The flowing river beside them cast a ghoulish, flickering light over their surroundings, making the shadows lengthen and contract to an ever changing rhythm. In a way, it was oddly romantic, and, even though they were not in the safest place in the world, and despite the fact that they were both covered in a multitude of cuts and bruises that stung, painfully, she was content to lay where she was, her head resting comfortably on Percy's chest. In fact, the ability to find such comfort in the very depths of the pit was what made the whole situation even more special, now that she thought about it.

"Anna?"

From her position laying across him, the daughter of Athena felt the word rumbling through his chest rather than hear them. Still, the well- loved voice was enough for her to relax even more into her comfortable pillow, so when she replied, the answer was barely coherent, slurred with her exhaustion and her sleepy daze. There was a short, barking laugh from below her and she could just tell that Percy was smiling down at her, even if she did not want to move.

"You ever think about the future after all of this is over?"

Even though he had attempted to remain blasé, she could still hear the slight nervousness in his voice that made her shift so that she could look him in the eye, curiosity burning in the very depths of her own silver orbs. For a moment, she thought about what to say before shooting him a small smile.

"Not really, I tend to just focus on surviving to see tomorrow, don't you?"

With a slight nod, he pulled her closer to him, holding her tight against his torn t-shirt. She could practically feel the phrenic energy burning through him at this point, and she couldn't help but look at him with open curiosity playing across her features.

"Exactly! We both know that life is short, especially for demigods so, we have to grab hold of anything that makes us happy right?"

At this, she pulled away from him, all of her sleepy lethargy vanishing in an instant. She had a feeling that she knew where this conversation was going, and it sent a violent tremor up her spine, but it couldn't be could it? Even Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon would not do that in the very bottom of Tartarus surely?

"Percy… what are you trying to say here?"

If she hadn't been looking him flat in the face and if she had not known him so well, then she would have missed the flash of nervousness that shot across his features before it was hidden behind the cool mask that he had begun to develop when this war had started.

"What I'm trying to say is that I'm happy with you… more than happy… and I can't help but think that we don't have enough time alive for me to put this off."

At this, he gently placed her on the ground before turning to kneel in front of her, pulling a beaten black box out of his pocket and offering it up to her. Annabeth felt her heart beat race with emotion that had nothing to do with the fear that had gripped her after the fall.

"Annabeth Chase… if we survive this place… would you do me the honour of marrying me?"

With a jolt, the blonde pulled herself out of the dream, panting as though she had just finished the obstacle course back at camp with Mrs O'Leary on her tail. However, instead of being greeted with the flat blackness of Tartarus as she had feared deep within her mind she would be, the shadows in the room began to resolve themselves into shapes. For a moment she couldn't figure out why they were all blurred however, they edges obscured by the shifting pattern of the shadows in the room, but then she felt the breath catch in her throat and she realised that she was crying. Hard.

With a choked cry, she forced the blanket away from her and stumbled over to the window of her room to peer out into the New York sky line, her right hand absently playing with the silver band on her left ring finger. It had been a long time since she had last had a dream of anything other than the war or the torture that proceeded it, but, given the situation they were in, this one was worse for her psyche over all.

The dream was the last pleasant memory she had of her time together with Percy if she honestly thought about it. They had been so desperate for some level of hope in Tartarus that they had been overjoyed at the vow they had made on the banks of the flaming river, glorifying in their choice to remain together for the rest of their lives. They day after that however, Kronos and his dogs had found them. What followed after was normally the curse that haunted her at night whenever she was forced into Morpheus' realm, but they had never made her break down as much as this one had.

They had promised to remain together, in life and in death, and they had gone through so much together that, when it was over, they had truly believed that they could finally be together. They had let their guard down and fate had cruelly ripped them apart once again just as they had begun to heal. In her mind's eye she could just see him being pierced through with the ice spear that she had not even noticed until it was too late. Internally, she couldn't help thinking that she should have noticed that there was something wrong with the Primordial of light using a weapon made of solid ice. She was meant to be a genius yet she missed something so big if she had not been so idiotically blind then perhaps Percy would still be there with them.

She let out another sigh and probably would have continued down that depressing line of thought but a loud crash snapped her back to awareness. Before she had even though about what was happening, she was running full pelt towards the living room, not even noticing her brother exit his room and join her. Her mind was fixed on the impossible thought that Percy had returned…

Skidding to a stop as she came into the room, her hand gripping the handle of her knife as tightly as if it was her last life line.

The room looked as though it had been hit by a spry of carbon dust, the black particles clinging to everything in the vicinity and in the very centre of the room, a black figure could be seen, though the details were unclear. With short, determined steps, Annabeth boke the ring of Avengers that had formed around the new arrival, barely noticing JARVIS raise the lighting in the room.

