"Better terrible truths than kind lies."

-Six of Crows

|Part One| Love of My Life

Damien held Kate close, swaying to the beat.

She looked gorgeous, her long hair pinned up, a long white dress on her, hugging her, her curves, her, her, her.

Marriage.

It was a weird thought, to think that he was a married man now, legally bound to the love of his life.

A song came on, Love of My Life by Queen.

Memories from high school came, his old friend Percy belting out Queen at prom, Annabeth laughing. The way he pulled her onto the floor and how they swayed, not unlike how he and Kate were.

"Remember back in high school when Percy would sing along to every Queen song he heard?" Damien asked, leaning close to her.

Kate smiled a bit, wistful.

"Yeah."

They hadn't heard from their friend, or even that entire group, for a while. The last time they had all been together was probably that summer after graduation. They'd moved west for college, he knew that but they'd disappeared after that.

"How old are they now?"

Kate tilted her head, thinking, "Mid-twenties, like us."

"I wonder how they are?"

Kate laughed, "Annabeth and Percy are probably as in love as ever. Jason and Piper are probably also still together," she smiled, her eyes shining, "I love you." she whispered.

Damien smiled, kissing her sweetly as the song began to end. When they pulled apart, the song was over, and they were ready to sit down.

They sat at their table, holding hands and talking. Their quite chatter was broken when two more people arrived.

Cameron and Sydney Dales, both looking gorgeous in emerald green, were smiling at them.

The couple had become rather successful, launching a clothing line together, that over the years since college becoming a very, very successful.

In fact, the entire group was blessed with success.

Damiens had released an album in his third year of college, which had quickly gotten very very popular. He was now in the process of making his second album and was very excited to do it.

Kate had gone into the detective career and had actually been fairly successful.

Seems her years of digging up dirt in school rivals had served her good.

They talked and drank, all giddy from the joy of the day.

They all took to the dancefloor multiple times, dancing well into the night, the silver moon shining through the high windows.

But once the party was over, and it was just the four of them left, their old friends were brought up.

They wondered where they were, what they had been doing the past eight years. Where they were.

They would not figure out their answer for a good long while.

Jason and Piper still lived in California, married, owning a dog.

Annabeth Chase lives in Boston, with her dogs and cat.

Percy Jackson is dead.

---

|Part Two| Morning, Noon, Midnight

Morning.

Jason is at the counter, drawing up plans for buildings.

Piper is cooking in the kitchen, dancing along to songs on the radio, knowing none of them.

Their dog, a golden retriever, was curled up on the couch, quietly chewing on a play toy.

Piper serves the breakfast and they share a sweet kiss, diving into their meals.

Piper leaves for her job.

Jason draws up more plans.

Noon.

Jason is having lunch with Leo.

They talk about everything, catching up.

They do not talk about Percy.

Piper is on her lunch break, cleaning up her desk.

She pulls out a photo.

Its the seven, alive and healthy.

She clutches the frame tight, trying not to cry at the face of a hero.

Midnight.

Neither of them can sleep.

Their dancing in the kitchen, her head on his chest.

A bird, a crow, caws outside.

It is ignored.

A Queen song comes on.

It was Percy's favourite.

They go to bed.

---

|Part Three| First Love. Last Life.

She remembers their first touch.

He's passed out and she's nursing him back to health and her hand brushed over his cheek.

It's soft and warm.

Their first kiss.

The heat of the fires around them, her tears, the feeling of his lips against hers.

The world was burning around her then.

The world is burning around her now.

The monster was too large, too fast.

We're going to die.

A clang of metal against metal.

She can't move.

And in front of him, he's fighting, sweat pouring down his face, mixing with tears.

We're going to die.

I don't want to die.

He's on the floor.

There's blood pooling out his back.

One last stab, the monster is dead, and the ancient weapon drops.

The world focuses.

"PERCY!" Annabeth screams.

She's by his side.

He's bleeding out.

His Achilles heel has been hit, she doesn't have to check cause she feels it in her bones, every part of her is screaming it, and yet her mind can't catch up.

He can't be dead.

"Annabeth-" he chokes out.

"Percy," she sobs.

