Annabeth and Chiron stare down at Grover, laying unconscious on the ground.
Despite her dream and Juniper's story, the Satyr doesn't look to be in pain right now. He's snoring lightly, and in the dim moonlight they can see his eyes moving beneath his lids.
"He just seized in pain and then collapsed?" Chiron asks.
Juniper sniffles. "That's right. He was having trouble sleeping, so we were up talking, and then suddenly he stood up and s-s-started yelling, then it was like he had a seizure..." She stifled another sob, and Annabeth put an arm around her shoulder. "I remembered what he said, about going to search for Percy and the empathy link they share, so I went to get Annabeth while they tried to heal him."
"But, Grover told me that he felt cut off from Percy." Annabeth says. "If something happened to Percy, then how could-"
"It's not so cut and dry." Chiron cuts her off gently. "Grover felt cut off, but he probably wasn't, at least not completely at least. If Percy was finally struck down, then..." He glances at Juniper, but doesn't meet Annabeth's intense gaze. "Well, as I'm sure you know, it would've been like a rubber band snapping back to him. It's possible Grover will recover, but depending on what happened to Percy..."
The only reason Annabeth didn't speak up about her dream was because of how it had ended. Something was keeping Percy alive in Tartarus. There were so many questions she wanted to ask, so many things that needed answering, but for the first time since returning to camp, she was scared. She'd managed to hold onto her faith that Percy would be okay, that the curse of Achilles would keep him safe but now, staring down at Grover...
Now she was more determined than ever to get Tartarus. She had to get there before whatever was keeping him alive decided it didn't need him anymore, and she was too late.
Chiron escorted her back to keep the harpy's away, but as they walked up to the Athena cabin, he spoke up. "Have your dreams brought you any news on Percy?" As they stopped at the entrance, he turned towards her, his face pensive.
She didn't meet his gaze immediately, and she swallowed hard before looking up with a look of resolution on her face that made Chiron sigh. "Let me see the Oracle."
"I've already tried." There is no hiding the frustration in his voice. "Don't you think it was the first thing I did? If there is a way to save him, it is beyond the sight of the Oracle. There is no way to help him."
Annabeth stomps her foot and storms back inside her cabin. Most of her siblings have returned to bed, except for Malcolm, who sits on the edge of his bunk staring at his sister as she crosses the room and climbs back into her bed, turning on her side to face the wall.
She doesn't sleep again. For the rest of the night she tosses and turns, trying to come up with a plan, and a contingency plan, and the backup plan for the contingency plan. The first plan was a lot simpler than the second plan, but admittedly, none of them were great. The lack of information was a constant monkey wrench in the gears, and when the sun rose and her cabin mates got ready to return to normal camp training, she put her backpack on and stuffed her Yankee's cap in her back pocket, then trudged up to the big house.
The door creaked open slowly, and she quickly made her way up to the attic. She knew Chiron was preparing for the morning classes, and Argus was nowhere to be seen. Climbing up the ladder and pulling it shut behind her, she made her way over to the mummified remains of the Oracle and knelt down on one knee. "I've come for a way to serve Percy. What must be done to save him from the realm of Tartarus?" She asked, only looking up once she'd finished her request.
Silence. It was just as unnerving to be here in the dim morning light as it had been when the Oracle had sat up and given her the quest for the Labyrinth. Annabeth cleared her throat and spoke again. "I have to go to Tartarus and save Percy. What is my quest?"
The Oracle sat silently, not moving, and eventually Annabeth grit her teeth and stood up, quietly exiting the attic and making her way downstairs. If the Oracle wasn't going to give her an answer, Annabeth would make her own.
Making her way back into the camp, she located a mist fountain and in the morning sunlight, made a rainbow. Fishing a golden drachma out of her backpack, she said, "O Goddess, please accept my offering." The coin vanished into the rainbow, and she requested, "Show me Nico di Angelo, son of Hades in the Underworld."
It took a moment for the connection to go through, but Nico's face appeared in the mist. His pale face stood out in the darkness of the halls of Hades palace. "Annabeth?" He asked after squinting and tilting his head.
"Hey Nico, I need a favour."
"He's not dead, yet anyways." He answers immediately with a shake of his head.
