Percy woke up to darkness and a dull pounding in his skull. It took him an embarrassingly long time to realize that the darkness was caused by the fact he hadn't opened his eyes. His eyes fluttered open and were met with a bright light. He immediately shut them again as the pounding in his head got worse. He hesitantly opened them slowly so he could get used to the light.

When his eyes adjusted he found himself on an infirmary cot. He wondered how he had gotten there. He had probably fallen off the lava wall again. He tried to sit up but fell onto his back as a sharp stab of pain went through his entire body. Looking down at himself, Percy found his chest was covered in bandages. There was a dark red stain on some parts of the gauze. He was confused; he had never been this injured from a simple fall before.

He glanced at the table next to the cot and found a few squares of ambrosia and a small amount of nectar. He gingerly picked up a piece of ambrosia and started chewing. The taste of his mom's chocolate chip cookies filled his mouth and he let out a sigh of contentment as the pain immediately started fading.

Since his head was clearer, he tried to think about the last thing could recall. He inhaled sharply as he remembered the final battle against Gaea and the giants. Leo had sacrificed his life to stop Gaea and Percy felt a wave of sadness wash over him. He would miss hearing his friend's jokes and watching him enthusiastically explaining his newest invention.

After Leo had died, and Gaea had been defeated there was still an army of monsters left. He remembered fighting next to his cousins to defeat the drakon and smiled. The three of them worked well together. They had rushed Nico to the infirmary after he collapsed and then... Percy gasped as he recalled Annabeth's pale form, her torso covered in red gauze as she slowly died. He put a tentative hand to his lips where she had kissed him for the last time.

A sob started building in his throat and he had to choke it down. She was gone. It would be years until he saw her again. Unless... he glanced at Riptide sitting on top of a stack of clothes for him to change into.

He shook his head violently to get rid of those thoughts. He wouldn't go down that path. There were still people who needed him.

Percy slowly started to remove the bandages from his chest. It was a slow process and he had to stop more than once to avoid reopening his wounds. Once he had removed the last strip of gauze he moved to the stack of clothes and changed into them as quickly as possible. He tried to not glance down at the scars that littered his body. He would have to deal with it eventually but at that moment he was filled with the need to get out of there as soon as possible.

He managed to sneak out of the infirmary without anyone noticing. They were too busy attending to the other patients who had more serious injuries. The sun was low in the sky, letting Percy know that it had been at least twenty four hours since he had lost consciousness. He made his way through the camp, avoiding any campers that he came across.

He sat on the soft sand of the beach, his feet getting covered by the surf every few seconds as the tide moved. The sun was setting by the time Nico and Thalia found him. He slowly got up and turned to face them.

Thalia had a look of unbridled fury on her face. "Where have you been? Will told us you disappeared an hour ago. The entire camp has been looking for you!"

Percy didn't respond. He moved forward and pulled his cousins into a group hug. Thalia was tense but her shoulders relaxed after a moment and hugged him back. He started to cry again, the tears running silently down his face.

After a few minutes of the three of them standing there, Percy broke the embrace. He looked closer at his cousins. They both looked horrible, Thalia had unkempt hair and Nico's skin was two shades paler than it normally was. Thalia was also missing the silver circlet that marked her as the lieutenant of Artemis.

"What happened to your tiara?" Percy asked, trying to avoid talking about Anna- her.

Thalia's eyes darkened. "I quit the Hunters."

She didn't offer any explanation and Percy didn't ask for one. His mind flashed back to Thalia saying goodbye in the infirmary.

Percy nodded at her before turning to Nico. "Nico, I'm sorry about Annabeth. I know that you..." He trailed off, unsure how to finish. He had been aware of his cousin's crush on Annabeth for a while but he didn't know how to deal with it so he had never said anything. He imagined the pain that Nico must have been going through if his own grief was any indication.

Nico's cheeks darkened and a scowl formed on his face. He crossed his arms over his chest. "I-I didn't like Annabeth," he stuttered. He took a deep breath. "I was jealous of her because she got to be with you." After Percy just continued to stare blankly at him, he huffed before admitting, "I had a crush on you, okay?"

Percy felt heat rush to his cheeks at the admission. He had been completely wrong. He tried to stammer out a response but he was speechless. Thankfully, his cousin took pity on him.

"Don't worry," Nico reassured, "I realized that you aren't my type."

Percy continued to stammer, unable to form a coherent response. Thalia, who was silent until that point, started laughing at the two of them.

"Are you done?" Percy asked sarcastically after she laughed for two minutes straight.

