Chapter 6- Endings That Fit (part 2)

Thank you Tif34ne for the review. I don't speak Spanish, but google translate said "what a tense chapter" to which I agree. Chapter 5 was tense. I hope you enjoyed it. Warning: typed on phone!

Now I was crying. She was right. That was somehow worse than Jason's death. Jason was brutally murdered, and Piper was murdered by herself with the help of doctors and pharmaceuticals.

"This is torture Thalia." I said between tears.

"I can stop."

"No. No. I need you to keep going."

"Well, Annabeth died next."

"This is all f"cked."

"I know. This must be much harder hearing it all at once than it was for me, spaced out over years."

"How did my Wise Girl die, Thalia? The love of my life.

"Simply a heart attack. You spend years of your life with no enjoyment, constantly filled with worry, stress, grief, it would get to everyone. She never stopped searching for you. She always believed you would return. She was right. Annabeth just wasn't alive to see it."

"Oh gods."

Flashback

Magnus Chase POV

My cousin sat at the table in front of me. We were eating infamous Boston clam chowder, and discussing the task (quite impossible I might add) she had laid out for herself. Finding Percy Jackson who disappeared off the face of the Earth. My cousin is Annabeth Chase.

We weren't at a restaurant though. She had been feeling tired all day. So we were staying in Sam's house where her and her husband live. They are out shopping, so it is just us, as Annabeth requested.

"Do you think his disappearance could have anything to do with the Norse gods, Magnus? I feel I have exhausted all options in the Greco-Roman area. I know it's possible, considering our run ins with the Kane siblings. But I doubt the Egyptian pantheon has anything to do with this. But I know hardly anything about the Norse so I thought it could be an option." Annabeth spoke. She spoke slowly, and sounded as if in pain. She looked kind of sick to be honest.

"Well it's not like he wandered into Valhalla Annabeth. I know nothing of him. I haven't even seen him since he assisted me that one time with a boat." I retorted.

"Surely there's any possibility here? Is there a god of abduction and kidnapping in Norse mythology?" The last comment was sarcasm.

"I don't know what you want me to do Annabeth. I'm sorry. I care about you. And I liked Percy. But… What if he's dead? Surely you've thought of that."

"I CAN'T ACCEPT THAT MAGNUS!" Annabeth snapped at me. I cringed and looked down at my clam chowder.

"I'm sorry. I'm sure there's a possibility. If you look hard enough you'll find him. Your boyfriend is out there somewhere."

"Percy," her voice cracked a little, "is my life. Call me clingy. I don't care. I love Percy. You died once Magnus, I know you didn't have family at that time, but you know how you felt when your mom died. If there was a possibility she was out there, Magnus, wouldn't you search for her?"

"I would." I think I understand now. I now realize that Percy isn't just a boyfriend to Annabeth, that's just a label. They might as well be tied together at the hip.

"I… need to go lay down. Would they mind if I used the guest bed? I just need a dark room with all the lights out. I feel a little lightheaded." I nodded, and she walked out of the room, leaving a half empty bowl of clam chowder. Think I might snag that from her, she wouldn't care. Clam chowder nice AF.

On a serious note, Annabeth is definitely stretching it. It is highly unlikely any Norse god would want to take Percy Jackson, let alone for 4 years at this point. They'd be more likely to challenge him to a drinking game than to kidnap him. Thor has a habit of trying to beat anyone that is famous at drinking. He's strange like that.

I decided to watch some TV until Annabeth is ready to talk some more. Maybe she will give me some ways to help her. For now, I can do nothing. For now, I will watch "The Flash" on Netflix. It's a pretty good show. I'd like a second season.

Haven't really done much since I prevented Ragnarok. Chilled in Valhalla, trained, and hung out with Alex and Sam. Although she's busy with her husband a lot. I enjoy third wheeling though so it's not a big deal to me.

I was already around 3 quarters of the way through the season when I started, and didn't notice the passing of time. It had been like 3 hours, and Annabeth still hadn't come back into the room yet. That is odd. Maybe I should go check on her.

I walk through the hallway down to the guest bedroom. I've slept there several times as well. Maybe she accidentally fell asleep? I approach the door and knock quietly.. No answer. After 10 seconds, I knock louder this time. No answer. I'm beginning to get worried.

"Annabeth?" No response. What the hell? "Annabeth are you still in there?" She doesn't respond again. "Annabeth I'm coming in." I open the door, light floods into the room from the hallway, but it's still not enough so I turn the lights on. Annabeth wasn't in her bed. That's odd. I look around the room from the doorway, and don't see her in it. So I check the nearby bathroom. I check all throughout the rest of the house. She's not anywhere. This is weird.

I eventually decide to check the bedroom again. I climb up onto the bed and start patting it down. I probably look stupid doing it. Then, I see something on the other side of the bed on the floor. I didn't see it earlier because it was blocked. It was Annabeth, she was laying on the floor, stiff as an erection. One arm was reaching out.

I gasp, and get down to check on her. Her eyes were still open but she wasn't breathing. She was dead, and had been for hours. There was nothing I could do this late using my powers as the son of Frey. I just sat there shocked. I couldn't even cry. This sort of thing doesn't happen to Annabeth. How can she just die? There weren't even any monsters or anything. This isn't how it was supposed to happen It… it…

"Hello Magnus." A brooding voice says. I jump up. A pale man wearing all black was standing in the doorway.

"Who are you! Did you kill Annabeth?" I ask theatiningly.

"I am Hades." The man says.

"You're of her pantheon? A Greek god?"

"Yes, I am."

"Did you kill her?"

He walks closer into the room, to get a better look at her. He stares at her for a moment. "No I didn't. She did that herself, inadvertently. It wasn't suicide, it was stress. She had a heart attack."

