Anyone who knows Arya Jackson for more than five minutes knows her opinion of the world, and demigods not so fair place in it. Unfortunately, since the war Arya isn't that easy to get to know. To most she's little more than a legend.
Arya is fine w...
"I don't know what it is like to not have deep emotions. Even when I feel nothing, I feel it completely."
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2.
Seeing Red
ARYA HAD BEEN NUMB FOR DAYS
After everything that happened she had so many emotions screaming at her that eventually they all just stopped, the world just stopped. Honestly, it felt like everything had stopped. She didn't realize that days had passed as she laid in bed. Passively she noted when Ace came in and out of the room and talked to her. The only thing that even gave her any feeling at all is when he sat and read to her. She figured some significant amount of time passed when Piper and Hazel came down to try and coax her out of bed, Arya felt bad enough that she let them convince her to shower.
Nico had replaced Ace briefly at one point. She didn't respond to him, she just didn't have it in her. Nico caused too many emotions both good and bad and her brain and body didn't like that right now. She listened though, as he talked. He talked far more than she had maybe ever heard him in one go. It was like a one sided therapy session. He talked about everything he had been through these last couple months. What it was like to be dying in that jar. Why and how he had ended up in Tartarus, and while he didn't talk about what happened there he did talk about what it's been like since.
The son of Hades was honest with her. He wasn't telling her this looking for comfort. He was telling her this because he needed her to know. When he left he confided in her that he knew what sinking felt like. If she needed to talk about it she could talk to him. She thought about it, but by the time she made up her mind to even respond, he was gone.
That night, after her nightmare, Ace stirred something in her. He told her about the upcoming meeting that she had no interest in attending. Her tattoo started to burn as a cruel reminder that it wasn't an option. He opted to fill her in.
Something in her shifted. He didn't mean to but Ace Valenti had called her out. Everyone, including him when he wasn't taking care of her, had been trying, fighting, to get Percy and Annabeth back.
Arya had been doing nothing.
Everything, including her mind, fought her the next day. Her limbs felt like they had chains attached to every one of them, her chest still felt like it might cave in from its pressure. She forced herself forward anyway.
She owed it to all of them. She owed it to Percy and Annabeth. Above all, she felt like she owed it to Ace. After everything he'd been doing for her, staying next to her every night, distracting her with his reading in a melodic voice for hours every night. After everything that they had been through... She had put him through. He was nothing but patient and kind, far more than she ever deserved.
