Ten Realities and My Trusty Fork

And they were back! Swirling through nothingness- ah, yes, the perfect pastime. He’d started to drift off in his own mind, losing all sense of time and perception, and he felt as if he were to fall asleep just when he fell to the floor once more. Lovely.

It was a room. A very nice room, with white walls and carpet and couches and- this was the same room wasn’t it? It looked identical. He turned around but everything was exactly as it was before. Then he noticed someone

He let out a string of curses, turning to inspect the room further. It wasn’t a stranger- it was him. It was himself repeating the same actions he’d just done moments earlier. H pushed down on the seat cushion and ran his hand through the crack between them just like Leo had.

 “I see you’ve made yourself at home.”

He jumped up at that, reaching into his belt and pulling out the fork.

He felt in his pocket for his own fork, which was there. Leo had never been so confused. He was watching his past in third person. He tried to yell out, but no sounds came out. He moved forward and tried to knock a white vase from a table, but his hand passed right through it. He couldn’t do anything. It was like he was a ghost.

Had this goddess tricked him?  

 “I see you have a…” the lady trailed off, raising an eyebrow at the fork Other Leo was grasping, “weapon.”

“Yeah!” Other Leo said, swinging the fork in the air, “And I’m not afraid to use this utensil!”

“Uh-huh.” She looked thoroughly unimpressed, “You are just like I have heard. Pleased to meet you, Leo Valdez. I’m Atë.”

“You’re eighty?” He asked, squinting at her, “You don’t look your age.”

“No,” she said, clearly trying to keep her cool, “Atë. It is my name.”

The conversation continued as he remembered. Was this a joke? A test? Was Atë laughing at him silently from where he couldn’t hear or see?

She turned up her palms, “Eons I have been alone, dear boy, but now you come. You free me of my loneliness.”

“That’s great and all,” He was tuning out the conversation he’d already shared with Atë when something changed.

 “Home is where your heart is, no?” She inquired, placing a hand over her chest, “and your heart is here.”

“Well, I mean, technically,” he waved his hands around in an attempt to convey emotion, “but that’s not really what the saying meant…”

“Do you not wish to stay?”

“With you?”

“Who else?”

“Well,” Other Leo said, giving a half-smile to the goddess, “How can I refuse?”

What?

The conversation from then on out was different- completely different. He couldn’t believe this. Other Leo was staying here? With this stranger?

Then it hit him. Other universes. Alternate timelines. This had to be…

“Atë,” he said to no one in particular, “This has to be Atë’s universe.”

Then, in the blink of an eye, the world around him changed. It was like the picture he was seeing melted away, but he didn’t go flying through nothingness again. He just sat there while the universe was painted around him like a giant picture.

Had that meant he was right? Maybe Atë was lying about this being unbelievably hard.

Leo immediately noticed where he was. How couldn’t he? It was his ship, the Argo II. He spun in a circle and narrowed his eyes at the empty deck. Where was everyone?

“Leo!” A familiar voice shouted from behind him. It was Jason, waving at him. Leo turned around and jogged towards Jason somewhat skeptically.

“Hey, the ship’s course has been going all wonky. Can you check it out?”

It was so normal Leo was greatly put off.

“Yeah…” he said, “I’ll do that.”

“You sound kinda out of it, dude.” Jason raised an eyebrow, “Honestly, you have ever since Croatia. Percy won’t talk to me about it.”

Now Leo was interested. “Croatia?” He asked, before realizing that this Leo would’ve known, “Oh, yeah, I mean, yeah.” He mentally slapped himself. Smooth, Valdez.

“You wanna talk about it?” Jason started, “I mean-,”

“Jason! Who’re you talking to?”

And, yes, that voice was even more familiar. Jason turned around to see him. Well, presumably this world’s him. Other Leo ran up to a confused Jason and turned his eyes on his clone.

“Jason…” He warned, “What’d you do?”

Jason was one step ahead of both of them. Faster than lightning, which was in itself quite ironic, he had out his gladius.

“You..?” Jason trailed off before he could ask the question he wanted to, “What would you guys say if I asked which one of you was the real Leo?”

Other Leo sighed, “I’d say you’re stupid. Haven’t you seen a movie, Grace? It’s like you aren’t even my friend.”

Leo held up his hands, “Hey, look, I’m the faker here, but I don’t want any violence. There was this goddess and she sent me here-,”

“Can you expect us to believe that?” Other Leo asked.

