POV Percy

As I continued to follow the river father into the Pit, I found the cuts I had gotten from my first attempt at standing from the shore of Fire were finally starting to form a protective layer of skin over themselves. However, I quickly found it was still annoyingly painful to swing my sword around, as I found out from taking experimental swings with my sword. The pain was not enough to affect me in battle, but the feeling I got was not pleasant in the slightest.

For some reason, I remembered that Annabeth had once said something about the Phlegethon having the capabilities to heal. I could guess that it wasn't intended for use by demigods, but I didn't see or know a reason it would NOT work for me. I decided that I needed to test it and find out because I knew for sure I was going to encounter some enemy down here, and if I had a way to heal even if the experience caused momentary pain, in the end, it would be worth it.

I would much rather test my theory now, when there are no monsters around, rather than in mid-battle or on the verge of death. I cautiously walked up to the bank of the river and crouched down. Slowly I stuck my right hand into the water; a slight burning sensation washed over my entire hand and some of my forearm, despite only half my hand being submerged in the water, while there was pain, but I was expecting something like that to happen. I could see the tiny cuts on my hand slowly fixing themselves before fully closing and then returning to normal, other than a small amount of redness covering my whole hand.

Seeing as how the water did not seem to have a lasting negative effect, I decided to take a drink of it to both, quench my thirst, and hopefully fix the random scrapes that littered my body from the fall and time spent laying on the glass shore. It worked well, even better than I expected it to, which was good news. I had at least one thing down here with me that was not actively trying to kill me.

Alas, all good things must come to an end; as soon as I finished my quick break, I went back to venturing deeper into the Pit, but that didn't last long. Just as I had started walking again, I heard voices in front of me; I knew that I had heard them before but could not quite place my finger on where.

I slowed my pace down as much as I could while still getting closer to the voices. They seemed to me coming from an opening to my right; I peeked my head around the corner and almost dropped my sword in shock. There stood Kelli and her cheerleader trainee Tammi. Sadly, much to my dismay, three other empousai were walking along with them. I decided to follow them for as long as I could without being noticed maybe; I could stay close enough to eavesdrop and find out where the doors of death were.

POV Annabeth

I was scared. I was scared out of my mind and didn't even try to hide it. I had just tricked, faced, and killed my mother's nemesis and found the Athena Parthenos, but now I was dangling above a direct drop to the most feared place in all of the Greek Mythology. Tartarus. I would have fallen already if not for my boyfriend, Percy Jackson. I was only able to make eye contact with him and mutter out the simple sentence of

"Percy, I'm scared."

That moment was playing over and over again in my head. I had to watch repeatedly; as he looked at me with deeply loving eyes, glossed with tears as he reached for his sword that was on a slightly higher ledge. He then let go completely, now with his sword in hand, falling into the Pit.

And as his final action while on the surface, he cut the silk string that was threatening to pull me down, allowing me to climb back up to where the rest of the seven, minus Leo, were watching in complete and utter horror.

None of us spoke a single word as we boarded back onto the Argo II. Leo didn't even know what happened, so he was; quite confused as he walked out onto the front deck of the ship and saw our sad and horror-struck faces. I could see him open his mouth about to ask what was wrong. That was until he noticed that we are now missing a different member of our group. I had come back onto the ship, but Percy had not. Leo's face dropped his typical happy and careless look and became an unreadable face.

Nico, the dark and moody guy who usually hid in the shadows, was surprisingly the first to speak. If you could even call it that, it was more of a whisper let out with a single breath.

"Percy will be fine; he has to be. He is the most powerful demigod in the past millennia. If anyone can make it through Tartarus and find the doors of death, it's him. We only need to be there on the other side to be waiting for him."

We all stared at Nico as if he had just bled golden ichor, despite being a demigod. He, of course, had not, but he did have a good point. Percy was crazy powerful and skillful with a sword; if anyone could make it through, it was him.

We had been hovering over the parking lot that is above the cavern where the Athena Parthenon was once hidden for quite a while now. But it was time we continued on our journey to Greece, the Door of Death needed to be closed; we just needed to have hope and trust that Percy would be there when we are ready to close them.

I had held up my persona of being relatively composed for far too long by now, I muttered something out to the others and then proceeded to retire to my room, alone, or at least I hoped to do so. When I heard the door close behind me, I instantly broke down in tears. I had just lost the man I loved. Again.

In the past year, he has been pretty much out of my life. First, he went missing for six months; when Hera kidnapped him. And now, he has jumped into the place that even the Gods fear. That last part being partially my fault, if I hadn't been so distracted in defeating Arachne, I could have noticed the string that had been around my ankle and would have been able to cut it before it pulled me over the ledge and nearly into the Pit. With that thought still fresh in my mind, I completely lost it and started to sob. Uncontrobably sob.

At some point, I completely tuned out the world, that was until a soft but firm knock came at my door. I let out a weak and crackly filled voice of "Go away" I wanted to be alone, yet I needed and wanted someone to comfort me. Thankfully, despite my refusal, Piper cracked open the door; and slowly slipped inside.

POV Nico

I couldn't believe it. Percy had willingly jumped into the Pit. I had only spent a few days there at most, nearly all of it being a Prisoner. Even though I was captured, it did mean that no monsters would be hunting me, for I was already at their disposal. Percy's demigod sent was far stronger than mine even though we were both a child of the big three. That combined with the fact he was alone constantly at risk of being swarmed from all around. The only solace I had was that I could feel his soul had not yet entered the Underworld, which meant that he was still alive.

As I relaxed just slightly, the brief, almost split-second conversation I had with him before his departure played though once again in my head.

"Nico I need you to close the Door of Death on the mortal side." Percy hastily said to me

I merely nodded before turning my head back to him to ask the only question that remained "What about the other side of the doors?"

I never did get a verbal response to that question, but his actions spoke loud and clear. He would handle it, he may not know how he would so, but he'd do it. Even if it's the last thing he ever did in his short, but stressful demigod life.

AN: Sorry about the messy first chapter. Though anyone new reading this probably won't know or understand what I am referring to, but anyways I went back and edited the text to there were paragraphs. I'm kinda annoyed that for whatever reason FanFictrion does not let me have Indents, but I digress. Would you guys like to see a Dark Percy in the coming chapters? He is after in Hell and knows that he needs to reach the doors. My more specific question is that when he reaches Arachne should he still come back from the edge of killing her? He does not have Annabeth to be there to speak to his rational side. Anyways that's probably still a few chapters out so I'll give it some thought myself, but feedback from people reading would be nice! Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far. Sorry, the first two chapters have been so short, I'm hoping as the story gets going the chapters will increase in length.