AN: This is a one shot in Annabeth's point of view. It is from The Battle of the Labyrinth. It's in Chapter 20: My Birthday Party Takes A Dark Turn, page 348. It is the scene where Percy and Annabeth are on top of the hill and they are saying goodbye and talking about the prophecy.

For everyone who knows (or doesn't know), I had ordered a Camp Half Blood camp necklace about a week ago. It finally came and I am in love with it. In honor of receiving that and I made my Camp Half Blood t shirt, I decided to post something. Another chapter of my other story "Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Doors of Death" wasn't ready yet, but while re-reading this book, I decided that I wanted to write a oneshot on just this little scene right here.

I'm sorry for the length of this AN. Enough of my rambling, here's the story!

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I was standing on the peak of Half Blood Hill. The wind was creating a nice breeze and the weather was perfect. Too perfect on a day where you have to say goodbye.

Percy was leaving like he did at the end of every summer. This summer, however, I wasn't leaving quite yet. I was staying to help Chiron recover from his battle injury. I also planned to study the laptop that Daedalus gave me before his passing. I knew that once I got home, I would have to hide the laptop. My step brothers weren't big on personal space and had a knack for destroying other people's property. I would have to keep the laptop under lock and key all year.

Still, it was hard seeing Percy go. After the Labyrinth, everything seemed different. The intricate maze was designed to make you lose control over your own mind. But somehow, deep within the heart of the underground puzzle, I think we became closer; we built a stronger friendship then ever before. We had to rely on each other for survival.

Not to mention, there was the whole Mt. St. Helens issue. It was a rush of emotions, adrenaline pulsing through my veins at the thought of losing him. It was hard to comprehend that Percy, the one who had saved my life—which I still scowled at the thought of—and had taken me on my first quest, could possibly die.

I had been having repressed feelings at the time about whether or not I "liked" Percy Jackson as more than a friend. But I knew that if he had a chance at dying, I couldn't leave knowing I had never properly said goodbye. But more importantly, I wanted to kiss him once in case we were parting until Hades claimed us both.

But now here we were, acting as if the whole thing had never happened. We had awkwardly—to say the least—avoided talking about anything major, like Kronos or Luke. But still, not being with Percy, who had ultimately become my best friend, was hard. I was so used to making fun of his childish ways or sneaking up on him invisibly and scaring him half to death. We had become so distant, it was like we were back at the beginning of our friendship; starting over at square one.

I half heard Percy saying something about my school in California.

"There's a private school out there that I'll be going to. I'll probably hate it, but . . ." I said, leaving the remainder of the sentence hanging. I honestly didn't know what to say about my school. I didn't want to go to San Francisco in the first place, and now I would have to go to a rich private school.

"Yeah, well, call me, okay?" He said, phrasing it more like a question. It brightened the day up a little bit, knowing that he wanted me to call him. I wasn't going to show him that, though.

"Sure," I said. "I'll keep my eyes open for . . ." I stopped, mid sentence. I wanted to say Luke. But ever since he tried to get me to run away with him a few months ago, things felt stranger than they already had. And, of course, now that the Titan Lord had taken over his body . . . well, things would be different. But, despite my anger towards Luke for turning against the gods and killing so many people, I couldn't help but feel hurt, too. He had once been the person who I had turned to when I needed someone. It still stung, remembering everything he had done.

Percy looked at me, and for a brief second, I thought I saw pain in his eyes. But, before I could be sure, he asked a new question. "Annabeth, what was the rest of the prophecy?"

I couldn't look at him. I stared off into the surrounding woods as I tried to blink back tears.

"You shall delve into the darkness of the endless maze. The dead, the traitor, and the lost one raise," he recited. "We raised a lot of the dead. We saved Ethan Nakamura, who turned out to be a traitor. We raised the spirit of Pan, the lost one."

I shook my head, wanting nothing more than for him to stop. My eyes were swimming in tears that the flood gates wouldn't be able to hold back for much longer. I prayed for him to stop there. It was too hard to talk about this.

He had different plans, however, and he pressed on. "You shall rise or fall by the ghost king's hand. That wasn't Minos, like I'd thought. It was Nico. By choosing to be on our side, he saved us. And the child of Athena's final stand—that was Daedalus."

He was getting to the part I couldn't handle. "Percy—" I said, trying to stop him from continuing.

"Destroy with a hero's final breath. That makes sense now. Daedalus died to destroy the Labyrinth. But what was the last—"

I couldn't take it anymore. Tear began to cascade down my warm cheeks. I said in a voice no louder than a whisper, "And lose a love to worse than death. That was the last line, Percy. Are you happy now?"

