#bamf you

[itsythebitsyspider]

Ares Fem!Reader x Percy Jackson in House of Hades. Slight enemies to lovers

Hey guys, welcome to my attempt at a percy jackson fic. I hope you enjoy, I put a lot of time and effort into this. And tw, mentions of violence and lowkey graphic depictions of violence. (In case you don’t want to wait for the word count at the end, it’s 45,191 words. Sorry about the freezing and the slowness, I’ve heard it’s happens when you try and interact with this for some reason.)

Disclaimer, I don’t know how to spell. 

“Her leg! Cut it! Cut it!” Hazel cried. You turned and saw Annabeth being dragged towards the gaping hole in the earth. Adrenaline filled your veins and you bolted forward before you could think. The moment you could reach her you slid forward and grabbed her forearm, digging your heels into the ground to try and stop the pull. But considering there was a some hundred pound spider on the other end of the webbing, it was a near impossible task. The best you’d managed to do was slow it down for a few seconds. Fortunately those few seconds were all it took for Percy to drop next to you both and slice off the webbing on Annabeth's ankle. The webbing flew down into the pit and you let out a relieving breath. “Dammit… that was close.” You muttered, voice hoarse. Despite the wobbling of your own legs, you helped Annabeth to her feet. “We need- we-” She started, obviously still shaken by the experience. “Get to the boat, owl girl. We’ll take care of it.” You reassured her, still holding onto her arms. The blonde haired girl nodded before slowly making her way back to the boat. You saw Hazel wrap the girl into a hug before handing her over to Piper so Hazel could help load up Athena’s Parthenos 

You turned back to Percy, about to say something when the ground shook once more, this time taking the chunk of land you were standing on and chucking it into the pit. Percy reacted, lunging forward to try and grab you before the ledge he was standing on crumbled as well. His momentum pulled you both to the other wall where he’d managed to grab onto a ledge, but now without a sickening pop sounding from his shoulder. Dislocated? You stared at the shoulder. ‘No. Not dislocated. Just being pulled beyond it’s maximum.’ Your brain supplied. In terms of rubber bands being stretched past their max, if he kept holding on, he’d tear something. Percy grimaced and looked down at you. “Are you okay?!” Against the loud sounds of wind and fire in your ears, you could barely hear him. “You have to let go!” You yelled. ‘Please don’t let go.’ You thought. As scared as you were, deep down you knew they needed Percy to win the war. Compared to him, you were a minor loss. To your surprise, Percy shook his head. “No! I’m not letting you go.” He called back. He looked up to where Nico and Hazel were trying to reach them. 

“Stop! Stop- Get away from the ledge!” Percy yelled. Nico and Hazel flinched, hesitantly moving away from the ledge. “Nico- Nico listen to me!” Percy took a deep breath. “The other side. Lead them there.” 

“What?! Percy–” 

“We don’t have time. Promise me!” 

“I-” The son of Hades looked conflicted, his eyes darting between you and Percy. 

“Nico!” 

“I promise!” The child of Hades finally said. 

“We’ll meet you there.” 

Wait- What? With that, Percy let go of the ledge, and tugged you closer to him. 

At first you’d let him hold you close to him, the fear of falling overwhelming your previous annoyance with him. But after a while, the falling felt more like you were just floating, and you’d been able to regain your composure. Despite pulling away, you’d kept your grip on his hand tight. As much as he drove you insane, you weren’t about to risk death because you couldn’t hold his hand for a while. 

On the Argo when talking about the quest, Annabeth told you the story about some poet, Hesiod you think it was, who theorized that it took nine days to fall from the earth into Tartarus. “Zeus said that the distance from the heavens to earth took the same amount of time as earth to hell.” She said, that familiar sparkling look in her eyes whenever she got to share information she’d known for a long time. “So nine days to fall?” You remembered asking. “Can’t we only survive like- seven days without water?” Annabeth tilted her head, reaching up to wrap a strand of hair around her finger. You noticed that she’d do that whenever she had to recall something she read a long time ago. “Well, I remember hearing Chiron talk about it with some of the older campers. He said that time in Tartarus passes differently than it does on Earth. There’s no day and night cycles there, no way of passing time. Not unless you somehow managed to bring a watch with you.” She furrowed her brow. “As demigods, we can take a lot more than a normal human. So I suppose even if the nine days theory is correct, we’d still be able to survive. It just wouldn’t be very pleasant.” 

You couldn’t tell how long you’d been falling. Seconds, Minutes, Hours, but it was definitely not nine days. You glanced down at your watch. When did you fall? It wasn’t like you had a chance between saving Annabeth and falling into the hole to go, ‘Oh hey, let me check my watch and hit the timer.’ Regardless, the time was currently 5:38, the second hand ticking away without a care in the world. You could start the timer there. 

After a while, the heat slowly got worse and you looked down to see a dark mass approaching in the distance. “What is that?” You called to Percy, starting to pull him close again. Would you have to brace for impact? Would he suddenly discover that he could fly? Maybe one of you had some secret ability where you could create some kind of forcefield to soften the blow. 

“Feels like a river.” He called back. A river. You’d be fine–... no you wouldn’t. Every camp leader you knew talked about how it was better to land on land than it was to land on water. The sudden stop caused by the water resistance would leave a severe impact force on the body, causing either severe injuries or death. And judging from how long you two had been falling, and how the winds were blowing against you, it was unlikely you’d survive the impact at this speed. 

Percy looked at you. “I have an idea. Trust me?” 

“I don’t have a choice.” You scoffed. “Any idea would be better than just letting ourselves go splat.” And leaving your souls to the mercy of Tartarus, your mind tagged on. But you didn’t mention that part. This ride was depressing enough as it. 

With that, Percy wrapped his arms around you tight. “Hold on. Try not to breathe in the water.” He said to you. You curtly nodded, grabbing onto him and shutting your eyes. You heard the sound of water getting closer and you couldn’t help but open your eyes. Somehow, a large stream of water was rising up to catch you both. You felt a sense of relief that you wouldn’t end up drowning, when a sudden cold feeling spread rapidly across your entire body until it swallowed you whole. You nearly lost a hold of your breath when there was an onslaught of voices suddenly screaming in your ear. 

“Give up daughter of Ares!” 

“It is futile to struggle.” 

“You fight for no one.” 

“Your fight is no more.” 

“You cannot win in the home of Tartarus.” 

“Your death is inevitable.” 

“You will stay down here and rot.” 

“You belong down here.” 

“Everything you’ve done is for nothing.” 

“You are a monster.” 

“Listen to our voices.” 

“You are weak.” 

“Give in.”

“You could never make your father proud.” 

“Hope is but a hollow promise.” 

“You are no hero.” 

“Do you hear the scratching?” 

The voices overwhelmed you, making it hard to try and think. You struggled to move, your limbs paralyzed with the cold. Slowly, you started to give into the voices. They were right, weren’t they? Two demigods in Tartarus against millions of monsters with grudges. Against Tatrarus himself in his own domain? It didn’t help that you were also injured. In saving Annabeth and buying Percy enough time to cut the web, the muscles in your legs were maxed out, becoming numb limbs that probably wouldn’t be able to hold you upright. All you’d do is drag Percy down trying to help him reach the Doors of Death. The hands of the faceless beings in the water wrapped around you, gently coaxing you into letting go of Percy. Their cold hands were gentle. Their nails, however, were sharp. They dug into your arms and drew thin drops of blood. Despite the pain, you found yourself leaning into them. This dark, cold feeling all around you felt familiar. Comforting, almost. 

With that, you started to let out the rest of your air. Only for a warm hand to clamp down on your mouth and a sudden force dragging you to the surface. At first you fought, trying to get away from whoever was trying to pull you around. ‘No!’ You wanted to cry out. ‘Let me drown. Let me drown!’ But the person was determined, and dragged you to the sandy beach where the glass shards embedded in the beach made you regret surfacing onto its land. You coughed and sputtered out the water, trying to put your hands somewhere there wasn’t glass so you could prop yourself up. Percy crawled over quickly, turning you on your side and using his powers to gently coax the rest of the water out of your lungs. You wiped the water from your mouth and sat up on your knees. You looked around at the terrible domain that was the body of Tartarus.

The area around you was dusty and murky. With simple sand dunes and dry grey patches of land, it wasn’t much of a sight compared to the rest of Tartarus. From what you could make of the ceilings and the walls made your stomach churn. The walls were moving, the indents and slick nature of the texture reminding you of a live surgery. The trees, with their leafless branches, looked like nerve endings. That explained why there were so many of them. In the distance there were a few patches that looked similar to forests. The things that hung from those trees however, was enough to deter you from trying to head that way. Every so often the trees would light up and illuminate the surroundings. Surroundings that would then react to that light. The light was so quick it reminded you of lightning. Synapses maybe. Then there were small hills and weird arches across the lands. Veins, you assumed. Occasionally they’d move as if pumping something through them. If you were to cut them open, there’d probably be blood. Despite how interesting it was to see how many bodily functions you could see in this wretched place, you couldn’t dwell on it for too long. The longer you stare the worse the sight would become as the Mist tried to shield you from the horrors still. You recalled what Nico had said to you all when you were discussing the fall, the stronger the godly parent, it was like the Mist wouldn’t hold your hand as tightly. If this is what you were seeing, this gross tour of the Primordial body, you didn’t want to know what Percy was seeing. 

Speaking of the sea-eyed boy, he seemed to be doing just fine for being in a river full of only suicidal thoughts. He’d managed to shake off the shock from the initial landing and was already standing and looking around with a pensive look on his face. “I don’t think we're in Kansas anymore.” He said, his lips in a thin line.

You paused to process what he’d just said before you felt your anger flare up. Your face contorted into an angry expression and you climbed to your feet. “You! How can you joke at a time like this?! Do you even realize what you’ve done???” You jammed your finger into his chest. “Because you had to go play hero, now we’re both stuck in the seventh circle of hell and we’ve no way to reach the others!” You huffed, a cloud of dark smoke flying from your mouth as the fire inside you ignited. 

“Whoa whoa, listen furnace for brains, if I hadn’t grabbed you then you would’ve gone splat on that river there remember?” Percy defended, crossing his arms just underneath where your finger was. It was true. You could’ve died and been stuck in misery’s river for eons. Still, you were angry with the son of poseidon. 

“Whatever.” You let out a breath, clearing out the smoke from your lungs. “Let’s get going.”

“Get going where?”

“Doors of death, remember? You told Nico to meet us there.” You replied, still annoyed with his decision to jump in with you. 

“Oh. Right.” Percy started walking off. You stared at him in confusion before shaking your head and quickly catching up after him. “Hey! Where are you going, seaweed brain?” 

“Something’s pulling me this way.” He said, as if that would automatically make it okay. “Right, yeah. Because we all just blindly follow whatevers pulling us. How do you know it isn’t tar-...” Your voice trailed off and you found that you didn’t really want to say his name. After all, names had power. You shook your head. “How do you know it isn’t him calling you? Trying to lure you into a trap?” You finished. Percy looked at you, a pensive look on his face. “Well, safe to assume wherever he is, that’s where the doors are. He’s waiting for Gaia to release him, so he’d probably be right by the gates so he can get out before we can stop him.” You paused. His logic was fairly sound. Tartarus wouldn’t be just chilling in his castle playing BlockBlast until Gaea opened the gates. You sighed. It wasn’t like you knew where the gates were anyways. Your best bet was to follow fish-boys instincts. 

“Fine. Let’s go. It doesn’t feel safe to stay here.” You glanced off to your left. You’d been getting a nagging feeling in the back of your mind about something in that direction. You didn’t want to find out what it was. Percy nodded and moved off towards the pull. You followed him, occasionally looking around the grey and gritty area you were in. It was just a desert. Made of a primordial being. Or– the primordial being was made of this desert? Greek hell was weird. Of course it had to be some complicated symbolism. It couldn’t just be some red place on fire with spirits and monsters roaming about. Nope. 

Xxx

After what felt like an hour or two of walking, you noticed that you both were headed towards a giant, gothic themed castle. Immediately you grabbed Percy’s arm. “Wait.” 

Percy turned back to you. “What?” 

“What do you mean what? Do you not see that giant freaking castle in front of us?” You exclaimed, gesturing your hand to the extravagant building. 

“Yeah, I see it.” He replied. “But I don’t exactly see a way around it.”

You looked back at the castle. He was right, unfortunately. The castle was massive. Trying to go around it would only lead to you both spending more time here, and probably running into the monsters that hadn’t yet found you. You let go of his arm, letting out an annoyed grunt. “Does that spider sense of yours know what’s in there?” You nodded your head in the direction of the castle. 

“Something powerful, but definitely not monster.” 

“Great.” You pinched the bridge of your nose. “We fall into the one place the gods can’t help us, and end up running right into the home of an evil god.” 

“Primordial.” 

You snapped your head up, a chill running down your spine. “Is it…?”

“No. It’s…. It feels colder.” 

“He’s warm?” 

“Boiling hot compared to whoever this is.” 

You glanced at the castle nervously. “Great. Just…great.” You reached for your weapons holster where your battle axe was strapped to the small of your back, fidgeting over one of the leather straps on your side. Its familiar weight granted you a bit of comfort. Percy looked over at you and noticed your nervous fidgeting. He reached out and placed a hand on your shoulder, giving you a reassuring squeeze. You looked up at him slightly annoyed, but grateful for the small gesture. You took a steadying breath and started forward, ready to take on whatever awaited you both in the castle. 

“Don’t touch that.” 

“I wasn’t going to.” 

“Percy.”

“Fine.” Percy grumbled, moving away from the huge statues at the entrance holding a large trident.

 You’d made it past the moat, waiting for Percy to stop staring at the weird fish-esque monsters swimming around in the murky waters. “They won’t talk to me.” The boy murmured, seeming hurt. You looked down at the ‘fish’ not liking the stink eye one of them was giving you. You rolled your eyes. “Well maybe they’re in a bad mood. Staring at them doesn’t exactly help.” You said, not wanting Percy to get his feelings hurt by some rude fish. 

Now you two were standing in front of the large archway, making your way inside the open doors of the castle. It was dark. The moment you stepped inside you couldn't see. Percy reached out and grabbed your arm, linking it with his. The action, for some reason, immediately sparked your anger. 

“What the hell are you doing?” You snapped. Although the darkness was blocking your sight, you could feel Percy tensing up, and you knew the exact expression he was making.That surprised yet irritated face he always seemed to have around you. “What do you think I’m doing? Preventing you from getting lost.” He said, a snark to his tone. You glared at him, eyes glowing a bright orange, enough to illuminate his face. The sight alone made you all the more angry. “Me?! Mind you– we wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for you and your stupid fatal flaw!” You exclaimed. The area around you started to reveal itself in the light of your flames. “Without me you’d have died in that river! You would’ve drowned and been stuck in there for eternity. Do you know what eternity is? Cause its worse than just ‘forever.” He glared daggers at you. Percy’s anger reminds you of the sea in the midst of a storm. The waves would grow to great heights, intimidating all who were there to see it. The moment the waves came crashing down and sent water straight towards you, it destroyed everything around it. Your anger was a forest fire. Burning everything you touched until it crumpled to ashes. Throughout and fast, quick to destroy and slow to calm down. 

You two continued to bicker. The wind around him picked up, spinning around like a hurricane. You had caught fire, his winds only fueling their height. A laugh caught your attention and you both turned to look at the figure that emerged from the darkness. A name came to the forefront of your mind. 

Nyx – The Primordial goddess of the night. 

Your  fire immediately dulled down in her presence, the flames still dancing around on your clothes and skin. Next to you, you felt the strong winds slow to a calm breeze. Was she the one who had somehow ignited the argument between you and Percy?

“Silly little Demigods. You dare set foot within mine halls unbidden? Did thou truly believe I would allow you feeble little squalors to enter mine sacred halls unchallenged, and not grace thee with mine presence?”  Nyx spoke, her voice a smooth and sultry tone. You might’ve liked listening to her talk, if only she weren’t currently threatening you. And squalors? Who even said squalors anymore? 

(It occurred to you then, you didn’t really know what that word meant. Regardless, it sounded like an insult. You’d have to ask Annabeth about it later, but for now you had a primordial goddess to verbally spar with.)

“Who are you calling squalor you–” Percy slapped a hand over your mouth before you could say more, wincing as the heat from your fire-abilities burned his hand. You quickly pulled back, giving him a scathing look. He ignored you, instead turning to face the goddess. 

Somehow, Nyx managed to look exactly alike and entirely different from how you’d expected her to look. Standing at fourteen feet tall, she was very intimidating. Broad shoulders and muscles carved into her arms, she looked like a formidable opponent. Silver strands of hair accented by subtle pinks, blues, and purple. Her eyes were pitch black, with two bright stars functioning as her pupils. They were so deep, you would’ve gotten lost in them if she hadn’t blinked. Her face was featureless,  from what you could see. It was blocked by her ever flowing hair. You diverted your eyes away from her face. She had a long dress that faded into the shadows, layers upon layers of silk frills. The dress held the night sky in it. If you looked long enough, you could point out familiar constellations. Scorpius, hydrus, and some others that you couldn’t remember the names of. But at the top of the dress, right on the little V where the neckline lay, was a bright star acting at the crowning jewel of her dress. The north star. You looked at Percy, and you saw his eyes drawn to a certain pattern of stars on her ribs. ‘The Huntress.’ You recognized it. Percy had told you about the girl he’d been on a quest with a long time ago.  Zoe Nightshade, Artemis' old head huntress, and the daughter of Atlas and Pleione. She had died on their quest, and was placed into the sky by Artemis. He hadn’t said it, but you could see it on his face how he’d blamed himself for her death.

