Imperial Gold, Celestial Bronze and Calypso

Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Percy Jackson.

Leo couldn't breathe.

But she seemed to be able to do it just fine, her chest lifting up and down rhythmically as she took deep breaths, those finely drawn eyelashes fluttering open to reveal celestial bronze eyes that immediately pinned down on his figure by the ajar door, freezing him in place.

This can't be happening.

Her imperial gold dress shimmered - mere hours before it was solid and stubborn as a cement - and flowed easily around her in likeness of crystal clear water cascading down the fine palms of a green leaf, offering her an air of gracefulness and genteel that should not have been present. Her hair were diamonds, light glancing off from them and rebounding in hundreds of different directions, making them sparkle in the dimly lit workshop.

She made a move to stand up, the poised grace that she did it with made his throat constrict painfully at the familiar way she carried herself. It reminded him of her.

She shouldn't be able to do that.

With softly padded feet, she made her way towards his still form. The carefully crafted face that carried her likeness down to the minute dimples in her cheeks and the laughing lines around her eyes easily warped and shifted to grace him with an elated smile on those plump, pouty lips that Leo had tried to replicate for months without progress. It was eerie watching her like this, seeing her like this, having her this close to him after what had happened and the aftermath that would haunt him till his dying breath.

She's not real.

But it was enticing to allow himself the moment to sink into this fantasy - let him drown himself in a few stolen moments of bliss and ignorance, the call of reality and logic be damned. Those seductive lips painted a pretty shade of red paint he himself had applied just the day before held him in attention, as did the sway of her hips and the light jiggle of her dress dancing to her tune. Leo swallowed hard at the mischievous, catty look in her eyes; the playfulness and warmth in her gaze; the confident tilt of her head-

Wake up, Valdez. She's not real.

As she neared, he staggered backwards hastily, accidentally knocking over his tools as he collided painfully with his workbench, sending himself sprawling onto the hard merciless ground, gasping out in pain. For more than just one reason.

Wake up, wake up, wake up.

His heart clenched painfully in his chest.

She's not real.

His hand trembled but he tried to ignore it.

I want to touch her, cried out a desperate part of his mind. Stop fighting it, she's real. She's real and I need to have her again.

Looking up, he gave a start when he realised that their faces were now mere inches apart.

Calypso, his mind sang in a sing-song voice that bondered on hysterical. Calypso, I missed you.

His eyes narrowed to a unfocused half-mast as he tried to block out the screams from the recess of his - dark, twisted and turning quite mad - thoughts and to try and concentrate on putting as much distance as he could between him and the automatron.

This wasn't what he pictured it to be like when he first started his little, depressing project.

What did you think would happen, huh? the snide little voice came back, slithering through his thoughts like the great big dirty snake that it was. Leo thought it sounded very much like Mr. D on an extra large dose of steroids. That she would somehow come back through your little tinkering and puppetry? Hades won't give her back Valdez and here she is right now waiting to be kissed on those red lips that you love so much, what's stopping you from taking back what's yours?

As disturbing as the thought was, the battle he fought was an uphill one; and he was loosing ground, fast.

Give in.

Leo jerked away instinctively when something cold touched his face.

He immediately regretted it when he noticed the faint crease between her brows as she retracted back her hand slowly, eyes trained on it as if it had done something wrong.

She was upset.

She can't be upset.

Leo felt himself breaking down internally.

She's not suppose to feel.

Gently, he took back her hand, barely holding back a wince at how cold it was.

I'm not suppose to feel like this.

Blowing over her hands, he tried to rub some warmth into her hands, even though he knew it was a fruitless effort. Like her skin, her hands were made of celestial bronze, which had been smoothen over and shaped carefully until his own fleshy hands were deeply raw and bleeding from various cuts and scraps.

Come on Valdez, snap out of it. She's not real.

Hot pinpricks of tears stung his eyes painfully, but he forcibly blinked them away just as fast he had felt them. He needed to think. He needed to find out what was really going on here. Was this a trick, a really cruel practical joke? Or, did the Blue Fairy honestly paid a visit to his workshop and pulled up a Pinocchio card on him?

"You're upset."

For the second time in five minutes, he jerked himself away from her again, shock and pain etchced plainly on his worn tired face.

She blinked owlishly at him, startled as he was, her lips parted slightly in surprise.

C-Calypso.

Leo cradled his face in his hands, shuddering and shaking as he tried to find the strength to face this - whatever it was, with a clearer head. His emotions were in turmoil and he can barely keep a grip on himself as it is.

That was her voice.

She talks..."Di immortals, you can talk?" he said hoarsely, trembling terribly like a shaken leaf.

