Chapter 14:

Percy woke in alarm. He cursed when he realized it was another monster. Him and the others in the prophecy had set up their tents in a cave on the side of Mt. Olympus a few days before in an effort to hide themselves from monsters. After days of ruthless assaults they had decided for the time being to wait for help to arrive. Especially since Piper, Gwendolyn and Leo were all injured, and their supply of ambrosia ran out.

"Annabeth wake up. They've found us," Percy said shaking his sleeping girlfriend awake.

He saw Annabeth start to drift out of sleep and began to wake the others.

"How did they find us?" Piper mumbled grimly.

"Dunno, but we'll have to outrun them again," Percy said as he gathered some of their food and other items. The others began to help him.

BAM! Rocks began to fall all around them and the mountain was shaking.

"Get out of here now!" Percy yelled as an avalanche of rocks started to fall. The last thing they needed was to be trapped in a cave under tons of rocks.

Percy lifted Gwendolyn onto his back due to her being unable to run very fast with a broken leg. Jason lifted Piper and the seven of them rushed out of the cave. Luckily not too far out of the cave was a flat portion of the mountain that would lead them to a safer place away from the tumbling rocks. All they had to do was climb down a small part of the cliff.

"Bobby you climb down first!" Percy yelled as they were exposed to rocks that were still falling.

Bobby quickly made his way down the steep portion of the cliff.

"Jason pass Piper down!"

Jason did as he was told and handed Piper to Bobby. Jason then helped pass Leo to Bobby. Suddenly a large boulder fell within feet of them and bigger rocks began to follow.

"We have to just jump for it!" Annabeth screamed out. Percy knew they didn't have much time and jumped off the cliff with Gwendolyn on his back. Annabeth and Jason were following from behind.

There were still a lot of good things about having the curse of Achilihies. For example, there were probably over a dozen times during the past few weeks when he would've died. This was one of them. Percy could see a pool of blood on the ground as he lay at the bottom of the cliff dazed. A large boulder was on his head.

After he realized it couldn't possibly be his blood he sat up alarmed, knocking the boulder off. Gwendolyn was no longer on his back and was nowhere in sight.

"Gwendolyn!" He screamed out, "Annabeth! Anyone?" He felt his heart racing as he sat there panicking. There were rocks and boulders all around them and dust was in the air, but the rocks had stopped falling.

"Percy!" Annabeth screamed out to him, pain was evident in her voice.

Percy quickly got to his feet, he didn't know what he'd do if something had happened to her.

"Annabeth!" He had to find out where she was.

"Over here Percy," Annabeth said.

Percy ran over to where her voice was. The dust and rocks that covered the ground made it hard for him to see. Finally he found her, her leg was buried under a huge rock and tears were running down her face. She had something in her hand but he couldn't make it out.

"She's not breathing Percy," Annabeth said softly.

Percy realized what she was holding. It was a head, a bloody head. Percy wanted to vomit when he saw all the blood pouring out of a large wound on her head.

"What happened? She was on my back, I thought I had her," Percy said. He could feel tears filling his eyes and his throat felt like he was choking.

Annabeth looked up at him, her eyes were red from crying. "Where are the others?" she asked.

Percy looked around quickly, it was too hard for him to make out anyone.

"I'm over here!" Percy heard Leo shout out. "I'm with Jason, Bobby and Piper!"

"Annabeth and I are together. But Gwendolyn she-" Percy couldn't finish the statement. Of course they all knew they could die and he had seen others die before, but it was always almost surreal when it happened. Gwednolyn would never speak to them again, she would never make lame jokes or tell them funny stories about the situations she always found herself in. Gwendolyn was also one of the few people that were nice to him during his stay at the Roman camp. He hadn't really told Annabeth, but for a while he thought she was his girlfriend.

Percy shook off those thoughts, knew there was no point in focusing on her death, there were still monsters all over and he had to take care of Annabeth.

"I'll free your leg," Percy told Annabeth. A smallish boulder lay on her right leg, "Don't move."

Percy lifted it off her easily but grimaced when he saw her leg. It was crushed pretty badly, it was dark from bruising and it was definitely broken. Percy looked at her and saw her face contorted in pain.

"Don't worry," Percy said, "It's not too bad."

She moaned in pain, "Not too bad? Are we looking at the same thing?"

She was still holding onto Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn's body was still trapped under rocks, there was no way he was leaving her so he got up cleared her body of all the rocks.

"I'll take you over to the others Annabeth. You have to let go of her."

Annabeth still looked pretty shaken and her face was pale. She looked at him and Percy hadn't seen her look this vulnerable before. But after everything that had happened the past few weeks, he wasn't surprised. He knew he himself had changed, he would have nightmares along with his usual traveling dreams and some nights he would wake up on the verge of screaming.

