Chapter 10 – E116

Percy wasn't feeling so good. They had been underground for 12 conscious hours, and he felt itchy and restless. The guinea pig inside of him was going nuts. He wanted to get out of this place. How these people had managed to stay underground for thousands of years he didn't understand. Annabeth rose to her feet and rested a hand on his forearm; he jumped at the touch, knocking over a bank of hard drives. Foaly made an annoyed whinnying sound.

"Can you please just sit down mud boy? I'm trying my hardest to get you home as fast as I can, for all our sakes, but I need those hard drives."

"Sorry." Percy mumbled, letting Annabeth lead him over to the corner of the room where he could sit without destroying anything.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked gently.

Percy nodded mutely, resting his head against the wall. Now they were out of danger Percy felt tired. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept in somewhere safe, without sea monsters and wind spirits attacking the ship.

"Just sleep for a bit. You look terrible." Annabeth said gently, worming an arm around him and pushing his head onto her shoulder.

His messy black hair tickled her neck as he turned to face her, managing a weak giggle.

"Cheers Wise Girl. You looked at yourself recently."

Actually, Percy thought, as Annabeth elbowed him gently in the ribs bringing another exhausted giggle out of him, she looked about the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She rested her head against his.

"Just go to sleep, Seaweed Brain."

"Yes maam." Percy muttered, or thought he did, he couldn't tell because he was already asleep.

In his dream, Percy was back at Camp Half Blood in his father's cabin. It was exactly how he had remembered it. His armour lying half complete on the floor, chip bags and coke cans stuffed under the mattress in a rush because it was inspection day. The only thing that was different was the satyr lying on his bed, Grover. His blonde hair had grown, as had his horns, they were now beginning to curl and could no longer be hidden by his rosta cap. He was agitated and as Percy watched, with a growing smile on his face, Grover plucked one of the cans from underneath his bed and began chomping down on the aluminium. He shut his eyes and concentrated.

"Percy? Where are you man, I don't know what Hera did when she sent you away, she might have suppressed the empathy link but this is the last hope I have of getting to you, none of the nature spirits have any idea where you are. I just hope it works."

"Yeah!" yelled Percy, stepping out of the shadows. "It worked!"

Grover sat bolt upright. His face split into the biggest grin Percy had ever seen. He ran over and tackled Percy in a hug.

"Hey G-man." Percy cried slapping him on the back. "Woah, watch the horns!"

"Sorry." Grover said backing away. "Di Immortalis Percy, it's so good to see you."

"Yeah," said Percy, grinning, "you too."

"Ok listen, where are you? We got an Iris message to say you and Annabeth fell into Tartarus, everyone's been going crazy trying to contact you."

"We ended up somewhere else, were still here actually, I'll tell you more when we get back, but don't go anywhere, pass a message to Chiron tell him we are coming back home with some help. Also, can you send an Iris message to the Argo to let them know we are okay, try and get them to meet us at Camp Half Blood? Things that are going on right now are not good; we have some new friends that can help, some of them fought against Gia before but we need a meeting before we do anything else, preferably with all of us."

"Okay. I'll tell them all. Hurry home Percy."

"Will do, see you soon G-man."

Grover ran out of the cabin, his hooves clicking against the flagstones and the world turned dark.

Percy sat bold upright nearly head butting Annabeth in the nose, luckily Annabeth had fast reactions.

"Woah, you okay?" she asked pulling him to his feet.

"Yeah, just seen G-man, we have to get back to camp."

"Way ahead of you, we've got the green light; we leave in five minutes on the next flare, whatever that is. Holly is already at the terminal; Foaly said he would walk us there." She paused, smiling weakly. "We're going home."

They headed through corridors and tunnels that reminded Percy of the Labyrinth; instinctively he grabbed Annabeths hand keeping the other glued to the wall. She squeezed it back gently, a silent reminder she was there and wasn't going anywhere without him. Eventually they reached the terminal where Percy could see and egg shaped pod hanging on an assembly line over a cavern so deep he could see the red glow from the earth's core. Holly stuck her head out of the door waving them forward.

"This is the quickest way to get to the surface. We have 10 minutes before the flare hits us, best get strapped in."

Percy looked inside. There was a tangle of wires and a couple of safety chairs. He paled. Annabeth saw the look on his face and smiled at him gently.

"Come on, you've shadow travelled, how bad can this be? Couple of minutes and we will be home."

Percy nodded mutely, not trusting himself to speak, and strapped himself into one of the chairs. The next 15 minutes were a blur to Percy. He felt the craft travel down the access ramp, and heard a roar that vibrated at his very core. Then his stomach crawled into his mouth as the craft plummeted in rapid free fall for a couple of seconds, then flew back down to his shoes as the column of hot hair sent the craft spiralling upwards. Eventually they landed in E116, a terminal located near Los Angeles. Holly cranked open the pressurised door allowing morning air to filer in from the outside. Percy unbuckled himself, falling from the craft onto the damp ground beneath taking in huge lungfulls of air before looking up to find Holly and Annabeth calmly climbing down from the craft. Percy looked at Annabeth.

"For the record, I would take shadow travel any day."

Annabeth giggled, and before long Percy cracked up too.

"Come on seaweed brain," Annabeth chuckled and she pulled him to his feet. "Let's go home."