I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

.Post Blue.

She thinks, for a suspended moment, that she hates every last one of them.

Even as this flicker of thought crosses her mind, the salty tears crawl farther up her iris to successfully gag her pupils entirely in tears. It's their fault, every last one of them -- even her mother, Athena -- for voting to murder him. Slaughter him in cold blood because he wasn't allowed to live past sixteen…no, of course not, they just couldn't stomach him having a life, could they?

Let me go, let me help him, let me… she is screaming in her head, long and unbroken, as Grover's hand trembles over her mouth. He is gripping her wrist with tight fingers, the traitorous, wise satyr who had always been more careful then her. She thrashes against him, absolutely unable to watch the sight of someone who had grown to be her best friend, someone she relied on, drown. In his own domain, his own kingdom...

Athena's voice penetrates the chaos of her thoughts, her soothing words sharp and logical. Her gray-eyed daughter mentally recoils, shying away from the vaguely familiar voice. She won't stand for this. She won't let him be murdered, right before her eyes. It was the epitome of torture and she will not stand for it.

When she wrenches out of Grover's grip and flies across the sand, it takes a moment for the present company to notice. Her friend, the loyal satyr, watches horrorstruck; his reflexes are far too slow to catch her now. Her mother, distant eyes and disapproving frown, the crease between her eyebrows deepening as she stood back and watched her daughter bolt away. The god of the sea -- who most likely didn't even realize she was there in the first place, so caught up in his pain, let alone careening toward his son. Her teacher, the courageous centaur, hanging back with a pained expression….not one of them stopped her. Not one of them stepped forward and grabbed her hand, her arm, her wrist, and held her firmly in place.

That's why she jumped.

No one could save her like he could.