Choices || Harry Potter [HP X PJO]

o n e

In today's world, everyone (or most teenagers) wants battle scars, bragging rights, to say, 'Oh, look at me, I'm so traumatized, you should shower me with attention and praise me.'

I wish I could say I was different, but I can't, because that mentality, it's contagious, and it was only fair I got it. 

I didn't realize how ugly battle scars were until I got them, and then all that longing, gone. Instead of a thirst for attention, the thirst was replaced by fear, pain, unbearable guilt. I had killed people, yes, it was them or the world, but why did those mortals have to die? I had tried to save them, tried to get them off that bridge before the titan army arrived, but I had failed, and I had destroyed the bridge, sending those mortals into the water and to their deaths.

Why was I, or the gods, more important than those mortals, who were innocent, and their families who would cry? What gave me the right to decide who lived and who had to die? Nothing, yet here I was, getting showered with praise by the gods. 

War was all about choices, which path would lead you to victory, but I didn't feel like I won. Not when I was looking down from the sky, seeing mortals scream in grief. Not when I looked to the garden of Olympus, seeing all the bodies of the demigods who had died in the war.

It wasn't a victory, yet we were celebrating it like we had achieved something great. Maybe Luke was right, the god's weren't good, but I shiver to think about how much more would have died if the titans won.

Choices.

Outside the throne room, I stood on the balcony overlooking the city, which was now destroyed. Buildings were toppled over, and it was almost completely dark. They had to make so many choices, would one have led to less destruction? What if I had killed Ethan Nakamura when I had the chance, would the ending have been different?

There was no going back now, though, and I knew that. I also knew that, even if it was a fight to the death, I wouldn't have been able to bring myself to kill another demigod, especially not Ethan, whom I had known before he left camp.

I felt a presence behind me, but I didn't turn around. My body tensed, and my hand reached for one of my earrings, where my one of my twin daggers were hidden. If it came to a fight, I could get the other from my other earring. 

"Scorpia," I heard. I didn't recognize the voice, but I knew who the goddess was when I turned around. I regarded her with a cool gaze; she had joined the titans.

"Mother," I greeted in an ice-cold voice. Every word was laced with venom. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Hecate bowed her head. "The first thing I want to do is apologize, Scorpia. I should not have tried to force you to join the titans. I should have reached out more, not just that one time. I also apologize for telling Alabaster to, well..."

"Kill me?" I finished. My expression was made of stone. "Some mother you are. I just appreciate it so much."

The goddess in front of me winced, and she seemed to grow smaller with each word. "You're special," she finally blurted out. "I just thought that you deserved the truth."

I frowned at her. She had finally gained my curiosity, but certainly not my trust. "The truth?" I asked.

She hesitated. "You're more powerful than all of my children, I'm sure you've noticed that."

My gaze hardened once again. "Well, I've only got Lou Ellen to compare myself to, because you got them killed by having them follow you to the Titan's side."

Hecate bit her lip. She knew she deserved what I was saying. "Well, you are," she said. "Eons ago, I created a... pet world, you might say."

I tilted my head. My anger was still blazing in my eyes, but I tried to not let it effect me. "Who were the people in this world?"