A/N: Hello! Blue here. Here is the third chapter. It took a little longer than expected, but I hope it was well worth the wait!

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Percy's POV

I dreamed with open eyes.

Sunlight filtered through my open cabin window. To my left sat a large stack of board games, and Annabeth sat across from me.. There was pure silence around me, and I knew instantly that this was not a memory, nor did this place truly exist.

"Your move, Seaweed Brain," She said, crossing her arms. A look of pure concentration and determination was upon her face. I looked down at the chess board. My pieces consisted of seven pawns and the king. They were faced against a full army.

I looked back up at Annabeth to see a cruel smirk upon her face. "You will be broken, that I will see for myself. Your friends will fail and perish to my children's hands." My vision fell to the board once more to see that her pieces had moved while she had been speaking. There was no possible moves available for any of my pieces.

"You cannot win." She swept her hand across the board, scattering the pieces. "Hera may have united the camps, but you will destroy each other eventually."

The cabin disappeared, and I fell through the floor.

I opened my eyes slowly, regaining the feeling of my body as my stomach caught up with me from wherever I had fallen.

Camp Half-Blood was in front of me, but something was terribly wrong. No one was here. The Big House had been burnt to the ground, and there was a mess of footprints on the ground in front of the cabins. The woods were completely silent, many of the trees completely destroyed. A lump grew in my throat. This could not be my home.

"The remains of your camp," Gaea said, appearing beside me still in Annabeth's form. The earth shook as she spoke. A few cabins crumbled into dust. "I will wake soon, and you cannot stop me. You will fall."

I scrunched up my eyebrows, angry that Gaea had taken the form of my girlfriend, angry that she continued to threaten my home and the world.

There was no way I would ever let what she said happen, and I almost burst out telling her exactly why she was wrong, but I held my tongue. I was defenseless right now, inside of Tartarus, and angering her would probably be very bad for my health. Even worse for my health than it currently was.

I watched the camp, trying to hold back my anger and telling myself that the scene in front of me wasn't real.

But it could be, and I would never know.

I kept rationalizing the situation, switching between trusting my friends to be able to defend our home, and worrying that the camp in front of me was a view from the present.

Eventually, after a long moment without Gaea speaking, I wrenched my gaze away from the camp. Gaea was no longer beside me. In the back of my mind, I wondered where she had gone and why she had left me here, but I pushed it aside.

I needed to focus on finding a way out. I stepped forward, pleased to see that I could step through the scene. I imagined that meant I could walk around in it. Maybe Gaea had truly wanted me to experience the camp? I didn't know.

The silence made me uneasy. In all of the time that I had come to Camp Half-Blood, silence was a rare thing. The clang of swords had disappeared, along with the gurgling and hissing of the Climbing Wall, the roars of the monsters in the woods were gone too. It was almost as if a piece of my soul had disappeared with the absence of the noises of home.

It was exactly like a nightmare, which I suppose it was. A pretty calm nightmare, but a terrifying one nonetheless.

I found myself at the beach. Without realizing it my feet had taken me here. When I was worried, I had usually come here. And now I had done the same, for the first time in almost a year. But this was at a twisted version of the camp. I wondered if I'd ever be able to do it at the real Camp Half-Blood in New York.

The water here was not calming, but that was to be expected. I stood at the edge of the surf and gazed at the horizon. The orange sky gave no clue as to whether the time was morning or evening. Only time would tell me. I stepped forward into the water, hoping to use it as my escape, but immediately I jumped back with a yelp. This water was not comforting. It burned like the water of the Styx but at a lesser degree. I stepped back up the sand, away from the water. The ocean would not help me here.

I headed towards the Big House.

It was completely burned down, with a few wooden beams sticking up here and there. I walked through the ashes, looking for anything that could help me get out. This place was starting to mess with my mind. The longer I stayed, the more real it became. I had to get out, and I had to get out fast.

There was nothing salvageable from the Big House. Everything had been burned to ashes. I walked towards the cabin. The sky was still orange. I supposed that this was a world set in an eternal twilight phase of the day, but I couldn't be sure. I couldn't be sure of anything. I was getting kinda tired of that.

