Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson characters, credits to Rick Riordan.

This one-shot (two parts) describes the day that the legendary Sally Jackson died, as told by Annabeth Chase. When Ares arrives at Camp Half-Blood during a celebration (that Sally had been invited to) and demands a fight with Percy to settle an old grudge. Percy tries to resist Ares' taunts and insults, resulting in Ares throwing his spear at Percy in frustration. But the spear did not hit Percy Jackson. It hit Sally instead, who had jumped in front of her son, saving him, but...well, I'll let Annabeth tell you the rest of the story.

Being afraid of their boyfriend is not a sensation that many people experience in their life. And those that do, well they are men and women far braver than myself. Being able to tell yourself that the person you're committed to is no longer the person you fell in love with. Being able to tell yourself that the person you've devoted yourself to isn't devoted to you, and that they prefer harming you than loving you: that's far harder than battling any monster.

I salute you.

Being afraid of Percy Jackson was something that many people experience in at least one moment throughout their life. Some hear stories about the things he's done, the things he can do when he has the incentive. Others have seen him in action, have seen him do the terrible deeds that seem so terrible, when they were in fact the things that kept those that he cared for alive. Percy's made a lot of sacrifices over the years, every single one made for someone who he can't imagine living without, or simply a stranger.

You see Percy's fatal flaw is his loyalty. His infinite faithfulness to those he considers family, and sometimes those that he doesn't. However, I've always thought that it went deeper than that. I mean, endangering your life for your enemies is a lot different to endangering your life for your family, isn't it? Percy risked getting himself killed when he paused to tell a demigod that had turned to Kronos that the Andromeda was about to blow up. He did this despite the fact that the boat was in fact moments away from blowing up, and he himself could die.

It was that day that I realised that maybe Percy's loyalty went deeper than love. Maybe it in fact reflected the opposite. A loathing of himself. A belief that everybody else's life was worth more than his was. What other explanation is there for risking your life for the enemy who had already killed fellow demigods?

I'd only ever seen the Percy that I feared once. The version of my boyfriend who made my heart race and my breathing quicken, for all the wrong reasons. As well as making me clutch my dagger tighter.

When we were in Tartarus. When we had no control over our own fate. I put his actions on that day down to the suffering and terror we'd been succumbed to over those torturous days. I put it to the back of my mind and hadn't brought it out for two years. But here it was now, the brute force of it in my face, mind and heart. And I could do nothing about it.

I watched his hands shake, his shoulders and chest heaving with the pure rage and emotion that made his heart race and his breath come quick. I watched his eyes darken from their usual green to murky black with hints of mud brown in them. The colour of the most foul and dirty rivers. Percy's eyes hadn't been the bright green I had once known them to be since that day, two years ago. But this colour was something I'd only seen once before, and it sent the coldest chill straight through my body. One of his fists was clenched around riptide in a bone breaking grip, while the other grasped and flexed alternately, trying to find a release to the fury that ran through his veins. The air around him whirled up into a storm, not Jason's doing, but his own. The sheer moisture of the Earth was now under his power, and it whipped around him in a watery tornado. The ocean behind him churned up into a dark, very dark grey picture, and waves crashed onto the bay like blocks of concrete. Creating dents in the sand and causing all the seagulls to fly away in a flurry.

It had started off as it had before, with fear and heartbreak. It had begun with him holding someone's body. It had begun with a flicker in his eyes, a torrent of tears, and a promise that he had vowed to uphold for as long as he should live, but one that had been broken so quickly. Only this time it came quicker, it did not build up overtime, but surprised us all with its pure ferocity, and fire.

I watched on helpless as he rose to his feet slowly, letting the lifeless body of Sally Jackson, a woman of untold bravery and inexhaustible love, a woman who didn't deserve to die, not in a thousand lifetimes, fall to the ground. I watched as Percy let his mother's body drop, and I couldn't see any part of our Percy, of my Percy, of her Percy left in his eyes. A different man now stood where he once stood.

He turned to the God of Ares, his eyes completely black, the same colour as the raging ocean behind him. He turned slowly and without remorse. If one man came out of this fight alive, it would not be the immortal one.

Ares looked at the body of Percy's mother like she was simply sleeping. As if she would wake up any moment, and smile in the way that only Sally could. In a way that made you feel infinitely safe.
He had not meant to kill her, it had been an accident. That was obvious. Mortals were fragile, their bodies frail in the hands of Gods. It was easy for him to do, to kill her without meaning to. But it was an unforgivable act nevertheless.

Percy did not hesitate for a second. The moment he was fully on his feet, the wind and rain churning around him, making it hard for the rest of us to see what was happening, but I was close enough to see the untamed rage in Percy's eyes. The pure and utter heartbreak that he didn't know how to control, so he hid it as fury and anger and did the only thing that his Godly instincts knew how to do.