“Goddess Nyx,” Percy spoke, snapping you out of your thoughts. “Please, forgive us for entering your domain. It’s just, my friend here and I had a little argument that we needed to settle.” 

What? You furrowed your brow, turning to look at Percy, but he just gave you his classic ‘go along with it’ look. You slowly turned back to Nyx. “Ah- yes, yes. It was a very important argument that we felt only you could settle.” You said, bowing your head down to avoid looking her in the eyes.

Nyx let out a scoff, somehow seeming annoyed despite not having any facial features other than eyes. “Tt.” She clicked her tongue. “Thou dare come before me, seeking my assistance in ending thy pitiful squabble? Tell me, why should I– of all beings– stoop to waste mine time untangling the disputes of feeble, witless mortals such as yourselves?” 

“Well, Goddess Nyx, it is because our argument involved you and your… beauty.” Percy replied smoothly. He was good at this. You could imagine how well he could get himself out of trouble with that silver tongue of his. 

“Thy quarrel was o’er mine beauty? Truly?” Nyx raised an eyebrow– seriously, how was she so expressive– , leaning down to look at you. “Tell me, how did mine beauty become the subject of thy argument?” 

“Well,” You stepped forward. “See Percy and I were discussing who was the most beautiful goddess. He said Aphrodite. For what goddess would be more beautiful than that whose domain was beauty? I disagreed, instead I had Artemis as mine. I argued that Aphrodite's beauty was only superficial, while Artemis’ ran deeper. Of course we brought in another goddess after goddess, until your name came up. We’d never seen your beauty in person, so we just had to come see you.” 

Nyx had a nebula of pink over her cheeks. ‘Is she…  blushing.’ You had a sudden realization.  Was this Percy’s plan all along? 

“Well, I cannot in good conscience, bring myself to deny that I alone am the most beautiful.” She said smugly.

“So it is settled!” Percy gave her a bright smile. “You are the most beautiful goddess, Lady Nyx.” 

You tilted your head and gave a tired sigh. Nyx instantly snapped her gaze to you. “What is it? Thee dare deny such a blatant truth?!” She demanded. You stopped your hand before it could reach for your weapon, bringing your hands in front of you. “Not at all, Lady Nyx. In fact I agree with this decision wholeheartedly. It’s just…” You trailed off. 

“What? Spit it out!” She walked closer. You steeled your nerves, determined to make it past her. 

“Well, Percy and I have made it all this way to solve this argument. But the path back is so tiring and we have a lack of resources. I fear we might not be able to make the journey back.” You said, painting a sad look on your face. Was it the best thing you would have thought of? No. It was probably one of the worst excuses you’d ever made. 

Nyx was quiet, looking back and forth between you and Percy. 'Well, what kind of goddess would I be if I let my worshippers starve?’ 

Wait, that worked?

You paused and looked at Percy. ‘Worshippers?’ You mouthed to him. ‘If it gets us out of here, I’ll be whatever she wants me to be.’ He mouthed back. You stifled a snort, instead turning to look back at her. 

“Of course goddess Nyx, we appreciate your generosity.” You bowed your head again. 

“Come come, let’s not waste anymore of mine time.” She waved her hand, turning to float up a flight of stairs. You turned to Percy and he nodded. You both quietly followed her up the stairs. Percy’s hand reached for yours, twining his pinky finger with yours. You didn’t dare look away from Nyx, but you knew he was looking at you with slight concern.  

Nyx shrunk her form down to seven feet. Still a towering height over you both, but less intimidating. She opened the doors to one of the rooms. “You’ll need food, and drinkable water. Chaos knows the water from the rivers here are among some of the worst drinks I’ve ever been served.” She looked back at us, looking You and Percy up and down. You moved to subtly hide yourself behind Percy. Her eyes caught the movement, and you swore you could see a hint of mirth in her eyes. “Judging by the state of you both, it appears thou are in dreadful need of it. It would hardly serve me to have my only two worshippers starve to death.” 

‘Only two worshippers?’ You thought. ‘That must suck. We can’t seriously be her only worshippers.’ 

‘Only monsters reside in these depths. Monsters imprisoned here, desperate for a chance to witness the sun at its zenith, permitting them to slay the spawn of those who entrapped them here.” She bit out, her eyes narrowing in anger. You could see the stars swirling around faster in her dress. Nyx sighed and waved her hand. “Eat.” She said, as food materialized on the table in front of you. You hesitated before reaching forward and grabbing an apple, not exactly sure you could trust the food. Percy did the same, grabbing an apple. “Do tell me your true intentions down here. As much as I was amused by your visit, I’m fully aware that you were not here just for that.” 

You looked at Percy. Honesty was the best policy at this point. Percy turned back to face the goddess. “We’re headed to the Doors of Death, Lady Nyx. We’re here to return them back to Thanatos.” 

Nyx perked up. “Thanatos, my son. How is he? Tell me– have you seen him?” 

Percy nodded. “Yes. Frank Zhang, a friend of mine, saved him.” 

The goddess tilted her head. “I assume you had something to do with that, Son of Posideon?” 

“I- I just held off the army while Frank freed him. It wasn’t much really.” 

Nyx shook her head. “I cannot thank Frank Zhang, but I can thank you. I hope that I may show my gratitude to him by helping his friend make it out of here alive.” She gestured to the door.  You nodded and set down the apple on the table. As much as you wanted to, you couldn’t bring yourself to eat the apple without your brain thinking that it was poisoned somehow. “Thank you, Lady Nyx. We won’t forget this.” You said. Percy set down his apple as well. 

“Down the stairs, take the left hallway past the throne. Follow it and you’ll get out through the back.” Nyx paused for a moment. “I would give you a direct pathway to the doors but it appears your friend already feels the pull.” She looked at Percy. “Very well. If thee are in search of a safe route, keep yourselves close to the river Phlegethon. Oh one last thing,” Nyx looked at us both before walking up to stand in front of us. You shivered in her presence, feeling the power radiating off her even in her smaller form. 

“You’re… helping us?’ You tilted your head. 

“My castle is lonely with what the company of monsters. You two intend on killing Gaia, yes?” 

You furrowed your brow. “Yes but– oh.” Gaia was Nyx’s sister. Family was family, no matter how deranged. It made sense that after spending so long in Tartarus alone, Nyx would start to miss her siblings. 

Nyx’s face contorted in the shape of a sad smile. Percy turned to you, confused. 

“When Gaea dies, she’ll come back here. No more long slumber, waiting to rise again. She’ll come back to Tartarus until she can fully reform.” You explained, feeling a sudden tug of empathy. Percy’s expression became one of understanding, and he nodded. “Ah, I… I understand. We’ll bring Gaea back to you, Lady Nyx.” 

She nodded. “Go now. Waste no more time than you’ve already lost.” 

You both nodded and left the room, headed back down the stairs and went off in the direction she pointed you. It was dark, too dark to see. You lifted your left hand and set it aflame, lighting a portion of your path. It was enough to light up the walls so you didn’t bump into anything. Percy kept close to you, holding onto your pinky again. You let out a quiet sigh. “So… Nyx.” 

“Yep.” 

“We worship her?” 

“Now we do.” 

You nodded. Honestly, you’d worship the Kool-Aid man if he were to bust through the walls of Tartarus and give you and Percy a way out. But that was wishful thinking. Right now you and Percy had just made it out. Percy started walking, and you followed after him. 

“The apple…” Percy began, not really sure how to ask. 

You shrugged. “Thought it was poisoned.” 

“Was it?” 

“We’ll never really know.” 

It was weird, making it through Tartarus without fighting anything. Well, aside from that encounter with Nyx and having to fight your impulses in order to pull off that stunt of yours. Oh and fighting off all those spirits from the river trying to drown you. But those were more verbal fights than anything. Danger was all around you. Your skin buzzed with the sensation that you were in constant danger, demigod instincts wanting to grab your axe and start swinging at anything and everything around you. You knew you weren’t alone in this discomfort, as Percy’s hand never truly strayed from where Riptide was in his pocket. It was a loyal weapon. Your weapon didn’t do that. Well, it wasn’t sentient either like his was. Yours was a unique blend of materials. You’d gotten the Hephestus kids to help you upgrade it after the Battle of Manhattan. While the material was originally Celestial bronze, the tip was coated in stygian iron. The handle was wrapped in leather, held in place by celestial bronze bolts and screws. It could be held comfortably with two hands, requiring momentum to be able to easily swing it around. Percy could wield his with one hand, as you’d seen him do before. You required both hands, having to rely on your momentum and strength to be able to swing it properly. But you couldn’t complain. You preferred your axe over a sword. It was a testament to your strength, being able to wield a weapon and make it look almost effortless despite how often your arms were left wanting to fall off your body after a long and tiring battle. It was your go to weapon, you’d trained long and hard in order to wield it. This was the one thing your father, Ares, had ever given to you. ‘Make me proud, kiddo.’ He’d written in red ink on the note your mother gave to you after your first monster encounter. Thinking about your weapon puts you a little more at ease. 

So at ease in fact, that it took you a minute too long to notice the monsters suddenly flying down from above you until their shadows appeared on the ground. You and Percy jumped in opposite directions. You tucked and rolled, bringing your arm up to cover your eyes from the sudden dust cloud that came from the hard landing of the monsters. Your first thought, upon seeing the bat-like wings with feathers, was that these were empousai. But the moment they stood up you realized that you were deathly wrong. 

“Keres.” You whispered, the word coming to mind faster than you could think about it. 

You remembered them from your class back at camp over monsters. When discussing Empousai, Chiron had gone off one of his long winded rants about the branches of winged monsters. Specifically, feathered-winged monsters. The lecture focused on how to identify monsters based on their wings, but when he discussed Empousai and their similarity to another monster, he’d paused and looked at you all with a worn expression. 

“Keres are the overseers of violent death.” He said, which had instantly piqued you and the rest of the Ares cabin’s interest. Violence was like a fish on a hook, and your cabin were nothing if not the sharks of the ocean. “The Keres would wait by murder scenes, battlefields, widespread epidemics, wherever violence and death was most potent. They wait until someone dies, and then they feast on their bodies. These are ancient beasts, known as the daughters of Nyx, and the sisters of our very own Fates. However, the Keres cannot kill or choose when someone dies. We've not seen them since Hades banished them from the underworld for attempting to feed on the souls.”

At the time you wondered where the Keres would’ve been banished to if not the underworld. But now as four of them stood in front of you, the answer was obvious. 

“Son of Posideon.” They looked at Percy. They turned to face you. “Daughter of Ares.” 

They spoke in unison, like a symphony of death. Their faces split open to reveal sharp toothed grins. Their mouths were far too wide to be anything but eerie. 

“You’ve been quite the ruckus among the monsters here. We decided to come pay you a visit, and perhaps claim that bounty of yours ourselves.” They let out a shrieking cackle, sharp and off tune. “Tartaus will reward us well. Finally, we roam the overworld once more. Feasting on humans without the restraint of the ancient laws holding us back from causing death.” 

The Keres in the middle pointed an abnormally long and thin finger to you and then Percy. You noticed then, that their skin looked like it was spread too thin. Like they didn’t have enough of it, and it was wrapped tightly over their body. “We will take joy in the first death caused by our hands, being the children of prophecy.” 

With that, they lunged. You snatched your battle axe free of its holster and swung upward, bringing it crashing down in a vertical arc. The Keres quickly jumped aside, revealing an open path to Percy. You bolted forward to join him at his side before one of them returned and pummeled into you, knocking you off your feet. You let out a ground and quickly brought your weapon to lay flat on your chest before it could somehow cut you on your fall. You scrambled to your feet, quickly looking around to find the Keres. They should’ve been– 

Instantly you had to leap forward and roll away to safety. The Keres on you didn’t let up, leaping for you again and again with talons outstretched. You had to pull out a small dagger and parry her attacks, barely managing to keep her at bay. Finally when she swooped back to fly at you, you took the opportunity to shove your dagger back in its sheath and grab your axe.  You were just about to raise your axe when a body went colliding with yours, sending you two tumbling. Your axe went tumbling a few feet away. You groaned and looked up at who’d landed atop you. 

“Seriously seaweed breath?” 

“Hey it’s not like I can control where I fall okay?” He huffed and climbed to his feet, grabbing you by the arm and quickly yanking you up by the arm. You snatched your axe off the ground and faced the Keres.  Percy stood to your left, eyeing the Keres circles around you both like vultures. The first one flew forward and you swung your axe up. The keres tried to dodge left, only for Percy to leap from your side and bring his sword crashing down. The keres screamed in pain before exploding into golden dust. 

“One down.” He grinned. You grinned back before wincing in pain as the other Keres shrieked in unison. Had they ever considered joining a barbershop quartet?

“Our sister!” They said, rage written all over their pale faces. 

You let the head of your axe fall to the floor. “What’s the plan?” 

“Don’t die.” Percy replied, giving you his usual crooked grin. 

“Sounds lovely.” You replied sarcastically. 

With that, you made a dash for the Keres, axe held low. The Keres, eager for blood, flew at you. You waited until they were close enough before spinning on your heel. The  speed from your mad dash gave you enough momentum to spin around a few times, cutting the Keres before they could move away. Percy followed in close succession, grabbing one of the escaping Keres and dragging her back down before plunging his sword into her chest. You looked up, hearing one of them screech and dive down to try and claw at Percy’s back. You dropped your axe and pushed Percy down, wincing as it’s talons scraped your left shoulder. You ignore the pain and got back up, snatching up your axe and getting in a low position. “You alright?” Percy asked, glancing at your shoulder. “Yeah,” You replied, feeling unsteady. Had you lost that much blood already? You needed to focus. 

Fortunately the fight finished quickly, giving you a moment to breathe after the encounter. Percy had made quick work of your shoulder, tearing a piece of his shirt off in order to wrap it. “This’ll do for now.” Percy gingerly tied the knot, pulling it tight to prevent anymore bloodshed. 

You nodded. “Alright, where to now?” You stood up and grabbed your axe, ignoring the way your shoulder seemed to protest every movement. You switched to your right hand, securing it into your weapons holster. Percy looked up at you, seeming to contemplate something before standing as well. “Nyx said our safest bet was to keep towards the river Phlegethon.” He turned to his right. “I can sense water this way. Not sure if it’s the Phlegetheon or not but, I mean we haven’t got anything to lose anyways.” He shrugged. You thought it over for a bit before nodding. “Sounds solid. Let’s get going before any more of those things find us.” 

Despite the weariness in your bones, you made it to the Phlegethon. It was a river that looked like literal liquid fire. How it managed that, you didn’t know. Percy reached down to dip his cut up hand into the water, yanking his hand back with a ‘yeowch!’ 

“Bright idea seaweed brain, dunk your hand into what looks like lava water.” You scoffed. Percy grumbled and rubbed the steaming hand. You opened your mouth to make another comment when you paused. “Give me your hand.” 

“Why? So you can make fun of me more?” 

“Just give it.” 

Percy reluctantly held his hand out to you. You took his hand and inspected it. To your surprise, all the cuts were healed like they’d never been there before, leaving a thin scar in its place. “The river… healed you.” You said, surprised. Percy looked down at his hand with a furrowed brow. “Do you think it’ll heal you too?” He asked. You shrugged. “Well you being a son of Poseidon, it would make sense that most waters heal you, no? I don’t think the same applies to a daughter of Ares.” 

“Doesn’t hurt to try.” Percy offered. “Dip a finger in and see what happens. At worst it’ll be a mild burn.” 

You stared at the river and thought for a few moments. You didn’t really have much to lose, except for your finger. But was a finger worth knowing whether or not the river would be able to heal your other injuries? Your shoulder flared up in pain as if to offer its own opinion. Your body ached and you didn’t know how much more you’d be able to take. It was best to just try it and find out. 

With a hesitant step, you leaned down and dipped one of your fingers into the river before quickly yanking it out once you felt the white hot heat on your skin. You let out a grunt and looked at your finger. One of the cuts from the glass beach began to close before your eyes. So it was a healing river, you decided. You looked down at the water and realized just how dry your throat was. 

“I’m about to do something very stupid.” You told Percy. He raised his eyebrows. “And just what is that, furnace breath?” 

You cupped your hands and quickly dunked them in, pulling them back out and chugging the water as fast as you could. Percy’s eyes widened and he grabbed your hands, forcing you to let go of the water, spilling it on the ground. “Are you insane?!” He exclaimed, immediately fussing over you as if you’d burst into flames. He tilted your head up and examined your skin. You let out a groan as the burning in your throat slowly gave way to a soothing cold. “Possibly.” You croaked. You reached out a tentative hand to the piece of Percy’s shirt wrapped around your shoulder and undid the knot, letting it come undone. You turned and looked at the area. Instead of the two gashes from the talons of the Keres, you saw only dried blood and two bright pink scars in their place. Percy looked at the area, eyes widening in surprise. “Wow.” He murmured. You nodded slowly. “Yeah. Took care of that, and the dehydration.” 

Percy blinked, as if suddenly made aware of how dehydrated he was. You gestured your head to the river and he nodded, moving over to kneel by the bank. You didn’t stay there for long, only to get a few more sips and gather your bearings before starting the trek to the doors of death. Despite the healing of the river, you’d only manage to go another ten minutes before your brain fired its last signal. It was like a conversation between your body and your brain that happened in a split second. 