My feet led me to the circle of cabins. There were some more new cabins that I supposed had been built after I disappeared. My heart ached. I wanted to go home with every fiber of my being. I missed my mom, I missed my friends, I missed Annabeth. But that was the only thing that would keep me moving forward.

I walked up to the cabin of Athena, and let my fingers push the door open. It swung open slowly, creaking, and reminding me of a scene from a horror movie. The cabin was completely empty. The beds had been stripped of their sheets, the bookshelves empty. A couple of sheets of paper had fallen from a board on the wall. I stepped up to it, and picked up a few sheets. They were battle plans. I thought of Malcolm, and the other Athena children. Annabeth's siblings. A cold hand gripped at my heart.

And suddenly, I had to remind myself that I had no valid proof that this was real. I took a breath, only now aware that my breathing had quickened. Gaea had created this for me, and there was no way I could trust her to have given me the actual truth. She was attempting to break our spirit. She had been trying to make sure that we had complete disbelief at the thought of olympian victory. And I was here to prove that she had and would fail in her attempt. I dropped the sheets of paper and stood tall. She would never win. I strode out of the room, heading towards my cabin; the Poseidon cabin.

As I approached it, the smaller details caught my eyes. The grass around the cabin was as green as it had ever been. It was untrampled and not dead at all, completely unlike the rest of the camp. A sunbeam seemed to fall upon it, although I could not tell where it came from. To be completely honest, the entire cabin looked heavenly. The cabin also appeared to be in perfect condition. My instincts were screaming bloody murder at me, but I ignored them. I had to see what was inside. I pressed my palm flat against the door, and slowly pushed it open. Unlike the Athena cabin, this door swung in quietly.

It looked just how I had left it back in December. But it was cleaner. Light filtered through the window, giving everything a peaceful atmosphere. I felt the urge to just plop down on my bunk, and fall asleep. The hippocampi wind chimes hung up on the ceiling tinkled softly. Tyson had made them, and it made everything in the cabin feel so much more lighter. I stepped softly toward my bunk. It looked so warm, so comfortable. I wanted to curl up inside my blankets and fall asleep and never wake up. It almost reminded me of the Hypnos cabin. A place where you could actually sleep forever.

And I suddenly realized what was happening.

With a sudden jerk, I fell back from the bed and back onto my palms on the the floor. The atmosphere changed suddenly, turning back into the threatening feeling the rest of the camp had. The world around me changed as well, everything turning older and much less stable.

The scene had reminded me of the Lotus Hotel. And I understood what Gaea had been trying to do. I knew that if I had fell asleep in that bed, I would never be able to return to my true home. This was her way of attempting to get rid of me.

I rose to my feet, carefully stepping toward the door. I pulled the door back open, stepping outside. The sky was darker. Not quite dark, but it was not bright enough anymore to illuminate my surroundings.

I had to keep searching for a way to get out of here. This was obviously no longer a dream, more like an alternate reality that I had to escape from.

Walking around the camp, I felt eyes upon me. Something else was here, besides me, and the creeped me out way more than I would have considered normally. I had faith in my instincts and swordsmanship. But this world was out of my control and there was no one here that could possibly do anything that was in my favor. Gaea controlled this world and she would never let me win in it.

I headed toward Thalia's Pine, desperately searching for anything that could let me out of this place. The ocean would not be of any use, nor anything I found in the cabins. I looked up, glancing at the fleece that for some reason still hung on the branches of the pine tree. It made no sense for it to be here, especially if other monsters had found their way in, but I accepted the fact. Peleus was nowhere to found, and I suspected that he had gone with the campers, wherever they had all disappeared to.

Once more, I had to withdraw myself from the situation. This wasn't real. I kept falling into the trap that this place was a real world. Nothing here was proven to be real, and I could only assume everything was false. I needed to stop believing this place to be real.

I knew that the longer I stayed here, the more invested in this world I would become. It was already happening. I could only hope that it wasn't too late.

