"YOU ******, GET BACK HERE AND TAKE IT LIKE A MAN!" Annabeth shrieked, knife in hand, barrelling after her terrified boyfriend.
"AAAAAAARRRHHHHH!" Percy wailed, staggering towards he canoe lake to hide. He wasn't sure of much other than he was wrong about her being happy when he got the card, and that he should RUN.
Thalia's headache intensified, "Would you SHUT UP, Percy? And Annabeth's right, take it like a man. It'll be over before you know it."
"The pain?" Nico questioned.
"No, his life. He's so dead."
"True."
Annabeth almost had him. Just a couple feet ... Though, she was faster than him, so those feet were trivial. The thrill of the chase was always the best part, her heart pounding hard, her target in range. Just a little stab ... nothing big, just to teach his sorry *** not to run off like that. Then vice-like tackle hug, to squeeze the stupid out. He'd pay for making her fury and relief go at war. Oh, yes. The Seaweed Brain would pay.
Closing the gap, Annabeth lurched forward in a desperate attempt to get him as he dived into the lake. She managed to scrap his ankle (not really because of that stupid bath in that stupid river) with the tip of her blade before falling flat on her face on the dock of the lake. The wood wasn't to forgiving, knocking the wind out of her for a second, while her temper boiled. "You can't stay down there forever, you know! Eventually, you'll get hungry, and since the only thing down there is seaweed, you'll either starve to death, or come out and be hunted down!"
Watching Annabeth glare at the spot in the water Percy disappeared into, Nico shook his head. He was so dead. Chiron galloped up to Thalia and Nico from Hephaestus cabin, an urgent grimace etched on his face. Frantically, Chiron said "Children! Oh, thank Zeus your alright. Where's Percy? You did bring him back, didn't you?"
"Yeah, we brought him back. The idiot's hiding in the lake so no one can tell how much he's peeing his pants because Annabeth's mad at him. I don't blame him much, though. Annabeth with her knife ... yeah, not good." Nico shuddered.
"Well, we must get him out at once! If the headaches start ... oh, we mustn't think worst possibilities." Chiron said, wringing his hands.
"What do you mean headache? What's wrong with a headache?" Thalia cautioned, noticing the pain increase.
"Don't fret, we should be far from the headache stage. Just gather whatever is left of Percy to the Hephaestus cabin immediately. Time is of the essence, and we must begin the procedure post haste." Chiron said hurriedly, motioning for them to follow.
"Whoa, whoa, slow down. What procedure? And what would happen if I, say, were having a headache now? Like, what's it mean?" Thalia asked. Chiron wasn't one for straight answers, but it was worth a shot, right?
Chiron nearly choked, "You aren't, are you?"
Sheepishly, she nodded.
"Oh dear, oh no, not yet ..." Chiron mumbled under his breath. "We have less time than I thought. Thalia, go straight to the Hephaestus cabin. Nico, get Percy out of the lake ... Now!"
They both followed orders. Nico stripped to his skull-patterned boxers and dived in to get Percy, and Thalia went with Chiron, all the while her headache increasing. What could possibly make iy hurt that bad? They hadn't had headaches with the attacks ...
Entering the Hephaesus cabin, Thalia's headache crossed the final line from searing to excruciating. Gasping from intense stabs of pain, she clutched her head and breathed, "Oh my Gods."
Chiron's face contorted maximal worry as he guided her towards the machine. This couldn't be. They were so behind, the possibilities of this actually working ... Keeping his voice as steady and as calm as possible, Chiron told her in a hushed, calming voice, "Relax. Remember what I taught you, and breathe deeply."
"B- ... but I-I couldn't ... I can't ..." Thalia gasped, her voice watery and panicked. She hadn't been able to master the inner peace lesson. She just couldn't. There had been something standing in her way, but whatever it was, she couldn't get passed it. Unbeknownst to her, salty tears gushed out Thalia's eyes.
