Chapter Text
Annabeth braced herself but the blow never came.
Her heart kept beating, her blood kept pumping and the rapid pulse in her wrist continued to pound against her skin.
Gaea’s tight grip around her torso loosened, then the hold on her legs, and she heard something thump to the ground behind her.
Annabeth blinked her eyes open tentatively and gasped.
Gaea was gone, crumbled into the earth, nothing but a pile of dirt. That wasn’t what surprised her.
Percy was standing before her, his dark hair rippling forcefully in his own personal vortex, his eyes glowing with power, a brighter green than she’d ever seen. Rocks and debris trembled on the ground, clouds of water vapor swirling around him. A visible golden aura encompassed his body, healing the cuts and bruises on his face, wiping the blood clean, filling out his cheeks, and sharpening his jaw. He looked as healthy and powerful as when he had the curse of Achilles, impossible strength coursing through him.
He looked beautiful and dangerous.
Poseidon’s blessing .
That meant Reyna and Nico must’ve succeeded in getting the Athena Parthenos to Camp Half-Blood, and healed the divide. The gods were close.
Percy’s terrifying green gaze snapped to hers, and he began to step forward through the hole back onto the Acropolis.
“Percy, stop!” she shouted in alarm, her hair whipping her across the face.
His foot settled onto the cave floor and she realized that it made no impact. He was floating just an inch above it, the blessing creating a shimmering barrier, untouchable, unreachable.
“Beth, get out here,” he grunted, his voice vibrating.
She looked down at her legs and it finally seemed to register that Gaea’s grip on her was gone, she was free. She pulled her feet out of the soil and stumbled towards Percy, getting as close as she could with the force radiating off him. She shielded her eyes, squinting through the dust flying in the air. The gusts were so strong that it blasted the dirt from the ground, forming a perfect five-yard ring around him and revealing the hard rock beneath them.
“Is she gone?” Annabeth yelled over the noise of the hurricane.
Percy shook his head grimly, gritting his teeth, “I’m holding her off but she’s fighting me, she’ll get free again soon.”
“Then let’s go,” she tried reaching for him but the shield around him was too powerful, the wind pressing her back.
“You go,” he yelled, “I gotta stop her.”
“No! The gods are almost here, right? Let them deal with it, let’s get out here,” she implored.
“Too risky,” he disagreed, his arms shaking with effort, “I need to destroy the temple now. It’s the last thing tying her to consciousness.”
“Fine,” she groaned, “what can I do?”
He scowled at her in annoyance, “you can go through that damn hole so I know you’re safe when I blast everything to pieces.”
She set her jaw stubbornly, “I’m helping you.”
“No you’re not,” he snapped, “I’m taking this whole place down, everything,” he jabbed his thumb behind him, “you need to go.”
“It’s gonna crush you,” she exclaimed, feeling frantic, “you can’t. Even you can’t survive that.”
He tried for a grin, “I’ve come back from the dead before.”
“That’s not fucking funny,” she snapped, her chest feeling tight. “We’ll find another way. We- we can cut her off from the earth, take her away from her source of power, let me help.”
“It’s too late for that, I can feel her, she has no physical form anymore, I can’t isolate her to any one point, she’s woven through this whole cave. She’s in the floor, the walls, the ceiling. It all needs to be destroyed.”
“But you’ll be inside when it happens,” she screamed angrily. She was going to kill him, herself. “The gods can do this, a snap of their fingers, we just have to wait a little longer!”
“Every second that passes gives her another second to rise again, to free the giants, or get to you, I’m not letting that happen,” his brows furrowed in concentration, clenching his fists at his side.
She could taste blood and dirt in her teeth, “then we can get Hazel, she can help tear down the tunnels. She’ll- she’ll-“
“I’m not risking anyone else, I’m staying.”
“Please come with me Percy, please,” she begged.
“You need to start climbing,” he ignored, “you need to get out before the walls cave in or you’ll be trapped.”
“Listen to me,” she sobbed, “come with me, we’ll climb up together and figure something out at the top.”
He refused to look at her, “I can only hold Gaea off for a couple more minutes and then it’s all coming down, you don’t have long.”
She dug her toes into the dirt, “I’m not leaving unless you’re with me.”
“Well, I’m not letting her escape,” he growled, “she’s not coming back, she’s not going to hurt anyone else, ever again.”
Annabeth realized Percy was angry too, probably even more than she was. He wanted revenge, he wanted to kill Gaea for threatening to take Annabeth away from him. But now, he was going to do the very same thing to her.
“It’s not worth it,” she implored, “don’t let her take you from me, don’t let her win.”
