A/N

I just finished reading the Heroes of Olympus and was let down in a multitude of ways, so have a fic with an alternate ending to The Last Olympian.

~Price to Pay~

"My knife- Percy, please..."

Annabeth is on the ground laying on her side, having just tossed her dagger to Percy where it rolled to a stop at his feet. The son of Poseidon stands between her and Luke, the former's sword knocked away and laying at the feet of his father's throne. The scythe of Kronos is embedded by its blade in the hearth, where Lady Hestia watches as Percy picks the knife up and advances on Luke.

"Jackson, I won't-"

"Let it happen again..." Luke cuts off Kronos, his eyes flickering between blue and gold. Slowly, he undoes the clasps on his armor and lets it fall to the floor. "Promise me... that the Gods won't ignore their children... Ethan, me, everyone in Cabin Eleven... Don't let it-"

"END LIKE THIS! I WON'T-"

"Finish it! Here!" Luke places his fingertips at a point on his side, a small spot that would hard to hit on purpose, especially if Luke had carried a shield instead of wielding a two handed weapon. "I can't hold him! Hurry!"

Percy places one hand on Luke's shoulder, and Annabeth can see his skin is glowing red and letting off steam, his eyes shining and his veins glowing gold beneath his skin. Grover helps her into an upright sitting position, just as Percy drives the knife into Luke's side, the blade sinking right to the hilt rather than bouncing off as so many strikes had prior. "Luke..." Annabeth croaks, watching as he throws his head back to the ceiling and a split between his voice and the Titan's let out their death howl. Luke's form glows brightly, but Percy doesn't let go or back away, keeping the knife in Luke's side. As Annabeth watches, Luke's entire form glows bright, and the heat of the sun seems to light up the throne room of Olympus. She closes her eyes, turning into Grover as the entire world seems to shake.

Everything goes silent and slowly, Annabeth turns back to look at the throne room. The battle with the Lord of the Titans has left massive gashes in the ground, the marbles pillars, and a few of the thrones. But where Luke and Percy had just been standing, all that is left is a small crater, the hearth behind them destroyed by the force of Kronos' destruction. Percy is nowhere in sight, and she opens her mouth to call out for him, but her voice has left her as her mind puts the worst possible conclusion in her mind. She opens and closes her mouth, trying to stand and ignoring Grover's protests that she's not okay. "Percy!" She finally calls out, just as the throne room shakes again.

The Olympians thunder into the throne room, visibly exhausted and injured from their battle with Typhon, but they still raise their respective weapons and scan the throne room, ready for the battle that has ended. They all lock onto Annabeth and Grover, and Athena marches up to her daughter, not relaxing her stance as though the Goddess still expects Kronos to jump out from behind one of the thrones. "What is going on? Annabeth, where is Kronos?"

The daughter of wisdom is still staring at the small crater, not having registered the question directed at her until Grover shakes her good shoulder. "W-what? I-I don't know!" The answer Annabeth gives makes herself recoil; she is supposed to know what's going on, to be able to understand and relay information as fast as Hermes, but all she can do is stammer out, "He- He- Luke took back control- um, from Kronos, and, and showed us his Achilles weakness, so- Percy took my knife and stabbed him." The idea that Luke is dead causes her voice to crack on the last two words, and she hangs her head as tears well up in the corner of her eyes.

"So..." Zeus steps forward, lowering his weapons and the rest of the Gods follow suit, some obviously relieved that the fighting is over. "This is the end, then."

At that moment, a large shadow column erupts at the entrance behind the Gods and Hades emerges from it, then next to him in a swirl of wheat, Demeter and Persephone do the same. They're greeted in various respects from their family, but everyone turns at the sound of Annabeth collapsing. "Lord Apollo, help!" Grover calls out, looking up in alarm.

