A/N: Not a Thaluke shipper, but gotta admit: they're pretty cute together. This oneshot is only about 4k words but still, Spellcheck was absolutely brutal. If I've spelled something wrong or changed tense randomly, just let me know okay? Enjoy!

The answer to the long upstanding question is, yes, I made it to Elysium.

I know I didn't deserve it, but the Council decided it was a blend of "lack of stable parenting" on Hermes & May's part and the fact that I was "only a half-blood" and it wasn't in my power to have expelled Kronus from my body.

I tried to tell them that I had willingly decided to work as his medium, and at the time, that'd seemed like reason enough for them to try to choose between sending me to Punishment or to Tartarus. Rhadamanthys had just made a very good point as to why I deserved the Fields over the Pit when Persephone, swept in. Muttering about how there was 'nothing fun to do in this Zeus-forsaken place' and 'why couldn't it be summer already' echoed through the shadows the second she stepped out of the darkness. She stopped behind Hades' seat with her arms crossed, a frown darkening her face. I'd been sitting on a plain wooden chair, staring at my hands at the time but felt compelled to look at her when she entered. She was nearly as pretty as Aphrodite, which is a lot more attractive than I'd imagined. Not that I'd been imagining, it only crossed my mind the few times I'd ever seen a Persephone kid at camp.

She had warm creamed-coffee skin and full lips, painted black. Her thick black hair was in a braid down her back and her large eyes (or maybe I thought they were big because she was like 15 feet tall) had been lined heavily with kohl. The dark purple robe she wore seemed to have dancing flowers (and souls) trapped within. For the most part she seemed so full of life that she seemed out of place. I don't know why I noticed all these things at the time. Maybe it's because some part of me knew that she was going to save me from my own guilt. She would be my redemption.

She stopped glaring daggers at Hades cranium for a moment to smile warmly at me, "Why thank you, it's been a while since anyone has considered me fair enough to compare to Aphrodite. Although it would please me more had you not compared me to that wretch."

The Judges, who'd been sitting to the left of Hades let out a collective groan. Aeacus rubbed his temples, "My Lady, I know you're quite unhappy but do you need to interrupt every single time we're trying a non-mortal soul?"

"No, no! Continue, I'll be quiet," the goddess huffed and sat next to Hades, who'd kept a poker face on throughout the whole charade.
Minos collected himself first and turned his desolate stare back to me, "What do you plead, Luke Castellan, Son of Hermes?"

It was the first time I'd actually been addressed since the Trial had started. I cleared my throat, "Could you list the charges?"

"Very well. Rhadamanthys, read the charges."

Rhadamanthys lifted a crackling gray parchment that had been lying on the huge semi-circular desk in front of them, "Treason against Olympus, the gods, and endangering all beings in this universe alike. Stealing Lord Zeus' master bolt-

"-and my Helm of Darkness, mind you."

"Yes Lord Hades. In continuation: acting as a medium for the Titan Lord. Causing the death of countless other demigods. Need I continue?"

I ran a hand down my face, displacing the cold sweat that'd been on my brow, "No."

"Very well," Aeacus replied, "How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

"Would you like to augment your plea?"

"...I've caused...so much pain. I don't want any of it to go unjustified."

The three judges remained painfully poker-faced and they leaned forward to await Hades' ultimatum. He sighed and picked up his gavel. I closed my eyes expecting to find myself in eternal torture in a matter of moments. Instead I got Persephone's objection.

"Wait, wait, wait," she stood up raising her hands. The Council again groaned unanimously. Minos stood up angrily and threw down a coffee mug that had seemingly come out of nowhere. It shattered white porcelain bits across the floor, his frustrated growl spreading with it. He proceeded to storm away, mustard cloak billowing out as he disappeared. This time Hades could not ignore her.

"Persephone! I am tired of this! You are not on this council; your input and opinions are not to be heard of in this room. Now I am forced to take a serious choice of action against you. I am throu-"

"Hear me out this one time and I swear I won't ever come back into the Judging Room," she interrupted. I tilted my head and paid attention; contrariwise could be said about anybody else in the room.

"On the Styx," she added. The room rumbled and waves could faintly be heard from somewhere far behind the hazy darkness obscuring the walls and ceiling of the room. Aeacus paused in rubbing his temples and Rhadamanthys picked his head up off the desk.

