p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"uspan lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Red/span/u/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';""Losing him was blue like I never known, br /Missing him was dark grey, all alone,br /Forgetting him was like trying to knowbr /Somebody you've never met/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"But loving him was red"/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Her best friend was gone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"His body was nowhere to be found, possibly incinerated by Mount St. Helens in an explosion that em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"idiot/em had caused by himself. The blast had finished off the rest of the telekhines, and with the help of Dedalus, she had returned to camp… alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It felt empty without the warm presence of Percy. As much as Annabeth would hate to admit it, he was a beacon of hope to not only her, but the rest of camp. Things were looking grim recently, with the news of Luke, the very man she admired and looked up to, turning over to Kronos and abandoning Camp Half-Blood. Her teary delivery of the news to the war council shook the room to its core, leaving a deafening silence. Chiron's face was overtaken with a solemn, defeated expression. Silena burst into tears, only to be comforted by a stoic looking Beckendorf. The council decided that they would wait until the end of the week for Percy to reappear, and if he didn't return, they would burn his shroud./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The week went by slowly, the weather of camp taking on the emotions of its campers. Dark, grey skies loomed over the strawberry fields. The lake churned, uncharacteristic white caps appearing on the water, which should have been impossible, if it weren't for Poseidon. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The seventh day hit. He never returned. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The campers gathered in the amphitheatre, with the Hephaestus cabin leading the shroud to the middle of the arena. Everybody gathered around, with Chiron giving a long, heartfelt speech that Annabeth couldn't bear to listen to. He was em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"gone/em, and it was her fault, because she didn't stay behind to be with him. She lost her best friend, and it was her fault. She was alone. Grover and Tyson were nowhere to be found, still navigating the labyrinth, Percy was gone, and she was alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"He was a wild force to be reckoned with, always impulsive, never jumping into battle with a plan. Purely passion and instinct. He was her polar opposite, and it drove her crazy in all the best ways. Things ended to suddenly, and she had a burning feeling of regret that she didn't kiss him before it was too late. The kiss they shared before they ran into battle was everything she had ever wanted. Standing there, with Chiron and the rest of camp standing around Percy's funeral pyre, she realized she loved him. The final kiss, the last time she would see him again, was what she needed to realize that. Before she knew it, his shroud went up into flames, the blue silk burning bright red. /spanspan lang="EN"br style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" clear="all" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';""Losing him was blue like I never known, br /Missing him was dark grey, all alone,br /Forgetting him was like trying to knowbr /Somebody you've never met/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"But loving him was red"/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"Her best friend was gone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"His body was nowhere to be found, possibly incinerated by Mount St. Helens in an explosion that em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"idiot/em had caused by himself. The blast had finished off the rest of the telekhines, and with the help of Dedalus, she had returned to camp… alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"It felt empty without the warm presence of Percy. As much as Annabeth would hate to admit it, he was a beacon of hope to not only her, but the rest of camp. Things were looking grim recently, with the news of Luke, the very man she admired and looked up to, turning over to Kronos and abandoning Camp Half-Blood. Her teary delivery of the news to the war council shook the room to its core, leaving a deafening silence. Chiron's face was overtaken with a solemn, defeated expression. Silena burst into tears, only to be comforted by a stoic looking Beckendorf. The council decided that they would wait until the end of the week for Percy to reappear, and if he didn't return, they would burn his shroud./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The week went by slowly, the weather of camp taking on the emotions of its campers. Dark, grey skies loomed over the strawberry fields. The lake churned, uncharacteristic white caps appearing on the water, which should have been impossible, if it weren't for Poseidon. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The seventh day hit. He never returned. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"The campers gathered in the amphitheatre, with the Hephaestus cabin leading the shroud to the middle of the arena. Everybody gathered around, with Chiron giving a long, heartfelt speech that Annabeth couldn't bear to listen to. He was em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"gone/em, and it was her fault, because she didn't stay behind to be with him. She lost her best friend, and it was her fault. She was alone. Grover and Tyson were nowhere to be found, still navigating the labyrinth, Percy was gone, and she was alone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in; line-height: 200%;"span lang="EN" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 200%; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"He was a wild force to be reckoned with, always impulsive, never jumping into battle with a plan. Purely passion and instinct. He was her polar opposite, and it drove her crazy in all the best ways. Things ended to suddenly, and she had a burning feeling of regret that she didn't kiss him before it was too late. The kiss they shared before they ran into battle was everything she had ever wanted. Standing there, with Chiron and the rest of camp standing around Percy's funeral pyre, she realized she loved him. The final kiss, the last time she would see him again, was what she needed to realize that. Before she knew it, his shroud went up into flames, the blue silk burning bright red. /spanspan lang="EN"br style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" clear="all" /span/p