PERCY

I should have checked her leg. I was right beside her with Riptide, and I should have checked her leg.

Annabeth had started stumbling on her way to the Argo II, panic flooding her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked. I should have just looked at her leg. There were cobwebs everywhere, there was bound be be a string around her leg. I should have broken it off.

Annabeth wasn't moving forward. She was trying to make her way to the ship, but she wasn't moving. I should have helped her forward. I should have broken the webs. I would have done it any other time, but not now.

Annabeth fell and was yanked back. I could barely hear Hazel over the panic that flooded my body.

"Her ankle!" Hazel screamed. "Cut it! Cut it!"

Annabeth was going towards the pit. She was going to fall. I lunged for her and caught her wrist. Riptide dangled just out of reach. If I wanted to get Riptide, I'd have to let go of Annabeth—and no way was that happening.

My body trembled, struggling to pull her up. Whatever was connected to the other end of the web was heavy and had started falling into Tartarus. I couldn't reach Riptide to cut it off her now. I couldn't hand Riptide to her and ask her to cut it.

"My sword…" I grunted, a futile attempt to ask for someone to hand it to me. I doubted they could hear me over the collapsing cavern and Hazel's yelling.

Annabeth grew limp for a moment and whatever pulled her down pulled hard enough for me to lose my footing on the ground.

We had started falling together.

I saw a ledge and I grabbed it and Annabeth sobbed. I was close to sobbing, too; it felt like a personal tug of war battle between me and Gaea, with Annabeth as the rope. It wasn't fair. She just needed to get a hold of the ledge with me. I just needed to pull her high enough so that she could.

It sounded so easy. It should have been so easy.

I couldn't lose her to this. I helped her from the spiders in Hephaestus's trap when we were twelve. I helped her escape from the sirens when we were thirteen. I helped her lift the sky when we were fourteen. In Mount St Helens, I helped her escape to safety, even if that meant I couldn't make it to camp. I helped her up another ledge after a bridge crumbled on the way to Mount Olympus. I couldn't lose her to this.

We've just found some sort of peace. How could I lose her to this?

"Percy," her voice broke. I looked down at her.

Annabeth was the one in with the answers. She's saved me a bunch of times with her plans. I just needed to do the same for her. I needed to think of a way to pull her up. I just needed to cut the web from her foot.

She looked at me, hopeless. My strong, determined Annabeth couldn't think of a way out of this.

"Let me go," she said. I would have sighed, if I could. "You can't pull me up. Please just let me go." She was right. I couldn't pull her up.

But that didn't mean I couldn't go down with her.

"Never," I answered, looking up. I was going to tell Nico to lead them to the doors, that we'll meet them there. We wouldn't be separated again.

"Nico!" Annabeth yelled, shocking me out of my thoughts. "Nico, you have to go to the other side, okay? Promise me you'll do that."

I almost smiled. It was like she read my mind.

"And-and—" she looked at me. "Promise me that you won't let Seaweed Brain here do something stupid!"

I thought we were on the same page, but we weren't.

"What?"

Before I could register what was happening, I felt a sharp pain in my arm, forcing my hand to let go of her.

Annabeth fell.

"NO!"

I had my hand around her. I was holding her. I was going to let go. We were supposed to go down together.

Before I could let go too, Jason pulled me up. It didn't matter that I was screaming, trying to make my way to the pit, to fling myself off, to catch up to her, to follow her.

I needed her.

"Piper!" Jason screamed, struggling to keep me from the pit.

I don't remember much. I just remember going to sleep.

Now we were on our way to the Doors.

According to Nico, Annabeth was still alive. I kept believing that she had to be. She was going to meet us at the doors. She was going to be fine. If anybody could survive Tartarus, it would be her. We were going to save her. She was going to get out just fine.

"Percy, can you do that?" Hazel asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Can you help us sail through the southern tip of Italy? I think it might be the only way."

"I don't think that would be a good idea," Nico answered.

