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July 2014
“Are we sure that just the two of us are enough to guard the flag?”
Lando glances up from where he’s crouched, pausing his intense scrutiny of a tiny crab scuttling away on the rocky beach. He straightens up, gazing off into the distance, toward the thin canopy of trees leading to the woods. Lando shrugs, turning to Oscar.
“The Ares kids have the boundary between the woods and the beach covered. We’re fine,” Lando reassures.
Oscar shifts uncomfortably from where he’s stationed near the water, the flag pole skewered into the sandy ground just behind him. He can hear the distant clamor of campers battling it out and the clash of their celestial bronze armor and weapons.
“I just think that putting me and the flag by the water a week after I was claimed as a son of Poseidon is a little obvious,” Oscar points out, cringing as he hears an audible crash from beyond the trees.
“Which is why Max thought that the Athena kids would think that too and then think that you and the flag are somewhere else. They wouldn’t consider the straightforward answer just like that. Just simple mind games,” Lando says, digging around in his pockets. He pulls out a piece of ambrosia a moment later and breaks it in two, offering half of it to Oscar.
“Relax. Max should be taking the other team’s flag by now.”
Oscar eyes the food for a moment but takes it eventually. He nibbles on it pensively, watching the water lap gently onto the shore.
Oscar thinks back to the past month, starting from the day he arrived at camp.
It’s a lot for someone who’s barely thirteen. First, he’s parted from his mother and sisters, not even fully allowed to know why. Then he gets taken here, some camp that’s supposedly magical, filled with people that are half gods and then he’s told that he’s half god himself. And his best friend for the past year? He’s half goat and twice Oscar’s age, sworn to protect Oscar from the horrors that are brought about by being what he is. A demigod, as Oscar soon learned.
Strangely enough, out of all this, Oscar’s still mostly peeved that Fred is twenty-eight and didn’t say a thing until prompted by Chiron.
The water splashes against Oscar’s sneakers but the patch of water on the canvas material disappears in an instant. Oscar sighs, gazing at the water, wondering if his father is somehow around.
“You ever talk to your dad? Or, I don’t know, see him? In your dreams or otherwise?” Oscar asks, turning to Lando.
Lando pauses mid-chew and meets Oscar’s eyes. He clears his throat, a hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck. There’s a hesitance in the way Lando opens his mouth and closes it again a moment later.
“Yes. I mean, I used to. Sometimes. I still do. Kind of.” Lando stutters through his words, laughing nervously.
Oscar quirks an eyebrow. “So…do you?”
Lando sighs, perching himself on top of some boulders. Oscar checks to see that no one’s coming their way and follows, pressing his arm against Lando’s. They sit together like that for a while, watching the water, the red of their team flag fluttering gently in the wind.
Oscar risks a peek at Lando but the latter is too busy contemplating, eyes darting anywhere and everywhere. He doesn’t notice as Oscar follows the curve of his sharp nose, interrupted only by the scar he got after a nasty sparring session with Max. The slight parting of his lips, steady breaths escaping through, uncharacteristically quiet as Lando continues to find the right words.
“It used to be better when I was younger,” Lando admits. “He used to visit me and my mum a lot back home. She would always wait up for him and he’d leave gifts for me. Small stuff at first, then a small dagger on my tenth birthday. A chest of drachmas. Then the shoes.”
Oscar smiles as he remembers the pair of flashy sneakers in Lando’s cabin, red and perpetually shiny. Winged, as Oscar found out a few seconds after putting them on.
“I didn’t understand all of it then. I just thought he came to visit because he wanted to make up for lost time. Mum always said he was from here so he couldn’t see us in the U.K. The day I got my shoes was the day that the very first monster came and I had to go.”
Oscar waits patiently as Lando pauses, picking at his fingernails now.
“When I got here, everything just sort of…stopped. Not completely, just enough that I started to think I’d done something wrong,” Lando recounts, eyebrows pulling together.
“He claimed me pretty much immediately after I arrived and then started visiting me in my dreams a few times. And then once, here. On this beach,” Lando continues, gesturing vaguely around them.
