Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians

This fic would not have existed without the encouragement of Stereden, who has also done a podfic of it, which can be found in its AO3 crosspost /works/57201739 or on my tumblr tsarisfanfiction!

"What the fuck?" Michael snarled, and the reaction was so predictable, so Michael, that Lee almost grinned. He would have done, if he didn't know that would've set off a chain of negative reactions which he really didn't need to deal with.

Instead, his smile widened ever so slightly, still barely a smile but there nonetheless. Michael's scowl got deeper, and he stalked forward, every four and a half feet of him a threat, even if he'd lowered his bow.

It would barely take him a split second to draw it again, and fire it in the next instant.

"Lee is dead," he spat, and his voice didn't quite wobble but Lee heard the grief in it anyway, behind the anger. If he wanted to deceive himself, he could almost imagine that there was hope in there, too. It also wasn't a lie, but wasn't true either, lurking in the grey area of uncertainty, where belief warred with disbelief. "I sang his funeral lament."

That was a barb, all prickly but true, and Lee wanted to cry because the funeral lament was a heavy responsibility, one borne by the head counsellor of the Apollo cabin, and Michael hated singing where others could hear him, but he'd done it anyway, for him, and it was something Lee had never wished on any of his siblings, and that it had been his own-

Gods, how had Michael coped? Lee had sung a handful, over his years as head counsellor, but he'd never had to sing for a fellow child of Apollo, and certainly not one he'd grown up with.

"I didn't die," Lee said, calmly, "and that wasn't my body." He shifted, fidgeting a little on the spot because this conversation was difficult, and everyone else was watching, listening. Annabeth's grey eyes were right there, as piercing as her mother's sacred owls', always a sponge for new information.

He didn't expect Michael's eyes to snap to the movement, his dark glower fading into something closer to horrified as he tracked the motion of Lee's hands.

Then Michael stepped forwards, deliberately closing the distance between them. Lee didn't retreat, didn't even consider backing away despite the stalk in his movement. Behind him, Annabeth made a disapproving noise, but Michael had always obeyed the suggestions that he wanted to and no others, so it went ignored.

Dark eyes, colourless in the night but ones that Lee knew would be a familiar dark brown in the sun, met his as a hand closed around his wrist, not tightly, but enough of a presence to be felt.

Then Michael lied.

It rolled down Lee's spine, vertebrae by vertebrae in an ongoing cascade until it reached the lumbar and dissipated, not painful, the way the lies of Kronos and his demigods had been, but a soft and gentle brush, just enough to let him know that there was a lie.

He'd all but forgotten that some lies could feel like this, when the intent behind them wasn't malicious, when they weren't aimed to hurt.

This one still hurt, though, because Lee remembered it. It was one that Michael had said before, so many years ago on the night after Luke had been confirmed as a traitor, one that he'd offered to a distraught and breaking Lee to hold him together, to promise that his ability wasn't broken, that Luke hadn't broken even more of Lee than he'd thought was possible.

And Lee knew it wasn't a coincidence.

Knew Michael hadn't plucked a lie out of thin air for no reason.

Knew that Michael had done it on purpose.

There was definitely hope, now, in Michael's eyes, behind the defiance and the anger and the myriad of other emotions that constantly swirled around his younger brother. Hope, and a plea, and Lee had always been terrible at denying his younger siblings anything.

For Michael, he would do the one thing Kronos had tried to draw out of him again and again with no complaint, and of his complete free will. For Michael, he would answer the question hanging between them, the one that Kronos kept taunting him with no matter how much Lee kept his mouth shut.

For Michael, there was very little that Lee wouldn't do.

"Liar," he said, voice carefully free of any accusations, just the simple fact. Michael had lied to him, and Lee was certain that it had been a test, confirming his identity one way or another. "You little liar, Michael."

Annabeth was still watching him with those owlish eyes, but for Michael, right now, Lee would admit his ability to the world, if that was what it took.

"Lee," Michael said, and he sounded young again, less like the head counsellor in charge of his siblings and more like Lee's little brother, on the rare occasions he admitted that he needed help with something. "How?"

"It's a long story," Lee said. "I'll tell you later," once he'd worked out what to say, how to explain it in a way that didn't make Michael feel awful for not somehow realising what was going on. "Right now, there are bigger problems."

