Prince beyond the Stars (Percy Jackson/Son of Chaos Fan-Fiction)

Chapter XIII

-Annabeth-

'You can't be serious right now,' I said.
Phi looked at me. 'And what would you know about being the Prince beyond the Stars?' 
My mouth hung open. 'Well, ehm..' I tried. 
Phi motioned with his hand to go on. 'Nothing,' I said, lowering my head in shame. 
'Exactly.' 
My eyes narrowed as I looked at him. 'But it can't be that bad.' 
Phi let out a hollow laugh, full of pain. He stood up abruptly. 
'You have no idea what it's like to be like me.' 
I stood up, too, facing him. 
'Then tell me, because obviously I'm too stupid to know,' I yelled at him. 
'You don't know what this has cost me. My best friend died. And not only him. I have too many deaths on my name, to many decisions to make, to many battles to fight and it's never over!' Phi shouted. 
'This isn't something you can just quit the moment you want to. This is a position you will keep for the rest of your life.'
'Then why did you accept?' I ask.
'Because Sigma asked me to,' Phi said bitterly.
I tried to process all he had said a little. It didn't make sense.
'Why would he ask you?'
Phi laughed again, cold and hard. 'Good Gods, and here I thought you knew me.'

I took a step back. 'I have never known you,' I said.
'Of course you haven't,' Phi muttered.
We stood there, silently staring at each other, waiting for the other to say something. It was like a staring contest. 
Suddenly Phi turned around and started walking away. 'I am so done with this.'
'Come back here, I'm not done talking to you!' I yelled after him.
'Well I am,' he yelled back.
'You haven't even answered my questions!' I shout exasperated.
In the blink of an eye, Phi stood in front of me, his voice dangerously low.
'What, do you want me to spill it out for you?'
'If it would clear things up!'
'Fine!' Phi said furiously. 'Sigma got shot, was bleeding to death and found me qualified to take his position. He made me promise to take it and asked Chaos to accept me. I only accepted because Sigma wanted me to!'
I was taken aback. 'You never wanted it?'
Phi turned away as he looked at the sea. He sat down again, gripping his hear in what seemed to me like frustration. 'I never asked for this,' he whispered. 'The only thing I ever wanted was a peaceful life with my girlfriend where we would go happily ever after, and not having to deal with any of this shit.'

I sat back next to him. 'You have a girlfriend?' I asked.
Phi shook his head slowly. 'I had.'
I swallowed. 'What happened between the two of you?'
He let out a breath. 'Let's say there happened to many things at the time, and a long story short, she cheated on me and I left. The end.'
I wasn't sure if I could ask him, but after a silent five minutes I decided to dare.
'Have you ever loved someone else?'
Phi looked up to me, with really sad eyes. The grey irises seemed dull.
'There hasn't been a day that has gone by without thinking of her.'

-Phi-

It became almost like a routine. Training the campers for the upcoming war, and talk to Annabeth for quite a few hours on the beach. But I guess neither of us minded. Most of the time we would just sit down, cross our legs and watch the sun slowly going down. We talked about many things. What had life been to Annabeth after the Giant War, and what had working as the Prince beyond the Stars been for me. On days like those, with just talking about our lifes, I felt at home again. It was as if all the horrible events after the Giant War had never happened, and I was just enjoying my time with her. Slowly Annabeth came to trust me again, and I can not explain how that felt to me. It was like she had opened her heart for me again, and allowed me to take a look inside.

So perhaps you can imagine how I felt when a little girl walked up to the beach, shouting for her mother. I turned around to see her standing there, tears streaming down her cheeks, and a little doll in her hands. I frowned, not knowing why she had come here in the first place. She was looking for her mother, she wasn't going to find her around here, was she?
I had to swallow when I took a better look at the girl. For the girl had beautiful blond curls, and eyes the colour of deep seagreen. My seagreen eyes.
'Mommy,' the girl cried again.
I turned to Annabeth, who looked at her and spread her arms. The girl walked into her arms and let herself be hugged.
'What have I told you when I'm down here sweetheart?'
The girl sniffed and rubbed her eyes. 'To not come to you when you are talking to the man with the black wings,' she cried.
'Then what are you doing down here?' Annabeth asked her, softly rubbing her head with her chin.
'Because I missed you..'
Annabeth kissed her. 'But I'm right here,' she said.
'But you were not there..,' the girl hiccupped. 'And my daddy wasn't there, and I was scared that you were gone too!'
Annabeth kissed the girls forehead. 'It's all right, sweetheart, I'm here.'
'But what if my daddy doesn't come back?' the girl cried. I saw the tears appear in Annabeths eyes and her voice quivered a little when she spoke again.
'What have I told you about your father, Ayme?'
The girl curled up a little more. 'That.. my daddy has a really big heart. But it's not big enough to keep all his love for me, so he has a very special place in his heart, only for me, and when he comes back, he will show me how much I mean to him.'
'That's right. And it will never change,' Annabeth whispered.
The girl took a deep breath, and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep.

'Say something,' Annabeth said, when we hadn't spoken for an hour.
'What is there to say?' I asked her.
'You're not wondering who she is?' Annabeth motioned with a little gesture of her head.
'Of course I am.' I smiled at her.
Annabeth looked at the ocean for a moment. 'Judging by the sun we have about an hour left, but this story takes far longer than that.'
'Does it look like I'm doing anything else?'
The corner of Annabeths lips tipped up. 'All right then. You know that five hundred years ago, Percy had vanished from the Earth. We kept looking for him, and we still do, but about a hundred years ago, I lost my will to continue. I didn't know if he was still out there, but he hadn't died either, we knew that much. So one day, my mother couldn't take it anymore, and she gave me a very precious gift. Normally she wouldn't approve Percy, but since she hated seeing me this way, she gave me the courage to continue on finding him again. She gave me Ayme. Because when I had stopped looking for Percy, I started finding ways to get rid of my life. I was so done with it. So when I had Ayme, she became my will to live again.'
I looked to the girl in her lap. I could see so many resemblances between her and Annabeth, but also between her and me.
'How could you have a child when Percy was missing?'
Annabeths cheeks flushed. 'Athena blessed me by making Ayme a child of thought, mind you.'
'She looks a lot like you,' I said.
Annabeth smiled a little. 'She does on the outside, but on the inside, she is the exact resemblance of Percy.'
My eyebrows lowered as I frowned. 'How come?'
I saw Annabeth close her eyes for a moment when she spoke. 'She is so much like him, yet she doesn't realise. It's the way she acts, so calmly, and always doing things for other people, always making sure they're okay. Her kind being reminds me of Percy. What it used to be like before the Giant War.'
I decided to change the subject before we got into dangerous waters. 'What about that doll in her hands?'
Annabeth looked at it, and smiled sadly. 'Lina, Rachel Dare's daughter, had it made for her. She was convinced that it would help Ayme.'
Confused I started painting a figure in the sand. 'How is it supposed to help her?'
Annabeth shook her head. 'I have no idea. Maybe Lina believed what she said to be true because her mother is the Oracle, but I don't really believe in it.'
I stood up, brushing the sand of my jeans. 'I can tell you one thing,' I said.
'Maybe Percy Jackson doesn't know about his daughter, but if he does, he will be one hell of a lucky guy.'