‘Sleep.’ 

‘Not safe.’ 

‘Sleep.’ 

‘Danger.’

‘Sleep.’ 

‘Sleep.’

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. 

You were about to make a comment before your world view went dark.

X

 The moment you collapsed Percy grabbed you by the arm, roughly stopping your fall. He winced, hearing the pop of your joints at the strain. He quietly mumbled an apology before carefully laying you down on the ground. Percy looked back at the mansion of Nyx in the distance. As much as he wanted to ask her for a place to stay for a few hours, he didn’t want to test her generosity. Percy’s body, upon witnessing yours collapsed, had started to sway. He wanted desperately to collapse, to give into the call of sleep to escape this nightmare he was trapped in. He was exhausted. His right shoulder had been healed by the river, allowing him to be able to wield Riptide with it again. His forearms were littered with hypertrophic scars from the glass. He would’ve cataloged the rest of the injuries had the river not taken care of them. With a grunt Percy fell to his knees and took your backpack off. He would have to figure out a way to carry you and both of your bags. He stood up and looked off into the distance. He could vaguely spot a few hills in the distance in a forest of dead trees and murky waters. As far as he could tell, there were no monsters there. Maybe you both could take refuge for a few hours in one of the caves there. With a sigh he lifted you up in a bridal carry. His legs protested the added weight, but he was quick to ignore them and start walking off in the direction of the caves. If he still had enough energy when you both reached the swamp, maybe the waters would be nice enough to carry you both the rest of the way to the caves. But Tartarus was hardly the place for anything nice to survive.

Through some miracle, he’d managed to drag you both into a cave. He noticed a few webs stuck on the entrance. Arachne was dead, he knew that for sure. Her silk must’ve been blown this way. Percy laid you down on the ground, propping your head up with a backpack. With a weary sigh, he finally gave his body the rest it was desperate for, leaning against the wall, Riptide's familiar grip in his hands. He rubbed the rough handle, the leather only slightly worn despite years of use. It’s soft glow brought him a sense of comfort in the dark cave, the only other source of light being the red hue from the entrance of the cave. He laid Riptide on his lap, and settled in for what he hoped was a few hours of peaceful rest. 

You and Percy were given glimpses of your friends on their journey. Annabeth was alive and well, limping around because of her ankle, but overall fine. You’d seen her stare at her mothers statue, her expression solemn. Piper and Jason had gone through a strange temple, and while you couldn’t make out exactly what they were saying, you knew Piper had somehow managed to use her Charmspeak in order to turn the tides. You watched Leo fixing up Festus, talking to the dragon about some new repairs and upgrades he wanted to make. It was strange, catching glimpses of what your friends were doing while you slept. 

As you took watch while Percy slept, you wondered if they did the same when they finally caught a break. If Nico had gone down for a power nap after using his powers for too long and seen you and Percy struggling to escape the river Cocytus. Or maybe caught a glimpse of you and Percy walking into Nyx’s castle and seeing you both have to sweet talk your way into her good graces. You could imagine the expressions the others would make as the little Italian demigod told them that you’d flirted with a primordial. You let out a quiet chuckle, a quick moment of levity somehow finding you in these trying times. You rubbed the handle of your axe that you kept on your lap, finding comfort in its rough grip. 

You checked your watch and looked back out to the horde of monsters in the distance that were approaching. You’d wanted to give Percy as much time to sleep as time would allow, but they were getting too close. If you two wanted to make it to the doors of death, you’d have to start moving before the monsters could catch up to you. With a reluctant sigh, you gently jostled Percy from his sleep. 

“Hey, time to go.” You said quietly, not wanting to further disturb the bats in the cave with you. They were already wary of you both taking refuge there. You didn’t want to give them a reason to force you out. Percy woke up with a start, hand instinctively reaching for his front pocket. You stayed still, waiting for him to realize he wasn’t in any danger. At least, any imminent danger. Percy’s hand slowly moved away from his pocket. “How long was I out?” He asked, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. “Four hours.” You answered. 

Percy nodded. “Solid.” He said, as if it was a normal occurrence to only be getting roughly four hours of sleep. He didn’t seem to show any signs of wanting to rest any time soon, so you decided it was time to tell him what you’d found out from a traveling horde of monsters that had somehow missed you two hiding out in the caves. 

“We need to keep heading North, along the river Plegethon like Nyx said, and it’ll lead us to the doors.” 

Percy furrowed his brow. “So she wasn’t lying. Putting that aside, how’d you figure that out?” 

“I overheard some monsters passing by.” 

The son of Posideon raised an eyebrow. “You overheard some monster passing by? And they weren’t immediately alerted of you by your godly stench?” Percy grinned and ducked your incoming fist. “Still too slow furnace for brains.” 

“Shut it Seaweed beard.” You scoffed and crossed your arms. You couldn’t help but let a small smile slip. Despite being in literal hell, Percy still found a way to get on your nerves as if you were back at camp and were arguing over something stupid. 

A sudden roar snapped you both out of your thoughts. “Hounds.” You mumbled, looking out at the group of monsters in the distance. “We should get going.” You stood up, slinging your axe over your shoulder. You winced as the weight settled on your left shoulder. It didn’t make sense, the river phlegethon should’ve healed it. You chalked it up to the area just being sore and ignored it. Percy stepped out of the cave and up onto the lily pad that had carried your two the rest of the way to the cave system. He held out a hand to help you get on. You let out an annoyed groan and reluctantly took his hand, knowing without his help you’d probably fall right into the murky waters.

While it was nice having someone watching your back you had to admit. You didn’t like it. Having to rely on him for everything it seemed. When you first fell into Tartarus, he was the one who jumped in after you to try and save you. When that failed, he fell in with you and protected you from the fall by using his abilities to cushion it. Immediately after he dragged you out of the suicide encouraging river and took the water out of your lungs. His instincts led you both to the Mansion of Night where his quick thinking of charming the primordial got you two in her good graces. Then he’d dipped his hand into a river of fire and revealed that it could actually heal you both, and carried you to safety after you’d passed out.  Now, he was helping you avoid an embarrassing fall into the water.  From a different perspective, you could appreciate everything he’s done. You’d be dead twice over if he hadn’t stepped in.

 You stepped onto the lily pad, standing next to him as he started to use the water to guide you both through the swamp. ‘He’ll leave you.’ The small part of you that hated being so reliant on someone whispered in your ear, as if it was perched on your shoulder. You glanced up at Percy, who was focused on keeping you both balanced on the plant. ‘What happens when he does? You’ll be left alone, with no help. No one to save you.’ It’s voice said, almost taunting tone to it. Like it had seen the insecurities you tried to hide and decided that it wanted to play with them. ‘No, he wouldn’t leave me.’ You thought. ‘He jumped down here for me. He wouldn’t just up and leave me.’ You countered. ‘You’ve become reliant on him. Could you make it out here without him? What about up there? Back at camp, on a quest, or even just on a nice sunny day. You’ve been blinded by your own delusions; the idea that he would always be by your side.’ 

It’s blunt words cut right through your thoughts. It was like the sharpest knife suddenly plunging itself into your achilles heel. You didn’t say anything else. 

‘He will find out that you belong down here. And he will leave you.’ 

Percy  pulled the lily pad to a stop once you reached the bank, stepping off and holding a hand out to help you off. 

You stared at him for a moment, thoughts swirling around. ‘You are one of us. Let it out.’ The voice whispered. Percy gave you a strange look. “Everything alright..?” You blinked. “Huh? Yeah, yeah sorry. Lost in thought for a minute.” You took his hand and stepped off, looking around at where you both ended up. The terrain had turned orange at this point, with cliffs and canyons galore .It was fairly pretty if you didn’t look for too long and let your mind imagine that this could very well be an intestine or organ or some other bodily function you didn’t need to see up close and personal. Your vision blurred and you took that as your cue to stop looking. You blinked the blurriness out of your eyes and followed Percy, who’d already started walking back to the Phlegethon. 

Xxx

As you two continued your journey, the air became more toxic. It was harder to breathe, the air leaving a stinging feeling in your throat. Even a small sip from the Phlegethon couldn’t help to stop the constant assault on your lungs. Despite this, you and Percy pushed on. You came to a sudden stop, the hairs on the back of your neck standing straight up. 

“Something’s here.” Percy whispered quietly. “Something powerful.” 

You could feel it. Whatever it was had just dropped into Tartarus. It was like a tingle shooting itself straight up your spine. Your instincts screamed danger.  Is this what the other monsters felt when you and Percy fell in? You tucked away that thought for later. Right now you had to focus, because whatever it was that had fallen in was headed in your direction, fast. 

“Should we run?” You asked. The monster was moving fast, covering what had taken you and Percy roughly a day and a half to traverse in mere minutes. While instinct said to stay and fight, maybe it would be wise to try and avoid the monster for now. You tuned to look at Percy, realizing the boy had been quite for a while now. “Percy?” 

The sea-green eyed boy looked up, snapping out of his thoughts. “Sorry, yeah we should probably run.” He agreed, glancing to the distance where the monster was. You reached back and made sure your axe was secured properly before breaking into a sprint, Percy following closely behind. You didn’t know where the sudden energy had come from. Probably through the fear of whatever was behind you catching up. After all, fear was the greatest motivator. You and Percy ran for a while before coming to a halt in front of a series of tunnels. 

“Should we go inside?’ Percy asked, eyeing the tunnels warily. By the looks of the monster footprints avoiding this area, it didn’t exactly look like the best place to stay. 

“Yeah, but let’s stick to the river. With any luck, it’ll lead us out of here.” 

You both started walking inside, sticking as close to the river as you could without risking feeling the burn of the boiling hot water. The further inside you went, the darker it seemed to get. And not just visually. You could feel this blanket covering you, weighing you down with a sense of hopelessness. Just as you started trying to fight it off, that little voice from earlier returned. 

‘Can you even make it out?’ It whispered. ‘What’s so special about you that you’ll make it out of Tartarus alive? You’re only a daughter of Ares, one of hundreds.’ You gritted your teeth. ‘I’ll make it out of here if I have to kill every damn monster in this place.’ You shot back. ‘That confidence? Such a surprise considering you could barely handle those Keres. Who’s to say you won’t fall to another flock of Keres? Or maybe instead a flock of Empousai. Maybe you’ll find a minotaur, or some Arai. That would be interesting, wouldn’t it?’  

“Shut it!” You snapped, clenching your fists. 

“Uhm. I didn’t- say anything?” Percy looked confused. 

‘Ah look, now Perseus thinks you’re crazy.’ The voice taunted you. ‘If he thinks you’re crazy now, what will happen when he finds out about–’ 

“Sorry, just… thought I heard something.” You shook your head. “Maybe the lack of sleep is catching up to me.” 

“Yeah, okay. We can stop and get some rest once we figure out a way out of here.” Percy promised. You gave him a weak smile before facing forward again. 

‘Lack of sleep cannot excuse–’ 

‘Who the hell are you?!’ You thought angrily. ‘I know damn well you’re not me.’

‘And how do you figure that?’

‘Because no one except gods and monsters call Percy his full name.’ 

‘Clever girl. So you’ve figured out that I’m not just a representation of your consciousness.’

‘What are you. I won’t ask again.’ 

‘You ought to learn manners,’ 

“When speaking to a goddess.” 

A figure materialized in front of you and Percy. On instinct you took a step back and got into a low position. A woman draped in rags with different plants seemingly growing off her. Her skin was pale and grey, but not rotting. Her eyes and her cheeks were sunken in like she was malnourished, but something told you not to underestimate her strength. As she stepped forward, you heard the clinking of glass and looked down to see a multitude of vials tied to the belt around her waist and filling her pockets. You stepped closer to Percy and grabbed your axe. Flattery wouldn’t work here, not after you were rude right to her face. 

“I am goddess, Akhyls. The Protogenoi of Misery and Poison. Keeper of Death Mist. Daughter of Primordial Chaos and Primordial Nyx.” Akhlys announced. “And the mother of the Keres.” She finished, a special glint in her eyes. 

Commander of… “You sent the Keres after us.” Your eyes widened in realization. 

The goddess threw her head back and cackled, the sound echoing in the empty cave. She looked back down and grinned, her face splitting the very same way as the Keres. Her lips peeling back to touch the corners of her mouth, showing an abnormal amount of teeth. 

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it?” You muttered quietly. 

Akhyls frowned, casting a hand out at you. You froze, waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, you slowly relaxed and cast a confused glance at Percy. He shrugged and lifted his sword a little higher. 

You turned back to face the Goddess of… what was it? Misery, Keres, and– 

White hot pain suddenly flashed through your shoulder, causing you to cry out and fall to your knees into a pool of liquid, splashing it everywhere. Was that liquid there before? You couldn’t remember. All you could do was clutch your left shoulder in pain. It felt like someone had taken a barbed wire and dragged it through the inside of your veins. 

“What’s going on?! What’s she doing to you?” Percy was at your side in an instant, trying to get you to let go of your shoulder so he could see. You trembled in his arms as he nearly ripped off your sleeve in order to examine it. You winced at the sight of your veins being a very prominent black, spreading through the rest of your body very quickly.

“I’m demonstrating the extent of my mercy.” Akhyls said smugly, keeping her index finger pointed at you as she continued to show off her powers. You screamed in agony, moving out of Percy’s grip and writhing on the floor as the poison spread further through your veins. Tears were streaming down your face, and you sucked in a breath in between your pained sobs. You’d never felt pain like this before. One that burned through your body, feeling like it was chewing through the rest of your bodily functions. Your nerves felt like they were lighting up brighter than one of those military grade flashlights. Your blood was boiling and you were losing the circulation in your arm as the poison started to clog up your veins. 

“What the hell kind of mercy is this?” Percy spat at her, giving her a glare before moving to stand protectively in front of you. You coughed out blood, choking on it as you tried to suck in air. It was like your body was trying to get rid of the poison but it couldn’t discern between which part of you was poisoned and which part was healthy. 

“At any moment in time I could’ve torn her from your grasp. Stilled her breath with but a whisper of my poison, and left you to weep and wander Tartarus alone. Broken, and bereft.”” Akhyls tilted her head in amusement as if she was enjoying the idea, squeezing her fist to make you scream out in pain again.”Perhaps I should have sped things up. Moving the poison closer and closer to her heart, wracking her frail form with unspeakable agony while you blubbered and cried whilst searching for a remedy. To no avail of course, this venom is my own making. Borne of my blood and breath. No balm, no cure, not even some magical food could save her. Only by mine own hand would she draw breath once more.” You spluttered out  incoherent words, not making any sense through the cloud of pain you were stuck in, like every nerve was being squeezed and ripped out of you. Percy kept glancing back and forth at you, looking helpless. “By the confusion on your face I have to ask, you didn’t know she was poisoned, did you?” She seemed to be even more excited by the idea that you had kept it from Percy. 

“Spare me the dramatics and just tell me what you did to her!” Percy exclaimed, the winds picking up around him. 

“I sent my daughters after you, with a special poison in hand. During your battle, one among them struck true, allowing me to infect your little friend.”

Percy paused. Your shoulder. Percy turned to face you. The poison had spread out to your throat, taking its sweet time to infect everything except your heart, leaving that for last. It hurt terribly to scream, leaving you in silent pain on the floor.

 The Keres had scraped you there. That’s how she did it. That’s how she poisoned you. You let out a quiet pained whimper. Percy’s eyes narrowed at the sound and he turned to face the goddess. “Let her go. She didn’t do anything to you.” 

“You think it’s that simple?” Akhyls chuckled. “No no, little demigod. If I bring both of you to Tartarus, do you realize what he’ll do for me” Her voice took on a second tone, as if two people were speaking rather than one. In her excitement, she slipped into her older tongue. “ When he and Gaea rise, when they sweep away your wretched, cowardly demigod friends, your feeble little gods shall fall in turn. A new Olympus shall be wrought, grander, purer, mine.” She exclaimed, looking manic. “ I will claim my rightful seat upon his council, as is my birthright. I will let loose agony upon your friends, your kin, all those who have ever known or held you dear. They will know– they will remember what it is to feel true–” She coughed and cleared her throat. “What it’s like to–” She coughed again and turned to the side to spit out something black. The liquid steamed on the ground and she grew confused before turning to look at Percy. “How are you–” She gagged and  reached for her throat. 

You suddenly felt the poison that had been inching towards your heart stop, as if frozen in time. You quickly spat out the blood and sucked in air by the mouthful, taking as much advantage of the break as you could. Your throat hurt but you ignored it, breathing until your lungs no longer burned. You pushed yourself onto your knees and looked up at the goddess. She was grabbing her throat as if she was choking on something. 

“What’s wrong Akhyls?” Percy asked, a strange undertone in his voice. “Cat got your tongue?” You looked at Percy who had one hand outstretched towards the choking goddess. You made a confused face. What was Percy doing? Did he have some kind of power over her? It didn’t make sense. He didn’t have a domain, not down here at least. There wasn’t any water. Other than the river phlegethon but you hadn’t seen him reach for it. Your brain was firing too slow to process what was going on at first, the previous  lack of oxygen making you feel woozy. You took another deep breath to gather your bearings.

“What you said about making everyone feel your misery made me think. I mean, you’re the goddess of misery right? That’s your whole thing.” Percy raised his other hand and the vials on her belt shattered, the liquid rising to form some sick halo around her head. “I mean, how much misery can misery take, hm?” 

