Percabeth Versus Everyone Else!

Riptide (reprise)

At the funeral Annabeth refused to let go of the shroud. Grover had to carefully pry it from her fingers and walk her back, away from the fire, with his arm tightly around her. The look on his face was unsettled, like he was sensing her emotions and slowly putting her plan together. Hazel reached for Frank's hand and he squeezed it reassuringly. On her other side she could hear Leo's ragged breathing and she knew Piper stood just past him. They watched the flames rise into the sky in silence, settling as a deep black colour, but every time Hazel glanced at Annabeth, she felt uneasy. She watched Grover as he looked at Thalia and a silent conversation passed between them. Casually, like it meant almost nothing, Thalia nodded in Hazel's direction, as if to say, she's got this, so leave it to her. She didn't know why they were doing that. Thalia and Grover were Annabeth's best friends. They could stop her, Hazel knew they could. So why were they trusting her to do it when she didn't even know if it was possible? She leant into Frank and rested her head on his shoulder. She didn't want this to fall on her. She hadn't wanted any of this to happen in the first place, but she couldn't control that. She could try with this.

After they had burned the shroud, Hazel left Frank alone. She couldn't bear seeing him like that, but she had to do something. She sprinted to the top of the hill, to Thalia's Pine, and caught Piper and Annabeth just as they were about to leave. "You can't go." she said.

"You can't stop us." Annabeth answered, refusing to look at her.

"You could get hurt. I've been down there. I was trapped down there for longer than I care to remember. You won't get out."

"I've been down there too." Annabeth pointed out as she started walking away. "I made it out."

"With Percy's help, which you don't have this time. He wouldn't want you to do this."

Hazel saw her words hit Annabeth. She froze, her fists clenched at her side, breathing heavily. "Don't tell me what he would and wouldn't want, Hazel." she hissed. "I know he wouldn't want to be down there." She turned around and faced Hazel. "I know he wouldn't want me to be up here, alone, left behind. I love him! I know him better than anyone else, and if you think, even for a moment, that you know what he wants, then you don't know either of us. At all." She spun around and headed away from camp, and Hazel didn't think she could tell, but she could still hear her sobs. She leant against Thalia's Pine, just inside the barrier, and stared at Piper.

"You're leaving us alone. Again. First Jason, then Leo, then Percy, then Frank, now you. It's just me and Frank, Piper! You need to get a grip! They're gone! You know that! I know that! Annabeth knows it! She just won't accept it. You need to make her. If you die down there, that's it. We're alone, and I don't want to go through that a fifth time because it killed me enough the first. For Leo and Frank it might not have been real, but it sure as Hades felt like it!"

"We've done so much for the world, Hazel." Piper whispered. "Annabeth and Percy more than most. Don't you think that just once, just one time, we deserve a break? I'm sorry, but I'm going. We'll come back to you, I promise. Don't you see that if it works, we'll be whole again? The seven. Not the five. We'll be back." She turned to leave, then glanced over her shoulder. "Don't give up on them, okay? They wouldn't give up on us." Then she ran after Annabeth, and Hazel felt a silent tear rolling down her cheek.

That's when it hit her. That Grover and Thalia didn't want her to keep them here, they wanted her to remind them why they needed to come back, and they wanted her to help them.

"Where are you going?" she shouted after them.

"You know where." Piper called. "Los Angeles."

"There's a faster way." Piper and Annabeth stopped, and Piper turned around. "Central Park." Hazel said. "It's not hard to find, but you need music to open it. Shouldn't be hard for you. It's called the Door of Orpheus."

Hazel watched them go. At some point Frank came and stood beside her. He didn't ask her what had happened or what she had done, but she felt like he knew. He would always know.

A/N I actually forgot about the Door of Orpheus until I reread TLO and I realised it fit perfectly so that worked pretty well