“He told me he’s looking after mum while I’m away but it’s best if I stayed here year-round because it would break her if I had to keep leaving. And I believed him. I really thought he had my and my mum’s best interests in mind. Until I came back last year to find her…she was…”
Lando pauses, shaking his head as if warding off a bad memory.
Oscar claps Lando on the back reassuringly. “You don’t have to tell me that again. Once was enough.”
Lando sniffles as his eyes turn misty. “I didn’t tell you the whole truth, though.”
“What?” Oscar asks, peering at Lando’s face.
Lando swallows, taking a few deep breaths. Oscar doesn’t press, letting Lando collect his thoughts.
“I told you that she was depressed when I came back,” Lando says. “It was more than that. It was bad, Osc. She was…she wasn’t there. Not anymore.”
They were silent again for minutes, the game forgotten, the flag hanging forlornly by the water.
“My mum asked if my first day at school was alright. I had to remind her I was at camp, not school.” Lando balls his fists on his lap.
“There were bags upon bags of…stroopwafels all over the house,” Lando says with a mirthless laugh. “They were my favorite. Some had expiration dates from the year I left.”
Oscar’s not sure how to respond to that, so he doesn’t. But he sure knows how he feels.
The words are out of Oscar’s mouth before he has a chance to stop them. “I would have wanted a few years of that with my dad instead of total silence.”
Lando snorts and Oscar expects one of his biting remarks but Lando just bows his head.
“Your father gave you more power than any other demigod would know how to wield.” Lando’s voice is quiet, dejected. He turns to Oscar, expression unreadable.
Lando opens his mouth again but is cut off by a triumphant yell from above. Their team is bounding down toward the beach, the other team’s flag flying above Max’s head as he waves it. Lando and Oscar leap off their seats, conversation momentarily forgotten as they’re surrounded, hands clapping their backs and cheers ringing in their ears.
They lock eyes for a moment and smile.
June 2015
“He really said that to you?”
Oscar smiles as Lando bumps his shoulder against his, pressing him for answers. Oscar looks out into the water, glittering in the non-time sun, remembering the conversation he had with his father right on this very shore after the sing-along last night.
‘You’ve been doing well. Maybe a quest is on the horizon for you.’
“Yeah. It was weird at first. He never really spoke to me that way. It’s always questions and comments about my training here. If I’ve been spending my time in the water,” Oscar says, letting his shoulders sag as he relaxes beside Lando.
“You’d think he’d know what you’ve been doing in the water considering he’s the god of the sea,” Lando quips, nudging Oscar again. He leans against the younger’s steady frame, their arms brushing, skin turned warm by the muggy summer air.
“You would think that, if you didn’t know jack shit about the gods,” Oscar points out, looking straight at Lando. They erupt into giggles a moment later.
The waves are gentle today, barely splashing against the shore. Oscar stares at the receding froth, longer and longer, until he realizes the water has pushed back several dozen meters than normal. Oscar blinks and the water rushes back towards them as if let go by some invisible force.
“Hey, you are getting better,” Lando observes with a chuckle, yelping a second later as the water splashes against his shoes.
“I guess it really pays to have a little parental guidance,” Lando adds, muttering under his breath as he fiddles with his laces, his shoes thoroughly soaked.
Oscar looks worriedly at Lando and Lando stares back, eyebrows raised. “Can’t really get better at your godly powers if your godly parent disappears on you, right?”
Oscar tries to find the right words to say but Lando waves a dismissive hand in Oscar’s direction as if fending off any follow-up concerns. He slips his shoes and socks off, stretching his legs out and letting the water wash over them.
“How’s your mum?”
Oscar doesn’t look at Lando now, but he hears the breath Lando takes. He hasn’t been back to his mother’s place since that time a couple of years ago, but he has made a few Iris messages just to see how she’s doing.
And that’s all he does. Lando sees her but she never sees him. Not him in the present day, at least. Lando calls out to her every time, begging for her to turn around and look at him. But all she tells him is to wait.
‘Let me just add honey to your stroopwafels, dear. I’ll be there in a second.’
