A/N: First off, a reply to my review from my friend Ethempat: Okay, your first suggestion made me laugh so I'll take it into consideration. XD As for the second, your right I really do have an issue describing what I'm already seeing in my head, it's as if I figure everyone can see it too. I really do enjoy constructive criticism, because it's like you KNOW the mistake, your just wondering if it really matters to other people or if it's just you. For the first answer I just want to say Val and Ginger do have conflicting personality, but mainly they work together to form one boss person. Other times though... They have challenges caused by it, which we have yet to see, for example say... In her love life? To answer your second question, this is another secret. :) I love suspense and like to make my readers question what is going to happen and how it's gonna change the story. For three: I like to make it a wait before I do a cliffhanger because its like Mark of Athena and House of Hades, and this is what authors do, also... I have school and stuff so that comes in handy when having waits between chapters with cliffhangers. I do admit I love cliffhangers as much as Uncle Rick, because I do know what happens so its fun to see other's reactions. This chapter starts when the flashback happens that Val caused. Disclaimer: I still don't own anything except maybe my OCS... SURPRISE.
It was the familiar cling of a humid temperature rising up, and the overgrown aloe leaves up against my skin that connected me to Circe's Island, before my wide eyes opened. I felt myself begin to have this hyperventilation, like Katniss Everdeen when she thinks of the games. It was the same idea of dread I believed, in thinking you were being put through something over again, that moment you forget the things that happened after that. She dreaded her killing, I dreaded the same.
"Hey hey, your alright your alright." Frank said, putting a hand on my shoulder, with a tone like a sibling towards their little sister after a nightmare. Except the words weren't followed with 'It was just a dream'.
"This... This way." I said, balancing myself on him to stand up. Close to the burning building, we were at the edge of the tropical forest growing behind the spa.
I didn't want to make myself see it again, but otherwise it would stay stuck. We were ghost, following the path we'd lead in a life we no longer had.
Cornered and knocked out by the smoke, caused by a bomb set off in the north. That's how most of the attendance had died, all the soulless laying in the in the residence. Some had made it, being sent of by CC, and few of them had lasted when the pirates followed after the flames.
We were the last ones to be caught, my sisters and I, they found us hidden in a porch in the south west, passed out.
Our eyes, me, Reyna, Hylla, and maybe a little over a dozen others, woke up tied to post, with a savagery built up of 50 plus pirates. No one would make it off the island.
"These are the rules. You work for us, or you die for us." we were told by the captain, a man named BlackBeard, the one who hated Circe the most, the one who killed her.
Circe had known they would reek a revenge far beyond comparison to what we did, and so it wasn't long after they changed before Gaea took them over, and they had the power they needed. And it wasn't long after that they had orders for getting me.
Hylla remained with a chain around her arm, while Reyna had been knocked out. It was the first moment I felt like I could ruin everything. My confident had crumpled along with Reyna, when the sword hilt hit my twin's head. I knew I had caused it by not listening.
I was sobbing at this point, now, and then. Both young me and the current had both thought, 'What are you doing, stop!' But I was thinking this about myself, as they dragged me away, and she had thought it when they hurt her family. "You were only 12... You were so vulnerable, you had no one to turn to. How could you know what you were doing?" Frank said, as my head rested on my arms, with the salty tear dripping down my face like rain in April.
"Val, look at me." he said. "This isn't your fault."
As my lip quivered I knew that there wasn't an answer. For wether or not I could be considered guilty. For wether or not I should be forgiven because I was too young. There just was. I HAD. And it was an unchangeable fact, not a variable so I had to get over my stupid incapability to forgive myself.
And my arms found their way around him, and my head rested on his chest.
As both of our eyes closed, we found a new memory.
The cold judges, the whips of fame and life before, watching with their all telling things, with rusted lungs speaking words with a stone monotone.
What else could I have done? As a thirteen year old girl treated cruelly but who never hurt others? What could I have done, as a innocent New Orleans girl? With as many stones thrown at her so as she could have built a wall to shield herself in.
I couldn't, I couldn't make a choice of myself over others, not at that life, not at that age. This was a parallel between who I was as Val, and who I was as Ginger. So when I turned down Elysium for my mother, it fell to be that I would linger in the Fields of Asphodel.
I had this forever, instead of bitterness this time. My tiny little fingers' laced with Frank, as we laid against a black popular tree, watching the collection of souls with no voice crowd their land.
"When Nico came, did you want to go back?" Frank asked.
"I didn't really think about it, I wasn't really asked what I wanted. At first I had a duty to complete what I was done, to make sure Gaea wouldn't rise again, even if meant dying again. I was to sty disconnected, to not grow fond of anyone. Thats what Pluto said I should do. But then I felt obligated to Nico, you know? He had wanted to save his real sister... Bianca. She was the one who told him about me. There was a sisterly feeling, and I began to start thinking that maybe I could make it up to Reyna if I was a good older sister to him because I couldn't be there for her. Of course I was keeping an eye on Reyna the whole time, this helped her begin to open to me, as Ginger. This helped if ever I ended up telling her the truth, even if Nico's plan didn't involve it. And he's right, if I told her and ended up dying it would only make it worse, and me more selfish." I said, turning towards Frank.
"You know, I think people would rather be able to spend time with you, the real you, no matter what happens." he said. I gave a little try at a smile, wiping the moist off my cheeks, as we laid there side by side, leaning on the other.
Our eyes opened back in his bedroom, standing up.
Subconsciously I thought something, brought up from the warmth of holding his hands.
"Frank... If Percy is the glue... Like Juno said before... What is he gluing?" I asked.
"I don't know... I guess I never really thought about it. Maybe it has to do with wherever he's from. Wherever the other greek demigods are." he raised an eyebrow, knowing I was up to something.
"If Percy was taken from there... Maybe someone was taken from us! Someone important... To bridge the gap!" I got super excited, like when I thought I was gonna miss line up, but I didn't.
"You mean like an exchange? Val... Do you know what this means! Maybe that's why you didn't find him! Cause you couldn't! Val... HE COULD BE ALIVE. YOUR BOYFRIEND, COULD BE ALIVE." Frank grinned widely as if this was a improbability that happened... But I had believed it all along, even after months of searching for him, and trying to forget him, him and his name, his EVERYTHING. But I had believe what he was saying was true long before anyone else.
"No. No... I would've... There would've been something." I wasn't want to get these fragile hopes up, especially ones so hard to believe, after spending so much time trying to come to turns with it...
"Val." Frank said realization, taking my hands. "Jason is alive. We'll figure it out, we'll find him. Jason Grace is alive."
A/N Alright, I bet your either pretty upset or excited about this. First off, all I can say is that Vason is a thing, not Jeyna. I did give you a few sorts of foreshadowing things, like her reaction to riding on Arion, to not mentioning Jason and Reyna , or even Jason at all. This will be further explained, and it has more backbone, trust me. As always, three questions.
1. This may be cheating but... Any Valeria*Jason questions, and what do you think of them and what do you want to see in their relationship?
2. How do you like my flashbacks, are they good?
And finally 3: What do you think of Faleria's (Frank*Valeria) progress, too quick, too OOC for Frank, or just right and what can I do to make it better?