Zoeyna Soulmate!AU
°In an universe where the feelings of the two soulmates are bounded.°
@them-awesome-rarepairs
***
When she was born, Zoe didn't feel any connection. It was normal for an immortal, rare were the ones with a soulmate. Persephone or Eros were exceptions. So, yes, this emptiness was normal. And yet, Zoe wanted it to be filled.
When she met him, she felt different, she was drawn to him. She was scared for his life, his jokes made her laugh, his touch made her shiver. Maybe this is it, maybe he was the one. She gave him her sword. She wanted him to live, she wanted him to come back to her.
When her father learned what she had done, she felt lost. Exiled from her home and family, forgotten by the hero she thought she loved; she wanted nothing more than belong somewhere and be able to let everything behind her.
When she came across the hunters, she didn't get what they were at first. It's Artemis who told her about the girls without soulmates, some immortals and mortals who didn't have any 'missing part' like some idiots liked to say. Zoe felt at home with them, more than ever before. And for the first time in forever, she didn't want anything more than this new life.
When she felt the connection, it took her time to understand what it was. It already happened to some of her fellow sisters: a soulmate born centuries after them, an unwanted connection. Zoe was an immortal, she had accepted that she had no soulmate and was fine with it. And when Artemis entered her tent and understood what was happening to her, she wanted nothing more than disappear.
When she felt their despair for the first time, it was the first time in millenia that Zoe had felt compassion for someone who wasn't part of the hunt. She wanted to hate whoever was at the other side of this link, but feeling the distress and fear that they constantly lived in, she couldn't help but want to reassure and protect them. How weak of her.
When she felt the threat to their life, Zoe lost control. She had shared their feelings for more than ten years now. Always doing her best to repress hers by day, but, secretly, reassuring them by night, sending all the support she could. Something she would never confess to any of her sisters. But today, their fear wasn't like before. Something was happening. Zoe wouldn't admit it, but she was deadly scared. So she did what she does best, she fought. And after she gave them all her strength and courage, a deafening feeling of horror filled her to her core. And she knew in that instant, that her soulmate would never forgive her whatever she helped them accomplish.
When she felt them again, it had been years. After this dreadful night and weeks of feeling lost and scared on her behalf, Zoe stopped feeling any connection, like if her soulmate just stopped feeling anything. Artemis told her it was a good thing, she pretended to share her joy, but deep down, she couldn't help but be concerned. And finally she felt the connection again, but when she realized how terrified and similar to pleas for help their feelings were, Zoe wished she never heard from them ever again.
When she led the quest to save Artemis, Zoe thought she would meet her death at the end of it. It almost happened, but when she threw herself before her Lady in order to protect her, a wave full of determination and alert helped her stop her father's fatal blow. She was alive, Artemis was fine, and a new sister joined their ranks. Zoe should want to party with her sisters more than anyone, but what she really wanted to do was thank the one who had saved her life tonight.
When she led her sisters in the battle for Olympus, her strengths weren't only her own. She didn't understand how, but when she gave commands, Zoe felt like her voice was echoing at the same beat as another.
When they retrieved back to San Juan, it had been weeks if not months that the hunters had been tracking Orion. Zoe had felt her soulmate go through difficult changes of humor during the last year, especially the last weeks, but she couldn't allow herself to give it importance. And it's when they came close to find the Giant that the hunters met the Amazons, who informed them about the presence of their queen's sister on the other side of the city. Zoe sent three hunters to retrieve her. A few hours after they left, Zoe felt horribly sleepy and slightly scared, but hided it, it wasn't the time.
When the Amazon queen's sister pinned her down, Zoe felt weird. Like if a burning sun was radiating just before her face. Flustered, she brushed it off. She couldn't let herself get distracted. And strangely, she felt the exact same set of feelings emanate from her soulmate.
When Phoebe took an arrow for her, Zoe saw herself unable to move, without Thalia and Reyna, whose name she had learned just a few minutes ago, she would have been killed. It's the young praetor who helped her get back on her feet and gave her strength thanks to her powers, but Zoe felt like Reyna didn't need them to give her courage and will to fight.
When they celebrated their victory against Gaea with the demigods, Zoe looked for Reyna in the crowd. She said she wanted to congratulate the girl who had brought back the two worlds of halfbloods together, but the truth that even her wouldnt admit was that she wanted to know more about this sun.
When the reconstruction of Camp Jupiter had been completed, Zoe was filled with doubt. But why ? She didn't know. Her soulmate was tormented and she didn't understand by what. Zoe felt this doubt dissipate when the hunters were about to leave New Rome. And it's when Thalia had just come back from saying goodbye to her brother, that she understood. Reyna entered her tent, the last one which had to be dismantled before they left to follow a new track after they had finished helping with the rebuilding of the Camp, and asked what thousands of girls had asked before her, but which sounded particular coming from this intriguing daugther of Bellona : "I want to join the hunt!" And it's before this determination, resolution and will to be part of a new adventure, that Zoe found the answers to all her questions. She knew it, from the bottom of her heart, she would never let this girl go again.
When they talked about it for the first time, it was three weeks after Reyna had joined the ranks of the hunters and let her place to Hazel Levesque. She had quickly found her place among them and seemed more relaxed than the leadership of the romans ever made her feel, Zoe knew it better than anyone else. It happened after all of the others went to bed, leaving them on guard. Reyna told her about Venus' prediction "No demigod will heal your heart.", and how she thought it meant that she'd never find or would lose her soulmate. And when their eyes met, Zoe could see how much Reyna was happy to have been wrong, even if she didn't need eyes to know what was in her heart.
They were together now, definitely inseperable, and with their soulmate by their side and a thousand of adventures to come, they knew they had found the peace and healing they'd been dreaming of.
