You know when your thinking about a certain moment in your life and you can recall it perfectly. The smells, the feelings, and all the other senses attached to that memorie are so strong you feel that you could step into that moment and live your life from that point. The day I went to Percy's is one of those moments and I'm not sure what I would do if I could actually step back in time because I didn't want it this way. But the fact is no matter how well I can recall the foul smell of the taxi cab, the fear of seeing Percy on the floor, or the heat from my necklace warming up I can't actually go back to that day. That moment happened and the all the horrible things that followed can't be changed. At least not that easily

I feel like I should explain more. I'm getting to carried away with information that's not really important but hey, they asked me to tell my story so I'm going to tell it the way I want. So let's start at the beginning, well, the beginning of my involvement in this fight for true love.

"Please scan your badge"

The robotic voice from selfcabs creeped me out when I was younger but now it just sounded empty. No, not empty. Lifeless.

"Please scan your badge and exit the Selfcab"

Doing as I was told I scanned my badge, opened the door and quickly got out. I didn't need another incident with the Protecters.

After getting out of the Selfcab I instantly regretted not bringing my sandglasses. Lately the dust storms have been getting stronger and occurring a lot more, especially in the Underworld, which was were I was. I usually avoided it because of how different from Elysium it was. It sounds pretty stuck up but the people who lived in the Underworld were dangerous and knew how to kill me a thousand ways but hey it's where Percy lived and not even the real hell could scare me away from him.

Walking in Percy's building was always unsettling for me. His neighbors didn't hide the fact that they stared and as I walked I could feel the hatred from their glares burn into the back of my head. I didn't blame them though because I was born with a destiny. A destiny to become rich, successful, and powerful just because of my last name. I turned the corner onto Percy's hallway and tried not to make eye contact with the people standing in the hallway. They all were buff and looked battered as if they had just walked out of an illegal fight. I shuddered at the realization that they probably had and walked faster down the hallway. I knew none of them would do anything if Percy was around. His wrath would be a lot scary than anything my family would do to them. Percy was that intimidating.

I reached the door and expected to see him pop out. I followed the protocol of waiting a minuet but the door never opened. That was definitely strange because I never had to knock he was always there at the door waiting for me. Percy had drilled in my head that if this moment were to come to just walk away no matter what. I was going to follow his directions when a crashing sound coming from inside stopped me in my tracks.

"YOU WATCH YOUR MOUTH BOY OR I'LL RIP THAT TONGUE OUT" another crash followed sounding like glass being broken.

I had never heard Gabe speak before but knew instantly knew it was him. Percy had gone great lengths to make sure that whenever I was coming over that his father would not be around but she heard the horrible stories from Percy's mother and him. Another nasty crash echoed throughout the house but this time a cry of pain followed it. Instead of listening to the annoying voice in my head reminding me I had sworn I would walk away, I knocked.

The apartment went quite but the stomping of footsteps broke it.

"WHAT THE..." I suddenly came face to face with the ugliest man I'd ever seen who looked surprised to see me there. Gabe was about 6'2 with an almost bald head but three hairs he did have were combed back. He had a potbelly that his Protectors uniform barely seemed to cover. I didn't understand how this ugly man could be Percy father. They were so different. I watched as confusion replaced the anger on Gabes face

"You?"

"Where's Percy?"

I peered into the apartment behind him trying to catch a glimpse of him but all I could see was a lamp that had been knocked down and broken. Poor Sally, I thought to myself

"Why do you care about the boy? Don't you have some privileged boy that you should be running around with."

He looked at my necklace that was displayed colorless on my chest and snorted "guess not"

"Look if you don't step out of the way I'm going to make you step aside" It was impossible thing but I somehow sounded braver than I felt.

His fat face grew red and his hand went up in the air and I braced myself to get hit but all I did was stare him straight in the eyes. Gabe looked away and scratched his head probably confused on way he didn't hit me.

