Riordanverse One Shots

A Hero's Memory (Greco-Roman)

Requested by: DaughterOfTheDead2
This is a continuation of the AU in Shadow, Not Water.
I hope you enjoy.

I felt miserable. I mean, yeah sure we'd beaten Kronos and the Great Prophecy was finally over. But it was hard to focus on the positives on this particular day. After all, it was his birthday.

Percy Jackson, the son of Poseidon, would have been sixteen that day. If only I hadn't failed so miserably two years earlier. If he had been alive, he would have been the child of the Prophecy. Instead it was me. It didn't feel right.

And then there was Annabeth. Most days she would walk around normally, living with her brain rather than her heart. She actually had the whole thing in control better than me, if you can believe that.

But on this particular day, that's when her walls came crashing down. If you talked about Percy in front of her, Hades if you even mentioned the color blue, she would start crying. She would run to cabin three and lock herself inside until she calmed down. I suppose it made her feel closer to Percy, which helped. Chiron had stopped questioning it a long time ago.

But I could never face her. Not this day. It was a reminder of just how badly I had failed. I couldn't bare to look at her, much less talk to her. So I locked myself in the newly built cabin thirteen.

That was another thing I could thank Percy for. You see, after we beat Kronos the gods decided to grant us gifts. And Annabeth did one of the bravest things I have ever seen. She stepped up to the gods and rejected their gift of immortality as Olympus's architect. Instead, she made them swear on the River Styx that they wouldn't neglect their children or the other gods anymore. And just to make sure no one could argue she added: it's what Percy would have wanted.

She won Poseidon's support immediately. Athena was a bit miffed by her attachment to Percy, but she accepted it nonetheless. Aphrodite burst into a fit of emotional tears before agreeing to the oath. Apollo, Artemis, Hephaestus and Hermes all agreed without issues. I was also happy to see that my father was 100% on board with the idea (not surprising though). Dionysus was surprised, but he did agree. And Zeus caved after Thalia glared at him for about twenty minutes. The only ones that gave slight protest were Hera and Ares, for obvious reasons, but they were outvoted.

So basically, even dead, Percy Jackson was the hero.

My thoughts were interrupted by a knocking on my door.

"Bianca, open up!"

Thalia, yet another person I didn't want to see. Seeing her was always hard, because it reminded me precisely of that day in the desert.

But she was not someone who could be easily ignored.

"Bianca, I know you're in there! Let me in!"

This went on for about five more minutes before I eventually opened the door.

"There. Was that so hard?" Thalia asked.

I would have come up with something to reply, but my eyes landed on Annabeth first. She was standing right beside Thalia wearing a blue hoodie that was a few sizes too big. Percy's hoodie. Her eyes were red and puffy and there were tear tracks on her cheeks.

"What are you guys doing here?" I asked.

"We wanted to talk with you. You were there when he... you know. You shouldn't have to be alone. Especially not today." Annabeth said.

I really just wanted to be on my own. But that would be rude, mean, and just plain stupid of me. So I let them in.

The dark and graveyard/Dracula's castle themed interior didn't seem to bother them. In fact, I think Thalia actually liked it.

"So, what did you guys want to talk about?" I asked.

"Well... we thought... maybe it would be easier if we just... talked about him together. Share our memories." Thalia suggested.

And we did exactly that. For the rest of the afternoon we told each other all the stories we could remember about Percy. We laughed, we cried, we cried and laughed. It was a literal emotional roller coaster.

"You did not!"
"I did! My brain just froze and the only thing that came out was 'you drool in your sleep'."

"Percy would have kicked your ass."
"What are you talking about? He had a creek, I had lightning bolts. I would have totally kicked his ass."
"You would both have kicked each other's asses. And no, you are not allowed to object."

"He went on that quest for me?"
"Yeah. Zoë even teased him about it and everything."

"I can't believe it! The nerve!"
"Relax. I bet Aphrodite just wanted to make sure her favorite drama show stayed on track."

"They all just stood there. Percy was the only one who helped me."
"Why didn't you do anything?!"
"We were shocked, okay! Percy was the only one clueless enough not to realize what was happening!"

"You know what's the worst part? It's that I never got to tell him."
"Tell him what?"
"That I loved him."

By the end of the day we were all completely emotionally drained. Our vocal chords were sore from all the laughing and we had literally no tears left to cry.

My eyes suddenly landed on the ballpoint pen on my nightstand. It felt incredibly out of place there.

"Hey guys, I'll be right back."

I took the pen and left the cabin. Once outside, I looked at Riptide.

It wasn't my sword. It had never been my sword. And now that the war was over, I wasn't going to need it anymore. It was time I returned it to its rightful owner.