Percy brushed his hands over her warm face and kissed her lips, "Everything will be fine Annabeth."

Annabeth nodded and let go of Gwendolyn, and Percy lifted her into his arms. He screamed out to the others and they told him where to walk. The others looked a bit worn, but not too different from the already two weeks of fighting.

"Annabeth your leg," Leo said as he stared at it in shock.

Annabeth rolled her eyes, "I know Leo. I'm the one who has to feel it. And trust me it looks better than it feels."

"Wait here you guys, I'll get Gwendolyn's body," Percy told them.

"I'll help," Jason said.

The two of them walked over to where Gwendolyn's dead body lay. Percy saw Jason tense when he saw her. Jason leant down and kissed her cheek. Percy remained silent as Jason said his goodbyes. The two weren't dating, but Jason was really close with the other Romans as he was their praetor or general.

"We will cremate her later," Jason told him. His face said he was leaving no option for debate.

"Sure," Percy said, "But now I think we should find another place to hide for the night."

Jason nodded and together they carefully lifted Gwendolyn's body to where the others were waiting. Then they set off finding another place to hide. Percy hoped the others would arrive soon, with the more days that passed the more people they would lose.

(Switching to Carter!)

Carter paced nervously along the steamboat that was leading them closer to Zia. Well, maybe closer.

"You should relax Carter," CJ said as she sat down next to the helm where Bast was steering them.

Carter fidgeted, "Too hard."

CJ rolled her eyes and smiled at him, which was a bit unnerving since she never seemed to smile. "Take a deep breath. You know, in-and-out."

Carter stopped walking and sighed. He probably did look stupid walking back and forth. He slowly breathed in deep breath and right as he was about to let it out a glowing bird thing suddenly appeared in his face.

"What the fu-!" He caught himself before he cursed when he recognized the face. He recognized the familiar milky eyes that were twinkling and the same friendly smile.

"Oh sorry Iskhander, didn't recognize you at first," Carter smiled sheepishly at the old man-bird.

"It's wonderful to see you again Carter. You have grown a lot these past two years," Iskhander said, his voice was echoing throughout the huge underground world.

"It's nice to see you again too. But we're looking for Zia, have you seen her?"

Iskhander laughed, "You're getting straight to the point. I see you still have that crush on her."

Carter blushed and began to twirl his fingers in his hair again.

"I have seen her in fact, she's been trying to get Anubis and other gods to reveal a few important things about Amun Ra. I'm not sure if she's been successful or not, but I do know she is still here."

Carter's eyes lit up, "Thank you Iskhander!" He would've given the man a hug, had he not been a weird ghost bird.

"Of course Carter, I won't hold you up any longer. I allow you to pass through," Iskhander said before fading away.

"I hate when he does that!" Bast yelled after she unfroze, she was peeved at having time stop again.

Carter turned to look at them, CJ looked a little confused and Bast was well angry.

"Zia is here!"

Bast grinned, "That's great news! Now we won't have to stay down here longer than needed. We can just grab her and get out of here."

"I bet you're very happy Carter," CJ said staring at him.

"That dog must be coming soon," Bast said crouching down as if trying to hide from an invisible enemy.

Carter looked around the empty underground, he didn't know what was taking Anubis so long. The last time he had appeared almost as soon as they got past the gates.

"Anubis!" he screamed out.

There was silence. Carter didn't know what to do if Anubis didn't come for them. He didn't exactly know the directions to the Hall of Judgment. "Maybe we should all scream for him."

CJ raised an eyebrow at him, "Anubis." She said in her normal monotone speaking voice.

Carter rolled his eyes and looked at Bast who was still crouching down and looking around nervously.

"What? He's not going to get the best of me this time. Not that smelly dog," Bast said before a jackal jumped out of the mist and pounced on her from behind.

"Smelly dog?" Anubis asked after he transformed into his human form. He glared at Bast and then looked at CJ and gave her an odd look, then he turned to Carter.

"You're here for Zia," He stated. He didn't look like he was in a very good mood, his brows were furrowed.

"Can you show us to her?"

Anubis looked at the three of them and nodded. Then a rectangular black portal appeared in the air, Anubis instructed them to walk through it. Carter went through first and was transported into the familiar Hall of Judgment, also known as his old home in L.A. He noticed his father sitting in his usual throne and he looked just as blue as ever.

"Dad!" Carter said smiling at him. He had forgotten just how much he missed him. Next to his father was his mother and Anubis came and stood next to him on the other side.