Fight.

"You killed my mother." He snarled, in a terror inducing voice that I had heard only once before. But it was the voice that haunted my nightmares.

"Look boy, she got in my way! How was I supposed to know that she would jump in front of you while I was trying kill you?" Ares argued, trying to make himself seem innocent in the most disgusting way possible. By blaming Sally. The storm of wind and seawater moved faster across the beach, creating an impenetrable circle around us. I watched as Percy moved towards Ares slowly, each footstep a warning of destruction. The God stood his ground, but his hand tightened around the spear at his side.

"You killed my mother." Percy repeated, ignoring anything Ares said.

"What do you want me to do? Bring her back to life? You know I can't do that!" Ares shouted over the loud rumble of the water and wind. Percy's body flinched at his words, a shock of pain running through him as he was reminded that he no longer had a Mother.

"You. Killed. My. Mother." Percy said once again, only this time slower, punctuating each word tensely. My heart beat quickened as I watched the man I loved turn into a monster, overcome with a pain so strong that even Chiron flinched at Percy's words.

"She's only a mortal! She wouldn't even be worth bringing back to life!" Ares suddenly shouted in frustration, evidently irritated by Percy's slow actions.
But his words did the job. Percy snapped. His eyes were now completely black, and his face now emotionless except for pure and uncontrolled outrage and hatred. All directed at the God that had killed his Mother.

All the water that had been churning around us was gone, and instead it was drowning the God of War. A ball of water surrounded him, moving in waves as the God thrashed around inside. Technically, he didn't even need oxygen to survive. But the Gods were still weak after the war with Gaia, and being drowned for long enough would put him out of action for a few hundred years.

No one moved to stop Percy, in fact, no one moved to save the God either. Even the children of Ares were frozen where they stood. I looked over to see Clarisse, looking messy and tired, but she was stone faced. She watched the sphere of water as it moved without emotion. No sadness, or fear, or anger. Just stone cold observation.

I turned back to Percy to see he was now controlling the water physically with his hands. They circled each other as he struggled to contain the God. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jason try to take a step forward, to stop Percy before he got himself a punishment worse than death from the Gods.

Instead loops of water pulled his feet into the sand and kept him there. Jason wasn't going anywhere. I watched as Jason took a calculated look at his surroundings, noticing how the sand on the beach was all wet with water. How Percy was the standing on that sand too, and was the most drenched in water of us all. I knew what he planned to do the same moment Jason did. It was a tactic he had learned during a capture the flag game. When the sand was wet, he could send electricity into the ground and shock everyone that was standing on the wet sand. It would render everyone but him unconscious for a couple of seconds.

Jason turned to me, knowing that I would've worked out what he wanted to do. I nodded, approving him to do it. And braced myself for the shock. But it never came, and I looked to Jason for the reason. He sighed and pointed at Percy's feet. The sand that he was now standing on was a bright yellow. Completely and utterly free of water. I wasn't the only one that had noticed what Jason was planning to do. Percy had too.

I racked my brain for ideas. I looked at all of the demigods on the beach, my terrified family who were still willing to fight after everything we'd already been through. I looked at them and tried to think if any of their powers could stop Percy from drowning the God of War. Percy wouldn't be able to hear Piper's charm speak over the sound of the roaring ocean. He could destroy Nico's skeletons in seconds with water. If Leo tried to do anything with his fire, Percy would just put it out with seawater. If Hazel was here, she could use her magic to make Ares disappear, then Percy would have no control over the water. But she was in New Rome with Frank. I sighed inwardly and turned back to Jason. There was only thing we could do. I pointed at the sky, and Jason raised his eyebrows in disbelief. He sent me a look that asked me if I was sure. And I nodded despite everything in my heart telling me not to electrocute my boyfriend.

You see, Jason could control how much he shocked those when he sent it through the ground. But if he sent a lightning bolt from the sky to hit Percy, he had little control over how powerful it would be. It could knock Percy out from an hour to three days.

Jason raised his arms and a look of complete concentration came over his face. I turned back to see that the sphere of water encasing Ares was moving at a slower rate. Ares was running out of energy and we were running out of time.

The sky began to darken in the same way the sea did, and huge grey storm clouds came rumbling over us. I watched as the sun disappeared, and dreaded what was about to come next.

And then the sphere of water dropped from the sky, and Ares fell to the ground spluttering, and desperate for breath, but conscious. Percy's face was a picture of confusion and fury. Frustration overtook his body as he turned around to see what had destroyed his plans to render the God of War useless for the next few years.

And there, standing knee deep in a calm patch of clear water in the shores, was the God of the Sea. Percy's face dropped.