Akhylls looked freaked out, thrashing in the invisible hold that Percy had on her. The son of the sea god grinned. “By the look on your face, I’m assuming that you’re not exactly too confident of your chances, are you?” He took a slow step forward into the pool of liquid. Instead of sinking, he seemed to be able to walk along the surface, the poison crawling up his jeans and falling back into the water over and over again. 

You looked down and reached your hand out to dip it in the poison, but you were surprised when it rushed to avoid you. You looked back up. Was Percy controlling the poison somehow? But that didn’t make sense. Even though his domain was the sea, having control of all liquids seemed like a reach. Having control of poison, was a reach. But here he was, slowly forcing the halo of poison into  Akhyls mouth, steadily making her drink without a second to breathe. Her face was turning blue from the lack of oxygen. You knew that feeling. The burning in your lungs, your mind scrambling to figure out why you weren’t taking in any air. Her body was spasming as she continued to drink in the poison like it was water. She was drowning. 

“Percy,” you croaked, voice too quiet to be heard over the windstorm surrounding Percy. “Percy!” You cried out, wincing as your throat flared up with pain. Percy turned to face you, his gaze softening slightly. He moved his hand out to you, clearing a path in the pool of poison for you to walk over and join him. 

You glanced between him and the goddess. You shakily pushed yourself up onto your feet to approach him, pushing through the harsh winds that fought to keep everything at a distance. Percy watched as you walked over, never loosening his hold over the goddess. You looked at the goddess, standing there in pain. Was she feeling it? Was she truly feeling the misery she’d inflicted on so many others. Percy was staring at you, eyes watching your expression as if trying to figure out what you were thinking. You lifted a hand and placed it on his shoulder. 

“Finish the job, Percy.” You said firmly, casting your gaze onto Akhlys. 

“Are you sure?” He asked. But it didn’t seem like he was asking you for permission to kill her, but rather if you would be fine with him doing it. 

You stared at the choking goddess, and deep inside you something preened at the sight of Percy making the person who hurt you suffer. Your heart was pounding in your ears, but you weren’t scared, no. You liked it. This was justice, this was deserved. She would die in the same misery she used to kill millions of others. She would drown in her own blood because she had tried to hurt you. You knew it wasn’t Akhlys in your head trying to mess with your emotions. But this wasn’t something you’d always felt. Your violent tendencies, your eagerness for blood and battle, it was all given to you by your father. Being in Tartarus had made Percy’s powers grow. Why wouldn’t it heighten your bloodlust as well? 

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. 

“Make sure she can’t hurt anyone else.” You whispered, as if trying to justify those feelings brewing within you. Percy looked away from you and faced Ankyls. He squeezed his fist, and she made one last pained expression before popping into golden dust and ichor splashing over the wall and your clothes. You frowned, feeling like her death was way too quick. She deserved more. She deserved worse. Something deep inside you was disappointed, and the pounding in your ears quieted. The poison fell limply to the floor before slowly crawling towards Percy, swimming up his leg up to his wrist to make an arm band of sorts. 

You looked at his new bracelet before looking into his eyes. They’d become a dark murky green.’“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that he gained a new domain’ ”You thought quietly.You reached out to wipe away the ichor from his face– hesitating when he flinched. You reached forward anyways, gently wiping it away.

Percy looked down at his arms and squeezed his fists. “I feel.. different.” He said. He shook his head. “We should leave.” 

You nodded and reached for his left hand, intertwining it with yours. “Okay. Let’s go.” Percy glanced down at your hand before looking up at you. He reached out his other hand and placed it on your left shoulder. You furrowed your brow before suddenly feeling like he was taking something from you. You looked down and realized he was siphoning the poison from your blood. It was a weird sensation. Like a cold slime leaving your warm blood. You watched as he took the last of it out, casting it to the floor in disdain.You winced. Despite the poison being gone, you could still feel the effects of it in your. Circulation quickly flooded your arm, leaving you feeling like you were being stabbed by multiple pins.Your blood felt cold, you’re pretty sure it was supposed to be warm. Everything in your arm just felt… off.  He looked up at you and glanced at your expression. “Are you…” He paused and changed his question. “Are you okay?’ 

“Better than I was a few seconds ago.” You said, giving his hand a reassuring squeeze. 

At your words the son of Poseidon melted, letting out a loud sigh of relief. It was then you realized how much he needed to hear that. You pulled him in, letting him rest his head on your chest while you combed your fingers through his hair. “You did good, Percy.” You whispered. 

“No,” He rasped. “I- I did something terrible I- I used her blood her- her poison against her. I made her choke on it.” He mumbled. 

“No, no. You did what you had to in order to survive.” You said firmly. “Tartatrus doesn’t play by our rules. All you did was level the playing field.” You ran your fingers through his tangled locks, gently unknotting them. When you realized your words weren’t getting to him you sighed and firmly grasped his hair, pulling it back so he could meet your eyes. 

“You saved my life Percy.” You said, looking him right in his eyes.

Percy stared into your eyes, looking for any sign of deceit before slowly relaxing. “I…” 

“You saved, my life.” You repeated. 

Percy slowly nodded. He seemed to lean closer to you now, like he’d fall over any minute now. You moved closer to allow him to lean some of his weight on you. 

You took his hand in yours again and led him out of the cave, following the phlegethon outside. You breathed a sigh of relief as you left the toxic air behind. You looked around. Up ahead was the beginnings of a very large ribcage. You were close to the doors of death. The thought both excited and worried you. You glanced at Percy who seemed preoccupied with staring at his bracelet of poison on his wrist. You didn’t know what he was thinking, but you could assume it wasn’t anything good. You squeezed his hand, to let him know you were there. He looked up and gave you a sad smile. 

Xxx

You led him on, further into Tartarus. But the more you thought about what you’d just done, those thoughts you just had, the more you wanted to drag your feet. Did you deserve to leave this place? A place of monsters and all things bad? You watched Percy torture a goddess. You encourage him to finish the job for your sick pleasure. Maybe you weren’t as bad a person as the monsters down here were, but with the thoughts running through your head, you felt like you might as well be. You shook your head clear of those thoughts. You had to hold onto your humanity. Your friends were counting on you. Percy was counting on you. You turned to look at Percy. He didn’t seem stuck in his head this time, moreso focused on the path ahead than anything. He kept leaning towards you, as if gravitated towards you. You looked down at your watch. 5AM.. This was what? The third? Fourth, 5AM you were seeing? You hadn’t really been keeping count. Time didn’t matter down here. However long you thought it’d been, you’d checked your watch and it was wildly different. You remembered that it had been close to three when you both had left the cave where you’d gone down for a nap. You two had been walking for roughly an hour and a half. The encounter with Akhlys couldn’t have taken that long, could it? So much had happened in such a short amount of time. It was time for a recap. 

First you and Percy fell in, and managed to escape the river Cocytus. Then you two had found Nyx’s castle, and became her worshippers. Afterward you fought a flock of Keres and unknowingly got poisoned by yet another goddess who was out for blood. Then you two found the river Phlegethon, figured out it had healing properties, and became the first two people to ever drink liquid fire. Then you passed out from a combination of your injuries and exhaustion, and Percy carried you to a nearby swamp where you two could rest for a while. Then as you two were leaving, something powerful had jumped into Tartarus and was barreling for you, causing you both to flee into a system of tunnels– note to self, never try to hide in a series of tunnels if the monster footprints all seem to be avoiding that area– which happened to be the home of the protogenoi of Poison and Misery herself, Goddess Akhyls. She had nearly killed you, the poison almost reaching your heart, until Percy took ahold of her poison and killed her with it. A lot had happened in the past few hours. Or was it days? In between the times you two had to avoid large monsters, fight off a group of minor monsters, and continued on your hike through the scenic lands that was Tartarus' body, you two had barely managed to get an hour or two's rest in between. It was only then that you’d regretted killing Akhyls so soon. Maybe she could’ve used that Death Mist to hide you somehow. You didn’t know what it was, Death Mist. All you knew is that she was the keeper of it. Using your context clues, you could piece together that it was a version of The Mist that would hide things from mortal eyes. Maybe it would’ve covered you and Percy’s demigod stench. Or even better, maybe it would’ve just made you two look so frail and dead that everyone would see you and think, ‘Oh wow that is a terrible looking piece of beef jerky. I’ll go find a meatier snack somewhere else.’ Wishful demigod thinking. 

A lot of thinking actually. You realized you’d been lost in your thoughts for a while and quickly looked around. Fortunately, you hadn’t walked yourself into some dangerous situation, no. You’d just ended up walking a little ways away from the river, but that was fine. Slowly you let out a breath of relief. It was quickly muffled however, as a large boom sounded in front of you. 

You nearly let out a loud exclamation of ‘are you serious right now?!’ because of how absurd it was. You and Percy– or really, just Percy, had faced off against a major goddess that had been around for a while. All you wanted was to lay down and sleep for at least twenty minutes. But no. Now you had to deal with whatever powerful being wanted to take a bite out of you this time. Before you could grab your axe Percy stepped in front of you and held out his hand and the bracelets of poison wrapped around his right arm shot out at the being. His left arm was in front of you, as if guarding you from whatever was coming at you two. 

“Owch!” A large, booming voice came through the dust.  

This caught both of you off guard. You exchanged a confused look with Percy. ‘Owch’? Did they really say owch? You turned back to the being with a look of bewilderment. Percy pulled his poison back to wrap around his arm. At this point it looked like an arm band rather than a few bracelets. You quickly shook off the thought. You took a deep breath, focused on igniting the fire in your gut, and blew out a large cloud of smoke to clear off the dust. Standing there in the middle of the large clearing, was a twelve foot giant in a janitor costume. Your eyes flickered to the tag. 

“Bob…?” You read aloud to yourself. 

The giant's face seemed to brighten upon hearing his name. “Yes! Yes, that is Bob’s name! You know Bob?” The giant, now known as Bob, kneeled down to look at you. “Uhm…” You glanced at Percy who’s eyes flickered with a look of recognition. “I know you.” Percy said. Bob turned to face Percy. You didn’t think the giant's smile could get any bigger, but it did. Thankfully, Bob’s smile was warm. Not that of the eerie smile of the Keres and their mother Akhyls. You felt oddly safe with Bob here. 

“Percy! Percy is Bob’s friend. Nico told Bob a lot about you. How you saved Bob.” The giant reached a hand down and gently patted Percy with his pinky to avoid crushing him. Percy winced slightly under the pressure. He seemed to have a look of guilt on his face, as if he had just realized something sad. He didn’t seem up to talking, so you quickly piped up to try and make the best of the situation. 

“So Bob! What brings you here to the pit?” You asked, lacing your hands together to prevent yourself from instinctively grabbing your axe. 

Bob turned to look at you. He tapped his finger to his chin. “Hmm. Not quite sure. Bob forgets.” He said, chuckling. You noted the tint on the Giants cheek and realized he was embarrassed at having forgotten. 

“Ah, well that’s okay! Say, maybe you’d want to accompany us until you remember?” You offered. At that, Percy shot you a look. ‘What are you doing?’ It seemed to say. You pursed your lips and gave him a pointed look. ‘He’s not a threat.’ You glanced at Bob, who was thinking over the offer, and then back at Percy. ‘Not yet at least.’ You added.

“Bob appreciates your offer and has decided that he will walk with you!” The giant grinned. 

“Okay, yeah. That sounds great. We’re glad you could join us Bob. Right Percy?” You cast a glance at the demigod and he nodded. 

“Yeah. It’ll be nice to have some company.” Percy said, finally looking up to meet Bob's eyes. 

You reached out for Percy’s hand and he took it without hesitation. His grip was tight, almost as if he was scared that if he let go, he’d lose you. You filed away that detail for later and started walking along the river side again. 

“So, are you Bob’s new friend?’ Bob asked as he watched you take a few steps forward. For every three steps you and Percy took, the giant only needed one. It must be nice to have such an advantage. 

You pondered over his question. It would be nice to have a friend down here. And Bob didn’t seem too bad. “I’d like to be your friend.” You said finally. 

Bob smiled and clapped his hand together, sending minor vibrations through the ground. “Yay! Bob will call you Firecracker.” 

“I have a name–” 

“Nico said that nicknames are for friends. I nickname you Firecracker because you are my friend!” 

You looked up at the giant before sighing. You weren’t exactly going to fight a being that was literally twice your height over a nickname. “Okay, you can call me Firecracker.” 

Percy snickered and you snapped your head over to glare at him. “Say Bob, what’s Percy’s nickname?” You asked. Percy’s laughter immediately stopped and was replaced by a half hearted glower. 

“Percy? Mmm. Percy doesn’t have a nickname.” Bob rubbed his chin. 

“You know what I like to call Percy?” You couldn’t stop the evil smirk from appearing on your face as Percy wildly shook his head. 

“Yes! Bob would like to know!” 

“Well there’s seaweed brain, barnacle beard, fish breath,” You started listing off the nicknames you held for Percy. To the demigods dismay, Bob had only started laughing, laughing harder as you brought out some of the more creative ones. 

“Ah! You and Percy must be very good friends to have such an impressive amount of nicknames for each other. Tell Bob more funny nicknames!” 

You smiled. This was nice. This was the break you’d wanted. Talking to a giant and making him laugh with the absurd nicknames you had for Percy. After a while, Percy didn’t even seem to mind that you were making fun of him in front of his face. His smile finally returned as he joined in, sharing his own nicknames for you with Bob. You were smiling and laughing so much that your stomach was hurting and you couldn’t seem to stop smiling. You hadn’t even noticed how far you’d gotten until you’d reached another set of tunnels. Instantly you grabbed Percy and stopped him. 

Bob looked between you and Percy’s worried expressions. “Do not fret, friends! Bob does not sense danger in these tunnels.” He reassured you both, his loud and homey voice already echoing into the open mouth of the tunnel. 

“You can sense danger?” You asked, surprised. 

“Well, Bob can sense power. That is how Bob found Firecracker and Zeus’ number one hater,” 

Despite the previous tension, you couldn’t help but laugh at the absurd nickname he’d chosen for Percy, it was fitting of course. It was just hilarious to hear. 

“Alright well, I trust Bob's instincts. All in favor of going into the tunnels say aye.”

“Bob says aye.”

“Aye,” you held up a hand. 

“…”

“Percy?”

“Aye.”

You nodded. “Alright, unanimous decision. If anything goes wrong we blame it on Leo.” Percy grinned at your comment and lightly bumped your shoulder with his. You squeezed his hand and led him and Bob into the tunnels. 

In the far far distance, a certain Latino boy sneezed before looking simultaneously confused and offended at being blamed for something, but he didn’t know what. 

Xxx

Bob had a strange sort of glow to him. You nicknamed him glow stick for that, and he brightened even more. You assumed it to be some kind of titan aura that allowed other creatures to see not to mess with him. I mean based on his size you assumed they would stay away regardless, but who knows. 

You and Percy were following Bob until you heard a strange noise up ahead. You squinted and noticed a small light. A quiet growl sounded and instantly you were grabbing your battle axe, Percy reading Riptide. It’s worthy to mention that Bob held his broomstick in a very practiced manner, like he’d fought off many monsters with the broomstick. 

You three slowly approached the creature, weapons at the ready. You blinked to adjust to the bright light and let out a surprised breath. “Hermes…? You whispered. What was a Hermes shrine doing in the middle of Tartarus? You looked around, seeing the scattered pieces of food in states of eaten and uneaten. In the middle of the pile, was a very large skeletal beast that closely resembled a saber tooth tiger. You tilted your head. The beast didn’t have eyes, but it appeared to be looking at you. Why wasn’t it attacking? Could it see? 

The creature tapped its teeth together, making a clicking sound before approaching. Percy stiffened and you held out a hand to stop him. Tartarus, despite it being the breeding place of all things evil, had proven to have sparks of good in it. You’d killed a lot of monsters down here already, enough to know that it was either kill or be killed. But you still couldn’t help but hold out a sliver of humanity to the creature. You handed Percy your battle axe and slowly held up your hands. The skeleton cat tilted its head and tapped its teeth together. Two golden dots appeared in the dark space where the eyes would’ve been. ‘Ah, so it can see.’ You thought. You took another step closer, but the cat didn’t let you walk any further, instead walking over to you. You looked back at Percy, who looked like a coil ready to snap. The poison around his arm jumped in droplets as if it was boiling. You knew he would kill the cat at a moment's notice if it tried anything. 

You looked back down at the cat circling you and held out a hand, gently rubbing on the base of its skull. The cat paused before letting out a reverberating sound. You looked down at its neck vertebrae. It was vibrating its bones together to make a purring sound? 

“Good kitty.” You whispered, rubbing the space behind where its ears would’ve been. The cat arched its back and leaned into your hand. “He’s a friendly.” You called to Percy and Bob. 

“A friendly!” Bob cheered, putting his broom down. “Does he have a name?” Bob walked over and kneeled down to the large cat, petting him with his big hands. “No, I don’t think he does. Do you want to name him, Bob?” You asked. 

“Yes! Bob will call him Small Bob, because he is like a small Bob.” Bob picked up the cat in his arms. The newly named Small Bob seemed to enjoy the attention, rubbing itself all over Bob. You smiled before remembering the food that Small Bob was eating earlier. You looked back to the shrine and noticed some food left untouched. 