"I'm not going to let you two brats ruin this day. Tell him to be more respectful our he'll find out whipping is like." He huffed as he walked down the hall. I watched till he was around the corner even though every second felt like an hour. As soon as he was out of my eyesight I ran into the apartment and looked around for Percy. I found him on the floor of the kitchen and the world felt like it was ripped out from under my feet seeing him like that but I pushed the negative thought aside. I needed to be calm just like I was trained to be. As I knelt down next to him I studied him trying to see if there was any visible injuries.

Blood was on slowly dripping down his face but I didn't think it was to bad. I kept looking but was soon distracted by how peaceful he looked. For as long as I known him he was always looking over his shoulder or worrying about something. But now he just looked at peace

"Percy" I said gently while moving his black hair out of his eyes "Percy open your eyes"

No response. My breath started to speed up and my eyes started to fill with water .

"Percy, Please" I shook his shoulder and relief flooded throughout me as his eyes slowly opened

"I must be dead because there's an angel in my kitchen" he groaned

I gave a soft laugh "you had me so worried."

He moved his head away so I couldn't see his eyes. "I'm sorry" his voice was shaky

It broke my heart to see my usually strong and confident friend so defeated. I moved away from him and searched the counter for a clean towel but was unlucky. The usually clean counters were soaked in spilled beer and dirty plates were scattered everywhere. Moving to the common room I took in how different it appeared and finally saw the evidence of Gabe that Sally tried so hard to hide. The frames filled with photos of Percy that had cost his mother a fortune were scattered across the floor along with Percy's childhood drawings that his mother proudly hung on the wall. I picked them up and smiled at the horse with wings Percy had drawn. It wasn't very good and neither was his handwriting that I think said Blackjack. Setting the priceless objects down in a spot I deemed safe I continued looking around the area that usually looked so much like a home. Chairs were knocked over, a table flipped, broken glass and beer cans were scattered on the floor. The more I looked the angry I got. Sally worked so hard to make this a nice place for her son and Gabe had trashed it.

"I'm going to kill him" I said rushing back to Percy

"Over my dead body will you ever met him" he growled

He stood up with my help and gave a wince

"Actually," Percy's green eyes met mine "over your knocked out body"

He held me at arms length and his eyes searched my body for an injury "Annabeth did he hurt you"

I laughed and pushed his arms away "he wouldn't dare Perce. He knows who my mother is"

"You don't know his stupidity or his temper."

He brought a hand up to wipe away the blood dripping down his tan skin. "ouch"

I grabbed his hand and lead him to the bathroom where I knew Sally kept a first aid kit. As I cleaned up the cut I noticed that Percy was watching me. "Something interesting you?"

He jumped and his face grew red from the embarrassment of being caught "Just thinking about how beautiful my best friend is."

I rolled my eyes and chuckled this wasn't new behavior for him. Percy had a habit of giving lines to girls and I was used to hearing them. I'm just practicing on what I'm going to say when my necklace goes off, he would claim with a smirk.

"Mm that's a new one" I retorted

"Not a new thought though"

This time he didn't turn away and kept his piercing green eyes on me. I turned away instead to make sure not to give him the satisfaction of seeing me blush.

"I think you might have a small concussion" I said, deciding it was time to change the subject

"well I've had worse" he stood up and walked out of the bathroom. He stopped in the living room a frown on his face.

"Mom is staying for the next two night shifts at the nursing home so I will give this a good scrub when I know Gabe won't be back for a while to mess it up."

I stood next to him "Okay just let me know and i'll come help"

He gave me a look, laughed, and walked away "I'm not going to have my richest friend come and clean my house" he called over his shoulder.

I followed him protesting and was late to notice that he had stopped suddenly in his tracks. He turned around and I found myself inches from his face looking into his sea green eyes.

"Sorry" he said taking a step back "I just forgot to grab my jacket" he grabbed a jacket off the couch and headed for the door

"Now hold on" I continued "I don't think it's wise for you to be wondering the street after getting hit in the head"

"Well wise girl" he said opening the door "I can't stay here so you better follow me and make sure I don't get ran over by a selfcab"

"We could play a game, or I could read out loud," I offered hoping I could change his mind "you used to love to do that kinda stuff."

He stopped putting on his jacket and I could tell he was conflicting with his inner self. Whenever he was having an inner debate he stood up straighter and had his lips slightly pursed. One of the things I took pride of was how I knew him as well as I knew myself.

