POV Annabeth

I woke up with a heavyweight on my chest; for a second, I thought that Percy and I had another stables incident. Only for me to have a sad reminder that he's in Tartarus now; I was scared for him; time moves differently down there, so for us, it might have only been a few hours, but for him, it might have been days. Instead of Percy, it was Piper; and I began to remember her comforting me last night. It was nice of her to comfort me, but it was not her comforting that I craved; it was his.

I slowly began to get up. As soon as I stood up, all my face muscles drooped down, and I could feel the soreness; I'll need to get some nectar later. I slipped out of my room; it's still early, so I headed to the top deck, hoping I could be alone. Much to my pleasure, there was no one else outside. The sun shone beautifully, creating a tear-jerking display of colors across the ocean below us. I wasn't much for beauty like a majority of the Aphrodite girls, but ever since Grover, Percy, and I had met Pan, I got a newfound appreciation for nature.

I walked to the edge of the ship and peered over the railing. I knew that I should at least attempt to contact Poseidon to let him know what has happened with his son, but for now, I would stare into the ocean remembering Percy's sea-green eyes. I was at peace for a while, or at least until Gleeson Hedge woke up and came stomping out onto the deck. Shouting something like wake up "Wake up, Cupcakes, we have breakfast to eat and monsters to slay." I didn't care enough to listen; he is nothing more than a glorified chaperone; who did nothing but yell and make sure we follow the 'rules' which even he seemed to make up as we went along.

The other members of the crew slowly started coming out of their rooms; I was trailing behind, wanting to keep watching the waves in the ocean, when Jason pulled me out of my daydreaming, "Do you know where Piper is? I checked her room, and she's not in there." He sounded pretty worried; I nodded and said, "Yeah, I think she's still in my room; she stayed the night with me to make sure I was okay. I'll be sure to thank her for that later." I then led him away from the group to my room to awaken his girlfriend. I choose to wait outside; there was no need for me to watch the two of them interact with any form of care for each other it would only remind me of what situation my boyfriend is currently experiencing.

A few minutes passed, and Jason walked out with Piper groggily walking behind him. When we reached the main room, everyone turned their heads to look at us and then went back to eating. Before the meal even began. I knew that it wouldn't be civilized for long. We needed to elect a new leader; we needed someone to fill the role that Percy left. There are only two viable options to replace him, Jason and myself. Jason might be one of the best at hand-to-hand combat, but I'm a daughter of Athena; I would be the best fit to lead; after all, Percy usually consulted me on all of his major decisions. Almost everyone had already finished eating and started looking at Jason or me, excluding Nico, Reyna, and Hedge. They were off to the side, planning how they should break up the shadow travel jumps Nico would have to endure; he was going quite the distance and would be wearing himself out from shadow traveling all the time.

Suddenly, Leo spoke up, "So Annabeth, what's the plan?" before I spoke to answer, everyone else began to talk, all the same time. "Everyone, SHUT UP!" Piper yelled her voiced laced with charmspeak. Suddenly all the noise stopped, even the conversation between Nico, Reyna, and Hedge. "Now, one at a time. Jason and Annabeth, since they are both the fittest to lead, will make their case on why they should be the ones to fill in for Percy, while is... otherwise occupied." Piper continued this time using a soft yet authoritative voice and not charmspeak. Jason then spoke up, "I should be the one to lead us; I am a praetor for the twelfth legion and have experience of being a leader. I am also a good fighter and know how to command and organize attacks and have experience doing so from when the Romans attacked the Throne of Saturn, and I single-handily took on Krios." I rolled my eyes; he's bragging about his accomplishments, which is the exact opposite of what Percy does. It is now my turn to make my case on why I should be the leader. "I have been through the first titan war, coordinated the attack on the monsters that were surrounding the base of Olympus. I also was with Percy throughout most of his quests as a Greek demigod and am probably the only reason he didn't get himself killed." All of it was true; he probably would have rushed into a situation and gotten himself killed if it was not for me, but even It still felt wrong to say.