Thalia was vaguely aware of laying down on a bed, the cotton fibers pressing up against her back through her shirt - they must've taken her jacket off to hook up whatever wires they had to. Thalia's head was hurting far too much to care about her surroundings, and that's a great feat taking in consideration how much her mind is able to wonder. She only caught a few things, because her heart thudded loudly in her ears and things took a spinning affect. She saw a lot of campers when she dared to open her eyes. She was also vaguely aware of seeing Nico's ex. She was asking all these questions about him that no body seemed to know the answers to, and she looked pretty desperate to find him to boot. Breaking point desperate.
When Nico magaged to get Percy to stop quivering at the bottom of the lake, Annabeth was about ready to chop his head off. Wouldn't be too hard either. "Perseus Jackson, you are so-"
Nico sighed, pulling his head through his shirt-hole, "Dead, he knows, but Chiron says we have to get over to Hephaestus cabin, like, NOW." Percy made a mental note that he owed Nico something real good.
Annabeth grunted and muttered Greek curses under her breath, but agreed, "Fine, but Percy, you and me need to have a little talk when this is done. And please, for the God's sake," she said, finally getting to squeeze him in the tightest embrace she could. "don't ever do anything that stupid again. I'm practically begging here, Percy."
"Okay, I promise." he siad, just glad to be back in her arms and incredulously to at the tip of her blade.
"Guys, I really don't mean to rush you're little reunion-thing, but seriously." Nico prompted, tapping his watch for emphasis.
"But I-"
"Tell me later, Percy, Nico's right."
"Aaaarrrggghhhh. My head's on fire, w-why's my head on fire?" Percy gulped no one in particular, cringing from the sudden stab in his brain. The pain was so vivid, he could almost believe there was a real knife in his head, the blood-splattered blade wedged half-way in, carving into the soft tissues like nobody's business.
Annabeth's eyebrows scrunched together in worry. "Let's go."
Nico hadn't really been in Hephaestus cabin before but he knew the giant machine they were hooking up to a pale Thalia couldn't of been there before. It was so ... massive. And the crowd of people trying to figure out how to work it - Annabeth's siblings and the some Apollo children squabbling over some biological details Nico had no interest in listening in on. Of course, that wasn't the thing that caught his attention. It was the girl he'd been longing for ever since they split up. Oddly enough, his first thought was, I must look like ****.
When their eyes locked, they stood there for a second, registering every little detail about the other. Nico was caught in such a daze, they almost went tumbling when Rose ran into him . "Oh my Gods, I missed you so much, Nico." she whimpered, her warm tears staining Nico's shirt.
It took a second because of how shocked he was, but Nico exhaled shakily and hugged her back. "Don't you mean Gum Drop?" he said, his vocal chords quivering from sheer unbridled emotion. Enraptured relief trickled into his words, and his trembling hands ran through her soft auburn hair. Nico had never felt so ... in love. It was the strangest thing, but then again, Nico always did like strange things.
Rose pulled away a little, but only to see his face. She held it in her hand and told him, "Gods, Nico. You look like you haven't slept in ..."
Nico gave a breathy chuckle, and spoke softly, "Yeah, I know."
"They ... they told him you're sick. That thing," she said, gazing at the machine. "They're going to ... I mean, what's going on? Are you alright?"
"I have you, don't I?" Nico said in his most charming voice. But then he faltered, and realized what he'd said. "I do, right?"
Rose smiled that genuine smile of hers. You know, the one that made Nico's heart flutter. "Always, Gum Drop."
Then, they kissed passionately. The kind of exaggerated kiss you see on the cover of a romance novel, but never really experience. Except this was real. Oh, so real, and just right. No one else was in the room, and resilience took hold, just as if the break-up never happened. If a further extent of sheer exuberance and joy could be possible, they would have surpassed it. If such unyielding emotion could be labeled relieved, then yes, they were very relieved. Nico had never been so happy, and neither had Rose for a matter of fact. Unfortunately, that's when Nico felt the stab in his brain, like a cold metal rod - twisted and broken at the ends - twisted his brain-matter. It burned.
Nico broke away, clutching his head, choking and gasping.
"My Gods, Nico, what's wrong?" Rose asked, panicked.
Chiron, who had just finished strapping down Percy and Thalia, came forward, and guided Nico over to the last empty bed. Wheezing terribly, and managing a groan every now and then, they lay there, their pain spreading and flourishing like wild fire. There were different levels of pain, like, it would burn incredibly, and there'd be an aching undertone to it all.
