This is an Alternate Ending to Blood of Olympus that I wrote a bit before the book came out. As soon as I read it, I figured 'Hey, I can actually make this work!' so now this is officially an AE.

Two things make this an AE: 1) Leo does NOT tell anyone about Calypso during the voyage to Athens. 2) He survives through the same means as BoO, but Festus crashes again and he must rebuild Festus a second time-still not telling anyone his ultimate reason why: Calypso.

Either way, Leo has to disappear.

So, with that in mind, please enjoy Papi!

Disclaimer: I no own PJO or HoO. I is not named Rick.

Prologue

"Hey, have you guys seen Leo?"

Percy and Annabeth looked up from their kiss-fest at a slightly nervous Piper. She was fidgeting and messing with the braid in her hair. "Well?" she asked.

The couple shrugged in sync. "Did you check Cabin 9?" Annabeth asked.

"Nyssa and them haven't seen him since last night."

"Big House?"

"Chiron and Mr. D haven't seen him today either."

"Dining Hall? It is lunch time."

"Just checked. Empty."

"Bunker 9?"

"Jason's there now, but I just have this feeling…"

Annabeth and Percy shared a look. Uh-oh. Finally Percy turned back to Piper. "Dream or knife vision?"

Piper glanced around. "Knife. I was cleaning it when it shimmered with a vision."

Annabeth rose up from beside Percy and hugged Piper. "What happened?"

Piper took a few deep breaths before beginning:

"I saw Leo falling through the sky, just like the time I saw him in the knife right before he disappeared for five days. Only…This time he was falling just above Festus. He looked like he was trying to fix Festus while falling. Then I saw him walking along sand, like he was on a beach or something. Then he was lying unconscious in a white fog, and the fog was seeping into his eyes and mouth. Not out of them. Into them! Then…he…faded away."

She burst into tears. Annabeth hugged her again, this time Percy joining in.

After a few minutes, Annabeth asked, "When you went to the Big House, did you tell Chiron or Mr. D about the vision?"

"No," she said flatly. "I didn't have the courage."

Percy nodded. "We need to go tell them, though."

Just then, Jason landed out of nowhere. "Pipes!"

All three demigods turned towards the son of Jupiter. He was breathing heavily, like he'd just run a marathon. His distraught face said it all.

Leo wasn't at Bunker 9.

"Leo's not the only one missing," Jason hacked out.

Percy, Annabeth and Piper held their breath as Jason continued:

"Festus is gone, too."

Of course, a search had been conducted. All of the demigods looked for possible signs of a struggle anywhere: burn marks, blast holes, footprints, claw marks…anything! But, there weren't any signs. At all.

Jason contacted Reyna at Camp Jupiter. She, Frank and their centurions had not seen hide nor hair of Leo and Festus. Hazel was using Arion to travel cross-country in search of clues, but also came up empty-handed.

Percy and Annabeth tried Olympus. The gods flat-out refused to offer help. This was mostly Zeus saying the demigods needed to rely on themselves. Hephaestus looked outraged, but kept silent. The only other god that didn't agree with Zeus was (weirdly) Aphrodite. She looked thrilled about something, and Annabeth could've sworn she heard her muttering something about her 'OTP is being reunited' and 'the others should know'…whatever that meant.

Piper kept bugging Nico about the fading away part. Nico always told her that Leo wasn't dead or he'd sense it, but Piper was never convinced.

At six months, both camps halted the search and returned to their lives. The rest of the Seven and Nico continued their search in vain.

One morning, after another six months, Piper got a black enveloped letter in the mail. She read the ancient Greek writing twice over and chucked the letter in the trash. Jason came over a few hours later to find Piper crying hysterically. He knew why. Jason had gotten the same black letter. He hugged Piper as she cried out for hours. "He isn't! There isn't a body so why would they do this? WHY!? Well I'm not going! I won't go, no matter how much anyone tries to persuade me! It's too much! We can't just give up on him so easily!"

Jason kept his emotions in check, letting her vent. He had plenty of time to think things over about the letter and agreed with Piper on one thing:

They would not be attending the funeral of Leo Valdez.

A/N: Phew, so this is my first major fanfic. I hope you enjoyed that prologue! For future reference, the things in Italics only is the past. The next chapter will look normal, don't worry.