#they don’t even know annabeth is gonna take a knife for him without even knowing

[hazardsoflove]

the fact that we get to watch percy and annabeth’s relationship develop while knowing how they end up at the end of the series has me shaking like a dog. the boy who drools in his sleep is going to become one of, if not the most powerful demigods and he’s going decline godhood for the girl that pushed him in the lake to prove her theory and they don’t even know it yet

[berylgrace]

101 for percabeth?? :)

hello sweet angel anything for you!! i don't know what happened here

It’s not often Percy gets one over on Annabeth during a sparring match. They’re both skilled; Annabeth seems to think he’s replaced Luke as the greatest swordsman of their time, not that it’s a title he’s willing to claim for himself, but she’s been practising since she was seven years old. Annabeth is terrifyingly fast, the short blade of her knife allowing her to dive in close, strike fast, steal victories from right underneath her opponent’s nose. She has lightning reflexes and a sharp mind, able to judge in a split-second whether or not a risk is worth taking.

And, admittedly, she seems markedly less concerned about injuring her boyfriend than Percy is about injuring his girlfriend. Call it the old-fashioned chivalry that Sally had drilled into him, but he’s reluctant to maim the girl he loves. She has no such worries.

But sparring with her is so fun. No one else pushes his boundaries quite as far, no one else tests the limits of his physical strength purely for the sake of combat. Clarisse gets him too angry, the other campers don’t match up. But Annabeth is a challenge, every time, one that usually ends in a draw, dripping sweat, neither quite defeating the other.

Percy hadn’t planned on playing dirty, too. Annabeth had sealed her own fate last week, pulling out whatever judo shit she’d been practising with a few Ares kids in her spare time. She’d won without question, but fairness had certainly been removed from the equation.

So, revenge.

His chest aches with exertion as he circles the training ground, a good twenty or so minutes of intense sparring already behind them. His face is hot and wet, lungs screaming, but his mind remains resolute. Annabeth comes at him again, a gleam in her eyes, and he blocks her strike with his sword, holding her off until she’s forced to concede and step back, too awkwardly positioned to force Riptide from his hands.

Gods, she looks beautiful like this. Panting, sweating, red-faced, determined. Her eyes are wild, turned mad with storms of ambition and victory brewing behind them. Her curls are tied back into a braid, but the flyaways around her face stick to her skin despite attempts to huff them out of the way. There’s something special about getting to see her like this - he might well be the only person who gets this view, the full glory of Annabeth in battle without the terror of knowing she’s going to kill him. It’s a unique privilege, one that allows him to take in her beauty as he simultaneously assesses her weaknesses.

Seizing his opportunity, he charges, bringing his sword down in an arc that forces her backwards, rushing into defence. He can see the cogs turning in her head, trying to predict his next move. She’s incredibly good at that, so much so that his plan is totally out of left field, purely for the element of surprise. As she tries to regain the upper hand, arms trembling with the effort, he suddenly pulls back, ducking down as her retaliating force sends her careening forwards, and at the last minute grabs her legs to pull her over.

Sure, he overshoots a little, and ends up toppling himself in the process, but it doesn’t matter; Annabeth lands in the dust with a thud and a surprised groan, her knife clattering off somewhere to the side, and Percy lands on top of her moments later.

He’s very proud of himself. His face must say so.

“You asshole.”

Her entire left cheek is streaked with dust. She tries to glare at him, but he just laughs, still in disbelief that it had actually worked.

“You overbalanced! I think that means I win,” He crows. It’s his right to, after all - she does it all the time.

“You’re gonna win my fist in your face,” She grumbles, making no attempt to get up or shove him off her. “That was so dirty. I’m kinda impressed.”

Percy laughs. “I knew you would be.” He kisses her cheek (the non-dusty one, facing him and glinting in the sunlight.)

She falls quiet, evidently catching her breath after such an intense fight. Naturally, the peace doesn’t last long, as a voice from somewhere behind them suddenly calls out:

“Are they like, making out? Ew!”

Annabeth lets out a sigh that can only be described as defeated, yet uncaring at the same time. “I… didn’t realise anyone was watching us.”

“They always do, babe.” As much as he hates it, a lot of the campers still find a novelty enjoyment out of watching two of their brightest in any kind of battle. Percy’s never really enjoyed the attention, but it’s something he’s gotten used to ignoring, at least.

She groans again, but still doesn’t move or push him off. “I hate you. They think we’re like, dry humping down here.”

Percy scoffs, mock-indignant. “You don’t hate me, quit lying to yourself. And I’ll have you know, I am not remotelydry. I am marinating in sweat right now.”

“What a lovely thing to tell me when you’re on top of me.”

“Aww, you’re welcome, honeybun!” Percy lays it on thick, hamming up the stupid nickname as he shuffles himself even closer on top of her, wrapping her in his arms. He probably smells and feels gross, but she’s just as bad, and it’s his job, nay, his duty as a boyfriend to be the bane of her life. Annabeth shrieks, wriggling and attempting to escape, but he traps her and cackles with delight.

“Get off of me!”

“What, you don’t like my musk?”

“Is that what you call it?” Annabeth laughs, pretending to gag, “Oh my gods! I’m going to die here!”

“What a wonderful way to go, don’t you think?”

She rolls her eyes, giggling. “It’s not the hero’s death I imagined.”

He nods. “But it’s the one you deserve.”

[thegraystreaks]

hi everyone, i have been plagued with some Very Painful Thoughts™️ about percabeth post-tlo/pre-hoo. i don’t have the energy or emotional capacity to turn them into a fic but theyve been bouncing around in my head for a week and i need someone else to hurt with me. if you’re just trying to be happy today and celebrate our boy’s birthday in peace keep scrolling but if you want to Hurt come with me on this journey!!!

annabeth post-tlo is Clingy with percy...and he loves it but he’s also a little overwhelmed/confused, bc it’s like...all the time. she's always touching some part of him, holding his hand or tucked into his side or brushing her fingers across his arm

and he cant believe that she wants to spend time with him as much as he wants to spend time with her, that SHE’S the one always suggesting they sneak off to the canoe lake during those last two weeks of camp (not just to kiss, although they do a lot of that, but to talk and hang out without prying eyes)

he keeps catching her looking at him with some strange expression he cant quite decipher but it’s full of emotion and he doesn’t know what it means!!

and it finally all comes out when he wakes up from a nap (hello curse of achilles!!) and she’s there, running her hands through his hair (his gray streak in particular bc duh) and she’s crying

he panics for a sec bc whats wrong?!? but he just holds her and says “hey, it’s okay, i’m here, i’ve got you” and she just cries harder and finally says “i just can’t believe you’re still here”

and she tells him about how she was terrified for years that she was gonna lose him, her best friend, when he turned 16. (might i remind you!! chiron showed her the full prophecy when she was 10!!) she’s an exposed nerve, a ball of emotions..... our weepy annabeth just crying and crying and “i can’t believe you’re still here, i can’t believe i get to keep you”

percy’s mind is reeling about what it all must have been like for her, and she says “some days it hurt to even look at you. you were right there, and i was mourning you. you were right there and i missed you already.”

and percy gets it then, why she always needs to be near him these days. to remind herself he survived, that he’s still here

percy thinks about what it would be like becoming her best friend, spending years attached at the hip like they were, developing feelings for her, all with the knowledge of her most-probable death at 16

he thinks it’d be like growing up with a knife in his chest that no one else could see, like feeling it twist every time she smiled at him. remembering her fate in the middle of an everyday conversation and feeling like he’d been slapped across the face

she tells him she’d constantly teetered between trying to ignore her feelings and praying to every god to protect him. she’d pray for them to give her more information about the prophecy, pray that there was some double meaning in the prophecy she just didn’t understand yet

DONT think about him holding her, comforting her, saying “you don’t have to miss me anymore. i’m right here.” DONT think about him promising, “i’m not going anywhere”

and WHATEVER YOU DO please DO NOT THINK ABOUT hera taking him away from her a couple months later, hera breaking that promise for him

god i was gonna stop there but like...annabeth during those months?? working herself sick, throwing herself into plans for the argo ii, learning everything she can about roman mythology, grilling jason about everything he remembers about camp jupiter

before they learn about camp jupiter’s existence, during an update meeting on the search for percy, some dumbass suggests “maybe he left on purpose...maybe he doesn’t want to be found” and annabeth LOSES IT

she screams, throws something at their head, and storms out, and all she can think is he said he wouldn’t leave, he said he wasn’t going anywhere

it’s clarisse who finds her at the shore of the canoe lake

annabeth gets out, “oh, fuck off, clarrise” between sobs

but then....clarisse comforting her? rubbing her back?? “i know he wouldn’t leave you, wise girl, not on purpose” (the nickname slices through annabeth like a blade) “i’m on your side, okay? percy was a pain in my ass, but he’s my pain in the ass, and i don’t want him out there annoying gods know who else. we’re gonna find him, just so that i can beat him into a pulp for disappearing on you”

and if i think any harder about grover and sally and tyson and annabeth leaning on each other for support, being sad and terrified together, and the whole camp rallying around them and caring for them i’m gonna give myself an aneurysm.....so i'll stop there

if you made it this far congrats!!!! i mean this in the nicest way but i really hope you’re as sad as i am about all of this. xoxo

[connabeth]

annabeth chase <3

why i like/don’t like them

i am literally an annabeth simp blog that runs an annabeth simp chat. she is my ideal woman you know this. this bitch is literally the reason i’m bi ambisextrous✋ 🤚moving on.

OTP

connor, percy, reyna, piper, white dude #4, a special someone from my next ship revolution arachne <3. but like i don’t even have to articulate why percy and connor work so well with her character y’all know why, we’ve been over this. there’s nothing that measures up to what percy and annabeth have and i will stand by that.

brOTP

aside from connor and percy, silena was also her bff. i like to think silena helped annabeth embrace her feminity without caring about society’s perceptions of her and that she could be a badass combat warrior while also wearing a lethal red lip💄💋. but deeper than that she also taught annabeth about love, loving unconditionally, and helped her cope with her inner turmoil about percy and told her it was okay for her heart to be two places at one, it was okay for her to love someone unapologetically, it was okay to want someone for yourself. i kinda have a post on this general theme here.

favorite scene

i can’t choose a favorite but my bi awakening was annabeth attacking circe who wanted to turn her into a shrew and being like “how bout a panther instead? one that has her claws at your throat?” and then proceeded to save both her and percy’s asses like the true icon she is. not to mention annabeth is a dress. anyway that scene is just ❤️👄❤️. as for favorite percabeth scene i’ll always love the soft moments in tartarus where they hold each other, give forehead kisses, squeeze each other’s hands, think about their children/future. and also ofc the achilles scene in TLO where she takes the knife and he’s sitting beside her letting her squeeze the life out of his hand and guides it to the small of his back and then PROCEEDS TO KEEP IT IN HIS GRASP AFTER SHE TRIES TO PULL AWAY. the utter trust, vulnerability, and pure pure pure love in that scene...unparalleled.

favorite headcanon

cheerleader! annabeth is definitely up there. also anna elizabeth lmaoo. also everyone says percy would practice braiding so he could do her and estelle’s hair and while i think he would put in effort, SHE IS LITERALLY A MASTER AT WEAVING. like if she cared enough to style her own hair (which i like to think she eventually does) she could create the most intricate braids. and she does little estelle’s hair and makes her look super cute while percy brushes hers. and then she does the same thing with her own daughter in the future. it’s just so 🥺🥺.

5 characteristics

loyalty/faith in the people she loves (without having this for luke, olympus would’ve been destroyed. period.) emotionally intelligent (contrary to popular belief. i mean she could tell reyna made a move on percy with one look and she actually articulated her emotions WAYYY more than percy. percy thought a lot of things but he didn’t actually SAY shit. she did. she kisses him, hugs him, insinuates she thought the last line of the prophecy was about percy not luke, etc.). i also think she’d be the type of person to have a blunt kind of honesty. if you want unfiltered opinions, you go to her. also she’s conniving (not necessarily in a bad way. she can just use her mind as a weapon and it certainly saves her and her friends from a lot of sticky situations. can come up with foolproof master plans in short amounts of time and always utilizes trickery to defeat her opponent. side effects of so much hermès kid exposure). and well. hot. cause it’s true :) we aren’t even gonna TALK about her choosing to let percy and in and love him when her biggest fear is abandonment and he could very well die/leave her, given that she knows the prophecy (ty babie @wasithard)

popular opinion

has a very ‘i don’t take any shit’ attitude. as she should👑😌 will call ppl out if she needs to, percy not excluded as adi @bitcheusjackson said.

unpopular opinion

she is actually a very kind person. i feel like that is SO overlooked in this fandom. yes she can be intimidating but when she was moody/blunt she always had a reason to be. not to mention she’s literally a kid with a fuckton of baggage/trauma. remember frank came to her, of all people, for help. when she was one of the most unfamiliar people on the ship to him. he trusted that she would never ridicule him bc that’s just not her nature. she has one solid, meaningful conversation with percy and by the end of it she decides she would turn her back on her mother, the person who’s approval she’s been seeking for FOREVER, if need be, just to fight by percy’s side. also SADIE. notice how annabeth and sadie hit it off and hugged and left on good terms while percy and carter were super guarded and awkward the whole time. people say percy is the more approachable, nice one. but is that really true? percy also mentions something along the lines of “we all like annabeth” in BotL which definitely wouldn’t be the case if she was mean or guarded. i think she’s a nice, genuine person that can sometimes be scary but she’s never malicious. in addition, nico mentioned he wanted to hate her but she was just so genuine he just could not bring himself to. she’s loved and people think highly of her. it’s that simple.

nicknames

aside from the obvious one, anna/annababe from connor, beth/baby/babe/sweetheart/princess/love from percy, annie by the people she grew up and knew her when she was younger, and babe by piper cause they’re low key also dating LMAO

send me a character and I will answer with the above

[percyjacksonfan3]

The Last Olympian Thoughts

So because I have absolutely 0 self-control or restraint when it comes to this series and its characters, and for The Last Olympian in particular, I could not put TLO down. Because of this I figured I couldn’t do the usual photo reaction posts I have been so far, because the spam would just be ridiculous, so I am stealing the idea from @yourstrulytaaay​ to do a masterpost instead. (Adding a Read More cause this got ridiculously long)

Fun fact, TLO came out right after i finished reading the series for the first time so it's the first PJO book i bought  and my only hard cover one for the og series. I checked the year and turns out it was published 2009, which means i was actually 9 when i read the series for the first time. I realize this is not really a fun fact but i thought i was older when I first read the series so it's blowing my mind a little ‘cause now I’m 21 and everything hits different and i still have so much love for this series and the characters Okay onto book thoughts: - i was right that this book is gonna destroy me, the first line alone made me so excited and nostalgic it's ridiculous - I love Rachel and Percy sm tbh. Her being a bit of peace and normalcy in his life without always reminding Percy of who and what he is is so good for him. Just a little escape

- of course by the end of the book that's not the case any more but by the end he's lived his prophecy so he doesn't need it as badly, plus he and Annabeth are solid again - Percy saying Annabeth has been hard to be around lately... Ouch my heart. Luke really is the last thing that keeps them from being together and Percy is so jealous and Annabeth so torn and in pain, i feel so bad for them both

- Beckendorf 🥺🥺 - the telkhine with the Lil Demon lunchbox!! I forgot about him. Percy: 'i left him alive, partly because his lunchbox was cool' is one of my absolute favourite lines tbh - Paul taking Percy crabbing and being imperative in helping Percy kill the giant crab 💖 Paul Blofis is important and deserves the world, okay? - aw Percy, you can't save every demigod bb

- 'i had to fight him eventually. Why not now?... What difference would a week make?' Oh Percy you have no idea - real talk tho, the fact Kronos possessed Luke's body would also mess me tf up. Percy keeps forgetting it's not Luke anymore and yeah, that would be so so hard and confusing af, like what another smart little mind game for Kronos to pull on top of everything else - the fact Percy fights Kronos before getting the Achilles Curse and actually doesn't die within seconds is... Astounding. He kicks him in the chest! And yeah Kronos is weaker and still adjusting to Luke's body, but Percy is having trouble fighting Luke cause they used to be friends - Percy breaks Kronos' time magic!! Like?! Boy is POWERFUL.

