Title: Saviour
Theme: #59 Suffocate
Characters: Annabeth / Percy
Author: KatieArtemis
Disclaimer: I'm not Rick Riordan. Bet you could already tell. :) All I own is the idea, the characters are just poor hostages.

Chapter one: Saviour

She was drowning. She could feel it in every fibre of her very being that these coming seconds would be her last.

Annabeth tried to move the way she had seen Percy do so many times, tried to paddle with her hands and feet to gain control over her body. It didn't work. Her heavy clothes and useless muscles were pulling her down into the black deeps of the sea. Water began streaming into her lungs as she instinctively opened her mouth to catch some air. Of course, that was a very contra productive action. It only fastened her impending death.

While she sank and red spots were starting to dance in front of her eyes as her lungs filled with water instead of air, she thought of Percy. No one would come to save her.

She was dying in his father's realm.

They had been on a cruise, Annabeth and her father with his new family. It had been a calm, windless day on sea, the sun had shone and the waves had splashed against the ship's heavy metal stomach. Annabeth had been standing by the railing, staring at the big masses of water beneath her. She had had a fight with Percy the other day, just before they had left camp for autumn. It had been heinous and angry and they hadn't talked since.

As she had been watching the waves shift, she had been so occupied with her thoughts that she hadn't heard him come.

In fact, she hadn't noticed the other half-blood before he had pushed her into the Pacific Ocean. She had tried to grab the fence, but the person had kicked her hand away.

Annabeth didn't know that person, but she had in those short seconds noticed a symbol on his jacket that had been sewed just beneath his collar. A scythe.

He had probably been one of the half-bloods that were still trying to free Kronos. Even after the Olympians had won the war, some of their children had kept on rebelling against their reign. That boy hadn't been the first one who had tried to kill her.

But he was about to become the first who succeeded.

Annabeth knew she couldn't swim. She remembered many summers in which she had tried to learn to. Luke had sometimes trained with her in the camp's lake, trying over and over again to teach her how to move so she wouldn't sink.

It had never worked.

In the end, Chiron had caught up to their tries and stated that Athena's children all used to suck at swimming. Maybe it was a late revenge of Poseidon because of Athens, no one really knew. Just like Arachne who still sent her spiders after Athena's children.

So, one last time, Annabeth struggled for her life.

One last time, she gave up.

But just as her eyelids were about to close, she noticed a figure in the dark. Maybe she didn't see right, but it looked as though some of the shadows were shifting. Something was moving towards her with admirable speed, she thought dizzily. Maybe it was one of those terrible sea monsters she had heard about and that was now about to eat her alive.

The last thing she saw before she shut her eyes were stunningly green eyes that were gazing directly into hers.

"I think she's waking up."

What was that voice?

"Yeah, her eyelids are fluttering."

"Annabeth, can you hear us?"

She tiredly opened her eyes a little. Just now she noticed her lungs were aching. Everything else felt just a little numb, but otherwise she seemed to be okay. Apparently, she was lying in bed because she could feel the sheets under her naked arms.

Slowly, everything that had happened dawned to her.

The shapes and colours she was seeing fell into place. The roof looked like the one of the main house at camp. She was looking up at three people who were gathered around her. The first one she noticed was a man with a beard who seemed to be sitting next to her. Chiron in his roll-chair.

Then, there was a dude with horns and locked hair, whom she recognized as Grover.

It was the last person who made her catch her breath. It was a boy around her age with dark hair and shining green eyes who was smiling down at her.

"… Percy?" she asked wearily.

"Yeah, never mind about us, right?" Grover said, feigning to be offended. The illusion was destroyed by his teasing grin.

"Sorry, Grover" she replied with hoarse voice. Her throat was stinging with every word.

"S'okay. We'll leave you alone now, right, Mr. C?"

Chiron chuckled. "Sure. You seem to be alright, Annabeth. We'll talk about what happened later on."

The two men were already leaving the room as Chiron turned his head in the doorway.

"I told you there's no reason to worry."

Percy nodded. The minute the others had left the room, his smile faded.

"Are you really okay?" he asked.

Annabeth nodded briefly. Then she said: "I'm sorry."

"You mean for the fight?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I'm sorry, too. It was stupid."

Annabeth moved a little to the left on the bed, making him space to sit. He took the offer on and sat down next to her, hugging her softly with one arm. Annabeth slid closer to her boyfriend so her head was lying on his chest.

