Hey everyone! So this is my first FanFic, and I hope you all like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians/Heroes of Olympus; all rights go to Uncle Rick. This is simply my interpretation of Percabeth's time in Tartarus.
Don't worry, throughout the chapters I WILL switch between Percy and Annabeth's POVs.
Now, on with the show!
Annabeth's POV
"-And then Percy let go of the ledge…"
Annabeth had planned to keep her cool on the way down. One look in Percy's stubborn, sea-green eyes, and she had known his plan. That he planned to let go. That he'd never lose her and wouldn't let her leave his side ever again. And for Nico and the rest of her friends' sake, she'd decided not to scream once her boyfriend let them drop.
Of course, that plan flew out the window faster than the speed of their falling. Annabeth let out a screech of terror moments after Percy let go, the wind snatching at her clothes and pulling at her hair, whipping her face and stinging her eyes. And she was already in pain.
Only moments ago she'd briefly blacked out from the agony in her ankle, which she had broken maybe an hour or so before, and she felt as if it just might happen again. Hope was leaving her heart quick, and the only thing keeping her sane at all was Percy.
He was still gripping her hand, though he'd tensed up a considerable amount after letting go.
Percy. Oh my gods, no one could've asked for a better, more noble boyfriend. He'd had the chance to escape, he would've been able to survive longer up above with the rest of the Argo II crew, if he'd just let go. But he hadn't. He'd fallen down a dark, seemingly bottomless void with her. Knowing it was indeed not bottomless, and in fact opened up into a demon-infested prison known only as Tartarus.
And so, as the couple plummeted down into the earth, it didn't take long for all light around them to be snuffed out. They hadn't had much light to begin with, what with Arachne's lair being underground, and soon even the spider's old torches could not be seen. Blackness surrounded the couple, growing to the point at which it became suffocating and neither demigod could see a thing. It felt like the walls were closing in on them, though both half-bloods knew that they weren't. In fact, they couldn't even tell if they had their eyes open or not; the only reassurance they had that the other was even there was their tight grip on each other's wrists.
The temperature seemed to be dropping by the second, and Annabeth felt Percy shiver.
"Percy?" Annabeth whispered, feeling the need for hushed voices.
"Yeah?" he replied, also whispering. It was even harder to hear each other because of how quickly their voices were swept away by the wind.
"How…how long do you think the fall is?"
"I don't know," came his solemn reply. "I just hope-"
Suddenly, an ominous laugh echoed throughout the pitch black pit, cutting Percy off. Annabeth sucked in a breath. Where was that voice coming from? Soon, the laughter gave way to slowly spoken words, sounding a tad slurred.
"Falling,
Falling,
Welcome to my domain," it said, ringing out through the blackness and rattling about in Annabeth and Percy's heads.
Percy gasped audibly and muttured, "Oh no."
"What?" Annabeth questioned; she felt as if she should know the owner of that voice, but she was still in shock from her traumatizing time on her solo quest, and her brain was too stunned to process the sound.
"Gaea," Percy supplied.
"Silly little pawns.
You are falling through the Earth.
Where I rule…where my followers dwell.
However… I cannot visit you personally in Tartarus,
So my minions must collect you for me.
Sacrifices for my awakening.
You will die."
"Shut up, Dirt Face," Percy snapped out into the darkness. Gaea laughed again.
"So naïve.
Do you realize where you're headed?
Do you remember why you even fell in the first place?"
It was Annabeth's turn to gasp. Why had they fallen? Because Arachne had pulled her in. And who do you think was down there, waiting for her prey to arrive? That's right, the creepy spider-human hybrid who had a bone to pick with Athena's children. Especially, now, one in particular…
"Percy, Arachne's down there," Annabeth responded, unable to hide the quiver in her voice. She was met with silence. Even Gaea had seemed to stop talking. "Percy?"
He simply squeezed her hand as a reply, not able to form the rights words for their situation.
With an evil laugh, Gaea spoke once more:
"Enjoy these last few moments of peace, my pawns.
After you hit the ground, you're in for…a special treat."
Annabeth could almost see Gaea's villainous smile as she watched her sacrifices drop to their doom.
The air flying by them felt like icicles charging upwards, burning their skin with an odd, cold sensation. Annabeth shuddered and searched the darkness for even a small glimpse of Percy's face. She saw nothing, and instead her eyes were met with a crushing, terrifying void of blackness, withering away at her consciousness and even her life. Dead people were supposed to go to Tartarus. Despicably cruel dead people, but dead people nonetheless. She and Percy were neither dead nor evil. What would happen to them? What would being in such a dangerous, hate-filled environment do to them? Would they become dead, like everyone else there?
