Annabeth Chase

"PERCY!" Annabeth screamed so loud that she almost lost her voice. Her throat felt prickly as she basically put everything she had into that scream.

She watched as Percy, that stupid selfless moron, went limp in front of her. The Manticore yanked out its stinger and seemed to watch with a sense of twisted satisfaction as the demigod fell to the ground. Percy hit the muddy swamp floor with a splat. He wasn't moving at all; he was just lying on his side.

No, no, I can't lose him, not like this. Annabeth thought, her mind cloudy with emotions. Despair, anger, guilt, and other emotions flooded her brain.

The body in front of her seemed to reaffirm the cold hard truth. She had lost Percy Jackson, and she had watched him die.

Annabeth's heart hurt. When she 'died', she came back to Percy. Yet how was Percy supposed to return to her now? She'd heard of Manticore venom being so powerful that it had the possibility of killing elephants.

Tears welled up in her eyes as her vision went blurry. She nearly dropped the shotgun in her hands.

She'd felt pain like this before, like when Luke sacrificed himself in front of her, like when Thalia made her last stand. Yet there was something different about this pain. All those other incidents hurt her, but she was able to keep moving forward. This scene though, made her want to die. She didn't want to face the rest of the world without Percy, he'd been with her for so long, he couldn't just leave her like this.

The Manticore turned its attention on her, no doubt getting ready to send her to the Underworld along with Percy. At least she could look forward to Elysium with Percy. She watched as the monster trudged through the mud towards her, its paws sounding like gunshots as it got closer and closer.

Just get it over with, you dumb fucking animal. Annabeth thought, It's not like I have much left anyways.

Just before the Manticore could strike her down, a arrow sprouted out its side. Then another. Then a third. Soon, multiple arrows started sprouting from the Manticore's side. The monster roared towards the direction of the arrows, only for a bright silver arrow to fly into its mouth and find its mark inside the monster's throat.

The monster clawed at the silver arrow before falling on its back and going limp. It slowly started to dissolve into yellow dust.

Annabeth looked around, wondering who decided to take pity on her. She saw movement in the trees, though she couldn't tell what it was. Then a small group of rubber boats with girls on either side appeared, paddling towards her. Almost all of them had bows, some had crossbows strapped to their back.

The first boat reached the patch of land and Annabeth recognized the leader right away. The girl leading the boat hopped off and onto the ground. Her black hair was tied, her electric blue eyes sparkling, and the silver band on her arm signifying who she was.

Annabeth was face to face with none other than Thalia Grace herself.

Thalia noticed her and smiled, "Well, if it isn't little Annie? You've grown."

Annabeth nodded but didn't say anything. She didn't trust herself to not explode into tears.

Thalia tilted her head at her silence, "Is something wrong?"

Annabeth looked back over at Percy's limp body. Riptide was laying next to him, its owner's grip long broken.

Thalia followed her gaze, her eyes widening when she realized what she was looking at.

"Holy shit!" She yelled, running over towards Percy.

By now, the other Hunters had made landfall and were following Thalia to Percy's limp form.

Annabeth moved in next to Thalia and knelt down to examine Percy. A small red patch of blood stained his shirt. His chest wasn't rising and falling, and his skin was pale.

"What happened?" Thalia asked her.

"The Manticore stung him." Annabeth said, nearly cringing at how hollow her voice sounded.

Another girl knelt across from them, a Hispanic girl with black hair and familiar looks. She bore a SPQR tattoo on her wrist. Reyna looked down at Percy with concern.

"We have medical supplies, maybe we can help him." Reyna said.

"Yeah." Thalia agreed before standing up, "I need three girls to carry Percy to one of the rafts!"

A few girls instantly volunteered. Annabeth recognized them as veterans of the Titan war. They knew Percy most likely and cared for him as well. Sure, they didn't harbor any love or desire towards him, but they still cared about his well-being.

"Thals, we got the bow." A hunter stepped forward with the silver bow from earlier, "Do you want us to split off and deliver it to Artemis or do you want us to stick with you?"

"Split off. Take half of the Hunt with you to make sure you have some support. The rest of the Hunt is going to help me get Percy somewhere safe." Thalia ordered.

Annabeth watched as the girls started to pick out who was to go with them. She turned her attention back to Percy. She pressed a hand to Percy's cheek, he was cold to the touch. By now, a small tear had started running down her face.

A reassuring hand was laid on her shoulder. Annabeth looked over to see Thalia kneeling next to her.

"Don't worry, we've dealt with stuff like this before. As long as we can render aid, we'll have a good chance at bringing him back. Now come and help us get him onto the raft." She said.

Ω

Annabeth hated the fact that she was always ready to burst into tears every time she looked at Percy. He just looked so dead and she hated seeing him like that. She considered Percy the strongest demigod in her generation, seeing him fall nearly broke her.

Now she was in the Hunters' base camp. Their base camp consisted of mainly just tents surrounding a campfire. There were tents for the Hunters to sleep in, then there was a tent that was set up like a mini field hospital. The medical tent had a caduceus painted on the canvas instead of a red cross.

Annabeth noticed that about the camp, everything was set up to be stealthy and easy to dismantle. The Hunters refrained from using bright colors, which was smart in her eyes. It wasn't wise to attempt to sneak on a monster wearing bright pink.

In terms of medical supplies, Annabeth wasn't impressed. They had maybe a dozen med kits, none of them were left unopened, maybe the Hunters had to improvise with their resources. Their nectar and ambrosia stocks were looking good but that wasn't say much since they really didn't carry much to begin with.

