Chapter Text
Percy skidded to a stop and fell to his knees next to Annabeth, so hard they audibly cracked against the pavement. He gently pulled her into his lap, cradling her broken frame in his arms. Blood leaked from her mouth, her ear, from too many cuts and scrapes on her face and arms, from injuries under her clothes he was thankful he couldn’t see. He cursed loudly, and sent a mental SOS to Blackjack.
“Percy,” she murmured in a thin voice, her breaths shallow and fast. Percy hummed to her, an old comforting habit his mom had always done for him when he was a kid and he’d trip and scrape his knee or fall off his bike. He gingerly shifted her in his arms so she could see him.
“I’m right here,” he said, putting his hand to the side of her face and brushing his thumb over her cheekbone. “Look at me. I’m right here with you, Annabeth. It’s okay. We’re together.”
Her coffee colored eyes found his, and the wicked intelligence, the unshakeable love, the burning life that had always lit them from within was so, so dim.
He was in terrible shape himself, but any physical pain he’d been feeling was erased by the panic that truly seized him then.
“Listen to me, Annabeth. Keep breathing. Keep your heart beating.” He pressed his fingers into her cheek, silently imploring her to focus on his words. “Blackjack is coming. I’m going to get you back to Will at camp, and we’ll get some ambrosia, and you’ll be good as new. You’re going to be fine. I just need you to hold on, okay? Can you do that for me?”
“Percy,” she whispered. Her fingertips grazed his cheek for a moment before falling away. “It’s okay.” Her eyelids drooped.
Percy’s eyes filled with tears, and he frantically blinked them away so he could see her. “No, Annabeth. No sleeping. You have to stay awake. Stay awake and wait for Blackjack with me, okay? Just stay here with me.”
Her mouth moved like she meant to form words, but no sound came out. Her breaths were slowing, and he could feel her blood seeping through his clothes to pool on the ground. Blackjack was still a few miles away, and camp was another twenty minute flight after that. His throat constricted painfully.
“Annabeth. Please. I need you to— I can’t— I’m—” He leaned his head down and touched it to hers, closing his eyes and sharing her breath. His hushed voice trembled. “I love you. We still have our whole lives to live together. It’s supposed to be you and me, Wise Girl. I love you so much. Please— Gods, please don’t leave me.”
He felt her try to nod under him. His tears fell onto her cheeks as his mind spun a million miles an hour, trying to think of something, anything to save her. But she was out of time.
There was only one option left.
I don’t have an offering, but I am begging you to listen to me anyways, he thought. She is good. She is strong. She is kind and intelligent and caring, and she has more faith in you than anyone else. You know she does. I don’t care what you have to do. I don’t care what the price is — I’ll pay it. I’ll pay it a million times over. I’ll do anything you ask, for the rest of my life. Just save her. Please, please save her. I can’t live without her. Please.
Percy opened his eyes. Annabeth did not.
Percy snapped back into his body, the memory of his anguished wail tearing at his throat. Riptide dropped from his hand as he fell to the floor, his knees hitting the tile so much like they had hit the cement that night two months ago. All-encompassing agony consumed him, so absolute that he couldn’t think around it. He bent and braced one hand on the floor, the other on his chest, and fought to calm himself. His breaths came in shuddering gasps, shaking his entire frame.
He wondered if Athena had meant to do this — to incapacitate him so thoroughly that she could now dispose of him easily. A small, broken part of him relished in the idea. If she killed him here and now, his pain might end. If he was dead, he might be able to find her in the Underworld.
“You are not doing this for her, Perseus Jackson. You are doing this for yourself. Your selfishness has blinded you from the disparity of your own actions, and how any daughter of mine would feel about them. You’ve forgotten yourself.” Athena’s imperious voice above him began to rekindle his anger, and he shifted his glare back up to her.
“Turn back now,” she continued, oblivious or unconcerned by his reaction. “Heal what parts of yourself that you can. I swear on the River Styx that I will personally arrange with Hades that, when it is your time, you will be reunited with Annabeth in Elysium.”
He physically flinched at the sound of her name as thunder rolled overhead in response to Athena’s oath. For a moment, he considered it. Hadn’t he just been imagining it a moment ago? But he didn’t truly want to die. He wanted her to live. And even through the haze of his despondence, he recognized her haughty words for what they really were — a bargain. An offering. A plea. One she was nervous he wouldn’t take. And if that was what she feared, it meant that his goal was more possible than he’d originally thought.
As quickly as that realization had come, another washed over him, this one much worse. Something Percy guessed she’d hoped he wouldn’t discern from his glimpse backwards. A risky gamble, based on her underestimation of his intelligence.
“You heard me.”
Mild confusion shone in her stare before shifting into recognition, and something like shame. And he knew he was right.
“You heard me that night,” he repeated, his voice growing louder, building with his disbelief. “You heard my prayer. You heard me beg for her life. You knew there was no price I wouldn’t pay. And you did nothing.” The fury he’d felt before she’d sent him back in time paled in comparison to the wildfire that swept through him now. “We were only on that quest for YOU. She was only there that night BECAUSE OF YOU. And you did NOTHING?”
Athena’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I could not.”
“You could have,” he spat. “You chose not to.”
“I cannot interfere.”
“Zeus interfered to save Thalia.”
“That was entirely different—“
“Did you ask?”
Athena stopped short. “What?”
“Did you ask?” Percy repeated, his voice dropping dangerously low. “Did you ask Zeus to make an exception, to save your own daughter?”
Athena stared at him in shock. “I…” Her voice trailed off.
“Did. You. Ask?” Percy growled through clenched teeth.
Silence was his only answer. It was all he needed.
He didn’t know what he was doing. All he knew was that the person he blamed for every second of his misery still existed, and she did not, and he could not accept it. He would not accept it. He put his hand out in front of him, and fell over the edge.