"No" he continued with the jacket "we're going cloud watching"

She laughed "cloud watching isn't that childish."

He gave me a pointed look "in two years you'll probably have some government job and I'll probably be a..." He looked at the floor

"A marine biologist" I suggested

He raised an eyebrow "that's not a job choice anymore."

"Well the choosers could make it a job after they see how smart you are about that stuff."

"They don't do that. They don't care about anything related to the ocean. They'll probably make me some garbage man or worse a Protector."

I walked up to him and took his hand and gave it a squeeze "over my dead body"

He looked at me and it wasn't one of those looks that he usually gave. It was a look that I didn't have filed in my Percy folder and I didn't understand. I hated not understanding something especially when Percy was involved.

He looked away but she felt like his eyes were still staring into her soul "anyway," he continued "soon we'll be working and never have time for each other and we will probably never see each other. So when I miss you all I'll have to do is look up at the sky and remember that time we went cloud watching."

I gave him a slight shove " I'll always have time for you."

He smiled at me but it didn't reach his eyes

--

We sat on the Express that would take us to Elysium and my attention was focused on Percy's leg bouncing up and down. I knew why his leg was bouncing of course and understood why he was nervous. The only people that really rode the fast moving transportation were the people who lived in Elysium who are sometimes referred to as Olympians. Percy had begged me not to ride it but with his head injury I convinced him that it was safer to take the fastest way to Elysium.

He hated the Express because even though he wore a similar style of clothing as Olympians, which I knew was rare for someone who lived in the Underworld, his outfits were more worn down and tattered from the sandstorms that happened in the Underworld. He was also tanner compared to most of the others. People from Elysium spent more time in doors avoiding the sandstorms and also received more of the behind the desk jobs. It also didn't help him blend in that he could never stop moving. Olympians are sent to learning centers at young ages and are taught the correct way to act. As everyone else sat up straight and looked forward motionless, he was a little hunched over looking around and of course had a bouncing knee.

I tore my eyes away and noticed the man sitting across from me staring at Percy and I gave the man my death glare. He went back to looking ahead very quickly and I smiled smugly. I looked to Percy who was drumming his fingers against the seat in front of us and watching the old buildings pass. My smug smile changed to a happy one because all those things that made Percy different from the Olympians and I realized I wouldn't change a thing.

He caught me staring and gave me a sheepish grin. "Sorry that's annoying" he flexed his fingers and glared at them "I can never get them to stop moving. Its like they have a mind of their own"

I was tempted to take his hand and lace our fingers together. I shook the feeling off but I couldn't help and wonder if that would solve his problem.

"I don't think it's annoying" I bumped his shoulder with mine " the express is way to quiet for me"

He looked out the window and whispered "You know Mom told me that it used to be more common and acceptable. That there were others like me that had to keep moving and that they could help treat it with medicine"

"That sounds better than how they treat it now" I shook my head in disgust "Elysium leaders try to beat it out of us when we are young."

I didn't even notice I was massaging my hand that had been hit too many times for fidgeting until Percy grabbed it and held it in his hand. "I hate our system" he whispered a little to loudly

I pulled my hand away and looked around "shhhh" I whispered

He rolled his eyes "It's true" he whispered at a safer volume "They control to much. Why is it like this? How did it even get like this?"

I studied the others on the Express "It's not safe to talk here. Later."

He looked around and noticed the man at the front who had been staring before and was once again staring. "Okay"

We sat in silence until it was time for us to exit the Express in Olympus, the heart of Elysium, Percy looked around with the same wonder he did everytime he came. "Wow I will never get use to the difference" he breathed

I looked around and nodded my head. Olympus had all the newest buildings and were nothing like the buildings in the Underworld. There the buildings were basically in ruins but they were so tall I felt like they could almost touch the sky, here in Olympus the buildings were short and grand and made the city feel clean. I loved staring at them and could probably have done it all day.

Reading my mind Percy nudged me with his shoulder. "Come on Nerd" I glared at him and he put his hands up in surrender "Im sorry, don't hurt me"

I rolled my eyes at him but started walking towards the exit " Come on."