I leaned against the pine tree and surveyed the camp. Where would Gaea put an exit? Was there an exit? I found panic rising within me. What if there wasn't a way out? Gaea wasn't the one to leave a loophole. What if this place in limbo truly had no exit and I was going to be trapped here forever? But as suddenly as I thought it, a memory struck me. I had been maybe seven years old, when I had gotten my foot caught in something. I was outside, but I didn't remember much beyond that. My mom had found me and told me, that if I had gotten myself in a situation, then there had to be a way for me to get out. We had talked me out of the situation, and it was some advice that I had realized later could be applied for other situations as well. I slid down the tree trunk and sat cross legged at the bottom, returning to my thoughts of escape, slightly more calm than before. There would be a way out, and all I had to do was find it.

Behind me, through the barrier of the camp, I heard a monster roar. It startled me from my thoughts and I turned around to face it. Nothing. Wherever it was, I couldn't see it. I clutched Riptide in a fist raised to my chest level, and stood crouched and still. Maybe it would reveal itself soon.

I worked my way towards the barrier, moving silently through the tall grass. Only now could I thank Dionysis for never cutting the grass. There continued to be complete silence. The only thing I could hear was my own breathing and the sway of the grass in some imaginary wind. There was nothing there. Had I imagined the sound? Was I getting too paranoid? Monsters usually didn't sneak. They had a direct way of fighting that included automatically charging when they found a target.

Slowly, I stood up. Nothing lunged out of the shadows at me, so I suspected that, for at least now, I was safe. The barrier was right in front of me, although I could not trust it to defend me in this world. Silence remained around me, and all I could hear was the roar of my own blood in my ears.

While staring at the protective barrier, a thought occurred to me. If the water earlier had hurt so badly, would the barrier in front of me hurt the same way? I mulled the thought over in my head silently, before deciding that the worst that could probably happen was that I felt some pain like before. I couldn't just not do it. I had to try. And I would do anything to get back to Annabeth.

I reached forward with my hand, and leaned forward. I closed my eyes partially, bracing for pain, and instead, fell through the barrier and hit the ground. When I opened my eyes and looked around, i felt a small bit of joy rise up within me.

Which was kinda stupid, seeing as I was back in Tartarus. I felt like jumping up and shouting with happiness. But I didn't. That place couldn't have existed. There was no way. That had to be some sort of conjured up world that Gaea had created. If it was real, then I wouldn't have found myself back here. I could banish the doubts back to the dark part of my mind were they came from. But for now, I needed to focus on my surroundings, seeing as this time, they appeared infinitely more dangerous.

I stood up from the heap I had landed in, and attempted to brush myself off. It was dark, although there appeared to be a very dark red glow around everything. I pulled out Riptide, and uncapped it, letting its bronze glow illuminate my surroundings. It appeared as if I had landed in a great plain. And almost immediately I recognized a major problem. I couldn't see any sign of the Phlegethon from where I stood. The air of Tartarus was already getting to me, and I knew I wouldn't last long without it. I capped Riptide and turned in a circle, hoping beyond hope that there would be some sign of the Phlegethon in the distance. Perhaps a warmish glow on the horizon or something. Anything. But yet again I was greeted with nothing. There was no sign of the river that might be my only chance for long term survival down here. My best shot was to just pick a direction and start walking.

I turned a bit to my left and started walking, having no clue if it was the right direction. I could have been walking away from the Phlegethon for all I knew, but I stuck with my direction. Annabeth probably would have been able to figure it out. She was amazing like that. I wished she was here, and at the same time, I realized that I didn't want her here. I wanted to be up there with her. But I would never retake this choice that I had made. Anything to keep her safe, even if it meant breaking my promise to her. I wondered what she was up to. I hoped she wasn't too sad. I knew I was probably going to die down here, and she most likely knew it too. This was a hopeless mission, and there was next to no chance of me succeeding. Never did that mean that I wouldn't stop trying to get to her.

A sudden howl to my right got my attention, and pulled me out of my thoughts. I crouched into defensive position, and slightly capped Riptide in an attempt to prevent them from seeing me. I kept it clutched in my right fist, ready to draw at a moment's notice. Another howl sounded, this time to my left ,and I cursed in my head. I might have just walked myself into a pack of monsters or something. I should have been more alert.

