Thank you for the many lovely reviews, guys! They were fantastic. :)

Disclaimer: "Hello, dearest readers. I do not own PJO. I am not Rick Riordan. Not male. Don't have gray hair. Don't have a book published. I claim rights to nothing except the plot." *pause* "This message will be repeated for each chapter. Please leave a message after the tone."

Part II

Percy woke up to sunlight streaming through the porthole in his cabin and someone knocking on his door. "Can I come in?" It sounded like Hazel.

He pushed himself onto his elbows, which turned out to be a bad idea. While in Tartarus, Percy had had more important things to worry about than injuries, but now that he was lying on clean sheets in a soft bed, he realized that his elbows were scraped raw. They were bandaged, but it still ached to put his entire weight on them. He yelped, collapsed, and banged his head on the headboard. Immediately, Hazel entered.

"Are you okay?"

Percy rubbed his head, feeling embarrassed. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just, uh, lost my balance for a second."

She looked at him worriedly. "You've been asleep for three days. We've given you water and nectar and stuff, but it was too hard to get you to eat food."

Hazel kept talking, but Percy zoned out as soon as she'd mentioned the word "food". He hadn't realized how hungry he'd been in Tartarus either. Being constantly attacked by monsters had kind of numbed pain receptors and basic needs like food, water, and sleep. Percy had only been focused on two things in Tartarus – keeping Annabeth safe and finding the Doors of Death. Now he was noticing less important details, like how sore he felt and how his growling stomach sent sharp pains through his body.

Before he accepted food, though, there was one thing he had to know. "Annabeth," he said. "How is she?"

Hazel smiled slightly. "She's woken up briefly a couple times, but she's resting right now. She'll be fine soon, though."

Percy nodded. "Good. Now, what were you saying about food?" As an answer, Hazel brought a breakfast out from behind her back.

He wanted to dig in and devour it all, but as it turned out, Percy only managed half a bagel and a bottle of water before he felt slightly queasy and had to lean back and close his eyes.

"Percy . . . " He cracked one eye open and looked at her. "Did you guys eat at all in Tartarus?"

He had to think about it. "We found Annabeth's backpack," he said slowly, "and there was some food in that. A few supplies popped up every now and then. . . . Mostly I let Annabeth eat."

Hazel couldn't hide a grin. "Of course you did."

"She forced me to take some of the food, though," he added thoughtfully. "That was probably smart of her."

When Hazel didn't answer immediately, Percy peered at her. "You don't look so good," he said. "What's bothering you?"

She stared at the floor, and slowly, Percy realized that she was crying. Now he was starting to get worried. "Hazel, what is it?" She just shook her head. Without thinking about it, Percy pulled her into a hug. Hazel was almost like a little sister to him – a mature little sister who took care of the rest of her family. Seeing her crying was like getting stabbed through the side, and Percy knew what he was talking about when it came to that. "What aren't you telling me?"

Finally, she looked up at him, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "Don't you remember?" she whispered. "After Leo pulled you guys out of Tartarus, he went in there himself to close the Doors of Death." All the air went out of Percy. Getting rescued from that pit of death was a blurry mess of sensations and emotions rather than images, but even so, he should've remembered that. He should have remembered that Leo Valdez had sacrificed himself to keep Percy and Annabeth safe.

He clenched his eyes shut like that would make the words disappear. "Oh, gods. . . . And he didn't get back out before they closed?"

Hazel shook her head again. "Leo had to shoot fire for at least ten full minutes before the Doors closed. By the time they did . . . He looked too exhausted to move, let alone sprint against the pull of Tartarus and get out of there."

"What about Nico?" Percy asked anxiously. "Did he . . . ?"

"Leo made him get into the grabber arm," Hazel said. "Thank the gods for that. Nico is alive and safe, but still unconscious. So there's no way to know . . ." She didn't finish the sentence, but Percy knew what she meant. There's no way to know if Leo is alive or not. The bagel sat like a ball of guilt at the bottom of his stomach.

