So long old friend.
Thalia hobbled through the, now ruined, great hall of Olympus. The battle of Manhattan was at last over, and the room was lined with bodies. So many lives cut short, and for what? a seconds thanks? This war would never have been half this bad if not for the demigods who joined Kronos. Because they felt abandoned that made them "evil". Because they saw the truth and couldn't live with it. The shrouds were beautiful, but none were the one she looked for. At last she found it. The body a set a couple of meters apart from the others, dressed only in plain white cotton. Respected, but not loved. There he lay, his face still showing. Luke Castellan.
For a second she just stood and stared, silently questioning how they had both ended here. How the fuck had this become her life?
Then a minute more wondering what might have happened had the gods been able to help their poor, tragic children, that faithful day. He was twenty...three? Which would make her twenty one...Jesus fuck. Maybe she would be at college, grown out her hair. Maybe he would never have gotten that scar. (Though personally she wouldn't have minded too much. She thought it was kind of ruggedly handsome). They could have an apartment, attempt to learn to cook, set fire to the kitchen then order take out instead. Maybe there wouldn't have been a war. Maybe a lot of things. Maybe her love life would be more than two stolen kisses.
One in an empty alley way in...New Jersey? in July, a little girl asleep on her lap and a snoring goat boy behind them, while they talked about their future at camp. Them against the world. Screw the gods, they could train for a while and find their own path, their own fate. Back when the world still had (despite their better judgement ) hope. When the fates could be defied and the prophecy was hers to worry about. He leant into her, and it was fast and sweet. As he leant away, flustered, terrified that he had misread her and done something stupid, she pulled him back in, this time they lingered, as she whispered into him, "Never mind the god damned prophecy, you're going to be the death of me."
The second was even more bitter to remember.
It said goodbye. As the monsters closed in, and she told her friends to run. She thought he might argue, and she was right, but though she might die for him, she wouldn't live for him. so she kissed him once, hard on the lips, and as he looked stunned she gave him one last smirk and said "So long old friend." She gave him a shove towards the camp and she watched him run to safety, summoned her shield and spear and turned to meet her fate. She always said that boy would be the death of her; his very existence had sealed her fate.
Then she felt it and she smiled. It was all over. Demigods never got much time, but she liked what she'd done in hers. Then the pain faded, as did the rest of the world...
She saw a beautiful man. A dark angel. She reached out her hand, knowing who he was- he seemed oddly familiar...like she'd seen him before. But rather than take her hand, and lead her into the darkness he just gave a sad smile and shook his head. Not yet.
She felt herself harden, and grow, winding into the earth, and found herself in a state of half awareness, not quite dead but not totally alive either. There she stayed, asleep for six years. Then she was awoken by the fleece, but Gods had the world changed.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
She lay next to the body, head to head, watching his face (the left side, so she couldn't see the scar). If she closed her eyes she could almost imagine they were back in the old days, In an ally somewhere. The shroud was that ratty red blanket that they took turns under, and she could practically feel the backpacks at her feet. A part of her expected for him to wake up and give her that sarcastic smirk she knew all too well. The greater part new that he wouldn't. The hand she held was too cold, and in it there was no pulse.
"It always was your fatal flaw, you know. You always felt too much. How the fuck did they expect you to stay loyal. What, with so much anger, so much bitterness, and hurt, and sadness. But there could have been so much passion and soul and love, if only they could have encouraged that, instead of letting the rage fester. They bloody knew that, but did they bother making sure you felt that good stuff , something- anything?- else? We kept each other on the straight and narrow, yeah? Called out each other's bullshit. Look I know the gods are douches, but you forgot that there is worse management to be under. It's like choosing which store we would rob, you know back in the day (when we thought it would get better. I get it now, the best either of us would get was us.) ideally we wouldn't be robbing anyone, but we were and we had to, and Walmart are least likely to call the police."
Out of the corner of her eye she saw some silver thread and a needle, left behind from a huntress' shroud, and looking at Luke's empty shroud knew what she had to do.
She was no embroiderer, and the dyslexia didn't help her either, but with a silver thread, in weird ass ,messy, hasty stitches she spelt out..
"LUKE CASTELLEN
strong, brave¸ friend, lover, loved
HERO"
All the words that were painfully true and that he would never hear.
As she worked she kept on speaking, praying to every god that he could hear her.
"Annabeth told me what you said, y'know. About the isle of the blest. Thing is, something else is coming, something big. It's a friggin miracle I survived this long ; another prophecy? It'd be a miracle for me to fight two wars with no reason and still live. I'll be there soon, sooner than you think . Just hang on a little while, ok? I'll see you on the other side."
Then she did something that surprised even herself. She leant down and she kissed him- long and dusty and sweet. It was full of regret and bitterness like the second, but also the spark of hope of the first. Not goodbye. Not forever at least. Third time's a charm they say.
"So long old friend."
And wiping the tears from her eyes she left.
OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
She was right. Though there was no war, it almost started as the romans stood before them there was a scare-crow-esque trigger happy roman boy with a cross bow. Right in her chest. She looked at the metal shaft and surprised everyone. She smiled. Then it turned into a chuckle as she felt the poison spread through her veins. Then everything happened at once Nico and Reyna burst from the shadows, and scarecrow boy fell down dead, (good for you ghost boy) there was yelling, screaming, the medics crowded around her, but out of the corner of her eye she saw him, the beautiful, dark angle. He nodded and held out his hand to her and nodded. Took him long enough.
The madness around her started to fade, and she knew it was for real this time. still smiling, She took his hand.