- OUCH - honestly Luke, Thalia and Annabeth's family breaking the way it did... Don't talk to me. Poor Annabeth, Luke betrayed them, Thalia joined the Hunters because of Luke's betrayal so she's pretty much AWOL all the time and then Luke dies. Like Rick wtf, my heart can't take it? -Percy and Tyson having each others backs when talking to Poseidon in the underwater palace is the brother-brother relationship we love to see - Percy trying to stick a sand dollar in the vending machines at school 🤦🏻‍♀🤦🏻‍♀ - the whole underwater interaction at Poseidon's palace? Perfection. Awkward family drama and all - Connor falling out of the tree when he sees Percy because he's so excited 😂😂

- 😭💖

- k, ik Clarisse isn't perfect but tbh if i was a child of Ares whose father was disrespected and hated by my fellow campers (ares deserves it but still) and that disrespect trickled down to how the other campers treated ME (which if Percy is reliable here, it obviously does) then i would also be irritated at being used for muscle and nothing else? And just expected to fight with the people who act as if they'd rather not have Ares kids around the rest of the time. Like Clarisse isn't totally wrong - Percy reading the prophecy, seeing he's meant to die and just being like 'i do not see it' and refusing to outright think about it makes me so sad for him - (but it taints every action after and he's super reckless afterwards bc of it- including finally breaking and accepting the Achilles Curse) - (also him taking this as the last straw and finally beginning to show Annabeth how he really feels, cause fuck it, he's dying anyway) - Give me more info about Rachel's backstory and family Rick!! -  how did i forget Percy willingly eats chocolates that taste like cardboard because 'i didnt have anything against cardboard' like sir? Ik Silena didn't want them but still? - 'she'd always been cute, but she was starting to be seriously beautiful' STOP, MY HEART CAN'T TAKE IT - Percy staring at Annabeth and forgetting what they're talking about cause hes so distracted 👌🏻

- hmm yeah... For some strange reason.... - i forgot how Percy totally bombs this convo bw them and now want to cry 😭 Annabeth is trying to talk about what's important and Percy, you sweet oblivious man, you're shooting her down without even realizing - love that they're both on the same wavelength tho. Percy two lines before, hmm it's cool to date ppl from other cabins, wonder why im thinking that around Annabeth, my best friend in the world, and then Annabeth a beat later, hmm, let me bring up Silena and Beckendorf and how it's important to be with the people you love when you have the chance, no way Percy will miss this huge hint right? - they're the best - k i honestly forgot Percy full on physically intimidates Leneus like that - luke telling his mom if he ran away the monsters wouldnt get her..i can just imagine luke crying when he says good bye before running away because he thinks it's his fault his mom is like that and he cant take care of and protect her anymore because it's too hard - uh oh now i have angsty pre-lightning thief luke fic inspo... Him, Thalia and Annabeth on the run... The ANGST -  Rick holds absolutely nothing back in this book and i am in pain - HESTIA!! 💖💖🥰 - actual loml - i love that Rick titled this book after her and that he wrote such a great series about the importance of family (biological, found or otherwise) and home, and that he said actually Hestia is the most important bc shes the most humble and keeps the peace and knows when to fight and when to yield and you protect what you love, which is your home - i just... Adore Hestia - Grover! Missed you babes - Hades is so so horrible to Nico, always comparing him to Bianca :/ - but i do love Hades, Persephone and Demeter together they make me laugh - oh god the River Styx - Achilles 🥺 - Annabeth being Percy's lifeline is, and continues to be, A Lot™ - 'my name was Percy Jackson. I reached up and took Annabeth's hand.' LOL Why am i crying? - Like the fact there is no Percy without Annabeth, and that remembering her literally reminded him of who he is in his very soul... It's fine im fine - i won't even get into the parallels of her being his lifeline now and then later when Hera takes his memories but leaves the memory of Annabeth for Percy to fight to get back to (anyone who wants to yell about it with me... Feel free to message) - badass Percy is my fav Percy tbh - him defeating Hades?? Like? Hades is arguably the most powerful god, okay - i feel bad for Nico but if i was Percy I'd do the exact same, Nico, sorry man but this is a high stakes time crunch deal and Nico is literally the only hope of persuading Hades and distracted by his own internal stuff - flashbacks to Luke, Thalia and Annabeth hurt, ow - George and Martha are the best - damn i forgot Hermes full on nearly kills Percy here, yikes - Luke stop cockblocking Percabeth challenge

- i love!! Percy's love for New York!! So much!! - Percy leaving to live in New Rome in HoO is a lie and this is all the proof i need for why - the fact the entire last half of the book is the battle and aftermath... Such great buildup and pacing. All the tricks and twists and battles in this War of Manhattan? I would not take out a thing, Rick, you legend - of course then the final battle in hoo with the gods is what? Two pages? Ugh, don’t talk to me about my hatred for BoO and HoO - 'no detours you two' is still the cutest thing!!! - THE HUNTERS!! Thalia i missed you - good job Percy, you finally spent your sand dollar - Minotaur!! - 'dont i get a kiss for luck? Its kind of a tradition right?' Percy finds out he's gonna die and is out of fucks to give and honestly I support him - also Michael just standing beside these two while they're flirting like umm 👀 👀 while a monster army marches towards them, nbd - Annabeth taking Ethan's knife meant for Percy!!! Cause she just knows his weak spot without him even telling her! They literally invented love - Feral Percy is so scary omg, i love how well Rick incorporates the Achilles Curse in this novel, with the whole heightened weaknesses and stuff ans the parallels to Achilles arrogance being what killed him and Percy's loyalty, fierceness and protective instinct being his own heightened weakness - the fact that Percy is the one who inadvertantly kills Michael Yew tho, I'll never recover from that - the fact Hades offers Maria di Angelo a golden palace by the Styx like how Poseidon offers Sally a palace under the sea tho. Let's talk about that parallel - the entire talk with Prometheus is so so good - not me picturing young Luke hiding in the closet to get away from his mom when she has an 'episode' -i love callbacks in stories and all of the callbacks to the rest of the series in this book make me very happy (medusa, minotaur, the underworld, Rainbow!! My baby!!, Daedalus and more) - Percy summoning a wholeass hurricane against Hyperion - the Party Ponies! They're so chaotic, i love it - Dionysus! 😁 I can't help it, i love him - Percy absolutely losing it when he sees Sally and Paul asleep in the car 🥺 - Rachel telling Percy he's not the hero screws with him so much :( poor bb - although i really really love how Rick wrote this, it's so refreshing to not have one chosen one save the world, but a combination of people - the drakon, Silena and Clarisse make me cry - the Patrochilles references, im not okay - Annabeth giving up on Luke after hearing what he did to Silena and Percy telling her that doesn't make him happy 😭 that whole interaction makes my heart ache - Percy giving Hestia Pandora's pithos 🥺 - and Hades, Nico and the others coming for a final attack is so badass, i love it - listen im glad the og trio were the ones to confront Luke on Olympus but the fact Thalia got so close and then pinned by a statue of HERA makes me so sad. Ik her and Luke were finished and she coped by cutting him off completely and giving up all hope but i would pay money to know what they would have said to each other to say goodbye - Ethan 🥺 - Poseidon joining the fight against Typhon is so cool, such a great scene - 'PEANUT BUTTER!' - Annabeth you brilliant badass you - RIP Luke, you werent great but you werent the worst either - the gods just rolling up seconds too late, wondering wtf happened in Olympus and who the dead body is - the chapter where the Olympians meet and give out rewards is one of my absolute favourites (again i am incensed we didn't get anything like this in HoO) - will Percy turning down immortality ever not make me scream in glee? No? Alright then - Annabeth being relieved like Percy was relieved at the end of Titan's Curse tho - oh Hermes :/ - its so hard reading all this and knowing what comes in HoO... Like it's such a cathartic, earned and mostly happy and peaceful ending and then HoO comes along and undermines it all - aww Rick let Paul see Olympus somehow pls, he deserves it, he killed a dracanae - (i would also love to see it) - Percy being more upset Rachel took his pegasus than her going to Camp and possibly dying, lol, priorities dude - i honestly think that Rick had other ideas for the second Great Prophecy and how things would go down in BoO, cause the prophecy like... Barely applies to BoO, Doors of Death are in book four, and explabations of it is all so unclear when Rick is usually pretty good with that stuff - PERCABETH - lol Percy complaining about privacy when he and Annabeth are caught kissing literally in the middle of the very open and public dining pavilion, okay - BEST UNDERWATER KISS OF ALL TIME - that's it and im a glass case of emotion - very happy to say that this series remains my favourite of all time 💖

 If anyone ever wants to come gush about anything Riordanverse related feel free, because as you can see I have a lot of thoughts about it all

[pjoseries]

“i bear it so they won’t have to” + curse of achilles percy

oh this one’s a doozy, thank u emma 😋

(TLO AU)

══════════════════

Percy doesn’t know how he didn’t notice it—the bloodlust. It starts out as a whisper, a simple low hum drifting across the nape of his neck. It crawls in his ear and settles inside his brain and every time he uncaps Riptide, a single persistent thought crosses his mind: Show no mercy.

And he doesn’t. Not when a hoard of monsters comes barrelling through their ranks. Not when he sees the other campers on their feet, but flagging, exhaustion bogging them down as monster after monster charges at them. Percy holds his own on the front lines, raising his voice to be heard, “Fall back!”

He repeats it again for good measure and the piercing, confused stares from them quickly fade as he gains the attention of every monster in his vicinity. A grin slides across his face and he gives Riptide a twirl. 

“How many of you do I have to kill before you get with the program,” Percy taunts. He lets one of them come close enough to sink their claws into his skin, but it just slides right off, ripping through his shirt instead. 

The monster gapes for a moment and attempts to slice through him again, but Percy just tsks and tilts his head. “Nice try, but no dice, man.”

He impales the monster in a quick movement, leaving him in a shower of dust. He grimaces and looks at the others. They march towards him, but Percy doesn’t even think. He blocks and jabs and slices his way through the dust and the dirt and he feels nothing. The curse really works. 

He doesn’t know how long it takes to slay the last monster. He just knows that at the end, he’s drenched in monster dust and sweat. Percy finally rolls his shoulders, taking in the damage. The borders are safe for now. He spots a few campers a ways away limping and handing each other ambrosia. Footsteps come towards him and he whirls and points Riptide at empty air. 

It takes him a moment, but even that’s too long, before he lowers his sword. It’s Annabeth, of course. He furrows his brows. He knows it’s her. She wipes the sweat off her forehead and tucks her cap into her back pocket. 

“Percy, what was that?” she asks, gray eyes glinting in the afternoon light. 

“I, uh,” he says, pocketing Riptide back into his jeans. “I’ll tell you later. We have to check on—”

Annabeth stomps towards him and grips his arm. Logically, he knows how tight of a grip it is, but it’s weird that it doesn’t even sting. “Did you… gods, you didn’t. That trip with Nico… Percy, that is stupidly dangerous.”

She knows. Of course, she figures it out. Percy’s just a fool for thinking he could have broken the news to her later. 

“I did what I had to do.” Percy grits his teeth and steps back.  

She tugs him closer. “You could’ve died.” 

Percy makes the mistake of looking into her eyes again, shiny with unshed tears and he falters. He can’t stand to see her cry. He musters up a wry smile and shrugs. “I’m here, though.”

He tells her nothing of what he saw as he made his way out of the River Styx, doesn’t say a single word about how the first time he ever felt like he would drown that her voice was the only thing he grabbed onto. All he does is loosen her grip with his free hand and gives it a small squeeze. 

“I’ll tell you more about it later, okay?” Her hand is warm and callused from training and it takes him a few seconds to remember he has something to say. “We need to go to the Big House.”

Annabeth just nods and he lingers for a moment before he lets go. As they make their way to Chiron, their hands brush and all thoughts of the fight vanish from his mind. 

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

It’s on the bridge when he gets an inkling that something is wrong, not with the curse or with the battle itself, but him. It’s similar to the last fight, Percy yelling at the Apollo campers to retreat, but the last of the monsters are dead. All that remain is Kronos himself and his demigod army. 

He slows himself down, aiming to knock them off their skeletal horses and send them running, not maim. Their swords bounce off his skin harmlessly and Percy vaguely notes that he’s ruining his already low supply of shirts. 

The voice is louder now, but still the same. Persistent as a tic: Show no mercy. 

Shut up, he wants to bite back, but he already looks insane just charging through a swarm of demigods and coming out completely unscathed. They make their way almost to the middle of the bridge when Percy freezes, like a lightning bolt just jolts through his body. Then: Annabeth screams. 

“Annabeth!” he yells and turns. A guy stands over her, his knife bloodied and dripping. Percy sees red and the voice persists louder again and he’s almost tempted to take its advice if it isn’t for Annabeth’s weak gasps. 

Percy would’ve died, if not for Annabeth and Annabeth’s dying because of him. Because he’s too damn focused on that stupid voice in his head that makes him want to tear the bridge apart and everyone in it. She doesn’t even know that’s his weak spot. 

He locks eyes with the demigod—Ethan, his mind supplies—and stalks towards him. In a beat, Percy slams his sword hilt into his face and feels a bitter sense of satisfaction as he grunts out in pain and moves away. A couple of other demigods try to come closer, but he swings Riptide as a warning. 

“Get back!” he growls. “No one touches her.”

Kronos merely hums. “Interesting.”

Percy just scowls and steps closer to Annabeth. Suddenly Achilles words come back to him: The heel is only my physical weakness, demigod. He was dumb enough to ignore Achilles’ warnings and now his weakness is staring him right in the face, her face turning ashy as her breaths weakening. Annabeth. His tie to the mortal world. He should’ve known. Maybe somewhere in the back of his mind, he always knew, but the war took precedence. Now look where it got him. 

She’s dying and he’s surrounded by enemies. 

“Bravely fought, Perseus Jackson,” Kronos says. “But it’s time to surrender, or she’ll die.”

Annabeth sits up and groans. “Don’t.”

Percy clenches his jaw and bites back the panic at the sight. Her shirt is soaked in blood and he has to get her to a healer. His mind swirls for an escape route and, in a second, he yells out, “Blackjack!”

The pegasus swoops and carries her out and away from any immediate danger. Percy’s glad he knows what to do because he doesn’t have any time to explain. Luke—Kronos’ face twists. 

Percy meets the scythe with Riptide. 

Then their battle begins. And for once, Percy lets the voice in his mind take over. 

Show no mercy.

Percy smiles. He won’t. 

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

The voice stays with him, long after the war ends. Despite how many hours he’s clocking in that affects his sleeping schedule, or the lack of one, he notices that he’s itching for a fight. 

It makes no sense. He wants to rest, but the voice tells him he has the curse for a reason. What use is he to his friends, to his family if he lets them go off on dangerous quests to get injured or worse? A couple of extra more hours of sleep is a petty consequence when it means saving everyone the trouble of getting hurt. 

So despite Annabeth’s warnings, he volunteers to guard the fleece, or to head training, or to do any of the more dangerous missions. There’s an undisputed agreement amongst the campers that they’ll let Percy do whatever he wants which is kind of weird but it works in his favor, so he’ll take it. Well, unless their names are Annabeth and Grover, that is.

But after this one quest—if he can even call it that, maybe just a favor for his father—Percy lands back on the shore, sitting with his knees tucked to his chest. His hands tremble as they flex over his own legs. The water rushes to his ankles, an attempt to calm him down but he just flinches. It just makes things worse. 

Percy’s no better than the monsters he fights. 

He wonders if monsters never exploded into dust, if they bleed like he does. He wonders how much blood he’s spilled, how much it stains his hands, his heart, his soul.

“Percy?” Annabeth says quietly. She pads over to him, settling down right next to him. The water drenches her shoes, but she just places a warm hand on his. “Percy, hey. Are you… okay?”

Her tone is awkward, but there’s an earnestness to it that makes him soften slightly. So he lifts his shoulder in response and stares out into the water. 

“You don’t have to do this, you know.”

Percy clears his throat. “Do what?”

“Go on all these quests. Try to save everyone. The war’s over, Percy. You can just enjoy camp like everyone else, too. You don’t have to do everything. You’re not Atlas.”

“Annabeth, this curse… I have a responsibility. Why let everyone else get hurt if I can do it? They’re just kids.” Percy unfolds his legs and lets Annabeth’s weight ground him. It’s like the voice gets muffled when she’s near. “And besides, I bear it so they won’t have to.”

Annabeth’s fingers find his cheek and he crumbles under her touch. He turns and Annabeth has this expression on her face that he can’t parse out. He closes his eyes and lets her smooth out the wrinkle between his brows, lets her trace a swooping pattern on his cheek. “You’re sixteen, Percy, not sixty-five. You have to let yourself take a break, Percy. The others need to know how to survive out there without you. You’re not always gonna be there to protect them. You’re gonna run yourself to the ground and I’d like to see my boyfriend awake once in a while.”

“Guess my eyes have to be open for that.” Percy smiles into her fingertips and blinks exaggeratedly at her. She giggles and it sends warmth all the way down to his belly. She stands up and brushes off the sand from pants before she holds out her hand. 

Golden light shines behind her, circling her like a halo. He’s suddenly reminded of his dip in the Styx, the way dream-Annabeth held in her laughter as she grabbed his hand and pulled him up. Real-Annabeth wiggles her fingers and he lets her haul him up. 

“Promise you’ll take it easy?” she asks. 

And his answer is an easy one. He kisses the side of her head. “Promise.”

Then they walk back to camp, their hands swinging between them. 

[bobasheebaby]

Mama - Cordonian Ruby chapter 7

Pairing: Ruby Rys x Beau Larkin; Jo Ellen Larkin (OC)

Word count: 1,023

Warnings: just a little angst and fluff

Summary: Ruby and Beau talk to Mama Jo.

A/N: picks up the same day, a little after Beau proposes.

A/N2: sorry this chapter is short guys, nexts weeks will be longer. Want a little get to know you for Ruby and Beau this weekend?

