Seaweed and Wise - Never letting go

Home, a place where I belong.

Annabeth's 21, her life is good. She and Percy? They're elated, not just happy.
And then one day Annabeth doesn't wake up with Percy, she's feverish at touch but nothing seems wrong. Will is checking her up over and over and Kayla arrives too. Percy is crazed until they both declare that this has happened to a few demigods after New year's too. It's something that comes and goes. A one day's strange nap you wake up from and remember nothing after. It's happened to a few, no one has been "infected", it's random.
And so Percy sits by Annabeth's side faithfully, having asked Kayla to take Victoria with her back to camp. He'd pick her up once Annabeth was fine. She'd have to be fine. Until then, he wouldn't move from her side.

Annabeth wakes up to a different time, a different place... It's not a dream but it's not reality either. She remembered falling asleep tangled up with Percy, a content mess. She barely forced herself to wear one of his shirts and a pair of shorts last night, she was grateful now.
She looked around, this was Camp Half Blood, many years back though. It was way happier now, more lively and colorful, but this was her safe haven. She smiled. Whatever this was, nothing bad was happening.
And then she saw a flash of golden hair and the door to Athena's cabin slammed shut. She ran over there, something drawing her inside, as if her heart were tied on an invisible string.
Annabeth opened the door to find three girls inside. They all looked at each other and their expressions turned wild.
They spoke at once too, demanding the same thing and touching where their dagger would be. "Who are you!" The tone of their voices combined would make even the bravest of heroes cower.
"We're all the same person." The second youngest declared.
"That is not possible." The third by age said. She was the most devastated of all too. Thinner than she should be, her bones were more visible and she had bags under her eyes, she was bruised all over. Her eyes were defiant yet terrified. Well the smallest of the girls shared the same look in her eyes, but she was not scarred yet, at least not on her skin.
"Are you here to help me?" The 7 year old asked.
Annabeth snapped then. She ran towards the child and embraced her. Embraced herself actually. She looked over at the teenagers, they were so confused. She had to laugh, cradling the child Annabeth in her hands.
"Listen guys, I don't know how this is possible but I've seen crazier things in my lifetime... I'm Annabeth Jacks-"
The other Annabeths almost fainted.
Thirteen year old version of her turned a shade of green, she grinned at that. Seventeen year old version of her, probably pulled straight out of Tartarus, blushed so deeply Annabeth thought she had stopped breathing.
The tiny girl in her arms just cuddled closer, looking up at her with bright eyes.
"Forget I said anything." Annabeth laughed, but the almost adult version of her stared at her, probably thinking of all the possible scenarios that led Annabeth to that look of hers. From her wild hair to a clearly men's shirt on her. She cringed a little at that thought. If only she knew back then how everything would turn out... But... She could, right?
"So, we live through it all?" Seventeen year old her asked.
Annabeth nodded her head enthusiastically. "You'll be fine. Don't worry."
"I do worry, I probably won't remember this anyway. But this... You're married to him. Wow. Is he still as seaweed brained as right now?"
"I can't marry seaweed brain! You didn't! Tell me you did not do that!" The thirteen year old girl shouted, as mad as ever.
"Oh come on." The other teenager rolled her eyes. "We all know that you're into him girl. We're you. Well that little nugget doesn't know a thing yet, but..."
Annabeth laughed at her younger selves arguing, that could be expected.
"So I'm really you? And I make it to camp? There's this satyr helping us now." The seven year old asked. "You have the shirt." She looked at the thirteen year old, happier now.
"You'll be fine there, don't worry." Annabeth caressed the girl's soft curls, so motherly the seventeen year old turned a suspicious eye at her.
Oh wouldn't you wanna know...
"Does the war ever end?" The thirteen year old Annabeth asked. "Are we the greatest heroins and architects of our age?"
"You design the Olympus after it all." The older teenager said. "And you get a quest straight from your mother. You get Thalia back."
"You'll be wishing you were not as popular." Annabeth said. Then the thirteen year old smiled and dissolved into a misty shape, disappearing into nothingness. Annabeth's guess was that that was all she needed to hear back then. Her deathly fault was hubris after all, it used to be like that.
She looked at the next girl, a sense of understanding ran through their minds.
"Hey you." The seventeen year old Annabeth knelt in front of the child. "You want me to tell you a big, very big, secret?"
The child nodded, she seemed so comfortable in Annabeth's arms, and faced by this other version of herself that struggled just the same made her even calmer.
"You find an amazing family where you're headed. You'll never be as scared again, trust me." The teen Annabeth said.
"There won't be no spiders?" The kid asked, shivering as she said those words.
"No. Well, just occasionally. A few tiny ones. Look out for those crazy twins." Teen Annabeth smiled. "You'll have amazing siblings there, and this great Centaur who'll be like your father."
"Do I ever see my dad again?" She almost sobbed. But Annabeth heard the tinge of spite in the tiny voice.
"You do. Every once in a while..." Teen Annabeth looked at our oldest one who made a face that said otherwise. "But hey, you're smart enough to make it through."
