A/N: IM BAAACCK.

District 3 - Four - Divergent

District 4 - Percy, Annabeth - Percy Jackson

District 8 - Morgana Le Fay - Merlin

District 9 3/4 - Harry Potter - Harry Potter

District 12 - Katniss Everdeen - The Hunger Games

Surviving Afterwards: Percy Jackson

There are few things in life I don't half ass: sarcasm, loyalty and the control over water.

When I had to train for the Games, a game maker told me I'd make a better Plummer than Victor. I would've slapped him with a wave of my drinking water, had Annabeth not been there.

Thinking of Annabeth makes my heart aches, I tighten the straps on my pack, trudging through dense forest. It reminds me of Camp Half-Blood, if I'm honest. If I close my eyes, I can almost smell the charbroiled steak and fresh strawberries.

The thought of food makes my mouth water with disappointment. I shut out the thought, and keep walking on miserably.

The sun begins to rise earlier than in should as warm beams of golden sunlight drift over the humid air. Gamemakers must want the day to start early. Well, they'll get their wishes.

Going to the Feast was probably the worst idea I've ever had. Or, one of the worst—whatever, it's up there.

I finally get to my camp by the time the sun has been up for at least an hour. I look upon it with stilled breath— Annabeth doesn't move where I've laid her down.

"Annabeth?" I squeak out, my voice embarrassingly small.

She groans in response, moving slightly under the covers of tarp we found at the Cornucopia. The rise and fall of her chest is a welcome sign. She is alive, we are both alive; Everything is okay.

"Oh thank the gods," I breathe, rushing over to her.

I press my palm over her forehead, just to check, and zip open the pack. "Hey, I got the stuff... We're gonna be okay. Tributes were everywhere but... But it doesn't matter."

Annabeth's mesmerizing grey eyes flutter open. She mutters something incoherent, and coughs slightly.

"I got the medicine... This will— this'll help." I stutter and trip over my words, but I think Annabeth gets it so it doesn't matter.

She coughs again. "Going to the Feast was a bad idea. You've could have been killed. I told you it was a trap—"

"I'm here and I'm fine, Annabeth. I was quick, didn't even get hurt that badly..."

She gives me a distrustful look, and pauses to look down at my leg. "What happened to your thigh?"

"Nothing, just some idiot from Two shot my leg. I healed it with water, I'm fine now. And... He's dead anyway."

Annabeth's eyes widen, "did you..."

"No, I didn't. It was some other tribute, I got out quickly. It's alright, Wise-Girl, I'm fine. Now I'm going to work okay? Just relax."

I pull out the things I received from the feast— a needle filled with clear liquid, some sticky paste inside a canister and a couple of pills. "Okay, maybe these pills will bring your fever down." I say hopefully.

I go to work, Dr. Percy style as Annabeth makes helpful commentary on everything I do. By the end of it, she's medicated as well as I could make her and is looking better than before.

I wipe the sweat off my brow, it must be mid-day already. I want to keep moving, but I doubt that'll happen with Annabeth sick like this. So to keep myself busy, I put away the camp a bit and place the medicine in our feast bag.

I put my hand over Annabeth's forehead again. Her tempurature isn't that bad. I smile, "we're gonna be okay, you know that?"

She smiles at me gratefully, but the smile dissolves almost immediately. Her eyes flood and she begins to sniffle. I start to panic, "what's wrong? Annabeth..."

She raises her hand to stop me, "don't..."

I put my hand over her chin, "whatever it is, you can tell me. I'm not leaving you."

She looks at me with regret and with so much sadness. "You shouldn't have volunteered for Grover."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Back at the reaping... When I got called first, and then it was Grover... And you volunteered for him. They hadn't even read out his full name yet before you did. You shouldn't have done it. Now even if one of us do win... Another will die." Her voice is as hollow as her face. She can't even look at me, she only looks towards the forest.

"Maybe we should split up now," she offers. "Just in case we're the final two. I couldn't kill you anymore than I know you could kill me so..."

"I won't leave your side," I whisper. "Never."

Annabeth sighs, "I didn't think you'd agree with it anyways." She finishes, which is followed by an awkward silence. For a moment, I'm mad that she would even think I'd want to leave her, but the anger only stays for a few seconds when it turns into complete grief over our situation.

