Disclaimer - I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or "Breaking Inside" in any way, shape, form, or thought. If I did, I would be rich, wouldn't I?
Characters are kinda OOC, but...hey. I don't have time. Doing this in the school library, hellllooooo?
Title - Broken Promises
Characters - Luke C. & Thalia G.
Categories - Angst/Romance
Summary - Luke Castellan is still living in the shadow of his broken promises to a certain, blue-eyed daughter of Zeus. He knows that he's dead when she demands an explanation, when she get revived from her tree. When she comes to Mount Othrys from the Hunters a year later, seeking answers.
I caught a chill and it's still frozen on to my skin.
Luke was never the one to stutter to people he knew very well. He acts smooth, suave, and rarely ever shows a hint of weakness to them. But when a blue-eyed girl he used to love (and still does) sends an Iris-message demanding answers while he's conversing with the Lord of Time, he knows that he can't worm his way out of this one.
He dives under a table as the IM shimmers into existence, showing an extremely-pissed off daughter of Zeus on the screen.
"Lucas Castellan, you get out from under that table right now!"
"Um..."
I think about why I'm alone by myself, no one else to explain.
Thalia's eyes are blazing with such cold ire that Luke almost backs away again.
"I need the truth coming from your ungrateful mouth," she snaps. She looks away and says quietly, "What happened to you?"
"Who told you?" Luke demands. "Jackson?"
Thalia sighs, facing him again. "No, what's-his-name Jackson didn't tell me anything about you. Annabeth did, and you know that Annabeth sticks to the truth. But I really need to hear it from you."
How far do I go no one knows.
Luke says right to Thalia's face, "I did. So, what?"
Thalia's face is so angry that Luke wishes that he could revoke those words as soon as he said them.
"So what?" she screams. "So what? Why in Hades' UNDERPANTS are you fucking doing this?"
"The gods haven't done anything for us."
"Oh, I see." Thalia's voice is dripping sarcasm. "You're willing to turn your back on your friends and family so that you can have revenge on our daddies and mommies for ignoring us. You seem to have forgotten that the gods can't interfere with their children's lives. How far are you willing to go?"
If the end is so much better why don't we just live forever?
"I..." Luke somehow finds himself with no answer. Exactly how far is he going to go with the Lord of the Titans? He wished that this would all end quickly. It probably would if he were immortal.
Thalia glared at him when he produced the very intelligent "I".
"I'll give you one year to think about your decision, Luke," she says. "Until then, I don't want to have any physical or mental contact with you unless we're freaking fighting!"
She swipes a hand angrily through the mist, leaving Luke with his mouth open in a round "O". He put his head in his hands and mumbled to himself, "Why?".
Don't tell me I'm the last one in line
Maybe his decision wasn't the best one. The truth? He had done it because he thought that she would agree with him. And now that she had openly refused to join him, he wasn't sure what to do anymore.
Don't tell me I'm too late this time
He thinks her words over a year later. "How far are you willing to go?" Thalia's words echoes around Luke's head.
"Milord," a Laestrygonian giant stammers. "I-I—"
Luke waves him away impatiently. "It's fine. Go and do your duties for the day! We must not dawdle."
As soon as the monster scurries away, he sees her. Thalia Grace was standing but a few feet away behind an obsidian pillar, glaring at him in distaste.
"You came," Luke says, rising. "I didn't think..."
"Damn right, I did!" Thalia hisses. "And probably had to kill about half of your guards to do so, and I nearly murdered myself in the process!"
I don't wanna live to waste another day,
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I've made.
"Thalia," Luke begins, leaning forwards and frantically looking around to see if anybody was overhearing him. "I'm sorry for joining Kronos. I don't want to live through another day of leaving you and Annabeth like this."
"You've left Annabeth for a lot more than three hundred and sixty-five days, and from what I've heard and seen"—Thalia spits out the last part like poison and Luke flinches—"you've been turning your back on her and trying to freaking kill her for weeks!"
Luke raises his hands. "Just listen to me. I know how you feel about me joining Kronos."
"I think that I've been pretty explicit in my feeling about them," Thalia mutters, rolling her eyes.
"But..." Luke sighs. "I'm not so sure if it was the best choice now. Don't you dare tell that to anybody else."
'Cuz I feel like I'm breaking inside.
Thalia studies him like she's x-raying his brain to make sure that he wasn't lying. She carefully ventures, "Why?"
"I'm split," Luke desperately says, suddenly grabbing Thalia's shoulders. Her glare sharpens, but she doesn't shove him away.
"I'm split between my loyalty to Kronos, and my...my..."
Thalia glowers at him. Her glare is certainly more intimidating up-close, but Luke doesn't dare let go. "Your what, Luke?"