We both made our campaigns to be elected new leader, and so it went to a vote. Piper and Frank both voted for Jason, no surprise there, Piper being Jason's girlfriend and Frank being a roman. That left Leo and Hazel voting for me. Before another screaming match could even begin, Nico, who must have been half-listening to our conversation, asked the simple question, "Why don't both of you guys be leaders? Much like the pretors at Camp Jupiter do?" It's a simple question, and the idea of splitting up the role of leading into two people sounded great. In fact, it's kind of how Percy used to lead, he did what he could, and if he needed someone else to take the role of planning, he asked them to do such. I looked over to Jason and said, "I'm okay with that if you are." He nodded in response, that settled it.

Breakfast quickly dispersed after the relatively peaceful election of the new leader. Now, all we have to do was continue to sail towards Greece and hope that we didn't run into any major issues along the way. While everyone else left, Nico walked up to me and stopped, clearly waiting for everyone else to be gone before he began to talk. Once the last person left, he turned to me, "Reyna and I are going to leave to head back to camp the next time we make a landing, which will be before the Doors of Death. I wanted to make sure you were holding up okay with everything that's happened; I know it's hard to lose someone or feel like you could lose them at any point. I also wanted to let you know that; when you do find Percy, let him know that; I never doubted that he would make it through even the harshest and most terrifying place to exist." I could see tears beginning to form in Nico's eyes, and just as I was about to ask him if he needed someone to comfort him. he faded out into the shadows.

I left the dining room to head back to my room. I had to make an Iris message to alert camp Half-Blood that the Romans might launch an attack. I opened the drawer that I have specifically for currency, both mortal and non-mortal money. I pulled out a pouch of drachma's and walked to the bathroom to create a stream of water so I could create the rainbow for the Iris message. Once I tossed to coin into the rainbow, I said, "Show me Chiron; at Camp Half-Blood." The rainbow shimmered for a moment and then responded with an automated voicemail of "Sorry, Iris messages are currently not operational, please try again later!" Damnint, I have no other way of sending an early warning about the Romans to Camp. Something must be wrong; Iris messages never failed in actual operation before, even when Percy was missing and I tried to call him; It said that the person I was trying to reach was unavailable. I took out another dracma and attempted to make another call, only to receive the same message. I began to think about why this would be happening; then it hit me; this has never happened before, a war between Greek and Roman Pantheons; Iris must also be affected and unable to conduct her messages because of it.

I walked out of the bathroom with a look of defeat on my face; Camp Half-Blood would be attacked by surprise, all because I was unable to warn them about the Romans, who were probably marching to Long Island right now. Hazel and Frank walked past me and said Hi to me, but I didn't feel like responding; my home since I was seven would get destroyed soon because I couldn't warn them. They must have noticed the depressing look I wore on my face because they turned around, and Hazel asked, "Annabeth, what's wrong? We're going to be there in time to get Percy out of the Pit; you don't need to worry." At the mention of the Pit, I tensed up; I had forgotten about that while distracted about the impending dooms that Camp Half-Blood would soon face. "I'm not worried about Percy; he's strong, and I know he'll make it through. I'm worried about the fact the Romans are probably marching on Camp Half-Blood right now. And I can't warn the Greeks about the attack that will happen; because Iris messages are not working." A look of confusion appeared on Hazel and Frank's faces, which confused me because I hadn't said anything too confusing; at least it wasn't confusing to me. How Ironic that is, I got confused about them getting confused.

Frank's face lit up like he had an idea that could help, "Percy mentioned something to Hazel and me on our way back the Camp Jupiter, he said that during our run-in with Iris, one of her assistants mentioned something about being able to do him and other half-bloods a solid if they asked. I think he said her name was Fleecy." Frank said with a smile on his face; he must be quite proud of himself for knowing something a daughter of Athena didn't, stupid Romans and their hate for Athena. Hazel nodded in agreeance with the name of Fleecy, "Thanks, I appreciate the help; I'll try to see if I can contact Camp with this." I said with appreciation, I doubted that it would work, but it couldn't hurt to try it.

