A/n Okay, this is the first, and last, chapter in the Fairy Tale Collection that is not written in Percy's point of view. It was weird to write, but there wasn't another way to write it so here's a chapter from Athena's POV. Term is winding down and I have a ton of assignments coming up so I'm not sure when the next fairy tale will be out, and I probably will break my whole 'finish the entire fairy tale before you start posting' idea because I'm impatient. But I'll try to keep the wait short. Thank you so much to everybody who has favorited and followed. And a big hug to everybody who's reviewed, honestly you guys rock. I love you. I hope you enjoy ~ *

Part Four

Beauty and the Beast: The Statue

The castle was on fire. The rampaging villagers below pillaged, destroyed and plundered Athena's ancestral house. The frightened and enraged barbarians found their way up her secret passage and pounded on her door, their calls as harsh and cruel as their fists on her door. But none of that mattered: Athena had seen the ever changing and expressive green fade from Percy Jackson's eyes. No amount of horror, loss or death could have prepared her for this moment. She felt nothing. She felt everything. She reached up to cup his face. In the short time it took her to raise her arms from her side to his face, his warm, open vintage was cold stone.

Her fingers trembled as they ran over his cold, unmoving features. The stone had perfectly preserved his unworldly beauty. That had been her first thought that night when she came down to find a stranger in her castle, before she lost her temper. Percy looked like a creature out of a story book, a being of indescribable beauty straight from the white pages of an alluring fantasy. A siren, with his swirling green eyes that darkened with the onset his temper and shone brighter than the stars with his joy. Even deprived of their vivid color, his stone eyes still sung to her. His hand was outstretched, fingers splayed, as they were last when she took her hand from his. The hand he so willingly held out for her, Athena, to claim. His lips were parted, his final words echoing in the suffocating space:

I love you.

I love you.

Her shaking fingers traced his hard lips. Wrong. All wrong. Pale tendrils obscured her vision but she could not make herself move her hand from his face to brush them away. Her door flew open, cracking and splintering under the combined weight of the villagers. They spilled into her study, but still she did not move. She could not move.

Percy.

People were shouting. Someone was crying.

"Where is the beast? Where is the monster?"

I am here, Athena thought bitterly, her fingers curling around Percy's lifeless face. She did not care anymore. They could kill her, and she would not fight.

"Medusa! Medusa! Oh mercy! Our baron's daughter has turned to stone." A voice lamented. "And look here, the young Mister Percy stands as well, cold and unfeeling. What evil could wreak such terror on one so beautiful and kind? Gods have mercy on his soul."

Athena closed her eyes.

"Out of the way, pardon me, I must tend to the Mistress. Mistress Athena, Mistress Athena!" Chiron's joyful voice reached her ear. Athena wanted to lash out at him. How dare he sound so happy and joyful when Percy laid so cold and gray beneath her fingers?

"Mistress Athena – oh."

Athena opened her eyes as a person stopped at her side. Chiron stood beside her, eyes wide in grief as he took in the sight before him. He met her gaze.

Chiron met her gaze.

The human Chiron, with thinning brown hair and a scruffy beard, brown eyes staring mournfully at her. Human. Meeting her eyes.

It took Athena an inappropriately long time to understand the implications. The blonde tendrils in her eyes were hair. Her hair. A trembling hand reached forward to tug on the locks. Real, soft, blonde hair. Not writhing angry snakes. The curse was broken.

I love you.

"He broke the curse." Athena did not remember speaking the words, yet they left her mouth. They tasted like ash.

"Mistress Athena, Mistress Athena, we thought you lost, yet here you stand so sad and true. Tell us, have you seen the Mykene Monster?"

Athena did not move as the villagers addressed her. What could she say? But more importantly, what did it matter? With a pained sigh, Chiron reached out to gently lay a hand on Percy's stone shoulder before turning to address the crowd for her. She did not know what he said. She did not care.

"Percy! Percy, you did it! Percy!"

Bile rose in Athena's throat as a ten year old boy shoved his way through the crowd. Nico di Angelo was a child again. His dark human eyes scanned the crowd excitedly, falling on Athena in joy. No child had ever looked so happily upon her.

