the great wave | percy jackson

𝑥𝑣𝑖 - leonidas

When Leo came to, Jason and Piper were leaning over him, and he was laying in Ash's lap. Also he was covered in mud. And there was a clump of grass in his mouth, which he promptly spat out.

"Where–"

"Lie still." Piper had tears in her eyes. "You rolled pretty hard when–when Festus–"

"Where is he?" Leo tried to sit up, but his head felt like it was floating and Ash kept him down leaning against her, which honestly did feel much better. They'd landed inside the compound, but... but something had happened on the way in.

"Seriously, Leo," Jason said. "You could be hurt. You shouldn't–"

But Leo wrenched himself out of Ash's arms and pushed himself to his feet despite her noises of protest. That was when he saw the wreckage. Festus must have dropped the cages as he came over the fence, because they'd rolled in different directions, coming up perfectly undamaged. Festus hadn't been so lucky.

The dragon had been torn to bits. His limbs were scattered across the lawn. The main section of his body had plowed a trench twenty feet wide and fifty feet long across the mansion's yard before breaking apart. Only his neck and head were somewhat intact, resting across a row of frozen rosebushes like a pillow.

"No," Leo sobbed. He ran to the dragon's head and stroked its snout. The dragon's eyes flickered weakly.

"You can't go," Leo pleaded. "You're the best thing I ever fixed." He felt a warm hand on his shoulder and knew Ash had followed him, somehow glad that she'd gotten there before the others. The way her hand was shaking let him know that she was crying too.

Festus' head whirred its gears as if he were purring. By this time, Jason and Piper had come to stand next to them, but Leo kept his eyes fixed on the dragon. He remembered what his dad had said in his dream: Nothing lasts forever, not even the best machines.

"It's not fair," he murmured.

The dragon clicked and creaked slowly, almost like a pattern, triggering an old memory in Leo's mind... Leo realized Festus was trying to say something in Morse code, like his mom had taught him years ago. He listened more intently, translating the clicks into letters: a simple message repeating over and over.

"Yeah," Leo said. "I understand. I will. I promise."

The dragon's eyes went dark. Festus was gone.

Leo cried unabashedly. His friends stood on either side, patting his shoulders, saying comforting things, Ash kneeling down beside him to wrap her arms around him, but the buzzing in Leo's ears drowned them out. The only thing he could "hear" was the tapping of Ash's fingers on his upper arm: a quick pattern of beats like a piano aria, I'm sorry over and over.

Finally Jason said, "I'm so sorry man. What did you promise Festus?"

Leo sniffled and gently shrugged his shoulders so Ash's arms fell to her side.

"Something my dad told me," Leo said. "Everything can be reused."

"Your dad talked to you?" Jason asked. "When was this?"

Leo didn't answer. He worked at the dragon's neck hinges until the head was detached. It weighed about a hundred pounds, but he forced his scrawny arms to hold it. He looked up at the starry sky and said, "Take him back to the bunker, Dad. Please, until I can reuse him. I've never asked you for anything."

Next to him, he swore he heard Ash whisper, "For Charlie."

The wind picked up; the dragon's head floated out of Leo's arms and onto it as if no more than a fallen leaf. Then it disappeared.