The Mark of Athena,Heroes of Olympus, Book 3

Leo XXXVIII


"Okay, Sparky, no need to get violent!" Percy shouted.

Uh, oh, Leo thought. Annabeth and Piper's eyes were wide, darting from one powerful half-blood to the other.

"There was also no need to soak me!"

"What's going on?" Victoria whispered.

"Remember what happened to me and Annabeth this morning?"

"Yeah?"

"That."

"Oh, this should be good," muttered Luke. "Hey, Victoria. Think you can sniff out some of that Roman Rivalry again and kick it halfway across the forest?"

"I'm not a bloodhound, Luke," Victoria said. She rolled her eyes, and all Leo could think was, God, she's cute when she does that.

"Hey, um, Annabeth said, and I quote, 'Seaweed Brain, Lightning Boy, you need to stop fighting or the boat's gonna blow up,'" Piper said.

"You love your nicknames, don't you, Annabeth," Leo laughed. "Wait, what? Okay, Percy, Jason, if you're gonna fight, get off my ship. Like Annabeth said, we don't need the boat blowing up!"

"Um, actually, Annabeth would prefer that they not fight. At all."

"Stay out of this, Annabeth," Jason said, pulling out the now finished coin. Annabeth chewed on her lip.

Something Annabeth had once told him circulated inside of Leo's mind. A few days before they'd left for Camp Jupiter, Annabeth said, I'm honestly a little worried about what's going to happen when we're all on the boat together. Percy and Jason are both natural leaders, but they're still very different. Percy... well, he leads by example. He'll be the first one in a battle. Jason expects his orders to be followed-no matter what. I'm afraid that it'll turn into a power struggle. I have the feeling that neither of them wanted to be leaders, but, yet, they still are. They clash-Zeus-or Jupiter-and Poseidon just don't mix. It would be like trying to get a hurricane to follow a thunderstorm and vice-versa.

All Leo could say to that was, Maybe they can both be leaders.

Now Leo knew that was impossible. Percy and Jason were totally different. Greek and Roman, air and sea, everything that just doesn't go well together. Leo was surprised they didn't fight sooner. Roman Rivalry would target them.

Then Leo realized something-the Roman Rivalry had been trying to get Percy and Jason fighting all along. Leo and Annabeth had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Annabeth seemed to come to that realization, too. She seemed to be shouting at them with panic, but nobody could hear her.

"I think Annabeth's trying to say, 'STOP!'" shouted Leo. Annabeth gestured to Leo and nodded.

"Stay out of it!" Jason flipped his coin. Percy uncapped his pen. The two demigods swung at each other and their blades hit, making the air around them crackle with lightning. Jason stabbed at Percy and Percy fell, but caught the blade on the hilt of his sword. Percy leapt off his feet and slashed at Jason, who backed up so quickly he ran into the couch.

"Oh, dear gods," Hazel muttered, holding her hands out. "I know this is rather cliché, but it's effective!"

Both demigods' swords melted. Hazel didn't even flinch when Jason and Percy turned their furious glares to her.

"Okay. We can't have you two fighting. Annabeth's right. For one thing, yeah, the boat WOULD blow up. And then we'd have two demigods combust for seemingly no apparent reason. Help me out, Piper?"

"Please stop fighting?" Piper said hesitantly.

"You stay out of this too." Piper scowled.

"Stop fighting!" Piper's voice was more forceful. Percy and Jason kept arguing, and Annabeth met Leo's eyes. She nodded her head to Frank and looked back at Leo.

Oh. So they were going to do the whole "hold 'em back" thing. Annabeth counted down on her fingers, and Frank lunged for Percy and Leo grabbed hold of Jason's wrists, yanking him back.

"Let go of me!" Percy shouted. Frank made sure Percy couldn't get away.

Meanwhile, Leo was having a whole lot less luck with Jason.

Jason was almost free of Leo's grip; just a few more seconds of stuggling, and Leo would lose his hold on Jason.

"Sorry, dude," Leo grunted, letting his hands burst into flames. Jason yelped and Leo extinguished his flame. It had been a risky idea, but an effective one, since Jason actually stopped squirming. Leo had made a really small flame, with as low of a temperature as possible, and made it really fast, but it could've still hurt Jason.

Luckily, it didn't.

"Now stop fighting!" Piper commanded. Percy blinked.

"What... did we just..."

"Yup. Gaea's busy with the Roman Rivalry."

"Seriously?" Jason groaned. "Seriously, Leo?" Jason broke free of Leo's grip and rubbed his wrists.

"Jason, you two were going to kill each other. I think you can withstand a teensy-weensy flame," Luke said.

Knock, knock, knock.

"Penny?" Piper said. Leo cracked up, but everyone else stared at her blankly. Annabeth went to the door, opened it, slammed it shut, then walked off to her cabin. Percy raised an eyebrow and opened the door.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven..." Percy said while sitting down on the couch, clenching his fists. Leo sighed and opened the door again.

"Oh! Hola, tia!"