*ANNABETH*
They had been walking for hours, at least that's what it felt like, but time was immeasurable when there was no light. Riptide, being but a dim light helped little but was a small luxury in their situation. They walked side by side most of the time, until Percy became too wrapped up in his thoughts and strayed ahead. Annabeth let him think, until he got too far and she became lost without the light, and his response was always the same. A mumbled sorry and then he was back to Percy World. In normal circumstances this might have bothered Annabeth, but she knew that after a fall like that, Percy needed time to mull things over, and she did too. She went over their resources again, a pocket full of ambrosia (that Percy had thought to bring down when he rescued Annabeth from Arachne), a spool of thread that had fallen with them, and Annabeth's emergency dagger that she kept strapped to her thigh (she knew it was Charlies-Angels-Cheesy but a weapons' a weapon). Then she tried to calculate how long they'd been gone, assuming the fall to Tartarus was indeed nine days, (which seemed unlikely, except for the fact that demigods could go longer without food and water than typical mortals), they had already spent one day sleeping and recuperating, which meant they had been down here a total of ten days.
"What do you think the others are up to right now?" Annabeth asked hesitantly. Percy jerked around, almost as if he'd forgotten that he wasn't alone.
"Um-, well lets see, Jason and Piper are probably eating in the mess hall. Hazel is taking care of Nico in sickbay, and Frank and Leo are arguing about Hazel, fire and what ever else they have on their minds." A ghost of a smile crept up his lips as he said this. Annabeth imagined the crew of the Argo II, flying through the sky as they sailed to Greece. She felt her self unraveling at the thought of clear skies and sunny days,"No." She told her self, she had to stay strong. Suddenly though, she was snapped out of her thoughts as she ran into a something solid, and warm...
*PERCY*
Annabeth rammed into Percy's back as he came to a halt.
"What is it?" She asked from behind his shoulder, sounding a little miffed that he hadn't given her a heads up.
"Do you here that?" He asked, praying to the gods that it wasn't what he thought it was.
"Here wha-" She fell silent as the sound reached her ears. "What is that?" He could hear her voice tremble as she listened to the noise, she went still behind him. He gripped Riptide tighter and reached behind himself to Annabeth's thigh (if they weren't in Tartarus, he would have blushed), grabbing the dagger he knew she kept there and then pressing it into her shaking hand.
"Annabeth, please, stay strong and fight with me, nothing will happen to you, its okay, your not alone." He whispered this to her until he felt her fingers curl around the hilt.
"Son of Poseidon and Daughter of Athena, you think such a fall could stop me?" The shadows hissed, "You have come to me, and I will take my revenge on you spawns of immortals once and for all."
A chill crept down Percy's back as he listened to the voice, the voice of Annabeth's worst fear, the voice of Arachne.