Annabeth POV

I lay on my bunk, alone in the cabin, with my face down in my pillow. Luke was done, Thaila was on her hunt, and the world was beautiful when it should've been dark and cold. I never loved him, but he was something special. I'd always have a place for him in my heart, even after his death. Hermes often visited the camp burial site we had made far by the edge of the beach to see the grave of his son. He'd never given up on him, and I had hoped that I could always to the same.

Dinner in the Pavilion had started only a minute ago, but I was curtain that Chiron and Percy would be here soon. I couldn't let them find me, but I had no choice. They walked in and blocked the door; Chiron in Centaur form. Percy came and jumped up onto my bed, "Where were you, Annabeth?" He asked me in his sweet, smooth voice. I never could resist smiling when he said my name.

"Come on Annabeth," Chiron said, sticking his head into the room, "You can't skip dinner. You need all your energy for our activities tomorrow." "I'm not hungry." I lied, looking away from them. Percy took my hand, and said, "I know how to make you feel better." I looked at him, and the same idea came into my head. I looked at Chiron who raised his eye brow. "He means just get some sleep." I said, although we both knew that we had different plans.

"Ok." Chiron said at last, "Only tonight. And you need to be at breakfast in the morning. I can't have the heroes of Olympus starve to death." He walked away. Percy leans forward and whispered in my ear, "Just have your stuff ready and tomorrow we'll go ok?" I nodded, and lay down. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep to Percy walking out the door.

I don't remember my dreams, but I remember waking up in a cold sweat. My cabin was full of my half-brothers and sisters, all asleep. Jacob was awake, sitting on his bed, drawing. "What are you doing?" I said. He looked at me, and handed me the drawing. It was a great bronze dragon with several gears, wires, and metal pieces hooked to the creation, "What is-" I started, but Jacob cut me off, "A little project for the Hephaestus cabin. Beckondorf wanted this."

He put down his pencil, and looked at me with concern in his grey eyes, "You seriously think that you can do it?"

"Do what?"

"You were mumbling in your sleep. First time for everything huh?"

"Oh… um… I don't know. I guess."

"Why do you wanna go there?"

I ignored him, and stood up a lot faster than I intended to, and nearly knocked my laptop off my dresser. You can blame my ADD for that. I grabbed my laptop and opened it. All the documents I had open popped up, and continued running. I logged out and locked it. Jacob and some other siblings had tried to get into it, but there was a reason that I kept my dagger with me.

I threw on my clothes and ran outside, although curfew hadn't started yet, and met Percy over by Thaila's tree. He tossed me by backpack, and took out his favorite sword Riptide, which he thought was the cursed blade in the great prophecy, but it turned out to be my knife. I don't know why I kept it with me, but it reminded me that you can't give up on everybody, even if they turned to the dark side.

Percy smiled and slipped his hand into mine. I let mine slide out of his grip. He sighed, and showed me a map of L.A, "There might be an entrance back in the labyrinth…" I sighed, and rolled my eyes,"It collapsed two years ago Seaweed Brain. We have to use the one in L.A. Charon's Ferry, or the entrance to the river Styx over by the boulders." He smiled, and said, "There's a small radio in that backpack that should get us in, and I'm sure that Mrs. O'Leary doesn't mind coming."

He whistled, and the hellhound came bounding over to us, woofing excitedly. "Didn't Nico show you how to shadow travel?" I asked. Percy nodded, and rubbed Mrs. O'Leary behind the ear. She wagged her tail and nearly knocked over a few trees. Percy motioned his hands towards the dog, and said, "Ladies first?" I punched him in the gut, and hopped on.

Percy whispered something into Mrs. O'Leary's ear, and jumped on behind me. The hellhound straightened up, and suddenly, I couldn't see anything. The world was a blur, and all I could see was Mrs. O'Leary's fur, and Percy, holding onto my waist, and Mrs. O'Leary. We stopped so quickly, I tumbled off the dogs' back, and onto some grass. Percy jumped down and helped me up, "She does that when she's really tired." I shook the grass off of me, and looked at the entrance to the underworld before us.

I turned on the radio, and the entrance rolled open to the sound of rock music. Mrs. O'Leary sniffed the exit one more time, and jumped inside.

Percy POV

I told Annabeth about how last time, Mrs. O'Leary almost got stuck in here, but that wasn't our major concern. The river Styx was right in front of us, and we couldn't touch the water, unless… "Annabeth. Get ready to run!" I said. "What?" Annabeth looked at me like I was crazy, but she did. As she ran, and focused on the water, and willed it to rise. The water groaned as it rose from its bank. Annabeth stumbled into the dry river, and scrambled across. She motioned me to come with her.

I grabbed Mrs. O'Leary's collar, and dragged her along with me. She licked some of the water, and jumped in and out of it. I ran onto the shore with Annabeth, and whistled for Mrs. O'Leary. She ran up and shook. I used my air dry ability to keep the river water off of Annabeth. The water would hurt her a lot more than it would to me. We walked down the riverbank. By the looks of it, we would meet Cerberus, Hades guard dog, pretty darn soon.

We kept walking, and Mrs. O'Leary ran ahead. She growled once in a while to warm off stray spirits, but other than that, it was peaceful. Too peaceful. Cerberus was barking in the distance, which made Mrs. O'Leary excited. She romped ahead while we followed behind. Cerberus was a three headed Rottweiler that was the size of a dragon. Mrs. O'Leary distracted Cerberus while we snuck under his belly. We ran, and made it to the gates of Hades' palace.

Nico was waiting outside for us. His skull t-shirt blended into the darkness, "Ready?" He asked. I nodded. Annabeth paced nervously at my side. A large hole appeared at Nico's feet, filled with a bubbling red liquid. Nico chanted in ancient Greek, and several ghosts appeared. One ghost was brighter than the others. We let him kneel down to drink. The ghost shimmered, and appeared again more clearly. Luke stood to the side of the hole, with a sad expression on his face. "Annabeth, you're here."

Annabeth fell to her knees, "Luke… Why did you do it?" Luke sighed, "I knew it was my destiny. Annabeth, you have to let it go. You have to promise me that after this, you won't summon me again, know matter what. I have to move on, and coming back like this isn't good." Annabeth looked up at Luke with a pleading look in her eyes, "Please no." "I know it's hard but it has to happen this way. I wanna stay where I am now. I'm sorry Annabeth." He looked at me, "Percy. Thank you for giving me the knife, and Olympus is safe. You did well." He looked back at Annabeth, "Please. Promise me that." Annabeth sighed, "I promise that I won't summon you again." Luke relaxed, "Now I must go. Remember Annabeth, I'm always with you." With that, he disappeared.

Annabeth cried. I got her on Mrs. O'Leary, and we rode home. Little did I know, that this would be the beginning of our adventure.