Percy didn't sleep. He really tried, but every time he closed his eyes Bekendorf was imprinted on his eyelids. How Percy's knife felt going into his chest. It was necessary, it had to happen, but Percy couldn't fight the guilt. He knew Annabeth probably couldn't either. After she stabbed Silena, her eyes were like broken glass. Something broke inside of them that day, and Percy was afraid it would never be repaired. Not that it mattered much anymore, soon Percy and Annabeth would likely both be dead.
Grover stirred and saw that Percy was awake.
"You ok?" he whispered.
"Yeah," Percy said, "just thinking."
Grover nodded. "Today feels like the last day, doesn't it."
Percy frowned. "Why do you say that?"
Grover pointed over Percy's shoulder out the window. "Those clouds."
The whole time Percy had been in the arena, it was always sunny. And except for the weird pink sky day, it was very uniform. So when Percy saw the dark gray clouds massing above them, it was totally jarring. Annabeth joined him and Grover at the window.
"Well that's great," she said. She bit her lip. "Today's the day, isn't it."
Percy nodded. "Yeah, I think it is."
They walked in a row, Annabeth in the middle and Percy and Grover on either side. The humidity was ominous, and though it hadn't rained yet, the air was heavy with it. The buildings on either side towered over them, making Percy feel small. But when he glanced at Annabeth on his right, he felt a surge of warmth. He just felt better when Annabeth was with them. There was a fierceness in her gray eyes that was reassuring.
The boom of a cannon jolted him out of his thoughts. They exchanged nervous looks, but didn't falter. Percy ran through who it could be in his head. Nico, Hazel, Piper, Jason, or Thalia. Not a long list. They kept walking. Percy worried that maybe they were going the wrong way, but he trusted the gamemakers to steer them. You can't be entertained if the tributes can't find each other.
The first body they came across was Piper's. Stabbed through the heart, sprawled in the street. Annabeth's face went white, but she wordlessly closed Piper's eyes and kept going. Another cannon. Percy assumed they were walking in the wake of district two. Jason and Thalia were siblings, so Percy knew they would fight together. That was dangerous.
"Percy!" Annabeth said, grabbing his arm. "Look."
He followed her finger down the street. There were two bodies. One was still moving. There were only two tributes who were that small.
"Maybe he's still alive," whispered Percy. He tried to swallow the guilt that always rose when he thought of Nico.
"The careers have to be around here somewhere," Annabeth said, "let's be careful."
"You mean you want to walk towards the bodies?" Grover said. "Sounds like a great way to die."
Annabeth ignored him and forged on. Percy kept his eyes glued to Nico, hoping he was alive, hoping he wasn't alive. Percy already knew he couldn't kill him if it came down to it.
Hazel was dead, blood pooling around her side where she was stabbed. Nico was still alive, but barely. Percy sunk to his knees next to him and propped him up. He'd been stabbed in the stomach, and was getting paler by the minute.
"It's ok," Percy said, cradling Nico's body.
Nico looked up at him, his eyes full of fear. "Am I gonna die, Percy?"
Percy swallowed the lump in his throat. "No you're not. Just close your eyes and go to sleep, ok?"
Nico grabbed Percy's hand, his blood was sticky. "I don't want to die."
"I know," Percy murmured, "just to go to sleep now."
He gently rocked Nico until his head slumped to the side, until his grip slackened. Percy swallowed and flipped Nico's eye lids shut. As he stood back up, a strange fire burned inside of him. He was angry. Not at Jason and Thalia, they were just surviving. No, he was angry at the gamemakers, at the capitol, for forcing a twelve year old kid to die. Percy vision was tinged with red.
"Let's end this," he snarled.
Percy, Grover, and Annabeth stood with their backs together as they waited for Jason and Thalia.
It didn't take long. Jason strolled down the ally towards them, his blond hair gleaming and golden sword bloody.
"I was wondering when you three would show up," he called, "you kept us waiting."
Us, Percy thought, but where was Thalia? A horrible thought struck him. Thalia had a bow and arrows.
