The Aftermath

WARNING: Mature Content in this chapter. Don't drop a bad rating because of it. Please.

Percy opened his eyes to a scene he knew to be real, but by being real it confirmed it as a nightmare. He was floating at head height in his own bedroom, in the apartment he had purchased with Annabeth only six months ago.

He knew what was going to happen next, because he had gone through this nightmare ten times before in the three nights it had been since she cheated on him. He was going to blink, and there she would be, passionately cheating on him with another man.

But this time, it was different. He turned his head towards the bedroom door, he saw, to his utter amazement and true horror, the same man who had gotten him into the club last night with Annabeth, obviously drunk, stumbling in after him.

“Perrrrrcy,” She slurred, “Come-hic-here, sexy.”

“Oh hoh hoh!,” Club Man said, in aperfect imitation of Percy’s voice, “IS somebody drunk?”

“It was just-hic-seven glasses of wine,” She sloppily argued, “Wuhs-the prob-problem with that?”

“Oh, nothing,” Fake Percy purred, and he pulled Annabeth into a kiss. Dream Percy was still invisible, only five feet away in his nightmare, watching it all in complete and utter shock. Then, it got worse. Fake Percy and Annabeth started getting serious, breathing hard and fast, clothes started flying off like shrapnel from an explosion. Then, Fake Percy aka Club Man almost threw Annabeth onto the bed.

“Ooh!” Annabeth giggled, “Aggressive! I like that!”

Fake Percy didn’t laugh, but looked directly at Dream Percy. When he looked into his eyes, Dream Percy realized that Fake Percy was using some kind of magic over the Mist to make him look exactly like Dream Percy. But when Fake Percy turned away, he looked just like the guy who had gotten Percy into the club only hours earlier.

Then, Fake Percy and Annabeth started, well...you know. Percy wanted to puke, but his dream version wouldn’t let him. After a few minutes, he started to wonder whether committing suicide in a dream was possible. But then, after finding his pockets empty (which they never were), he realized he didn’t have Riptide to kill himself with. So he decided to try to shout.

“NO!” Percy screamed, but nothing happened. He watched, helpless, as Non-Dream Percy walked through the door, a glass vase of roses concealed behind his back. Real Percy was smiling. Dream Percy subconsciously felt the pocket of his jeans that he had slipped the engagement ring into on that night.

Real Percy dropped the roses and his smile, sending water and blood-red petals everywhere. Annabeth jumped, and Fake Percy groaned in release.

“NO! NO! ANNABETH!” Dream Percy screamed again, because he realized they weren’t using protection. Then, Dream Percy looked at Annabeth’s face, and he finally realized why she had looked so confused.

“Percy? Wait, what? No, Percy!” she said, quivering on their bed, “It’s not what it looks like, I swear!”

That’s when Dream Percy saw that she looked at the man who was lying next to her in bed like he was her worst nightmare come to life. She saw that he had changed into his real form, a blonde, blue-eyed god-like man with a perfect figure. She opened her mouth to scream, but couldn’t.

Real Percy said, “Annabeth, I tried to love you the best I could. I went to Hell and back for you, I gave you my life. What I couldn’t do, I tried to, and even if I wasn't perfect, I gave you my all. I thought you respected that. Apparently not.”

She launched herself out of the bed and grabbed his shoulder, the tears rolling down her completely pale-with-fear face. She pleaded,

“Percy please, that’s not—I wasn’t—no, Percy, wait!”

But Real Percy walked out of the door, shoving her hand off of his shoulder. Annabeth just started to cry, sobbing heavily from guilt, fear, realization, horror, feeling violated, and about a thousand other emotions. Then, she opened her grey eyes, and like a tiger, she whipped her head around to face the man who had violated her.

“Who are you? You bastard! You son of a rabid hellhound! I’m going to kill you, so help me Zeus, Athena and Hades! You will never live to another birthday, I swear on the River Styx!”

Dream Percy could the waves of anger washing off of her naked body and paled with fear, even though he was in a dream. Somehow, the guy in bed was smiling.

