mattie wilson ϟ annabeth chase (monkeebars) wrote in thedoorway, @ 2013-05-31 15:28:00 |
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Annabeth pushed her worries over the new prophecy to the back of her mind as she grinned over at Percy and she nodded her head. That simple sentence awoke the competitor in her, the part of her who always had to be the best. "You are so going to lose," she told him with a smirk just before she took off how the hill. Intent on winning, she didn't look back, but then she saw it. There was a strange light just ahead and at first she thought it was lightning. Ever curious, Annabeth jogged toward the light to investigate. As she got closer, she realized she could see into the light. Without really thinking about it, she reached out to touch it. --- Once the pain had subsided, Annabeth blinked, slowly taking in her surroundings. There were men with guns and she quickly pulled out her knife as she fired questions at them. Where was she? What had they done with Percy? Annabeth had seen a lot of crazy things, but this was something new and if there was one thing she hated, it was not knowing what they hell was going on! --- When all was said and done, Annabeth had a place to live and a pocketful of cash. Seeing as how she had only the clothes on her back and the few things she'd been carrying in her backpack, she thought she should probably go out and get a few things. Shopping was in her plan, but she passed a Starbucks a decided she could use something to drink, first. Annabeth got her drink and sat on one of the cushy chairs. After a few sips, she pulled out the phone they'd given her and started to play with it. She scrolled the network briefly and made a post. The SHIELD guys had mentioned there were people she knew and sure enough her phone went crazy with messages from her friends. She had to admit that bring in this place was a lot less scary knowing they were here! It became very clear very quickly that Annabeth did indeed have friends, here, and that they were very happy to see her here. Thalia, in particular, had been worried sick about her best friend ever since she’d disappeared, and as soon as she saw Annabeth’s post, she was demanding to know where she was. The Starbucks Annabeth had gone to wasn’t far from Potts Tower, and Thalia barely stopped long enough to grab a jacket and her wallet before racing down to see her friend again. Truth be told, there was a part of her that was afraid that Annabeth would be taken away again at any moment, and Thalia was determined to be there to prevent that from happening. She burst into the coffee shop, breathless, and her face lit up in a brilliant smile when she spotted Annabeth. “Bethie!” she said delightedly, and rushed over to throw her arms around her friend in a rib-crushing hug. Thalia’s arrival didn’t take Annabeth by surprise, since she knew she was coming. It was what she would have done if things had been the other way around. She felt pretty horrible for vanishing on her friends, for worrying them the way she had, but it wasn’t like she had done that on purpose or that she could have kept from doing it, either, she guessed. It was all very curious, the way that Tesseract worked. Annabeth hated not being able to understand it. She hated there was so much about this whole situation that she didn’t know. Thalia was more like a blur as she came into the Starbucks and Annabeth barely had time to set her coffee down again before she was essentially tackled. Rib-crushing was right. Thalia was hugging her tightly that Annabeth almost couldn’t breathe. “Hey! I’m happy to see you, too,” she managed to get out as she hugged her back.” Thalia was easily one of her best friends. She was really glad she was here. Having her friends around was going to make this whole situation that much easier to get through. “Not as happy as I am to have you back,” Thalia said fervently. She finally released the other girl and took a step back to look her over, though she kept her hands on Annabeth’s shoulders. Annabeth looked well and happy and healthy, which was a good thing given what Thalia knew she would’ve been going back to. Maybe Annabeth was from a different point in time than the one she’d come from last. “Did you just get here?” she asked, finally letting go. “What’s the last thing you remember before getting yanked here?” Annabeth nodded her head. “I was going to go get some clothes, but there was a Starbucks and I wanted coffee,” she explained. Obviously, she hadn’t quite made it to the shopping, yet. She stepped back and sat on the chair, gesturing at the one next to it, encouraging Thalia to have a seat, too. “I was racing Percy down Half-Blood Hill, we were going home for the school year,” she answered before taking another sip of her coffee. “Would have won if that blue light hadn’t distracted me,” she added with a grin. Thalia nodded, trying to put that in the timeline that she knew about. Since she’d joined the Hunters, her interactions with Annabeth had sadly been limited - until they’d been brought here. If Annabeth had been with Percy, and they’d been happy, and going home to school... ...this Annabeth came from an earlier timeline than the previous one. She didn’t know about the second prophecy, or at least hadn’t embarked on it yet. Thalia’s heart ached for all the sorrow her friend was about to go through, but at least she didn’t have to go through it now. She was here, and she was safe. “Percy’s here too,” she said, taking a seat opposite Annabeth. “There’s a bunch of us here, including...” She paused, and caught Annabeth’s gaze to make sure the other girl was at least somewhat prepared for the news. “Including Luke.” Annabeth smiled at that, glad Percy was here. She’d set down her phone when Thalia had rushed in, which meant she hadn’t had time to go through all of the messages. Not having Percy around would have felt strange, somehow. She’d grown used to Thalia being away with the Hunters and she’d even come to terms with losing Luke, but Percy had become a constant in her