Well, as you can all see I only have two chappies up now! A guest review (YungHomer) said that if I combined my chapters, then perhaps it would grab more readers' attention. YungHomer, I have decided to test your theory! Lets see if this works...

-V.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of Uncle Rick's characters or work. *Sobs uncontrollably*

-0.0.0-

Falling.

That seemed to be the only real thing, other then Annabeth. Whom I held onto with all my strength. No way was I losing her again. The constant hot wind whipped through our hair and clothes, threatening to tear us apart. We were currently falling into hell, btw.

That's right, hell.

It's actually called Tartarus, the big scary, mysterious place under the Underworld. I had made sure Nico would get the rest of our friends to the other side of the Doors of Death. No matter how much he may hate me, I will always trust him, he's my friend after all.

And the only way Annabeth and I are escaping Tartarus would be through the Doors. I took the time to wonder how the Fates could hate me this much, and I thought about the prophecy.

Seven half-bloods shall answer the call.

To storm or fire, the world must fall.

An oath to keep with a final breath,

And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death.

The first line was done. The 'Seven', plus Nico and a baseball bat-wielding satyr, were on the way to save Olympus and the world from Mother Earth and her ugly sons. But we've had a lot of delays, sure, however this was utterly ridiculous.

The second line seemed to mean either Leo, Jason, or I was going to to destroy the world. Or Gaea. It could go both ways knowing prophesies. The third line did not sound good, not at all. And the fourth wasn't any better; I didn't want to meet anymore of my enemies. Ugh, this is great, I thought, I'm falling into a dark pit full of things that want to eat me 'cause I killed them.

At least I have Annabeth with me. That thought bothered me but comforted me too. I had to push down the self-loathing building up. I could have done more; I couldn't help thinking. She didn't deserve to be falling into hell; I should have had the strength to save her if not the both of us. Now's not the time, Percy. Keep it together, for Annabeth and your friends.

I have to stay positive. Besides, there's no better team then Annabeth and I. We can make it out. And with that, I held Annabeth closer to my chest, relishing the feel of her closeness. Despite the danger and possible death before us, I couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope in my heart.

We fell in the darkness for days it seemed, until Annabeth spotted something. "Look, Percy," I could barely hear her shout over the deafening wind but I managed to understand. Turning my head about I found what she had sighted. We were quickly approaching a red glow, a light in the darkness. Soon I could make out an alien landscape that could only be Tartarus. Everything was in shades of dark colors, other then the milky white Lethe snaking its way through the monster playground.

Hastily, I took stock of the immediate surroundings. Rock, clouds made of... is that blood? More rocks, dead forests, jagged mountains, steep cliffs. Is that... a waterfall of fire? A firefall? Damn you ADHD! I looked to try and figure out a way to get us at least sort of safely to the ground and I felt Annabeth stiffen in my grasp.

"Percy", Annabeth shouted over the wind, " look! There's a river!" I instantly perked up at the sound of possible water. I looked over Annabeth's head only to have the little flame of hope in my heart quenched. She seemed to have purposefully left out the fact that it was the River Cocytus. She knew I would try harder to soften our fall with the river, if I hadn't figured out it was the River of Tears, in my excitement. To bad I remembered a mythology classes.

Annabeth's obvious fear made me feel even more protective then usual. Quickly I reached out with my powers, praying to any deity that they still worked in the literal hellhole. After a few seconds of painful straining, I felt an agonizing jab in my gut. The dark gray waters rose up to catch us meters from its depths.

I tightened my grasp on Annabeth and turned us so I took the force of hitting the hardly cushioned evil liquid. In milliseconds the two of us were submerged the shockingly cold water. Surprised, I took a huge gulp of the water, thinking I could breathe like normal. Well, it seems everything is fucked up in Tartarus. I choked as the slimy, cold water filled my lungs. Panic over came all my senses and semi-rational thinking.

I was drowning.