So time and time again, he ends the message, his hope diminishing and the towers of plates with his favorite snack growing and growing around his mother’s frail frame.
Lando never lets Oscar join him for any of the calls and Oscar doesn’t insist on it, either. He just lets Lando rant, offering what little advice he can.
“Let’s swim,” Oscar declares, jumping to his feet with an enthusiasm that surprises even him.
Lando cranes his neck to look up at him, squinting as the sunlight hits his bright green eyes. Oscar offers his hand, fingers twitching slightly as he bars himself from brushing some of Lando’s curls away from his forehead.
Lando grasps Oscar’s hand, beaming.
August 2015
“Have you been keeping an eye out on mum?”
Oscar toes a pebble by his feet, avoiding his father’s eyes. Averting your gaze in front of a god is supposed to be a difficult thing to do as their mere presence seems to demand attention, an automatic instinct for the mortals around them to look up and revere them.
But Oscar’s not a mortal, but this is his father. So he gingerly glances up, stormy blue eyes meeting his own dark brown.
Poseidon always pointed that out. How Oscar had his mother’s eyes and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
“I have,” Poseidon affirms. “She’s well. Your stepfather is, too. A better match than the last one.”
Oscar nods, lowering his eyes once again. He still doesn’t know what to make of these visits. It’s not like he enjoys them very much, though knowing how the Olympians are, this is leagues better than what the other kids have going on for them.
Better than Lando’s situation, that’s for sure.
“I have something for you,” Poseidon says. “It’s in your cabin for when you return.”
Oscar cocks his head to the side, a questioning look on his face.
“You are adept with the sword, but it would please me if you would wield a weapon identical to mine.”
Poseidon holds his hand out with a flourish and streams of water materialize in his grasp, solidifying into a trident. He offers it to Oscar, nodding in encouragement. Oscar reaches out, fingers hesitantly wrapping around the shaft. A thrum goes through him and his surroundings, making him gasp. He feels the power coursing through his father’s trident, unyielding and unlimited.
Oscar lets go and takes a step back, his hand tingling.
“Th-thanks,” Oscar mumbles, bowing in gratitude. “Sir. Thank you, sir.”
“You are my only living demigod child, after all,” Poseidon reminds, reaching over to grasp Oscar’s shoulder. “You should be provided with all the spoils enjoyed by every son of mine.”
“Oh! I–um, Oscar– oh my gods !”
Oscar turns to see Lando standing by the boulders that lead to the beach, eyes wide and mouth agape as he takes in the scene in front of him. A blush creeps up Oscar’s cheeks as he nervously turns to his father. Poseidon seems unfazed, studying Lando with a calculating eye.
“Sir, um, dad , this is Lando,” Oscar begins, jerking a clumsy hand in Lando’s direction.
“I’m so sorry for interrupting, I can leave!” Lando nearly stumbles over his words as he whips around, ready to bolt.
“No need,” Poseidon cuts in, voice friendly yet firm. “I must leave, anyway.”
Lando turns back, eyes darting between Oscar and his father. A tight smile makes its way to Lando’s lips.
“An honor to meet you, er, my lord,” Lando begins unsurely.
Poseidon glances at Oscar with a knowing smile before directing it at Lando. “The pleasure is mine, Lando.”
Oscar sees Lando open his mouth in confusion, a question ready to tumble out of his mouth, but Poseidon holds a hand up.
“You look a lot like your father,” Poseidon says, his grin turning apologetic.
Poseidon gives a firm nod toward Oscar. “I’ll see you soon.”
The god of the sea dissipates into water, flowing down onto the beach, the waves washing him away. Oscar stares out into the horizon, the setting sun bathing everything orange.
“Hey.”
Oscar blinks, remembering Lando. His expression seems troubled and Oscar feels a slight pinch in his chest.
“Sorry about my dad,” Oscar begins, walking over to Lando.
Lando shakes his head, plastering on his signature smile. “Nah, sorry for barging in like that.”