I slowly made my way towards a nearby boulder, attempting to find some sort of cover. Clearly, that didn't work, because after a few seconds of me staying behind the boulder and keeping my breathing as even and as silent as I could while keeping an ear open for any approaching monsters, a hellhound lunged out of the darkness toward me. I uncapped Riptide and sliced downwards against it, and as the gold dust showered down on me, I looked up to see that Riptide had given off its usual glow, and had given the maybe twenty or so hellhounds around me a perfect view of their target. The one closest toward me bared its fangs and hissed. I kept my back to the boulder and watched them carefully. Putting Riptide away this time wouldn't help.

One hellhound inched towards me, and I stared straight into its eyes. I reached back in my mind for what Lupa had taught me, giving the hellhound my best wolf stare. It didn't work, and the huge dog continued to step towards me, snarling as it watched me. I noticed that all the other dogs around me were watching it, and I assumed that this hellhound must have been the one in charge of the pack. I could almost see it assessing me, looking for weaknesses. I hoped it wouldn't find any, and end up backing up, but there was an extremely low chance of that happening. Hellhounds tended to be be very direct creatures. Just like Mrs. O'leary. I pushed the thought of her away. She wasn't like these dogs, and I couldn't afford to let my fondness for her get in the way of my survival.

The lead hellhound pounced towards me, and the others followed it. I stepped forward into its attack and stabbed up through its underbelly. More dust rained down around me, and I realized that in my attack against the hound, I had stepped away from the protection of the boulder. There was nothing to my back anymore, and I found myself surrounded once more by enemies.

I shouted in defiance and attacked them all. The first few dogs were taken care of rather quickly, and I found my instincts taking over as they usually did. I was hyper aware of everything, from the slight movements of the dogs surrounding me or the bead of sweat rolling down my face or the deep breaths I was taking. But then everything went wrong. I slashed through the hellhounds, rolling underneath and stabbing through them. But in the darkness, I did not account for even ground. And this ground was a lot less even than I had expected.

And by that I mean I fell almost twenty feet into a canyon that I hadn't seen. There had been almost no light, and I was so focused on the hellhounds approaching me that I had fought my way straight past a hellhound and straight down into a crevice. And to make this even worse, all of the hellhounds barrelled off of the cliff with me.

I knew almost immediately after I had fallen that something was wrong with me. There was a sudden pounding pain that seemed to resonate from all over, but I couldn't identify what it could be. But I couldn't concentrate on that now. There were still enemies for me to get rid of.

I stood up, swaying slightly as everything went dizzy. Something was most definitely not where it needed to be. I was so out of it that I barely noticed the hellhound in front of me, and I walked straight into me. It swiped its claws at me, and I stared down at the blood that was pouring out of the front of my shirt. But the pain brought me back to focus. It wasn't going to last very long, but I continued to use decent swordsmanship against the hellhounds. I sliced and stabbed and rolled under and slashed at everything I could. They continued to occasionally get in hits on me, seeing as I was still slightly out of it.

In the end, I remained standing as the victor, but I knew it was not a good situation. After assessing my situation, I realized that this would not have a pretty ending. I was stuck in the middle of Tartarus, without the water of the Phlegethon, and I was bleeding out from multiple wounds. If my mission was harder before, it would be a thousand times harder and more impossible for me to complete now. But I had to keep moving. I couldn't give up. Not when I had come this far. I would keep going. But which direction? Again, there wasn't much of a sign in the darkness, so I decided to pick randomly, as I had done before. This time, however, there would only be two directions for me to head in. Seeing as my left hadn't been so luck of a choice, I decided to head down the right side of the canyon, into what looked as dark as the rest of the other directions. I could only hope for the best. And that wasn't good. Still, it was better than remaining here.

I struck out, fumbling my way through the canyon, my focus leaving me from time to time. The pain seemed to set in as the adrenaline wore off, and I struggled to lift one foot after the other. It was getting more difficult.

The walls stood tall around me, and I knew there would be no way for me to climb them with the little energy I had. The most likely thing to happen was that I would attempt to scale the rock walls and end up crashing back to the earth and find my death.

I couldn't see the end of the canyon. I had been walking for what felt like ages. The shadows of the arai flying above me danced across the barren ground. I hoped that they hadn't seen me. I wouldn't be able to defend myself if they attacked me. And I was not in the mood for curses.

