Oath Kept

A/N: Up until the first line break, everything is pretty much word for word from the book, except I changed the POV. I do not own that section of the story, all rights go to Rick Riordan. I looked up. Calypso stood over me, her arms crossed, her eyebrows arched. "You're late," she announced. Her eyes gleamed. "Sorry, Sunshine," I said. "Traffic was murder." "You are covered with soot," she noted. "And you managed to ruin the clothes I made for you which were impossible to ruin." "Well, you know." I shrugged. Somebody had released a hundred pachinko balls in my chest. "I'm all about doing the impossible." She offered her hand and helped me up. We stood nose to nose as she studied my condition. She smelled like cinnamon. Had she always had that tiny freckle next to her left eye? I really wanted to touch it. She wrinkled her nose. "You smell—" "I know. Like I've been dead. Probably because I have been. Oath to keep with a final breath and all, but I'm better now—" She stopped me with a kiss. The pachinko slammed around inside me. I felt so happy that I had to make a conscious effort to not burst into flames. When she finally let me go, her face was covered in soot smudges. She didn't seem to care. She traced her thumb across my cheekbone. "Leo Valdez," she said. Nothing else— just my name, as if it were something magical. "That's me," I said, my voice ragged. "So, um. . . you want to get off this island?" Calypso stepped back. She raised one hand and the winds swirled. Her invisible servants brought two suitcases and set them at her feet. "What gave you that idea?" I grinned. "Packed for a long trip, huh?" "I don't plan on coming back." Calypso glanced over her shoulder, at the path that led to her garden and her cavern home. "Where will you take me, Leo?" "Somewhere to fix my dragon, first," I decided. "And then. . . wherever you want. How long was I gone, seriously?" "Time is difficult on Ogygia," Calypso said. "It felt like forever." I had a stab of doubt. I hoped my friends were okay. I hoped a hundred years hadn't passed while I was flying around dead and Festus searched for Ogygia. I would have to find out. I needed to let Jason and Piper and the others know I was okay. But right now. . . priorities. Calypso was a priority. "So once you leave Ogygia," I said, "do you stay immortal or what?" "I have no idea." "And you're okay with that?" "More than okay." "Well, then!" I turned toward my dragon. "Buddy, you up for another flight to nowhere in particular?" Festus blew fire and limped around. "So we take off with no plan," Calypso said. "No idea where we'll go or what problems await beyond this island. Many questions and no tidy answers?" I turned up my palms. "That's how I fly, Sunshine. Can I get your bags?" "Absolutely." Five minutes later, with Calypso's arms around my waist, I spurred Festus into flight. The bronze dragon spread his wings, and we soared into the unknown. We flew for hours. I had no indication that we'd made any distance. All I ever saw below us was endless water. After several hours into the flight, Calypso had fallen asleep with her head resting on my shoulder. I felt her clear breathing on my skin through my tattered shirt. Gods, even her breathing was perfect. I had no way of actually telling time, but it felt like at least five hours when I noticed the silhouette of an island appear in the distance. "Calypso," I said in an excited voice. She didn't wake. "Hey, Sunshine," I said a little louder. This time Calypso's head lifted off my shoulder. "What?" she asked. I pointed to the island. As we got closer, the island began to take more shape. It looked familiar, even. "Oh gods, no," Calypso said in a nervous voice. "What?" I asked. Then it dawned on me, why the island looked familiar. In five minutes, Festus landed on the opposite side of Ogygia that we left from. Calypso and I slipped off of the dragon. "No, no no," Calypso said in a shaky voice. "NO!" "Whoah, there, Sunshine," I said in my attempt at a soothing voice, and pulled her into my embrace. She buried her face in my shoulder and began to sob. "Hey, it's fine," I said. "It's not fine!" shouted after pulling out of the hug. "I was supposed to leave! The curse was supposed to be lifted! The gods promised Percy Jackson I'd be released!" She turned and faced the sky. "You promised Percy Jackson I'd be released!" "Look," I said, while planting my hands gently on her two shoulders, staring straight into her dark, beautiful eyes. "We're not giving up. I'm going to repair Festus, check the guidance system, and we'll try again." "Leo, we ended up on the exact opposite side of the island that we left from. That's