I could hear mournful voices whispering in my ear. "Give up", they say, "its no use to carry on." No, that's not true. "Your in hell were you belong, there is no escape!" Is that true? Maybe I should just drown here... "No one will miss you. Its alright, you were never important." Yeah, the voices are right... I dazedly felt my head breach the surface of the truthful waters, and I heard a muffled, strained voice.

"Please, oh please, be alive! Percy, talk to me!" Splashing and the voices almost drowned out Annabeth's plea, but I heard. I struggled through the fog that was my mind and made a sound similar to 'hi' and made an effort to keep myself afloat. I pushed the sorrowful voices to the back of my thoughts and concentrated on Annabeth. She is my purpose. She will miss me. I am important to her. I took hold of her and started kicking as hard as possible to what my feeble senses said was shore.

At first Annabeth seemed startled, but to my horror glassiness consumed her eyes and her body went limp. "We should just give up Seaweed Brain, we're going to die down here anyway." My heart felt like breaking, but I hardened my resolve. "NO! We are not dying down here, Wise Girl. I'm here for you, never give up." After much kicking and struggling, since the river seemed to be pulling me down and the river was resisting control, I dragged Annabeth and myself onto the shore; which to my chagrin was composed of broken, black glass.

While I was fighting to hold back a hiss of pain from the scratches, Annabeth was slowly escaping the effects of the river. "Per-Percy...Are we really going get out? We're not dying down here right?" Annabeth was desperately searching for hope. Her eyes were filled with tears. The morose thoughts had really damaged her, the both of us, actually.

"Yeah, of coarse, you know I'd never lie to you. We'll get out, just you wait!" I kissed her right there and then, trying to relay all my hope and love for her. Her eyes soon cleared of the remaining glaze, but I knew that she still held doubts.

-0.0.0-

"So what now, Wise Girl", I asked Annabeth. We had managed to get ourselves to a rather high cliff with an okay view of Tartarus. Part of my brain was thinking this was a wonderful spot for a time-share and the other half was thinking of how big my blood-n-gut splat would be if I fell.

"Well, I didn't get a good view falling (it was mostly of your dirty tee shirt)", I shrugged apologetically at this, "but I think we need to go deeper into Tartarus. Look, the terrain seems to be sloping downward in that direction", she swung her arm with index finger pointed, almost whacking me in the face, "we need to go that way." By this time my eyebrows were touching my hairline.

Really, Annabeth wants to go deeper into Tartarus where, probably, more monsters lurked? We had already had the fortune of coming across a pack of hellhounds. Thankfully, Annabeth had her knife attached to het thigh with a makeshift sheath, so she could watch my back. Oddly enough, seven out ten turned to golden dust and the rest were nasty smelling corpses. I wasn't going to argue with Annabeth's logic. The Doors of Death had to be in the most dangerous section of the most dangerous place. There's no question now that the fates have it for me. No wonder they look like evil little hags...

"Let's get a move on then", I offered my arm out for her take, "my lady?" My heart glowed at the small grin that appeared on my girlfriends face. Even though we happened to be exhausted, terrified, and miserable, I knew we were both glad to have each other's company. She wrapped her bruised and bloody arm around my slightly less beat up one, "Yes, let's." And with her agreement we made our way down in the direction of certain danger, our lungs burning from the funky air and our wounds festering, but with optimism in our heart.

-0.0.0-

It seemed as though we had spent days trekking through Tartarus' hostile environment. I thought it was days at least, that's how many times Annabeth and I dropped from exhaustion, sleeping under rocky outcrops for shelter. There was no way to tell what time it was or how far we traveled. There's no sun, just a weird reddish glow and whenever I look behind me, the landscape seems to have changed.

The only thing we could do was keep going forward and not die. Thank the gods (only the ones that I respect) Annabeth was with me, I'd have already been dead by now. Annabeth had this idea that we could eat fire. Fire. Apparently the Phlegm-a-something River flows the Fields of Punishment, and down into Tartarus, for the prisoners to drink so they can last through more torture. Why do dead spirits need to eat/drink, I don't know? Oh well...

The River water/fire was terrible. When the stuff (fluid?) slides down your throat, it feels like extra spicy, hot pudding infused with the essence of Hades' underwear and Ghost chili peppers. It burns as it goes down and you have a very strong urge to vomit it back up.

