"Know that love is truly timeless."
-Mary M. Ricksen
"Hey, Wise-Girl," Percy called from behind me. I turned to see his goofy smile. "Don't leave the son of Poseidon when you're going to the beach! It's basically an insult!"
I gave a slight snort. "Yeah. Totally."
He intertwined his fingers through mine as both of us headed towards the beach. As usual, the camp had no sign of rain, with the sun shining down on us. Some Aphrodite and Hermes kids were playing volleyball, making me smile while Connor and Travis gave each other high-tens enthusiastically. The lava climbing wall were being climbed on from what I could only assume was a newbie, because as soon as he started to climb he fell straight down, having severe burns all over his body as some Apollo campers took him away.
The typical day at Camp Half-Blood.
"So you okay?" I asked, looking at those amazing green eyes. They really were something, almost as precious as pearls.
"Sure, but I almost got my head shot by some arrows in archery today. Gods, I fail."
"Yeah, but Percy..." he rolled his eyes as he knew what I was going to say next. "Yolo!"
"Annabeth, 'Yolo Week' has been over more than over a month. Why are you still saying that?" he asked tiredly.
"Yolo."
"Sometimes, I wonder why you think you're the clever one," Percy sighed jokingly, nudging me slightly with his arm as we sneaked past Peleus.
"What, just because I do the best remarks, Seaweed Brain?" I teased, laughing. As we passed Thalia's Pine, I couldn't help remembering the first time I saw Percy with Grover, lying limply on the porch on the Big House and holding the Minotaur's horn.
And when he drooled in his sleep, of course.
Percy seemed to remember as well, as he shuddered but smiled, too. Probably because the memory of seeing his mother get vaporized still haunted him from time to time, and when I told him that he drooled in his sleep presumably made him smile. Being truthful is a good trait, so I just decided to give it to him to the start, thinking that we'd be comrades for a while and that he needed to trust me in order to come along to his quest... but all that seemed so long ago.
I just thought about how that got me to where I was now. He now trusted me with his life, and we both knew instantly that whatever we said was honest and meaningful.
We reached the beach, the waves softly coming back and forth. I wondered how Poseidon could control so much, with the world being 70 percent sea and all. Both of us stayed quiet for a minute, taking in the sound of the sea coming to the shore and smelling the wonderful scent.
I just really loved moments like this, when both of us wanted the same thing and didn't say a word. It gave me time to take all what happened in and look at Percy closing his eyes and smiling, feeling the waves. He looked so cute like that, so each time, like now, I pecked him on the lips and he opened those eyes and beamed down at me.
"Love you," I said.
"Love you too," he replied, making my smile coming up to my ears. Three years ago I never would've thought it would end up like this. I thought he fell for Rachel, the action-packed, naive, mortal, dumb –
Oh yeah. Sometimes I forget that she's actually my friend now.
We sat down, and I let the sand slip through my fingers. Ever since I first came to this beach with Percy alone, I've always sub-consciously done that. But, like always, I still didn't let go of Percy's hand, afraid that I'd lose him like I nearly did in Mt. Saint Helens.
"Are you okay?" Percy asked. I nodded in reply, but he still didn't seem satisfied. "It's your thinking face. What's up?"
"Percy, I always think about stuff."
"But usually you're not this... inward. Tell me."
"I'm not being inward."
"Yes you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, you are."
"Percy –"
"Argh, just tell me, okay? What harm is there in telling me?" he asked frustratingly.
"It's just something you won't understand," I said truthfully, thinking of Rachel and her heart-consuming ways.
"Annabeth, I gave up immortality for you. What won't I understand?"
This caught me off guard, making me speechless. He never told me in such a serious tone, making me feel like he actually would understand. Why wouldn't he understand? Not like he never had heartbreak or anything. His heart must've been torn to pieces as soon as he saw all the killed kids in the war last year. I know that mine did, especially when Selena died.
Or, at least, when he left Calypso. It must've really ripped it into two when he decided to leave. I mean, leaving such a beautiful girl on her own on her wonderful and peaceful island with her invisible servants was such a total devastation.
Shut up, Annabeth, I thought to myself. You're being selfish.