life. “Luke? Our Luke? He’s here? How?” Annabeth stared at her friend in shock. Luke was dead. He couldn’t be here. She’d been there. She’d watched him die. She’d watch him plunge her knife - the one he had given her so long ago - into the one vulnerable spot left on his body. She’d watched the light, the life fade from his eyes. It was an image she wouldn’t forget for a very long time. How could he be here? “He’s.. I watched him die, Thalia, how can he be here?” Seeing Annabeth’s shock brought up some of the pain Thalia had felt around Luke’s death and resurrection, but it was tempered by her acceptance of the situation. It had been hard-won, but she was finally at peace with Luke’s presence in her life. More than at peace, really. Being with him was better than anything she could have imagined...and she was going to have to tell Annabeth that they were together now, too. “The Tesseract can bring people from Elysium,” she explained. “It even brought Silena Beauregard here. And it brought Luke. He’s...he’s doing better now. Working really hard to make up for what he did.” Annabeth was speechless for a moment. She didn’t know what to say or how to process any of this. It was a shock, to say the least, that people she thought long gone could be here and alive. Finally, she took a deep breath and nodded her head. “So, they’re both getting a second chance here, that’s really great,” she said finally, though her smile was a little shaky. It was a good thing. She knew that. The idea of seeing Luke again, especially after everything. He’d saved them, in the end. He’d sacrificed himself to save them all. She had to stop thinking about this before she was crying all over her latte. “How long... how long have you been here?” she asked. Seeing the play of emotions flicker past Annabeth’s face, Thalia reached out a hand to offer her friend some support. Annabeth was the only other person in their world or any other who knew what Luke’s redemption meant for him and for their family, and she’d been key in helping Thalia work through her conflicted feelings for him the first time. Thalia was determined to help her now that the roles were reversed. “Yeah, it’s really great,” she agreed softly. “But yeah, I’ve been here since November, so...six months now? Luke’s been here for almost a year, I think. And you were here before, too.” Annabeth had never really stopped believing in Luke. He’d betrayed her faith time and again, but there was a part of her that never gave up hope. Even after Kronos had taken over his body, Annabeth was sure a part of Luke was still in there. The idea that he was here and alive after all of that was just overwhelming. Luke was her brother, not by blood by in every other way that counted. She was going to cry when she saw him, there was no doubt about that, but she was trying to avoid those tears now. “Yeah, they said I was here before, but I don’t remember it. That’s weird, isn’t it? That I don’t remember something like that?” She’d seen and been through a lot of crazy things, but she couldn’t fathom not remembering her time here before, especially if it had been spent with Thalia and Luke. That was something she didn’t think she could forget! “There’s a lot about the Tesseract that’s weird,” Thalia said ruefully. “And that’s just the polite way of saying it.” She could go into any number of rants against the Tesseract, including taking Luke’s pregnant mother away when she had an entire life of not being driven mad to look forward to and taking away both Percy and Annabeth only to deposit them back at earlier stages of their lives, but the important thing was that Annabeth was back here now. She still had a dangerous future ahead of her, but as long as she was here, she would be okay. On that positive note, Thalia gave Annabeth’s hand a squeeze. “Luke’s gonna be thrilled when he finds out you’re back. We were so worried about you.” Given that Thalia, back on their world, had refused to even talk about Luke after his death, her use of the word “we” showed how far she’d come since then. This was all so much to wrap her mind around. Annabeth knew what Thalia was saying had to be true. She wouldn’t lie to her and if she said something, Annabeth was going to believe her. She was nothing if not fiercely loyal to the people she cared about and Thalia was at the top of that list. “Gods, I can’t believe he’s really here,” she whispered when her friend brought up Luke again. It felt surreal after what she’d just gone through. It felt like a dream when the one thing she wanted more than anything was to have Luke back. Even after everything he’d done to them, losing him had been hard on her. She squeezed Thalia’s hand back and smiled. “Tell me what else I’ve missed or don’t remember or.. you know.” She laughed. It felt so strange to have been here with no memory of it and she wanted nothing more than to be caught up on it all. It was obvious to her that Thalia was happy here and that was something she especially wanted to hear more about. “Yeah, okay, um...” Thalia laughed a little, trying to figure out where to even start. A lot had happened in six months, and even before then. This Annabeth didn’t know about everything that had happened before they’d been pulled here. “You had a room in Potts Tower - that’s where all of us refugees are living - with a girl called Piper. I don’t know if you’ve met her yet, but you guys got to be pretty good friends back in our world, and she’s really nice. She’s dating my brother. My brother!” Thalia lit up, smiling excitedly at the chance to share this news with Annabeth. “Remember when I told you that I had a brother that I didn’t want to talk about? He’s here. I thought he was dead all this time, but he’s actually alive, and he’s from this camp that Roman demigods go to, and he’s turned out to be an awesome guy. We’re roommates.” Annabeth merely nodded as Thalia spoke, but when she mentioned her brother, her answering grin was just as excited. “That’s so great!” she said, clearly happy for her friend. Annabeth wondered briefly