Blood of Olympus FanFic {completed}

38: ANNABETH

CH 38- ANNABETH

It's not every day your friend tells you his mother is a zombie. Of course, Jason just had to toss that line out there ever so casually. So yeah, my freakishly dead movie star mother is actually alive!

Annabeth was used to weird news, but this one still came as a shocker. "What? No."

Jason nodded. "Yes."

"But how?" She tried to make sense of it. "She must've escaped from the Underworld when the Doors of Death were open. Or better yet..."

"Yeah?"

"Maybe she was never dead. A car accident is easy to fake, after all. That's how she died supposedly, right?"

"It could be," Jason relented, "but I've been having this dreams, see. And they say she's come back from the Underworld, courtesy of Hera. You know the man she was talking to in our vision, the guy we're looking for?"

Annabeth shuddered. "Don't remind me."

"Well, he's got my mom captive. So he's asking for the Fox in exchange for my mom."

Slowly, everything was starting to make sense to Annabeth. Jason obviously had so many questions to ask his mom, no wonder he seemed eager to find the Fox. "I think I'm getting it," she said.

Jason looked up at the sky, then squeezed his eyes shut. "I have nightmares about her and Thalia every night. Each one is worse than the next. T -this one vision showed both of them being held captive by Gaea in the Parthenon. They... they were tied to these pillars, about to be sacrificed."

Annabeth's heart crawled up her throat. Thalia was like a sister to her. If she, or her mom, was the sacrifice Gaea had wanted all along...

Now, however, Annabeth understood why Jason hadn't been acting like himself lately. Any sane demigod who was tormented by terrible glimpses of the future every night would be acting somewhat bipolar. "Jason, if I'd known about this sooner..." She didn't need to finish.

"I know, I know. I should've just told you guys from the start, but we had so many things to worry about, I didn't want to add to the list," Jason confessed. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I'm not much of a leader." He looked down, ashamed. "Not only that, but I've made other decisions, a -and I'm wondering if it was the right thing to do."

In all the months she'd known Jason, Annabeth had never seen him so depressed and disappointed in himself. Most of the time, he was one of the ones boosting the others' morals, but this time, Annabeth would have to step up and comfort him.

Annabeth nudged him. "Okay, first off, you're not a bad leader. As far as I'm concerned, not one of us seven is a leader anyway. Maybe it was like that at first, but now, things have changed, right? We're a team; they don't call us the Seven of the Prophecy for nothing. Decades from now, when our story is being retold, they won't say 'Jason and his team' or 'Annabeth and her team', they will say "The Big Seven" or something.

"I know it's just instinct for you to feel responsible for everything, and I understand that. I feel the same way sometimes. But that feeling also comes with a sense of failure every time we do something wrong. It's just too much pressure. So stop stressing about it, we'll all get through this together.

"I'm sure whatever decisions you've had to make or that you'll ever make will be the right ones. You have good judgement, Jason. I have a hunch you always have," Annabeth finished. She squeezed his hand, giving him a reassuring smile.

Jason exhaled. Then he grinned, that little scar above his lip turning up slightly. "Thanks, Annabeth. I really needed that."

"You must miss having Piper giving you the pep-talks, huh?" she teased.