Nine days. Bianca remembered Annabeth talking about a Greek philosopher who had theorized that the fall to Tartarus would take nine days.
She had lost track of time after the first hour. Bianca squeezed Annabeth's hand tightly, getting a squeeze back in return. They were in this together.
And then the narrow shaft fell away, revealing a vast cavern. It almost reminded Bianca of the Underworld. Only it was fifty times more dangerous. She could see the ground from where they were falling, and at their speed, they were definitely going to go splat.
Bianca refused to let that be how they died. She had fought Ares when she was twelve and won. The two of them had ventured through the Sea of Monsters and returned alive, had held up the sky, and had defeated Kronos, among other accomplishments. She refused to let dying to fall damage be her end godsdamnit!
As the ground approached near, she instinctively reached for the tugging in her gut. She was Bianca di Angelo, and she would not die here. Her pride would not stand for it.
Gripping Annabeth's hand tightly, Bianca closed her eyes and prayed. She heard a rushing river beneath them. This would be a really nice place to have Percy around. Unfortunately for her and Annabeth, that was not the case.
Someway, somehow, her prayers had actually worked, as the river bed rose to meet them. Bianca could feel it as they fell through multiple layers of ground that was surprisingly soft. So instead of their fall being bone-breaking, demigod-killing pain, it was only bruises-everywhere, skin-burning pain.
"Bi, we need to talk about your methods of stopping certain death," Annabeth groaned beside her. "Everything hurts."
"I don't know how I'm doing this!" Bianca panicked in response. "I've never moved the ground before! That's always been Hazel's thing."
Annabeth coughed out dirt beside her, and the two of them slowly began to dig themselves out. "Well, maybe you can move the dirt again off of us?"
Bianca made an attempt to do just that, only to unceremoniously drop them into the freezing water. Ah right. There had been a river under them. The cold shocked the breath out of her, and she began struggling to breathe. She had never been the greatest swimmer and now, it seemed impossible. After all, they weren't going to make it out of here anyway, so why try? What? Where had she…
A hand gripped hers, and Bianca snapped out of it. Against her wishes, Nico had explored the Underworld extensively. He'd told her about it. All of these despairing thoughts. They must have been dropped in the Cocytus. The River of Lamentation. From Annabeth's determined swimming, she seemed to be aware of it too. At this realization, the fog receded from her mind, and someway, somehow, the two of them made their way to shore.
And for the first time in their hellish lives, they looked straight upon Hell itself.
The titan appearing and fighting on their side was not even on the list of the top 10 weirdest things Bianca had experienced. But it came close.
Annabeth shot her a look as if to say, are you still sure that we can trust him? Bianca nodded. Someway, somehow, Nico had befriended the Titan on his adventures. Something about Hazel, and a dip in the River Lethe? Bianca had learned to stop questioning it at this point.
"So where are we going again?" Annabeth asked after they had been walking for a while.
"A rest stop! Tired demigods need rest!" Bob brightly responded, without looking back at the two of them. "I know the way there."
A rest stop in Tartarus? Those existed? The more you know.
After a bit of walking, Bob led them to a broken ring of black, crumbling columns. In the center lay an altar, and the entire thing was inside a crater.
"We're here," Bob announced, carefully picking his way to the altar. "It's a shrine of Hermes."
"Here?" Annabeth incredulously exclaimed. "Why is there a shrine in Tartarus?"
"I'm not really sure," Bob shrugged. "Maybe it fell down from Olympus, maybe it was built by mortals. All I know is that monsters avoid this area for the most part. We are safe for now, but we must not stay for long. Giants and Titans, the defeated ones still in Tartarus, they are chasing us."
"We can't just stay here then! We need to keep moving," Bianca objected.
Bob shook his head. "No, you two are still mortals. This is the best place to rest. There won't be another opportunity for a while. And there will be food soon, too. You should sleep. I will guard you."
"Annabeth, I'll take first watch along with Bob. You need the rest," Bianca suggested. When Annabeth opened her mouth to object, Bianca continued. "You've been up ever since we arrived in Rome. I at least got some sleep while I was waiting."
