How Do You Say Gods- Last Olympian

13: I BUY SOME NEW FRIENDS

Annabeth woke up with the crystal clear feeling that something was right.

She felt the back pressed against hers, warm and breathing, and smiled. She wished she could just lay there forever, but she knew. They had to finish this. She had to get her boyfriend back.

The worries and fears still lingered in her like flickering shadows waiting to drag her down. What if Percy came out of this different, or changed? What if this latest interference was what finally pushed him to far? She'd have liked to stay up reading some more, but as soon as Percy had settled asleep she'd been right behind him, even as her mind lingered on Luke. She knew why Percy had seemed quiet, maybe a tad resentful of her yesterday, and it meant the world to her he hadn't pushed her away and slammed the door in her face as she lay on the ocean floor now, replaying her own quest over and over in her head without the aide of his memories.

One too many wrong assumptions on her part had started them off, of course.

The truths at the end of those tunnels still didn't sit right with her some days. Nico finding his sister only for a goodbye. Tyson had found Brairies, only for him to run away. Grover found Pan, but had to let him go. Percy found an incredible power within that almost destroyed him and scared him to abandon everything. She had found Daedalus, only to find he wasn't the savior she needed. They all found truth about the person they admired, known and dreamed most only to find them wrong.

Then it was her turn to accept the truth too. The memories Hestia had given Percy only reinforced that she needed to give her own past a good hard look.

Admitting that she had been wrong about her hero wasn't something she ever thought she could do. It's not easy when one's role model turned out to have a fundamental flaw in their character. It is often worse to lose the idea of them than to lose them to death. She now needed to accept the truth about Luke. She never knew him, only the version of her hero she'd met that first day. She made him her everything without completely knowing him and holding on it for a long time.

She'd held on to the past and lived in the present while planning everything for the future.

And lose a love...to worse than death.

Now that it finally came down to it, the truth that she'd avoided all along didn't hurt as much as she'd feared it would as she rolled over and gently placed her hand on Percy's arm. He slept on, even as he leaned back some and muttered where the sun had gone. She squeezed gently as she began to sit up and his muttering increased while the drool kept his face glued well to the pillow.

She was tempted to let him have his rest and go around to see if the others were awake, she had a feeling she was one of the first ones up, but the second her eyes went to the door, her nails sunk into her boyfriend's arm in protest. She didn't care she told herself it was paranoia, all she felt was the instant fear gripping her tight until she looked back down, and began vigorously shaking him awake.

...

There wasn't much commotion and fanfare as breakfast was had and they all settled in, Percy more eagerly than anyone to hopefully, finally, finish this once and for all. His life at least. He'd feel guilty later they'd have to start all over again when they got to Jason's and it was another long slog of nonsense.

Alex came in last, Magnus noticed as he fiddled with a kabab stick as a very horrible toothpick. She was adjusting a dark pink, full-sleeved popcorn shirt that showed off her midriff, running her hands around in joy over the material as her floor-length green skirt billowed around with a long slit up one side clean up to her hip, showing hints of the pink and green chucks beneath. She yawned her proper pronouns to the others while finishing pulling her hair into a twist on top of her head.