He still wouldn’t look at her, “it’s the only way.”
“That’s not true, it’s not,” she argued. “We can wait, or… or we’ll-”
Her feet suddenly started sliding backwards and for a moment she thought Gaea indeed had retaken ahold of Annabeth. But it wasn’t the Earth Mother’s doing at all, Percy had raised his hand towards her, looking pained as he used the trembling floor to push her towards the hole.
He wasn’t just son of Poseidon, the sea god, stormbringer, wielder of ocean tides, conjuror of floods and typhoons.
He was also son of Poseidon, earthshaker. The most powerful demigod she knew, and he was making her heart break.
“Percy,” she screamed, fighting against him but whatever was pressing her back was too strong. Her feet were trapped again, her legs frozen in place. “Stop, let me go,” but he just kept pushing and pushing backwards until she tumbled through the entrance and landed on her ass.
“Percy,” she cried desperately, scrambling up, “don’t do this.”
“I love you, Beth,” he said, walking further into the ruins, the cave pulsing violently.
“Percy!” his name tore violently from her lips, and she’d only stopped crying a few minutes ago, but the tears began to fall again, “Percy, get back here.”
He looked over his shoulder, “you’ll be okay,” he smiled sadly, “I promise, you’ll be okay.”
The hole trembled. Annabeth got one last glimpse of him, hard shoulders, apologetic face, beautiful green eyes, before it all crumbled into a heap in front of her, sealing him in, sealing her out.
“NO,” she threw herself at the rocks anyway, slamming her shoulder trying to get back to him. It didn’t budge. She punched in anger, tears mixing with the taste of blood and dirt in her mouth.
“Screw you, Jackson, let me in!” She shrieked. “Percy, let me in.”
She could hear the sound of wind and dust grow stronger on the other side of the wall, loud cracking noises cutting through the air. She dug at the rubble pathetically, “Percy, please,” she murmured, “please, please, please,” she prayed.
Nothing but dangerous tremors replied.
She thought of him alone in the Acropolis, fighting off Gaea in his mind while cracks and breaks formed in the stone around him, holding it together and tearing it apart in the same moment so that it would all come down at just the right time. Willingly building his own casket.
Fucking idiot.
She wasn’t letting him get away with it, sacrificing himself, cutting their future together short.
She glanced up at the long slope of debris behind her, which led to the world above. She only had a few minutes to make the climb or she’d be crushed in the narrow pathway when Percy destroyed the cave.
He was trusting her to get out. If she got to the surface and alerted the gods before Percy leveled the whole place, she might have a chance to save him.
She placed her hand over the stones where the entrance once was, closing her eyes, “just hold on.”
She turned and began to stumble up the incline, fingers and toes digging into the loose pebbles, skin scrapped raw. Her body shook, weak and exhausted, but she was well practiced with weakness and exhaustion. Her sobs continued to echo off the walls, as her limbs worked instinctively, muscles pushing her higher and higher like they’d been trained to do all her life.
Once in a while the cave would shake thunderously and she crawled faster, knowing that every tremor meant she was one moment, one minute closer to losing him. She could picture him, slamming his fist into the floor, fissures spreading across the expanse and making chunks of the ceiling drop down around him.
She didn’t even realize she made it to the top until someone’s hand grabbed her shoulders and helped her out into the light, bright blue sky above her. She fell to the ground wearily, face pressed into the grass. Even up here the earth was shaking.
She didn’t realize her ears were ringing either, until someone’s breath ghosted across the shell of her ear.
It was muffled but she made out her name, “Annabeth. Annabeth.” She opened her eyes and looked at Piper above her, “Annabeth, what happened? Where’s Percy?”
Her tears fell onto the lawn, mixing salt and earth.
“What’s going on?” someone said.
She blinked and pushed herself up.
“The gods?” she croaked, “where are they? They need to help him.”
“They’re coming,” Jason told her.
The whole Parthenon convulsed, “we need to move,” she wheezed. “Percy- he’s tearing it down, we need to move.”
She tried to stand but her knees buckled. Jason and Piper grabbed her under her armpits and dragged her away from the shuddering pillars. Everything rumbled again, but now it wasn't just coming from beneath them.
She looked up, her head lolling against Piper’s shoulder as she was hauled away. Instead of the blue sky, she saw black space spangled with stars, the palaces of Mount Olympus gleaming silver and gold in the background. An army of gods charged down from on high, Poseidon in the lead.
He looked just like Percy, older and bearded, but the eyes were the same. He wore a Hawaiian shirt and he had his trident in hand, raised triumphantly in the air.
