Work Text:
You had once believed that you'd enjoy the silence, that you'd enjoy the return to peace you had before coming to this damned camp.
But now that it was here? All you felt was bitterness.
Once, Cabin 7 was filled with life. The sound of music, singing, and the usual chaos your siblings were always stirring up filled the cabin.
Now it was just quiet...silent...lifeless.
It wasn't meant to be lifeless. It was meant to be alive, bright, just like the sun.
But it had been drained out. Had died just like everyone else did.
You had never been the closest with the rest of your siblings, half-siblings. Always keeping an eye on your brother and sister.
They were all you had.
And yet, as you glance around at the empty beds, at the abandoned and left out instruments that would forever remain untouched.
All because of a selfish, foolish boy.
The Battle of Manhattan has taken everything from you and your siblings.
No.
That wasn't quite right.
The gods have taken everything from them. Your Father amongst them.
From the very beginning, your lives had been filled with pain. All because of what you were, what you were born as.
The memories of your childhood were vague and clouded.
All you remember is that it was always your mother there for you.
And then Verso.
And finally, Alicia.
Never your Father.
Your lives had never been happy. Your mother had been left broken from your father's use and manipulation of her.
She was cruel. She was empty toward them...she was broken.
Your mother dies by a monster's hand, and you are taken to refuge.
To Camp half-blood. And that's where everything came clean.
You were Demi-gods. Immediately claimed by Apollo and taken to Camp 7.
Immediately, you were outcasts.
Never had a god decided to have multiple children with the same mortal. And that, of course, unnerved a lot of kids.
You were stronger than your other siblings;
You could sometimes see glimpses of the future and could manipulate light to your will
Alicia was an expert archer and could heal. She was a great singer.
And Verso was an incredible musician...and could control both light and shadow.
But the one thing you shared: Chroma manipulation. The ability to create things from paint. Or even light.
Kids avoided you. Even your own siblings.
It hurt. Though you don't ever admit that out loud.
All you needed was each other. Nobody else mattered.
Time passes, and eventually, they get used to their lives as Demigods.
Others die, others live. Sometimes you attend your own siblings' funerals.
But leave when it's all over.
You survive longer than most. All three of you do.
It baffles the other campers, but you paid them no mind.
The three of you had long since learned to survive. Sometimes the monsters weren't the ones who hunted them but humanity itself.
You're close, but slowly, a crack begins to form.
The three of you didn't necessarily like your father. You had never met him. Only heard of him and nothing else.
You were indifferent to him.
Alicia longed to meet him at least once, even when other kids told her not to get her hopes up. Yourself included.
But with Verso it was... different.
His ability to manipulate shadows immediately branded him as the odd one out
Though he was kinder than you and had eventually formed his own circle of friends.
-You found it hilarious how many kids were afraid of you-
He was always looked at weirdly by the rest because of his odd abilities.
He never minded...until he went on a quest and returned changed.
Your brother had looked shaken, and no amount of comfort from both you and Alicia was enough to relax him.
He was never the same.
And he never told you anything about it.
-Not until it was too late-
After that, there was clear resentment toward your father.
And soon enough, he distanced himself from both you and Alicia. From everyone.
He was like a walking, talking Ghost.
The wall between you was suffocating. And you didn't know how to fix it.
You were always there to fix things...but this was different.
You reach adulthood, and Alicia is a young teenager.
Verso continues to change and change.
He's quieter. Angrier.
Traits that represented you were now his labels to carry.
Alicia came to you more instead of Verso, she shared a bed with you now, and she told you her worries
"He's not the same."
"He's avoiding Lune now. He would never do that."
"...he yelled at me"
"I'm scared of him, Clea. It's not supposed to be like that".
You listened, but you didn't know how to help.
Instead, you held her close, let her cry, and just like when Alicia was younger, took the role of an almost maternal figure for her.
If it wasn't enough. But it was all you could do for her.
And then a boy, Percy Jackson, arrives at camp, and it all goes to Tartarus.
Suddenly, Luke Castellan, a son of Hermes, and Verso take an unsettling obsession with the boy.
You keep an eye out from the shadows and make sure nothing happens.
But of course. It's not enough.
Nothing you do is ever enough to prevent tragedies from happening.
Not even your so-called gift to see the future. Even if they were just small glimpses.
Luke is revealed to be the traitor...and so is Verso.
It left you speechless.
Neither you nor Alicia gets much sleep that night. Just lay beside each other and stared at the ceiling.
Lune was a wreck. Gustave was catatonic, and Sciel all but engulfed you in her arms.
You want answers.
So you stick close to the Poseidon boy. You're dragged into his mess and quests.
Alicia joins: far too stubborn to let this be.
Percy was clearly an object of obsession to both Luke and Verso.
Maybe it was guilt that fueled them.
Guilt for not being there for Verso.
They couldn't be there for Verso, but they could be there for both Percy and Annabeth.
The more you learn, the more you despise Luke Castellan.
His rebellion toward the gods.
His alliance with Kronos.
His gaining of allies with Demi-gods from the camp.
It was disgusting.
You were never one to like the gods.
To them, you were just fools. Instruments you could use and then discard when you are of no use.
Some had their favorites. But not in the way a parent would look at their child, but in the way a human would look at a pet.
Nothing but animals to them.
But despite that, you never particularly care about them.
You never asked to be born like this, but you were. And that was life.
Perhaps the Fates wanted your life to be like this. And who were you to defy fate?
But to go as far as to ally yourself with a Titan? To betray the gods?
It was delusional.
