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Courage. Surely it couldn’t be that hard. All I had to do was press one button. But what if it went wrong? What if everyone hated me? What if they left? What if I screwed up the mission? What if I got thrown into Tartarus? Nobody would forgive me. It couldn’t go wrong. I was the daughter of Athena. There was no way I could have screwed it up. And yet.... What if I did? What would Percy think? One button.... “Annabeth. It’s fine.” “Don’t, Percy. We don’t know that. We have no way of knowing that” Maybe my response was a little too curt; but I didn’t know. Everything could go wrong so easily. If even one spec was off.... Percy cut off my thoughts my clamping his hands around my arms and forcing me to meet his gaze. “Yes, we do. I know that. I know it because it was designed by the strongest, smartest, most beautiful person I know. She’s never messed up so badly that nobody could forgive her. She knows how to fix everything and anything that the gods throw at her. She held up the sky. She defeated Kronos. She can do this.” “I didn’t defat Kronos, Percy. You know that damn well.” I grumbled. “Even so, you stood up to your best friend and helped. This? This is nothing compared to that.” As much as I hated to admit it, Percy was right. We’d gone over this a million times and they were sure it was right. Even if I wasn’t. He let my arms go and pulled me towards him into a tight hug. I stopped thinking about the mission at hand and for one moment, focused and the my boyfriend. The way he smelled like the sea, the way his tousled brown hair would never lie flat, his sea green eyes, and I knew we could do this. “Thank you.” I whispered into his chest. He let me go and pushed me towards the button. “Hit it, wise girl.” “Seaweed brain.”