He smiles. His green eyes are clouded with pain. He's smiling. "I love you." His hand brushes the side of her face. Last touch.

"Percy-" It's all she can say, his name, his name; a prayer on her lips.

"Burn-" he coughs, and everything is falling apart around her, "Burn a pyre for me, okay?"

"No," she whispers, cradling his head, "I can't-" she tries not to scream, "We're supposed to be together. I can't do that- I can't, Percy-"

"Hey," his voice is weak, he's fading quickly, "It'll be okay. Give Tide, Rocky, and Pickles my love. And my mom. And Jason and Piper and Clarrisee and Reyna-"

"Shhhh," she says now, leaning over him, "I know, I know." Last Kiss. Finish the story. She leans forward and they kiss.

She'll never be able to explain it. Slow yet fast. Sweet yet desperate. Lust and Pain. Screaming songs whispered sonnets. Salt and Iron, Tears and Blood.

They pull apart. He whispers his last word.

Annabeth.

His breathing slows. He goes limp.

Gone.

She stays there for a moment, watching him, taking in his pale face.

The scream comes.

Its shattered glass, sharp and bloody, echoing echoing echoing...

She sobs and screams, and the world burns, and New York, the city that never sleeps, stills, mourning the loss of her saviour.

Her hands are one on his side, desperately searching for something, something to hold on to. She feels something in his pocket and she takes it out and the world falls around her again.

It's a ring.

The box slips out of her hand.

Oh, Percy.

Another scream.

She collapses on top of him, sobbing over the dead body of the person who was supposed to stay.

She doesn't know how long she sobs over him, but then she feels it; power.

Warm hands take hers, and she looks up and her mother is there, Apollo, Poseidon, and Hermes behind her.

She just stares for a moment, then she screams again, and before she knows what's happening she collapses into her mother's arms, beating at her chest as she screams for him.

Her mother's touch is gentle, running through her hair, holding her daughter tight.

For a moment, she can pretend that she's mortal.

She's in her normal mother's arms, and she's being held in a way she hasn't ever been held, at least by a parent. The world isn't burning, she doesn't have to think about how she's going to live without him, the first person who stayed.

She pulls back for a moment and sees his father, crouched next to his beloved son, Apollo's hand on his shoulder as he sits vigil for a moment. Hermes is in the corner.

The sight makes her sob again, and she shakily takes the box again, clutching it close to her chest.

Her mother's hands are on hers and she hands her the box. She hears the gasp.

She feels her mother take her left hand, and then she feels it, cool metal on her ring finger.

She looks at it.

The band is gold, the jewel a brilliant blue-green, shifting in the dim light.

Something catches her eye.

An engraving on the side, she brings the ring close and reads.

In greek, it says the word, Promises.

Annabeth just stares for a moment and then the sobs come again, and she clutches her hand to her chest, closing her eyes as the tears come.

She doesn't see them take him away, she doesn't need to.

She feels a hands rest on her shoulder a couple times, but she's so lost that it doesn't even register.

All she can feel is the cold metal on her finger, hot tears on her cheek, and a deep, throbbing pain all over.

Then the power around her diminishes, three gods, having left.

Her mother remains.

"Annabeth..." her mother says, words lost and unsure.

"He's gone, mom"

"He's really gone."

"I know, I know." A hand on her arm.

"I can't-"

She breaks down again, and the world still burns.

A thousand thoughts run through her, shaking her core, making the tears come faster.

I could have saved him.

I should have been there.

He could still be alive.

This is all my fault.

Why can't I do anything right?

She doesn't know how to stop them, stop the pain that's burning away her insides, stripping her down to her barest bones.

"Annabeth."

Her mother's voice in her ears, reverberating, a reminder of clarity.

She opens her eyes and meets her mothers, the same slate grey.

The goddess is looking at her eldest daughter, with her red eyes and messy hair, watching her heartbreak as she clutches the ring she was never given.

She reaches a handout, and it rests in her forehead.

"Sleep, my daughter."

"No, I can't-"

"Shhhhh, all will be better when you wake up." Empty promises, a brighter future that doesn't exist. Annabeth sways, before crumbling, her mother there to catch her as she falls asleep.