Di immortals...why? She could have looked like her, she could have walked like her, she could have smiled like her-

He shook harder, his breaths coming in rapid succession. He was nearly hyperventilating.

"Master Valdez..." At this point, Leo didn't know either to laugh or to cry. He was feeling too many things right now and he just wanted everything to fall down and freakin' stop. "I am sorry. It seems that I have upseted you."

He choked, a strangled laugh bubbling in his throat. "M-Master? Hah, that's...that's new," he gasped out, letting loose another breathy laughter that only a broken man who had lost everything he had hold dear could have made. It screamed of self-depreciation tinged with a touch of madness and desperate denial. "Sh-She would never...never had called me that...would have...sh-she would have said that it would give me have a larg-larger head than...than I probably do now though, haha..."

I'm pathetic.

He gulped down the very air itself like it was a can of beer, his lips stretched wide and he didn't give a damn about how he probably looked like to her right now, because he was beyond mourning and sick and tired of feeling this way, and it was her fault anyways. "S-So...so you can't be her. Ju-Just maybe a nightmare like those chucky dolls and annabell thingies or whatever...cause' that's what you ar-are...right? Right?" he said, clawing as his arms, not even registering the pain as he dug his blunt nails deep into his skin.

"Master Valdez, you are hurting yourself."

She tried to pull his hands away, and though he should have been the strongest between the two of them, she managed to stop him without any significant effort. Though, it was not without lack of trying that he twisted and turned to try and free herself from her freezing cage-like hands.

"Let me go!"

"Not until you have calmed down, Master. You are emotionally unstable right now and need too-"

He didn't want to be trapped anymore.

Leo pulled harder, not caring that he was collecting more purplish bruises on around his wrists. He already had plenty. What's a few more going to make? A really sick bracelet? "Let me go, damnit!" He tugged harder. "Let me go, I said, let me go, let me go already!"

"Master Valdez-"

Leo didn't realise he was screaming.

"Let me go, let me go, let me go-"

He didn't want to be free either.

"Stupid, stupid automatron, just let me freakin' loose already, damnit! Damnit!" he stomped his feet and if his hands weren't restrained, he would have beaten them against the walls till they were only skin and bones; it wasn't like he hadn't done it before. It wouldn't be the first. It wouldn't be the last. "Let me go, damnit...damnit, damnit...stupid, stupid machine..." he cursed at her as he bit down on his lips hard to stop himself from shaking, even if he was forced to taste that disgusting metallic coppery taste of blood. "I don't want you to touch me."

He was sinking.

"Master-"

He swallowed. "Don't...don't call me that. Please. Just...just call me Leo." He looked down at their joint hands. "I...I really don't want you to touch me. I...I don't want you...I want her...I...only want her-" he choked, his voice thick with unfallen tears. He tried to push it down, suppress it like he had always done before, but it refused to go down. The lump in his throat was in the way. "So...just let go of me, would you? I...I don't want to deal with this anymore-"

"Mas-Leo!" the automatron cried out as he immediately slumped back onto the floor bonelessly. "Are you...alright?"

Am I alright? Heh, I haven't been for a long time bronze-girl.

It was difficult to hold back anymore.

Leo was tired, so very tired.

"Is there...is there anything I can do?"

Bring her back.

"Stay here with me."

"Leo-"

"Come here," he said tiredly, patting the floor beside him. "I...need it."

And as she sat down, he thought to himself ashamed, What was I thinking trying to replace you, Calypso?

"Could...could you come closer a bit. I need...I kinda need a shoulder to lean on...for awhile..." Leo said thickly, blinking back the stray droplets hanging off fom his eyelashes.

"Alright."

Leo leaned his head against her shoulder blade, and breathed. "Just...just for a little while okay? I...won't take long...I need-"

I need to remember.

And for the first time in a long time, he finally cried as he mourned his loss on the shoulders of his automatron that looked almost like a girl that he once knew.

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A/N: Basically, Calypso died due to 'mysterious' circumstances that even I'm not sure what they are. And in his mourning, Leo created an automaton in the same exact - well, as exact as you can get with a statue - likeness to Calypso. Leo doesn't take to having people leave him that well, and I wanted to explore how far he would sink when it had happened too many times that it finally made him snap.

As for 'Calypso' 2.0 being alive...well, I'm with Leo on this one. Must have been someone's idea of a practical joke - I am talking to about you Aphrodite - or the Blue Fairy just happened to pass by and thought that this was another Pinocchio that needed a little life.

I'm sorry fairy, but as you can see hear, you've done more harm than good.

-The Last Deathly Guardian