"We're human!" he cried joyfully, throwing himself at her. He stopped just short of her when he realized who…what stood behind her.

"Percy?" Nico's face turned ashen, the smile leaving his face and the hope, so newly restored, so long forgotten, died in his eyes. "Percy."

The little boy flung himself at the statue, a great sob tearing from his throat. His arms wound around the statue, pressing close as though Nico thought if he gave the cold unforgiving stone enough warmth it would relinquish their beloved prize.

"Percy!"

"Percy?" Little Katie Gardener.

Athena detachedly noticed how pretty the young girl was. Four years was a long time, and she had all but forgotten what her companions once looked like. Katie would be a most becoming woman one day. But now, her eyes were unnaturally large and frightened. Her slight body shook and she could not make herself enter the room.

Lee pushed his way passed her.

"Percy? Where's Percy?" By now, they realized something was wrong. Lee's usual bravo and sass was gone, and he met her eyes without the joy or excitement that Nico had. Lee took Katie by the hand and the pale girl gripped it tight. Lee walked into the room, his eyes trained on Athena as they walked up to her.

While Lee's gaze stayed firmly on her face, Katie's wandered to the sobbing Nico. Her face crumbled.

"Percy," she cried softly, pulling away from Lee to approach the man who had been both protector and brother. Lee's accusing gaze seared into Athena's conscious.

I love you.

Athena fled before Maria and Dionysus could arrive.

The castle was a mess, but Athena would not go as far as to say it was in ruins. Most of the paintings and tapestries had been burnt. Glass and china coated the floor with their broken edges. The statues in the courtyard were rubble. The villagers took the stone Medusa back to Montauk with them, but were unable to separate Percy from the sobbing children. A moot point; Athena would not have let them take him anyway.

Clean up would take a while, but renovation was not impossible. Athena wandered the empty halls, her feet crunching the broken particles under her feet. Her face felt strange without the glasses. The world was too bright. Everything was quiet. No fires burned in the castle tonight. Her feet led her to her beloved library. The doors had been sealed shut; it had been her first concern when she saw the lights heading for her castle. She pried it open now, stepping inside the undisturbed place. She did not make it more then two steps before she stopped. The silence was deafening. In her mind she could hear laughter. Bright and joyful laughter.

I read it, Athena, I read the sentence.

A book laid sprawled out on the table, the spine down. Athena warned Percy not to leave books like that. He had a hard time remembering. She should pick it up and close it properly, give the spine a rest least the binding break. But she could not move. She could not think.

She left the library.

There was no spot in all the castle that ghosts did not haunt her, and her feet lead her back to the study she fled hours before. There was a small fire glowing in the hearth there. Chiron sat at her desk, staring forlorn out her open window at the destroyed courtyard. Maria sat primly at the edge of a chair, Nico on her lap. Athena thought ten years of age was too old for such coddling, but green eyes laughed at her, pulling her into a bundle of blankets and pillows by the fire. Never too old.

Maria carded her fingers through Nico's hair. Her eyes were red, and they were trained on the meticulously reconfigured teacup at her side. Bianca. Even the reversal of the spell could not save Maria's eldest child. Nico's eyes were empty; he did not so much as twitch as Athena entered. Katie had curled into Lee's side and both of their eyes were red. Katie still cried softly. Dionysus tended the fire, sitting right next to the children. He reached out and poured tea from a long forgotten kettle and handed a warm cup to the crying girl.

Nobody looked at her as she walked inside. Percy stood where she left him, arm outstretched and lips parted. The fire crackled. Nobody said a word. The night passed unbearably. Nobody left the room. When finally dawn came, Maria gently shook Nico and laid him beside Katie and Lee to go make breakfast. Chiron followed.

Athena grabbed a cloak.

"Where are you going?"

It was the first time anyone had spoken to her since the night before. Dionysus did not look at her as he addressed her, tending to the fire instead.

"Into Montauk." Athena heard herself say, distant and hardly aware. "Sally Jackson will be wondering – "

"You gonna tell the boy's mother her only son is dead?"

The firelight flickered across the floor, brilliant oranges and yellows. Percy loved firelight. She wondered if it was because he never got that warmth at home. Had warmth and fire been a luxury to him?