And somehow, for some reason, your brother had been dragged into that.
Whatever business the others had with Luke or any of the traitors was nothing to you and Alicia.
Your business was with Verso. And you'd get the answers for everything that led up to this moment.
The Battle began; you and Alicia immediately find your brother.
He was pulling his sword out of a corpse, and the look in his eye was enough to scare Alicia and make her take a step back.
Whoever that was wasn't your brother.
You'd never forget that look.
The look that should have been in your eyes, and not his.
You were the oldest. It was your duty to bear everything. Not his.
But fate was a cruel thing. And it certainly hadn't pulled its punches on Verso.
You fight.
Alicia doesn't fight in the front; that's your job. She backed you up with her quick moments.
It was Chroma against chroma.
You had always been the most skilled. Both your siblings had diverted from painting. That gave you an advantage.
"They will never care for us!"
That didn't excuse murder
"We will NEVER be accepted! All they see are monsters!"
Who cares what they thought? All you three needed was each other.
"They hurt me, Clea. Simply because of these so-called gifts...all our pain is because of him. I don't want this life, and I know you don't want it either."
He burns Alicia...and you see red.
You scar one of his eyes and leave to hold your sister, who is gasping and wheezing.
Luke is defeated and with one horrified and desperate look sent your way...he runs.
Your brother leaves with his tail tucked between his legs. Never to be found.
You don't confess that he's alive. Everyone had deemed him dead. You'd let them think he was.
Alicia is burnt but alright nonetheless. Her voice was temporarily gone, and her right eye was completely dead.
She's scared. And a shadow of her former self.
Percy and Annabeth have wanted to honor Luke, to give him a proper funeral.
But one punch from you and the rest of the camps telling traumatized looks was enough to rip that idea to pieces.
He was a traitor. And though you could justify his anger, you couldn't justify all the pain he had inflicted.
All the pain he had caused you and your siblings.
In the end, only five of you remained. That was the price for Luke's rebellion.
Nothing but death and suffering.
The gods would be kinder...but at what cost?
Cabin 7 was all but hollow, and it would never be the same as it used to.
You were the new councillor of the Cabin. You were the oldest and the only one willing to take the role.
Everyone else was far too young, and you weren't too keen on letting anyone else carry that burden. Not again.
"Clea?"
You turn to face your youngest sister, Kayla, who was wearing an oversized shirt. Probably one of their deceased siblings.
"Are you alright?" You whispered to her
She doesn't say anything, merely lifts her hand to wrap around your sleeve.
You don't push her to say anything and merely ground her by being there.
"The other kids are pressuring Will," she mumbled eventually, "Since Alicia can't heal right now, they want him to play nurse."
A frown formed on your face
"I'll take care of it."
"...are you mad?"
"Not at you". You promised "Never at you"
You were trying to be nicer to them, to be more open; it was difficult, but it was enough for your younger siblings.
"Where are the others?"
"In the bed," she murmured
You nodded and nudged her. "Let's go join them, then."
It had become a habit—the five of you sharing a bed in the wake of the war.
Neither one of you felt safe sleeping alone, and you'd rather be cramped together in one bed than have your siblings suffering more than they already had.
The walk is silent, an occasional sniffle leaving Kayla. They were all still shaken up from the war.
Entering the room, you immediately spotted her three other siblings: Your younger brothers and Alicia. Alicia was between your brothers, Will healing her throat slowly; he'd been doing this since you'd all returned to Camp.
He couldn't get rid of the scars your brother left behind, but he could at least help soothe her throat so she could talk again.
They look up to stare at you, and you give the slightest smile as you're dragged by the hand to join them. Tomorrow was going to be a rough day, a meeting with the other councillors and with Charon, unclaimed children would be officially claimed, and you might gain more siblings.
It was going to be tiring.
You immediately find yourself in the center, alongside Alicia, who immediately wraps around your waist and all but shoves her face into your side. The others also get closer, and all you do is spread your arms to hold them close.
Will's shoulders shake, and he buries his face in Alicia's long hair. Austin murmurs comforting words to Kayla, who had also begun to cry. Your eyes go sad, and you whisper to them
"It's okay."
It comes out like a crack
"You're alright. We're gonna be alright."
It's a small promise, a promise you're going to fulfill for them.
Verso is out there. Was he going to try to rebel again? You don't know. All you know is that at the end of the day, when the time comes, you will be the one to strike him down.
Your brother will die at your hands.
He lost his way, and if he does find a way to redeem himself, he'll never be accepted again.
He's killed far too many demigods, and he's betrayed the gods.
He will never know peace, forever a fugitive.
Perhaps death would be the kindest mercy you could offer him.
One day, you'll have to tell your siblings that he's alive. That is one of the reasons your cabin is so hollow now still breathes, instead of the rest of your siblings who deserved to live.
But for now, you hum a small melody under your breath.
You hadn't been the singer of the three of you, but you did your best. You run your hand through your sibling's hair, humming as you comfort them.
One by one, they fall asleep. You stay awake, merely go keep watch, and ensure your siblings are getting the rest they need.
The gods will be more present, and you have no idea what that means for you and your siblings; your father wasn't particularly the best parent, especially when surrounded by the rest of the gods. Even someone like Ares seemed to be a better parent than him.
You don't want him to hurt your siblings. Not more than he already has.
But that was a problem for another day.
For now, you settle into the warm embrace. You turn to your side and wrap your arms around your sister as the rest of your siblings nudge themselves closer to you.
You'd keep them safe. No matter what.
Tomorrow would come...
And the sun would rise again.