"Survivor's guilt, they might say. But they didn't know that this was but a small piece of the mosaic." No matter how strong someone is, there's always a limit to how much they can take; how much they can bear before they crumble under the pressure. Annabeth and Percy have both been close to reaching theirs for a long time. "Percy," she repeated. "Please give me the knife."

...And the One Time They Saved Him. 5: "Don't be an idiot, Percy," she said but her voice was trembling. "You've gone through all that, defied every single prophecy that said you'd die like the irritating little upstart you are, to just give up now?" He pointed it away from his head casually, grinning. "Don't be an idiot, Thalia," he mimicked. "I wasn't going to pull the trigger."