Disclaimer: All rights go to Rick Riordan

If you want a certain PoV for the next week, then you can comment with a short reason why (I need some inspiration for a 3,000+ word chapter (literally a sentence would work, I just want to know why you want me to write from that person's point of view) and then if I pick yours, I'll you!

This week PoV recommendation was from Rex (I have no idea how to people on this site, so if I am doing it wrong please tell me!).

Warning for minor language.

Also, I know I said I would post on Saturday, but in my defense, Saturday ended 15 minutes ago for me so I was close.

Annabeth's earlier statement about how "most likely she would die from an overload of weirdness that would make her brain explode" really resonated with me at the moment.

Percy Jackson was an anomaly.

I used to hate him, especially when he first came to camp. He was this weak, scrawny little kid crying over his mother, complaining about how hard his life was. And, yeah, his life sounded like it sucked, but every demigods life sucked. Comparatively, he had seemed liked he had lived a pretty good life. Sure, his mother might have been dead, but death happens. At least she sacrificed her life for him. The best this my mother ever did for me was give me life, and she would have never sacrificed anything for me, let alone her own life.

So yeah, when Percy first came to camp I hated him. Not just because of his mother, but because he seemed so weak. How he was still alive was beyond me. If I had been that weak I wouldn't have lived past my 7th birthday.

Yes, I might have roughed him up a bit at the beginning a bit, but the poor kid needed it. If he couldn't hold his own against me then he would have a chance in the real world.

But then he surprised me. He beat me, me, in a fight during that first capture the flag game. Then he actually survived that quest for Zeus's bolt, which wasn't something anyone had expected. Then he saved my life during that second quest. Then he did a ton of other things that surprised the hell out of me.

But this was a first.

I respected Jackson, for sure. Only an idiot wouldn't, especially after everything he's accomplished. But I never, ever, in a million years expected to admire him.

But here we are. That dumbass, weak, simpering, pathetic idiot that walked into camp a few years ago had somehow become one of the few people in this world that I admired.

And I had no idea how to deal with this newfound revelation.

Annabeth decided to read. The younger one, of course. The older version of her was in no condition to even pick up the book.

Wow, Chaos was brutal. Even I could admit that.

LATER, SHE MADE A RESOLUTION: never EVER sleep in dreams were always bad. Even in the safety of her bunk at camp, she'd had horriblenightmares.

In Tartarus, they were a thousand times more vivid.

Every demigod in the room looked horrified at the thought. Myself included.

First, she was a little girl again, struggling to climb Half-Blood Hill. Luke Castellan held her hand,pulling her along. Their satyr guide Grover Underwood pranced nervously at the summit, yelling,'Hurry! Hurry!'Thalia Grace stood behind them, holding back an army of hellhounds with her terror-invokingshield, Aegis.

Thalia reached back from where she was sitting at the foot of Percy and Annabeth's couch to grasp Annabeth's hand.

From the top of the hill, Annabeth could see the camp in the valley below – the warm lights of thecabins, the possibility of sanctuary. She stumbled, twisting her ankle, and Luke scooped her up tocarry her. When they looked back, the monsters were only a few yards away – dozens of themsurrounding Thalia.

'Go!' Thalia yelled. 'I'll hold them off.'

I wish I'd been there. Maybe I could have helped. I never would have let her fight off those monsters on her own, that's for sure.

She brandished her spear, and forked lightning slashed through the monsters' ranks, but as thehellhounds fell more took their place.

'We have to run!' Grover led the way into camp. Luke followed, with Annabeth crying, beating at his chest and screamingthat they couldn't leave Thalia alone. But it was too late.

The scene was older, climbing to the summit of Half-Blood Hill. Where Thalia had made her laststand, a tall pine tree now rose. Overhead a storm was shook the valley. A blast of lightning split the tree down to its roots, opening a smokingcrevice.

Dreams like those were never a good sign.

In the darkness below stood Reyna, the praetor of New Rome. Her cloak was the color ofblood fresh from a vein. Her gold armor glinted. She stared up, her face regal and distant, and spokedirectly into Annabeth's mind.

I glanced over at said Roman, who hadn't said a word this entire time. At least, she hadn't said anything that I'd noticed.

It worried me. It's hard to fight an opponent you know nothing about.

You have done well, Reyna said, but the voice was Athena's. The rest of my journey must be onthe wings of Rome.

What?

The praetor's dark eyes turned as grey as storm clouds.

I must stand here, Reyna told her. The Roman must bring me.

That had better of made sense to Annabeth because it sure as hell didn't make any sense to me.