"Michael-" Annabeth interjected, and she didn't seem on board with Michael's sudden U-turn, from suspicion to trust. "Michael, you can't just trust-"

"This is Lee," Michael said, loudly and firmly enough for all of their siblings to hear, as well as Annabeth.

"Passcodes can be faked, or guessed-" Annabeth started, but Michael whirled on his heel, still gripping Lee's wrist, and sent her a black look.

"Well it's a good thing I didn't use a fucking passcode," he snapped. "He's my fucking big brother, not yours."

He didn't explain how he knew, and Lee loved him for it. It would've been easier for Michael to say, to convince Annabeth and the others that he knew because of a secret between them, but he didn't. He just stated it as a fact, and while Annabeth was still eyeing Lee with severe distrust, it seemed that the rest of the cabin were fully prepared to take Michael's word for it.

Will launched himself out of the crowd and wrapped his arms tightly around Lee's waist, and several of the others followed until Lee found himself in the centre of a group hug, with too many crying siblings to deal with at once. Michael didn't join, but he also didn't let go of Lee's wrist.

Lee wished he could just soak up the affection and go home, but there was still the Kronos Problem to deal with. Gently disentangling himself took precious time, but he wriggled out anyway, to a sea of confused eyes.

"I would love to hug you all for the next year," he promised, "but the war isn't over yet."

Various faces were pulled, none of them impressed. Michael's scowl was particularly incensed, but also understanding. He still hadn't let go of Lee's wrist.

"Percy's taking down the Minotaur," his brother said. "He wants to pull the cabin forward and retake the bridge." Beside him, Annabeth nodded, but Lee was still focusing mostly on his brother and Michael wasn't at all happy about the plan.

Of course he wasn't. They weren't melee, they were support, and Percy and Annabeth were good but they couldn't be the entire front line for them – that would get them all killed. That was the sort of thing they needed the Ares cabin for.

The Ares cabin, which Silena had never mentioned in her report, and Kronos hadn't questioned the absence.

"Where is the Ares cabin?" he asked, probably a non-sequitur to the other demigods but if the Ares cabin had already been destroyed – they wouldn't have all defected to Kronos, Clarisse would never, not after Chris but not before that, either.

Michael abruptly looked guilty, hidden beneath his usual anger whenever Clarisse was mentioned, but not so far hidden that Lee couldn't see it.

Annabeth didn't give him a chance to explain anything, though. "Michael and Clarisse had an argument and Clarisse pulled her cabin out of the war," she said, and Lee didn't know which one she was blaming more but that didn't matter when Michael was right there, looking guilty but also mulish and-

"I apologised!" his brother spat, and Lee knew that was a massive deal, because Michael wasn't above apologies when his temper got the best of him, but to apologise to Clarisse? That was big, and not something Lee thought he had ever done before. "I fucking apologised and I gave her the fucking chariot and she still refused to fucking fight."

And that hurt his brother, too, and Lee wanted to tell him it was okay, that he'd talk to Clarisse and sort it all out, but Clarisse wasn't there and Michael was, and Lee couldn't get all the way to camp and back before Kronos came and slaughtered all of his siblings, so that would have to wait.

"Okay," he said, and it was easy, being in charge again. Being the big brother, even though he wasn't actually in charge here – that was Michael, and apparently Percy, and they were working with a massive, fatal, gap in their knowledge. "Okay, no Ares cabin to take the front line. That doesn't really matter anyway, because I don't think they'd hold what's coming, either. You all need to retreat," he insisted. "Get back, end of the bridge, I don't care, just get away."

"Why?" Annabeth snapped. "Percy needs the support-"

"Because Kronos is coming here!" Lee all but shrieked. "The Minotaur is the first wave, the bait to get Percy here, and then he's coming right here as the second wave."

Michael's face drained. So did his siblings'. Annabeth's mouth opened and closed a few times, before her eyes widened.

"Why here?" Will asked, and he sounded broken. "Why us?"

Lee didn't have any more idea than he had when Tris had asked him the same thing. He hoped it wasn't because of him, targeted because Kronos was cruel and loved to make him hurt for not cooperating, but he had a sinking feeling-

"No Geneva convention in titan times," Annabeth said, breathed, and even if she didn't trust Lee, she'd clearly seen a link that made sense in his claim. One that wasn't to do with Lee himself. "It's a siege, and we're the besieged with limited resources. Typical siege strategy is to cut off our resources, but…" she trailed off for a moment, horror in her eyes, before her voice strengthened again, confident in her words even though she clearly hated them. "He's coming for our healers."

