The voice on Percy's shoulder seemed to chuckle in his ear, sounding like scraping metal. He flinched again, almost feeling the voice lead back to the demon standing in front of them.
Annabeth snuck a look at him out of the corner of her eye when she saw him flinch. She slid her hand into his, squeezing it.
Guilt was almost overwhelming her, (which she was sure was partly because of the presence of the demon,) but she should have noticed something. Brian had always been annoying and creepy, but she should have seen right through him. And now Percy was paying for her ignorance. Her hand tightened unconsciously on Percy's.
The demon had a strange aura about her, like she was fuzzy around the edges. Poor Tyson kept inching back towards the door to the apartment building, mumbling something about forgetting his peanut butter sandwich, and he could not possibly fight crazy demon ladies without it. But before the big guy could make a break for it, Grover fastened a hand around his wrist.
Her (if you could call it a her at all,) image got even blurrier, as did Brian's.
Percy thought he oddly looked like Luke for a second, but then it flashed away. It couldn't be.
Red hair grew out of Brian's head, and Annabeth could barely hold back a gasp, as Rachel was suddenly standing right in front of her. But Brian's same grin was still plastered on her face, which was extremely unsettling.
But they had become pretty good friends this past year. Annabeth felt here eyes widen as "Rachel" shook her head, and it seemed her voice came into her head, saying "Not any more," in a taunting voice. Then her eyes fell on Percy.
This is all too much, Annabeth thought as she felt her hand clasp tighter on her dagger.
That eerie chuckle broke through the night, making Annabeth shake her head. Rachel just disappeared and Brian was back. The demon's image flickered and dodged around them.
"Don't look at her." Annabeth whispered to the surrounding demigods. But they were all lost already. Thalia's fist was clenched tightly, and she glared at the demon. Annabeth had no idea what her friend was seeing, but she didn't want to know. Nico just scowled at it, and was inching closer, his sword held out towards it, but every time the blade got close enough, it seemed to bounce off the fuzzy edges.
It's because they're not seeing the demon. They're seeing what they're jealous of! That's how she wins!
Annabeth was almost near panic, trying to run through strategies, but none of them would work with her friends falling for the demon's tricks.
Hoping with all of her might that this would snap them out of it, she lunged for the gruesome thing, her knife just nicking her arm. The monster hissed at her, but before Annabeth could get another good jab in, she felt herself being pulled back. She turned to glare at Brian, when she found that it was Percy who had gripped her arm.
"I'm going to take care of him." Percy growled, shoving Annabeth behind him.
"Percy! It's not a him! Whoever you're seeing it's not them! It's Zelos!" But be paid no heed to her protests. He walked right up to the demon, who sneered evilly. Her stubs for arms came up, and she flicked a wrist, and Percy looked around him like he was not seeing city buildings anymore.
Brian went to move to the demon's side, but Annabeth blocked his path. Brian just sent her his creepy smile that he'd had in class, and to her shock, he split in two. One stayed right in front of her, the other simply glided past to add to Percy's stress.
"I told you I loved you babe. You just didn't listen!" His voice was still disgustingly cheerful, but his teeth were clenched. His hands lifted to reach for her, but she dodged him, getting in a good slice at his shoulder.
She tried to get the others' attention, but they were still staring at Zelos, their attention not even wavering. She wasn't going to be getting any help from them soon.
-x-
It was like he'd gone back in time. Here he was, surrounded by the trees at Camp Half Blood, and Luke stood in front of him.
But…he's gone. I thought…
Zelos' same cackle slipped out of Luke's thin lips and he showed the ink colored teeth in a toothy grin.
"See, that's the best part Percy," Luke took out his sword, and began circling Percy. Out of nowhere, Brian came up behind the boy, and began circling the other way as well. Percy couldn't keep his eyes on both of them. "I love confusing people. You see, I feed off of the tiniest thought of jealousy." Percy felt himself frown at Luke, who just chuckled again. "Yes, you still feel a bit envious of poor Luke here," he gestured to himself. "He knew Annabeth first, and Annabeth liked him first. Who's to say she didn't like me better?" The last sentence, Luke's true voice did come through those inky teeth, and Percy felt his hand tense around Riptide's hilt.
"Right babe?" Luke purred. Someone bumped Percy from behind, and instead of seeing Brian's disturbing grin, a mass of golden curls was in front of him. Annabeth strutted right up to Luke and let herself be pulled in to his embrace. She smiled smugly at Percy. She didn't look sorry at all to have betrayed him.
Now Percy was not stupid. He knew that this wasn't really Annabeth.
But Zelos wasn't stupid either. The demon pushed all the right buttons, and controlled all the right valves in Percy's head to make the little green monster on his shoulder grow bigger and bigger, until it was wearing him down, his shoulders sagging.
He fought against it, but it was too heavy. Percy felt his knees give out, and his eyes, no matter how many times he ordered them, would not look away from Annabeth's cackling face.
And then the cackle was broken. Annabeth's eyes went wide, and she looked down, in complete shock, to see blood coming from her stomach. Luke's expression went livid as Annabeth pulled at her hair. The curls fell out, and Brian's short locks were growing back. He moaned, almost a little too dramatically and then he imploded into gold dust.