exactly what happened the one time I tried to leave. Once I get to the border of the area around the island, the curse moves me back to the opposite end, facing the island." "Have some optimism. I am getting you off this island." She still looked doubtful, but she planted her hands on either side of my face and pulled me into a kiss. "Alright," she said. "If you think your dragon is the reason we're back here, then fix it and we'll try again." "Okay, but I died a little while ago, plus we went on a several hour flight, so I'm pretty tired and hungry," I said. "Well I'm tired as well, so I guess we can stay here a night and make the repairs in the morning." We walked to the dining table right outside her cave entrance and sat, Calypso directly across from me. She willed her invisible servants to bring us food. "So," I said after having taken a couple large bites of my meal. "I'm assuming you need to be caught up on everything that's happened." She swallowed the bit of food she was chewing. "No." "No?" I said, surprised. "I'm a sorceress, Leo," she put simply. "So you already know everything? What with the giants we killed side by side with the gods, Percy and Annabeth's time in Tartarus, how I died?" "Well, not everything. Magic is tiring, and I'd only really watched you." "Aww," I said. "And to think you said you weren't in love with me when I left." "And the closer the event is to the present," she said, ignoring my comment, "the more draining it is to see it. So I suppose it'd be good to hear everything from you." "And I will tell you, but let's finish eating first, because I'm starving." After we finished our meals and our plates were whisked away by the invisible servants, I began to recount the events from after I left. I would have started from the very beginning, but I'd already told her all of that the first time I was on the island. "So you killed Gaea," she said after I'd finished, trying not to show awe in her expression. "Yep. I'm just that much of a badass. Killed the primordial of the earth herself. And just to note, two of the four lines of the prophecy were about me." "I think your head needs a little deflating," she said with a smirk. "Look, Sunshine. I saved the world. I died. I think I have the right to gloat a little." "Whatever, Flameboy." "Flameboy? Is that what you're going to call me now?" "Do you not like that? How about Big Head?" "How about Hunk Muffin?" "No." "Fine. How about we stick with Leo, for now?" "Well, Leo, we need some sleep." "I agree." We stood and I started walking toward the campsite I'd made myself the last time I was here. "Where do you think you're going?" Calypso said to me. I turned around. "To sleep." She walked toward me and grabbed my shirt and pulled me into a quick kiss. "I don't hate you as much as I used to," she said playfully. "I'm not letting you sleep on the ground anymore." She started walking toward her cave home and I followed. "So, you have more than one bed in there or something?" I said awkwardly. "No, you idiot." Wait, did she want me to sleep in the same bed as her? After we'd only been together for a few hours? Wait, were we even officially "together"? I mean, I was one hundred percent in love with her, and she must be in love with me too because the raft showed up last time I was here. And she'd kissed me multiple times. I just thought we'd be casually progressing our relationship, like normal people did. But nope. Apparently we were jumping straight to sleeping in the same bed. I was fine with this, but still felt awkward about it, beings as I'd never been that intimate with anyone, let alone someone I hadn't even taken on a proper date yet. We stepped into the cave and it looked the exact same is it did that one time I saw it. Crystals made up the wall. It was separated by white curtains. Against one wall was a large loom and harp, and against the other were shelves stacked with jars of fruit. Hanging from the ceiling were dried herbs that I couldn't name. On another wall there was a fireplace, currently unlit. On the fourth and final wall was a queen sized bed, adorned with extremely soft looking white blankets and very fluff looking pillows. Calypso walked straight toward it. She took my hand and kissed me again. It lasted just a few seconds. She pushed me onto the right side of the bed and then lie down on the left. "Don't get any funny ideas," she said. "Come on," I said. "Who do you think I am?" In just a couple of minutes, we'd both fallen asleep. I woke up to find Calypso gone. I pulled the blanket off of myself and stood up. Lying on the floor were a new set of clothes, completely identical to the torn ones I was wearing. I