νεκρός || Annabeth Chase x Fem!OC

Vol. 1-20: I reveal my super-ego

ANNABETH

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I decided I needed to go talk to Tempest. She wasn't acting right. She saw something. I wondered how she broke from the Siren's spell so easily. How she killed them like they didn't even matter. Her expression... She was angrier than I'd ever seen her.

I ignored Percy calling after me as I stalked off downstairs. Tempest was muttering to herself as she dug through the blankets and fabrics down there. Most of them were covered in dust. She seemed to finally realize I was there, and she froze in place, her eyes fixated on me.

I swallowed thickly. "You saw something."

She stood up, turning to look at me. "Not if you didn't want me to."

"How much did you see?" I asked her. "Don't lie."

She sighed. "I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan. And Luke and your parents."

I blushed. "You saw that?"

Tempest shrugged. "What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch... that really got to you, didn't it?"

I didn't know why I was telling her this, but then I remembered my dream last night. "My fatal flaw. That's what the Sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris."

Part of me didn't think she knew what that word meant, but she's smarter than she seems. She nodded, flicking her nails awkwardly. "Excessive pride, right?"

I nodded, sitting on a nearby crate. "Deadly pride. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else... even the gods."

"You really think that?"

I looked down. "Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework."

She sat next to me, waiting for me to keep going.

"I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did- that's why the fire is still burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?"

Tempest laughed sarcastically and shook her head. "Whether or not I could do a good job, I don't really want to. I prefer watching what other people can do."

"Then you're lucky. Hubris isn't your fatal flaw," I replied. I feel like Tempest is arrogant, sure, and she has a sense of superiority, but I don't think her fatal flaw is hubris. I think there's something deeper. Something completely different. "What did you see?"

"Pardon?"

"You took out your earplugs. You heard them, but... the song. The song didn't work."

She looked a little uncomfortable. "I saw..." She ran a hand through her hair. "I saw something that I knew would never be possible. I guess there was a voice in my mind, or something. I knew the song was a lie. I know a lie when I see one, y'know."