Riordanverse One Shits

Burning Man

They've only fought one villain before where a sacrifice was needed, at least last time he had a way to come back from it. There's no surviving this one, not this time.

A supernova.

If there was a single word that can be used to describe what's happening to him right now and what he looks like, that's it.

A bright shining star, exploding in beautiful destructive flames.

Inside this explosion, stood a boy, no more that 16 years old. His curly dark hair, sparks and flames licking the ends, smoke curling from is soot covered hands.

A mischievous smirk splayed across his lips. He turns back and faces his friends, his family, sadness burn in all of their eyes, the flames reflecting off their tear-stricken faces.

"Don't cry," Leo's voice cracked. "I'm the Bad Boy Supreme, you can't get rid of me that easily."

A sob breaks though and Piper, his best friend, fell to her knees, digging her face into her hands while Jason, who's basically his brother, consoles her. He wasn't close with Percy and Annabeth but even then, he wasn't surprised to see solemn looks on their faces.

"I always said I wanted to go out in a blaze of glory," Leo said, smiling despite the tears falling downing his cheeks and evaporating in the flames. "Can't get more blazing than this." He laughed, trying to ignore the sobs of his best friend in the whole world.

The seventh wheel. The odd one out. That was Leo, if anyone in their little friend group needed to sacrifice themself, it was going to be him.

He thought about his found family at the Waystation. The family he left so he can go on one last quest with the seven "Heroes of Olympus" he just didn't realize he wasn't going back.

He thought about Calypso, the girl he literally died for, just so he could find her a second time. She was going to be so mad at him.

Even though he was usually immune to fire, he felt the flames starting to burn him, singeing his fingertips and frying his hair. It didn't hurt though. Not like he expected. It was warm for starters, but it was also peaceful knowing the demon he was trying to kill wasn't going to be able to recover from this.

Okay he wasn't actually killing a demon, burning those things just make it worse, but the monster he was fighting was demon level disgusting.

It smelled like shit when it was on fire.

The white hot flames were still shooting out of him but now they were working on expelling the beast into ashy fragments so it can't reform within the next hundred or so years. The goal would be never but that was just unrealistic. This thing hates fire so Leo was the only man for the job. Unfortunately, that meant burning himself alongside the creature 'cause the flames weren't harmful unless shot in short range.

Really short range.

Plus, it was prophesied that someone was gonna die in this quest. They wanted to ignore that fact until it came to a head and needed to be addressed. Unfortunately, the Fates aren't meant to be tested, you're not supposed to change destiny, and yet, they always hold out hope that something can be interpreted differently.

The son of Hephaestus never wanted to change Fate, he knew his place and he'd rather be the one dead than any of his friends.

Altruism.

That's the word he was looking for when he used a demigod-safe computer to research all his feelings on being the one to die if needed.

At this point, the heat was starting to become unbearable, even for Leo. He couldn't even look back at his friends, his family. He knew that if he took one last look, he'd die knowing he crushed the hearts of the ones closest to him.

The flames flickered as the beast crumbled to ash and drifted away in the smoke. Even with the monster defeated, Leo knew it was too late for him, he couldn't turn off the fire, it burned out of his control. 

The inferno blazing around him had soon stolen the oxygen from his lungs, his skin blistered from the heat, he had fallen to his knees, unable to stand the pain tearing his body apart. Leo felt that if he weren't sitting in a man-made oven right now, he'd be crying because he can admit that being burned alive hurt like a bitch.

Death had come for him before, but he cheated him with the Physicians Cure, but this time, Thanatos would catch him. No more running. The sadness did always catch up to him eventually.

He could still hear Hazel and Piper's sobs, and he could even hear some sniffling from Frank. Annabeth and Percy aren't really one for tears but what broke him the most were the screams from Jason. His best friend, the one who's stuck by him the most, even when he was deliberately being annoying.

As someone who has died before, many times he had imagined what his real death would look like, he just didn't think he would supply the very flames that are currently burning up his supposed fireproof body. Dying in a fiery explosion the first time was embarrassing enough as the resident Super-sized McShizzle Man. Leo could not believe that this was happening a second time, and the world wasn't even going to end this time, just a inconvenience to have a monster like this running around.

After what felt like a century of burning, he felt like his soul was separating from his body. His heartbeat fluctuated and faded rapidly and his lungs constricted from the lack of air entering his body. Even though his eyes were shut, he could see Thanatos walking through the fire to collect his soul. He glided through the flames as if they were nothing, the god's beauty was very uncomfortable to see when being burned alive. 

Usually Hermes was the one collecting most of the souls but Thanatos must of thought he was a special enough case to get Leo himself considering it was his second time dying. 

But he knew there was no more procrastinating this.

Leo Valdez was officially dead.

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The Underworld was not as impressive as it was made out to be in the Greek myths.

Of course, Leo had stuffed a few drachmas in his pockets before he decided to turn into a human torch and burn himself to death so he had made it past admissions and everything.

But he fucking hated waiting in lines.

"Holy Hades," he muttered to himself as he glared at the back of the head of some soul who managed to shove him out of the way and get in line in front of him. "How many fucking people had to die today."

Leo had zoned out most of his wait in the long ass line but now he stood before the dead judges of the Underworld. Thomas Jefferson, William Shakespeare, and everyone's least favorite king, King Minos.

Old people talked so much. Leo didn't really hear most of their discussions on where he belonged, he was busy trying to figure out if he still had powers when he was dead.

"Ehem, Mr. Valdez," the old guy in the middle, Leo thinks it's Shakespeare, cleared his throat to get his attention. 

Can dead people clear their throats?

"Yes?" Leo was gathering all his wild ADHD energy and tried to focus on his sentencing and actually hearing where he will be spending his afterlife.

"We have come up with a verdict." Thomas Jefferson spoke up, his ghostly powdered wig making him look older than he already was, and that's a lot considering he's dead.

The Old guys shared a look between each other and maybe they can speak telepathically but it seems they decided the oldest of the old farts was going to be the one to tell him where he was ending up. King Minos turned his head down and faced Leo, looking at him with the distain of a man who clearly hates demigods.

"You're going to Elysium," he said with a clear tone that it was not his decision but was out voted by the younger old farts.

"Holy shit."