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Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Their escape:

Katie could hardly believe what had just happened to her. While she'd been under the mud for those awful minutes before Travis got to her, Gaea had explained to her how she was going to be too crucial to the success of the demigod forces for the earth goddess to let her live. "I hope you understand, dear daughter of Demeter," she'd told her in that creepy ancient voice. "It's not that I don't like you personally. It's just that… you're going to get in the way of my plans if I let you live." Katie remembered thinking that Gaea had a stone-cold heart and a ruthlessness she'd never really encountered before. Then she'd drifted into that dark, life-devoid place where the almost-dead went. She was just glad that Travis had saved her before she'd gone from almost-dead to totally-dead. That wouldn't have been very fun.

Now he was wading back through the mud, pulling on the rope little by little to tug them through without sinking too much deeper. She couldn't believe how strong he was being. She didn't think that she'd be able to survive a ride with the Gray Sisters, hitchhike forty miles, figure out a plan to distract an army of monsters long enough to rescue someone from mud, execute the plan perfectly, defeat that someone's bodyguards, wade through the mud to reach the person while being bogged down by Gaea, pull that person out when they were two feet below the surface, bring the person back to life, and wade back with the earth goddess still pulling them down. (Travis had explained his adventures between spurts of hard breathing from walking against the powers of a very ticked-off earth goddess and cussing at said earth goddess.) "You really are incredible, Travis," she told him. "You know that, right?"

"Aw, you're just saying that because I saved your life," he said. "Just wait. Tomorrow, you'll be yelling at me for bugging some cabin with some prank." But she noticed the pleased smile he tried to hide.

She shook her head. "I don't think so. Tomorrow, you're asking me out properly and taking me on a date."

His smile widened. "Do I have to wait until tomorrow?"

"You will if you keep stopping like this," she teased.

"I'm tired! If you want to complain, then maybe you should do it!"

She shrugged, said, "Okay," and let go of him.

Immediately, he grabbed one of her hands with his free one and put it on his shoulder. "I was kidding! Hold on again… please?"

"Since you asked so nicely…" she said, and wrapped her arms around him again. Only then did he start off again, ignoring the extra few inches he'd sunk. And only then did she lean her head against his shoulder and smile secretly, making sure he couldn't see. She'd never known he cared this much.

Eventually, they did reach the end of the mud, and Travis ordered her to hold onto the spear jutting out of the ground so that she wouldn't sink too far while he climbed out. It took him the better part of ten minutes to do that, slowly yanking himself out of Gaea's arms and onto land he wouldn't disappear into – at least, not as fast. Then it was Katie's turn, and with his help, she finally, finally, finally got out of the mud lake she'd been stuck in for the last two weeks. It felt so strange to be able to move freely, without each movement taking a crazy amount of effort. She was so overwhelmed that she just collapsed into him, almost sobbing from relief. He held her tightly for ten, twenty seconds, promising her that everything would be okay. But after twenty-five seconds, he let go of her and propped her up. "You've got to be strong now, Katie," he whispered. "We're not out of this yet." Of course, at that very moment, a bronze cannonball came screaming towards her head (why was it that those were the weapons everybody seemed to be using?) and Travis reached out and caught it with his fireproof gloves just in time. Then he threw it back towards the monster and disintegrated it. And it was about then that Katie noticed the rest of Gaea's army slowly marching towards them. "See what I mean?" Travis said. He pulled a dagger out of his backpack and handed it to her. "Now come with me!" He jumped up and grabbed her free hand, hauling her up as well. Then he started running. Katie didn't have time to question him much. If she hadn't started running too, she didn't doubt that he would've just dragged her along.

They ended up behind a gigantic boulder about twenty feet away. As Katie heard cannonballs and spears and rocks and other projectiles hurtling into their barrier, Travis picked up a sword that he must've left behind when he went to get her. He looked at her worriedly. "Time to go. You ready for this?"

She grinned – maybe a little hysterically, but under the circumstances she thought he'd understand. "Ready? I'm excited. Let's run." They ran.