Athena looks skyward as she feels a splatter of water. Soon enough it's pouring.

Seems the sky god mourns just as much as the rest of them.

---

|Part Four| Burn Me Down

The rain did not pour the day of his funeral as it would have in the movies.

The sky wasn't clear though.

Heavy grey clouds hung low, foreboding and dark, mourning.

Annabeth wears black.

She wears a golden band on her left hand.

A single red coral branch hangs from a silver chain on her necklace.

Hades himself says the funeral rights, all in Greek, something Annabeth never would have thought would happen.

She lights the pyre.

And he burns, her love, he burns.

He is covered with a shroud the colour of the restless sea, embroidered with gold, waves at the edges. On top, his sword lays, not to be used by any hero again.

Riptide burns.

He burns.

Annabeth's heart hardens.

She does not cry.

She just stares, oh lord she just stares.

She is not burning, not yet.

Her heart has walls around it now, holding it up.

The fire laps around it, slowly, slowly burning it away.

She will not burn.

She raises her chin, she does not cry.

She does not burn.

---

|Part Five| In Finem Flamma

By the time Annabeth dies at 29, most of the seven are dead.

Its a cruel curse, the one who's wanted to die since he died when they were twenty-one, being one of the last of the heroes of manhattan, the seven to survive.

The only person who remains from that era is Hazel, but her body is slowing like the rest of them.

Annabeth welcomes death and the pain of it all. She just closes her eyes, last time, and there's pain then-

None.

Bliss.

She is dead.

She opens her eyes and knows she is dead, and she does not care. She raises her chin and walks to the dais where three great kings stand to judge her.

She gives a smile when eternal paradise is given to her and she is whisked away to the fields where she will spend all eternity in.

She looks for a moment, reality sinking in.

When she was seven, there was nothing she feared more than death.

(And Spiders)

But death, it isn't so bad. It's painful, just for a moment, but then you open your eyes, and you can be at peace for all eternity.

She walks in and the first person she sees that she knows:

Luke.

He stares for a moment, but she runs to him, and he hugs her tight. It's warm and she finally knows that she is home, she is where she needs to be.

"Hello, Annabeth."

"Hello Dumbass," She muttered.

Luke smiles. He looks seventeen again. She wonders how old she looks. "I knew you would say that."

She wonders if she had died at the age he looked like he was, would she have been so warm? Or would she have still been so torn, so angry, so hurt? The things she let go of after Percy died, her demigod life, she still all had.

She doesn't know but all she can feel when she sees Luke is a relief. A familiar face, blue eyes and the comfort of someone she knows.

He offers his arm and she takes it.

"He talks about you a lot."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's like he's in love with you or something!"

Annabeth looks at him, and he's smiling a sly smile at her, mirth and joy burning in his eyes. He looks so good, so young. Nothing like the kid who took his own life on the floors of Olympus, who tricked her and deceived her and-

"You should be mad at me." He says. He is not meeting her eyes, "I did so much bad." He glances at her, "I don't know if I ever can forgive myself."

Annabeth nods, the silence between them having turned tense. She does not let go of his arm.

Then she sees him.

He looks seventeen, and he's leaning against a building talking to a tall, dark-skinned teen Annabeth hasn't seen in thirteen years.

Charlie sees her first, his jaw-dropping.

He turns, and everything else fades away.

She doesn't feel herself run into his arms, she doesn't register the kiss or the hug. She doesn't feel herself fall to the floor sobbing into his arms or hear him say hello and that he's sorry over and over as he kisses her tears away.

All she can see are green eyes, and all she can feel is love.

And all she can hear is the rushing waves sweeping them away, joining them together once more.

Fin

---

The end.

Or no?

There will be one more part to this story. On Wattpad and FF.net, it will be an additional chapter to this fic. Ao3, once it is published, you can find it on the series tab. Follow that.

So, yeah.

The end.

First of all, I want to thank you, the reader. You've mad this journey what it is and i am eternally grateful. Also my editors, for listening to my crazy plans, telling me if I did a good job with foreshadowing, and you know, editing. Love y'all.

Hope to see you on the next part, the true finale, and of course, any future projects that may arise...