The hill shook. The ground rippled as the grass became folds of silk – the dress of a massivegoddess. Gaia rose over Camp Half-Blood – her sleeping face as large as a mountain.

I swear that if this was a prophetic dream I was going to throw a dagger at someone.

Hellhounds poured over the hills. Giants, six-armed Earthborn and wild Cyclopes charged from thebeach, tearing down the dining pavilion, setting fire to the cabins and the Big House.

Hurry, said the voice of Athena. The message must be sent.

Yes, hurry, please. I get that you're in Tartarus but I really don't want the world to end.

The ground split at Annabeth's feet and she fell into eyes flew open. She cried out, grasping Percy's arms. She was still in Tartarus, at the shrine ofHermes.

'It's okay,' Percy promised. 'Bad dreams?'

Her body tingled with dread. 'Is it – is it my turn to watch?'

'No, no. We're good. I let you sleep.'

"Percy!" a bunch of people shouted.

"Remember, 'don't be a hero'?" someone commented. I didn't care to figure out who.

And, not that I would ever, ever, mention it, but they were right. He needed to sleep if they were going to survive. And if he died I was pretty sure that we all would die too and I defiantly didn't want that.

'Percy!'

'Hey, it's fine. Besides, I was too excited to sleep. Look.'

Too excited to sleep after trekking through Tartarus? Yeah, right.

Bob the Titan sat cross-legged by the altar, happily munching a piece of rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was still dreaming.

'Is that ... pepperoni?'

'Burnt offerings,' Percy said. 'Sacrifices to Hermes from the mortal world, I guess. They appearedin a cloud of smoke. We've got half a hot dog, some grapes, a plate of roast beef and a package ofpeanut M&M's.'

'M&M's for Bob!' Bob said happily. 'Uh, that okay?'

"Oh my gods," Connor Stoll muttered, shocked.

Everyone glanced at him but he didn't elaborate.

Annabeth didn't protest. Percy brought her the plate of roast beef, and she wolfed it down. She'dnever tasted anything so good. The brisket was still hot, with exactly the same spicy-sweet glaze asthe barbecue at Camp Half-Blood.

'I know,' said Percy, reading her expression. 'I think it is from Camp Half-Blood.'

Now this was just getting creepy. I

The idea made Annabeth giddy with homesickness. At every meal, the campers would burn aportion of their food to honor their godly parents. The smoke supposedly pleased the gods, butAnnabeth had never thought about where the food went when it was burned. Maybe the offeringsreappeared on the gods' altars in Olympus ... or even here in the middle of Tartarus.

"Wait, so all we burn our food just so it can go to Tartarus?" Percy (the younger one) asked unbelievably.

Idiot. How he was still alive was beyond me.

The gods just shrugged, not making any move to punish him for speaking so rudely. I guess having everyone read about your adventures in Tartarus had some perks.

'Peanut M&M's,' Annabeth said. 'Connor Stoll always burned a pack for his dad at dinner.'

Where was she going with this? So some M&M's are going from camp to Tartarus, so what?

She thought about sitting in the dining pavilion, watching the sunset over Long Island Sound. Thatwas the first place she and Percy had truly kissed.

Cute.

Her eyes smarted.

Who says their eyes "smarted"? Weird.

Percy put his hand on her shoulder. 'Hey, this is good. Actual food from home, right?'

Seriously though, was anyone going to explain how our food went to Tartarus. Because if all the food I had burned was feeding monsters bellies I was going to through hands.

She nodded. They finished eating in silence.

Bob chomped down the last of his M&M's. 'Should go now. They will be here in a few minutes.'

A few minutes? Why were they still there?

'A few minutes?' Annabeth reached for her dagger, then remembered she didn't have it.

The tension in the room was getting worse by the second.

'Yes ... well, I think minutes ...' Bob scratched his silvery hair. 'Time is hard in Tartarus. Not thesame.'

What did that mean?

Percy crept to the edge of the crater. He peered back the way they'd come. 'I don't see anything,but that doesn't mean much. Bob, which giants are we talking about? Which Titans?'

Bob grunted. 'Not sure of names. Six, maybe seven. I can sense them.'

Everyone was starting to freak out. Defeating one Titan was nearly impossible, but six or seven? Forget it.

'Six or seven?' Annabeth wasn't sure her barbecue would stay down. 'And can they sense you?'

'Don't know.' Bob smiled. 'Bob is different! But they can smell demigods, yes. You two smellvery strong. Good strong. Like ... hmm. Like buttery bread!'

'Buttery bread,' Annabeth said. 'Well, that's great.'

