It seemed as though every monster imaginable attacked their ship on their way back to New York. Ranging from rogue harpies to a large kraken.
By the time they arrived, they were all injured in some way and exhausted.
The Argo II was pretty worse for wear too. Leo swore that he and his siblings would fix it up in no time once they arrived back at camp. But at this rate, Annabeth wasn't even sure if the ship would make it that far.
The last stretch to the Camp the Argo II was forced to take to the water as the controls had been completely destroyed in the last attack by wild venti.
In the long run, this was better. It allowed them to have a less dramatic entrance to the camp so that they didn't scare the campers.
The crew got off of the boat as quickly as they could, relieved to be on land again.
They were immediately greeted by a welcoming party of greek campers so large it looked like the entire camp had come to gawk at them.
The nature of their quest had not been revealed to the campers yet because Chiron thought that it might cause them to begin to panic. So nobody knew why the four Greek campers had suddenly disappeared.
When Annabeth came ashore, she was completely focused on the quest, totally ignoring the questions that campers all around her asked as she led the rest of the seven over to the big house to confer with Chiron.
When they arrived in the meeting room, a meeting with all of the head counsellors was already being held.
Everybody looked up from what looked to be an intense discussion when they walked in.
"Good. You're all already here. We can get started right away".
Annabeth knew why they were all gathered already, and it wasn't because they were waiting for them to arrive. There was a board laid out on the ping-pong table that served as their official meeting table, and they seemed to be discussing war strategies when they walked in. But Annabeth ignored this. They would change all of that anyway.
Greeting Chiron with a civilised nod of the head, Annabeth sat down at the head of the table to face the inevitable bombardment of questions.
Surprisingly, Clarisse was the only one to say anything at first.
"What are you doing here?".
"What? Not happy to see us?". Leo, ever the jokester, tried to lighten the atmosphere in the room, but it didn't work as Clarisse turned and glared at him before continuing.
"You abandon us when we need you most and now you're just back. A day before a major war and you have the nerve to show your face here".
Annabeth could see her anger growing, and did her best to diffuse it. Although she was seriously confused.
"Wait, what. What are you talking about? We didn't abandon you. We were on a quest!".
"Yeah, so Chiron keeps telling us. But let me ask you this… a quest doing what? There wasn't even a prophecy". The face off seemed to be between Clarisse and Annabeth now. Nobody else, including Chiron said anything. Instead choosing to just sit back and watch the two talk.
"There was a prophecy. We just didn't share it because Chiron thought that it would cause widespread panic and he didn't want to freak out the campers. I guess that backfired". She said the last part more to herself. But Clarisse just scoffed.
"Oh really? If there's this big panic spreading prophecy than let's hear it. Go on. Tell me".
Annabeth didn't appreciate this. As much as she loved Clarisse, sometimes she could get on her nerves.
"Hazel, you've got it memorised, right?".
She turned bright red as everybody's attention was refocused onto her. But she managed to stammer her way through it.
"Y-yeah, I- I do".
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.
The words hung in the air for a moment before Annabeth broke the silence.
"We think that the part about foes bearing arms to the doors of death refers to the two different camps of demigods, Roman and Greek, working together to defeat Gaea's army at the doors of death".
"Well that's never going to happen. Even if we wanted to help with this ridiculous so called prophecy. The Romans wouldn't help. They're hell bent on destroying us. They won't listen to anything that we try to tell them".
"Oh they will. They'll listen to us. Percy—". She took a deep breath before continuing. "Percy told us that if we could get their praetor, Reyna, alone, she would listen to us". She stood up, and the rest of the seven followed her lead.
"Wait! Where are you going? We're not done talking. You can't just drop a bomb like that and leave!". Clarissa shouted after them as they turned to leave.
Annabeth gave Chiron a pointed glance before once again addressing the rest of the head counsellors.
"This is not new information. After my Iris message with Chiron a few days ago I expected that he would have filled you all in. But I suppose not. We are going to bring a few Roman representatives here. They will hopefully come in peace and from there we can negotiate how we can work together".
