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Dark.
It was so dark.
Pitch black, not a single source of light in sight.
And it was cold.
So cold.
Amidst the darkness, as he lay on his back, almost entirely numb from the cold, his hand was grasping something. It felt like another hand, but didn’t at the same time. His fingers were entangled with what was the same shape as fingers should be, but was also colder than a living being had any right to be. And besides that, every so often his fingers would go through those maybe-fingers, as if they were never there in the first place. They always returned, but after who-knows how long he noticed that they disappeared more frequently and took longer to appear again.
He needed some light.
Where was the sun? Where was the warm and bright sun that always kissed his skin with tenderness?
Where was Dad?
He needed some light.
And soon, something glowed.
No, not something.
He glowed.
His whole body was emanating a soft light, bringing life and warmth to the place he was in and showing him exactly what he was holding.
A hand of a young man.
Their hands were clasped together, his softly glowing, the other’s producing literal shadows and almost translucent as if they slowly merged with the darkness. And it wasn’t just the man’s fingers - his entire arm was like that too. Most concerning of all though, was the fact that from his abdomen, a spear was coming out, bloodied. The man was taking shallow breaths, each one an obvious struggle. He couldn’t see his face very well, it was hidden by a curtain of black hair, but he could see his mouth moving slowly. Forming a sentence, a plea perhaps?
He had to help him.
That was his job, wasn’t it? To help those in need? Lee said he had a gift. Michael said he was a natural. Chiron once said that his skills were comparable to those of his older brother Asklepios, the god of medicine himself, at the time he was just a demigod.
He had to help that man.
He tightened his grip on the other’s hand, so that he wouldn’t just dissolve right there and then. At first he tried to sit up, but then he realised just how tired he himself was. The light he was producing was taking its toll on him, but when he tried to dim it, he could faintly see the shadows enveloping the man even more, so he returned the light to its previous steady and strong glow.
But still, he was too weak to move his whole body, or even only the upper part. That’s why he focused on sending some life force through his already connected hand. It was easier to heal someone when you had a physical connection, after all.
And it was also easier to heal with a hymn. He was powerful enough to make due without one, but it was both easier and less tiring when he sang. He didn’t yet know them all, they weren’t hard to remember, but Lee was adamant that he should focus on learning combat abilities first. It was due to his strong aura that he had to go to camp sooner than most demigods and his vitakinesis was the reason he had such a strong aura in the first place. It was powerful enough so that he could heal others pretty successfully and just like most demigod children of Apollo, he himself healed more efficiently and faster than others, so there was no point in worrying about that.
But healing would get you nowhere on its own, so before he could even think about leaving camp either to meet his mum or on a quest, he had to learn how to protect himself. With that in mind most of his demigod training was archery training - sometimes also sword training or spear training or dagger training, but he was awful at all of these - and he was good with a bow. Not great, like Lee, and definitely not wonderful, like Michael, but he was good.
He still knew some healing hymns, though.
He would know some even if his brothers didn’t teach him them at all. Not because of his amazing healing powers - you didn’t inherit the knowledge of hymn lyrics - but because Lee sang them as lullabies. Without the intent behind them they were just songs, so there was no harm in just singing them like that.
This time, however, there would be intent behind them.
He tried to sing, but no words would leave his lips. His throat was hoarse and no proper sound was able to come out of his mouth. So instead he just settled on humming.
Unable to come out of his mouth, the words of the song were playing themselves in his mind, in what was oddly similar to Lee’s steady and calming voice.
‘Cause the sun’s shining bright,
Light shall soon find you.
Bringing a promise that
You’ll be okay soon.
He wished Lee was there to sing the song for him.
Cast away all your fears,
Follow my voice, dear.
With this song I shall ask
To grant a new start.
But it was painfully obvious his healing didn’t do anything. The man wasn’t slipping into the darkness fast, but he still did so at a steady pace, not stopping for a moment. If everything remained like that, he’d still meet his end then and there.
He had to do something more.
No actual care for the wound. No singing. Maybe more physical contact? Will could probably touch him with his other hand, he wasn’t yet that much exhausted and he actually couldn’t feel any numbness or pain in that one arm.
That’s because there was none.
With a shriek of pain he was made aware of the fact that his entire arm was missing and the reason it wasn’t as numb and cold as the rest of his body was because there simply weren’t any nerves left to feel anything. With the awareness of his injury he could feel some phantom pain in his arm and a burning ring of pain where his body ended. With horror he realised that he could feel a similar sensation in one of his legs.
Why he was so quickly getting weaker now made perfect sense.
Relax, he told himself. You don’t die simply of dismemberment. You die from blood loss or infection. If you take care of the injury fast enough, you’ll be fine.
You’re not dying.
He refused to think that he was.
You’re not dying.
But to do so, he would have to abandon the man laying beside him, to focus his strength on his own healing. He was too weak to save them both.
The man’s face was still hidden by his hair and his lips were still mouthing silent words. Will couldn’t just let him die. But he also couldn’t save him. He was too weak and if he didn’t do something about his own state, it’d be he who’d join the Underworld.
Why did he have to make such a choice?
It wasn’t a choice, really, rather a really cruel reality. There was only one person that could make it alive from here and it wasn’t the impaled man. And yet, to deliberately write someone off? He knew the man had no chance of making it, but still.
