Disclaimer: All the characters belong to Rick Riordan.
Chapter 1
The memory. The memory kept coming back to the top. Like a bottle in the water. No matter how many times you try to sink it, it will always come back to the top. Half submerged in water and half breathing fresh air.
'Why? Why are you doing this?' she had said with a concerned and broken look. It hurt him to see her like this. She was the one thing he still held on to. But she had let go of him. That's what made the memory worse. The fact that he couldn't let go.
'Because I'm tired. Tired of being the pawn. You should be able to understand this. You were a pawn too.' he had said. And it was no lie. Both of them had been pawns too many times.
'Yes. I was a pawn too. So many times in so many games. But don't you see what you're doing? You're becoming like... You're becoming like him. And it's breaking me. It's breaking me all over again!' And it was true. He could see the broken pieces on her face. 'I trusted you! I thought you wouldn't be like him! It was one of the reasons I loved you! I loved you for a lot of things but I loved you most because I thought you wouldn't be like him!' She had raised her voice now. She was shouting. But he didn't even flinch. He was too distracted.
'Annabeth. This is different. I'm doing it on my own. I'm not following anyone.' He had said her name like it was the last time he ever would. It had sounded so fragile.
'Percy, please! I know you are in there somewhere. Buried so deep that you can't even recognize yourself anymore.' She had started crying now. Sobbing. Tears streaming down her face.
'Annabeth, did I ever tell you how beautiful you are? How strong you are? You're stronger than me. You always have been. Every time we saved the world,' she was looking at him now with big grey eyes. He could see the hope in them. The hope that he wouldn't do this. 'Every time we saved the world,' he repeated, 'You were the one who did the work. You used your brains. You found new strategies. You killed most monsters. But I was the one who got all the credit. I tried to give the credit to you but no one ever accepted it. They only saw you as my sidekick. But you weren't. You never were. We both were always a team.'
'So come back! Don't leave the team. I can't be a team on my own.' She had said. That's what tempted him the most. Those three sentences. But he didn't. He didn't come back. He left the team. He left her to be a team on her own. She had walked away from him and that's the last thing he remembers.
He had woken up with his teeth chattering. He was freezing. His clothes were tattered and torn. This reminded him of when Hera put him to sleep for eight months but he had his memories this time. His first instinct was to check if he had Riptide. He didn't. He had the pen but when he uncapped it, it turned into a very familiar sword that was not even close to Riptide, his old sword. This sword was someone else's. It was his. It was Luke Castellan's sword. It was Backbiter. It can kill both mortals and demigods. It was what he used to be afraid of and what he still was afraid of. If he was going to do this, he had to do it properly. With Riptide. And for him to do it with Riptide, he had to find out who put him here and get Riptide back. The last person who had Backbiter was Kronos. Or Luke. But both of them are dead. So who gave this sword to him? Who took away Riptide? Who put Backbiter into this pen? All of these questions lead to the same person. But who?
This memory and these questions kept coming back to him since yesterday. And he had his suspicions. But first, he needed to gain strength to find him. To find the person who gave Backbiter to him. And to find him, Percy needed every bit of his strength.