Hi! Okay, so this takes you into the inner workings of my mind where I still struggle with the idea of "what's going to happen to Hazel?" I mean; she's dead, and should be dead but she's alive, and I can't find a solution where the underworld has its justice and Hazel has her life. Anyway, enjoy!
Disclaimer: Me no own.
Make Death Wait
It was Hazel's turn to stand guard. Frank had woken her up super gently about twenty minutes ago, and now she starred at the stars and made pictures out of dots.
The Ancient Greek and Romans were so abstract, that doesn't look like a Pegasus unless Pegasi used to come with 90° angles, Hazel thought.
Her thoughts drifted towards her own horse just as fast as Pegasus; Arion, waiting for her back in New Rome. And about ridding with Sammy. The taste of the too-sweet icing on the cupcake was on her lips and taste buds right away, fresh as yesterday and not seventy years crumbling and old.
Suddenly Hazel's breath was being sucked out of her and the details of her world –or something more like the world she'd been dragged into by Nico- dimmed and faded. She felt her legs turn like Jell-O and lift off the ground, lifted and being taken back to-
Nowhere.
Somehow, in a way nobody had ever seen and death was not used of dealing with, Hazel dug her heals in the ground she wasn't allowed to touch. The world snapped back right into place and she struggled to breathe right, but eventually the air went through her nose, down to her lungs, and out her mouth.
Thanatos appeared in front of her, still like a dark angel- only he never bore good news.
"Pluto does care about you, but he needs you back for order as you as your part is played. And if you keep thinking back to dead things, I have no choice but to come, and I have to take you back by law." Thanatos said. "You're special Hazel, but death doesn't do specials."
"I need to be here," Hazel said. "You can't take me back. They're counting on me. Frank, Percy, Jason Leo…"
"What about Pluto? He's counting on every good soul that there is out there to confine itself to the Underworld and stop pressing against the Doors of Death."
"I'm not a bad soul," Hazel said her hands digging into the ship's railing.
"I never said that," Thanatos said. "You just need to know what's going on because eventually it'll catch up to you."
The watch on her wrist beeped suddenly, it was a lend from Leo. Her shift had just ended, so she turned around.
"Where are you going?" Thanatos demanded. Hazel stopped and said;
"My shift just ended. I've got to go wake up Piper."
"Hazel…"
"I'm making death wait." Hazel simply said. "Wait until I'm done here. Then I'll go with you like I'm meant to. Eventually. Until then, go gather up some monsters, we could use that."
"Death doesn't like to wait," Thanatos said.
"I never said you had to like it," Hazel said. "It's always been about death," Hazel said. "You can't say this because of death, you're cursed like this because of death, you've got to wrap all this up by the solstice because of death, blah blah blah. I'm making Life count now. I'm going to start doing things because of Life and because I'm alive, because I've got goals in life, because there's a kind of person I want to be in life."
"Brave words for someone walking on a tight rope," Thanatos said.
"We're all going to die eventually, it's not just me. If death decides how we live and life decides how we die, we might as well not do anything." Hazel said.
"You seem very sure of what you say." But he was smiling.
"I just said that I'm going to help this time. So sit tight and bring something to entertain yourself with. Maybe get some new - oh, what are they called..?- apps –yeah, that's the word- on your iPad to kill some time."
And she climbed down the stairs leading to the second floor where Piper's cabin was. She ignored death. It might tap on her shoulder every now and then, but so what? She'd turn a blind eye, and she'd make it wait. Her curse wasn't her life, and her life wasn't her curse.