For content warnings, scroll to the bottom of the fic.

References to: 24, 27

Cabin 11 — Anime

Luke (15) - OC (12) - Travis (7) - Connor (7)

Early-June 2001

"They don't get along with others. So watch yourself."

"Really? … I bet they'll like me though. I'm good at getting people to like me."

"Go ahead and try then. Don't cry if you get tasered."

Brothers, but not twins even though they're identical. From what he sees, them crouching on the floor over something and him hiding behind the lower bunk bed, they're younger than he expected. Shorter too. So not his age then. Can't be any older than ten. According to Luke, best friends with Annabeth Chase. Also according to Luke, taser-happy and revenge-seeking. Oh. They notice him. One of them is glaring at him, eyes narrowing a fraction while the other is more curious, eyes gleaming with a spark of interest.

They're really not twins? They look so similar though. Maybe they were cloned.

"What are you doing?" they both say at the same time, one more mistrustful, the other more curious.

They both stand so he stands from his hiding spot too. His eyes fall on what they were hunching over — a crude drawing of the cabin's layout with little arrows pointing at various rectangles. The words 'Trap' and 'Luke' pop out to him first. So they're prank-happy too. That means they're smart and adventurous. The one glaring at him angles his body to hide his left hand in his pocket. Is that where he keeps the taser? He's a bit protective, huh? But the other one seems to be fine with him.

His vision falls into place like puzzle pieces and he grins. He knows where to go from here.

"Hiya. My name is Brandon. I don't think we met. You two weren't here last summer, were you?"

"No. We got here in December," the glare-y one mutters, a hand sneaking into his pocket.

"Nice, nice," he says easily, "Well, nice to meet you two."

"What do you want?" Mr. Glare-y asks him.

He pats his shoulder bag and waves in the general direction of the closet where they store all the miscellaneous belongings with no owner. "The VHS player and TV in the backroom. I recorded something really cool and wanted to show Luke and the others."

"There's one in the Big House," Mr. Glare-y points out, but the other brother bounds up to him in several quick hops, excitement twinkling in his eyes. And by default, the other brother follows closely after him.

His smile widens. Just like he planned.

"I wanna see it too," Mr. Curious says.

Perfect.

"Sure. Why not? I'll even let you guys have a look first."

"Unbelievable. This is completely unbelievable."

He shrugs and grins wider, peering into the cabin alongside Luke and Lee from outside the porch. They're still engrossed in the show, just finishing the first episode where everybody is falling into the river. It's fun watching them wail and scramble to grab the remote to skip the ending song. They're missing out. The outro is just as good as the intro. "What can I say, Luke? I just get people."

"You're telling me all I had to do to get them to like me was show them cartoons?"

" Cool and new cartoons. Cartoons that kids their age would like. But, yeah, it's that simple. They're 8 and 7, right? Almost 8 and 7? Of course they'll love Digimon. I'm just lucky, with them being sons of Hermes, that they can understand Japanese. I don't have the English dub yet."

Luke whirls around to face Lee, clutching Apollo's child by the shoulder and shaking him roughly. "Lee! You said chocolate was the way into every kid's heart! How come you didn't mention any of this Digimon crap?"

Lee flops back and forth in Luke's arms, looking off to the side and scratching his cheek apologetically. "It's supposed to be. They lived on the streets. I thought they would crave chocolate. How am I supposed to know they liked watching TV shows instead? Besides, the kids I babysat, the parents said no television at all so I just didn't think of it."

"Quick! Brandon, give me all the VHS tapes you have. I can still salvage my relationship with Connor."

"That birthday cake last month was a success though. Connor already likes you," Lee points out.

"He tolerates me," Luke corrects, "But with the VHS tapes he'll like me the best. Even more than Annabeth."

Brandon shakes his head, hiding his mirth the best he can as he watches the duo brothers skip the intro for the second episode. "Sorry, Luke. I already gave it all to them."

Luke groans and his shoulders sag in defeat.

Brandon watches all of Luke's dramatics curiously. He really likes his new half-brothers, huh?

Lee pats Luke's back with enthusiasm. "Cheer up, Luke. I think Pokemon is just as popular with kids. I'll record those for you."

Brandon shakes his head and gestures inside the cabin, towards the towering stack of VHS tapes. "I already gave them that show too."

"Brandon! What the heck?"

He shrugs again. "I had to be prepared if they didn't like Digimon. And what do you know, they ended up liking both."