He didn’t want to do it.
The light he was producing started to lose its brightness. He tried to give it more power, but his strength was almost non-existent at this point. And with each minute his light was weaker, the shadows coming from the man’s body were getting stronger. Seeing him start to dissolve into the darkness was agonising.
But soon he realised that it wasn’t just the man who was affected by them.
The shadows, now strong and cold and dark, were closing in on him too, digging into his body, making it dissolve as well. They weren’t attacking him as viciously as they did the other, but he had no doubts that it was just a matter of time.
A matter of his light.
None of them were making it out, if one died the other would as well. It was the end.
They were dying.
For the first time he truly focused on what the man was trying to say. He was repeating three words, over and over again, desperate to get his point across.
I love you.
The light finally gave way to the darkness and like that, they were both enveloped by the shadows.
☀️☀️☀️
Will jolted awake with a cry.
He was breathing heavily, yet still unable to get any air into his lungs. He could feel a soft mattress under his body, a blanket covering his lower parts. It was cozy and safe and warm. He moved both his hands - he had both his hands! - up to his camp necklace to steady himself and realised, with relief, that it was just a dream.
A nightmare.
“What’s attacking?!” He heard someone shout and looked to the side to see Michael pointing at an unseen threat with his bow, standing on his top bunk bed, still in his pajamas, half asleep.
“Will, are you okay?” Lee asked just a second later when he noticed the distressed state his little brother was in. Lee was sleeping under Michael’s bed - from what Will knew, it had been the setup for as long as they both were at camp - which was the bed on the exact opposite side of the main room from Will’s. Yet, he took no time to move that distance after Will softly shook his head, tears starting to form at the edges of his eyes. “Did you have a nightmare?”
“I- I-“ he stuttered, unable to speak coherently. He hid his face in Lee’s chest, wetting his shirt, but the older boy didn’t seem to care. He could hear Michael jumping off his bed with a soft thump and sitting next to them on Will’s. He had no bow, Will saw thy from the corner of his eye. That was good. It meant that there really was no danger. It was all just a nightmare.
Lee softly stroked his hair and whispered reassuring words. He had a melodic and calming voice, a little like his mama. Though aside from that he felt mostly different than her. He was bigger, warmer - courtesy of being a Sun Child (and thanks the gods for that, it meant Will wasn’t cold) - and he smelled of hyacinths, instead of his mother’s favorite perfume (he still hadn’t figured out what kind of smell it was supposed to be). Though just like his mama he made it all seem like everything was going to be fine.
“I had one,” he finally said, but the words were muffled by Lee’s shirt. He forced himself out of his brother’s warm embrace so that he could speak more understandably. “It was scary.”
“Demigods have nightmares all the time, you shouldn’t worry about it,” Michael said, making himself once again known. “The dream gods just like to fuck with us.”
“Michael,” Lee scolded but the other boy just shrugged, making Lee sigh. “But he’s right, Will, we get weird dark dreams all the time. You’ll forget about it soon, don’t worry.”
“But it felt real and I still remember it clearly,” shivers run down his spine at the thought of this numb and cold state he was in, the worst choice he thought he had to make and the realisation that he was dying. “It looked like something that could happen.”
“Or had happened. We often get dreams of events from the past,” Will shook his head at Lee’s words.
“I was there. I wasn’t there in the past.”
“Did it have like a green tint?” Suddenly, Michael looked concerned by his dream, unlike he had just a second ago. He furrowed his brows in a very ferret-like expression that normally would make Will laugh if it wasn’t for their current situation. “Or something else felt kinda funky and magical? Anything that would make you think it was something that was going to happen?”
“No?” Will hesitated for a while before answering. “Should it?”
“Nah, but it could have,” the boy relaxed once more, resting his head on the wall behind Will’s bed. “It’s anyone’s guess which ones of us develop prophetic powers. Vision of the future can be in first person, you know. Glad it’s not the case, though.”
“Do we know for sure?” The thought of what he saw being his future was horrifying. And it was even more frightening after he realised that the he in his dream felt weirdly bigger, as if older. He hadn’t noticed it during the dream, but after Michael pointed out that it could be a vision, it would make sense if he was older there.
“No,” the boy stated bluntly. “But the chance is so low I wouldn’t bet on it.”
“Which means that it was just a normal, bad dream,” Lee placed a stray lock behind his ear, but it fell back on his face. “Not ideal, but it’s just a normal dream, no meaning behind it.”
“But it felt so real…” he said, unsure.
“People get dreams that feel real all the time. They somehow hardwire themselves into your brain for forever, but they’re nothing more than dreams.”
“You get them too?” At that Lee nodded. “How do you know it’s not the future or the past?”
“I got one the day you came to camp, actually,” he poked Will in his abdomen which made him squirm away. “You were there, but there also was a big battle inside of camp. And for a while I was worried it actually was some vision, but even with the barriers weakened there was no fight as big as that one. There’s no way so many monsters could make it here. So that’s it.”
“But you remember it clearly? And it felt real and scary?” And cold? And numb?
“I remember you getting attacked by some monster but I bravely defeated them with my awesome sword, “Lee first faked the gesture of holding a sword and then slashing something with it,” so that nothing bad would happen to my little brother, “he tickled Will, making him giggle through his already drying tears. “And then Michael shouted my name, probably desperate to save him too,” said boy mouthed As if and crossed his arms, “ and then everything turned dark. I woke up. Finito.” He outspread his arms, as if he just finished performing in a show and was waiting for applause.
