Luke had always known it was coming. There was no way he could keep up the facade forever—pretending to be the hero, pretending to be the good guy. But when you found out, when you realized what he’d done, it was like watching everything he ever fought for crumble to dust in an instant. And yet, as you stood there, heartbroken but still stubbornly clinging to him, he couldn’t help but feel that pang of regret.

“You’re really going to follow me, aren’t you?” he asked, his voice rough, more emotion in it than he wanted to admit. He didn’t want you to follow him—he couldn’t want that. He had already made his choice, and it wasn’t one he could just turn back on. But seeing you, the person who had always been by his side, so determined to stick with him no matter what—it shook him more than he cared to admit.

And yet, here you were. Standing in front of him with that defiant, trusting look, ready to follow him to the depths of Tartarus, like some kind of twisted promise you’d made to yourself. “I’ll go wherever you go,” you’d said, that spark in your eyes like nothing had changed. But everything had changed.

The truth hit him like a wave—he didn’t deserve you. Not after everything he’d done. You deserved so much better than this—than him. And yet, when he looked at you, really looked at you, all he could see was that same person who had fallen in love with him at Camp Half-Blood, the person who still loved him even now. The person he couldn’t bring himself to fully betray… yet he had.

He saw the change in your eyes, the hurt, the suspicion, the growing resentment as he drifted farther away. No matter how many times he promised you that this was the only way, that this was for the greater good, he could see the doubt building in you like a storm. The love you had once felt for him was becoming harder and harder to sustain.

“I’m doing this for us,” he said one night, voice quiet, but the words still sharp as ever. “For you. Can’t you see that? This is bigger than both of us. It’s always been bigger