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Pushing her dirty hair out of her face she sat up and leaned against the wall. Did these punks honestly think that they could break her? She would never turn her back on her family, and she would never give them up just to have a chance to escape, not that she would ever actually escape. If she gave the Titan Lord’s forces any credit, it was doing their damn best to never let anyone warn the other side about anything.
So even if she gave in to them, she would never see anything other than the cell she was stuck in now. Death was also another option, but she knew that the Titan Lord was sadistic enough to keep her around until she saw her friends and family die at his hands.
No, she wasn’t going to give in to him.
So what the hell was she going to do until she either managed to escape or be rescued?
Well, probably sing ‘99 bottles of beer on the wall’, or something as equally annoying. She wanted to make them as irritated as possible, and this was the easiest way. For her efforts she received someone banging on the door and an order to shut up. Yeah, because that works when dealing with pissed off children of Ares. Do they even know who they’re dealing with?
No, she decided, they probably don’t know, and that suited her just fine.
She sang louder, and even more off-key.
*~C~*
A week later she had grown tired of singing annoying songs. Now she just sang all of the sings that she could remember, and then translating them into Ancient Greek when she had trouble remembering more.
“To the right, To the left
We will fight to the death!
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world
From the last to the first
To the right, To the left
We will fight to the death!
To the edge of the earth
It's a brave new world
It's a brave new world
It's a brave new world!
I do believe in the light
Raise your hands into the sky
The fight is done, the war is won
Lift your hands toward the sun
Toward the sun
Toward the sun
Toward the sun
The war is won”
Okay, she was making a statement to them. A part of her doubted that they really understood what she was saying to them, but it was her only source of entertainment in here.
The door opened abruptly interrupting her mini concert for the guards standing outside. Looking up she saw the almost man in charge himself.
“Heya Luke,” she greeted sarcastically, “How’s life as someone’s bitch treating you?”
He glared down at her, and she just smirked back up at him. “Get up,” he finally said after glaring ineffectually at her.
“I get to be interrogated/possibly tortured by you yourself?” she asked sarcastically getting up from her position on the floor. “Sounds like a party.”
“You know Clarisse, I do actually remember you from camp,” he said casually as if he were commenting on the weather.
She arched an eyebrow, “Yeah asshat? Well, I can tell you that I remember you too.”
He just gave her a cool smile, “Walk Clarisse, it’ll be better if you do.”
She gave him a sarcastic smile and walked out of her cell. He stepped out after her, and he grabbed her by the arm and led her to where he wanted to go.
Clarisse rolled her eyes at his paranoia; it wasn’t like she was actually going to be able to get away with the other monster guards around. She spaced out on the trip through the ship, it was probably a bad decision to make, but she’d already been there for over a week, she doubted that she was actually going to see anything else that would be useful for an escape attempt.
So was it any wonder that she was slightly surprised when she heard a door slam shut behind her and found out that she had been left alone with him?
She squashed the urge to twitch when she realized that paying attention would have probably been better. She was still probably right in that she wouldn’t have gained any useful knowledge for making an escape attempt, but she wouldn’t have been surprised at being left alone with him.
“You do know that I’m not going to give you any information, right?” she asked looking around the room that they were in.
“Are you so sure about that?” he asked.
Snorting she turned to face him, “Yes,” she snarled meeting his gaze calmly, “I am sure about that, because I don’t betray my friends.”
“I don’t remember you having very many friends Clarisse,” Luke said softly.
She glared at him hatefully, “If you think taunting me about not having very many friends at camp is the way to get me to talk, then you really don’t know me that well.”
“You say that, but I already know that isn’t true,” he said sitting down in a chair and gestured for her to sit as well. “I already know about you and Chris.”
She tensed at the name of her now ex-boyfriend. “And what does he have to do with me giving you information?” she asked snorting as she sat in the chair that was opposite him. There was a table in between them, but she was still tense waiting for some sort of attack.
He smirked at her, “Well Clarisse, it really isn’t all that difficult to understand. You saved him, and nearly lost yourself trying to fix him, and yet it still wasn’t enough for him. He did leave you for us after all.”
“I’ll get him back,” she said her eyes flashing with a promise of violence.
“I doubt that,” Luke muttered, and if she wasn’t mistaken he seemed to look at her with pity in his eyes.
“I helped him get to camp,” she said, but she didn’t sound convincing even to herself. “I saved him from some nasty hellhounds. I explained everything about what he was. I can… I will get him back.”
“I wish that were true,” Luke whispered looking down at the table.
*~C~*
“You don’t believe in this cause anymore, do you?” Clarisse asked Luke a week later. She hadn’t seen him since he had dragged her to his room that first time.
He looked at her in shock.
She rolled her eyes, “I’m a daughter of Ares,” she snapped, “Not an idiot.”
He smirked at her, “I never said you were.”
“Yes,” she agreed, “But you thought it. Just like everyone else.”
Luke smiled at her genuinely for the first time that she could ever recall, “I know better now.”
*~C~*
“You’re right,” Luke admitted two days later, “I don’t believe in this cause anymore… I don’t know why, but I just don’t.”
“Family is important,” she said, “And just because you’re angry with them doesn’t mean that you have to destroy them.”
“I don’t know what made me realize it, but I guess I finally admitted to myself that my father was always trying to help me and my siblings… I was just too wrapped up in myself to see it.”
“We all have that problem at times,” Clarisse said softly.
“Does it ever get any easier?” he asked.
Clarisse’s breath caught in her throat for a second. He looked so damn broken and vulnerable that she wanted to lie and try to make him feel better, but she knew that it would help in the slightest. “No,” she admitted quietly and her heart broke at the crushed look on his face, “But I try to surround myself with people who will force me to see it when I can’t or won’t.”
He looked at her in wonder, and she could see the tentative hope in his eyes that he was trying to shove away. He took a deep breath, and then exhaled slowly. “Be ready tomorrow night,” he said before dragging her back to her cell.
Once she was back in there and the door safely shut tight she allowed a smile to spread across her face. She did it. It might not be Chris, and she might hate Chris a bit for that, but she saved another Hermes boy.
“I hope this works out for once,” she whispered to herself, “Please let this work out for once.” Looking up she prayed to any god that would listen. He had been through so much, and she had been through so much. She hoped that they could continue to save each other.
*~C~*
Are you sure they won’t kill me on sight?” Luke asked looking up at Half-Blood Hill with trepidation.
“Quite certain,” she said, but she felt anything but that. She was nervous that they would reject him for everything he had done, but she had to believe that they would give him a chance. For his sake, she had to believe that they would accept him back.
“Okay,” he said and they started walking up the hill together.
She reached out and took hold of his hand and gave him a reassuring squeeze.
“Wait,” he said suddenly stopping. He tugged at her hand and forced her to turn so that she was facing him. He pulled her close and kissed her. It was just a chaste, closed mouth kiss, but it conveyed everything that neither of them felt like they could say right then.
When they parted they looked each other in the eye and smiled gently. It wasn’t perfect, and they would never be perfect, but they would find perfection within their imperfection. It wasn’t going to be easy, but when was love ever easy.
“Okay,” he said, “I’m really ready now.”
Clarisse smiled up at him and they walked into Camp Half-Blood hand in hand smiling like they hadn’t just painted giant targets on their backs. The Titan army was going to be beyond pissed at Luke’s defection, but they would handle it.