I wrote a long one for you guys this time! Enjoy!


Piper

"Okay, so we will be landing in Athens in approximately the amount of time it takes Frank to realize that we're having a team meeting without him," Leo told them at dinner. "That is to say, tomorrow morning."

Frank then proceeded to walk straight through the doorway. "Hey guys, is it dinnertime?"

Jason raised his eyebrows at Leo. Percy coughed, but it sounded a whole lot like he said the words 'not landing'. Annabeth smirked and Hazel was suppressing laughter. Frank, obviously confused, sat down with them at the table.

Leo cleared his throat. "Okay, we will be arriving in Athens tomorrow morning," he announced, with a glare at Percy.

"What will we do when we get there?" Piper asked. "It's only July 19th."

"Well," Leo replied, "We wait. We kill giants, we avoid dying, we stop Gaea from rising."

"It seems to easy, though." Frank said. "We just wait for some god to come along and kill the giants for us. Gaea can't rise. We're done."

"It most definitely is a trap," Jason told his friends, "so let's just worry about being captured."

That pretty much summed up the meeting.

Percy

Percy had weird dreams that night. He was on a grassy hill and it was dark outside. He could've been anywhere. In front of him there was an altar with images of horrifying death scenes portrayed on stones and jars that were circled around a bare patch of earth. In the slabs of stone surrounding it there were grooves, like something blood could flow through and empty out onto the dirt.

But that wasn't what bothered him.

Standing in various places around the altar, he saw giants. Alcyoneus, Polybotes, Otis and Ephialtes, and some that he had never seen before. There was one that looked about 20 feet tall, had dark, black hair and was wielding a spear. Something told him this one was Enceladus, bane of Athena. Next he saw Porphyrion, born to oppose Zeus. This one had to be over 50 feet tall and also had a spear. What was it with giants and spears? He saw Gration, Mimas, Otus, and Hippolytus, the enemy giants of Artemis, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes. This was all of the Earthborn, except for Damasen and Clytius. Percy wasn't sure how he knew all this, but it was probably something in his dream.

"They are close," announced Polybotes. "I can smell the son of the sea god."

Mimas inhaled with his eyes closed, something that passed for a smile on his face. "Ooh, how delightful. The son of Hephaestus can control fire."

"Ah, this time I get two children!" Alcyoneus exclaimed.

Mimas and Otus were arguing over who would get to fight Frank.

"I hear he's an archer!" Mimas shouted. "And we all know that I am better at dealing with those than you are, Otus."

"Yes, but you have all those hunters of Artemis that you can kill!" Otus complained. "We both know that those are much more fun than mere Apollo demigods." He spat Apollo like it was the worst word he could think of.

Meanwhile, Hippolytus was busy pickpocketing Ephialtes, who enraged Hippolytus by declaring that Hermes was a better thief. Otis was begging Porphyrion to let him kill the son of Zeus.

"I can do it much more spectacularly than you can!" Otis told his brother.

"But we must stick to the agreement. Every giant gets to slay his enemy god's children." Porphyrion reasoned. "If you want revenge that bad, you may have the daughter of the stupid love goddess."

Off to the side, Enceladus had charts and maps spread out before him, no doubt conceiving a very architectural plan to kill Annabeth. The sight of all these giants plotting to kill him and his friends at such ease made Percy somewhat worried. They had no doubts that their plans would fail, despite the fact that half of them had previously been killed by the demigods.

Percy woke with a start. He looked around his room. It was still night, so why was he awake? On the floor of his cabin, there was a note. He picked it up, and it read,

We need to talk, Seaweed Brain.

Annabeth

When Percy came to her door, Annabeth could tell he was worried. Normally, it's a good thing to be worried when your girlfriend tells you that you need to talk. So she reassured Percy,

"I'm not breaking up with you or anything." It was like the weight of the sky had just been lifted off his shoulders. He came and sat down next to her on her bed.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Not much, she replied. "I just… I mean… Well, I need to talk to you about what you did. For me." She saw the realization on his face. Unexpectedly, he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he whispered into her ear. "If anything happened to you…"

Annabeth wanted to hug him back. She wanted to close her eyes and breathe in his salty smell and never let go. Sh wanted to drop the issue and not speak of it ever again. But she couldn't. Because she loved him. So she pushed him away.

He was confused, upset, even hurt. But she stood up, strong and said to him,

"You can't just do that, Seaweed Brain! You can't just throw your life away for me! You could have died!"

He looked back at her, wounded. "But you would have died."

"That's no reason to jump in and save me! Do you think I could live with myself, knowing you had died instead of me? That would kill me!"

Percy stared at her for a whole minute, his eyes full of pain. He stood up too. Finally he responded.

"Do you think I could live with myself, knowing I could have done something to prevent your death, and I didn't do it? Annabeth, do you think I could live a day without dying if you weren't right here next to me?" Percy's voice was rising with every word. "Annabeth, if you died, there would be nothing to keep me living. I'd just curl up in bed and wait for hunger or thirst to catch up with me. Because I love you Annabeth, I love you more than anything."

Annabeth fell back down onto her bed, sitting. She felt small and empty, and all she could say was, "You don't think I love you just as much?"

But Percy wasn't finished. "When I was in New Rome, I kept myself alive just by thinking of you. And I didn't even remember who you were, but I knew that I loved you, and I knew you were coming for me." There were tears streaking down his face now, which made her realize that he wasn't angry. He wasn't upset. It was something else.

"And you know what? If I die before you, if I achieve Elysium, I'm not going to try for rebirth. Because I don't want to be reborn into a world where I can't see Annabeth Chase every day."

Annabeth stood up. Percy's eyes were raw and unguarded, like you could see every last thought in his mind and nothing would stop you. She walked toward him slowly and stood in front of him for a few seconds, and then hugged him fiercely. She felt like a little girl again, and all she wanted was to stay like this for the rest of her life. But instead she looked up at him. Percy hands trembled as he brushed the hair out of her face. She leaned in and kissed him, then wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her head into his chest. They stood like that for a long time.

She wished she had something to say to him. Percy had just confessed all of his love for her, but all Annabeth could do was whisper 'Seaweed Brain' in his ear. Eventually she must've fallen asleep, because she half remembered gentle hands carefully lifting her into the arms they belonged to.

In the morning, Annabeth woke up, cradled in Percy's arms. He sat in a beanbag chair in the corner of her room, and she looked up to see Frank standing over them, muttering something vaguely along the lines of not again…


That last part made me cry. :( Anyways please review!