"你要相信

ni yao xiang xin

You must believe

相信我們會像童話故事裡

xiang xin wo men hui xiang tong hua gu shi li

Believe we will be like we are in a fairy tale

幸福和快樂是結局

xing fu he kuai le shi jie ju

Where blessings and happiness is the ending"

~童話 Tong Hua, (Fairy Tales) by Guang Liang

The dream started differently than they usually do. Usually they went straight to the blood and gore and horrific end of the world, but today, it started with a history lesson.

In a way, it was worse. Not only was Gaia the teacher, a half-asleep teacher who spoke in a monotonous, boring voice, but she was also teaching about how the end of the world could happen. How bad could that be?

As Gaia droned on and on about the first two world wars, fights between Greeks and Romans (In terms of both demigods and just the civilizations in general), Percy tried to fall asleep. Obviously, it didn't work, as Percy was already sleeping.

"Young hero." Gaia hissed. Percy looked up at her. Had her eyes been open, they would've intimidated him. However, they were closed, and instead, they creeped him out.

"Yes?" He said.

"You would do well to listen to what I have to say. It is important to know the history of the end of the world."

"Well, then I'll learn it in the Underworld, in Elysium, hundreds of years from now. Can't even be too sure that the history you're teaching me is the proper history of the future end of the world, can I?" Percy wasn't quite sure what he was saying, but the way Gaia's face twisted horribly, he guessed he said enough to make her mad.

"I will show you the end of the world, and you will realize how pointless your mockery is!" Gaia took a step back, and the dream changed.

Now it was the usual dream. It showed Camp in flames, dryads and nymphs and even satyrs running around frantically. Then New York, dark and dead, skyscrapers cut in half and run-down, buildings bombed. The Empire State Building had fallen as well. After that, New Rome, in flames as well, demigods running around, panicked. Children were crying, but no one was helping them.

And then the dream became different again.

In the midst of everything, through all the smoke and fire, Annabeth stood.

Her eyes were open, but they weren't her eyes. Her hair was down, golden with princess curls as always, but it wasn't her hair. She was wearing her usual Camp-Half-Blood shirt, but she wasn't.

It was Annabeth, but at the same time, it wasn't her. Gaia had used her as a host, the same way Kronus used Luke as one. But it was obvious, even as Percy watched in horror, that Annabeth was long gone. There wasn't anyone to wake up, no one to convince to fight the goddess inside her.

Annabeth was gone.

"So you see, hero, what will happen." Annabeth turned towards him and spoke to him, but it was Gaia's voice. He knew it'd be Gaia's voice, but it still jarred him, broke his heart a little more. "I will use the one you love the most and, through her, kill and ruin everything else you care about. Unless." Annabeth-Turned-Gaia took a step forward. Percy wanted to step back, but found he couldn't. "Unless you're willing to take her place. If you're willing to give your body to me, I promise that your precious Annabeth and all your friends in the Argo II will live, including the three that left, in a secluded part of my new world. You only need to sacrifice yourself."

Percy wanted to scream no. He wanted to tell Gaia to go away, to leave Annabeth alone. But as he saw Annabeth/Gaia turn away from him and start to raise her arms, causing chaos again, Percy was sorely tempted to say yes. He was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his friends. He was willing to sacrifice himself, as long as Annabeth lived.

But would Gaia keep her word, once she had gotten what she wanted?

"I'd like to wake up now." Percy told her. "I'll think about it." That was the closest to a yes he had ever given Gaia, and she knew why. She knew how to poke at his fatal flaw until he caved and gave her everything. But he couldn't help it.

Percy woke up.

~0~

"Where's the boyfriend?" Piper joked to Annabeth as they sat down to breakfast. "Thought you two couldn't keep your hands off each other." With Coach Hedge gone, making comments like these were not death warrants.

"I don't know." Annabeth frowned. They had, for once, decided to sleep in separate rooms, as a way to slowly ease their transition. (The first few days, they had decided to sleep separately, and no one got any sleep that night.) "He should be coming out soon…"

Everyone else in the Argo II was in the room, eating breakfast. All except for Percy.

"I'm going to go look for him." Annabeth tried to keep from showing how worried she was, but one look at Piper told her she wasn't succeeding. Annabeth fled to Percy's room.

"Percy?" She called, trying the doorknob. It was locked, but Annabeth had the key. She unlocked the door. "Percy?" She called again.

Percy was sitting on his bed, his back to her, hunched over. And he was shaking. Annabeth slipped into the room and locked it.

"Go away." He rasped. Annabeth realized that the shaking was from crying. Percy Jackson was finally crying.

"Percy…" Annabeth walked over to him, laying an arm around his shoulders.

