Annabeth's PoV:
The celebrations were in full swing outside in the sunlight, everyone was enjoying the festivities being as loud as possible. Everyone except me, the girl who hid in the shadows of her mother's cabin, tears falling down her cheeks as she tried to pretend that she was still in one piece, but I was not going to ruin their fun. Not now, after the week we had just had, everyone needed this. Again, everyone except me. I just wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out, but then, what do the others care? We had won the war, the giants were dead and Gaea had returned to her slumber, so why did I still feel like I was under attack? The answer to that is as simple as it is short. There is only one word to explain my current state, and that is thus:
Percy.
If you had told me 3 days ago that the one person who I would have entrusted the world to was going to betray me, I would have escorted you to Mr D personally, but then this is always the case. Why do I always put my faith in the people who are only going to hurt me in the end? I did not enjoy this pain, when Luke died, it felt as though a small part of my heart did too, but now I can no longer feel that organ. No, now I no longer have need of such a thing. Percy had been my one true love, my soul mate, my everything, but to him I had just been a toy, just another worthless pawn in the game he was playing, only to be tossed aside when I was of no more use to him.
No matter how tight I curled myself up, the pain refused to fade, only growing with every passing second so that it was as intense as a spear piercing through your flesh, slowly and deliberately, getting closer to my your heart with every passing second, but never actually killing you no matter how much you longed to escape through death. I was a prisoner here to my own body, continuously feeling the pain of the ragged hole where my heart should be, but it was not there anymore, he took it. He didn't let go even as he stepped out of my life and back into the shadows from whence he came.
Its not just the betrayal though, no, I could deal with that, it's the fact that he didn't even have the decency to say good bye. Instead, he left me with no excuses or even an explanation. That was what was causing me all this pain. Not that he had used me, but the fact that he hadn't even had the decency to tell me that to my face. Instead, he left and now I was left here, broken and in tears, the way I never thought I would be again. But I guess that only goes to show how wrong a person can be doesn't it.
I hear a soft knock on the door and Thalia calls to see if I'm okay, but I don't respond. I know it is cruel, I am not the only on grieving the loss of what we have only now found to be a once sided friendship, but I just cannot bear any more words of comfort of looks of pity, I had had too many of them as of late. Still, I felt mean, this wasn't right, its something he would have done, acting in a way that he knew would hurt other people and not really caring, but I still couldn't make myself answer the distraught girl at my door. I only found out yesterday that she had loved him but it looked as though we had all been played. Slumping on my bed, my swollen eyes closed without me wanting them to, and the very scene I had been mourning returned to torture me, even in my dreams.
The battle of Olympus had been raging for 3 days now and no matter how hard we tried, we kept getting pushed back. Our forces were now half way up the mountain and almost everyone was either wounded or so far past the point of exhaustion that they could barely keep their swords straight. Beside me, I saw Piper tumble, struck down by an earth borne, but before I could do anything to help her, the monster dissolved around the point of a glowing bronze blade.
Percy.
My eyes lit up when I saw his smirking face, finding my lips pull up into a smile of their own accord. Percy was here and he was fighting by my side, everything was how it should be, well apart from the army of demons who were desperately trying to tear us limb from limb, but then, they could wait. Lowering my dagger, I pulled my seaweed brain closer and we shared a kiss that spoke volumes of our love and faith in each other. In the middle of the battle field, I had found my moment of bliss, unfortunately, it seems to be a universal law that all good things must come to an end and, too soon, he pulled away.
For a moment I was shocked, but then my surroundings finally came back to me and my instincts kicked in, my body dodging to the side just I time to avoid the Drakon's fire that had blistered through the place where my body had been mere moments before. After that, I returned my attention to the fight , cursing myself for my slip and vowing to have a word with Percy about his timing later. I lost myself in the sheer number of the enemy's assault for a long time after that, until I herd the shouting.
"Annabeth, we need you now!"
The words registered in my mind even as my arm continued to swing, reaping death in its wake with every movement of my dagger, nodding tersely, I signalled for Nico to continue, not wanting to let myself get distracted again. No matter how much we fought, more monsters were there to take the place of their fallen companions, the stream of opponents seemed endless, and if I stopped for even a second, I would be over whelmed.
"Annabeth, its Percy, he's injured!"
It took some time for the words to cut through the haze of adrenaline that clouded my mind but when they did, my blood ran cold. Body moving on auto pilot, I began to scan the sea of faces around me looking for the familiar black hair and sea green eyes of the man I loved even as I barked out my desperate question.
"Where?"
"by the cave we were going to use to trap Gaea, I think he intends on luring her out there and duelling her to get this thing to end. You have to stop him or he'll be killed!"
I didn't think, I didn't plan my next move or even stop to view the obvious trap that had been lain out in front of me. Blinded by the curse of love, I just acted. Springing away and sprinting through the crowd of combatants, a surge of worry washing away all feelings of exhaustion that had previously held dominion over my limbs as I approached the opening in the rock that our entire plan had centred around. But when I reached it, I did not find what I had expected, instead I heard voices. Shocked, I stopped in time to hear a woman's tones flow out of the entrance.
"… life will be saved and you would not have to worry about the out come of this petty fighting anymore. You would finally be free from the power of your little gods."
I pressed myself up against the cold stone of the mountain, trying to quieten the rasping breaths that were filling my lungs as silence filled the air. Finally, another voice answered, a voice that I knew all to well and his answer shocked me to the core.
"Then I will accept. There is no point in losing lives for such a cause. I will join you… if you will take me."
I felt my knees give out and I fell heavily to the floor, trying desperately to comprehend what I had just heard. There was no way that Percy could betray us, surely that went against his fatal flaw? But even fro this distance I could feel the power in the woman's voice as she replied to his declaration. I only knew of one goddess who possessed such strength, and she was the one we had come to confront.
"You will be branded as a traitor, there will be no way back to your past life."
As she said this, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise. She spoke in an amused tone, as if she knew that I was here and could hear every word. I couldn't shake the feeling that she wanted me to hear this.
"I fail to see how that matters. Is something the matter my lady?"
"Oh, no, it is nothing. Now, arise as my champion Percy Jackson, son of the sea, it is about time that we put an end to this pathetic fighting once and for all."
"As you wish my lady."
And that was when the world went black.
I woke up screaming, tears pouring down my cheeks as I relived the last thing I remembered before waking up in the camp infirmary to the sight of my mother and Thalia leaning over me. Even now, once all of the gods had confirmed my suspicions of his disappearance, after we had some how managed to return victorious from the battle, it didn't seem real. Percy could not have betrayed us… could he?
So many of the campers had joined us in Greece, so few had returned. The cabins all hung black cloth from the windows and we burned so many shrouds that the sky seemed to be died black. So many of our friends would not be returning:
Katie, Frank, Leo, Piper, Drew, Pheobe… the list went on for more than I wished to count, the final name however, refusing to be ignored:
Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, the love of my life and the traitor of Olympus.
