*ANNABETH*
All was silent in the throne room, besides the shallow breathing of Percy who still clutched her to his chest, there was nothing. The clay man was quiet; waiting for them to make the first move. Annabeth turned carefully in his lap until she was facing Percy's shocked face. Their eyes locked, his eyes spoke more than his voice ever could. She saw surprise and fear swimming around in the depths of his sea-green eyes. But as quickly as it was there, it was gone; he immediately put on his brace face and gave her a false smile. His hand crept up to hold her cheek, but the words of Gaea echoed through her head; they had to heal before they could be together. She gently stopped his hand and pushed it back to his chest, she saw the beginning of hurt enter his expression but it was quickly chased away with understanding as he slid her away from him and stood up. The clay man held his ground as Percy advanced towards it,
"Gaea..." Percy faltered, there really wasn't anything to say; without knowing where they were or what day it was there was nothing they could do to escape. If they ran now and were actually miles away from the doors they would be endangering the whole mission; if they stayed and it was the day before the ritual then they would be surrendering unknowingly.
"I see that you two have reached your wits end; you have played directly into my trap. In three days time the planets will align and your blood will be spilled on the roots of the gods. But for now we must prepare you; first you must gain back you health. A weak sacrifice has no purpose to me." Gaea said, her voice was like ice through Annabeth's veins. Then it clicked, in order to carry on successfully with this mission they had to be at the top of their game, but that meant that her and Percy had to be separated for who knows how long. Percy turned around, his eyes wide, his expression screamed unsaid terror. The two taraxippus from before grabbed each one of her arms and began leading her from the throne room to a small door on the far wall. Percy hesitated and then surrendered to his two guards; allowing them to lead him through the opposite doorway, Annabeth's heart went with him.
*PERCY*
Percy was lost. He had no Wise-girl to tell him what to do or where to go. He still didn't know what the shadow-shapes were that had led him here; usually Annabeth told him. He had been laying on a cold slab of stone for hours as the shadows cleaned and dressed his wounds, stitched up a nasty cut on his thigh and fed him ambrosia and nectar. Then they had left but he still couldn't relax, his body was on high-alert. He jumped at any sound and instinctively reached for Riptide, who had still not returned to his pocket, he didn't even remember where he had dropped it. Percy sat up and swung his legs off the rock slab, he winced as his sore limbs stretched and moved, he hadn't even realized how sore he was until the cookie flavored ambrosia began to kick in. Percy examined his room; it was made of a gray stone and had only a wood door. The door had no lock and no doorknob, it was only accessible from the outside. Percy sighed, he could think of no way out, but he knew that he had to regain his strength to even stand a chance against the Earth Queen. So, before he could change his mind, Percy laid back down on his stone bed and closed his eyes; and he dreamed of a pair of stormy gray eyes.
*ANNABETH*
Annabeth opened her eyes and had one of those moments where she couldn't remember where she was. Then the previous night's excitement had slowly begun to come back to her, and her heart sunk lower and lower as she remembered their predicament. After the taraxippus had patched her up and given her dinner she immediately slept. She knew how weak she was and that without her health she was of no use to anyone. As they were feeding her she stole some extra ambrosia and hid it in her shirt; and as the night wore on she slowly ate up the square of godly food, only stopping when she felt feverish. Now that it was morning she felt significantly better; on examination she saw that the majority of her cuts had become scabs and her bruises had faded to yellow. Before she could stand to feel her limbs she heard the footsteps of the taraxippus coming down the hallway with her morning meal. An idea had come to her in the middle of the night; now was her time to act. Annabeth scanned the room and saw small crack that ran across the front, right corner of her stone bed, quickly with all the strength she could muster she brought her two fists down on the corner of the stone, Annabeth felt the stone give slightly but she needed more force. Her architect perspective kicked in and she examine the crack predicting that if she kicked from the opposite side it would weaken the stone enough to break. She slid off the slab and laid on the ground with her legs straight up; then she took a deep breath and slammed her heel upward straight into the weakest point, there was a muffled crack and a sharp thud as the stone fragment fell next to her head. Annabeth stood up and set the rock right next to the doorway, and quickly sat back down making sure her body covered the chipped corner. She sat down right as the taraxippus opened the door and came towards her, it made faint hissing sounds and set the food platter down next to her. It turned around immediately and retreated back towards the door, but before the door closed Annabeth picked up the apple next to her and channeled all of her javelin throwing into this one toss. As the apple left her fingers the door began to shut, but just in time the fruit hit the rock piece and pushed it right into the pathway of the closing door. The taraxippus grunted thinking the apple was meant for him; and unknowingly closed the door, jamming it on the rock chip. The sound of aggravated hissing retreated down the hallway and was no more. Annabeth released the huge breath she had been holding, she leaped up and put her ear next to the cracked door, listening for any other movement. There was nothing; Annabeth squatted down and began to pry the door open with her fingertips; the rock had gotten stuck in the doorway. After a few minutes of clawing at the wood she managed to weasel the rock out. Quietly she grabbed the door and silently pulled it open; inspecting the hallway as she went. After looking down each hallway she chose her left side; remembering the tapestry on the wall from her trip down here yesterday. Annabeth quietly snuck down the corridor; up ahead she noticed the blue glow from the throne room, and knowing that Percy was taken down the other hallway, she continued on.
