Hello again. I got this chapter up relatively fast, but don't expect me to update this fast all the time.
Disclaimer: I have never written an actual book before, so naturally I don't own Percy Jackson.
CHAPTER TWO: MOTHER DAUGHTER ISSUES
Percy woke up screaming Annabeth's name. In his dream they were in Tartarus again, and when he didn't feel her next to him, he panicked and woke up. He simply sat in his bed panting for a moment, while his heart slowed to its regular beat. He stumbled out of his room, blinking at the light shining through the hallway windows. Sunlight still felt alien to him. Annabeth ran down the stairs and nearly ran into him.
"Percy! You're awake! I thought I heard you…."
"Yeah sorry about that I just got so used… used to…" Percy didn't know how to describe it. Sleeping with her? That did not sound right.
"I know what you mean." Annabeth muttered.
"So how long was I out?"
"A day and a half sleepy head." She poked him in the stomach playfully. "C'mon everyone wants to talk with us." She continued, pulling his hand. Percy allowed himself to be dragged to the kitchen. Everyone was sitting around the table, silently. The first thing he noticed was the awkwardness in the air. Frank and Leo were sitting across from each other and trying to look anywhere but at the other; Hazel (who was sitting beside Frank) was trying to stare both of them into talking. Nico was sitting beside Leo and watching the exchange between the three of them looking slightly amused. Percy had known for a while that something was going on there, but it seemed worse between the three. Piper and Jason were glaring at each other from across the table. Annabeth cheerily sat down beside Hazel and Percy sat beside her, their hands still linked.
"Leo I believe you had a question for Percy?" Annabeth asked with a sickly sweet voice Percy flinched at the sound of. Obviously Leo had pissed her off in some way while Percy had been sleeping. Leo ignored Annabeth and turned to Percy.
"How did you get out of there? And close the doors? I would have asked Annabeth- actually, I did, but she told me she 'didn't want to worry about that until you woke u-."
"I was a little worried about Percy. That's all." Annabeth grunted, glaring at Leo.
"You could have told us something! Anything! Did you even properly close the doors? What are we facing here?"
"Leo shut up." Nico spoke up. Nico understood why Annabeth didn't want to remember Tartarus alone. Having someone there to lean on for support probably made the memories easier to face. Leo rolled his eyes, but he looked more annoyed with himself than anyone else.
"Sorry, sorry. I'm just a little curious. Percy, care to explain?"
Percy really didn't want to remember Tartarus either. Annabeth tightened her grip on his hand. He shot her a smile of gratitude. They both took a deep breath and remembered every gruesome detail of closing the doors of death. They explained as they remembered.
They stumbled forward, a strange light up ahead. After wandering through darkness for so long, Percy thought the light was his eye's playing tricks on him. He didn't think it was actually there until Annabeth mentioned it to him.
"You see that too right?"
"Yeah. What do you think it is?" Annabeth snorted.
"Probably something that wants to kill us." They had tried to stay positive, but wandering in complete darkness whilst being attacked from all sides made that difficult for them sometimes. Percy didn't think it was a monster. They hadn't come across any monsters that gave off light, and they had come across a lot of monsters. Actually, the only light they had seen for a wile now was a guy who was chained to a burning wheel. His name was Ixion according to Annabeth. He had been creepy; when Percy and Annabeth tried to talk to him all he did was ogle Annabeth and try to grab at her.
"Everything wants to kill us Annabeth. We should check it out." Annabeth nodded begrudgingly. They made their way toward the light and only had to fight off one giant before they got close enough to see what it was.
"No way." Percy said in disbelief. At first it looked like a mound of monsters, but when they looked closer, they realized what they were really looking at. The monsters were all swarming around a huge door.
"We made it." Annabeth said slowly. Then, faster and more excited; "We've made it Seaweed brain!" She kissed him out of pure joy. Percy laughed and hugged her tightly.
"Now we just have to slam the door on these monsters." Percy said quietly. He hated to ruin the first good moment they'd had in Tartarus, but they hadn't quite gotten out of the hellhole. Annabeth took a deep breath. They had no clue how to shut the door; in fact, they weren't even sure how to get near the door without being stomped on by the thousands of monsters that were rushing the door. This may have been the toughest challenge they'd had to face so far, but now Annabeth had hope. Just seeing that tiny flame rekindled in her eyes made Percy more determined to get them out of there very much alive. He admired her fighting spirit and recently he had noticed that quality draining out of her.
"Any plans wise girl?" Annabeth didn't respond, her eye's working over the door, the monsters, everything. Percy simply watched her calculating. There hadn't been any light to look at her by for ages, sure, he would brush his fingers across her face just to be sure she was still there, but he missed seeing the grey of her eyes, and the pinkness of her lips.
"Maybe we can start a distraction and run for it?" She said a little hopelessly.
"What?" Percy asked, snapping back to attention.
Annabeth sighed. "Nothing. It's impossible anyway." Percy frowned.
"Should we get closer?" He asked rather unhelpfully. Annabeth shrugged. She tried to walk forward, but something got a hold of her ankle and held her in place. She screamed, tears in her eyes. The ground itself had wrapped itself around her only sort-of healed ankle. Percy tried to cut the ground away, but it held fast.
