here's hope
summary: We can burn brighter than the sun, dear. So let's set the world on fire.
-—PercyAnnabeth (post mark of athena)
side notes: i didn't feel like writing percabeth tbh but i was like hey why not so i just did
WildCitrusSunflower: aw thanks.
Star: eww you and hey i told you that i ship literally everything so you cannot get mad. you are correct with that, though. the mary-sueness. yes reyna is pretty badass and she is just all-around greatness. yes actually he was sort of like 'oh they're high school age might as well pair them up that's what teenagers do anyways'.
Ten-Faced: aw yuss.
OrikamiGirl: hooray for writing.
five. when stars come out
Tartarus is a dark place; naturally, where there is an absence of light, a drop in temperature follows. Still, they are part human and their teeth chatter loudly. For a while, that is the only sound they hear apart from their shallow breaths. Then comes the monsters—they make a racket equivalent to the fear of death times ten. No, death is an easy thing now; there are beings here who have been killed many times over and oh, isn't this pair of demigods such a treat, indeed?
I'm scared, Annabeth thinks but doesn't voice, suddenly a little girl again and, oh, monsters are real, are they? She may be a better fighter than her younger self, but she is just as frightened and lost and confused and why does this happen to me?
Will we survive? Percy wants to ask but he's not that stupid—no, no, no. He supposed to be his girlfriend's rock and how is he supposed to do that if he is doubting that they will make it out of this damned place alive?
When the savages come—and they do, in tens and thousands and this will be a long day, long night, won't it?—Percy holds Annabeth's face in his hands and he says, "I love you," so many times that it stops feeling like a promise of at least one of them surviving and starts sounding like a mantra, like a prayer to the gods that will go unanswered. Then, she kisses him with fervor because it might be the last one she'll ever get and it's only logical to boost both of their morale.
Percy takes out his sword—trusty sword don't fail me now—and the bronze shines in hell like the sun shines over the world. Annabeth's dagger is dimmer, yes, but the effect is the same.
They kill and kill and dust litters the black floors and the glint of their weapons could be mistaken for a supernova.