Seaweed and Wise - Never letting go

3. Falling

This is a time skip to Annabeth's POV of the day described in the last chapter :)

-V

When Chiron said I had to go back to Athena's cabin my heart almost stopped. Suddenly I lost my senses in a blur of thoughts.
Of course we had to sleep in our own rooms on Argo II but when coach Hedge left we've had no one but the stupid Buford table to watch over us. And as a child of Athena it wasn't really hard for me to convince a table to let me do whatever I wanted.
I always sneaked to Percy's room. That's how we kept the nightmares away. Or at least handled them. Together. That's how we kept ourselves going for our team, for our friends and the camps.
But there was no more 'I' or 'Percy' by that time. Only a couple, a serious package deal, an us.
I took Percy and ran out of the Big house with him by my side. I didn't know what to do in the moment. My brain felt like mush. My stomach felt like if I just finished the 15th barrel roll on a Pegasus ride. My palms were tingling.
I couldn't think. I was afraid that I'd have to close my eyes and drown right in the pool of hell again.
"Come with me." Percy took my hand and smiled.
"Don't worry about it now," he said, leading me to the Arena.
Worry became my second name mate...
Percy was excelent in sword fighting but I did keep up with him even without my dagger, which I've lost, along with my laptop, leaving me with the Drakon bone sword and nothing else.
After so many years that we fought side by side I've learned his battle strategies. I could predict his next move without actually thinking about it.
He ended up on the ground soon. Disarmed.
I tripped his legs from the ground and jumped up over him, blade at his chest.
"Got you," I grinned.
"You had me like 6 years ago Wise girl," Percy laughed.
All awkwardness aside, I did a little courtesy right in the tough, bloody, arena and reached to him.
I pulled Percy back to his feet, smiling. And then we went for a walk...
The beach was beautiful, more today than ever.
We were there for a couple hours and talked about everything. The past, the future, Leo, Chiron's order. Mostly in grudgingly matters.

"I'd love to know who ratted us out to him," I muttered. "Maybe that man saw us though."
Percy just smirked.
"What would you do anyway? It's not like you could blame anyone. I bet the other couples would kill for the time we had spent together."
"You're right, I guess. Did you hear what Piper did to the Nemesis kid though?"
Percy shook his head. "No?"
"She made him apologize to Nyssa, for one."
"That's understandable, what else? This isn't all, right?"
I shook my head. Percy knew Piper well enough by now. They were quite alike in some aspects actually, sometimes.
"He had to clean the whole cabin 9 and you know how messy Leo and his siblings are."
"Yeah, but wasn't it a little stupid, honestly? I mean doing something like that to a child of freakin' Nemesis?"
I shrugged.
I haven't really thought of that.
"Piper can take care of herself. Anyway, I was thinking about the school before and, well, where am I supposed to stay? Are you staying at camp or moving back to your mom and Paul? Piper and Jason said that Argus was gonna drive them to and back from the bus station and they would probably stay here. Or at least that's what she thinks right now, sounds complicated to me but whatever."
When I turned to Percy he seemed worried. Like super worried and then it hit me.
"You haven't talked to your mom again, have you?"
"I did, kinda. I Iris messaged her back from Argo but it was before you left for the mark of Athena and I pretty much just told her that I was alive and then I had to hurry to the stables because of BlackJack. Then just quickly after the battle here... I didn't catch her the next day, forgot yesterday."
"You're the worst son ever Perseus Jackson!" I scolded him.
He deserved it, his mom was all I've ever wanted, nice and caring, and she never gave up on him.
"We should visit my parents tomorrow. What do you think Annabeth? I miss them a lot and... I don't even want to imagine how worried she must be right now but you have to admit that we do have quite a good apology," he grinned.
"I've had enough heroic stunts for a few lifetimes. What about you?" Percy asked, throwing a fist full of sand before us.
I got up and just stood there. Thinking of his question. Watching the waves break as they hit the stones set on the shore.
"Me too," I turned to him and smiled. "We should go get dinner before they start the campfire," Percy said while getting up and falling back on the sand...
"Hey, stop laughing!" He shouted and ran after me.
The campfire sucked.
It just reminded us of how many bodies we've burned down and the friends we could never see again. Percy and I walked to Athena's cabin instead of sulking with the others.
I didn't feel good about anything but I was not gonna sit on my bed and cry like a baby.
Instead I took a shower and collapsed on my bunk. It felt kinda great to be with my brothers and sisters again. But then I had enough of their tiresome guestions about the fights... Instead I started talking about Arachne. She scared me but she scared them even more. I fell asleep while some kids still had lights on, probably reading... Imagine pure torture.
I was standing at the forum in New Rome, kids were standing all around me. Everyone's faces were blank.
I saw Reyna and Hazel in the crowd. Then I noticed that everybody was staring at me.
I walked over to the only people I knew "H-Hazel? Reyna? Please say something," I stuttered.
"Anything! What's going on in here? HAZEL!" I screamed at them but their heads just kept turning everywhere I'd go, nothing more.
I looked down and saw blood dripping down my thigh, though I didn't feel any pain.
The blank faces started smiling and I looked at myself. My hands were covered in blood, my shirt was torn and I was bleeding from several deep cuts in my abdomen. I pressed the wounds with my hands and fell to the ground as my knees broke down on me. The kids started staring at the place where I was standing just a while ago.
The wound hurt but I turned around anyway. The ground was soaked with blood, making the mud red.
Suddenly my vision cleared and my worst nightmares became reality.
"Noo! No, no, nooo!" I screamed from the top of my lungs, scrambling back to the spot.
I saw Octavian standing over Percy. A boy and a girl holding him up while Octavian kept stabbing him as if he were one of his soft toys. With every stab I felt sharp pain surge into my body and started bleeding from new cuts on the same places Percy did. Suddenly the scenery turned to Tartarus.
He was not fighting.
"Stop it! Please stop!" I cried out but the faces stayed blank, even Octavian's.
'This isn't real,' I told myself.
I got up and stumbled, fell, crawled and got up again, trying to get to Percy as fast as I could. But it wasn't fast enough.
I smashed the knife out of Octavian's hand and Percy fell on the ground as everyone disappeared in the mist.
The surrounding has changed again, I was deeper in Tartarus, holding a lifeless body.
"Percy! Please I need you. Don't leave me! Percy, pleeease, don't leave me like that," I was crying like never. In that moment, the pain hit me all at once and my lungs contracted heavily.
All the moments we've been together played in front of my eyes, fading as quickly as they started.
And I could not take this anymore, the only real family I've ever had died in my arms.
I saw a dagger on the ground and looked at Percy's face for one last time. I grasped for the dagger and just as I was about to set the last strike to my misery I fell next to him.
Weak.
Unable to pick the stupid dagger, my dagger. And with that thought I started falling through nothingness. Like when I fell to Tartarus with Percy...

I know that the ending was really, really harsh but it had a point... :) Btw I'm definitelly not saying Annabeth would want to kill herself or something like that! It was just the dream. Kinda inspired by Romeo and Juliet, I guess.
-Vendy

*You're gonna suffer but you'll enjoy it.
-Ronald Weasley XD