The real Annabeth stood behind where Brian-Annabeth had been, breathing heavily, and glaring down at where Brian had just exploded, her knife bloody.
"How dare you!" Both of the demigod's attention was put back to Zelos, who was now melting out of her Luke façade. Percy cringed at the sight of her again. She'd gotten a little taller, almost unnoticeable. The demon whirled on Annabeth, looking like she'd be happy to wring her throat.
"He was my best actor!" Annabeth sent a skeptical look at the pile of dust as she readied her knife. But for the second time that night, she felt a hand on her arm.
"No. I have to do this." Percy passed her, and walked right up to the demon. Zelos smiled, thinking she could just play him again, but he wasn't about to let her have her way.
"So I'm jealous of Luke huh?" He said conversationally, looking right at the demon's neon green eyes. She nodded vehemently.
"Well, I remember one time, in second grade, I was really jealous of this guy's new baseball set…" Almost eagerly, Zelos transformed herself into the little brown haired boy that Percy remembered bragging about his expensive, big league new toy.
"And when that little girl got the last scoop of ice cream…" And there she was, right in front of him, still eight years old.
"And every other kid, when my mom got taken from me…" This one stumped her, she started turning into multiple kids. Percy could have sworn he'd seen the whole teenage population of New York City.
"My brothers, whenever my dad came home from work and scooped them up!" Percy turned to Annabeth, who just smiled at him. She had caught on.
The two kept spitting out any instance they could think of where they had felt even the tiniest bit of jealousy, and Zelos was just too willing to comply. They noticed that some features of one kid would stay after they'd said another, and more and more appearances just kept staying until she was just adding limbs and features. By the end, when Percy hoisted up Riptide, Zelos had three different faces, eight arms, and five legs. She'd gotten too busy with changing her appearance, that when Percy stabbed her right through, she looked down at the blade in surprise. She hadn't even seen it coming.
Thalia, Nico, Tyson and Grover were rubbing their eyes roughly, partly because Zelos had caused quite the explosion, and because their eyes were dry from staring so hard at the demon.
Annabeth dusted herself off, and looked up at Percy. He was avoiding eye contact, and picking dust off one particle at a time.
So he'd been jealous the whole time. Annabeth wanted to slap him. If he had just told her, they wouldn't have had to deal with Miss Jealous over there, who was now being blown away in the light breeze.
Percy wasn't too far away from Annabeth's thoughts. He felt like kicking himself. Hard. He'd been jealous of a guy that wasn't even real, so to speak. He could already feel his cheeks beginning to burn.
Annabeth curled her finger under his chin, and made him look at her. His eyes looked so sorry; it was so close to a pouting puppy. Pulling him closer, she let her arms fall around his neck in a tight hug. Their lips met quickly, barely brushing against each other.
"I love you. Ok?" Annabeth felt herself blush at the words, even though she'd said them to his face quite a few times already. His arms tightened around her.
He buried his head in the crook of her shoulder. "I love you." He whispered, his breath fanning over her neck.
She couldn't help but shake her head. She knew that this relationship wasn't going to be easy, but she hadn't expected this. Not that she minded.
-x-
Annabeth snuggled in closer to her boyfriend on the couch as the movie started. "I can't believe we're watching this." She shook her head, even as she smiled as the opening credits of 'Wrath of the Titans' began. Percy just chuckled low in his chest, and let an arm rest around her shoulders. She tried to reach around him to the Cheese Nips box, but he pushed it out of her reach, landing a kiss on her temple as she pulled it towards her.
She elbowed him, rolling her eyes.
"You know," she had a sly look on her face, sneaking a look at Percy out of the corner of her eye. "Perseus isn't that bad in this movie. He's actually kind of good looking." Perseus took that moment to scream at the enemy he was fighting.
Percy raised an eyebrow at her. "Really?" Annabeth felt a pinch on her waist where he tickled her, and jolted.
"Oh, don't tell me you're going all jealous boyfriend on me again." She teased him. Percy faked shock and threw a Cheese Nip directly at her forehead. She shook her head, looking at the offending orange square.
"Oh this is on." Snatching the box away from him, she attempted to empty it over his head. Dodging a few raining Cheese Nips, Percy tackled her waist so they were lying down on the couch.
"You're never going to win in the Cheese Nip Wars." He whispered, his voice growing lower by the minute.
Annabeth shrugged, smiling up at him. "I can try." His lips hovered over hers for a minute, and right as Annabeth was about to pull him down to her, Zeus and Hades let out battle cries on the screen, jolting them apart.
Laughing for a moment, embarrassed almost, as if the real gods had caught them in the act. Percy helped Annabeth back into a sitting position as they molded back into their previous arrangement.
"And no, I'm not going jealous boyfriend." Percy whispered, answering her question from before.
Annabeth smiled up at him. "I know." She kissed him lightly, and let her head fall on his shoulder.
Their hands entwined between them on the couch cushion. Percy let his thumb rub the back of her hand.
They both knew that Zelos was not going to be the only hardship, but if they could last through jealousy, they could take on anything.
A/N:… O_O IT'S DONE! I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE IT!
Well, there we have it! It's officially over.
Thank you for sticking with me, especially through all of the bad updating with this story!
(I've never actually seen Wrath of the Titans, so if the actors never do that in the movie…eh.)
Thank you again everybody, I hope you like the ending!