Work Text:
Her cold, grey, eyes stared blankly at him. Eyes that were once so full of life and love now empty and unblinking. She’s gone.
She’s gone.
Percy lets out a gut wrenching scream as he cradles Annabeth’s head. “Wake up. Wake up. Please just wake up. Please…” He pleads, his hands embracing her golden princess curls. People are yelling his name in the background but their cries are drowned out the roar in his ears. He is so caught up in his grief he doesn’t notice the ground shaking or the torrential floods that drown the streets.
“Perseus!”
The smell of sea salt floods his nose but he hardly notices it.
“Percy, stop at once!” His father yells at deaf ears. He just brings Annabeth’s dead body closer to his chest. The smell of the sea gets stronger. A pair of strong hands try to pull him off her. Water pushes him off. The god of the sea is nothing compared to his grieving son’s power. Nobody will be able to get him away from her. He rocks back and forth while muttering to himself, not caring that his late girlfriend’s blood soaks his shirt. “Come on Annie, wake up, wake up for me. Please.”
There are screams in the background that Percy pays no attention to. It starts raining. Thick, heavy rain that makes it impossible to see more than a couple feet in front of you. There’s more yelling. So much yelling. He can see movement in his peripheral vision; he pays no attention to it. He sobs and sobs into Annabeth’s corpse. No god or monster could create a bigger wound in his heart.
Something kneels down in front of him. They’re glowing.
“Hey, Perc.” It’s Will. “Mind taking some deep breaths for me?”
Percy finally drags his eyes away from Annabeth, tears streaming down his face. He finally realises what his melancholy has done. The streets of Manhattan are flooded and there are cracks in the road. He shakes his head at Will’s request. “No, no. Can’t…”
“Yes you can.” Will replies, his soft voice a stark contrast to Percy’s broken voice. He shakes his head again. Behind Will are the gods.
They’re responsible for this.
“This is your fault!” He yells at them. If it wasn’t for the gods, Annabeth would be alive. “It’s all your fault!”
Athena looks at him with distaste, not seeming remotely upset at the loss of her daughter. Aphrodite has a pitiful look on her face. The goddess of beauty’s ever changing form staying looking like Annabeth for too long for comfort.
“Hey, hey,” Will grabs his arms, “focus on me.”
Percy shakes his head again, tears blurring his vision. “This is your fault! You hear me!” He screams at the pantheon. The rain gets heavier. Will sighs and walks away.
“Does anyone have any chloroform?” He calls out but Percy can’t hear him over the sound of the rain.
Percy sobs for what feels like an eternity. He’s drowning in his head and he won’t ever see the surface again. The fates should’ve cut his life short, not hers. Not Annabeth’s. A road splits in two behind him; he doesn’t care or notice. Footsteps approach him. He pays no attention to them until I sick smelling cloth is placed over his mouth. He tries to pull away but whoever is holding the cloth has an iron grip. He continues to try and get his head free until the drug fully takes over his body and he falls unconscious.
“I’m sorry, Percy.”
—
Percy’s first sensation when he wakes up is handcuffs attaching his wrists and ankles to his bunk. For a moment, his mind is still too clouded to realise why. It hits him like a brick. He screams Annabeth’s name until his throat is horse and water starts to seep through the cabin’s floor. He just lied there for hours until someone gently opened the door. It was Grover. His eyes were rimmed with red from crying. Of course others cried . They had a right to, of course. But that doesn’t mean they deserved to.
“What do you want?” Percy sobbed, his voice cracking and broken from all the screaming.
“H-hey bud… I brought you some food.” He sounds nervous. Good.
“I don’t want it.” He spits.
“Well it’ll be here if you want it, okay?” Grover places the tray of food on the bedside table. Percy stays silent. Annabeth should be here. With him. Yet she’s not. Grover gets the hint of ‘I want to be alone’ ,and leaves.
It’s the middle of the night when Percy comes up with a plan. The tray of food layed untouched, of course it did, Percy was strapped to his bed so how could he eat it? He thought of what he could do to get his soulmate back. He shouldn’t be able to get her back.
But he could.
Thinking back on his knowledge of Greek mythology, he realised he could just go down to the underworld and bring her back. Just like Orpheus. But he’d succeed. Hades surely wouldn’t protest, he’d seen how terrified Grover had been of him. The only problem was getting rid of his bindings.
It only took him a few minutes of fighting against his restraints before they broke. Did they seriously think some celestial bronze would stop him from getting to Annabeth? Pathetic. He reached into his pocket and found riptide. They seriously let him keep his weapon? They probably didn’t think he’d be able to reach it. How dumb are they?
