"Percy, let me go," she croaked. "You can't pull me up."
His face was white with effort. She could see in his eyes that he knew it was hopeless.
"Never," he said. He looked up at Nico, twenty feet above. Way to far to pull a slab of stone to hold their weight. "The other side, Nico! I'll see you there. Understand?"
Nico's eyes widened. "But-"
"Lead them there!" Percy shouted. "Promise me!"
"I-I will."
Below them, the voice laughed in the darkness. Sacrifices. Beautiful sacrifices to wake the goddess.
Percy tightened his grip on Annabeth's wrist. His face was gaunt, scraped and bloody, his hair dusted with cobwebs, but when he locked eyes with her, she thought he had never looked more handsome. "When I say 'now,' you let go, no matter what, okay?"
She nodded, wondering why he was waiting to let go of her.
Only then did she understand what she thought would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall.
"As long as we're together," she said.
She heard Nico and Hazel still screaming for help. She saw the sunlight far, far above-maybe the last sunlight she would ever see.
He started swinging back and forth, almost taunting the pit with their small handhold. He kept swinging, and when he swing a little more than horizontal, he asked, "Ready?" He grunted out. Annabeth whispered, "yeah," and Percy let one last long swing, shouting, "Now!"
And she let go, earning a surprising amount of velocity upwards, and as Percy was upside down, and grabbed Riptide as it fell out of his pocket, uncapped it with his thumb, and slashed the webbing connected to her ankle. It didn't matter. She realized wasn't going to make it anyways, she was to far out from the ledge to grab hold when Percy suddenly let go of the his handhold, and made a pushing motion towards the cliff.
Annabeth shouted out in pain as her body suddenly dragged her through air and tumbled onto the cliff face. She scrambled to the edge to watch in shock as the falling son of Poseidon gave her a sarcastic salute and smile as he fell towards the nothingness that was the pit.
Nico and Hazel dragged her away from the cliff and onto the Argo II kicking and screaming and crying for Percy. "Together, Percy, together," she cried, trying to join him in his fall.
Nico's POV
Annabeth wanted to jump in the pit, whether it was to live or die along side Percy. I wanted to do the same, but there was nothing we could do. He had refused to let anyone fall besides him.
Honestly, I was thinking that he wouldn't survive. He hasn't had much experience with the underworld, the knockoff Tartarus, and I had only survived because I was captured and was kept alive for bait. Percy was too dangerous to be held captive, so if he was caught, he would die.
I knew everyone blamed themselves for his... Descent, but it was my fault. I could of just pulled a stone slab under them. Jason and Frank couldn't fight the pit's pull while flying, Hazel could only control gems, Valdez was needed to collect the statue, and coach wouldn't have helped anything by blowing more stuff up. Annabeth and Piper physically could not have done anything to stop it. So in a realistic senses, it was entirely my fault.
We left immediately after, trying to get Annabeth as far away as possible. Everyone stayed in their separate corners of the ship, all feeling guilty. Leo at the helm, Jason was usually on the deck, trying to calm the storms and helping while we traveled through air. Annabeth was either in Percy's cabin or the bathroom, Hazel and Frank were in the dining/meeting room, and Piper was either with Grace or in her own cabin.
Everyone had their own way of coping. Jason and Leo were both itching for something to do, to feel useful, Hazel and Frank needed to cope with somebody to take care of them, and they were there for each other. Piper is trying to forge ahead like nothing happened, and Annabeth, couldn't and didn't know how to deal with it.
We had decided to forge on by air through the mountains, that was apparently was a terrible idea, as the numiana could sense Hazel and I, since we were children of the under world. We get under their skin, quite literally sometimes.
Percy's POV
As Percy fell, he wondered how long it was to that he was falling. He vaguely remembers Annabeth saying it was about, what, 9 days? That didn't matter, as he was already falling with no stopping, after all. He then began to wonder what Tartarus was like, since it was worse than the Greek version of Hell, by like, a few thousands of times.
As time went on, Percy had to angle his body to avoid bashing his head against the rock sides of the shute he was falling down. Soon he felt a pressure change, and realized he had fallen into the main cavern of Tartarus, and was coming down quickly. Percy thought about making a parachute out of his shirt, but dismissed the thought quickly. It would ruin the shirt, and he didn't have enough time as he saw the ground approaching through the mist.
Percy saw a dark line snaking through the dull background of the pit. 'A river!' He thought, quickly preparing to use his power over water. He knew it wasn't the Styx, or the Phlegethon, as one was polluted and one was a river of fire. Annabeth had him learn the rivers and their properties, as it may come in handy. At best it was the Lethe, as he could keep himself safe. At worst it was the Cocytus or Acheron. He wasn't so sure he could protect himself from those. A dozen feet above the water, he shouted in defiance. He came down here to die, but not quite yet. The river surged upwards, slowing his fall.
As he started swimming, something entered his mind. 'There's no point in extending your suffering, join us,' along with thousands of other statements at the same time, and yet Percy understood all of them. He began to sink.
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Posted 2:35 AM, July 7, 2020