"Yes."

Dionysus said no more, so Athena departed. Nobody tried to stop her. For the first time in four years, Athena stepped foot outside Mykene castle. She walked beyond the mangled gate (Percy had just fixed that fence, with a scowl and such cussing, holding unsanitary nails and screws in his teeth. He laughed when she told him that. As if his health was something to laugh at.)

Even after four long years of absence, Athena's feet still knew the way into Montauk. At her soft inquiry, a passing merchant pointed her towards Sally Jackson's abode. Her body felt heavier the closer she drew to the run-down farm house until she came to a complete stop outside a rusted fence. There was a heavy footprint in the dirt and Athena recognized the tread: Percy.

Percy ran through here yesterday, all anxious and fearful for his mother. Athena forced herself to carry on, though her legs felt like lead and each footstep resounded like thunder. The door opened before she could knock, flying open to reveal a haggard, thin woman in the doorway.

"Percy, I was so worried – " the woman cut off sharply when her eyes fell on Athena.

Athena's mouth was dry. She could only stare at the woman – at Percy's mother.

"I'm sorry, can I help you?" Sally asked wearily when Athena showed no sign of speaking.

"No," Athena said honestly, her heart constricting almost painfully. "I am Mistress Athena of Mykene."

Sally's eyes widened. Athena was not sure if she was disappointed or relieved that Percy did not share his mother's eyes. Sally's eyes were blue.

"May I come in?"

Sally stepped aside; Athena entered Percy's childhood home. It was small. Athena's entire study (the room Percy stood in, forever stolen in cold and stone) was almost larger.

"You don't look like the monster of Mykene," Sally said slowly, shrewd eyes scanning the woman before her.

"The spell was broken," Athena said, her eyes searching out the fireplace. She could not find it. It hurt her heart and she struggled to keep her face calm. "Four years ago, I was cursed by a witch. I had snakes for hair and a gaze that turned living creatures into stone. But it is broken now. Percy broke it. I am free from the curse that plagued my castle."

Sally seemed to process and accept this. "Broke it how? Where is my son Mistress of Mykene?"

There was fear and fierce protectiveness in her eyes. She looked like a starving lioness, thin and sickly but ready to fight to the death for love of her cub.

"Where is my son?" Her weak voice was a harsh sound that echoed in the small house. Athena stared at her, her mind oddly blank as she tried to find words, any words at all.

"Perhaps you should sit down."

Those simple words seemed to break the lady. Her body trembled and she bowed her head. "He's dead isn't he?" Her words were so soft Athena almost could not hear them. Sally's legs folded until she sat ungracefully on the dirty floor.

"My baby is dead, isn't he?" She looked up at Athena, tears in her eyes. A mother's intuition; Maria had known when Bianca passed as well. Athena wondered if she felt it. Could she feel Percy's absence, the lack of warmth and light?

"Yes." The word was torn from Athena's throat painfully.

"My baby's dead," Sally sobbed softly, her frail frame shaking. "My baby's dead."

Athena watched her break down. She did not know what to do. She should probably comfort the woman. He loved you dearly. He worried about you constantly. I should have let him go when he asked. I should never have kept him. He was not mine to keep. I am sorry your only child is dead.

He loved me.

I did not deserve it.

Where is your fireplace?

No words came from Athena's mouth. She could not seem to find them. Instead, she stood stiffly and impassively as Sally Jackson cried.

"Would you like to see him?" Athena finally asked. A broken nod accompanied Sally Jackson's great sobs.

Athena arranged for a carriage to take Sally Jackson up to Mykene, but did not depart with Percy's mother. She still had business in Montauk. It was late by the time she reached the village, her feet sore from the uneven tread of the road. That was well. Athena did not wish to run into anybody. The 'rediscovery' of the 'lost' Mistress of Mykene was almost more than she could bear. She walked through the near deserted village, feeling both foolish and endowed with purpose.

She paused at the blacksmiths, where a man lingered, his eyes distant and unfocused. She cleared her throat as she approached him and the large blacksmith stared down at her. He seemed resigned, and perhaps a little sad. The entire village took Percy's death hard.