They didn't flail wildly under the hand-cuffs and foot-cuffs, it was more like lurching stiffly forward now and again, surging powerfully against the cuffs because of pain increase. A cold sweat broke out, almost immedietly, and it accuimilated on their backs, creating an unpleasant itch along that mellowed greatly in comparison to the throbbing stabs in their heads.
Hooking up and working that machine was no easy task. It helped regulate their heart-rates, record the occurrences in the mind, and at the same time, inject them with the anti-virus - the only cure to this disease. The cure's function, was that it weakened them, and hopes were, that it would weaken the disease, too. From that point, it all depended on who could hang on longer; them, or the disease.
Rose stood by Nico's side, and held his cuffed hand tightly. Horrified by the sight of Nico in such pain, she screamed to the crowd of people, "Somebody help him!"
Percy was trying to tell Annabeth something that she couldn't quite make out. She absolouting hated seeing him like this. "What? Percy, I-I don't understand."
He pointed a struggled finger at his pants pocket, and Annabeth couldn't believe she hadn't seen the bulge in his pocket before. Reaching inside his pocket, Annabeth felt ... Oh my Gods ... a little box. Hurriedly, she brought it out and her other hand went to her mouth when she saw the velvet black box. Percy breathed - between gasps, "... I ... Lotus gift ... gift shop ... I l- ... I lov- ..."
Annabeth sobbed in reply, "I love you too, Seaweed Brain. And yes. A million times yes."
Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she held him tight. It wasn't the proposal Percy wanted to give, quite far from it really, but hey, she actually said yes. He'd of screamed in triumpth if he wasn't too busy screaming in pain. He could barely think at all with that amount of severe pain, but when he did, he was thinking, She said yes ...
Chiron trotted over to the control panel and watched the monitors solemnly as he injected the cure.
From there the pain lulled. With every heart-beat, it echoed, but it lulled. But the scary thing was that Percy, Thalia, and Nico were getting weaker and weaker. Their heart-rates slowed radically, which is never good.
Seeing them like that - with Percy struggling to breathe under some invisible weight on is chest - Annabeth sobbed. It was unbearable. She hadn't seen them so frail since ... well, she had never seen them that frail. It frightened her more than anything.
In that moment, Nico finally realized what all those ghosts meant when they said they had felt themselves slipping away into the next life. He hadn't been able to truly comprehend it until he was there, grasping at straws to find something he could hold on to. Wavering on the thin line between life and death; death represented by a pitch-black and possibly bottomless chasm, that you had no choice but to stare into. Although for him, knowing what would come next, was only dimly lit by echos of the people he'd so casually hung around; the shades of hopeless souls, rooted to the Fields of Punishment for eternity. They were memories from his short, sad life, looking a lot like fuzzy black-and-white TV broadcasts, but he knew, soon all his screens would sink into a permanent static. He'd be a shade. He shad an extra dozen tears at that thought. He wasn't ready to become a shade, he still had a life to live. And from that, while Nico di Angelo was staring down his own death and - for the first time since he'd found out he was the son of Hades- he was scared of it.
Nico di Angelo had never felt so helpless
On that bed, holding onto the hand of the woman he loved - his gripping loosing it's severity - Percy was oddly aware of the things around him. Not in the sense that he felt awake, no, everything held a murky distant light, and it all seemed to be fading faster than he would've liked. He had a strange but complete sense of the things that matteredaround him, and the situation at hand. He was dying. From that stemmed the most mature and most wise thought he'd ever had. He was ... okay with that. He'd lived his life, payed his dues and debts, and rejoiced in ultimate victory from seemingly impossible odds. He'd gained the respect of his father, and even got an 'I'm proud, Son' to boot. He'd kissed the girl he loved, and she'd of said I do if the opportunity came. He'd rose from the depths of ultimate hopelessness and lead an army of his peers to victory against foes that made even the proudest of Gods quiver. He had led a truly astounding life, indeed. But ... there was still one thing he didn't want to leave behind. His friends and family. Annabeth in particular. No way could he cut it off so short with her. He'd wanted to get married. He'd wanted to have kids. He'd even wanted to grow as old as they could together. 'As old as they could' didn't mean there, far from it. That's when he broke the time-honored and respectable train of thought that he was okay with it. He couldn't stand the thought of abandoning Annabeth.
