Chapter 16 - Annabeth
"So what happens after?" Annabeth asked.
Percy tilted his head up, staring at the ceiling of Annabeth's room. They lay side by side on her bed, listening to the gentle creaking of the hull as it drifted through the sea. The light from the window began to grow dim as the the sun set slowly behind the endless waves. "Dunno..." he murmured. "I guess we wait for something to happen... like Leo setting off a freak explosion that throws us back to Italy. Or maybe go hang with Frank and Hazel before-"
"No," Annabeth said. "I mean, what happens after?"
Percy looked at her. His green eyes were emerald pools of troubled thought and sadness. Annabeth knew that look. She saw it every time she saw herself during the eight months Percy was missing. They gazed at each other for a moment before Percy's gaze dropped. "We either win or lose..." his voice drifted off. "We either live through this war, or die at the hands of Gaea. I don't know what else to say."
Annabeth lay still, listening to his words, his steady breathing. She leaned over and kissed his cheek. "But we won't die, remember, Seaweed Brain? Never separated again."
Percy smiled contentedly, and closed his eyes, nodding slowly. "As long as we're together, right?"
"Right," Annabeth whispered.
Percy shifted slightly, and turned over onto his side, resting his head on the palm of his hand. "Annabeth..." he began. "I know that the promises we made to each other will always remain with me, but... we are... just demigods. Gaea is one the oldest gods on the Earth. She is the Earth. It keeps running through my mind. What if we don't defeat her? How can just the seven of us overcome someone such as her? With all her giants re-risen? All that work we did to eliminate them? Jason, Piper and Leo to save Hera. Frank, Hazel and me to rescue Thanatos. It took months to fulfill those quests."
"Percy-" Annabeth began.
"All those giants we'd defeated," Percy continued. "Enceladus, Porphyrion, Alcyoneus, Polybotes, Ephialtes, and Otis.... They're all back! It's as if we didn't even do anything! Was it all in vain?"
"Hey," Annabeth soothed, rolling onto her side and stroking his hair, brushing it back. "It wasn't in vain, remember? We saved Thanatos. We saved Hera - as much as I hate that backstabbing loose cannon, she's on our side."
Percy said nothing, but kept his eyes on the bed sheets.
"Those quests were meant to join us, and help us recognize who we are as allies. Had it not been for these quests we still probably wouldn't even know Jason, Hazel, Frank - and the entire rest of Camp Jupiter," Annabeth continued. "We'd still be separated, we wouldn't be united on this quest to Greece. It all meant something for other reasons, not just to kill giants."
Percy stayed silent.
"Sure the giants are back, but we can defeat them again. We've done it before divided. We can do it again united. Plus Percy, you're like the most powerful demigod in existence, so..."
Percy snorted and lowered his head further, scratching his scalp. "I don't know about most powerful, but I guess I have done some crazy things in my life, huh?"
"It seriously took you this long to realize that?" Annabeth grinned.
Percy's laughed lightly, but after a moment, his smile wavered, and his shoulders slumped again. "But Annabeth. When the final battle comes..." he finally turned his green eyes back up to her again. "If anything should happen - anything to me, anything to anyone." He paused. "Anything to you... you and I both know I would risk everything to save you. You know my fatal flaw. And should anything happen to me, if it's gonna be decision to either save me or save yourself, I want you to promise me Annabeth, that you will save yourself."
Annabeth had started to feel the tears gathering in her eyes halfway through Percy's request. She glared at him through her tears, her vision becoming blurry. "And you and I both know that I will never let that happen," she countered. "I'm here to save you, as you're here to save me. I didn't walk an entire journey down Tartarus's long intestine just to see you fall in some stupid battle against a snoring dirt woman."
Percy gazed at her. "It's my job as being the gentleman," he said. "I hold the door for you, I walk you to the porch, I stick to the side of the path facing the street - and I will take the spear when it's aimed at you."
"No!" Annabeth snapped, her tears falling now. "Percy you have no idea how much that'll break me if that happens."
"It's my way of repaying the favor," Percy said. "After all, I still owe you, remember?"
Annabeth's mind drifted back to the Brooklyn Bridge, Percy's sword flashing in the dawn sky, Kronos laughing, enemy demigods jeering. She saw a silver knife flash in the grey sky, Ethan Nakamura's face twisted with vengeance as he struck at Percy's lower back, Annabeth finding herself leaping forward into the trajectory of the incoming blade.