A/N3: A major thanks @sirbeepsalot for all your graping, prereading, editing, and telling me when to let go. I love you boo! Thank you to my snippet reader @loveellamae who screamed appropriately.

Series warnings: character death, blood, surgical procedures done by non medical personnel, may go NSFW in the future. May contain gun violence, knife violence, threats, not sure how dark this will go. By requesting to be tagged you acknowledge you are at least 18 years of age.

Let me know if you want to be added or removed from the taglist.

Disclaimer: I own Ruby, Galen, Lovett, and Beau, I’m borrowing Bastien and Olivia from PB.

Beau slipped his hand in hers, lacing their fingers together, pulling her from her daze. “You ready?”

“For your mom to hate me? Never.”

“She could never hate you RuRu.”

She rolled her sapphire eyes in annoyance, though she was unable to keep the smile from her lips. “You know that’s not fair!”

“Maybe, but I need to use whatever I have,” he leaned forward pressing a kiss to her forehead, “how else do I stand a chance against a queen?”

The smile slipped from her lips. “This was a bad idea, everybody is gonna hate me.”

“Ruby,” his voice and eyes soft and full of love, “I promise they won’t hate you. If anyone is about to be hated it’s me.”

“How do you figure?”

“AnnaBeth is gonna be so mad that I’m gonna have a title.”

She fought to keep the laughter bubbling in her from spilling out. “Stop making me smile all the time.”

“Why would I want to do that and miss out on the beautiful sight.”

“You are such a cheeseball!”

“But I’m your cheeseball.”

Ruby shook her head. How could I have ever doubted him for a minute? “Okay,” she sighed, as much as she wanted to hide in the truck for eternity she knew she needed to face her fears or she’d never be able to serve her people as queen. “Let’s get this over with.”

- - -

Jo Ellen placed her wooden spoon next to the stove and turned as she heard the back door swing open. Her eyes narrowed, though the weight in her chest lightened. “Beau Larkin, care to tell me why you rushed out of here like a bat out of hell?! You left in such a hurry you forgot the ri—” she trailed off, her voice softening and turning to confusion as her eyes landed on Ruby. “Ruby!” Her eyes darted between Beau’s sweetheart and her son. “I thought you two were having dinner with the Johnson’s.”

Beau gave a half shrug and scratched the back of his neck. “Uh — where’s dad?”

“Oh no Beau Larkin, you are not going to get out of explaining to me why you gave me a near heart attack!” She pointed towards the kitchen table, “sit and explain.”

“Mama Jo, maybe it would be best if we waited for Papa Lou.” Ruby said, her stomach so tangled and twisted in knots she wasn’t sure she could explain to Beau’s parents twice how she was taking him away.

“Lou is helping Pop, now tell me what I want to know.”

Ruby chewed her lip, eyes welling once more with tears as she sank into the closest chair. “Beau rushed out because of me. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare anyone.”

Jo Ellen felt her heart sink with worry as she slowly lowered herself into a chair. “Ruby dear, what’s wrong?”

“Ruby’s parents gave her a letter from her biological parents, she was worried about my reaction.”

Jo Ellen looked at him inquisitively, unsure what could upset her son’s girlfriend so deeply. “Okay.”

“I’m a queen.” Ruby blurted, quickly covering her mouth with her hands.

Beau softly rubbed circles along her back. “She means that her parents were royalty and killed in order to seize the crown. Ruby was worried about my reaction, she plans … we plan to hopefully take it back. Her parents said it would take at least a month to plan before we could leave so I don’t know exactly how …”

“I’m sorry Mama Jo.”

“She’s worried you’re going to hate her because she’s putting me in danger.”

Jo Ellen gave Ruby’s hand a comforting pat. “Now I know both of you well enough to know that this one,” she nodded towards her son, “isn’t innocent in this.”

“Thanks mom … but yea I told her I couldn’t live worrying about her and screwed up all my plans and proposed.”

“Beau Larkin, you did not propose without a ring!”

“Ruby was so worried that I’d hate her, I couldn’t wait.

Mom, I’ve never seen her so broken. I wasn’t sure how else I could make her understand just how much I love her.

It’s a little unorthodox but not unheard of and I did get her parents' blessing.”

“Wait … is that why Papa kept saying it would all work out?”

Beau smiled squeezing her hand, “I think he knew that nothing could stop me from asking you, not even a title.”

“Well I guess we have a wedding to plan.” Jo Ellen chuckled at her son and future daughter-in-law’s stunned faces. “I understand why you both need to do this, and I’m proud, even if I’m also scared out of my mind that something will happen to you.

While I support your decision, I cannot and will not accept my only son getting married without his momma.” She stood, pulling a black velvet box from her apron pocket, “I’m going to go call your Nan … tell her to send your father home,” she placed the small box in front of her son. “You forgot this.

Ruby, I’m so excited that I will get to call you my daughter.”

“Thanks Mama Jo.”

Beau pulled Ruby into his side, kissing the top of her head, “see? Nothing to worry about.”

“Did we really just agree to a wedding in a month?”

“Do you want to go against her?”

“No … it just seems so fast, but not soon enough.”

“I know what you mean … I was, am ready to spend my life with you, but everything is happening so fast.” He lovingly brushed her hair back from her face, “I won’t lie, I’m worried about what will happen, but I also believe in you.”

He picked up the ring box, “Ruby I love you so much and know that we can face any obstacle that may come our way,” he opened the box revealing a white gold band with delicate Celtic knots on either side of a modest ruby, “together.”

“It’s perfect,” Ruby whispered as he carefully slipped the ring on her finger. “And you’re right, together we can accomplish anything.”

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[neqeyam]

Forgotten Myth; Chapter two.

Words- 2967

Warnings- height/falling, fighting, arguing, mentions Lee’s death

Summary-  When fourteen year old Ruby Moore is chased down the hallway at school by a character out of one of her fever dreams, she gets thrown into a world of tales and myths that society has ruled out to be fake. Befriending a Pegasus that hates everyone, and gathering friends strong enough to be considered a small army, she has to embark on a journey that will change her life forever.

POV- Ruby

Chapter One- https://rqmcuwdwpjo.tumblr.com/post/188285543834/forgotten-myth-chapter-one

Will took me around the camp, Camp Half-Blood according to his shirt. Showing me everything from a strawberry field to the infirmary. He told me stories of our dad, about how Apollo got banished to be a mortal a while ago and since he’s back being a god he now has a new sense of identity. He took me to the archery range, where I impressed him with my archery skills even though I was new. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I took archery lessons from age six to age ten. 

By the end of the educational tour, I was exhausted. I felt like I’d just ran a million miles, but he didn’t stop there. He took me to the only building in a rectangle of twenty other oddly specific buildings that literally was glowing gold in the setting sun. Inside there were about ten bunks, all pushed to the outside edges of the building so that there was room in the middle for three cots. 

“Please tell me I don’t have to sleep in one of those.” I whined, pointing at one of the cots. Will made a face as if to say: I hope you like back problems. I almost started complaining but he laughed and placed a hand on my shoulder to keep from toppling over. 

“Those are medical cots silly. But anyways, welcome to cabin seven; where children of Apollo learn the trades of our father.” I looked around and took in the scene. Books on various topics lined the many bookshelves in between the bunks, medical supplies spilled out of bags while syringes soaked in a yellowish-brown liquid. One thing that stuck out to me the most, was the fact that everywhere I looked, some sort of archery target hung from the walls with very distinct holes in the bulls-eye. Will rummaged around under one of the bunks that looked abandoned and pulled out a box. When he opened it, a faint light filtered out as if they’d trapped it in there. 

“This was Lee Fletcher’s bow. If you want it, it’s all yours,” Will said, sadness drifting through his voice. I was tempted to ask what happened to Lee, but something about Will’s posture and aura told me that I’d better just accept the bow. 

“It looks perfect, thank you,” he handed me the bow, and I had to admit; it was perfect. The nocking point seemed to be in a direct line to my shoulder, the bow string wasn’t too taut, I felt like this bow had been crafted just for me. As I was holding it, I realized that the bow itself was actually glowing; not blindingly, just enough for me to see a faint halo of light outlining the bow. 

Once Will had enough of reminiscing about Lee’s bow, we went back outside. A horn blew in the distance, scaring me so badly I screamed and hid behind Will (Not my best moment I’ll admit). 

“That’s the dinner horn, nothing to be afraid of-” he said, a dark figure appeared out of seemingly nowhere cut him off. 

“eccoti, ti ho cercato dappertutto,” the dark haired kid said. 

“Nico, for the last time, I don’t speak fluent Italian.” 

“Ciao, chi sei,” they all turned to me as if I just grew another head. Though the black haired kid looked more grateful than confused. 

“Puoi parlare italiano?” the black haired kid -who Will called Nico- asked. 

“no, perché dovrei?” I asked. Will’s face flushed red, but he looked rather pissed. 

“Would you two stop that! Ruby you’re speaking Italian!” He yelled, taking both of us by surprise. I looked down at my hands as if they’d give me answers; but no avail. I was thinking in another language too, symbols rather than english letters were flying around my head. I realized the same symbols were almost everywhere around camp, telling me where to go. For a moment, I completely forgot english and my whole sense of identity blurred. Will set a hand on my shoulder, drawing my attention from my hands. 

“pós boró na milíso angliká?” I asked frantically. Nico handed me the book he was reading, thankfully it was in english and the other two languages seemed to go back to their hiding places. My mind went back to thinking in my first language; I handed the book back to Nico and huffed, “Thank you,” he nodded and started up the hill.

Dinner was cool, I could order whatever I wanted and however much I wanted. My plate just seemed to refill itself, the Greeks really knew how to eat. Mr. D (Will told me his real name is Dionysus, the wine dude) stood and banged a knife against his goblet of diet coke. When he had everyone’s attention, he turned to Chiron. (yes, the Chiron from the ancient times.) 

“You all know what today is, the first Friday of the month. Which means-” he was cut off by the Ares table pounding their silverware on the table, chanting CTF; whatever that meant. The rest of the cabins joined in their chants till it was just a rumble of voices and an earthquake of silverware pounding. A stocky girl with dirty blonde, almost brown hair stood up and thrust her spear into the air. 

“We’re on her team this month. If we win, I get the Apollo chariot back that she stole from us while Michael Yew was our senior counselor.” Will spat, he didn’t sound happy about being on her team. 

“Then I guess we have to win.” I stated. I’ve always been competitive, and now I finally know how I’m so good at basketball. Will grinned at me, his eyes alight with an emotion I couldn’t place. 

After dinner, and after Chiron was finally able to explain the rules; Will led cabin seven through the hoard of people and into the woods. Everyone seemed to know their place, some went up into trees, scaling them like squirrels. Others turned invisible and the only hint that they were still there was a rustling in the bushes. Will led me to a pile of rocks that looked like a thumb, a blood red flag shone brightly in the setting sun. he scaled a tree next to the pile of rocks, something told me to do the same. I climbed a tree with surprising ease a few yards away from the flag so I’d have a clear view of who was coming through. Two kids that wore the same mischievous grins that Ayla defaulted to walked through the clearing. Behind them, enough teenagers to be considered a small army without the multitude of weapons came walking into the clearing. The girl, who Will told me was Clarrise, barked orders at people. 

“You excited?” someone asked behind me. My instincts pulled an arrow out and notched it all while turning around. I was met with a smug smile that I was so used to. Then I checked my pockets. 

“More nervous than anything, your dad is Hermes isn’t it.” I asked Ayla. It hadn’t occurred to me that she looked exactly like him -based on a description from a book I found- She nodded and perched in the tree next to me. I looked over to where Will was perched to see him lazily going in and out of being visible. He flickered sometimes, like he got stuck halfway through his change. 

“You and I are gonna charge the flag. According to Connor, they’ve got the entirety of Demeter’s children on guard duty, with Hecate’s scattered throughout the woods.” I nodded along with her, we’d need a plan to get through Hecate’s children’s magic. A bunch of grease covered kids walked into the clearing, -probably Hephaestus’s kids- and Ayla let out an audible sigh. I followed her gaze to a semi scrawny kid who would not stop moving -his dark curly hair and tanned skin gave him away as hispanic- talking to an equally dark skinned girl.

Clarrise held a thumbs up to the sky and then a few moments later a horn sounded. Our ranks bolted into the woods, and the Hephaestus kids started waving Wii remotes around really quickly. 

Yells and screams erupted from the woods, and a few kids watched everything through a shield looking thing. The first wave of kids were all blonde except for the black haired kid from earlier (Will told me that he’s the son of Poseidon, Perry Jackson, or something like that). Ayla drew her daggers and charged from her spot in the tree. Will and I rained arrows down on whoever got too close to the flag (Although, most of my arrows missed). A water spout rocketed toward me, but I jumped and fired one of the rope arrows into another tree, swinging across the battlefield kicking anyone that got too close. Light beams burned kids slightly when they started their assault on the flag. We were being overrun by kids. Another kid with blond hair came running through the mess and I thought it might be Will, but then I started to feel sleepy. 

“It’s Clovis’s magic!” someone yelled. I took a closer look at the blond haired kid and I realized that he was sleeping. Our defenses were dropping like flies, snores started the echo through the woods. They seemed to be protecting him, drawing a crescent moon around him. Next to me Ayla sleepily fluttered down onto the branch and closed her eyes, a good sized rock almost fell out of her hand. I knew what she wanted me to do. 

“C’mon Apollo, gimme one luck shot,” I murmured and wound up. The rock left my hand at an upward angle, then arced down; smacking Clovis right in the temple, he fell like a load of bricks. Some of his defenses tried to wake him up but he didn’t. Our defense team woke up one by one, recharged and ready to go they fought harder than before. 

My vision blurred and I saw a figure running for our flag, but I couldn’t see her. I sensed her. When my vision returned I saw someone grabbing at our flag, it rose and started down the hill. Almost all of the offensive troops had retreated. 

“Team Ares!” I yelled, gathering everyone's attention. “Stop our flag,” they followed my finger and watched as Annabeth emerged from nothing and set down the flag. A wave the size of a small house flung half our troops out of the way, then the dark haired kid (Perry? Percy? One of the two  I can’t remember what Will said) started fighting his way through the mess of kids. Ayla grabbed my hand and the next thing I knew we were zooming through the woods at top speed. She smacked into an invisible shield of some sort and crumpled to the ground with a groan. A few snickers from the other side brought my attention to a bunch of Demeter and Hecate children. Clarrise growled a few feet away from me and stabbed at the shield, getting thrown back. Ayla and I exchanged glances, something told me she wanted to go up. So we did. 

The shield was definitely not as strong on the top as it was near the bottom. The only problem was that we were suspended fifty feet up in the air by some jello. Ayla pried a hole in the top and I shot four arrows down. Unbeknownst to me, they were all sonic arrows. Each arrow sounded like it was on eight amplifiers and a surround sound speaker. Good news, it was enough to blast out the shield and disoriant their first line of defenses; bad news, Ayla and I were now falling fifty feet to our deaths. Someone caught me, I was met with brown eyes that screamed anger. He set me down and kept running, as Ayla lowered herself down next to me. Together, the three of us ran at the Aphrodite children. I stayed back a little bit and shot anyone out of the trees, while the rest of our offense fought against Aphrodite, Nemesis and what was left of Demeter. 

“Ayla! I have a plan!” I yelled, before I even had a P-L-A. She came running and I told her about what I saw Will doing and how he briefly explained it to me. Another kid came with her, however; it was the brown eyed Ares kid that caught me. 

“You’re going to need a brute for that,” he grumbled, trying harder than necessary to sound mean. I didn’t have time to argue so I just grabbed their arms and ran, praying to Apollo that this worked. 

The fact that no one tried to stop us told me that it worked. We ran and dodged roots that were constantly growing. When we came to a clearing where a stream ran through, I slowed down. In front of us stood their flag, and a multitude of traps. Ayla groaned at the sight of the traps but I told her to just fly over everything. A blond kid that looked to be about my age paced in front of the first trap, folding over a knife in his hand. He grumbled about something, we didn’t stick around long enough to hear what he was saying. Ayla flew us over everything, groaning and complaining everytime one of us moved the wrong way. The brown eyed kid, -who refused to tell me his name- grabbed the flag and bolted for Ayla and I. An alarm sounded in the trees and two more cabins came running into the clearing. 

“Great, now what,” brown eyed boy grumbled. I hadn’t thought this far but I had the beginnings of something that would either be super cool, or the biggest failure in the history of camp. I pulled out my last arrow, it was a rope arrow. Thank Apollo, I thought. Without saying a word I shot it at an angle at Ayla; the arrow wrapped itself around her waist, almost pulling her out of the sky. Brown eyed kid seemed to be following my train of thought because he ran towards the closest kids near us and grabbed their shields. He threw one at me and stuffed the other under his foot. I stopped the shield with my foot, and gripped my bow better. 

“AYLA, FLY!” I screamed and she took off. The brown eyed kid grabbed onto the rope with his other hand and held the flag under his arm. 

We sped through the woods on shields, Ayla was going so fast that almost nothing could touch us. I’m sure we looked like a more badass version of the Three Stooges. She started laughing maniacally over the wind and we jumped a hill. Annabeth and the black haired kid (I’m pretty sure his name is Percy) were running back with our flag, thankfully they hadn’t made it back to their side yet. They ducked under us and gawked. Cheers erupted from the tree line where Ayla’s half brothers and sisters were gathering along with the Hephaestus kids. We were almost across when a wave knocked Ayla out of the sky, she hit the ground like a ton of bricks. 

