This is my first ever story, so be kind, please! Feedback is always appreciated.

She woke up confused. She was on a slab of stone, she could tell that much, but it was too dark to see anything. Tentatively, she swung her legs around the side of the stone slab and let her feet dangle for a few seconds as she tried to remember what had happened.

She couldn't remember much. She knew that she had been in a battle, with the help of others whom she could not think of. She knew her name, where she was from, but the rest was a complete blank.

She dropped to the floor a foot below her. It was also cold stone. She became aware of the cold and wrapped one arm around her midsection. The other she put out in an attempt to keep from running into anything. There was a steady trickle of blood from her left palm, but there were more serious things to worry about.

She bumped into a cold wall. She felt around for a light or a door, but there was nothing. She slowly moved away from where she had woken up, feeling up and down the walls. She couldn't tell where the ceiling was, or how long the chamber might be. She didn't know where she was, which meant she couldn't come up with a fool-proof plan to get out, and that thought made her start to panic.

She shook her head as soon as that thought came into her head. Panic wouldn't help here. Just think through this logically. Maybe there's a hidden door somewhere, or a hole in the ceiling. Not that that would help. She would never be able to reach it.

For some reason, the thought of a hole in the ceiling made her feel strange, as if she had already done this before. But that was ridiculous. Why would she ever have been stuck underground and gotten out through the ceiling? She tried to push this thought to the back of her mind and continued along the wall, which was completely smooth, except for the ivy climbing it.

From what she could tell, she was in an underground cave or passage. She couldn't find any end to either side, so she assumed it was either a passage or a huge cavern. She started to speed up a little, getting impatient with how little progress she was making.

Her foot hit a loose stone, and she fell, hard. Her ankle screamed in protest, but such a fall shouldn't have hurt it that much. Maybe it was still sore from some other wound. But she didn't have time to think about that. She grimaced and reached for her ankle. Her hand hit the stone she had tripped on, but it was too smooth to be a stone. It was too long, too. Too thin.

She frowned and picked it up. A ballpoint pen. But why would there be a pen in here? It made no sense, and it was driving her crazy. She uncapped the pen curiously. Nothing happened. Of course. Why would anything happen?

As she put the cap back on and shoved it deep in her pocket, she felt a sense of dread. She wasn't sure why, but the pen seemed like it should hold some meaning that she couldn't remember. It was just on the tip of her tongue. What was going on?

She shakily got to her feet and found the wall again. She steadied herself on it before moving again. After a few minutes, she felt a strange symbol on the wall. She stopped moving and felt it carefully. It wasn't English, she could tell that, but something else entirely. Another language, maybe?

When she fitted the palm of her hand on it, it started to glow. She shrieked and stumbled back, falling over again. The light was blinding after being in the dark for so long. She covered her eyes and squinted, trying to make out what it was, but it was still too bright b the time it faded away.

Silence. The symbol was still burnt into the back of her eyes. It looked familiar, but she couldn't place it.

She had to restrain herself from kicking the wall. All this sudden amnesia stuff was really getting on her nerves, for obvious reasons. She took a deep breath, and got to her feet. She was determined not to let this get in the way of finding out what in the gods' names was going on.

Suddenly, a huge crack echoed through the cavern. She flinched and instinctively crouched, reaching for something at her hip which was not there. A deep rumbling filled the cave, and she glanced around frantically, trying to see where it was coming from.

A shaft of light hit the ground a few feet in front of her. She jumped slightly and looked up, where a hole had opened. Through it, she could see clouds, grey, foreboding clouds that covered the entire sky. She thought she heard shouting, but she was too far away to be sure.

First, how to get out of here. She walked under it and looked around for any way of climbing up. But, of course, there was no random ladder or rope in a corner. She would have to find another way. She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. What now? She couldn't jump that high.

Her gaze slid over to the wall next to the hole. It was covered in ivy. No way, she thought. She walked up to it and tentatively tugged on it. It didn't move. She yanked a bit harder, and kept its grip on the wall. She slowly put her weight on it, and it managed to hold her.