Oscar comes to a stop in front of Lando, a million apologies threatening to spill over. Leave it to an Olympian to stir up family drama. Lando looks up at Oscar as he’s nearly a foot shorter, but Oscar doesn’t mind. He likes it when he can look straight down at those green eyes.
“Come on,” Oscar invites, grasping Lando’s wrist.
“I have something waiting for me in my cabin and I want you to be the first one to see it.”
July 2016
“Did they really spike the nectar?”
Lando’s voice is loud against the quiet waves, Oscar giggling from where he hangs off by his side. They both stumble onto the sand, barely catching each other before they’re sprawled on the ground, laughing and untangling their limbs from each other’s. The moonlight barely illuminates their surroundings but they barely care.
“If their dad knew,” Oscar slurs through his words, pausing to hiccup. “The Dionysus kids would be shipped off straight to Hades.”
Lando cackles at that, fumbling around in the near darkness to smack Oscar in the arm.
“Mr. D can’t drink a lick of wine but his kids are out here getting everyone drunk,” Lando says through inebriated giggles. It’s not Oscar’s fault that his laugh is contagious, his own shoulders shaking as he joins in, gleeful despite his head swimming. Ha. Pun definitely not intended.
There are picnic blankets still strewn across the sand, remnants of where everyone sat to watch the fireworks go off a few hours ago. Oscar and Lando had already been here earlier in the night, sans the copious amounts of alcoholic nectar, but as the after-party in the Aphrodite cabin grew to a crescendo, they thought it better to seek out the peace and quiet of the now-empty beach.
“Come here,” Lando urges, pulling Oscar onto a hideous floral picnic blanket, their sides squished together as they (try to) both sit on it. It was obviously too small for both of them but Oscar didn’t mind. Not when he gets to encroach on Lando’s body heat like this.
Lando sighs contentedly, leaning his head down on Oscar’s shoulder. Oscar freezes, senses momentarily clearing up as he feels Lando’s gentle breath against the skin of his arm.
“I really like this,” Lando whispers, snuggling his face against the fabric of Oscar’s t-shirt. “The party was too loud. And one of the Aphrodite girls tried to flirt with me.”
Oscar laughs at that, remembering all too well as Lando panicked when a hazel-eyed camper squeezed in beside Lando on one of the Aphrodite cabins’ love seats, eyelashes fluttering and perfectly manicured nails lightly grazing his arm.
Lando spilled his drink all over her (accidentally, he swears) and bolted out of his seat, grabbing Oscar and darting out of the door in under ten seconds. It pays to have the god of athletes as your father.
“And I get to be here with you. Alone,” Lando adds.
Oscar turns but gets a face full of Lando’s wild curls instead. He chuckles quietly, reaching up to wrap an arm around Lando’s shoulders.
“We’re not completely alone. I think my dad’s chaperoning,” Oscar jokes, glancing at the dark water in front of them. Lando giggles at this.
“Well, my dad’s a dick,” Lando says petulantly. “I could desecrate a statue of him right now and I bet he wouldn’t even consider me important enough to smite.”
Oscar pulls away and grabs Lando’s shoulders, shaking him gently. Lando just smiles dopily at him, eyes barely staying open.
“Don’t say that. You of all people should know not to tempt the gods that way,” Oscar whispers, worried lines appearing between his eyebrows.
Lando snorts. “They don’t need tempting to be shitty parents. Except for your dad. He loves you.”
Oscar studies Lando’s face, as much of it that’s visible in the moonlight, anyway. Lando cracks his eyes open a little wider, zeroing in on Oscar’s mouth.
“I love you,” Lando says, voice quiet.
Oscar swallows, all the air knocked out of his system. He searches in Lando’s eyes, a sign of deception, a joke, a prank, anything that indicates that this is all a big stupid misunderstanding and that the urge to kiss Lando is another big stupid mistake.
But Lando beats him to it, easing his lips against Oscar’s, their smiles instantaneous.
Oscar likes to think that a second wave of fireworks went off that very moment.
April 2017
Oscar blows out the candles on his blue birthday cake, yelping as Lando brushes blue frosting on his nose.
“You really shouldn’t have,” Oscar muses, wiping off the sugary confectionary and licking it off his fingers.