“Connor! Go long!” he yelled and threw the flag like a spear. One of Ayla’s brothers broke off from the crowd and flew to meet the flag, pulling it over the line; the crowd cheered and lifted him up on their shoulders. With Ayla’s momentum and no one to steer, brown eyed kid and I rammed right into a tree. He turned around right before we hit and grabbed me, his back smacked into the tree hard, and my head smacked into his armor. We both crumpled to the ground, groaning. Will was already working on Ayla who had hit her head on a rock. A few of my other siblings ran over to brown eyed kid and I, healing us with no problem. I stood up and stuck out my hand to help him up, he took it gingerly. 

“That was quite the plan, Ruby,” he said and took off his helmet. For a moment I was overtaken with confusion but then I realized who he was. 

“You- you told Mrs. Johansson that I FAKED A PASS!” I yelled, poking a finger at his chest. Jackson Ryans stuck his hands in the air in surrender, though the grin on his face told me he was just getting started. 

“It was all part of the plan.”

“What plan?!” I demanded, only now realizing that he was a solid three inches taller than me. 

“To get you here of course, we needed an actual reason to get you here or else you wouldn’t believe us and someone kept telling the monsters off your scent,” he explained as though it was the most obvious thing in the world. That didn’t help the fact that I got a detention out of it and was benched for two basketball games. 

“He’s right, we did need a reason and Jackson volunteered to tattle on you,” Chiron said as he helped Ayla up off the ground. She brushed herself off quickly and thanked Will, who went to work on the others that were lying around groaning. 

“I was benched for two games because of him!” 

“Yeah, sorry about that one. That definitely wasn’t part of the plan,” Jackson said, scratching the back of his neck, still grinning. I wanted to smack him but Ayla led me away before I could, throwing me into a celebration that resulted in me, Ayla, Connor and Jackson on various peoples shoulders. Ayla and Connor start playing chicken, with two of the stockier Hephaestus kids. Slowly I realized that I was on an Ares kids shoulders, he was taking me toward their chicken game. Ayla punched me in the arm and Connor shoved my shoulder. 

“Hey! No tag teaming!” I laughed, shoving them back. Jackson came over and shoved them with me, together we pushed Ayla off the Hephaestus kids shoulders and then went to work on Connor. He gave up and flew off the kids shoulders. Jackson held his arms out for a hug, I was reluctant but it’s kinda hard to dismiss a hug that you’re forced into. Jackson’s brother moved so that he could pull me into him. 

“Okay okay, I forgive you… I guess,” I said so he’d let go of me. Did I actually forgive him? Not really; but something told me I’d have to or else this camp would be absolute hell.

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

Unpopular pjo opinion: Percy became too op and Mary Sue for me in The Last Olympian. Like, did he really have to become near-indestructible? Why would Annabeth just jump in between him and (to her knowledge) certain death? Like, shes smart enough that she would have planned further ahead instead of doing something so irrational! And why did Percy just decide not to tell anyone about his invincibility until much later? Could have helped the group out in the beginning, y'know!

I mean…I wouldn’t call him a Mary Sue, no. I definitely see the angle you’re coming from, but like. Literally a normal mortal would have stood no chance against Kronos. It just wasn’t going to happen. Percy got the smallest scratch from that scythe and almost had his soul burned away. And to everyone’s knowledge right up until Percy handed over the knife, it looked like Percy was going to have to fight Kronos and win if Olympus stood any chance. Also, the army for the ‘good side’? It was like…40 campers, the Hunters, and some nature spirits. Versus huge, seemingly never-ending hordes of monsters and twisted demigods and mortal mercenaries and angry minor gods and titans. Coming at the city from all sides. They would not have been able to win this without Percy swimming in the Styx. That’s just a fact- he was able to take down way more monsters and villains than before he got the curse. Camp Half-Blood has always been relatively small headcount wise. He was convinced to take the curse because that’s what they needed to happen.

ALSO, It was important because Luke also had taken up the curse, and Percy and Luke are very obviously literary foils. Luke took the curse to serve Kronos and Percy took it to defeat him. Luke took the curse to protect himself and Percy took the curse to protect his friends. Throughout the entire series, the boys are clearly meant to be foils of each other, and there are multiple moments where it seems as though Percy is ‘following in Luke’s footsteps’ so to speak, so it absolutely makes sense that jumping in the Styx is something Percy would have to do. 

Not to mention, Percy taking up the curse was (very cleverly, in my opinion) used as a way to show us he’s becoming a man. Remember at the end of botl where Poseidon tells him he’d ‘be a man if we were in Sparta’? A very common thing in books to symbolize a character growing up is to have them separate from their mother. Killing the mother off is unfortunately the most common way to do this, but Sally is amazing and got lucky. We, as readers by this point, are used to Percy asking his mom for advice. “Should I leave camp to join this quest? What do you think this means?” stuff like that. The fact that Percy needs his mother’s blessing for the curse to work makes the scene in their kitchen a turning point. He’s not asking if she thinks this is a bad idea, he’s saying “This is my only shot of saving Olympus. This is the only way. I need to do this.” Sally has spent her son’s entire life trying to defy fate. She kept him out of camp too long, she surrounded herself with the worst mortals possible to keep him safe, she wanted to keep him with her because he’s her baby. And he absolutely still is, no one’s contesting that, but the scene forces her to confront the fact he’s growing up. She has to make the decision to give him up, to put him in the hands of his own fate. The scene is used to show the readers ‘this is not the little boy who started the series’. He doesn’t need his mom to drive him into battles anymore. And the fact that Sally did give her blessing was good for Percy. He knows he’s the biggest light in his mother’s life, you can tell he’s more panicked about how his death would affect her than he was about actually dying. The fact that she symbolically gave him up to fate…He left the apartment knowing he didn’t have to worry about her. He knew that his mother had come to terms with everything and would, eventually and with help from Paul, be okay after he died. That was a strong moment for them both, and it allowed Percy to focus all his energy on the war. 

As for Annabeth…that scene on the bridge was so important oh my God. It WAS irrational, you’re correct, and that’s why it’s one of the most meaningful moments in the series! 

Annabeth, as we’ve seen time and time again, even as recently as ‘Blood of Olympus’, is terrified of emotions. She hates them! Because they’re not rational. It drives her crazy, crazy that she can’t understand things like her relationship with her family, or her relationship with Luke. Annabeth is this strong minded, rational being, but that’s not how feelings work. She feels things very strongly, and that scares her, because it leaves her confused and unsure of what she’s doing. 

We see Annabeth act irrationally many times throughout the series…and those moments are always connected to Luke. Thinking if she just yells loud enough she can get through to him, refusing to give up on him even when he’s literally got Kronos living inside him, basically her every thought about him is crazy. It’s understandable, certainly, because he means so much to her, but? From the standpoint of literally everyone else? He’s Kronos’ number one man and host, he’s not coming back (and it’s the irrational emotions that save him! that save Olympus! that’s so important!). But the point is, this entire series, Annabeth’s ONE weak spot has always been Luke. That’s why Percy was always so frustrated with her, especially in the later books. She’d defend Luke to her grave even though he was evil, for all intents and purposes, and as Percy was a young teenager with a very strong crush I’m sure you can imagine how that’d make him feel second best? It’s fairly obvious from botl that he knew or at least suspected Annabeth had a crush on him…but she didn’t even have her feelings for Luke figured out at that point. Annabeth never made any irrational decisions regarding Percy. She’s not the best with emotions, absolutely, and from Percy’s point of view, all her strongest feelings have always been for Luke. He trusts her as a best friend, he trusts her to not defect to the Titan Army and keep fighting for the gods, but Luke’s the one she’s always going to defend. Luke’s always gonna be her weakness. Kronos is using Luke’s body as a shell and she still believes in her heart he’s in there and she can get through to him. And that’s where most of Annabeth’s energies lay, at this point. She’s worried about Percy, and she’s mad at him (but it’s mostly stemming from worry), and she has a crush on him…but she’s never been so overcome with her feelings for him that she did something stupid before. That’s always been a Luke thing, a Luke thing against her will, and I think that’s why she really doesn’t realize “I love Luke like a brother” until the climax of the fight. She’s never had a moment like that with Percy, because Percy is always right there and dependable and doesn’t need anyone to save him. She clamps down on her feelings for him at times because she’s afraid of what will happen to her if he dies. She doesn’t want Percy to be her weak spot because he has such a higher chance of dying. She’s scared of opening herself up and getting hurt again, like with Luke. She. hates. emotions. and. wants. to. suppress. them. 

And she doesn’t know at this point that she’s the one and only thing tying Percy’s soul to the mortal world.

But she sees someone advancing on his unprotected back with a poison-dripping knife (and how easily could that have been the cursed blade to reap the hero’s soul?)

And she feels it in the pit of her stomach that something’s wrong, she knows he’s not going to be able to defend himself in time. So what does she do, willingly, for the first time in her life? 

Gives in to her irrational feelings. 

She doesn’t fight them at all. She jumps in front of the knife. 

This is just such an important turning point for the two of them- Percy never expected her to do something like that for him. For Luke, maybe Thalia, sure, but he probably expected a more calculated move, or a plan for himself. This was the first time he really started to see the depth of her feelings for him, which made him feel braver confronting his own feelings for her. And Annabeth now immediately has to confront the facts- she’d die for Percy. I don’t think that’s something she realized she would do before she jumped. She can’t ignore her emotions now, they just clawed their way out of their carefully constructed cage and shoved her in front of a poisoned dagger. 

And she’s still scared of feelings and things that don’t make sense, because that’s not something you shake so quickly, but because of this moment? When she was in the throne room and she realized either Luke or Percy was about to die? She was able to figure out her feelings pretty damn fast. 

(Also, didn’t Percy choose not to tell the camp about the Achilles’ Curse because he knew there was still a spy there?)

[dotshiiki]

remember that old GA AU?

In honour of the new season of Grey’s (season 14, seriously?), I thought I’d dust it off and continue the ‘episode’ (posted here). 

Like before, surgicalintern!Annabeth, surfer/patient!Percy, and douchebag-attending!Luke--now with a side of intern!Piper, Sally, and cameos from Hazel, Frank, and Will. The total rip-off of the pilot episode of Grey’s Anatomy continues ... (Also, please don’t squint too hard at the medical stuff. I have zero medical training. Everything comes from the show and my adaptations are probably crap.)

(Still rated T for swearing.)

She watches Percy Jackson's surgery from the gallery.

It's a twelve-hour surgery and she has to keep popping in and out because she's on labs today, but she catches enough of it to see that the nerve repair is going well (of course—smug bastard though he is, Dr Castellan is good at what he does) and the prognosis for Percy is good.

Annabeth gets to be the one to tell his family when it's over. She picks out Sally Jackson right away—a brown-haired woman with tired lines and a worried expression on her face, whose tense, unsettled position on the edge of the hospital chair instantly gives her away as a woman whose loved one is under the knife.

Annabeth is willing to bet she spent the night in that chair, worrying over her son.

She recognises the sweet-looking girl with caramel-coloured curls as the third passenger in the car crash, the one who's ostensibly Percy's friend's girl. She has a vague recollection of Piper leading her out of the ER while they treated Percy and Sally … or maybe it was Frank. There's nothing outwardly objectionable about Callie's rosy cheeks, or her pouty mouth, or her button nose that wrinkles in a way that can only be described as cute.

Annabeth dislikes her anyway.

She tells herself it's because girls like that have always been the bane of her existence—all sugary sweet and bursting with the security of being unconditionally and unmistakably loved. She thinks her dad has two new daughters like that (not that Annabeth's bothered to keep in touch with him or the new family he made after he walked out on her and Mom).

But personal feelings have no place in the practice of medicine.

Still, she addresses herself exclusively to Sally Jackson when she explains the surgery and how it went. The woman is Percy's actual relative, after all. (Best-friend's-girlfriend doesn't legally count, whatever crush Percy might nurture for the girl.)

Oh god, is she seriously jealous of Callie? This has to end now.

'He's okay?' Sally looks ready to cry. 'He'll be fine?'

'Yes, ma'am, he's—'

Her pager goes off right then. Percy Jackson, 911.

Oh crap.

She turns and runs without giving Sally or Callie an explanation. She doesn't even bother to wait for the elevators, instead taking the three floors to post-op at a sprint that would make Dr Ramírez-Arellano proud (rule number two, you answer every page at a run!) When she bursts into Percy's room, he's seizing violently, even worse than the one he had when he first came in, a grand mal to end all grand mals. The nurses are struggling to hold him down.

Annabeth freezes—actually freezes, what's wrong with her—at the sight of him flopping around like a dying fish on the bed.

'How do you want to proceed, Dr Chase? Dr Chase?'

'Dr Chase, are you listening to me?'

The nurse that waves her hand in front of Annabeth's face is short and buxom, with a wild Afro. For some reason, Annabeth's eyes sharpen on her nametag—HAZEL LEVESQUE—and it brings her back to her senses.

'Diazepam,' she says, grabbing the chart. 'Give him diazepam.'

Hazel loads him up, but there's no change.

'Try two milligrams Lorazepam. And page Dr Ramírez-Arellano and Dr Castellan!'

'Already have, Dr Chase.'

The machines are all beeping in earnest now. Think, Chase, concentrate!

'Full on Lorazepam, Dr Chase.'

'Phenobarbital,' she says desperately. 'Load him with phenobarbital.'

'Pheno's in.'

'No change.'

Why is she the only doctor in the room? It's only her second day, for crying out loud!

'You paged Dr Ramírez-Arellano and Dr Castellan?'

'I just told you—'

'Well, page them again, stat!'

Percy goes into flatline then and Annabeth's own heart may have just stopped.

'Code blue!' Hazel yells. 'Code blue! Get the crash cart.'

Everything is a blur of voices and swarming green scrubs as the nurses get the crash cart in. Annabeth grabs the paddle, operating on autopilot now. Her mind is screaming as loud as the flatline tone on the heart monitor, but somehow her hands know what to do.

'Clear!'

She presses the paddles to Percy's chest.

'Still v-fib.'

'Charge to 300.'

Someone's counting the seconds since he crashed. Nineteen. Twenty-seven.

'Anything?'

There's still no rhythm.

'Come on, Percy,' Annabeth pleads. She's only got a minute to get a response. 'Charge to 360!'

Still nothing. No, dammit, this can't be it.

'Sixty seconds!'

'Charge again!'

'At sixty seconds you're supposed to—'

'Charge again!'

At the third shock, the deadly dial tone jumps into a beat again.

'Sinus rhythm,' Hazel confirms.

'Blood pressure's coming up,' says another nurse. 'He's back.'

Dr Castellan chooses that moment to show up. 'What the hell happened?'

'He had a seizure and his heart stopped,' Annabeth gasps. 'What did you do to him in surgery? I thought you fixed him?'

'I did! I—' Dr Castellan stops and stares at her. 'Get a hold of yourself, Dr Chase. What the hell's wrong with you?'

The world is sliding in and out of focus—Luke's face, Percy's, the nurses swarming his bed. Annabeth can feel the gorge rising in her throat. She turns and leaves the room, her ears ringing with the beeping of the heart monitor and the sound of the flatline and What the hell's wrong with you? She barely notices Dr Ramírez-Arellano striding up the hallway, yelling, 'You get a 911, you page me immediately!'

It's all she can do not to break into a run. She doesn't stop until she's left the hospital building, walked right out to the carpark, and that's where she lets go, puking her breakfast out into a clump of bushes.

When she finally turns around, Piper McLean is staring at her. She hands Annabeth a tissue.

'If you tell anyone, ever,' Annabeth threatens, though she doesn't know how she's going to follow that up.

She wipes her mouth with Piper's tissue and, not looking at her fellow intern, heads back into the hospital.

OoOoO

'What was that?' Dr Castellan asks her when she reappears on the post-op floor.

'Nothing.'

He grabs her shoulders. 'You were completely overwrought.'

Annabeth shakes herself free. 'It was my first code. And I just told his mom he was fine.'

His eyes narrow at her.

'Look, I'm sorry. I just panicked. I didn't mean to—sorry.'

Dr Castellan crosses his arms. She can tell he doesn't believe her completely, and can she blame him? She's not even being altogether truthful to herself.

There's just something about Percy Jackson that makes her feel a little crazy.

She picks up the chart. 'It won't happen again.'

'Fine,' Dr Castellan says. 'And the surgery was perfect. He's awake and responsive now—and his eyes are fixed.'

'Sorry,' she mutters. 'I didn't mean to suggest you screwed up.'

'I'll let it go this time. Although if it were any other intern …'

'Don't,' she tells him. 'Don't do me any favours.' The last thing she needs is to be accused of sucking up. She flips the chart. Percy's post-op scans are on the second page, and they're clean. In fact, they're hardly different from what the pre-op CT showed, besides the now-fixed optic nerve impingement. 'The seizure wasn't from the accident?'

'Seems like it.'

'Do you think it … caused the accident?'

