal, just as the sky did, but Gaea was now so dispersed and powerless that she could never again form consciousness.

At least, that was the hope…

Octavian was locked up in the big house. As for Leo, all the campers could do was wait.

The victory celebration at camp was muted, due to grief- not just for Leo, but also for the many others who died in battle. Shrouded demigods, both Greek and Romanwere burned at the campfire, and Chiron asked Nico to oversee the burial rites. Nico agreed immediately.

The hardest part was afterwards.

And that's where our story really begins.

[AN]Okay, AN time: This is a continuation of the PJO/HoO storyline. (That's why I call it Book Six lmao). This first chapter was kind of a refresher for anyone who hadn't read the book in a while (which is why so much text was lifted directly from the book) and as a fix-it (because there were things I- and many others- didn't like lol). I'm going to try to update weekly, but I actually have today free so expect a couple updates SOON. Lucky you! So you should probably review. This chapter's questions: What do you want to see different? What do you want to see stay the same? Do you have a better name idea than Book Six? (idk I like the initials being BS but the name is kinda dull)

-FR7

Next time on Book Six: The 7* talk about Leo, and Percy and Annabeth meet and old friend.

*I'm gonna call all the main demigods (Reyna, Nico, Frank, Hazel, Percy, Annabeth, Piper, etc) the 7 because I don't have time to write out all their names and shit [AN]