A few of the Hunters were previous daughters of Apollo, which meant they knew some medical skills and even had greater powers when it came to healing. Annabeth was a bit reluctant to let anyone get near her Percy but after some convincing from Thalia and Reyna, she let them work on him.

Annabeth wasn't sure when her jealous streak started, maybe it was always there and she never realized it. She hated when people got near Percy when he was injured, unless they were trying to help them and even then, she watched them carefully.

"Alright, we just need a liter of nectar!" One of the Hunters called.

One of the Hunters carried a flask of nectar over and handed it to the Hunter. She poured a little bit of it on Percy's shoulder. At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then the wound slowly started to close up, though Annabeth noted it was slower than the usual healing rate of nectar.

"The venom is acting against the nectar." The Hunter said, "We can't use more otherwise it'll burn him up."

Annabeth walked over to Percy's body and laid her hand on his chest. At first, she didn't feel anything. Then she felt a slight pulse. Then a rhythm started, and Annabeth realized his heart was beating. Percy's chest started to rise and fall. If she leaned in close, she could hear him breathing.

"He's alive." Annabeth said, a giddy feeling taking over her body.

The Hunter treating Percy looked down and said, "Yeah, but this is a short term fix."

"Short term?" Annabeth asked, raising her eyebrow.

The Hunter glanced at Percy, "He needs rest so his body can fight off the venom. He'll be out of the field for a few days, a week maybe."

Annabeth sighed, of course there was a catch. She was grateful that Percy was going to live but she still didn't like the whole venom still in his body thing.

Thalia pulled the tent flaps aside and walked in, her gear clinking together as she stepped in. "I got word from the other party, they're almost to Olympus. We can take care of the bow but we need to get you two to safety. Where are you guys staying?"

"Just get us to a beach." Annabeth said.

Thalia smiled, "Right, let's get going."

Percy Jackson

"Am I fucking dead?" Percy asked Thanatos, his voice loud as it echoed through the dark pit that Thanatos had teleported them to.

"Not exactly." Thanatos said.

"Right, so if I'm not dead and you're here, then what the actual fuck is going on? And where are we?" Percy asked, looking around.

Their surroundings were quite literally incomprehensible. All Percy saw was darkness, but it wasn't darkness like the lack of light type darkness. Instead, the darkness seemed to be swirling around, like they were winds instead.

A slight roaring sound could be heard, Percy likened it to be like standing against harsh winds. He had no idea what was causing the noise since there was no wind. In fact, the place there were in wasn't hot or cold.

Thanatos summoned a folding lawn chair before taking a seat, "It's quite simple. You had a…what do mortals say? A close brush with death?"

Close brush with death? Percy thought he was already dead. From what he heard, if you saw Thanatos then that meant you were pretty much dead. He wondered if Thanatos had gone out of his way to talk to him. Percy wasn't sure if he felt honored or terrified at that thought.

"So, I'm not dead yet." Percy said.

"Yes." Thanatos agreed, "I'm here just in case you do die. Saves me time on the trip to and back from the Underworld. I suggest you relax."

Percy sighed and took a seat.

Thanatos smiled, though there was nothing friendly about it.

"You know, I've been watching you for years, prior to your learning of your heritage." Thanatos said, "Your destiny was written long ago."

"Why were you watching me?" Percy asked.

"To see your destiny through. You are the counterbalance in every battle. You bring balance to entire wars. Wars where the gods are hopeless."

Percy didn't think he was that powerful. He was strong, sure, he knew that, but to be the balance between victory and defeat? That was a huge weight on someone's shoulders.

"But there's guys like Jason." Percy said, "Same with Luke. They changed the course of the Titan war just like me."

"Jason Grace is a powerful one, yes." Thanatos said like he was talking about a video game character, "Jason was never challenged directly by Kronos. He fought Krios, you fought Kronos directly. Do you remember what Kronos said to you during the battle?"

"What?"

"He told you that he should've taken you as a vessel instead of Luke. He wasn't saying that just to say that. He was giving you a hint to your true power. If you had turned, the balance would have been tilted towards the Titans. Even if Luke had stayed on the side of the gods, it would've been pointless." Thanatos explained, "Luke was a mean to a end. A tool of the prophecy."

Percy didn't want to think of Luke like that. Luke was in the end, a misguided guy. He had good intentions but chose the wrong methods.

Thanatos stood up and walked over to Percy and placed a hand on his shoulder, "You're a different breed, Percy. You don't bind yourself to the world by means of duty or justice, you bind yourself to those you love. Take that daughter of Athena you desire so much."

"Annabeth."

"Yes, Annabeth Chase. The counterbalance to your power. She alone is the one who limits your power, not your mother, not your father. Only Annabeth can stop you, there's a reason she was your vision during your drip in the Styx. Your love for her had driven you to powerful lengths, yet it is also what you use to limit yourself." Thanatos said.

Percy stood up and faced Thanatos, "Why are you telling me all this?"

Thanatos rubbed his hands together like he was plotting something, "Because to win this war, you need to understand your power. You think this whole conflict was started from Hektor wanting power? No, he's just a pawn in a far larger plot, controlled by someone bigger and stronger. In fact, you already know who pulls his strings."

"Kronos." Percy breathed.

"Yes, the Titan Lord did not base his victory on one demigod. He knew Luke was flawed. That is why when he comes back, he will not be so easy to beat. Expect him to be more patient. As for you, expect changes that will push your very soul to its limits."

"My soul." Percy said.

"Trust me, you'll see." Thanatos said, "I fear I've said too much. Now, tell me, do you know how to play pinochle?"