Lee's stomach plummeted, and Michael snapped out a cacophony of swears, because that made entirely too much sense. The Apollo cabin were a formidable support line in the fighting but they were also the front line for healing and if an army didn't have healing then they were a dead army.

"Right," Michael barked, once he'd exhausted his forever-impressive vocabulary of swear words. "Will, Robyn, get the fuck back, join Austin and Kayla at the end of the bridge and-"

"They're not there anymore," Lee interjected, assuming the boy whose name he'd never got was Austin. "I sent them further back, to join up with Tris and Nathan."

Michael froze so suddenly he jerked a little, then his head whipped back around to stare at Lee. "Tris is alive?" His voice sounded strangled, and oh Hades Kronos had faked their littlest brother's death, too. "And Nathan-"

"Tris was with me," Lee said, still not going into details on that just yet, but Michael's eyes were on his wrists again and Lee hadn't looked at them since the cuffs had come off but he didn't think they were flawlessly healed, somehow. "Nathan… It was close, but we got him stable. It's still bad, but…" he trailed off with a shrug, but there was a new light in Michael's eyes and it was sharp but not broken.

"Then Will, Robyn, go join those four," he said. "Get the fuck away from here and if you can patch Nathan up more, go for it."

Will hesitated, reaching for Lee again, but Robyn grabbed hold of him, tossing both Michael and Lee a careless salute. "We're going," she said, and despite Will digging his heels in to stay, dragged her younger brother away, away from the fighting, much to Lee's relief.

"We can't all leave Percy," Annabeth said, not protesting the two best healers' departure but clearly prepared to protest if the rest of them abandoned the son of Poseidon, too.

"We won't," Michael said, and Lee wanted to strangle him because he knew what that meant, knew Michael was going to stay himself even if he sent everyone else back. "Go back up your boyfriend while we sort the rest of this shit out. Don't you owe him some fucking kiss or other? Get that out the way where I don't have to fucking see it."

The daughter of Athena's cheeks went pink, but she glared at Michael. "He's not my boyfriend," she protested, for the moment a teenage girl being heckled over the boy she liked and not a warrior about to face down a titan. "You'd better be there," she said, and sent another glare at Lee. "If he's lying-"

"If he's lying then Kronos isn't fucking coming here and you and Percy have nothing to fucking worry about," Michael snapped at her. "Fucking go."

Affronted and clearly insulted, Annabeth went, and Michael sighed a little, shoulders sagging.

"I don't really want to fight Kronos," Alice said, coming into the light of the nearest burning car and looking far, far too small. Sam was tucked into her shadow, taller than her but younger and therefore looking even smaller.

"You're not going to," Michael said. "All of you, off of this fucking bridge. Now."

"But Percy-" someone else complained, maybe Elias, hidden in the dark at the back of the huddle.

"Not even Percy is going to be able to just kill the fucking titan," Michael said. "Not here, not in a fucking ambush he didn't know was coming. I'm not letting those two get fucking killed, but I'm not letting you lot get fucking killed, either. Retreat, get the fuck off of the bridge, now. All of you."

"What about you?" Joy asked, and her voice was a rare sound, but in the dark light it was difficult to see Sign, and in battle it was even harder.

"Let me worry about me," Michael said, and Lee hated the way it was sounding, until his brother looked directly at him. "I'm not planning on fucking dying here, either."

Truth sang out, the reassuring absence of a lie, and despite himself Lee relaxed a little, because he knew that Kronos was dangerous and could kill Michael, but also that Michael wasn't just going to stand there and let him in some sort of awful self-sacrifice.

"I've got a plan," his brother continued, no longer looking straight at Lee, but at all of them, the centre of their attention like the leader he was, even with Lee's return. Lee understood that – it was Michael that had got them through the last, most intense, year of the war, after all. Not him. "But I need all of you off this fucking bridge for it to work. So go."

Much like Will, there was hesitation, but in this case it was the fear and desire to run being tempered by a sense of loyalty and duty that insisted they stay put. Joy was first to move, grabbing younger siblings and shepherding them back, and once one started to move, they all did, a walk turning into a jog and then a dead sprint, leaving Lee and Michael alone.

