DISCLAIMER: All the characters belong to Rick Riordan
Let's just settle with The Last Olympian for now. I'll have to consider writing HoO.
Annabeth is nearly sixteen when she's most miserable and happy.
Percy Jackson had been the main reason for those feelings.
It seemed that Percy was doing everything he could to avoid being at camp. She knew that he was spending his free time not only with his mom and new step-dad, but also with that mortal girl. The one with the prettier curls and the one with the carefree laugh, the one that could give Percy the normalcy that he wanted so badly.
Annabeth wasn't dumb, quite the opposite, she'd had pushed him hard that he can't even stand her presence at camp now. Their last parting didn't go well too. She had suspicion that he took the parting hard, since she'd sounded like she'd appreciate some distance from him. She didn't keep in touch either throughout the year. He has been keeping his distance from her ever since, by occupying himself with the mortal.
She tortured herself at night. Not only did she have nightmares about the future war, losing Percy to Luke, Luke to Kronos, but her brain also liked to plague her with thoughts of Percy and that mortal redhead girl, walking hand-in-hand on the busy streets of Manhattan, sharing a milkshake in some cute dinner, Percy leaning in and—yeah. More often than not, Annabeth tried to avoid sleeping. It's not like she even had time to sleep after all, she had battles to plan, campers to train in sword fights since the current sword teacher had his days numbered and was running around the city with another girl.
Annabeth didn't explain anything to Percy after their parting last year because her pride was wounded. The doubt that said boy might not return her feelings, and that her hero was, in real, an illusion she'd created to fill in the gap of her heart didn't help boost her ego at all. Her wounded pride made her suffer a year of pain, longing, anguish and several other emotions she didn't know in the first place. There was a constant ache inside her whenever a green eyes-dark haired boy appear in her thoughts.
Then there was the mission to blow up Kronos' ship. She could feel that something had gone wrong after a day to the mission. She was organizing the stables and suddenly the wind was knocked out of her and—and she was rushing there. Because she can feel it in her bones that something big had happened. Chiron warned her to be ready for an inevitable, for he could only sense one presence returning.
She doesn't remember much except pushing past the centaur and running to the beach where other campers were gathering. She has no memory of what she was thinking or the path she took. The next thing she really remembered was once she pushed through the crowed and saw Percy…standing here, all she could think was—Mine. The one who came back was mine. Later she felt guilt to thinking like that because Silena could've been her, easily—jaded, broken, survive-not-alive.
When the Prophecy was finally revealed and the defiance in Percy's tone like he didn't care about his life felt like a punch through her gut. She couldn't meet his eyes for there's no way she could conceal everything from him. Percy doesn't have a week left to live and he's still procrastinating his feelings for her. She wanted to scream at him to confess her so badly that she'd put her pride aside and dropped clue after clue to encourage him.
Nobody could blame Annabeth for being cranky and having no patience at all, everybody needed to look at the deep dark circles under her eyes and how pale she looked and the fact her hair was starting to resemble a bird's nest. So nobody could really be surprised that when she finally lost it was to the one person she cared the most about. In a confused and frustrated effort to wake him the hell up, she lashed out.
"You are a coward, Percy Jackson!"
In that moment she might not be saying it out loud, but she's crying for him to reach out to her. When all he can do is sit there and stammer about her not being fair, she gives up. She runs away. She had planned on apologizing after dinner, but he had been nowhere to be found. She tried looking everywhere and a bubble of anxiety was starting to burst from her chest. She had told him to go and he did. How could he even love her back when all she did was hurt people, hurt him.
She hadn't realized how it happened but she found herself on the floor of Cabin Six. It had taken a few of her siblings comforting her before she was able to calm down and eat a little. For the first time in months, Annabeth had a peaceful dream about Percy, the lake and camp side boats.
She saw Percy the afternoon of the next day, along with the campers in Manhattan. He looked the same but at the same time there was something different about him, which was stupid since she had seen him the day before. But his skin looked smoother, she could swear there was a certain glow on his tan skin, those sea-green eyes she loved so much were brighter somehow, even his posture was different. He held himself taller. Power and confidence were radiating from him. Percy Jackson looked every bit the hero he was and Annabeth tried not to think about how he was about to lead the fight towards his death.
She followed him everywhere in the battle to keep him from being recklessly jump into fights. The curse of Achilles nerfed his cautiousness and survival instincts. His hunger for the rush and victory scared her a little that she didn't even want him out of her sight. Then there was a chill that run through her spine—a gut feeling, that somehow Percy's in a life threatening danger. Her instincts kicked in without her consent and the next thing she knew, she found herself on the receiving end of a knife for an invincible guy who should've been in no way hurt by said knife. It was an irrational thing to do as a daughter of Athena and for the first time in her life, she completely embraced it.