"No, go away." He shook her arm off half-heartedly. She kept it there, sitting beside him. He turned towards her and hugged her, hard. He buried his face into the crook of her neck. She felt his tears hit her skin silently.

"Shh…" She hugged him back, rocking slightly back and forth. "Hey, it'll be alright. It's going to be alright." She kept this up for a while, but Percy just kept shaking his head.

"No, it won't." Percy pulled away, turning again so she could only see his profile. "Annabeth, don't you get it?" Annabeth watched him, concerned. "So, let's look at this in an optimistic view, okay? Say we beat Gaia. We stop the war between the two camps. We go to New Rome, live there, raise a family there." Annabeth's heart swelled a bit at the words, but she knew he was speaking of things he believe impossible. "They will constantly be hated, by all those monsters. Monsters will curse them just for living. And any of their children, if they even live to have children, will get the same treatment. They will be powerful and hated and hunted."

"I thought we were going to be optimistic." Annabeth said lightly. Percy just shook his head.

"I'm just saying if we live long enough to have children. If we get to have children in a safe place. This is the best it could be for us. And you know that, Annabeth. We've made so many enemies."

"We could protect them from the enemies we make."

"But some day, we won't be there, and we definitely won't always be there, for our children and descendants. And that's not all. Annabeth, we're going against gods here! Going against immortals. You were down there. Monsters, Gaia, Tartarus, Giants, none of them die! They will keep reforming, coming back to life, and they will still hate us and our offspring. And eventually, Gaia will try again. And who knows, maybe our descendants will be part of that war. Annabeth, we're fighting against beings who can lose but never be defeated."

"Well, then we better make this loss count. We better make it so that Gaia and the Giants will fear our descendants. When they hear that we are the ancestors of one of the demigods going against them, they will think twice about trying to conquer the world."

Percy was quiet for a while, but Annabeth knew he was thinking about something he didn't want to voice. Didn't want to think of it as a possibility.

"What if you don't make it?" He finally said. Annabeth's heart stopped. "What if you're gone? What will I do?"

"No. Together, forever. I won't leave you. Even if I die, I will come back and haunt you until you join me. You're not getting rid of me that easily, Seaweed Brain."

It was a comforting speech, but Percy wasn't sure. And he wasn't simply talking about death. Hesitantly, Percy told Annabeth of his dream.

"What if that happens?" Another thought struck Percy, and he froze in horror. "What if I'm the only thing standing in your way, and I have to–" Percy swallowed. "I have to–"

"No." Annabeth's voice was firm, confident, commanding. She grabbed Percy's face, forcing him to look at her in the eye. "That is not going to happen. We're going to kick Gaia's butt with limited casualties, and nothing like that is going to happen. We're amazing. We're awesome. And the two of us together can achieve anything. We even got out of Tartarus, and that's saying something! We've beaten the odds before, we can do it again. Alright?"

"But what if it does?" He whispered, searching her eyes. She thought she could fool him, but he could see that she was just as scared, just as anxious as he was. How come it was always her being the strong one, pulling them through?

"It will not happen, Percy. As I said, we'll beat the odds, and we'll do it together. You've got to believe me, Percy. We can do this. Our happily ever after is just around the corner, we just have to beat Gaia and the Giants. Piece of cake." Annabeth smiled reassuringly in a way that wasn't all too reassuring, but Percy pretended was.

"Okay." He said quietly. Annabeth's smile grew into a relieved grin.

She kissed him lightly on the lips. "I'm going to go to breakfast now. Get up, change, and come out, yeah?" Percy nodded, smiling, and Annabeth left to give him some privacy.

As soon as she closed the door, his smile melted off his face.

"Just around the corner." He whispered, reminding himself. "We can do this. Our happily ever after is just around the corner."

For the first time that day, he ignored the small part of his mind that was arguing that 'happily ever after' only happens in fairy tales. They were sons and daughters of gods; how much closer to fairy tales could you get?

Okay, sorry, I like to reference whatever inspired me. Unfortunately, it was in Chinese and I figured if I put only one language, it wouldn't be appreciated quite so well. This could've actually been a lot sadder (this song is the saddest song ever, if you want to prevent tears, I would suggest never listening to it) but I didn't want to cry. I've cried enough, with my Underland Chronicles Fanfics.
I realize that I have not asked for constructive criticism, and have not gotten any either, so I'm just going to say that if I did something wrong, could've done something better, or just plain made a mistake (spelling, grammar, anything), please tell me. I know I hate it when there are errors in documents, so to help everyone, it'd be greatly appreciated. That said, thank you everyone who's ever reviewed any of my stories, they always make my day. :)