"You've already saved me countless times after that," she said. "You've already re-payed it."
Percy shook his head, clearly unsatisfied.
"Why must you be so stubborn?" Annabeth hissed.
"You know me," Percy gave her that mischievous smirk that eventually came to melt her heart every time. "I'm a barbarian."
Annabeth looked down. "Percy, I fear for you. All those times I watched you step into battle while I watch helplessly from the sidelines just adds to the pain of seeing you fall. You risk so much for your friends that it will come and bite you back. Your fatal flaw says it all. And if that happens... I won't be able to live."
Percy edged closer. "Annabeth..." he trailed off. "Please don't talk like that-"
"I love you," Annabeth said. "Percy, I love you so much. And if you die shielding me from an enemy's lance, it will only kill me harder."
The silence unfolded, becoming longer and slower.
"You've never said that before."
Annabeth looked up. Percy was watching her silently. "What?" she asked.
"You just said you loved me," Percy said. "You've never said that before."
"I did," Annabeth said. "When we were falling into Tartarus."
Percy looked away as if trying to remember. "I don't think I heard it," he said, his eyes suddenly sad. "I wish I had though. I guess the wind was in my ears."
"Well you just heard it now," Annabeth said. "And do you know what that means? The bond we share. We keep each other safe. We fight shoulder to shoulder. And I will never promise to run away if there's a chance to save you. Remember our first kiss? I will never make things easy for you. You're just gonna have to get used to it, Seaweed Brain."
Percy held her eyes for a long time, but Annabeth didn't back down. When he finally looked down, he muttered, "Fine."
"Now that's the Seaweed Brain I know," Annabeth cooed, taking his face in her hands and kissing his lips.
"Ah, young love is such a precious thing, isn't it?"
The room suddenly grew dark, and the ship shuddered violently. Percy and Annabeth leaped to their feet, swords drawn.
At the end of the room, a faint but physical form materialized in front of them: a young woman embraced within the folds of mud robes, grass and leafs entwined with curly black hair, and though her form was faint, her eyes were closed as if in a deep slumber.
"Gaea," Annabeth snarled.
"I remember when I was in love..." The voice swept all around the room, not seeming to be coming from a set point. "My beloved Ouranos. Handsome, young, with the sky as his form. He was a lovely husband to me before he cast my children into Tartartus. So, I sicked my Titan children on him. They held him down as Kronos cut him to pieces with the scythe I crafted. Oh, the joys of young marriage."
"Yeah, we heard the story already," Percy said. "Just as disgusting the first time."
Gaea turned her sleeping face on him. "Ah, Percy Jackson, my dearest, young pawn. How do you fair? Not well I assume, after encountering my husband, Tartarus himself. Isn't he such a marvel?"
"Get off our ship," Percy hissed, Riptide held firm. "Didn't you read the sign? It says: 'No five thousand year old dirt women aboard who snore like Smelly Gabe'."
"Alas, I do not know this 'Smelly Gabe' you speak of, so I assume I get a free pass," Gaea's voice cooed. "I do not wish to kill you anyways if that is what you think. I need your blood on August first to aid my grand awakening."
"Then why are you here?" Annabeth demanded.
"To merely show you something you may perhaps be eager to see."
The room suddenly dissolved around them, and Annabeth felt herself being transported through a series of strange dimensions. When the world stopped spinning, and her eyes refocused, Annabeth realized she wasn't in her cabin room of the Argo II anymore. She stood at the base of Half-Blood Hill, and pandemonium clashed all around her. She saw Greeks and Romans alike going sword on spear, Pegasi swooping through the air clashing with Giant Eagles, Octavion's voice screaming above the roar of the battle: "Kill them! Kill them all!" The cabins were on fire, the Big House destroyed, and the crumbled ruins of the Athena Parthenos stood on the peak of the hill, where a jagged stump lay that had once been Thalia's Pine.
Reyna, Nico, and Coach Hedge's attempt to restore peace had failed. Camp Half-Blood was at war, and there was nothing she could do.
