Mission Accepted: Percabeth AU (HoO)✔️

Trial

Photo by Keagan Henman on Unsplash 

I awake on the walkway, cracks carving their way around Cruz, and I. Paris lays still, Hasina is staring into space, wide-eyed. I groan, pain finding its way in every crevice of my body. The air around us is glittering in grey and blue orbs.

I rasp into the earpiece, "Someone speak to me."

"Bombs are diffused. You?" I hear Thalia.

"Cruz is unconscious. In the West Wing. Off the main corridor. Trap door. Hurry."

My world spins. "Annabeth hold on, we're coming." Her words begin to fade into nothing. I feel like I'm falling and drifting apart at the same time.

*~*

~*~

I internally groan, supporting myself on a cane as we watch Cruz's trial the next day. The King stands next to her, his wrists cuffed as she rats him out as well.

"Sit down," Percy urges.

I shake my head, "No, I will be the one standing when she is given the time to reflect on everything she's done."

He leaves me alone but wraps an arm around my waist. I lean on him gratefully. It's crazy how I came into this thinking I would do it alone. Thinking I would take down the rebel scum so easily.

This journey has been unbearably hard. It has tested my morals, my trust in myself, my hope for love, and has taught me it is okay to lean on others. It is okay to not do everything alone. And that I am worthy and good enough even when I need help. We all are.

I feel tears slipping down my face, feeling so tired, and evolved from this entire experience. We all watch as Cruz and the former King is given a life sentence to reflect upon their doings. At least they have comfortable cells. We don't believe in treating humans like animals like other kingdoms may do, throwing a criminal into a cell with nothing but stone and pee on the ground. We offer good food, a good bed, painted walls. But they are still in isolation, expected to reflect.

I watch them walk out. Not too long ago I would've rubbed us winning into Cruz's face but now – now I don't see the point. I once felt so heavy, so weighed down by the mission and what others perceived me as. But that isn't important anymore to me. The moment I began pushing Cruz off me, the weights I put on myself for no reason lifted slowly but surely. And now? I once craved the lightness. Now, I have that lightness with a tint of weight from my experiences - reminding me who I am, what I've been through, and that I have overcome it all. 

Percy grins down at me, "I might have to join you for this spy stuff, it's exciting."

Jason scoffs, "Yeah, diffusing a bomb seconds before it goes off is exciting."

We all laugh, hobbling our way out of the courtroom. Exciting indeed. 

WOW. One more chapter. And this journey has come to an end. 

Have a great day/night wherever you are! - The Fangirl