What is this? What happened after they fell—a much needed epilogue. It's currently a one-shot. Or it could be more—that decision, I'll leave to the reviewers.

I could feel the sand on my cheek, the ocean breeze tugging at my jacket, at my hair. The faint glimmer of the water was a blur, just enough to make it out as it gently lapped the shore, stopping a few inches from me. Calypso's Island… or maybe it was the beach at Camp Half-Blood… I could barely see, as if I was looking through a glass. A distorted figure of a man stood just a few feet away, knee deep in the surf. I heard him speak, just one word.

"Courage."

With a roar, the waves were blasted away, the air turned frigid, and I sat up, inhaling sharply, opening my eyes. I brushed snow off my face, my hands already numb and shaking. When I looked at my hands, the white snow had streaks of red in it. Blood. I felt my head again. It was wet, matted, and hurt when I touched it. Something tasted badly—I spat, flecking the snow with more red. Maybe I had bit my tongue, or lost some teeth… I remembered falling—falling into eternal blackness.

"Annabeth?" I muttered, looking around me. I was in a snow bank… rocks were around me, and behind me, they spiraled upward. In front of me, they vanished downward. I was on a mountain. There wasn't any of the normal plant life, though. I couldn't see any trees or grass or even moss. I rubbed my eyes. It had been light before here, but now it was dark. I could see enough to walk around, but there wasn't any visible light. Twilight.

Panic constricted my lungs as memories came back, what happened. The spiders. Arachne. Falling… I looked around again, didn't see anyone.

"Annabeth!?" I screamed, my voice fading into the wind. "ANNABETH!"

"Percy?" I heard a faint voice. I forced myself to my feet. I took three steps before nausea threatened and a wave of dizziness hit me, forcing me to lean on a boulder, to focus. The sick feeling faded away.

"Annabeth?" I called. The panic ebbed.

"Here." The faint voice said. I stumbled away from my outcropping, around several huge boulders. They opened up to a tiny clearing snug against a sheer rock wall. Leaning against the rock was a battered teenage girl. Her face was red, though I couldn't tell if it was from the cold or from weeping.

"Annabeth. How long have we been here?" I asked, staggering over to her, slowly sitting down. Her ankle was still wrapped in a plastic bubble cast.

"I don't know…" She said slowly. "I can't tell." Her eyes finally focused on me, despair on her face. "I'm so sorry, Percy." I put a hand on her cheek, kissed her.

"We can get out of this." I said half-heartedly. "We've had bad before."

"This is hell, Percy." She said quietly. "We fell into shadow…"

"Why is it so cold?" I asked, looking around. "Why are we on a mountain?"

"Dante's Inferno." She murmured. I pulled her away from the rock, putting my arm around her, hoping to warm her a few degrees. "A man hundreds of years ago… visited Tartarus. It was cold, icy… he said it was because it was so far from heaven, from anything good…" I checked my pockets. Riptide was still there.

"We have to get off this mountain." I said slowly. "We'll freeze to death here, Annabeth." The man's voice echoed in the back of my head. Courage. I felt her cheek again, her ears. She was freezing worse than me. I cupped my hands around her face, breathed warmly on her cheeks, her nose. It wouldn't help for more than a few seconds, but still. I had to do something. She seemed a little less dazed. A little more awake, normal. She looked at me, around us. I saw tears forming.

"You should have let me fall." She sobbed, burying her face in my shoulder. "You shouldn't be here, Percy." I focused. Annabeth looked like she was in shock. I had to keep it together. But it was hard to think about the present. I didn't know whether it was the mountain, or my eyes, but everything was a little blurred. Hard to focus.

"I can't say for sure, where I'll end up," I said hazily, not thinking, "I just want to end up there with you." It was a song I had heard before… in a bar, in a café, a jukebox? My thoughts kept wandering, going to past quests, schools, movies I had seen, books I had read. A dim corner of my mind seemed to recall something about the dead not remembering who they were… maybe that was something the Underworld did… maybe it was hypothermia. I remembered a movie about people trapped underground, and it was cold… "You'll just feel tired. That's how hypothermia begins… don't go to sleep," the man had warned them.

I forced myself to stand. I so desperately wanted to rest, to sleep. But I couldn't. We couldn't stay here. I slapped myself across the face, stamped my feet. The mental haze cleared a little. My surroundings focused better. "Get up." I ordered her, taking her hands. I had carried people before, but picking them up off the ground was harder. Annabeth took my hands, and gingerly rose as I pulled her up. The wrapped foot touched the ground, and I saw pain jolt across her face. I put one hand under her arms, one hand under her knees, and lifted. She wasn't very heavy.

"You going to climb down a mountain like this?" She asked faintly. I kissed her cheek.

"All the way." I said. She shook her head.

"When we get down… there will be monsters, closer to the doors. We won't make it." She said. I took a breath, held Annabeth a little tighter. Hope. I hadn't given up hope, back at the foot of Olympus—it was still here. It would help us, if we wanted. I closed my eyes for a moment. Please. I begged silently. Help me. Take away my doubt. The mountain was still dark and dead and freezing, but my voice was sure when I spoke, when I started walking.

"I'm taking you home, Annabeth."