To RandomFanAuthor- mwhahaha, wait and see!

To HoO Fan- Update! And... unclear. I am currently on chapter 76, buuut they were travelling for six months and if I've worked it out right, they've done about four/four and a half months. Almost there! And yes. Cry. Send me the tears.

Leo was starting to worry about Joel. It had been just over a week. He wasn't sure Joel had slept. And going by the expanse of plates and bowls of cold, going mouldy food, he knew he hadn't eaten either. Even Neville couldn't get him to stop for a break. He sat hunched over his computer, tapping at the keyboard with his right and writing in a large, worn leather-bound book with his left.

He was writing names. In a print neater than expected, he wrote down every single name. Maya Klouter was first. Second Lieutenant Humphrey Edin was nineteenth. Each name penned with his left was followed by a birthday, their rank and then their final date. With his right, he made digital copies, adding X's after a few of them.

The X's meant they had not yet been recovered, or at the very least, identified.

"Ooh, he was like this last time." Neville exasperated, rubbing at his temples. Leo had made him a tea, unsure what else he could do. He may have added a little too much sugar, Neville wrinkling his nose, but he still drank it.

Leo had made Joel a tea as well, in his beloved Gromit mug. That sat steaming to one side, ignored. Leo quite liked that cup- the nose turned red when hot drinks were poured in. Neville had introduced Calypso to Wallace and Gromit, the latter of which she wanted to adopt, hoping it would spark anything in Joel.

It hadn't.

"Is there anything I can do?" Leo asked. Neville shook his head, adjusting his glasses.

"Thank you, but no. He won't stop until everyone's been remembered."

"How… how many-?"

"Seventy-three. Almost double that in injured."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You sealed that breach, I heard. If they had come through, they would have taken out the cadets, the techies, the meds, everyone inside. That's almost eight hundred, Leo. You did good." Neville squeezed his shoulder. Leo didn't feel like he had done good, rubbing at his arms. Neville set aside his tea. "What happened, everything you saw… if you need someone to talk to about it, Leo, I can arrange that. You're not one of us, and while we are grateful you helped, you're not prepared for… for this sort of thing like we are."

"Prepared?" Leo echoed, frowning. "Prepared how? What is this place, Neville?" Neville hesitated. "You're all kids. The only adult I've seen is Boss and he doesn't seem to care that you're just kids."

"It's not like that-"

"No?"

"We're in training. We move onto bigger bases when we're older and-"

"No." Leo shook his head. "Juni's ten. She should not be caught up in stuff like this. None of you should." Neville pressed his lips together, gaze drifting to the back of Joel's head.

"Could I not say the same for you? You're what, sixteen? I know it's different for demigods, but is it? Is it really? We're both fighting to keep the world safe, one way or another. Why is that so different?"

Calypso sat at the foot of Louisa's bed. Juni was perched near the pillow end, messily practising styling Louisa's hair while she slept. Calypso had supplied her with ribbons, hair ties and clips. Louisa's head was gradually becoming festooned in tiny braids and pigtails at spontaneous angles, all tied together in a wide assortment of colours and methods.

The medbay was in disarray around them. It was not as busy as the first day, but only marginally so. Calypso had chipped in where she could, bringing supplies and food and medicine, tending simple injuries, consoling where she could. The cadets were a godsend- they scuttled around under July's command, taking up the role of assistants for Breda and Jamal as well. Juni had been assigned to Louisa in July's absence, but there wasn't much to do.

Louisa was asleep. Nothing seemed to wake her up. Calypso had decided just to let her be. She seemed healthy and recovered completely by all accounts, so she assumed the display of power had wiped her out beyond usual limits. The rest was good for her. It was just taking too long.

The trident had been taken away for security. It had not liked being wielded by anyone other than its owner. The solution to this was three Keepers in bright yellow hazmat suits and armed with long, heavy steel tongs. They rushed the trident to Neville's lab and that was the last Calypso had seen or heard of it.

"I think she's dreaming." Juni announced, setting a large glittery bow over Louisa's temple. Calypso looked up. Louisa had muttered a few times, but nothing clear. She was just relieved there had been no signs of nightmares thus far and could only pray it stayed that way.

Juni patted Louisa's mass of ribbons and styled hair, rummaging in her tub of hair ties. "She needs to wake up and see my artwork, Callie."

"We'll try and get a picture." Calypso smiled. "I think you need a bit more this side though." Juni leaned round Louisa, starting at the imbalance of colours between the left and the right side.

"On it!" She declared. "I should be a hairdresser!"

"You'd be famous." Calypso confirmed, biting back a laugh. Leo needed to see this.

Her humour wilted at the thought of him. He had been quieter, a little reserved. It had not been easy to pull him from his thoughts before, but now his thoughts were darker, less constructive and imaginative, more horrific and grief riddled. She had left him to try and help Joel, give him a task to focus his mind, yet she did not think much would improve there. Neville had already told her. Joel had switched off and would not return to them until he was done.

Seventy-three. He used his drones to determine the chronological order in which to write them, reliving their last moments. He had done this after Lake Day. He was set to do it again.

"When do you think she'll wake up?"

"Mm?"

"Lou. When do you think she'll wake up?"

"I… I'm not sure. She exerted herself quite a bit."

"Oh." Juni pouted. "I was… well, she can heal people. Water magic." She nodded. "I was hoping she could help." Calypso sat up a little straighter, stretching her legs before her.

"I will see if Leo has any more nectar." She assured. "But we can't give her too much."

"I know." Juni sighed, pinning another large bow above Louisa's ear. "How's that?"

"Needs a bit more red. Use that big feathery one."

Leo looked round as the door opened. Lucy-Jo simply nodded at him, face a stony mask. She hopped the dead patch and stood next to Joel, touching his shoulder. He started, as though the contact had electrocuted him, and then returned to his cataloguing.

