Too Many Memories

The Earth Has A Bad Hair Day

The Earth Has A Bad Hair Day

"You!" A voice jolted me out of my sleep. "You miserable daughter of Athena!" I sat straight up in my bed in the infirmary, coming face to face with Earth. As in, Gaea, not the dirty ground.

I shuffled backward in the cot, reaching for my dagger to find it missing. Gaea smirked. "Looking for this?" The celestial bronze glinted in her hand and she cackled.

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you want, Gaea?" I said.

"You know, you may want to tell your friends not to place weapons right next to your bed, unguarded, especially when someone like me is after you." She paced around the sides off my bed and I slowly maneuvered myself into the best fighting stance I had, while sitting in a bed with two casts and multiple injuries.

"Did you really think you could escape that easily? True, you did make it back here, but did you think I wouldn't get you back?" She rushed forward, the dagger outstretched in her hand, seemingly with the intention of cutting me.

Gaea bounced back as if she had hit an invisible wall about a foot away from me. She stumbled and dropped the knife on my bed, where I quickly scooped it up and brandished it in front of me. Gaea snarled and her hair poofed up, giving the impression that she was a scared cat. It was quite funny.

"So, you think you can protect yourself? Not with me against you." Gaea sprang forward, harder this time, and bounced back even harder.

"No," a voice stated. "She's actually not protecting herself. That's Percy's doing." Nico walked out of the shadows and came over to my bed.

"Why don't I go fetch him?" Before Gaea or I could react, he ran into the shadows and reappeared not a moment later with Percy.

"Why don't you talk to him about it?" Nico gave a mock little bow and disappeared into the shadows once again.

Percy took one look at the situation and stood by my side. "Nico told me. Of course I knew it wouldn't be that easy to escape. I'm not stupid."

"Agree to disagree. Didn't you have the nickname 'Seaweed Brain'?" Gaea taunted.

"All fun and games." Percy smirked. "Well, now that you know you won't be getting any of us anytime soon--that includes everyone here at Camp--why don't you skeedaddle? Don't you have a war to plan?"

Gaea hissed. "I have a better idea. Why don't you open your eyes and see that you should be helping me, not the pathetic Olympians? You know it's true, your attempt is futile."

"Why don't you open your eyes--in fact, why don't all of you immortals open your eyes--and see that my fatal flaw is personal loyalty? I don't switch sides. Especially when the other side has threatened the people I love." I looked over at Percy and saw that his eyes teared up a little.

"Ah, so you saw my little present." Percy's eyes hardened. "I can do worse than that. But of course, I'm sure you know that."

"You ever hurt them, or Annabeth again, and I swear to all the gods I will rip you apart." Percy's voice was cold and his eyes were a raging storm of colors, all angry colors, the former tears replaced with fury.

"Of course. Just be careful, we wouldn't want little miss architect here to have an accident, would we?" Gaea laughed menacingly. "Watch your back, demigods. All of you." She melted into the ground and disappeared.

"Well that went well." I commented. "How did I not realize our escape was too . . . was too . . ." The room spun.

"Dammit, not again." Percy ran his fingers through his hair. "I'll be here when you wake."

Wake? What did he mean? I wasn't asleep. But the room seemed to be fading. Was the world supposed to look green? I weakly held my hand out. "Percy . . ." He took the dagger out of my hand.

"Just relax."

Relax. That sounded nice. No, I had to plan. Gaea had to be destroyed, or put back to sleep or something. But the pretty colors were so pretty. I just had to let them envelop me like a warm cocoon. Sleep. Sleep . . .

~

"See, she's about to wake." I groaned and lifted a hand to cover my face. I was getting tired of waking up after passing out. For once I wanted to wake because I had simply fallen asleep.

"Hey, Annabeth." Percy smiled down at me. "You okay?"

I nodded and sat up, happy to find that I was back in my bunk in the Amazon's cabin. Tansy and Tammy stood next to Percy.

"We managed to keep the Amazons from beating him. You're welcome." Tansy spoke and they scurried off before I could thank them.

I frowned, but tossed away the covers and stood shakily on my one leg, dangling the other in the air. Percy moved next to me, his hands ready to catch me if I fell. Hylla walked past us and stopped to hand me some crutches, then stalked off to scold some of the younger Amazons.

"Here, come with me. I need to talk to you in private." Percy guided me out the cabin door and we walked to the lake. Well, I hobbled but he walked.

When we reached the lake Percy continued to walk straight in it and didn't stop. I followed, knowing he would keep me dry and safe. I caught up with him and he created an air bubble for us to comfortably sit on the lake's floor while breathing.

"You know what this reminds me off?"

I thought for a moment. "When you thought we remembered you and took me into the lake, then shot me into the sky like a rocket."

He snickered. "Yeah. Sorry about that, by the way. But what I was thinking of was when the campers dumped us in here after the second Titan War. Remember that?"

I smiled at the memory. "Yeah." Percy and I sat in silence for a few minutes. "Percy, when Gaea visited me. What 'present' did she mean?"

He sighed. "When you were missing, Luke and Zoë told me to go visit Sally and Paul. So, I did. But, it turns out, Gaea had paid them a visit. My mom's in a coma. She didn't touch Paul because he's mortal and I'm technically not related to him. He's been at her hospital bed everyday. The doctors don't know if she's going to wake up." Percy sniffed.

I placed a hand on his back, tears in my eyes too. "I'm sorry. I was close to her too. I know she'll wake up. She has to, she hasn't seen you in what, two years? Of course she'll wake up. She's Sally Jackson, she was almost killed by the Minotaur. She can get through this. Besides, you have Nico and Hades on your side. You can talk to them."

He picked at his fingernails. "Thanks. I hope she gets better soon."

Percy pulled me to my one foot and we rose to the surface. The sun was fading as Apollo drove west. He kissed me lightly on the lips. "Go get some rest. Sleep, by your own free will for once."

I chuckled. "Okay. Good night, Seaweed Brain. I love you."

"Love you, too."