"Percy I think…. I think… if you pull I'll be able get it free." She looked terrified. Pulling her ankle out of the earth's steely grasp would probably re-brake it.
"But your ankle-"
"Will have to heal one more time." Annabeth said, gritting her teeth.
"But Annabeth-."
"Percy just do it!" She begged, and Percy knew it was the only way. He gulped, but grabbed her shoulders.
"On three." He whispered. She nodded. "One, one and one half, two,"
"Percy!" She screeched. He pulled her up from her shoulders. With a terrible crack he pulled her free. She screamed again, and Percy looked around to see if any monsters had noticed them. The monsters were all too focused on climbing on top of each other to get closer to the door. Annabeth passed out for a moment, but came to after a few seconds.
"We have to keep moving." She put on a brave face, but Percy could see her ankle was a strange blackish colour, even in the dim light. She tried to step forward and fell over immediately. Percy caught her.
"Damn this ankle!" She muttered and leaned on him. They shuffled closed to the giant door, Annabeth leaning on Percy. When they were close enough to make out every ugly detail of the monsters faces, they stopped again. The door looked even bigger closer up. Annabeth still didn't have a single idea, and was fading in and out of consciousness. A ghost appeared in front of them, simply floating out of the ground. Percy nearly chopped its head off.
"Wait Perseus Jackson!" Percy hesitated. Just because the ghost knew his name didn't mean it was friendly, but it might mean it knew something.
"What?" Percy growled.
"It's natural you don't recognize me."
"Who?"
The ghost, who must have been a thirty something guy with short, military cut hair, flung his arms up dramatically. "It's me Persephone, here to save the day."
Percy blinked in confusion. "What?" The ghost rolled its eyes.
"Look hero, I'm using this ghost. I'll get this dunce to shut the doors, and you and your girlfriend can escape." Percy stared at the goddess/ military officer with his mouth wide open.
"What's the catch?" Annabeth asked suspiciously. Percy jumped. He thought she had passed out.
"The two of you owe me one small favour."
"Naturally." Percy rolled his eyes.
"What's the favour?" Annabeth asked, narrowing her eyes.
"Oh you know, mother daughter problems. You understand." Annabeth glared at the ghost. She respected her mother, and really hated it when people degraded her.
"So what exactly is wrong with your mother?" Percy asked quickly, knowing that the conversation could turn ugly fast. Persephone sniffed.
"She's acting strange. I think Gaea is affecting her."
"Maybe she's just having trouble with being Demeter and her Roman counterpart." Percy said.
"Come to think of it… why aren't you affected?" Annabeth asked, still glaring at the goddess.
"My Roman side is so alike my Greek one I hardly ever feel any different. My mother is the same way, so I don't understand why she is acting so strangely."
"What do you want us to do about it?" Annabeth asked grumpily.
"Check up on her. Figure out if Gaea has anything to do with it."
"We can do that." Percy saw this as their first break since falling in the hellhole.
"Okay but one more question... why us? Why not grab some demigods that are, oh you know, in the living world?" Annabeth asked, waving her hand around for emphasis. The goddess huffed angrily.
"I have a few reasons dearie. One, Percy has proven to be quite capable when it comes to jobs, and two, I can't really ask anyone from the living world, because I'm trapped down here, remember?" The military officer crossed his arms, annoyed. Annabeth shook her head.
"That means it's winter… we've been down here for months!" This came as a shock to Percy as well it was hard to tell time passing in complete darkness. The military officer clapped his hands.
"Right! So, you two go hide over here, and I'll just-." The ghost sunk back into the ground. Suddenly hundreds of ghosts popped out of the ground like popcorn. The ground around the door started to rumble, and the mound of monsters began to collapse. The monsters turned on the ghosts, and the two armies started to fight each other. Percy and Annabeth saw their chance, and made a run (Perhaps more of a wobble) For the door. About half way there Annabeth passed out and Percy scooped her up. Thankfully the ghosts were surrounding them, protecting them from the many monsters. The door was wide open, and white light was shining through it. Obviously it was the source of the light. Percy pushed his way through the light and found himself in a house, with Jason staring at him with disbelief.
"… And that's it." Percy finished. They left out any kissing and Percy definitely didn't mention his thoughts about Annabeth (He never mentioned them to Annabeth either). No one had time to make any comments. Coach Hedge burst into the kitchen.
"Uh. We might have a small problem." Leo shot the goat-man a glare.
"My poor ship. What now?" Leo had asked Coach Hedge to fly the ship for an hour, just so he could eat some breakfast. He should have known better than to trust the idiot.
"There were some clouds just begging to be fired at, so I shot them with the canon's to protect our pride, but the canon ball went a little off course and hit Peleus. He seemed a little angry."
"I wonder why." Leo muttered. "Alright I'm coming. He isn't attacking the ship is he?"
"Well he totally overreacted!" The coach whined. Leo groaned.
"I left you to pilot the ship for onE HOUR!"
Feel free to tell me if I got anything wrong like names, or places…
