I updated today!

I was feeling guilty for the major cliffy.

Enjoy the tidbit of luck y'all got. ;-D

Here's more of the story!

Chapter Twelve: Fire & Water

Annabeth's POV:

She told me she'd fix it.

She told me that it wasn't completely done, but that part of the curse would be lifted.

I had believed her.

Biggest mistake of my life.

Aphrodite was deranged. She was dead-set, stubborn, for revenge. She wouldn't stop until we were dead. She wouldn't stop until our parents had truly felt what she had.

It was too bad she didn't realize how little we meant to them. Percy and I, that is.

I had been lifted into the hair and had felt everything peel off me, and, standing there, exposed for once, I felt good.

Like…elated. Vulnerable, but in a beautiful way.

It was when I opened my eyes, that feeling of elation/happiness/beauty ended.

First, I saw Aphrodite, bringing me back down to the ground. I saw her face. She wasn't just happy or had the sweet look I had been fooled by a few moments before.

No, she was pleased. She looked like the cat who had caught hundred of canaries.

It set me off because it was…scary. The look on her face, of pure satisfaction and an edge of anger/insanity, made me want to grit my teeth and fight as well as run, screaming. It was...evil.

But, then, all thought was erased from my mind. All thought was erased with pure, unadultered pain.

I felt like I was being torched alive. Like someone had held white-hot flames on my skin and kept pushing them down until it felt like I no longer had any skin, that it had all been ripped off by the heat.

I started screaming. Screams that were loud and frightening. The type of screams that would make you want to hide and cover you're children's ears.

I didn't even remember where I was or who I was or what was happening. All I knew was that I needed to get away from this pain.

So, I kept on screaming. Screaming for help, for mercy, for someone.

Someone…well. It seemed my subconscious mind had someone in specific.

"PERCY."

I was sobbing now. Loud, bloody sobs that raked my whole body. The fire was all-consuming; it didn't leave space to breathe, space to think.

I was approaching the edge, I think. The pain was starting to burn hotter, if that were possible and my screams grew louder and louder until, suddenly, they stopped.

I stopped.

My heart beats…faltered.

I fell to the ground.

And, then, just before I fell into the black abyss that was Death…

The flames were gone.

The pain was gone.

Coolness spread over my body, soaking me from head to toe.

I don't know what it was.

The coolness is still spreading.

Its bringing my heart beat back, stronger and faster, racing and racing, like the organ knew; knew that now was its chance to keep going to win against the fire.

I felt something pick me up. The coolness was at maximum power now, I shiver once, violently, letting it run through me, cold and refreshing.

My sense were starting to come back...I could feel. Something was holding me. I wasn't on the ground, I think.

The air was thick. A little smokey, and smelt bad. I whimpered.

The thing that was holding me was cool and hard. I touched it again and felt refreshed when I did.

I pushed as much of my skin as I could against it, not thinking, burying my face into it.

Slowly, thoughts were flooding back into my, but with a static-like quality. Like the memory of the pain come and going, interrupting them.

First came; where am I?

Then, am I okay?

Then, What's this thing? (Directed to the chilled body that I was clutching).

Then…I remembered.

Aphrodite. Pain. Curse.

Whoever this was, they had seen me. The real me. They could probably still see me. I wondered why if that was why I had been burnt alive. It probably was.

I opened my eyes.

Percy stared down at me, eyes wide with worry and his very pretty face twisted in…sadness I think.

When he stared back into my eyes, air left his lung in a whoosh and onto my face. His breath was kind of minty, like he had brushed his teeth recently.

I stared up at him, still clutching onto him.

He was the coolness.

I wondered how. Then it came to me. Posedion. Water. Demigod. Fire vs. Water.

It made sense.

Sense didn't really matter though. Apparently pride didn't either because I just moved closer to Percy, holding onto him and pressing my cheek against his wonderfully cool neck.

Percy didn't say anything. I was glad. As I was regaining all my sense, I realized my head had started to pound. I felt dizzy.

Moaning a little and adjusting in his arms to get a hand to my forehead, I massaged it. That felt better.

Percy, still looking down at me, swatted my hand away and massaged my forehead for me. I made a sound of happiness and let him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I think I saw him grin briefly.

After a few more minutes of staying like that, I snapped out of it.

"Oh my gods!"

I jumped out of Percy's arms, startling him.

I looked down at myself.

I wasn't wearing any fake make up.

And Percy was still looking at me.

Why wasn't I burning alive again?

I kept looking down at myself and up at Percy.

Still, nothing happen.

I noticed why and I screamed.

I was underwater with nothing but Percy and some seaweed nearby.

Percy's POV:

When she started screaming, I had frozen.

Her screams ripped any armor I had ever had around my heart and pierced me.

It was when she screamed my name that I found myself racing towards her.

She looked horrible in her beauty. Her eyes weren't focused, just darting around, her body was curling into fetal position as she stood.