Supersized Zeus was right behind him, riding into battle on a golden chariot, a lightning bolt the size of a telephone pole crackling between his giant fingers. Annabeth’s mom was to his left, her long dark hair blowing in the wind, golden armor strung over her white robes. Hera was on his right, in her own chariot, pulled by enormous peacocks, with rainbow-coloured plumage too bright for their surroundings.
Finally.
BOOM .
There was a deafening explosion and she turned in horror, watching as the Acropolis collapsed in an eruption of dust and debris. Chunks of the structure fell away and slid down into the newly formed crater, which was once a series of tunnels and caves hidden below.
Too late.
Too late.
She screamed, shoving her friends away and running towards the abyss. She skidded to the edge of the hundred foot hole, her knees digging into the dirt as she peered down frantically. She couldn’t see anything but broken ruins and mountains of rubble.
No one could’ve survived an entire temple falling on them. A tomb of his own making.
It was too late.
To storm or fire the world must fall .
An oath to keep with a final breath .
He’d promised. ‘ You’ll be okay, I promise, you’ll be okay .’ His last words to her, an oath he kept with his final breath.
It was Percy all along.
Bile rose in her throat, her chest convulsing, and suddenly she was retching up dirt and air, her body trying to expel this feeling in her chest. She shook, heaving despite her empty stomach. Her face was wet and snotty as she wrapped her arms around herself, weeping.
“What happened,” she heard Leo ask breathlessly behind her.
Annabeth startled at the voice. She blinked, pushing herself up and staggering. She spun in a rage, her ears suddenly roaring with blood.
Hazel, Frank and Leo had obviously run over to help, their chests heaving and confusion muddling their features. Annabeth turned her eyes on the row of gods who were only just starting to realize that they’d missed the battle.
“You took too long,” she screamed, “he took it down all by himself, Percy… he-” she choked on another sob.
Poseidon stepped closer, peering down into the hole with a grim expression.
“Is the Earth Mother gone?” Athena wondered, ignoring Annabeth.
Poseidon nodded, “I do not sense any presences below, she is gone.”
“What about Percy?” Annabeth cried, “he was down there too and you did nothing!”
Poseidon finally glanced at her, “I’m sorry, child.”
“You’re sorry?” she scoffed and pointed at the crater, “go get him,” she demanded, “you can bring him back, right? You’re the gods, after everything he’s done for you, bring him back.”
A crease formed between Poseidon’s dark brows, “you know we cannot interfere in the affairs of our children.”
“You’ve had no fucking problem interfering in our lives whenever you needed our help,” she shouted, “he saved you, over and over, he saved Olympus, please save him,” she begged.
“Watch your tone, daughter,” Athena warned, but Annabeth was so far from giving a shit.
“It is what the sisters fated,” Poseidon spoke more softly.
“Screw the fates,” she threw back at him, wiping away tears angrily, “Percy’s supposed to be alive, we’re supposed to have a life together, that’s what we decided, that’s fate. You can make it happen and you’re choosing not to. This-” she jabbed a finger at them, “this is on you.”
“We cannot change fate,” her mom said, coldly, “it was prothesized.”
Annabeth gulped in heaving breaths, “save him, go save him,” she insisted.
Poseidon shook his head, “I can recover his body, but it is not the gods who can save him now.”
Annabeth lurched at the certainty in his words, the confirmation that Percy was really gone, even though she already knew.
She curled her hands into fists and lunged at the closest person, punching Poseidon’s hard chest, the blows bouncing off harmlessly, “this is all your fault, we did everything, and you took too long,” she shrieked, her voice more desperate than she’d ever heard it, “you have to bring him back, you have to.”
Poseidon wrapped an arm around her, pulling her into him until she couldn’t punch anymore. She tried to hit halfheartedly, but ended up gripping his shirt, crying hot tears as the familiar scent of the sea filled her nose, “I can’t- please, save him, I can’t do this without him,” she continued to plead.
“It is not for us to save him, child,” he repeated softly.
Annabeth slid down his body back to her knees and started to wail again. Warm arms wrapped around her, Piper’s voice cooing softly, just holding her as she let it all out. Annabeth could hear shuffling around her and quiet muttering, but it was all a dull hum in her ears.
Her dry lips kept forming the word ‘please’ again and again, until it lost all meaning. Her watery gaze stayed glued to her bloody hands until a flash of midnight black hair appeared in the corner of her eye. Poseidon was climbing out of the crater with a limp form in his arms, slowly lowering the body to the ground.
Annabeth peeled herself out Piper’s hold and crawled over to him, frantically.
She pushed the god out of the way and grabbed at Percy desperately, cradling his head in her lap. She hooked her arms under his back and propped him against her chest, trying to meld him as closely to her as she could, feeling the last of his warmth.