Lando snickers, taking the cake from Oscar and setting it aside. He turns back to Oscar, leaning in to kiss him squarely on the mouth. Oscar smiles into the kiss, cradling one side of Lando’s face.
“I mean it,” Oscar says between pecks. “The camp is in chaos. People are missing and–”
Lando holds Oscar in place, pressing harder against his lips, tongue poking out momentarily to swipe at Oscar’s bottom lip, which is Lando speak for he means business.
They pull away after a while, out of breath and breathing heavily.
“Then let’s enjoy this at least,” Lando says, nudging Oscar’s nose with his own.
It’s Oscar who kisses Lando this time.
June 2017
“It was you.”
Oscar feels his chest caving in as he looks at Lando. the waves angry and crashing hard against the shore. There’s distant thunder and the clouds are beginning to roll in.
The master bolt crackles in Lando’s hand.
“How could you–”
“Join us,” Lando cuts through Oscar’s trembling voice.
“Join me.”
Oscar shakes his head, tears springing in his eyes.
“I trusted you. I love you, Lando. All that time together and this is what you’ve been doing behind my back? All that late-night training with the Ares kids? You’ve been raising an army for a Titan that wants to wipe away our parents?”
Oscar is dizzy, confused, furious. His breathing comes heavy, his entire world crumbling beneath him.
His entire world is standing in front of him, actively betraying him.
“You think Poseidon is going to care about you forever? The moment he decides you’re not important anymore, he’ll throw you away the same way they all do,” Lando says, voice terrifyingly steady. He takes sure, measured steps toward Oscar.
“This isn’t the way to go about it, Lando,” Oscar pleads.
Lando shakes his head, reaching up to hold one side of Oscar’s face. It takes what seems to be all of Oscar’s might for him to push Lando’s arm away, angry tears spilling down his face.
“What other way is there?” Lando asks, his eyes hardening. “They won’t listen unless we make them listen.”
Oscar stands his ground. “This isn’t you.”
They stare at each other for a long time, the same way they have for the past year. With love. With respect. With understanding. But Oscar can see that it’s tainted with something now, something he can’t save Lando from.
“Don’t do this, Lando. You can still be happy here. We can still be happy here.”
He can still try. Oscar can still get Lando back.
“I know where you’re coming from–”
“Do you?” Lando snarls, brandishing the bolt in Oscar’s direction.
“Time and time again I watched you receive the love that I knew I deserved. That we all deserved.” Lando’s eyes are frantic, faintly glowing now that Oscar sees it up close.
“He may have ignored you for the first thirteen years of your life but your father made up for his mistakes. My sorry excuse of a dad drove my mother to insanity and ignored me after showing me the bare minimum.”
Oscar heaves a sigh. He gets it. He should get it. All that suffering all because he was born the way he is, ignored for most of his life, his mother carrying the brunt of the responsibility left on her by his father. Oscar hated Poseidon, hates him still to this day, and no amount of gifts or glory would undo that easily. But he would never start a war to prove a point. This is still his family and Oscar loves his family.
“He still loves you. I’m sure he does,” Oscar whispers, holding his hands out. He knows it’s futile. This is something else talking, feeding off Lando’s resentment.
“I don’t need his love! I don’t want it!” Lando bellows. The bolt crackles in his hand again, connecting to the ones in the sky.
Oscar cowers at the claps of thunder that follow, trembling as he watches the Master Bolt, the very power Zeus yields, come alive in Lando’s hand. He’s not supposed to be able to do that, to withstand the sheer strength of that very weapon.
But this isn’t Lando.
“I can’t stay,” Lando says, softer this time, but just as cold. “I’ve made my choice. I’ve already betrayed all of you.”
Lando raises the bolt and a loud crash rattles Oscar’s ears as he’s thrown back in a flurry of light and sparks. He blinks the white out of his eyes a minute later and sees the beach completely empty, save for the forlorn crashing of the waves.
It starts to rain a second later.
August 2018
Oscar feels next to nothing now.