Lucy-Jo sighed. She moved to his other side, beginning to gather his disregarded plates, stacking them up along her arm. Neville moved forward to help. Leo hung back. The way these three worked around each other, even with Joel in his dissociative state, was effortless and well-timed with ease. Lucy-Jo would put a plate on her arm and Neville would steal it to place it on his, or he would take them straight from her hand without her batting an eye. Joel kept his head down, reaching out to clear part of his desk so they could gather his mess without looking up from his writing or away from the footage on screen.

The siblings left. Leo knew there was a kitchen within the techies' base somewhere, but had not ventured further than Joel's workspace. He looked at Joel, folding his arms uncomfortably. He wasn't sure they were on the same field anymore. He could see Joel, clicking at his keyboard, hear the muted sounds of the videos, the light of the screen flashing and flickering around his silhouette. He could also see that Joel wasn't actually there.

There was no total silence in this room. The whirr of electronics and buzz of the lights, the computer, the hum of life beyond the door. Joel sniffed, bowed his head to reread a name. Leo fidgeted. He didn't want to interrupt, not at a time like this. But he could not bear the quiet.

His feet took him forward, standing beside Joel as Lucy-Jo had done. He considered the book first, not sure he could stomach looking at the screen. Joel tipped his head away from Leo, intently concentrating on the computer.

"Don't apologise." He croaked. "I don't have time for apologies."

"You're trying to remember them."

"They deserved to be remembered."

"Tell me about them." Leo agreed. Joel tensed. Leo waited patiently, letting him work through his thoughts.

"Klouter liked to knit." He eventually said, words clipped and careful. He regarded Leo sidelong, as if expecting some form of rebuttal or nonchalance. When Leo awaited his next words, Joel relaxed a fraction, continuing quietly. "She gave me a scarf for Christmas last year. It was this weird purple colour. But I love it." Leo nodded encouragingly. Joel squinted up at him, eyes readjusting to a light not from the computer. "Marshall… they stepped up shortly after they got here. Really vouched for gender identity, even argued with Boss about preferred names and pronouns. And they made the best cookies as well, never told anyone the recipe."

"How rude." Leo supplied. Joel nodded in agreement.

He spoke of all seventy-three, in order of his writings without referring to the list. Leo sat on the edge of the desk and listened. To their names, their accomplishments, an anecdote Joel spoke of with only sad fondness. A skill they had, a joke they had told, the time Patil dyed his hair bright green, how Markel rode a unicycle backwards around the cafeteria while singing shanties at the top of her lungs. The time they orchestrated a pride march, the Halloween someone put laxatives in the sweets and July spent the evening dressed as a Pikachu and tending to diarrhoea-stricken patients and hitting anyone that said 'Pikachu, I choose you!'

Leo nodded along, laughed and smiled and asked for more information. He worried Joel would think he was just playing a part, but Leo wanted to know. He could see it was helping Joel, that someone else, someone outside, was willing to remember them. Leo provided tissues when Joel got overwhelmed, made him a fresh tea in Gromit. He drank it this time, tentative sips with shaking hands.

They hardly noticed when Neville and Lucy-Jo returned. Joel was telling Leo of the time he, Neville and Seb- number seventy-one- had dressed up as the Three Musketeers and spent three weeks challenging Boss to a duel, yelling 'en garde!' each time he passed in the corridor or at meal times, when they would jump on the tables and demand a duel or he had to forfeit his dessert. "L.J said we would never beat him if he accepted the challenge. She was right, but don't tell her I said that."

"Did he accept?"

"No. We got loads of cakes instead. I put on a stone!"

"Oh no, that's terrible!"

"I had to eat salad, Leo. Salad." Leo gasped, horrified, hand on heart. Joel seemed to accept that, venting on the lettuce that stuck in his teeth and Seb's jibes at his weight gain. "It's not fair, he was a hulking beast of a man. He had muscles bigger than my head!"

"How dreamy!"

"Don't tell Neville."

"I would never." Leo promised. Movement caught Joel's peripheral and he ducked his head. Neville joined them, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend's forehead.

"Seb was an absolute unit." He agreed. "But also not my type." He messed Joel's hair, smiling lightly. Joel hugged him around his waist, pressing his ear to his chest and closing his eyes. Neville returned the embrace around his shoulders, kissing the top of his head. He looked up at Leo, resting his chin on Joel's head. Thank you, he mouthed. Leo nodded, looking at the book.

"Tell me about Carla and Rasheed." He said. Joel opened his eyes, a grateful light behind his eyes.

"Carla liked dares. She broke both her legs just to win a pineapple."

"I think she was allergic to pineapples." Neville added.

"Then why-?"

"She never lost a dare." Joel shook his head, squishing his cheek on Neville's chest. "I tested her once, just to see how far she'd go. She ate a slug."

"July was so close to killing you for that."

"Worth it." Joel nodded, sniffing and wiping his eyes with Neville's T-shirt.

"Rasheed was good." Lucy-Jo joined them, squeezing Leo's arm thankfully. "He was just… good. Always happy, always caring. He just wanted to help people. Had a bit of an addiction to cheese though."

"He was my Wallace." Joel said, gesturing in the direction of his mug. "He stole the cheese platter at every party. And then was the king of the dance floor."

"Actually, he taught me to dance." Neville admitted, a little rosy-cheeked. Joel stood, still within Neville's hold, but adjusting his own, ready to slow dance. Neville touched his cheek gently, smiling. "We will not forget them." He promised. "And they would love what you've done." Joel blinked, tears rolling onto his cheeks. He tipped his head forward, laying their foreheads together. Neville's smile brightened. "I love you too."