"What happened?" Percy asked after a minute or so.

"I was on a cruise. One of Kronos' followers pushed me and I fell from the ship."

He raised an eyebrow. "Well, that explains the bruises."

Annabeth at first didn't know what he meant until she pulled the blanket aside a little and took a look at her body. She had fallen in with her legs first, that was evident.

"Oh."

Her legs were all blue and violet; they were looking so painful she wondered how she had failed to notice. Indeed she was lucky they weren't broken. She had been on the lowest balcony of the ship and had therefore fallen about 15 metres. She could have injured herself way worse.

"Who was this half-blood? Did you know him?" Percy asked again. Annabeth had a feeling that his grip on her shoulder had gotten just a little tighter just now.

"I'm pretty sure I didn't recognize him, but I didn't have too much time to look at him either. I think he had brown hair. The only thing I really saw was the scythe on his jacket. That's all I know" she answered and coughed. She felt like her throat was full of sand and salt. It probably was.

"Do you want a glass of water or something?" Percy offered. She nodded.

Without standing up, he pulled water from the water tap in the corner and made it flow into a glass on the nightstand next to the bed.

"Here you are" he said, grinning.

"You are such a show-off" Annabeth muttered, but thankfully took the glass. The liquid felt good in her hoarse throat.

Percy chuckled. "Gee, my powers just saved your life. Be thankful. After all, I did pull you out of the Atlantic just now."

Some voice started nagging in her head that something about what he said didn't sound quite right, but she couldn't tell what it was, so she ignored it.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks, by the way" she said, smiling at him. She gave him a short kiss on the lips.

"I didn't know you couldn't swim" he added after some time. "Do you think that's because of our parents' rivalry?"

"Probably" she said. "But why did you bring me to camp anyway? Aren't we going to be swallowed by the harpies since we're not supposed to be here?"

He smiled. "Nah, I already took care of that. And it was best to bring you here since we were so close to camp."

"Wait, what?"

"Long Island was only thirty miles away from where I happened to find you."

Before Annabeth could answer to that, there was a knock on the door. A camper stepped in, probably one of the new ones because Annabeth couldn't recall him. He blushed as he noticed the young couple sprawled out on the bed.

"Hey. Sorry if I'm disturbing. Mr. D told me to get you, Percy."

Percy groaned quietly as he stood up. "Okay, coming. I'll come back later so we can talk, okay?" He smiled as he planted a kiss on Annabeth's cheek. Then he was gone.

Strangely enough, the boy who had come to get him was still standing by the door, looking after Percy. His look was somewhat mesmerized and nostalgic as if it fascinated him to see him. She wondered what that was about. But then he turned to Annabeth.

"I heard about your accident. Are you okay?" he asked. His brown eyes looked a little concerned, but there also seemed to be some sort of amusement in them. Maybe he was a son of Hermes, Annabeth thought.

"Um, sure. It wasn't so bad" she answered.

"Good."

The boy turned to walk out as a thought came to Annabeth.

"Wait."

He turned and looked at her questioningly. "Yes?"

She watched him suspiciously, waiting for his reaction.

"It was kind of strange. I fell into the ocean. Percy found me near camp."

"So I heard. What is strange about that?" the boy asked. He seemed to start getting uncomfortable.

"I fell into the Pacific Ocean and Percy found me in the Atlantic."

The boy looked stunned at first, like a child who had been caught stealing cookies. Then, he smiled whole-heartedly. Suddenly, his eyes shifted from warm, hazelnut brown to a completely different colour.

"I guess there were some friendly currents on that day."

He winked at her. Then, wind blew in from the window and the boy with the ocean green eyes was taken with it in form of small, crystal droplets of sea water.

Hey ya :)
Whoever you are - you apparently made it through my very first One-Shot/Story in general on this site. Congrats! :D
I'm not one of those creepy review hunters who lurk around here, buuut... If you think my language totally sucks and so on, I would like to ask you to correct any grammar mistakes etc. you find in this sad little tale :)
I want to improve my English and I would really appreciate any help I can get.

About this story: the idea was very spontaneous, but I kind of like to make the Gods act nicely. It sounds strange, but I like it when they're, well, human. If that makes any sense xD

So thanks for reading and if you want to, you can hang on - I'll hopefully be posting many more stories. :)

have a nice day!

Katie Artemis