xi.
"Let's go home, Annabeth," Hazel says, attempting to hoist Annabeth up from the floor. A son of Mercury shifts nervously behind Hazel, and Annabeth wonders if Hermes had been so kind as to send someone to look after her after what had happened.
Then, the sunlight casts in just the right angle and for a second that college-aged boy almost looked like Luke in the months just before his death, and Annabeth feels a strange urge to laugh and cry at the same time.
She must have been staring, because the boy flinches and steps back while the daughter of Pluto positions herself so that she blocks Annabeth's sightline. Hazel looks on, concerned, but also with enough sternness to reel Annabeth back to reality.
"Lucas," Hazel commands, and both Annabeth and Lucas wince. "Come help me," the Praetor presses on, ignoring both of their reactions. Lucas , huh?
It's not a surprise that her life is really just a big cruel joke.
In any case, the daughter of Athena manages to shift her arm. Angry, red, pebbly marks pebble her palm where it supported her weight for who-knows-how-many hours. The two other demigods help her up, offering an arm each just in case she needs it. I can probably manage , Annabeth thinks, but it does feel like the weight of the entire sky rests on her shoulders again. "Let's go, it's going to be dangerous after dark," Hazel coaxes, but Annabeth just laughs dryly.
What else can be so dangerous? She thinks, knowing that if there's a monster that wants to come along and kill her, then so be it. What even matters now? The most dangerous thing that she can encounter now is false hope.
Why did Hermes come if he was not here to help Percy? , her mind reels. What is taking them this long?
xii.
She returns to New Rome (Annabeth refuses to call it home if Percy isn't here), and the only thing on her mind is what her professor once lectured about Achilles in The Ancient Greek Heroes . The tales of Achilles - the hero who traded his life and his love for kleos (eternal glory and immortality in name) - are something she cannot forget.
Annabeth joked with Percy, then, that it could be him; however, as per usual, whenever the topic of his foregone chances at immortality comes up (like the time when the gods made him an offer at the end of The Titan War, or the time when they ran into Carter and Sadie and the Egyptian gods), the son of Poseidon just shook his head with an easy grin and reassured him that he made the right choice.
I'm not Achilles , Percy had said with a smile, and if I don't earn the kleos that made these Ancient Greek heroes heroes , then that's fine with me. At least I have you. I'd choose you every time, Chase.
Hearing that, Annabeth rewarded him with a kiss. But she's done a lot of reflection on her part, too. What would she choose, if it were her? She had always wanted to build "something permanent," and it's really the same form of immortality that they (demigods, heroes) all seek - immortality in name.
But that childhood wish was all settled. She's gotten to design Olympus at age 16, and for years, she's convinced that she would get to build that "something permanent" that will really matter to her in the end: a life with Percy.
Maybe that's just more bullshit that the Fates fed them to save Olympus, or whatever the whims of the gods are for at the moment.
xiii.
She sees some couples line the cobbled streets of New Rome, knowing all too well that some of these couples are a mix of mortal and god. That's what gods like to do, she's learned: sometimes, they like to mingle with mortals and no one makes much of a fuss as long as they keep it on the downlow.
The catch is just that whenever they conceive a demigod, the deity must leave. It almost always happens, one way or another.
Annabeth doesn't know what to think about that, or really, why her mind insists her to pay that factoid any attention at the moment. Maybe it's because she wishes that Percy would have accepted the offer they gave him at the end of the Titan War. Or the one where he was asked to host some Egyptian god.
In that universe, would Annabeth be the one sent to Camp Jupiter as an exchange? Hera would have had to kidnap her and she would have to endure Tartarus alone . It would all have been worth it if that means he is safe.
Maybe she is not hearing anything from the gods because her boyfriend is dead and they are just trying to figure out the best way of breaking that particular news to her without causing her to overthrow Olympus, to pull an Orpheus and embark for the Underworld, or- Or something. They have it right in that she will never abandon him. The daughter of Athena will just have to try her damnest to figure out something because he once promised her that he'll never leave her; never again.
Annabeth drops on the brick-paved sidewalk on one of the streets leading to her apartment and cries. She doesn't care how pathetic she looks, or how the vicious Romans will see her as weak , finally confirming the saying that children of Minerva (if such can ever exist in the first place) are utterly useless. Annabeth just doesn't think that she can see her apartment at the moment; it'll remind her of too much, too soon.
She strides to the Temple of Minerva. She can see a glimpse of the small statue of her mother's Roman form staring at her blankly from the inside and she pivots on her heel, turning to Neptune's temple.
It looks stoic and feels a little chilling, but there is a blanket in a nook to the right side of the entrance. She doesn't know who had placed it there, but it must have been a peace offering from Poseidon and his brood. She mutters a quick thanks, much too exhausted to do any proper sacrificial ritual, and she sleeps, hoping that she can escape from this nightmare.
xiv.
At the edge of Tartarus, he stared at her with such a degree of intensity.
"We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again."
She made an oath in return. "As long as we're together."
And so they fell.
xv.
At dusk, a sea breeze blows by from afar and the willow tree sitting on the lake faraway seems to wriggle and weep. Everything reminds her of Percy. What is worse: being the one who is lost or losing the one who you love?
As the one who is always left behind, Annabeth Chase already knows the answer.
A/N: Sorry I disappeared for a while. This spring was really, really hard for me, but I missed you guys, and I missed writing. Leave a review if you enjoyed - hope every one of you is happy and safe; join my Discord server here if you want to chat