Hi again! Sorry this one took awhile to publish; I was at a bit of a Writer's Block. Now, however, I've got momentum again and have planned the next few chapters. Just an FYI, I'm going to be on Vaca this next couple of days, so I won't be updating :( On the bright side, I believe this is my longest chapter yet! WooHoo!

And now...Chapter 3!

Annabeth's POV

When she had sluggishly opened her eyes, Annabeth had been greeted with the terrifying sight of seeing her boyfriend about to be devoured by Arachne.

Annabeth was still sore from her hard fall, and her head was throbbing like crazy, but she had managed to bring out her knife, get to her feet, and chuck it as hard as she could at the spider.

Since Arachne had been leaning down, her abdomen was in plain view, and therefore was impaled with Annabeth's dagger, to Arachne's utter surprise and the demigods' delight.

Now, Annabeth was smiling at Percy, who looked so relieved to see her awake, and she rushed forward to grip him in a hug.

"Annabeth," Percy suddenly sobbed, gripping her hard as if she might leave him again. "I'm so sorry! I was an idiot for letting you go, I-"

"Percy, Percy, it's okay! I don't blame you! In fact, I'm incredibly sorry for dragging you into this mess in the first place."

Percy held her shoulders and moved her forward so that he could look in Annabeth's stormy grey eyes. She noticed that his were puffy and red from his tears of apology.

"I would never let you fall down here alone. Ever. "

This time, Annabeth felt tears well up in her eyes. She smiled and hugged him again.

They stayed like that for awhile, engaged in a tight hug, arms wrapped snugly around each other, taking comfort in each other's presence. Who knew when the next time would be for them to simply enjoy each other and not be running for their lives.

A far away growl caught their attention and snapped them back into reality.

"Um, we should probably head out," Annabeth stated.

They let go of each other and looked around, leading to Percy's asking of, "So…where should we go? I can't see 10 feet in front of me, much less know where the Doors are."

"I…I don't know. I wish we had a map or something. I don't even know if we landed on the edge of Tartarus or in the middle!"

"Maybe we could ask for directions?" Percy said, laughing a bit at his joke and standing up. Annabeth, even though she found the comment funny, didn't laugh. She sat on the floor, staring aimlessly off into the distance. How would they find the Doors of Death-their only escape? She knew nothing about this place. No one did, except…Nico.

"Percy, can you sense any water nearby? Any at all?" She had a plan. Percy, looking a little confused with her request but deciding not to question it, closed his eyes and mentally reached out around him.

In just a few seconds, he opened his eyes and pointed straight behind him, into the darkness.

"I think there's a small lake of some sort down that way. It feels a long way away, though."

"Perfect. That's our heading." Annabeth planned to Iris message Nico and see what he knew about the layout of this monster-filled land. As she tried to stand, she accidently put weight on her hurt ankle and cried out, dropping back to her knees. Percy rushed forward and helped her up, letting her lean on him heavily.

"Where…what happened to my splint?" Annabeth asked, looking down at her bare and swollen ankle.

Sheepishly, Percy nudged his head towards the cliff, where a bundle of bubble-wrap and other odds and ends were pushed against the wall. "I, uh, was checking on your ankle. I didn't have time to put the stuff back on yet because I was busy fighting off a spider lady who hates our guts."

"Well, actually you were busy getting beaten by her, but it's the thought that counts." Annabeth laughed when Percy rolled his eyes at her snarky comment.

As they walked over to the cliff once again, Annabeth noticed Percy holding his arm across his stomach, trying to keep it completely still.

He began setting her down again when she asked, "Are you okay? What happened to your arm?"

"Oh, this? I might've done something to it when we hit the slope…that's all, no biggie."

"But-"

"It doesn't matter; what we should be concerned about is your ankle." Percy knelt down and began fumbling with his limited supplies, rebuilding the splint around his girlfriend's blue and purple ankle.

"Percy, I know you're hurt; you can't hide that from me."