Lucky him.

He lets Luke's whines of him being an overachiever fade into the background as he heads off to the climbing wall with his friends.

Later, when he goes back into the cabin to get a change of clothes after canoeing, he sees the brothers rewatching the first episode with Luke and Annabeth. Annabeth is sitting cross-legged on the bed and Luke is sitting on the ground, back against the frame. Travis and Connor are positioned weirdly next to the TV, unable to see the screen from their spot. And Luke is also weirdly enough hitting the play and pause buttons a lot, rewinding every few seconds.

Luke hits pause on the remote again, eyes narrowing at the screen, deep in thought. "So, uh, that Taichi guy said, um, I think 'Let's hide in the bushes'."

Travis and Connor shake their heads in unison, crossing their arms in front of their chest to form an X.

"He said, 'No way am I gonna let myself be beaten by him'," they correct together with identical giddy smiles.

"That's close enough, isn't it?"

"No," the three others say simultaneously.

"Okay, that's it. Enough tries. I want to watch with just Connor and Travis, Luke," Annabeth announces, leaning forward and snatching the remote from Luke's hands, "They translate better than you can."

"Hey! I'm a son of Hermes too just like them," Luke says indignantly, reaching for the remote in a half-hearted attempt to steal it back, "Maybe I just need more exposure before my innate ability to understand all languages kicks in."

"Well, do it on your own time. I can't enjoy this show if you pause it every ten seconds. Travis, you voice the Digimons. Connor, you voice the people," Annabeth commands, hitting play, as Luke gives up the fight for the remote, head leaning back on the frame.

"You guys are so ungrateful," Luke mutters, a comment that all three collectively ignore. Travis and Connor jump onto the bed, situating themselves next to Annabeth. None of them see Luke's fond smile.

For the rest of the summer, that's all his and the Stoll Brothers' conversations would center around. They would Iris-message him too after summer ended. Maybe every week or so asking about new seasons of Digmon and Pokemon, about new anime or cartoons to watch. It's frankly adorable. He adores them and will indulge their every wish, much to Luke's chagrin about how Travis only wants Pokemon cards and games for Christmas or that Connor wants the Digimon Tomodachi and how expensive and fast those items sell.

June of 2002, he proudly presents them with Digimon and Pokemon's first movie. English dubbed, easy for everyone to enjoy, and on DVD. The problem was the lack of a DVD player, but it's nothing a little puppy eyes from Travis and Connor towards Chiron that can't be fixed.

June of 2003, he pirates what he knows will be a hit for generations. Iconic even once it makes its way into the Western media. Naruto and One Piece. The problem is the lack of English dubs, but it's alright. Travis and Connor can voice act for whoever wants to watch. A few months later, Luke iris-messaged him from the infirmary bed, half of his face covered in bandages from his failed quest against the dragon, but very lively as he furiously demands him to only show family-friendly anime from now on. Apparently Beckendorf crafted real-life shurikens and kunai for the brothers and Annabeth to play around with and one of them nearly stabbed Chiron.

June of 2004, he kind of follows Luke's advice and gives them Fullmetal Alchemist. It's basically magic. There's nothing physical they can replicate in real life, he explains to Luke as he hands the trio the CDs he burned the series onto. Besides they're bored and this will keep them occupied, he explains and Luke gives in begrudgingly. By the end of August, Annabeth manages to imitate Roy Mustang's transmutation technique through a spring-powered glove constructed by Beckendorf that shoots out little explosives made by Connor. It's impressive actually.

Annabeth's proud smirk is terrifying though as she turns to Connor and Travis with an ambitious gleam in her gray eyes.

"I take back what I said about Lee and the books. Let's make him get us a book on robotics. We're making a life-size WarGreymon and MetalGarurumon and reenacting their digivolution to Omegamon."

June of 2005, Bleach came out last year and he just knows Luke won't be happy. But Bleach… it has all the characteristics to be a hit just like Naruto and One Piece. It will be a hit. If Annabeth and Travis and Connor want to recreate the katanas the soul reapers used, well… at least it'll go in their weapon shed to be used by others.

June of 2006 is the summer it all changed. Percy Jackson arrives. An actual son of Poseidon, son of one of the big three . So Zeus wasn't the only one to break his promise. For someone who just lost his mother, Percy seems to be doing alright.

But maybe it's just the shock of being shoved into a whole new universe that's pushing the grief to the back of the mind.