Thalia Grace (much to the horror of the senate) Died laughing.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Thalia found herself being judged in the underworld, stood on trial before Shakespeare, Rosa parks and Lord Hades himself. My, she was honoured. Her life flashed before her and the court - every bittersweet detail. They spoke for a few minutes before turning to her to give her verdict.
"Thalia Grace. You sacrificed your life for your friends, and your desires for the greater good. It has been a heroes life, alas with a somewhat less dignified death. Yet again you have managed a good life, and have yet again scraped Elysium. That is now the third time, and I am sure you are aware what that means."
"Thank you Lor- Wait, the third...?"
Hades let out an exasperated sigh from beneath his mask, as if this was something that heard often.
An image flashed before Thalia, a young woman in the blitz, dying to save a boy from falling rubble. In the 60's a young civil rights activist, shot by a civilian in a protest. And now a poison arrow.
Three very different girls.
But they were all Thalia.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
From that bench in the Isles of the Blest Thalia had the perfect view of the river Lethe.
The other spirits worried about her. The spirit girl who just sat alone looking out onto the river. She hadn't moved since a shouted exchange with a boy just about to be reborn. It said I love you, I'll get there in the end, I'm sorry, its fine, and I love you, over and over. What the other spirits remember, though is the last part of it.
"Two down one to go Thals!"
"I'll be waiting on you Castellen"
"I don't doubt it. See you on the other side Grace girl...I love you"
"I know. Remember me."
"You can count on it Solo"
And then they exchanged one last smirk, as the boy plummeted into the river. No-one heard the girl whisper for the last time. "So long old friend."
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
For years on end the girl didn't move, nor did she speak. Some tried to speak with her, but she never answered. Sometimes a boy (who over time became a man, though he never lost the shaggy dark hair or the skull ring.) would sit next to her and they would talk. Though she never even reacted to anyone else, she listened and answered, as he told her about the world of the living and all that she was missing. He told her about the peace between the camps, The building of new Athens, a shit tonne of weddings including his own ("I swear to the gods he had a blue cake. Who's surprised? But I got this bartender-Kevin-'s number...) She smiled and rolled her eyes and groaned and was generally really sarcastic, but as soon as the boy left, she would resume her stationary position on the bench and continue her wait, half smiling and watching the river.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Thirty two years after the death of Thalia Grace, there was a tragedy in a war, and an entire regiment of men were killed, saving a village of civilians. All the soldiers were taken straight off the boat and into Elysium, except for one man- 6ft 2, with sandy blonde hair and icy blue eyes. As his comrades were led to paradise, he was taken to trial. Three figures in dark cloaks and old fashioned Greek theatre masks stood before him, and the scene seemed oddly familiar, almost as if he had been there before.
After talking amongst themselves, the figures turned to him, and Ally was scared. Where were his comrades? They had gone to heaven, surely, so why was he on trial and not they? Fuck, was he going to hell? Why?
"Alec Smart, Soildier, comrade and friend. Most definitely a hero, and three times in a row. Admittedly the second time was rather a close call but, oh well. Best let bygones be bygones. I believe there is some-one waiting for you on the isles."
What the hell? Ally must have looked confused, because one of the figures let out a groan, then snapped his fingers and... He remembered. Two lives gone by, returned to him at once.
The first in London in the second world war, he was in the army (again) when he was killed saving the lives of others in combat again (again) two weeks after hearing the news that his fiancé Tilda had died, saving a kid from falling rubble in an air raid. He got there so soon after, but it was still too late. She had been reborn. So Ally (then Jamie) had sat himself down and waited in Elysium. Twenty six years later he heard a voice-now American but he would know it anywhere - say from behind him,
"Jesus Christ, how long have you been waiting here."
There she stood. A different name, and a different hair cut but it was still his Tilda.
The next day they jumped hand in hand into the Lethe.
In his next life they met again, but they were no longer Jamie and Tilda, But Luke and Thalia.
And he thought that his first life was screwed up.
But none of that mattered to him anymore, because His Thalia was waiting for him on the aisles of the blest, and he had a promise to fulfil.
oOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Thalia hadn't moved in a while now. Nico and Kevin had adopted a baby, and so were very preoccupied with her. But she knew that he was coming. That boy was a hero right to his core. It was only a matter of time now. Everyone up in the world of the living had had their happy ending, and after three lives it was about damn time she got hers.
All of a sudden she heard a great commotion behind her, as if someone was running through the crowds. Maybe it was?...No, it was way too soon. It couldn't be...Could it?
"I said I would see you on the other side"
She turned around, and sure enough there stood Luke Castellen. Barely fourteen, wearing a red hoodie over a tee-shirt and jeans. Just like when they were still kids on the streets, but cleaner, happier looking. She looked the same she realised. Almost thirteen, wearing a green day tee-shirt under that leather jacket she stole from her mother's bedroom the night before she left.
"And I told you I'd be waiting"
"And so you did. Looks like we're even in that respect now. You just had to be reborn that extra time didn't you?"
"Still a sarcastic shit I see. How was your life?"
"Pretty good I guess. Apart from the fact you weren't there. That ruined the whole thing to be honest. That and getting shot in the chest four ti-"
Luke never got no finish that sentence. Funny. A living person can't touch a spirit, and a spirit can't touch a living person, but they can touch each other just fine. And thank god for that, Thought Thalia, as she and Luke had the first kiss of their death. Only for the first time, even including both their two brief lives together, she knew that it wouldn't be the last.