"Why not?" I asked. Nico's eyes locked with mine, and I could see the gears turning in his head to find something to say.

"It's a long way. It'll take much longer, and we need to get to the doors as soon as possible," he said.

"But if it's our only way—"

"It can't be," Nico answered. "Annabeth needs us to get there as fast as we can." His voice trailed off.

The name hung in the air, forcing a dense silence to come through. Nobody dared to speak through it.

Hazel took a deep breath. "What about continuing north?" She asked. "There has to be a break in the mountains somewhere or something."

Leo fiddled with the Archimedes sphere to pull up a 3D map. "I don't know," he said with a sigh. "I don't see any good passes north, but I like that idea better than backtracking south. I'm done with Rome."

You and me both.

"Whatever we do, we have to get there quickly. Every day that Annabeth's in Tartarus…" Nico trailed off. He didn't need to end the sentence.

We had to hope that she'd survive to get to the Doors and that we'd get there when she does to help her out as fast as we could. That was all still a maybe. Then, after that, we'd have to seal the doors to make sure Gaea's army doesn't come through.

"Maybe we should wake the others," Nico said. "It does concern them, too—"

"No," Hazel replied adamantly. "We'll find a solution." I rose an eyebrow at her in confusion and her eyes locked with mine.

"You're right," I agreed. If we woke everyone up, they'd start bickering. Not to mention, they needed their sleep. We wouldn't get anywhere any faster with them awake.

Annabeth would kill me if I let us waste time by bickering.

"We need some creative thinking. Another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina," Hazel said, now looking at Nico, who sighed.

"If I was on my own, I could shadow-travel. But that won't work for an entire ship." Nico shrugged. "And, honestly, I'm not sure I can even shadow-travel myself anymore."

"Maybe I could rig some kind of camouflage," Leo suggested, though not seeming very hopeful on his idea. "Like a smoke screen to hide us in the clouds."

I wish I could do more, but I didn't know what else I could do. The only thing I could do isn't a viable option.

I'm not useful here. I should be with Annabeth. I should help her through Tartarus.

"Arion," Hazel said through the silence.

"What?" Nico asked.

Leo looked out where Hazel was looking. A smile broke out onto his face. "It's her horse, man! You missed that whole part. We haven't seen him since Kansas!"

Hazel laughed. "I need to meet him. He's here to help."

"Yeah, okay." Leo scratched his head. "But, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remember? You know, with Gaea wanting to destroy us and all."

"Just get me close and I'll use the rope ladder," Hazel told him, already running off. Leo got into position to bring Hazel to Arion.

This was a good thing. This meant that we were going to head somewhere. That there was a solution.

"Percy," Nico's voice interrupted my thoughts. "Percy, you have to sleep."

"I'm fine," I answered.

"No, you're not." I looked at him. "And it's okay not to be, but you need your rest."

"Not until—"

"That may not be for days or weeks, Percy, you know that," Nico reasoned. "Annabeth needs you to stay sane and healthy. You need to do that for her, Percy—"

"Annabeth needed me to fall with her," I answered. "Annabeth needed me to pull her out of the pit, but clearly, that didn't happen—"

"Percy—"

"Look where we are, Nico!" I exclaimed. "We can't even find a way to Greece to try and help her! What am I supposed to do? Sleep and do nothing? Just wait? You said it yourself, she needs to get out of there as fast as possible or gods know what'll happen to her!"

"Well, you can't help if you're going insane!" Nico said. "Percy, gods know what'll happen to your powers if you go and lose your mind. You need to sleep and stay healthy, not just for you and Annabeth, but for everybody on this ship."

I took a deep breath as thoughts ran through my mind, wondering about what I could do to help.

"Annabeth made me promise that you wouldn't do anything stupid, and I'm keeping it. You need to go and get some rest. We'll call you when we need you or when we get some news," Nico assured me.

"Thank you, Nico," I answered after a silence, my voice raspy.

"Yeah, don't mention it. Just go sleep."