I took off sprinting with Nico right behind me, but Annabeth wasn't following.

"Annabeth!" I cried. "Come on!"

She tried stumbling after, but to no avail. She kept falling and tripping.

"Just go!" she screamed, barely dodging Cerberus's paws.

"No!" I cried, running full speed toward her. Nico took off toward Hade's castle. What was he doing?

There was no time to think about it. As I approached Annabeth, Cerberus was about to snap at her. I lunged, causing us both to roll away. He growled in disappointment. I helped her up while he was gaining his bearings again.

"Go," I said, and she stumbled away.

"Alright!" I screamed as the over-sized German shepherd faced me. "You're going to get it this time!"

He snapped at me, I dodged, and and a row of dead people in the E-Z DEATH line got knocked over. Whoops. As I dodged his attacks, something strange occurred to me... He was never mean to Nico, in fact, he loved Nico. Why had he changed all of a sudden?

I ran forward, stabbed toward his paw, but then faltered at the last minute. Even if he wasn't going to play nice, I couldn't kill Nico's "pet". Something was definitely wrong with him, and if I killed him, we may have never known what caused it. Was it Menoetius? Could Kronos send nightmares to dogs? Even if he could, could he send them to over-sized, Hades'-loving ones?

I lunged toward his paw again to fake-stab it, and he fell for it again as I lurched away. That gave me a few precious seconds to see Annabeth.

"Annabeth!" I cried. "Are you okay?"

There was little drops of blood on the ground in front of her, where she was leaning. "Careful," she said hoarsely, looking up. I barely missed Cerberus's mouth.

"Ann-" I dodged Cerberus again.

"Stop worrying about me and defend yourself!" she cried, then had a coughing fit. She then vomited blood.

No, I thought, could it get any worse!?

I needed to distract Cerberus longer. He couldn't get to Annabeth. But how? Nico was no help anymore; he'd run off to his dad. I was getting more and more tired. No way I could keep this up forever, and once I was finished, there was no doubt that he'd go after Annabeth. Maybe my only choice was to kill him. His master was Hades, which meant he'd come back eventually, maybe even quicker than usual, right?

I continued to charge and taunt him until I was able to get him to face me. He growled, then snapped at me, just as I expected. As he did, I jumped onto his head and slid down his neck until I regained balance. I had Riptide in both my hands above me, about to bring it down on him, until he lurched forward and sent me flying. Luckily, I missed all the dead and had no injuries except for a couple scrapes and bruises. As I stood up, I expected Cerberus to charge at me, but instead, he was watching Annabeth vomit and cough blood everywhere. Then, quietly, he slowly went toward her, step by step. She didn't notice.

"Hey, Fur-ball!" I screamed, but he ignored me.

I started taking off toward Annabeth until I was right in front of her. She finally stopped her coughing fit and looked up at me.

"Percy," she said weakly, "I don't... Look out!"

Too late. Cerberus knocked me aside, sending me flying and eventually hit my head on a rock by the River Styx. I was dazed and dizzy. Warm blood trickled down my head.

"Percy!" Annabeth cried.

My legs wouldn't move. My vision was cloudy, but I could see enough to tell that Cerberus was close to her. She staggered up and pulled her dagger out. I tried to force my legs to move but they refused. If nothing had happened soon, Annabeth would be-

Cerberus stopped right in front of her, his eyes twitching. He howled loudly, then scratched at his ears, then nipped at them. The spirits all around stopped, then chattered and covered their ears in annoyance.

"Castle!" Nico cried.

Cerberus bounded toward there, never looking back. Nico came over and helped me up.

"You hit your head pretty hard," he observed.

"I'll be okay. Annabeth has nectar on her all the time. How'd you get him to stop?"

He showed me something shiny in his hands. "Underworld Dog Whistle. Don't ask how it was made."

Considering the spirits' reaction, I didn't want to.

"Help me check on Annabeth," I said, and we went over to her. Blood and vomit lay on the ground next to her. Nico cringed.

"You're getting worse," I noticed.

"Only because of you, Seaweed Brain," she teased, but coughed a little after.

I helped her up. "We'll find Menoetius. I'll personally make him regret this."

She smiled and kissed me on the cheek. Nico looked away, but I could hear him laughing a little.

"I know you will," she said. "You both will be great."

"We," I corrected.

She shifted. "Percy, maybe I should be behind. I'm just a burden now."

"Don't say that," Nico said.

"It's true!" she insisted. "I could go to Hades. Nico, doesn't he owe you a favor?"

He shrugged. "Maybe for recovering his keys. I could probably convince him. Persephone would like you, at the least, since you're not a child of Hades yourself."

He said the last sentence with bitterness, like Persephone was a crazy step-mother who wanted to destroy him every minute of her eternal life. Which was true, of course.

"Alright," I said, "let's go talk to the Lord of the Dead."