In a fit of frustration, he grabbed his empty water bottle and threw it across the room. "Percy!" Hazel said in shock.

"It's my fault," Percy muttered. "I should be the one in there, not him."

"No, Percy, don't say that!" Hazel said shrilly. Percy looked at her in surprise, and then worry. She looked close to falling apart. Hazel never looked like that. She always held herself together for everyone else. For her to be this upset . . . Percy didn't want to think about that. He just hugged her tighter and listened.

"We have to stop blaming ourselves! We have to! Leo blamed himself for you guys landing in Tartarus in the first place – just because he cracked open that stupid fortune cookie to save my life and Frank's and Nemesis had said there would be a price to pay. He was convinced that you and Annabeth were the price. That's why he went into Tartarus to close the Doors of Death instead. But I think he was thereal price Nemesis wanted, not you guys." Her voice cracked on an empty sob, but she kept going. "Blaming ourselves doesn't accomplish anything. It only leads to pain and unnecessary guilt. I can't . . . First Sammy, then Leo . . . You can't blame yourself too. I won't let you."

Percy wasn't quite sure what she meant about Sammy, but he didn't pry. He just nodded. "All right, Hazel. I promise."

"Good," she said, exhaling. "Thank you." She hesitated and looked at him. "Percy, you look pale again. Are you feeling all right?"

Percy didn't want to admit it, but he did feel light-headed. "Well . . ."

That one word was all Hazel needed to hear. "You didn't get one proper night's sleep in Tartarus, did you?" she scolded, reverting to mother-hen mode. "I'll bet Annabeth didn't either. It's no wonder you two are so tired. Back to bed, Percy. Sleep. Recover. Now."

Percy didn't bother arguing. He just climbed dutifully into his bunk and closed his eyes.

He woke up exactly an hour later. It was like his body had programmed itself to become conscious just before the dreams could start. Percy thanked the gods for that. The last things he needed were dreams right now.

He pulled himself out of bed and stretched his shoulders, which felt tight and uncomfortable. He figured that he hadn't moved properly for three days, and there was only one way to stretch out his tense muscles. He checked his back pocket and found his ballpoint pen, still reassuringly reliable when the rest of his life had turned upside down. It was time to see if Leo had packed any of Camp's straw dummies into the Argo II.

As it turned out, Percy had to wander aimlessly for about twenty minutes before he found Jason, who told him where the dummies were and helped him set them up in a circle on deck. "Are you sure you're good to swordfight?" the son of Jupiter frowned.

"I'm fine," Percy insisted.

And for the first few minutes, he was fine. It was oddly relaxing to get into the rhythm of slash, jab, slice, and dodge, even if he was only dodging loose straw. Then something odd started happening. As Percy watched in horror, the dummies started to morph into monsters. He attacked them with a new ferocity, hoping to keep them from changing completely. But it was too late. He had let the creatures surround him, right there in broad daylight. But no . . . It wasn't broad daylight. He wasn't outside – he was underground, in a barren imitation of a meadow. The monsters made up Gaea's army, and Annabeth was lying injured at his feet. He was back in Tartarus. Percy wasn't sure how Gaea had managed it, but it didn't surprise him. She was getting more powerful every day.

Percy Jackson. Her voice echoed across the meadow. You are foolish to think that you can withstand me. I will capture you and Annabeth Chase, and your blood will be spilled on the ancient stones in Greece. You said you wanted to be together, did you not? The earth goddess laughed. I will grant you your wish.

"You . . . can't . . . have . . . us . . ." Percy muttered. He slashed through the monsters, but they wouldn't die. Of course they wouldn't. This was Tartarus. They just stood there, mocking him. Percy felt his breath coming harder, but he refused to let up. If he stopped, they would capture him and Annabeth. They would hurt Annabeth, and he could not let that happen. Sweat dripped off Percy's hair. Water started to gather around him as Percy pulled moisture from the air as he fought, just in case he needed to make another hurricane. He didn't stop. The air grew muggier. His muscles burned. He didn't stop. Hecouldn't stop.