Now she has to climb the wall. But, strangely, she feels confident that she's able to do it, despite the fact that the hole is over ten feet above the ground. She grabbed a vine and pulled herself up. It made excellent foot and hand holds as she slowly made her way up. Her shoulders began to burn and her fingers started to cramp, but she gritted her teeth and kept climbing.

When she reached the top of the wall, she realized how far the hole actually was. It was at least a few feet away, but she couldn't give up now.

Without looking down, she readjusted the grip of her left hand and stretched out her right hand. She was just barely able to reach the edge of the hole, but she wasn't able to get a good hold of the top. Nothing else to do but jump.

Jumping was impossible. She wouldn't make it. She knew that, and so she wasn't stupid enough to try.

She jumped anyway. The top of her head skimmed the ceiling, and, as she began to fall, she started thinking, Why am I doing this? This was such a stupid idea! I'm going to die! Think of another way! I'm too smart to try this!

Well, she was until she wrapped her hands around the ledge of the hole and hung there, over ten feet above the ground, by one hand. She grunted, half in surprise and half in pain, and slowly pulled herself up.

She swung her leg over the side and heaved herself up and onto solid ground. Thank the gods! she thought in relief. Now she needed to find out where in Hades she was.

She looked around and saw only trees, endless trees in every direction. Great. She still had no idea where she was. And her hand, which had a long gash in it, was surely infected by now. There was nothing to do except rip off a chunk of her shirt and wrap it tightly, which she did.

Ignoring the throbbing ache in her ankle, she set off in the direction where she had heard shouting earlier. As she got closer, she heard distant clashing metal and screaming.

She frowned and jogged a bit faster, ignoring her ankle. It wasn't so bad that she couldn't hurry a little. As the noise got louder and nearer, her heart began to race. She was nervous, more nervous than seemed appropriate.

She crested a hill and stopped dead at the sight that greeted her.

Spread across a large field were hundreds of people. It looked like most of them were teenagers, armed with swords and javelins and bows and arrows. They all had gold or bronze armor on.

What was more frightening was what they were fighting. Monsters, coming in all shapes and sizes, dominated the battlefield (which is what she assumed it was). There were humanoid figures the size of buildings, black dogs the size of trucks, and greenish snake-ladies. There were also giant wolves, and men with only one eye each.

She fell back a step, her head screaming in pain. None of this made sense, but she felt like it should, like she knew all of this, like it was just on the tip of her tongue…

Nervously, she pulled the pen out of her pocket and rolled it around in her hand. As she watched, a huge hound leaped at someone's turned back. Before she could shout a warning, another teenager jumped in and sliced the dog in half. It turned into dust mid-air and fell to the ground.

Her jaw dropped. What the-

It only got worse when she accidentally pulled off the cap of her pen and it morphed into a full sword. She almost dropped it in surprise and squeaked, which was something she felt like she would normally never do. She looked at it in amazement, even as it started to dip. It felt a little long, a little heavy. Maybe it had been made for someone else, and she only had it by accident.

Someone screamed in pain, and she looked up in time to see a boy stabbed through the chest. She froze and watched in horror as he met her eyes and she watched his life drain away. He had shaggy black hair and bright, penetrating eyes. In fact, he closely resembled someone she felt like she knew…

"Annabeth!"

She spun, instinctively raising the sword. She leveled its point at the girl who had been approaching her. The girl had choppy brown hair that had probably started the day in a neat braid, but was now frizzy and tangled with sweat and dirt. Despite the blood and dust caking her features, she looked beautiful. Her blue eyes watched Annabeth. They were wide in… surprise?

"Annabeth!" she repeated. "Where did you come from? We've been looking for you for-"

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth demanded. She took a step back, away from the girl, whose mouth opened slightly.

"Annabeth," she started softly. "What do you mean?"

"How do you know my name?" Annabeth said again, punctuating each word. "What's happening?"

The girl was looking more and more confused, almost scared. "We're- we're fighting Gaea's army. What- why weren't you here earlier? Where's Percy?" Before Annabeth could respond, the girl's eyes fell on the sword. "Why do you have Riptide?" she asked, slowly.

