Since I'm not sure if I'll come out of the English Final alive, here's a chapter.

Sorry for typos/OOCness. Plus, this is very fast paced, so sorry about that. Check out my new oneshots, 'We Were Made For This' and 'I Am Death.'

Happy Reading!

Chapter 39

Annabeth

After facing down Arachne and her minions, Annabeth should've been able to get past the spiders.

Or, at least that's what she had said inside of her head.

So as they made their way down the steady decline of the mountains through the few clumps of tree, they tried to stay as quiet as they could. So many monsters in one area twisted Annabeth's stomach into little knots. If either of them were spotted, they wouldn't have an entire army on them. They'd have an entire population.

As Annabeth brushed back some branches as gently as she could, a black dot the size of her fist plopped down on her hand, latching through her fingers. She could feel the miniscule hairs brush across her skin as the thing scurried and hissed. Percy noticed it at the exact same time and wrapped a hand around her mouth before she yelped.

It was a freaking spider.

In a second, she had her knife out and stabbed it through the abdomen. Then, she proceeded to do a girly freak-out dance as she shook her hand off and rubbed it against tree bark.

"So gross… so, so gross," she whispered hoarsely.

Percy looked like he was trying to hold back a smile and failing miserably at it. She slapped his chest. "It's not funny," she hissed quietly.

"I'm not laughing."

"Yes you are," she grumbled as she began to walk again. She was surprised when Percy caught her around the waste and spun her towards him. "Whoa!" she said, startled. "What was that for?"

He just pressed a sweet kiss to the corner of the mouth. "No reason at all."

She rolled her eyes and they continued to make their way down. It was a fast process, and they had to scurry like rats from one source of shelter to the next so that they wouldn't risk being caught. Even though the monsters were in shackles as they trotted down the roads, it wouldn't take much for all of them to start running at the same time towards the same target.

More than once did a monster almost see them. Annabeth still wasn't that fast with her stupid cast, and she tripped over a root while trying to get behind one of the trees.

It was like everything was in slow motion. Her hands whirled as she tried to stop herself but she couldn't. She ended up face planting the ground with Percy already behind the tree. Every stupid branch and leaf on the ground crunched underneath her, because that was just her luck

One of the monsters, and foul looking creature with too many eyes, stopped and looked around, sniffing the air. Annabeth's heart skipped a beat as she was just frozen there, but then Percy pulled her into the safety of the leaves so that they'd be invisible to the monsters.

The thing's eyes blinked. Annabeth hated not knowing what a monster was, but some of the creatures that she was seeing were unidentifiable to her. A mean looking harpy shoved him from behind, and the thing reluctantly kept walking along. Even though they were very far away, Annabeth could've sworn she'd heard it say, "I smell demigod."

That's when Annabeth decided that she'd had enough of the boot.

"Gimme a second," she told Percy as she sat down and undid the straps on the boot as quickly as she could. She didn't have a shoe for the other foot, but she thought that she could manage.

"Um, is that a really good idea?" asked Percy. Annabeth shot him a look. "I mean, you're still healing."

"This only slows us down, Percy. The last thing that we need is to be slowed down." She threw the boot in an overgrown shrub but kept the pump in her bag. The end of it was sort of pointy, and it could be a last minute weapons if they needed one, but she seriously hoped that it wouldn't come to that.

Percy started to say something, but then he hesitated and dropped it. He helped her up, and it felt weird, but there was no pain in her ankle. When they ran to the next bit of foliage, there still wasn't pain, but the awkwardness hadn't left. Her foot tingled like it was asleep and she didn't run right. She dismissed it though. There was no doctor to help her.

Annabeth saw the promised sign ahead of her. Daedalus Construction Inc.

Daedalus was Annabeth's idol, even if he had kind of lied to them a few years ago, when he had been at their camp pretending to be a demigod named Quintus. But before he had died to destroy the Labyrinth, he had given Annabeth one of her most prized possessions: his laptop.

But it was more than that. The laptop contained every blueprint and idea Daedalus had and then some. It was a weapon and a valuable asset to her. She was glad that she had it back.

Seeing Daedalus would be awesome. He was friendly and would probably help them.

Annabeth had known that he was working on construction in the Underworld, but she hadn't known that it had included Tartarus. That was pretty dangerous, but nothing too bad could've happened, as he was already dead as it was.

The old construction cranes were up there with cement mixers and other vehicles. From where they were, Annabeth couldn't see anyone inside of them, and they weren't moving.