She stared down at his peaceful face, biting down on her bottom lip until it split. He looked like he was sleeping, the way she’d seen him do a million times before, when they were huddled together during their quests, or when he was burrowed against her hip while they studied on her bed.
The aura around him began to fade, the glow under his skin turning pale. The gashes and bruises he’d suffered when the rubble collapsed on him slowly became more stark and clear, making her breath hitch.
He’d been through so much, and they wouldn’t do anything for him in return.
She traced his cheekbone with her thumb, whipping off a spot of blood, and a teardrop slid down over her cupid’s bow, falling down onto his face. She almost expected him to flinch and crack open his eyes, giving her a beautiful, goofy smile, but he remained still.
She could see her friends standing around nearby, looking down at her with familiar masks of sorrow. Hazel and Frank had their arms wrapped around each other, Piper was leaning her head on Jason’s shoulder and had Leo’s hand gripped tight in hers. Silent tears glistened in their eyes.
She looked down at Percy again and brought his face closer to hers, ghosting her lips across his jaw, “I love you,” she whispered.
She was prepared to hold him until the sun went down, but she heard Jason’s ask quietly, “what do you mean, sir?” Annabeth blinked out of her daze and glanced up at him, but he was staring at Poseidon. “Why do you keep saying it’s not the gods’ place to save him?”
Her mind worked slowly to grasp his meaning, overwhelmed with a million other emotions. It was not for the gods to save Percy. It was not their place, but it was someone’s place? Someone could save him? Or something.
“Leo,” she blurted suddenly, “Leo!”
How could she have forgotten?
He staggered towards her, eyes wide, “yes?”
“The cure,” she gasped, “do you have the cure.”
“Oh shit,” he started patting his clothes, “yeah, yes, I have it- I thought I’d need it for- here, it’s here.”
He held it out to her and she grabbed it with shaky hands. She looked up at Poseidon for confirmation, but he only gave the subtlest nudge of his chin. Taking a terrified, hopeful breath, she tilted Percy’s mouth open and uncapped the vial. Slowly, careful not to spill even a single drop, she poured the liquid down his throat.
Nothing happened at first. A minute passed and then another. She refused to look away from him, hoping to see any kind of change. She didn’t know if it would work. Maybe it was too late, he’d been dead for too long.
Then his pinky twitched.
She pulled him closer, “did you see that?” she asked her friends, wildly.
They shook their heads, but she was sure. She watched his face, watched as colour slowly filled out his cheeks, the purple veins under his skin fading. She placed her hand on his chest, searching for a heartbeat when it suddenly shuddered and he took a long, gasping breath.
His green eyes shot open, and he coughed desperately, dark, dirty, blood spilling past his lips. She heard their friends gasp, but her gaze was glued to him, terrified if she blinked, she would wake up and he would be gone again. Percy’s frantic breathing eventually slowed and his wild eyes flitted around until they landed on her. The confusion clouding his irises steadily cleared as he stared at her, and a pained but relieved smile cautiously spread across his face.
Tears welled up in her eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that afternoon. A drop landed on his face, and this time he did flinch. His reaction startled a choked laugh out of her throat, even as her nails dug deeper into his skin.
“Ow,” he croaked.
“Sorry,” she eased her grip.
She could feel her chin wobbling. Percy reached up, wincing as he stroked the back of his finger across her cheekbone to catch a tear.
“Don’t cry, Beth,” he croaked.
“I’m not,” she said stubbornly.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m gonna kill you,” she whimpered weakly, but when he tried to shift in her grasp, her fingers tightened around him.
He pushed himself up gingerly, until they were face to face, “I already died once today, maybe save it for tomorrow.”
She leaned her forehead against his, shutting her eyes and sighing, “I’m so mad at you.”
“I know,” he whispered, tucking a curl behind her ear, “I’m sorry for scaring you.”
She tilted her chin forward and pressed her mouth to his. She only meant for a soft brush, but the taste of him, the feel of his cracked lips, and the heat of his breath which proved he really was alive, quickly swept her away. Percy groaned in pain and she pulled back, quickly.
“Sorry,” she muttered, sweeping her thumb across his bottom lip, still bloody.
Percy wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tucked her face into his neck. She clung to him, clenching her fist in his torn shirt. One of his hands lifted off her back, likely acknowledging the people around them, but neither of them were in any rush to let go of each other.
Everything was fucked, but he was here. She breathed him in, listening to the steady beat of his heart against his chest.
“We’ll get through this,” he murmured in her ear, and she knew he agreed.
Everything was fucked but they were together, and that’s all that mattered.