Awakened Memories

Alternate Ending

"She was the most Athena-like child of Athena I'd ever met," I started, "Amazingly smart, brave, skilled, and so many others things. She saved my life too many times to count. I wouldn't be here without her. Most of you know that we had been dating for the last seven years, but we had been separated for most of that time. I loved her. I really did.

"She went through so much with me, and by herself. She was in four wars. She shouldn't have had to go through all of that stress of trying to make the world safer for future demigods. She succeeded, but it didn't make it any safer for herself.

"Annabeth didn't deserve this." I touched the torch to her body and she burst into flames. "Tammy," I called up the Amazon. She came forward slowly. I handed her the gold belt signifying Queenship of the Amazons. I didn't stay any longer than that. I elbowed my way through the crowd and headed away from the amphitheater.

A hand touched my shoulder and turned me around. Thalia stood there. We didn't say anything, but she put her arms around me and hugged me tightly. I returned the hug and fresh tears fell from my eyes. We cried together, being the two people who had known her the best, excluding Chiron.

I broke from the hug and turned away again. "Percy!" Thalia tried to stop me again. I didn't turn back and kept moving, breaking into a jog. I ran away, not knowing where I was going. I passed Peleus and Thalia's tree, barely glancing at the tall statue that sat there now.

I ran for hours, tears blurring my vision. I had no idea where I was running to. The familiar streets of Manhattan soon appeared and then I stood on my mother's doorstep.

I knocked on the door. It was still early in the morning, but I prayed my mother would answer. The doorknob jiggled and Sally Jackson's tired face peeked out. She opened the door wider when she saw it was me. Then she saw my tear-stained face.

"Percy, what's wrong?" I stumbled forward and enveloped her in a large hug, crying into her robe. "Oh, honey." My mom pulled me inside and closed the door, leading me to the living room.

"What is it?" Paul's voice came from a few feet away.

"I don't know yet," My mom answered as she rubbed my back.

I felt like a little kid again as I laid across the couch with my head in my mom's lap. She had one hand in my hair and the other rubbing my shoulder. Paul sat next to her and held her shoulders.

"The war is over." I finally said.

"That's great, Percy! And you're okay!" She examined my body again, checking to make sure I wasn't hurt too bad. She winced when she felt my swollen knee but let it be.

"No, mom. I'm not okay. Something happened." She waited for me, sensing that this was hard to say. "Annabeth--she's dead." My mother gasped and her hand left my shoulder, flying to her mouth. "We missed one of the Oneiroi and he snapped her neck last night." I started sobbing again.

"Oh, Percy." My mother bent down and embraced me tightly. She cried too. She had really liked Annabeth.

We sat there for a while, me crying, my mother trying to comfort me and crying herself, and Paul trying to comfort her. My heart seemed like it was held in a fist, unable to move. The hand was freezing cold, and as a result my heart was frozen.

It hurt so much.

Annabeth was gone. I would never hold her, kiss her, touch her, talk to her, do anything with her again. It would be too hard to go to the Underworld to see her, every time I went it would remind me that she was dead.

I think I fell asleep at some point and then woke up when I felt the Olympians calling me, Annabeth, Chiron, and Jason up to Olympus. They didn't know that Annabeth was dead yet, or that Tammy would be coming. I found myself in the elevator going up to Olympus with the three of them. They sensed I needed space and let me be.