Dr Castellan shrugs. 'Could be.'

'So what's causing the seizures?'

Dr Castellan sighs. 'I don't know.'

OoOoO

Evidently, the mystery of Percy Jackson's seizures is something Dr Castellan can't figure out, because he calls a meeting that afternoon.

Annabeth sinks into a seat between Piper and Will Solace, who's practically inhaling the coffee cup in his hands.

Silena Beauregard leans over from the row behind them. 'Anyone know why we're here?'

Frank Zhang opens his mouth, but Dr Castellan addresses them before he can offer his speculation.

'Good afternoon.'

There are mutters of 'afternoon' in return. Dr Castellan surveys the room. His eyes linger a bit too long on Annabeth for her comfort. (She sinks lower in her seat, hoping no one's noticed.)

'I'm gonna do something rare for a surgeon,' he says at last. 'I'm gonna ask interns for help.'

He lays out the bare facts of Percy Jackson's case—car accident, head trauma, the optic nerve impingement that he fixed, and the seizures that don't appear to be due to the accident like they assumed. 'He's not responding to meds. Labs are clean, scans are pure, but he keeps having seizures—grand mal seizures with no visible cause. If it goes on like this, he's gonna die.'

He doesn't mention the calloused warmth of Percy's hand, or the light shade of green of his eyes that puts you in mind of waves crashing on a Mediterranean beach. Or the gentle smile with the dimple in one cheek that he bestows when you agree to stay a while. Or the funny story he tells about the time he tried to jump over a dolphin on his surfboard, only to have the dolphin leap at the same time and—'Well, I don't have to tell the rest, do I?’

Of course not. These are things only Annabeth's noticed, and they aren't medically important. She shouldn't even be thinking about them. He's a patient. A case. A number in a file.

'I need you all to play detective, find out why Jackson's having seizures,' Dr Castellan says. He holds up a hand to stop the grumbling before it starts. 'I get it—you're tired, you're busy, you got more work than you can possibly handle. So I'm gonna give you an incentive. Whoever finds the answer rides with me. You solve this, you scrub in on the surgery, on an advanced procedure no intern ever gets the chance to see.'

She can almost feel the excitement as the entire room straightens as one, all weariness forgotten now. Except for her. The tiredness weighs down on her shoulders and the fear drags her lower still.

She desperately wants to solve the case, too, but it's not a surgery with Dr Castellan she's angling for.

Solve the case, Percy survives.

How the hell has a guy she's known for barely two days become this important to her?

OoOoO

Piper finds her in the hospital library, scouring through case files and histories.

'Hey,' she says. 'You wanna work together on the Percy Jackson case? If we find the answer we have a fifty-fifty chance at scrubbing in.'

Annabeth peers at her over the top of the New England Journal of Neurosurgery. Two heads are better than one, she figures. 'I'll work with you,' she says, 'but I don't want in on the surgery.'

Piper's jaw drops. 'Are you kidding? It's the biggest opportunity we'll ever get!'

'It's Castellan's surgery,' Annabeth says crisply. 'I'd rather avoid scrubbing in with him.'

Piper's eyebrows shoot up so high, they nearly disappear under her roughly-cut brown bangs. 'What do you have against Castellan?'

Annabeth winces. It may have been better if she hadn't said anything. 'Look, if we find the answer, the surgery's yours. Do you wanna work together or not?'

Piper whistles through her teeth and begins to pull books off the shelf at random. 'Deal.'

Five hours, nine espressos, and eighty-six case studies later, they're sitting on the floor of the library, leaning against the shelves. Annabeth's eyes are watering from all the text she's read—no mean feat for a girl who grew up dyslexic—and they still haven't found the answer. She could hope that one of the other interns have, but somehow she knows it's still a mystery.

Piper groans and closes another book. 'I can't read any more of this.' She rubs a hand over her face. 'You seriously aren't gonna tell me why you won't work with Castellan?'

'No.' Annabeth traces the spine of the American Journal of Infectious Diseases. 'Infection, maybe?'

'No white count,' Piper reminds her. 'Just tell me.'

Annabeth ignores her and grinds the heels of her palms against her eyes. 'No CT lesions, no fevers, nothing in the spinal tap.'

'Come on,' Piper wheedles. 'I'll just make something up otherwise. It can't be worse than what my imagination can come up with.'

'Wanna bet?' Annabeth mutters.

'I won't tell anyone.'

Annabeth sighs. 'He was my mom's protegé.'

From the way Piper takes this as a matter of course, Annabeth knows the stories about Dr Athena Chase's daughter have already made their rounds. So much for keeping a low profile.

'That doesn't sound so bad.'

'We just—we have a history, okay?'

'Ooh, a history. What, like a you-were-sworn-enemies history, or a you-slept-with-each-other history … oh my god.'

Annabeth buries her face in her knees.

'You slept with him.'

'Say that a bit louder, would you?' she hisses.

Piper opens and closes her mouth a few times, and finally comes up with, 'I guess he is kinda cute. I dig the blond, superman look.' She considers a moment. 'Is he good? I mean, he looks like he'd be good.'

'Kill me now,' Annabeth mutters.

'Oh, come on, so you slept with the guy before, it's not like—oh geez. You haven't stopped, have you?'

'I'm not gonna answer that.'

Piper thinks a moment, then goes back to their earlier conversation. 'What about an aneurysm?'

'No blood on the CT, no headaches,' Annabeth says automatically. She thinks they've covered this already. They're going round in circles—how are they ever going to find an answer? 'What if no one comes up with anything?'

'You mean, if he dies?' Piper kneads her forehead miserably. 'I guess no one gets a surgery.'

'He'll never win the nationals,' Annabeth says, thinking about all the dreams Percy shared with her last night.

'The what?'

'Surf Nationals,' Annabeth explains. 'He's a surfer. He was driving back from the regionals when he—' She freezes as something clicks in her head.

'What? Annabeth, what is it?'

'Get up.' She hauls to her feet. 'Come on.'

OoOoO

Percy's awake when they get to his room, chatting with his mom. Callie is nowhere to be seen at the moment, but Annabeth is, for once, not concerned about the cutesy not-girlfriend.

'Dr Chase!' Percy says when she and Piper burst in. 'And a pretty colleague. Wow, the doctors here sure are hot!'

'You didn't tell me he's such a flirt,' Piper says.

Annabeth ignores both of them. 'At the regionals,' she says to him, 'did you do anything out of the ordinary? Like a bad fall, or taking a hit, or—'

'He crashed into another surfer's board,' Sally Jackson says.

'Mom!' Percy looks mortified. 'I swear I'm not usually such a klutz.'

If Annabeth weren't so thrilled that he's basically confirming her theory, she might appreciate how cute he looks when he's blushing and obviously not wanting her to think he's a crappy surfer.

'Is that what caused this? The other doctor said it was something besides the car crash—'

'We don't know,' she tells Sally. 'But we're gonna find out. Sit tight.'

'You've solved it, haven't you?' Piper asks as they shut the door behind them.

Annabeth nods. 'But you're gonna have to tell Castellan.'

OoOoO

Piper insists on dragging Annabeth along, even when she promises to present their diagnosis. Well, Annabeth's diagnosis, but much as she wants to claim credit, she's not going to this time.

The moment Piper opens with, 'Percy's a surfer,' Annabeth knows she's going to have to step in after all. Luke shares her mom's view on competitive sport—which is to say, it's a waste of time and lands too many idiots in the hospital, wasting doctors' time. (No wonder neither of them went into ortho. Annabeth allows herself a moment to consider the possibility—it'd seriously piss her mom off, which makes it equal parts attractive and terrifying.)

Dr Castellan raises an eyebrow. 'That's a shame, but we have to save his life anyway.'

'Well,' Piper says, looking nonplussed, 'he could have burst an aneurysm.'

'There's no indications,' Dr Castellan says, and Annabeth can tell from his face that he's about to brush them off.

'I know,' Piper says quickly—she's persistent, Annabeth has to give her credit for that, 'but what if he has an aneurysm anyway?'

'You're suspecting an aneurysm on the basis of no medical proof.' Dr Castellan is at his most derisive. Annabeth's always hated this side of him. She wonders why she put up with it for so long.

(Probably because it never seems to show when he's charming the pants off her.)

'He fell,' she says sharply, cutting across Piper's babbled explanations about a botched surf wave. 'Crashed into another surfer. It was minor, he didn't even hit his head, but he did fall.'

Dr Castellan frowns at her. 'You know the chances that a fall could burst an aneurysm? One in a million. Literally.'

She crosses her arms and stares him down.

Dr Castellan sighs. 'Order the repeat CT and an MRI. Let's see if Jackson's one in a million.'

OoOoO

'I'll be damned.'

They're peering at the scans, which clearly show a tiny line of blood leading out into the left ventricle. 'There it is. Minute, but it's there.'

'He's bleeding into his brain,' Piper whispers.

Dr Castellan nods. 'He could have gone his entire life without it ever being a problem. One tap in the right spot—'

'Ka-boom,' Piper finishes.

'That's what comes of competitive sport,' Dr Castellan sneers.

'He could have burst it tripping down the stairs,' Annabeth points out.

Dr Castellan rolls his eyes. 'Well, either way, I have to fix it.' He guides them out of the viewing room. 'I'd better go schedule the surgery. Good job, both of you.'

'Um, Dr Castellan, you said you'd pick someone to scrub in if we helped,' Piper says.

'Oh yes. Right.' He looks at Annabeth. 'Sorry I can't take you both. It'll be a full house. Annabeth, I'll see you in the OR.'

Annabeth s too stunned to even protest. It's not until Piper turns on her heel and stomps away that she realises what just happened.

'Piper—'

Fucking hell.

OoOoO

'So let me get this straight,' says Percy as she runs the razor over his head. 'You're saying that I made it out of the car crash okay, but because I wiped out bad I might die?'

'First of all, I wouldn't call coming out of a car crash practically blind okay, and B, you're not gonna die, because we're fixing your aneurysm.'

He waves his hand in the air, like details. Annabeth buzzes off another chunk of his hair and he makes a face. 'And you have to shave my head for this?'

'Your hair is a bit of an impediment to surgery.'

'Bummer. Although I never tried the skinhead look. Maybe it'll be cool. Can you make it a mohawk? Or will that be an impediment as well?'

She laughs. 'I promise you'll still look cool.'

'Still, huh?' He gives her that saucy smile with the single dimple and she tries to ignore the way her heart is hammering against her chest.

It's because she had to tell Dr Castellan she's opting out of surgery. That's all.

'So, you gonna be in my surgery this time?'

'Uh, well, actually …'

'Ah, don't tell me. They don't let you interns get to cut? How do you guys ever learn? I mean, I'd never have nailed an aerial if I hadn't got out there and tried it.'

'Well, if you screw up, no harm done. If we screw up, people die.'

'Fair point. Not dying sounds good. So the guy operating on me—I think I've met him like a total of once, and I'm not even sure I was lucid at the time. He's good?'

Her hands pause over his head. Percy frowns. 'Should I be worried?'

'No, no, I don't mean to—sorry, just spaced out for a moment. He's good. He's one of the best.'

'Huh.' Percy scratches at his chin. 'You don't like him, though?'

'Where did you get that idea?'

'You sound like I just spat in your coffee.'

'It's—I'm not—' She sighs and puts down the razor. 'I just have to tell him something and I'm not looking forward to it.'

'What's that?'

'That I can't be in a surgery.'

It's Percy's turn to go quiet. Annabeth picks up the razor and continues her work while he tries to work this out.

'But you said you weren't allowed—huh. Huh.'

'What?' Her voice comes out slightly defensive.

'Nothing.'

She doesn't believe for a second that it's nothing, but she really shouldn't continue down this conversational path. She shouldn't even have let it take this direction in the first place.

Dr Castellan shows up at the door just as she's finishing up.

'Hey, doc,' Percy says. 'How's it going?'

Dr Castellan doesn't answer. He just beckons Annabeth to the door.

'Wow, he is a douche,' Percy says softly. 'Hope his operating skills are better than his bedside manner.'

Annabeth gives hi a tight smile and goes to the door.

'We're in OR two,' he says. 'Patient prepped and ready?'

'I'm not scrubbing in,' she says, before she can lose her nerve. 'You should ask Piper. She won the competition, too.'

Dr Castellan looks at her long and hard. Annabeth meets his eyes for only two seconds before she has to stare at her feet.

'This is because of last night, isn't it?' he says.

'Last night, and two nights ago, and—' She grits her teeth. 'The point is, I don't want to get picked for surgery because—because I slept with the boss.'

Dr Castellan holds up his hands. 'Okay, stop there. That's not the reason I picked you, and you know it. I know you, Annabeth. This was your solution, not McLean's.'

She lifts her chin. 'So what if it was?'

'So—' He grits his teeth. 'You know what, I can't deal with your insecurities right now, Annabeth. You're a good doctor, and you know it. Scrub in, don't scrub in—you decide whether you want to be a surgeon or not, okay?' He gives her a little shove back towards the bed. 'Finish prepping him. If you want to give away your shot for some lame reason, you go find McLean and tell her. If not, I'll see you in the OR.'

Percy arches his neck so that he's looking at her upside down. 'The guy's a douche, but he's right. You're a good doctor.'

Annabeth feels her face heat up. 'You heard us?'

'Well, yeah.' Percy drops his head back to a comfortable position. 'And you should scrub in.'

'You know, most people wouldn't want the newbie cutting into their heads.'

'I trust you.'

'You've known me two days!'

Percy shrugs. 'I'm a good judge of character.'

'Well, as long as it's an accurate reflection of my surgical skills …' She sighs. 'It's not about whether I'm good or not. It's—'

'I get it. You don't want to be picked for surgery because you slept with your boss.' He winces as if the thought of it pains him. 'But you were here from the start. I'm your patient. And from what he said, you were the one who solved my case, not the big shot douchebag doctor. You should get the chance to stick with me if you want it.' Percy's face reddens. 'Um, I didn't mean stick with me as in stick with me, I meant—uh, never mind.'

Annabeth smiles. 'I know what you mean.'

'Good. 'Cause you shouldn't let the fact that you had sex with the guy get in the way of you taking your shot.'

'I … didn't think of it that way.'

'And if you're worried about getting picked for the wrong reasons, maybe—' He bites down on his lip so hard, Annabeth can see a tiny drop of blood form.

'What?'

'It's … not really my place. Sorry.'

'No, tell me, what?'

His brow furrows, and she get the irresistible urge to put her fingers on it and smoothen it out. The words spill out of him quickly, almost tripping over one another. 'Maybe sleeping with Dr Douchebag isn't the best idea? Not that I'm judging or anything, and obviously you have your reasons, and you're really great, and … crap, I need to shut up, don't I?'

Annabeth's breath leaves her in a little puff that might be laughter. She can't tell—Percy's honest, bumbling advice is both endearing and a stab in the gut. 'No, you're right. Nothing ever good came of sleeping with your boss.'

'That's not the only reason I'm saying it.'

'It's not?'

He shakes his head. 'It's because you deserve someone better than him.'

The nurses must have been sleeping on the job when they cleaned this room, because the dust is besieging her eyes. And her throat. Goddamnit, she can't even swallow properly because of it.

'Let's get you prepped,' she says.

[nobodylovespercy10]

Oookay. So let’s say I get the part about Percy being too loyal and him wanting to protect his friends. 

But why would have they all failed if he did try to help them? In order to the defeat Gaia, The Seven (*cough cough* actually just Jason, Piper and Leo *cough cough* ) were supposed to take her out of her domain, the earth. They did just that and they fought her on Ouranus’s domain- the sky. But wouldn’t it have been the same thing if they fought her on Pontus’s domain- the ocean? It would’ve been the exact same thing. And besides his water powers, Percy can also make earthquakes, which would have been a useful tool against the Earth Goddess. Now you could tell me that Percy, being only a demigod, would not have stood a chance against a deity as strong as Gaia. But Jason’s powers were enough to get her out of the Earth (”As they ascended, Jason gathered the wind and clouds around him. The sky responded with frightening speed. Soon they were in the eye of a maelstrom. Lightning burned his eyes. Thunder made his teeth vibrate. Directly above them, Festus grappled with the earth goddess. Gaia kept disintegrating, trying to trickle back to the ground, but the winds kept her aloft.”) so why wouldn’t Percy’s powers be enough? I even dare say that Percy is more powerful than Jason, but that’s a conversation for another day. 

Secondly, the “It was the other demigods’ chance to shine” part and the fact that Percy’s sacrifice was to step out of the limelight. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure Percy has never even wanted to be in the limelight. This poor kid has been kicked out of all the schools he has ever attended. He has always been the new kid and we all know that’s never easy and that it draws a lot of attention. Add to that the fact that Percy’s always been labeled as a troublemaker due to his looks and his reputation from past schools. All Percy’s ever wanted was to bend with the crowd and have a normal life. (The way he felt after he’d been claimed still breaks my heart every day: “And I was absolutely miserable. Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven and I might be a normal kid- or as normal as you can be when you're a half-blood-I'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease.”) So no, I don’t think that stepping out of the limelight would be a sacrifice for Percy. 