Suddenly the image shifted. She now stood on the brinks of another battle. The actual Parthenon in Athens, where she saw her friends battling several giants, the laughter of Gaea echoing freely throughout the palace. Her friends were being beaten like rag dolls, the giants tossing them about, swinging at them with their giant clubs and spears. She then heard a groan at her feet. She looked down and gasped. Percy lay at her feet, twisted, bloody, and broken, the shaft of a huge lance gouged through his stomach. "Percy!" she cried dropping to her knees and cradling his head against her chest. She started screaming, "What did you do to him? I'll kill you!"
Hands suddenly gripped her shoulders, and she was jolted back to reality. The image faded before her. She stood there stunned. The vision had seemed so real. "It's okay," Percy said into her ear. "I'm right here. I'm all right."
Her cabin room materialized in front of her once more. She looked over at Percy in relief only to stop cold. Percy's face was fixed on something she couldn't see. His face pure white, beads of sweat trickling down his forehead. He suddenly let loose a scream and Annabeth leaped backward in terror. "No!" he shouted. He fell to his knees, and clutched his head, his eyes squeezed tight, jerking back and forth violently as if having a seizure. "Annabeth! No! NO! You killed her! You KILLED HER! I'll tear you apart Gaea! I swear to all the gods!"
Annabeth rushed to his side, gripping his face. "Percy it's okay! It's okay! I'm right here! Shh... Shh..." She stroked his hair, pulling him close. "We're together! We're together, it's okay."
Percy began to quiet down, shuddering and gasping, leaning against her, apparently having escaped the horrific vision he had been enduring. He was trembling so hard Annabeth figured he may as well have been dancing.
"Shh... Shh..." Annnabeth whispered, holding him tightly, running her fingers through his hair.
Noise exploded from outside and she could hear her friends' voices out in the hall, their fists pounding on the door, twisting the knob, but somehow the door was bolted shut.
"You see...?" Gaea's voice whispered bemusedly. "There is no escape from the wrath of me. You will all perish under my hand, and your beloved camps will be utterly destroyed. No one can help now."
"GET OUT OF HERE!" Percy bellowed, wrenching himself out of Annabeth's arms and uncapping Riptide once more. He hurled it at Gaea's form like a throwing knife and the Earth Mother exploded into tiny fragments of dirt and rocks, Riptide thudding into the opposite wall of the room where it stuck there quivering, the voice of Gaea fading from the room. "You have no chance!" Her laughter dissipated into open air, and suddenly they heard the lock click on the knob. The door flew open and their friends burst into the room.
"What's going on?" Jason asked, frantically shaking Percy's shoulders. "Are you okay? What happened?"
Percy stared at nothing, seeming unable to speak.
Piper helped Annabeth to her feet. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Are you alright?"
Frank, Hazel, and Leo stood around them, concern on their faces.
"We're alright," Annabeth said quietly. "Our evening was ruined though by a nice surprise visit from Gaea."
"Gaea?" Jason asked, his eyes falling on Annabeth. "What did she want?"
"She wanted to tell us that we'll utterly fail our quest, be sacrificed to help her rise, be destroyed by her giants, fail to save both our camps, and then she showed us a pleasant view of the carnage she had in mind," Percy explained in a gruff, angry tone.
"Oh my gods," Hazel whispered.
"You guys, I'm so sorry," Piper said, wrapping Annabeth in a hug.
Jason was quiet for a moment before saying. "We need to find Eurynome. I can't stand sitting here and doing nothing while we get attacked by Queen Dirt Face. Leo, how far now to Rhodes?"
"We should be there in the next hour or so," Leo said.
"Good." Jason turned back to Percy and Annabeth. "Are you guys sure you're okay now?"
They nodded, too dazed to speak.
Jason nodded. "We'll set out for Rhodes tomorrow at dawn," he said. "Come one everyone. Let's get some sleep."
Update! Whoop Whoop!
School's killing me already. Only two weeks into the semester and I'm already stressed. But I finished everything I needed to do today, so I thought an update would be nice.
Please comment and vote! I love hearing your feedback!
Next Trivia: Who was the god Percy ran into in The Titan's Curse, and what was his undercover name? (And think about this for a little bit, guys. Don't just go straight to the book and start flipping through the pages searching for the answer. Also, don't just comment the answer, please! Actually give me your intake on this chapter! Tell me what you think! That's what I like to hear, not just the answer to the trivia.)
Hope everyone liked this chapter!
Love you all demigods!
Until next time!