Disclaimer: Sadly, I don't own PJO series or HoO series.

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Chapter 4

Athena's POV

Poseidon came in just when I'm finished. I noticed that he is preparing another set of food for himself. I mentally chuckled. Guys and food, you just can't separate them. After I finish eating that mountain full of blue pancakes, he just finished his breakfast. We washed our dishes in sync but in awkward silence. For once, I don't know what to say. I am the goddess of knowledge for gods' sake! And then an idea came to me. I don't like it, but it's important.

"Hey, do you think that we should tell their mortal parents?" I asked him.

"Annabeth's father maybe," he replied. "but not Percy's family.

"Oh, wait. But… why? Why not tell Percy's family?" I am curious, very. Why wouldn't he tell her? Did he still love her?

"Percy's relationship is very strong with both sides of his family. He once caught an Ares kid calling his mother a slut. And you don't want to know what happened to him." He was clearly proud of his son being protective of his mother. Just then, Hermes flashed in.

Hermes' POV

I am totally shocked seeing Athena's still here with Poseidon and not shouting at each other. And what's more, they are washing the dishes together, while chatting.

"Whatsup, Hermes?"

"They're reaching the bottom of Tartarus."

Hephaestus' POV

I was depressed. Percy, my favourite cousin, had fallen into Tartarus to be alongside with his girlfriend and save the world. Even a god might be insane just to think about Tartarus. Amazingly, Percy still knows what he's supposed to do even at the brink of falling into a pit where all the worst of Earth held.

I was shocked because Aphrodite had for once, slept with me in the same bed. Despite being my wife, I've never been able to hold her in any way. Now, to follow what she called 'Percabeth' she willingly slept beside me so she can get some first-hand update on them. That is also when I noticed the ever so dim light coming from the screen. Hurriedly, I woke Aphrodite up.

"Aphy… wake up. They're reaching the bottom!" I said while shaking her slightly. She woke up instantly.

"What you say?"

"I say, they're reaching the bottom of Tartarus."

"Hermes!" she shouted to the outside of my chambers. Immediately, Hermes flashed in.

"What?"

"Call everybody up and gather them in the throne room. Percabeth is reaching the bottom of Tartarus."

"Okay." He said worriedly. Percy really get a lot of gods' and goddess' respect, even Artemis was shocked that what she called 'a mere boy' is so strong in his emotion and clear minded even when his girlfriend is giving up. And he still can give commands to the others to keep them working on while falling into hell. Most of all, he never treated himself like he is the most powerful hero and brag around. Instead he honoured his friends that died in the battles that held before and blames himself for not being able to help them while he can. He honoured my son, honoured Selina, who turned out to be the spy (but still he beat the crap out of people that call her that, so be careful), and even Luke (who he call a hero), who helped Kronos rise. He turned down godhood so Hestia and Hades could have a throne in the Olympian Council, also let all the demigods to be trained and now all minor gods have a cabin in Camp Half-Blood. Never met a better person than him before (and that's only when he's not mad at anyone, Zeus was so scarred that he peed in his pants when Percy's angry).

"Heph, are they going to make it out alive?" Aphy asked, worried about her favourite couple.

"They are the strongest demigod in three thousand years, especially when together. They'll be fine, a little broken, but fine." I assured her and myself.

Now that we've gotten ready for the day we flashed ourselves to the throne room. All except Poseidon and Athena are here. That's weird because Athena was never late. Poseidon's always late as he's been helping all the minors while walking here. Speaking of them, there they are.

They sat down at their throne and before Zeus started ranting about of wind storms are better I out up the screen and showed them Percy and Annabeth. Instantly, everybody's eyes are on the screen.

Percy and Annabeth are still holding hands and got closer to each other somehow. They both are covered in cuts and cobwebs. The surrounding gets hotter and more humid. That's when Annabeth shouted. "Percy, water!" Everyone saw Percy's face scrunched in concentration after a nod and with a yell, the water from the river rose and cushioned their fall. The two are shivering badly, clearly the water is cold. The two's grip on each other loosened.

"What river is that? Why isn't Percy in control like he is over the Lethe?" Poseidon asked.

