Authors Note: OK, I'd like to say thank you to the wonderful amazhang dragonswoe who let me do this! Hope you enjoy!
Just so you know I have changed some European wordings to Canadian, hope everyone is okay with that, and please let me know how it was!
Sorry this was supposed to be up a few days ago…
Originally written by: dragonswoe
Parts written by: Jaylene Olebar
Chapter 2: Reading- Entering the Pit
"So who wants to read now?" Poseidon asked after they had a break, which had the demigods run around and try get there ADHD in control.
"I will," Annabeth said and took the book out of Poseidon's hand and walked to where she sat and opened it and began to read.
The result of the Capture the Flag game was expected Artemis' Hunters won by a landslide. Annabeth was in her cabin telling the head counselor that she was going to go away for a while. The immortal campers weren't allowed to be head of the cabin, but were instead the advice for the counselor and campers. Annabeth was tempted to get out the chest under her bunk even though she knew that she was going to need sleep for the journey through Tartarus.
Annabeth sighed and gave in, taking out the chest again for the second time that day. Annabeth thought for a moment before picking up Percy's camp necklace and tying it around her neck – she would give it to him when she found him. Annabeth ran her hand over the picture of him, wondering whether he looked the same or any different. If he was still alive then he must be immortal somehow.
"Immortal? Who gave him immortality!?" Zeus thundered and stared accusingly at the gods around him.
"None of us, our powers won't work in the pit; plus it might be because of Tartarus? Have you thought of that Father?" Athena asked.
Silence was the wisdom goddess's answer; she grinned and went back to listening.
She was nervous of what state she would find Percy in. He had been in Tartarus for three whole centuries.
"He might be insane," Hades said, and looked at the shocked faces. "You have to be insane to survive that hell hole, for that long."
"It was scary," Nico nodded Annabeth did to, they might not have been in there as long as Percy, but it was true.
Annabeth was terrified of what could have happened. Percy's only allies in the Pit were Damasen and Bob, but they had given their lives to help the two of them get out. Then Percy had to go and be the hero again and shoved her into the elevator whilst he held off the monster army.
"Fatal flaw…" Athena whispered and looked at her daughter who put up a strong face and ignored all the pitying looks.
To lose your boyfriend after he had been brain wiped by the queen of the gods, then to end up in the darkest pits of hell and for him to be left behind; had to impact anyone.
Alena sighed. "Annabeth, you should get some sleep. You're not getting any sleep aren't going to help when you're in Tartarus, is it?"
Annabeth glanced back at the picture before nodding. "Thanks, Alena."
Alena shrugged, "Don't worry, Annabeth, Percy will be fine. From what I've heard, not even Tartarus would be able to stop him." Annabeth nodded and climbed up to her bunk by the window as Alena called for lights out.
Annabeth was up and ready as the sun rose. She quickly threw everything she would need into a rucksack and sprinted to the Big House where she found Thalia, Jason and Piper waiting for her.
"You guys ready?" Annabeth asked as soon as she entered the room.
"How can one be ready to enter the pit?" Will asked and held onto Nico's hand.
No one answered.
Thalia grinned, "Lady Artemis gave me some new arrows to use on the monsters down there, along with an order to kill as many of them as possible."
"What do the arrows do?" Annabeth asked.
"Don't know," Thalia shrugged, "never used them before."
"What do they do, Lady Artemis? Have you been in Tartarus before?" Kylie, the newest addition of the Hunters asked.
"I have not been there, maybe in the future..." Artemis replied.
"Annabeth," a voice behind her said and Annabeth quickly turned to see Chiron holding her laptop out to her, "Hades added everything of importance to the map that he knew about. You shouldn't get lost down there with all this."
Annabeth quickly thanked Chiron and opened up the laptop to study the map. She frowned, "What is this gap? One place is completely blank."
"Hades didn't know, he recommended you don't go there. Whatever is there is probably highly dangerous."
"What?" Hades asked when everyone turned to look at them, "I don't know all the answers to that, I may Rule the Underworld, and guard the Pit, but it's not like I want to be there"
"It's okay Hades," Hestia said, everyone jumped. The goddess of the Hearth hadn't spoked in a long time that people tended to forget she was there.
"Thanks Sis," Hades nodded in her direction.
Annabeth nodded and carefully put the silver laptop into her bag. Behind her, the shadows converged and Nico stepped out of them. The son of Hades nodded to his quest mates before leaning against the wall to wait for the others to arrive.
"Annabeth, what's Tartarus like?" Piper asked curiously.
"It was dark, scary because of all the monsters and the air is a bit difficult to breathe in and surprisingly the ground was purple."
