•-•• • ---

To Leo, possibly the strangest part of the alien invasion was the fact that he wasn’t even remotely surprised by it.

He’d seen so much weird stuff in his life, what with the monsters trying to kill him, the gods and goddesses trying to kill him, the giants coming back to kill everyone, the earth rising up to kill everyone, Roman emperors coming back from the dead to kill everyone... 

Aliens coming from space to kill everyone didn’t feel like a huge stretch. 

So when Percy and Annabeth Iris Messaged him, his only reaction was to sigh and promise to meet them with Piper as soon as he could.

He texted Calypso on his prototype Celestial Bronze phone —a little something he’d been working on whenever there wasn’t a pressing apocalypse. It had only blown up in his face twice!— as he began packing explosives and electronics into his toolbelt.

To: Sunshine 

Percy and Annabeth just called. I’m gonna go deal with an alien invasion in New York. Want to come with?

She was working on homework with some school friends, so it took a moment. After a few minutes, Leo glanced over just as the three dots disappeared from the bottom of the screen, reappeared, and vanished again. Leo was almost packed by the time her response appeared.

From: Sunshine

No thanks. I’m busy. Don’t die again.

He couldn’t really fault her on that. She and Percy hadn’t seen each other since he left her on Ogygia and she’d never seemed too eager to remedy that. He’d done some pretty drastic things to avoid people in the past, too, so it didn’t come as much surprise that she deemed her AP physics project more pressing than the fate of New York. 

He Iris Messaged Piper as he walked through the hallways of the Waystation, looking for Festus. She was in her room, standing in front of two lumps of clothes on her bed.

“Hot date?” He asked. She jumped, looking up at the source of the noise with Katoptris held threateningly. She saw him and casually slid her dagger back into its hidden sheath.

“Yes, actually.” She answered, turning back to the outfits on her bed. “Shel and I are playing Laser Tag.

He hummed approvingly as he found Festus in the garage. “Practice aim and tactical skills while spending time with your girlfriend. Me gusta, Pipes.”

“Thank you. Maybe you and Calypso should try something like that, it could help you guys with that rough spot you’re in.” She suggested. Leo shrugged, not wanting to talk about it. 

“Anyways, was there another reason for your call, besides date ideas?” Piper asked, turning to her closet and pulling out a pair of orange converse. “I’ve got twenty minutes before I have to go pick Shel up and I still can’t decide between black and beige.”

“Yeah, about that—“ he started, loading greek fire into Festus’ new weapons system as he spoke.

“Leo, I'm not taking fashion advice from you.” Piper cut him off, scoffing. “The only reason you look presentable is because Calypso makes your clothes and the Waystation picks them.”

“Hiriente! I have an excellent sense of style!” He exclaimed, offended. “And that’s not what I was talking about! New York is being attacked by aliens.”

“Is that supposed to be a joke? It isn’t funny.” She said flatly.

“It’s not a joke. Turn on the news.”

“I believe you.” Piper huffed and turned away from the IM sharply. “But that’s not my problem. I’ve got plans!” She protested, finally picking out the black cargo pants, apparently having made a decision. Her fingers gripped the fabric so tightly that her knuckles were white. “We’ve already helped save the world twice, and look where it got us.” She gestured into the air bitterly and her normally smooth voice wavered as she continued. “It’s someone else’s turn. I’m done.” 

“Percy and Annabeth are in New York.”

She froze, one leg into her cargo pants, teetering dangerously.

“They’re visiting for Sally’s birthday, remember?” Leo sighed, voice resigned.

She groaned and grabbed her sword and sheath from where it was leaning by her bed. “I’ll call Shel and tell her something came up.” 

Piper went back into the closet and pulled out a large mesh bag of leather armor. “Are you coming to get me?”

“Yeah, I’ll be there as soon as I finish with Festus,” he confirmed, giving the dragon a little pat. He creaked contentedly in response. “Meet you on the roof?”

“How’re you going to get here that fast? You haven’t left yet and you live like six hours away. Even flying.”

“Apollo owes me for music lessons.” Leo shrugged.

Piper nodded and swiped through the mist, dissipating it.

He closed up the panel he had open on Festus, a grin growing on his face. He and Jo had been waiting for a good time to try out the new firing system, and an alien invasion would be perfect.

Leo climbed up onto Festus’ back and the Waystation opened up the roof for them. He called out his thanks and smiled as the golden rays of afternoon sun warmed him.

Maybe Leo was imagining things, but the sun seemed to glow more softly, recently. Not dimmer or colder by any means, just… gentler. The harsh, burning heat of it had tamed to a warm caress. He liked to think of it as a representation of the changes in Apollo. The way he had softened, humbled, become warmer and kinder.

Apollo had visited several times in the months since he had been reinstated as a god. 

If Leo was being honest, it was really nice to have a god who knew what being a demigod was like. Having recently been a mortal on a dangerous quest of his own, Apollo understood things that other gods —even other demigods, sometimes— just… didn’t. He had faced real death and made real sacrifices. He’d been with Jason when he— well… in any case, Apollo was a good conversation partner. 