The goddess straightened up once she had full attention. She clasped her hands in front of her abdomen and presented a dazzling smile for the remaining Judges.
"So he did all these terrible things right? This tiny little half mortal," she gestured down at me, "is basically the source of all evil, blah blah blah. Well it's all true no doubt and I don't question your judgment. But wasn't he the same one who killed himself to save everyone? He sacrificed his own life to try to undo all the damage he had done. There aren't many who would willingly do that."

Her speech finished, she bent over to kiss Hades on the cheek. His calm demeanor melted an iota and his pale olive skin flushed slightly. She breezed out and Hades called after her, "THAT WAS NOT FAIR!"

A giggle could be made out as she phased into the shadows, "All's fair in love and war and death my dear."

Hades turned his glare to me once again, the freezing fire in his eyes growing colder. "I honestly don't understand that quote. But I'm not going to discuss this matter further with the Judges. You are a special circumstance case, and although Persephone has spoken, her judgment has no value in this room. This res judicata has been measured on the scales. You have not done enough good in your life to outwiegh the evil, yet you have not done enough evil to outweigh the good. It is level. You are sentenced to the Fields of Asphodel."

His ultimatum was slammed down, along with his gavel.

The next thing I remember was standing still in an endless yellow grassland, people standing a few feet apart. An interval that never ended, went on as far as the eye could see. I felt like I was asleep half the time. How long had I been standing here? Seconds? Minutes? Hours, days, years? It was just me and my hazy memory and nothing, nothing, nothing...

After endless moments of nothing and thoughtless thinking, the King and Queen of the Underworld stood before me. Being in a daze, the first relevantly coherent thought I'd had after their arrival was that it must've been Mardi Gras, what with all those colorful beads and gleaming rings and muted robes between them.

Persephone's expression remained indifferent, but her eyes were smiling warmly. Hades glanced at her before snapping his fingers. The thick fog in my brain immediately dissipated, and I got the sudden and overpowering urge to run from the spot I'd never before considered leaving. I stepped back a little and finally got a handle on a sense of time (which I was good with for reasons probably obvious). I must've been standing in that spot for days, maybe a week at the most. Which explained why I hadn't wanted to stay still anymore.

I'd noticed that for once, I stood as tall as Hades did. At normal mortal-sized height, he was barely topping my lanky 6 feet. I kept the gazing stalemate up with him, finally giving up and brushing my fingers over my scar. Hades inclined his head. "I see you are now done wasted time."

I cringed at little at his words. Wasting time. "I guess so sir."

"Good," his black eyes regarded me. judging me all over again. Persephone squeezed his arm, looking mildly annoyed.

"My lord, I do not wish to be here all day," she hissed. He disregarded her.

"Luke Castellan, you have been reassigned to Elysium. Congratulations."

The scenery before me dissolved and I found myself in a sparsely furnished room of a house, keys being pressed into my right hand. My head turned toward the source of the entity. Persephone stood alone, behind and to the right of me. She smiled a closed-lip smile. "I'm happy you've made it. You deserve this."

I opened my mouth to speak, to thank her, "I thought my case..." only to see her fade into darkness in front of my eyes. That was the beginning of my new life.

"Lucas, art thou listening to me?" Zoë snapped.

"Uh...what?" I refocused myself. She'd been saying something to me, but it was kind of hard to concentrate when you could see right through her. It was like she was only half here, in the Underworld, which I guess could've been true some way or another. And if looked hard enough I swear I could see the Milky Way or something swirling around where her heart should've been. Zoë Nightshade was quite literally made of stardust.

"I said, Nico is dropping by today with messages for the rest of the Hunters from Lady Artemis. When he's done I need you to keep him away from us for the rest of the duration of his stay. Is that clear?" she flicked her braid over her shoulder, crossed her arms, and shifted her weight to one foot. I grinned at her, probably in an aloof way that helped the dead Hunters find me insufferable. It didn't matter though. I disliked them nearly as much as they did me. Irritation flashed dangerously across the lieutenant's face.

The rest of the EBHA- the 'Elysium Branch of the Hunters of Artemis'- were inside the huge silver mansion, reserved solely from them; Artemis would not hear of them having anything but the best after they had passed on from their service with her on Earth. I toned down my smile, "Sure Zo' whatever you say. My name isn't Lucas by the way. Luke isn't short for anything."