You walked over and knelt down, examining it. “What is this…?” You muttered, picking up some of the food. “Uh. I don’t think this is sponsored by M&M’s. What are these doing here?” You held up the yellow bag. Percy’s eyes widened. “That’s from Travis and Connor. They always sacrifice peanut M&Ms to Hermes.” He knelt down and took the candy from you, as if to make sure its real. “This is from camp.” He muttered. 

You sat down. “All this is from camp…” You looked down, searching for something in particular. When you found it, you snatched it and held it up. “Key Lime cheesecake.” You said, “You know who always gives Hermes a slice of Key Lime Cheesecake because they know he doesn’t like it?” 

Percy scoffed and rolled his eyes. “Yep. Mister 'Cheesecake enthusiast’ himself, Mitchel.” 

You both shared a quiet laugh before staring down at the shrine. “Well this confirms it. All this is from camp.” You said, setting the cheesecake down. 

“You think we can maybe, I dunno. Reverse send a message to camp?” Percy asked. 

You shrugged. “It’s worth a shot.” You looked down and grabbed  a napkin. “We just need something to write with. And I mean it’s not like we just so happen to carry–” You paused. It was like a light had just switched on and shown you the answer.

Percy raised an eyebrow. “Looks like you just had an Athena moment.” 

“Riptide is a pen, right?” You asked. Percy nodded. “Technically?” He pulled out the familiar ballpoint pen and uncapped it, watching as the pen grew out into its sword form. 

“What do you do with the cap?” You asked. 

Percy looked down at the cap in his hand. “If I touch the tip of the sword with the cap it shrinks back into a pen. Easier than just throwing Riptide to the side and waiting for it to reappear in my pocket.” 

You nodded. “What happens if you touch the other end?” 

Percy looked down at Riptide before touching the cap of the pen to the hilt. The sword shifted back into a pen, this time with the fine pen tip out. You grinned victoriously and grabbed the pen, setting the napkin down on the floor and writing a quick message. The ink was a smooth black, coming out easily. Perk of being a magical weapon, never ending ink. 

You finished writing the note and snapped your fingers, encasing the note in fire and setting it down on the shrine as it burned up and the ashes flew away. 

“What’d you write?” Percy asked, grabbing a hot dog from one of the plates and taking a large bite. 

“Connor. In tartarus, haven’t died, headed to doors. Give this to Rachel. Tell Nico. Don't touch my stuff. –Flame breather. P.S: Percy is here too.” 

Percy nodded. “ Couldn’t have said it better myself.” 

You snatched up a turkey and bacon sandwich, biting into it with a sudden hunger. You didn’t realize how long you’d gone without a proper meal. You were scarfing it down so fast you nearly bit off your finger. When you looked back at Percy had finished the hot dog and already started munching on the grapes, fist clenched as he tried to retain some self control. You looked down at his legs. The Keres had managed to tear a hole into it, showing you his legs. So long without food had left his muscles looking… odd. Not yet atrophying, no. That would take anywhere from two to four weeks. Malnourished, you realized. You two had been walking in here for a long time with nothing in your stomachs since the Phlegethon. You decided the best thing to do was to take a break. But knowing Percy, he’d deny being tired and try to push it for longer. But if it was you needing to take a break, he’d stop everything to make sure you were okay. 

You patted your thighs and stood up. “ I think we’ve stayed here long enough.” You faked a shaking in your legs. “We ought to get moving.” 

Bob looked up from his bag of M&Ms that he’d been savorign. “So soon? Bob has not finished his meal.” 

Percy eyed you, lingering on your legs. You held back a smile. Good, he’d noticed. Now for the nail in the coffin. 

“You can eat on the way, Glowstick. For now we need to get out of these tunnels.” You started walking before letting your knee buckle underneath you. Percy instantly shot up to your side, grabbing you to prevent you from falling. “I think we should rest for tonight.” Percy said, adjusting his grip on you so you could lean on him. 

So close. C’mon… 

“Percy, we can't stay here. You know how dangerous it’ll be if they find us here.” You countered. 

“And it’ll be worse if they find us when we’re not fully rested.” He retorted. “At least one hour. That’s all I’m asking.” 

You looked at him and bit the inside of your cheek, as if you were contemplating. “Fine. But only for one hour.” You relented. Percy nodded. “One hour.” He helped you to sit down against the watch. 

“I’ll take–” You quickly cut Percy off. “Hey Bob, do you think you could take the first watch for us?” You asked the giant. Bob smiled. “Yes! Small Bob and  Bob will watch over Firecracker and Starfish.” He said proudly, grabbing his broomstick and holding it as if it were a gun and he was a royal guard. 

You looked over at Percy who was finally giving into his exhaustion. “C’mere Ocean boy.” You tugged on his shirt sleeve. Percy relented and leaned on you. You moved to lay down and let him lay his head on your chest. Percy adjusted himself so his ear was directly over your heart. You gently combed your fingers through his hair. Percy sighed. “Hey I-...” He paused, expression riddled with worry. He looked close to confessing to a crime or something, but stopped before the words could slip out. You looked down at him. “You what?” 

“Ah… nothing. Was just gonna say that uh… you’re… warm.” He finished lamely. 

You let out a quiet chuckle. “Yeah. Daughter of Ares y’know. Fire and all that fun stuff.” 

“I thought it was only the Hephestus kids that could control fire.” 

“Nope. Actually, Ares was the original fire bender.” 

“Oh really?” Percy adjusted himself to comfortably lay on top of you. 

“Yup.” You wrapped your arms around him. “A long time ago Ares came to Hephestus to make him a powerful weapon. But in order to give the weapon the power it needed, Hephestus needed a very powerful fire, because his forge didn’t get hot enough to melt the metal Ares provided. Ares offered  his own fire to light his forge and Hephetus agreed. Ares lit the forge with his godly fire, and Hephaetus created the weapon for Ares. But Hephestus really wanted to keep Ares' fire, so he offered to make him a shield to go with it if Ares let him keep the fire in his forge.” You explained. Percy let out a yawn and closed his eyes.  “Falling asleep?” You asked him. Percy hummed, and you felt the vibrations run through your chest. “So Ares gave Hephestus his fire to light his forge. How did that lead to his kids inheriting the fire?” Percy asked. 

“Ares gave Hephestus some of his godly fire. Hephaestus kinda… I guess absorbed it so that he could use it in his forge at will.” You shrugged. “The stories all differ from how he got it. Some people say that Ares actually gave him the Greek fire instead. Other people say Hephestus stole it and made a powerful weapon, so in revenge Ares stole the weapon. But no one really knows what went down. The story is very old, so most of it is lost to time. This one is the one my mom told me after I burst into flames at my seventh birthday party. Crazy way to find out you’re a demigod, huh?” You chuckled fondly at the memory. 

You looked down at Percy. His eyes were closed and he seemed relaxed. He had fallen asleep. You smiled softly and leaned your head back onto the ground. You closed your eyes and let yourself fall asleep. 

Xxx

When you opened your eyes you were laying in a pool of poison. Confused, you sat up and looked around. “Percy?” You called, your voice echoing in the dark cave. You felt something in your hand. A pen. You uncapped the pen and Riptide sprang up, glowing brightly in the tunnel, illuminating it’s flesh-like walls. You ignored the grotesque surroundings and looked around for Percy. You didn’t know what had happened. Percy, Bob, and Small Bob would’ve been right here. What happened? And what was this strange liquid? You turned and saw the Hermes shrine covered in a thick black slime. The liquid seemed to be oozing from it. You grimaced and turned around. The way you had come through was blocked off by rocks, the only path left open was the one in front of you. You steeled your nerves and trudged forward. 

The cave was long and dark. Strange sounds echoed off it’s walls. As you came to a split in the tunnel, you noticed three pairs of footsteps running into the left one. One human, one animal, and the other a giant.  “Where are you guys…?” You whispered, walking into the tunnel. You heard noises coming from the other tunnel, monsters shrieking in pain and anger. It was best to avoid that one for now. You followed the footsteps, stepping into the large tunnel with huge rocks. You shivered, getting colder the further you walked in. Something was off with this place. Why couldn’t you get warm? Where were your friends? What happened to them? Did they really leave you behind? 

Something leaped out at you and you instinctively swung riptide as if you would your battle axe, missing and falling too far to the right. You scrambled backwards and pressed yourself up against the wall, holding out the sword at the creature. It stood still, staring at you. “A hellhound.” You whispered. The hellhound stared at you. It was only a puppy, not yet having the usual bone horns and sharp fangs. It let out a quiet yip, approaching you. You held out your hand, and the puppy sniffed it before licking at it. You chuckled. “I’m surprised that you’re not an angry little pup. Most of the things I’ve met down here are.” You stood up, Riptide in hand. “You down to be my tour guide, little guy?” The hellhound yipped and started off. You chuckled and followed him. “Hey, I don’t suppose you’ve seen some people passing through have you? A demigod, a sabertooth tiger, and a giant?” Wow. That sounded like the set up to a corny joke. A demigod, a sabertooth tiger, and a giant walk into a bar. 

The hellhound shook it’s head. “Alright then,” You sighed. “Worth a shot.” 

You continued walking in a tense silence. “My friends were here.” You spoke up. “I don’t know where they are. I woke up and they were gone.” You rubbed your shoulder awkwardly. “I think they left me. I don’t know why. Maybe a monster chased them off? I don’t know why they’d leave without me though.” You looked down at your clothes, which were soaked in the dark liquid that was on the floor. “Maybe they thought I was dead. Am I dead?” You reached up to touch your mouth. There was a barely dried crust there. You rubbed it off and looked at your hand. Dried blood. You stopped walking and started touching your face again. “Oh gods. Oh Hades oh– Oh fuck!” You pressed your fingers deep into the side of your neck, but there wasn’t a pulse. You moved to another spot, and another, and another. There wasn’t anything there. You let out a strangled gasp. “No no how- how can that– I can’t be dead.” You started feeling around your body for something when you realized that your left arm wasn’t responding as fast as it used to. You slowly turned to face the appendage, paling once you saw the black veins that had taken over your arm, leaving it a sickly grey color. You looked up and ripped off the sleeve that covered your shoulder. There where the Keres had cut you and delivered the poison, was an ugly opened gash. White foam was drying on your skin, along with a muted red that was already clotting. The poison. Akhyl’s poison. It was too late, you’d already been infected by the time Percy ripped it out. You reached out to touch the wound, wincing when the thick goo started to ooze out of it again. You couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in your ears. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. You took a steady breath and pulled back the collar of your shirt to look at your chest. Low and behold there it was. The black veins had reached your heart, the black mass visible in your skin. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. You let go of your shirt and looked abc at your shoulder. You were dead… No. No you couldn’t be. You couldn’t be dead. You harshly rubbed at your arm, desperate to try and see if maybe it was just dirt or mud or something caked onto there, but no. Your arm was still that dark grey and black. You looked at your right arm. That one didn't have the grayscale coloring, but it was discoloured. The usual tan is now a strange yellow. You realized then that your skin felt clammy, and loose. Like it was going to fall off of you any moment. ‘Is this what death is like in Tartarus?’ You thought. ‘Am I lost to time here… forever?’ You shook your head quickly. No. No. This wasn’t it. This isn't where you’d make your final stand. You’d help Percy reach the Doors of Death. You’d help them kill Gaia. You had to. You had to. 

You clenched your fists, holding Riptide tightly in your left hand before breaking into a sprint down the tunnel. You followed the footsteps, not bothering to look back and check if the hellhound was following. You could hear the tap of its claws behind you, quick on your heels. 

You continued running for a while, not stopping until your legs buckled and you fell forward into the wet floor. You grunted and pushed yourself up to kneel, gasping for air. Did you still need air if you were dead? You shrugged the thought off and stood up on shaky legs. “Okay, where are we now?” You turned to face the baby hellhound only to find yourself face to face with a large one. You let out a yell and stumbled back. The adult hound barked and leaped forward, biting your right  arm. You cried out in pain before taking Riptide and shoving it into the muzzle of the mutt. The mutt yelped and leaped back, raising a paw to nurse its wound. You quickly stepped back, doing a quick one take at your arm before looking back at the mutt. You froze. You didn’t just see what you think you saw, did you? Taking a deep breath, you slowly turned to look at the large wound on your left arm. Your stomach dropped at the sigh. Pouring from the gash on your arm was maggots. Some of them had clumps of something in their pincers. You felt bile rising in your throat. It was fake. It was a hallucination. It had to be. You reached out to touch the maggots and let out a strangled cry when you felt them wiggling on your hand. You stepped back and threw up on the ground in front of you. You gasped for air, pressing yourself against the wall. When you  looked down at your vomit, maggots were crawling around in it too. You couldn’t breathe. You could feel them in your throat, choking you. Under your skin, picking apart at your rotting flesh. There was a scratching in your chest, like they were clawing at your ribcage trying to get out. You were dying. No, you were dead. And you had died alone. 

Fin. 

Hey, thanks for reading. Here’s a little excerpt to show how Percy, Bob, and Small Bob got out because I didn’t want to leave any loose strings. Confused about why you died? So am I. Let’s clear that up. 

(Lol I’m just messing around. Here’s the rest of the story)

A scream pierced the air, and Percy shot up, hand instantly flying to Riptide. He looked around wildly, trying to locate the source of danger. He whirled around, looking for something, anything that could’ve made that terrified scream. He looked up at Bob, who was staring behind him. Percy quickly whipped around and his eyes zeroed in on the danger. 

You were clutching your throat, scratching at the skin and gasping for air, eyes glowing a bright orange. Your sharp inhales and strangled exhales left clouds of smoke pouring out of your mouth. Percy kneeled down and grabbed your shoulders. “Hey! Hey breathe! Breathe c’mon,” He gently shook you. “You’re fine, you’re fine! C’mon. Focus on me. Focus on my voice.” He winced as you continued to breathe so erratically. It was like you couldn’t even hear him. He took a deep breath. One thing at a time. First he needed to get your breathing under control before you passed out. Percy moved to sit behind you, pulling you close to his chest. Percy reached out a hand to cover your mouth, not blocking off your oxygen, but instead forcing you to breathe through your nose. His free hand gently wrapped around your waist to press you firmly against his chest. “Feel how I’m breathing?’ He said quietly into your ear. You could barely register him over the sound of your rapid heartbeat in your ears, but you managed to nod. “There you go, good job. You’re doing great okay? Match how I’m breathing. We’re going to breathe in for six ready? One, two, three, four, five, six.” Percy took a deep breath, waiting for you to do the same. “Good, good that’s perfect. Now let’s hold it for seven okay? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.” You held your breath, feeling Percy’s calm heartbeat in his chest as you stopped moving. “You’re doing great. Breathe out for eight. One, two, three, yes. There you go. Feeling better?” Percy asked. You nodded. “I’m going to remove my hand from your mouth, but keep breathing through your nose okay? This time exhale from your mouth. We’re going to do this a few more times.” 

Percy must have some godly ability of patience, because he continued to breathe with you for a few minutes until you were able to do it on your own without losing control. Percy held you in his arms for a while as you two just continued to breathe. 

“I had a nightmare.” You croaked. 

Percy hummed. “Are you okay to talk about it?’ He asked cautiously. 

“I… I want to talk about it.” 

“Okay, okay. I’m here to listen, I won’t judge you for it.” He gently reached out and took your hand. 

You took a deep breath and explained to him the dream. How you’d woken up alone, and found out that you had died from Akhyls’s poison. You told him about the hellhound and the maggots that had started eating at you. When you finished, Percy stayed quiet for a few moments. You felt anxious until he gave your hands a squeeze. “That sounds like a terrible dream.” He whispered. “I’m sorry about that.”

You shook your head. “It’s fine, Percy. It’s not your fault.” 

“I know. I’m still sorry.” 

You let out a quiet sigh, feeling drained from the ordeal. 

“Do you think you’re okay if you try and sleep again?” Percy glanced at you. 

You shook your head quickly. “I think I’ll take the next watch.” 

“Okay. I’ll stay up with you.” 

Your throat hurt from the screaming, so you kept your replies short. Instead of telling him thank you, instead you leaned into him, hoping he understood what you meant by the gesture. You didn’t want to be left alone right now. Not after that… that nightmare.

 Bob looked over at the tangled form of you and Percy. “Bob’s friends hug in their sleep a lot.” he commented.

You and Percy glanced at each other. You looked away quickly to hide the blush on your cheeks from Percy. You didn’t know how to explain it to Bob. How close you and Percy had gotten in the pit, to the point where you two couldn’t be further than a foot away from each other. Somehow, Bob managed to understand by the look on your face. “Ah. This is a comfort thing. Bob is familiar with those, Nico taught Bob something to do when Bob gets scared or nervous.” 

“What did Nico teach you?”  Percy asked for you. 

“When Bob is scared or nervous, Bob lists off things he knows and things he likes. Like this: My name is Bob. Bob is a friendly giant. Bob’s friends are Nico, Percy, and now Firecracker. Bob likes his nickname Glow Stick because it was given to him by his friend. Bob now has a cat named Small Bob. Bob's hobbies are cleaning and wood carving. And Bob’s favorite kind of music is from the 80’s. Bob listens to it on a ‘walk-man’ that Nico gave to him for Bob’s birthday.” Bob grinned brightly by the end of it. 

“That’s a very nice technique Bob.” Percy spoke up. 

“Thank you! It helps Bob a lot. Maybe it will help Firecracker when they have another nightmare?” Bob suggested. 

You managed a small smile. 

“I think that’ll help a lot, Bob. Thank you.” Percy replied. 

