Okay. Now. I need an au.
Annabeth has fought like hell to prove herself to her mother and when she gets a quest it’s out of rage and malice, a quest that’s killed countless siblings before her, a suicide quest. A suicide quest given with spittled rage and disowning bites that almost seems like it was given to her to kill her. A quest she goes on despite it all that challenges her intellect and skill in a city that’s greatly dishonored her mother in a cavern filled with spiders that’ve terrorized her since she was a child. Yet she persevered and comes face to face with a horrifying sight, a woman whose story has always led her to question whether or not her mother really was in the right, but something she and all of her siblings have known all their life is that you don’t question Athena. Arachne was exhibit A as to why.
And Annabeth, despite her terror, outsmarts Arachne. And retrieved the Athena Parthenos. The first…ever. And Arachne gets her revenge by dragging her down into Tartarus, the darkest pit of the Underworld that even the Big Three are too terrified of to go down to. And Percy jumps in after her. She’s injured and weaponless and starving and terrified and tired and she just wants to go home. But this is her quest from her mother. Her mother who disowned her as her last words. Sent to her foe of ages ago whose tapestries were perfect enough to be considered better than Athena, a woman who was not punished for insolence and losing, but a woman punished for daring to show up the gods and not have the power to stand her ground against their wrath and pride.
And here she is with Percy once more, cornered by a goddess who is torturing and attempting to kill him gruesomely and painfully. And then he stands. And the poison retreats. And he has the goddess on her knees, crying and begging then choking on her own tears. He has the power to stand his ground. And she finally feels safe for just a moment. For the first time in days, with him, she’s safe. Despite the horrors around them and within his own actions, admittedly, she feels safe. And her mind shifts gears until she’s at his side and whispering, “Her blood, her ichor. Control it.”
And they stand together, working in tandem, until they both achieve the title of God Killer. Until they stride through Tartarus without a single monster daring to stand against them. Not even Tartarus shows his face in the end. They claw their way out, hand in hand, and they’re safe. They’ve shown up the gods and have the power to stand their ground against their wrath. They wouldn’t dare piss off Percy or Annabeth for they know Akhlys’s fate, they know Nyx’s grief, they know Tartarus’s…fear. Percy’s power mixed with Annabeth’s intelligence awards them with peace and safety for them to live out their life’s without bothersome gods at their door making orders and demands. It’s quiet. It’s safe. It’s free.