Great. Real smart. Traveling with a guy who thinks you smell like food.

Percy climbed back to the altar. 'Is it possible to kill a giant in Tartarus? I mean, since we don'thave a god to help us?'

And, Percy, maybe discussing how to kill a giant or titan in front of a titan might not be the best idea in the world. No wonder Annabeth was the smart one in their relationship

He looked at Annabeth as if she actually had an answer.'Percy, I don't know. Traveling in Tartarus, fighting monsters here ... it's never been done Bob could help us kill a giant? Maybe a Titan would count as a god? I just don't know.'

You know what, nevermind. They're both idiots.

'Yeah,' Percy said. 'Okay.'

She could see the worry in his eyes. For years, he'd depended on her for answers. Now, when heneeded her most, she couldn't help. She hated being so clueless, but nothing she'd ever learned atcamp had prepared her for Tartarus. There was only one thing she was sure of: they had to keepmoving. They couldn't be caught by six or seven hostile immortals.

Yes, thank you. Keep moving. Why the hell are they standing around when there were a bunch of cannibalistic immortals coming after them?

She stood, still disoriented from her nightmares. Bob started cleaning up, collecting their trash in alittle pile, using his squirt bottle to wipe off the altar.

'Where to now?' Annabeth asked.

Percy pointed at the stormy wall of darkness. 'Bob says that way. Apparently the Doors of Death–'

'You told him?' Annabeth didn't mean it to come out so harsh, but Percy winced.

Not smart Percy. Making Annabeth angry was a bad idea in-and-of-itself, but it was especially stupid when you were relying on her to stay alive.

' While you were asleep,' he admitted. 'Annabeth, Bob can help. We need a guide.'

'Bob helps!' Bob agreed. 'Into the Dark Lands. The Doors of Death ... hmm, walking straight tothem would be bad. Too many monsters gathered there. Even Bob could not sweep that many. Theywould kill Percy and Annabeth in about two seconds.'

The Titan frowned. 'I think seconds. Time ishard in Tartarus.'

I really think that they should focus on the whole 'time is hard in Tartarus' thing. What if every day they spend down there is a week up here? Then Gaia will kill all of us without them even knowing while they are still trying to defeat her.

'Right,' Annabeth grumbled. 'So is there another way?'

Oh my gods Annabeth. Focus on the time issue! Our current experience should be proof enough that time manipulation could be a major problem.

'Hiding,' said Bob. 'The Death Mist could hide you.'

'Oh ...' Annabeth suddenly felt very small in the shadow of the Titan. 'Uh, what is Death Mist?'

'It is dangerous,' Bob said. 'But if the lady will give you Death Mist it might hide you. If we canavoid Night. The lady is very close to Night. That is bad.'

Which lady?

'The lady,' Percy repeated.

'Yes.' Bob pointed ahead of them into the inky blackness. 'We should go.'

Seriously, which lady? I highly doubt that she was a decent person because, you know, they were in Tartarus. And there being nice ladies in Tartarus seemed like a very unlikely phenomenon.

Percy glanced at Annabeth, obviously hoping for guidance, but she had none. She was thinkingabout her nightmare – Thalia's tree splintered by lightning, Gaia rising on the hillside and unleashingher monsters on Camp Half-Blood.

'Okay, then,' Percy said. 'I guess we'll see a lady about some Death Mist.'

I really think that they needed to get a bit more information before they just blindly followed a Titan. I told Selena, who was sitting next to me, as much.

'Wait,' Annabeth mind was buzzing. She thought of her dream about Luke and Thalia. She recalled the storiesLuke had told her about his father, Hermes – god of travelers, guide to the spirits of the dead, god stared at the black altar.

'Annabeth?' Percy sounded concerned.

Yes, Percy, be concerned. You have several titans and giants chasing you. Staying at that alter is a really bad idea.

She walked to the pile of trash and picked out a reasonably clean paper remembered her vision of Reyna, standing in the smoking crevice beneath the ruins of Thalia'spine tree, speaking with the voice of Athena:I must stand here. The Roman must bring . The message must be sent.

Could someone please elaborate on what the hell that meant.

'Bob,' she said, 'offerings burned in the mortal world appear on this altar, right?'

Bob frowned uncomfortably, like he wasn't ready for a pop quiz. 'Yes?'

Not being ready for a pop quiz. Now that was a feeling I could relate to.

The fact that I could relate to a Titan was probably the weirdest thing that had happened to me today.

'So what happens if I burn something on the altar here?'

'Uh ...'

