"Right behind you, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth reassured Percy as she jabbed her sword up and into the monster they were fighting. "Just focus on our fight and trust that I'll be one step behind you."

Percy nodded in her general direction, continuing to use riptide to slash and thrust at the creature. He countered every move the monster threw in his direction, ducking out of the way. The monster advanced on him, nearly knocking Percy from the edge of the steep cliff they were on. He struggled to keep the beast occupied, the struggle growing more intense. After a few long minutes, Annabeth had come up with a plan and the two trickled the venomous beast over the ledge.

Percy sat down on the ground, rubbing a hand over his face, drawing sweat and dirt away from his eyes. After a moment of catching his breath he looked up and over to Annabeth who was drying her face with the edge of her shirt, one hand resting over her side,.

"Not too shabby, Wise Girl."

"I guess you weren't too bad yourself," she smiled, making a move to stand, but wincing, sucking in a deep breath, her skin slowly growing paler, her vision shifting from blurred to normal and back.

"Annabeth," Percy said, standing up, darting to her side.

"No I- I'm," she started, though the world was slowly buzzing around her.

"Where is it? Annabeth look at me, look at my eyes. I need you to tell me where it hit you," Percy held her face.

Slowly she moved her hand from where she was clutching her side. There was a gash through her shirt, blood slowly seeping from it. He lifted the side of the orange material, looking at the cut. Elegant spirals of black swirled and spread, moving out from the sides of the gash.

"You didn't say it hit you," Percy scolded, carrying her to Blackjack, hoping that if he made it back to camp soon enough, someone from the Apollo cabin could help her. "Hurry to camp, Blackjack, as fast as you can go."

'Sure thing, Boss,' the horse responded to him, ascending into the sky. They traveled through the tragic twilight, breezing by the pink clouds and towards the border of their camp. Percy held Annabeth against him, keeping one hand steady on blackjack to keep them balanced. He placed soft kisses to her curls and

When they landed, campers flocked over happily, ready to hear a story of their success. Percy and Annabeth always came back victorious from their fights or quests, had they lost they would have been dead. Life as a demigod was either win your battles or loose your life. They had been fighting side by side since they were twelve and they had grown to know each other tactics and strategies.

"Everyone move," Percy commanded, carrying a limp Annabeth in his arms. "Get help!" He knelt, laying her against his lap. "Stay awake, Wise Girl."

She struggled to keep her gray eyes focused on him, the world around her moving so fast and everything feeling foggy. She could feel one foot in the grave, her soul slowly departing, but Percy kept pulling her back, the devotion and love in his eyes, the pain she could see across his features as she fought to keep her eyes open, to keep her soul in her, unwilling to give into death's strong clutch. Percy willed her to fight through it.

"P-percy, I-I love you," she said. If she lost herself to death, she wanted him to remember how much he meant to her. "D-don't get h-hung up on this. K-k-keep going, S-seaweed Br-rain and be w-wise." She used all the strength she had to sit up and press a gentle kiss to his lips before relaxing against her.

"Don't you dare give up on me, Chase. This isn't how your going out, you've fought so many monsters, you've held up the world, poison isn't going to be what gets you." He held her face, making her lock eyes with him as a member of the Apollo cabin came over to treat the poison.

Annabeth let out a small whimper, biting her lip as he started to treat her wound, but the poison had already spread too far and Annabeth placed a soft hand on Percy's face. "M-move on. I-I love you, Seaw-weed Brain," she rasped out, kissing him delicately on the lips before letting out a shaking breath and falling into the hands of Hades.

Percy trembled as he held her close to him,"not you, Wise Girl. Please, not you." He buried his face in her hair, shaking his head in disbelief. Just an hour ago they had been fighting monsters, Annabeth right behind him, the two following each other, working together, but now she was gone. The soft lips which he had been kissed by so many times were cold and vacant. Her stormy blue eyes which held her emotions with fierce intensity were just dull. He didn't know how long he stayed there, clutching his Annabeth close to him.

After some time,Chiron placed a hand on his shaking shoulder, "Percy, come now. Let go." Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth and Chiron sighed, "Annabeth wouldn't want this, Percy. She would be happy with you like this. We need to bur-" a sob from Percy cut Chiron off. Holding up the world felt easy compared to this. Everything burned, every fiber in his being stung and it felt as if his bones were turning to dust inside his body.

Slowly Rachel and Tyson came to him, kneeling beside him and wrapping their arms around him, holding him as he sobbed into Annabeth. It took them over an hour to coax him into letting her body go, all the while trying to keep themselves calm and collected, though Tyson could barley contain his blubbering.

With the help of Clarisse, who was much more able to lift Percy, heavy with muscle, they took Percy to lay down, but not in his own cabin, but in the Athena cabin. They helped him into Annabeth's bunk, moving her building notes aside so he could lay, but still preserving them for her siblings or Percy should he like to look over them and decipher her thoughts.

Percy buried his face in the smell of her pillow, eyes focusing on blonde strands of hair which where left there. Under her pillow was a picture of her and Percy. They were smiling, Percy holding her close to him. He just sighed, tears rolling down his blank face. No one in the cabin questioned why he was there and no one else spoke against it. Even if him staying out of his own cabin was against the rules and could possibly anger Athena, they all knew that he needed to feel her in anyway possible.

The next day, Percy was expected to speak at the burning of her shroud, but he couldn't find the words. How could he be expected to put Annabeth into words when she was so beyond that? In his mind, Annabeth could only be so described, but it would never do her justice. How could they expect him to talk about her, when she was so different and when he couldn't talk at all? The ceremony was beautiful. The kids from the Apollo cabin played music and when the shroud was burned, Percy couldn't watch.

The days that followed were a blur for Percy. He didn't remember much of them, just that they were horrible and painful, the world moved around him like white noise which he could pay little heed to. He felt this tug in him, Annabeth couldn't be gone could she?

A few days later Percy went home. He couldn't bring himself to accept that she was gone and move on, so he went back to his home in New York. He spent countless hours going over myths and studying Hades and the underworld before he knew what he had to do, he had to copy Orpheus, but with no musical talent, he prayed to his father and Annabeth's mother that his words would suffice in appealing to Hades and Persephone.