Then maybe Percy had to realize that this time he was not the only child of the prophecy? That he was not the hero anymore? Well then, let me tell you this: he’s done that already too. The final battle from TLO was fantastic because it hasn’t been some big explosion or anything like that- the battle between the two armies had been outside. But the real last fight had been inside the throne room and it had been Percy realizing that even if he was the “half-blood of the eldest gods” that the prophecy mentioned, he was not the hero whose soul shall be ripped by the cursed blade. Rachel’s message was clear enough: “Perseus, you are not the hero”. The moment Percy gave Luke that knife and stood weaponless in front of his biggest enemy- that was the moment Percy admitted he was not the hero, that was the moment he “stepped out of the limelight”. He could have tried to kill Kronos himself, but he realized that the best option was to trust Luke, since Luke knew where his mortal spot was. 

And about Percy refusing to do what he must do in order to save the world, just so he could save those dear to him? I mean yes, personal loyalty is Percy’s flaw and if you hurt the people he cares about then you can be sure that you’re gonna die by his bare hands, but Percy has his priorities in order and just... does what he must do? Like when he left his mother, the person who he loves the most in the whole world, in Hades’s hands. Do you even realize what sacrifice that was for Percy? “And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.” What matters most. Percy literally went on that quest only to get his revenge on Hades for taking his mother, and he also had the tiny, tiny hope that he could get her back. And when he had the change to get his mother- the only person who ever showed her love for him when all his schoolmates, teachers and even his stepfather constantly treated him badly- when he had that chance he had to give it up and do the right thing to prevent a war between the gods (and godfuckingdamn it, it wasn’t even his job. He was a 12 year old kid who didn’t even know he was a demigod, he definitely didn’t steal your bloody masterbolt, Zeus you little...). He continued his quest in SoM even after he though that Tyson was dead- and again he had a tiny hope that he was alive and I’m pretty sure he would’ve rather looked for his brother than go to the cave of a wicked cyclops. I will not deny the fact that Percy’s personal loyalty had put him in some shitty situations and made him take some bad decisions (I could made a whole new post just about that, but this has turned out too be too long anyway), but even Percy knows when to step back. He isn’t that self-confident to think that only he alone can save the world. 

And I only spoke about Percy because he’s my favorite, but it applies to each of the seven except Leo, Jason and Piper. Percy is told by Juno that he is “the glue that will unite the seven”, and even without that, who didn’t expect Percy to be a bigger part of the final battle? In TLH, Gaia tells Leo, “In some ways, you are the most important of the seven—like the control disk in the dragon’s brain. Without you, the power of the others means nothing.” In SoN, Mars tells Franks, “I think you worry her more than Percy or Jason or any of the seven.” and that “Without you, Frank—without your sense of duty—he[Percy]’s going to fail. The whole war will go sideways, and Gaea will destroy our world.” Turns out Frank’s great part was just doing this: “‘He’s right.’ Frank gripped Percy’s arm. ‘You have to let them do this, Percy. It’s like Annabeth’s quest in Rome. Or Hazel at the Doors of Death. This part can only be them.’” 

My point is that each of the seven were told at some point that they are the post powerful, the most important of the group and that made me think that each of them will have an important role in the final battle. Now I get that Frank’s words were supposed to make me understand that each of the seven had their own part in the prophecy, but I still feel that at they end they should have united their powers into one last massive strike against Gaia (see also this post made by @ofswordsandpens). I just think that they should have worked together to take Gaia down in the last battle, not just 3 of them. And if the other 4 were not going to fight Gaia directly but only her army, then at least show me more of them fighting. 

[suchastart]

prompt: d&d au, percy's character dies taking down Kronos, and the rest of the party does the ritual to revive him

i.

The throne room glitters beneath all the dirt and the soot. The walls feel like they’re closing in, like they’re pulsing with living, liquid bronze. In and out. In, and out. In. Out. Your friends are down–Odhran sits slumped over his torn stomach and broken reed pipes, Reese lies facedown in the greening fountain water, and Nero remains chained to the wall. Pallea, prone and gasping on the floor, reaches out to you with a mangled and broken hand.

In the end, it’s you and Castell–the both of you grappled, holding tight to one another, standing in Nakamura’s blood. Fire burns angry in Castell’s eyes, tears cracks in his skin. You can almost see Kronos wisping like a shadow from his body.

“You have to fight him,” you say. Pallea’s knife rests just inches from your boot. “Please. You have to fight. Do it for her.”

Castell’s grip on you wavers. He grits his teeth around a shout, and through his body, Kronos roars.The room shakes. Bronze dust rains from the ceiling.You bring a knee up into his gut and reach down for the knife, and with the last bit of strength you can summon, you thrust the blade up and forward into his gut.

Pain bursts in your chest. You lose your breath as you lean into Castell, as you watch the terrible flame of Kronos’s spirit flicker and then disappear, as you watch Castell blink, die, finally free.

He falls.

You look down to see Kronos’s dagger in your chest.

In unison, Pallea and Nero scream.

You fall.

ii.

new athens nerds

Annabeth

Percy> D: D: D:

Grover> You are very very dead, dude :-(

Clarisse> it was kind of awesome

Percy> so dead> so so dead it kind of hurts my heart??> literally hurts my dudes heart> guys……. what if you cant bring me back??? D:!!!!

Nico> We can bring you back.

Percy> yeah sure but what if you cant?? this is awful> stupid castell i never wanted to trust that guy anyway> ab why did we trust that guy

Nico> It will be fine.> Expensive, though. Probably.

Grover> ?> I have like 12 bucks

Percy> thanks g but this is no time for your memery

Annabeth

Nico> It depends on how Rachel wants to do it. There are different spells, and different consequences. If she does ask for sacrifices, we will have to offer something meaningful from our characters to Oceanus.> We’ll have to find somebody who’s able to perform the magic.

Grover> memeingful

Annabeth

Nico> Not yet.

Clarisse> Silena says she thinks she can

Percy> thank dnd gods for princess serenity rose the gorgeous> can she come next game??

Clarisse> probably not, she has practice all next week

Percy> volleyball or cheerleading??

Clarisse> both B)

Grover> She has a game soon doesn’t she?

Clarisse> yeah

Annabeth

Nico> We should probably brainstorm how to bring him back.> If he wants to come back.> Maybe it should be a surprise.

Annabeth

Percy has been removed from this conversation

Grover has changed the name of this group: new athens necromancers

Clarissenice

iii.

One minute she’s studying spacing and shaping and the physics of sound, and the next, the ring of her phone jerks her out of a heavy sleep. She unsticks her face from her textbook and looks blearily at the glow of her phone. The sun’s gone down. Her room is dark and empty. Percy Jackson’s name shines at her in the dark.

She sits up at her desk, taps at the screen, clears her throat. “Hey.”

“Hi,” Percy says, smiling and a little breathless. “Are you busy?”

“Not really. I fell asleep on my homework.”

“Long day?”

“Kind of, yeah. Just a lot to do. I think I missed dinner.”

“Yeah, dining hall’s closed by now.” He takes a few more deep breaths. It sounds like he’s–jogging? “You, uh–want me to bring you something?”

“From where?”

“Hearth Home?”

Annabeth groans. Hearth Home–the most amazing 24-hour diner in town, with delicious breakfast at any time of day. Soft, buttery pancakes, fluffy eggs, sweet apple butter and warm biscuits, beautifully browned potatoes and sausage. It’s the perfect menu for a busy college student. The more she thinks about their tomato and pepper omelette or their strawberry lemon pancakes, the more her stomach growls. “Oh, my god.”

Percy huffs. “Is that a yes?”

“If you’re going that way, I’m not going to say no.”

“Okay. I’ll be there in ten?”

Annabeth agrees, and the call is done. She stares at the screen–Percy Jackson, 00:56–and wonders what he’ll end up bringing her, if he even remembers her order from the only time they ever went there together. It’d been their whole D&D group a few Sundays ago, Rachel and Nico half asleep, Clarisse sweaty from a several-mile jog, Percy still a little damp from swimming practice. Grover and Annabeth sat on one side of the booth and studied the menu together as if preparing for an exam.

She tries not to think too much about it, Percy visiting her room, what he might bring her for dinner, what that might mean. She tidies up her desk, straightens the blankets on her bed, stands in front of the mirror and makes sure her hair is in some kind of order.

She’s back at her desk by the time there’s a knock on the door. She stands, runs her hands down her loose t-shirt and gym shorts, wriggles her shoulders, recognizes that she’s being ridiculous, and answers the door.

Percy smiles at her. He looks comfortable, in his swim team hoodie and sweatpants. His hair, as ever, is still a little damp from practice. He holds up a tied plastic bag. “Delivery?”

“Hi.”

“Hey.”

She stands back to let him in. “Thanks for this.”

“No problem.”

He kicks his shoes off at the door, places their dinner carefully on her desk. Annabeth hurries behind him and helps him clear her books and laptop and notes, and together they free several styrofoam containers full of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and pancakes. The last slim container is a beautiful omelette with fresh tomatoes, onions, red and green peppers, a sprinkling of cheese and bacon. Her mouth waters just looking at it all.

“Is this for me?”

“Yeah,” Percy says, passing her a plastic-wrapped cutlery set. “Have at it.”

Annabeth beams at him. She can’t help it. He brought her dinner from Hearth Home, and she kind of loves him for it.

She climbs up on her bed and pats the space next to her, arranges their styrofoam containers between them like a makeshift dorm picnic. They sit with their backs against the wall and spread their butter and syrup over their strawberry-lemon pancakes, make a toast with their toast, share the little thermos of cocoa, passing sips between them as they take bites of pancake and potatoes.

Butterflies riot in her stomach, her lungs, all the way up to her throat. She can’t help but laugh at the giddy sense of contentedness she feels with him tall and warm beside her. It’s disgusting. It doesn’t make any kind of sense, except Percy is sitting next to her and they have absolutely nothing in common but fantasy dragons and delicious diners and they’re sharing dinner that he brought her from the best diner in town, and she can smell the honey on his breath, he’s so close.

“You think you can bring me back?” he asks, finally, sipping at their thermos of cocoa.

“I hope so.”

“I wish you guys hadn’t kicked me from the group.”

Annabeth laughs. Their dumb Facebook group. “Nico said it’ll matter more if we surprise you and Rachel with our sacrifices.”

“Yeah.” Percy takes a bite of their pancakes, chews. “I just. I miss you guys.”

“We’re still here.”

“Yeah, but. It’s different when I can’t talk to you all the time.”

She rests her head back against the wall, keeps her syrupy fork in her mouth as she looks over at Percy. “You’re still with us, Percy. We just want to make sure our sacrifices matter. We want you to come back.”

“Yeah…”

Annabeth sighs. Percy grabs a handful of cheesy hash browns with his fingers, drops them into his mouth. They’re both leaning against the wall with their styrofoam containers around them; Percy rearranges the ones between them so that he can scoot closer without interference. He presses his leg against hers, tucks his head against her shoulder.

His hair smells like chlorine. She rests her cheek against his hair, inhales, listens as he speaks.

“Annabeth.”

“Yeah?”

“I really don’t want to die.”

“You’re not gonna die,��� Annabeth says. “Nico’s pretty confident.”

“Nico, huh?”

“He knows, like, everything about the game. He’s not gonna let you die.”

Percy hums. He reaches over and touches her hand, slides his fingers between hers. For a few silent moments, they lean against one another, shoulder to shoulder, holding hands.

“I’m not gonna let you die,” Annabeth says.

Percy smiles. “I know you won’t.”

iv.

A video appears in the group chat. A beautiful girl with vitiligo and perfect makeup sits in front of a brightly lit backstage dressing room mirror. Compete mayhem appears behind her, and she smiles, even as her friends rush around her in panic and various stages of dress.

“Hello, my friends!” Silena says. “I want to wish you the best of luck today, and all the magic in bringing back our friend Oceanus!”

She smiles wide, and tucks her dark hair behind her ear. The bright white of her uniform is almost blinding against the screen, almost as blinding as her grin. “I know Rachel will do her best in playing me, if I am at all helpful to you! Please have my blessing as Princess Serenity Rose! I am giving my best to resurrect Oceanus to our family! Much love!”

Silena winks, and blows a kiss, and gives the most beautiful smile in closing. It’s the best offering she can give to the pending resurrection, her sunshining positivity, and she leaves her party, her family, with a wide, gleaming smile.

v.

The dorm basement is otherwise quiet when Clarisse arrives, stomping down the stairs and tossing her backpack and gym bag onto the floor. She nods hello to Rachel, who is sitting on the floor with her entire dungeon set up on the wide coffee table, and to the other members of her party. Nico has his army of dice ready, and Grover is comfortable on the couch, and Annabeth and Percy are sitting a little too close to one another at the other end of the sofa.

“Well, hi, everybody,” Rachel says, smiling cradling her dice, keeping close track of her party.

“Hi,” Percy says, dead.

“Can we get on with this,” Clarisse says.

Annabeth arranges her dice and her character sheets, and Grover squeezes her hands, and they all crowd close together, uncomfortably ready for their dungeon master’s upcoming rolls.

“So,” Rachel says. “You have been travelling toward Delphi, carrying Oceanus’ body, hoping to bring him to Princess Serenity in order to bring him back to life. You lie Oceanus’ body in the temple, and you stand above him, praying, laying offerings and touching your hands upon him.”

“Yes,” Annabeth says. Pallea steps forward, and touches Oceanus’ hands, and breathes. “Oceanus,” she says. “There’s so much I need to say…”

[palmnix]

Chaos’s Assassin 6

Lamia... A little history lesson for you kids, Lamia was once the beautiful Queen of Libya. Adored by all, including Zeus. The King of the Gods decided to cheat on his wife Hera, again, and had children with the pretty little Libyan Queen. Surprise, surprise, Hera was fuming. Instead of confronting Zeus, she took her revenge on his lover. According to mythology, Hera went down to Earth and stole Lamia's children, possibly killing them. If that wasn't bad enough. She also turned Queen Lamia into a child devouring monster with a snake tail instead of legs, because according to Hera, that's what she was. A snake.

Of course I was told all this in my mythology lessons with Annabeth, all those years ago. I never thought I would ever end up fighting her though, it was like a dream come true. Omega, the lucky guy who gets to kill Queen Lamia. Yay... I i say sarcastically in my mind... How? You ask. Simple, cutting off her head. That how you kill a snake right?

I drew Executioner, it's black enchanted metal glimmering in the dusty store lights. Her scarlet eyes turned towards me, glistening from the blood of children. Her rows of sharp teeth as petrifying as a sharks. She held no weapon, with claws as wicked sharp as needles, she could rip us all to shreds.

I ran towards her, aiming directly for her nails, Executioners metals cutting through them as if they were butter, and dodging out of the way. The beast let out a horrible shrill sound that forced us onto our knees. Unable to move, I realised that she had us in the perfect position to end it right then and there, but when I looked up it was apparent that Lamia was so consumed by losing her precious weapons, she was oblivious to all around her.

The screaming stopped with a thud, as Leo threw his shoe at her. Trying, it seemed, to shut her up. Now it was time for the real fight to begin. I raised my sword, a grin on my face as I ran towards the monster. I slashed at her, dodging out of the way of her rattling tail. Inanimate objects were thrown as she had to resort to weapons from outside of her comfort zone. I dodged a frying pan, rolled to the side to miss the cashier's chair and was almost hit by a kitchen knife. Why they were selling so many kitchen utensils, I had no idea.

Leo started throwing bolts and screws from his tool belt, missing her eyes by inches. He wasn't a very good shot. I ran at her, only to roll passed her, ha, you think I was gonna attack her from the front? Nah, I'm a lot smarter than that… though even that is debatable. I slashed at her from behind, chopping her arm straight off. Leo hit her with a fireball, a new skill he had learnt, I was sure, and I sliced through her tail.

Though she wasn't done yet. In fact, she seemed to be even angrier than before. She's a snake, remember? And so, as snakes do, she rose once more. Leo and I looked at each other, a moment of understanding passing between us. Leo grabbed two tomato cans, one in each hand, and threw them at the beast, distracting her. I, on the other hand, ran and jumped as high as possible, swinging my sword from behind. Her head fell to the floor with a sickening squelch. Reminding me, quite graphically of our time in Medusa's lair. I shivered as both her body and her head dissolved into dust, leaving only her nails behind. I let out a breathe of air as Leo went to Piper's side, waking her up and helping her stand.

“How did you know to cut her head off?” Leo asked me, his attention diverting from Piper.

I shrugged and said, “lucky guess”

He took my lame excuse and help Piper walk out of the trashed store, ignoring the crowd that had gathered. They were muttering things like “robbery” and “hostages” but somehow we got past the mortals without being questioned. Luckily for us the police still hadn't arrived.

“Sun's going down,” I said, “we need to move.”

I looked around the street, but there didn't seem to be any taxis or transportation around, which meant we had to walk, all the way from one side of the city to the other. This was going to be fun.

“Maybe we should find somewhere to stay tonight and meet her early tomorrow.” Piper suggested. I thought about it for a moment, weighing the pros and cons against each other.

“Okay fine, but you're going to have to Iris message this girl.” I told her. She smiled and nodded her head.