I suddenly jerked my hand to my pocket, grasping Riptide like a lifeline. I couldn't uncap it for the fear of attracting other monsters with the bronze glow. I missed the comfort and feeling of security it granted me, but this was a matter of life or death.

But wasn't everything a life or death decision down here? If I had gone the other way down the canyon, I could have been dead by now. The only way to survive was to be grateful that I was alive now and not think of what could have been possible.

I stopped for a moment to catch my breath, and slid down the rock behind me. The sharp points of the uneven wall brought me back to reality through pain.

At this rate, without the water of the Phlegethon, I would die. The water was the only thing keeping me and Annabeth alive. I licked my lips for what felt like the thousandth time, trying to stop the burning. Everything burned. My skin, my throat, my lips. It was a constant feeling of complete unwellness, but that was to be expected. I didn't belong here.

A howl echoed over the canyon, resonating through my bones. The sound reminded me of the monsters that might have followed me. I had to keep moving, or death was the only thing that could possibly await me.

With a mighty shove, I pushed myself off the ground. I rested my weight against the rock, losing my vision temporarily as everything blacked out for a moment. I lifted my foot forward, attempting to take a step forward, only to sway dizzily and almost fall over.

The world as I saw it tilted alarmingly and began to spin slightly. I could almost relate it to the feeling of overusing my powers, but the realization came to me suddenly that this was from overusing my body instead.

I took another step, swallowing heavily to down the feeling of nausea as I moved forward. My heavy pants for breath filled the space I was walking down. I felt so unwell.

There was only one time I had felt like this before. I had been sick over the school year sometime after the Second Titan War. Mom had been the first one they called, but she couldn't leave one of her publisher meetings, even though she had really wanted to. Paul had stepped in, leaving his classes to drag me back to our apartment. I didn't remember much, but I did get the feeling that I had gone into a really deep fever at one point, and Paul had stood by me, making me comfortable until Mom could come home.

I had felt unwell then too, but the environment was completely different and that was the true division between then and now. Then, I had been allowed to stop everything and focus on getting better.

But I couldn't do that now.

Nothing could stand in the way of my moving forward. There would be no rest until I could get out. It would mean death for me, and I might never be able to see my Mom, or Paul, or Annabeth ever again if I stopped.

I kept going, even at the frustrating slow pace I was forced to use. Muttered curses flowed from my mouth as I attempted to lift my foot up and over a rock. It didn't work, and my foot dragged across the ground.

I lost my balance, tumbling down to the ground like a sack of turnips. I tried to get up, tried to keep moving forward, somehow.

I needed to move, I needed to stand. I had to keep going. I would die if I didn't.

My body wouldn't listen. I had put it through too much. My brain urged my physical form to lift, to move, to rise, but it was for nothing. I had no energy.

Blood splattered on the ground before me as I coughed. Demigods were not created to survive in Tartarus. I couldn't breathe. My throat was rubbed raw by the poisonous air. I felt like I was going blind.

Just twitching my arms and legs took everything out of me. I couldn't go any further, but I wanted to, more than anything.

I had to get back to her. Somehow.

A white film seemed to settle in my eyes, and a bright flash shined in the corner of my eyes.

I had remembered some kid in my elementary school days telling me that when you died, an angel came to get you. I hadn't believed him.

In my world, it was told that Hermes collected the souls of the dead to bring to the underworld. Maybe some mortal had confused him for an angel somewhere along the line, bringing the idea of angels to another faith.

I felt what little water remained in my body rush into my eyes and knew that my eyelids had closed. But the whiteness persisted.

Was this something that happened to us when we died? My thoughts grew sluggish, my brain hanging off the edge of consciousness.

Maybe there were true greek angels somewhere.

As I lost yet another battle, this one being with my mind and body, a final thought came through the fog.

Annabeth would know.

Sally's POV

It was another sunny day. I was on the couch, my next novel draft sitting in front of me on a portable table. I had a due date for my next book in a couple months, but I still hadn't written much since Percy had disappeared.