I ran back to the bathroom and locked the door behind me; I created the spray of water in the air that made a rainbow appear. I don't know how to contact Fleecy, but she's an assistant of Iris, so I assume using the same method of calling upon their services would work. I dug a dracma out of my small pouch; I could only feel a few left. That means I have to make this call quick; I can't spend too many of them on this. I uttered out the words, "Fleecy, do me a solid and show me Chiron, at Camp Half-Blood. This is Percy's girlfriend by the way." I went to toss the coin into the stream of water, but before the dracma even left my hand, an image showing Chiron into existence.

A voice when cheerfully said, "A friend of Percy needs no payment to use the services of Fleecy." Chiron was teaching the campers archery; he turned around and greeted me like he typically does, except he was a little more confused than he usually was. I guess It makes sense for him to be so; after all, the campers have probably noticed that Iris messages aren't working. "Oh, Annabeth, I didn't see you there. How's the quest coming along?" Chiron sincerely asked; after my initial shock that it actually worked, I started to tell Chiron everything, "The quest is going not so well. I found and recovered the Athena Parthenos, but while we were pulling it up onto the ship..." my voice began to crack, I started to choke on my words with tears forming in my eyes. Chiron, sensing I was still gathering my courage to continue recalling recent events, patiently waited, his horsetail swaying back and forth, indicating that he was nervous.

I cleared my throat and wiped the tears out of my eyes, and continued, "while we were pulling the Parthenon up, I almost got dragged down into Tartarus. Luckily I caught a small ledge on the side of the hole; Percy watched as I slipped off the platform that we were standing on. He rushed over to the edge and immediately started to try to find ways to help me up." I continued rambling on about the situation; until Chiron budged in and politely asked, "Annabeth, please get to the point; I do still have Demigods to train." I turned a little red; but nodded, "Long story short, Percy fell into the Pit alone to ensure that I was able to escape the situation I was stuck in. And the Romans might be marching towards camp right now." I explained quickly, trying to get the words out of my mouth before tears started to build up in my eyes. As soon as I mentioned Percy falling into the Pit, Chiron's face went into a look of shock and horror. He stood still with that same face stuck in the same position until a younger camper came up to him and asked, "Chiron, when are you going to be done? You still need to show me how to use a bow." I didn't recognize the voice, so I assumed it was a new camper. That pulled Chiron out of his shock, "I'm terribly sorry to hear that, Annabeth, but Percy is strong; I'm sure he'll make it through. All you need to do is make sure that you are there to support him when he does escape the Pit." I just merely nodded in agreeance, said my goodbyes, and swiped the rainbow away, ending the call.

I walked up to the deck of the ship; I need to know if we were expecting any monster to attack or if we think that we'll be in the clear for a little while. I need to think of a plan of how we would all make it out of this alive. We pretty much have the prophecy figured out. Seven half-bloods shall answer the call. To storm or fire, the world must fall. An oath to keep with a final breath, And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. We know who the seven half-bloods are, and we know the next line is probably talking about Leo or Jason defeating Gaia. The final line is obviously talking about the mix of Greek and Roman demigods working together. That leaves the third line that has no discovered explanation; I decided that I'd ask the rest of the seven about it when they all reached the ship's deck. While I waited for Leo to arrive, probably from down at the hull of the ship; I looked over the edge and saw the ocean passing under us, and the only thing I could think of was 'What would Poseidon do when he finds out that Percy is in Tartarus'. I should probably Iris/Fleecy message him to tell him that exactly that has happened.

Sorry for taking so long to update the story, I personally dislike writing in the POV of Annabeth, but I felt it was needed here. I also started school again so updates will be slow, but I should be able to have another update out within a week or at most two. This is another 2500+ word chapter which means that I'm at least slowly increasing the average length of the chapters, which means more reading for you guys! As always, thank you for reading and please be sure to leave a review if you've got anything to say!