“Ugh, guys, I forgot to grab the cookies off the counter before we left.” Leo said, turning to look at the crowd of people by the convenience store

“Seriously Leo!” Piper huffed, rubbing the back of her head with her palm.

 The hostel we stayed at that night was cheap and comfortable, everything we needed. The room had three bunks, each one without any duvets or anything and covered in a plastic bed sheet. They had two lockers under each bed filled with the duvet and pillow, a lock on each one. The three of us were each given a key and a number. To kill time, we made up our beds and stored our stuff in the lockers before heading out to catch a bite. At around 10 that night, three more college students stumbled into the room with backpacks on their backs and keys in their hands as we sat there sharpening our weapons and discussing tactics.

“Hey, how’s it going?” One of them said, holding out his free hand for each of us to shake, his mind completely dismissing our lack of blunt objects, “The names Andrew. Cool, you play airsoft too?”

“Airsoft?” Piper asked, looking as if someone had just spoken to her in Chinese.

“Yeah, airsoft!” Leo jumped in, his expression a mix of panic and excitement, “it's such a great game don't you think?”

“Well actually, I consider it more of a sport.” Andrew said with a competitive smile.

“I'm sure you do.” I noted, refusing to glance up from my work.

“I'm Piper, and this is Leo and Omega.” Piper said, making some kind of gesture that I never actually saw as I tried to concentrate on sharpening my favorite killing utensil.

“It's lovely to meet you, I'm Elias and this here is Caterina.” The other guy said, “So where do you guys play?”

“Honestly, you people bore me with this talk. If we are going to talk for a while, why don't we talk about something more… interesting.” the voice that spoke was calm, sexy and scottish. Her floral perfume wafting over my way like raindrops running down a windshield. I took it this was Caterina.

“And what would you classify as interesting, Cat?” Elias joked.

“This guy with the leather jacket looks pretty interesting to me, what was the name… Omega? Funny name that.” she said, the end of my bed tilting slightly as she sat down on my mattress. I slowly looked up. “Hey, what's with the hood? Got something wrong with your face? Cus’ that bodies fine…”

“Oi, leave him alone, it's none of your business why he chooses to wear that.” Piper said, leaping to my defense.

“Thank you Piper, but it's alright. I can fight my own battles.” I said, putting down the cloth i was using to clean Executioner.

“Not necessary Omega,” Piper says, jumping in with a nervous laugh and a glare in my direction.

“Hey, what's the deal, I only said it because of what he’s wearing. Man, those jeans couldn't get any tighter. ” She gave me a wink before springing off of my bed like a cat and crossing her arms over her chest as she went to stand with her friends and her bag.

“How does that make any difference? Elias asked, taking our side.

“Calm down guys, it was just a silly little comment. She won't say it again.” Andrew says, getting involved before it got out of hand.

“Alright,” I said, already having already lost interested in the petty little argument, “I reckon it's time for me for me to hit the hay.”

“I agree,” Andrew said, looking over his shoulders at his other friends. “ I think we should get ready for bed.”

Piper, Leo and I glanced at each other before putting away our weapons and and grabbing our stuff to get ready in the public bathrooms in our hall. Unluckily Piper and the girl, Caterina had to go to the other end of the tiled hall to reach their bathroom, whilst the boys just had to go next door. I changed quickly in a spare cubicle then clipped the hood from my jacket onto a hoodie that I put over my pyjamas, before returning to the room, jumping in bed and closing the curtain that hung down from the top bunk.

Once everyone had returned to the room and had gotten in bed, I quickly peeked out of my curtain to have a look at who was sleeping in the spare bunk bed across from me… Andrew and Elias, which meant that the person above me… was Caterina. My stomach felt empty with dread as I thought of the rude girl lying above me, however, I dismissed the thought and decided instead to try to drift off to sleep… the lights were off… her perfume was making it hard to breathe… someone kept ruffling in their sheets… my mind was drifting off… I felt my hood fall off my head and lie on my pillow… I hear a curtain being pulled back… a breeze hits my face…

I open my eyes to a pair of green eyes staring right at me.

[pjoseries]

hi! congrats on reaching 600 followers!! i'm a brand new follower and i'd love to request ✨ a drabble for percabeth and soulmate (born with a tattoo of soulmate's last words) thank you and congrats again!

✨ soulmates are born with a tattoo of their soulmate's last words (ao3 link)

(***post-canon, major character death, some violence)

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The ocean is quiet today. The waves skirt passed her ankles like it’s afraid to overwhelm her. It won’t. Nothing about the water can—too many memories steeped in sunlight, gold dripping through her hands until all that’s left are remnants of the shine she once experienced. She should try to thank Poseidon for taming the sea for the day, but she thinks he needs it too. He’s always been fond of Percy and despite knowing him for years, the death of his son will still weigh heavily on him. 

Annabeth curls her knees up to her chest and she settles her head down, one hand drifting mindlessly through the sand. It takes her a minute to realize she was doodling Percy’s features, nothing really distinct. Just the sharp line of a jaw, the swoop of his hair, the curve of his smile. It hasn’t been long since the funeral, since she gripped Percy’s shroud in her hands and watched as everyone bowed their head and spoke a prayer when it caught flame, but she’s so scared of forgetting his face. She wipes away the sand on her bare calves, letting it stick to her even if the coarseness of it makes her itch under her skin. 

She can’t help but remember the last time his funeral happened, years ago when they were both just teens, and Percy barged in on his shroud burning. Gods, the anger left as quickly as it appeared, too busy drowning in relief at the sight of him. She remembers those weeks after she left Percy to die on that mountain, remembers how she thought with a bitter tinge of regret that he wasn’t her soulmate, but he was her best friend and she lost him and it took everything in her not to break down because it was her fault. 

Then he came back. But he’s not coming back this time. Not even if she begs the gods, travels down to Hades to bargain for his soul herself. She’s not Orpheus and he’s not Eurydice and they’re not a tragedy or some messed up story that can be solved with a few tricks and pretty words. 

Percy’s dead.  

He said the last words etched into the fabric of her skin. That’s more permanent than death. 

His words ache on the side of her ribs, burning a little. It’s nothing she hasn’t dealt with before, so she just shifts quietly to ease the pain. 

There’s a crash of a wave that’s louder in her ears and somebody sits next to her. She doesn’t turn her head from her view of the sea. Bits of sun peaks through the gray skies and it hits the water, bouncing the light back up to her own gaze. The ocean today is a few shades off from Percy’s eyes. 

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Poseidon says, something caught in his throat. Annabeth ignores it and nods in acknowledgement. 

She coughs. “I’m sorry for yours too.”

They stay silent and the waves recede even more, not like when Percy does it. He restrains it so much when he’s emotional, it roars back at him, a perfect representation of his own thoughts. Today though, it’s not suppressed and bubbling and ready to strike out again. It’s just sad.  

“He’s probably waiting in Elysium.” The for you is implied, but she hears it all the same. 

“You knew?” she asks, spreading her legs out in front of her. She risks a glance at Poseidon and, fuck, it hurts so much to see Percy in him. She adds, almost casually if it’s not for her eyes stinging from the tears she’s holding back, “That we’re soulmates. Were soulmates.”

“It’s not a known fact, but we can sense soulmates. Not to the extent that Aphrodite does, but the stronger the bond, the more apparent it is.”

“How long have you known?”

“Oh, early on,” he says, giving her a gentle smile. “Perhaps when you were dancing back in Olympus. The first time, mind you.”

The laugh that leaves her chest is a little wobbly. She wipes her tears away swiftly. “I miss him. So much.”

“I do too.”

“I don’t know how I’m gonna do this without him,” she says, her hands trembling. “He had so many years left, so many left—” with me. “A-and now I have to live without him? Stupid Seaweed Brain. He could’ve at least waited a few more damn years! Demigods don’t live long anyway, I’d probably get killed by some rogue monster.” 

In a fit of childish anger, she throws some sand at the sea. It doesn’t help. She huffs out an exasperated breath and lays down, throwing an arm over her eyes. The sand tickles at her scalp and she can feel a lump of slimy seaweed near her arm. 

Stupid seaweed. 

Her chest shakes with silent sobs and Poseidon taps at her shoulder, giving her time to grieve. And she has time. All the time, without Percy. 

Annabeth sends a prayer to Percy and thinks, I’ll see you later.

It must’ve been the wind, but she can almost hear a voice call back: Take your time. I’m not going anywhere. 

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

Annabeth finds Percy in the crowd and jumps into his awaiting arms, ignoring any odd stares that’s sent her way. He lifts her up off her feet and twirls her around before kissing the tip of her nose. He grins widely, his dimple widening and she presses her lips to it. 

“Missed you,” she says into his cheek. 

“Missed you too, baby,” he says, then whispers, “How’s Olympus holding up?”

She rolls her eyes and threads her arm through Percy’s, gripping at his elbow as they start walking down to their apartment. “You’d think after fifteen years, they’d finally stop arguing about statute placements. Anyway, forget that. Who are we meeting today for dinner? Is it Demeter’s kids or Apollo’s?” 

“Neither, it’s Nike’s kids today.”

Percy makes it a tradition to bring some of the kids out one day of the week to Sally’s for a wellness check-up and ask if they need a place to crash while some transition out of camp back into the world. Annabeth thinks it’s sweet that Percy’s such a caring camp counselor. She knows if someone ever did that for her back when she was a year-round camper, she’d cry. As much as she loves it (and she does, enough to share some of Percy’s camp duties when she has some free time during summer), it’s rather isolating. 

While they’re walking, they hear the sound of metal and hissing and they take one look at each other before they run towards the alleyway. 

It’s one of the kids, bruised up and bleeding, but her sword’s still up despite her whole arm shaking. The kid’s eyes catch Percy’s and her body relaxes slightly, but enough for the empousa on the far right to begin striking. 

Percy quickly uncaps riptide and intercepts it. His movements are sure and steady, moving his body in front of the kid’s. Annabeth flicks her wrist and her knife comes down easily in her hand. She circles the next two empousi on the left and manages to kill one by surprise. Annabeth’s lucky she’s wearing a simple tee and jeans instead of her usual outfit whenever she goes up to Olympus. There’s way too many for one kid and her mind whirs with hundreds of possible answers as to why there’s a hoard near Sally’s apartment tonight. Despite her thoughts, she manages to gut another one while Percy’s fighting off two more and the kid another. 

In what seems like a split second, the kid screams and Percy turns around and blocks the attack that would’ve gone through the kid’s heart. But as he does so, his back turns against the other two and Annabeth rushes to fight them off because, dammit, she should’ve had his back. In a panic, she throws her knife and it lodges into one of their heads, leaving her knife clattering on the ground surrounded by dust. But she’s too late. Gods, she’s too late. 

Annabeth picks her knife back up, but the empousa tears a whole through Percy’s side, just as he kills the one targeting the kid. Annabeth yells, feral and wild, and slits the empousa’s throat, the last of their gurgling laugh dying as they turn to dust. 

Percy slumps to the floor and Annabeth rushes to him. She pats at her pockets for her emergency stash of ambrosia, but they’re flat. She turns towards the kid, frantic, and orders, “Run back to Sally’s and grab the ambrosia.”

The kid’s eyes were flickering towards Percy’s stomach. Frightened. Annabeth doesn’t have the guts to admit that she’s frightened too. “Go.”

The kid runs and Annabeth’s attention is back to Percy who’s shivering. They have no water, no ambrosia, and they’re in the middle of a damn alleyway and he’s bleeding out so fast. Shit. 

“Percy,” she says, trembling. “Can you move? We have to move, baby.”

“Can’t,” he grits out. He lets out a forced laugh. “Think my insides are gonna pop out.”

Annabeth’s vision is blurry and she can’t fucking see anything. She shudders in a breath and tries to gently hold Percy together. “Percy, please. Please, this can’t be how it ends. You’re supposed to be with me forever.”

“Sorry,” he says. “Sorry, baby. My—fuck, my forever isn’t that long. Glad I spent it with you.”

“We have to get out of here,” she mutters, leaning down and pressing her forehead to his. Her tears fall on his cheeks. She repeats, “We have to get out of here.”

There’s something unbearably sad in Percy’s gaze. The hand that’s not pressed to his stomach reaches up and tucks her hair back. It falls back down, too weak to hold itself up any longer. “Everything will be alright. It’s okay, Annabeth. Everything will be alright.”

She shakes her head and sobs.

Those are the words tattooed on her ribs. When she reaches up again to say more, Percy’s eyes were glazed and distant, staring up at the gloomy sky. 

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

When they find her, she’s still crying, holding her dead soulmate to her chest.

[dotshiiki]

CoL, Chpt 10

X: ANNABETH

Annabeth opened her eyes to find herself in Percy's arms.

For one second, her heart went spinning in giddy cartwheels. Then she remembered that they were deep in Tartarus, facing a horde of demon curse spirits.

Except the arai were gone. And although Annabeth's body ached as if she'd just run a marathon, scaled ten of Camp Half-Blood's lava walls, and wrestled a giant to boot, she was alive. Her shirt reeked of her own blood, reminding her of the curses she'd invoked. A knife in the back from the empousa. A spear through the gut from the giant Enceladus. Bruises blossomed where a sticky filament had wrapped itself around her neck—a gift from Arachne, no doubt.

It was a miracle she'd survived.

The others didn't look much better. Thalia's clothes were drenched in blood, the fabric pierced a thousand times over. Nico looked like he'd taken a tumble into a sooty fireplace. Will lay unconscious by his side, though his body bore no visible injury.

Percy was the only one who seemed unharmed. His jaw was set in a hard line. In his hand, he gripped Riptide so tightly, his knuckles were white.

Nico shook Will. 'What happened?' he demanded. 'Did he get cursed, too? What was it?'

Percy let go of Annabeth and took a step back. 'The demons couldn't hurt either of us. We got rid of them. And then he healed all of you.'

Nico swore and dug into Will's pack. 'Over-exertion, then. Exactly what he's always nagging me about.'

He dribbled bottled Phlegethon into Will's mouth. Will came to with a violent cough.

'You idiot!' Nico scolded. 'After all that crap you gave me about taking on too much, I swear—'

Will groaned and raised a hand to his head. 'What was I supposed to do, let you guys die?'

'How did you avoid getting cursed?' Thalia asked.

'They couldn't find curses for either of us,' Percy said. 'I guess Will never killed anybody.' His eyes narrowed. 'And they said I was already cursed. That you cursed me.'

Although he looked around all four of them as he said this, the you stabbed Annabeth like a dagger hurled unerringly into her chest. In a controlled, even tone that didn't quite mask an undercurrent of anger, Percy repeated the words that the arai had spoken to him.

Annabeth remembered then the last curse the arai had bestowed upon her: an invisible force that had flung her away from the group—away from Percy. Retribution from Hipponoe: may you never be loved again!

The arai had cackled most gleefully at that, probably because they'd realised there wasn't much they could add to that curse.

'You guys are gonna explain what they meant.' Percy pointed to Will with Riptide. 'And why you didn't deny it. You promised.'

'I did,' Will said weakly. He looked at Annabeth. 'You should tell him. All of it.'

Annabeth swallowed hard. Percy's eyes bore into her, harsh as a tempestuous ocean storm. Where did she begin? All of it, Will said, but what did that mean? Their entire history—the one Percy hadn't wanted to hear?

Or the part that was all her fault? Her hubris, her decision, her mistakes.

The part that might make Percy hate her.

You will never be loved again! No, she certainly didn't need the arai to deliver that curse.

'Well?' Percy said. 'Are you gonna to tell me who wiped my memory and why?'

Annabeth opened her mouth to begin. But before she could speak, a sly, sibilant voice emerged from the gloom.

'Oh, but why would she do that? Misunderstanding is so perfect for sowing discord!'

The speaker appeared from the edge of the forest. Her body, draped with a black toga, was so thin that Annabeth almost mistook her for one of the slender trees, spouting branches of hissing vipers from her head. Entwined in her snaky locks were scarlet ribbons, flowing from a blood-soaked headband that held her dishevelled bangs clear of her malicious crimson eyes.

'Lovely,' she said, surveying them with the cold, callous smile of a psychopath. 'You're already halfway there.'

Percy levelled Riptide at her. 'Get lost. This is between me and them.'

'Ah, but it has everything to do with me, too. Surely you don't mean to have a dispute without the goddess of strife?'

'You're Eris,' Annabeth breathed.

The goddess turned her malevolent gaze on Annabeth. In her gleaming eyes, Annabeth saw visions of brothers running each other through with swords, husbands throttling their wives…her own mother, Athena, reduced to petty arguments with her fellow Olympian goddesses.

'Yes, indeed. I have sparked the bloodiest wars in history! My children spread discord throughout the world. I am the mother of hardship, pain, lies…' She grew taller as she spoke, shooting up towards the canopy until she towered over them. 'Quarrels and disputes! Murders and anarchy! These are all my children! And so, my dear demigods, what bitterness can I sow among you today?'

'Forget it,' snapped Thalia. 'We're not interested in fighting. Unless it's fighting you.'

Eris touched her index finger to the tip of a poniard—a small, slim dagger—in her hand. 'Such complacence. Do not forget—it was I who created the golden apple that precipitated the Trojan War. I have broken up couples who boasted of loving each other more than Zeus and Hera!'