Percy Jackson had never felt so helpless.
It was the oddest thing. Thalia was seriously stumped as to why she felt so ... scared. She had experienced death before - or at least what she thought would be her death - when her father displayed the only act of mercy he had ever bothered to perform on her and turned her into a tree. She remembered only the fundamentals, the chase, the pain, the fear, and finally, entering a state of limbo, which preceded the blank in her memory. She thought she also could've been knocked unconscious for the time right before Zeus took mercy on her, so maybe that was the difference, but there was still the fear she had as that beast chased and critically wounded her to the point of survival being a delusional dream, thought up by some asylum-inhabiting lunatic. That fear, somehow ... paled, in comparison to this one. Like I've said, it was the oddest thing. She simply couldn't figure it out until she went over her final thoughts another time. Among the hurried jumble of panic, she picked out, At least Luke and Annabeth are safe. From there, it dawned upon her not too long after that then she felt completely at peace with everything. Sure, she wouldn't of minded a couple more years with Luke and Annabeth, but she had saved them, and that was the ultimate payback to all the fun they'd had together on the run. Then, she hadn't even considered other things, like her parents; making amens with either Zeus or her mother didn't matter. Back then she didn't need them, or for that matter want them in her life because she had a new family; Luke and Annabeth. But ... she had then just recently realized, without the hunt, she had no family - with Annabeth all grown-up and Luke ... you know. She wanted a family. She didn't want to die alone.
Thalia Grace had never felt so helpless.
For the longest time, the cabin- no, the whole camp, held it's collective breath and waited. It was close to awe, but had more of a gravitated and solely dependant hue to it. Even those who had been completely unaware of their getting sick in the first place felt it, and they as well held their tongues, and set aside whatever they were doing. For those who didn't know why this was happening, the sudden vow of silence everyone had evidently taken complexed them, but they didn't question it out of respect for whatever that grounding feeling was in the air. Whatever would happen next, depended solely on how the Fates wove it.
In the wake of silent well-wishers and plain witnesses alike, a curious thing happened. Not curious in the sense of how of camp full of kids with ADHD stood in that stand-still for so long, no, but that is a wonder. No. It was remarkable. Keeping their eyes solemnly glued to the monitors of their brain-activities and heart-rates, the children of Athena, Hephaestus, and Apollo cabin all witnessed a flicker in the disease in Percy's brain. A moment of weakness. A near impossibility, but it happened, and maybe it was that flicker that saved him in the end. From there on, it only flickered more and more until it gave way completely. It had been defeated, and as Percy coughed weakly, it was exiled from his body in a black vapor that disintegrated completely outside his being. The Athena children hurried to shut off the the supply of the anti-virus, while some other campers unclamped him.
Nico was soon to follow, and it wasn't long before he expelled a cloud of black mist, aswell. He, along with Percy, was in such the daze that he didn't even realize he wasn't going to die for a while. They were too busy regulaing their breathing again with Rose and Annabeth squeezing the life out of them. I didn't say they didn't like that part though.
"Oh, Gum Drop, y-you looked ... I-I thought ... " Rose wept into Nico's chest. It was the kind of crying you did because you were so happy, because nothing could be feel more right than that moment.
Nico put a quivering hand on her head, and felt her soft auburn hair. He wasn't strong enough to talk, but she knew that was his feeble attempt at, 'I love you, too.'
Annabeth looked into Percy's eyes, and told him as sternly as possibly, "Seaweed Brain ... I forbid you to scare me like that ever again ..." Though, her voice was wavering, and she couldn't keep from smiling.
Even though Percy and Nico had come out of it ... Thalia still struggled, and after giving Percy a death-squeeze, Annabeth rushed over to her bedside. She wasn't looking good. Paler than pale, and just barely breathing, Thalia was slipping away.
You have the wrong picture, though. Even though they were relieved when Nico and Percy were cured, their relief wasn't complete, and the air still held a stiff and lasting gravity. This wasn't over until the last bell sounded.
