The Rise of Gaea

Annabeth 16

   ***** This part is dedicated to @HunterleeDavidson100 for being the first to comment! Thank you for reading!***** 

     Annabeth stared in disbelief. "Thalia?" she croaked.

    "It's me." Thalia hugged her tightly.

    "I don't understand." Annabeth wondered if her grief had sent her into a fit of insanity. Was she hallucinating?

    "Jason Iris-messaged me days ago, saying you'd need all the help you could get to save Percy and defeat Gaea." Thalia pulled back and gently wiped the tears from Annabeth's face.

    "It's my fault he fell." Annabeth confessed bitterly. "I let Jason save me first."

    "The way Jason tells it, a decision was made by Percy. That isn't your fault." Thalia reasoned.

    "That doesn't change the fact that he's down there." Annabeth felt her lip begin to tremble again.

    Thalia gathered her up in her arms. "Shh, Beth, it's okay. Percy's strong, he'll survive." She laughed a little. "One time, he almost threw a whole river at me."

    A small smile appeared on Annabeth's face as she imagined Percy throwing an entire river at Thalia. "Really? When?"

    "Oh, you were busy. Holding up the sky, I believe." Thalia flicked at the grey streak in Annabeth's hair. "But what I'm getting at is that Percy has more power than he realizes. As a fellow child of the Big Three, I can testify to that. Although, we may never know if I can fly." She shuddered, and Annabeth giggled.

    "No, I don't see that happening in the near future." She agreed.

    "Or ever."

    Annabeth yawned, all the exhaustion from the past four days washing over her.

    "Let's get you to bed, Beth." Thalia helped her stand, and walked her over to Percy's bed. Annabeth was grateful that she didn't have to worry about Thalia asking why she would be sleeping in Percy's bed. Thalia understood all too well.

    She bundled Annabeth up in Percy's blankets, and then seated herself beside the bed. "How have you been holding up?"

    Annabeth laughed humorlessly. "You saw. Not well." She paused, gathering her courage. "How did you manage, after Luke?"

    Thalia went quiet, a faraway look in her eyes. "You remember. I locked myself in the Zeus cabin for days, and then rejoined the Hunters without telling anyone or saying goodbye." She snorted. "Not that they showed me any sympathy. It was always, 'You weren't supposed to love him anyway, Thalia' or 'This is what you signed up for, Thalia'. Great load of help that was."

    Thalia sighed. "I never got over him, Beth. I was forced to tamp it all down and pretend like nothing ever happened, like there wasn't a Luke-sized hole burned into my heart." She sniffled a little. "I still try not to think about him. I can't risk falling apart again. Artemis already let my previous grief slide, since the memory was so fresh. But if she caught wind that I'm still hung up over him..."

    Annabeth squeezed Thalia's hand. "I'm guessing you wouldn't just get an honorable discharge."

    Thalia laughed. "No, probably not. I'd get turned into an animal, or something. It wouldn't be pleasant." She looked at Annabeth intently. "But I don't want you going down the same path. This is tearing you up inside, and it will only get worse if you continue to bottle it all up."

    "What am I supposed to do?" Annabeth wailed. "I have to be strong, I have to lead, I can't slip up! Percy's life hangs in the balance!! I have to unite the Greeks and the Romans, I have to persuade the gods to help, I have to fight through the House of Hades and get Percy before it's too late, I have to figure out how to defeat Gaea and the giants, and I have absolutely no special powers to do it with!" She raked her fingers through her hair, fighting back the tsunami of hysteria.

    "Annabeth, you're wrong."

    Even in her frazzled, hysterical, miserable state, Annabeth despised being told she was wrong. "How?" she asked.

    "You don't have to do it alone. And if you don't do it alone, you do have special powers to help you. You have Jason and I's electricity, Piper's charmspeak, Hazel's gemstones, Frank's animals and Nico's... well, dead things." Thalis swept Annabeth's hair out of her face. "We're all here for you."

    Annabeth sighed, the hysteria dying down. "Thank you. I'm sorry."

    Thalia hugged tightly. "Don't be sorry, Beth. We're family, remember? I'll always be here for you. And not because I have to, because I want to." She pointed to the door. "They do too, you know."

    "I know. It's just hard to be strong, and a leader, as well as grieving and worried." Annabeth settled back into the warm blankets.

    Thalia kissed her forehead maternally. "You don't have to be strong all the time. You're only human, and grieving doesn't make you any less of a leader. This crew respects you, and understands what you're going through. Nobody will hold it against you if you're worried about Percy."