changed into them and left the cave. Calypso was in her garden, digging up soil. "You don't intend to stay, yet you're still tending to your garden?" I asked her. "It calms me," she said simply. She dropped a seed into the hole she'd dug and covered, then picked up her watering can and poured water on it. "Well, I better get started on Festus," I said. "Do you need any help?" "Not really. But if you still intend on opening that shop with me, I guess you could watch and learn." She stood and we began trotting toward the beach. She slipped her hand into mine. Her fingers were warm and her palm was soft, despite having just been viciously attacking dirt with a trowel. Festus was running around the beach anxiously until he saw me and bolted over. Even in dragon form, Piper's charmspeak still kept him permanently on. He stopped five feet away from us and stopped, staring expectantly. I let go of Calypso's hand and walked toward the bronze dragon. I flipped open the panel on his neck and examined the circuitry. A few wires were loose, but the circuits all seemed intact. I reattached the wires and looked at Odysseus's astrolabe. I thought for a second then pulled a pair of wire cutters from my toolbelt. I cut the wires connecting the astrolabe and then used electrical tape to attach them together. I made a couple of tweaks to adjust his circuitry to the lack of the astrolabe. I threw the old navigation device to the ground. Calypso picked it up and examined it. "What is this?" she asked. "It's what allowed me to find your island." I hesitated before telling her where I got it. "Odysseus made it and the dwarves I met in Bollona took it from him. The crystal from your cave is what made it work." "Odysseus?" Calypso said. "He intended to come back for me?" I frowned. "Don't go getting all touchy for your past crush," I said, a little more scathingly than I intended. "You're right," she said, throwing the astrolabe aside. "He's long dead, as are my feelings for him." I could tell she meant it. "Good. I can't do any other repairs to Festus without materials that this island doesn't have, and my toolbelt can't produce. So I guess we're good to go." Her suitcases were still inside the compartment on his left side, a modification that I designed myself. We hopped up and she put her arms around my waist. Festus flew into the sky and we once again flew into the unknown. Apparently it wasn't unknown to Calypso, because when we landed on Ogygia five hours later (still guessing with the time), she slid off and didn't yell at the sky. "I told you, it's the curse," she said. "It hasn't been lifted." "There's got to be some other way to get you off the island," I said desperately. "There isn't," she said sadly. "What if I built a teleporter?" "A what?" she said with a confused expression. I keep forgetting how long she's been away from the world. "It instantly moves you from one place to another." "Has that been done before?" "No," I admitted. "And wouldn't there need to be another device in the area we want to go?" "Okay, fine. But there has to be something." "Leo—" "You're a good person! You don't deserve to be trapped on this island anymore." "Maybe not. But whether I deserve freedom or not, I'm not getting it," she said bitterly. "But I can't just give up. Every problem has a solution. That's what my mom would always say." "Not this one." She kissed me. It felt like it lasted an eternity. When she pulled away, her almond eyes were a mixture between happiness and sadness. "I'm trapped here," she said. "So am I," I pointed out. "No, you can leave. Take Festus and go back to see your friends, your half-siblings." "No. As long as you're here, I'm not leaving. The last time I left, it was nothing but constant longing to back here with you. I'm not going through that again, and you're never getting heartbroken again." "Since when did you get so emotional?" "Since I fell in love with the most amazing girl in the world." "Now you're just being cheesy." "Look, Sunshine, I'm trying to be serious and romantic here and you're kind of ruining it." "Well I guess we have an eternity together now, so plenty of time to be serious and romantic later." "You have a point." "But what about your friends? You could at least visit them, let them know you're okay." "I'm not even sure if the astrolabe will work a second time. I'm not risking losing you. The only way I'm leaving this island is if you're with me." "Well fine." She opened the compartment containing her two suitcases and set them on the ground. She willed her invisible servants to take them back to her, I guess our, cave home. "We're forever trapped on this island together."