"I am looking for two children, Thalia and her brother Jason." Athena addressed.

"Why?" The blacksmith asked suspiciously, narrowing his eyes at her.

"A favor for a friend," Athena said simply, and it took all her self control to force the last word out; casually, unfeeling. "I hear they need a home."

The large man continued to regard her. "You probably will find them at the abandoned house by the Ambrosia."

"Thank you," Athena said shortly, heading on her way. The house was easy enough to find. It was falling apart, broken timber and stone lying in shambles. Percy's fears for the children were not unfound then.

"Thalia, Jason?" Athena called, hovering outside the wreckage. "Do not be afraid children. I am a friend of Percy Jackson, he tells me you know him."

"Percy?!"

"Shh!"

Athena could make out two figures crouching in the skeleton of the house. Two pairs of wide eyes stared at her. It was unnerving, looking people in the eye after years of living behind a curtain. Athena fought the urge to close her eyes.

"I will not hurt you. Percy wants you two to have a nice warm home. I can offer you that."

"Why?"

The kids had crept closer. They were both thin and dirty. The girl looked to be around seven and the boy just barely out of infancy. He stared up at her with wide trusting eyes. His sister regarded her coldly.

"Because that's what Percy would want."

It was the simplest and most honest answer she could give. It seemed enough for Thalia. She carefully helped her brother navigate through the house until they stood before her.

"Percy?" The little boy asked excitedly, looking around as if he expected his older friend to step out of the shadows. Nobody told them then, of Percy Jackson's fate.

"I can take you to him," came Athena's stiff reply.

Chiron had a carriage waiting for her, Sally Jackson staring blankly in the back. She made no comment at the appearance of the children, she merely shuffled aside and held her arms out to the little ones. Jason happily crawled onto her lap and Thalia nestled into her side. The ride was silent, except for the occasional giggle from the small boy who thought the entire ordeal was rather like an adventure. A childish dream that would be shattered by the beautiful yet terrible statue in her study; Percy would hate that. He tried so hard to protect children, to encourage their dreams. And here she was ruining two more.

When finally they reached Mykene, Athena could not follow them inside. She could not witness their bitter reunion with Percy. She walked the ground instead. By instinct she found herself trekking through the forest until she came upon the lake. The usual joy and serenity that filled her was absent; instead a great pain sliced through her chest at the peaceful and tranquil sight.

Was this it then? Would everything that once gave her peace now only cause her pain? The curse had stolen her joy, but this fate seemed even crueler. She longed for the return of her curse, for the unfeeling silence of the castle and her old hardened heart. Surely feeling nothing was better than this.

Maria served dinner. Athena did not attend. She found herself in her study instead. A fire still burned in her fireplace, the soft glow illuminating the horrors within.

"I tried to warn you," Athena whispered, walking up to that great stone statue. "Nothing good ever transpires here. Mykene takes all that is good and fair in the world and corrupts it."

"This should not be your fate," she reached forward to trace his parted lips with her finger. "A most unbecoming end for such a blinding and searing soul; ironic for one so colorful and warm in life. You deserved the world, why did you stay here? What good could become of it?"

She remembered the lake. His head against her leg, every nerve in her body aligned and in tune with him. His smile, looking up at her with those eyes dark with desire. Desire? Desire for what? What could she ever give him but death and destruction?

"You needn't worry about your mother. She is distraught, but she is safe. Maria will take good care of her. And Thalia and Jason. I know you worried about them. I will keep them safe."

She reached for his hand, threading her fingers through his cold stone ones. She closed her fingers around them, but he could not do that same. He would never hold her hand again. She squeezed, but her fingers only grew cold from the unfeeling stone.

"A shame isn't it?"

Athena whirled at the voice, dread and fury curling in her chest as she turned to regard the bright being behind her.

Circe, the malevolent witch of Montauk, smirked.

"He was a pretty one. He had a big heart; I had high hopes for him. Medusa desired him, but Medusa often desired that which she could not have so it is not surprising."

"Haven't you tormented me enough?" Athena asked lowly, eyeing the demon in hatred.

"You torment yourself," Circe deflected. "As did Medusa."