Content with the answer and ignoring my comments, she backed up, keeping narrowed eyes on me before bumping into the doorway, turning around, and entering her home. I kicked a rock and proceeded with the walk I'd been on before her interception. The marble roads in Elysium used some kind of magic to get you where you wanted to go (inside Elysium of course) without having to walk too far. But since I had no objective in destination, the path kept me passing the houses of anyone I used to know or know about.

I kept walking. Laughter tinkered out of a smaller, suburban-looking house on the other side of the street. Silena and Beckendorf's abode. I'd talked to Silena on a few occasions, discussing guilt, what we'd done to hurt everyone around us. Topics of that nature. Once we'd even discussed rebirth, trying to make the Isles of the Blest. I thought it was a good idea. Her response had been that, while it was tempting to try for more, she was happy now. She was able to eternally be with 'Charlie' and that was all she needed. She proceeded to encourage me to try though, because it was apparent that I was bored, and heavy-laden with guilt and self-loathing. Maybe I could officially redeem myself in my own eyes.

For weeks, I'd been mulling over her words. They'd been true. I was bored. There had been parties, but I always felt like an outsider, an unwelcome outlier. So I'd finally come to the resolution that I was going to go through with it. In the morning, I would request an audience with the Council.

I was going to be reborn.

After strolling aimlessly for a few more hours, the bright purple sky starting to fade into deep mauve night, I headed back to the EBHA House. Upon arrival, there were several dejected looking girls pouting on the lawn. If these girls'd gone through the trouble to go sit outside with nothing to do, then Nico was most likely inside. They muttered put-off statements to each other and a few eyed me warily as I walked past them and up to the front door. I knocked a few times, and a disheveled and furious Zoe shoved none other than the son of Hades straight into me. "You're late," she growled. Nico and I both tumbled backwards into the soft grass. Some of the girls scoffed as they stood up and stepped over us to get back inside.

When the last of the girls had gone in I propped myself up on my elbows and Nico sat up, groaning as he rubbed his cranium. I was going to ask what he'd done this time when a nagging detail about the setting continued to nip at me. I stood up, surveying my surroundings. That's when I noticed that the door hadn't been slammed shut like it usually was when Nico- or any other male for that matter- came around. I turned about to face the house again.

Only to be paralyzed by the electric blue eyes of a certain Daughter of Zeus.

"Yeah uh, I was just about to warn you, but you still seemed a little bit dazed.." Nico muttered in that raspy, quiet voice of his. He rose up, stringy hair falling into his pale face. My eyes still hadn't stopped staring into her troubled-looking blue ones.

"I...no. No, no, no! Why is she here Nico?!" I finally found it in myself to turn around to face him. I yanked the shorter halfblood towards me by his jacket. "WHAT HAPPENED?"

I felt a hand on my shoulder, easing me off of the surprised kid. I let go, and slowly turned to face the Huntress behind me. I felt my eyes burning, a lump forming in my throat. I didn't have control over my body anymore. My arms slid around her and my face burrowed into her neck. She pat my back kind of awkwardly.

I felt terrible, like somebody had dumped the contents of Pandora's box into my stomach. And even though I knew it was most likely not my fault, I couldn't help feeling utter responsibility for her being there. I lifted my head a bit and wiped a few runaway tears. "How did it happen?"

"Luke," Thalia murmured calmly, "Luke, I'm not dead." I snapped straight back up and just looked at her, flabbergasted. My mouth hung open and as soon as her words registered, my hands flew off of her so fast that onlookers might have thought she'd shocked me. Which I guess she did, more or less.

I took a few steps back from Nico and Thalia. "Can somebody please freaking tell me what is going on here?" I demanded, mustering as much fury I could. It wasn't much. I was still too confounded about her presence here.

Nico straightened his jacket and stepped forward, taking my and Thalia's hands, "How about we go talk somewhere a little less public?" He stepped into the shadows, dragging the both of us with him. I caught my balance as he let go, now in the kitchen of my appointed home. Thalia wasn't so lucky, and went tumbling forward, nearly hitting her face against a cabinet.

I prepared to hand them both their dues through a diatribe fit for a criminal on death-row, but Thalia, having composed herself, beat me to it.

"I got permission to be here from Lady Artemis. I was only here to help Nico get her points across to the girls. Nico smuggled me in, but I'm pretty sure that Hades knows I'm here, so we can't be long. But what I didn't tell Lady Artemis or Nico...was that I wanted to say hello to you too. To see how you were. It was only a long shot though, because nobody knew if you'd made Elysium. But I'd always believed you'd made it," the girl with the blue eyes, and short choppy black hair, and the air of a die-hard rocker about her stood before a solemnly silent Nico and a utterly speechless me. It was the most sentimental thing she'd ever said to me.