“That doesn’t sound all that scary,” compared to that dark and cold dream Will had, it sounded like pixie dust and flowers.
“It sounds like you’re trying to pump up your own ego, because you’re the only one who can hold a sword in this cabin,” Michael spatted and Lee showed him his tongue. It made Will giggle again.
“You’re just jealous, Mister I-can’t-hold-a-sword-because-they-are-all-bigger-than-me,” he mocked and laughed softly. However, before Michael could remark, he turned to Will. “Though you’re right. It doesn’t sound all that scary.”
“Then what makes it a real nightmare?” Will inquired. Lee’s expression turned solemn and serious and a little bit afraid, which made him wonder if there was something more in that nightmare Lee hadn’t told them yet.
“You looked down right terrified there, Willie, and after Michael’s cry there was a moment when you looked-“ he shook his head. “Even I don’t know words that could describe it. Seeing you so frightened terrified me. I don’t like watching you sad or scared, you know,” Will was slightly put off when Lee then grinned, enveloped him in a tight embrace and started squeezing, “that’s why I’m gonna push all that fear out of you. And all the bad dreams too! Go out! Go out!”
“Stop, Lee, stop!” He giggled. It didn’t hurt at all, but got annoying after a while, especially since he could see and hear Michael laughing at them from the side. “I don’t have any nightmares in me anymore!”
And with those words he realised that he did, in fact, not have any nightmares anymore. It wasn’t like he forgot it, he could still recall every detail, but the memory of the dream got pushed to the back of his mind, replaced with the forming memory of now when he was making fun with his brothers.
Lee loosened the hug, but still held onto Will, like a steady and firm anchor. “As long as I’m with you I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” he assured. “I promise.”
And Will believed him, because if there was one thing that was certain about his older brother, it was that he never lied. It was the truth, Lee would protect him till his last days, may they not come for a long time.
“Hey, Michael,” Will said to the mostly silent yet vigilant brother, making him hum in acknowledgment. “Do you have bad dreams too?”
“Well-“ he stuttered out, trying to talk around the topic. “I got lots of weird dreams, but they’re not like normal nightmares.”
“They’re the demigod ones?”
Michael nodded a little hesitantly, “but it’s not like I don’t get normal nightmares that just stay with me forever like you too. Just, it’s harder to tell them apart from the demigodly.”
“You got one like me and Lee?” At his question, the older yet smaller boy just tried to brush it off by simply nodding, but Lee was having none of it. He let go of Will and moved closer towards Michael, who tried to run away, but was just a second too late. Lee caught him by his shirt, pulled back and started tickling like a madman.
“What are you doing?!” Michael screamed between laughs, while trying to squirm away from his hold “Stop that, now!”
“I’m pushing the nightmare out of you too!” The boy answered and kept on tickling. Will giggled looking at his brothers’ ‘fight’ and joined Lee in his attempts at torture. “I’m not stopping until you tell us!”
“What happened to free will and respecting boundaries?!”
Lee stopped for a moment and Will followed suit. “Do you really don’t want to share? Is the dream too bad?” He asked with a very serious expression
“No, the last normal one I had is rather mid, it’s not-“
“Then I’m not stopping until you share it!” And with that Lee returned to tickling and Will happily joined.
“Fine! Fine! Alright!” Michael pulled at their hands. “Just release me!”
They did so and waited for him to regain his posture. The boy prompted himself back on the bed and mumbled something akin to I have the worst fucking brothers.
“So?” Will sat himself right next to him, laying his head down on Michael’s shoulder - it was a little uncomfortable, because he was slightly taller than him and so he had to bend down.
“There’s a fight on a bridge. There’s the Minotaur. The bridge shakes and then collapses by a big wave. I get swept in the process and fall down,” he said hastily. “Happy now?”
“Very much,” Lee ruffled his hair and Michael swept his hand off of him. Lee just laughed at that. “See, Will? Yet another proof everyone has just a normal nightmare every once in a while. Nothing to worry about.”
Will, who had all but moved on from his dream, nodded. “A bad nightmare, but just a nightmare, nothing more.”
“That’s right, sunshine,” the boy grinned and swept both his younger brothers into yet another hug - to Will’s delight and Michael’s protests - and lied them all down on the bed, that was too small for them three, but somehow Will felt the most comfortable in his camp bed since his arrival right then.
He tightly squeezed his brothers and they both returned it - even Michael, for all he pretended that he despised physical contact.
“‘Cause the sun’s shining bright,” Lee began to sing, just like he did every night, though it was surprisingly the same hymn Will tried to sing in his nightmare. “Light shall soon find you. Bringing a promise that, you'll be okay soon.”
“Cast away all your fears,” Will heard Michael join in, his voice rougher than Lee’s, but still just as steadying and surprisingly calming. “Follow my voice, dear.”
“With this song I shall ask,” he joined in, at last, and this time, because it was the reality, the words obliged and left his mouth. “To grant a new start.”
From the worst night it changed into the best he had in a while and not even waking up with Michael’s legs and right arm on him, and Lee partially dragging him down off the bed could change that.