“May Bob and Small Bob join in the comfort hug?” The giant asked. 

You nodded. Bob smiled and slowly approached, moving to sit behind you and Percy. He gently pulled you both to lay against him. You leaned back to lay down on the giant’s stomach as it was surprisingly comfortable. Percy scooted up next to you, holding you close. Small Bob trotted over, laying herself down on your lap. ‘This is nice.’ You thought as you closed your eyes. Maybe you should try to sleep. You knew if you did have another nightmare, they would be here to comfort you. 

You ended up managing a whopping four hours of sleep. It was a miracle that you hadn’t had another terrifying dream. Bob had left to go explore the caves a bit more to find a way out, promising to return in twenty minutes if he didn’t find anything. You had agreed, so long as he took Small Bob with him as a backup. He had gone out into the caves three times already, returning before the twenty minutes was up to let you know he was alive before going back out there. You couldn’t lie, you’d gotten attached to the Giant. He was like a sweet old man. One that was powerful and could kill you and Percy if he suddenly decided to. The thought, while scary, was unlikely. He had such a big heart. Letting you and Percy lay on him while you two slept. Taking watch and guardian over you two. Giving you a new technique to try if you ever got nervous or anxious. You looked down at Percy. Originally, he had seemed wary around the Giant, despite laughing at Bob’s knock knock jokes and telling him some of his nicknames for you. You didn’t know why. You assumed it was the strange past that they shared. But now, he seemed very comfortable around the Giant. No longer checking his pocket for Riptide every few minutes. 

You checked your watch. 9:28. Bob would be coming back in seven minutes. You let out a sigh, but apparently it was a little loud as Percy began to stir from his slumber. He let out a quiet groan and sat up, hand instinctively finding Riptide before looking for you. When his eyes landed on you, the tension seemed to melt. “Hey.” He greeted, voice slightly hoarse. 

“Hey,” You replied. “How’d you sleep?” 

“Well, it’s no five star hotel, but I slept pretty well.”  he stretched out the kinks from his back. 

You chuckled. “Yeah? Had a good dream to go with it?” 

Percy paused, looking up at you with concern written all over his face. “Did you have another nightmare?” he asked. 

“No, no. I didn’t have a dream this time.” You reassured him. 

Percy let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good.” 

“So, did you dream?” You asked him. 

The mood instantly fell at his lack of response. 

“It wasn’t a nightmare. Just a demigod dream.” He finally answered. 

Now it was your turn to breathe out a sigh of relief.  “Do you want to share…?” You asked tentatively. 

Percy scooted closer to you and leaned against you. You wrapped an arm around his waist, rubbing his side reassuringly. 

“Gaea promised a way out of here.” 

In that moment you felt like the humid tunnel had somehow frozen over. Gaea came to him in a dream? That couldn’t mean anything good for either of you. You didn’t exactly have a good relationship with the Primordial considering you both were currently on your way to retrieve the Doors of Death and then kill her. “What did she want in exchange?” You asked, uncharacteristically quiet. 

“She wanted us to join.” Percy looked down at his lap, like he was… ashamed of something. “She would’ve gotten us out of here, and given us a place in her Gaia Teleia.” Your eyes widened. Gaia Teleia. Your brain registered that as an old, rough form of ‘perfect earth.’ Made sense, she was an elderly being. She would use words that were from a time long before your own. What time did she learn those words from? How many different languages did she know? Dammit ADHD, that’s not the point, focus. She offered you two a place?

“A place in her Gaia Teleia? What is that?’ 

Percy rubbed his knuckles, not yet meeting your eyes. “She wants to rebuild the earth in her image. She’s the head of her council. She appoints gods and primordials of her choosing on her council. She said she’d appoint me as one of them if I joined, and you’d be my…” 

“Your…?” You prompted. 

Percy sighed. “The details of it all don’t really matter. I told her no.” 

You made a mental note to ask about it later. “I can’t imagine she was too happy about that.” You commented. 

Percy shook his head. “She made a pool of mud. Right before I drowned she told me she’d only give me one more chance to change my mind before she killed us and our friends. Then I woke up.” 

You winced, knowing a bit about Percy’s fear of drowning. You’d overheard Hazel telling Frank about it in his room on the Argo. That couldn’t be a pleasant way of waking up. 

Percy looked away. “I don’t really want to talk about it too much.” 

You nodded. “Yeah. Okay, we don’t have to talk about that if you don’t want to.” You reassured him, rubbing his side. Percy nodded and moved his head to rest on your shoulder. 

“You smell like monster guts.” 

You burst out laughing. “Shut up! You do not smell any better okay?” You playfully glared down at him. 

“Hey I smell like daisies and roses.” 

“No you do not! You smell like a harpy just hatched out of an egg and fell into a dumpster.” 

“Ew. Why is that so descriptive? Do you know what a freshly hatched harpy smells like?” Percy raised an eyebrow, looking up at you. 

“Tch, no. It’s called being creative with my insults, seaweed brain.” You scoffed, crossing your arms. 

“Okay. Well then,” Percy leaned on you until you fell onto your back. “Hey!” You exclaimed as he climbed atop you. “What are you doing barnacle breath?” You gave him a look. 

“Getting a proper smell of your demigod stench.” 

“Wat wha– Ew! Percy no– get off!” You couldn’t help but laugh as the son of the sea god leaned down and took obnoxiously loud sniff of you, like a dog that had just met a new person. You giggled and pulled him down into a tight hug. 

“No- no- not the infamous death grip bear hug! How did you come across this forbidden technique?” Percy exclaimed dramatically. “You must’ve stumbled upon the master of death hugs herself, Clarisse La Rue!” He gasped loudly. 

You snorted. “Oh shut up you. What, were you in theatre arts before you came to camp?”

“I’ll have you know I made a lovely tree in that play.” 

You scoffed and rolled your eyes, loosening your hold on him. Percy gave you his usual crooked grin, his smile as bright as could be. 

“You’re so annoying, y’know that?” You raised an eyebrow. 

“So I’ve been told. I’ve also been told that I’m insolent, dense, disobedient, a nuisance, a foil-er of plans, the king of capture the flag, canoe champion, the only one who’s ever managed to hold his own against Dionysus in a card game.” Percy rattled off, enunciating each title with feigned importance. 

“Oh really?” You chuckled. “And do, prey tell, explain how you managed to accomplish such a feat.”

“I ate the card when he wasn’t looking.”

“Ha ha, very funny.” 

“…”

You groaned and facepalmed. 

“Hey, I never said I beat him ethically.” Percy countered, that troublemaking smirk of his making its way onto his face. 

“Okay, okay, you’ve got me there.” You relented. 

The big footsteps of Bob approached quickly. “Friends! Bob and Small Bob have found a way out of the cave.” The giant exclaimed excitedly, his aura shining brightly in the dark cave.

“I guess that’s our cue to get going.” You said, pulling on your backpack. Percy stood up and reached out for your hand. He pulled you up and you interlaced your fingers with his. “You said you found a way out, right?’ You turned to face the Giant. 

“Yes! Bob and Small Bob found a way out. We found a quicker way, but the ground there is too harsh for Firecracker and Starfish to walk on. Bob thinks that you can ride on Small Bob instead.” 

You glanced over at the skeletal cat. “I don’t think we’ll fit–” 

Before you could finish, Small Bob started growing to a whopping six feet tall. 

You blinked, surprised. “I stand corrected. Yeah, we’ll be able to fit on there.” 

Percy walked over and climbed up onto the tall sabertooth tiger, leaning down and holding out a hand to you. You grabbed onto his hand and hoisted yourself up, sitting comfortably in front of him. Percy wrapped his arms around you and rested his chin on your shoulder. You could feel his breath on your neck and it made you shiver. Trying to ignore his body heat that seeped into your own, you looked back up towards the tall Giant. “Lead the way, tour guide.” 

Bob grinned brightly. “Tour Guide Bob!” 

Small Bob started to follow, and you had to admit the ride was nice. Your feet and legs were aching from the days of walking, so this was a good break. Plus, Small Bob wasn’t all that uncomfortable. You thought the bones would dig into you, but there seemed to be a thin layer of some kind of magical translucent flesh of sorts. You didn’t ponder on it for too long, you wouldn’t get a solid  answer just thinking about the gods' creation. Even asking them flat out would result in some indirect answer that didn’t give you anything. 

Xxx

You made it out of the tunnels and let out a relieved sigh. The air up here was fresher compared to that of the stuffy cave. Small Bob didn’t stop to let you two get off, so you got a free ride for a while. There were a lot of cliffs and arches of rock you had to go through. The colors reminded you of a bloody Grand Canyon. As you all walked through another archway, a group of purple cloaked figures approached. There was at least twenty of them. Maybe thirty. 

You and Percy hopped off Small Bob, grabbing your weapons. The figures removed their cloaks, revealing creatures that vaguely reminded you of Nyx. Their silver hair and dark skin was reminiscent of her. They smiled, and it looked sort of normal. Their teeth were abnormally sharp, but there weren't too many of them. Their lips didn’t peel back too far. They almost looked normal. Dressed in elegant gowns and adorned with frayed materials, they seemed like dead royalty. 

“Greetings, Daughter of Ares, Son of Posideon, Iapetus, and your little creature.” The one in front spoke. “We’ve been awaiting you.” 

You let out a quiet groan. Monster after monster you’d faced down here. You wanted a break. You wanted to sleep without nightmares. You wanted to run away with Bob, Percy, and Small Bob and live off in some city that was stuck in the 90’s and work at a diner and return to Percy cooking a blue dinner for you while Bob was in the backyard building a nice little obstacle course for Small Bob. You wanted to wake up and make breakfast and have a good morning before you drop Percy off at work and then go to work at the diner. You wanted to talk to your favorite coworker and deal with your shitty manager who never did anything but complain. You wanted to serve strange customers and then go home, help Percy set the table, and talk about your day while he served you his signature blue lasagna. You would settle for that. No– not settle. You deserved it. You’d earned it. A quiet, quaint little life where you’d life off the rest of your days until a Fury or a Minotaur found you on the hiking trail and killed you at the ripe age of thirty. Or better yet, die of some disease at forty and pass away peacefully. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it? Going through literal hell while clinging onto your mortality like it was going to be ripped from you at any moment. You could feel the power of this place chipping away at your resolve. You could feel it teasing your powers, randomly setting off your flames when you held hands with Percy, forcing him to let go until your flames calmed down again. You could feel the power of the pit seeping into your own powers and changing them. You felt it the most when you’d tried to light a torch, only for the fire to come out a stark blue. It had startled you enough that the flames licked at your arm and burned off your right sleeve before you managed to control yourself enough to calm the flames. Percy hadn’t asked, instead waiting patiently for you to try and light the fire again. This place was testing your patience. And you’d had enough of it. 

Without waiting for them to explain why they’d kill you– probably because of Tartarus' offer of whoever kills you two gets to have a place on his council of airheads, you let loose your flames. You took in a deep breath and blew out fire, a large torpedo shooting out and killing the nearest three arai. 

You grinned as they disintegrated into golden dust only for you to choke and cough up a large mass. You held your throat, staring down at the lead in confusion. 

“You killed that hellhound when you were eleven. Shooting it right in the open mouth with that homemade cannon of yours.” One of the arai grinned. 

You went to speak before your body suddenly seized up. Electricity shot through your veins, sending pain all across your body. You felt like you were on fire. When it calmed down, Percy had to grab you and hold you up before you fell over. 

“Electrocuted a harpy in the girls' showers with a hairdryer.” Another arai spoke. 

You glared at them before a sharp pain shot through your left hip. 

“Impaled a fury with her own spear. Not very nice, was it?” 

Percy glared at them. “What the hell are you doing to her?!” He yelled. 

“We are the arai, daughters of night. Every curse ever uttered we grant upon our death. The minotaur has a special curse for you, Perseus.” One of the arai lunged at him. Instinctively Percy slashed his sword at the arai, killing her. Percy let out a yell, holding his head. 

“A fractured skull for a broken horn. The minotaur wasn’t exactly creative.” The arai spoke, dissatisfied with the curse. 

Now that they’d given you two a taste of what they could do, they all ran forward. 

Curses were thrown around left and right. You’d lost your left eye, twisted your ankle, dropped your axe– picked it up only to drop it again, broke your nose and couldn’t breathe with it, got extreme thirst, couldn’t stop catching on fire,  and your left arm started burning in pain again. 

In the corner of your right eye you saw Percy not faring too well. His right arm was bent at the wrong angle, he was limping terribly, his eye was twitching, he had cuts all over his body that refused to close but refused to bleed, he was sluggish, and you could’ve sworn you’d just seen him get stabbed by a spork. 

Bob however, was completely immune to the arai. He swept them away with his broomstick like he was cleaning up dirt. Through the rushing water in your ears– courtesy of another arai, you couldn’t really hear what they were saying to him. But you knew whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Bob’s voice was one of the only things you could hear over their shrieks as they died.

“Bob’s name is Bob! Stop calling Bob that name!” He yelled. 

You saw Percy tense. Okay seriously, he’d been on edge since you first met Bob. You jogged over and grabbed Percy by the sleeve, yanking him over to you. “You’re going to tell me what the hell is going on between you and Bob and you’re going to tell me right now.” You growled, brandishing your battle axe at the approaching arai. 

Percy hesitated. “It’s nothing.” He said after a few moments. You could faintly hear it in your ears, but you heard it well enough.

“Bull shit!” You yelled. Percy was startled by your outburst, but you didn’t care. “I have been keeping my cool this entire time we’ve been in this hellscape and you of all people should know just how damn hard it is for me to do that!” You grabbed his collar and yanked him close. 

“One last chance, Jackson.You tell me the story between you and Bob or I will kill all these damn arai before you can even breathe a word!’ 

Percy didn’t have time to debate it for long. “A long time ago I fought Bob when he was the Titan Iapetus– Yeah by the way, he’s a Titan. Not a giant. I didn’t know when to tell you– ah– irrelevant. Anyways, Ethan Nackamura released him from Tartarus, I fought him and dragged him to the River Lethe and wiped his mind. I told him that his name was Bob and that we were good friends.” 

“Percy what the actual fu–” 

“I didn’t let the gods kill him. Trust me, they wanted to. I brought him to Hades, and got him a job there in his castle so they wouldn’t kill him. I mean he was a new person, it wan't fair for them to kill Bob because of his past mistakes- he didn’t even remember them!” Percy exclaimed, suddenly pushing you down and stabbing into a arai that had lunged at your back. Percy let out a cry and fell on top of you, burns beginning to spread up his arms. 

“Percy! Dammit– No-!” You pushed him off you and quickly moved to check his wounds. You yelled in pain when an arai slashed at your back. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. You took as deep a breath as your punctured lung would let you, and then you blew it out to burn the arai to a crisp. The fire came out a bright blue, spreading to two other arai. You ignored the sudden bouts of pain spreading across your body, standing and firmly gripping your battle axe. 

“We’re going to talk about this later.” You said, your voice sounding scratchy and torn. 

“Your voice will fail you. No longer will you be able to manipulate another monster.” An arai spoke. “Fitting punishment for you both. You’ve manipulated your fair share of–” The arai screamed as you breathed out blue fire once more. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. You heard that familiar beating in your chest and you embraced it. With a renewed energy, you set yourself on fire and lunged forth at the nearest group of arai. 

You were on fire. Literally and figuratively. You cut through arai and burned through them like it was nothing. You managed to wipe out ten of them with your battle axe before it slipped out of your hands and you were left defenseless once more. Clenching your fists, you let out a growl and started punching the nearest Arai with your bare hands. Your form, normally illuminated with the red aura of your father, was now a scaling blue. You grabbed the arai when she tried to run away, pinning her down onto the ground. “And just where do you think you’re going? I want that curse of yours. Don’t you want me to have it?” You asked, putting your hands on her neck, but not choking her. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. The flames burned at her skin, but she wasn’t yet dead. “C’mon! Isn’t this what you’re about, daughter of night?’ You let out a laugh. “This is it? This is all you’ve got? Put up a fight. I’ll even let you get up.” You let go of her neck and stood up. You grabbed her by the front of her burned robe and yanked her to her feet. “Stand up and fight me! Give me your curses!” You yelled, a bloodthirsty look in your eyes. Ba-bump. Ba-bump.

The arai, now wary of you, hesitantly stepped forward. You cocked your arm back and punched it forward, the heat burning a hole through her chest. She let out a strangled cry before turning  into dust. You looked up and pointed at the nearest arai. “You’re next.” With that, you ran at her, leaving glass footsteps on the floor from where the heat radiating from you burned the sand. She leaped at you and you dodged her hands by angling your body to the side and grabbing her wrists. She screamed as you tightened your grip until you felt her skin start to melt off. Scratch…. Scratch… You grinned and gripped her wrists even tighter until you felt bone. You gritted your teeth and yanked your wrists downward at an angle as hard as you could. There was a sickening snap and you let go, watching her hands fall to the ground. You looked back up, and she was cradling her arms close to her chests, sobbing at the stumps where her hands used to be. 

