I do not own PJATO

The flaw in us all

Items were smashed and sprawled out across the floor of Cabin 3. Percy however was sitting with his back against the north side wall, with his head in his hands.

Slowly he began to rock backwards and forwards thinking about all that he had done, for all that he had lost that everyone had lost. Tears slowly slid down his cheeks as his body curled into the foetal position still rocking backwards and forwards. He needed to be strong on the outside for everyone else, to be the fearless leader who lead the gods to victory in the titan war, who helped reunite the Greeks and the Romans, who had the perfect life, perfect girlfriend, perfect family, perfect everything.

Of course none of this was true.

Annabeth and himself had become rather distant to everyone after their experience in tartarus, although it was obvious they still loved each other all either of them did was stay in the safety of their own cabins. They only properly talked to each other. Nothing was ever really like before.

Maybe the only reason either of them survived was because of the false idea that they could carry on with their normal lives before the wars, carry on with the fun they had, with the people they loved.

What good had Percy done when he made the choice to give Luke the knife to kill himself. Had the gods really changed from their old ways, yes they acknowledged their children... woopdedo, they should feel so proud of themselves, they let their children know who their parent was well done, give yourself a medal.

This wasn't really there fault though, they have lived for over a millennia they'd have learned not to get attached. Maybe when they first made demigods they would have been depressed or even cut themselves off from everyone else, but that is the curse of being immortal everyone you love dies and you live on. Percy was eternally grateful for his choice to stay mortal, to have four months of a normal life before it was ruined again. This time by the queen of olympus herself, he should feel honoured. Well fuck her. Percy hears the crack of thunder, up above in the heavens. He chuckled lightly to himself and stuck the middle finger of his right hand up in the direction of the sky, in the direction of olympus. Essentially he was flipping off the gods, making himself laugh hysterically which resulted in himself breaking down in another set of tears.

Still crying he stood up and stumbled towards his bed. Sitting on the bed he reached down beneath it bring a box up, that he had showed nobody. In it was just a plain old photo album of his life before everything went to fuck. The first few pages were of him and his mum, before he was twelve, before he knew he was the son of poseidon, demigod extraordinaire. Slowly they turned to pictures of him and Grover, then him, Grover and Annabeth, a few containing Thalia or a few odd demigods as well as Chiron. These were his most prized possessions memories, but thats all they were memories. Slowly these photos developed into the aftermath of the titan war, the amazing feeling of winning, the amazing feeling of having a future. Eventually the pages turned blank and the photos ceased. He closed the book and put it back in the box and back under his bed.

Suddenly there was a knock at his door, he looked up surprised but he wiped his eyes, steadied his breathing and walked steadily towards the door of his cabin. He opened the door and looked at the girl that stood in front of him. He recognised her as a as a daughter of Demeter from her eyes, she was also quite shy he observed.

She spoke carefully almost as to not anger him,

"Um... ah... um, Chiron asked me to bring you down to... ah, dinner." she said tentatively.

"I'm perfectly capable of getting myself down to dinner," Percy snapped angrily, everyone was treating him as though he was a piece of china, as though one drop would cause him to break.

"I'm only doing what Chiron asked me to do." she mumbled back.

"Well thats nice now run along, I don't need to be escorted down to dinner. Do I?" He asked threateningly, now glaring at the daughter of Demeter.

"No no, of course not!" she replied quickly, then promptly ran down to the dining area.

Percy moodily strolled down to the dining area, and sat at his table by himself which only helped make his mood worse. He was served his food, which he ate slowly while drinking his blue cherry coke, huh at least some things don't change he thought to himself. A small smile spread on his face, but it was quickly wiped off by the realisation that he had a massive headache.

He stood up from his table and quickly made his way to the bathrooms. He went right into the male section, and started to walk past the line of sinks which all had mirrors above them, he looked into the first mirror...

"Why did you leave me on the boat?" That was Beckebdorf,

"Why did you let him die, he was you were both meant to come back!" That was Silena.

" Why did Luke die, it should have been you. You always get people killed!" That one was Annabeth.

At the last one, he lost it he punched the mirror breaking it. He then went on breaking every mirror, so he didn't have to hear the voices.

He fell into a pool of glass shards and his own blood sobbing hysterically, and once again going into the foetal position. He heard a frantic clop of hooves, and a loud sigh as his mentor Chiron leaned over him. The last thing he heard before blacking out was,

"Oh, my boy, what are we going to do with you?".

... ... ... ... ...

He slowly opened his eyes and found himself in Camp Half-Blood's infirmary. Sighing Percy sat up and locked eyes with the one person who knew what he was going through, the one person he could confide in.

"Annabeth..." He breathed out slowly.

"Percy..." She said obviously relieved to see him awake.

Maybe things could get better, maybe he could carry on with his life, as long as Annabeth was with him. Then again maybe things could get a hell of a lot worse, maybe another war would come and he would have to fight in it, and if he won he would end up depressed again, he would lose more people, lose more memories. If they lost, then it would all be over all his pain, all his suffering but it would be the beginning of millions of other peoples suffering, and despite everything that he had been through, he couldn't bring himself to give up. He had to fight on.