Paul was out teaching his classes at Goode. He had stayed at home with me for the first month before returning to work. I understood that he couldn't stay with me forever, but I wished that I could take him and keep him safe. Just like I wished that I could have kept Percy safe when he was younger. I had recognized this feeling to be similar to the one Poseidon must have had years ago when he offered to build me a palace under the sea. I could never keep my loved ones caged up and safe with me, however much I wanted to. Percy would have hated me if I had done that. Poseidon had told me time and time again that the sea could never be restrained, and I believed him, but my heart still ached when faced with all the dangers I knew my family would experience.

I turned my head downward into the nest of blankets I had created for myself, and a flash of light from a reflection on a picture frame caught my eyes. It was a photo of Percy at the beach when he was much smaller. He looked so happy. I found myself drifting into sweet memories.

A sudden sound startled me out of my thoughts, and I looked over at the kitchen, where a phone could be heard. Sighing, I picked myself off of the couch, and made my way at a decent speed towards the distraction.

I picked up the ringing phone, recognizing the caller number to be from Camp Half-Blood. Chiron answered, just like I had expected. He had been keeping me notified of the current events both on Percy's quest and Camp Half-Blood. I appreciated it more than he might ever possibly know.

"Hey, Sally," He said. His voice sounded a lot more rough than usual, deeper and sadder. I assumed that this meant bad news. "I received an Iris message from the crew of the Argo II late last night."

The calls from the Argo II hadn't been very good lately. There was only bad news to report, with a few bits of decent information every now and then, sprinkled in like little islands I could rest on before I started drowning again.

"Hey, Chiron," I said. "Any good news this time?" I crossed my fingers, praying to every deity that my son was okay.

"Some," He said. I pressed the receiver even closer to my ear. I desperately needed to know that my son was okay. I needed to know that Percy was okay. A part in the back of my mind noted how cautious and weary he sounded.

He took a deep breath, and something immediately felt wrong.

"Annabeth made it out of Tartarus yesterday," He said. There was a feeling of incompleteness with that sentence.

"That's good," I said. That was a relief. When Chiron had told me that both Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, I had almost lost it. I was terrified for them. Now it appeared that it was possible to get out of there. And if Annabeth could get out, she wouldn't let Percy stay behind, right? They loved each other to death. "How is she?"

"Not good. For the entirety of the first day she sat alone outside, watching the water. No one could get her to speak until Piper tried late in the evening." Tears welled up in my eyes, and I felt the urge to hug her, even though she was thousands of miles away. I needed to wrap that little girl up in my arms and whisk her away from all of this greek mythology.

"How is Percy doing?" I asked, assuming that he had made it out with Annabeth. After all, they never liked to be separated.

There was another deep sigh from Chiron's end of the phone. "Sally, I have bad news."

And in my gut I knew what it was.

"No," I whispered, grabbing a chair from the dining table and pulling it under me. "Please don't tell me that he…"

"I'm sorry, Sally," Chiron said. His voice was grave. "Percy did not make it out of Tartarus."

I felt a pain in my chest, and knew that my heart was breaking. It wasn't possible for a heart to break, heartbreak was only a mental situation, right? But as I thought that, I felt true hurt inside me, as if a huge part of my life, the part of my life that I loved the most, had been taken from me. And it had been stolen away from home, from me. I had never felt pain this intense, even when my parents had died, even when my uncle had died. My Percy may never see the light of day again. I may never see him again, and Annabeth… Poor Annabeth. I could only imagine what she must have been going through.

"Is he… dead?" I asked, hesitating slightly on the word death. I hoped he was still alive. He could find a way out, I knew he could. I just had to know that he was alive.

"They don't know. Annabeth said that when she had left, Percy was battling the physical form of Tartarus. That isn't a good sign. Tartarus is just as powerful, if not more, compared to Gaea. Nico attempted to search for him, but he was blocked."

"Oh," I said. And I couldn't think of much more to say anyway. "Thank you for telling me, Chiron." I could almost feel the ageing happening in my voice.

"It's never a problem, Sally. I'm sorry we couldn't know more." He said. I was silent in response.

He hung up the phone, and I let myself shatter in the empty apartment around me.

A/N: Thank you for reading, and please review!