PJO/HoO Chapters in Annabeth's POV

The Battle of the Labyrinth - Hephaestus's Forge

Scene from: The Battle of the Labyrinth - Hephaestus's forge in Mount St. Helens.

[Annabeth's POV]

The metal door that sealed the chamber from the next room suddenly exploded with the force of a hurricane blast. Scores of young Telkhines came pouring out, snarling in all directions, stumbling over one another, as if unsure which direction their prey had disappeared to.

Annabeth looked over at the great cauldron where the four elder demons stood, soaking their nearly-completed weapon in another coat of blood, steam rising towards the dank, rocky ceiling. They didn't seem to notice their younger counterparts scrambling around the four-way platform, obviously completely used to their children running around their legs as they worked on whatever hellish project they were constructing.

"Put your hat back on!" Percy suddenly hissed at her, his green eyes urgent, his hand clasping Riptide. "Get out!"

"What?" she demanded. "No! I'm not leaving you!" And there wasn't any way that she was. Percy couldn't hold off all those monsters alone. He was crazy enough to still be alive after encountering them by himself, but now with the Elder demons reinforcing the smaller ones...

"I've got a plan," Percy said. "I'll distract them. You can use the metal spider. Maybe it'll lead you back to Hephaestus. You have to tell him what's going on!"

"But you'll be killed!"

"I'll be fine," Percy reassured. "Besides, we've got no choice."

Annabeth glared at him, pondering her odds. She knew that if they both tried to escape, the monsters would notice them, and she could only spot one exit within the room: the way they came in. If Percy knew he could distract the monsters, some part of her believed him. Though he acted like such an idiot sometimes, he always seemed to weave his way out of tight situations. Annabeth hated the thought of separating herself from him, but at the moment the idea seemed like their only option. As these thoughts ran through her mind within the second that she crouched there, Percy shifted uneasily, his eyes darting to her face, to the ground, and back to her eyes again, as if he suspected Annabeth was about to sock him in the arm.

Instead, she grabbed his face, and she kissed him.

She felt the muscles in his arms tense in complete shock. His lips were warm, and she smelled a faint scent of salty sea air that reminded her of Polyphemus's island. She pulled away, and found his eyes staring into her own. "Be careful, Seaweed Brain," she whispered.

She slipped on her Yankees Cap, and instantly felt her form dematerialize into thin air. Slipping past Percy's rigid form, she whisked by the still utterly confused Telkhines, and darted through the shattered doorway that had previously led into the classroom, the projection screen still playing, but with no audience anymore.

Running invisibly along the rusted catwalks, and up the metal stairwells, she ran past the heart of Hephaestus's forge, the fires within the enclosed steel frame turning the air to molten lead. Her lungs filled with smoke, and she doubled over in a coughing fit, but not ceasing her escape from the forge. Reaching the point where she and Percy had first entered the forge, she plunged back into total darkness, her eyes diluting for a second before she had a sense of her bearings. She was back in the Labyrinth. Taking out the metal spider, she was about to reactivate it, when suddenly, she had a strange thought.

Where was Percy?

Annabeth turned around, but he wasn't there.

She frowned in confusion. Hadn't he just been following her? He had been right behind her as they made their escape back into the maze, she was sure of it. Did he get lost? Did she somehow manage to outrun him?