*PERCY*
Percy opened his eyes, he was standing on the deck of the Argo II; the sky was gray and stormy. He scanned the landscape below them and saw Camp Half-Blood, all was well. The Big House sat at the top of the hill, campers were running around; playing capture the flag, canoeing, and climbing the rock wall. He straightened up and glanced around the deck, Leo was fiddling with the controls towards the bow. Percy felt wrong, he knew that this wasn't right, he was supposed to be somewhere else; they were on a mission. He shook his head and went over to Leo,
"Hey man! Where have you been; Annabeth was looking for you." Leo said nonchalantly. "Where are we going? We have the mission, we're supposed to be in Greece!" Percy said, confused. Leo turned around and pushed his engineer goggles up into his curly, black hair.
"Uh- not-so-news-flash Percy, but we finished that whole thing like a week ago." Leo laughed, "Don't tell me you forgot my awesome duel with the giant uh Phot- Hei-, oh whatever. I can never keep their names straight anyways." Leo laughed and gave Percy a playful punch in the arm. Percy had no clue what Leo was talking about; he couldn't remember them even reaching the Doors of Death let alone defeating Gaea and flying back home. He was just about to ask if this was some kind of a joke but Leo's expression started looking majorly concerned; so he decided to take the Smile & Nod approach.
"Oh ya!" Percy feigned remembrance, "Sorry my mind blanked out for a sec, I totally remember that!" Percy smiled and patted Leo on the back, "Hey, so do you know where Annabeth is? I shouldn't keep her waiting if she was looking for me." Leo's face began to soften up and soon it was wiped clean of the suspicious expression that had begun to show.
"Ya! I think she said to tell you the stables?" Leo's eyebrows went up when he said that; but Percy couldn't be sure, seeing as he turned back towards the consul and began messing with his Wii remote again. Percy blushed as the "stables" incident came back to him. He turned and headed to the stairs; worried that Leo would turned around and see him blushing like an idiot. When he hit the bottom of the staircase, he practically sprinted to the stables; and before he knew it he was bursting through the door to the bottom of the ship; and was welcomed by a set of stormy, gray eyes.
"Percy! Where have you been? I looked everywhere!" Annabeth stood up from the saddle blanket which sat on the bombay doors. Percy smiled, took two big strides and wrapped Annabeth into a huge bear hug; that "wrong" feeling was still tugging on the corner of his conscious.
"What's that for?" Annabeth asked as they separated and took their places back on the blanket. "For being amazing." Percy said, and he was rewarded with one of her most incapacitating smiles ever. He was planning on asking her what had happened back in Greece, but the longer he looked into her eyes the more he forgot what he was going to ask. Until it was all but wiped clean from his memory, but he didn't care because Annabeth had begun to talk again, and that meant her lips were moving, which meant that Percy didn't hear a thing she said. In his opinion it seemed a shame to have her waste her words on him when there were other things that she could do with her lips, without really meaning to Percy leaned forward and silenced her. In the back of his mind he realized that this whole "kissing-in-the-stables thing" was becoming an unavoidable habit. She sighed and leaned into him, he cradled her cheek with his hand as her fingers entwined in his hair. Percy's brain was blank, there was only Annabeth. Her lips, her eyes, her hair, her face, her shoulders, her arms. She quietly gasped when his palm cupped her waist, Annabeth's hands rested on his chest as they kissed; he felt as if his whole body was melting. Her hand slid down his side and rested on the hem of his T-shirt,
"Percy" She whispered.
And then he woke up to a stormy pair of gray eyes.