As we weaved throughout the crowd we walked in silence till we got to the edge of Elysium. On the edge was a small grass hill that not many people knew or probably didn't care about. I couldn't really remember when I first started coming here with Percy because they had done it so often it all started to blur together.

We laid down and just took it all in for awhile. For an hour we laid there and pointed out clouds to each other and I never wanted it to end. Soon the clouds had all passed we just soaked in the sun not saying a word. I had begun to think Percy had fallen asleep until he broke the silence "We got lucky that the air was nice today. I feel like it has been getting worse"

I had noticed that too but they were never supposed to mention the worsening of the air. It wasn't really a law but it could get you in trouble with the Protectors.

"You have to be more careful Seaweed Brain" I warned "you are saying dangerous words at a dangerous volume."

He turned his head and looked me in the eyes "Can I confess something?"

"I think this is the place to do it"

"I don't understand why we chose to follow all these rules."

I shook my head. He wasn't seeing the big picture. "Percy we live-"

he sat up angrily and cut me off " I don't think you can call this living"

"Per-" he cut me off again

"Seriously Annabeth we follow all these stupid laws that tell us how to live our lives. It even starts before we are born because they tell our parents when it's time to have a child, then the moment we are born our names are assigned to us, then they pick our jobs, our house." he took his clear necklace out from under his shirt and glared at it " We don't even get to the chance to love who we want to love. They have these stupid necklaces pick out our soulmates."

I sat there stunned at his rant because I had never heard the words he said spoken before. I watched as his stare on the necklace went from hatred into sadness.

I finally found words but I don't think they were the words he wanted to hear "The world before this one was a mess Percy. I've heard my mother speak about it in meetings."

"It couldn't be worse than this. We can barely go outside in the Underworld now that the storms are getting worse."

"How do you think we got this way though." I continued "The people before us made all the wrong choices and didn't care about the consequences. We took were they failed and tried to improve Percy. They had too many people so we made a law to decide when couples would have kids. They had people dying from hunger so we made a law deciding jobs so everyone will have money. They had more homeless then you could imagine so we made a law that decided where people lived.

"But why who we love?"

"Mother said love killed more people than any of the other things. She said love is misleading and just causes pain."

"It's not fair Annabeth"

I took his hand that was holding the necklace "Have you been taking the pills?"

Percy pulled his hand away and shook his head " I don't like how I feel when i'm on them"

"What do you mean? How do you feel?"

I watched as he put the necklace back around his neck "I feel as empty as this necklace."

"I know it's hard Percy" his eyes were cast down but i kept my eyes on his face "but please start taking them. You could get seriously hurt and I don't know what I would do if something happened to you. Please, Please, start taking them"

He finally met my eye "Okay wise girl. I will"

We laid back down but it was different now. I couldn't stop thinking about any of what he said but the words that kept repeating was We don't even get to the chance to love who we want to love.

I think we would have continued to lay there if my communicator hadn't gone off.

Percy groaned "Please tell me thats not your mom"

I let out a laugh "Nope just Selena wondering if we wanted to walk around Olympus."

"You mean if you wanted to walk around Olympus."

"Oh come on Seaweed Brain, Selenas nice."

"Yeah but she's always trying to fix my hair"

My communicator went off with another message from Selena. "She said that Beckendorf, Jason, Travis, and Renya will be there also."

"Beckendorf will be there?" percy questioned speciously

"I mean he is her soulmate."

Percy laughed while getting of the grass "They are two very different people. Do you ever think the heart got it wrong"

"The necklace is never wrong" i said while taking his hand to help me up "And they aren't that different."

"True they are both children of rich Olympians." he stopped at my glare "Which isn't a bad thing. I just meant personality wise she cares about clothes and looks while he doesn't."

"Well aren't you just hating on soulmates today."

"I'm not hating, I'm just saying"

"Well I hope Selena tries to fix your hair" I said while rubbing it around then sprinted off towards Olympus

"Hey!" he called out as he cashed me

AN: I don't own any of the characters. The all belong to Rick Riordan.

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