"Thalia? ... Thalia, i-if you can hear me ... please ... just please ... don't give in. You're the strongest person I've ever met ... hold on ..." Annabeth bawled, at the sight of Thalia's eye-lids getting heavier.
Chiron strode forward, a deep and pained grimace plastered on his face. She was loosing the battle, and when a hero lost a battle, it always meant death, and that it was time to mourn another lost one. Almost entranced, seeing her face, he could tell she'd loose, but go out fighting. They always did. He put a hand on Annabeth's shoulder. She was nearly hysterical; she could see it, too.
Percy and Nico were too weak to get up, but they used what little energy they had to turn their heads, and Percy - being in the bed next to her - reached out with a trembling hand, and held her cold, nearly lifeless hand.
As the Athena, Hephaestus, and Apollo children watched the heart-rate monitor decline, they too, knew she wasn't going to make it.
Then, as if in reply to Annabeth, Thalia made a breathy noise that sounded like, 'Sorry.'And her eyes slowly fluttered shut.
It's quite possible that Annabeth cried harder than she ever had. "SOMEBODY DO SOMETHING!" she shrieked. She glared expectantly at the children fiddling with the machines.
Chiron bowed his head, "Annabeth, dear. It is ... too late."
"No," she breathed. "her heart's still beat-"
"Not for long."
Her hand went to her mouth, but it didn't help much to keep any sobs in. Percy wanted so bad to comfort her, but he was too weak.
"Let us mourn the loss of a ... of a great hero." Chiron announced solemnly.
Every bowed their heads, and tears were shed.
Nico was too weak to say it, but he felt ... her life-force still fighting. Weakly, and barely at all, but she was still fighting. He dismissed that and assumed that she'd soon give out, but after a minute or so he realized that her spirit wasn't diminishing ... it was growing stronger. It was astounding. He'd never heard of anyone coming back from being so close, but she was doing it. By Gods, she was fighting back. Against the disease, against the anti-virus, against everything. He literally didn't think it was possible, but she was just that stubborn.
"G- ... guys ... Thalia, sh- ... she's ..." Nico tried.
Annabeth nodded miserably and sobbed, "Gone, I know."
"N-no sh-"
Suddenly, Thalia sputtered coughed and gasped a little. A coughing fit wracked her body until she choked out a cloud of black vapor.
Shock clung to the back of everyone's throats, and no one could move because of the ultimate daze you get from seeing a dead person alive again. That passed soon enough, with a thunderous wave of joy. Aplause like they'd achieved a world peace came from the three cabin's children as a couple were able to turn off the flow of anti-virus going to Thalia. Enraptured Annabeth hugged Thalia tightly, but not enough to cut off too much air-flow. That wouldn't of been good.
Joy and relief spred through out all the camp, and most people didn't even know why.
In the moment of seeing everyone around her - Chiron, Annabeth, Percy, Nico - Thalia realized something she felt stupid for not seeing before. She did have a family. The people who would cry for her on her death-bed, the people who would risk life and limb for her, the people who'd been there all along. She found herself wondering how she could've missed it, but didn't really care. All that mattered, for that moment at least, that everything was going to be okay. Even if the Fates put a million curses on them, they'd come through, together. Hey, it's what families do, right?
Wait! Don't leave yet! There's something after the credits! Yes, there'll be an epilogue. There's still things to be explained, (and I will explain them, don't worry) but I don't know whether to call it an epilogue, or another chapter. Whatever it is, you can decide, 'cause I'm stumped. But anyway, can you believe it? Last chapter, whoa. That's insane! I can still remember thinking up this story. Oh, and I'd like to officially say THANK YOU to anyone and everyone who reviewed, put this story on a favourites, put this story an an alert, put me on a favourites, and/or put me on an alert. *Big Breath In* THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU ... Well, I guess you get the point. Oh, and before I forget, did any of you have trouble connecting to the site lately? It's been kind of weird, like, I could connect to other sites fine, but this one would let me on for a while, then suddenly say I'm not connected when I can clearly see five-bars of internet connection. I don't know. Whatever it is, I hope it's fixed soon.
P.S. Again, THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU-THANK-YOU!