"Percy!" He whirled around and saw another monster running towards him. "Percy, slow down! You're going to hurt yourself—"

Percy didn't stop to think. Instead, he raised his sword and brought it down on the monster's head. After all, it was just another one of Gaea's minions.

Jason raised his sword just in time. If Percy had had another split second, he would have chopped the son of Jupiter in half. "What in Hades were you thinking?" Jason yelled. "You could have killed me!"

Why was it talking to him? And why did it sound like one of his friends?

Percy blinked, and the monster was Jason. He turned in shock. The other creatures were just straw dummies. Annabeth was sleeping belowdecks. Percy started shaking. He wasn't in Tartarus. He had hallucinated. He had almost killed his friend. Gods of Olympus . . .

Percy shook harder. The blood drained from his face. "Oh my gods, Jason," he muttered. "I'm sorry. I thought . . ."

Jason stopped glaring at the son of Poseidon and peered at him closely. "What do you mean?"

Percy felt like he was going to pass out, and maybe he was. He didn't feel well. He had just fought for half an hour on the energy granted by half a bagel. Besides that, he had almost killed his friend. But . . . It had felt so real. . . .

The son of Poseidon dropped to the ground. Jason knelt down next to him, frowning. Percy's eyes were blank and half-closed. "Percy, you look awful," Jason said. "You should go back to your cabin—"

"I almost killed you," Percy muttered. "But I was so sure . . . Annabeth had just gotten stabbed in the shoulder, and the monsters had surrounded me all over again, and all the grass was dead, and they wouldn't die, and I couldn't stop to help Annabeth, and all the grass was dead, and Gaea was taunting me. . . ."

It was the first time Jason had heard any detail about Tartarus, other than that it was dark and awful. Jason had faced terrible enemies of all shapes and sizes, but the haunted look in his friend's eyes scared him the most. He placed a hand on Percy's shoulder hesitantly, but the son of Poseidon shook it off. "Stop!" he half-shouted, getting to his feet and almost backing into a dummy. He held his sword in front of him, and his eyes were slits. "The grass is dead. It's dead. So why is it growing, and crawling over my feet, and covering Annabeth, and oh my gods it's suffocating her!" While Jason watched in horror, Percy dropped his sword and yanked his feet into the air for no apparent reason. Then he ran to the center of the circle, fell to his knees, and started pulling at nothing. "You will not take her!" he cried hoarsely. "I will not let you take Annabeth back to Gaea. . . ."

Jason ran to his friend. "Percy!" he shouted. "You are not in Tartarus!" The older demigod looked up at him, but his eyes went straight through Jason. Jason had to stop Percy from hallucinating, but he wasn't sure how. So he did the only thing he could think of. He punched Percy across the jaw.

The commotion brought the other demigods on deck. They found Percy sprawled across the floor, rubbing his face, and Jason standing above him. "You wouldn't listen to me," he told Percy apologetically. "I couldn't think of anything else to do."

Percy shook his head and stumbled to his feet. "It's . . . cool . . ." he said unsteadily.

"What happened?" Piper asked. Jason gave her a look. Later, he mouthed. Luckily, she seemed to understand.

"Percy, you should go back to your cabin," Piper told him. "Do you want—?"

"I want to see Annabeth," he said.

She hesitated. "She's resting," Piper said. "Do you really think it's a good idea to bother her . . . ?"

"No, you don't understand," Percy said brusquely. "I need to see her." He pushed past the others and hurried down the stairs. "She doesn't need rest!" he yelled over his shoulder. "She needs sunlight!"

Piper started to go after him, but Jason caught her by the shoulder. "I think he does need to see her," he muttered. "Just now, he started acting like he was back in Tartarus. I think he was reliving something that happened to them. And . . . He thought it was real. He even saw me and, like, looked right through me and thought I was a monster. Maybe . . . well, if he sees Annabeth, it might convince him that he really made it out of there."