I can't live in a world without Annabeth— I might've done it once but that was different. I can't do it a second time. Maybe volunteering was stupid, reckless even. I wasn't thinking, I just did it.

It's not going to change what's happened now. We're both in the games, both apart of the final six. And after everything that's happened, there is no doubt in anyone's mind that whatever comes next will haunt the nightmares of the Victor for years.

"Hey," I say after a while. "I love you. Just in case I die in the next day or so. I wanted to you know that. I hope you know that."

Annabeth's stormy eyes mist, as she grabs my neck and pulls me into her. Annabeth kisses me, and I feel so giddy and warm like I'm back home at Camp Half-Blood and nothing is wrong. I feel indestructible and powerful with her near me, only for a moment though. And when she pulls away, the moment passes and the world fazes back in.

"I love you, too," she says, smiling. It's the first time she's smiled in days.

I say, "We should keep moving. Do you think you can?"

She takes a deep breath and nods. "Yes, yeah, let's go."

After packing up camp, and putting in on our shoulders, I half carry Annabeth along the woods as we find a new campsite. We need to try and distance ourselves from the other tributes as much as possible, but after the Feast is usually the Endgame. And I don't want to think about that at all.

So we keep walking through the woods, and we're going along pretty good. No attacks yet. From beasts or tributes. Past the trees, the land gently rises. I feel an ache in my calves as we both climb towards the top of the slope, and back down.

We've gone quite a distance when I find something that stops me dead in my tracks.

A web.

An enormous web blocks our path. Only one thing could make a web this big— they warned us about it in training. I look up, up, up, and see the beady of an Acromantula staring down at me.

I stare at it, and shake Annabeth, who's still pretty out of it.

"Do you think you can run?" I whisper.

Annabeth rubs her eyes and look at me, "why do you say that..."

She looks up, and her mouth stretches to form a blood curdling scream. I pull on her hand and get her to run.

Unfortunately the giant spider is not alone, and his family pops out of the trees and hunts for us as well. The two of us fly through the under brush, diving and dodging, but the creatures are keeping pace. And Annabeth is terribly sick.

"Hurry!" I scream. "We need to get out of the trees!"

Annabeth grunts and keeps running with me. Somehow, her hand loses grip with mine. We run together, neck and neck.

I sprint the last few yards, breaking out the the edge of the forest. I look back, but Annabeth isn't there. I wait for her, but she isn't coming. Minutes feel like hours.

"ANNABETH!" My vice echoes through the arena, but I don't care if anyone heard me. I shake my head, how could I have let go of her hand? Why didn't I care that I wasn't holding her anymore? She's still alive, I think. She has to be.

I'm about to run back in, but as I reach the tree line, I hear it.

BOOM!

A cannon fires nearby. Tears sting my eyes, and come as quickly as a summer down pour. It's a heaving so powerful it hurts my stomach and lungs. My eyes flood and the pain is so great, I'm certain it will kill me right here, right now.

I rush into the woods again, pulling out riptide, and I expect a battle. As I suspect, the spiders stopped short of the meadow. There's no sign of them anymore. No sign of Annabeth either. The spiders must've retreated to their nests now that they've... I can't even think of it.

I fall at my knees and sob like I'm four years old again, and I don't care who hears me. I think, maybe, if I'm lucky, someone will hear and they'll end me. Because I can't live in a world without her... The world is not beautiful or kind anymore. It is cruel and harsh.

I don't want to win the Games. I don't deserve the win them. I don't even not to try.

I shout at no one; I shout at everyone. I shout at the sky, the trees, the Gamemakers. I shout at myself for being stupid enough to try and move the campsite. I shout at Annabeth for leaving me, I shout at myself again for blaming her.

Maybe this is the point where I should keeping on moving, where I keep going. But I don't think I can. I hate to disappoint the Capitol, the camera's and the viewers, but I just laid there, curled in a ball shaking with pure grief.

I'm not strong enough to win the Games. I thought maybe I was first, but I'm not. Maybe Annabeth knew that.

Maybe I'm not strong enough, but I'll fight. It's what Annabeth would've wanted.

For some reason, I decided to push through a bit longer.

A/N: Sorry it took a year. I'm finishing this, though. Promise.