She directed her next words at Chiron, "Fill them in. Explain the prophecy. This is an issue that is bigger than all of us. The Gods, the Titans… Gaea herself is waking, and if that happens there is nothing to stop her from destroying us all".
On that positive note, she turned and walked out of the room with the rest of the crew following in her wake.
As soon as they arrived on the border of Camp Half-Blood they were confronted by Roman border guards.
They wouldn't let them pass, insisting that they had direct orders not to let anyone pass.
No matter how convincing they were, they guards would not budge.
Their position didn't improve when they saw Jason. Apparently he had been classed as a traitor by Octavian and was hated among the legion now.
Annabeth could see that this made him sad, no matter how much he tried to hide it. The legion was one of the only homes he had ever known, to find out that he wasn't welcome there anymore must have crushed him.
They couldn't give up, and the guards refused to go and get Reyna, so they were forced to use drastic measures.
Jason said that he could fly over, but he only had the strength for two people, himself and somebody else.
It was almost unanimous that Annabeth should be that other person, as she was one of the only one of the Greeks that Reyna had even considered talking to in the past.
With that settled, Jason summoned the winds and flew both he and Annabeth over the ranks of Roman soldiers and straight towards the commanders tent. Arrows were shot at them but Jason deflected them all with a simple wave of his hand.
He seemingly did this all without breaking a sweat, and Annabeth was once again reminded about how much she underestimated Jason and his powers.
When they arrived at Reyna's tent, she was already outside waiting for them, flanked by two guards.
Her expression, hard and unreadable as always, softened just a fraction when she saw Jason, but quickly hardened up again by the time they had landed.
The soldiers at her side had been waiting to restrain them and take them away, but Reyna held up a hand.
"Why are you here?". Curiosity lit up her face as she studied the two.
"Reyna, we need to talk".
She must have sensed the urgency in Annabeth's voice, because she called off her guards and ushered them inside of her tent.
Once they had gotten settled, Reyna resumed her hardened glare.
"What is it?"
"Well, long story short, Gaea is rising. A while back, we got a prophecy that we are calling the Prophecy of Seven. Jason here tells me that you have had something similar?".
Reyna just nodded her head and looked over at her two metal dogs, Argentum and Aurum.
"I will listen. But so will my dogs. If you lie to me, or try to deceive me in any way, they will tear you to shreds, and I won't stop them".
Annabeth explained about Gaea's rising and the doors of death finally ending with a plea.
"Please, Reyna. The two camps need to work together. The gods are split between their forms and are too weak to help us as they are. We need to work together to defeat Gaea. It is the only way"
The daughter of the war goddess seemed to consider this for a small time before she finally replied.
"I will have to think about it. My dogs have not killed you, which means you speak the truth. But I cannot easily forgive what you and your kind has done. And it is not just my decision in the matter. I will need to discuss this with the legion. We will give you our deliberation tomorrow".
She spoke with a finality in her voice that told Jason and Annabeth that it was time for them to go.
Sighing, Annabeth and Jason stood up to leave.
"Just consider this, praetor. If Gaea rises, she will destroy all of us. Even New Rome. We must cooperate, or else she has already won".
Annabeth's words seemed to distract her, and she stared at the wall lost in her own thoughts.
On a positive note, they had today and most of tomorrow to rest and heal. On a negative note, Reyna's decision would determine the fate of the entire world. And Annabeth didn't have the slightest clue how she was thinking.
When he woke up the next morning, his heart was beating faster than he thought possible. Gaea's words from his dream still plagued his mind as he struggled to sit up against the wall of the cave.
Thankfully, the hellhounds had left at some point in the night, but that didn't reassure him.
If he left the cave, more monsters would surely attack, and he didn't know if he had the strength to fight them off in his current state.
But he had to try. Dread settled in the pit of his stomach as he pushed off the wall and began his slow descent down the face of the cliff he had crawled up.
It was slow going, his wound protesting at every move he made. But slowly, he began to loosen up again, and was soon on the ground of the path.