☀️☀️☀️
“Felicia is still out there, I wasn’t able to get her too, you need to go after her!” Emily - unclaimed - shouted at Pola - daughter of Apollo, Will’s sister - just as Will was cleaning up her wounded leg. She had a nasty cut, the bone was visible and it was a miracle that she was able to drag Antonio - son of Aphrodite - to their med tent from the battlefront.
The boy in question was under Pola’s care, unconscious, with a stab wound. The girl was singing and stitching him up at the same time, visibly exhausted from the amount of healing they all had to do that day. Her voice was beginning to sound hoarse and Will was sure that she couldn’t do what Emily asked her to.
For the battle the Apollo cabin split into two groups - the fighters and the healers. Obviously Will was assigned as the latter and along with Austin, Stella and Robin helped Pola. Their leader wasn’t the best medic they had, but Will was considered too young by Lee to lead all the medics and Michael was too valuable as a fighter to assign him to the tent, so it settled on Pola - fifteen and the third best medic they had, even though it was obvious her fingers were not made for stitching wounds but rather playing the piano.
And the rest of their group wasn’t the best either, Will would probably be chosen as a healer regardless of his age, but the rest was chosen only because they were the youngest and were at camp for the shortest amount of time. Robin was a year older than Will and came to camp the same summer he did, while Austin and Stella were both newcomers, both a year younger than Will.
At first he thought it was stupid. They were at camp, no fight could really be that dangerous and Robin was almost useless as a healer, he’d be a much better fighter. But Lee was adamant, and so he was assigned as the nectar distributor.
But as the battle progressed, Will started to realise why Lee was so certain that no one under the age of thirteen would be going onto the battlefront. Just seeing the injuries was enough, let alone seeing the actual fight. No one yet had died, but Will had an awful feeling it was only a matter of time.
“You need to help her!” Emily begged once more. “She got her legs crushed by a falling tree but I had no time to help her! You need to go!”
Pola couldn’t help her even if she still had the strength - she had the whole tent to oversee. Robin was a useless healer - he wouldn’t be able to help immediately if Felicia got attacked in her moment of vulnerability. She could probably still protect herself with her hands free for some time, but after a while she’d lose the fight and get injured, or worse. Austin and Stella were too young and inexperienced, so it left only Will. Even if it was too late to help her, he had to try.
So he healed Emily’s leg enough so that she could join the fight, and with the best ordering voice he could pull of, ordered, “show me the way.”
In retrospect, he should have just told her to bring Felicia to the med tent. As it later turned out, the girl wasn’t in immediate danger - she managed to wriggle herself free and hid in a hole the tree had left after its fall. Emily could carry her just fine, he didn’t have to go.
But as always, he was unable to stand still when someone begged for help, so he followed Emily through the battlefield.
Or tried to, at the very least, because all too soon there were just too many monsters and they got separated.
Which left Will alone with a bow he wasn’t the best with in the middle of the biggest fight Camp Half-Blood had ever seen. It should be impossible for a battle this big to take place there. Surely, he was dreaming.
There’s no way so many monsters could make it here.
Will was trying to take down as many enemies as he could, but they just kept coming. He should had listened to Pola, she told him to stay, but he argued that he needed to go. In the end, she allowed him to go under the condition that Emily would go with him. Guess that didn’t go so well.
He heard a commotion behind his back, so he turned just in time to see a dracaena rising her spear to pierce him.
I remember you getting attacked by some monster.
He half-expected the monster to finish him right then and there. He braced himself for the attack, but it never came. Instead, he saw a sword go through her head, cutting it from the body and scorching the neck in the process. The rest of the dracanea soon dissolved into dust, revealing Lee standing there, with an almost empty quiver, a bow slung over his shoulder and his golden sword - a gift from their father, a sun sword that erupted fire when it cut into any foe - in his hand.
But I bravely defeated them with my awesome sword.
“What are you doing here?!” Lee asked. Somewhere along the fight he must had lost his helmet - his blonde hair was clearly visible, catching the sun’s rays and reflecting them, making it look like it was glowing - like a light catcher. “You must go right back to the tent!”
“Felicia got hurt, can’t move, I have to go help her!” He explained hastily and saw Lee’s expression soften. He must had been relieved that Will hadn’t just left the tent out of pure amusement, but rather had an actual reason to do so.
“I’ll go with you,” he said and Will almost wanted to turn around and go where Emily said Felicia was, before he saw what was behind Lee and his body froze, unable to move.
You looked down right terrified there, Willy.
“Lee!” He heard Michael scream somewhere from the trees where some of the archers must had hidden themselves. It was a desperate cry, one strengthened by the Apollo Kids’ ability to reach abnormal volumes, so it was clearly hearable across the sounds of battle all around them. It was a warning cry.
And then Michael shouted my name, probably desperate to save him too.
“Michael?” Lee asked, confused. He looked to both of his sides for any foes, looked in the direction of the trees, but there were none, because the monster was right behind him. But Will couldn't move his body to tell him that, so his brother just looked at him puzzled, trying to comprehend the horror on Will’s face. “Will?”
Even I don’t know words that could describe it.
Behind Lee was a giant, a laistrygonian giant with a gigantic club in one hand. And he was rising it, ready to strike.
