He blinks open his eyes. A room, not like the one he'd just been in. Cramped with people, moaning, hissing. He stands up, unsteadily, as if after a long sleep. Looks around, slowly. There's a man in the corner. He moves towards him…
When Hailey saw the baby for the first time, she was ecstatic. "Oh my God, oh my God, he's beautiful!" she shrieked, jumping up and down. Normally someone told her to remember the neighbors when she did that, but everyone else was in a jumping-up-and-down mood too, so nobody said a word.
He seems to know what to do by instinct. Reaches into his pocket, scuffles around, pulls out a coin. He places it on the desk. He can almost see the man's eyes gleam behind his tortoiseshell glasses as he picks up the fat golden drachma. "Very well," he purrs; he has a slight and out-of-place accent, "You may proceed."
It was a boy! Privately, Hailey had wanted a sister – one brother was good enough for her, thankyouverymuch – but this brother was so…so tiny. She couldn't resent him. She just couldn't. "Oh, can I hold him?" she begged, literally on her knees, "Please please pleeeease!" Her parents exchanged laughing glances. "Sure," her mother gave her a tired grin, "Why not?"
EZ-DEATH. He stands staring at the sign and the dog. What does that mean, EZ-DEATH? Nobody else seems to care much, but it fascinates him. And the fact that it fascinates him makes him feel good. How long has it been seen he could just stand there and wonder what something means? A really long time, that was for sure.
The weight in her arms gave Hailey a thrill of excitement and fear. She'd never been responsible for anything as important as a baby. She held him as lightly as possible, but not too lightly, and made her body so stiff it was almost rigid. The baby seemed oblivious to her attempts at making him comfortable. He gurgled and stuck a tiny fist out of his blankets.
Inside a long, dark chamber now. He glances around for a while, but looks up to the judge when he lets out a small cough. "In your last life," he speaks in a self-important way, as if he really couldn't care less what happened, "You managed to achieve Elysium."
His last life? So…this life had been his second?
"In this life," the judge continues, "You weren't nearly as good, I see." He glances up briefly. "But your heroic actions before death have led some to believe you deserve a place in Elysium again."
He holds his breath, digs his fingernails into his palms. Elysium, Elysium, he chants, again and again, the words flying through his mind, Elysium, Elysium, Elysium.
The baby was, in fact, very cute. He had hair, even though he was only a few days old, and it was a light, sandy blond. His big eyes were very blue and the way he chirped and waved made Hailey want to hug him tight. But she was too scared to even move her uncomfortably placed arm, let alone move the whole bundle. "Hi, little baby," she crooned, "Hi, little brother."
Rebirth! He didn't even stop to think about it. All he wanted a family. A proper family, one that wasn't fragmented by prophecies and fate. A family without an Oracle mother and thief-god father. And this was it. At last. One last chance at Elysium. One last chance at loving. Please, gods, he prayed, Let this one be it.
"Have you thought of a name yet?" a relative called from the closely-packed crowd. "Well," Mom said, "We had a few ideas. We let the kids have a say before finalizing anything, though."
"I suggested Meatsack," Josh yelled. Hailey rolled her eyes. Sometimes, it was hard to tell that he was her older brother.
"But in the end, we decided to go with Hailey's idea," Mom continued, "Everyone, say hello to Luke."
A/N: An idea brought on by writing a fic on Luke's death. Also brought on by a theory I once had about The Lost Hero.