Rising Storm (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Chapter 80

Chapter 80: Leo

Complete and utter panic. That’s how I felt when Alex dropped the atom bomb on me. Wait, no. An atomic bomb would hurt less on my heart. Did she seriously want me to just forget her? I couldn’t live without her!

“No.” Alex said, stopping before we reach where the others had set up camp. “No, let’s just all get out of here. Forget about blowing up the island. It’s not worth risking everybody’s lives or something that may or may not happen.”

“Uh, ok.” I may be dumb, but I’m not stupid. She was just going to sneak back and try to get rid of it after we all left. How clueless did she think I was?

“C’mon. We should go.” She rushed into the camp. Everybody jumped up.

“Are you ok? Oh my gosh!” Alex was automatically surrounded by the campers and I just shrunk back to the shadows, fiddling with some spare parts in my pocket.

“Hey.” I look up to see Piper, who was holding a torch. “How did you do?” I shrug.

“Circe’s gone and Alex is alive. Seems pretty good to me.” She gave me a face.

“You know what I mean.” She raised an eyebrow, but I frowned. “I was there. I saw what happened. What happened next?”

“What do you mean?” Oh right. The kiss. Wait… she was there?

“The kiss. What happened? You don’t seem happy.”

“Uh, well, let’s see. Alex told me she loved me, then let go and fell off the roof of the castle. I thought she was dead, and kissed her goodbye. Then she claimed that she ‘got it,’ and ran to the castle, looked in some stupid mirror to figure out how to get rid of the island so she can get rid of the island. Now she wants to erase our memory of her so she can destroy the island and have us be safe.” Piper’s jaw dropped.

“That heroic bitch.” I snort in laughter.

“Er, right. Well, what should we do?” Piper looked apologetic.

“I really don’t know. Looks to me like you’re stuck between a rock, and a different, yet equally hard rock.” I didn’t really know how to respond to that.

Finally, when everybody went to bed at last, I stayed up, listening the crickets. “I’m sorry Leo.” I turn to see Alex. I didn’t want to see her. Not now. “I really didn’t want to hurt you, I just need to fix things. I don’t know how you can handle all this emotional pain all the time? I know how to treat an bleeding wound, or give CPR, or treat burns. Heck, I can cure someone with cancer with my magic, but I don’t know what to do with a broken heart, other than to just wipe your memory of it so I stop hurting you. Please…” I sigh, and look at her. I know why she wants to do it, but I can’t forget her.

“I don’t ever want to forget you again. All of this, if we forget you, then we forget everything we have learned in the past week.” I look back into the darkness, and she sat down next to me.

“All this demigod crap…” she said, not specifically to me, but into the night. “Is it worth it? Is it worth dying for somebody else’s fight? I’m just a pawn; a trade-in. this isn’t my battle. I didn’t choose this fate.” She looked at me. “What about you, Leo? If the gods are willing to sacrifice their children so that they don’t have to fight their own battles, then good for them, but that’s not how I plan to live.” I was half expecting Alex to burst into flames, or blow up or something.

“All I want is to be able to look at you, and know that everything is going to be ok. I don’t care about Olympus anymore. I don’t care if Circe comes back 50 years too early. We will come back and have the Ares cabin drop a bomb on the place, but let’s please go home.” There was a long pause.

“I trust you.” She said finally. “Let’s head home.”