"That's not what I was going to ask." She tells him. "I need to get into the underworld."
Nico's brow furrows as he tilts his head, looking at her suspiciously. "Why?"
"There's an entrance to Tartarus there." She answers with a 'that should be obvious' tone. "It's how I'm going to save him. Percy told me you can shadow travel; come to camp and help me. I can't afford to waste time traveling across the country."
He sighs and closes his eyes while he pinches the bridge of his nose, and for several moments he stays like that. "Annabeth..."
"Don't give me that." She cuts him, the tone of his voice gentle and leading to the same place she's been for that past three days. "I'm not leaving him there. Come to camp and help me."
Nico flinches at the authoritarian tone in her voice, and he stares off to the side as he continues. "Look, at some point you're gonna have to wrap your head around the fact that he's not coming back. You can hold out on giving up hope for the rest of your life, but never giving up like that is just going to leave a poison you and leave you bitter and angry for the rest of your life. I wanted to bring Bianca back more than anything, and it nearly got me killed last year. I'm not going to help you jump into Tartarus just because you're depressed."
Annabeth cuts through the image, severing the connection and donning her cap, turning invisible and trudging up the hill to the pine tree, the Golden Fleece glittering brightly in the morning sunlight. Peleus is resting peacefully, and as she gets to the top of the hill, Annabeth turns around for the first time since she'd arrived at camp nearly a decade ago. Life has mostly returned to normal now that most of the campers are healed, and despite the enormous task she's about to undertake, she manages a small smile before turning back around and taking the first steps outside the boundary.
Five steps later, she lets out a sharp cry as vines explode from the ground and wrap around her legs, immobilizing her.
"Not so fast."
Struggling to turn around, she glances back over her shoulder and sees Mr. D standing there with a bored look on his face. "Let me go!" She yells, grabbing her dagger and trying to cut through the vines holding her back.
"I'm afraid you don't have permission to leave camp. Now if you ask nicely..." He sounds amused, and in the struggle Annabeth's invisibility cap falls off, leaving her visible and visibly angry.
"Please let me go, Mr. D." She asks, trying her hardest to sound sincere.
"No."
Annabeth yells and continues struggling, and Mr. D. rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest.
"That's enough, Annabeth."
The vines retract from her legs suddenly and she falls off balance, falling onto her side with a grunt. Looking up, she can see that Chiron has joined Mr. D. at the crest of the hill, looking forlorn in contrast to Dionysus' boredom. "We figured it was only a matter of time before you tried this. You're not going anywhere."
"I knew this would happen. All those victories would go to her head, and now it's gotten too big for her shoulders." Dionysus drawls. "You really believe you can go all the way to Tartarus, save Percy from the jaws of death, and come back home, with only the clothes on your back and a can do attitude?"
"I have to!" She says bitterly, standing up and glaring at both of them. "It hasn't even been a whole week and the entire world he just saved is ready to abandon him! I won't! You may not care about us, but I care about him!" She yells. "And I'm going to save him. You don't have anything to gain from fighting me. Let me go."
At this, Dionysus scoffs and Chiron takes a few small steps forward. "Don't do this Annabeth. There is still a place in this world for you. Don't become another tragedy that they tell stories about."
Drawing her dagger, she can't stop the tears forming in her eyes as she takes a combat stance against her teacher. "Let me go." She says again.
Chiron has been training for three thousand years, and Annabeth doesn't have a lot of experience fighting centaurs. In just a few moments, she's knocked unconscious.
Hours later, she awakens in the infirmary at the Big House.
Argus is standing in the corner, watching silently as always, but at the foot of her bed is Chiron, sitting in his wheelchair in order to fit into the room. "Are you alright?"
Slowly, she sits up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and resting her head in her hands. "It's not fair, Chiron." Her voice cracks and she takes a shuddering breath as her tears start to fall.
"Oh, Annabeth..." Chiron's voice is low and soft, and he wheels in front of her to place a hand on her shoulder.
"He was selfless and kind-" She struggles to inhale and her body is shaking as she cries, "And he was dealt the worst hand in life... His terrible step father, being thrust into this life when he didn't want it, the fate of the prophecy... It should have been me!"