Piper shrugged off his hand. "I'm sure that he needs to see her," she told him softly. "I just think one of us should be there when he gets to her cabin . . . to help with the shock."

Jason hesitated, and then nodded. "Maybe all of us should."

Her fingers were so numb that Annabeth had no idea if she was still clutching Percy's hand. The black air rushed past her face, taunting her. I go to Tartarus, and you will go too, it seemed to whisper over and over again. Well, Annabeth was certainly on her way.

She tried to yell for Percy, just to make sure they were still together, but the air choked her, forcing her words back down her throat. But she didn't let that stop her. Annabeth twisted around in mid-air – which was a lot harder than she had expected – and grasped wildly for Percy with her free hand. Finally, her fingers brushed something softer than the biting wind, kinder than the mocking darkness. She grabbed Percy's shirt and pulled herself closer to him. She couldn't see anything, but she could feel his warm breath, a thousand times warmer than the air around her. "Percy . . ." she whispered. Then she felt an arm wrap around her, keeping her against him.

"I hear you, Annabeth." His voice echoed next to her. It was eerie, feeling and hearing Percy without seeing him, but Annabeth didn't care. At least he was there. "We're together. I never let go of you."

The darkness hid his face, but Annabeth thought of his sea green eyes and smiled. Gaea would never take her Seaweed Brain away from her.

That's where you are mistaken, daughter of Athena. Annabeth froze in shock. What was . . . ? Percy Jackson did not follow you into Tartarus. You are imagining him. You are falling alone.

Annabeth wanted to protest, but the wind laughed at her screams and smothered them. "Percy!" She could feel his arm, but she wanted to be sure. "Percy, you're here, aren't you?"

I was never here. Percy was talking to her, but it wasn't Percy. This voice was colder, more distant. I let you search for the Athena Parthenos alone, didn't I? What makes you think that this time is any different? No one is falling with you, Annabeth. Better to surrender to Gaea now.

"No!" Annabeth's shouts were strangled. "Percy, you promised! Where are you? You're here, aren't you?" As she asked, she felt the arm around her waist vanish. Her fingers gained feeling again, just in time for her to realize that she was clutching empty air. Even the image of his eyes was gone. "Where . . . Percy, where are you? Where are you?"

"I'm here, Annabeth." She whirled through the air in confusion, knocking against a rock face as she struggled to get her bearings. That was Percy. There was no doubt about it. But it couldn't be – because she couldn't feel him. She couldn't see him. Percy was lying to her.

"You're not!" she wailed. "You're not here. . . . You left me. . . ."

"Never." Percy's voice cracked, but Annabeth felt that somehow, it was even stronger than Gaea's. "I would never leave you, Annabeth. I'm here. We're together." She felt his hand again, and she knew thatthat was real. Even the laughing wind was fake, as long as Percy was real. Nothing bad could touch her. "Wake up, Annabeth. I'm here."

She blinked, and when she opened her eyes, she wasn't just imagining Percy's eyes. They were right there, looking down at her in concern. Before she registered anything else – there was natural light brighter than Riptide around her, she was on a bed, her shoulder was sore, her entire torso ached – she threw her arms around her Seaweed Brain and buried her face in his neck. He held her just as tightly. "I . . ." she sobbed. "I was falling again. . . . And you weren't there. . . ."

"That didn't happen," he promised. "I was there. I'm here now. We're safe, Annabeth. We're on the Argo II again. We're in your cabin."

Gradually, Annabeth felt calm enough to look around. The first thing she saw was her porthole window. "There's sunlight. . . ." she breathed. She laughed into Percy's shirt and pushed herself out of bed. "There's sunlight!" She ran to the window and peered out of it. The light was blinding, but that was just how Annabeth wanted it. It was far better to be blind in light than blind in darkness.

Percy stood at her shoulder. She turned to him, and once her eyesight adjusted, she saw that he looked gaunt, exhausted, and slightly pained. But he was still smiling softly. "We did it," he told her. "We survived."

