AN: Hello! So sorry thats its been forever since I've updated... consider this your Tuesday update for the week...
Also, give a hand to Gaga4Jeyna as they requested this in their review, it took form in a plot bunny, and snowballed into this... Hopefully everyone likes it? If you have idea's for things you'd like me to write, drop me a PM and I'll see what I can do (because I have no life).
Disclaimer: I do not own the idea of the PJO and HoH universe, nor any of the characters.
She looked up from her feet, gazing at the three judges sitting in front of her in disbelief.
"Elysium?" She asked, almost not daring to believe it.
The judge in the middle, who's gilded mask was more ornate than the others tilted his head as if to say yes, before the one on the right began to talk some more.
But she wasn't listening.
Reyna was completely tuned out.
She was bewildered.
She had not expected to end up in Elysium.
Sure, she'd helped bring peace and eliminate the hostility between camps when she was younger, after the main battles. But she had also fought against the Greeks in the start.
She had killed children. She was a nightmare. She was their nightmare.
After the war she had closed herself off even more. And it certainly didn't help that during the war, in order to maintain the guise that she hated the Greeks, in order to keep up the image that she was Roman through and through, and therefore keep at least one sane praetor in the senate she had had to fight. Fight hard and furious. She became a terror. One of the most feared Romans of the time.
The Greeks hated her. There wasn't one Greek demigod alive who, by the end of the war, hadn't had at least one relative, friend or loved one killed by her.
She was feared, and that hurt.
Because what they didn't know is that she tried. Oh gods how she tried to reign back the Romans, to cut the losses discreetly.
Offer to lead a strike team in instead of having the Trivia kids poison half of the camp.
Insisting that she lead the attack instead of Octavian, or one of the more ruthless centurions.
Or sending the few children of Fortuna and Felicitas they had to battle first and in situations so bad, they were pretty much guaranteed to die early. Which in turn gave the Romans such horrible luck; it definitely evened the playing field.
She saved lives but she also stole them away all too soon. And it the end, she just didn't really know whether she stole more than she saved.
And the wondering, the questioning if she could have done better, could have saved more. That was what almost did her in. That and the nightmares.
Oh, the nightmares.
Because suitably, the nightmare had nightmares. She would see the bodies of the children she had slaughtered, the rows and rows of shrouds at the end of it all.
All of the faces of despair, the empty eyes of those who had to retrieve their fallen, the fallen of the strikes she had ordered.
And it almost became too much, the hurt, the nightmares, the angry glares. Keeping up the gods be damned façade! And she became so lonely without him there.
Because then there was Jason.
After she got the message, the message that still seemed so clear it could have been just last week. Well, people were much more wary of her.
She went from the blood thirsty Roman, to the broken girl who had wormed her way into their beloved praetors heart. People weren't quite sure what to make of her.
Some hated her still, figuring that she was treacherous. A two faced liar who was only with him for the status.
Others avoided her. She wasn't quite sure why they did, but she remembered being thank full that at least it was one less person who she had to talk to. One less awkward silence, hateful glare, or pitying glance.
The pity was the worse.
Because jealousy? That was laughable. Hatred? At least that was predictable. And at least she could deal with guilt. But this, this was new.
She was supposed to be Reyna, the strong, battle hardened warrior who nobody dared pity. But now, now she had been lowered.
The video message had inadvertently let people in, they had now seen just a little bit of her. Of the girl who still occasionally got scared of the dark. The girl who regretted almost everything about her life.
And then they were free to judge her, and judge her they did. They claimed she was two faced, a traitor. Because she heard the whispers behind her back. In the senate, she saw the looks people gave her.
They had seen that on the inside, she was weak. And that was not tolerated for a woman of her status.
She was a liability, and seen as one until she resigned a week later.
"…And therefore, due mainly to your heroic actions during the war 2 years prior to this date, it has been seen fit for you to be awarded with Elysium." The first judge said, continuing a sentence she had missed entirely.
And then the fear struck.
She felt numb as she was walked towards Elysium, marched in between the two shades.
It was like having a panic attack. She felt disconnected from whatever was happening around her, all she could focus on was the fear.
Because now she was going to see him. She was going to face the countless Greeks and Romans she had either killed, or knowingly sentenced to their deaths.
And she wasn't sure she could do it.
Would he approve?
Would he be okay with who she had become, would he approve of the decisions she had made?
And then, then she was forced out of her revelations, because the shades had stopped, they had reached the gates.
Her first thought was that they were huge. The gates leading in too paradise were at least three stories tall. And then, as though on some hidden signal, they started to open.
And her breath was taken away.
It was beautiful, a complete mishmash of everything in history that caused awe.
She walked forward as if in a trance.
She was amazed at the beauty of Elysium, the arches and towers, gardens and ponds.
When she noticed that there were no longer shades on either side of her, she turned around and realised they had stopped at the entrance, which she had unknowingly walked through.
And then the gates were closing. And she saw one of them tilt his head, as if to say 'good luck'.
She tilted her head in return.
Reyna slowly turned around; turning to face the utopia she had walked into. And she realised that she had changed. Her body was different, younger. Most of her scars were gone, and her hair was braided neatly down her back. She was wearing an SPQR T-shirt, jean shorts and converse.
With a start, she realised this was the outfit she would wear to walk around New Rome before she became Praetor.
She looked just like she did when she was fifteen she thought with a wry smile, before any of this mess had started.
And as she looked up, to get another view of the paradise she had walked into, she saw him.
He was standing there, waiting for her and her heart leapt because the look on his face wasn't bitter or angry, or even disapproval as she feared it might be. No, the look on his face was one of joy. It may have been tinted with the hint of sadness in his eyes, but the smile on his face and the dimples in his cheeks made up for it a hundred times over.
And Reyna ran.
She ran and ran straight into his arms.
Tears streaming down her face all she could register was the sound of his voice as he murmured reassurances, the screams from the fields of punishment, and the small, metallic sphere digging into her skin, from the chain she had it hanging from.
And then she looked up into his eyes, and he wiped away each and every one of her tears, as he grinned at her with his real smile. The one that he saved just for Reyna, Julia, Bobby, Gwen and a few select others.
Not the fake, confident smile he flashed the senate. Or the calm, handsome smile he wore when walking around new Rome. No, this was a special smile. The one that made his scar turn and his eyes sparkle.
And for the first time in two year Reyna felt safe and happy.
Because a grin of her own slowly started to rise on her face, as he offered his hand to her, and she took it and they started to walk.
And neither of them said a word, because all of the words that were needed were in the smile on her face, the way his hand fit in hers, and the sphere, bouncing as they walked hand in hand to a building suspiciously like the praetors villa's.
AN: So I really hope everyone liked it! I'm considering doing a thing where the seven (Nico, Hazel, Piper, Frank, Annabeth, Leo and Coach Hedge) come back, as was the original plan, but I might not.
PLEASE REVIEW! They make my day and I will ALWAYS respond to them (unless its anonymous, or by a guest)
Thanks,
-Om