Things were going pretty well for Percy and Annabeth at the moment.
After the whole crashing-the-car-between-two-peach-trees situation, Percy had managed to avoid enough quests to do well in his final high school classes and pass all of his finals (with the help of Annabeth, of course). They had gone through graduation, with Sally, Paul, and Estelle all looking on gleefully. Once the ceremony was over and they were reunited with their families, Sally could not stop taking pictures of the two. Estelle was happily giggling in her father's arms.
It might have been perfect.
With the end of high school, the two were planning on flying out to Camp Jupiter at the end of June. They wanted to spend the summer getting acquainted to the city before they started their classes in August.
While Percy insisted that they take Blackjack, Annabeth told him that the pegasus did not provide proper space for luggage. So, a plane it was.
At the airport, Percy assured his mother that he was a pegasus ride away if he ever needed to come home, and that he was protected inside the borders of New Rome. He left her with a pouch of drachmas just in case she wanted to IM him. Estelle was sad to see her brother, who absolutely adored her, leave to go somewhere but she was still too young to fully understand the situation. Paul gently pleaded with Annabeth to watch over their son and make sure he didn't do anything stupid in their time away. Percy protested, Annabeth laughed, and promised to watch over her boyfriend and his grades.
With final hugs and kisses, the two boarded the plane and were off.
While flying had gotten easier for the son of Poseidon, having Annabeth next to him relaxed any extra nerves he may have had. He put his nervous energy into twirling her hair, which was down, around his finger. However, Annabeth would testify that he jumped with every little piece of turbulence.
After the five hour flight, the duo landed in San Francisco and left to get a taxi to the Chase's house, where they would be staying for a few days while they waited for all of their luggage to be shipped over. They couldn't exactly tell FedEx to deliver a toaster to a location that didn't exist in mortals' eyes.
With Annabeth's improving relationship with her mortal family, they were greeted with more hugs and kisses. Frederick and his wife looked happy to see them, and the now-teenaged boys gave their step-sister a hug and her boyfriend a handshake.
Everything was going surprisingly well for two demigods who were trained to always expect the worst.
Both Annabeth and Percy had a bad feeling.
Then Annabeth's phone rang. She pulled it from her bag and excused herself to the living room where she was alone. She left Percy in the foyer with her family.
'Piper McCool' came up on her phone. Annabeth smiled. She hadn't talked to her friend in weeks. The last time they had talked, Piper was still getting over her post-breakup depression. They had talked almost nightly after it originally had happened, with Annabeth trying to make sense of it all. She and Percy had been understandably shocked when they heard, but they weren't ones to be heavily involved in other people's relationships. They knew what it was like (cough a certain love goddess cough) so they respected Piper's decision and supported her through it. Percy stayed in touch with Jason often to make sure the boy was doing okay and still living his life.
Annabeth happily accepted the call and put it up against her ear. "Hey, Pipes. What's up?"
Annabeth could practically hear her friend's sad smile through the phone. "Hey, Annabeth," she said tiredly. "I-I have some bad news. I wanted to tell you in person, but we're still getting settled in Oklahoma which I'll explain later because I can't right now, but I wanted to tell you first."
Annabeth's heart rate picked up. "What happened Piper? Are you okay?"
Annabeth could hear Piper take a shaky breath over the phone. She said, "Are you with Percy? He should probably hear it too because I don't know if I can say it twice." Her voice broke at the end.
Annabeth's heart twisted at the pain in her friends voice. "Yeah, hold on a second." Annabeth turned on the couch and looked down the hallway into the foyer. She made eye contact with Percy. His expression immediately fell serious when he saw the fear across her face. She waved him over wildly, and he excused himself from the Chase family and hurried over. He sat down next to her, his face clearly questioning. Annabeth laced her fingers with his.
She steeled herself for the news. "What's going on?" Percy listened on, able to hear Piper's voice through the phone from Annabeth's ear. Whatever Piper was going to say, her phone didn't need to be loud enough for the Chase family to hear.
Annabeth's hand that was holding Percy's immediately flew to her mouth when Piper told her what happened. Percy let out a shaky breath next to her and squeezed his eyes shut. He put his arm around Annabeth and pulled her tight to him. Both had tears falling down their cheeks.
When Piper finished recounting the entire trip, Annabeth calmed herself enough to ask, "Piper, are you okay?"
There was a long pause before she replied, "My dad has been helping me. I'm getting by." She sobbed out the last word. Percy could hear her let out a humorless laugh over the phone. "I didn't think it was possible to cry this much."
Both Percy and Annabeth's hearts broke for their friend who was clearly in a lot of pain.