Her face relaxed back into the slight frown she wore most of the time. "Well? I just kinda like, poured out my heart to you. Are you just gonna gape there like a fish out of water?"

Jerking into action I near jumped forward and hugged her again, as tight as I could. Warmth seeped into me when she squeezed back. I was warmer than I'd been since I'd died, warm than I'd been since I'd let Kronus into my mortal body.

Our foreheads bumped. Something in me was screaming, she's a Hunter! Don't do this to her, don't condemn her this way! But I really didn't care, my eyes were shut tight so hard that it almost hurt. Static crackled through my hair, down my neck, over my scar. She was breathing faster than I was. I was mostly trying not to break down and building a little courage for my next words: "Thalia, I love you. I loved you when I was alive and I love you now. Do you know how hard it was to banish you from my memory? You were the last bit of reason I needed to fight Kronus from my soul. You're my saving Grace."

She scoffed, "That last bit was so lame." And then she leaned forward and her lips had barely brushed over mine when I pulled back. I know she couldn't risk the guilt that she would feel if she went through with this. And I imagined the extra guilt I'd feel if she got kicked out of the Hunters. She slowly opened her eyes, looking a little bit ticked off and confused. Uh-oh, awkward situation in the process.

Her arms loosened from around my back a bit and she was stepping back, a rejected look on her face. Luckily Nico took that moment to actually jump in and hug us both, "GROUP HUG!"

I never knew the kid had it in him.

We spent half an hour catching up, and inevitably it was eventually time for them to go. Nico claimed that the Underworld was becoming aware of Thalia's queer presence . He took Thalia's hand and waited for her to say goodbye to me.

We had another little staring contest with each other. Finally she looked down, "Bye Luke."

"...Goodbye Thalia."

"I'll be back to visit. I promise. One day," she looked back up at me, determination shining through.
I felt like I'd stuck a wet fork into an electrical socket, "Thalia. I won't...I won't be here. I'm going for rebirth."

Thalia yanked her hand free from Nico's, stalking toward me, "HA! LIKE HADES YOU ARE!" She firmly planted her feet in front of me, hands on her hips.

"I'm sorry."

"Luke, think about how ridiculous you sound."

"It's not ridiculous. It's a good idea. A great one actually. I'll do whatever I think is best for myself Thalia," I pushed my dirty blond hair out of my face. I started thinking gosh, I needed a haircut when I remembered to ignore lingering ADHD thoughts.

"No it's not a good idea. Luke look," she inched closer, "if I have any say in this then I'll wait on you. When I die I'll come straight here for you."

"Thalia, this isn't about you. And honestly, who knows how long it'd be before you die? It could be centuries, Grace." I smiled a little at her efforts.

"I won't love anyone else, obviously. But I won't let any other boy love me, never," she continued pleading, ignoring me.

"Your face alone will forbid it," my grin widened so much that it hurt. Nico rubbed his face, complaining about how his cheeks were getting empathetically sore. Thalia halted conversation immediately and clenched one of her hands into a fist. Looking back, it probably wasn't the best idea to quote a line from the story of a past Hunter's undoing.

She punched me square in the jaw. Stars and little lightning bolts riddled holes in my vision. "Yeah, I guess I deserved that..."

She laughed once, bitterly. I looked up to see tears slicking her face. Her nose was beginning to run and her brows were clenched and she wouldn't look at me. "Fine, Castellan. Go have fun being someone else." She grabbed one of Nico's circulating hands.

"Let's go death boy," he stopped rubbing his cheek and looked sadly at me.

"Good luck bro," Nico mumbled. Thalia Grace roughly swiped at her tears. They turned toward the shadows at the other side of the kitchen. She looked back one more time.

Nico started pulling her forward slowly, right before he started to merge into the darkness, she whispered, "I love you too. I wish we'd both had different lives, easier ones. Luke Castellan, in another life, I swear I'd have been yours."

And like that they were gone.

And in those moments when the smells of static and pine and death and chocolate Axe (what the heck Nico?) still lingered, I thought to myself that maybe, if I could make it to the Isles of the Blest, I could chose to come back to Elysium, in the future when Thalia might be here.

2 more lives to live. 2 more chances to fail.

But I'd do it for her because she'd said herself. In another life, she would be mine.

I was determined to make the next two count.