"That's the Cocytus, the River of Lamentation. It must've taken him every single bit of energy to control it." Hades suddenly appears and answered the question. When he noticed everyone staring at him, he raised an eyebrow and said "What? Percy's my favourite nephew so far."

The river started to talk. "What's the point of struggling? You're dead anyway. You'll never leave this place." "No, they will!" Poseidon shouted at the screen. Annabeth seemed persuaded and started to sink, until Percy grabbed her hand. All of sudden, Annabeth didn't want to die anymore. They shot up to the surface together. When they resurfaced Percy seems tired. "Land, go sideways." Annabeth croaked. That's when the river chose to speak again "Life is despair. Everything is pointless, and then you die." As Annabeth still have energy now she's not affected. But Percy used so much energy that he couldn't think straight. "Pointless" he murmured. "Oh no." Poseidon said, worry for his son.

"Percy! The river is messing with your mind. It's the River of Lamentation. It's made of pure misery!" Annabeth shouted at him, struggling to hold him up when he's sinking. "Misery." He weakly repeated. Annabeth seemed scared of not knowing what to do. She hugged him tighter and kissed him.

"Tell me about New Rome, what were your plans for us?"

"New Rome…For us…"

"Yeah, Seaweed Brain. You said we could have a future there! Tell me!"

"Architecture," When he said that word, the fog around his eyes seemed to clear. "Thought you'd like the houses, the parks. There's one street with all these cool fountains." They kept on moving towards the side, now Percy's helping, they moved faster now. They could see the shore line now, only a stone throw away. "Seriously? A second before they're drowning and the next second they're talking about future in the River of Misery." Zeus commented. A second later, while Zeus was having a few skeletons pinning him down on his throne being crushed by waves, plucked by owls and doves and being shot by arrows and being hit by a very heavy hammer. When he recovered, a vine with cereal flavour pulled him tight on his throne and covered his mouth tightly. After all the gods and goddess finish glaring at him they returned their gaze towards the screen.

"College, could we go there together?"

"Y-yeah." He started sounding more confident, and more Percy style.

"What would you study, Percy?"

"Dunno," "Typical Percy answer." Apollo commented.

"Marine science? Oceanography?" Annabeth suggested.

"Surfing?" he asked, as seaweed brain as possible.

"Stupid dummy." Athena said.

"Hey, he's just trying to ease her uneasiness." Poseidon defended.

That made Annabeth laughed a pure, simple laugh. "You see!" Poseidon said. The laughter sent a shock wave through the water. The wailing faded to the background while they reached the shore. They hauled themselves ashore and collapsed on the dark sand which shines weirdly. "The beach seems weird," said Dionysus. "You're watching?" Hera asked. "Uh duh." Came the lazy reply.

The air around them seemed red. After a while, Annabeth tried to sit up and gasped painfully. The beach was filled with jagged black-glass chips, some in Annabeth's palm. Next to her, Percy coughed. "This place smells like my ex-stepfather." Annabeth cracked a weak smile at him. Looking at Percy, she somehow seemed glad and relived. She forced herself to stand. Her foot was still wrapped in a cast like thing. But when she move she did not wince anymore.

"We should keep moving or we'll get hypothermia. Can you stand?" Percy nodded and struggled up. Percy looked worse than Annabeth by a thousand times. He is shivering badly and his lips are clearly blue even in the dim light. Annabeth put her arm around Percy's waist and both scanned the surrounding.

"Look." He pointed downstream at a baby-blue Italian car that had crashed headfirst into the sand. The two moved forward together. Under the crushed hood lay the tattered, glistening remains of a giant silk cocoon. It was empty. Slash marks in the sand made a trail downriver.

"She's alive." Annabeth said, obviously scarred.

"It's Tartarus, monster home court. Down here, maybe they can't be killed." Percy said. "Great way to calm her, Percy," said an amused Artemis. And with an embarrassed look he continued. "Or maybe she's badly wounded, and she crawled away to die."

"Let's go with that." Annabeth agreed.

"This place is killing us." She said. "I mean, it's literally going to kill us, unless…"

"Unless what? Percy prompted. "You've got a brilliant plan, haven't you?"

"It's a plan. I don't know about brilliant. We need to find the River of Fire."

To be continued…

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