"It's a trap," said a sing-songy voice behind them.

If Annabeth hadn't known better, she might have screamed. The jump scare, along with the spiders and the monsters, was getting to be too much. And when she saw the cause of the voice, fire seeped through her bones.

Hera.

Annabeth had a long history with Hera, and it wasn't too good of one. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, her hands curling into fists. She snatched her knife from its sheath and kept it trained on her. Percy looked flabbergasted, as if he weren't sure what to do.

"Really, Annabeth, is this the place?" she asked.

Fury rolled through her. Hera was the reason that this entire mess had started. It had been her idea to bring the two camps together by kidnapping Jason and Percy and switching them for many months, and giving them amnesia at the same time. But her history with Hera went back even farther to when she was fifteen and on her very own quest. Her Majesty had almost let Nico go over to the Titan's side, and after that, Hera had done everything in her power to make Annabeth's life miserable.

Now, she stood before them in elegant robes, with a staff in her hand that was adorned by peacock feathers. Her black hair was pulled back in braids, and her eyes were lit with amusement. Annabeth was two seconds away from giving her stupid little face a major punch.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked, but now, his expression was just like Annabeth's. Riptide was in his hand.

Hera sighed. "I'm not actually here. This is just an image of me, talking to you, giving you life saving advice. So yes, Annabeth, go ahead and try to slice my head off, but it's not going to work."

Annabeth could still try.

"What do you want?" Percy asked through gritted teeth.

"Well, I want to help point you in the right direction. We aren't supposed to interfere with quests, but if you continue heading this way, you're probably going to die, and then you'll never get to the Doors of Death."

"You couldn't have given us a 'point in the right direction' when we were fighting for our lives days ago? Or when Annabeth had to face Arachne, all by herself with a broken ankle? Oh, or how about when Annabeth and I were getting ready to fall to Tartarus?" Anger threaded Percy's voice and his sword trembled in his hand.

"You didn't need it," Hera said dismissively.

Instead of getting into a huge ordeal with her, Annabeth just said, "What do you mean that this is a trap? Daedalus is on our side, and all of his stuff is down there."

"Yes, and it has been down there for months." Hera shifted, and the image of her shimmered so that Annabeth could see through her for a moment. She materialized again. "He was working on traffic projects down here, but when the Doors of Death opened and monsters started raining havoc on everyone, he journeyed back to the Underworld to be with his son and keep him safe. I only know that because Hermes told me. If you go down there, the monsters will see you and then you'll be down for."

"And why should we trust what you say?" Annabeth shot at her with a quiet, direct voice.

She opened her mouth to reply, but then stopped and got this thinking look on her face. Finally, she said, "You honestly have no reason to trust me after what I have done to you, I'll admit that. But we have a common goal, so I have no reason to do anything to you."

Well… that was true.

"Now, I hate to tell you this, but you may want to head this way." She pointed back to where they had come from.

"Are you kidding me? You couldn't have told us that when we were back there?"

"I see what you guys see pretty much. I know what you guys know. But I would follow that screaming that you guys heard." Annabeth groaned. She'd known there was something different about that screaming.

"Will that lead us to the Doors of Death?"

"No."

"Way to be frank," Annabeth muttered. She could hear the stomping footsteps of the monsters behind her. It sent shivers down her back. "If it doesn't lead us to the Doors of Death, then what use is it doing that?"

"I don't know where the Doors of Death are, but you'll probably find help there. Wherever there are others, there is usually help, and no offense, but you guys need some help."

"We've realized," Percy said with no enthusiasm.

"Also, in those tree over there are some motorcycles and four wheelers. They belonged to the people that worked down here with Daedalus. You get some cool benefits from doing construction like this. They hid their things up here because if a monster got hold of it, then that wouldn't be very good for their reputation and would cause quite a disturbance."

No more walking. Annabeth needed to get there now.

"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you, because that's all that I know. But you don't have much time left. You have to stop Gaea from rising again, and that only way that will happen is if the Doors are shut. Tityos has risen too, and this war between the Greeks and Romans is only making him stronger. He lives and breathes war, literally. That is all I know."

"Well, we shouldn't just stand here then. We need to get a move on."

Hera nodded and began to fade away. "We Olympians will be in your debt. You are doing us a great service."

"And if we die?" Percy asked jokingly.

Hera took it seriously. Her body was gone, and only her voice remained.

"Then you will die heroes."

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