"Enough." Poseidon bellowed. And the sea went still. The air was tense and eerily silent as Percy and his father stared each other down. Jason retracted his clouds and the sky returned to its previous orange as we now noticed the sun was setting.

"He killed her." Percy shouted in fury at his Father. As if announcing this would stop him from coming any further. But he already knew. I could see it in the weary lines of his forehead, and the dull grey of his eyes despite the sea returning to its usual green.

Poseidon began to walk forward, taking slow and long steps, as if every movement pained him.
"He deserves to die!" Percy screamed in frustration. Tears began to fall down his cheeks, and I wished to step forward and wipe them away. But none of us knew what Percy would do if we attempted to get close to him. He could hurt even his girlfriend without meaning to. "Why did you stop me? I want to kill him." Percy now sobbed, his true emotions slipping through the cracks in his self-control. Poseidon kept walking.

He only stopped when he was inches away from his son. He put one hand on Percy's shoulders as the rose and fell with each of his heavy breaths, and said, "Even you, my son, cannot control the fate of a God." He said quietly, a façade of peacefulness in an attempt to calm his son. Percy's shoulders slumped at his defeat. While tears filled Percy's eyes, I noticed Poseidon nod at the God of War, who was struggling to stand up after what Percy had done to him. Ares looked down, knowing when it was time to call for peace, and vanished in a split-second.

Never before had Percy looked so scared. So young with emotional destruction. My heart broke to see him, and I felt a solitary tear trace a path down my cheek. Percy's shoulders began to shake as sobs took control of his body. Poseidon wrapped his arms around his sons shaking body and embraced him. A sight I had never seen before. Percy tensed up as he felt Poseidon encircle him in a hug, but then fell against him helplessly.

I couldn't bear to watch the man I loved look so powerless. And so instead, I moved towards the broken and empty from of the late Sally Jackson. She lay on her back, one hand near her head, while the other lay on her stomach where she had attempted to stop the bleeding from where Ares' spear had pierced her stomach. It was only now that I recognised where the red stain on Percy's t-shirt had come from. I fell to my knees next to her, and stroked a piece of hair out of her face.

I turned around to look at Nico and Will, silently begging that one of them could do something. They were holding hands, with Nico having stepped in front of Will in the protective stance that I recognised from the many times Percy had done it to me. I knew the burden that fell upon both of their soldiers, one a healer, the other the son of death. Both knew instantaneously if someone was dead, and if they could be saved. They shook their heads sadly in unison.

A sensation I would describe as similar to being choked overcame me. I turned back to the lifeless body in front of me and let the tears fall finally. This woman had cared for me the year that Percy disappeared. We cared for each other in our weakest moments, and she had been more of a mother to me in these past three/four years than my actual mother had been for my twenty years. I grasped her hand that was next to her head, staining her blood onto my own hand, but I didn't care.

She had a new daughter, only two years old. And a husband, Paul. Neither of whom new what had happened. They were enjoying a small vacation together in the South. And tomorrow, when they arrived home, one would find out they were a widow, and the other would discover they were never going to see her mother again. Lucy. Innocent, young Lucy. Who didn't even know what death was. How many nights would she spend crying for her mother now? Until one day she forgets about her completely. And then, when she gets older, she'll ask questions that will strike a thousand daggers through us all.

I thought of Percy, who I couldn't bear to look at, and knew that he hadn't even thought of all these things yet. He was acting upon simple loss. Grievance and pain.

Sally's eyes were still open. Their blue sparkle replaced with a dull, hollow steel colour. Gently, I closed them with the tips of my fingers. She was no longer beautiful. Even Sally Jackson couldn't trump death. Her once rosy skin was an ashy white, and her lips were going grey as the blood moved away from her head. Her chestnut locks were wet and straggly from the seawater, and the grey streaks provided the last bit of cheery colour to her face.

No, she was not beautiful. Death was an ugly, de-humanising process that sucked all of the life out of the body so that you barely recognised them.
But, Sally was at peace. You could see it in the position of her mouth, a flat line with the edges turned up by the slightest degree. Not a smile, but an expression of peace. A juxtaposition to the grimace of pain her face originally held when Ares struck her with his spear.

I heard footsteps behind me, and turned to see my boyfriend and his father walking towards me. Percy a younger version of his father, but both looked broken, as if there worlds had been sliced in half and stuck back together upside down. They knelt down when they reached us. Poseidon on the other side of sally's body, and Percy next to me, at her head. Poseidon placed his hand on her forehead and muttered a few words in a language I didn't recognise. But the intention of them was clear. A blessing.

Percy's hand found mine, and we gripped each other tightly as if letting go would mean we would both fall apart. Percy didn't say anything, he didn't move or shed a tear, and he just sat there, looking lost. The anger that had controlled him earlier was now gone, replaced with something you could only describe as looking unconscious while being awake.

Go onto next chapter for part 2.