What If

The Lost Boy

I was sitting on the floor cradling his head when Leo came back with Chiron. They didn't even try to hide their grief when they saw us there on the bloody floor, me sobbing into his hair, his sea-green eyes unseeing. Leo came over and knelt beside me, reached out gently, and shut Percy's eyes. I heard Chiron come up behind me but luckily he didn't try to say anything to me for a while. I heard him mutter a prayer of safe passage through the Underworld, but other than that we were all silent.

It was probably an hour later that Chiron knelt and put a hand on my shoulder. "He shouldn't have to stay here any longer," he said kindly. I nodded numbly but didn't move, not wanting to relinquish my hold on him. It wasn't fair to make his body stay in this horrible place, but my body didn't seem to be able to move of its own accord. Eventually, Leo came over and gently wrapped his arms around me and pulled me off the ground. I stayed there in his arms and cried into his shirt for a while.

Finally, we heard a dim roar from outside, and while I looked up in fear, Leo calmed me down and told me he had sent for Festus when we arrived to help bring us all back. Chiron gently pulled me to him and guided me outside while Leo bent down and picked up Percy's lifeless body from the floor. I knew Chiron didn't want me to see it, but I looked back anyways and allowed my heart to break even further. It was the most horrible thing I'd ever had to see.

When we made it outside, the bronze dragon was waiting for us. He shot a column of flame into the sky when he saw Leo, but when he saw the body, his ruby eyes dimmed. Even the machines mourned him. Chiron lifted me on to his back again while Leo climbed on the dragon. I could only watch as Festus picked up Percy's body in his claws with surprising gentleness, and took off to the sky. Chiron looked back at me like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it and started home.

We stopped sooner than expected, and it took me a moment to realize we were outside Sally's house in Manhattan. "She needs to know first," Chiron whispered. "I will tell her, if you would like." I slid off his back and wiped my tears away.

"No, I'll do it." I turned to the door of the apartment, but looked back at Chiron before hitting the buzzer. "Don't let Leo get there before me, ok?" Chiron nodded and told me that he'd just be in the coffee shop down the street when I was finished.

I gently hit the buzzer and heard Sally's voice on the other end. "Hello?"

"Hi Mrs. Jackson. It's Annabeth. Can I come up?" She didn't answer but buzzed open the door for me. When I made it to her door, she was standing in the doorframe, her face already somber and downcast. Paul was standing right behind her, a steadying force at her back for whatever news I came to deliver. But when she saw my face, her legs collapsed beneath her and Paul had to catch her before she hit the ground. She crumpled into Paul's arms and wailed. I didn't even have to say anything. Paul carried Sally inside, and gestured for me to follow. I shut the door and sat with them on the couch and waited while Sally sobbed into her husband's chest. After a while, she regained some composure, looked at me, and said, "how?"

So I told her everything.

By the time I was done, we were all crying again, though it was more mournful, and less devastated.

"We'll burn a shroud for him at Camp, if that's something you'd like to be there for. Usually mortals don't attend, but I think Chiron could make an arrangement." I wiped away a stray tear and looked at Paul. He was sitting beside Sally with his hand resting gently on her round stomach. It was a beautiful and deeply saddening sight. Percy was never going to know his little sister, the girl that he spoke about with such joy that you couldn't help but smile. He finally had the family that he'd always wanted, and now he wouldn't get to experience it. I was looking at the life that I was supposed to have. "Oh, I almost forgot," I got to my feet and walked over to Sally. "I don't know if he ever told you, but he was planning to give me this during coffee last week. He managed to give it to me before..." I wasn't able to finish the sentence, but I held out my hand so she could see the ring on my finger. She gazed at it for a few moments before wrapping her hands around mine and giving me a big hug.

"He never told me," she said, "But I always knew you were going to be the one for him. The way he talked about you..." She didn't have to finish her sentence. I knew what she meant.

I stayed a while longer, but eventually it was time for me to go back to Camp. I said my goodbyes and went to the café where Chiron was sitting in his wheelchair drinking a cup of coffee. When he saw me he put down his mug and rolled out the door. Together we walked down the street in silence, still trying to grasp all that had happened.

Chiron spoke up after a couple minutes. "I sent an Iris message to Leo and told him to wait to return until we were back at Camp. He explained that Festus would know when we were back and that they would follow shortly after." I nodded my thanks and continued walking. Suddenly I felt a light tap on my shoulder, and I turned around to see Paul standing before me.

"Sally was going to come, but I didn't want to make her chase after you in her condition." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "She – we, would like to come. If that's alright. It would mean a lot to Sally, and to me as well." It made me get choked up hearing Paul talk that way. He hadn't known Percy for too long, but I could see how much affection Paul had for him. I looked at Chiron and knew that he understood what Paul was asking.

"Of course. We would be saddened if you weren't there. Percy would be saddened if you weren't there." Chiron wrote out directions on how to get to Camp and told him that someone would be waiting at the top of the hill to let them inside. When Paul had gone, Chiron returned to his true form and brought us back to Camp Half-Blood.

When the campers saw that we had returned, they gathered around, waiting for good news on Percy. But when they saw mine and Chiron's faces, their eyes turned saddened and grief-filled, even without any words being said.

I looked in the crowd for a familiar face, but he was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Grover?" I asked quietly. Someone said that he was with the Council of Cloven Elders, and that they would go retrieve him for me. It was then that a mournful roar filled the air and Festus landed softly on the grass beside us. Leo got off his back and before doing anything else, he walked up to me and handed me something silver.

Riptide. It hadn't returned to Percy's pocket.

It never would.

Leo lifted Percy's body from the dragon's claws, then carried him all the way to the Poseidon cabin while the others watched. It was a horrific sight that none of us thought we would ever have to endure.

It was only a few moments before I heard someone yelling, and I turned toward the woods to see Grover running toward me, tears running down his face. "Tell me it's not true," he begged. "Tell me Percy isn't... dead." I could only shake my head and hug him as tight as I could. He seemed real in a time that nothing else did. His body shook against mine, and we stayed that way for a while, not caring how it looked to everyone else.

When Grover finally calmed down, he grabbed my hands in his and prayed a blessing over Percy. Then he grabbed my left hand in his, stared at my finger and said, "what is this?"

I sighed. "He gave it to me right before he... you know. He wanted me to have it." Grover nodded solemnly.

"I don't know how much he told you, but he loved you more than anyone on the planet. He was so in love, even Aphrodite would be impressed. He talked about you all the time, even when we were younger." I held Grover's hand and pulled him towards the cabins.

"Do you want to see him? Before we..." Grover just nodded slowly and allowed me to lead him. We reached the threshold of the Poseidon cabin, but didn't make any move to go inside. "He's in there," I said. "I just want to warn you though, he doesn't look good. He was in bad shape when we got there, and... well I guess you'll see." We opened the door to find a man already standing there. He had salt and pepper hair and was wearing a Tommy Bahama shirt and Bermuda shorts, and he looked remarkably like Percy. When he turned to face us, he was crying. I had never seen a god cry. I didn't know it was even possible. He was standing over his sons body, which had been cleared of the blood and dirt, and aside from the bruises and cuts, he looked like he could just be sleeping.

I wished he was just sleeping.