"Back soon," he promised. "Unless you wanna tag along." He offered out a hand. What happened to crowd control, making friends with the enemy? Ah, I wasn't that good in the first place. I grabbed his hand, and he helped me stabilize whilst I was standing up. "This is gonna be epic." Leo squealed. Octavian and I shared a glance. Clearly, both of us knew we'd be fed up by the end of his tour of the Argo II.

The tour was a bust.

I hadn't expected Octavian to be too fascinated, especially when everything Leo said was shooting out like a rap song. I was starting to relate to Octavian, which I was pretty sure was something to be ashamed of. The below deck tour was embarrassing too when Octavian had to nitpick the organization of my sickbay layout ("Why is the nectar in a glass bottle at room temperature?" Ugh.)
"Ooh, Y/N, I haven't shown you this yet! I knotted these shrouds myself. The weaving is a little amateur."
"I can see that." Octavian sneered.

And the worst part was when Leo got on his tangent about the top notch weaponry. Octavian looked pretty nervous about that, quite eager to move on. I assumed it was from boredom but I knew the second he yelled "Get back you stupid Greek!" that he had seen it too – the change in Leo's face.
A shrill sound pierced the air. The explosion blasted craters in the forum. The demigods below scattered in panic.
"Leo!?" I yelled over the noise. He glanced back at me, his eyes torn - it was like his brain was yelling "stop!" but his hands wouldn't reciprocate the message. "Oh, gods." I groaned, shaking my head nervously. By the second blast, Octavian was halfway down the ladder, clinging for dear life, his robes steaming and his face black with soot. I followed in pursuit, trying to catch up and prevent a misunderstanding. Bit late?
"Octavian wait!" I sighed. Before beginning to chase him I glanced back up at Leo whose body was shaking slightly. I gave him a judgmental look saying What the hell? 
Octavian had reached the bottom of the ladder.
"The Greeks have fired on us! Your boy Leo has trained his weapons on Rome!" Even from mid air I could hear his screams of worry. 

"No he hasn't!" I replied, seeing the demigods heads turning up to look at me.
"I was just there!" Octavian shrieked. "I saw it with my own eyes!" The Argo II returned fire. Legionnaires in the field scattered as one of their catapults was blasted to splinters. "You see?" Octavian screamed. "Romans, kill the invaders!". 
"Don't do that!" I let one of my hands go to shake it in protest. "It was a mistake guys! Why don't we talk about this?" I flailed around on the ladder.
The crew from Camp Half-Blood was outnumbered a hundred to one, and they'd never be able to convince the Romans before they were overrun and killed.
"Hurry up guys!" I shouted, one hand burning from how tight I held onto the rope and the other waving them over. They were really taking their sweet time. I decided to just abandon my post and heave myself up. Maybe I could even fit Get pissed at Leo on my schedule.

The rigging was on fire. The foresail was ripped down the middle, and the ship listed badly to starboard. There was no sign of Coach Hedge, but Leo stood amidships, calmly reloading the ballista.
"Leo!" Annabeth screamed. "What are you doing?"
"Destroy them..." He faced Annabeth. His eyes were glazed. His movements were like a robot's. "Destroy them all." He turned back to the ballista, but Percy tackled him. Leo's head hit the deck hard, and his eyes rolled up so that only the whites showed.
"Percy." I mumbled. It was meant to be a scolding, however I thought I'd waste that energy on Leo once his eyes worked again. A gray dragon soared into view. It circled the ship once and landed at the bow, depositing Jason and Piper, who both collapsed.

"Go!" Percy yelled. "Get us out of here!" Annabeth ran for the helm. I ran to the edge of the boat. All along the Pomerian Line, the statues of Terminus were glowing purple, as if building up energy for some kind of attack. The ship groaned. The bow tilted up at a horrifying angle. The mooring lines snapped, and the Argo II shot into the clouds.

