Hey guys. I know that Annabeth chapter was a little out of place, but I feel like we've been focusing too much on Percy and haven't had Annabeth in a while. As always, thank you guys for the reviews, all rights go to Rick Riordan, and I hope you enjoy the story.

Percy

Percy's head was spinning. He barely acknowledged that he was conscious, just became aware that he was actually thinking things and not still in a state where he was constantly drifting away. He forced himself to open his eyes. Immediately the light stabbed his eyes. He closed them quickly. Just that small action sent a loud shot through his brain. Cautiously, he peeled them open. He stared at the ceiling. It looked... familiar.

He turned his head and noticed the rest of the room. It was a summer camp looking room. Wooden walls with stains absorbed into them. Cabinets covered in peeling paint stood against the wall. One of them was thrown open, left to hang from the hinges. Things were scattered on the counters. He laid on a white bed, a comfortable pillow. Every limb it seemed was covered in a tight bandage. He looked all around the room again. It was Camp Half-Blood.

But no. It couldn't be. He was in Tartarus. He was about to die in Tartarus. Maybe he was dead. No, everything wouldn't hurt so much if he were. So he must still be in Tartarus. But why Camp Half-Blood? And why relieve him? His head ached with the strain of thinking. The only possible solution was that they wanted him to think he was in Camp Half-Blood, that way he would relax and not fight. And reviving him, they must want something from him. Information or something important. Or maybe they didn't like how quickly he was going to die.

They were watching him. They had to be. If they set this whole thing up, then they must be waiting in the shadows for him to wake up. Any second now they were going to pounce, hold a knife at his throat, maybe stab him again. Adrenaline had entered his painful body along with the fast beating of his heart. Adrenaline seemed to be something he would never be without. He'd been given a second chance. By his enemy, how ironic. He had to get out of here.

He pushed himself up. He only got half way before his chest screamed at him. He plopped back down on the bed. The springs under him squeaked. Maybe they heard. He lay silently, straining to hear footsteps over his labored breathing. Silence. He was okay. He tried again, sliding his legs out of bed, commanding them to support his weight. His foot screamed in protest. When did he injure his foot? It must have been in the fall. When else would he have?

Finally, he managed to get into a standing position. His foot screamed, and his head was pounding with funeral drums. His thoughts were sluggish, but he needed to get out. They'd be coming soon. He leaned heavily on the wall for support. He didn't think he could move without it. He glanced down and realized he was wearing no shirt. He looked around and spotted it on the table. He threw it on. He would leave wearing a Camp Half-Blood shirt. His home.

Riptide was in his jeans which were still (thankfully) on his body. He pulled it out, but didn't uncap it. He didn't know if he could support the full sized sword. He used the wall to help him get out of the room and was met with a full sized Camp Half-Blood. They really out did themselves. He glanced yearningly at the Poseidon cabin. Oh what he wouldn't give to run right in and fall asleep in his bunk. The little statues Tyson made hanging above his head like toy above a crib. Stop it. It wasn't his cabin. He continued on.

He made it to about the woods before he heard a disturbance. A clattering of something on the floor in the big house. Someone must have noticed his absence. He limped faster, momentarily letting go of a wall into the woods. He almost toppled over, gripping his sweaty hands to the rough bark of a tree. His head pounded, going dark. Anxiety surged through him. He couldn't fight. But if he had to, he would.

He continued on through the woods, stumbling over nothing, gripping trees like life lines. He didn't know where he was going, but as long as it was far away from what he was leaving behind, he was fine. He made it a couple of trees in when he heard something that turned his blood cold.

"Percy? Percy where are you?" It was... Rachael. He turned towards her voice but didn't move. No, it couldn't be Rachael. Rachael was in the mortal world, not in Tartarus. It had to be a cyclops or a machine that mimicked voices. But he found himself listening anyway. He wanted more than anything to turn to the voice and see it was actually Rachael Elizabeth Dare, one of his best friends, but he knew otherwise. He continued on.

"Brother? Please come back." Tyson. Percy's heart broke with his voice. Hearing the sadness behind the words, the crack in the voice and the sobs that soon followed. Percy pondered the logistics of a cyclops miming another cyclops's voice. He supposed it could be done. His vision was seeming unattached to his brain. Like he was seeing things, but barely comprehending them. He blinked hard and kept going.

More and more voices started joining, the cacophony. Will, Chiron, Juniper, Thalia, and of course Rachael and Tyson. It was becoming harder and harder to walk (or rather stumble) away, but he imagined the real people attached to those voices and how they would want him to escape. Plus, all the noise wasn't doing much to his aching head.