"Luke, how do you tell the brothers apart?" Percy asks, during free time as they three work on setting up more beds for the cabin.

Luke pauses mid-unrolling of a sleeping bag. "Who?"

"Travis and Connor," Percy states like it's the most obvious thing ever. Which it might as well be. Travis and Connor are the only identical siblings in the camp other than Pollux and Castor and Brandon doesn't think Percy knows those two. "How do you tell them apart?"

Luke hums in thought, crossing his arms as he thinks.

"Their eyes. They're kind of different," At Percy's silence, Luke clarifies further. "Connor has a sharper glint in his eyes like Annabeth's. Travis's is brighter like Tha— well, they're softer than Connor's."

Percy blinks for a few moments, the blank stare telling. "What?"

Luke elbows Brandon in the arm and gestures towards the new camper. "How do you tell them apart? Somehow you always manage to get it right on the first go."

Brandon answers quicker than Luke had done, "For me, I need to talk with them both together and for a few minutes. They're very similar so I don't blame you for being confused. They like a lot of the same things but for different reasons. Like, for example, for Pokemon Travis likes Plulse's color scheme and Connor likes Minun's. Or for Digimon, Travis likes Agumon for his love of food and Connor likes Agumon for his cool evolution cycle. Or in Naruto, they love Rock Lee and think his fight with Gaara is the best thing in the world. Travis likes the weight-releasing scene more. Connor likes the part where Rock Lee lands his first punch. So if you can somehow bring up those shows naturally in the conversation, you can then make an educated guess as to who is who."

"What?" Percy says again, even more lost.

"Go find Annabeth. I bet she knows a better method. She knows them best after all," Luke suggests and Percy trots away, more confused than ever, a little frown on his face.

"Couldn't you have made it a less bit weebie?" Luke sighs once Percy is out of earshot.

He shrugs.

"I can't help it if that's all I ever talk about with them."

"I guess…" Luke sighs again and not a second sooner, he brightens, fingers snapping as a grin settles on his scarred face, "Wait, an idea just popped into my head. A brilliant idea. Athena. It's definitely her. With your analytical mind, you got to be a son of Athena."

It's a game Luke plays a lot. He would take a trait they have and attribute it to a god even though a good chunk of the traits overlap. Typically Luke guesses he's a child of Hephaestus for all his technical abilities or Apollo for his likable personality. Athena is a first. Out of all gods, Athena? Really? He doesn't nearly feel as smart as Annabeth or Malcolm and he makes a face before he can control himself. Luke peers at him curiously.

"What's up? I thought you'd be happy to have an idea who your parents might be. You're 17 now. You might even age out of here without knowing who your godly parents are."

"I guess… but since I wasn't claimed right away like Annabeth, doesn't that mean I need to prove my worth? Like what Mikaela had to do to get claimed? I'm not really into doing a whole lot of projects now that I'm this old."

"But don't you want to get claimed?"

"No. Not really," he answers honestly and truthfully since it's the two of them. If he says this around the other unclaimed, he might get socked in the arm. "I don't really care about all that. I'm happy being in Hermes Cabin with you and the others."

The bitter smile Luke gives him isn't the same smile from years ago. Not as warm, not as kind. But it's not any less genuine. Luke slings an arm around his shoulder, ruffling his hair with his other hand.

"Well, I'm happy to have you."

Luke cares for them.

That's a fact that remained true for all these years.

So when Luke asked him to join his clause. To throw the gods off their pedestal, he agrees to it. After all, Luke always looks out for them. Why wouldn't they choose Luke? Why wouldn't they follow after him?

Then Luke nearly killed Percy.

Luke poisoned Thalia's Pine.

Luke tricked Annabeth and used her as bait for the goddess.

Annabeth. Of all people, he hurt Annabeth.

And it's no longer Luke he's following, but a stranger.

He didn't want to believe it. He didn't want to think Luke would ever hurt them. But then Chris went insane in the labyrinth and none of them have been able to get him back to their base. Chris is just lost down there and no matter how long they look, they can't find him and Luke just doesn't care .

Not a single emotion passes through his face when Brandon tells him the news. No worry. No alarm. No concern. Not a single emotion.

"What is wrong with you?!" he snaps finally and in front of everybody, their busy work and dilly-dallying coming to a halt. All eyes turn to them and Luke is staring at him, eyes widening. Luke is shaking his head just barely, a warning to stop, but the anger and the grief of losing Chris, of Chris suffering the way he did, is clouding his mind, and he continues, "Did you forget who this is all for?"

