Title: Moments in Life as A Queen

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Drabble: Photograph

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Word Count: 431

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A/N: I've always wanted to do a story where Annabeth thinks about what happened to Reyna and how it differs from her. Personally, I'm not so happy with the results.

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"What do you think these albums are for?" Annabeth yelled as she cleared Reyna's cabinets. The few things Reyna had apart from stashes of chocolates, weapons included five photo albums.

"Who knows?" Percy yelled back before coming and kneeling beside his girlfriend. "She is Reyna after all."

A moment of silence overcame Annabeth and Percy. No one knows where Reyna is now. Right after the war, she resigned as Praetor and left. And that left this room all to Frank Zhang who's out with his girlfriend Hazel.

And Percy and Annabeth volunteered to clean the Praetor's villa for Frank. No one thought there'd be so many things hidden about Reyna here. "Wanna open it?" Percy asked, wrapping an arm around Annabeth.

"Yeah, sure, why not?" Annabeth shrugged.

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Only three photos caught Annabeth's eyes. Three photos that told how much Reyna lost in the war.

i.

It was a sunny day in what Annabeth recognized as C.C's spa (guilt crushed Annabeth's chest but she ignored it). Hylla (who looked so much like Reyna that they could be passed as twins) and a ten year old Reyna were playing on the beach. Reyna and Hylla both were engrossed in throwing sand at each other's face.

They looked like they were having fun.

Reyna lost Hylla forever because of her and Percy.

ii.

The second one featured a pikachu, Jason Grace, purple toga and Reyna.

Reyna was grinning widely (did Annabeth ever see her grin?) with her right arm around Jason and left hand tightly clasping the pikachu. Jason was wearing a purple toga with blue stripes (strangely he looked great.) and his left arm around Reyna's waist. They weren't paying attention to the camera but instead, they were grinning at each other as if nothing else mattered in the world.

Jason was Reyna's Percy Jackson, Annabeth realized. Without Jason, Reyna would fall.

And she lost Jason too. (Annabeth couldn't imagine how it would feel to lose Percy.)

iii.

The third picture was of Gwen, Dakota, Jason and Reyna. They were on the battlefield, possibly right after surviving a battle. All of them looked tired and battle worn but they were smiling at the camera. Reyna looked like she belonged. Reyna looked happy.

And Annabeth realized that the Greeks took her happiness too. They killed Gwen and Dakota.

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The Greeks took everyone Reyna ever had (Hylla, Jason Grace, Gwen, Dakota).

Annabeth couldn't imagine what she'd do if the Romans took everyone she cared about (she was so jealous when Percy mentioned staying in Rome).

Maybe, for the first time, she understood Reyna a little.