I'm back!

Disclaimer: I own nothing

WARNINGS: ATTEMPTED RAPE (NONGRAPHIC), MURDER (NONGRAPHIC)

Chad glanced at him, the gun shaking in his hand as he pointed it at Him.

"N-No," he stammered.

The man sighed. "Leo, thank goodness you're here. Stop this lunatic."

Leo took in a shaky breath. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it for Chad."

"If you're doing it for me, then let me shoot him!" Chad shouted, jerking forward, the gun hitting His head and causing Him to flinch.

"Chad, I love you," He said, and if Leo didn't remember what he'd done to them, he'd believe Him.

"No!" Chad screamed.

Leo was much more calm with his response because he'd faced Gaea; he could face Him, too.

(Except he wasn't as confident as he tried to convince himself that he was)

"You never loved us. If you did, you would've stopped when we said no. When we begged for you to stop," Leo said, slowly. "You didn't. You kept... touching us, even when we pleaded for you to stop. If you really loved us... you would've listened."

"Leo, Chad-"

"You killed Chance!" Chad cried.

Speck sighed. "Chad, that boy was so disobedient. He didn't understand that actions have consequences. He needed to go."

Before Chad could even open his mouth, Leo growled:

"Actions have consequences, so... why aren't you sitting in a jail cell?"

"Leo, I love you so much. I've always loved you," He said.

Leo sobbed, unable to suppress his emotions any longer.

"Stop saying that," he cried. "I don't want to hear it!"

Chad placed his finger on the trigger.

"Leo, let me do it," he begged.

Leo wanted to. Oh, he wanted the man dead and in the ground so badly.

But he knew his mom wouldn't want him to think like that. She'd want him to be strong, and being strong was putting the gun down and locking that man away.

Leo shook his head. "Chad, put the gun down. He should rot in a jail cell until his dying day, but he won't if you don't put the gun down."

Chad saw his reasoning, but still, the gun did not lower.

"What would Chance want?"

"He'd want me to shoot the son of a bitch!" Chad answered, although he didn't look convinced of his own words.

"No, he wouldn't," Leo said. "He'd want that man locked away for the rest of his life. He'd be surrounded by murderers, rapists, and so many other criminals. He'd finally know what we felt like everyday when we feared for our lives."

Chad was sobbing by now.

"I'll never feel safe as long as He's alive. I can't deal with knowing He's out there! Even if He's in jail, I won't feel safe."

Leo didn't know how to respond. Maybe it was because he knew that he'd always feel the same way.

Chad laughed without humor. "Killing Him is easy. Locking Him up is hard. You were always the brave one; I always took the easy way out."

Leo took a step forward.

"Chad, you are brave. Chad, we may be cracked, but we are not broken. We survived what He did; the worst is over."

Chad shook his head. "Is it? I'd rather still be living with Him than having to deal with the aftermath. At least I'd know what was coming! I wouldn't have to deal with the fear I feel in crowded places or even isolated places, thinking He's right behind me. I wouldn't be afraid to sleep, scared that He may sneak into my room in the middle of the night. I wouldn't sleep with a baseball bat under my bed!"

"-And I wouldn't see Chance around every corner. I wouldn't run away when the memories start resurfacing. I wouldn't sleep with a screwdriver under my pillow. I wouldn't have almost stabbed one of my friends with it when they woke me up because I thought she was Him. I'm in the same boat as you, Chad. But I'm not holding the gun, even though I want to."

Chad let loose a raspy sob. "That's because you're brave. I'm not."

"Then, be brave!" Leo urged. "Put the gun down. Show Him that He did not break you. A broken person would shoot him. A strong person would get justice. They wouldn't just become like Him. You're not a murderer; you're not Him. So listen to me, and put the gun down!"

Chad bit his lip before dropping the gun.

Leo rushed forward and kicked it under the bed, out of reach of any of them, before hugging Chad tightly.

Chad sobbed into Leo's shoulder. "Thank you for stopping me," he murmured.

"That's what brothers do," Leo told him.

Chad sobbed harder.

They'd both forgotten He was there.

A hand latched onto Chad's collar, yanking him away from Leo and holding him in place by wrapping an arm around the boy's chest.

Speck pointed the gun at Chad's temple.

"Never turn your back," He smiled, cruelly.