To Bianca's relief, Annabeth didn't protest. She instead curled up on the hard floor and closed her eyes.
She and Bob spent the rest of the time talking quietly. She informed him about their mission, on releasing the Doors of Death from Tartarus. He agreed to help them get there. All the while, they stayed alert for any potential monsters approaching. Thankfully, there were none. As the hours passed, Bianca decided to just let Annabeth sleep. She needed it. The two of them, titan and mortal, waited, until food appeared in a cloud of smoke around the altar, slowly appearing as the smoke cleared.
"Food is here!" Bob exclaimed.
Bianca could smell it from where she sat with Annabeth. The smell reminded her of Camp. It reminded her of home.
"I'll wake Annabeth," Bianca said, moving to rouse her friend, only for her to jolt awake beforehand, wildly looking around them. A bad dream.
"Hey, hey. Bad dreams?" Bianca asked.
"I am not sleeping again in Tartarus ever again," Annabeth sighed, sitting up from the hard floor. "Is it my turn?"
"No," Bianca said as she shook her head and smiled sheepishly at Annabeth. "I decided to let you sleep."
"Bi!" Annabeth protested.
"You need it. And look," Bianca pointed out the food. "While you were sleeping, this appeared."
Half a hotdog, grapes, roast beef, and peanut M&M's. All in all, it was a pretty good haul.
Bob quickly claimed the M&M's after he finished his piece of pizza. Bianca grabbed everything else for her and Annabeth to share. At first taste of the roast beef, Annabeth's expression turned melancholy.
"It's probably from Camp," Bianca stated.
"Conner Stoll always burned a pack of peanut M&M's for his dad," Annabeth agreed.
"We should leave soon," Bob commented. "The others are coming soon."
Annabeth sprang up from her sitting position. "Soon? By soon, how soon? Seconds? Minutes?"
Bob scratched his head. "Time is weird in Tartarus. I'm not sure. There are six, or seven of them on your trail. I can sense them."
"Six to seven? We need to leave now," Bianca stated, also standing up. She then pointed in a direction. "That way then?" Bob nodded in agreement.
"Wait, how do you-"
"I told him," Bianca apologetically told Annabeth. "He says he knows of a way to get us there alive."
"There are too many monsters near the Doors," Bob agreed. "Not even Bob could sweep through that many. You two need to hide."
"How?" Annabeth challenged.
"Annabeth, I think we can talk as we leave," Bianca interrupted. "We don't know how much time we have left."
"Wait," Annabeth said, her grey eyes studying the black altar. Bianca could tell that she was thinking hard, and had an idea. "Offerings that are burnt in the mortal world appear here, right Bob?"
Bob nodded, "yes, they do."
"So what would happen if I were to burn something at the altar?"
Bob shrugged.
"Of course you wouldn't know, none of this has happened before," Annabeth continued. "But we can try. I mean, the chances are slim, but…"
"If it works, we might be able to send a message to Camp Half-Blood," Bianca realized. "You're a genius Annabeth! What are you going to tell them?"
"But first, do any of you have a writing utensil?" Annabeth asked. Ah.
Bianca shook her head, but Bob cried out in triumph. "I do!" he declared, pulling a pen out of his janitor suit. "The Underworld has a lot of paperwork!"
Bianca watched as Annabeth nodded her thanks, took the pen, and set to work writing.
"Who are you writing to?" she asked.
"Rachel," Annabeth responded. "I need her to do something for me."
After a few more seconds of writing, Annabeth clicked the pen again, handed it off to Bob, and asked, "And now it needs to be burned."
Bob's spear spiked out of his broom, and in a flurry of silver sparks, lit the altar on fire.
Annabeth smiled. "Thanks."
Bianca watched as the daughter of Athena set the burning napkin on fire. She watched as it dissipated into smoke.
"What'd you write?" Bianca asked.
"It'll be dangerous for Rachel, but… I believe in Percy," Annabeth responded. "If this works, it'll be worth it. This might be our only chance at peace."