Annabeth's Battle in the Labyrinth
"Go and find what you can at Mount St. Helens", Hephaestus said. "Report back to me, and I will tell you what you need to know about Daedalus."
Gods I hated this guy. Aside from creating those παράξενος metal spiders, he was everything that Percy wasn't. Oh Percy.
Annabeth. Now is not the time to be thinking about him. You are standing in front of a god, answer him. "All right. How do we get there?" I asked, trying to keep my thoughts in order. Hephaestus clapped his hands. The gods-kill-me-now metal spider came swinging down from the rafters. I'll bet I flinched notably when it landed in front of me.
"My creation will show you the way, Hephaestus said. "It is not far through the labyrinth. And try to stay alive, will you? Humans are much more fragile than automatons." Without another word, the spider took off, forcing us to follow. The spider wasn't forcing us to run, so as we walked along I had time to think of Percy. Seaweed Brain.
Over the years, we had become best friends, but I wanted more. I wanted him to be mine. I wanted him to be my Seaweed Brain. I sighed inaudibly, thinking of all the times he'd held my hand or hugged me or showed me he wanted anything more. Since our first year working together, we had shared a few moments. On the river to Hell, I grabbed his hand without thinking, and he didn't pull away. On Circe's island, he hugged me. However, that was right after he stopped being a guinea pig, so he'd had some reason to be joyful. After he found me last year, there was a tight hug as soon as there wasn't a war going on around us. Studies have shown that tightness in hugs were a good way to judge how someone felt about you. I squeezed him as tightly as I could without it being too tight or painful, and he'd tightened his grip on me. I had some reason to be hopeful.
"Is anything wrong, Annabeth?" Grover asked. I had forgotten that goats or satyrs, in this case have better hearing than humans.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I could almost feel him looking right through me, so I hoped for a distraction and one came at the perfect time. We began walking on roots, tree roots. They were roots from a sugar maple tree, but I didn't think that was a necessary bit of information at this moment. As we approached a tunnel branching off the side of ours, I almost ran into Grover.
Percy, being in front of Grover, stopped after he realized we had and asked "What is it?" Grover didn't move. Jaw agape, he took a step towards the mouth of this earthen tunnel.
"Come on!" I practically shouted at him, "We have to keep moving." I added, more forcefully and without shouting. He just mumbled
"This is the way. This is it,"
"What way?" Percy asked. Realization spread across his face he is so cute when he understands things and he turned to face the tunnel. "You mean… To Pan?" Instead of answering Percy, Grover looked up at Tyson
"Don't you smell it?"
"Dirt," Tyson said, "And plants."
"Yes! This is the way. I'm sure of it."
Up ahead, I was beginning to have a hard time seeing the spider. A few more seconds and it would be gone forever.
"We'll come back," I promised him. "On our way back to Hephaestus."
"The tunnel will be gone by then," Grover said, urgently. "I have to follow it. A door like this won't stay open!"
"But we can't," I pleaded. "The forges!"
Grover looked at me sadly. "I have to, Annabeth. Don't you understand?"
I knew exactly how he felt, a door opening and a door closing. I thought about me and Percy and Rachel. The spider was just a speck now.
"We'll split up." Percy announced.
"No!" I said. "That's way too dangerous. How will we ever find each other again? And Grover can't go alone." I hoped, however selfish it was, that Percy wouldn't volunteer to go with Grover.
Tyson put his hand on Grover's shoulder. "I-I will go with him."
Percy looked bewildered. "Tyson, are you sure?"
Tyson nodded. "Goat boy needs help. We will find the god person. I am not like Hephaestus. I trust friends."
Grover took a deep breath. "Percy, we'll find each other again. We've still got the empathy link. I just… Have to."
"I hope you're right" He said.
"I know I am" Grover responded with a kind of confidence I'd never seen in him before.
Percy told Grover to be careful and then received a rib-crushing hug from Tyson, who was almost sobbing. The oddly paired duo then walked into the new tunnel. I would've watched them go, but the spider had just barely disappeared. So we ran.
"This is bad. Splitting up is a really, really bad idea." I huffed as we ran, the spider coming back into view.
"We'll see them again" Percy ensured, speaking to himself as much as to me.