Piper explained that the burial was going to be at Camp Jupiter within the next few days. When Annabeth asked if she was going to be there, she said, "Camp Jupiter needs to grieve their leader. I've already said my goodbye. Besides, I'll see him again someday."
After Percy and Annabeth promised to visit her sometime in the coming weeks, and urged their friend to call them if she needed absolutely anything, they gave thick goodbyes and hung up.
Annabeth put her phone down on the table in front of her and took a shaky breath. Her head fell to Percy's shoulder and he kissed her hair.
In moments like before, when they finished school, graduated, and moved out to California, it was easy to forget that they were different from other people their age. For four months, they almost felt like normal teenagers.
One phone call brought them crashing back into their dangerous, terrifying reality.
"How can Jason just be-" Percy started, "He's the son of Jupiter, damn it. He deserved so much better than this."
Annabeth could feel her boyfriend's anger rising so to avoid any exploding toilets, she gripped his hand and squeezed tightly. "I know, Percy. It's not fair-"
Percy pulled back so he could look Annabeth in the eyes. "Why Jason? Why couldn't freaking Apollo been the one if he's so heroic?"
Annabeth reached up and held his chin to force him to focus. Her eyes were wet with tears."Gods, Percy, I know. But this is our life. This is our job. Demigods have been dying for thousands of years, for what?" Percy started to cry. "I know we are not a part of this quest, but we can't let him die in vain. The last thing we should be doing is getting angry at the wrong people. Caligula killed Jason. Caligula did. We have to do whatever we can to make sure that Jason's legacy lives on. That's the best thing we can do right now."
Despite her encouraging words, Annabeth's heart ached. Her lungs felt heavy. She was lightheaded. How could Jason Grace be dead?
Percy felt numb. As soon as he heard the words from Annabeth's phone, his hands and feet lost all feeling. He had struggled to listen to the rest of Piper's words. All he could see was Jason getting stabbed in the back with a spear, falling off Tempest, and then getting stabbed again. Over and over, the scene played out in his head.
He thought back to when Apollo and Meg came to his apartment. He should've done more to help, kept the others demigods out of it, handled it himself so no one else but him got hurt. He should have walked with them into Camp Half-Blood that day, instead of selfishly returning to his safe life as a high schooler.
Over and over, he told himself he should have done better, should have gave himself for the sake of his friend's. If he would have helped Apollo from the beginning, Jason would still be alive.
He expressed these thoughts to Annabeth that night, as they got ready for bed in Annabeth's room.
She turned red-hot right away, turning to him angrily. "Percy, what more could you have done? You are a human being too. You deserve to live your life. You don't have to be everyone's protector."
Percy looked at her sadly. "If I would've helped, Jason would still be-"
Annabeth strode over to him and stopped in front of him. "And where would that leave you? Where would you be right now if you went with Apollo? Would you be dead too? You'd leave your mom, Paul, Estelle, me behind, just like that?"
Percy's shoulders sagged and he fell into his girlfriend's arms. He knew his perspective was ridiculous and skewed, but it was how his mind worked. In Percy's head, he should and could save his loved ones. If something happened to them, he did something wrong along to way to lead to it. His fatal flaw did not allow him to think another way.
He had grown exceptionally close to Jason over the Giant War, but especially in the past few months where he became Jason's personal therapist. While Annabeth respected Jason and saw him as a friend, they weren't the closest of friends. This was hitting Percy harder than his counterpart.
That night, Annabeth held Percy in her arms until he fell asleep, and then again when he woke up shaking from a nightmare about his fallen friend. Percy saw Jason with a spear in his back, his blue eyes begging, pleading for help that Percy couldn't give.
Annabeth held him, tears falling down her own cheeks, until his eyes were dry and the morning sun was streaming through the window.
/
Later that day, Annabeth received a call from her cousin, Magnus. The paperwork for the house was done and it was set to open soon. Despite the current situation, the good news brought some hope to her heart, that there was still some good occurring in the world.
Magnus sensed the sadness in her voice, as her voice was probably still thick from the night of crying, but she couldn't bring herself to explain, giving her cousin the simple explanation that they had heard some bad news. It was all she could manage.
After bidding him well wishes and goodbye, she hung up the phone and turned to Percy. He had bags under his eyes, but his eyes weren't as dull as they were the night before.
She knew they could push through this.
The two decided that they should go to Camp Jupiter that day to make sure they were in attendance for Jason's burial. The last thing they wanted was to miss it. If they showed early, they'd do anything they could to help make sure it was perfect. It was the least they could do.
