I apologize for this nightmare. This one shot is a little hard on Leo fans. It was hard to write, but it had to be done.
When you think of the word broken, who is the first person to come to mind? For me, it's Leo.
For most people, a broken Leo is an angst-driven cutter or something like that. For me, a broken Leo means this. As much as I love angsty Leo, I had to try this idea out.
Enjoy.
I own nothing you recognize as canon.
29: Broken
Just another Failed Hephaestus-Made Machine
Leo couldn't move.
The last he remembered was sleeping in the engine room the night Nico, Reyna, and Hedge had left. He'd passed out from exhaustion, not even trying to bother with fixing a miniscule problem with the engine. He'd hit the deck and soon fell asleep.
But now…He was slumped against the wall, looking at the doorway to the engine room. His eyes didn't move. His arms and legs were still. He was pretty sure he wasn't even breathing.
What happened to me? Leo thought desperately. Someone…anyone…help me!
A shadow appeared in the doorway. Yes! Please, see me! Help me! Get me to the sick bay!
Then Leo's blood froze. The shadow stepped forward. Leo recognized Nemesis, mostly because he doubted his Aunt Rosa would have teleported onto his warship in the middle of the night.
"Hello, Leo Valdez," Nemesis said coolly. She stepped right in front of him. Since Leo couldn't move, only her legs were visible. "Oh, sorry," she said. "I forgot."
She bent down and smiled at him. "See me now? I guess you can't answer, can you? That's too bad." She took a fortune cookie out of her pocket and ate it—fortune and all. "I bet you're wondering what's become of you, hmm? Don't worry; you're not dead."
She took out a hand mirror and held it in front of Leo's eyes. If they could, Leo figured his eyes would pop out of his head.
A bronze, humanoid automaton was slumped against the wall in the mirror. The curly hair was a darker bronze, but part of the head was lifted, revealing severed wires that sometimes sparked. His chest was torn through, with broken gears and torn parts messed up inside. A bronze heart was enclosed in a tiny birdcage, which hung precariously out of his body, only attached by one fraying wire. His limbs were disconnected—one of his legs was lying a few inches away.
What…What is this?
The goddess of revenge patted him on the head. He didn't feel it, but he heard the clink of hand on metal. "Poor little Leo Valdez. So broken. So alone. No one to fix him. No one to keep him company. As useless as a lame leg. Perhaps I should do you a favor and send you to one of your father's junkyards.
The scene around him flickered. They were no longer in the engine room of the Argo II. Now Leo was leaning against a pile of junk. Other mountains of broken and obsolete trash encircled him and his pile. He was in one of Hephaestus's junkyards!
No. I'm not useless! I…I'm needed!
"Are you?" the goddess said, reading his mind. "As I see it, the only thing you're good for is a repair job. You even have the nickname Repair Boy. But, even that job you muck up; why, you can't even repair yourself.
"All you've done is mess up, Leo Valdez. You killed your mother, allowed your best friend to be destroyed, started a war between the Greeks and Romans, caused tension between most of the Seven by just being in the room—you even caused the heartbreak of a Titaness. The list is endless. Your mind can never be fixed, and neither can your body. You, my friend, are a lost cause."
She waved her hand. More junk appeared and surrounded Leo, burying his legs and stomach. The broken gears inside of him flowed out and joined the pile. Leo felt his mind slipping as some of his brain wires got tangled in the trashed bronze behind him. His memory began to fail. It took a lot of concentration to remember he was human.
Please. I…I…
"Don't bother, Leo," Nemesis muttered. "I was wrong to think you were worthy. I challenged you in Rome to defeat the Giants and Gaea. You've done little. Just a failure with big dreams that will never come true."
No…
A screw came out of his head and his jaw unhinged. His mouth was now wide open, allowing new junk to flow in. Breathing might have been an issue, but Leo couldn't remember that breathing was required. He was a robot…wasn't he? Robots didn't need air. But…why did he think he did?
"Face it. You belong here, in the junkyard, with all the other failures. You're just another broken machine of your father's."
I…I…am not…?
"Yes you are."
Leo's left eye went dark, popped out, and hung loosely near his shoulder. A spring came out of his neck. The junk pile crawled inside of him. He couldn't remember having legs anymore. His childhood was gone. Everything that proved he was a human was erased—no, it had been saved onto a floppy disk. Nemesis held the disk in her hand now.
She examined it. "Too bad. You had such promise for such a great revenge. Getting revenge on Gaea for making you kill your mother…that would have been amazing."
She patted Leo on the head again. Leo was now deactivating. His programming required him to do so. Why hadn't he deactivated sooner? Why was he activated now? He was broken. Useless. Unable to move. Activation was pointless.
"Good-bye, Leo Valdez," the human-shaped immortal said sweetly. "Enjoy your purgatory. Maybe one day you'll serve a purpose…melted down into something new."
The pile of scrap and junk that was once Leo Valdez beeped and shut down. A mechanical voice rang out: Lee-oh…Ahb-so-lee-t…Lee-oh…brrrr-oooo-ken—
Leo woke up in a cold sweat, gasping for air. Air. He was breathing. He was sweating!
Leo patted himself, reveling in the movement. He was skin and bones, not bronze and gears. His legs and arms were intact. His chest was closed, with a living heart inside beating quickly. Both of his eyes were working. His memory was clear.
He was human. It had only been a nightmare…
"No," he growled to himself. "It was a warning."
Nemesis made it clear. She wanted Leo to get revenge, and get it good, otherwise he would be killed—or turned into a broken automaton and thrown into a junkyard. Fine. He'd get that revenge. No skin off his bones. He'd been wanting it for a long time, but Nemesis must not have liked how slow he was at getting it.
He got up out of the engine room and went to a hole in the wall, where he was fixing Festus within the hull.
"I'll be quicker, then," he muttered. "I have to do this. This is going to help me get my revenge!"
He worked long into the night and morning. Nemesis watched him from afar and nodded approvingly.
"That's my price, Leo Valdez," she whispered. "Your revenge on Gaea must be executed. You must be the one to do it…even if it costs you your life."
A/N: :) Sometimes I hate myself. And sometimes I'm happy my mind thinks up such creative things.
Don't worry. Chapter 31 (two chaps from now) will have a beautiful Leo moment to distract you from what just happened. You'll have to wait til after Walls, though.
