A/N I know, I know- this has been done before. A LOT. But I can't help it- I am so completely in love with this scene! So if you're obsessed enough to read the thirty billionth adaptation of this scene, congratulations. I hope you like it.

3 - Poetic Athena

Percabeth

Need
Annabeth was frantic. The bonds Percy had wrapped around her, securing her to the mast of the Queen Anne's Revenge cut into her skin as she struggled vainly to escape. The enchanting melody floating from Siren Island was like nothing she had ever encountered. The absolute needto get off the boat was incredible. She was screaming. She could see Percy's back as he stood at the wheel. Despite her cries, he stayed with his back to her, as if to blatantly say "I don't care about you, Annabeth. Your pain is nothing to me." It was just like Luke. She had trusted him- only to betray her at her time of need. "How could you? Percy!" she screamed, "I thought we were friends!" He was looking at her now. Good. He deserved to see her escape- if she only had a knife. But wait, she did- Luke's knife. How could she have forgotten? She wriggled her hand violently until her fingers clutched the hilt triumphantly, but when she looked up to see the look on his face as she sawed her way out of her bonds, she saw he had turned back to the captain's wheel. She screamed angrily, wishing he could see how much pain he had caused, but the pull of the music drifting from the rocky shores of the island was too much to resist any longer. Finally, her knife sliced through the last of the ropes and she ran to the edge of the Revenge and leapt into the cold gray sea. When her eyes opened again she was somewhere else completely. As she took in her surroundings, her jaw dropped. What she was seeing, it was incredible- it was Manhattan, but not the rest of the world's Manhattan- no, this was her Manhattan. The skyline glittered with white marble and precious metals and the architecture was incredible; the structures brilliant- she knew, because she had designed them. In front of her sat the most incredible marvel this Manhattan offered- a group of three people sitting on a picnic blanket. A couple sat hand in hand and when they looked up Annabeth saw the woman's intimidating grey eyes and the man's crazy aviator goggles he loved- her mother and her father, reunited. And next to them sat Luke, his eyes happy and loving, and so generally not evil it made her heart hurt. She had made this. She had saved him. But despite how perfect the scene seemed, Annabeth felt something was missing- she was forgetting something important. Percy. His hand wrapped around his ankle and suddenly she remembered their quest last year when her head went below the surface. Then she came up and the moment of clarity was gone like that. She went under again this time Percy pulled them deeper. Now that she could not hear the deadly beautiful song, she knew Percy couldn't let her back out of the water, but as the seconds went by, her lungs began burn. Her gag reflex kicked in and she began to struggle again. Then the bubbles around them began to converge in a massive flurry of white until her vision cleared and she could breathe again. Percy had made them an air bubble. She sobbed, too ashamed to look at him, but he pulled her close and held her as she cried, his warm, completely dry arms encircling her and protecting her from herself and the sirens. Then he lifted her head from his shoulder and asked if she was alright. she looked up and nodded and he let their air bubble pop, but just as the water reclaimed her hearing, she saw Percy lean close and murmur something that could have been anything from another "are you okay?" to "I love you". A small part of her heart pondered the latter and Annabeth was surprised by how much she wished it was true. As they came up from the ocean, she cursed herself for having taken such a risk without having even learning anything from the siren's mysterious song. Then she thought about what Percy might have said at the bottom of the bay and how it made her feel it made her wonder if she had learned something about herself after all. The thought made her smile.