And her skin…her skin was cover with red-white flames.

I didn't even think about it. I just grabbed her.

The flames were burning. The skin on my body that touched her, it felt like it had been charred right off; like someone had put me in the middle of a fireplace and left me there. I wanted to scream, but I kept my lips shut and kept holding on.

Water. I need water.

And water came, straight from the ground, like a huge geyser.

It soaked her and the screaming lessened.

Water is good. More. Must find more.

The ocean.

I swiveled my head, in the direction of the ocean. Taking a sobbing Annabeth in my arms, I started running to the beach. The water carried me fast, pushing me.

By the time I had gotten to the beach, the water was faltering.

I flung us into the water, without any thought of breath or anything else.

I would think later.

We were submerged.

I sighed in relief.

Then, I remembered not everyone could breathe underwater. I thought and then it came to me.

Air bubble.

I made one, carefully, around her head, so that, when she woke, Annabeth would be able to speak.

Which she probably would.

I sighed and kept my eyes on her. Annabeth looked better now. Her skin was red, angry and still hot to my touch, but she wasn't being burnt alive anymore.

That was good enough for now.

I kept her in my arms for a while. Especially when she started responding, whimpering and holding me closer. I couldn't help but holder her closer, too. She'd been nice to me lately…even, become my friend…she didn't deserve, wouldn't ever deserve, that pain. I wondered how hot it had been for her, if it had been so extreme for me.

I shudder at the thought.

Annabeth had buried her face into my neck now. I had the urge to kiss her shoulder, which was in my lips line of fire. I held back. She would've decked me if I kissed her anywhere.

I grinned slightly at that.

Annabeth's eyes were fluttering now. Her face, I noticed, was still just as beautiful as it was before the fire, but now, it was rough and angry in some place, like the inside of her elbow and the corner of her neck.

But, still, she was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.

Her eyes were open now. The bright grey color of her eyes was there, but they were slightly bloodshot and puffy; probably from the tears. I stared down at her, worried when she didn't speak. She just stared at me and I stared back. Then, she just proceeded to hold me again and I did the same.

It was only a few minutes later, that she surprised me.

"Oh my gods!"

She had catapulted out of my arms and left me feeling like she had taken a piece of me with her.

After I got over the initial shock, I eyed her curiously. I wondered why I had never seen it; the beauty she hid.

Then she screamed.

I jumped, and my eyes immediately began searching for any threat. Then, a thought dawned on me:

What if she would still feel the pain?

Thankfully, neither thought came out as true.

She was just weirded out about being underwater.

"Jackson!" she yelled, but then ended by coughing and clutching her throat. The burning had hurt her vocal chords. She croaked now; "What in Hades am I doing underwater? What am I doing breathing underwater?"

I moved towards her, reaching out, but she retracted. I moved back, almost holding my hands up in surrender.

She eyed me from the distance, looking very much like she was the prey and I was the predator.

I stayed back, but began explaining; taking her attention from her ogling me to the matter at hand.

"You're underwater because I brought you here. You'll be able to breathe with the air bubble. And you're here because it's the only thing that made you stop burning." I said each word slowly and carefully, measuring my words and watching her reaction to each one.

She looked kind of sheepish and embarrassed. She nodded but had a slightly blush on her cheeks.

I knew why. Annabeth didn't seem like the type to like taking help from anyone. But despite that, I could feel that she was relieved and thankful. I gave her a small smile that I tried to make communicate that I was glad to have been able to save her.

She sighed now and looked up and around. "Where do we go from here? If you or anyone ever looks at me above water ever again, I won't survive."

She said that so simply, stated her demise so simply, it made my heart pang a little. Shouldn't she be crying, like a normal girl would? In shock?

Well. She was Annabeth, after all.

I answered her: "Then you won't leave the water."

Annabeth rolled her eyes at me, infuriatingly superior once again. "I'm going to have to go up sometime."

I stared at her full in the eye. In a firm voice I said, "Not for a while."

Annabeth gave me a scathing look. "What do you suggest we do in the meantime? Eat crabs and stay here," she gestured to the expanse of emptiness around us. I hadn't realized how far out I'd swam. "Forever?"

I shrugged. Annabeth's gaze was turning into a glare.

I sighed now. I looked at her for a moment then said, "Haven't you read of a place under that I could go and where you could recover?"

Annabeth gave him a look. "I'm fine."

Stubborn, stubborn, stubborn.

I ignored her.

I just called Dad.

They were going to Atlantis.

Two cliffys in one week. Aren't you so proud? :'-)

Well, more adventures ahead. They're going to Atlantis! Is there even an Atlantis in Greek mythology? :-S

Idk. Whatever.

I don't know why, but I felt like this chapter wasn't so good. Kind of...flat. I'm sorry if it was to you also. :-(

Reviews are awesome! Wanna be more awesome than you already are for reading this? REVIEW!

Love;

- S.