Remember (A Percy Jackson Fanfic)

2. The Reward Ceremony

Percy POV

She was gone.

I never thought the day would come. I never expected to see the day where I witness her fall in battle.

Fall by my own blade.

I always thought I would be able to have a life with her. Go to college in New Rome together, graduate together. Maybe get a house and grow old together with our kids, watch them live their lives without the fear of being a monster's lunch. But those hopes and dreams were crushed.

All because of a stupid ghost.

I watched from inside my head as the eidolon used my body as a tool to kill Annabeth, to get rid of the one that matters to me the most.

My Wise Girl.

Despite winning the war, the price paid was too high. This was the one thing I would not give to win this war or any other war that might come in the future. As people were celebrating for our victory, some were grieving the loss of their loved ones. None more than me.

Annabeth was my mortal anchor. She was one of the first people I met when I was thrown into this mythological world. She was the one to pull me out of the Styx. We have been through literal hell together. Only for her to die by my hands.

The next few hours after the battle was a daze to me. The medics from the Apollo cabin and healers from Camp Jupiter were treating the wounded. The people that were not in the infirmary were helping clean up the battlefield and carrying the dead just next to the infirmary, the bodies waiting for their shrouds to be made and burned.

What broke me more was seeing Annabeth's body.

It took me a while to gather the confidence to approach her body. When I saw it, I immediately broke down again.

Laying there on the ground was the love of my life, with a gaping hole in the middle of her chest. It stopped bleeding a while ago but her normal orange camp shirt was deeply stained with her blood. Her lifeless grey eyes that normally sparkled with life were staring at the sky. Tears ran down my face as I reached down and closed her eyes. I picked her up gently and walked towards the infirmary.

After the battle, the demigods were about to restrain me when Frank stopped them. He told them that I was possessed much like Leo had when he fired on New Rome. That didn't stop me from getting stared at when I was walking with Annabeth's body in my arms.

It would have been better if I joined her.

But that would not be what Annabeth wanted. She would want me to move on with my life and move past her death. I could almost hear her in my head telling me it was not my fault, but it was. It was my sword that ended her life. I could almost hear her calling me a Seaweed Brain.

I placed Annabeth next to a few of her fallen siblings. I looked around to see a lot of my friends dead. Some had a fatal wound on their torso. Some had a hole where their heart was supposed to be. Some had no head.

I felt a hand on my shoulder but I didn't react. It was a whole minute when I looked over to my left. There stood Malcolm, Annabeth's half brother. He was hastily appointed as the head counsellor of the Athena cabin after Annabeth's death.

'It's not your fault you know,' Malcolm started with sadness in his grey eyes 'You didn't kill her.'

I just continued staring at her lifeless form in front of me. After a while, Malcolm sighed.

'She wouldn't want you to blame yourself, Percy. It's not your fault,' he let go of my shoulder and started walking away 'If you need help, don't be afraid to ask.'