"Don't say that Annabeth." Chiron grips her shoulders with both hands, his voice pleading. "You can't blame yourself for Percy's fate."
"I knew Luke longer than him. I could never admit that he'd turned evil. I had the chance to kill him when he visited me in San Francisco, and I didn't. It's all my fault! If I had just opened my eyes sooner, if I hadn't acted so foolish, Percy would still be here. We would be together!" She stopped to take in a deep shaky breath, but she kept her hands over her eyes. "I called him a coward because I couldn't admit my own feelings. I wanted him to tell me first, because he'd already done so much for me, for all of us! I depended on him. He was the one who told me to get back in touch with my dad. If he hadn't befriended Tyson, we never would have gotten the Fleece, and Thalia would have never come back. I should've told him when I had the chance, but I didn't, and now I'll never be able to!"
It's several more minutes before she finally calms down, her breathing evening out and the last of her tears wiped away. "I didn't realize until it was too late that the future I wanted to build, I couldn't build without him.". Everything she'd wanted after admiring Luke for so many years, Percy had been the embodiment of. Yet she'd been too proud to admit that Luke had betrayed them all, and it hadn't been until after turning Luke away last year that she'd realized just how strong her feelings for Percy really were.
Sniffling, Annabeth finally lowers her hands, but her gaze is lowered to the space between her and Chiron. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do." She admits. "The fighting is finally over and we can return to normalcy, but what's the point without him?"
"The point is what you make of it." He answers swiftly, as though some other long lost hero has asked the exact same question. "Take off as much time as you need until you're feeling better. You're strong, Annabeth, and you'll pull through this."
With that, he leaves and Annabeth falls back onto the bed.
She doesn't leave the Big House for another day, and when she does return to cabin six, she barely acknowledges the looks or questions directed her way. For several days, she barely moves from her bed, sitting in silence with one shoulder against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. Aside from showers and meals, she can't bring herself to get out of bed. She'd never felt so powerless in her life; the Gods had given up on Percy, Grover was in a coma, Tyson was back in the deep ocean, and she was stuck at camp and not being allowed to leave.
It isn't until the twelfth day after returning to camp that someone sits on the edge of her bed. Her siblings all have classes right now, so she's mildly surprised to see Athena sitting there. "...Mom?"
"Hello, Annabeth." She greets. "I never got the chance to congratulate you for defending the city." Annabeth only hums in acknowledgment, turning back towards the wall. "You did well, you should be proud. Even with a spy in the camp, you managed to hold out for two days against the Titan's army. Few demigods have ever achieved as much; your generation will be remembered as heroes for centuries to come."
"Thanks." She mumbles.
There's a moment of silence before Athena continues. "Olympus suffered major damage when Kronos arrived. Many minor gods are working to repair the damage, but I've talked to the council and convinced them that there is room for improvement." She waits for Annabeth to respond, but after waiting for a response and not getting one she fills in, "We would like you to rebuild Olympus, to make a city for the ages."
"I'll pass." Annabeth doesn't so much as give a cursory glance in Athena's direction.
"I've heard your prayers over the years, Annabeth. I know you want to be an architect." She says. "Don't let this chance pass by. Do you really intend to lay in your bed and mope forever?" Annabeth's eye twitches and her jaw tightens, and it doesn't escape Athena's notice. "Do not let your despair consume you, my daughter. You fought as hard as Percy did to protect our way of life. Honor his memory by-"
"Do not attempt to guilt trip me using his memories." Annabeth sits up straight as she cuts her mother off. "You were ready to kill him two years ago, and now that he's trapped in Tartarus you're more than happy to leave him there. Rebuild Olympus yourself. I'm never going to build anything for the gods that abandoned him to a fate worse than death."
"You have your whole life ahead of you." Athena reminds her. "You'll reunite with him in Elysium one day, I'm sure. And when you do, when he asks how you lived your life, what will be the story you tell him? One of sorrow and grief, or one of determination and hope for the future?"
She stands and the air around her seems to fold, only for the image of her mother to fade and disappear as she teleports back to Olympus.
"What do you think the story they're going to tell about you will be?" Annabeth asks to the empty cabin. "Luke felt abandoned by the gods. Percy was. Do you think people who hear this story will be inspired with love for you?"