"It's been too long again," his mother said approaching him and giving him a hug. Carter smiled, he was glad she didn't feel like a dead person.

"I'll try and visit more mom," Then Carter remembered what he came there for, "Zia!.. I mean, have you seen her?"

His mother laughed at him making him embarrassed.

"You've grown so much, I see you found yourself a girl," her blue eyes were shining even in spirit form.

Carter groaned in embarrassment but nodded.

"Has Zia finished talking to the other gods Anubis?" asked Julius.

Anubis nodded, "I will go get her." Anubis dissipated from the room and moments later he arrived with Zia.

Carter couldn't get a good look at her, she had a hood covering some of her face. But he could see her familiar beautiful amber eyes.

"Have you discovered the information you were looking for Zia?" Julius asked her.

Zia nodded, "I just finished, thank you for helping me."

Julius smiled and looked at Carter, "My son has been searching for you. I think he's a more than excited to see you again."

Carter hid his scowl, his dad knew just how to embarrass him. Zia looked over at him and Carter saw her studying him. He smiled politely at her, hoping he didn't look too bad. He had on his favorite outfit, formfitting t-shirt with a hoodie, black skinny jeans and his favorite Nikes. He hoped he looked as good as he did to Sadie's friends, to her.

"Hey," he said dumbly. He wasn't sure what to say in such a situation. He wanted to get on his knees and tell her how much he missed her and thought of her during the past two years, but even he knew that would be too weird and clingy.

Zia smirked at him, "Hey."

"Well I guess now that you all have found each other it's time for you to return to your sister. I've heard that you've also made contact with the Greeks. I want you to be careful, all of you. There's a reason the Greeks and the Egyptians drift away from each other," his father said in a serious tone.

Carter nodded, he didn't understand what his father meant but he would heed his warning.

Then the Hall of Judgment faded away and they were back on the steamboat. Anubis and Zia were with them though.

"I guess we should go now," Carter said to them, "Are you coming too Anubis?"

"No, I will go only if your father tells me I should."

"Okay, I guess I'll see you later. Watch after my dad!" Carter said jokingly.

The corners of Anubis's mouths rose, "Tell your sister we still have to talk." Then he disappeared into the mist leaving Carter with Zia, Bast and CJ.

"I'm going to take a quick nap. I've been traveling and talking nonstop okay?" Zia said as she yawned.

"Oh sure, let me get you some blankets," Carter said as he frantically looked around for something soft she could lay down on.

"Did you forget that you're a magician Carter?" Zia asked him.

Carter grinned sheepishly, "Oh yeah." Then he said a simple spell that transfigured a chair into a small cot.

"Thanks," Zia smiled at him before laying down on the bed. She fell asleep before Carter could say "You're welcome."

"I guess we're going to have to wait for her to wake up before she tells us what happened," CJ said to Carter as she took a seat on the railing of the ship.

"Yeah," Carter said leaning on the railing next to her. He was a bit worried about the flames and lava that were below them.

"I'm glad she's okay," CJ said quietly, "I was worried that if something had happened to her it would be my fault."

"Why?"

CJ sighed, "I was too suspicious of you and Sadie. I didn't trust you and so I didn't have AJ deliver the letter as soon as I could've. If I had you would've been able to help her, she wouldn't be so tired."

Carter smiled at her, CJ wasn't the most expressive when it came to emotions but he could tell she really cared for her friend. "She's alright now so don't worry."

CJ nodded and stood up and walked to where Bast was steering the boat and sat down next to her. Carter watched Zia sleep, after everything she had been through she looked so peaceful.

AN:/ I don't know why I was so afraid to write Percy. Well I do know. Tell me if anyone seems out of character. I know Jason probably will be, but I haven't read him enough/he's my least favorite so I don't really mind. But Annabeth and Percy are okay right?

Also thank my beta reader, Katnissjackson1019 for editing and helping me with the plot. She suggested I write the land of the dead scene (I was going to make it a boring paragraph!).

At ILuvZarter: I understand what you mean. It's getting a little boring with just the Sadie/Nico (even writing it is getting kind of boring). I'm going to shift to other characters more now. So I hope you liked this chapter. There will be more Zia and Carter interaction in the coming chapters, well the next one.

At Asined Nortap: There will be more Percy in the future. I hope you liked the first part of the chapter though. Also thanks for all the reviews. I read them all and I will try and cut down on the cheesiness. Some conversations are forced and that's why they turn out like that.

At Wolf girl Myrcat: You know, I didn't even think about that. Lol, I suck at the mythology part. That's why I bet they'd actually be doing a lot more magic than they have in my story. Thank you for reviewing.