“For your information," he spat calmly, "it might be hard for you to stop me from seeing another birthday seeing as 1) I have no birthday, and 2) I’m a god. C’mon girly, be proud that you just slept with one of the mightiest love gods of all time! Now, have a nice night, and, I don’t know, maybe if you call your handsome boyfriend he’ll make up with you. On second thought, probably not. I’ve seen how much loyalty can skew his vision of the world. Besides, if he were a god, he’d be pretty upset that you had just disrespected him. Ring any bells, Annabeth Chase? Well, I’m going to get out of here. Good night, sweetheart.”

Then, Club Man smiled sweetly and faded like a gas into the air inside the bedroom. That’s when Annabeth broke down again. She tried calling Percy’s name, but Dream Percy knew Real Percy would have already been on his way to Montauk to release his emotions by then. So, after her voice was completely hoarse, she seemed to remember something. She leaped onto the bed and crawled to her bedside table, pulling out a silver packet of pills. She quickly took one and breathed in a long breath.

That’s my Wise Girl, Dream Percy thought. He hadn’t even bought her morning-afters, so she must have done it herself just in case. Dream Percy started to silently shed a tear of joy, smiling in spite of the depressing scene he had to watch.

Annabeth started crying again, her resolve crumbling as she sat there, alone, in their bed, with no chance of having anyone come to comfort her. It was then that Dream Percy’s dream changed.

“NO!” Percy growled again, not wanting to leave Annabeth in such a poor state. Then, he realized that those events had already happened. They were just being shown again to him. He couldn’t do anything to help Annabeth.
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Percy woke up uncomfortable. He woke up in a position he was not really used to sleeping in: in his battle armor.

“Wha--?” He asked the air around his body, but when he pressed down, it was definitely his armor. It shone, bronze and somehow perfectly strapped around his torso, making him feel powerful.

Then, a voice called from outside. A female voice, clear, sweet, and authoritative. Annabeth’s voice.

Percy rushed out, slipping on his wrist and shin armor plates and putting on his helmet. Annabeth smiled at him quickly and pecked him on the cheek like nothing was wrong.

He tried to say something, but his voice wouldn’t make any sound. But that didn’t matter, because Annabeth turned around and started outlining, rapid-fire, a battle plan. Percy tuned out, as he was used to, until he heard his girlfriend say,

“Those love-god types are going to get their butts kicked. C’mon guys. This will be the most one-sided game of Capture the Flag ever!”

Everyone cheered, but Percy was confused.

“Wait, what?” He asked, and Annabeth laughed quickly, smiling at her favorite hobby: explaining things to her adorable boyfriend.

“Don’t you remember who your own opponent is, Percy? Jeez! Remember? The Romans are in town, and their god Himerus, some old love god, recently claimed something like fifteen new children at Camp Jupiter. They are combining with the Venus and Aphrodite kids to make one massive team. But we’re going to annihilate them. Aren’t we, Blue Team?”

The Blue Team roared in support again. Percy started to feel an impeding sense of dread as he lined up next to Annabeth at the creek. But after Chiron blew the whistle, everything went according to plan. The Blue Team incapacitated seventeen love-god-spawn, and won the game within fifteen minutes. Capture the Flag games usually took all night.

But just as Connor Stoll was raising the flag in triumph, Percy caught a figure lurking in the darkness. Annabeth must have felt it as well because she shivered unconsciously and for no apparent reason, rushed towards Percy, pulling him into a kiss.

“Wow,” Percy said, smiling with relief and amazement, “That was…spontaneous. Not like you,
Wise Girl.”

“Who said I couldn’t be spontaneous, Seaweed Brain,” She challenged in response. Percy grinned, and Annabeth laughed.

Then, Percy actually woke up. And he didn’t like what he saw.

Notes

So, here is the next chapter. Hope you guys don't think I'm a horrible person for writing this one, but this story, like all stories, this one will have ups and downs.

Enjoy,
Grafon