You'll Learn to Love Me

Chapter 24: Buford the Magic Table

NOTE: I've never read the Demigod Diaries and originally was going to write this originally then found out there is a cannon side story to what happened with the crazy Dionysus followers. These next two chapters are gonna be a bit longer than usual most likely. I changed a couple things like the timeline that this happened at, and of course Laylana's involvement.

Laylana was having a relatively peaceful morning. She was released from training for a few days of the week so she could help with the ship. It wasn't until Piper ran up to her one day that she realized her peace was going to be rudely interrupted. 

"Lana!" Piper yelled as she came barreling into the Erebus cabin.

"AH!" Laylana let out a scream as she nearly dropped the towel around her torso, having just gotten out of the shower. "Pipes! Ever heard of knocking?" 

"Get your clothes on!" Piper shook her head and rummaged through her friend's dresser, throwing her a random shirt, pants, underwear and socks. "Come on, something's happening with Leo." 

"What's going on?" Laylana asked as she shut the open door to her cabin and quickly pulled on the clothes, not giving a shit if Piper was there. 

"I don't know, he just called for us. Jason is on his way over, we thought we should get you." 

"Why me? We have barely spoke in like a month and a half." 

"Because you have a way with him. He might be calmer with you there." Piper looked at her with an expression of sympathy. "Come on, maybe it's a chance to patch things up." 

"Or make it worse." Laylana sighed grabbing her daggers and pulling on her boots. "Come on then. Let's go." 

When they arrived at Bunker 9, Leo was storming around in disarray. He was cursing in both English and Spanish, mumbling something about how he was so stupid. Jason was already trying to calm him down when they got there. He nearly ran into Laylana in his state, until she grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Woah, hey Fireboy, calm it down." She made eye contact with him for the first time in what felt like a long time. "It's okay, we're here to help you. Just tell us what happened." 

Leo had paused completely, his rant forgotten as he looked at the girl he had grown to like as she took her hands off of his shoulders. "Okay, guys. This is serious. Buford's gone. If we don't get him back, this whole place is going to explode."

Piper's eyes dropped. "Explode? Um...okay. Just calm down and tell us who Buford is."

"Fine, come here." Leo said, his tension dropping even more. He led them across the hangar floor, carefully skirting some of his more dangerous projects. "See? There's your problem," 

Laylana looked at the plans and various things scattering the tables and floor of the Bunker. Nothing made sense to her, and it all looked very jumbled. Jason and Piper had the same expressions on their faces.

"Uh...what are we looking at?" Jason asked.

"Okay," Leo sighed, "you want the full explanation or the short explanation?"

"Short," Laylana, Piper and Jason said in unison.

Leo gestured to one of the contraptions. "The syncopator goes here. It's a multi-access gyro-valve to regulate flow. The dozen glass tubes on the outside? Those are filled with powerful, dangerous stuff. That glowing red one is Lemnos fire from my dad's forges. This murky stuff here? That's water from the River Styx. The stuff in the tubes is going to power the ship, right? Like radioactive rods in a nuclear reactor. But the mix ratio has to be controlled, and the timeris already operational." Leo tapped the digital clock, which now read 65:15. "That means without the syncopator, this stuff is all going to vent into the chamber at the same time, in sixty-five minutes. At that point, we'll get a very nasty reaction."