Percabeth One-shots (Percy Jackson Fanfiction)

Grasping Air

Mark of Athena AU

ANNABETH CHASE

Nico had just reached the ladder when a pain shot up Annabeth's bad leg. She gasped and stumbled.

"What is it?" Percy asked.

She tried to stagger towards the ladder. Why was she moving backwards instead? Her legs swept out from under her and she fell on her face.

"Her ankle!" Hazel shouted from the ladder. "Cut it! Cut it!"

Annabeth's mind was woolly from the pain. Cut her ankle?
Apparently Percy didn't realise what Hazel meant either.
Then something yanked Annabeth backwards and dragged her towards the pit. Percy lunged.

But he missed.

PERCY JACKSON

His fingers clenched around nothing but air. The air where her wrist should have been.

He misjudged the speed she was being pulled backwards. And therefore, he did not catch her wrist.

A strangled cry escapes his throat, as he scrambles after her.

"No!" He yells.

He can hear Annabeth's sobs, as she tries desperately to grab something along the cavern floor.

Her hands turn bloody as they graze harshly against the rocks that lay on the ground.

Her legs disappear over the edge, and Percy cries out again.

In desperation, he lunges forward again, hoping to grab her.

But his hands grasp only at air once more.

Annabeth is pulled down into the depths of Tartarus. With her screams echoing across the walls of the cavern.

Percy kneels at the edge of the pit. Tears streaming freely down his face.

We were supposed to stay together, he thinks.

Another thought comes to his mind.

If we were supposed to stay together...then together we must fall.
He stand up and prepares himself to jump.

"I'm not leaving her alone to the monsters that await her. " He whispers.

"Percy don't!" Nico cries.
Percy turns around and smiles crookedly.

"I'm not leaving her there." He blinks back more tears. "Not alone."

Percy sees the others all racing down from the ladder. Nico is the only one close enough to stop him.

"Lead them to the other side. Promise me Nico."

Nico nods and looks down.

Percy turns back around, gripping onto riptide.

He closes his eyes and jumps.