READ THE A/N BELOW, PLEASE.
"Beth! Come back! Now!"
My commander's voice was loud in my ear. Bullets rained around me, and I motioned for my group to go back. A young girl named Alec came up to me, scurrying between rocks and trees.
"Beth?" She whispered. Her short black hair was a mess around her face, tangled, frizzy, and covered in blood and dirt. From the way she had moved over the rocks, I knew she hadn't been harmed, and the blood wasn't hers.
"Yeah, sweetie?" I asked, crouching and turning my headset off.
"Are we losing?"
"We're kicking butt, Alec," I said, ducking as a grenade came hurtling toward us. I reached a hand out and grabbed it, throwing it back where it came.
Alec grinned, but it faded quickly. "Nina's gone."
My smile, although fake, disappeared. "What are you talking about?"
"Nina's dying," Alec said, her tears leaving white streaks through her dirt-stained face. "She was hit, and oh gods, there's so so so much blood."
I felt tears spring to my eyes too; Nina had been my second-in-command. "Shh, Alec. It'll be okay. She's safe now. She's in Heaven, with the Angels and God and the Palace."
"I know," She murmured, burying her face into my chest. "But she's still dead."
I took Alec's shoulders in my hands and pulled her away. "Fighting's hard, honey."
Bullets were still raining around me, some close enough they shaved off the hair on my arms. Bombs and grenades exploded around me, giving off a constant heat. I stared into Alec's black eyes and tried not to let my voice crack as I spoke, "But everybody here wanted to. Nina knew the risks, she knew you either make it to sixteen alive, or die trying. She knew fighting was the only way out. She knew, she knew her job was risky. Do you know why she took it?"
Alec shook her head, and we winced together as a grenade exploded not a hundred yards away. "So nobody else would have to."
I heard a vicious snarl from behind me, and instinctively I whipped around. My eyes met a terrifying sight, a tall man over ten feet tall. I scrambled backwards, shielding Alec with my own body.
"Alec, honey. I need you to run. I need you to go find a crevice and hide, okay? Okay, go!"
She obeyed, scurrying quickly. Her reddish brown T-shirt and shorts blended in with the rocks. I watched her disappear between two rocks, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Annabeth Chase?" The man bellowed. At his words, everybody froze. Even the enemy, who hadn't stopped fighting in two years. Day and night they were bombing us, forcing us to move out. Forcing us to kill them.
I choked out a few words at the man. He knew my name, the name I hadn't used in years. "Who are you?"
"My name is unimportant," He shouted again. The battling around us seemed to disappear with his words.
"What are you doing?"
"I am bringing you deep within your conscious. I need you to see something."
"What?"
The color around me was fading, being replaced by an eerie white. Had I died? Was this the Heaven I told to the children? No, it couldn't be. There was no such thing.
A flash of mist appeared in front of the man, who had shrunk to normal size. I glanced at him, and he beckoned to the mist. "Look within, what do you see?"
I stared into the mist, trying to see anything. But there was nothing, the mist was empty.
"Nothing," I murmured.
"Look harder!" He insisted, and I stared into the mist again, searching frantically for something, anything to prove I wasn't crazy.
A flicker of color appeared inside of it, and I leaned forward anxiously. The image grew larger, until I gasped. It was an all-to-familiar boy with black hair and green eyes.
I stepped backward, or tried to. I was met with a wall. I glanced at the man, who nodded. "Walk towards it."
"What is it?"
"It's his reality," He muttered. "It's what he's being seen as."
"I can't leave them though..." I trailed off, thinking of my group. My kids, who weren't biologically mine but who I was still considered a mother to, couldn't live on their own. They depended on me to survive.
"They will be okay, I will watch over them as you," He answered, shrinking to my height. Slowly, his brown hair grew long and blonde, his skin grew tan. He became me, and it freaked me out.
"Who are you?"
"I am not part of your reality, Annabeth. This is a cover, and as soon as you go through that screen, I will go back and take your position. They will think I am you. After you go through that, you will go back to his reality."
"What happens then?"
"When," He paused, then continued. "If, we meet again, I will go back to myself. You will become the only you again. But that all depends if we meet again."
"What if we don't?"
"We must," He insisted. "But you can't look for me. If you search, we will never meet."
"When would we meet?"
"Anytime. Anywhere. Anyplace. Anything."
I shivered, his voice had changed to mine. I took a step forward, and the mist seemed to draw me in. Everything in me seemed to be driven away, and I wanted to run and flee. I couldn't. I wouldn't.
The man turned away from me as I put my arm through the mist.
"Goodbye, Annabeth Chase. I hope we meet again."
As I felt a strong tug on my arm, the man disappeared.
And I tumbled through the mystical, eerie, light to face my new reality.
HAHAHA I FINALLY GOT THE SEQUEL OUT.
Okay, I'm super super super super sorry this doesn't really match up to BMAC. Sincerely sorry, actually. But here, basically when she was captured at the end of BMAC, she was deposited into a sort-of alternate reality, where kids must fight against everything older then the age of sixteen. Annabeth (Beth), was one of the few who stayed on the side that would eventually lose, despite their efforts. She's been away from Percy, who never found her, for about a year. She's 27 now. She hates Percy now, and is still furious at him.
Anyway, can you please tell me what you think? Is it too different? Is it good? What can I do to make it better? Are pickles good? Do you want me to stop asking questions?
Will you leave a review?
Uhm... yeah. Thanks for reading the first chap, the second should be out today.
