The manner in which Percy Jackson dies is so typically Percy.
Of course the insufferable son of the sea god would die saving his friends. Of course he would die sacrificing his life for hers.
The war is raging all around her – Greek and Roman united as one, fighting an impossible battle against giants. Bronze and gold weapons alike spearing dracaena, slashing at centaurs, disintegrating the spawn of Tartarus.
The monsters push back.
Body after demigod body falls to the ground. As she fights tooth and nail with an Imperial gold sword (it feels strange in her hands), she catches glimpses of a losing battle.
She sees Nico di Angelo's shadowy form flickering in and out of existence, his pale face more tired than she's ever seen it. Piper's charmspeak echoes in her ears, shrill and twisted with pain, and for once the honeyed words have little effect on Gaia's army. Frank is motionless, sprawled on the floor in human form; she prays that he's only blacked out. Her fellow campers, her family, drop like flies.
Somewhere above them Leo battles the Earth Mother herself atop his faithful bronze dragon. At one point Annabeth thinks she feels the soil ripple underneath her feet, and then there's dirt falling from the sky, heavy clods tumbling down like rain.
She doesn't know if Gaia's been defeated. She isn't sure it matters at the moment; the monster army surely doesn't seem disheartened. All she wants, all she needs, is for her and her friends to get through this intact.
Annabeth cuts down another snake woman and stumbles forward on weak legs. Someone grabs her – someone with very sharp claws and a very strong grip. There's an odd burning sensation of metal in the pit of her stomach, followed by shooting pain, and she crumples to the ground. For one frightening moment she's in a very different place: New York, moments after taking a poison dagger to save an almost-but-not-quite invincible Percy Jackson.
Her vision's getting a little foggy and the agonizing pain seems to have dulled slightly. This is death, she thinks; Well, I've faced worse.
She puts a hand to her stomach and it comes away wet and red, but Annabeth can't feel a thing. Not so painful after all.
There are screams; too many screams, but they're all muffled and all Annabeth really hears is his voice.
Percy. Her boyfriend. A hero. She'd giggle if her lungs were working properly. Gods, he does look very heroic, doesn't he? Annabeth wants to call out to him. Hey, Percy! You're a hero. We're heroes.
He looks for her, his gaze hungry and desperate for a last glimpse of the girl he loves. Then he finds her, and his eyes settle, calm as the sea before a storm. It's a funny sight, she thinks. He stands perfectly still as an inferno burns around him. That handsome face of his is suddenly solemn.
"I love you, Wise Girl," he says, and despite the fact that he's more torn-up skin and gaping flesh than demigod, his voice is loud and certain. There's blood staining his hands and every other square inch of exposed skin, and yet he exudes power. It's all too similar to the look he wore as he tortured a certain goddess of misery with her own venom.
He looks more god than mortal.
The last thing Annabeth hears before blacking out is a terrible, barely human roar, and then all she feels is ice on her skin and salt in her mouth. The current sweeps her away, along with the rest of the seven. It is unrestrained – pure liquid power dragging her down, down, down. She's vaguely aware of Hazel's gurgling, of Jason's broken commands as the tide pushes him under, of Piper's screams.
She realizes much later that she never did say it back.
Author's Note: Second chapter coming soon. I know this isn't the most well-written chapter (and it doesn't make a whole lot of sense) but it'd be greatly appreciated if you could review. Basically what happened is: Percy died using the last of his energy to kill Gaia's army with... ocean... water... Um, don't question it. :)