“Will?” His brother asked again and this time he managed to raise his finger and point at the foe, but it was too late. Before Lee managed to turn around, the club met his head.
And then everything turned dark.
He saw as his brother’s head was destroyed, his body falling to the ground, blood and remnants of organs spilling all over the grass. Some probably fell on Will too, but he was too shocked to pay attention to it. All he cared about was his brother who now laid dead in front of him.
Finito.
An arrow pierced the giant’s neck, making him turn around towards the trees and the Apollo Archers and lose interest in Will, but he paid it no mind.
He crouched next to Lee. Physical contact with the wounded improves the healing, so he took his brother’s hand - the one that was previously holding his sword, which had fallen out of his grip - and grasped it with all his strength. His other hand was hovering above what was left of Lee’s head, physical contact or close proximity to the injury itself was sometimes even better, but Will couldn’t bring himself to touch the bloodied mess.
He started to sing, even though deep down he was fully aware that Lee was dead and not even Apollo himself would be able to heal him.
“‘Cause the sun’s shining bright,
Light shall soon find you.”
Somehow, even amongst the blood and gore, Lee’s hair still worked like a sun catcher, but it was giving the light a bit of a red tint. He once told Will that under the right light their blood would shimmer a little because of the minuscule amount of ichor in it. So maybe it was the blood that was reflecting the light and not the hair.
Will’s powers didn’t do anything, the wound did not clasp, the head did not return to its original shape, so in a desperate attempt at strengthening his powers he overcame his fear and touched the wound itself. His hand got covered in blood and something else - he didn’t want to think about what it was - but as long as there was a bigger chance at saving Lee, he didn’t care.
“Bringing a promise that,
You’ll be okay soon.”
“Will, I’m sorry I lost you-“ he heard Emily say, but he didn’t turn from his brother to look at her. He didn’t care anymore about what happened to her or Felicia, as long as he could do something to help Lee, he wasn’t leaving his side.
“Is that-?” It was Felicia, apparently she wasn’t as injured as they thought. He turned for a second to see the girl slumped over Emily’s shoulder - despite his certainty that he no longer cared - her legs were visibly broken, but other than that she seemed fine.
He turned back to Lee and his healing.
“Cast away all your fears,
Follow my voice, dear.”
“Will, you gotta move. We’re gonna get attacked if we stay here any longer,” Emily tried to persuade him, but he was too focused on trying to transfer his life force onto Lee. Why wasn’t it working?
Because he was already dead.
The girl tugged at his shirt, but he wriggled himself free and enveloped Lee - Lee’s body - in a tight embrace, so that she couldn’t separate them. He got covered in blood and grime even more but he didn’t care. He had to heal his brother. That much physical contact would improve his power enough, right? Now he could save him, right? Right?
But he couldn’t even stutter out the rest of the hymn, because with his chest above Lee’s, he could clearly feel that it wasn’t moving, and the reality, that he was fully aware of all this time and just tried to pretend that it was all just a dream, a nightmare, crashed right at him.
Lee was dead. There was no changing that.
He had to get out of here so that he wouldn’t end up the same way.
When Emily pulled him once more, he did not protest, just numbly followed after her to the med tent, when he should had stayed all this time. Maybe Lee would still be alive if he just stayed where he was supposed to be.
“Will! What happened to you!?” Pola screamed when she saw him. She rushed to him, but he maneuvered around her and went to the first injured person he saw - some Demeter girl Robin was giving nectar to - and began to heal.
“It’s not his,” Emily assured and sat Felicia on a nearby cot. Pola immediately got to helping her, examining her broken legs and thinking over what they could do with that. They couldn’t just set them back just like that - they were crushed. But surprisingly, there wasn’t much blood, so Pola clearly saw that the blood that covered half of Will’s body could not be hers.
“Then whose?” She asked, sending glances at Will and his mechanical working.
“I’m sorry,” was all Emily said before she ran back to join the fight.
“What?” Pola stuttered out and looked at Felicia for answers, who averted her gaze. “Whose blood is that? And what happened back-?” She didn’t finish, because a piercing scream - one too loud for even a child of Apollo to produce - that sent shivers down all of their spines, reached their ears.
The scream made the monsters retreat and soon the fight was over. People started coming to the tent, ones that were too injured to make it there when the battle was still raging, so Pola, Will and the rest of the medics had no time to ask any questions. Though the one Pola asked was soon answered when the rest of their siblings came and started to help where they could, but Lee wasn’t amongst them.
Will got through the whole medic session without speaking to anyone other than strictly necessary, just mechanically doing all the healing. He felt numb. He also felt numb when they burned the shrouds and Lee’s body turned to ashes, just like the dracaena he defeated before dying. He felt numb when they held that night’s singalong - he’s siblings promised to lift up everyone’s spirits but when most of them felt just as numb as Will it was near impossible.
He felt numb when he went to sleep and there was no lullaby.
Though, around midnight, Will got awoken by someone singing one, but the voice was rougher than Lee’s, and when he looked to the side, he saw someone much smaller than his dead brother sitting in his bed, covered by Lee’s blanket and hugging his pillow, which was muffling their words and cries. Even so, Will was still able to make out the ending of the last verse.
“With this song I shall ask
To grant a new start.”
