The kiss left Percy dizzy. Whether it was because of what she had said, or shown him, or just because his mind was trying to focus on too many things at once, he wasn't sure. All the things she had said and shown him in her kiss, it was a lot to unpack.
Annabeth was a name that sounded vaguely familiar to him. Like something he may have heard once, long ago, when he was a baby. The more he pressed at the name, the more it seemed to frustrate him that it hadn't become clearer. There was danger associated with that name, he realized. And when he took the image of the blonde haired girl Ruby had just shown him, and placed her in some of those puzzle pieces he was constantly thinking about, it seemed to make sense. Percy had watched, somehow in whatever way Ruby was able to shown him, the girl disappear.
His attention in the memory was more focused on Ruby and her very obvious distress. That in itself was difficult, because Percy was trying his hardest to remember what the girl looked like. He had pictures of her in his dorm, actually. Tyson had brought them with him, but Percy had put them away as a lot o them had Jason in them as well.
"Ruby," he started when she had pulled back. This place, Preya, it always did this to him. As soon as Percy thought might be okay with something... the fates, the universe, his sheer dumb luck, whatever would laugh at him. He had to jog a little to catch up to her, for someone so small, she seemed to walk pretty fast, and caught her by the hand. "Ruby, wait."
What Percy was going to say, he hadn't really thought that far ahead. His mind was racing though, trying to understand and piece together several different things. Among them the comment that Ruby had made about his only liking her because the girl, Annabeth, was no longer in his head. He held her hand in his, not wanting to let it go out of something that wasn't quite fear, more like anxiety that Ruby might do something stupid like not talk to him if he didn't force the issue now. "I..."