Never Change

Chapter 1

Percy stood over the lifeless body of his girlfriend, desperately shaking her shoulders.

"Annabeth? Wise girl? W-Wise girl??"

Annabeth didn't respond.

"It'll be alright! Hold on," Percy choked, his voice cracking, "I'll- I'll call for help!"

He hyperventilated, only calming when she gave him a limp squeeze of the hand.

"I- I love you, Percy."

Her hand went limp.

He checked her heartbeat.

There wasn't a pulse.

His heart cracked in two.

She couldn't be dead- they- they had plans. Plans to go to New Rome University, to graduate with degrees; plans to grow raise a loving family, with two kids, and to grow old and die together in peace.

He doubled over. He shouldn't have tunnel visioned. He should have been smarter, been more aware. And because of him... it was all gone.

Tears poured out from his tortured face. Why'd this have to happen? Why couldn't he have stopped it? Why wasn't he strong enough to save her?

Zoe, Bianca, Silena, Charles, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, Leo, Nico, Thalia- and now Annabeth. He could never protect his friends, never strong enough, never smart enough. Even his faithful Blackjack was gone, trampled by a hellhound.

His heart turned to ice as he stood up from her lifeless body, determined to carry on.

Gaea had been defeated, but not without a heavy, pyrrhic price.

The gods? Fading. The demigods? Only him left.

He looked about the bloody battlefield, strung with bodies and monster remains.

His own injuries were minor, not much more than a few gashes along his shoulder. The demigod limped to the fading gods who laid upon the ground like mortals themselves.

"Perseus J-Jackson." Zeus croaked out, "You are the last surviving demigod of this pantheon."

The king of the gods tried to speak again, but he couldn't. He was aging before Percy's very eyes, growing slowly by the hour into an old man. Percy gave him a final nod of respect.

Athena continued, "We, as a pantheon, are gone. When all of us fade, you will cease to exist."

The demigod recoiled in shock.

"You will not have a soul if you stay on this planet. The afterlife exists no more."

He would never see mom and Paul again. Or his baby sister Estelle. He wouldn't be there to coddle her and play the big brother, not anymore. Tears threatened to spill from his sea green eyes.

Hecate continued for her, "I am able to send you to another world, created by the protogenoi Aether and Erebus. Should you accept, you will exist in a new world on your own. One that requires your help to avoid its imminent destruction. You will carry the legacy of the Greek pantheon with you. This will be your greatest quest and task yet."

Percy cleared his tears and sighed; there was always more fighting to be done, more saving to be done.

No! You shouldn't be thinking like that. There could be innocents who need your help, who would die without you. Don't be so selfish. What's another few years saving the world when you've already done it twice over?

"I accept, Lady Hecate."

The goddess nodded, "We can grant you one blessing from the gods here to aid you in your quest to save the world. Who's blessing would you prefer?"