He got up and joined Michael on Lee’s bed, half-expecting his brother to push him away and blame for Lee’s death - now that everyone was asleep and wouldn’t be able to hear them - but Michael didn’t say a word, just moved and made more room for Will. He even hugged him, Lee’s pillow between them.
They stayed like that for a long time, both unable to sleep, not saying a word, until all of a sudden Michael mumbled something, as if remembering a detail he forgot about and just now remembered. “It was exactly like he described it.”
“What?” Will asked, not understanding what he was talking about, but his brother just shook his head.
“Nothing, just thinking out loud,” he reassured, though it was clear it wasn’t nothing. But Will didn’t pry further, allowing his brother to keep it to himself.
He laid his head on Michael’s shoulder, which was no less weird than the last time he did so - maybe even more, because while he grew at least a little, his older brother still rained tiny - and close his eyes, sleep taking ahold of him once again.
The next day he awoke to Michael’s legs and right arm on him, but there was no one who was dragging him off the bed.
☀️☀️☀️
Will knew for some time that Michael had prophetic dreams. Dreams that showed him glimpses of future, which as he described, was always fuzzy and the dream itself had some kind of green tint. But those dreams were often helpful, when they would warn them of an attack or show the location where their enemies were hiding.
It was thanks to something Michael saw in a dream that they knew where the flying chariot was, which helped them all escape unharmed from a siege on an enemy camp in Philadelphia.
But his brother was always adamant that while his dreams were helpful at times, they were just as much a nuisance. He didn’t share details of dreams that would prophecy something terrible that couldn’t be avoided, but Will knew he had dreams like that too.
He was also adamant that what he saw was vague and uncertain so they shouldn’t rely on it. In the end, something he saw and thought it was going to be could always turn out to be something completely different.
Outside of their cabin and Chiron, people didn’t know of his gift, just like they didn’t know of Lee’s truth-detecting ability, and after he overheard that there was a spy at camp, he couldn’t be more grateful for it. His brother would be a clear target for anyone who knew.
And after all the years Michael had them, he had learnt to distinguish normal or even demigod dreams from the prophetic ones, so that he wouldn’t be expecting a spaghetti monster to attack them. And he thought he was good at it, at least that’s what he told Will when he asked him before their departure to New York if he had seen something worrying.
“I didn’t see much of Manhattan, I don’t just dream of everything that’s about to come, you know? But I saw Percy with me, so we’re good with his help,” he answered and packed some more ambrosia into each bag they were going to bring with them to the fight.
“Are you sure you didn’t see anything else?” He inquired, but Michael just passed him a bag to stuff and went back to adding ambrosia to the other bags
“Nothing to worry about, I didn’t see any of you getting injured, if that’s what you’re worried about,” he said at long last, passing another bag to Will. They had to prepare medical bags for the whole camp - one for each Apollo Kid and one or two for each cabin - so it was a lot of work.
“You sure about that? Wasn’t there even the smallest glimpse of something that would happen to any of us?”
“I’m sure, I-“ for some reason, he stopped like he wasn’t actually sure and just stared for a moment at the piece of ambrosia he was holding.
“What? You remembered something?”
Michael shook his head. “It’s nothing, don’t worry.”
And with that they went back to packing the bags, the topic left alone.
Though, as they drove to Manhattan and took their position at the Williamsburg Bridge and monsters started approaching in numbers steadily growing with each second, he couldn’t help but wonder, if maybe his brother didn’t want to worry him and withdrew the information of just how many monsters there would be.
There’s a fight on a bridge.
No Apollo Child was a melee fighter, the only one they had died during the last summer. And though they were all skilled archers, the best there were, topped only by some of their aunt’s Hunters, they were quickly overpowered by their enemy.
An archer is never on the frontline, even if they are swift, can react quickly and drew the string in a matter of seconds, their best position is always behind the main force. Even better if they can position themselves on a higher ground and hide behind something.
This fight was not made for them, they were support troops, fighting from the back, not on the front, and even if they were able to hold their ground for a surprisingly long amount of time, one by one, monsters of all kind began to find ways to get close to them all too soon. And when a spear went through Elvis’ gut, Will realised just how this battle would end for all of them.
He had no time to run to his brother’s side before all life left him, monsters were blocking the way, and at the time they managed to kill them all, it was too late. Elvis laid motionless on the ground, just like Lee did a year ago, the only difference being the fact that he had his head still intact and a gaping hole in his body.
Still, when they dragged his body off the battlefront so that it wouldn’t stand in the way of fighting, he couldn’t help but whisper a song, in hopes that maybe it would change something.
“‘Cause the sun’s shining bright,
Light shall soon find you.”
It didn’t change anything. Elvis was dead, just like Lee was.
Will heard his youngest sister take a shaky breath, one hand coming to her mouth. Kayla was just eleven and already in the nick of the biggest battle in centuries. This was no place for her. Apparently Michael realised that too and sent her and Austin at the back to make traps for when they had to inevitably retreat.
And when the new foe approached, towering over every other monster, he couldn’t be more grateful for that. Maybe his two youngest siblings would be able to run and live, despite this newest threat.
There’s the Minotaur.
He had never seen him before, only heard stories from the ancient times and of Percy Jackson’s arrival at camp, but he recognised him immediately. It could be no other monster.
They couldn’t fight him alone. There was no way they’d be able to accomplish that.
