Percy in Tartarus |✓

|| Four letters: Hope ||

Annabeth's POV

"Percy, Leo, and Hazel are back!" Frank called.

"Thanks Frank!" I said. Finally, they're back. I ran out of my cabin and went to the Lounge.

But I only found two conscious people. And guess who was the one unconscious? Yep, you guessed it, my Seaweed Brain. 

Piper went up and hit Leo on the head. "I told you to take care of Percy! What did you do?!"

"Geez, Piper. One, I did take very good care of Percy. And two, I didn't do anything. Blame it on Apollo."

"Apollo?" Jason asked.

"Yeah, Apollo. The god of music, archery, and the gods freakin' hot sun chariot. You know, that dude?"

Jason facepalmed. "I know who Apollo is. Of course I know him. But how is it Apollo's fault?"

"Well, he was healing Percy's Tartarus curse," I shivered when I heard that name. "And according to him, 'It is more painful removing the curse than receiving a curse.' Blah blah, blah. Well, whatever, because in the end, Percy kinda fainted out of pain." 

I groaned and threw my hands up. "Seaweed Brain!" I yelled in frustration.

"It wasn't his fault." Hazel said. I sighed, she was right. 

"What about the negotiations?" Frank asked.

"It went well." Hazel said. "And we also received news from Artemis that Octavian is going to be attacking Camp Half-Blood pretty soon." 

Jason growled. "Never liked that scarecrow anyways. Was a very annoying augur, kept on wanting my position." 

Leo and Frank nodded in agreement. 

"Oh yeah!" Leo said. He took out a small yellow flower. "Here."

"What is that?" Frank asked.

"Of course! The curse of Delos!" I exclaimed.

The other people of the Seven looked at me vacant expressions, except Hazel and Leo, of course.

I sighed. "When Hera cursed Leto to never be able to find a place to give labor, it was a curse. And when she finally found Delos, the island bloomed these little yellow flowers in honor of the twin gods." That was my most simple explanation for the non-Athena kids.

They all nodded slowly. "What about his legs?" I asked, a bit desperate for the state of health my boyfriend was in.

Hazel pressed her lips. I knew that meant bad things. "It's paralyzed." My face paled.

"But," Leo added quickly. "It's almost paralyzed. But that doesn't mean it is. Uh, if quick enough, we can reach Asclepius's place, and maybe there's still hope." 

I felt my face slowly regain color. There's still hope.

"Okay, set sail for Epidaurus!" (A/N: please just go with it, I'm pretending that they've already went to Sparta and already defeated Mimas [Hephaestus's giant].)

They, again, stared at me with blank faces. "That's where Asclepius's temple is located." I said. 

Leo went to the control room and went to set the navigation devices, and I went to Percy and rolled him back to the Infirmary.

I went to the cupboard and fetched a square of ambrosia and fed it to him. I pulled out a chair and sat right next to him.

I sighed. Some many things have changed since the last time we saw each other, well after Tartarus. Percy used be happy, smiling, and even had a tan. But now looking at him, most of that is lost. He rarely smiles, let alone happy, and he is so pale. Just so pale. It's that what worries me the most. He is so pale. And sickly, and very weak.