I doubt he'd know given the fact that it was highly unlikely anyone in Tartarus was sacrificing anything to the gods.

'That's all right,' Annabeth said. 'You don't know. Nobody knows, because it's never been done.'

Exactly.

There was a chance, she thought, just the slimmest chance that an offering burned on this altar mightappear at Camp , but if it did work ...

It was times like this that reminded me how smart Annabeth actually was. I mean, she read books on architecture for fun, for gods sake.

'Annabeth?' Percy said again. 'You're planning something. You've got that I'm planningsomething look.'

'I don't have an I'm planning something look.'

Everyone glanced at Annabeth and Annabeth with a yeah you do look on their faces. Myself included.

'Yeah, you totally do. Your eyebrows knit and your lips press together and –'

"He's right you know," Thalia said, looking at Annabeth, and then Annabeth. Both of them looked at her skeptically.

'Do you have a pen?' she asked him.

Young Percy looked at Annabeth weirdly, before pulling out his pen/sword.

Dumbass. She obviously needed a writing utensil, not a sword.

I might admire older Percy, but the younger one had yet to gain that level of respect from me.

'You're kidding, right?' He brought out Riptide.

'Yes, but can you actually write with it?'

'I – I don't know,' he admitted. 'Never tried.'

I guess that makes sense. I mean, who'd get a magical sword and try to see if they could write with it.

He uncapped the pen. As usual, it sprang into a full-sized sword. Annabeth had watched him dothis hundreds of times. Normally when he fought, Percy simply discarded the cap. It always appearedin his pocket later, as needed. When he touched the cap to the point of the sword, it would turn backinto a ballpoint pen.

How convenient. Knowing Prissy, if it didn't have the magical ability to reappear back in his pocket he probably would have lost it years ago.

'What if you touch the cap to the other end of the sword?' Annabeth said. 'Like where you'd put thecap if you were actually going to write with the pen.'

'Uh ...' Percy looked doubtful, but he touched the cap to the hilt of the sword. Riptide shrank backinto a ballpoint pen, but now the writing point was exposed.

Annabeth smirked at Percy with a I told you so look on her face. He just rolled his eyes goodnaturedly.

'May I?' Annabeth plucked it from his hand. She flattened the napkin against the altar and began towrite. Riptide's ink glowed Celestial bronze.

'What are you doing?' Percy asked.

'Sending a message,' Annabeth said. 'I just hope Rachel gets it.'

Ohhhhh. Smart.

'Rachel?' Percy asked. 'You mean our Rachel? Oracle of Delphi Rachel?'

'That's the one.' Annabeth suppressed a smile.

Whenever she brought up Rachel's name, Percy got nervous. At one point, Rachel had beeninterested in dating Percy. That was ancient history. Rachel and Annabeth were good friends Annabeth didn't mind making Percy a little uneasy. You had to keep your boyfriend on his toes.

Maybe I underestimated the wise girl a little bit. That was pretty savage. Dammit, was I starting to admire her too? (Well, even more than I already did)(Not that I would admit this to anyone)

Percy was glaring at Annabeth, but there was no heat behind his gaze. Younger Percy has glaring at Annabeth with heat behind his gaze. The difference was slightly amusing.

Annabeth finished her note and folded the napkin.

On the outside, she wrote:

Connor, Give this to Rachel. Not a prank. Don't be a moron.

Love, Annabeth

Ha. And who'd said Annabeth didn't have a sense of humor.

She took a deep breath. She was asking Rachel Dare to do something ridiculously dangerous, but itwas the only way she could think of to communicate with the Romans – the only way that might avoidbloodshed.

'Now I just need to burn it,' she said. 'Anybody got a match?'

The point of Bob's spear shot from his broom handle. It sparked against the altar and erupted insilvery fire.

They really should be more worried about the 'friendly' Titan, in my opinion.

'Uh, thanks.' Annabeth lit the napkin and set it on the altar. She watched it crumble to ash andwondered if she was crazy. Could the smoke really make it out of Tartarus?

'We should go now,' Bob advised. 'Really, really go. Before we are killed.'

Thank you, Bob.

...dammit. Now I was agreeing with a Titan. This day was just getting worse and worse.

Annabeth stared at the wall of blackness in front of them. Somewhere in there was a lady whodispensed a Death Mist that might hide them from monsters – a plan recommended by a Titan, one oftheir bitterest enemies. Another dose of weirdness to explode her brain.

Agreed, Annabeth. Agreed.

'Right,' she said. 'I'm ready.'

A/N: Please comment, favorite, follow! It means a lot!