The Forgotten Ships

Echo

Disclaimer:
The characters belong to Rick Riordan, as do the PJO and HoO series.

Written by:

@libraryhaunter
@AmAeRaI
@Chilea
@The__Crazy_Girl
@BrokenTimeTurner

[♁eChO♁]

It had definitely been one of the more interesting days in Echo's life. Ever since the curse she had felt so useless, only being an, you know, echo of everyone else. But today, she had actually made a difference. And she was not going to let it end there. She was going to save Narcissus.

And yes, she knew he was an idiot, but hey, she had once been that too. Everybody needed to be saved from themselves sometimes. Echo had learned that the hard way.

So she ran through the landscape on her way to save Narcissus. When she finally arrived, it was dark. She could hear Narcissus crying in despair, just as she had done when he drowned.

"I am gone!" he shouted. "My beautiful self is gone! There's nothing left for me in this world!"

"I'm here for you," a nymph protested.

"I'm here for you," Echo whispered.

"No, I am," another nymph argued.

"I am," Echo repeated.

"I'm Mrs. Narcissus. You're just a flower nymph!"

"Just a flower nymph," she whispered to herself.

Soon every nymph in the area was arguing over who was there for Narcissus. Why were none of them helping Narcissus? He was going to drown himself!

"Leave me!" Narcissus cried. "Leave me in my misery!"

Echo reached Narcissus. He was on his knees near the pond's bank, the nymphs surrounding him, who were screaming at and shoving each other.

Fools.

"Leave me! First the bronze shield, now the sun! Why does the world hate me?" Narcissus demanded dramatically.

"Leave!" Echo shouted at the other nymphs, hoping to look kind of scary. It wasn't working well.

"Get over him! You can't do anything except echo other people! Why would he want you?"

Even though she didn't say anything, the nymphs all knew what she would have said if she could.

They all started to shout at her instead of each other. None of what they said was nice, but at least it meant she could say the same words to them.

At last Narcissus looked up.

"You're the girl from earlier," he realized.

"The girl from earlier," she repeated confidently.

"You stole the bronze thing!" he shouted.

"Stole the bronze thing?" She asked innocently. At least she could control her tone and expression.

"Wait, there were two others. Where are they?"

"Two others," she agreed.

"Did they leave you?"

"Leave you," she admitted sadly, even though she wanted to say so much more.

But now the nymphs had realized that Narcissus was actually spending time talking to her.

"Ignore her!" one of them screeched.

"Yeah! Of course her new 'friends' left her. Who'd want to talk to her?"

"Yeah!" She challenged. Bring it on, girl!

"Where's my bronze shield?" Narcissus demanded. Well, at least he had forgotten about drowning himself.

"Where is my bronze shield?" She repeated making an I-don't-know gesture.

"Yeah! Where is it?" he shouted angrily.

"Where," she repeated.

"Don't waste your time trying to get an answer from her," A nymph advised. "She can only repeat what others say."

Narcissus frowned. "Why?"

"She got cursed!" the nymph stated.

"Got cursed!" She shouted and pointed at Narcissus.

"I didn't get cursed," he protested.

"Get cursed!" she replied, gesturing at him again.

"No, he didn't!" a nymph protested. "Unless beauty is a curse!"

The nymphs were starting to annoy Echo a lot.

Narcissus looked like he was doing his best to think about someone other than himself.

"Leave us!" he ordered. And this time the nymphs left, complaining loudly.

"It's so quiet without them," he remarked.

"Quiet without them," she acknowledged forcefully.

"I've seen you before, haven't I?"

"Seen you before," she asserted. If only he could remember...

Then realization seemed to dawn on him.

"You were the only nymph who tried to stop me from killing myself."

"Stop me from killing myself," she agreed, her heart swelling with happiness. He remembered.

"So I was cursed. I was cursed to love myself, even though I can't see-"

He got cut off by Echo.

"Can't see?" she asked skeptically.

"That was why I died? Because I only looked at myself?"

She nodded.

"And you were the only one who cared?"

"The only one who cared," she said very softly.

Then he did the most surprising thing he had done all night: he kissed her. She felt herself sink into him, and become a part of him. For once she didn't felt like an echo of the real world. She felt completely alive.

Her arms encircled him, feeling like every place their skin connected, she solidified from a ghostly version of her old self to the nymph who had laughed and talked and played and danced without a care in the world.

When they broke apart, there were so many things she wanted to say. Narcissus smiled down at her.

"You know what, Echo?"

She shook her head.

"When we die, maybe our curses will be broken, and then we could, you know, talk for real."

"When we die...!" She cried. She didn't wanted him to die because of her.

"Echo, you need to understand that it's only now that I am clear in my mind. I want to die noble, instead of living a cursed life just so I can die selfish again."

She understood. It was the same reason she had said no to Pan when he had asked her out. Because she always had loved Narcissus, and maybe she could have lived, but then she had lived a life where she had betrayed herself. And when she had died, she had died with the thought that she was at least going to see Narcissus again.

"Understand..." she assured him.

"We don't have a long time before the sun rises. We need to hurry before my curse takes over. Echo, I'd just like to say, I am glad you cared about me. About what's inside me, not just my looks."

She gave him a smile. "A long time..."

Narcissus took her hand, and they stepped into the pond, the air soon disappearing from their lungs.

And for the second time, the two lovers died because of love, but this time their love for each other. Echo died at last, hand in hand with Narcissus.