Air.
She gasped, taking in the sweet fresh air. She had been without it and only just realized that she had been suffocating. Her heart beat rapidly, recovering with the onrush of oxygen. The feeling returned to numb limbs, blood rushed through the cold veins.
I open my eyes, I try to see, but I'm blinded by the white light.
Groggily she attempted to it up, her hands reaching up to support her head. Her temples throbbed as her head rose from the ground. It might have been from the light, it was so bright. She squeezed her eyes shut and gasped, pressing her head into her hands.
Her hands felt heavy, leaden compared to any other day. Her muscles burned to hold her arms up, for her hands to support her head, which was light. It must be the lack of oxygen, she decided taking another deep cleansing breath of the cool fresh air, a few minutes and she would be fine.
I can't remember how, I can't remember why, I'm lying here.
Where was she? How had she come to be here, in this place? All she could remember was a fire. The blaze dancing before her eyes while the ravenous flame crawled toward her. The tongues of fire licking at her flesh as the smoke filled her lungs. She gasped, coughing as her throat constricted with the memory tearing into her senses.
She doubled over, trying to expel the phantom smoke. Her headache roared as she hacked. She tried to stop, but the smoke still burning in her throat, he lungs fought for the fresh air she had just tasted.
I can't stand the pain. And I can't make it go away.
She felt tears welling in her eyes. Her body jerked, seizing she fell back, her head slamming on the ground with a resounding crack, and still she choked on the acrid phantom smoke. She could not clear her throat, she could not inhale, her body started failing cut off from clean breathable air. Her hands ripped at her throat as she tried to breathe, to remove the smoke.
The smoke intensified the longer she fought to breath. Was she dying? Was this the fires of the Underworld coming to take her? Were the Fates circling in on her, coming to claim her soul? She rolled, curling in on herself, still coughing and tearing at her throat.
Had she been sent to the Plains of Punishment? Had she passed through the Judgment Pavilion? Had she even died?
I can't change the things that I've done.
"If you relax you can breathe," a voice pulled her from the fire. Gasping she looked up at the man, panic washing over her again. This man, she could remember this man. And she knew not to trust this man. The Lord of the Underworld had conned her too many times to earn another chance.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to pull anything," Hades held his hands up before him, a submissive gesture. "It's just that hard to talk when your conversation partner is choking on a memory."
A memory? The fire had been real? She had burned. This was the Underworld.
"Why do you care?" She managed to gasp, struggling to sit up again. The headache intensified, causing her to double over to hold her head.
"Do you think I want her to win?" Hades asked simply, waiting as she struggled with her shaking body.
"Who?" she choked, squeezing her eyes shut to block out the light.
"You're the one who fought the war," his brow rose as he looked down at her.
How could this happen to me, got nowhere to run.
"I died," she gasped, the fire burning through her again. "Fighting the war, the final battle," it was more statement than question. If she was before Hades, she had died. But this was not the Underworld. Where was she? "What about the others? Percy? Jason?" her throat constricted as Hades shook his head. "No one survived?"
I'm sick of this life, I just want to scream.
"The others have gone on ahead," Hades offered quietly.
"To Elysium?" she looked up at the god, if they had gone to Elysium she could find them again. She could find Percy and they could be together forever; or until Gaia overthrew the Olympians. She had earned Elysium. Surely all of the heroes who had sailed to Greece had earned Elysium.
But Hades shook his head. "They chose reincarnation." She nodded as if some small part of her knew that was the choice they would all have made. She had been expecting the news that they had chose to try again, to continue the fight. "They want another chance to beat Gaia."
How could this happen to me?
Annabeth came to her feet, squaring her shoulders as she stood before the Lord of the Underworld. She wiped the pooling tears from her eyes with the soot stained back of her hand, the other clenched tightly at her side.
Hades smiled grimly at her, motioning to a door that appeared at his side, "I can't promise much."
"Will I remember? My life? Our mission? The others?"
Hades smile grew, "there are some things not even gods can do."
Annabeth took a deep breath and looked down at her side, her knife was still belted at her side, or it had been returned during this talk with Hades. Was Hades saying he was allowing her to keep the memories, or that he had no control over this? That statement was an enigma, but one she did not have time to contemplate.
I wanna start this over again.
"I also choose reincarnation," she looked up at Hades with her stormy eyes. "I want the chance to defeat Gaia and the Giants. I think I might have found a way."
"Oh?" Hades questioned, his brows rising as he looked down at the young demigod, already her wounds were healing, the soot floating from her skin. New life was flowing through her.
Annabeth nodded. "If you see Percy again, tell him I'll be waiting."
Hades smiled again, "Of course."
I can't explain what happened. I can't erase the things that I've done.
"Right this way," Hades motioned to the door, his head bowing slightly. "And when you find them, make sure to stop Gaia."
Annabeth nodded, smiling as she passed Hades and walked through the door.

Air.
She took in a deep breath of the cool night air. Slowly her eyes opened to a sky filled with stars. She recognized them, they were the stars that had shined over her before. "Bob says hello."
Sometimes goodbye is a second chance.