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Leo

A week had passed since the doors and Leo felt himself sinking further and further into a pit. Percy Jackson was almost certainly dead and it was all Leo's fault. He had opened the fortune cookie and Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus. There was no doubt about that. Because they fell, Percy closed the doors. Simple cause and effect here. Leo's choice lead to Percy's death. No matter how many times Jason said it wasn't his fault, everyone knew it was.

The night of the doors, after Nico, Reyna, and Coach had left, the ship was attacked by vicious harpies. Every had to pull themself out of their grief to go and fight them. That night was the last time they had mentioned Percy's name. After that they had to do repairs, then continue on their course to Mount Olympus. More attacks, preparations, and meetings. They suddenly were living life as they had been doing before. They were thrown into their old lives, but they were not their old selves. They were all faking normalcy. Pretending life was as it was. However, they had a constant reminder of the fact that it wasn't. Annabeth.

She had alienated herself from the rest of the ship, mainly staying in her room by herself. Whenever she emerged, usually to go to the bathroom or get water for herself, nobody saw Annabeth. They saw Percy's absence. The other members of the crew went to talk to her in her room all the time. Trying to get her to eat food, talk about what happened, become a fraction of what she had been before, but usually amounted with no luck. Leo had not tried to talk to her. It was his fault the love of her life was gone. He did not need her to voice that fact.

Jason had called a team meeting on the morning of the week anniversary of the doors. They all sat in their usual positions, then Jason came in with Annabeth. Leo and Piper locked eyes. Annabeth coming out of her room was huge, but coming to a meeting? The energy of the air immediately began to become more excited. If Annabeth was joining them for meetings, she might be getting better.

Jason started talking about the prophecy and technicalities, but it was clear no one was really paying attention, not even Jason. His eyes kept shifting over to Annabeth who was sitting with her knees pulled to her chest, chin on her knees. She stared off into space, not seeing or hearing.

"So, as Piper had brought up before, the to storm or fire the world must fall line could be interpreted in the way that Leo or I bring down Gaea. Not personally, I like that version better than we take down humanity, so for now we will just assume that is what the line means." Jason gave a dry chuckle.

"Now, I wanted to talk about the last line, the foes bear arms to the doors of death line. Originally we thought it meant greeks and romans, but something just feels off about it. We're not enemies and we never really were. I mean, it could be true, but don't you guys feel like something is missing." Jason asked.

"Yeah I've kinda thought that too." Hazel said, glancing at the white board where the prophecy was written.

"Yeah something is not right." Frank muttered.

"Doesn't matter." Annabeth spoke. Everyone would have been less startled if a bomb had been dropped in the middle of the table. Piper's lips parted and Frank dropped his forl. Jason sat up quickly.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"I-" Annabeth realized everyone was staring intently at her. "That line relates to what we did in Tartarus, not you guys. So don't worry about it." Her voice had gotten very tight at the end.

"Would you mind telling us what?" Jason said nervously.

"Um" Annabeth twisted her fingers, "I uh, it doesn't matter anymore. Because they're all gone." Surprisingly, she didn't leave the table or cry. She just looked back down at the table. Leo's ears were ringing. She said "they". As in, not only Percy. Who else was down there?

Jason read the room and cleared his throat. "Okay, so that line is figured out." He rushed on. "I think the line that scares all of us the most is the oath to keep with final breath. It makes it sound like someone is going to die." The "else" rang through everyone's ears.

"Not just die. It sounds like a sacrifice." Piper said. Leo looked down at the table quickly. He had been formulating a plan for quite sometime. He always knew he would be the one to sacrifice. He had been cursed since birth. Gaea had visited him as a child. It had to be him. He was easily removable from the group. No soulmate to morn for him. Not like Percy.

He looked back up and faked a confused expression like everyone else, but then he saw Annabeth's eyes on his. All of Leo's blood turned cold in an instant from her stare. He had seen that stare once before. When he first met Annabeth on the Grand Canyon and she demanded to see Percy Jackson. For a minute, Leo didn't see the shattered vase that had been walking around the ship. He saw a leader, a warrior, a veteran. For a minute, he was reminded about the fact that everyone said she could read all of your thoughts just based on your facial expression.

She looked down and Leo tried to convince himself he had imagined it. However, he felt almost shaky. Like he had been caught doing something wrong. The rest of the day, he went out of his way to avoid her. Until Jason came to see him.

"Hey man. Annabeth wants to talk to you." He said.

"What? Why?" Leo asked too quickly.

"I don't know man."

Leo walked down the hall and paused at her door. She was calling him because he hadn't been to see her. Because he had been avoiding her. That's it. He was reading too much into things. She was grieving. She had no time to try to figure out what was going in his head.

"Hey." He breathed as he walked in her room.

"Close the door." She said and patted the end of the bed, across from where she sat crissed crossed. Leo crossed the room and sat.

"Do you know about my friend, Luke?" She said quietly. Leo frowned. He had heard some not great things about Luke, and Annabeth was calling him a friend?

"He made a lot of bad decisions. But he was my family." Her eyes sparkled with tears. "In the end, he remembered that. Family. So he killed himself to kill Kronos."

Leo sat completely still. He had become very aware of his breathing.

"Beckendorph. Your brother that you never met. You know about him?"

"He died on a cruise ship killing a bunch of monsters." Leo deliberately left out Percy's involvement, although she already knew.

"Yeah. They were running out of time, so he killed all those monsters and died doing it. He's a hero." She frowned, a look of deep thought on her face.

"And Silena? Piper's sister?" She asked Leo again.

"Um. She died in the battle right? With a drakon?" Leo's throat was dry.

"She sacrificed her safety to get the Ares cabin to fight with us." Annabeth spoke. That word. Sacrifice. Annabeth knew.

"And Ethan. He tried to kill Kronos even though he knew he'd kill him. Just to distract him. Another sacrifice. And Lee. He collapsed the bridge even though he knew he didn't stand a chance, just to protect the demigods. Thalia, sacrificed herself for me, Luke, and Grover. And Percy-" Her voice choked on his name. A tear slipped out of her bottom lids. Leo sat silently.

"I know what you're planning to do. And I just want to say I'm sorry." She whispered. Leo wanted to lie. Tell her she was wrong, but she would never believe him.

"You're not going to stop me?" He asked instead. She took a long time to respond.

"I have been around so many heros in my life. Enough to know that they are stubborn and will not listen. If you believe that this is the way to win the war, then I believe you. If this is what the prophecy means, then what power do I have? If I tell everyone else, they wont understand. They will get mad at you and make you miserable before... No. I'm not going to stop you. But I'm sorry. I am so sorry that it has to be you."

Leo started to cry at her last sentence. Because he was also sorry it was him. He was so scared and didn't want to die. And he cried out of relief. Because someone understands. And he cried they had both had lost so much.

"I'm sacred." Leo said, hating how he sounded like a little kid. "I don't want to die."

"If I could take it from you, I would." She was crying too.

"You can't" Leo's voice broke.

"I know." Annabeth barely voiced. "But please. Be happy before it happens." Leo wrapped his arms around her and felt all her grief.

"You're really going to keep this secret for me?" He croaked. He looked at her face and realized how broken she really was. She lost everyone. She had spent her entire life trying to prevent people from dying, now she knows that he is dying and she can't do anything about it. She finally realized that death and sacrifice are out of her control. She hates it, but she was trying to keep it together for him.

"Yes..." Annabeth hesitated. "And can you keep a secret for me?"

Leo looked at this girl who he had barely known an hour ago, but now knew more about him than anyone else in the world.

"Anything"