Personae Non Gratae (a Percy Jackson AU)

Tragedies of Individuals

***Piper***

I never wanted my father to sell me into slavery. I never wanted Kronos to take advantage of me. I never wanted to wake up and realize that the man I had married was not the man I loved, though I was not sure if I ever had or ever will love a man.

I had convinced myself that I was in love. I was grateful that he set me free and for his kindness. I had felt something towards him, something that I thought was love, but if it was, then why had I realized two months after marrying him that the relationship was one-sided?

Jason pecked me on the cheek and I smiled, though I felt none of the magic we had earlier. It was gone-if it ever had existed. "I have to go to work," he said. "Can you check on Thalia?'

I nodded and watched through the window as his figure grew smaller and finally escaped my eyesight. I sighed and ran my fingers through my choppy hair. I had thought that I was in love; how could I be so wrong?

I heard a curse and quickly made towards Thalia's room, where she was sprawled out on the bed her mother used to pass out on. After her mother died, Thalia turned to drinking. She saw things even more than usual. She would scream in her sleep, jarring Jason and I awake at night. She would spend all day drowning her sorrow in alcohol and all night trying to wear off its effects. She was in a perpetual hangover and the rank scent of alcohol clung to her.

Even if I didn't love Jason, I couldn't leave him now. Not after his mother's death. Not when his sister could not be sober for a single minute. "Thalia?" I asked. "Would you like anything? A drink of water? Something to eat? A change of clothes? A bathe?"

Thalia just groaned and rolled over. I left the room, but the putrid smell of alcohol and vomit seemed to have clung to my nose. I sighed. When Thalia got up, I'd help her change, clean her room, and give her a bath. She hadn't gotten up except to drink for three days. Jason had locked up the alcohol, but she still found it. He had smashed all the bottles he had and refused to buy any more, but Thalia somehow still snuck it into the house, though how I did not know.

I heard a knocking at the door and opened it to see Annabeth, her belly swollen from pregnancy. I gave her a hug. "How is it going?" I asked.

She sighed. "Percy is stressed out," she said, blowing a strand of her hair away from her face. He has to support Atalanta and I, along with his mother and his brother Tyson, whom he just found out about a couple months ago. I'm worried that we won't have enough food to feed the next baby."

"If you need any, just ask," Itold her, grabbing some crackers and giving them to Annabeth, who began munching on them.

"How is it going with Percy?" I asked.

She must have heard something in my voice. "Good," she said. "I love him and I'm glad we'll have a kid together, even if money is tight. How are things with Jason?"

I looked at my feet and felt a wave of anger at myself for being so selfish. My friend struggled with money and here I was complaining about my marriage. I was a horrible friend. I sighed. "I'm not sure," I said finally. "Jason is nice and sweet. I know he cares about me, but-"

"But what?" Annabeth asked.

I sighed. "I'm not sure if I love him," I said.

***Reyna***

"Will you tell me who did this to you?" I was asked.

I looked up to see Zeus, the court judge who was questioning me. He wanted names-names of individuals responsible for this. The names of those who forced children to fight. He wanted the names of those who were so twisted that they shoved young children into battlefields and armed them with weapons, ordering them to kill or be killed. He wanted someone to blame for the scandal that had shaken the town when I arrived in my soldier's garb here at 17 with gruesome injuries and death hanging over my head like a hawk.