"I love you," he softly says.
"That doesn't change anything," Thalia says emotionlessly. If Luke hadn't known better, he would say that she had about as much care for him as a large boulder.
I, I, I, I don't wanna fall and say I lost it all
Luke doesn't want to break down right at Thalia's feet and break down, beg for forgiveness. After all she's seen from him, she would probably just tell him to suck it up and leave him in the dust. He certainly deserves it from her.
Thalia tears away from Luke's grip, her her eyes were a bit softer. "You should make better choices next time. Maybe I wouldn't have become a Hunter. Maybe I would have still loved you as I did before I turned into a pine tree."
"I know," Luke says, his head bowed down. He waits to hear the footsteps that Thalia is leaving, but to his surprise, he doesn't hear them.
'Cuz maybe there's a part of me that hit the wall
"Sometimes," Luke says to his shoes, "I feel like I've hit a wall that I can't get through. A wall that I've been building to block the pain."
He looks up and sees that Thalia's face has gone white. She's stiff as a piece of plywood and her hands are clenched so tightly that they're turning purple. "Block the pain..." she mutters. "Building a wall."
"What?" Luke asks, alarmed.
Thalia looks at him with some things that Luke can't seem to believe. Sadness. Misery. Hopelessness.
Leaving pieces of me behind
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
"I'm killing myself," he tells her. "I feel as if I'm slowly eating myself away inside. I'm strewing pieces of myself behind me. I feel like I'm going to fade away."
Thalia says, "Then leave Kronos. It's as simple as that."
"It isn't that simple," Luke counters. "I swore that I would help him conquer the gods. I'm trapped, a rabbit that's against the corner of a wall, cowering against a huge slobbering wolf."
"You act before you think even a tiny bit," Thalia comments unhelpfully. "Even Percy isn't as impulsive as that, and he has enough impulsiveness to give a heart attack to an elephant."
Out here nothing's clear
Except the moment I decided to move on and I ignited
"True," Luke agreed, looking away again. "I've ignited a fuse that may destroy Olympus once and for all. And now, I regret it with all my heart."
Thalia looks at him coldly. "My question is, how much heart do you have right now?"
Luke glances at the sarcophagus. "Not a lot," he admits. "I think that I lost most of it back when I said that I would host Kronos's spirit."
He instantly knew that that was not the right thing to say when Thalia's face became masked with a layer of rage.
"You what?" she shouts/snarls. "You did what? Are you insane? You realize that you will burn away, bit by bit, when Kronos turns into his true form?"
Disappear into the fear
You know there ain't no coming back when you're still carrying the past
"I can't do anything," Luke miserably says. "I wish that I could, but I can't. He'll hold me up to my pledge." Luke drew Backbiter and threw it at Thalia's feet. "Proof! I'm having it reforged in an hour's time, to become the Lord of Time's scythe! I've made too many wrong choices to reverse this! There's no coming back for me, when I'm still carrying the past on my back! Especially the promises I broke!"
Luke feels his eyes grow wet after the last sentence. He can almost see the shock emitting from Thalia.
"You can still reverse it," Thalia offers. "You didn't swear on the River Styx, did you?"
Luke looks away. "No, I didn't."
You can't erase, separate
"You can't do anything to separate from Kronos once you pledged to serve him. You can't erase your bond with him."
Thalia reproachfully says, "You didn't swear on the River Styx. You can still come with me, can't you?"
"I wish," Luke mumbles. "Thalia, I'm sorry. It's irreversible."
A dark figure knocks nervously on a pillar. "My lord...why is...?"
Luke and Thalia both whip around to see Ethan Nakamura standing there with his sword drawn.
Cigarette in my hand, hope you all understand
"Get out!" Luke snaps. "Get out before I behead you, Ethan! Don't you dare tell anybody or anything about this!"
Ethan hastily bowed but stayed there. "M-my lord, I m-must stress the—"
"Kid," Thalia growls, "get out before I brain you. You don't want that to happen."
Ethan gives her a look and spits out, "Why should I believe that you're going to do that to me?"
Luke knows Thalia well enough that she is about to shoot an arrow through Ethan's head. He pulls the angry daughter of Zeus back and says tiredly, "Ethan...just go. Just go. Please. And on your life, swear that you will not breathe a word about this."
I won't be the last one in line
I finally figured out what's mine.
Ethan scurries away without another word.
Luke sets his jaw. "You never did trust my plans, did you?"
Thalia blinks, confused. "Why?"
Luke simply looks at her and repeats, "Did you?"
"No," Thalia admits, "I didn't. What can I say right now? They were absurd, Luke. Really, one of us running straight into a hellhound's jaws to distract it."