"Annabeth?" Percy finally said, his voice mumbled and scared, though he was obviously trying to hide it.
"Yes?"
"What happens at the bottom? Will we…will we die from the impact?"
Annabeth had thought about this already, being the child of Athena she was, but even she had no solution to their predicament. At the speed they were falling, and assuming the ground was flat, they'd be squashed rather painfully.
"Let's just hope that there's something there to break our fall," Annabeth replied, not wanting to admit her defeat. She knew that there was a good chance she and Percy could die any minute now.
Well, that'd been true her whole life, the possibility of having your life end at any minute. But at least then she'd had the benefit of the doubt. Now, she knew that death was right around the corner.
"I want you t-to know," Annabeth started, her voice catching as she held back desperate tears. "That I love you. I always have and always will, Percy."
"I love you too, Annabeth. Always have and always will." With that, he pulled her hand closer to him so that her body drifted up next to his. With his free hand, he grabbed her around the waist and then hesitantly let go of her hand in order to find her face.
After a few seconds of blindly feeling for her head (not to mention a rough hit in the nose), Percy pulled her closer and kissed her.
They remained like that, wind tearing at their already torn Camp Half-Blood tees and blowing their hair straight above their head. Annabeth no longer felt the cold air around her; she only felt the warmth emanating from her boyfriend. He still smelled like the ocean, and his lips were still salty, just like they had been during their first kiss.
After a few seconds more, he pulled away once more, though he still held on to her waist.
That's when Annabeth started to feel a change in the air around them. There seemed to a cross breeze, angling slightly to the left of being straight down. Her scientific mind went to work, and she realized that the air must be running down a slope, no matter how minor, for the air to shift like that. With a smile, she realized that they wouldn't be flattened, although her moment of relief was short lived as she remembered what was still going to happen.
Knowing that Seaweed Brain wouldn't consider the change in the wind anything major, she shouted, "Percy!" in an attempt to make him alert. They were about to land in Tartarus, whether they'd like to or not.
Before he or she could say another word, the wall of the pit brushed up against Percy's arm.
"Ah!" he yelled as the rocks cut at his skin and bruised his arm. He tried to kick away from the wall, but soon it steeply curved, though not enough to kill them on impact. The couple, still gripped together, slammed onto the slope and continued to slide down, dirt now flying up into their faces rather than air.
Upon the impact, Percy let out another scream, probably from both himself and Annabeth landing on his hurt arm, the one that was holding on to her, and he let go in pain. Immediately realizing his mistake, Percy screamed, "ANNABETH!" as she slid farther away from him.
"PERCY!" came her strangled reply, rough dirt and rocks scraping up her back as she slide down the slope. She reached out to grab him but was already too far away. There seemed to be a flickering light down below, like a torch with a flame- a very faint, dull one, at that- signaling the bottom of the pit. Tartarus.
Annabeth felt a sharp tug on her injured ankle, causing her to squeeze her eyes shut in a vain attempt to block the pain, and suddenly she knew why she was drifting away from Percy. Arachne was roping her in, like a cow with a lasso.
"Annabeth, where are you?" came a yell from somewhere to her right. The torch below did little to erase the pressing darkness of the pit; Annabeth still couldn't see Percy, and his voice sounded as if she was sliding even farther and farther away from him.
"Percy!" she yelled one last time before the slope cut off drastically into a straight cliff, dumping her over the edge. She heard a quiet scream that could only have been Percy also dropping off the cliff far away. Annabeth herself let loose a shriek as she tumbled back into the open air.
She barely got a chance to register the fact that the ground was gaining on her quickly before she hit it with enough force to knock her out. Her last thought before she completely blacked out was, I hope Percy's okay.
And that's where I end for today :) . You'll just have to wait a bit longer to find out what happens next.
Where's Percy? What about Arachne? And is Annabeth okay?
All will soon be answered in Chapter 2.
Now, a few things I'd like to mention:
1. My knowledge of how wind flows down a slope is limited, so I did my best with describing it. It may not be scientifically accurate, but it makes for a better story ;) .
2. If you have any ideas for this story, I'd be happy to here them, so please post a review! Keep in mind that not all ideas may be incorporated into the story, 'cause I DO have a plot I'm following, but I'll try my best. Constructive criticism is also welcome.
Please review!
Until next time, fellow readers!
-8DemigodRunner8