It's not smart. What he's doing is remarkably dumb and Luke is trying to stop him, practically throwing out a lifeline as he's hissing under his breath to stop just loud enough for only the two of them to hear.

But maybe it's the delusion he's still under, that Luke would never hurt them, that he just continues pleading, "None of this will be worth it in the end if we all just die. Let's forget about this and stop while most of us are still here. I know you're scared, Luke, of what the titan will do to you if you quit now. But we'll help you figure out the titan situation together. So let's just stop now before anyone else gets hurt."

"No," Luke says without hesitation, without even a consideration, face eerily blank. Maybe it's his imagination, but the blue irises flicker to deep gold for a moment. A cruel, cold gold before it's Luke's blue eyes again, but it stays cold, it stays cruel. This isn't Luke anymore. "If I want to continue, then what will you do?"

You can't lie to Luke, not when he's a son of Hermes.

His heart stutters in his chest but his breathing remains even somehow and his face doesn't twitch.

He knows what he has to do, but his legs still hesitate anyway. He turns around and bolts. But Luke's always been faster than any of them.

He's caught and pinned to the ground in seconds. His face is shoved into the dirt, his hands locked behind his back by a single hand. There's blood rushing in his ears. Luke is talking to the crowd around them, but he's not hearing any of it as he struggles against Luke's iron grip, the strength pressing him down is inhuman.

A gold cage erupts from the ground underneath and surrounds him, leaving just an inch of space on all sides. Luke lets him go and he jumps to his feet to climb out, but the cage seals itself above him. He only has a moment to see Luke's face, twisted in grief for a millisecond, before it goes back to its impassivity.

"We come this far. There's no going back now."

At a snap of a finger, the cage sets on fire.

The pain is nothing like he's ever felt before. A heat that he can't escape from. An all-encompassing intensity that has him screaming raw.

His comrades' faces flash across his vision — horrified, terrified, some turning away to retch, some turning to look at anything but him — as he writhes in pain.

Help me , he nearly begs. But there's no point. It's not going to free him. It'll just bring them in with him.

He died. He knows he died, the pain ceasing blissfully. But it's like the titan shoves his soul back into his body before it can leave for the Underworld because the pain starts up again, just as fresh, just as agonizing.

Luke's talking to the crowd — passionless and controlled — as he dies, over and over.

Eventually Luke leaves him. The others too.

He burns and dies and comes back alive. Again and again.

For however long he doesn't know.

A year. A week. Maybe just five minutes. He can't tell anymore.

But somewhere in the haze of the fiery landscape, he can hear Luke's voice — distressed and panicky. He can hear shoes scruffing on the ground too, like Luke's pacing. He peels his eyes open, the heat burning his eyes and ruining them immediately. But he saw enough to know Luke is alone. And that it's just Luke. Luke with his blue eyes. Blue eyes. Gold eyes. It doesn't matter much to him. Luke's just as bad if not worse than the titan.

"The titan tells me I need to make an example of you. That because of your defiance, others might have the same idea and leave our cause. So I have to do this. So we won't lose any of our forces. I'm sorry, Brandon. Just hold on for a couple of days. I'll free you from this once the war is over. It won't take long. Just hand on."

"Don't leave me like this. Just kill me," he rasps and Luke's breathing stutters.

Luke doesn't, of course, and flees.

The pain continues.

He closes his eyes and hopes the next time he dies, it's final.

It never is.

The pain and fire come back each and every time.

They move the base and leave him there to burn.

Nobody visits him.

Nobody comes back to free him.

It's just him and the fire.

Until it isn't anymore.

Three voices. Arguing in front of his cage. Two of them are familiar. Identical even.

And he forces his eyes open.

In front of his cage, there's Travis and Connor, older and agitated, yelling at the third person. The third being… Michael… he thinks. Short. Black hair. A big personality. That's what Silena told them when she reported the new campers all those years ago.

It's nice to see them again.

It's nice to see they're still alive.

His eyes close and he fades again, hoping this is it, hoping that he'll die for real this time.

But he comes back to life with a gasp and the pain is there again.

The trio in front of him jumps, their faces twisting in horror at the realization.

They're back to talking again. One of the brothers comes closer to his cage with a hand almost touching the flaming bars, wincing at the heat. The other brother takes Michael's bow as Michael kneels, shuffling through his backpack and taking out ambrosia and nectar.