"Well, I won't be the last one in line to go to Hades," Luke firmly says, ignoring Thalia's last statement. "Seriously? I was considering suicide."
"You're a terrible liar, do you know that?" Thalia snaps peevishly. "A hellhound could tell the difference between you lying and you telling the freaking truth, which you never did."
I don't wanna live to waste another day
Luke sits down on the cold, black marble floor. "Will you kick me off a mountain again?"
Thalia's mouth drops open as she instinctively takes a step away from him. "Luke? Have you gone mad?"
"Yes," Luke answers. "I have."
"I never meant to shove you of Mount Tam," Thalia angrily says. "I never wanted to fight you in the first place. I never asked for you to join the Titan's army. If you hadn't joined Kronos in the first place, I wouldn't be a Hunter right now. I wouldn't have had to kick you down a cliff! Did you know how I felt after I saw you lying there on the rocks? Did you know how hard it was to leave you like that, right at the feet of your monster army? I was breaking my soul, leaving you like that!"
"I'm sorry," Luke says quietly.
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I've made.
"All right," Luke says, stretching his hand out. "I'll make you a deal."
"A deal? You're nuts," Thalia mutters, but she takes his hand, however reluctantly.
'Cuz I feel like I'm breaking inside.
"You won't be there to see me die," he says. "I don't want you to receive more pain than I have already dished out to you."
"What? I can't do that," Thalia snaps, yanking her hand back. "Are you kidding me? Honestly, I don't care how much of a jerk you are. That doesn't change what we've done in the past. I am not standing by when you die."
"You have to," Luke pleads. "Please."
He knows Thalia really well. She's too stubborn to let go of him.
I, I, I, I don't wanna fall and say I lost it all
"Please," Luke begs again. "For me. Do it for me."
Thalia's eyes are sparkling, whether from anger or from tears or both, Luke doesn't know.
"No," she says obstinately. "I won't." 'Cuz maybe there's a part of me that hit the wall
Leaving pieces of me behind, leaving pieces of me behind
"Thalia," Luke starts, but said girl cuts him off.
"You don't know what I've been through!" she yells, abandoning all pretense of being quiet. "You don't know how much I've lost before!"
Luke's mouth is flapping like a balloon in a high wind. "Wh-wh-what? Thalia, I've been with you for two whole years before. What do you mean?"
Thalia turns away. "Forget it. I'm leaving."
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
Luke grabs her arm before she can take another step. "Just swear on the River Styx, and I'll leave you alone."
Every word he says is hitting him like bathing one hundred times in the Styx.
I won't be the last one in line
I finally figured out what's mine
The daughter of Zeus slowly turns around. "No," she snaps. "I won't. Never. Never going to abandon you when you die."
The way she says that, Luke wonders if she really has lost something important to her before...someone.
"You aren't doing yourself a favor," he warns.
I don't wanna live to waste another day
Underneath the shadow of mistakes I've made
"For all I care, I can be killing myself a thousand times per second," Thalia spits out. "No, Luke. I told you, I'm not leaving you alone."
Luke grabs her. "You've lost somebody else before, haven't you?" he asks, unable to contain himself any longer. "Someone that you loved."
Instantly, he wishes that he had never said that. Thalia looks like she's going to strike him with a lightning bolt. She looks as if she was hit by Zeus's master bolt herself.
Although Luke knows that he's already putting himself under fire and his next statement will possibly kill him, he asks, "Did you have any siblings?" 'Cuz I feel like I'm breaking inside
Thalia blinks and then shakes her head. "No." Luke can tell that she is lying by the way she shoots a glance behind her.
"Thalia," he says sternly, "tell the truth."
"Like you have?" Thalia bitterly asks.
I, I, I, I don't wanna fall and say I lost it all
"Like I have," Luke agrees.
Thalia glares at him and then lowers her gaze. 'Cuz maybe there's a part of me that hit the wall
"I can't," she miserably says. "I can't."
Luke frowns.
Thalia turns her back on him. "Fine. I swear on the River Styx, I won't...be there when you...die."
Leaving pieces of me behind, leaving pieces of me behind.
Her voice cracks on the last word as she stares across the halls of Mount Othrys.
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
Thalia then does something so absurd and ridiculous that Luke almost faints. She steps forwards and wraps him in a bone-crushing hug. He feels her lips brush past his and she breaks away and says quietly with tears in her eyes, "I had to do that one time. Just once."
And I feel like I'm breaking
And I feel like I'm breaking inside
She's gone in a blink of an eye.
Now, that was one of the worst ever songfics that I have ever written.
Gosh, I've got the Galactic Battles: Pokémon theme song stuck in my head! It's sooooo annoying!
And if we come, together as one,
Complete the quest, that we've begun...
