I tried to get this one up as soon as possible! School starts scarily soon, but there is a possibility that updates won't be quite as slow as they usually are… I tried to get this one out there fast because of my suspenseful ending. Well, I don't own, and so we go!

Chapter 12

A drop of the ocean mixed with my blood as the shattered glass slit my elbow. Cracks spider-webbed out from the point of impact, but the window, surprisingly, held. Water was trickling in through the gaps, though, and soon enough the pressure would push the window away.

But, for now, I stood there in shock. I was still here; still alive. I was alive. I was still alive.

As the water began to pool on the floor around my feet, I realized that being alive now didn't matter. It was only a matter of time before the water came rushing in.

"No," I muttered. "No, no, no. What have I done?" I sank to my knees, overtaken by the need to live. "No," I said the word as if it would save me from the fate I had brought upon myself.

There was a thin sheen of water covering the floor now. Bits of straw from my bed floated lazily around.

"No," I said, a little bit louder. I raised my voice in panic as the water reached my ankles. "No, no, no, no!" The water dripped through the window a little bit faster now, and the water level had risen to the bottom of my shins.

"NO!" I was screaming by this point, the water creeping slowly up my legs.

There was suddenly a rattling sound. I whipped around, and what I saw almost made me cry.

Percy stood outside my cell door, one hand fiddling with something that I guessed was the lock, his other hand wrapped around the bars of my window. His green eyes met mine.

"Annabeth. Shhhh. Everything's okay. We'll make it out of here," he said, but his voice sounded grim.

"P-P-Percy," I somewhat whimpered.

All of my courage was gone, and I was broken. I had come this close to losing it all.

I sank to the floor of my cell, the water now soaking my legs and traveling up my waist. There was a click from the door, and it was thrown open. My fingers fluttered around my mouth as the water gently rushed past me and into the hall. Percy stood there in the doorway, a ghost of a smile lighting his features.

"Come on, let's get you out of here," he whispered. He offered me his hand and I took it, allowing him to help pull me up from the floor. Before he could move, I wrapped my arms around Percy and pulled myself to him. After a moment of hesitation, he enveloped me in his arms. I looked up at him, and our faces were inches apart. So close that if I moved in just a little bit, my lips would be on his. Before I could, Percy cleared his throat and let go of me.

"We… we should go," he said. I quietly stepped back and nodded, feeling myself stand up a little straighter and gathering my courage, doing a temporary mend on my brokenness. Without even noticing, my walls came up again.

I stepped out of the cell, not looking back as I walked, slowly picking up the pace until I was jogging. The water was spread pretty thin, so my feet didn't splash much, but a gentle spray of water sprung up when my feet touched the ground.

We emerged on deck, only to find Luke/Kronos standing there, smirking.

"Thought you could get away, did you?"

Percy cursed in Ancient Greek. "Annabeth, there's a hippocampus waiting for us on that side of the boat," he discreetly motioned with his hands as he spoke out of the side of his mouth. "Get on it and go. You'll be safe. I'll do the best I can to stop him and his crew from following you."

The damsel-in-distress part of me wanted to follow his instructions and leap into the ocean to get away, but the other half of me conquered it.

"No," I said. "I'm not leaving without you."

Kronos/Luke laughed. "Foolish, foolish, Annabeth," he smirked.

I surprised him by rushing forward, sweeping out my leg to knock him off his feet. Kronos fell, and Percy rushed forward to strike him in the chest. It would be a fatal blow.

Riptide soared through the air and bounced off of Kronos's chest.

"Foolish," Kronos stated simply. "Guards!" He took his time getting up, lazily almost.

A mixture of monsters and demigods rushed forward and took hold of my arms. They tried to get Percy, but he fended them off with Riptide.

That's when he saw me being dragged away. "Stop," he called, with such authority and anger that the guards did stop for a moment. "Take me instead," he said.

"No, Percy," I cried. Kronos made a motion with his hand and the guards dropped my arms. I fell haphazardly onto the deck. Percy dropped Riptide and let his arms be seized.

"Go," he said, and then he was gone.

"I'm coming back for you Percy," I said. "I swear."

With that, I ran to the edge of the ship and jumped.

Despite what you may think, I didn't leave.

In fact, I stayed right by the ship, waiting and plotting, until sunset. Apparently, they had covered the window; otherwise the ship would have probably begun to sink.

When colors began to paint the sky, I slid off the hippocampus, ignoring my hunger. Slowly, using nails, uneven boards, anything I could find, I climbed up the side of the boat. By the time I was pulling myself up onto the deck, I was out of breath.

The sun sank beneath the horizon and darkness enveloped me. I squatted into a crouch and scanned the ship for signs of people on deck. There were a few crew members here and there, but that didn't matter, because my goal was the hatch that led to the dungeons.

Slowly, I crawled over, careful to test out floorboards to see if they squeaked before putting my weight on them. I winced as the hinges on the hatch squealed somewhat noisily, but it didn't matter because I was pulling the door closed over my head before anyone could look over.

I crept down the stairs, nothing to light my way. For the first time since I had jumped off the ship, a shock of fear zapped through my body. What was I doing? Surely it would have been smarter to go back and bring Jason, or someone. Surely Percy could have called on the sea to flood the ship, making his escape through the ocean.

No, I chided myself. This was it. No backing out. I had made it this far.

I stumbled along the dark corridor, peering into cells to try to find Percy. Everyone looked the same. Slumped forms that couldn't be made out without the light were the only thing that greeted me when I looked through the bars.

I made it to the end of the corridor without finding a clue to where Percy was.

And then I heard the mumbles. Someone was talking in their sleep. I listened closely. The voice sounded male, a bit like Percy's. The words were incoherent, but I followed the sound to a cell.

It was my cell, but there were wooden boards nailed over the window. I tried to get a closer look at the sleeping form, but it was too dark. But a word that the form mumbled in its sleep sounded familiar.

Something like Nabath. No, Nabeth. No, Annabeth.

It was Percy.

I worked quickly, using a pin from my hair that had been tangled in there to pick the lock.

It was taking too long. A patrol was bound to come by soon, and Percy and I needed to be out of here before that happened.

"Come on, come on," I mumbled, fiddling with the pin some more.

With a loud click that was sure to alert someone of my presence, the door unlocked.

I pushed it open hastily, wasting no time to enter the cell.

Running to his side, I reached out to shake Percy awake.

And that's when I noticed the blood.

Alright! That's how you get a chapter done without meaning to get a chapter done! Seriously, I was just writing this and then I realized that it was as long as it needed to be (I make sure that all of my chapters are like 1,300 words long at least). So, I thought of a suspenseful way to end it (yeah, do you hate me yet?), and ended it there! I hope this came out soon enough for you, I know that last chapter's ending was a little scary. Review! Oh, and don't forget to check out my poll. I need opinions on that matter. And hey! This thing is almost 20,000 words long! Actually, it might already be that long! Three cheers for me! :D

PandaBearPotter