He lifted a wrapped hand to gingerly touch the bandage on his head. It started just under his hair line and stretched down to just above his eye. It was itchy. The tightly wrapped foot was getting tugged at from the branches and leaving a trail or torn pieces of cloth. He hoped the others weren't following the trail, but he had no energy to bend down and pick them up. His chest felt like it was in a corset (or what he imagined a corset to be). He felt almost like a mummy. Although, he had to appreciate that the monsters did a pretty good job with helping him. It was odd. Something didn't exactly line up. But he pushed that thought from his brain.

"Percy?" The voice was close. He froze. Something was different about this voice. Something was tingling in his body, waking up for the first time in a long time. He raised his pen higher.

"Percy?" The voice was close. Right behind him. The monster had to know he was here. Maybe if he killed him quick enough the others wouldn't find out. His arms shook, his head barely grasping his plan. He uncapped Riptide and jumped around the face the person who was sneaking up behind him.

Landing the jump felt as if he were stabbed straight in the brain, but suddenly that was irrelevant. He and the person locked eyes and Percy realized what that tingling sensation was. It was his empathy link. It had been so long since he had felt it, he had forgotten what it was like. If that was his empathy link, than this person, it was really Grover Underwood, his best friend.

All the tension left his body, all the panic, all the stress, all the paranoia, because he was safe. He was truly with Grover, and he was safe. He let out an odd noise, half way between a laugh and a sob and his sword clattered to the ground. He couldn't hold it anymore anyway. He tried to take a step forward, arms out to hug him, but he collapsed. Not all the way though, Grover caught him.

Grover's arms were around him in the tightest hug imaginable. It felt like years of friendship hugging him, like Grover had just yelled "Perrrrrrrcy" and ran towards him to give him his best goat hug. Percy tried to hug him back, but it was weak in comparison. Grover was laughing and sobbing into Percy's shoulder, and Percy was mirroring him. He was actually in the mortal world. He was actually safe. It almost seemed impossible.

"Hey G-man." He said weakly, hoping it was loud enough for Grover to hear. He laughed at his old nickname and pulled back.

"Wow I- months and months I- are you alright?" Tears were down his face.

"I'll be fine." Percy mumbled, unable to form words properly. Grover seemed to notice this.

"Oh- oh- yeah let's get you back. You're okay Percy. Seriously you're going to be okay. You're safe." Grover always knew exactly what Percy needed to hear. He tried to get him to his feet, but Percy felt like a limp noddle. Well, a limp noodle that weight a thousand pounds. He tried to help Grover, tried to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, but he felt as if he was hurting himself rather than helping.

"Grover?" Another voice was coming nearer. "Are you okay I thought I heard-" The voice was Thalia's.

"Oh my gods! Is he okay?" She ran towards them. Percy's head lolled to the side, so to him she ran towards them sideways.

"Yeah. I think he panicked and ran out here by himself." Grover shifted Percy's arm across his shoulders. Thalia grabbed his other arm and draped it across her own. The two of them together were moving him a lot faster.

"How on earth did he manage to do that?" She sounded astounded.

"Who knows."

"Adrenin." Percy was trying to say adrenaline as a joke, but it didn't come out right. His brain wanted to sleep, but he kept forcing it awake.

"Yeah he hasn't been making much sense." Grover glanced a concerned look at him. Percy felt slightly offended. He thought he had been making perfect sense until now.

"Yeah I can see that. Probably that concussion Will was talking about." They were passing the cabins. Percy tilted his head up to see Thalia. Now that he wasn't in danger, everything seemed funny. Maybe he was hysterical.

"Where your princess tiara Thals?" He focused really hard on forming the words. They kept looking at him concerned and he wanted them to know he was okay. A slow smile spread across her face.

"Why do you want to know Kelp Head? Trying to steal it?" She smirked. Grover gave a small laugh.

"Yep. Look better on me." His words were slurring together, but he thought he got the point across.

"You wish." Percy was glad Thalia ended the conversation. It was hurting his head. They were at the big house. Grover and Thalia helped him back into bed. The soft covers and pillow persuaded his brain to fall asleep, but Percy couldn't stop looking at his friends.

"I'll go get the others. You stay with him okay?" Thalia made to the door, but stopped and looked back. "I missed you, Percy." He wanted to say it back, but just then, he couldn't take it anymore, his brain fell asleep.