Work Text:
Annabeth sees the pamphlet staring at her from the dark wooden desk in the corner of the cabin. Glistening magazine paper and pretty words between the pages. Her grey eyes cross because she's glaring so hard. It's taunting her. She can feel it. How dare that stupid flimsy piece of material be causing her so much anxiety?
The wind billows the curtains and she gets a glimpse of the moon, full and bright against the pitch black sky. The light spills over the strawberry fields which roll down to the beach and the ocean beyond. She stares at the navy waves crashing to the shore and the dilemma that had flew from her mind for brief seconds comes tumbling back harder than any tsunami. She drowns in the guilt of it all, she dies in the relief that comes with it.
A knock sounds at her door: two taps, a pause, one tap.
"Come in Piper." Exhaustion races through her veins, and she wants to collapse at the bottom of the ocean.
Everything in her recoils at the thought. Gods five years as friends as she's pathetic about this situation.
Footsteps approach, soft and sure.
"Are you really staring at that thing in agony?" Her best friend laughs, picking up the pamphlet and flicking through it. "You know you're going to break his heart doing this right?"
She scoffs, eyes still focused on the sea, "He has a heart?"
Memories of blood and contortion and madness flashing within emeralds races through her mind. She feels sick with it.
"That's not fair Annabeth," Piper sighs, coming to sit on the bed next to her. "He was doing what he needed to save you guys and get you out of there."
"You didn't see his face." She is already shaking her head, as if she can shake the horrors from her thoughts. "It was like he'd been possessed, but the worst part is he wasn't—" She is up on her feet, pacing holes into the wooden floors, "It was all him. Our Percy," Her voice cracks. "My Percy."
"He was scared Annabeth." Piper grabs her hands and pulls then both back to the bed.
"He was violent."
The room goes silent. So silent she swears she can hear the olive trees growing outside her window. The terror and pain and disgust that coarses through her blood almost bowls her over.
"So you're really going to do it?" Piper whispers into the dark.
She is quiet for a beat, taking in the cool breeze and the suffocating weight of her next decision.
"Yes."
Piper's only response is to gather her into her arms and hold them close.
And the next morning, before the sun has even passed Half-Blood Hill the blonde demigod is bowing to her Goddess and saying goodbye to the camp that had been her home for ten long, adventurous years.
A single tear slips down for the boy she is leaving behind.
Annabeth Chase starts her life as a Hunter of Artemis.