The pain was too much for her that she'd passed out several times before she reached the plaza hotel. All she can see is red spots. But her fear for Percy on the bridge alone facing Kronos nearly made her bolt if not for her condition. He didn't made her suffer for long. One look at him, she can bet her magic cap that he's more than freaked out about her than his preordained death in few days.
All along, she'd never considered that she'd die before him. All along, she'd battled with her fear of him dying in the battle, it feels surreal for her. His face was never this near to her, that she can count lashes and see the blue speck near his irises. They had a quite moment where she felt they both acted a little bold in speaking to one another. He asks her about his weak spot and the image of Percy's lifeless form spooked her out her mind. She knows that it might be intrusive to ask about the spot but she'd confide in him if she ever had one. She's ready for a denial but he casually blurts it out to her. He placed the power to destroy him in her hands without giving it a second thought made her elated and scared at once—elated because Percy trusts her like no one had, scared because she might become a liability to him due to his flaw. They share a moment and are unofficially a thing now.
She'd come to face death too many times during the war but the moment she's about to fall to her death when the floor crumbled at her feet terrified her the most. She calls out to him instinctively because who else would respond to her other than him, and he did. He grabbed her by fingers refusing to let go, like he wouldn't let her fall on his watch and she totally believed it. He pulls her up and they both collapse on the crumbled floor. Her hands reach around his neck and she buries her face in the crook of his neck. They're both shivering and she lets out a strangled sobs like she's nearly about to cry.
Then the battle was over as soon as it began. She managed to wake Luke one last time using the promise he'd made to her. The promise that was so precious that it had made her tingle as a little girl and love him like a brother. The promise that made her adore him and want nothing bad to ever happen to him because the promise he had made her was so genuine and no one had ever offered her anything as magical as a true family before.
The lines of prophecy made her head spin. Every word of it was so craftily written that there lies a web of deception upon deception under every line. The hero in the prophecy turned out to be Luke. She'd always had a feeling that he would come to his senses for once and do a sensible thing to solve everything he'd started.
"Did you …" he coughed. "Did you love me?"
She wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. He deserved to know.
"There was a time I thought…well, I thought…" my voice trailed on as she snuck a glance at Percy, like she needed reassurance that he wasn't dying too. Seeing him there, breathing and alive, made her heart swell up. All that mattered to her was that he was okay. She realized, staring at him with eyes wide—with hope? Fear? Sadness?— that he was doing the same, making sure she was by his side safely.
"You were like a brother to me," she replied to him softly. "But I didn't love you." She didn't. Her heart hurt to see him in pain or suffering or dying, but that was because of the attachment she felt to him ever since she was little and he had made it a task to protect her.
They've won the war. All the stress and fears accumulated for the past months caught up to her forcing her to pass out, but couldn't just yet. They're rewarded for their achievements in the war. Tyson was made a general, Grover was promoted to Lord of the Wild and she was officially made the Architect of Olympus.
Then the gods offered immortality to Percy. All of her hopes and dreams went down the drain. She wanted to have Percy. she wanted to love him and have a life with him. She thought she's going to get a happy ending. They just saved the world from total destruction, and were supposed to have a happy ending.
The sadness subsided and rage hit her full force. How could he be planning on doing this to her? He, out of all people in her life had never left her and what made him think that he could now? Did he think he deserved it? Did he think he was going to be happy without her beside him? She wanted to scream at him. She couldn't meet his eyes. She couldn't congratulate him like she did to Thalia two winters before. Thalia and Luke's loss could be filled with Percy's presence in her life. What could fill Percy's loss in her life now? Is this the ending she's going to get.
"No," he had said while looking at her, his sea green eyes locked with her grey ones. There was a smile on his face and even if the throne room was filled with demigods and gods, she knew that smile was directed only at her. The gods were glaring at him and some of them were speaking but his eyes weren't leaving hers. He was covered in grime, his pants and shirt were torn, his hair was even messier than usual and Annabeth could have sworn he had never looked better.
Percy had seriously turned down immortality for her? Was he crazy? Ths was a reward of lifetime and he didn't want it? Does that mean he want her? Do they both want the same thing?
The gods demanded his attention and he turned to face them, asking about another wish, but Annabeth was barely listening because Percy was alive, he had survived against all odds and he had turned down immortality for her and she finally allowed herself to hope and dream. She would've jumped him if not for the gods.
Annabeth would wait. She wouldn't wait another four years, but she could wait a little while longer.
Oh yeah, he was hers. he just didn't know it.
She didn't have to wait that much longer, a few hours later she found herself at the bottom of the lake, inside a bubble of air with Percy's arms around her and his lips moving against hers. They had no idea what they were doing, their kisses were clumsy and there were so many giggles in between but it was perfect. In the back of her mind she knew there were so many things they still had to deal with—shrouds to burn, trauma attempt to recover from and a long conversation with Percy was overdue, but for now she would let herself enjoy a happiness she never thought was possible. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer for another kiss.
Percy is nearly sixteen when everything comes crashing down on him.