Leo was conscious again. Poor guy.
"One more time," Annabeth pressed. "Exactly what happened?" Leo slumped against the mast. His head still throbbed from hitting the deck. The aft crossbows were piles of kindling. The foresail was tattered. The satellite array that powered the onboard Internet and TV was blown to bits, which had really made Coach Hedge mad. Their bronze dragon figurehead, Festus, was coughing up smoke like he had a hairball. He choked back a sob.
"I don't know. It's fuzzy."
Too many people were looking at him: Annabeth, Coach Hedge with his furry goat legs, his orange polo shirt, and his baseball bat (did he have to carry that everywhere?), me (I was trying to be sympathetic) and the newcomer, Frank. He looked like a baby sumo wrestler. Annabeth crossed her arms.
"You mean you don't remember?"
"I..." Leo felt like he was trying to swallow a marble. "I remember, but it's like I was watching myself do things. I couldn't control it."

Coach Hedge tapped his bat against the deck. In his gym clothes, with his cap pulled over his horns. The way the old satyr was glowering, I almost wondered if the coach was going to order Leo to do push-ups.
"Look, kid," Hedge said, "you blew up some stuff. You attacked some Romans. Awesome! Excellent! But did you have to knock out the satellite channels? I was right in the middle of watching a cage match."
"Coach," Annabeth said, "why don't you make sure all the fires are out?"
"But I already did that."
"Do it again."
The satyr trudged off, muttering under his breath. Even Hedge wasn't crazy enough to defy Annabeth. She knelt next to Leo. Her gray eyes were as steely as ball bearings.
"Leo," she said calmly, "did Octavian trick you somehow? Did he frame you, or—"
"No." Leo could have lied and blamed that stupid Roman.
"Y/N, you were there. Did you see anything?" she had a grimace of desperation and I just shrugged.
"Octavian and I were watching him talk and suddenly he just stopped and started to press things." I purposefully excluded the part about him making eye contact with me and seeming like a whole new person. "The guy was a jerk, but he didn't fire on the camp. Leo did."

The new kid, Frank, scowled. "On purpose?"

"No!" Leo squeezed his eyes shut. "Well, yes...I mean, I didn't want to. But at the same time, I felt like I wanted to. Something was making me do it. There was this cold feeling inside me—"
"A cold feeling." Annabeth's tone changed. She sounded almost...scared.
"Yeah," Leo said. "Why?"
From belowdecks, Percy called up, "Annabeth, we need you." It would be concerning Jason. As soon as they'd gotten on board, Piper had taken him below. I had tried to help him out with my medical training but Piper ushered me away, set on helping him herself. Percy just acted as if I wasn't there, which was reasonable due to the situation. The cut on his head had looked pretty bad, and that's from a healer's point of view.
"He'll be fine." Annabeth's expression softened. "Frank and Y/N, I'll be back. Just... you two watch Leo. Please." Frank and I nodded in unison. Once she was gone, Leo and Frank stared at each other. I kind of stood between them, watching the exchange. The big dude looked pretty odd in his bedsheet toga, with his gray pullover hoodie and jeans, and a bow and quiver from the ship's armory slung over his shoulder.
"So," Frank said. "Your name isn't Sammy?" Leo scowled and I snorted, immediately feeling sore about it. Don't make him feel dumb. He's like a cuddly bear.
"What kind of question is that?"
"Nothing," Frank said quickly. "I just— Nothing. About the firing on the camp...Octavian could be behind it, like magically or something. He didn't want the Romans getting along with you guys." Leo and I both wanted to believe that. But he knew it hadn't been Octavian. Leo had walked to a ballista and started firing.
"Look," he said, "I should talk to Festus and get a damage report. You mind... ?" Frank helped him up.
"Who is Festus?"
"My friend," Leo said.
"His name isn't Sammy either, in case you're wondering. Come on. I'll introduce you." Leo walked a bit faster than we did, so I took the time to whisper a bit to Frank.

"How are you not annoyed with him?" I joked, watching Leo carefully in case of another mishap. Frank just sighs.
"He's like an extra enthusiastic puppy dog. I think I can handle it."
I just scoff. Little did poor Frank know.

➻ AUTHOR's NOTE
ily muah muah from amelie