As soon as he opened his mouth to warn his allies, he heard a hiss-thunk as Grover grunted and collapsed.
"Grover!" Percy cried, turning to his friend. He saw Thalia advancing down the opposite ally, another arrow poised to fly. Percy tackled Annabeth out of the way as the arrow whistled over their heads. Percy twisted around to see Grover with an arrow in his chest, not moving. His cannon fired, and Percy let out a choking sound. But he had no time to grieve. He and Annabeth got to their feet and ran for cover.
"She has one more arrow," gasped Annabeth as they crouched against a building, "as long as she has it, we're dead. But lucky for us, I have a plan. Can you hold Jason off?"
Percy eyed Jason who was still walking towards them, seemingly in no hurry. He was tall and muscular, but not too muscular that he was slow.
"Shouldn't be a problem."
"Great," said Annabeth, "then I'll take down Thalia."
She looked at him, Percy thought she was going to say goodbye. Instead she leaned in and kissed him. "I didn't want to die without doing that."
Then she slipped through the door of the building and was gone. Percy stayed crouched for a moment, completely dumbstruck. He probably could have sat there all day, but Jason was approaching. Percy felt warmth in his chest and decided then that Annabeth was not going to die today. Which meant he had to kill Jason.
Percy stood and charged Jason, his long knife in hand. Jason easily side-stepped and parried Percy's attack. They circled each other carefully. Jason was obviously a better fighter, he was stronger, faster, and had better technique. Percy only had one advantage: he was willing to die. Jason was not. Percy charged again, but instead of striking with his knife, he tackled Jason to the ground. Jason cracked his head on the pavement and was momentarily dazed, giving Percy time to kick his sword away. Percy stabbed downward with knife, but Jason was more alert than he seemed. He twisted out from under Percy and punched him in the face. Percy reeled backwards, tasting blood, before throwing himself at Jason again. This time Jason was ready, he used Percy's forward momentum to step out the way and throw him to the ground. Percy groaned as his ribs crackled with pain from the impact, but he swiveled around and swept Jason's legs out from under him.
As Jason crashed to the ground, Percy caught a glance of Thalia nocking her final arrow. If she fired at Percy, she'd risk hitting Jason, but maybe she didn't care. She raised her bow and pulled back the string, but before she could release it, Annabeth shot out of the building next to Thalia and tackled her to the ground. Percy wanted to make sure Annabeth was ok, but he was forced to focus on Jason again as he growled and launched himself at Percy. Percy went down hard, when his head hit the pavement he had stars in his vision.
He tried to push Jason off but he was too heavy. Jason punched downward, striking his cheek bone, his mouth, his nose. Pain exploded in his head, but Percy felt something underneath him. His knife. He slipped his free hand under his back and felt his fingers graze the handle. Jason stopped punching him and instead wrapped his fingers around Percy's neck. Percy choked, slowly working the knife out from under him. Jason's face wasn't angry, like Percy expected. His teeth were gritted, and his hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat, but his eyes were cold and calculating. He didn't want to kill Percy, but he had to if he wanted to live. Simple math. Percy didn't want to kill Jason, but if Annabeth was going to live he had to. So with his vision blackening at the edges, Percy wrenched his knife free and plunged it into Jason's chest.
Jason coughed, his sticky blood landing on Percy's face. His hands went slack and Percy gasped, feeling the rush of oxygen back in his lungs. He shoved Jason off and got to his hands and knees, still choking for air. He looked over to where Annabeth and Thalia were fighting, and it was clear Annabeth was losing. There was a bloody slash across Annabeth's forehead and she it was all she could do to dodge Thalia's attacks. His head pulsed and blood trickled from his lips and nose, but he had to help Annabeth. He grabbed Jason's golden sword, hoping the extra reach would help against Thalia's spear, and charged down the alley.
Annabeth saw him coming and retreated to meet him.
"God, Percy, are you ok?" she asked, looking at his face.
