Elysium (Part 1)

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In honor of my 19th birthday! (As it is not yet midnight so it still is my birthday) have a onshot!

-Jaz

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Elysium (Part 1)

"What's the point is this?" Luke sighed annoyed as he sat down. "I'm guilty and that's that. Can we stop repeating this conversation already? It's tiring."

"That's just because everyone doesn't know why you did it!" Annabeth chimed in just like she had every time before. "If you would just tell them-"

"Do you really think they care Annie?" Luke asked her eerily calm. "The next highest court is that of public opinion. And there they judge harshly and only change opinion when they gain something from it. There is no point to this back and forth. The public views me how they will."

"But whose opinion actually matters?" Thalia asked him.

Luke's eyes shifted to her, her bright blue eyes stared into his with an emotion he couldn't place. He found the longer he stayed here the harder it was for him to read her. Finally he spoke, "Am I just supposed to pretend-"

"No," she interjected sternly. "You're supposed to grow a set of balls and move on with your life. Stop dwelling in the past you can't change and thinking about everything you can't have or do. You need to think about the future. Our future."

Luke couldn't help the small laugh which escaped, "As much as I'd like to, what future do I have?" He pointed behind him up at the window. "You do see the bars on that window right?" He lowered his arm and pulled at his collar, "This orange jumpsuit? This is the only future in sight for the next twenty-five or the rest of my life."

Luke watched as Thalia's eyes searched his face, and how Annabeth looked between the two of them most likely debating the merits of throwing in her thoughts.

After a moment Thalia stood, "I'm moving to California," she stated. "And I'm taking Annabeth with me."

Her words might as well been a bullet the way it hit him, "You can't do that," his whispered.

"My brother is there," Thalia continued. "And here your name- and thus our names are stained with blood. Perhaps a different ocean can wash a bit of it away."

Luke's fingers curled into fists underneath the metal table as he tried to contain his anger. He couldn't have an episode, not here, not now. "You can't take my daughter all the way across the country."

Thalia frowned, "She's my daughter too."

"I want to stay here," Annabeth told her. "I want to be able to visit dad."

Thalia shook her head, "I already told you that you need a normal education and social life."

"I want dad not those!"

"We can come and visit him in the summers... maybe," Thalia told her.

"Can't we talk about this?" Luke asked her standing.

Thalia fixed a glare on him which made Luke regret every moment of his life. "No."

"Thalia..."

"No. If you don't think that your own daughter is your future than we have nothing to talk about, and you have no reason to see her. Goodbye Luke."

Annabeth's mouth opened to argue, but Thalia was already walking toward the exit. Luke looked down at his daughter her eyes full of tears and he pulled her in close, squeezing her tightly. He blinked back his own tears as he pressed a kiss to her head, "I love you more than anything, you know that right? Things have just been difficult. I've been saying things I don't really mean-"

"You don't need to lie to me dad. I understand," she replied hugging him back and Luke's eyes widened. "I promise to send you letters and stuff all the time."

Luke couldn't help but smile as he pulled back from the hug wiping his eyes, "Your mother wouldn't like that."

"So?"

Luke shook his head as he hugged her again, "No one can doubt that your my daughter. I-"

"Annabeth!"

"Goodbye dad," Annabeth said quietly pulling away, but Luke still held onto her shoulders.

"Take care of yourself. And your mother, I promise we will be a family again someday. No matter what I have to do I will make it happen okay?"

She gave him a reassuring smile despite her tear stained cheeks, "I love you, dad."

Luke opened his mouth to respond, but she was already running back to her mother.

~~~~

"I think something broke Luke guys," Ethan commented poking the older one and gaining no reaction. "He's been this way for weeks now."

Zoë didn't turn around from where she leaned against the other side of the fence. "Pity I wasn't he one to do it."

"Zoë this is serious," Bianca commented. She knelt down and looked through the fence at Luke. "What's wrong?" She asked him.

Luke blinked surprised before he looked at each of them, "Would you three be willing to help me with something?"

"Depends."

"Nope."

"No."

"What if it said it involved seeing the outside world?" Luke continued.

Ethan's good eye focused on him and he lowered his voice, "What are you suggesting?"

Luke's face split into a smile and Ethan couldn't help but think, but for just a moment that Luke's eyes looked a different color. "I'm saying we become the first people to break out of this place."

"Are you stupid?" Zoë asked him. "There is no way out. We are in one of the most secure prisons in the country."

"That doesn't mean it can't be done."

She studied his face for a moment, "You have a plan don't you?"

Luke shrugged still smiling. "Of sorts."

"Is it yours? Or is it his?"

He shrugged again, "Care to find out?"

"Holy fuck," Ethan swore sinking down to the ground when the saw the smile spread on Zoë's face. "You two really want to break out of her. Bianca can't you talk some sense into them?"

Bianca shrugged sheepishly, "I'm curious."

Ethan sighed, "Looks like we're breaking out of Elysium."

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