Slight AU of chapter 11 in Battle of the Labyrinth from Annabeth's POV. I hope you enjoy!

"Follow me," you said. "It'll be fine," you said. "Trust me," you said.

You extended your hand down to me, a smile on your face, so trustworthy that I just had to hold on. So of course, I took your hand. I trusted you. I wanted to follow you, even though there was a spider that you were following and we were possibly heading to our deaths.

It'll be fine, you said.

You were strong and you were amazing. Everyone loved you, did you know that? You had green eyes like the beautiful sea and unruly black hair. You were six feet tall, six inches taller than me, which was annoying but you always joked about it. Your name was Percy Jackson, a name that would go down in history.

I'm pretty sure you didn't think anything was going to go wrong. Or maybe you did and just didn't want to worry me. We were in a volcano and the air was so hot that I could barely breathe.

Your hands were really sweaty, so I eventually let go. You didn't acknowledge the change. We heard the voices and I came up with the brilliant idea of splitting up, which never works out great. But you agreed anyway and off we went.

You had to duck behind things, I'm pretty sure, but I had my Yankee's Cap of Invisibility, so I just had to reframe from making a lot of noise. It wasn't that hard, actually, but when I first saw the monsters I was horrifically appalled by them.

They were traitors to the gods, training their young to help the Titans. They'd taken over this forge to make weapons for the Titan army, I reckoned. I had no idea where you were, so for a few minutes I just observed them. There name was on the tip of my tongue but I couldn't place it.

"This will make Lord Kronos quite pleased when he awakens," an elder whispered, slime and drool dripping from its fangs. He hissed the words menacingly, causing a shiver to run down my spine. "Fusing these powerful metals together. . . the weapon will be outstanding."

"Only the finest celestial bronze for our Lord," another whispered, peering into a giant crate that I assumed was filled with it. By this time I wasn't even breathing and could only hope that you were okay.

"Better be glad we're doing this," another growled.

I glanced down at the lava lake and made my way back towards safer ground. I needed to find you and formulate and escape. I knew what they were. Our mission was done. We needed to get out. How in the world we were supposed to, I didn't know.

There was a loud uproar from a nearby tunnel, and you barged out of it, yelling, "ANNABETH!"

Real smooth.

I grabbed you, threw a hand over your mouth and shushed you, pulling you down behind a big cauldron. "You want us to get killed?" I demanded quietly. You face was covered in ash and sweat. I probably looked the same.

You found my head and whisked off my hat. You explained to me the situation and what they were. Telekhines. I should've known. I'd read about them, of course. I told you why they weren't exactly to be trusted and why we were sort of screwed. We listened to some of them nearby talk for a second. "We have to get out—" I began to say.

More Telekhines came pouring out of one hallways. All of them were young and freaking out, screaming about killing demigods and eating them. This wasn't a good situation for us. We were obviously outnumbered and in the center of Mount St. Helens.

There was no way for us to get out now. What were we supposed to do? It'll be fine, you said.

"Put your cap back on," you said quickly. "Get out!"

"WHAT?" I legit shrieked. "No! I'm not leaving you!"

"I've got a plan. 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." There you went, trying to be a hero, but that's not what I wanted. That's not what I needed.

I needed you to be safe. I needed you to be with me. You were so thick headed.

"But you'll be killed!" I yelled, shaking you. Why weren't you realizing this?

"I'll be fine." There wasn't an ounce of fear in your voice. "Besides, we've got no choice."

I glared at you, because I wanted to stay behind. I wanted you to get out because you were more important than me. And honestly, Percy, I cared about you. I couldn't bear to see you ever get hurt more than you already had. But judging by the look on your face, you weren't going to have any of that. And the Telekhines were everywhere.

You looked fearless. You looked like the epitome of a Greek hero. I panicked. And I kissed you.

I must admit, I didn't expect our first kiss to be like this. I wanted to be with you at camp, perhaps on the beach. I dreamed and fantasized that you would be sitting on the ground and I'd be standing over you and then you'd pull me into your lap, with your arms around my waist, and then you'd kiss me.

Honestly, I should've known it would never end up like that. But the kiss was quick. You didn't kiss me back. In fact, you just froze in shock. I didn't know, exactly, whether or not you liked me, or if you even had wanted to ever kiss me.

I pulled back. "Be careful, Seaweed Brain," was all I could say to you, and then I put my hat back on.

I guess that for you I vanished, but for a minute I just stared at you while you looked off into the distance, unable to move. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, but if I didn't move soon then your crazy braveness would be for nothing. If I got caught it would all be over.

But I wanted to help you. I wanted to give you a hug. Perhaps knock some serious sense into you. I wanted to stay with you. But I trusted you, so I left.

I didn't turn back for some time.

I rushed off the way we came, the air slowly getting cooler. I could hear the commotion coming from behind me, and I just prayed that you would be okay. I hoped that some god would listen. I didn't know how long it would take me to reach Hephaestus again, so I even began to run. I needed to get you help.

I need you to be okay.

Then there was the explosion.

It knocked me off of my feet and sent me sprawling to the ground. I gasped as I was thrown down the long corridor and landed on my back, gasping for air. I blinked upwards for a second, unsure of what was going on.

I felt the rumbling underneath me. The horrible wave of heat washed over me, and I could barely breathe. There was only one thing that this could mean, and I didn't want to think that. I could even look back now. Tears were clogging my throat and I didn't know what to do. It was as if someone had pierced my heart with a knife.

I knew what this meant and for the first time, I hated knowing.

Percy, you told me to trust you. You told me everything would be fine. You said that you would be okay.

You lied.