He stared at me for a moment, but I could see the expression on his face change. He thought I loved Luke. Not that he was wrong. I do—er, did—love Luke, but at the time, I hadn't know which "love" would be lost. And of course, when Mt. St. Helens had exploded, I had thought that that was what the prophecy meant. I'm honestly happy it wasn't talking about Percy though.

"Oh, so Luke—"

"Percy, I didn't know what the prophecy was talking about. I—I didn't know if . . ." I wanted to tell him that I wasn't sure if it had been talking about him, but I refrained. "Luke and I—for years, he was the only one who really cared about me. I thought . . ."

Before I could continue on and explain myself, I bright light appeared out of nowhere. We were going to be visited by a divine being, no doubt.

"You have nothing to apologize for, my dear," the goddess said, once she had taken a mortal form.

"Hera," I said. I didn't know how to feel. She was defending me, which was nice and all, but she was incorrectly defending me.

She smiled and said, "You found the answers, as I knew you would. Your quest was a success."

I almost choked on air, if that's possible.

"A success? Luke is gone. Daedalus is dead. Pan is dead. How is that—"

"Our family is safe," she said, which I wasn't surprised to hear that was all that mattered to her. "Those others are better gone, my dear. I am proud of you."

I felt my jaw clench as I grit my teeth. Hera was a piece of work, let me tell you.

Percy, looking just as peeved as I probably did, said, "You're the one who paid Geryon to let us through the ranch, weren't you?"

Hera shrugged, like it didn't seem like a big deal. "I wanted to speed you on your way."

Percy's hand was in a fist. "But you didn't care about Nico. You were happy to see him turned over to the Titans."

The goddess didn't look fazed. "Oh, please. The son of Hades," she said, as if the word Hades was acid on her tongue, "said it himself. No one wants him around. He does not belong."

"Hephaestus was right. You only care about your perfect family, not real people." I remembered the face of the lame smith god. He must've felt terrible, being thrown of Olympus by his mother. It was no wonder why the poor man had become so closed off to other people.

Hera's figure began to glow more than usual, at a dangerously high rate. I thought for a second that she was going to take her full divine form and incinerate us on the spot. But luckily, she stopped herself.

"Watch yourself, son of Poseidon," she spat. "I guided you more than you know in the maze. I was at your side when you faced Geyron. I let your arrow fly straight. I sent you to Calypso's island. I opened the way to the Titan's mountain." She turned her gaze towards me, and I saw her rock hard expression soften slightly. "Annabeth, my dear, surely you see how I've helped. I would welcome a sacrifice for my efforts."

I looked at her, astounded at her forwardness. Sacrifices are meant to be a gift to the gods. If a god or goddess requested one, it surely wasn't genuine. And I was not about to do that. Then, I thought about my mother. Athena would never accept an easy answer, no matter what the cost would be for her actions. And I would never do such a thing either.

I stared up into the goddess's irises and stated, clear as day, "Percy is right." Then, I turned around incase she decided that incinerating us would be fun after all. "You're the one who doesn't belong, Queen Hera. So next time, thanks . . . but no thanks."

I could tell that she was starting to glow again, even with my back to her.

"You will regret this insult, Annabeth. You will regret this very much."

With that final speech, she turned into her true form, and I hoped that Percy had been wise enough to avert his eyes.

Silence covered the hilltop once again. I could hear the birds chirping in the distance and the soft breeze rustling the leaves in the tall trees all around the camp. It seemed so peaceful. But even though everything around me had a serene feel to it, I was a mess on the inside. I thought about Luke and my decreasing feelings for him and my increasing feelings about Percy. It scared me to think that I might be falling under the spell of another person who had the ability to hurt me.

I had to get out of there.

"I'm sorry. I—I should get back. I'll keep in touch," I said, wanting him to know that I would write to him all year if that's what he wanted. That's what I wanted, anyways.

"Listen, Annabeth—" Percy started to say. Then, the look on his face changed. He seemed confused, like one thousand thoughts were having a stampede in his mind. I guess we have all been feeling that way since the Battle of the Labyrinth.

Before he could finish his sentence, Argus honked the car horn that would be taking Percy home.

"You'd better get going," I said, trying hard to hide my disappointment. Despite the fact that I wanted nothing more than to end this conversation and run to my vacant cabin, I would miss Percy for the year. It always seemed like such a long time to be away from all the other half bloods. And to be away from your best friend for three fourths of the year made life seem duller. "Take care, Seaweed Brain."

I smiled at the nickname that used to be an insult but had become more of a pet name.

Then, without warning, I ran down the hill.

Until next summer, Seaweed Brain, when we meet again.

I didn't look back once.