Most would say that the son of Hephaestus was the weakest.
To start, Percy had literally held the weight of the world on his shoulders. He even had the grey streak in his dark locks to prove it. He was unstoppable in battle, a hurricane of destruction sweeping everything into shambles, untameable as the sea. Hell, he even defeated the War god at the young age of twelve. Percy Jackson had earned the respect of Artemis, and had been offered godhood by his father's rival. There was no doubt in any beings mind that he was incredibly strong.
Jason Grace was the stable son of Rome, the Champion of Juno, or in some cases, Hera. He had defeated the Kraken, and led an army into battle against the Titan's stronghold, bringing down monster, after monster down with a fast and furious lightning bolt. The son of Jupiters sharp blue eyes had girls swooning in seconds, completely outshining any son of Aphrodite. Jason's tall and muscular figure had the Ares cabin in a run for their money, and he was the exact description of strength.
Lastly, Frank Zang was burly and giant. With one throw, he could toss a camper more than five feet. His humongous muscles defined the meaning of being strong, his fighting skills ranging from his bear hands, to a bow and arrow. Frank was the son of Mars, but also a legacy of Poseidon, granting him with shape shifting abilities. If a foe was too big for a size as himself, he would simply shift into an elephant, or a lion, and crush the enemy. No effort required.
If someone were to say that the lowly repair boy, Leo Valdez, was stronger than any of them, they would be presumed to be blind. How was it even possible?
But Reyna wasn't blind. Far from it, actually.
In fact it was she, who realized that the people who scoffed at the thought of the mechanic being stronger than the heros of Olympus, where the blind ones. Either that, or they chose not to see the fire handlers shear strength. But Reyna could see it, she could see it quite clearly.
Leo wasn't stronger than the others physically, no, even after building a warship he was still scrawny from his years on the run, and his stubborn insistence to skip meals to work on his ship didn't help. But he was much stronger in all other aspects.
Reyna saw he struggled to control his powers over fire, the only element that was so unpredictable and untameable, that to merely come in contact with it could very well kill you. She saw the smoke tendrils weaving out of his curls as Jason and Piper shunned him, ditching him once again. And then the flash of fear in his amber eyes when he realized he was in danger of combusting into flame. Concentration would cross his face for a brief second, and the next moment the smell of smoke would be lost in the wind.
She saw his gaze follow Frank and Hazel, longing and intense. Reyna saw Leo's shoulders slump in defeat, as Hazel whispered the words, "I love you" into the son of Mars' ear. The mechanic would squeeze his eyes shut, and bite his lip before whirling around, and plastering a grin on his face. Throwing his arms around the shoulders of the two lovers, he would ask, "When's the wedding?", grinning in satisfaction as blushes colored Hazel and Frank's cheeks. But as soon as their backs were turned, Leo would dig the heels of his hands into his eyes, as to stop the prickling of tears.
Once when Leo was late to feeding his ridiculous pet dragon, Festus, the beast had snatched his master off the deck of the boat, and dangled him by his shirt over New Rome. Leo had crossed his arms over his chest, and glared up at the automaton. But a second later, he laughed, and apologized for being late.
But in that brief moment, where his back wasn't covered by his shirt, Reyna saw the scar. She was familiar with battle wounds because of her mother, and was an expert at deriving what the scar was caused by. In Leo's case, a belt. So Reyna saw that one of his foster homes had beaten him. She also saw how seemingly unaffected he was. But Reyna wasn't blind, she saw he avoided belts, choosing instead, to don suspenders.
Reyna saw him struggle to keep himself together, unraveling at the seams of his carefully crafted facade. She wasn't meant to, it just happened. At the time, the praetor went to him in the middle of the night, to ask if he could look at her robotic dogs. She found him in the dark of his room, bent over his desk with the scrolls of Archimedes surrounding him. He didn't notice her in the shadows, he was too focused on the impossible problem laid out before him.
Reyna knew that if he could solve and construct the sphere's, they could win the war. She also knew that the rest of the Seven were pounding on the son of Hephaestus to hurry up, it wasn't an impossible equation. Why couldn't he do it? She saw Leo throw his pencil onto his desk in frustration. He looked close to tears, as he drew a shaky breath.
"Come on, Valdez", he murmured to himself, rocking back and forth, and rubbing his eyes. "Just put on a damn smile, and get the job done".
He bit his lip again as he picked up the pencil again, with a wavering hand.
Reyna never asked him about her dogs.
Most people would say that Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, and Frank Zang were the strongest heroes in the last millenium, give or take. But if you asked Reyna, the daughter of Bellona would raise her head from the morning reports, and take a long and slow sip of coffee from her mug.
"Open your eyes, Soldier," She would say, peering at you with her obsidian eyes. "If you did, you would see that it is clearly Leo Valdez, who is the strongest of them all".
But then again, nobody had bothered to ask her, yet.
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A/N: Just to clear some things up, Reyna and Leo respect each other, in this story. Otherwise, I don't see how this is even remotely possible. But I thought it was a nice way to honor Leo, and how strong he actually is. This is Reyna acknowledging it.