Annabeth looked at the sword. "Riptide? Percy? Who are-" She started to hyperventilate. Why couldn't she remember anything?

"Annabeth!" the girl interrupted. "I don't know what happened to you, but you need to listen to me, okay?" Annabeth couldn't resist her eyes, her warm, trusting brown eyes.

"Look at me. There you go. Now, I need you to think."

Annabeth did think. She wanted to remember, so badly, but the memories weren't coming. Nothing was coming. Weren't her eyes blue earlier?

"Try to remember what happened. Remember me. Remember Percy, Jason…"

As she started to list names, Annabeth's head exploded in pain again. "Stop!" she begged. But the girl wouldn't stop. As the battle raged on to the side down the hill, her voice seemed to envelope Annabeth. All those names seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember why. Who were these people? What in Hades was happening?

Hades. Why did she think Hades instead of hell?

Hades. Zeus. Greek gods. Big Three. Aphrodite, spiders, Athena, Poseidon, seawater.

Perseus Jackson.

Everything came back in one explosive rush. Her parents and step-brothers, Luke and Thalia, Camp Half-Blood and all her friends, Percy stumbling in one rainy night and drooling. The lightning theft, Polyphemus, Mount St. Helens, the labyrinth, Kronos, Rachel. When the idiot finally kissed her (well, she kissed him), then disappeared for months. Hera, the godly bit-.

She remembered everything. It was so much information that she stumbled back and fell. Piper gasped slightly and knelt by her worriedly. "Are- are you okay?" she asked hesitantly.

Annabeth looked back at her and grinned. "Never better."

"Annabeth!" Piper hugged her, then pushed her back. "Where have you been? We've been looking for you for so long! Why couldn't you remember anything?"

Annabeth shook her head. "I… don't know. I can't remember anything after we ate yesterday."

Piper shook her head. "That's a long time, Annabeth. Are you sure- look out!" She dove by Annabeth, who shrunk lower as a tree trunk sailed over their heads. A cyclops bellowed at them in anger, like how dare you dodge my tree!

Annabeth got to her feet quickly. "We had better get down there, Piper. We don't have much time right now." Piper nodded, and she followed Annabeth down the hill. Annabeth readjusted her grip on Riptide. There was a growing sense of dread in the back of her mind. Why did she have Riptide in the first place? Why was it down in the cave with her?

She didn't have time to really think about it before the cyclops threw another tree at her. She ducked under it and ran between his legs, slicing behind his knee and doing all she could not to look up.

The cyclops screamed and swatted at her, but his leg buckled under him and he fell, rather like one of the trees he had been throwing. Annabeth planted one foot on his cheek and stabbed Riptide into his face. The monster turned to dust with a poof.

Annabeth cut her way through dozens of snake-women and giants, but it seemed like for every monster she killed, two more came up in its place. As she crossed the field, she caught sight of several demigods that she recognized. Clarrise bashing someone's face in, Connor and Travis double-teaming an annoyed cyclops, Drew charm-speaking a snake-lady into falling on her sword. She even recognized several of the Romans; Reyna repeatedly stabbing a hellhound, Dakota taking a mid-battle swig of his koolaid. It took a moment to register that the Romans and Greeks were fighting together, but she didn't have time to fully process the thought.

As she fought, she became aware of how unbalanced Riptide was. It may have worked for someone like Percy, but she was better accustomed to daggers and light-weight swords, not bronze swords that were over two feet long. Her arm was aching, her eyes were stinging from sweat and dust, her throat was scratchy, and her hand stung worse than ever. She wasn't sure how much longer she would be able to fight with such a heavy weapon.

She heard a loud roar and spun to see a cyclops standing over a scrawny demigod with a helmet covering his curly brown hair. He tried to scramble back, but they all knew he wouldn't be able to get out of reach. The cyclops grinned, his eyes flashing with triumph, and he raised his club.