"No more monsters?"
Our Annabeth shook her head at that.
Teen Annabeth chuckled at the clue. No scaring kids, she got it. "You'll learn to fight them, to be the best warrior there is. You'll take down boys twice your size!" The teen Annabeth cheered for the kid.
"Okay, I have to tell Thalia and Luke once I wake up!" The child smiled in such beautiful way that Annabeth couldn't not see her Victoria in herself. Then the tiny girl vanished too.
Annabeth ran her hands over her face, trying to push out the feeling of delirium overtaking her. "I don't know how long we have now." She said.
"So..." The seventeen year old smirked gingerly.
"Of course it's exactly as you think it is." Annabeth pointed all over herself.
"How is it to be that happy?" The younger girl asked wistfully. "Is it good with Percy?"
"Unimaginable." Annabeth answered shortly, closing her eyes as she imagined Percy back in their wonderful house, the work she did, Victoria...
"Wow. How old is that kid right now? Did we- Do I get-"
Annabeth was full on shocked. This version of herself clearly looked into her head just in the moment.
"She's not ours biologically!" Annabeth spluttered. "But I wouldn't trade her for anything. It was hard at first, but we didn't do it all alone. We get our degrees..."
"Athena would-" they spoke at once.
"Yeah she'd turn Percy into a rug. You're careful." Annabeth said.
"Do we get at least some kind of rest?" The teenager was hopeful. Surely she must have guessed from the way Annabeth held herself. But any Annabeth would always want to know more.
Annabeth, our adult Annabeth, tried hard not to think.
"That's unfair, you sneak." She laughed.
"So? I apparently spend my 18th birthday in the hell of all hells and get married this summer... Is Percy fine after this all?" The teenager pried on.
"You'll both pull through in the end, I swear." Annabeth promised.
"That bad?"
She just tipped her head in response. "Well... I don't know what you need to hear. There's no other side really. No coming out into perfect rainbow. It follows you everywhere but you learn to shut it out. I haven't had a panic attack in a few weeks." Annabeth smiled. "Come on out..."
They headed towards the beach and Annabeth led her younger self just where her and Percy's house would be built in a short time.
"I see. That is worth it all, isn't it?" The teenager stated those words again, apparently still so exhausted by life, but Annabeth sensed the relief in her younger self.
"I would go it all again if i had the choice. Really. Me and Percy... I don't have to go on about that." Annabeth bit her lip. "But on a more serious note... You see the stars again and the first time is like getting drunk, all the endorphins that flush your mind. You and Thalia find a way back, truly this time, you're closer than before. Piper is always there too... And Leo, you learn to love his humor. Oh you don't have to go to New Rome at all, you figure something much greater out for yourself."
"What about my parents?"
"Oh-" Our Annabeth had to think a little. "Honestly I haven't thought of them in a while either... But you find your way to Matthew and Bobby, they're always up to no good, you get along." She sighed. "It is good, I swear."
"I hope I remember to make a call once- well... If we... Once we-" The girl couldn't form the words.
"You and Percy get out of this. And that... You'll sing at campfires again, you both do. You'll find sleep with no nightmares from time to time again. Hey... Wanna see something?"
The bruises on teen Annabeth seemed to fade then, her eyes weren't as heavy, she didn't limp as much as she walked closer to hold Annabeth's hands, she looked considerably better.
"Okay..." Our Annabeth smiled.
She imagined holding Percy the first night after they got out, Leo arriving back to camp, the warm feeling of knowing she had a mother in Sally, her and Percy's wedding vows, finishing the plans for Half Blood City, Victoria walking for the first time, finishing the first block in the city she'd designed, her and Percy's graduation, the few days they spent boating around an island in Greece, the-" Annabeth truly stopped herself then, some things she wanted to keep for herself, even if she were showing it to her own past.
"I know now where my strength will come from once I wake up." The teenager Annabeth closed her eyes, trying to remember it all. "Goodbye now. Oh and- do i really want that many kids?" The teenager laughed, slightly nervous.
Annabeth couldn't hold herself back. "Get lost girl." She shook her head.
"Oh I'm going alright." And even that Annabeth disappeared back into her time.
Annabeth was alone in her possibly godly induced trippy trip then. She looked around and focused on Percy, he'd never believe her what she just went through...

And then she woke up too. It was like travelling up a million tiny bubbles to the water surface. She opened her eyes and the sight of Percy's worried eyes confirmed that she was back where she belonged.
"Are you feeling good? You definitely feel good to me already." Percy asked immediately, touching her forehead as he said so.
Annabeth nodded.
"I had this..." She told him everything. About the way her different stages of being argued and how she truly couldn't make this up. How they all listened as if their lives depended on it. And maybe they did...
Percy told her that she wasn't alone. That others have gone through it but no one remembered a thing, or dared to mention it, maybe.
But what more would Annabeth have if she couldn't tell Percy such thing?
She looked back at what she saw in whatever it was that happened to her and decided. It was a crazy good life she had.

This guys... I had to write it. I've been playing around with this idea in my mind and just... Hope you liked it.