“I don’t know! I can tell you anything you wanna heard about me. I’ll convince you that I’m… you. From a different universe.”

“Fine. Favorite color?”

“Red.”

“Dad?”

“Hephaestus.”

“Mom?”

“Esperanza. Dude. Harder questions.” He scoffed, pulling out his fork and twirling it between his fingers. Jason gave him an odd look.

They continued like that for a long, long while. It got quite boring, and Jason just stood there while they fired questions and answers at each other.

“Girlfriend?”

Leo straightened up and gave a smug smile, “Yep. Calypso.”

Jason’s face went pale. Other Leo looked almost offended.

“You’re lying. You stayed with her?”

“Am not! What’s wrong with her?”

Other Leo looked at him like really? Jason shrugged his shoulders, “He answered everything else right, right? Maybe she’s different for him. I mean, maybe other you has a girlfriend.”

Other Leo scowled. “Shut up. I don’t have that witch,” he said it in a way that made him think Other Leo wanted to say something that rhymed, “but I’ll find another girl.”

“Or maybe you’ll live your life a sad, lonely little man.” Leo offered.

“Stop insulting yourself.” Other Leo said.

“Make me.”

“Both of you knock it off.” Jason spoke up in his mom voice, “Look, Leo, maybe you should take, uh, Leo to Annabeth and see what’s what.”

“You’re leaving me with him?”

Jason shrugged, “I’m on duty.”

Other Leo grabbed Leo’s hand and tugged him off, not without a mumbled batch of curses directed at Jason.

“Hey, me, uh,” Leo started, “What’s with Jason? Why are we so sour? And why’s he asking us about Croatia?”

“You’re me. You should know.” He let go of his hand and walked at a steady pace beside Leo. He wondered if anyone walking by would have to do a double take.

“Yeah, but I don’t. Other stuff happens in different universes. You went to Croatia with Percy, but for me, Jason went with Nico.”

“Cupid’s an asshole.” Other Leo said, “That’s all that you need to know.”

He groaned. This guy wasn’t getting it, “Look, I’m you, and we know we’re not a snitch. Just tell me.”

“No.” And he continued to pull Leo down the familiar paths of the Argo.

 “That’s bullcrap!” He protested, but Other Leo wasn’t responding. He crossed his arms over his chest and made every footstep he took fall with a loud stomp to get the point across he was incredibly pissed.

The Other Leo had seemingly no reaction to this.

He followed his clone down the corridor, and then to their appointed meeting room. Everyone sat quite ordinarily, chatting and eating, but something else put him off.

It was Nico. His hair wasn’t short, but it was trimmed, and wasn’t hanging in his face. He didn’t have such bad bags under his eyes that it looked like he’d been punched in both of them, and he wasn’t even wearing a creepy smile.

It was a genuine smile, and his eyes crinkled at the corners, and he laughed. It was a weird thing to hear, considering he’d just laughed at something Percy had said. He didn’t look like Nico at all.

The second thing he noticed was Piper. Her chocolate down hair was tumbling loose down her back, wasn’t braided and choppy, and her V-neck fit her just right and clung to her curves. He felt gross for thinking this stuff about his best friend’s girlfriend immediately, but she looked even more beautiful than she usually did.

She looked like she was putting down effort into her wardrobe. Her high-tops were purple and she wore shorts that were shorter than Leo had ever seen Piper wear. They stopped inches above her knee.

Other Leo cleared his throat, and everyone turned to stare at him

“Uh, Leo?” Piper asked, raising an eyebrow that looked too perfect to be completely natural, “Are you aware there’s a-,”

“Another me? Yes.” Other Leo put his hands in his pockets, “He said he was sent by some goddess.”

“Hey, I was!” He said, clenching onto the fork in his fist, “I need to do it to, like, be revived.”

“Revived…?” Frank asked. He sat next to Hazel who was staring at him curiously.

“Yeah. Brought back to life or whatever. Then I need to make a pit stop at Ogygia and I’m golden.”

“Why would you need to go to Ogygia?” Percy asked. He supposed in this world, where he’d never met Calypso, Percy still had. Other Percy looked different too. He sounded different too, with a much heavier New Yorker accent. His eyes didn’t have that tired dull in them, nor his hair the streak of gray, and he didn’t have that mole Leo had noticed (in an incident that involved him getting a lot closer to a dude than he’d have liked to) right above his right ear.

He wasn’t even into guys, and he could say for-sure this Percy was definitely more attractive.

