Percy didn’t ask for this.
He didn’t ask to be a half-blood. He didn’t ask to watch his friends die.
He didn’t ask to watch his big brother die.
When Percy first got to camp, Luke was the person that came to help him. His mentor, his first friend at camp, his brother.
Percy was devastated when he found out Luke was the one who betray him. The one he called friend. The one he called brother.
After Luke left camp, Percy struggled. A lot. He couldn’t see Luke as the villain. He couldn’t see Luke as anything but good.
Percy clung onto those good memories with his brother. He wanted to pretend the bad memories didn’t exist. If he didn’t dwell on them, they never happened, right?
It was hard to do, hard to forget. No else seemed like they would let him forget. Everyone around him talked about how awful Luke was for betraying his home, but Percy couldn’t do that. He couldn’t talk badly about Luke.
That was his brother. Luke was family.
He eventually realized that’s why his fatal flaw was loyalty. He would watch the world burn if it meant that he got his brother back. That’s all he ever wanted.
Watching Luke die was the hardest thing Percy had to do.
Percy made sure that no matter what, he would fulfill Luke’s last wish. He gave up immortality for that. To promise that all the unclaimed kids would be claimed.
That’s all Luke wanted. Percy wanted to make sure his big brother’s wish wouldn't stay just a wish. It would be a reality.
Percy oversaw every new cabin built. He watched to make sure there weren’t unclaimed kids left in the Hermes cabin. He didn’t want anyone to fall down the same path he had to watch his big brother take.
Percy still saw Luke in everything he did and everywhere he went. He saw Luke in his fighting style and heard his voice, telling Percy exactly what to do. Luke would be proud of him, he hoped.
He heard Luke’s voice every time the gods made him angry. He was getting closer and closer to the age that Luke was when he betrayed Percy.
Percy didn’t want to be like that.
So Percy tried to be the best version of his big brother he could remember. He wished he would see Luke again one day.
Then he remembered Luke’s choice. Rebirth. Aiming for the Isle of the Blest.
Percy would never see Luke again. Not even in death.
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Luke had been Annabeth’s big brother since she was 8 years old.
He protected her from monsters when she didn’t know how to fight. He gave her the dagger that she still uses to this day.
Annabeth cried in her cabin for hours when she found out Luke was working for Kronos. She wouldn’t speak to anyone, she couldn’t. Her voice simply didn’t work anymore.
She never left her cabin either. What was the point of leaving if she didn’t see her big brother’s smile? If he wasn’t there to walk with her to every meal or to every activity? If he wasn’t there to strategize Capture the Flag with her?
Percy brought her food every day to make sure that she wouldn’t starve. But to her, food seemed pointless to her if she didn’t have Luke. Without him, nothing mattered anymore.
Luke was the only family she had. Her biological family didn’t care much about her. Thalia had died once and then chose to leave her.
But Luke had been there. Luke had been there the longest.
But he left too, like everyone seemed to do. Was she that unimportant? Was it her fault that everyone left? Would she ever be enough for someone, enough to be a reason to stay?
When she watched Luke die, a part of her died that day too.
Later on, she realized that she lost her brother way before that. She lost him the same day that they got to camp. The same day they lost their sister.
Annabeth remembered everything Luke taught her. He taught her how to survive, how to fight. He always made sure that she could make it through to the next day. He made sure that she would survive the demigod life. He never let her die.
She didn’t imagine that she would lose him this soon. She knew demigods didn’t live past their teenage years, but she hated that thought. She didn’t believe that.
Her big brother was invincible. Nothing could kill him. He would be with her forever and always.
So why was he not here and she was?
Annabeth thought about how if she makes it, one day, she’ll be older than Luke was when he died. She hated that thought, she always pushed it to the back of her mind.
If she had just one wish, it would be to see Luke again. She just wanted to hug her brother again.
Annabeth missed him every second of every single day. But he was gone, and she would never see him again.
But he was family, always. He promised.
