Percy Jackson and the Child of Victory (Annabeth Chase x Reader)

Welp, I'm Dead. Not Clickbait

~~~~~Percy's PΩV~~~~~

he Three Fates themselves took Luke's body. I hadn't seen the old ladies in years, since I'd witnessed them snip a life thread at a roadside fruit stand when I was twelve. They'd scared me then, and they scared me now—three ghoulish grandmothers with bags of knitting needles and yarn. 

to summarize what the hell just happened. Enraged at Typhon's defeat, Kronos furiously attacks me and violently disarms me with the first move that Luke taught me (A little embarrassing), then preparing to finally kill him. However, Annabeth interfered, reminding Luke that he promised not to let her get hurt years ago.

surprisingly, Luke overpowers Kronos, but Kronos starts to change into his former body. As I held Annabeth's knife in his hand ready to strike, Luke said that he had to do it himself because if I attacked, Kronos would try to defend himself. I remembers what Rachel Elizabeth Dare told me about not being the hero, so I gave the knife to Luke, who kills himself in order to destroy Kronos (that was how I played into the prophecy, my important decision was whether or not to give Luke Annabeth's knife). Kronos is scattered, hopefully unable to ever form a consciousness again, let alone a body. As Luke lies dying, he asks Annabeth if she loved him, and she replies that she only loved him like a brother. Luke smiles, He breathes his last wish that there will be no more unclaimed demigods, and I promises to make sure it won't happen again.

Luke dies just as all of the gods arrive in the Hall of the Gods prepared to fight Kronos together in battle form but are stunned to see Luke already dead (Kronos essence dispersed), and Annabeth and I there tired and weary. Soon after, Zeus calls for a council of the gods to decide what to do with the near destruction of Olympus and how to reward me, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson. (And Y/N, but he's still making his way back from Yankee Stadium)

One of them looked at me, and even though she didn't say anything, my life literally flashed before my eyes. Suddenly I was twenty. Then I was a middle-aged man. Then I turned old and withered. All the strength left my body, and I saw my own tombstone and an open grave, a coffin being lowered into the ground. All this happened in less than a second.

It is done, she said. The Fate held up the snippet of blue yarn—and I knew it was the same one I'd seen four years ago, the lifeline I'd watched them snip. I had thought it was my life. Now I realized it was Luke's. They'd been showing me the life that would have to be sacrificed to set things right. but next to the blue string was a golden string. was that for Kronos?

They gathered up Luke's body, now wrapped in a white-and-green shroud, and began carrying it out of the throne room. "Wait," Hermes said. The messenger god was dressed in his classic outfit of white Greek robes, sandals, and helmet. The wings of his helm fluttered as he walked. The snakes George and Martha curled around his caduceus, murmuring, Luke, poor Luke.

I thought about May Castellan, alone in her kitchen, baking cookies and making sandwiches for a son who would never come home. Hermes unwrapped Luke's face and kissed his fore-head. He murmured some words in Ancient Greek—a final blessing.

"Farewell," he whispered. Then he nodded and allowed the Fates to carry away his son's body. As they left, I thought about the Great Prophecy. The lines now made sense to me. The hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. The hero was Luke. The cursed blade was the knife he'd given Annabeth long ago—cursed because Luke had broken his promise and betrayed his friends. A single choice shall end his days. My choice, to give him the knife, and to believe, as Annabeth had, that he was still capable of setting things right. Olympus to preserve or raze. By sacrificing himself, he had saved Olympus. Rachel was right. In the end, I wasn't really the hero. Luke was.

And I understood something else: When Luke had descended into the River Styx, he would've had to focus on something important that would hold him to his mortal life. Otherwise he would've dissolved. I had seen Annabeth, and I had a feeling he had too. He had pictured that scene Hestia showed me—of himself in the good old days with Thalia and Annabeth, when he promised they would be a family.