Travis hadn't thought Katie was the greatest fighter. Sure, she was decent with a knife, but monster fighting had never really been one of her strengths. …Until today, apparently. She slashed and stabbed and twirled and destroyed Greek terrors like a pro. And she didn't look the least bit tired, even though she hadn't been able to really move for two weeks and was suddenly being thrown into battle. He guessed revenge and adrenaline were good ways to keep your energy up.

He supposed he wasn't doing too bad either. He'd dispatched his fair share of Greek terrors as well. Of course, he was pumped up on adrenaline and was getting revenge, just like Katie. So maybe it made sense.

"Not bad, Stoll," Katie laughed as he bashed in the head of a weird creature made of wheat that was pelting seeds at him. It burst into grainy particles.

"I thought you'd be upset," he teased, "daughter of the wheat goddess and all."

"Somehow, I don't think Demeter will mind," Katie grinned. She then took care of a couple of the things herself. Travis raised an eyebrow, even as he was fighting a dracaena (female this time, thank goodness). This was a side of Katie he didn't think he'd seen before. She used to be calm and rational basically all of the time (unless she was telling him off for pulling a prank, of course), and she loved all kinds of plants, no matter what. New Katie was a little wilder, and she was destroying plants and smiling as she did it. Then again, they were evil plants… but still. It worried him a little, but he tried not to let it break his concentration. These things almost killed her, he reminded himself. She's probably letting out her frustration from the last two weeks. After we get back to camp, she'll get back to normal, I'm sure. I'm sure… right? He shook his head and finished off the dracaena. Of course I'm sure.

Just then, he saw Katie go down out of the corner of his eye. He whirled towards her, slicing apart five of the monsters closest to him as he did so. "Katie!" he yelled. "Are you okay?" Oh gods, he'd come too far to lose her now…

But she was already getting up. "I'm okay, Travis," she promised. "Just tripped… That's all." Right away, she started fighting again. Still, Travis noticed that her wild side had calmed down a little. She was taking out monsters the same as before, totally lethal… but she'd stopped attacking the wheat things. Already, she was getting back to the Katie he knew and loved. (Er… you know, as a figure of speech. He liked her, but he didn't love her, obviously. That would be, like, major commitment. Sons of Hermes didn't really do commitment. Still, she was Katie… oh, never mind.) Travis was glad to see that the craziness-almost-verging-on-insanity wasn't permanent. But then again, that brought on a whole other kind of worry. As her adrenaline slowed down, as she tuned back in, would her fighting skills stay top-notch? Or would she slow down in that area as well? Absent-mindedly, he thrust his sword through a random monster's stomach and decided he'd just keep an eye on her (as if he wasn't doing that already…). He didn't have time to worry without good reason. That became very clear when a vicious hellhound lunged at him and scraped its claws across his chest before he could stab it. He really needed to be more careful.

Katie and Travis were fighting diligently, slowly making their way towards the paved road (where Gaea couldn't get them) and freedom. Travis was getting tired, and he was sure Katie was too, but neither of them was ready to show it. So instead, Travis kept up a constant stream of chatter, talking about his Greatest Pranks of All Time (it was the first thing that popped into his head, okay?), and Katie broke in occasionally with comments about how she'd saved him from Dionysus's fury after this prank had gone haywire, and how she'd stopped the Ares cabin from starting a war after that prank had utterly humiliated them… and the list went on. Somehow, their banter kept both of them from giving up – at least, it kept Travis from giving up, and it seemed Katie wasn't going to call it quits until he did, so all in all it kept both of them from giving up – and Travis finally had hope that they'd actually make it out alive. He turned to tell Katie that – had opened his mouth to start – when he saw an angry giant humanoid-thing with four arms and a very big ax run towards her. Travis was five feet away, with three or four monsters blocking him… he yelled out, "Katie! Behind you!" and dashed towards her. He was singularly focused on keeping her safe… so he didn't see when a Cyclops with a hammer came up behind him and knocked him over the head. As he fell to the ground, eyes rolling up in his skull, he wondered why he wasn't helping her… and why everything was turning so dim and hazy. And then everything went from dim and hazy to black, and he couldn't wonder anything else.

Any thoughts?