Kronos/Luke stared indifferently at her and she stiffened. True. It was true then. She didn't want to believe it, never could make herself accept it but...she had too. It was literally staring her in the face. The Luke she knew was gone and lost forever, having left her without a goodbye.
It hurt. Seriously hurt. No one needed to know that the person you loved wanted to kill you with passion. Luke used to be her saviour, the knight in celestial bronze armour who taught her how to survive as who she was. He used to be her protector, the brave boy who defended her with his life when monsters wanted to rip out her young soul. He was her brother, part of her family, part of her life. And now this brother of hers wanted to send her to the underworld and destroy the world she lived in. All she knew and all she loved gone in a blink of an eye. Luke.
In the past, she had looked up to him, trusted him, believed him, loved him...refused to accept that he had turned when he did. She shook her head when fate laid the truth in front of her, closed her eyes when his sword was pointed in front of her friends, turned around when his blue eyes became golden. She had always hoped that the old Luke could still be found and retrieved but now... looking at her dear teacher and instructor lying in a miserable heap, knowing with certainty that many good friends had died by his hand...there was no more hiding the truth from herself. Sure, somewhere behind Kronos' consciousness there was Luke. But the old Luke could never to be found again.
Annabeth Chase did not cry...But there they were, hot tears welled up in her gray eyes. He had betrayed her trust. He wanted to kill her. He was not worthy of her love. She hated him.
She knew how much of a lie that was. The pain of the betrayal was threatening to consume her and that was only possible if she cared. Cared for the one who cared not for her. Cared for the one who wanted to wipe humans and gods off this earth!
They were right then. Everyone who said she couldn't face Luke. She just couldn't bear to kill him. Even if driven by anger at the betrayal, she doubted she could survive the memory of Luke's blood stained on her hands every time it haunted her later. She said she hated him, that he was not worthy of a place in her heart... But he was already there, breaking it into millions of pathetic pieces.
She then felt a squeeze on her shoulders, Percy willing her to be patient.
"I have to fight him." he told her with determination.
"It's my fight too!" she cried. And it was. She had to save the campers. She had to save the world. She had to save herself. The old Luke was gone and what was left of him was only going to break her heart. The problem was, getting rid of him would cause the same thing. The real fight was between the part of her who wanted him dead and the stubborn, hurting side that insisted he be kept alive. The second worry was...with this internal fight, will her heart be torn apart too? She had intelligence, she had friends, she had family...but the most important and essential part was her heart and all Annabeth wanted was for it to be kept whole. All Luke was doing was pulling it mercilessly into two separate halves.
Suddenly, Percy squeezed her shoulders again. Did the incompetent Seaweed Brain understand her inner conflict?
In the midst of chaos and war, this action was somewhat reassuring and Annabeth realized one important aspect of the situation as she fixed her eyes onto Luke with steely determination, hand grasping her dagger tightly.
No matter how many pieces Luke were to tear her heart into, clumsy Percy was there to hold them together and fix it up again.