As she drew closer, the strong scent of blood reached her nose and she had to fight the urge to be sick when it combined with the lingering smell of wood smoke that clung to the area. However, just as she was about to take hold of their visitor, her suspicion raging behind her silver eyes, a small voice reached her ears that brought her up short.

"Hey Beak-Geek, long time no see."

For a second, the daughter of Athena was frozen, blinking at the small, dark haired girl in front of her who was struggling to sit up, her mind catching on the blood that was dripping from her lips. In the end, it was Nico that broke the lingering silence with a gasp, running forward to help his long-time friend and sparring partner.

"Lou! I thought you were back with your dad… what happened to you?"

Seeing the familiar way in which the usually suspicious son of Hades treated the petit girl in front of them, the Avengers relaxed from their ready positions with Banner running forwards to check the child over. In response, she only rolled her eyes and took out a canteen from a bag that was nowhere near big enough to contain it, waving the anxious doctor away as she took a large swallow of the mixture.

"I'm fine. And I was. In fact, I just flashed here from Salem. You need to get down there. Things are going mental and they really need your help. Don't even know who was attacking us, but whoever it is, they are crazy powerful."

As she said the last bit, she attempted to raise her arms to gesture widely, but she had barely lifted them above her chest when a flash of pain distorted her features and she fell back into Nico's arms, breathing heavily. Above her head, the Avengers shared a look of dawning realisation mixed with both resignation and a slight hint of fear. None of them could help but think that, maybe, this was what the prophecy had been referring to when it said that they had to travel to the west.

After the shivering daughter of Hecate had finally managed to regain her breath and her colouring had returned to a more natural shade of white rather than the ashy grey it had been moments previously, Annabeth crouched down before her. When their eyes locked, steely grey matching bright, unnatural magic that spoke of the use of magic recently, they shared a nod and the younger girl sighed, sitting up straighter to deliver her report.

"I was actually staying with my dad and step-mom for the summer, as you guys knew, and everything was fine, but then I had this really weird dream that told me I had to get to the edge of town, fully armed. You know what it's like with Demigod dreams… Anyway, I got to the place my instincts were screaming at me to get to, and it looked like I wasn't the only one there. It looked like Gray and Lucile… you know, the Nike twins, were already there…

We all were trying to figure out what exactly we were meant to be doing in this weird clearing in the middle of nowhere, when the ground just kind of exploded. From then on, I don't really know what happened, but I do know that it took a while for reinforcements from camp to get there. As soon as they did, I jumped from there to here, but the battle was still going on when I left."

She broke off there, panting lightly again and Nico rushed forwards, attempting to find the cause of her distress. In any other situation, Annabeth might have found it sweet but for the fact that she knew it wasn't that kind of affection that the son Of Hades felt for his second in command during the war. Instead, she pulled herself back into her thought process as a commander in a mission, rounding back on the others whilst trying to stop the dread settling deep in her stomach.

"Guys… looks like we need to head off then. Are you guys all set to g-"

"Annie, you need to get here… NOW!"

With a jolt of adrenalin, the daughter of Athena span round, palming the handle of her dagger at the unexpected voice only to come face to face with a Iris Message depicting a very agitated Thalia Grace and Clint Barton, both of whom were covered in a multitude of cuts and bruises. Absently, she heard Tony mumble a quiet 'what now' in the back ground, but couldn't spare any notice for it, now was really not the time.

"Thalia… what's happening on your end?"

For a second, the silver crowned huntress was distracted shooting a bolt of lightning off into the background where the sound of fighting could clearly be heared, but when she turned back to face them, her features were grim. Beside her, the assassin didn't even look at them, too focused on guarding the dark haired girl's back.

"We're back at camp and… Oh my Gods Hazel what the Styx is that?"

A large growl rippled through the room from message and fear clouded the normally bright blue eyes for a second before she returned her focus to them and grinned widely.

"Dammit Neeks, your sister is terrifying when she gets upset! If she wasn't dating that Zhang guy I would totally try recru-"

"Focus Thals!"

"Oh, right as I said, were back at camp and we have a large army facing us. Most of the able bodied campers are fighting, but most are still recovering from the last war, I don't think that we will be able to hold them off, even if we hunters are helping. I think you need to get down here now."

For a moment, there was nothing but silence filling the room, but then an inhuman screech echoed from behind the daughter of Zeus and the message exploded outwards in a shower of water, making them all dodge back to avoid getting soaked. In her own head, Annabeth's mind was buzzing, jumping from possibility to possibility before discarding each one after only a second. This is why she always hated fighting immortals, things always seemed to find a way to go spectacularly wrong at the worst possible moment.

With a sigh, she realised that there was only really one possible option for them, they would have to take a chance at the prophecy and hope that it didn't horribly backfire… For some reason however, she just could not break the feeling that this was just the beginning…