"I'm fine. Jason's dead. All we have to do is kill Thalia," Percy said.
Annabeth searched his face. "And then what."
Percy had a hard time meeting her eyes. "Then we'll figure it out."
"Percy-"
"Let's just focus on Thalia," Percy said, "and worry about that later."
Annabeth nodded. "Together?"
"Together."
And side-by-side they charged. Thalia was quicker and smarter than her brother, and kept them both at spear-length. Annabeth attacked from the side, but Thalia knocked away her knife and kicked her in the chest, then whirled around and stabbed at Percy. Percy jumped to the side, feeling her spear tip graze his ribs, then swung his sword down at her spear. The blades collided, almost knocking the spear out of her hands, but Thalia managed to keep her grip. With Thalia distracted, Annabeth charged in behind and managed to stab Thalia in the back the leg with her knife before Thalia spun around and slammed her side with the butt of her spear. Thalia cursed and ripped Annabeth's knife out of her thigh, ignoring the blood dripping.
With Annabeth laying winded on the ground, Percy had to keep Thalia's attention. He stepped in close with a good overhead cut, but Thalia was expecting it. She dodged, spun around, and slammed Percy in the side of the head with the butt of her spear. Pain exploded in Percy's head and he hit the ground hard, his vision fuzzy. Warm blood trickled into his hair and he fought to stay conscious. You have to get up, he told himself, but his limbs were like lead. Thalia limped forward, raising her spear above his head.
"This for my brother," she snarled.
This is it, Percy thought. He hoped Thalia was injured enough that Annabeth could take her down. He'd done what he could and he was okay with dying. Thalia brought the spear down, he heard Annabeth screaming something, saw a flash of blonde hair leap in front of him. Saw the spear pierce Annabeth's body.
"Annabeth!" he screamed, his vision going red.
He didn't know what strength he used to get up, but he grabbed Annabeth's dagger and flung himself at Thalia. With her spear still embedded in Annabeth, Thalia wasn't ready to defend herself. Percy stabbed Thalia through the heart, yanked the knife out, and stabbed her again. Over and over until his vision cleared. He crawled over to Annabeth, who had a trail of blood running out of her mouth and down her chin. He scooped her up and cradled her in his arms.
"Why did you do that?" Percy cried, not trying to stop the tears that were forming. "Why did you take the spear?"
Annabeth smiled up at him, her gray eyes almost twinkling. Those eyes he stared into when he first found her, scared and alone in the rain. Those eyes that gazed steadily into his when they shook hands at the reaping. Those eyes that never wavered, that even in death shown bright.
"You would have done the same for me," Annabeth whispered.
She raised a hand to trace Percy's face. Then her head lolled back and her arm fell. Percy felt the life leave her in her last exhale. He kissed her forehead and shut her eyes. Then he cried.
He dimly heard Thalia's cannon, then Annabeth's cannon. The trumpets played and a hovercraft with a ladder descended. Percy numbly grabbed a hold. His hands were covered in blood, but he didn't know if it was Jason's, Thalia's, Annabeth's, or his own. The arena grew smaller below him, the buildings shrunk, the bodies blended into the gray of the pavement, Percy could see the cornucopia glowing gold as ever.
The rest was a blur. Stuffed into a suit for the exit interview, Chiron's brow creased with worry when Percy refused to touch his butter knife, watching the recap of the games that Percy made into white noise, like buzzing bees. Then the train. Screaming himself awake, not sleeping, puking and then sprinting out of the room when Dionysus spilled his red wine. Pulling into the train station. The sky was gray, gray like Annabeth's eyes, gray like when the light left them and they closed for the last time. Searching the crowd for a face, one face. Ignoring Luke's grieving expression, the hurt in his eyes. Then he found her. His mom. And with her arms around him, Percy could almost make it all go away.
But he couldn't. Not really. Because even the embrace of his mother reminded him of Jason's hands around his throat, of holding Nico begging not to die, of cradling Annabeth while the life bled out of her. Those things, he imagined, would never really leave him.