Only then, once she was sure that he was all right, that she was all right, and that they were in the mortal world, did she turn around. Piper, Jason, Frank, and Hazel were all standing in the doorway, looking at them. A mixture of worry and relief was etched onto their faces. "We really are back," she whispered in amazement. "You're all here." Then she hesitated. "Wait. No, you aren't. Where's Coach Hedge? And Leo?" She grinned. "Let me guess. Coach Hedge is watching kung-fu movies in his cabin, and Leo is goofing off with the Archimedes sphere."

No one laughed. In fact, the mood in the room chilled. Annabeth frowned and looked at Percy. "What's going on?"

But Percy wasn't the one who answered. Piper did. "When we went into the House of Hades to rescue you guys, Coach Hedge was in charge of defending our getaway car – or warship, I guess. He had to get off to get rid of some monsters, which is why he wasn't there when Leo . . ." She paused and looked away. "Anyway, when we came back out and found him, he had won, but he'd also injured his leg. Stairs aren't really working out for him at the moment. He's steering on deck."

"Okay," Annabeth said slowly. "But earlier, you mentioned Leo and stopped. What . . ." She trailed off. After injuring her shoulder, everything had been a blur of pain and worry until she blacked out at Percy's feet, but she remembered that the Doors had to be closed from within as well as without – using either storm or fire. If Percy and her had both escaped from Tartarus, then who had stayed inside to close the Doors . . . ? Fire. Her eyes widened in fear. "Oh, gods. Don't tell me he . . ."

Silence met Annabeth's words. Hazel's eyes filled with sadness, but not with tears. She grabbed Frank's shoulder, and he wrapped a hesitant arm around her. "He did," she whispered.

Suddenly, the injuries that Annabeth had carried from Tartarus started to weigh on her, adding to the tons that had settled on her when she realized what had happened to Leo. She sat down hard in her desk chair before she could sink onto the floor. "Why did he give himself up for us?" she wondered. "He didn't owe us anything."

Hazel shook her head. "He thought he did. He'd also promised to get both of you out safely. It was . . ." She choked on a dry sob. "An oath he kept."

Annabeth felt like passing out again, but she didn't want the dreams to return. Instead, she gripped Percy's hand tighter. "No," she murmured. Then she repeated it, stronger. "No. I don't believe. . . . He can't be gone. I'm sure he's fine. Can't Nico tell . . . ?" A couple more cement blocks dropped onto her shoulders. "Oh, gods, Nico isn't here either. He . . . didn't end up in Tartarus too, did he?"

The others rushed to reassure her. "Nico's all right," Piper promised. "Just exhausted from closing the Doors on this side. He hasn't woken up yet."

Somehow, that didn't make her feel much better. After all, Leo was still stuck in the hellhole that Percy and her had narrowly escaped. She shook her head numbly. "I just can't believe that Leo's . . . He never takes anything seriously. He's always joking about being invincible. He must not have had any idea what he was getting into."

"I think he did," Piper said. "I've been in his room since we left the House of Hades behind, and I think he was preparing for it. Already, he was getting less sleep than the rest of us. He worked all the time, either piloting us through hordes of monsters or updating our weapons systems. I always assumed that when we forced him to rest, he crashed immediately, but now I'm not so sure. I mean . . . He told us that he wanted you to read his notes and learn about the Archimedes sphere and piloting the ship and stuff. I just assumed that he had written a couple lines on a sheet of paper, but . . . Well, you should come take a look in his cabin once you start feeling better."

Annabeth pulled herself out of her chair, using Percy to steady herself. "I'm fine," she said. After Leo had saved both of their lives, Annabeth figured that the least she could do was fulfill his request. "Let's go."

She weaved through her friends, stopping them when they tried to protest, and made her way down the hall. Piper and Percy followed uncertainly. Soon enough, she found Leo's room, walked through his open door – and stared. She felt Percy next to her, gaping with open astonishment. "Oh," Annabeth said in a small voice.