The bow raises with an arrow loaded and aimed at him.

"Ready whenever you are, Travis."

"Ready."

Unsurprisingly, an arrow embedding itself into his eye hurts less than being burned alive. The force and speed behind it would have probably resulted in an instant death.

He dies again.

But the pain doesn't come back this time. The fire is gone, even though he still hears it crackling and bursting behind him. He's outside somehow. He's free somehow. He breathes in deeply, the air cool, not suffocating, not burning, and he laughs, cries, sobs.

"You idiot."

His head jerks up.

"I don't get what you guys did, but congratulations," Michael curses, fretting over the bubbling blisters on the brother's hand, "You fucked up your hand."

And in turn the brother, the one that pulled his soul out he realizes, shrugs nonchalantly as he downs a bottle of nectar and places the empty bottle next to two more. "I think it'll be fine. Look, it's healing really fast. It probably won't even scar and even if it does, I'm sure Will would fix it for me. Remember that time my whole arm almost got blown off? No wait, that was before your time. Well, ask Miranda. She knows how bad it was."

Michael bristles and shoves the brother in the arm. "Will isn't your personal healer, Travis. And he can't fix everything. We both know he'll try though. Don't place more pressure on him."

"Yes, yes, Mr. Head-Counselor," Travis says with a roll of his eyes.

Then the brother beside Travis must be Connor, watching the blisters disappear with a worried frown. "Are you sure you're okay? Did we bring enough nectar? Should we forget the mission and head back to camp?"

Travis shakes his head and leans in to whisper in Connor's ears. Both eyes shift to him and there's no mistaking it. They can see him.

He wonders why. Until he remembers Hermes also shepherds souls to the Underworld.

He wonders if it was Luke that's actually the one forcing his soul back into his body rather than the titan.

Not that it matters anymore.

He looks behind him at the charred bones in the middle of the fiery cage. He doesn't have a body to go back to anymore.

Connor stands and walks over to him with a tense grimace.

Fear seizes him and he scoots back.

They're going to shove him back into the cage again.

But they saved you, that rational part of his mind tells him.

People can change. Luke did.

Connor halts when he moves back, face grimacing further and there's sorrow mixed on his face mixed with anger and regret. Connor shoves a hand into his pocket and pulls out a piece of drachma, showing him the gold piece.

Oh.

He's just trying to send him to the Underworld.

Thank you, he tries to say, but the words get stuck in his throat.

I'm sorry, he tries next.

I made a mistake.

I chose the wrong side.

I tried to change.

I'm sorry.

None of the words come and he feels he has to — he needs to say something, anything, before he's judged in the Underworld. This is probably the last time they'll ever see each other. He can't go without a goodbye.

But he can't even say that. None of the words are coming and he hangs his head in frustration.

"Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood," Connor bites out, "It's in production right now. It's going to follow the manga ending. When we see you again, we'll tell you all about it. So… hang tight, I guess."

Then Connor flips the coin towards him.

And he's transported to the Underworld, surrounded by a crowd of shuffling souls.

When they see him again, huh?

He stares at the sky as Charon rows him across the Styx.

They talk like he's not going to be thrown down in Tartarus.

"You'll be surprised," the ferryman tells him, "Everything is taken into account."

He sinks into the seat and hugs his knees close to him.

Yeah. Right.

But it'll be nice to dream.

Content warning: original character death, major character death, torture

Thank you for reading!

Growing up all I watched was Pokemon, Yugioh, and Digimon. Then later Naruto, Bleach, and Inuyasha with SpongeBob, Fairly Oddparents, and iCarly sprinkled in somewhere. I know the English Dub for Pokemon and Digimon came out in 2000, but growing up, I watched those shows in Chinese dub and I think it's cute to have Travis and Connor do translations. So I just kept it like that 😅

Also! Poll! I finally have the time to read the Trials of Apollo (and man oh man Apollo is hilarious I love it😆) I know some of Will's backstory came out in that series+a another novel and as expected the version I made with my wild imagination is nothing like canon.

I can go back and edit Will's backstory I made up in Lee's and Michael's sections. That way it's better aligned with canon. And I can either delete the part altogether, replace Will with an OC, or change the scenario so it'll still match up with canon.

Or I can leave it as is and just tag it as non-canon compliant.

If you guys have a preference let me know in the comments!