elysium
...
.
After Leo hits the ground, things get kind of blurry.
He feels the breaking all through his body and he knows he can't survive this. No amount of Nectar and Ambrosia can save him now but that's okay because he saved everyone else. His friends are okay, humanity is okay, everything is okay.
(calypso is not okay)
He can taste the blood in his mouth- it's kind of really disgusting- but he doesn't sense anything else because everything else is pain. But that's also okay. He can take that.
(she can't)
Things get kind of black and humming for a while and when they're back to normal, his head is in Pipers lap and she's crying a lot. For a moment he's not sure why but then he thinks, maybe it's because of him.
(even though that'd be really silly because they won and he's just an annoying repair boy who's just been useful for the first time in his life)
Out of all the tragic, painful, crazy, exotic or explosive ways he could've died, Leo never imagined that he would end up in Pipers arms for it. He's never really imagined dying if he's honest. Like, he knew it would happen and he knew it'd happen soon so he didn't want to think about it. But it's all still really strange.
(also, if he had died a bit later while making a machine or fighting a monster or something it wouldn't have been as sad as this. his death is putting a huge damper on this whole victory thing)
He feels almost numb now- the pain is just a dull kind of throbbing in his body.
(in his bones, in his soul, in his heart)
Piper cries out suddely,
(loudly and desperately and it's a horrible sound, as broken as his bones and defeated and full of pain and loss and tragedy. he kind of wonders why but he also knows but he doesn't really want to believe it. she can't cry for him, she shouldn't, he's just leo)
and Leo opens his eyes and looks at her. She's twisting her fingers into the holes of his tatterned shirt, palm ghosting above the place where his heart is, as if to make sure that his skin is still warm and alive and she's whispering his name over and over again
(leo, leo, leo, leo, please don't die, leo, please don't go)
and crying buckets and buckets of salty, salty tears.
He's going to miss Piper once he's dead because even though he was sure that she hated him at first he's also sure that she cares now and he knows he cares about her even though it's not in the way that she cares for Jason or the way he cares for Calypso.
(it'd feel a lot different with calypso)
Leo's eyes are tired and he doesn't want to look at Piper anymore. She's still beautiful when she cries but her nose gets really red and she shuts her eyes really tight and it hurts to look at her because she's in so much pain.
(because of him. because she's losing a friend)
Leo closes his eyes and hears things he doesn't want to hear. Jason is screaming his name and he sounds far away and it sounds like thunder- really angry and dark and grieving. There's a silent plea in it
(no, not leo, not him, please, no)
and Leo kind of wonders why everyone is so sad about losing the repair boy.
(he's just leo, so it's okay)
There's another voice mixing with Pipers now- Hazel is by his side now and she's like Piper, all tears and pleadings and desperation and he just doesn't want to make them all so sad. He kind of wishes he could move so he could take their hands and tell them that it's all okay.
(he kind of wishes that he could've done everything he promised he'd do)
When he opens his eyes again he sees Annabeth burying her head in Percy's shoulder and he sees how he pulls her close and hides his face in her hair. Frank appears in his peripheral vision and his face is full of pain and regret and sorrow and Jason is by his side. Leo is pretty sure that there's more people that he can't see and he kind of wants to say something.
„Guys", he whispers and it hurts a lot but that doesn't matter, „Guys, stop crying, I just fucking stopped a war, okay?"
(they're all crying and so sad even though they won, so what kind of twisted victory is this anyways?)
„It's okay", he says and even tries to smile but Jason chokes and shakes his head and Leo ends up frowing, „We did save the world, right?"
„You saved the world", Piper sobs and grips the fabric of his shirt. Leo tries to smile again.
„No, we saved the world. I was just like, glue to make us work together and stuff"
(the glue that holds the seven together)
„Stop crying, please", he whispers and for a fleeting moment he feels the need to joke his way out of this. He just wants to know that they're going to be okay.
(he just wants her to be okay)
Jason takes his hand and whispers broken little things to him- „You'll be okay, Leo, we promise, you'll be happy and you'll get to go to the good guys and see your mother and you'll be alright, I promise"- and it's all really sad because he doesn't even want to go to heaven or elysium or whatever because he saved the world but he didn't save her
(oh calypso)
and it's kind of okay that he's dying because it's for a good cause and it's okay because he's just Leo and he saved all his friends but it's also not okay because Calypso will be alone and will get her heart broken again and he can't take that.
(she'll probably forget about him too and he can't take that either)
He doesn't want them all to fall apart because he's gone
(he's just leo)
and he wants to be with Calypso more then anything.
When Jason starts whispering about heaven again Leo shakes his head and closes his eyes because there are a lot of things happening and he wishes he had more time to say goodbye and just more time in general
(it's still okay that he's dying because he's not even important)
but his body is going numb with pain and exhaustion and he knows that it won't be long now so he shakes his head.
„I'm breaking my oath", he breathes and it sounds so sad, even in his own ears.
(god, he wishes he would've died in an explosion. this is just so much worse because he can hear his friends cry and wail and feel his body shutting down)
„I swore on the River Styx"
„An oath to keep with a final breath", someone says and it sounds a lot like Nico but also not because his voice is really strangled and sad and that can't be because Nico doesn't even like him
(he treated so many people so harshly)
and he has every reason to.
„What oath, Leo?", Nico, who can't really be Nico asks.
„Calypso", Leo chokes and he tastes the blood on his tongue again, metal and pain and loss,„Heaven or elysium- or whatever the hell you wanna call it- that's with her. Elysium is with Calypso"
He closes his eyes again.
He feels them all around him- Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank, Percy, Annabeth- and Nico standing just by his feet- maybe he's gonna guide Leo into the underworld or maybe he's just there to announce when he's gone, he doesn't know and doesn't care- Reyna, and a whole bunch of Romans and Greeks and no one is celebrating like they should but some are crying and all of them are so, so very sad and so, so very serious. He feels a lot
(pride, grief, anger, sadness, disappointment, relief)
but above everything he feels his friends around him and he feels safe. He sees fiery eyes and soft, brown hair and smells earth and a garden from somewhere far, far away and he wishes that she's going to find someone who loves her like he did and he wishes that his friends will be okay someday
(he wishes for everything to be okay)
and then he takes his final breath.
...
.
(update 1-1-15)
sorry if i made you cry but if you're sad just remember that canon leo is somewhere out there with calypso and festus the happy dragon. disclaimer: i do not own the heroes of olympus series