"'Oh' is right," Piper said with a sigh. "Leo must have lived on pure caffeine and adrenaline for the last week. It's the only way he would have had enough time to get all this down."

Annabeth couldn't help but agree. Every last square inch of Leo's walls (and half of the ceiling) was covered with writing and accompanying diagrams. Some of it was wide and slanted, most of it was compact chicken scratch, and all of it was scrawled out with a black Sharpie that he must have pulled out of his tool belt. The "notes" looked like the ramblings of a madman. Annabeth was half-afraid that they were. "What was he thinking?" she muttered. "He could have just borrowed paper from my room."

"Um . . . He did." Piper pointed at the desk in the corner of the room. Annabeth hadn't even noticed it while she was absorbing the chaos of the walls, but now she saw the sheets of notebook paper lying in a crumpled heap on the surface. The first sheet had the words "Start Here" scratched across the top margin.

"How could Leo have that much to say about a sphere and an old scroll?" Percy muttered.

Annabeth ignored him and walked to the pile of notes, worried that she wouldn't be able to read a word. Luckily, he had at least started out with (relatively) legible guy-writing before deteriorating into the scribbles on the wall. Silently, she sat down, picked up the first page, and started skimming. Her eyes widened about halfway down, and she looked up at her friends. "This is genius," she told them. "He's translated some of Archimedes's ideas and made a few modifications, and . . . they're genius." It was the only descriptor that seemed powerful enough to describe it. She kept reading, flipped over the paper, and laughed shortly. "They're genius . . . Except that he accidentally switched to Spanish on the back."

She shuffled through the papers until he returned to English. Phrases popped out at her. Modified spheres - maybe strong enough for giants was written next to a cross-section of something that looked disturbingly like a bazooka. Annabeth looked at another section. Mirrored death ray = great trap for Porphryion. There was a long formula beside that one. Annabeth knew she would have to study it carefully to be sure, but the construction looked feasible, if difficult. She flipped the paper over to see if there were more numbers on the back. There were, but Annabeth hardly noticed. Her eyes had immediately gone to the bottom half of the paper, which was circled over and over again. Most of the writing was miniscule with all the letters smashed together, but one part near the top was written excitedly and in all capitals. GRABBER ARM WAS STRONG ENOUGH TO PICK UP SHIPS. IF STRENGTH MOVED TO ARM NOT CLAW AND MEASUREMENTS MODIFIED, COULD MAYBE WITHSTAND PULL OF TARTARUS. COULD RESCUE P+A?! FIRST PRIORITY. The next sentence said (epic mirrored death ray second), but Annabeth didn't notice that. She looked for another paper and realized that there wasn't one. Then she lifted her head and saw that the entire wall in front of her was filled with calculations concerning the device that had saved her and Percy's lives. Leo must have been too excited to run off and waste precious seconds searching for paper.

"This was for us," Annabeth said, turning to look at Percy and gesturing behind her. "He considered seven different rescue plans, chose the grabber arm, and used up the entire wall figuring out the details." She squinted at the rest. "Two of these walls are about Archimedes and his inventions. . . . But that wall describes how the engine works, how to understand Festus's whirring noises, how to use the weapons he made. . . . This bit is a diagram of the helm. He finally wrote down what all the levers, buttons, switches, and knobs do." Annabeth shook her head sadly. "At the beginning the words flow like calculations and notes he's written out for himself, but by the end, they're more like . . . directions. I think you were right, Piper. He was preparing for it. He knew what he was going to do in the House of Hades. . . ."

"And he decided not to mention any of it to us," Piper added softly. "He knew we would try to talk him out of it and find another way."

"What's so wrong with that?" Percy muttered. Annabeth was just starting to notice how strange Percy looked. It wasn't just that Tartarus had left physical scars and side effects on her boyfriend, like his bandaged side and shrunken stomach. His eyes were different. It was as if the light in them had . . . cracked. Annabeth resolved to have a long talk with her Seaweed Brain later, after Piper left, to mend the cracks. Because if his eyes changed from cracked to shattered . . . Annabeth thought she might just shatter too.

