Alternatively

Before Moving Forward

It never started, it was always just happening.

The darkness was already heavy around her, shivers wracking across her body as she desperately struggled to stay calm so she wouldn't hyperventilate through her gag. Her clothes clung to her skin from layers of old sweat, dirt, and blood, and every drip, drip, drip of the dank surroundings sent chills rolling down her spine.

She was terrified, always so scared as the goddess's arms trembled and the pressure fluctuated, her binds keeping her from even yawning to pop her ears. The air was charged as the titan and demigods warred, and she watched with wide eyes as Thalia and Luke whirled around each other.

Her wide eyes had caught Percy's expression when he saw her and the relief that flooded his face, and her wide eyes had caught when he and Luke sized each other up, some part of her panicking, "Don't hurt him!"

As to which him she meant, it wasn't clear.

Then Percy took the weight of the sky from the goddess's shoulders.

Her muscles ached from the phantom pressure. Percy's grunt kept her darting gaze on him, his face contorted in pain as his shoulders and back strained. His jaw was clenched and she swallowed best she could through her gag, arms flexing painfully from the memory.

His eyes flickered up, and she could only stare helplessly as his shoulders dipped, the sky pressing down, down, down.

The sound he made, a ground out sound of agony and determination, his head dropping as he struggled to stay on his knees, it resonated through her bones. Sweat was pouring down his face, and she could only shallowly gasp in what little air she could. If only she could help, if only they could both share the weight, but it infuriated her how little she could move. How her limbs refused to move, every fiber of her screaming at the slightest pressure.

But she strained against her binds, flinching as the battles raged and listening to Percy's ragged breathing as he kept the world from crashing down on top of them.

Then her eyes snapped open, her limbs tangled in sweaty sheets.

Sunlight stretched across the cabin and she squinted groggily as the screen door clattered shut when someone ran outside. It had to be midmorning, far past breakfast, and she was supposed to lead her siblings to the mess.

Why had no one woken her up?

Annabeth wrinkled her nose, a sneeze tickling it's way up from her lungs, and she grabbed for the water bottle wedged between her bunk and the wall.

She was sick.

Right.

She had forgotten, which was strange; she knew she only got that dream when she was fighting a cold.

Draining half the bottle, she tested her nose, finding most of the runniness having dried up overnight. That was what she had been most concerned with; stuffing tissues in her pockets and having to run and blow her nose was annoying, especially at the start of summer when things were just starting to pick back up.

Chatter drew her eye to the window and she watched campers pass, weapons slung over their shoulders and baseball caps and sunglasses blocking the garish sun on their way to their next activity. Not many people were in the cabin U, the clumps passing through just darting in and out to grab something they had forgotten. There was a cluster talking on the Demeter porch, Annabeth recognizing Clarisse's signature red bandana and crudely cut off jorts.

Grunting, she flung her covers back and swung her legs around; she probably needed to check that out.

The Athena cabin was a humming sort of quiet, computers charging in their ports and the beds around her neatly tucked in. Spare shoes and shirts were usually slung over bedposts and shoved in whatever crevice they could be kicked into, but this too was replaced with clean floors and organized storage. Her eyebrow was quirking when the creak of the screen door startled her, turning over her shoulder as Percy pushed in, eyes roaming the clipboard in his hand.