He’s watched dozens of campers die, friends and people who looked up to him, martyred for a cause he rallied them to. Lifeless on the streets of Manhattan from a war that Oscar couldn’t stop. He should be enraged, distraught, hopeless. But he barely registers the dull throb in his chest.
All their faces. Bloodied. Burned. Crushed.
Their screams, their cries for help, their final goodbyes.
Oscar carries all of these with him as he flies over Camp Half-Blood, guiding his pegasus down by the cabins. He dismounts as he nears the ground, giving Silvia a reassuring pat before he leaves.
Camp is mostly empty, the youngest of the campers shut in their respective cabins and looked over by the earth nymphs. They peek out the windows now as Oscar walks through the expanse of the quiet land, sword in hand, and heading straight for Fireworks Beach.
This is where it has to end. This is where Oscar needs it to end.
He trudges on past the place where meals were taken over rambunctious conversations just last week. The mess hall will never be filled with campers the way it was before. It would stay half-empty for the foreseeable future, offerings being burnt in honor of the fallen.
Too many. Too many fallen.
Oscar soldiers on and on, eventually coming onto the path leading toward the beach.
He had seen Lando on the bridge. Eyes glowing fully gold, holding Kronos’ scythe. The king of the Titans wielded it through him. Cutting down warriors from Oscar’s side. Kids from camp. Kids his age. His friends. Lando’s siblings.
Oscar feels the rage now, his breath shaky as he recounts Lando callously butchering his own family. Children of his father. His father who begged Oscar to spare Lando.
Hermes met him in the sky just minutes before as Oscar neared camp.
‘He’s just a boy. He has a right to be angry.’
Oscar emerges onto the beach, spotting a figure standing by the water, their back turned to him.
‘And you’re just his father. His godly father, who should have been there for him. For his mum. Can’t you see? This is your doing.’
Oscar’s heart thuds against his chest as the figure faces him.
Lando looks like himself again. His eyes are back to green, his orange camp shirt wrinkled like it always had been. He looks nervous, almost scared as he watches Oscar approach.
Oscar doesn’t hide the pain, the contempt, the regret. He scowls at Lando, lips curling into a particularly nasty snarl. This is the boy that caused Oscar and so many others unimaginable pain. The person who let Kronos unleash the kind of wrath the world hasn’t seen in millennia.
This is the friend that Oscar came to trust. To confide in. To fall in love with.
“Lando…,” Oscar whispers, hoping, praying that this was all a dream and this version of him, the one untouched by evil, is the real one. The one that Oscar can go back to and spend hours upon hours on this very beach with.
The one that won’t betray Oscar.
Lando blinks and the golden light reappears in his eyes. His clothes melt away, replaced with the white chiton he had on earlier when he was channeling Kronos.
“Lando, please, I know you’re in there,” Oscar pleads again, stepping closer. “It’s me. It’s Oscar.”
Lando raises a hand and Oscar’s heart sinks when he sees the scythe materialize in his grasp.
Oscar accepts, without even fully understanding, that he is going to die. He would do it. If it meant saving Lando.
“I called your name earlier on the bridge. I saw you. Underneath all this, I know you’re still the same guy I met here all those years ago.”
Oscar steps to the side, closer to the water. Lando follows, crowding closer, the scythe raised squarely towards Oscar’s chest.
“You were my friend. My best friend,” Oscar continues, firmer this time. He raises his sword, the tip barely meeting the scythe’s.
“You were…my greatest love. And my greatest loss.”
Lando’s shoulders sag, the golden wash in his eyes flickering for a moment. A rush of triumph floods Oscar’s chest but is nearly extinguished when he hears Lando grunt. But it wasn’t even Lando. The voice sounds like it came from nowhere and everywhere.
“ Lando is gone, ” says the voice.
Oscar’s eyes widen when he watches Lando’s mouth stay unmoving.
The voice is in his head.
“No,” Oscar demands. “He’s here. And I will get him back, even if it kills me.”
The voice laughs, deep, guttural, primal. It strikes a fear in Oscar’s chest, unlike any kind he’s felt before. He stumbles, hands trembling. He almost drops his sword but manages to right himself as Lando, or what used to be him, backs him up against a cluster of boulders.