He was also more than willing to help out with his godly power.

Unfortunately, due to the ever-watchful eye of his father: Zeus, Apollo couldn’t show outright favoritism. However, gods often gifted favors in exchange for quests or services. Loophole!

Apollo was really improving with his skill on the Valdezinator. How could he not? He had an excellent teacher.

In exchange, Leo could call in one of his favors in cas of an emergency.

Speaking of which, Leo turned his face towards the sun. “Hey Apollo!” He called out cheerfully. “Pipes and I are gonna go kick some alien butt, but it’ll take too long just flying on Festus. I want to cash in a favor.” The sun pulsed a little brighter, just for a moment. “Could you get Festus and I to Piper’s place, and then get all three of us to Stark Tower in New York?”

Evidently the answer was yes, because he was immediately surrounded by gentle warmth, and he dissolved into golden light.

•--• • •-• -•-• -•--

Iris Messages made, Percy and Annabeth were making their way to Stark Tower —dodging blue beams of energy and urging people into buildings as they went. At one point, a blast hit a car a few feet away and flipped it sideways, forcing them to leap to the side. Percy really didn’t want to know what would happen if he or Annabeth got hit.

He pulled Riptide out of his pocket for what was probably the twelfth time in as many minutes and uncapped it, throwing it at an alien passing overhead. 

It struck the creature in the leg, and the flying metal SeaDoo veered into a building in a shriek of steel and shattering glass before exploding, littering the streets with debris. On the upside, this meant that Celestial Bronze did work on aliens. On the downside, he had to wait for his sword to reappear each time he threw it. He really needed to get a long-range weapon.

This would be so much easier if he had a nice big water source. Even a river or a pond would be nice. A puddle. Something. 

Unfortunately, they were nowhere near a river. 

He couldn’t even use the waterlines for fear of bringing the whole street down. The buildings were creaking under the strain of being jostled around by alien wildebeests and he really didn’t want to strain them more by bursting the plumbing.

He looked around, keen eyes scanning for liquid. His attention caught on the indigo blood spattered over the building to his left. 

He’d controlled liquids other than water once before. 

Maybe he could do it again.

He turned to Annabeth, tugging her over to the side of the road.

“What is it?” Annabeth demanded, eyes stormy. “You have that face you get when you’re about to do something I won't like.”

“Those iguana things have an awful lot of water in their bodies.” He commented in a measured tone.

Annabeth’s eyes widened and she glanced over at the nearest corpse.

“No. No! Absolutely not!” She whisper-shouted, fear creeping into her tone.

“Hear me ou—“

“Percy, no. What you did then, it was wrong. Unnatural.” She put a hand over his heart. “You weren’t acting like yourself. You went too far.”

“Annabeth.” He leaned his forehead into hers and looked into her eyes. “Do you trust me?”

She scoffed. “What kind of question is that?”

“Do you trust me not to go too far?” he pressed, holding eye contact.

She looked conflicted, stormy gray eyes filled with doubt, worry, and just a hint of that fear he had seen in Tartarus.

“Do you trust me to listen to you if you think I’m about to go too far?” He rephrased, bringing his hands up to hold her shoulders. “You pulled me out before, you can do it again.”

She hesitated, lips pursed in thought, then she nodded and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips. She pulled away. “I trust you to listen to me.” 

He turned to the body in the street, a shiver of excitement spreading through him as he examined the slowly growing pool of blood beneath it.

“Will this even work outside of Tartarus?” Annabeth whispered beside him.

He smiled. “Seems like an excellent time to find out.”

He turned toward the street, focusing his mind on the blood filling the gutter. 

He searched inwardly for that deep, dark place he had felt shatter in Tartarus, when he had bent Misery’s poison to his will. It was smooth now, the sharp edges softened like sea glass. 

He felt a pull in his gut and the blood rose in a blue-black wave. 

It felt strange, like building a sand castle out of pebbles, but it worked. It was shockingly easy now that he tried it, and he brought a thin stream of it closer, swirling the blood around his fingers.

He felt like Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender, but he didn’t need a full moon. 

That thought made him pause, the blood around him freezing in place. In the show, Katara had been able to control blood inside a person’s body and pull at them like puppets. 

Could he do that?

He turned his attention to an alien passing by, reaching out to sense the way thin blue blood gushed through its veins. 

He felt a tug in his stomach and the alien exploded, bursting like a water balloon and splattering over the surrounding buildings. The flying SeaDoo clattered to the ground, leaving deep gouges in the street.

He turned to look at Annabeth, suddenly terrified to see that fear in her eyes again. She surveyed him with those piercing gray eyes cautiously. She must have been satisfied with what she saw, because her look quickly shifted to amusement as she took in the dark blood dripping down the walls.

“I meant to do that” he lied unconvincingly.

She rolled her eyes and tugged him forward by his arm.

He faced the building ahead. The skies buzzed with aliens, their glistening skins filled with water. He felt a feral grin creep over his face. 

He could work with this.