Hey, thanks for the reviews! This is my first fanfic so getting such constructive reviews for it was really awesome! Sorry about the "I" thing. I write it on my phone so I don't really take note on capitaizing the "I"s. Don't worry though. I made sure the "I" problem was fixed for this chapter. Oh and you know that suggestion on Percy and Co. making pathetic failed attempts at speaking Singlish? I love it. I'm gonna incorporate that idea in the later chapters when they reach Singapore and everything. K, here it is! Chapter 3. Thank you SO MUCH for the reviews!:D

With a wave of his hand, the ground in front of us cracked open. Inside the hole was the beginning of a stone staircase which led downwards into darkness. The steps looked like they were going to break and send us spiralling down to our death. The good thing was, if we did die like that, then we wouldn't need to look far for the underworld.

I wondered when Nico had learned to make his own underworld entrances. I also wondered whether he had ever opened these holes at where his school teachers (Annabeth had insisted that he attend school. Universal law of life and survival: Never disagree with Annabeth on education-related things.) stood in the class. I know I would be tempted.

Nico confidently stepped onto the staircase and beckoned us to hurry up. Well, pardon me for being hesitant to enter the territory of the god who hates my guts. Then again, maybe he loved my guts. He probably wanted to pull them out and attach them to his wall for decoration with a placard underneath saying "Percy Jackson lost his guts. Evil laugh."

I followed behind Annabeth and made my way to the underworld for the third time. From above, it had seemed like the stairs just continued to darkness but actually, there were small torches alongside the walls of the tunnel we were travelling through. The green flames gave out only a small amount of light but it was enough to see any gut-pulling monsters Hades planned to send.

The dim lights made Nico look even scarier. I mean, it wasn't that Nico was actually scary. It's just that with dark hair contrasting to his pale skin, serious eyes and his love for black, gothic looking t-shirts, he did sometimes look like the type of teenager who would have hidden weapons with him. In truth though, he was really nice and a good friend. Well, he did carry a weapon though but he didn't hide it. His wicked stygian sword was almost always by his side. Sometimes, I wondered if humans saw it as a skateboard. It was one of my dreams to have monsters that could just vanish under the fury of a piece of plastic and four tiny metal wheels.

When we finally reached the bottom (my guts were still MY guts, thankfully), we were in the underworld. As usual, it was absolutely congested with souls. I wondered why the souls took up so much space considering the fact that they weren't supposed to be able to take up space. I mean, weren't they like ghosts or something and you could past your hand right through them? Couldn't they just squeeze into one another? Okay, that would be awfully wrong.

"So...are you gonna like summon the darkness in here and gather it together to form a big piece of...pure darkness?" I asked Nico.

"Uh no. We're just going to use that shadow over there." Nico replied.

If i got a dollar every time I felt like an idiot...

We walked towards this huge boulder that was casting an equally huge shadow. The underworld was already quite dark so I guessed whatever shadows cast here were of pure darkness. Or something.

Now that we were here, Annabeth looked a bit doubtful that it would work. "is this the part where we hold hands, bid farewell and then run into the boulder and die?" she looked at Nico.

"No. This is the part where I have to use whatever power I have to control the shadows and their darkness and transport two people who don't trust me to the other side and if you don't let me concentrate now, you'll end up stuck in the middle of nowhere." Nico retorted and then took a deep breadth and composed himself.

"Hold my hands and we'll step inside the shadow together."

"Knew you were afraid of the dark..." Annabeth muttered.

"if you want to try going by yourself, without holding on to me, then you'll get your first wish of walking into the rock, maybe even splitting your head open and having your brain ooze out and licked by a passing hellhound who thinks its ice cream. If you want to let go halfway of course, maybe you'll get torn into two, your body somewhere in Egypt and your big head stuck in the realm of darkness. Don't worry about burial, your body will probably dry up like a prune and get eaten by camels or something. Your head, on the other hand, will luckily be too far away from anyone to bother them with its stinking decomposition, even if it's a long rotting period, due to its large, swollen up size. So, what d'ya want?"

Annabeth looked disgusted at the gory, extra details. Nico wasn't usually like this so I guessed he was just agitated, probably nervous about bringing all three of us through the shadows. I could remember how drowsy he had become after that last time I had seen him shadow travel. Hopefully, he really had been training since then.

Annabeth, seeming reluctant, moved from my side to Nico's left. Closing his eyes and concentrating hard, Nico led us into the cold darkness.