"Purple?" Reyna asked and frowned deeply in thought.
Annabeth swallowed nervously. "Dark, the ground is purple, and the temperature changes rapidly. Like San Francisco, actually."
Jason frowned slightly, "So won't we need coats or something?"
"Na, it's hot in Tartarus, I have been there to check up on father in the past, back when we used to take turns. But it seems to have gotten worse." Poseidon spoke up.
"Yeah, true"- Annabeth.
Annabeth shook her head, "That'll just slow us down. We need to be quick to outrun anything that'll be chasing us."
Nico nodded in agreement, "Tartarus is the Monsters' home ground. We will be invading them, not the other way around. We have less of a reason to be there than they do."
"Thank you for the encouraging words, Mr. Optimism," Leo snorted as he dragged a bag into the Big House.
Nico shrugged, "I'm not deluding myself into thinking this will be easy."
Leo rolled his eyes, "Seriously, Death Breath, lighten up. We're going to save Percy!"
Nico narrowed his eyes, "Okay, don't call me Death Breath, that's even worse than Zombie Boy."
"Will calls you Death Breath," Leo said pointedly.
"That's different," Nico retorted.
Will glared at the son of Hephaestus.
"Only I can call Nico names, he's mine" Will says possessively and crowded the son of Hades, who blinked in shock before kissing him and Aphrodite awing at the sight.
Leo grinned, "I still don't see why I can't call you Death Breath if Will gets to."
"Leo," Annabeth interrupted, "what did you make?"
"So Festus that you asked that, Annabeth," Leo said as he stuck his hand into the bag.
"Leo," Annabeth said warningly.
"Yeah, yeah," Leo said dismissively, "I know. Festus is the name of my dragon and I can't replace 'happy' with it. You've told me loads of times before." He took out a small hand grenade. "This bad boy is filled to the brim with Greek Fire for a lovely monster killing explosion." He saw the looks Jason was giving Thalia and sighed, "No, Jason, it won't explode randomly… maybe." He cleared his throat and pulled another thing out of the bag.
"Very reassuring..." Jason said wryly.
"This is a celestial bronze shrapnel grenade – sort of self-explanatory." He grabbed a few quiver of arrows, "These have seven types of arrows in. Hydra, heavy, explosive, sonic, barbed, fire, and net. I'll tell you what they all do later when Frank is here. I also made another electric spear for Clarisse, you know, because she tends to break them."
Annabeth laughed, "Give the Hephaestus Cabin my thanks when you say goodbye to them."
"I get a new electric spear?" Clarisse's excited voice came from the entrance of the room.
Leo nodded and pulled out a pencil. "I got the Hecate Cabin to enchant it," he explained, "press down on the rubber and it'll turn into a spear. To turn it back to a pencil you have to twist the point clockwise." He gave the weapon to Clarisse who immediately turned it into a spear. "The point is an alloy of Imperial Gold and Celestial Bronze, extra strong and durable."
Clarisse mimed a few thrusts, "Oh, yeah. I can definitely work with this."
"Why's Clarisse got a new spear?" Frank asked as he entered with Hazel at his side. "I'm not sure it's a good idea."
Clarisse twisted the point of the spear and it shrank down into a pencil. "Jealous I have two spears and you only have one?"
Frank shook his head. "Definitely not; my spear was from Mars himself, whilst yours was made by a repair boy."
"Hey!" Leo shouted, "I'm not repair boy anymore."
Piper laughed, "Just because the Argo II has been made invulnerable doesn't mean you're no longer repair boy, Fire Head."
Chiron cleared his throat. "Are you all ready?"
"Chiron is the one who always brings people back on track," Athena said and looked at the demigods who nodded.
"Yeah, he is like our second father," Leo said, and at that all the demigods nodded and the male parents started to get jealous of the centaur.
'hrumphing', Chiron took a nervous step backwards when the gods turned to look at him.
The immortal demigods immediately sobered up. Annabeth looked around at her immortal friends, noting their determined expressions, and she nodded. "We're ready."
Chiron nodded and Annabeth saw nervousness in his eyes. "Then come with me," he walked towards the door and the demigods quickly scrambled to follow him. "The Doors will open in a few minutes. Tartarus has agreed to open them for three days, no longer. The good thing about you all being immortal is that Tartarus can't use your blood to rise," he glanced meaningfully at Annabeth and Jason.
The son of Jupiter looked sheepish, "It wasn't my fault I had a nosebleed."
"I know," Chiron said, "but we don't need another Primordial rising to destroy or enslave the mortal race."
