You'll Learn to Love Me (Leo Valdez x OC)

Chapter 83: Death Finally Wins

Laylana stood next to her father as her friends said their goodbyes to their own parents. She was surprised when he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"You will be alright." He mumbled softly to her. 

"I know. And you will too, right?" Laylana hugged her father back just as tight, savoring the moment she would probably never have again. "Your kids and Nyx... They won't hurt you?" 

"Even if they did, I will manage. You are what is important now. What matters to me." Erebus pulled back hesitantly. "I love you, Laylana. I hope you know that." 

"I do." Laylana hesitated. "Love you too, dad. Thank you, for finally showing yourself to me." 

"I will see you again someday. I promise." Erebus sent his daughter one last look, and melted into the shadows. Laylana clenched the hilts of her daggers tightly, and climbed back on the ship. She and Leo planned to harness themselves to the control panel of the ship, and try and keep it aloft long enough for everyone to escape. She grabbed her backpack that already had some of her most important belongings in them, and pulled a certain bottle out of her bedside drawer. Something she had been saving for months, waiting for the right time to use it. Maybe the ship potentially exploding would be the best way to use it. Without another thought, Laylana opened the bottle and poured the mixture over her clothes and as much of her skin as she could. It didn't smell of anything, and it seemed to dry quickly. She tossed the empty bottle on her bed, raced up to the deck and strapped herself to the control panel with Leo at her side.

Zeus was a hundred feet tall, holding the Argo II by its prow. He boomed, "HOLD ON!" Then he tossed the ship up and spiked it overhand like a volleyball.

If Laylana hadn't been strapped down with one of Leo's twenty-point safety harnesses, she would have disintegrated. As it was, her stomach tried to stay behind in Greece and all the air was sucked out of her lungs. The sky turned black. The ship rattled and creaked. The deck cracked like thin ice under her legs and, with a sonic boom, the Argo II hurtled out of the clouds.

"Jason!" Leo shouted as his hands worked furiously on the controls. "Hurry!"

Laylana grasped at both hers and Leo's straps, undoing them as quickly as she could. Her hands shook, as did her legs but she managed to undo them. The sails were on fire. Festus creaked in alarm. A catapult peeled away and lifted into the air. Centrifugal force sent the shields flying off the railings like metal Frisbees. Wider cracks opened in the deck as Jason staggered towards the hold. 

Then the hatch burst open. Frank and Hazel stumbled through, pulling on the guide rope they'd attached to the mast. Piper, Annabeth and Percy followed, all of them looking disoriented.

"Go!" Leo yelled. "Go, go, go!"

"Don't die up here, Valdez. I will come back for your dumbass." Laylana shouted as she ran to the railing. He grinned at her as she saluted, and dove over the edge, shifting into a large eagle made of shadows.

She heard the voice of Buford's hologram. He clattered across the deck, shouting "LET'S GO! MOVE IT! CUT THAT OUT!"

Then his tabletop split into helicopter blades and Buford buzzed away. Laylana could barely make out Frank changing form into a dazed grey dragon. Hazel climbed onto his neck. Frank grabbed Percy and Annabeth in his front claws, then spread his wings and soared away. Jason held Piper by the waist, ready to fly, but he made the mistake of glancing down. Laylana didn't get to hear him as she flew downwards next to her friends looking at the absolute chaos that had unfolded on the ground.

There was a vast army of monsters spread across the hills – cynocephali, two-headed men, wild centaurs, ogres and others she couldn't even name – surrounding two tiny islands of demigods. At the crest of Half-Blood Hill, gathered at the feet of the Athena Parthenos, was the main force of Camp Half-Blood along with various Roman demigods, rallied around what Laylana assumed was the golden eagle of the legion. The other Roman demigods were in a defensive formation several hundred yards away and seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack. Giant eagles circled Jason, screeching urgently, as if looking for orders. Frank the grey dragon flew alongside with his passengers, Laylana close to his side.