They called him The Broken Soldier. What they didn't know was that there were many more like him.
OR
Jason is seen by fandom as being symbolic of a broken soldier. But what they don't realize is that almost every demigod in PJO is a broken soldier, that each has their own tragedy.
This is a series of glimpses into the lives of various PJO characters, and how they tell us something about what war can do to us. Kinda goes hand-in-hand with a Captain Rex fanfic I'm writing about the all-consuming nature of being a soldier. The writing will slide back and forth between narrative and out-of-universe description.
WARNING: I talk about some extremely sensitive topics, alcoholism, drug usage, suicide, self-harm, violence of all kinds, maybe in future chapters (as I get further through the character list) some others, such as abuse.
Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan.
NICO
Nico suffers alone. His mind is filled with the torments of his past. But Nico is strong, or so he says. He's not a people person. Withdrawn, he fights the demons in his head alone.
He collapses on his rack in his dark apartment, shaking and sobbing.
The hash marks perpendicular to the bone on each forearm were nearly healed. He had made them with a mortal knife, not wanting the quick release that would be his death if he used his Stygian Iron sword.
He looks at it now, sitting on his bed, it on the floor where he left it. He's still shaking, still sobbing. He takes a deep breath and picks up his sword. It's time for his pain to end.
Nico is the 20 we couldn't save.
LUKE
Luke was just a kid, sent because they had nothing else to do with him.
He came back from the Garden of the Hesperides at 17, having failed a quest given to him that someone else had already completed. He was consumed with disgust. He had done what they asked, and for what? The gods didn't care. His father didn't love him, nor did he even find him useful. But Kronos did. Kronos could help him change the world. He liked that.
Luke is the one we taught we didn't care about him, and so he became embittered.
If you liked it, please review. I'm not sure about this story, it's rough for me as the writer. I see too many of my friends in these pages. I plan to continue to cover Percy, Jason, Annabeth and Leo, at least. I'm writing each as I think of their "archetype." I know it's not really a literary archetype but there is no word I can think of to describe it. If you need something lighter after this, check out Reconciliation. It's a kind of silly story I wrote about how Athena comes to realize Percy may not be all bad.
Very respectfully,
Charles Basilone