"Valid point," Annabeth nodded, "we'll be careful in case something happens. Anything else we should know?"
"We'll be setting up traps around the Doors to stop any monsters that come through. So if you can, try to give a signal before you come through."
"Won't that be hard to do?" Hazel asked, "It's not like we can just send something through the Doors."
"I'm sure you'll think of something," Chiron said. "The Doors are by Zeus' Fist."
"How are we going to do this?" Jason asked suddenly, "I mean Tartarus is the home of monsters. They know practically everything about the Pit. We only have a map. Is it really possible to find Percy?"
"Don't lose hope, Jason" Hestia said.
"Don't forget that Annabeth and I have been down there already," Nico reminded. "We know a lot too. We'll be fine, Jason. Don't worry about it."
"Unless we run into a Titan," Thalia said quietly. "Then we're in deep Minotaur dung."
"Not really," Clarisse argued, "we're the strongest demigods in centuries. If we can't get Prissy out then no one will be able to."
"Now, it seems the power went to our heads," Annabeth paused and looked at the nine questers that they would do in the future.
The demigods descended into silence as they followed Chiron. Leo was rummaging through his bag and muttering under his breath, making a last minute check. Annabeth had her laptop safely secured in her bag and her drakon bone sword at her waist.
They emerged into the clearing and immediately saw the Doors. They were chained to the ground, not unlike when Gaea had kept them open during the Second Giant War, and trenches were dug around them. The clearing was dark and cold in the shadows of Zeus' Fist and the Doors. There was already monster dust around the Doors and in the spiked pits.
As Annabeth watched a dracaena slithered out of the Doors and immediately impaled itself on a celestial bronze spike. "Chiron, how exactly are we going to get through the Doors?"
The ground rumbled and a crack opened in the earth. Red mist floated out of the gap and Frank swallowed nervously,"
'The past leads you to your future. Jump.' Uh, what? No way am I jumping into Tartarus."
Annabeth's mind raced, "Tartarus wants us to retrace where Percy and I went."
Chiron cleared his throat. "Good luck, children. Come back safely."
Leo grinned, "So, who's going first?"
"Jason, Frank, do you think you could carry us all?" Annabeth asked.
"Don't you think you should have all just fallen in? I mean you and Percy fell in Greece, you didn't fly down." Leo said and looked at Annabeth.
"Maybe," Jason said after sharing a look with Frank. "We should be able to."
Frank's form changed until a Chinese dragon was in his place. Jason held hands with Piper and Leo as the other immortal demigods clambered onto
Frank. Annabeth looked down at the centaur below them, "Thank you, Chiron."
"Be safe," Chiron called up, "think wisely."
Frank walked up to the edge of the fissure, and slid down after a few seconds of gathering his thoughts. Jason took a breath before jumping after him.
The wind whistled past his ears as he fell and everything was eerily silent around him, at least until Piper squeezed his hand and suddenly he could hear everything again.
Jason lost track of time as they fell, though it seemed that they went faster than it should be possible to. He was pretty sure he left his stomach at the entrance and was suddenly happy that he'd decided to not have anything as a quick snack. Leo, however, threw up as they fell. It was amusing that they were falling faster than Leo's breakfast.
Around the immortal demigods the tunnel opened up into a cavern that could have fit the whole of Manhattan in. Red clouds hung above the purple ground like vaporized blood and screeches of monsters echoed around the Pit. Jason's eyes widened when he realized they were falling straight towards a river and he quickly gained control over the air to carefully lower himself and his two friends down beside Frank.
Annabeth looked around with a grim expression as Leo settled himself on the river bank. "Careful, Leo," Nico said. "The river bank is broken glass and that is the Cocytus."
Leo immediately shot away from the river. He looked at Annabeth like everyone else was doing. "What now?"
Annabeth swallowed nervously. "We need to find the Phlegethon."
Nico frowned slightly, "Why do we need to do that? We're half immortal. The atmosphere of Tartarus doesn't affect us."
"Percy and I went there first, after landing in this river," Annabeth said carefully. "Tartarus has to have a reason for wanting us to retrace our steps."
"What if that reason's to kill us?" Thalia asked.
"Then we show him why not to mess with immortal demigods," Clarisse growled.
Annabeth studied the horizon until she saw the flicker of red against the dark ground. "Over there," she pointed, "down the cliff." The demigods looked at each other before following their quest leader as she strode off with confidence.
"Alright, we will have lunch than we can continue reading at two o'clock." Zeus said and let Demeter wave her hand and there was a feast of food to eat.
A/N: ha-ha! I just realized I am so not funny, well in writing, I'm trying to work on that