The Seven Ways to Say Goodbye (Percabeth Fanfiction) {Completed}

5

Three Tries Left

He couldn't believe he let it happen again. Four times now, he'd seen his best friend, and girlfriend, die right in front of him, and he couldn't do anything about it. It was useless, he knew it. After years of fighting with her, he couldn't even save her once. How many times had she saved his butt without breaking a sweat? Too many times to count. Now, when she needed him the most, he couldn't save her. Not alone.

He had notice a sort of pattern. Dark shadows that he hadn't noticed before were dodging out of his vision. Each time Annabeth died, this dream world got darker and drearier. He wondered what it meant. Did it symbolize something? Percy wasn't exactly a genius like Annabeth, and he couldn't even get his mind to plow forward.

What hurt the most was how desensitized he was becoming. In the back of his mind, his fatal flaw was shaking, he kept imagining ways that Annabeth could be saved that were less than heroic.

But each of her deaths were still painful and burning in the back of his mind. He hated it, it was cruel. This whole thing must be his Eternal Punishment. He would go through anything to stop this now. Even listening to Opera music for the rest of eternity or bathing in a pool of acid. He truly, at this moment, felt like sobbing.

Two wars he'd been through, and here he is again, fighting another battle. And he didn't even know how to win, who he was fighting, or what he had to do. Mo, whoever that was, must have been a god. He had Ichor in his veins, and his strength was too much for one man. Why he was targeting Annabeth, Percy didn't know.

The shadows around him swirled once more, and a breeze swept through his hair, his eyes looking to see Athena watching him crossly just as he fell backwards.

He was back at home in no time, the sheets tangled around his legs so that he knew he'd been tossing and turning. His face felt warm, and his cheeks wet. The darkness in the room was unsettling, and he immediately turned to see Annabeth was already awake.

When she saw his eyes, she leaned backwards to reach for her lamp, flicking it on and turning back towards him. There was a concerned glint in her eyes as she watched his expression.

"You were yelling." She explained, sitting cross legged. Percy shifted slightly so that he was laying diagonally across the bed, his head next to her knee. He had known she'd be alive, but it still came as an enormous relief.

"Sorry I woke you up." He cleared his throat, looking up at her. She laid down next to him and looked over his face carefully and laying her hand on his cheek.

"We all have nightmares." But this wasn't just a normal nightmare, it was a cruel torture designed just to drive Percy insane. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pressed his lips to her forehead. They laid there for a while until finally both of them dipped off back to dreams, the darkness folding around them and all thought of he day to come vanishing.

* * *

The next morning was much the same except for the fact that Percy wouldn't let Annabeth out of his sight for a minute. He could tell she was annoyed by that, that she thought he was being overprotective. Which he was. But that wasn't the point, he wouldn't leave her side for a second. There were only a few minutes that he left, when either of them had to use the bathroom. Other than that, they stayed indoors. Percy declined Piper's invitation to go eat out with a wave of his hand. They weren't going to leave the house anytime soon.

Annabeth didn't really have a problem with it until she started getting bored. She finished a few blueprints and some work that she was supposed to do in a few months, she and Percy had cleaned the apartment slightly, they'd even watched TV and it was still noon.