"Even if you do know, what are we supposed to do about it? We've got no supplies, no ambrosia, nothing at all!" Percy snapped. Seeing the shocked expression on Annabeth's face after his rant, Percy sighed and sat back on his ankles, finished with the splint. "I'm sorry, Annabeth. I'm just frustrated, that's all."

"It's okay, Percy. Just try and think as positively as you can down here. If we become pessimists, this is going to be a long journey."

Percy helped Annabeth up so that she was leaning on his right, where he could wrap his good arm around her.

"Okay, I'll try. Let's go."

The couple slowly made their way to the edge of the light, where it broke off into complete and utter darkness.

"You ready?" Annabeth gulped.

"Ready as I'll ever be."

And with that, the two half-bloods entered the unknown.

Immediately, the torch-holding pillars behind them were extinguished by a harsh wind, dropping the world into blackness once more.

Percy, still aiding Annabeth, led them both over to where the torch would've been. Both of them reached out to feel for it, for anything to steady them in this new world of black nothingness, but surprisingly the torch wasn't there. At all.

Steadying herself, Annabeth let go of Percy and hobbled over to the previous point of the torch's existence. There was no pillar, no torch remains, nothing. It was as if…as if it had all diseappeared. As if they had shifted into a different part of Tartarus.

"Annabeth?" Percy called, getting anxious with no way of knowing where Annabeth had walked off to.

"I'm still here, just give me a sec."

An idea had struck Annabeth, and she shuffled over to where the cliff should have been. Thrusting her arms out, she felt nothing. Cold air had replaced the wall, along with the torches.

Bending down so that she could feel the ground, Annabeth discovered that the old, cobblestone flooring onto which they'd arrived had morphed into hard-packed dirt.

"Percy…" Annabeth started, struggling to find the right words to describe what had just happened.

"Yeah?" he called loudly from a few feet away, obviously unaware that Annabeth was within reaching distance.

"We've somehow teleported away from the cliff entrance into a different part of Tartarus. There must've been a magic barrier of some sorts at the edge of the light that sent us away."

Percy blindly walked forward, planning to join Annabeth again, but ended up tripping over her knelt body.

"Gah!" Percy yelped as he almost face-planted into the dirt.

"Watch out, Seaweed Brain," Annabeth laughed, despite the circumstances.

"Annabeth, this is…this is dirt. It's not stone anymore!" Percy commented as his hands dug into the soil he'd fallen on to.

"I know; that's how I figured out that we're no longer at the entrance. The cliff and torches have also disappeared."

"So then…where are we?"

"I have no idea."

They sat on the dirt floor in silence for a minute before they suddenly became aware of something…something they should not have already forgotten about.

Growls and screams sounded off in the distance, coming from all around. The occasional explosion rocked the floor, and cries of anguish, frustration, and rage echoed throughout the darkness. The terrifying noises emanating from the thousands of monsters sent shivers of fear down Percy's and Annabeth's spines. It was as if they could feel death just waiting to attack and end their lives.

"What now?" Percy asked.

Annabeth hesiated in an attempt to remember what it was they had been looking for. "We need to find that lake you sensed. So, I guess…we just follow your nose," she replied, for lack of a better way to describe Percy's sensing of the lake.

"For the fruity taste that shows," Percy mumbled, smiling at his corny quoting of the colorful Fruit Loops Toucan.

"What?"

"Nothing, nothing."

They silently stood and began their trek to the lake. Not being able to see anything was pretty dangerous, actually. They continually tripped and stumbled over rocks and ditches that seemed to come out of nowhere.

Suddenly, Percy gasped, and Annabeth heard his palm smack his forehead. "What was I thinking? I have some light!" He shoved his hand in his pocket and whipped out Riptide, clicking the pen into a full-blown sword. It's bronze glow was enough to illuminate the two demigods' faces and the nearby ground.

"It's not much, but its better than nothing," Annabeth sighed as they continued to walk. Her ankle sent hot flashes of pain up her leg with each step, and she audibly cried out once when she'd accidently put too much weight on it.

"Here, I've got an idea," Percy said hurriedly at seeing his girlfriend's eyes fill with tears of pain. He put on arm around her back and another under her legs and lifted, sweeping her off her feet and carrying her bridal style.