"You too, Lee," Michael said, a harsh edge to his tone. Lee didn't take it personally; Michael was stressed to Tartarus and back and it showed. "Get the fuck back. I've just got you back, I'm not losing you again."

"I'm not leaving you again," Lee insisted, crossing his arms, but the movement only seemed to draw Michael's attention back to them again.

"You're injured, you're unarmed, you're not even armoured," Michael snapped back. "You don't even have fucking shoes on, Lee, don't think I haven't fucking noticed. You look like hell and I need you safe."

"And I need you safe," Lee countered. "What's the plan?"

Michael snarled at him, but Lee had been on the receiving end of his little brother's frustration enough times to weather it without reacting.

"Blow up the bridge," he said, "which is why you need to be off the fucking thing. Percy can handle Annabeth and I can fucking run but you-"

"Haven't lost the ability to run," Lee told him. "Also I am done being helpless in front of that damn titan." Michael's eyes flickered to his wrists again.

"He hurt you," he said, and it wasn't a question. Lee smiled grimly.

"He wanted things I wasn't going to give him," he said, and it wasn't details but it was an answer, and Michael finally backed down, at least a little.

"Stay here," he said. "If you don't fucking run then fine." It wasn't fine, Lee could tell Michael hated it, but Michael also knew when a battle was lost. "But you're not getting any fucking closer, either. Wait for me here."

It was a compromise that Lee knew he'd break the instant he thought Michael was in danger, but it was the best he was going to get and he knew it.

"Okay," he said, and Michael yanked his knife out of his quiver, holding it out to him.

"You're better with it than I am," he said, even though Lee could see that there was only a single arrow left in his brother's quiver, and after that, he'd be weaponless, too. "Fucking take it, Lee."

He didn't want to, but like Michael, he knew when battles were lost – or in this case, not worth fighting.

"Thanks," he said, wrapping his fingers around the hilt firmly. "Come back safe, and soon, or I'm chasing after you."

"Of course you fucking will," Michael grumbled, but he went.

Lee watched him go, leaping up onto the suspension cables and darting along them like they were tree branches. Unlike tree branches, they didn't help him keep his balance, but while Tris had the balance of a sailor, Michael had the balance of a horseback archer. The help from the trees had always been appreciated, but ultimately not needed.

Looking ahead, down the bridge, he saw a black pegasus dive down sharply before hurtling back into the sky, something big enough to be a person dangling from its mouth. Not Michael, and Lee hoped it wasn't Percy, although the limp nature made Lee not want it to be Annabeth, either. He knew it had to be one of the two, though.

A blast of energy threw Lee from his feet, crashing him into the side of the bridge, and he clung on, losing Michael's knife but saving himself from a fall into the East River. He was still damp from his swim in there; he didn't think the god would take kindly to him returning to the waters.

He scrambled forwards after that, because that had to have been Kronos, and sure enough he could see the titan, standing there in Luke's body, sword driven down into the bridge. Much, much closer to him now was Percy, close enough to be seen as he clambered to his feet again, sword still in hand.

Michael was clinging to the cables, still on them by what Lee could only assume was some blessing or other from their father, pulling himself back to his feet and drawing his last arrow. Beyond him, the sky was paling as Apollo's chariot began to leave its stables. Dawn was coming.

The movement caught Percy's attention.

"Michael, go! " he screamed, a sentiment that Lee very much agreed with, but Michael wasn't going anywhere.

"Percy, the bridge!" he shouted back. "It's already weak!" and oh, that was how he was planning on blowing the bridge up. Lee had wondered. "Break it. Use your powers!"

The bridge was cracked and broken in places, damage from the battle Lee had mostly missed. Percy clearly noticed that, too, and without any hesitation drove his sword down, through the asphalt as though it was butter, and then the rumbling of water began.

Michael, safely behind Percy, but not as far back as Lee, didn't make any moves to run, instead aiming his bow at Kronos, fury etched onto his face.

And the titan-

Luke's face looked furious, too, black as thunder as a hand flashed out in Michael's direction, deflecting the arrow.

Water exploded, taking large chunks of the bridge with it. But Kronos wasn't done, and one of the chunks blurred, faster and faster than the others, until it smashed into Michael's chest.

Lee screamed.

Michael fell.

Dawn broke.

Thanks for reading!
Tsari