Dear Percy,

I'm not quite sure what to say. I mean, you're dead, you wouldn't be able to hear or see anything that I say or write, and it's all because of me. I couldn't save you. And I'm so sorry. But I'm going to fix things. I'm going to see you again. So I can apologize, in person. Oh Percy, I love you so much I just want to see you again, and with Nico in the wind, this is the only way. But it's okay, my death won't be to some monster, and certainly not to Gaea, it'll be on my terms, to my own hand. Don't you worry about me.

I love you and I'll see you soon,

Annabeth

Annabeth put the pen down, tears flowing from her cloudy gray eyes and dripping off her nose and onto the sheet of paper. It's been nearly a year since the end of the war with Gaea, ended only because of the sacrifice of one boy. Percy. There wasn't even a body to burn on the campfire.

An oath to keep with a final breath.

The words of the prophecy echoed in her head. Percy's promise, to protect her, the little shit. He'd made it years ago, on some quest, one that had been long forgotten, remembered only when it mattered most, faced with a choice that would make or break the war.

So Percy said yes, alone, privately, leaving his own note as an apology for what he did. Annabeth had memorized it:

Dear Annabeth (and the rest of the 7),

I'm so sorry about this, it's stupid, impulsive, (and, I admit, a little selfish), I know, but isn't that what most of my ideas are? I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm afraid this might be goodbye. I'd have told you in person, but you'd have tried to stop me, and I couldn't have that. I'm doing this to save you, Annabeth. You can't die, I won't let you. You have so much ahead of you. College, building that temple at Camp you'd always talked about, fixing things with your family. In Tartarus, Damasen said that they wouldn't be the last sacrifice we'd have to make, and I know what that means. I must die. I'm so sorry, but I must. If it's the only way to save you then that's what I'll do. I mean, it's my fatal flaw for a reason, right?

I'm not sure how to end this, I mean, it is goodbye after all. So goodbye, Annabeth. Make your life long and amazing. Build something that'll last longer than we did.

Annabeth, I love you,

Percy

Every word of it pained Annabeth, but she couldn't forget it. Each syllable was ingrained in her head. That's why she wrote that note, and that's why she raised the gun to her temple.

"I'm so sorry" she whispered.

Across the camp Piper heard a sharp sound, like a car backfiring. Then screams. They seemed to be coming from the cabin circle. She joined the crowd of people rushing toward the commons. Piper's heart dropped when she heard the next shout:

"Annabeth! Oh my gods, Annabeth!" It was one of Annabeth's younger half sisters, Mona, Piper thought her name was, and she had tears in her eyes.

"What? What is it? What's wrong?" Piper pushed her way through the hoards of orange-clad demigods.

"Piper you shouldn't be here, find Jason and go!"

"Tell. Me. What. Is. Happening."

Piper snapped, pushing past the small blonde girl.

"Piper!" Mona warned.

What she saw inside the cabin was one of her worst nightmares: Annabeth, immobile, in a pool of her own blood. Just lying there, blonde hair intermixed with gray brain matter, stuff that once held knowledge so powerful that it defeated Arachne, mother of all spiders, now lay in a bloody mess around her once lively, tan face, gray eyes wide and unseeing. A smoking gun lay in her now cold, dead hand.

Then she saw the note, sitting on the desk next to Annabeth's... body. Glancing over it, Piper gasped.

"Oh Annabeth no..." Piper muttered into her palm.

"What is it?" Jason's voice echoed from the doorway, as if he were a thousand miles away, not ten feet.

After the war, he'd decided to stay at Camp Half-Blood, where he said he felt he truly belonged. Now, he was standing next to Piper, his hand on her shoulder

"It's a suicide note." Piper passed the paper to him, her tear-filled eyes never leaving the now-still chest of Annabeth Chase.

Four days later, there's a funeral in San Francisco, in a small cemetery by her father's house. He had requested that they release her body to him, so he could give her a 'proper burial'.

All of Annabeth's surviving friends were there, Greek and Roman. Even Octavian was there, though Piper suspected Reyna and Frank, the praetors, had something to do with that.

Her tombstone was a steel gray, the color of Annabeth's eyes when she was angry. A tiny owl was engraved over the words:

Annabeth Chase

1994-2012

Daughter, Friend, Hero

"Although her life was short," Annabeth's father droned at a podium in front of her coffin."It was not, in fact, dreary or unfulfilled. She was a hero of epic proportions one that should not to be forgotten. Do not let her life overshadow her death. Do not let her be remembered as a tragic tale with a tragic end, but as a happy song, with a heartfelt ending. Remember her when you pass a beautiful building, or when you see a wise owl in a tree.

"Remember her for who she was, not what she could have been. And she was a hero. One who wanted the unattainable. That was what finally got her, in the end. But that doesn't matter.

"What matters is that she was my daughter, and I am so proud of her. For everything you've done my dear Annabeth. I love you, and I'm proud of you. I always have been, and always will be. And I'm so sorry it had to end this way."

Me too Annabeth, Piper thought, Me too.