Omega | Percy Jackson Fanfiction✔️

Chapter Nine

Sometimes you just need to
Distance yourself from people
If they care, they'll notice
If they don't, you know
Where you stand

-Ziad K Abdelnour

I wouldn't be able to tell you how long Annabeth stood with Riptide. The stillness might've lasted three minutes or three hours. Time isn't easy to track when thoughts are too busy running around one in your head.

What could she be thinking?

Anything really. Maybe she was contemplating melting down the bad memories for Celestial Bronze. Perhaps there were some good memories that came with Riptide that was replaying over and over again.

"Found the cap," I said as I pulled it from my pocket in attempt to break the undying silence.

Annabeth remained silent as she turned around and took the cap from me. She didn't dare look into my hood, but I couldn't sworn her eyes were glazed over.

She capped Riptide and watched as it morphed into a regular, 20 cent ballpoint pen before looking at me. "We never found this, got it?"

"What's the big deal?" I asked. "It's just a sword."

"Just a sword." Annabeth mocked in a very unfriendly way.  "It may just be a sword for you, but it has a long and tragic history with its owners."

"We never found this sword." Annabeth repeated.

"What's the big deal?" I countered. "So what if the damn thing has a history. It's a sword that was abandoned by its owner, and has been here ever since. Most likely for a reason."

"And it hasn't been moved ever since for a reason, either. Even though I discovered it years ago."

To say I was shocked would be an understatement.

She found it years ago? Why didn't she move the thing? Did she think I would come back to get it?

...No, not possible, part of me thought. She doesn't care about you! She had her lips on another guy even after you said you would come back!

But what if... the hopeful part of me started. Maybe she does care?

"If I had taken this abandoned sword back to Chiron, he would have forced me to completely stop my quests. No one would have any faith in the cause anymore seeing as it's near impossible to survive without a weapon as a half-blood."

Another silence.

"We never saw or discussed this."

With that, Annabeth made her way back to Camp Half-Blood. Riptide still in hand.

*** (Timeskip 5:45 am)

After I return to the Chaos cabin, I reached into my pocket out of habit. Only it wasn't empty as I expected. Riptide appeared.

Sighing, I pulled out my old sword and sat down on the couch in front of the TV. Instead of watching the current program, I found myself continuously uncapping and recapping Riptide. My mind kept Annabeth's words on repeat.