SANITY; heroes of olympus

06.1

Jason smiled at her and clasped her hand. "Gaea's gone."

"That's not it." She shook her head and a sad, yet grateful smile crept forth. "I feel whole. For the first time."

As a repayment of all that she had done for the gods, Zeus had granted Dionysus the clearance to cleanse his daughter's mind of the division that was forced upon her during her childhood. All of the memories that she had, once belonging to two separate minds, were now stored within one whole, solid mind.

Andy and Dom were still a part of her, as they always were and always would be, but all of the conflict, all of the chaos that had been caused due to two minds being held in one body, was finally gone.

She was just...Andromeda.

But then she looked around again and part of her split, a piece of her heart. She blanched at the lack of a certain boisterous laugh and the missing head of curly hair. At that mischievous smile, little dimples in his cheeks, and a joke he would have, without doubt, cracked to lighten the mood.

She asked, "Where's Leo?" Looked around again, looked at her brother, and then at Jason. "Where is he? Is he okay?"

And when they all explained it, her heart seemed to shatter. Like a piece being dropped from a tall building.

But then Donnie grasped her hand in his and said, "But we have hope. That he's alive. Somewhere."

Andromeda nodded; she agreed. They had hope. As it turns out, that was all that she had needed.

—🌙—

Even against orders not to leave the Big House, Andromeda found herself sitting alone on Half-Blood Hill, a blanket—one that was blue and smelt like Percy—wrapped around her. It had taken her a total of fifteen minutes to get where she was currently, with lots of pain-filled steps and deep winces and cringes, but she had made it.

Her head was tipped towards the sky, her eyes shut, just simply taking in the world around her. The world that she had been given a second chance to experience. That was something no one got to have, well, barely anyone that is.

She didn't open her eyes or move when someone sat down beside her, and she didn't flinch when an arm draped itself across her shoulders.

She didn't have to look over to know that it was Jason, either. She can practically feel his eyes and hear his thoughts. She can practically feel the patter of his heart and the rumbling of his mind. She doesn't look over, not once...she just stares straight ahead.

But then she murmurs, "We did it. To whatever end."

Out of her peripheral vision she sees Jason shake his head, looking distraught. "I never—not like this. Never like this." He turns his head to her, right at her. "We were all supposed to make it."

"Well—"

He cuts her off sharply. "No. You died. Do you hear me, Andromeda? You died. We all watched your skin become pale and your eyes lose their light. Percy held you in his arms when your heart stopped. Your. Heart. Stopped."