Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. Or the Olympians.
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"A moment like a poem, you wish you could hold it/I shut my eyes like it's frozen, it's gone when I open" -Mat Kearney
"I was an accomplice in my own frustration." -Peter Shaffer
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Thalia held her head high, though inside she shook with grief. She accepted her father's compliment with grace and happiness, as well as Artemis' promise. But as she limped over on her crutches, she knew. There was no way that they could have won, unless he was gone.
She could curse Hera all she wanted. It wouldn't do anything. She knew Hera hated her, even if the statue was aimed for Annabeth; it was Hera's fault that she wasn't there. Luke couldn't possibly have known why. She doubted he had even asked about her.
And in the aftermath she didn't see Percy or Annabeth again, just hightailed it back to the Hunters' camp. She never asked anyone about Luke and no one mentioned him. Now that the war was over everyone seemed to have forgotten about her, and about how she'd been forced to sit (painfully) on the sidelines. In her head it was so obvious, but she knew there was no reason why anyone would think he had loved her once. He had poisoned her tree. He had joined Kronos, left her. Why would someone who loved her do that to her?
She almost didn't go to his funeral because no one asked her to come. But she went, because she realized she could not spend her life hiding. And as his shroud burned, a green and gold shroud stitched with a winged sandal and a crossed scythe, she could not release him with the smoke that rose. She could never release him. And that was why she cried.
She cried for him, because there had been nothing she could have done to stop him, but she would never forget it anyway. She cried because she knew he could not avoid his destiny, but it had hurt her just as much as it had hurt him. She cried because no one even knew, after all these years, how much she still loved him.
Annabeth had told her he might come back, reincarnated. But by that time she had heard the story—as she was practicing her archery some of her Hunters were discussing it as if she weren't even there—and all she felt was anger and jealousy. Annabeth was the one who had gotten the chance to proclaim her love to him, and she didn't even love him. Thalia just felt even more invisible.
Then she prayed that he wouldn't try for rebirth. She was a Hunter and how would she maintain her focus if he popped up in her life again? Even if he didn't remember her. Especially if he didn't remember her.
Little by little, she tried to release him.
