Marcus is going to hate birds for the rest of his life. Which probably wasn't going to be that long. He's aiming at surviving the hour.
These monsters were annoying. They didn't just die, they had to leave you with horrific images, your worst memories, as they died. Marcus winced. Did his hair really stick up like that when he was a kid? And...oh gods...his mother. All of a sudden, his eyes welled up and he was a 4 year old again, screaming as his mother slammed the brakes futilely. Their car was spinning out of control on a slip of ice on the roads. Just before they slammed into the other car, his mother yanked away her seatbelt and threw herself at him, almost crushing him. He was crying then too, but his mother had smiled warmly at him, her eyes crinkling. When the impact hit, he barely felt it, but when he opened his eyes, there was a hideous splotch of red in his mother's beautiful brown hair, a splotch that was growing steadily and was dripping onto his skin. And...a slash of pain roused him. Blinking wetness, Marcus stared down at the scratch on his stomach, framed by ripped cloth. The scratch had been light, but the red that welled up was nauseating. He choked and stumbled backwards, almost as if he was trying to escape his own skin. Don't be a fool, he thought, it's not like you haven't seen blood before. He gritted his teeth and whirled on the bird monsters. They had all crowded around...Annabeth. Annabeth who was whimpering on the ground in a very un-Annabeth way. Annabeth who was sure to have much more and many more worse memories than he had. Annabeth need help. His help. He slashed through the monsters, almost joyfully because he had no more fears to face, and yes, also because he was saving Annabeth. But then, the frivolous thoughts scattered even as the birds scattered. Annabeth was still on the ground, her eyes blank and wet. Clarisse weakly slapped Annabeth's face, but she did not so much as flinch.
"Annabeth..." Her eyes snapped to him, but they held no light of recognition. She shuddered and grabbed both of his hands. The sky grew dark and the beach...it looked like there was veins underneath the beach and here and there, bubbles swelled and burst. The water had also disappeared.
"Uh Annabeth, where are...uh...we..." There were two Annabeth's. He looked from one to the other. The one to his left was the Annabeth he knew, because her hair was streaked with white. The other one in front of him had purely blond hair. He must be in Annabeth's memory. And, oh gods of Olympus, this was Tartarus. Present-Annabeth gasped. Battling monsters, a familiar blade twisting in the air, there stood Percy Jackson.
Percy's face was streaked with grime, but it could not hide the striking light in his sea green eyes, so much like his own. It could not hide the concern and love when he glanced at Past-Annabeth either. Marcus would have thought this too mushy to watch if it weren't for the fact that the two demigods were literally fighting to the death. He could not believe Annabeth had survived this: The number of monsters here made the monsters on the beach seem like a snow flake in a blizzard. Present-Annabeth covered her eyes. A huge chimera leaped at Past-Annabeth's exposed back. Instinctively, Marcus uncapped Riptide, but his sword slid through the chimera's body as if the sword was smoke. He could only watch as a second before the chimera decapitated Past-Annabeth, Percy sprinted and pushed her out of the way. The chimera's tail struck Percy's right arm, striking the sword out of his hand and leaving a nasty gash on his arm.
Percy swallowed a crumbled piece of ambrosia and tied a strip of leather around his arm tightly with his teeth. Why did he...oh...Chimeras...weren't their tails poisonous? Both Annabeths sobbed. Percy smiled tightly and picked up the sword with his left hand and fended the monsters off, while pushing Annabeth toward a pair of doors.
"Go, Wise Girl."
"The hell I'm leaving you."
"Well this is Tartarus." He grimaced. "Look Annabeth, someone has to save the world. I'm not gonna make it" Percy clenched his teeth, forcing the pain out of his face as he smiled at Annabeth. "Go. Our friends are depending on us. Go. I love you."
Annabeth staggered like a blind person to the elevator. Percy pushed the monsters away from her, summoning a huge wage of water that wiped out the entire field of monsters. He collapsed, turning around to smile at Annabeth one last time. The doors closed. A Titan held the button. Enormous tears leaked out of his silver eyes as he supported Percy's head. "Goodbye Bob, I hope...you can see the stars..." The scene swirled and Marcus and Annabeth were back at the beach.
Clarisse was kneeling by them. "Thank the gods." She clutched her arm. "We have to go. Now."
Marcus could see the line of monsters surging towards them.
Annabeth did not seem to hear Clarisse. She was still weeping, every whimper tearing at Marcus's heart.
The pounding of feet on the sand grew louder and louder, but Annabeth could not be coaxed up, and Clarisse was in no condition to help Marcus carry her. A chimera in the front roared, grinning hideously. Maybe the same one that attacked Annabeth and killed Percy. Marcus's vision turned red.
Yelling angrily, again and again, with no idea of what he was screaming, he somehow summoned a tidal wave from the beach that crashed over the monsters, sweeping every one of them away. He could see their shocked, stupid, ugly faces as they were dissolved into dust by the powerful surge of water. The water receded, leaving the beach a pristine pale yellow, unsullied by monsters. Annabeth raised her head and stared at him, her mouth shaped like a O, and her eyes, still full of tears, were lucid now. Clarisse whistled. He wanted to bask in his single-handed victory, in the fact that he was, against all odds, alive, but the world started spinning and turned into pitch-dark nothingness.