“Want something to ease the pain?” You tilted your head, showing her a glimpse of your teeth, You clapped your hands together and a wave of fire flew at her, instantly burning her to a crisp. You felt your shoulders suddenly dislocate. You grunted, running towards the nearest pillar of rocks and shoving your shoulder back into the socket. Somehow, the pain of resetting it was much worse than that of it becoming dislocated. You turned and shoved yourself at the pillar again, but your left arm didn’t settle in as well as the first time. You huffed and grabbed your arm, yanking it fully out of the socket before turning it back to the rocks again. This time it slotted in correctly. You rolled your arms to get the creaks out of it. Gods above you were in pain, but you couldn’t stop now. You looked over at Percy where he was trying to fight off a Keres with a sharp rock. Riptide obviously wasn’t with him. His legs looked terrible, wobbling and stumbling every few seconds. His right arm, which had been bent at the wrong angle, was now roughly tied to his side with his belt so it wouldn’t jostle around during the fight. His lip was busted, and his eye wouldn’t stop twitching and shutting. That was a terrible curse, it was so inconvenient. You noticed the arai getting too close and you willed your fire to wrap around your arm before you mimed throwing something. The fire followed your movements, wrapping around the arai’s neck and pulling her to the ground. You tugged on the rope of fire and it tightened on her neck until she burst into gold. Percy, now not in immediate danger, collapsed onto the floor, panting heavily. 

You’d torn apart three arai with your bare hands now. It felt good. You felt unstoppable. And you were. Until now. You froze suddenly, feeling a tightness in your throat. This time it wasn’t the voice of an arai, but rather the one who cursed you herself. Akhyll’s. 

‘I curse you, to choke on your own blood, as I choked on my own poison.’ 

You swore you could hear her cackle as your fire suddenly went out, creating a short vacuum around you to allow you to breathe before your throat closed up again. You clawed at your throat, eyes wide in fear. This was it. That dream all over again. Your body wracked with a sudden fit and you coughed. Something landed on the ground and you looked down. Maggots. Crawling. You let out a scream, but that was a terrible idea, giving up the last of your air to fear. You scrambled back from the bugs, their form flickering between drops of blood and maggots. , watching as they seemed to crawl towards you. Your lungs cried out in pain. It felt like you were drinking in the Phlegethon again. You barely even registered the arai grinning as they advanced in for the kill through the dots of color in your vision. You didn’t know what would get you first. The lack of oxygen, or the arai. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. Ba-Bump. 

You dimly registered that something black flew at the arai, coating them. They sizzled and burned. Until their forms dissipated and the liquid was left on the floor like it wasn’t covering anything anyways. Percy’s injured face entered your vision. You wanted to say something,  anything. But your brain chose to shut off at that exact moment. 

Xxx. 

When you woke up, you were in a comfy bed. Soft blankets with fur on them pulled up to your chin. You sighed in content. This was your bear-fur blanket back at camp. You were home. No more of that nightmare hellscape. You snuggled closer to your pillow when it moved. 

“Hey fire girl, you okay?” Percy’s voice asked. Your eyes snapped open and you looked up to his face. 

“Percy…?” You asked, voice cracking. ‘What are you doing in my cabin?’ You wanted to ask, but one look around you said you weren’t in your cabin. You slowly pushed yourself up on the bed. You were in some kind of hut held up by beautiful white pillars. The walls had a leather like color to them, giving it a warm feeling. Like a comfy leather couch on movie night. 

“Where are we?” You asked. “Why… why aren’t I dead?” You mumbled as your memories slowly returned to you. 

Percy winced at your phrasing. He answered regardless. “Bob managed to get rid of some of our curses. Enough that we were able to survive the damage that… honestly should’ve killed us. He said he heard of a healer in Tartarus while he was in Hades, from creatures that had wandered into the underworld after getting lost in the Doors of Death. We found Damasen, an actual giant. Not a titan. He’s helping us.” 

“A real giant.” You echoed. “Uhm. Is he-...?” You didn’t say it, but Percy knew what you meant. He gently brushed your hair out of your face. “He’s okay, fire girl. We’re safe here.” He reassured you, reaching down to take your hand in his and give it a squeeze. You looked down at your hands. They should’ve been burned from the blue fire. Whenever you used too much fire you always received some burns, but to your surprise, there was none there. You started to think about the fight. All the injuries you should’ve had that were now just dull aches. You paused when you thought about the maggots appearing again and your hand quickly reached up to your mouth as if you’d find any hiding behind your teeth. 

Percy furrowed his brow. “Are you okay…?” He asked tentatively. 

“Maggots there- there were–” You stopped touching your mouth, instead starting to rub at your arm where you remembered them crawling out of your wound. 

Percy quickly grabbed your wrist before you cold scratch your skin raw. “There aren’t any maggots here, I promise. There were never any maggots.” 

“But I saw them I- I saw–” 

“Look at me.” Percy said firmly. You turned to look at him. 

“There were no maggots on, in, or around you. Okay? I promise.” 

You stared into his eyes, searching for any sign of deceit in his eyes, those usually sea green eyes– still a murky green. When you found none, you slowly relaxed again. You didn’t know why those worms started to bug you now– no pun intended. You’d never feared them before. You’d seen them in the forest in your backyard when you went to your grandmas for the summer. Mushrooms and maggots and bugs galore. You were never truly afraid of them. You actually scared your grandma with them, returning with a handful or even carrying a bug or a bundle of mushrooms in your shirt to bring back and show her the cool things out in the forest. But now, you couldn’t even think about those damn bugs without feeling like you were choking or that your skin was beginning to crawl with something underneath it. You hated it. 

Percy's hand reaching up to cup your face snapped you out of your thoughts. “We’re safe.” He whispered quietly, turning you to face him. “Safe…?” You asked quietly. Percy nodded. “We’re safe now.” 

“Safe.” You echoed, the word feeling foreign on your tongue without the words ‘we’re not’ preceding it. 

You moved closer to Percy, pressing yourself into his side. The raven haired boy leaned down to kiss your forehead, gently rubbing your arm. “We’re going to be alright. Get some sleep, okay? We’re going to need it before we make our next trip.” 

You sighed and reluctantly laid down. Percy adjusted himself so that you could lay partially on top of him. After a few moments he instead pulled you fully on top of him so that you could lay your head against his chest. You thought he was doing it more for himself, but once you realized he’d placed you on top of his heart so you could hear it’s steady beat, you knew he’d done it for your comfort. 

“So. Putting a Titan under witness protection, huh?” 

“...we almost died and that’s what you take away from everything?” 

“I said we’d talk about it later.” 

“Can’t it wait a little longer?” 

“C’mon, I think it’ll make a good bedtime story.”

Percy let out a groan. “Fine, fine.” He let out an annoyed breath, but you knew he wasn’t really annoyed with you. That small smile of his gave him away. “So it all started with Hades and his favorite sword.”

You did your best to listen to the story, but eventually your brain decided that it was time to sleep, and you closed your eyes. 

Xxx. 

The next time you woke up, Percy wasn’t next to you. At first you freaked out because you thought it was another dream, but when you heard his voice in the room over, you calmed down. You pulled the blankets back, looking at your terribly torn jeans. You winced at the damage, but were glad to see that underneath, your legs had already healed the wounds and covered them up with scars. You picked up your shoes from the floor next to the bed and pulled on the poor battered things. They’d taken quite the beating lately. You’d have to put them down once you got back to camp. You stood up and walked over to the flap, pulling it back and looking at the scene. Bob was sitting down on a couch with small Bob on his lap. Percy was in the middle of what looked like a very passionate debate with a large warlike figure. He was very obviously built, and was wearing worn leather clothes. He had a full beard and kind blue eyes that seemed to be angry with Percy. The sight looked comical. Percy was a whole 6 foot one. So seeing him look so dwarfed compared to the giant was amusing. Well, the sight was amusing. The conversation was less so. Percy was asking Damasen to help you all reach the doors of death. You knew Percy had a way with words. One you’d never have. But he was still losing the conversation. 

“You’re Damasen, the giant, right?” You spoke up. 

Damasen turned to face you. “Daughter of Ares.” He greeted you. 

“Opposition of Ares.” You retorted, matching his sarcastic quip. 

Damasen gave you a miffed expression. “I don’t suppose you’re just here to insult me after I just saved you and Perseus’ lives, hm?” He said, as if daring you to disrespect him again. 

“I’m not going to grovel at your feet for it either.” You crossed your arms, leaning against the beam that served as the doorway. 

“Not even a simple thank you?” Damasen replied. It was obvious he expected some sort of gratitude. Yes, he did save your life. But he was also being an asshole. And we don’t negotiate with assholes. 

“Would that satisfy your ego?” You said instead. 

Damasen looked smug. He crossed his arms and tilted his head to look further down at you. “Perhaps.” 

You rolled your eyes. “Thanks for saving our lives.” 

“It was a bother.” 

“The saying goes, ‘It’s no bother.” 

“Yeah but it was a rather big bother for me.” 

You groaned. “Are all giants just really big dicks, or is it just you?”

“I’m actually the most peaceful of all my brothers.” 

“Really? So you’re telling me that this is the nicest giant I’ve ever met?” 

“The only one you’ll ever meet. The others will kill you before you even know they’re there.” 

You looked at Percy who was currently nursing his temples. Trying to convince Damasen was giving him a headache. You looked up at the giant. 

“So what’s stopping you from helping us?” You asked. “Seriously though. No sarcasm, no cutting remarks, I’m asking genuinely.” you added on after. 

Damasen paused and thought for a moment. 

“Well–” 

“Be nice.” Bob spoke up from the couch. 

“I’m finding it, cousin.” 

“Does it really take you that long to find it?” 

Damasen shot a glare at Bob. Bob raised his hands in surrender. “Bob is merely asking a question.” 

The giant sighed and turned to face you, his expression pensive. “I cannot assist you. I am cursed to remain here. It is my destiny.” 

You tilted your head. “Your destiny?” 

“I killed a drakon that was tormenting the mortals. My mother was enraged, and sentenced me to live down here, where every now and then the drakon would reform and I’d have to kill it. I keep track of the days by how many times I’ve killed it.” Damasen looked towards the wall, and it was then you realized the striped design on the leather was not just a pattern but the tally of how many days he’s been here. 

You paused. “Your mother kicked you out?” You asked quietly.

Damasen nodded. “I was a threat to her reign. A giant that wouldn’t kill. That wouldn’t harm. I was meant to oppose Ares, to kill him. And I couldn’t even bring myself to kill a human, nor could I do harm to an animal. So when the first beast I killed was one of her own, and I had done it to protect the humans, she cursed me.” 

Suddenly, you related to the giant more than you did before. 

“When I was younger my mom kicked me out of the house.” You blurted out. All eyes snapped to you. 

Percy looked the most surprised. He knew you never liked talking about your past before you found Camp-Half Blood. It wasn’t a pleasant thing from what he could tell when you did talk about it. “She kicked you out of your home? Why?” Percy asked tentatively, as if he might scare you out of talking. 

You rubbed your knuckles into your palm. “My mom remarried after my dad. This guy was good to us, don’t worry. He wasn’t an abuser or anything like that.” You sighed and stopped fidgeting with your hands to look up and meet Damasens eyes. “They had a kid together. Charlie. And when Charlie was three, a hellhound found us at the park, and gave me a scar on my arm. When we got home my mother freaked and started yelling. My step dad took her into their room and they didn’t come out until later that night. My mom sat me down in my room and told me I had to go. I was too dangerous to be near my brother, and if they ever wanted to be safe they’d have to leave me behind.” You felt tears pricking at your eyes and you quickly wiped them away. Now wasn’t the time to get emotional. “She gave me thirty minutes to pack my things. She made me one last meal, and then sent me on my way.” 

The room was quiet. Even Small Bob had stopped purring. 

“How old were you?’ Damasen asked quietly. 

“I think I was nine years old at the time.” 

“So young when you had to find your own way.” He said quietly, almost to himself. 

“Damasen I know it’s a lot to ask of you, to ask you to help us get to the Doors but we need your help. We have friends and family that we can’t let die. Just like you killed the drakon for your friends, we want to put Gaia back to sleep in order to save ours. We can’t lose them.” You took a few steps forward, looking up at the giant. 

Damasen knelt down to be somewhat face to face with you, despite still being a few feet taller than you whilst kneeling. “I understand your need to save your friends. But I am bound here to my post. No matter what, I am doomed to kill that drakon, as it is doomed to be killed by me.” 

You shook your head. “No, it doesn’t have to be this way. Curses can be broken, you know this. You saved me and Percy.” You exclaimed. 

“This one has no fix.. This is the  curse of Gaia, primordial of earth. I cannot remove this.” 

“You broke Akhyll’s curse.” 

“I…what?” Damasen looked extremely confused. “I never did such a thing.” 

“Yes you did. I had Akhyll’s curse. I’m supposed to be dead. But thanks to you, I’m still alive.” 

Percy’s head snapped to you. Oh, right. He didn’t know about that yet. It hadn’t occurred to you that he didn’t know she’d cursed you, but rather that you’d fallen because of a multitude of curses given to you by all the monsters you’d killed along the way. You’d talk to him about that later. 

Damasen seemed to ponder on that for a white before he stood up. “Get some rest, demigods. I will aid you in your journey, but I will not accompany you. My destiny is here and I’ve long embraced it.” 

You sighed, feeling defeated. Percy walked over to you, putting a reassuring hand on your shoulder. “You did the best you could.” he whispered. 

“I wish I could’ve done more.” You replied. 

Percy reached down to take your hand and led you out of the living room and back to the room where you and  him had slept. “I was talking to Damasen for a while, we’ve been in the pit for a little over a week now. He doesn’t know the exact day we’re on, but he says including today we’d have been here for roughly ten days.” 

You shuddered. Time had gone by so weirdly in tartarus. There was no sun to tell you when it was day.. You couldn’t tell when it was nighttime or how long it had been. Your watch had broken a long time ago. Right now it said it was 5:3pm. But it didn’t feel like it was late in the day, it felt like the day had just started. You shook your head, not wanting to debate the confusing thing that was the time construct in tartarus. 

“Ten days.” You murmured. Percy nodded. “He said we outta to stay here for another day to gather our strength. Taking on and breaking all those curses sapped the energy out of us. 

You could feel it. The way your muscles feel like they were on fire with the strain it took for you just to be able to continue walking around. You felt the ache in your bones and the way that your blood pumped so slowly, as if your heart was tired. You sat down on the bed, pulling Percy with you. You glanced at his arm where the long band of poison covered his forearm. Percy caught your gaze and followed it.  His small smile dropped at the sight of the poison. “I… I don’t want to get rid of it.” He admitted. “I feel safer having it on me. When the arai  were about to kill you I used the poison and it just… melted them.” He didn’t seem too excited to talk about it, but it wasn’t like you’d have another chance to later. There were a lot of things you both told each other you’d talk about later. Now seemed like the perfect time. Going through the checklist in your head, you checked off everything you’d already talked about. Talked about Bob being a titan and not a giant? Check. Talked about why Percy was so hesitant about it? Check. Talk about your past life? Not yet. It didn’t seem like there’d be an appropriate time to do so in tartarus. Talk about why you two keep gravitating towards each other and being so affectionate? That also wasn’t a conversation for tartarus. The conversation about poison that had happened days ago? Yeah. That would work. 

“You feel safer with it.” You repeated, to gather your thoughts. “Does it feel right to have it with you?” 

“Yeah. I feel… more  powerful. Like I just drank a glass of nectar and I’m ready to take on the world.” 

“So you can control it, right?” 

Percy nodded. The poison rose from his arm and hovered above him in demonstration of his abilities. 

“What can you do with it?” 

“What do you mean?” 

“Like, shape it, boil it, freeze it, change the color. What can you do?” 

Percy turned to look at his poison. He closed his hand and the poison shaped itself into a hammerhead shark. You let out a snort. Of course one of the first shapes he tries to make is a shark. He loves those things. Percy opened his fist and slowly turned it to the side, as if turning a dial. The color of the poison changed to a light grey color. Its underbelly became white, and its gills and eyes a dark black. He closed his fist and squeezed, causing  the shape to solidify  before a pattern emerged. Similar to the way a snowflake would form, the frosty pattern spread across the sharp edge until it was entirely encased in ice. He opened his fist and laid it flat, and the poison reverted back to its dark green liquid form. You looked at the position and then at Percy. His eyes matched the poison, you realized. That’s why their murky green color stood out to you. It wasn’t that it wasn’t his usual sea green, but that he had become the new owner of this poison. Akhyll’s special, godly poison. Made from her own blood. 

“Percy, I think you’ve become the new Protogenoi of poison.”

“The new what?’ 

“When Akhyl introduced herself she said she was the protogenoi of poison. Basically like Poseidon being the god of the sea. That was her domain, poison. But you killed her. We both know that if you kill a god it’ll take years for them to reform depending on how powerful they were. She was a primordial. She won’t be reforming for a long time.” You went quiet. If you were right, this was a huge thing. You didn’t know how to prove it. At least, safely prove it. Or maybe you did…. 

Percy tilted his head. “What’s going on in that head of your furnace brains?” Percy reached out and tapped your forehead. ‘’

“Percy, I think that you’ve just gained a new domain.” 

“That’s impossible. I’m mortal.” 

“Half mortal.” You reminded him. “The other half of you is god. And I think when you killed Akhyll’s you had tapped into that other half in order to overpower her. Then she died, and the poison needed someone to take over while she was reforming. So it chose you, the bane of Akhylls.” 

Percy stared at you. You could practically hear him digesting the information. “No that- that shouldn’t be possible. It can’t be. That’s- that’s insane.”

“So let’s go confirm it, yeah?”