"No more suffering," he said proudly, but in the light of his sword, Annabeth saw the stress and pain that made itself clear in his eyes. Oh my gods, his arm! Annabeth realized. He was carrying her using his injured arm, and that couldn't have felt good.

She felt him shaking with determination to keep her up, and he began to walk forward again.

Feeling horrible for the pain she was putting him through, Annabeth tried to climb out of his grasp, saying, "Percy, I know this hurts you. Let me down."

"No," Percy said immediately, readjusting her so that she lay comfortably again. "I'm fine, really." Annabeth knew he was lying through his teeth, but in his voice she heard the stubbornness he had to not set her down.

"Percy-"

"I've got this, Annabeth."

She sighed and decided to make the best of it. Leaning onto his chest, she had to admit to herself that it was heaven being off her ankle, and she was still groggy and tired from her recent knock out. In fact, before that she had just finished her quest to find the Mark of Athena too, which had been very taxing, so sleep would feel wonderful right now. She felt her eyes close despite themselves, and she soon slipped into a deep sleep.

Percy's POV

Percy walked on by the faint, glowing light of his sword. He hadn't let on just how much his arm hurt when he held Annabeth, and her weight, even though it was not much, sent electric shocks up his arm each second.

It isn't that bad, Percy scolded himself, readjusting Annabeth yet again. You've held up the sky, for crying out loud. You've bathed in the Styx. Putting weight on a broken arm is nothing. And still, he had to clench his teeth to hold in his shouts of pain.

After five minutes of walking through almost pitch black, Percy saw a strange light up ahead. It was a bright orange column, shooting up into the air for a few seconds before disappearing again. Then a second column would shoot up, though to the left of the previous one. Then a third, far behind the second. Next a fourth, over to the right again.

"What is that?" Percy asked nobody, coming to a halt. He squinted, trying to make out what the odd fiery columns were. They never seemed to last long, five seconds at most. They appeared to be springing up from the ground, much like geysers. With each shot, they sounded out a faint boom. He bet if Annabeth had been awake she'd know what they were.

A big one suddenly shot up 20 feet away from Percy, it's boom a distinctly louder. Woah, he thought, tripping slightly in a hurry to back away. They're getting closer. With a start, Percy realized he felt…heat from it.

What the- Before Percy could finish his thought, the ground below him shook violently, raising upwards in a slope. "Hey!" the demigod exclaimed, trying to steady himself on the moving ground. Annabeth surprisingly remained asleep.

With a deafening blast, a wall of orange and red lava shot up from the ground, splitting away the dirt and reaching high into the sky.

Percy screamed as the blast shoved him backwards, the heat searing his whole frontside. Lava geysers! Percy thought, his heartbeat doubling in time. He landed on his butt, Annabeth collapsing onto his lap. She stirred but didn't wake.

Heavy sleeper, Percy scoffed. This time, he had no time to react as the ground beneath him shook again and a lava geyser exploded behind him. He let out a blood-curdling shriek with this one as it seared his back and singed his hair. Percy was knocked forward, rolling down the geyser's mound.

"Annabeth!" Percy cried, crawling over to her and shaking her now hot body. Well, she'd always been hot to him, but he meant temperature this time. "Annabeth!" he screamed as the ground below him shook once again and began to rise…

And I leave you with a cliffhanger. Muahahaha! So this time I was able to fit both of their POV's into this chapter! Next time I believe I'll be continuing from Percy's POV, since I enjoy writing in his mindset better.

Time for Thank-You's!

Thanks to Siria Nera, Scarlet1474, and Hinata001 for the follows, thank you Hinata001 for the favorite as well, and thank you Sammy7300 for the review! That review made me smile from ear to ear :) . I appreciate those comments so much, really! The fact that you all took time to review, favorite, or follow my story is amazing, and I can't give you all enough thanks!

Please continue to read and review (constructive criticism is welcome), and I'll see you all soon for Chapter 4!

Spoiler alert, old enemies are revisited :)

-8DemigodRunner8