"I was just thinking..." I paused, thinking about what I was going to say. "It's just... three years ago, I never would've thought you'd give up being your father's general of his army and immortality for me. Percy, have you ever loved someone who never thought of you in that way?"
"Sure. Saw Angelina Jolie in one film, fancied her for two weeks straight."
I rolled my eyes. "No. Not a celebrity – someone who saw you as a friend and nothing more, even when you loved that person."
"Um, no –" he started, then realising what I meant and suddenly giving me a tight hug. "It's okay."
Tears came to my eyes. "I thought you loved Rachel."
"Well, I was wrong, you are right."
I raised my eyebrows. "How can that make sense?"
"I thought I loved Rachel, but in actual fact I have always sort of loved you," he said as we broke our embrace.
"Since when?" Looking back, I really was starting to get obnoxious.
"I don't know," he said.
"Then how can you say you always loved me?"
He bit his bottom lip, thinking, and then replied painfully, "I guess when you were captured by Atlas."
In all honesty, I may have guessed that was why Percy was so keen in rescuing me, but I always thought of it as a hopeless romantic side of me only desperate for possibilities. Now my romantic side was just slapping the realistic side, saying, I told you so!
I didn't say anything, worried he would've thought less of me if I pumped my fist in the air and shouted, 'KNEW IT!'
"When did you start loving me?" he asked.
It was now a conversation of real juicy lovey-dovey stuff the Aphrodite kids really watched out for. Luckily, there was no one else in earshot.
"Just when we came back from the sea of monsters," I replied quietly, staring at my feet. I somehow knew what Percy's reaction was going to be, which was raising his eyebrows with his eyes slightly widening.
"Really?" he said, astonished. "You waited that long?"
"Yep."
"What about Luke? You always had some kind of crush on him, right?"
I flinched when he said his name. "Luke was like a brother to me. Are you saying I have crushes on my brothers?"
He sighed for the thousandth time and stared at the horizon. "There it is again. You're being defensive."
I started to stare at the horizon too, as the sun started to set. It was beautiful, the sky being pink, yellow, red and blue all mixed together. I liked how we would always come and sit there every free evening we had until the night came, but sometimes we would've laid down and stargaze until we became cold.
"We should go back," Percy mumbled, getting off from his sandy seat and holding out his hand.
I took it and he hauled me up. "Yeah, the harpies might catch us."
We walked back to towards camp. Just from down the road, we could hear everyone singing from the campfire. I smiled, wanting to sing along, but the feeling vanished as soon as I saw who was there, standing in front of us.
A man with worn out jeans, stark white hair and braided beard, a cowboy hat and a denim jacket with the sleeves ripped off, stood in front of us. He looked so out of date, as if he was from the 60s and desperately wanted to become 'rocking', with his 'Don't mess with Texas' t-shirt.
No doubt I'd seen that before. Eurytion. But why would he wear the same clothes he wore when we visited in the Labyrinth, and how could he come out of the ranch anyway? He had to eternally work for Geryon.
"Ah, Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase, the heroes of Olympus, the ones who 'killed' me," he said in a cold voice, making me shiver.
What did he mean? He knew we killed thousands of monsters, what does it matter to him? Then the words repeat in my head. Heroes of Olympus...
I gasped. "Kronus."
Impossible! Luke vaporized him and his essence into ashes. He couldn't regenerate for at least thousands of years. He couldn't even sum up an army anymore, he was hopeless. How could he even get to Euryton? This wasn't methodically established. It couldn't be happening.
"We didn't kill you," Percy said distastefully, pulling my hand behind his back, me now behind him. I wriggled my hand out of his now death grasp and got out my knife from the belt wrapped around my leg.
Luke's knife.
"Yes, I know, my most trusted general in my army killed me, very humiliating, la la la. But it was your words that made my army fall, and now both of you must pay." He was staring at me with his chilling golden eyes, making me even more enraged.
"You killed yourself, not us," I said. "You knew Luke had a strong heart. Why did you hire him in the first place?"
"The same reason that lead my 'downfall'. Those with strong hearts prove themselves worthy in war, as demonstrated to Mr Jackson himself. They have hope even in the most saddest and worst of situations, making them incredibly useful. If Perseus had signed up to my army, I might've won."
