The Afterlife (HoO Fanfiction)

Thalia & Reyna

As soon as we arrived at Mount Olympus, Reyna and I ran to battle. Or what looked to us like a battle. Going through the door, we found ourselves both in a spacious white room surrounded by equally white walls raised to the sky. I walked around, intrigued. What did this room mean? We had to find a way to get out to reach our friends.

Suddenly, a silhouette appeared, tall and regal. With her terrible eyes, she observed us a few seconds then vanished.

"What was that?" Reyna asked, as troubled as I was.

"I have no idea. Maybe... It looked like Ananke."

"Then she wasn't waiting for us. We are one step ahead of her."

As soon as Reyna spoke those words, an army of hellhounds invaded the space in front of me. I touched immediately my bracelet with the same gesture I had made a thousand times to deploy Aegis. The dogs backed up, growling. They looked like they were resenting me the most. Reyna, therefore, managed to reach the pack from behind and made a few of the disappear a few.

As soon as the dogs realized that they were being attacked from behind, they charged. With my spear, I touched the first one who had thrown itself at me. A second one attacked my leg, but I managed to push him away with my shield. On her side, Reyna wasn't doing badly herself. She had managed to wound many dogs and make a few of them vanish. This girl would always fascinate me with her fighting abilities.

After several minutes of balancing my spear right and left, I realized that we had eliminated all the hellhounds. As we caught our breath, the silhouette came back. She glanced at us more confidently than before. She then started to talk and her voice rang in my head.

"Did you like my little gift, Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus?"

I winced. I remember very well my first clash with hellhounds, the one where I died and was turned into a pine tree.

"Yeah, very funny," I replied.

"Do you remember that time when Hades sent so many monsters against you because he was mad at your father? That time you had to sacrifice yourself for your friends?"

"I remember so well that I decided to join Artemis so I wouldn't have to be the centre of the Great Prophecy anymore."

"Yeah, you're right," Ananke seemed to hesitate. I knew that she wanted to hurt me. And still, I had accepted long ago that gods were controlling my life. I had never tried to separate myself from this. With accepting to become a Hunter, I had also to accept to fight to the death. Often to undo the gods' mistakes.

Ananke studies me for a few more seconds. Then, a flame ignited in her eyes and she smiled.

"Oh, I know what you're thinking about. You think that you chose to fight. But instead, you chose to flee. You fled from Luke's betrayal."

"I..." She had touched a cord. It was true, I had fled. I didn't want to be the one to decide to destroy Luke. I had loved him and I had difficulty coming back from his betrayal. However, if Luke had taught me something, it was that destroying the gods wasn't the solution.

Ananke continued with an even colder tone. "That's where you're wrong. The gods can never be changed. They haven't changed in 3000 years. The solution is to destroy them. Without causing deaths, without hurting mortals or even demigods."

I had no way to answer her in a satisfactory manner because deep down, I knew that she was probably right. But I couldn't get myself to become like Luke. I couldn't let myself be submerged by my resentment towards the gods. I threw a lightning bolt towards Ananke. She rapidly dissolved and reappeared behind me. I could see on her face that she was satisfied with our conversation and she turned to face Reyna. She addressed the goddess first.

"I already know what you're going to tell me. 'Look at the sad childhood you had. Your father went mad and you killed him. Where was Bellona? Then you spent a part of your life on Circe's island, who failed to protect you. Since you became Praetor, you give all you energy away to keep demigods alive.' Even if you tell me all this, I accept it. I know what I chose to do and I decided to learn from my difficult childhood."

Ananke was taken aback. She was imagining that she could play with Reyna just as she had played with me. But Reyna was acting like a true Roman soldier. Her head held high and clear, she didn't allow her emotions to take over her duties. I knew where Jason had picked on certain habits.

Ananke looked hurt and she vanished again. She left us alone in this spacious room. Quickly I thought that we had won maybe not the war, but at least a battle. But Ananke spoke to me one last time. Her voice rang in my head.

"You are currently fighting for a fairer world for your family and loved ones, but--"

"Don't say it, don't say it."

"When they are dead, Thalia, what will you do?"

These last words let me without breath. I didn't know how, but Ananke clearly could read my mind. She had pinpointed my greatest fear. Reyna approached me and I felt a wave of hope and courage. Bellona's powers.

"We need to get out of here," she said.

Ananke might have shaken me, but her plan had a few blind spots. Unable to predict our arrival, she didn't have the time to prepare a way to slow us down. We therefore could find a solution to break down the walls freely. Without thinking it through, I blew down a wall with a lightning bolt, which crumbled upon impact. The path was now cleared.

I quickly realized that we were in a labyrinth when I came out of the room. We walked along a corridor, always alert and in fighting position in order to be ready for anything.

"Are you okay?" I asked Reyna timidly. I knew that she had just revealed all her secrets to me, even the more troubling parts of her past. I had a lot of respect for Reyna and her work, even though I didn't know her so well.

"Yeah. I learned to live with my demons." I didn't reply. "You don't think she may be right?"

"I don't know," I answered. "She was convincing."

Our conversation was cut short when we arrived in a new room where someone was fighting. Hazel was fending off a Basilisk. With her long sword, she successfully sent it away in a cloud of golden dust. She was covered by the dust as if she had already killed many monsters.

We ran to her side.

"What are you guys doing here!" Hazel exclaimed when she saw us. She had so little energy left that she leaned on me with all her weight.

"We came to help you," said Reyna. "I'm always here to save your asses."

"Where are the others?"

"We were separated, Hazel replied."

Suddenly, a large eagle flew over us. We all had the reflex to ready our weapons. The giant bird changed before our eyes into Frank. Seeing him, Hazel ran into his open arms.

"How did you manage to reach me?"

"I think Ananke's losing power. I could get a little rest and I used it to run away from her. It seems that there are a few blind spots in her plan."

We looked at each other, uncomfortable. Ananke had hurt us all deeply with her words. But we had to show her that we were confident. From a common agreement, we decided to continue looking for the others. Four people maybe had a chance against the goddess of the inevitable.