what it would be like to have real siblings who she got along with, but she brushed that off. She truly was happy for Thalia. “I can’t wait to meet him!” she said, still smiling. “Happy looks good on you, you know. I’m glad this place has been so good to you.” Thalia blinked, surprised by Annabeth's assessment. So much heartache had been wrapped up in her time here that sometimes she forgot to count the good things too. She'd made friends, she was getting to know her long-lost brother, she'd learned mandarin - or a little bit of it anyway - and she'd gotten Luke back again. "Yeah, I guess it has," she said a little bemusedly. She hesitated before speaking again. Although she knew that Annabeth would be happy to hear the news, it was still new enough that it felt strange to say it. She smiled, though. "And...Luke and I are together. I'm kinda not a Hunter now." Annabeth didn’t know about the heartache that had happened in this place. She hated that she couldn’t remember. It was such a big chunk of time and she had no memory of it at all. The only things she had to go on where the things Thalia was telling her now and so far it did seem to be all good things. That was something Annabeth was happy for, especially when things weren’t so easy or simple back home. She felt her jaw drop a little at the next piece of news, but her shocked expression soon shifted into a happy smile. Of course she was happy for them. Annabeth had meant it when she’d told Luke she had loved him like a brother. And Thalia was like her sister. No two people deserved to find happiness more and she couldn’t be more pleased they’d found it together. “Wow, that’s really great!” she said first, then there was a pause as she processed the second half of that statement. “Are you okay? With not being a hunter, anymore, I mean?” She could only imagine that losing that had to have been hard for her, with no memory of Thalia actually going through that particular change. “I...yeah,” Thalia said, although her hesitation was obvious. She smiled again, though, because she didn’t want to hit Annabeth with her woes again when Annabeth had just gotten one shock after another already. “I don’t regret what happened, and I’m never going to. I get to be with Luke now, and it’s been pretty great. And now I actually get to grow up with you guys, for however long we’re here. Immortality’s a lot less fun when you’re the only one who can’t legally drive.” “Liar,” Annabeth said, immediately knowing that she wasn’t telling her the full truth. She believed her friend was happy to be with Luke. She even believed the other things she said, but she didn’t believe Thalia was really completely okay with not being a hunter anymore, with losing that connection to Artemis. Annabeth knew her a little too well to really buy it. “I know I don’t remember anything about being here, but you can still.. talk to me, you know?” It was okay if Thalia didn’t really want to talk about it, but it was important to Annabeth that she knew she could. Thalia couldn't help but laugh quietly at being called a liar. That was her Bethie, still astute and thinking of others even when she'd been yanked from her world and delivered one shock after another. "You've already helped me a lot through this," she said warmly. "I can wait until you've settled back in before making you my counsellor again. Now tell me, how are you doing? And don't think for a minute I'll believe you if you say you're okay." “I’m o-” Annabeth broke off with a laugh. “Okay, so it’s a little weird and I’m still trying to wrap my head around it,” she admitted. “But I’m mostly okay? I mean, all of my favorite people are here and it’s still New York, even if I’m guessing I won’t actually find Olympus at the top of the Empire State Building?” The thing that really drove Annabeth crazy about the whole thing, though, was not understanding how this had happened to any of them. “I don’t like the thought that any of us could just vanish at any moment. Doesn’t anyone know what’s behind this?” She hated having questions she couldn’t get the answers to. "Yeah, I think all of us has tried at one point or another," Thalia said ruefully. She'd tried it herself even though others had already tried and reported on their failure to reach Olympus. She wasn't thrilled about the idea of people disappearing on her either; it had already happened several times. Granted, they'd come back, but it wasn't quite the same as knowing that she could depend on having them there. "As far as I know, no one knows how the Tesseract thing works yet. The SHIELD folk might know more. But let me tell you: it really sucks to have people disappear on you." “Losing people sucks, no matter what,” she agreed, nodding her head. She’d lost people in her own life, not from here, but no matter how you lost people, it sucked. Maybe here they could come back, but was it like her? With no memories of their time here. Drew’s boyfriend had been here and left and she’d said he wouldn’t remember her if he came back. She was glad she’d ended up back here, however it worked. It wasn’t home, but she hated the thought of Thalia or Percy or Luke or any of them being sad because they’d lost her. She could sacrifice being home if it meant she was here to look out for them. Thalia nodded. Demigods tended to have problems losing people in the first place, either to monsters or - lately - to the wars. Having people disappear on them was just one more unpleasant way of losing friends. But at least Annabeth had returned, she reminded herself. She smiled at the other girl. "C'mon," she said. Finish up your coffee and I'll take you to the Tower and show you around." (we could probably wrap up here and post unless you wanted to keep going?) Annabeth grinned at her then, nodding her head as she pulled her cup to her lips. There were only a few swallows left and she downed them quickly. “That sounds great,” she answered her as she stood and shouldered her bag. A tour would be helpful and it would give them the perfect chance to do some more catching up. |