"Annabeth?"

"Percy?"

"I hate this river." She rolled her eyes and gave me a look that said, 'You and me both.'

"I can't really do anything about that, Seaweed Brain," she said glaring at the river next to us, "its not like we could go to a Starbucks." Now it was my turn to roll my eyes. A half smirk formed on my face, an idea had struck me.

"Oh gods, I know that look. Percy, please tell me you don't have an idea..." She knows me so well.

"I think there is something you, we, could do about the food situation. We need to get up this bank."

While we were following the river, the bank rose to huge cliffs made of jagged black rock and hung fifty feet above our heads. "I think you should go first Wise Girl, just in case," I said casting a look at her ankle. It still had not healed; in fact, I think it was getting worse. 'Yesterday' I cut off the sleeve of my holey, orange shirt to re-bandage it. I could tell she was not pleased with being protected, but she complied, understanding that she had a serious injury.

We searched around for an area that a good amount of hand holds for a while until we found a good spot. Once we reached the top we collapsed on the painful ground, hardly feeling the new cuts, and Annabeth turned to me.

"So what are we doing, Seaweed Brain?" I gave her a peck on the lips and pulled the both of us up and surveyed the new area. No life.

"Hunting monsters," I whispered, being dead serious (hopefully I won't end up dead once I explain this), "we are looking for monsters." I motioned for her to be quieter too and then started off in a random direction. My plan was that maybe we could get a monster that didn't dissolve into dust, kill it, and roast it over the Phlegm River. Hopefully we could catch a small monster unaware.

One eyebrow shot up to her hairline and she looked at me as if I was finally insane. Maybe I should I explain... "Remember when a couple monsters didn't turn to dust?" A curt nod of conformation. "Well I thought, ma-"

I was rudely cut off by a deep growl that grew till it sounded like it was coming from all directions. I mumbled a curse under my breath. Seventy pairs of red eyes glowed from all around us, belonging to huge, black hellhounds. None of them were as large as Ms. O'Leary, but we were still screwed any way you looked at it. Annabeth knew it too, she was as stiff as a board and her eyes were wide. Damn it all! This is all my fault...It was stupid for me to think we should look for danger.

It seemed extremely odd for a pack this large to suddenly appear, but I couldn't possibly dwell on that right now. Annabeth and I went back-to-back, weapons drawn, and ready. "Please be careful, Annabeth," I whispered, so as not to trigger the monsters, " I love you. We've got this, right?" Now that I look back on it, I was really reassuring myself more than her. The both of us weren't really in the shape to be taking on this many monsters. The odds were certainly not in our favor.

"Back at you, don't worry, Seaweed Brain," she smiled at me, feigning confidence, her stormy gray eyes shone with concern. "Aren't I an expert of getting us out of sticky situations?"

As soon as Annabeth finished talking, a few mutts leapt forward signaling the start of the onslaught. Two of the hounds set their sights on me, leaping through the acidic air with claws ready to impale my face. I slashed Riptide through the right ones legs, relieving it of its paws then I turned in flash, smashing my shoulder into its side. In midair it collided with the other leaping hellhound, making them both land in a tangle of bloody and furry limbs.

With out even thinking I had already popped my shoulder into place (having just milliseconds ago dislocated it) and finished off the first disoriented monster with a violent jab in the skull. While the first monster exploded into gold dust, I looked around frantically for Annabeth, having lost her in the flurry of battle. As soon as I caught a flash of blonde hair I felt a stab of pain in my right thigh. The second hellhound had taken advantage of my momentary lapse in focus and tried to claw my leg off. Thankfully my battle reflexes had kicked in or it could have been a lot worse, but that didn't subtract from the fact that it fucking hurt.

I suddenly felt my anger and frustration of all the shit that I've been through increase. Adrenaline coursed through my veins and I brutally stabbed my second hound through its massive black head. I ripped my way through monster after monster, not even noticing the dracaena that were giving commands to the hellhounds, because they all met Riptide's blade as well.