It wasn't long before the tunnel began to get hot. It was slight at first, but the further we went, the hotter it got. I wanted to expose more skin to cool off, but Percy was right behind me so I dealt with it. As running did not require much brain power, I daydreamed of us. If there was an us. When. How it'd come to happen. I thought up ridiculous scenarios involving us that would get me to kiss him. I thought of one back at camp, one at his apartment, and even one for Mount St. Helens. I'm obsessing over him. I thought absentmindedly. Annabeth, you do realize that there is a good chance he likes Rachel more than he likes you? They might've even kissed. That set me straight again, back to thinking about the mission ahead. Annabeth, I'm sorry. I do realize I made you cry. Me cry. Whatever. Just be glad that It's hot enough to pass off as sweat, so Percy doesn't ask about it.
We finally reached the forge. It was enormous. The cavern was at least as large as a football stadium, and tall enough to fit the Empire State Building. Aside from a walkway around the circumference of the area, the cave was a pit that went straight down into magma below. There were many bridges spanning the pit in the middle, and a large platform in the middle. Aside from different machinery, the platform also held a house-sized anvil around which many creatures were working.
Percy startled me when he spoke. "We'll never be able to sneak up on them."
I picked up the spider, as creepy and wrong as it was, and pocketed it. It might be our only way back to Hephaestus after this was over. "I can. Wait here." He tried to argue, but I'd already put my cap on and he stopped trying to argue. Oh all of the scenarios I'd imagined that included this cap. Instead of watching him the whole time, I decided I'd try to find out what the big creatures were building in the middle. I was just about to sneak across a bridge when I heard the idiot blow our cover.
"Annabeth!" he yelled. I whirled around. He was standing out in the open for everycreature to see and shouting. Remind me again why I'm in love with him, brain. I clamped my hand over his mouth and wrestled him behind a large bronze cauldron.
"Do you want for us to get killed?" He reached out and yanked off my cap. I shimmered into visibility, trying to at least look like I hated him right now. Spoiler alert Annabeth: You don't hate him. Shut up brain. "Percy, what is your problem?"
"We're going to have company," he said before explaining that the creatures were in fact Telekhines, and that there was soon going to be a whole fourth grade class of them looking for us.
I nodded. "We have to get out-" I was rudely interrupted by a door slamming open and a bunch of small half dog-half seal creatures flooded onto the walkway. They tripped over each other, trying to figure out a direction to charge.
"Put your cap back on. Get out!"
Here he was, trying to save me. How very freaking noble of you, Jackson. "What? No! I'm not leaving you."
"I've got a plan. I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider-maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on."
"But you'll be killed!" I told him, letting just a bit of my emotion flood into the words.
"I'll be fine. Besides, we've got no choice."
Oh my gods. The scenario. "We've got no choice" is exactly what I imagined him saying before we kiss. I'm probably glaring at him like I want to hurt him, so he won't be the one to make this happen. Summoning more courage than ever was necessary before, I grabbed him, and savoring the shock on his face before I closed my eyes, I closed the distance between our mouths.
And then it happened.
He completely relaxed, probably in more shock than when he first found out about the gods being real. But I was nowhere thinking that, I was kissing him! It felt like all of the books said it would. There were galaxies forming inside my head, I felt like I could fight Kronos right here and now. In other words, it was ecstasy. This is real! I'm kissing PERCY JACKSON! I had never kissed anyone before, but upon reflection, I think I did well. I moved my mouth like you're supposed to, I didn't get my saliva all over him, I wasn't biting him, I did well. But it had to stop.
As I pulled away, my eyes fluttered open and he didn't move. He was staring at me wide-eyed with his mouth slightly open, with a look to him as if he'd forgotten his name. "Be careful, Seaweed Brain." I put on my cap and ran to the exit. Looking back once more to make sure he wasn't about to die because of my action, I ran. I ran and I ran.
Until the heat around me suddenly felt cold
And I got hit by a wall of seawater. I instantly relaxed, trying to conserve as much air as I could. Who knows how long I'd be under? After ten seconds or so, the water began to lower and I got a breath. But that wasn't my primary concern. Percy! He was the only one who could've done this! Is he okay? Should I go back? Should I… Questions filled my brain as I tried to figure out what to do. And the spider jumped out of my pocket and began to run. Not walk, not jog, but a sprint back to Hephaestus. And my brain stopped recording what happened. I have no memories during that time, only starting again when I almost killed him with a hug at his funeral two weeks later.
Two weeks my brain didn't function, all because of this kid with messed up hair, perpetually changing eyes, and the smell of seawater.
I did research on why the brain stops recording, and it doesn't, unless there is high levels of alcohol present. As I'm not an alcoholic, I determined it couldn't be explained. I hated not being able to explain things.
He was something special.
He was someone different.
He was my soulmate.