Thalia snorted. 'That's not saying much.'

'Will you put me to the test, then, daughter of Zeus?' Eris brought her poniard down as if to stab Thalia. Percy stepped forward and met the dagger with Riptide.

'Will you defend them, then, Perseus Jackson?' Eris hissed. 'The ones who lied to you, who are responsible for your current affliction—oh yes, I see clearly that you bear the curse of one of my daughters.'

She breathed out her words in a mist of red fog that wrapped itself around Percy. He lowered Riptide.

'Don't listen to her, Percy!' Nico drew his own sword. But instead of attacking, Eris stabbed her poniard into the ground. Fissures spread from its point, carving lines in the earth that ran between the five of them.

The red mist descended over Annabeth's head. Shadowy images swirled in it, resolving into a movie reel of every annoying thing her friends had ever done. Thalia smirked at her in front of a row of archery targets—'Get used to playing for second from now on!' Nico scowled and flung a pack of Mythomagic cards at her head, snapping, 'If you're so smart, why didn't you figure out how to save Bianca?' Will appeared in the doorway of cabin six, which she'd turned upside down in a frantic search, holding up her laptop with a sheepish grin. 'Connor made me take it…I lost a bet with him.'

Every urge she'd ever had to throttle them surged into her head, staining her vision a deeper, bloodier red. A snarl escaped her mouth, directed at Will, whose eyes reflected a slow burn back at her.

'This is almost too easy,' Eris said, her voice brimming with amusement. Thalia and Nico were already duelling sword to bow across the rift between them. Percy's murderous gaze vacillated between Will and Annabeth, as though he was undecided as to which of them he should attack first.

Eris didn't intend to kill them herself. No, she was much more enamoured of making them kill each other.

'Not much sport in provoking natural enemies, is there?' Eris mused. 'The daughter of Zeus and the son of Hades—bah, too easy.' She fixed her sadistic, glittering eyes on Annabeth and Percy. 'Ah yes, the biggest challenge. Coming between even the most dedicated of lovers.'

A cold chill trickled down Annabeth's spine. She wanted to draw her sword and run it through Eris, but she was afraid if she tried, she might end up attacking her friends instead. Or worse, Percy.

Eris's fog thickened around her with a vengeance. Its tendrils squeezed her chest like it was trying to wring hatred and anger from her heart. Eris's voice dripped poisonous honey in her ears: He decided you were worth forgetting. He chose an empousa over you. Doesn't that make you just livid?

The image of Percy wrapped around Bella in the alley in Phoenix flashed tauntingly at her. It blended into other wounds, old hurts that she thought she'd gotten over long ago: Percy laughing with Rachel as they drove down a winding beach road; Percy holding hands with the gorgeous Calypso on a paradise island.

Darker memories emerged and floated to the surface. She saw Percy facing Luke on the Williamsburg Bridge, cold green meeting malevolent gold. 'Can't you see he's evil, Annabeth? He's Kronos, through and through.' She saw a sinister shadow in Percy's face as he brought Riptide down in a murderous arc. Wild mania burned in his eyes as he raised a whirlwind of poison.

How dare he frighten you? How dare he turn into what he set out to fight?

There were many things that had made her so mad with him. Her blood boiled with every image Eris showed her, rage roaring through her veins and pounding in her ears. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling. Another memory surfaced—a time when she'd been royally pissed off at him, although she couldn't even recall why.

'I'm so mad at you!' she'd yelled.

'Okay,' he'd said, very seriously. 'I'm sorry.'

'Do you even know what you're apologising for?'

'Not really. But I love you. So I'm sorry I made you mad.'

The mist blew apart. Annabeth looked straight into Eris's amazed face.

Eris wanted her to focus on the anger, on the parts of Percy that had ignited her wrath, but a person wasn't just made of one part. You loved them whole—the good and the bad.

And with Percy, the things that infuriated her about him were often the same things she loved about him. It had been that way right from the beginning, when he had returned to her despite her explicit instructions to leave, in order to fight off three Furies closing in on her.

She saw Percy making her stop in the forum even though they were already late for class, because he just had to offer a denari to the fauns by the fountain.

Percy halting their run for a disoriented tourist on the street—'What's the harm, Annabeth, they just need directions,'—right before the werecat threw off its disguise and tried to sink fangs into his neck.

Percy charging headlong into a fight after she'd explicitly told him to stay back. 'This wasn't the plan, Percy!'

'Screw the plan, it's not like our plans ever work!'

Percy trying to send her to safety, even if that meant he had to stay behind in Tartarus.

How she hated the way he trusted people when he shouldn't, the way he never listened and always screwed up her plans, the way he was so infuriatingly loyal; but how she loved him for it. And what she would give to have that Percy back!

The cry that escaped her mouth was half-exasperation, half-laughter. The choking anger subsided. The mist was receding, being pushed further away from her. It was like a dam had burst, releasing a flood of memories—good ones, to overwhelm the bitterness and resentment with waves of love.

Strolling hand in hand down the Via Praetoria in perfect, contented silence. A kiss under the Eiffel Tower. Lazy Sunday mornings curled up in bed.

She drew deeper within herself, concentrating on every precious memory she had of love—not just for Percy, but her friends, too. Years ago, in the Temple of Fear, Piper had taught her to focus her thoughts around a single emotion. Annabeth did so now, calling upon her love for her friends—everything about them, good and bad. She pictured Thalia laughing and spinning her around at an old school dance in Brooklyn ('Who needs guys for a good dance?') Will holding her hand in the Plaza Hotel as he bandaged her shoulder ('You're gonna be fine, Annabeth. Percy's coming now.') Nico standing by Hestia's hearth, meeting her hand in a high five ('I'm happy for you guys.')

Like a golden ray of sunlight, her thoughts wound through Eris's discordant fog, beaming a path to her friends. When it touched them, the ugly expressions on their faces turned to surprise. Thalia and Nico dropped their battle and stared at each other, bewildered. Will fell to his knees, gasping as the red fog lifted from him. A silvery light reached out and twined with her golden one. Annabeth saw herself with Will, racing through the woods at Camp Half-Blood with a blue flag held aloft between them. They splashed across the creek and shared a grin as the flag turned grey and gold—a team victory.

And then Thalia and Nico joined the battle, too, adding more visions of their friendship. Annabeth watched herself drape a blanket over a younger Nico. She saw Thalia pull her into a tight hug and whisper in her ear, 'You'll always be family to me, Annabeth.'

Triumph surged through Annabeth's heart. They could fight this. Eris wasn't going to win.

Then she looked at the goddess of strife and her heart plummeted.

Eris had relinquished the four of them, but her attention was fully focused on Percy. Her long, clawed nails rested on Percy's shoulder as she whispered into his ear. The mist that they had forced away from themselves swirled exclusively around Percy—the only one of them who hadn't added to the collection of good memories.

Because he didn't have any.

Without his memories, what strength did Percy have to fight Eris's powers? What could he draw on to resist the strife she induced?

Percy let out a cry of inchoate rage. He raised Riptide high above his head and stabbed the sword down, plunging it straight into the rift Eris's poniard had already made in the ground. The cracks deepened, cutting a jagged line through the earth. It created a fissure that separated Thalia and Nico, who were nearest the cliff edge, from the rest.

And then the ground beneath them collapsed. For a brief moment, their feet scrambled for purchase, finding none. Will lunged forward to grab Nico's hand. Annabeth stumbled towards them, tripped, and landed flat on her stomach. Her arms reached uselessly into the empty air where her friends had been a second ago.

Her mind refused initially to register what had happened. Thalia, Nico, and Will couldn’t have disappeared into that black chasm.

Except they had. Just like that, they were gone, leaving her with Eris and Percy.

Percy.

Annabeth rolled over onto her back. Percy stood over her, sword raised, his eyes glowing red and Eris's mist settling over him like a vengeful cloak. Annabeth stared up at him, frozen with horror. How could she fight? Even if she could bring herself to battle Percy, he was an incredibly powerful demigod. When he took full control of that power, it was as terrifying as it was wonderful. Annabeth remembered the times she had seen him like this: standing over her on the Williamsburg Bridge to face Kronos's army single-handedly, commanding a hurricane in the middle of Central Park against the onslaught of Hyperion, glowing as brightly as his father as they charged down Otis and Ephialtes in the Parthenon.

And the last time they had been in Tartarus—slaying Arachne, choking the goddess Akhlys with her own poison.

Only now, his wrath was directed at Annabeth.

'Percy, please—'

Behind him, Eris cackled with glee. 'Everything that befell you, it was her fault! She stole your memories and lied to you! Doesn't that make you so angry?'

'I'm so mad at you,' Percy intoned.

Annabeth swallowed. 'I'm sorry.'

'She doesn't mean it. She—'

'Sorry,' Percy repeated. 'Because you did lie to me? You did steal my memories?'

'Because I failed to protect you.' His image blurred through her tears. 'I'm sorry I failed you. I love you.'

For a moment, the red in his eyes seemed to flicker with its original green. But Percy kept his stance, Riptide hanging like a guillotine over her head.

'I'm sorry,' she said again. 'I never meant to hurt you.' And while she waited for the blade to fall, she told him, 'I love you, no matter what.'

She wanted that to be the last thing she ever said.

Annabeth closed her eyes. She felt the whoosh of Riptide swinging through the air.

The blow didn't come. Instead, Eris gave a blood-curdling screech.

Annabeth blinked.

Percy had run Eris through with his sword. His eyes were no longer red, but the bloody mist still clung to him. His face was set in the same fierce, hard expression. He stared at the ashy fragments of the goddess, breathing heavily.

'I don't know what's the truth,' he said to her remains, 'but I do know it's not what you're telling me.'

The pieces of Eris didn't reply. A faint breeze curled around them and swept what was left of her over the cliff. Her angry fog faded into the chasm. Annabeth crawled to the drop-off, where the darkness that had swallowed her friends reproached her.

They're gone. They're gone and you failed to save them. Just like you failed Percy.

'Thalia!' she screamed.

There was no answer, no indication that her voice even managed to travel into the chasm below. The darkness seemed to absorb all sound. Percy joined her in yelling their friends' names, but their voices sounded tinny and weak.

Percy swore. 'It's my fault. I—I killed them.'

Annabeth turned to him. His face was pale and gaunt, his eyes hollow with self-loathing. The sight of him taking the soul-crushing guilt upon himself ripped into her heart like an arai's curse.

'No,' she told him firmly. 'That was Eris. She twisted your mind—she played with all of our minds.'

He shook his head. 'I shouldn't have been persuaded. I should've known she was lying, just playing with me. You're all here because of me! And I…oh gods…'

She couldn't let Percy take this on himself. Especially when the real finger of blame should be pointing at her.

'Eris got to you because she was telling the truth, sort of. Your memories—the empousa getting her hands on you—it was our fault. My fault,' she admittted. 'So it's me you should be blaming. I'm the one that got you into this whole mess.'

Percy's eyes widened. 'What are you saying?'

Annabeth pushed herself to her feet. Her entire body was trembling so hard, even her teeth chattered. But she made herself speak.

She told him everything. From the attack by Hipponoe, who wanted revenge on her for killing Joe Bob, to her decision to use the Lethe, to the mistake she'd made with the nepenthe and his subsequent disappearance after they'd fed him the potion.

When she finished, Percy was silent for a long time, his mouth drawn in a hard line.

'You should've told me,' he said finally.

Annabeth looked down. 'We—I wanted to, but at first…you already hated me. You thought we were all lying to you. If you knew I was responsible for your memory loss, too…And then when everything started to get better, I wasn't sure if bringing it up would just hurt you more. I didn't want to make you stop trusting everyone again.'

'Maybe I would've appreciated the honesty.'

'I'm sorry.'

Percy nodded. His eyes softened. 'So am I. I guess I didn't really make it easy for you either. And for what it's worth, it kinda sounds like I might've gotten myself into all of this.'

'Percy, you took a curse meant for me.'

'That wasn't your fault.'

'It was my stupid pride—' She choked on a rising sob.

'It sounds like I chose to do it,' Percy said mildly. 'I guess I was—we were—well.' His mouth twisted wryly. She remembered the question he'd finally asked her the night before they left for Tartarus, the one she'd found herself unable to answer because he'd used the past tense, as if it were a piece of history that would never again be true. Were you my girlfriend?

Then he said, in a tone that filled her with hope, 'You must've been hurting so much all this time. I'm sorry. I wish I could remember. I—I don't like hurting you.'

Annabeth swallowed hard. 'It's okay. Maybe you'll still get your memories back down here. Even if we have to go to the edge of Chaos.'

'Even if we don't…' Percy looked at her hesitantly. 'Well, maybe we could start over. I wouldn't mind giving it a try. You and me.'

You and me. The glimmer of hope swelled in her chest.

'We have to save you first,' she reminded him. 'And the others. They have to be alive.' She refused to accept the alternative.

Percy looked dubiously over the cliff. 'I can sense water,' he said. 'Right at the bottom. Maybe Nico did that thing he did when we fell in here.'

'Shadow travel.'

'Can we climb down?'

Annabeth considered it. They'd made it down a cliff face in Tartarus before. It had been treacherous enough when they could see the handholds. Here in the Dark Lands, they would be feeling blindly for every crevice.

Before they could make a decision, something in Percy's pocket jerked. He pulled out the bronze compass. Its triangle pattern winked like a firefly in twilight, pointing north along the cliff's edge. It seemed to have acquired a life of its own, tugging Percy's hand in that direction.

Annabeth and Percy exchanged a look.

'I guess we follow,' Annabeth said.

Under the compass's insistent direction, they skirted the edge of the cliff. The terrain sloped gently downwards. After a while, Annabeth heard a gurgling below their feet, like a rush of water flowing through rock. She imagined a river cutting its way through an underground gorge, pouring out of a cavern beneath them. Maybe this path would eventually wind down to the bottom.

Please let the others be there.

The cliff face curved to the left. As soon as they followed it round, they seemed to pass out of the inky night into a foggy dawn. The sky was lighter and the air weighed less, no longer settling heavily on her shoulders as it had a moment ago.

Then Annabeth realised with a chill that this was because their bodies no longer had as much substance for the air to press down on. Percy looked like he had after drinking the nepenthe, smoky and insubstantial, like he was formed entirely of thick fog. Judging from the translucent quality of her own fingers, she probably didn't look much better.

Sprouting along their ghostly feet were patches of brightly-coloured flowers that were utterly incongruent with the dismal landscape. Something about this path was eerily familiar.

Ahead, the cliff jutted out like a peninsula over a churning black void. A lone figure stood on it, veiled in shadow. The one thing that stood out was a pinprick of golden-bronze light. Their bronze compass strained towards its round, bright point.

'It's her,' Annabeth said. 'The empousa.'

'What's that black stuff?' Percy asked, sounding simultaneously fascinated and repulsed. 'Where are we?'

Annabeth looked again at his smoky appearance, the way the contours of his body blended into the air like a shroud of nothingness had been flung over him.

The verge of final death, hissed the echo of a voice that haunted her nightmares. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been.

She should have guessed that the compass would lead them here. If the empousa was after Percy's soul, she would come here, to the place where his memories had washed out.

'The edge of Chaos,' she whispered.

Percy's eyes widened until he looked more ghostly than ever, a pair of green eyes staring out of the gloom.

'Come on,' Annabeth said.

She felt the pull of Chaos before they got there. The air was impossibly thin, as if its molecules had been sucked away into a hungry vacuum. Annabeth's lungs felt like they had been ironed out onto a two-dimensional board. Weightless as her limbs were, moving was a challenge. She had to glide rather than step forward on her legs.

At least the wishbone charm on her bracelet still felt solid. She hoped it meant she'd still be able to wield her sword. They'd be disadvantaged enough facing the empousa here without losing the use of their weapons.

The empousa didn't seem to notice their approach. She was focused on the black hole before her. In her hands was a compass like Percy's. The light they had seen was shining from it, a weak beam travelling into Chaos.

Or so Annabeth thought, until she realised that the light was actually travelling in the opposite direction. The empousa was drawing a misty substance out of the void.

Next to her, Percy stumbled. He clapped one hand to his back—the same spot that had pained him before Annabeth had given him the bronze compass.

'Percy!' She grabbed his shoulder, thankful to find his physical form still holding despite his ghostly appearance.

'I'm—fine—' he gritted out. 'It's her—'

The empousa turned. Unlike Annabeth and Percy, she looked perfectly solid, untouched by the veil of nothingness that clung to them. The glow of her compass set off her hair such that it burned like a flaming torch in the night.

Her red eyes gleamed when they landed on Percy. She started to laugh.

'This couldn't have worked out better if I'd planned it myself!' She crooked one manicured claw at Percy. 'Hello, gorgeous,' she said to him. 'You're right on time. And now, you are going to make me immortal.'

A/N: The goddess Eris has a cameo in HoH, but I decided to flesh her out more. She was loads of fun to write!

@preciouschildrenofolympus has drawn an absolutely incredible illustration of this chapter--it’s a whole comic strip featuring Eris’s appearance, and you should go and check it out if you liked this chapter because it brings it to life so perfectly!

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