MY MARK OF ATHENA FANFIC JUST BECAME THE NUMBER 1 MOST REVIEWED PJO FANFIC! Thank you all so much for making this possible. I know it will not always be like that, but for now, I just have to thank you.

Sorry for typos/ EXTREME OOCness. (You've been warned, so no hater comments about it) And the super late update.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 27

Annabeth

Right when Annabeth came face to face with the corpse, she almost wanted to run back inside and hide in Bath and Body Works.

In one clean swipe, she brought her knife down on the dead body. The bones and remaining pieces of rotted flesh clattered to the hard, cold ground in a small pile. Even though she should've, and was, disgusted, she was also kind of happy that she could actually use her knife again.

"Where are we?" she muttered.

"A sea of graves," Percy said. He wasn't looking at her, but staring out at the vast space beyond them.

It was a pretty accurate statement. All that Annabeth could see were tombstones that were scattered aimlessly across the ground in no order. Some of the stones were small, and others were large, twice the size of Annabeth and then some. They looked decades or centuries old, all in different languages. She spotted French, Spanish, Russian… there were too many and she couldn't decipher them all.

Of course, there were a few in English too. The dates went as far back as the early 1400's. Some of the Greek and Latin tombs that sat above ground were dated back to over 3,000 years ago. And those were only the ones surrounding her. She looked east and west, and the graves kept spreading as far as she could see.

But there were none of them in front of the house, and Annabeth could see the fence blocking the other side. Instead of being barbed wire with the 'Get out and stay out' vibe, it was a nice picket fence that you would see around an old, countryside home. It was made of regular plywood. It didn't fit in much, but the entire place was mismatched, so why not?

Graveyards weren't that scary to Annabeth. She loved Thriller. But what scared her were the dead bodies that lurked beneath the ground, decaying. And in this case, about half of the bodies were above ground.

The bones that were at her feet were not the only ones. Some bodies hung from the tops of gravestones, with nooses around their heads, eyes open like they had just died yesterday. Others had withered away into nothing and remained on the ground, near their graves.

Annabeth backed up without realizing it and trip over something. Her arms wheeled around her body as she tried to catch onto something, but her boot was too heavy and she fell right on her butt.

"Ugh," she grumbled. "Why is it always me?"

She looked past her legs to see what she had fallen on, and yelped. It was another dead body. She scrambled to her feet and jumped over it to the best of her ability. She rejoined Percy quietly. He hadn't even noticed that she had fallen down.

Percy was still staring at the dead bodies like he was in a trance. "Percy?" she asked. He didn't pay attention, just blinked slowly, like he was still trying to process the scene.

"Percy?" she repeated, a little more persistent. He shushed her and took a few, careful steps forward, his eyes halfway closed like he was wishing that his eyes could zoom in. Annabeth tried to follow his gaze but couldn't tell which one of the many things he could be looking at.

So she just followed him. "Lead the way then, Seaweed Brain."

He didn't go far, and once they got close to the grave he had been staring at, he pointed with a shaky finger. Annabeth had seen Percy shaken up before. Heck, just a few minutes ago they had been attacked by Gaea's mind controlling forces. But he looked like he wanted to get sick and run away at the same time.

"Look," he whispered.

Annabeth knelt down. It was one of the smaller, newer grave stones, and it had no date to go along with it. She looked the writing. Her heart fluttered a little bit in pain and fear.

In Memory of Bianca di Angelo

Daughter of Hades

May She Rest In Peace

"But she was never buried," Percy said, brushing dirt off of the words. "We never even found her body. She can't be buried here if there wasn't a body to bury."

"Well, Percy, I'm not digging at the grave to if there is a body or not. So let's just say, hypothetically, that it is. How did it get here, and are there any other bodies that we know?" Annabeth got back up with trouble and took Percy's hand, pulling him away from 'Bianca's' grave.

They should've left the graveyard and kept on going, searching for the Doors of Death, but Annabeth had some weird premonition that they should keep looking. They had to keep looking at everything, because they had no idea where they were. They could even be in a grave. They were called the Doors of Death… it would kind of make sense.

And, they were desperate.

They weaved themselves in and out of the graves, and Annabeth studied every one of them. Since they were all in different languages, she had a hard time reading them. But for the ones she could read, she noticed a recurring pattern.

Fille de Hermes. Sohn von Ares. Tochter Hebe. Son of Zeus. They were all demigods.

"Percy, there all demigods," Annabeth told him. He nodded in acknowedgement. "So what if this place is like a graveyard for only demigods. Afterall, we burn shrouds. Maybe there bodies end up here in Tartarus, with gravestones."

"But how and why would someone do that?" Percy asked, gesturing to the many miles of gravestones. "Think about how much work this must've been. So many people have died… and… Oh gods…" Realization dawned all over Percy's face.

"What? What is it?" Annabeth was humored by the fact that Percy knew something before she did, but the suspense was killing her.

"If all demigods are buried here, then wouldn't Luke and Silena and everyone else we know that has died be here?"