“You’re dead?” Annabeth asked. She didn’t look any different. Strange as that was. Even Frank and Hazel had an aura about them that made look better, but he couldn’t place his finger on what.

“Prophecy,” he explained, “You know: To storm or fire the world must fall. Apparently it was fire.”

Other Leo gave him a questioning stare, but Hazel spoke up for the first time. “Storm or fire? I thought it was to hell or earth the world must fall.”

Leo looked at her for a long time. “Uh, no. Not for me.”

“Yeah, but what about Ogygia?” Percy asked again.

“Calypso.” Leo said, “You know, the myth about Calypso the sea nymph being trapped on a deserted island and all that jazz…”

Nico’s face immediately darkened to a shade of red. “The myth here is different. It’s a guy. He was a son of Apollo who refused Zeus…” he trailed off and gestured wildly, “You know. So, Zeus got Hera to trap him on an island for all eternity.”

Annabeth nodded. “Yes. Calypso is a sorceress, known mostly for her work on Circe’s Island nowadays.”

Piper cringed at that. There was obviously a memory behind that.

“Oh.” He twiddled his thumbs, “So have we met Calypso?”

“You, me, and Jason.” Piper said with a sigh. “On our first quest. We crash landed, and she turned Jason into a gerbil or something, and then offered to let you stay behind as her immortal sorcerer consort. You obviously denied.”

“Oh, god,” he muttered to himself. So, here, Calypso was their Khione?

“Yeah, ‘oh, god’ is right.” Hazel shook her head, “Sorcery intrigues me, but Calypso is a straight psycho.”

Hazel sounded way more southern, and way more ‘you best not be messin’ with me’ than she normally did. This reality was changing small things, but Annabeth was exactly the same. From her voice, to her face, to her clothing- Leo couldn’t even tell what was different with her! And he had spent plenty of time with her in the engine room.

“All her myths are terrible.” Frank agreed, “Some of them picture her chopping off the heads of those who betray her, having a voice and face so violently beautiful it could hypnotize you, stomping men to death, even assaulting them sexually…” he shuddered, “Very gory, graphic stuff.”

Frank, although mostly normal-looking, seemed to have more of a confidence about him. He also had more of a defined jaw- definitely a manlier face structure.

“Percy and I are the only ones to meet him.” Nico admitted, “The one on the island. He’s called Willhelm, but he’s always kept his mother’s last name of Solace. He’s…. amazing.”

Willhelm Solace.

Will Solace…

That name was familiar, instantly clicking in Leo’s mind. So, in this universe, Will was an age-old demigod imprisoned on an island by not giving something- knowing the god, probably something sexual- to his grandfather, and not the head counselor of the Apollo cabin.

That was a horrible thing to be imprisoned for! Who wants to sleep with their grandparent? Zeus was a serious creep.

So, if he was correctly labeling the dreamy look in Nico’s eyes, he was head-over-heels for Will.

And if Frank and Hazel and Percy and Annabeth were obviously in their respective relationships, then who did Cupid use against Other Leo in Croatia?

Was it Piper?

He wouldn’t lie- Jason’s girlfriend was a real catch. He could hardly believe his friend had gotten with the girl when he found out, even if the Wilderness School memories were all fake.

“Where’s Jason?” Percy asked, looking at both Leo’s with somewhat of a sense of pity.

“Deck.” Other Leo responded simply.

“And,” Percy hesitated a moment, “What about this one and Croatia?”

Other Leo’s expression darkened. He had never seen himself look this upset ever. “He says that Nico and Jason went in his world, or whatever.”

“What even happened there? You two aren’t telling anyone and you’ve been avoiding Jason for days!” Piper turned to look her Leo, and it suddenly made sense.

He gave Piper a look that dripped of venom, something foreign to see on his face. “That’s none of your business.”

This version of himself didn’t have a thing for Piper- he had a thing for Jason! That’s why he recoiled so harshly at the girlfriend comment! But everything else wasn’t him, he’d never been into Jason.

He doubted Jason would want him to be upset for the rest of his life, so putting two and two together…

Nico was happy, Piper was perfect, Frank was confident, Hazel was as sisterly as ever…

And Annabeth was the same.

That was it! Annabeth was the same, who’d never want her to change even in their deepest fantasies?

“Percy!” Leo blurted out, almost dropping his fork in his abruptness, “This is Percy’s world!” And the last thing he saw were the confused faces of the people in the room before the world dripped away and he was black in swirling darkness.