In a matter of seconds Michael was calling for reinforcements - he knew they couldn’t make it too. But whatever additional people Annabeth promised to send took far too long to come, and the onslaught of monsters was getting closer and closer with each second. They were no longer able to push the monsters back, they were barely avoiding attacks, and when a hellhound caught Robin and dragged him off to who knows where, it became clear that no matter how great those reinforcements were, they wouldn’t save them.
“Bringing a promise that
You’ll be okay soon.”
He sang not in hopes of saving his brother, but in hopes that his last moments would be as least painful as possible and he’d be able to join Lee and Elvis in the Underworld without trouble.
Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase arrived, the former going into a fighting mode the instant he spotted the Minotaur. Will’s siblings all went to aid him, crossing over the bridge, new hope settling in their bones. He followed as well, firing at any monster he could. For a moment, he dared to hope that it would all go well from that moment on. They would defeat the monsters, no one else would die.
That hope was shattered when Kronos arrived.
Percy told them to retreat, so finally they retreated. They should have done that much sooner, when Michael proposed it, because then they would not be still on the bridge when Kronos struck it. Luckily Will was on the back of their little party so he had the shortest way back and managed to get off the bridge just in time. Austin and Stella were at the back too, not really fighters and still pretty young so they also stayed behind. But Kayla got it into her head that she had to be with her siblings on the front.
The bridge shakes.
The little girl somehow avoided falling into the river below, Pola caught her just in time and supported them both on one of the suspension cables. Xavier and Amelia were not so lucky, they fell and Will was painfully aware that you had to be very lucky to survive it. Not impossible, but unlikely.
The bridge was weak so his siblings didn’t waste any more time getting off of it. Pola, Kayla and Elio - who also miraculously managed to survive the bridge-shake - joined their little party and Will was hit with just how small their group was. He counted - one, two, three… six, just six out of eleven from the beginning of the battle. He could feel a gul forming in his throat and-
Wait, six?
Counting the dead that he saw dying, it should be seven.
Michael.
He looked around, a sense of dread forming in his mind. He was expecting the worst, but then he spotted him perched on one of the suspension cables, high above the bridge, ready to shoot. Below him was Percy Jackson - Annabeth Chase was taken by one of the pegasi so she was already far away out of the danger zone - and it looked like he and Michael were talking, or perhaps it was just Michael talking, because Will could just about make out his voice.
He was alive. That was good. Seven then, not six.
Then everything happened so quickly he didn’t even register it at first.
Michael let go of the arrow and hit an approaching monster who was reading themselves to attack Percy, while he embedded his sword into the already shaky bridge, which made the water of the East River rise.
And then collapses by a big wave.
The bridge was completely destroyed, Kronos wasn’t able to cross it anymore, so he retreated and his remaining forces did the same. They could finally rest, they could treat their wounds and then decide the next course of action, Michael would no doubt discuss it with Percy and-
Michael wasn’t standing next to Percy.
The cable he was on previously was destroyed as well and Will’s brother was nowhere to be seen. Percy must had noticed his disappearance too because he was leaning over the railing while holding a bow - Michael’s bow, but the owner was clearly missing.
Will didn’t have to think long to guess what had happened.
I get swept in the process and fall down.
Six, there were just six of them.
Sure, maybe some survived that fall - Michael, Amelia or Xavier, but something told Will it wasn’t the case.
“We have to look at the shore, find who we can,” Pola took the lead. Technically Elio was older, but he was also older than Michael had been. The headcounsellourship just worked weirdly. Was Pola the head counsellour now? At least it wasn’t Will, usually it was the year-rounders who took the position, but both Pola and Elio had more beads than him and he was just thirteen. Though still, even at thirteen he was now in the older half of the cabin.
Percy ran to them and told them the exact same thing that Pola just did, but he also said that he wasn’t staying to help them - Will wondered why, if anything, with his water powers he would be much better than all of their remaining cabinmates combined. But then he got his answer.
“Annabeth urgently needs a healer,” he said and grabbed Will before he had time to object. They got onto a motorcycle - did Percy even know how to drive one? - and drove to the Plaza Hotel in no more than five minutes.
They hopped off and with some Hunter’s help got to the elevator. When they arrived at the top floors, Will felt something he never suspected he’d be feeling towards his fellow campers - jealousy and hatred.
There was Jake Mason and Silena Beauregard - both head counsellours - and others tending to each other’s wounds, resting, bathing, eating… but not fighting, or looking for lost friends, or actively dying. And Annabeth was surrounded by her siblings, from which, as far as he noticed, none were missing. Some rational part of his brain argued that they all just returned from various battles, that they were just getting a moment of respite, but another screamed at the unfairness of it all, that while his siblings were risking their lives and losing them all these demigods were just resting.
But he wasn’t there for them, he was there for Annabeth and she fought with them, he saw it, and he could actually help her - she was still alive. Unlike Lee had been last summer and unlike his siblings now. He was of more help here.
So he began to examine the wound and treat it as best as he could. Yet even though Annabeth was the most deserving of his healing out of all the gathered demigods - at least according to his grief-stuck mind - he still wished that it was one of his siblings instead. Anyone, he wasn’t picky. He never wished for them to be injured, but at least injured was better than dead.
“Cast away all your fears,
Follow my voice, dear.”
