Ha! Bet you didn't except a Percy POV after the cliffy last chapter!

Disclaimer- Not doing any from now on. Why? Because there's no point if the companies sue me. I'm not making any money off this, so really, there's nothing so wrong about it.

Last one- Rick Riordan owns this story's characters!

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And you'll have to wait to find out what Poseidon meant by "catalyst..."

XXIII

Percy

Percy went to sleep shortly after Annabeth. Thank the gods, he didn't get any dreams, except one where Santa was going, "HO HO HO! Candy if you can defeat Gaea!"

Yeah, that one was a bit awkward.

Annabeth woke up the next morning (or evening, or afternoon; it was hard to tell time in Tartarus) with a troubled expression on his face. "What's wrong?" Percy asked.

"Nothing," Annabeth muttered, her face showing the complete opposite.

Percy decided not to dwell on it too much. Doing so usually ended up with him on the business end of Annabeth's dagger.

Erebus was snoring in the corner, drooling. Percy considered for a moment trying to subdue him while he was still asleep.

"Do you want to try?" He asked.

Annabeth pondered it. "Why not?"

Percy nonchalantly (Vocab word! + 1 for me!) walked up to the snoring god of shadows, pretending to sit by the small campfire.

Halfway through the sit, Percy shot out his hand and tried to grab Erebus's throat.

Unfortunately, the god was in fact not asleep. His eyes shot open instantly and he leaned to the side easily.

Percy's hand missed and Erebus delivered a light whack to his arm. "You know, I thought I told you there's no way you can defeat me in a shadow. I know everything," the god said lazily.

"You might as well sit down or I'll have to kill you. I'm not sure that Gaea would be too pleased if I had to make your that much shorter."

Percy sat down carefully, his mind still trying to find a way out. Without looking, he knew Annabeth was trying to think up something too.

"Now, let's eat breakfast!" Erebus smiled, waving his hand and a giant breakfast buffet appeared along with a table and 3 kitchen chairs.

Even though he didn't get hungry in Tartarus, Percy's mouth watered and his stomach grumbled as he overlooked the giant selection of foods- bacon, eggs, sausage, potatoes, pancakes, waffles and just about anything else you could want.

Half an hour and a very satisfying breakfast later, things went weird.

Everything flipped for a moment, and then straightened out. They were somewhere else, in a small cave that looked similar to the one before, but slightly different features. Erebus was gone. So was Annabeth.

"Annabeth?" Percy called, slightly panicked.

Then he heard it. As if it was right next to it. A blood curling scream of pain and terror.

Percy instantly went into red alert mode.

He shouted her name again. "Annabeth!" No response. Swearing, Percy uncapped Riptide and ran ahead. It wasn't long before the scream sounded again.

Percy tried not to have a mental breakdown from the anguish.

Instead, he focused. The cave led straight ahead. It wasn't long before his head began throbbing painfully, vile images flashing through his head.

Don't collapse now, he yelled at himself. Find her!

The thought of Annabeth helped him focus, and he continued stumbling forward, trying to control the pain in his head. It didn't work.

His knees buckled and Percy collapsed onto the ground, breaths coming in short and rapid, sweat forming on his forehead.

Don't go into shock! His still functioning brain screamed.

But still, everything went black.

When he woke up again sometime later, Percy was still in the same spot. He wasn't sure how long he's been out, but nothing seemed to have changed. Everything was quiet, except for the drip drip of water.

He pushed himself to a standing position relatively easily. The terrible headache he'd randomly gotten was gone, and Percy felt pretty fresh.

The door a couple feet ahead of him opened up to a…. stadium? Weird.

He took in his surroundings.

The stadium looked like a smaller, underground version of Yankee Stadium. It looked like it was carved from rock, and the roof had truss structures running the length. No one was here, as far as Percy could see.

There were 3 small doors- one he was coming from, and 2 more, all equal distance from each other ringing the arena.

Leading into one of them was a trail of red liquid- blood.

Percy thought for a moment, then, using the shadow of the stands, sneaked around to the door.

Nothing stopped him. He reached the door and put an ear to it. Still quiet.

Carefully, Percy slowly inched the door open and peeked in. The insides like the tunnel/cave identical to the one Percy had come through. There were a few more blood drops, like a bread crumb trail leading to the door on the other side.

Without thinking, he stepped right through.

Unsurprisingly, something attacked him as soon as he entered. Fortunately for him, it roared prematurely and Percy had a lot of time- about a second- to take out his sword and whip around, finding him face to face with a… what the heck was it?

It looked a little like a Chimera, with a black horse as the front, the back half a rooster, complete with wings, tail, legs and butt.

The thing was sulking in a shadow.

Percy's instincts kicked in, slashing at it. The thing was quite smart though. It flattened itself on the ground and the sword miss.

For a couple of minutes, they sparred back and forth. This thing was a lot more intelligent than monsters he had fought before. Even smarter than some Titans *cough* Kronos *cough*.

He quickly found the horooster thing had VERY sharp teeth, courtesy of a small bit the thing got at his arm.

After a few, it made a mistake and snapped to low. Percy strafed to the left and thrust forward, catching it in its throat and instantly disintegrating it.

Or so he thought. Instead of turning into yellow dust, it bled red blood.

The thing whimpered in pain, and Percy almost felt sorry for the thing. He decided to put it out of its misery. "Bye, Leroy," he said, making up a random name.

Leroy whimpered again, bowing its head in defeat. As Percy raised the sword over its head for a killing stroke, a voice tsk-ed. "Stay right there, Perseus," a deep male voice boomed.

Percy looked right and found Erebus standing there behind someone else. When he realized who it was, Percy's heart contracted.

It was Annabeth, barely conscious and slumped weakly against Erebus's bulky figure. Her figure showed utter exhaustion, and there was a large patch of red right under the heart that was spreading by the second.

The god had a nasty black dagger dug quite deep into her throat. A few small drops of blood were trickling from the point.

This time, Percy had a feeling this wasn't an illusion

"I'd hate for you to kill my pet," he smiled and emphasized on the knife in his hand. "Or else we might have to end this poor soul's life." He gestured to Annabeth.

She looked him in the eye a second, and Percy knew what to do. He nodded slightly, gripping his sword more tightly and pointing it at the shadow god.

He pretended to hesitate for a moment, and Erebus's grip on Annabeth weakened just a fraction, but it was enough.

The moment he let go that tiny bit, she stepped backwards on his feet. Erebus howled in pain and blindly slashed at her, but Annabeth had already dropped to the floor, the blade going wide. She delivered another kick to the god's knee, and Percy came in.

Being immortal, Erebus recovered quickly and met Riptide with a sword he had sheathed, dropping the dagger like Percy had hoped. He unleashed a quick strike of blows distracting the god as Annabeth dived past him, scooping up her blade.

Too late, Erebus realized that a very angry daughter of Athena armed with a knife was behind him, and he turned around just in time to see the butt of the blade slam into his temple.

The poor thing crumpled instantly. "Come on. That'll keep him occupied for a couple of seconds," she groaned, clutching a hand to her injury.

"WE have to get you some medical attention first," Percy demanded.

"Look for the backpacks."

Percy didn't argue and helped support her as Annabeth limped away, swearing worse than a sailor. "Language," He muttered. She punched him in the gut and told me to shut up.

"Love you to," Percy smiled in reply. "Let's get you out of here."

No cliffhanger. Happy now? Review... or I'll make one. And it'll be BAD

Quote of the chapter- I've got a problem for your solution

Entertainment of the chapter- Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm

Song of the chapter- Diamonds by Rihanna (hate that song, but can't think of anything)