The ceiling was caving in, debris falling, cars crashing violently against the cavern floor. I searched around the floor for Annabeth. What if she was gone? What if she was dead? My heart was racing, my head pounding. "Annabeth!" I scanned the ground again, and my heart leapt as I heard a small voice sob:
"Here!"
Frank flew us down to her in eagle form, and I wrapped her up in my arms.
"What happened to your leg?" I looked down at her damaged leg wrapped up in bubble wrap and I grabbed her tighter. She was alive, she was alive.
"I-" Annabeth started to answer but stopped, something distracting her, her eyes glazing over. Something was wrong.
"Percy," Hazel choked out, pointing at Annabeth's chest. I looked down and there was a circle of blood forming, the deep red discoloring her shirt.
I stopped breathing. Annabeth began to tilt backwards, but I held her up, looking at her back for the source of the blood.
"No no no no. Please Gods no don't let this happen, not to her." There was a piece of shrapnel stuck in her back, metal from a car or something. "Someone get some ambrosia! Why are you just standing there?" Annabeth, my Annabeth, was growing heavier in my arms.
I sat down on the cavern floor, laying her down on my legs, her head in my lap. I stroked her hair, vaguely noticing the tears that were landing on her, not registering they were falling from my own eyes.
The chamber groaned. The Athena Parthenos tilted to one side.
"Athena..." Annabeth barely breathed out the word, blood bubbling up as she spoke.
I let out a sob. "Go back up to the ship! Tie up the Parthenos!"
"What about you guys?" Frank's face was ghostly, he was breathing heavily, trying not to cry. Hazel was standing beside him in hysterics. Piper and Jason were huddled together, and I felt a shockwave of jealously. They were together, they would be together. Why couldn't we have that too? I looked for Nico. He had been down here hadn't he? I noticed him in the distance, pacing by himself, his face streaked with tears. Everything was unfocused, the world a blur and all I could see clearly was Annabeth, my hand on her face, her pale, pale face. My eyes on her gray eyes. With a shaky hand she reached for mine, and I intertwined my fingers with hers.
The floor began to quiver below us. But I could barely feel it, numb to the world around me. Somewhere far away I could hear Leo shouting, the rest of the group working to secure Athena.
I shut my eyes for a moment, feeling the ground shake. I could almost hear Gaia laughing, but I didn't care. She had won. My Annabeth was gone. Her grip had gone slack in my hands and I looked down. The spot of crimson on her shirt had grown silently to a stagnant pool resting on her chest. I looked into her eyes, hoping for some mercy from the Gods, but no such miracle came. The vibrant girl I loved had frozen over, her face stuck perennially calm. My Annabeth would no longer laugh, no longer cry, her eyes would no longer narrow in concentration.
As the cavern floor crumbled below us I held Annabeth tighter, ignoring the yells from above. I closed my eyes, remembering the way her lips moved when she called me Seaweed Brain, memorizing the way her hair peeked out from under her baseball cap. Reliving her lips on mine.
I fell to Tartarus alone, my arms wrapped around Annabeth's lifeless body. But I didn't feel alone. I would be with her soon.