He sang with Elvis, Robin, Amelia, Xavier and Michael in mind, and then with Elio, Pola, Austin, Stella and Kayla - for whom he wished that nothing bad would befall them.
When he finished, he was exhausted but still managed to write down some notes and handed them to Albert - and Athena Boy - and told them all what to do with it. “Normally I would never steal-“
“I would,” Travis said and Will thought that he was going to murder him. Was he actually joking while they-
He composed himself and didn’t comment on it - he was one of the older and more responsible kids now. He shouldn’t be having petty outbursts. Besides, Travis probably just wanted to lighten up the mood, they all were tense. He didn’t just witness almost half of his siblings dying, he still had it in him to joke and frankly, Will envied him for it.
He fell into a trance, similar to the one from last year, after Lee died. He helped some people, collapsed from exhaustion, woke up an hour later or so and got back to healing. His siblings arrived a few hours later and Pola told him that they were able to spot Amelia and Xavier’s bodies, which got caught up in the debris, but were unable to retrieve them without risking getting injured or worse themselves. After that they all turned into camp’s medics - now that they didn’t need to protect the bridge they could distribute themselves amongst the fighting troops and heal on the frontlines.
But there weren't enough of them to distribute to every party, so in the end Pola decided that her and Elio would go whenever they were called out into the open and Will and the rest would stay at the Hotel, helping those who made it there. It wasn’t the best plan, there should be more battle medics, two people couldn’t manage that, but a single look into Pola’s eyes was all he needed to make him refrain from volunteering as a third medic. They lost enough, even if he offered the help she would simply not accept it, because she saw enough death already and would not allow more of her siblings to die, even if it meant depriving other campers of additional frontline medics. It was a selfish thing to do, but one Will understood all too well.
“I wish for you four to not have to go fighting anymore and to make it to the end of this hell,” she hugged each one of them and kissed their foreheads.
“Promise you’ll do your best to be safe too,” Austin begged, but she didn’t answer him, just sadly smiled and hugged him tighter. She knew better than to give out promises like that. Soon, she and Elio grabbed new medic bags and ran to whichever place needed them.
Last year the line was drawn at thirteen and only those above that age were out risking their lives. This year they didn’t have a choice and even Kayla had to actively join the battle. But still, when the opportunity came, Pola drew her own line, once again at thirteen, making her youngest siblings only stationary healers. Though this year she didn’t stay with them.
And it was what cost her her life.
In the end only half of Pola’s wish came true. All four of them had to join the fight because both her and Elio died at some point, but all four of them made it to the end of this hell.
When they won, the campers cheered, happy that their efforts had finally paid off. It was even more joyful after Percy made the gods finally acknowledge all of them. People were clapping their hands, hugging each other, screaming at the top of their lungs in joy. But Will didn’t join them.
Happy now?
No, he wasn’t. They won but he didn’t feel happy even in the slightest. For him it was a bitter victory, they had to pay too much for it.
Various gods made a beeline for their children, showing them off and bumping their own egos. In all honesty, Will expected their father to do so too, presenting them as heroes of the Williamsburg Bridge or something equally trivial - it’d be in character for him - but to his surprise, Apollo did none of that.
He just joined them and allowed them to hug him and cry their eyes out after the horrors ended. Will knew that they had yet to heal everyone, their fight was far from over, but at least there’d be no more new people getting injured. But for that moment, just for a moment, he wanted to pretend that it was all over.
“I’m sorry,” their father said and Will wanted to shout in his face that he should be sorry for all that had happened to them and why didn’t he do anything, but decided against it. It was already more than he ever expected any god to do after their children’s death. “I’m so sorry.”
Their little outing with their dad ended quickly - Apollo probably had to maintain his image in front of the other gods, which condolences to his own children would ruin. And he had an Oracle to appoint. He was a busy god.
Though he did visit them in their dreams and for once didn’t recite any bad haikus, just silently kept them company and prevented any nightmares from coming. It was crucial for them to maintain a somewhat working mind, especially during the first days after battle when they still had to run around healing day and night with almost no time to sleep. The fact that the little rest they managed to get wasn’t plagued by anything was truly their salvation.
Those first few days Will spent almost entirely in the infirmary, only going out for the funerals (they still didn’t find Michael, but they retrieved Amelia and Xavier and found some body parts that probably were Robin’s). He returned to the too-empty cabin only after the last patient was cleared.
He didn’t sleep in his bed the first night he finally slept in Cabin Seven. Instead he positioned himself on Lee’s old bed, took Michael’s blanket and pillow, rested his head on the wall behind him, and slept hugging it like it was his lifeline. All of his siblings joined him there, Kayla on his lap also hugging the pillow and Austin and Stella on each side of him, able to comfortably lay their heads on him, because he was bigger than them - their big brother now, the oldest they had.
Will sang a lullaby for them that night, even if he was interrupted by either his or one of his siblings cries every other second.
“With this song I shall ask
To grant a new start.”
He awoke with Austin’s right arm and Stella’s legs on him, and Kayla dragging him off the bed.
☀️☀️☀️
It took Will much longer than it should to finally connect the dots. Only when Nico looked up at him and said those three words he would be so desperate to say in his last moments did he finally realise what that nightmare was.
I love you.
But he didn’t say anything about it, at least at that moment, time for that would come later, and just kissed the groom.