Annabeth is mumbling something as her eyelids flutter, but Apollo kneels down, shrinking to human size and letting his hands hover over her form, speaking softly in ancient Greek. Annabeth sighs and closes her eyes, and Grover looks up at Apollo in anxiety. "Not to worry!" He answers the look cheerfully. "In a few moments she'll be right as rain." But his cheerfulness fades as he looks back at the crater and then rises and grows back to his Godly height when Zeus calls for council once they've hastily repaired their thrones.

Grover is exhausted but not in near as bad condition as Annabeth is, or was. She stirs a few times over the course of Zeus' speech about the bravery of the Gods and how the heroics will be spoken of for ages to come, then sends awkward words of praise to Poseidon, but the God of the sea is staring intently at the ground. The doors of the throne room open, and in walk Thalia and Tyson, the latter dusting his hands from where he'd lifted Hera's statue off the daughter of Zeus. "Goat boy!" He calls out with glee. "And Annabeth!"

"Annabeth!" Thalia calls out in worry, in contrast to Tyson's much more carefree, childlike happiness.

The young girl stirs, and Grover helps her stand. Her arm isn't broken and the cuts and bruises have faded, so she looks and feels better than everyone else. "Thalia, you're okay!" She hugs the girl tightly, pulling back but keeping her hands on the immortal huntress' arms.

"Annabeth, where's Percy?" Thalia asks, and the mood dims in the room.

"Where indeed?" Poseidon stands and turns towards Hades. "Has the soul of my son passed into your realm?"

"Peace, brother." Hades says, though it comes across as more of a command. The frown on his face clearly indicates that he didn't like being addressed as he was. "I've put up several systems to notify me if Jackson returns to my realm, living or not. Nothing has alerted me to his presence."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Thalia asks, but she gets ignored when Grover speaks up.

"He must be telling the truth, Lord Poseidon." The Satyr swallows nervously as the Gods turn their gazes towards him. "W-We share an empathy link, so if he had died... Well, I'm still here and functional, so Percy must be okay too."

It's enough to give Annabeth hope, and her shoulders relax visibly. "The curse of Achilles must have protected him from Kronos' death throes." She says, and the Gods glance at each other. "But, where is he? Where would he have been... knocked too? Not Calypso's island again?"

"No, lass." Hephaestus rumbles. "No man can find their way back to her island after leaving it."

"Then where?" Her tone is pleading as she turns to each of the Gods. "Down in New York?"

There is another stretch of silence before the Gods expressions shift; most are of pity, though some are neutral. "Annabeth." Athena calls out, her voice unusually tender, and her daughter turns towards her. "The Gods battled the Titans and started a new age after their defeat. Zeus himself cut Kronos into pieces and cast his remains into Tartarus. He spent many millennia there in agony, slowly pulling himself back together, until Luke raised him from the depths."

"I know this, mother. What does this have to do with Percy?" But even as the question leaves her mouth, a chill runs down her spine and fresh tears well in her eyes, blurring her vision when she realizes what her mother is implying.

"Where would Kronos go in defeat?" Athena asks, leading Grover and Thalia to the conclusion that Annabeth has already arrived at. "To reform once more, to spend another age in agony?" Her voice is quiet. "You said Percy dealt the lethal blow to Luke. Neither Luke's body nor Percy's is here. There is only one logical conclusion."

"No... No!" Thalia shouts. "There's no way!" She presses her hands to her ears, looking down to the ground and screwing her eyes shut. "Why would he be pulled into Tartarus? Why would Luke? They're Demigods, they don't-"

"This is unprecedented." Zeus cuts her off. "Never before has a Titan inhabited the body of a mortal. We knew that this was only a temporary measure for Kronos, as he needed to use Luke to gain his true power. But there was no way to know what would happen if he were defeated before he could assume his true form. Athena may be right, I fear. Percy Jackson may be lost to Tartarus."

Poseidon has remained standing, but he summons his trident and turns on the king of the Gods.

"Then go to Tartarus and rescue him!" Annabeth somehow manages to speak first, preventing an argument that might have led to an all out battle between the Gods.

With difficulty, Poseidon turns to her. "It is not so simple. Firstly, Hades would have to invite us to his realm-"

"Then invite them!" She turns to Hades and glares, though the Lord of the Dead barely acknowledges her.