The school year was a messy blur to him. He found himself calling Rachel to get away from everything more and more as the year came to an end. Annabeth would appear in his thoughts from time to time only to bring some pain in his gut. Whenever that happened, he found himself with Rachel to distract him from everything.
Then comes the day he wished wouldn't come—his mission. Then Rachel kisses him goodbye and Beckendorf dies and he goes back to camp to hear the prophecy, and he finds out he's destined to die. Annabeth stands next to him and refuses to meet his eyes, and he wants to protest, he want to talk to her about it, but there's no arguing with the Fates.
He felt defiant, but couldn't take out his anger on anyone. He's already aware that he wouldn't live long being a powerful demigod, but everyone hiding the fact about the end from him for so long and looking at him with a little fear made him feel a little betrayed. He accepted his fate and about his death in five days after a nights rest.
He couldn't help but stare at her now they're working together on cabin inspection. She looks more mature with more curls that are bouncy than before. Her features turned a little sharper and eyes, a bit more intense. She had always been cute with a little baby fat, but she's starting to look beautiful now. He zones out on her conversation except for staring at her sparkling eyes.
They get into an argument with her calling him a coward and storms away and it's like she's grabbed his very emotions for a moment or two, because Percy suddenly can't feel a thing anymore. Perhaps trying to prove a point, he goes with Nico to the Styx, where he's forced to take an acid bath, and when he's drowning, he's dissolving into dust, he sees her. Annabeth stares down at him and rolls her eyes and smiles ruefully before extending her palm, and he takes it and he's done it. Once again she's saved him.
He leaves her a message to assemble in the city for a battle and she doesn't seem that angry at him anymore and they're back to back and fighting as the Apollo cabin retreats and then there's a shiver down his spine and he turns to see Annabeth plummet to the ground, her body sprouting blood. Something inside him dies as he watches her writhe in pain, because how could she have known, she'd just taken a knife for him, and now all he wants to do is turn the person who has done this her into a rodent.
Every second passed felt like an eternity until he's by her side and until he's confirmed that's she's out of harm, he couldn't breath. She puts her fingers on the Achilles spot and Percy shudders. But it feels good, like his burden is gone, but it's not gone, not really. The burden is better now, though, because he's sharing it with Annabeth, who he knows will never give it away, will never hand it over to someone else. And they share this new bond, this new connection, this thing that will always keep them together. She is his lifeline.
He feels his heart race whenever she looks at him, smiles at him or even rolls her eyes at him. His spine tingles when they touch it dawns on him that maybe she'd called him a coward for a completely different reason.
The war is a mess and people are dying all around him. It's cold and confusing to become hopeless in a second and hopeful the next. He only hopes to save the world before his time ends.
They're running upto Olympus as everything crumbles to dust around them. He hears her call his name and instinctively turns and his hand goes out to catch her as she plummets over the edge of the floor. He's barely there to catch her fingers and definitely not going to let Annabeth fall, not on his watch.
They both just collapse on the broken floor, holding each other tight. He can feel her shuddering in his arms and making the hollow noises he knows precede crying, and maybe he's doing the same because he's never, ever, ever been that close to losing her. He can only spare three seconds to hold her, possibily for the last time and the next thing he knew, Thalia's stuck under Hera's statue.
The battle started in a whirlwind and he could keep up with the titan lord, but not for long. They need a miracle to survive this catastrophe. Typhon is taken care with the arrival of his father and his army. The next thing he knew he's under the titan lord's blade. His time has come. The gods are free now, they're going to arrive in time to take care of the titan. Annabeth and his friends survived the war. He can finally relax.
But no. Not before Annabeth intercepted the attack and brings Luke back. His former friend asks for the blade in his hand to finish the war. His whole world turn around as he stood there empty handed as Luke ends the war.
Luke asks her, "Did you love me?" and Percy catches his breath, and then Annabeth looks straight at him and suddenly everyone is gone from the world, it's only her. The war is finally over and she'd survived. That's all that mattered to him.
And she looks back at Luke and whispers "But I didn't love you." That's enough for him to hope. A hope for everything in his life.
They've beaten Kronos and ended a war and the he's offered immortality; ageless, timeless, powerful, serving his father for eternity. Who could refuse that? He glances at Annabeth only to find her white as a sheet and clearly freaking out. She wouldn't meet his eyes to guide him here. She didn't want her opinion in his choice, because she's sure not going to like him as an immortal.
He looks at the king of the gods in the eye and says "No" because there's really no reason to say Yes.
She kisses him that day, his birthday, a good kiss and a real kiss and a kiss that's not a goodbye kiss, and they find themselves at the bottom of a lake continuing what they both liked without any interruptions. Later, when all the excitement has died, she punches him on the shoulder and says, "We've won."
xXx
A/N: And that's it. The PJO series closes off here. Tell me whether I should continue it into the HoO series.