“I’m sure you will. But what if it kills him ?”
Lando’s body starts to glow, unnaturally so, and Oscar is seized by panic as he sees Lando’s skin start to bubble.
“NO! ”
Oscar musters all his will, all the power his father imparted to him, all the anger and the pain and the suffering, screaming as he heaves a giant wave out of the water, sending it cascading down on both him and Lando.
Oscar is blindsided for a moment, even by his own doing. His vision clears eventually and he regains control of the water that surrounds him. He’s managed to pull himself far out into the water, away from the beach. Oscar looks around the murky darkness and sees Lando’s body, limp and sinking deeper. He reaches out, willing the current to bring Lando to him, and it does.
Oscar lets out another burst of power and propels them back onto the shore, now littered with seaweed and driftwood.
Lando is motionless, literally motionless as Oscar notices the stillness of his chest.
“Come on,” Oscar mutters, guiding the water out of Lando’s system. He lays a hand on his exposed chest, the chiton half undone. Lando is warm to the touch, almost hot, too hot to be considered normal.
Oscar practically yanks the water out of Lando’s lungs, flinching as the latter begins to hack and cough. On instinct, Oscar draws his sword, poised and ready to strike.
Lando meets his eyes and it’s green. Clear. Terrified.
“Please.” Lando’s voice is hoarse, as if unused for a long time. He grabs Oscar’s wrist, bringing the blade of his sword to his own neck.
“Kill me before he does.”
Oscar’s eyes widen, a thousand emotions running through him as he looks into the eyes of the person he loves. It’s really him. After what felt like an eternity, this is Lando. His Lando.
“Kill me!” Lando demands, yanking the sword closer. Oscar resists, tears streaming down his fear-stricken face.
“You know you have to,” Lando reasons, eyes frantic as he begs. “Oscar, please .”
“L-Lan…”
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I did this to you,” Lando says in a rush, nails digging into Oscar’s skin. “I’m sorry that I hurt so many, that I killed so many.”
Lando’s sobbing. He wails, bringing out a sound that fills Oscar with despair.
He knows pain, but he will never know the one that Lando felt. The one that Lando had to endure.
“Tell my dad, too. That I’m sorry,” Lando adds quietly. Oscar’s grip on his sword loosens.
Lando smiles and Oscar is slammed with a vision of that very same smile from over a year before. A smile that was untouched by hatred. A smile that was only meant for Oscar.
“My mum. She has to know…she has to know I tried.”
Oscar lets go of his sword, letting it fall into Lando’s hold instead.
“Maybe in another life, Oscar.”
It’s swift, done in one stroke.
Lando’s body crumples, the blade falling out of his hand. The ground rumbles but Oscar barely notices.
All he sees is red seeping into the sand.
November 2025
Oscar looks out the large window of the Big House, gaze sweeping across camp.
There are more now. Thanks to all the efforts from demigods like him over the years. Hidden ones with weaker powers, going undetected by monsters over the years. Foreign ones who had nowhere to go. Abandoned ones, left unwanted, even by their mortal parent.
They were brought here so that no one would ever have to experience what so many experienced before.
“Oscar.”
Chiron sidles up next to Oscar, a warm smile on his face.
“Oh, how much you’ve grown. We thought we fully lost you to the Romans for some time,” Chiron says with a lighthearted laugh.
Oscar smiles, returning his gaze to the scenes outside. A young girl, no more than seven, brandishes a wooden toy caduceus, carried on the shoulders of an older camper, similar to her in looks. Her older brother, perhaps.
Both with brown, curly hair. Green eyes.
“You still think about him,” Chiron says gently. Oscar fixes his gaze on the strawberry fields in the distance.
“He’s the reason I came back. So I can tell all of them that there is a future to being a demigod.” Oscar turns to Chiron, a renewed resolve bubbling inside him.
“That they can have a future to honor those who didn’t.”
Chiron nods. He steps back, hooves thudding against the wooden floor.
“Lead the way.”