This was a request from Guest.
FANDOM: HEROES OF OLYMPUS
Disclaimer: I own nothing
WARNINGS: CHARACTER DEATH
Name: Leonidas "Leo" Valdez
DOB: July 7th, 1996
DOD: August 1st, 2012
Died defeating Gaea and saving the world
Status: HERO
Heroes aren't meant to survive. Demigods know that better than anyone. Charles Beckendorf, Silena Beauregard, Michael Yew, Luke Castellon; I can go on and on.
Brothers, sisters, girlfriends, boyfriends, sons, daughters, friends... heroes could fall into at least one category. Maybe this hero was your older brother, the person you looked up to. Maybe he was the son you neglected because of your father's stupid law and before you knew it, he was dead. Maybe he was was your best friend; maybe he saved your life, and you never properly thanked him.
Heroes don't become heroes for the attention (usually, anyway). Centuries from now, the acts of Hercules, Martin Luther King Jr., and every demigod, godling, and mortal that died a hero will be forgotten. As Mother Teresa once said, "the good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway."
Leo Valdez was brother, son, friend, but above all, he was a hero.
Leo held on tight to the mast as the Argo II hurdled through the air, his friends safely off of it.
Leo scrambled to remove the remote from his pocket as the ground approached, and he slammed his finger on the button, feeling the ground disappear beneath his feet. It was soon replaced by the warmth of heated metal beneath him, and he grappled for the reins.
"Let's go, buddy," he whispered to Festus. "One last hurrah."
Festus whimpered, sadly; he knew Leo's plan, but he knew better than to even try to talk his owner out of it.
Festus flew through the sky, dancing in the smoke filled air, until he swooped down onto the battle field and grabbed Gaea in his claws.
"Good job, buddy," Leo murmured. "Jason, Pipes, come on! The fight's up here!"
His stunned friends blinked before Jason looped his arms around Piper's waist and the two shot into the sky like a rocket, rushing to catch up with Festus.
Leo lit himself on fire and watched as orange flames washed over his vision. Fire rolled off of his body, consuming his form until he looked and felt like he was made of fire.
After so long, Leo let himself lose control.
Fire exploded from his fingers and Festus's mouth, rolling over Gaea, who was forced into solid form by the heat and the winds.
Jason zoomed towards them.
Gaea turned into loose white sand, but Jason summoned a squadron of venti who churned around her, constraining her in a cocoon of wind.
Gaea blasted Jason with shrapnel and rocks and clumps of dirt while Leo did his best to burn them before they hit his friends.
Together the demigods, Dragon, and whatever the heck Gaea was rose. Festus creaked and groaned with the effort (after all, he hadn't flown in over six months), but he continued to gain altitude.
"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" Gaea crumbled to sand, only to get blasted by more flames. Her body melted into a lump of glass, shattered, then re-formed again as human. "I AM ETERNAL!"
"Eternally annoying!" Leo yelled, and he urged Festus higher.
Jason and Piper rose with them.
Jason moved in until they were right next to Gaea. The winds encased the goddess, keeping her solid, and Leo waited for Piper to make her move.
"FOOLISH CHILDREN!" Her face contorted with miniature earthquakes and mudslides.
"You are so weary," Piper told the goddess, her voice radiating kindness and sympathy. "Eons of pain and disappointment weigh on you."
"SILENCE!"
The force of Gaia's anger was so great that Jason momentarily lost control of the wind. He would've dropped into free fall, but Festus caught him and Piper in his other huge claw.
Amazingly, Piper kept her focus. "Millennia of sorrow," she told Gaea. "Your husband Ouranos was abusive. Your grandchildren, the gods, overthrew your beloved children, the Titans. Your other children, the Cyclopes and the Hundred-Handed Ones, were thrown into Tartarus. You are so tired of heartache."
"LIES!" Gaea crumbled into a tornado of soil and grass, but her essence seemed to churn more sluggishly.
"What you want," Piper continued, "more than victory, more than revenge … you want rest. You are so weary, so incomprehensibly tired of the ungrateful mortals and immortals."
"I – YOU DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME – YOU CANNOT –"
"You want one thing," Piper said soothingly, her voice resonating through Leo's bones. "One word. You want permission to close your eyes and forget your troubles. You – want – SLEEP."
Gaia solidified into human form. Her head lolled, her eyes closed, and she went limp in Festus's claw.
Rest, Leo thought. That was something he wanted, too. He stared at his burning hands and prepared to rest. Forever.
"Leo!" Piper gasped for breath. "We only have a few seconds. My charmspeak won't –"
"I know!" Leo yelled. "I can't contain the fire much longer. I'll vaporize her. Don't worry. But you guys need to leave."
"No!" Jason said. "We're not leaving you!"
"Hey." Leo grinned. "I told you I had a plan and this is it. And by the way – I love you guys."
Festus's claw opened, and Jason and Piper fell.
Leo sighed as he stared at Gaea, limp in his friend's claw.
"This is for my mother," he whispered.
And then, his flames intensified, and the last thing Leo heard was a very girly scream (which was not his own) before the world exploded in a fiery ball of light.
The funeral was a few days later, and Piper stared at the red burial shroud going up in smoke.
"He's happy now," Jason whispered. "There's no way he didn't get Elysium."
Piper nodded. "He's with his mother, but that doesn't make me miss him any less."
"Me neither," Jason replied.
Jason wrapped an arm around Piper, and the two watched the burial shroud shrivel and turn to ashes.
Meanwhile, in Elysium, Leo Valdez wrapped his arms around his mother, who vowed to never let her son go again.
Not my best chapter, but I wasn't exactly sure how to write this one because Leo had accepted his death by this point since he'd been planning it since-what?- half way through Blood of Olympus.
By the way, what is Gaea? I mean, it goes Gaea, Titans, gods and goddesses, so what does that make Gaea? A primordial? That's why I said whatever the heck Gaea was.
Thanks for reading.