"She called you, you granted her wish to destroy my life. To destroy his life." Athena snarled, taking a threatening step forward. Circe shrugged, unrepentant.

"Medusa called me. It had been a while since a mortal called upon me. I was curious. Medusa was a great flatterer, and she would have made a fine apprentice one day. Shame, but at least she makes a pretty statue now hm?"

Circe smiled, a gross mockery of a comforting gesture. "But you are free now Athena. Congratulation. You found someone to melt that frozen heart of yours. Or, perhaps not. Perhaps the curse broke because somebody loved you, regardless of your own affection. Poor Percy Jackson! A pawn in the ever strategic game of the all wise Mistress of Mykene."

"Stop it."

"Even now you cannot deny it," Circe gave a cruel laugh, "even when your lover's turned to stone and sworn, with his last breath, his love for you, you cannot forsaken your pride. You need no curse to bind you, oh wise Mistress of Mykene, for you bind yourself."

"Bring him back," Athena demanded. "He did nothing to deserve this, bring him back."

"I am not a chancellor of death, for all the power I wield over this land," Circe declared. "I am no undertaker nor soul shepherd. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust; there is no reclaiming that which death takes. I cannot bring Percy Jackson back, and even if I could, it would seem a fate too cruel to return him to you."

"Farewell, Mistress of Mykene, I only wish you have found what long you have sought."

Circe gave a bow and vanished in the dark.

Athena's heart beat painfully, each breath labored and great. There went her last chance, her last hope at salvaging this horror. Percy's hand was ice in her own. There was no warmth left in her body. The world was a blur, a haze of colorless, noiseless chaos. Somehow, she was downstairs, in the kitchen where the others gathered.

"Athena?" Chiron called softly, his voice gentle. Athena met his eyes, her composure as hard as the statue that once brought life and warmth to Mykene. At his mother's side, Nico's face contorted.

"Do you even care?"

"Nico – " Maria sharply tried to reign in her son, but Nico was not having any of that. He broke away from his mother and stood firmly in front of Athena, his arms crossed and eyes red.

"Do you even care that he's dead? You walk around the castle like you've always done, your head held high and proud, disappearing like you always do. You left the castle, you left him. Your face is emotionless, don't you feel anything? He made this castle better, he made us better! He brought happiness, and joy, and life back into Mykene – " Nico sobbed now, dry tearless sobs.

At the table behind Nico, Lee glared at her, his arms wrapped around a limp Katie. Dionysus' judgmental gaze bore into hers. Chiron sadly gazed upon her as Maria shut her eyes. Thalia cried softly, holding her brother tightly against her. Jason sniffled softly, his young brain unable to comprehend what was happening. Sally Jackson was pale, and her hopeless eyes cut Athena the worst.

"He saved you, he died because of you, don't you even care at all?"

"I do," Athena's voice was a whisper.

Nico laughed, an almost malicious bark.

Athena stared unseeingly at the fire. "I care. I feel. Too much. You don't understand. Percy Jackson was foolish. He was foolish, and naïve, and simple. Percy Jackson was fire, he blazed over everything until now I can't look at anything in this world anymore without seeing him. Percy brought warmth, and light and yes life to Mykene. He burned through everything and claimed it as his own. I saw that fire fade from his eyes even as he fought to keep it burning. He fought to keep it burning long enough to tell me he loved me."

Her voice shook on the last word and it was like the flood gate had been broken. Her entire body shook, and her vision blurred as she struggled to breath.

"He loved me and I couldn't even find the words to say anything back. I could not tell him how ridiculous he was, that piling blankets by the fire is a hazard and shouldn't be endearing," her body shook, her words shaking, "or appreciate his joy in learning how to read, or his awful compassion towards everything that moved, those damn eyes that always were so expressive and bright and – "

Her breath was choppy and ragged – "And I couldn't say anything. I didn't say anything. And now he's cold and colorless and it's wrong. It's wrong. And I can't say anything, I can't tell him anything. You can't fall in love with someone in a few months, but I did."

"I did and he'll never know."

At this last ragged cry, the proud and wise Mistress of Mykene crumbled to the floor, broken and defeated.

A/n Don't kill me.