"No!" Annabeth cried. She sprinted forward and sliced up, putting a gash on his stomach. He stumbled back in surprise, but he didn't look wounded as much as annoyed. He turned on Annabeth and growled menacingly. Annabeth raised Riptide, its tip trembling from the strain she was putting on her arm. She suddenly regretted not listening to Chiron when he told her to become efficient with weapons in both hands.

As the monster took a step forward, someone flew out of nowhere-literally flew- and kicked it in its single eye. It screamed and swatted at the air, but the demigod easily dodged it and sliced at its face, connecting and slicing off a good chunk of his nose. The cyclops fell to his knees and held his face in his hands, where Annabeth was able to finish it off.

"Jason!" she shouted happily.

"Annabeth!" He landed. "Where have you been? You know what, don't answer that right now. We'll have plenty of time after we beat these losers." He gave her a warm smile before jumping back into the fray.

Annabeth heard someone else call her name and turned to see the demigod who had been on the ground. She immediately recognized him. "Leo? Why are you out here? Shouldn't you be-"

"Back at the bunker or on the ship? Making something?" Leo shrugged. "Maybe. But I felt useless, so I decided, why not?"

"That's why not!" Annabeth pointed to the pile ash that used to be a cyclops. "You could get killed!"

"So could you!" Leo protested. "Let me do something!"

Annabeth shook her head. "I'm not in charge of you. Just don't die, okay?" Leo grinned impishly and dashed off, undoubtedly to invent something that would explode.

Suddenly, the ground shook beneath them. The noise died down as everyone struggled to regain their balance. Annabeth knew immediately what was happening. The cut on her hand, her blood…

Where was Percy?

A deep laugh echoed through the field. It sent a chill up Annabeth;s spine. No, no, no.

A huge woman appeared from the east. She towered over even the giants, who knelt. Her skin was pure white, her dress interwoven with blades of grass. Her hair was brown and tangled together like tree roots, covered in dirt. Her eyes were completely green.

She smiled malevolently as a whole host of new monsters filed in behind her. Annabeth's jaw dropped. She hadn't even heard of some of these monsters before, and, considering the extensive research she had done in her time, that was saying something. These were monsters from before her time, before the gods, even. They were ancient, and reeked of power. She could feel it, even from so far away.

They had no chance.

Someone walked next to Annabeth and sighed. "Of course, she would have friends," Hazel said. Annabeth didn't even greet her, and neither did Hazel. They gazed at the new army that had been summoned out of the depths of the earth, and Annabeth felt true fear, the likes of which she had not felt since she and Percy faced Tartarus in, well, Tartarus.

The thought of Tartarus brought back an overwhelming flood of memories that she couldn't deal with at the moment. She tried to shove them to the back of her mind, but not before she thought, Bob. She almost started crying, but she needed to stay strong. Gaea was literally standing right in front of her.

Then someone nearer to the front screamed something that sounded like, "Mercy!"

"What?" Hazel muttered. Then a hellhound stepped out in front of Gaea and bowed low. Its snout touched the ground, and something slid off its back and onto the ground.

Gaea knelt, all twenty feet of her, and smiled. It didn't reach her eyes. She sighed, and a deathly silence filled the air as everyone waited for her to say something. Annabeth thought it was strange that she hadn't already. She had thought that Gaea would come in, guns ablazing and immediately start talking, praising herself and telling everyone how they were going to die immediately. You know, the usual stuff.

Instead, she just looked up and said, "Such a shame. Made it through Tartarus just to end up here."

Annabeth's vision blurred. What? No. No, nonononono. No, she couldn't be talking about Percy, could she? Annabeth felt horrible for it, but she hoped it was Nico. He had survived Tartarus once, hadn't he?

All she could see was a shock of messy black hair, but that did nothing to reassure her. Hazel had gasped and put her hand on Annabeth's shoulder, but Annabeth shook it off, because it wasn't Percy. It wasn't. Soon, he was going to pop out of the forest and yell that it was all a trick, he was still alive.

He couldn't be dead. She refused to believe it.

Gaea laughed. "No, dear daughter of Athena. He isn't dead. I wanted you to see that for yourself." And at that, as if rehearsed, the entire army of Gaea came flying at them.