Song of the Chapter: Your Hand in Mine by Explosions in the Sky

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A/N: Sorry I haven't updated this story in so long, also sorry that it's so pathetically short. This story is really meant to be a large collection of little snippets, as that makes it easier for me to write amidst my crazy life! Also, does anyone have any news on the Sea of Monsters movie? Thank you to all you fabulous reviewers and readers!

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Percy's seaweed green eyes looked straight into Annabeth's stormy gray ones across the room.

They were going to have to enter the arena.

And fight.

Alone.

Percy's mind reeled. They were supposed to stay together.

They were supposed to get in, find their way to the doors, get out.

Not get tangled into a web of old enemies and fictional villains.

They weren't supposed to get separated, forced apart.

Where the hell was Annabeth?

If they were torturing her in any way, shape, or form, Percy wanted to know, and stop those bastards right there and then.

Percy couldn't believe he'd let them take her. He couldn't believe he wasn't strong enough to pry her away from the guards that had dragged her away from him.

She was probably sitting alone, cold and desperate much like he was at the moment, except for the man with the broken look and crazy eyes, mumbling to himself.

"just a ways further yonder...
past the ghouls, ghosts, and grems
past the river, rising, and rhymes"

Percy wanted to tell him to shut up, but the guy looked pretty unstable. If he got incapacitated by this dude, he wouldn't be able to get Annabeth out.

Percy sighed and looked down at his frayed and singed camp half blood shirt, the only remaining remnant of himself now that Annabeth was taken. Percy shivered, the temperature of Tartarus always just slightly too cold for comfort.

He got up and began pacing back and forth. Percy remembered the first memories he had of Annabeth; the smart blonde that had been there for him, then smirked when he blew up the girl's toilets.

He remembered the first date that had been averted when he blew up Goode Highschool. Annabeth's irritation that day and meeting Rachel Dare.

He remembered their first kiss, when he had blown up the secret volcano factory and dissappeared for months on Calypso's island.

Or even summers sitting along the beach watching fireworks go off, explosions in the sky.

Their relationship had been a series of explosions since day one, their friendship had been an open fuse, and Percy had an inclination towards accidental pyrotechnics.

Percy needed a way to get out of this. The chances of both his and Annabeth's success were low. All he needed was a fuse of some sort.

But his thoughts were interuppted by a guard at his door. Of course it was once again Medusa.

"Why hello there dearie. Are you ready for your demise? I have to say, I have been waiting for this day for some quite some time. Of course, there is no doubt in my mind that I knew this was coming."

Percy simply followed her, not seeing a way out of the sharp talon fingernails that encircled his arm.

"You will be the first to fall, then I will get to watch as the girl falls, that wretched thing."

Percy 'accidentally' stepped on the back of her dress, causing her to yell at him in annoyance.

It was petty, but it stopped him from unleashing something much worse.

Medusa led him to the center of the largest arena Percy had set foot in, the dust circle in which he stood spanning wider than a football field.

He squinted into the bright harsh lighting to find the panel of judges sitting in a high box of elaborate seating up in the stands. He spotted Annabeth as well, being held by Kronos awaiting her fight.

It was hard to take his gaze away from her, even when it was announced, "RELEASE THE BEAST"

Because right then, Typhon entered the arena with a racous snarl that shook the gravel floor of the arena.

The monster easily took up a fourth of the arena floor, and it was currently charging at Percy, who was only armed with Riptide.

Percy awaited the moment of collision, bracing his feet against the gravel.

Then the moment came, and Percy was fighting and swinging and slashing as furiously as he could, trying to break the furious beast before he was crushed.

He struggled, but the fight didn't last long.

After three minutes of hashing his sword, Percy fell, pinned by a talon of Typhon.

Percy's mind sped up, and his senses roamed the arena.

He was searching for a loophole, some way to get out of this inevitable doom. A couple of seconds had passed when his supersensory abilities kicked in. Although his abilities had failed thus far, some force seemed to be on his side as he thrust the last of his energy into his final move.

He made eye contact with Annabeth's worry stricken face and she seemed to understand what had to be done.

He closed his eyes, found the pressure point, and lit the fuse.

Just as Typhon was about to spear Percy like a fish under a trident, the arena exploded.

And once again, amid the acrid smoke and reigning chaos, Annabeth and Percy found each other.
Annabeth seemed to know the best place to escape, sprinting ahead out of the cloud of dust and into a long and winding cavernous hall.

The pair ran side by side for what felt to be hours until the sound of yelling and the smell of gravel dissapeared.

They entered an empty alcove within the maze of caves and collapsed, exhausted.

"Hey Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth began, still slightly out of breath.

"Yeah?" Percy replied, his chest rising up and down heavily underneath Annabeth's head.

"I think the grand explosions are getting a little old. I have dust in my teeth and ears."

"Sorry. I'll have to try a different approach next time. Maybe some card tricks will do the job."

Annabeth laughed, little snorts interspersed among her hearty chuckles.

And for a moment, they were just Percy and Annabeth, the dynamite duo that had been through everything together, just on another quest.