The quest goes on, and then, then at Rome, Annabeth and Percy fall into the pit.

She blames herself.

They are at mess hall, arguing about the future, she lost in her thoughts when the flashback starts to tug at the corners of her vision.

She stands abruptly.

"Bathroom," she says dismissively to the questioning looks.

She almost runs into her cabin and locks the door shut tight.

Then the vision comes, and she can do no more to stop it.

She emerges from the flashback and collapses on the wooden floor of her cabin, sobbing.

She remembers that day as clear as if it were yesterday.

She remembers it all too well.

The day she failed.

Failed her.

Failed the one who had never failed her.

Failed her best friend.

Failed her sister.

It was all her fault.

The screams still echo in her head.

She unsheathes her knife and stares at herself in the glinting blade.

She's a failure, she thinks.

Failure.

She carves it into her left arm.

Worthless.

She writes it on her right arm.

Murderer.

She digs it down, down, into her left leg.

Hopeless.

Blood drips down her right leg as she writes with the silver paintbrush.

Unloved.

She stares, entranced, and the bloody word on her chest.

Weak.

Red paint on her forehead.

That's how Leo Valdez finds her, and he screams for help.

But she is already dead.