Tension was radiating from the air as Annabeth and I waited for Loki to get back. And waited. And waited.

It soon came to the point where we were doubting that he was coming back at all. I mean, he never actually said he was going to.

With a loud sigh, Annabeth pulled out a textbook and started flipping through the pages, stopping when she got to where she wanted.

"What's that?" I asked, looking at the scribble of words the textbook was written in.

"This is AP Latin," Annabeth replied, coolly, "and you're going to be tested on it soon, so my advice is to start studying, Seaweed."

I groaned and inched closer to Annabeth, the tangle of words just becoming even more blurry. Usually, if I concentrated hard enough, I could read Latin, but today, my brain just wasn't corresponding.

"I can't," I said, beads of sweat starting to pour down my neck.

Annabeth looked up, with a slight smile. "I'll read, you follow along and make sure to listen. I'll only be reading it once."

Annbeth's voice filled the room as she read sections from Vergil's Aeneid, the words combining to make sentences, and the sentences telling a story.

My mind drifted off into the world of stories, watching each scene, each line right before my eyes.

Soon enough, she stopped short, poking me on my back.

"Percy," she said, "I've finished reading."

"All of it?" I asked, jolting awake.

"It's around 45, 000 words, Seaweed, there's no way I could read all that in one sitting."

Annabeth passed me a textbook and a pencil, smiling encouragingly.

"Summarize what I've just read," she ordered, as I jotted down what I remembered, in barely legible letters.

"Percy," Annabeth said, looking over my shoulder, "if the examiners cannot read your handwriting, you're going to fail."

"I'll write neatly on the exam," I promised, "but I don't need to now."

"But I need be able to read your writing," she said, while I groaned and adjusted my seat.

The temperature rose, and I felt the unwavering pressure of a pair of eyes watching what I was doing.

I jumped up, picking up Riptide, and scanning the room, nearly jumping out of my skin when Loki stepped out of the shadows.

"Can you please stop doing that?" I asked, gripped the table for support.

Loki held his hands up in surrender as he waltzed over to us with his usual mad grin on his face.

"Who's ready to go to Hel?" he asked, while Annabeth glared.

"We can't just 'go to Hel'," Annabeth objected, air quoting him.

The Tricker raised an eyebrow. "Why ever not?"

"Because," Annabeth said, huffing in an amazingly adorable way, "we need to be prepared. We need to plan."

"I'm more of the 'plan as you go' type."

Annabeth squeezed my hand tightly, as to stop herself from shouting. I knew Loki infuriated the Hades out of her, but she was keeping it under control. For me.

"Look," Loki said, "Hel is too unpredictable to even begin to have plans. Anything you plan, anything you think, will jinx us. The Norns do enjoy a good game with Fate."

My wonderful, wonderful girlfriend sighed. "Let's go then."

***

"If we die down here, I'm going to sue you," I called out, navigating my way through the pillars of salted rock.

Annabeth came up from behind me. "We aren't even in Hel yet, Seaweed."

"Whatever," I said, "it's still dark, and cold, I don't like-"

I trailed off as I spotted something with eight legs crawl out of a cavernous hole.

Beside me, Annabeth went still.

I reached for her hand, running my thumb up and down her palm. "I've got you, Wise Girl. I'm here."

She desperately tried to regulate her breathing, as I continued to stroke her hand, whispering words of encouragement to her every now and again.

"I'm here, Wise Girl," I said, "and I always will be."

She turned to me and forced a smile, finally managing to breath at a steady rate. Her gray-eyed gaze followed Loki's distant figure in the horizon.

"I think we've got some catching up to do," she whispered.

I looked at her, skeptically. "No Styx."

***

The cave wouldn't seem to come to an end as we scrambled over rock after rock after rock, tripping only a few times in the dark.

Still, the pitch-black inkyness seemed to stretch on and on, never once pausing to take a break, to let some of that sunshine beam in.

"It's gotten worse, you know," Annabeth said, hauling herself effortlessly on base of a large rock, then reaching down for me.

I let her pull me up, walking blindly in the dark as I felt for her. "I know."

"Is it... Has it gotten worse for you too?" she asked, "I mean, now that you're..."

"A god? No, the nightmares don't stop, and they don't exactly get better either," I said, rubbing my head, "but the difference is that I can't exactly sleep."

"You need some sleep, Seaweed," Annabeth said, sounding amazingly like my mom.

I looked at where her figure probably was. "I know. I just physically can't."

"You'll learn," Annabeth assured me, with her usual feisty confidence creeping back into her voice," I know you will."

"Thanks," I said, "hopefully I will."

"You will," she replied, without the slightest breeze of hesitation in her voice. She believed in me. She always would.

I stopped walking, wishing it was light so I could see her wondrous face. "I love you, Wise Girl."

"Love you too, Seaweed," Annabeth said, reaching up and blindly touching my face. I knew she hated being down here. It reminded her of.... things we didn't want to remember.

I cupped her cheek and brought her into a long, slow kiss, her soft pink lips meeting mine as my heart tap danced inside of its chest.

"I love you, Seaweed Brain," she repeated, breaking away from our sightless kiss.

"I love you more," I replied, giving her one last peck on the cheek before we walked back into the deep unknown, where we would surely die.

***

Unknown POV:

The Master sat, and watched the two children laugh and talk as they walked, seemingly unafraid of where they were going, though their accelerated heartrates, and the fast paced thoughts whizzing through their heads betrayed them otherwise.

They blindly travelled through the realm, not caring if they could see or not, as long as they had each other.

The Master growled, and clutched the armrests on his seat.

They should've been dead, or at least separated by now. The monsters he sent shouldn't made sure of that.

But these two overpowered kids seemed to have a barrier of luck around them, and hardly any of the monsters would even dare to touch them, they were that powerful.

The monsters that had gone, came back severely injured, or didn't come back at all.

He shouldn't have wasted them for a job that only he could do.

He would see them dead.

And it would be very, very soon.