Thalia straightened from where she was hunched over and smirked at them. The moment passed and the mood became somber again once.

"Listen," Thalia started, "we're burning the shrouds for all of the campers who died tonight during the campfire. We knew you would regret missing it."

Percy furrowed his brows. "Tonight? How long have I been out?"

"You've been passed out for the past two days," Nico informed him.

"Chiron wanted to ask if you would say a few words for Annabeth," Thalia said gently.

Percy's throat closed up. He didn't know if he would be able to get through a speech without sobbing and he needed to be strong for the other campers. He figured that he didn't have a choice. The camp needed to see that he was okay, that he was still living, even if it felt more like he was just surviving at this point. He reluctantly agreed. "Yeah, I'll say something."

The trio walked to the campfire in tense silence. When they arrived, there was a row of shrouds lined up. Percy immediately spotted Annabeth's. It was the same grey as her eyes, with an owl embroidered on it. It also had her dagger underneath the owl, made a deep bronze thread.

Percy ignored the eyes that followed him and sat down. He was numb throughout the entire ceremony. They had lost too many people, exactly fifteen, and Percy could feel their deaths like a physical weight on his soul.

Too soon, it was his turn to talk. He walked to Chiron and grabbed the torch from him before moving to Annabeth's shroud. He didn't register what he was saying, all he could feel was the tears dripping down his cheeks. Once he was done, he lowered the torch to the grey silk and watched as it started to burn. The smell of smoke and the sight of the fabric withering from the heat burned itself into his memory.

He sat down, completely numb, and watched as the rest of the shrouds were burnt. As soon as people started to leave Percy jumped up and sprinted to his cabin. He slammed the door shut behind him and collapsed before he could make it to his bed. He started sobbing, the flames from Annabeth's shroud flickering across his eyelids. It seemed final. She wasn't going to appear, Yankees cap in hand, and call him a Seaweed Brain before giving him a peck on the cheek. She was really... gone.

A hand landed on his shoulder, causing him to jolt. He looked up to find his cousins there, each of them also crying, albeit silently.

"I-I can't do this," he tried to explain.

They sat down on the ground next to him; Thalia put a hand on his knee. "Do what?" she asked.

"Any of this," Percy exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air and gesturing around him. "I can't be here, knowing that she isn't. I can't walk around camp every day, thinking she's going to show up behind me and then realize she not going to. That she's never going to. I've done everything for them and in the end, the only thing I have to show for it is a shit ton scars and a graveyard of dead friends."

Thalia and Nico shared a worried look over Percy's shoulder. Their cousin was sounding a lot like Luke when he was explaining why he betrayed the gods. Nico quickly tried to placate him. "Then we'll leave," he said simply.

"What?"

"We'll leave," Nico repeated. "We'll go somewhere where no one knows us. No more wars, no more death. Just us, being normal teenagers."

Thalia stood up, prompting Nico to do the same. She held out a hand for her cousin to take. "Are you with us?"

Percy looked up at his cousins and gave them a weak smile. He reached out and clasped Thalia's hand, pulling himself to his feet. He nodded. "Let's do it."

After a moment Thalia said, "You're going to have to let go of my hand so we can leave, Kelp Head."

Percy furrowed his eyebrows and looked down at his hand. It was still holding Thalia's hand. He tried to let go but his hand wouldn't unstick from hers. "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't?"

"I mean," Percy drawled, "that I can't let go."

"Sure you can, Perce," Nico said unhelpfully. "It's called moving your fingers."

"No, I mean I physically cannot move my fingers."

Thalia started tugging at their intertwined hands. After a few moments of useless pulling, she started to grab random objects to try and pry their hands apart.

"Stop," Percy cried, "you're just going to break something and I doubt freaking out about it is going to help."

"I swear to every god out there if I'm stuck like this for more than an hour I will kill you," Thalia threatened.

"It's not my fault," Percy defended. Unfortunately, he also tried to put his hands up which caused Thalia to lurch towards him. Once he put his hands down, she glared at him.

"Hey," Nico cut in, "I'm going to go get Will. Can you two not kill each other in the five minutes I leave you alone?"

Thalia continued to glare at Percy before turning and reluctantly agreeing. As soon as Nico was out the door, Percy opened his mouth but Thalia cut him off.

"Not a word or I will break my promise and your nose."

Edit 6/25/19 - I'm rewriting the first six chapters of the story to fix some plot holes and make the story better. The gist of the story is the same so you don't HAVE to reread it but I would because there are more details and is better than what was written before.

Let me know what you think of the chapter. Remember to please vote and comment!

<3 S