Neither boy dared to the move. The twitch of an eye could set Him off.

"What do you want me to do?" Leo whispered.

They'd played this awful game many times before. Speck would use one of the boys to get the other two to do what He wanted. He usually used this technique when one of them just arrived and still had fight left in them.

"Undress," Speck instructed.

With that single word, Leo felt like crying.

A hand slipped into his. Chance.

"Be brave," he murmured.

Leo felt his hands heat up, his emotions running wild and taking his powers with them.

Wait. His powers.

A plan began forming in Leo's mind.

Leo unzipped his jacket and let it fall to the floor before stripping off his shirt, trying to push down a blush when He looked him up and down.

"You've developed nicely," He smirked.

Leo resisted the urge to tell the pervert where He should put His comments.

"Leo," Chad said. "You don't have to do this."

"I let you down once, Chad," Leo said. "I'm not going to let you down again."

Leo finished doing what He told Him, too, and once he was standing only in his boxers, he stood tall and glared at Him.

Speck dragged Chad over and shoved him aside, the gun still digging into Chad's chest.

Speck leaned down to Leo's height and kissed him.

That's when Leo put his plan into action.

He lit his hands on fire and pressed them against His chest.

Speck screamed in agony, and although the gun went off inches from Leo's ear, Leo didn't even register the sound.

All he comprehended was Chad staring at him with a hole in his chest before falling to the ground.

This was not a Hollywood movie kind of thing. The gun went off; Chad's legs gave out. The only in between was the shocked glance Chad managed to give Leo before he tumbled to the ground.

"Chad!" Leo cried.

He grabbed the gun from the floor and tied Him up (Leo had learned how to tie a person up in ten seconds flat from one of his previous foster sisters. He didn't even want to know how she knew how to do that).

Once He was tied up, Leo knelt beside Chad and cradled him in his arms.

"Chad, I already lost Chance. Please don't leave me, too," Leo sobbed.

"Leo, I'll-I'll be with Chance again," Chad said, as though Leo hadn't spoken. "Be brave, Leo. For the three of us."

Chad Cummings died right there on that floor.

Leo looked up from the bloody body in his arms to Him.

"I just have one question," he said.

"Fire away," He muttered.

"What did you do with Chance's body?"

Speck smirked. "Check the closet."

Leo couldn't tell if He was lying or not.

Leo stood, gently laying Chad on the ground, and opened the door to the walk in closet.

"The trunk on the floor," He called. "I hid it whenever the police came."

Leo opened the trunk and screamed in horror when he found that He was not lying.

The skeleton of eleven year old Chance, his blonde hair laying in clumps all over his skull lay curled up in the bottom of the trunk.

Leo sobbed, but he closed the trunk and pulled it out of the closet.

Chance Waters deserved a proper burial.

Leo abandoned the trunk just outside the door of the closet and returned to Chad's side.

The gun lay on the floor between Him and Leo, but Leo didn't grab for it.

As though reading His mind, Leo replied, "I will not become a murderer like you."

An urgent knock sounded on the door.

"Police, open up."

Not even three seconds later, someone kicked in the door, and footsteps raced around.

A gun and a single brown eye peered into the bedroom before Olivia burst inside.

"They're in here!" She shouted over her shoulder.

Elliot raced through the doorway, and while Olivia laid a coat over Leo's almost naked body, Elliot stormed over to Him.

He cursed at Him in a low voice before untying him and hand cuffing him, reciting his rights and so on.

"The bus is on its way," Olivia assured Leo.

Leo didn't respond. All he did was murmur, "Chance. He never even buried him."

Olivia frowned, and Leo pointed to the trunk next to the closet door.

Olivia stared in realization and horror before her eyes darted to Fin standing in the doorway.

"My God," Olivia muttered before turning back to Leo, who had yet to turn away from Chad's body.

The ambulance arrived, and Leo was loaded onto a stretcher and placed inside.

Olivia rode with him the whole way, questioning him, gently.

Leo answered all of her questions. About Chance and Chad and Him. For once, he told the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He didn't withhold a single detail.

The absence of Chance did not escape his notice.

How was it? I know some parts are unrealistic, but isn't Percy Jackson and the characters unrealistic in general? Rick Riordan did a good job with making the characters realistic, but some aspects of a character were unrealistic to me. *shrugs*