"-And we would only be marching to our deaths." Poseidon finishes. His fingers twitch and he sighs, sitting back down on his throne. "Tartarus is primordial. It is abstract as a realm, and the deity it manifests as is one of the most powerful in existence. It is more powerful than us, the Titans, or Typhon. The home of resurrection to monsters from all planes of existence, a place of unending chaos, that would make Kronos' new age look the height of Western Civilization. It was chosen as the prison for the Titans because of just how a painful a place it is to live in. If we were to march down there, Percy would have sacrificed himself for nothing." As he finishes, he raises his hand to cover his face, and it's clear he's trying his hardest not to break down in anger or sorrow.

"You can't..." Annabeth says after a heavy moment of silence passes. "You can't give up on him!" She yells. The Gods don't respond. "He saved you! He fought for everything you stand for, even when he had every opportunity to give up, to use the petty way many of you treated him as an excuse to turn against you all and join Kronos! You can't abandon him!" She screams.

"It is decided. Percy Jackson is the hero who saved Olympus, and what he has done for us will never be forgotten." Zeus' voice rumbles from the head of council.

"No!" A hole opens up in Annabeth's chest as she reaches for knife, only grasping air but barely acknowledging it as she starts towards Zeus, only to be held back by her three friends.

She curses the Gods as Tyson picks her up and leaves the throne room with Thalia and Grover close behind. She struggles against Tyson's grip, but it isn't until they're far from the throne room that he finally sets her down, and she breaks down. Even when Luke had betrayed them and left camp she hadn't cried; she'd been determined to find him and save him. That determination had faded after Luke tricked her into holding the sky, then kept her prisoner in order to manipulate Thalia and Percy. Even when Luke had begged her to run away with him before the journey into the Labyrinth, she hadn't cried after turning him down, she'd been more determined than ever to stop him once and for all. Even if it meant he had to die.

Percy annoyed her. He complained about how things were never easy even when that was supposed to be a given, couldn't remember important information about monsters and general mythology because he spent 9 months living a normal mortal life, came up with terrible plans that almost always backfired, and there were a million other things that were exact opposite of how Luke had been. But it had been that contrast that had been inspiring, in it's own way. Luke had been a year rounder, unlike Percy. Percy certainly wasn't a slacker, but Luke strived to be better than everyone at everything, and oftentimes was. She had gotten along great with Luke at first only for the relationship to sour, only for the inverse to occur with Percy. Luke had a terrible relationship with his mortal and Godly family, whereas Percy didn't, and in the end he had been the one to save the world.

But when it needed to be said the most, she hadn't gotten the chance to say it.

Thalia sits down beside her with a painful groan but pulls Annabeth into her arms, and for several minutes she sobs, unable to do anything else. She can hear Grover talking to Tyson, and amazingly he isn't acting frustrated at the Cyclops's questions. It eventually settles in that Percy is gone, and Tyson too falls down and begins to sob quietly.

After a while, the tears stop and her breathing evens out, and Annabeth stands, helping Thalia to her feet as she does so. "Let's go check on the rest of the campers." She says. "And break the news to them. After that, we can return to camp, and figure out a plan to get Percy back."

"You're not serious?" Thalia asks.

"I am." Annabeth says without looking at her. "The Gods may be cowards, but I am not. If monsters can regularly return from the realm, there must be some way out that mortals can use too. We escaped from the Underworld when we were 12. He and I held both held the weight of the sky and survived. We survived the Labyrinth last year. We defeated Kronos. We'll get him back."

Her confidence is enough to pull Tyson out of his grief. "You are right. I will craft many swords and lots of armour. We will go to dangerous underground realm and find Percy."

"Another journey to a dark, dangerous, wilderness free cave. Great." But Grover is smiling at her side. "What else is new? We'll go whether we get permission or not."

Annabeth keeps her gaze straight ahead, glad to have her friends with her."Wait for me Percy. I will save you. I won't let your story end in tragedy."