"How did you come back and how did you get Euryton?" I finally asked.
"Do you think all the army was that dumb? Some didn't even come to the battle. They stayed back in case we were defeated, in which we were, therefore used their indicative as soon as they found out we lost. They immediately took action and thus gave my dear Euryton to me."
It took a while to sink in. So the army wasn't 100% defeated? The war hasn't technically finished? Some still hated their parents? Euryton hated Ares?
Oh gods.
They wanted to secretly get a new fresh, skilled army to start yet another devastating war. And Euryton was his new Luke. This all made sense to me now, when it only took Percy a few seconds. I didn't get why I was suddenly getting all slow on things, but I found the excuse of Luke.
Luke. My hand gripped the knife tightly. I was determined to defeat Kronus for Luke. He would've wanted me to anyway, always telling me to aim for the skies and never to hesitate on anything because life was too short. And anyways, if I did hesitate on a crisis some people could've got hurt.
In this case, a lot of people could get hurt.
"You're only going to lose again, Kronus," I said, feeling my arm tremble.
"Are you sure about that?" he said, almost teasingly. "What if, by chance, I travel back in time and kill your most precious warrior when he couldn't even fight back? You know, just in case I was the Titan of Time and the one of the most powerful Titans of all..."
"Why did you tell us your plan?" Percy asked, not a trace of fear in his voice.
"Because, my little 'hero'," he said, smiling darkly, "your friends can't do anything about it."
It took me a couple of seconds to process it. So Kronus is going to travel back in time to kill Percy? No. This sounded even more impossible than when we found out he came back to life. It couldn't be my Percy. I didn't let anything happen to him, why did Kronus suddenly possess his lifeline now?
And with that he disappeared. Percy locked eyes with me, and those green pearls looked worried.
Percy Jackson never feared anything.
"Percy!" I shouted as he collapsed, and fortunately I caught him before he hit the hard tarmac ground. He was breathing hard and his tanned skin growing ridiculously pale, frightening me. I gripped his hand and he gripped it hard, his face pained.
"Chiron! Apollo campers! Quickly!" I screamed. I doubted anyone would hear me, with the singing and all, but I kept on screaming. Percy's grip was beginning to loosen by the second.
"Annabeth, it's okay," he assured me, his voice full of pain and croaking. "They can't patch me up anymore."
"They can," I said, mostly for my benefit. "It'll probably be fine. It's just like... like when he stabbed me, it was nearly fatal, right? But they made me better. It'll be alright, Percy."
"It won't."
"It will!" My eyes were now getting blurry, and I didn't even bother to hold it in. A dam of tears streamed down my cheeks.
"No, Annabeth, it won't," he said, he too now crying. "Why are you arguing?"
"Sometimes you have to fight in what you believe in."
He smiled. "But what if both beliefs are right, Annabeth? Then who's wrong?"
His eyelids began to droop and his grip wasn't even a grip anymore. He was shaking so much it was if there was an earthquake.
"Don't you dare close those eyes, Percy," I cried, stroking his soft cheeks. "Don't you even think of it! Just think about the camp, and the Stolls; who's going to tell them to stop pranking on people? And Chiron, he's going to be heartbroken to let you go, Grover won't have his best friend to cheer him on his Lord of the Wild duties, and who's going to be slipping the ring on my finger? You will."
"You'll find someone, Wise-Girl."
I closed my eyes, trying to blink back my tears but it was hopeless. "Why does every moment have to be so hard?"
"I love you," he croaked.
"I love you too, Seaweed Brain," I whispered. Some campers came to see what were happening, most of them being Apollo kids. As soon as they saw Percy's state the rushed in to try and help, but even I knew it was too late.
Chiron seemed to know as well, as he turned away. Nico pushed away the campers that were gathering around us, and looked at horror to see his cousin dying. He held his breath and covered his eyes.
Then Percy's hand slipped away from mine and his chest stopped breathing.
"He's gone."
Sorry if this is too depressing, I'll try to do more, um, funny chapters as the story goes on! :)