As he walks out of his cabin, he sees plumes of smoke coming from the campfire; most likely burning Annabeth’s shroud. Making sure to stay in the shadows, he left the cabin area and trudged through the woods. He followed the main road until he reached a bus stop. After half an hour, a bus heading to New York arrived. The bus driver didn’t even ask Percy to buy a ticket. How scary do I look? He doesn’t know that his mum went to visit him minutes after he left.
The bus driver was short. He got off at Central Park. He knows where to go. The cluster of rocks he used to get to the underworld in the battle of Manhattan. But no one was here to get the rocks to open for him. For now. He marched over to the rocks and uncapped riptide. “Hermes!” He yelled, “Come out come out wherever you are!”
A flash of gold appeared in the air and disappeared almost as quickly as it appeared. Hermes was hovering in the air, his winged converse flapping at the speed of light, with a concerned look on his face.
“Let me go to the underworld, now . ” Percy practically growled. Hermes shook his head.
“I have orders to take you back to camp if I find you.”
“You will not be following those orders. Now, let me through before I make you.”
Hermes frowns, he lands on the ground and walks towards Percy.
“Percy you are not in the right state of mind-“
He doubled over in pain before he can finish. With a flick of his wrist, Percy sends the messenger god into a tree.
“Let. Me. Through.”
Hermes gives a small nod. The rocks rumble and fall as they part, revealing the entrance to the underworld. Percy turns towards it and heads down, ready to get his girlfriend back.
“I’m sorry, Percy.”
—
The walk to Hades’ realm is a long one, but not impossible. After hours of walking, Percy reaches the underworld.
He moves the river Styx to the side, like he was flicking a bug off his shoulder. As Percy marches towards Hades’ palace, he could hear the souls of the dead whispering about him. Percy doesn’t care. He is here for Annabeth and Annabeth only.
The doors of the palace open with a crash, as Percy strides in. “Hades!” He bellows, “Where is she!”
Hades, is sitting on his throne, looking like he expected this to happen.
“Have you learned nothing from the past, boy?” Hades raises an eyebrow. He clicks his fingers and Annabeth’s soul appears next to him. She looks the same, only- dead. Her body is shimmering and see through, her eyes showing how she’s not really there.
Percy stared at her with longing. It takes every bit of self control to not try and hug her.
“Now, you know the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, don’t you, boy?”
“Of course I do.”
“Well then, you know the rules: don’t look back at her until you’re completely and utterly out of the underworld. If you fail, her soul will go straight into Khaos.” He smirks, as if he knows he’s going to fail. That smirk sets Percy off, he’s not stupid, he knows Hades thinks he will fail. He won’t. He cant. He can’t lose Annabeth again.
“Good luck, boy.”
The walk back to the surface is torture. Percy walks for hours, he swears he can feel Annabeth’s breath in the back of his neck. Twice, Percy collapses on the staircase, feeling too drained to continue. It feels like the walls are closing in on him. Khaos. If Annabeth’s soul goes there she will be lost forever. How can Hades be so cruel? He didn’t do this with Orpheus, so why him? Percy had saved Olympus multiple times and this is how he’s repaid?
There’s lot he at the top of the stairs. He’s made it. Excitement and hope rushed through him. He’s got Annabeth back.
Two steps left. He miscalculates. He turns around.
No.
Percy just stands there with a look of horror on his face.
“Annabeth!”
He yells as he watches her soul fade to nothing. He failed.
—
Over the next few years was a rampage. Nobody could stop Percy; not even the gods. The world was nearly destroyed by the time a plan to stop him worked.
He was cornered. In a panicked flush, Percy jumps over a wall only to be met with Athena. Brandishing a spear, she tries to block Percy’s way but he just ducks under her spear. She grabs hold of his hood, suspending him in the air like how a mother cat holds her kittens. Before he can fight back, hands grab his arms and legs. He thrashes and kicks but his attempts are for nothing. Percy tries to reach out for water. There isn’t any. He’s trapped.
The owners of the hands argue over him.
“Let go of me!” He screams at them. They ignore him. The smell of smoke and herbs fill the air. Hekate’s face comes into view as she chants a spell in Ancient Greek. He catches a few words: ‘blood’, ‘bound’ and ‘captured’. Percy tries to reach out to the Ichor inside the Olympians that hold him down but he finds nothing. Is that what the spell does? Make him powerless.
The dispute ends. He’s being moved, and wherever he is being taken he doesn’t want to be. It’s taken four years for him to be captured.Is this how it ends?
It takes thirty two minutes and forty five seconds for the gods to get Percy to his final destination, his cage. Fear racks his body as he recognises the sent. He’s at the edge of Tartarus. Shackles are put on his arms and legs and instantly they feel heavier. Percy continues to try and get free, yelling obscurities at everyone and wriggling free at every turn. His efforts are in vain. He moves closer to the edge. He’s lost. As he is thrown down into Tartarus, he sees the gods and his friends looking down at him.
“I’m sorry, Percy.”