"What's wrong with that?" Piper repeated. "I don't think anything is. But Leo did. I guess . . . I guess he figured that there wasn't another way, and he didn't want anyone to talk him out of doing the only way that he did see."

At those words, they fell silent. Eventually, Annabeth sighed. "I think I'll stay here for a while," she said. "I want to be able to understand the weapons Leo built by the time we have to use them."

"All right," Percy said. "But I'm going to bring you food before you get started, or you'll forget to eat." He said it matter-of-factly, and Annabeth knew it was true.

"Okay, Percy," she said. "When you do . . . You should stay for a while. I want to talk to you."

He nodded, and she could already see his eyes mending. "Good idea. I want to talk to you too."

Piper looked between them, hesitated, and then backed out of Leo's room. "On second thought, how about I get food for both of you?" she asked. "You can get settled now."

"Sure," Percy said, shrugging. He sat down on the bed and Piper left. Immediately, Annabeth's heart started pounding. She hadn't been alone with Percy since being pulled out of Tartarus. It was nice in a way, but it also reminded her painfully of the experiences they had shared in the realm deeper than the Underworld.

"What did you want to talk about?" he muttered.

"You, Percy," she told him, sitting next to him and taking his hand. "You look . . . different. Is something wrong?"

"Besides the fact that Leo is stuck in Tartarus, the gods still won't help us, the Romans are still planning on marching on Camp Half-Blood, and Gaea is supposed to rise in two weeks?" Percy asked sarcastically. Then he sighed. "Yeah. Something is. Earlier, I was sword fighting on deck with some straw dummies, and . . . well . . . It was like I was back in Tartarus all over again, fighting for my life. And Gaea was taunting me, and you were hurt, and the monsters wouldn't die . . . And I tried to slice one monster in two, and then it talked and I realized . . . The monster was Jason. I had hallucinated the whole thing. And I had almost killed my friend." As Percy spoke, he started scowling. By the time he was done, there was a thick crease between his eyebrows, he was looking down, and the mouth that Annabeth was used to seeing turned up in a signature Seaweed Brain smile was frowning deeply.

Annabeth squeezed his hand and tried not to look too alarmed by his story. "It's all right, Percy. We went through Hades – worse than Hades – while we were in Tartarus. We can't expect to just be fine again. Just . . . don't practice sword fighting for a while. Then when you go back to those straw dummies, it won't bother you anymore."

Percy hesitated. "But what about you, Annabeth?" The sudden change of subject took her by surprise.

"What do you mean?" she said carefully.

He frowned again. "You know what I mean. You have to sleep. What about your dreams?" Now it was his turn to look concerned. "When I came in your cabin, you were tossing and turning and banging against the wall and shouting. Then when you had just woken up, you weren't making much sense, and I didn't want to pry. . . . What were you dreaming about?"

Annabeth sighed and told him about her dream. Reliving the false memory was painful, but also relieving. When she finished, Percy didn't try to make her feel better with empty words. He just pulled her into a hug and leaned his head on top of hers. It was then, leaning into Percy's arms, that Annabeth finally felt herself relax. Only then did she believe that they would be okay. They would recover from Tartarus, and they would destroy Gaea and all her minion giants. They would even figure out a way to get Leo back. After all, they had fallen into hell and survived to return together. Anything after that was easy in comparison.

Leo was surprised to wake up. If he was being honest, he had expected that closing the Doors of Death would do him in. So when he found that he was awake and not dead, the first thing he felt was profound relief and a sudden urge to kiss the ground and thank the gods. Then he realized that he was chained too tightly to move, and his head hurt like Styx. That could only mean one thing. Suddenly, Leo didn't feel like thanking anybody.

Hello, Leo Valdez. Gaea's voice seemed to fill the room – or cavern, or field, or wherever they were. I'm so glad you're here.

BEEEEP.

That was the tone. Now please leave your message. ;)