the dam oneshots | pjo & hoo

"How do you destroy a monster without becoming one?"

This chapter's been coming for a long time, but it's finally here! So enjoy some good ol' angst~

🦉

Annabeth woke up, rays of sunlight streaming into Percy's cabin.
She reached out for Percy but her hand just ended up swatting the air. She turned to see that Percy was not there, her eyebrows raised in confusion.

She figured she'd probably find Percy at breakfast, so she got up and put on an extra set of clothes she kept in his cabin.

Walking out of the cabin, she saw Will and Nico heading out for breakfast too and picked up her pace in order to catch up to them.
When she finally caught up to them she asked them if either of them had seen Percy recently.

Nico shrugged, while Will muttered a faint huh. "He came into the clinic for some bandages at an ungodly hour in the morning," Will replied. "I think I remember that his hand was kinda bruised."

"That's...weird," Annabeth mumbled.

Ever since they'd been in the pit, Annabeth had made Percy promise to tell her everything, no matter how dangerous the situation was. It had partly been the reason why they convinced Chiron, with the promise to buy lots of Frank Sinatra vinyls for him, to let them sleep in the same cabin. They had to explain that they needed each other to be there when they had nightmares. No one else could console them.

Annabeth was numbly thinking of this, worried why Percy hadn't told her as she walked into the dining pavilion. But as she sat besides Malcom and looked towards the Big 3 table, Percy was nowhere to be found. She scarfed down her breakfast and headed out in search of him.

She started out by searching for him in the strawberry fields, but no one in the Demeter cabin had seen him there. She searched by the lake, and the satyrs and nymphs told her that he had not come by in more than a week.

That hit Annabeth as strange because he had told her he was going to the lake multiple times that week. She was now extremely confused.

When she finally found him in the sword fighting arena, he was punching a dummy with his bare fists, which had bloodied bandages wrapped around them.

She called out to him. "Percy! Seaweed Brain?"

But it was as if he couldn't hear her. He went on punching, his fists slamming against the poor dummy until it fell back with one last punch.

"Percy!" She exclaimed, pulling his hand, making him turn around. He almost punched her, but then stilled when he saw her.

"Oh, hi. What are you doing here?"

"Oh hi? And what am I doing here?" She repeated. "I've been searching for you since this morning, Perce!"

He just shrugged. "Oh I didn't realize what time it was, I'm sorry," he mumbled, disinterested. He turned, beginning to walk away from her.

She grabs his hand and says "Percy, we've talked about this, you aren't saving me from anything by keeping secrets," Annabeth said, forcing him to look at her. "We've promised to share everything with each other. Remember?"

"I do, it's just..." He trailed off, refusing to meet her eyes. "I'm okay, Annabeth. It's nothing, really."

"And you've been here since when?" She asked, her eyes scanning his bloodied hands.

"Like, since 5 in the morning maybe?" He said, shrugging.

It pained Annabeth to see him so indifferent, so humorless, dull and monotone.

"Come, let's get you some food, I'm sure you have something to eat in your cabin," Annabeth said,

But as they were heading back to the cabin, Rachel came up to them and said "I don't feel so good," and her eyes fogged up, green smoke spouting out of her mouth.