He had taken off his shredded shirt and tied it around his wounds like a bandage. He could feel it being soaked with blood as his movement reopened the wounds.
Normally he would have had to wait for a monster to follow, but there was only one direction to walk in, and nowhere to hide.
He had been right when he assumed that monsters would immediately sense him within the confines of the canyon. The smell of Tartarus itself usually masked his own scent from the monsters, but Tartarus must have really wanted Percy dead, because now he had no such luck.
It seemed as though every monster in Tartarus found him. And there was no running away.
Thankfully, his sword fighting skill had improved significantly and he was able to hold his own. But that only just managed to keep him alive.
He was just starting to think that he couldn't go on anymore when the attacks suddenly stopped.
This put him more on edge than when they were happening. Something was coming, something that Percy was not going to like.
It was like he couldn't get a break. His battered body was covered with bruises and cuts and scrapes from his battles. Not to mention the bloody bandage substitute that was now completely soaked.
As if on cue, a white mist began to seep out from the rocks. For some reason, this mist terrified him even more than any monster would.
He could hear screams of terror and voices coming out of it as if he were standing next to the river Cocytus or Acheron.
He ran. Well, as much as you could call it running. His battered body was completely exhausted, and screamed in protest as he pushed it forward faster and faster.
But it was no use. The mist seemed to ooze out of every crevice and crack, almost like it was coming from Tartarus itself.
When it overtook him, he was completely blinded at first, seeing and hearing nothing but white mist.
Then the screaming started. He saw visions.
To his right, his mother appeared, being held aloft by her neck by a big meaty paw that could only belong to the minotaur. She mouthed at him to 'Go' before dissolving into a shower of bright light.
"No!".
He charged, anger coursing through him. But when he went to swipe through it with his sword, it just dissolved into mist and disappeared.
Next he saw Bianca di Angelo running towards the giant automaton.
He tried to warn her, but she didn't listen to him. The giant collapsed and was defeated, but as he ran around the wreckage, Bianca was no where to be found.
"No! Not again!".
He fell to his knees in front of a piece of wreckage, but it only disappeared into the mist.
Annabeth appeared. He turned around right as she took a knife for him to protect his Achilles spot.
She collapsed to the ground, gasping. Anger made his blood rage through him, and he swiped at everybody there, but every time he did they would just disappear into the mist until it was just Percy and Annabeth.
She was groaning in pain and trying to stem the flow of blood from her wound. Frantically he looked around for any ambrosia or nectar, but there was none.
With one last shuddering breath she stopped moving, her eyes staring at nothing and he broke down.
The mist disappeared, but he hardly noticed between his sobs.
"Annabeth! NO!"
He curled up on the ground, ignoring the sharp pain that came when the small sharp rocks dug into his skin and let the tears fall.
Tartarus laughed, a chilling sound that went straight through him and made him shiver with sudden cold.
That's when he realised that Tartarus was messing with him. Trying to drive him mad.
Well it's working
Slowly, he uncurled and stood up with shaky legs.
That wasn't real. None of it was real.
He had to keep telling himself this as he slowly began to trudge forward again.
Eventually, the canyon trail began to end, opening up once again into a seemingly endless flat plain.
The only thing that disturbed it was what seemed to be a castle that was situated at the far end of the plain.
The castle was dark, and seemed to absorb any small amount of light there was in Tartarus to begin with.
He drank more of the disgusting river water from his bottle, but he was still too exhausted to even imagine trying to cross that plain right now.
He was bound to be spotted and attacked, at least in the canyon there might be another small cave he can rest in until he was ready.
Not far up a wall to his left, he spotted one, and began to climb.
Thoughts of Annabeth still circled painfully in his mind as he saw her lifeless body every time he blinked or closed his eyes.
No. That didn't happen. I won't let it happen.
When he reached the cave, he found it was hardly anything more than an indentation in the rock. Enough for him to sleep on, but not really guarding him from view.
Still, it was better than staying on the trail, and he was so exhausted he hardly cared.
Sweet memories of Annabeth and Camp Half-Blood circled in his mind, and soon, his eyes closed an he fell asleep.