Annabeth's heart fluttered involuntarily at Luke's name. Even though she loved Percy, there was still a small part of her that would always love Luke. And she missed him a lot. They had always been best friends, like a brother and a sister. Whenever she needed something, he had always been there. That is, until he went over to the Titan's side, but she hated to think of him as a traitor, even if he kind of was one.

And all of her other friends that had died. Silena, Beckendorf, Lee, Castor, Michael, and all of her other friends that had died in battle. Their bodies could all be there, buried, and… that was a horrible thought.

"No, I don't want to think that," Annabeth said shakily. She gulped loudly.

"Why?"

"I can't think of them being buried down here in Tartarus. That is no way for them to be honored for what they did. I don't know if they're down here or how they got here, but I have no desire to even find out." It had already been hard enough seeing Bianca's grave.

"Well, why don't we just go look for their graves at least?" Percy offered. He looked genuinely intrigued.

"But Percy, why would we do something like that?" She walked up to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "What good will it do us to see if their bodies are down here? It's not like if we find them it'll bring them back to life. What we do know is that they all died heroes, and they ended up in Elysium, and I hate the fact that their bodies may or may not be down here."

Percy stared at her for a second, but then he nodded very slowly. "I guess I see your point. But still…"

"It's better to let it be," she told him softly, her hands still on his shoulders. "I don't think the Doors of Death are here either. I say we leave now while we're still sane and okay and continue on to wherever we're going."

The green tinted moon shone down on them while they weaved in and out of the graves, towards the fence. They were about half a mile away from Where the Lost Are Revealed, but it still loomed over them like a skyscraper. But she knew the true secrets from inside there.

Gaea had called them her pawns, and herself the queen. Annabeth had always loved chess, but after what Gaea had said, she was ready to never play the game again.

But the earth mother's words haunted her mind. Were they really just part of her plan and working for her without knowing it? It didn't seem like it to her, but what if Gaea really did have a plan and they were just doing everything accordingly. A chill ran down her spine.

Percy stopped again in front of another grave. His jaw had sort of gone slack, and she looked down at the grave. Her own jaw hit the ground with a thud.

In Memory of Luke Castellan

Son of Hermes

May He Rest In Peace

Annabeth didn't even wait for Percy. She stalked away from the grave, tears forming in her eyes. She brushed them away angrily. Why was she crying? She commanded herself to stop, but the tears kept coming.

"Quit it, Annabeth," she murmured to herself.

Then she felt a hand on her back, and she jumped. She looked over, and it was Percy. He pulled her to him, not possessively, but like he was trying to be comforting. She buried her head in his shoulder and felt terrible, like she betrayed Percy with every single tear that fell down her cheeks.

Percy just whispered comforting words in her ear and rubbed circles on her back. "I know," he said over and over again.

Annabeth hadn't realized how much she missed Luke being there. She wished he were still alive and that he and Percy were actually friends and they could all be happy. And it wasn't only Luke. It was the fact that all of her friends probably were in this graveyard and there was nothing she could do about it. It was the fact that they were dead and she was still alive.

She wasn't sure how long she cried, but she eventually pulled away and sniffed. Percy's shoulder was completely wet, and she felt herself blush. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"It's okay," he told her, gripping her hand. "Let's just get out of here now."

She couldn't have agreed anymore. They walked over to the fence. Percy vaulted himself over it and started walking, probably assuming that Annabeth would follow right next to him.

She tried to get over it. She really did. It just didn't work.

First she tried to put her booted foot over it. The boot weighed so much that she couldn't even lift it up. So she switched to the other foot and ended up with one leg on each side of the fence. The one side with the boot was so heavy that she wobbled and fell back down next to the graves.

She spit a clump of dirt out of her mouth and felt something move in her hair. It was sort of light and she picked it out. It was an old bone. She yelped and threw it away from her. She looked up at Percy, who had just turned around to see her on the ground. "Oh, I forgot, I'm sorry…"

He ran back over and hopped over the fence without any trouble. She rolled her eyes at him. "Glad you noticed."

Percy helped her to her feet and over the fence. He even had to pick her up and put her over it. She felt so useless, and when she told Percy that, he laughed. "You're not useless, Annabeth."

Annabeth looked back at the graves for just a second. Percy looked ahead as they continued walking.

And that's when it happened. Annabeth was looking at each one, and back at the house, and then something happened.

It was impossible, but she could've sworn she saw something in the graveyard move.

Crappy way to end the chapter… I know. I posted TWO new stories. A piece of PJO poetry called Blood Lust, which is very short (Only 620 words, so please R&R) and a Hunger Games one-shot called Slow Dancing in a Burning Room. Please read and review, if possible. I love feedback. Oh, and The Asylum chapter 5 on my other account w/ ChildOfWisdom (CodeName-Athena) is posted!

Well, I saw Beautiful Creatures. I LOVED everything about it, except for the fact that it was NOTHING like the book! Ugh, it gets me mad when books and movies are so different, but the movie itself was good.

Reviews and some ideas are loved! Have a lovely day!

-BBH