"A heart attack? Why, if I wasn't watching TV, if I was with her, I could have helped her!"

He didn't comment on that. "It was particularly hard to dispatch Thanatos to collect your cousin's soul to take to the underworld. I am only here because I felt I owed something to her. I am sorry she died. Her soul is guaranteed to make it to Elysium."

Then he flashed out in a light I had to look away from. He took Annabeth's body with him. A note was in the air. When I grabbed it it said "her body was delivered to her father."

So much had just happened, it was all unexpected. I went from happily watching TV to my dead cousin. What the hell. She didn't even have the honor of dying with a weapon in her hands. That's the worst part of it.

We weren't particularly close. I couldn't even force a few tears out…

Flashback End

Percy POV

"I'm so sorry Percy." Thalia finished the retelling of my girlfriend's death. I couldn't look at her because of my tears. I am so sick of crying. It's all I do now. Everything that has happened to me is all sh*t. It's not fair. I try not to complain, I try to deal with everything with a smile on my face, but c'mon man f*ck this. She died 20 years ago but 'cus of my disappearance, --kidnapping!-- I'm only now hearing of it.

I see something out of the corner of my eye in the front of the car. Oh yes this is exactly what I needed right now. Bull man picked the wrong day for this. The minotaur was in the road making a ruckus and destroying vehicles. Wonder how the mist deals with that?

Most people had jumped out of their cars and were running in the opposite direction of the beast. I was running towards the monster. Thalia hadn't even gotten out of the car.

"Wait up Perce!" She shouted from behind me. I didn't wait up.

The minotaur had now noticed me. The monster currently had the foot of a human in its mouth. When it saw me, it spit it out and roared. I growled back at it. The tears have now stopped, replaced by mad rage.

It finished it's ear pounding roar, and started charging at me. I picked up the pace and let out a battle cry.

20 yards. 15 yards. 10 yards. It was close, and the thing was huge. 7 feet tall and bulky. It had almost a foot of height over me. 5 yards. I uncapped my pen as I dodged out of the beast's path, letting it run straight through the sharp sword. Both of the minotaurs' legs were now off.

"Crap!" Thalia shouted, the legless monster nearly falling on her.

The minotaur let an awful sound out of its mouth, obviously it was in pain. That's good. I want it to be in pain. It fell face first into the ground. I gave it no rest. I immediately hacked off both of the animals arms, letting them fall limply to the ground. Blood was now everywhere.

The minotaur now weighed significantly less, allowing me to pick it up by its horns and huck it into the nearest car. Poor Jeep won't be seeing the road again that's for sure.

The newly made vegetable was laying on its back in front of the jeep, letting out painful animal noises. I walked forward to it quickly. It screamed harder as I walked towards it.

"Percy what the f*ck!" Thalia shouted from behind me. I didn't care. I heaved off my blood stained shirt and threw it at her. I flexed my muscles as I walked next to it, then gave it a good shot right in the throat. It only made squeaks for the next few moments. I then proceeded to continuously pound right into its face for 20 seconds, after that, Thalia intervened by pulling me off.

"You're losing yourself Percy! You know better than this!" I turned to look at her, and I saw a moment of fright in her face before it went back to normal anger and disappointment.

"I-" I stuttered and didn't say anything. The minotaur finally exploded into yellow dust, leaving only it's blood as a marker that it was there. The spoil of war was probably somewhere else.

"Come back to the car." Then she yanked me on towards the car and shoved me into the passenger seat. "What was that?!" She yelled. "I've never in my life and all the times we've fought together never seen you do that."

"I'm sorry. I was angry and upset and took out my anger on something." I stared right in her eyes.

"I can't believe you did that. You! We do not take enjoyment from cruelly torturing something." She was looking at me with hostility.

In a moment of rage, I grabbed Thalia by the throat and leaned into her. "You can't even begin to believe what I'm going through. Don't tell me how to act, Thals."

Without skipping a beat, Thalia grabbed the side of my head and slammed it into the dashboard, and grabbed the same arm that was holding her throat, and climbed over onto my seat and was sitting on my back, with one hand keeping my arm behind my back and using the other to shove my head into the dashboard.

"You bastard, Jackson. Annie wasn't 'yours' gods dammit. She was my best friend. Jason was my brother. Nico was my cousin too. Me, Frank, and Hazel got to know each other well before they died. I know your life is sucky but mine is too. Pity me and pity you." She released my head and arm, and climbed out the door over me.

I sat there for probably 20 minutes, breathing heavily. I attempted to clear my mind. I eventually did, and calmed down enough. My rage dissipated and turned into shame. Thalia was right.

I got out of the car to go and find her, the mortals would be showing up soon, the mist can't hold them back much longer anyway. I found her lying with her back up against a concrete blocker 50 feet away, with her knees pulled up to her chest.

When I got close she saw me and snickered. "Come to apologize?"

"Yes." I said, and reached out my hand. She took it and I pulled her up and straight into a hug. "I'm sorry. I was completely in the wrong. I took it too far."

"It's ok. I've had similar moments over the years." She whispered softly. We then pulled apart. She looked down a little and smiled.

"We really need to get going." I said and she agreed. "You can tell me the rest of the stories another time. I'm not ready for them."

"Good thing you didn't throw him at the van." She said, to which we both laughed.

We walked back to the van, arms around each other, with a scene of carnage around us.

There will be other chapters before we get to the part 3 of this and find out how Frank, Hazel, and Nico died. First comes Leo's reunion in the next chapter at the waystation. Hopefully you enjoyed it, I worked hard on this, even though this was delayed a bit. Please favorite, follow, and most especially review!