So, they hopped in the Chase's car and drove to the camp, quiet and peaceful. Annabeth drove as she knew the area better while Percy slept in the passenger seat. Their clasped hands never separated over the center console.
After they arrived at the border of the camp, they parked their car at a convenient public parking lot near the entrance and walked into New Rome. They greeted Tiberinus as they handed over their weapons, who seemed rather reserved and calm, given he knew the reason for their unexpected visit.
They were walking to the Senate Hall when Percy spotted a familiar figure walking in the same direction with what looked like one of Annabeth's architecture projects in his arms. Percy immediately gained Annabeth's attention and nodded his head to the unimpressive boy ahead of them.
"That's Apollo," he said under his breath, striding towards the former god.
He pulled a shocked Annabeth behind him. Obviously, Percy had told her the stories of the god dropping in on his apartment and their drive to Camp Half-Blood. Percy had absentmindedly mentioned how the god had lost his looks and powers, but Annabeth never fully believed his words. Now, she couldn't believe her eyes, looking at the former god. She knew it must be torturous for him as the god was always sensitive to his appearance.
"Hey, Apollo." Percy called out as they approached him from behind.
He turned around to look at them and the demigods were taken aback at how tired, sad, and lost the former god looked. Everything about him sagged, his hair unkempt, his face dirty, and his eyes glassy. The project in his arms that Annabeth immediately recognized as a reconstruction of Camp Jupiter's Temple Hill seemed to weigh him down.
"Percy. Annabeth," he said in greeting, his voice gravelly.
Looking at Apollo, Annabeth didn't see a former god but a broken boy who was feeling more than he could handle.
Her heart smarted, and for once her heart acted before her brain. She gently took the diorama from his arms, gave it to Percy, and hugged Apollo because, gods, did he look like he needed one.
If someone would have told Annabeth a week ago that she'd be comforting a pathetic, mortal version of Apollo while he hugged her back, she would have laughed and judo flipped them over her shoulder. Now, she'd give anything to go back in time a week.
Finally, after a couple sniffles from Apollo, Annabeth pulled away and retreated back to Percy's side. She examined the diorama she had placed into his arms. It was eloquently done by someone with a lot of care and knowledge of the landscape. Everything was accounted for, down to the trash cans in the corners. Based on the detail and handwriting, Annabeth knew who it belonged to. She analyzed the additional temples that crowded the Hill, and she felt her heart jerk again.
He was trying to fulfill the same wish that Percy had wanted after the Titan War.
She let her head fall against Percy's arm for a second to recollect herself and appreciate her boyfriend's presence, her eyes closed, before she stepped back and looked at Apollo.
He was watching her analyze the reconstruction. He cleared his throat. "You should take that," he said. "I have no use for it. Besides, I'm sure there's no one else Jason would trust to rebuild Camp Jupiter the way he would have wanted it. You did do a pretty good job on Olympus, even though we didn't let you finish."
Annabeth had almost forgotten about her redesign of the gods' home. After the gods shut them out and everything that had happened in the past year, it was the last thing on her mind. Now, it seemed so insignificant.
She took another glance at the diorama and her mind began to draw blueprints. She imagined pillars rising from the ground, marble carving into statues, and fountains springing clear water, all to fit Jason's designs. She knew what to do and how to do it. She knew how much work, time, and sleep would have to go into it. On top of college, it would cause her a good amount of extra stress.
But, she knew that this was going to be Jason's last physical legacy and that it would stand for thousands of years, after the rest of the Seven and their stories were long forgotten. These redesigns would keep Jason's name forever engraved in demigod history, which the hero deserved.
She had to fulfill it for him, just as she had said to Percy before. Later, she would learn that it was the fallen demigod's final desire and she refused to let him down, even in death.
From the ground and up, Annabeth Chase was going to build Jason's city.
/
One AP test down, two to go.
This didn't come out as fast as I wanted it to because school, sports, and other excuses, but at least it's not a year later so you have that to be happy about.
I really like this chapter. There might be some plot mistakes, grammatical/spelling errors, or whatever, but I like how Percy and Annabeth's reactions came out. I always imagine that Percy would be angry at first, blame himself, and then be sad while Annabeth would be the realistic one with the harsh truths that no one wants to hear but has to hear. But I also see her with a soft side, especially after everything that happened in HoO. I think what happened to her and Percy in that series made her a little more empathetic because she knows how precious life and friends are. If you think I'm wrong, feel free to let me know.
I don't know who will be next. I want to write Thalia but I want to save her for last because that one is going to be the saddest for me to write. I guess whatever comes to me in that moment comes to me. Hope y'all are ready for a surprise.
Hope everyone has a good day. See you soon.