Percy furrowed his brow. “How are we going to do that? If we go to the gods and say, ‘Oh hey by the way I killed a promodal while I was down there in the pit and I may or may not have gained her domains and become like a pretty powerful god,’ I’m pretty sure Zeus will strike me down in an instant, and even my dad and the other gods that actually like me won’t be able to stop it.” 

“We’re not going to ask the gods. We’re going to ask Bob.” 

Percy looked absolutely bewildered. “Bob?” Then the realization dawned on him. “He sensed when we fell in here. And he knew there was no one in the tunnels because he sensed it.” 

“Bob has some kind of powerful sensory ability.” You nodded. “I think if we ask, he can use it to check on your godly half.” 

Percy looked slightly apprehensive, but nodded. “Alright. Let’s… let’s go check.” He reluctantly got up from the bed, holding out a hand to you. You took his hand and stood up, leading him back into the main room where Bob and Damasen were. Or, should’ve been. Bob was still on the couch, reading some kind of book Damasen must’ve lent him. But the giant himself was nowhere to be seen. Bob looked up. “Good evening friends. Or morning by now.” He smiled. You glanced at Percy. 

“I already talked to him about the whole river thing.” He said, answering the silent question on your lips. “He’s… surprisingly fine with it. He says he likes being Bob, and he’d rather stay Bob than go back to being Iapetus.” 

“Really? Why?” 

“Because Bob has friends.” Bob spoke up from the couch. “Iapetus does not.” 

You looked over at the titan. 

“Bob likes the friends he’s made. Nico is very kind to him. Firecracker makes Bob laugh until his stomach hurts. And Starfish fought to keep Bob alive. He did not have to do that, but he did. And despite the circumstances, Bob appreciates what he’s done for Bob.” 

You smiled. “You have such a big heart Bob, y’know that?” 

Bob smiled back at you. “As do you, Firecracker. So, what brings you to Bob? Friend Damasen said you two should be resting.” 

“We need a favor from you.” You answered, bringing Percy closer. “Do you remember how you were able to sense people if they were near based on their power?” 

Bob nodded. “Yes. Bob is very good at that. It is Bob’s special talent.”  

“Well, can you differentiate how much power someone has? And what does it classify as? Like monsters, demigods, gods?” 

Bob thought for a moment, lifting a hand up to rub at his chin. “Bob might be able to do that. Bob  has been around many beings for years.” 

“Can you check my powers for me?” You asked, wanting to use yourself as a baseline line for Percy. You knew he was much more powerful than you as a son of Poseidon, but you still served as a good comparison. 

Bob nodded. He set his hand back down and focused. You noticed the way his silver eyes seemed to glow as he did it. You felt a shiver run up your spine and every instinct screamed that you were being watched.You felt your chest tighten, as if your power was trying to hide.  Bob blinked and leaned back. 

“You are very powerful. A strong demigod.” He grinned and pressed his finger into your shoulder like a friendly punch. “Strong Firecracker.” 

You couldn’t help but chuckle. “Thank you Bob.” Now came the scary part. “Can you check Percy as well?” 

Bob nodded and his eyes regained their glow. You saw Percy tense. Did he have a bad experience with something like this? You reached out and wrapped your pinky around Percy’s to reassure him. Percy glanced at you and offered a small smile. 

Bob pulled back with a frown. “This is very strange. Percy is a demigod, yes?” 

You nodded. “Powerful one, son of one of the big three.” You clarified, hoping that itI would be able to explain whatever it is that Bob had seen. 

“Ah, that explains a few things.” Bob hummed. 

You paused. A few things? Just a few? 

“Percy is a demigod. I can see it in his aura. But it is… convoluted.” Bob answered, scratching his neck. 

“What do you mean by… convoluted?” That didn’t sound good at all. It made Percy sound like he was dying. 

“Firecracker has a big and bright aura, it lights the ground and warms the air around it. Your aura does not flow from your heart nor your head. Your aura, your power comes from here. Ah, may I touch you?” Bob asked. “Yeah, go ahead.” You nodded.  Bob reached over and poked your stomach. As he did, you felt that familiar fire in your belly ignite. “It spreads from your stomach,” He traced the path of your power with his hand, respectfully avoiding your chest, and trailing it down your arm to your hands. “To the palms of your hands. Where the power comes from behind your stomach, your arms and hands are the conductors where it flows through.” He explained, occasionally pausing to find a better word to explain it properly. 

You slowly nodded in understanding. “My power is in my gut, and it flows out through my hands.” 

“No, not entirely. Your arms are the conductor where it flows through easily. But there is another power that comes from here, but that one doesn’t seem to be in use. I believe that is your potential that you’ve yet to unlock. ” He pointed to his sternum. “But the rest of your power comes from up there, and has an exit here.”  He gestured back to his chest and dragged his finger up to his mouth.  “Think of your stomach as the fireplace. Then your arms are the wood that lets the fire burn. But when fire burns it creates smoke.” 

“Oh” You connected the dots. “And the smoke pours out of my throat.” 

Bob nodded. “Yes! Very good. You are a very bright spark. Bob was worried that his explanation would not be satisfactory, he is not used to explaining things.” the titan affectionately tousled your hair. You chuckled, nearly forgetting about why you had asked him the question. “Oh uhm. So what is Percy’s?” 

“When Bob first met Percy, his moved like a wave. It started from his back, and spread to the rest of his body to converge here.” He tapped Percy’s heart. “When he uses his powers, he moves his arms, their movement is a crucial part. Could you turn around, Starfish?” 

Percy nodded and turned around.

 “Bob is going to touch the small of your back, is that alright?” 

“Yeah. That’s fine.” Percy replied. 

Bob touched the small of Percy’s back. “I can see the lingering remains of a curse here.” 

“The curse of Achilies. That’s where I put my mark.” Percy explained. 

“Ah. Interesting.” Bob hummed. “Well, the power comes from his back in this area.” Bob tapped the center of Percy’s spine. “Then his power follows his muscles up to his shoulders where it starts to build up, waiting for him to use it.” Bob traced a path down Percy’s arm to his hands. “Like Firecracker, most monsters and demigods that use special abilities will have their arms be the conductor of their powers.” 

“So Percy’s is like… what, a river?” You asked. 

Bob nodded. “Yes! Yes. A river is the best way to explain it. Very good,  Firecracker. Bob will make a sensor of you yet.” He grinned. 

“You can become a sensor?” 

“Yes. Here, hold out your hand towards Percy’s back.” 

You held out your hand towards Percy’s back as Bob told you, facing your open palm to him. 

“Instead of drawing your power out, try drawing Percy’s in. Close your eyes and focus on feeling it. It shouldn’t be too hard, Percy has a large aura.” 

You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, focusing on your surroundings. You could hear small Bob on the couch, moving around to find a comfortable spot. You could hear Bob’s breathing and could picture him on the couch. Percy was in front of you. You could feel his familiar presence without even having to hear his breathing. You decided to zero in on his presence, how you instinctively knew he was there. Your fingers spread as if making room for something, and before you knew it you could feel the ghost of something touching your palm. 

“Good. Open your eyes.” Bob instructed you. 

You opened your eyes and were surprised when there was a glow surrounding Percy. “Oh, wow. I see what you mean by convoluted now.” You commented as you stared at the tangled mess. An ocean colored glow surrounded Percy, flowing in waves. You could see how bob described it, flowing from his spine to his arms. But now, surrounding that very aura, was something sharp and barbed there clinging to his right arm. Squinting, you saw the armband of poison on Percy’s skin. It looked like wires, wrapped tightly around Percy’s arm. It spread out like vines, all across the rest of his body, but its focus point seemed to be his right arm where he kept the poison. 

“Now that you can see it, Bob wants you to focus on feeling it now.” 

“How do I do that?” You asked quietly, not wanting to break the immersion you were in. 

“You said that Percy’s aura was like a river, yes? How does a river feel? Is it cold? Is it warm? Are the currents fast or slow?” 

You took a steady breath and pulled the aura closer to you. When your hand touched the blue, you felt a pleasant freshness overtake you, like the cool water of the beach on a hot summer day. The waves were strong, but they didn’t feel like they'd drag you down. More like they’d give you a fun time on a surfboard. 

“It feels warm. Calm but strong.”

“Good, you can feel the pull. That is the pull of power.” 

You let go of the blue aura, instead reaching for the dark brambles around Percy. The moment you touched it you let out a yelp and took a step backwards. The auras disappeared instantly and your vision returned to normal. Percy turned to face you, face immediately contorted in concern. “Hey, what happened? Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah I’m fine. Just… startled.” You moved back to sit on the couch, feeling drained from tapping into the new ability. 

Percy looked at Bob for an explanation. 

“Firecracker tried to touch this.” Bob pointed to the armband of poison on Percy’s forearm. “It’s aura is tightly attached to you. She tried to pull it towards her, and it saw her as a threat, fighting back.” 

Percy furrowed his brow. “Why would it interpret her as a threat?” 

“Because it thought she was trying to take it away from you.” 

“Oh.” Percy looked down at the poison and then back at you, feeling guilty. “I’m sorry fire girl I- I didn’t mean to–” 

You shook your head quickly. “No, no it’s not your fault. Don’t apologize.” 

Percy reluctantly shut his mouth, but still wore a guilty expression. You turned to Bob. “So that aura. What does it mean? It felt… powerful. Like I would’ve died if I stayed for a second longer.” 

“That is a godly aura.” Boba answered. “An aura so defined like that, is that of a god’s domain. No other aura would be so obvious and potent.” 

You looked up at Percy. Well, there was your answer. “So you’re a god.” You whispered to him, as if scared to say it too loud. 

“What? No. Percy is very much a demigod.” Bob piped up. 

You both turned to face him.

“What he’s a what?”  “I’m a what?”  You both said at the same time. 

“You are a demigod.” Bob repeated. “Bob would know if you were not. You are a very powerful demigod, more powerful than you should be, but you didn’t make the transition to godhood. You hold on tightly to your mortality, inheriting Akhyl’s domain didn’t turn you into a god because you had something keeping you human.” 

Percy let out a relieved sigh. “I’m human. I’m- I’m mortal.” He seemed to almost melt into the floor, holding his heart as if it would stop beating at any moment. 

“Was Percy worried about not being mortal?” Bob asked you. 

You shook your head. “Percy’s always been against immortality and godhood. Living forever only to watch our friends and loved ones die isn’t something he’s exactly up to watching.” 

Bob nodded. “I see.” 

“Well, thank you Bob. “ 

“Bob is always down to help his friends.” The titan smiled. 

You looked up at Percy and noticed his pensive expression. He looked like he had just dodged a bullet, but now he was trying to figure out why he dodged the bullet “Relieved?” You asked quietly, as if you were trying not to startle a bunny. 

“Yeah.” He nodded slowly. “Yeah. You could say that.” He chuckled. “I uhm… what does this mean?” 

You paused, feeling a little caught off guard. “What do you mean?” You asked. 

“Well I mean. I’ve got a domain. A whole domain.” 

“I mean, not much has changed really. You’re still Percy after all, Bob said you refused the shift into godhood. Again.” You couldn’t help the small smile that made its way onto your face. This would be the third time he’s refused godhood or immortality now. You shrugged. “I mean think of it this way, you just have a new power now.” 

“It’s not just a power.” Percy rubbed his face and stared up at the sky as if it was going to fall down on him. “It’s a godly power.” 

You looked at him. “Do you feel different?” 

“I feel stronger.”

“No seaweed brain, we know you feel stronger. I mean feel. Like emotionally. What are you feeling more of now? Is there more anger? Less? Do you feel miserable? Do you feel happy? Do you want to laugh, scream, cry? What are you drawn to?” 

Percy mumbled something quietly, so softly that you couldn’t hear it. 

“Come again?” 

Percy let out a groan and sat down on the arm of the couch, looking down at you. “I feel more drawn to you.” He admitted, like he was barely coming to terms with it. “More than I did before we fell in. More than I did while we were still here. After I killed Akhylls and I… I guess ‘absorbed’ her domain. I just felt this sudden pull to you.”

You stared up at him, unable to look away. “Why would you feel more drawn to me?” 

“Perhaps it’s because you’re his mortal tie.” 

You and Percy turned to face Bob yet again.. “I’m his what?!” “She’s my what?!” 

Bob blinked, as if surprised by your outbursts. “Mortal tie? That’s what kept Percy from becoming a god.” 

“Okay okay, hold on.” Percy was the first to find his words. “Bob you- what do you mean by mortal tie?” 

“Bob said that you had refused the shift, Bob believes it was because you were holding onto something that kept you human. And that is firecracker. You feel so strongly for her that you stayed human.” 

Percy’s cheeks filled with a bright color. The smell of smoke made you look down to where you were gripping the couch: You’d set the couch alight with your flames. You gasped and quickly patted the fire to put it out, face burning with embarrassment. 

Bob looked between you both. “Are you two not lovers?” 

“I- what? No- I-” Percy spluttered, face becoming even redder than before. “Bob were not- no. Are-? No- no. No?” Percy seemed to just confuse himself even more, leaving you to be the voice of logic once more. 

“We’re not dating Bob.” You answered, fiddling with your fingers. 

“Oh. That is odd. Bob would’ve thought Percy had courted you already considering how strongly you two feel for one another. Bob sees it in the way your auras interact.” The titan hummed. He seemed to think for a little while, glancing between the two of you. “Perhaps that is a conversation Bob and Small Bob should leave you two to have alone.” Before you two could protest, Bob picked up the sabertooth tiger and left the large hut. 

You and Percy avoided eye contact with each other like they’d turn to stone if they did. The silence was deafening. All you could hear was your heart pounding in your ears. You were Percy’s mortal tie. And Bob had just outed your big fat crush on the savior of Olympus. Did you plan on having a crush on him? No. Did you? Well who didn’t? He had the body of a swimmer. Nice broad shoulders, a nice figure, and back muscles to drool over. Did you drool over them? No, of course not. That would be stupid. But you did like staring at them every now and then. What? You were allowed to look. 

“So…” Percy started, wincing at how awkward he sounded. “We should uh, talk about it. Like Bob said.” 

“Yep.” You nodded, feeling like your throat was going to close up. You anxiety pooled in your stomach, and you could feel the confusion emitting from your inner furnace, like the fire was confused on if it should take form or not. Instead, you let out a deep exhale, steam pouring from your lips. 

“Steam. You don’t do that often.” Percy commented. 

“I uh. Do that when I’m…” You stared down at the leather couch. “Embarrassed. Or- or nervous, I guess.” 

‘You guessed? Great going genius. You have got to be at least number three one the ‘most embarrassing confessions’ tier.’ You chided yourself. So maybe the movies weren’t exactly lying with how awkward it would be to confess. You’d only done it twice before. Rejected the first, and accepted the second. You tried to think back on how the second one went. You’d be laughing with them, they’d told you some dumb joke that they always did. You two had laughed about it and had this soft moment afterwards. You couldn’t help but blurt it out, that you liked them. The rest was a blur, but you remember walking out of that room holding hands. And then you shoved him into the wall and ran off because he made fun of you for being embarrassed about asking him out. 

You sighed. That was a different person though. Percy was different. Percy was… special. 

You looked up at Percy and steeled your nerves. Now wasn’t the time to beat around the bush. You two needed to sort this out before it just got more complicated. 

“I like you Percy.” You said, voice uncharacteristically soft. “I have for a while. Ever since you bested me at camp, and you kept helping me improve even though all I did was make fun of you and torment you. I mean who wouldn’t have a crush on you? You’re Percy Jackson for crying out loud.” You scoffed and stared down at your lap. 

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Percy asked quietly. 

“Because I didn’t think you’d like me back? You’re the Savior of Olympuis. I’m just another Ares kid with daddy issues who ran away from home because of some shitty situation.” You said bitterly. “There wasn’t exactly anything special about me that might’ve interested you.” 

“You interested me.” 

You looked up at Percy, confused. “Why?” 

“You were fun to be around. You made me work for your friendship for one. And I liked the challenge. And then we became friends and I got to see these parts of you that I didn’t know were there. Like how much you like old music. How you like to dance when you think no one is around.” He sat down on the couch next to you. “How you rub your knuckles when you’re nervous, like you’re preparing for a fight.” He reached down and took your hand in his. “I saw how much you like to be hugged even though you complain about it. I saw how much you needed it, to show you someone was there for you.” Percy looked up at you, meeting your eyes. “And yeah, I knew you had an itty bitty crush on me. That’s why I always invited you to the canoe races because I knew how much you liked to stare at my back.” 

“I do not!” You exclaimed in denial. 

“Yes you do!” He laughed. “I see you staring everytime you think I’m not looking. I can literally feel you tracing it with your eyes.” 

“Oh my gods do not phrase it like that!” You punched his shoulder. 

Percy only continued to laugh at your embarrassment. You let out a huff and looked away, trying to stop the steam from pouring out from the top of your head. 

“You so like me.” 

“I do not.” You denied. 

“You just said it earlier that you did.” 

“Well, I lied.” You shrugged. 

“No you didn’t.” 

“Yes I did.” 

“No you didn’t.” 

“Yes I did!” 

“No, you didn’t. Because if you did,” Percy reached out and lifted a finger to your chin, gently turning you to face him. “You wouldn’t let me do this.” He looked at your lips and then back up to your eyes, slowly leaning in. He stopped every now and then, giving you a chance to pull away, but you didn’t dare move. Percy gently pressed his lips to yours. You couldn’t complain about them being chapped. Being in Tartarus didn’t exactly give you the chance to pull out your Burt’s Bees chapstick. Percy started to pull back but you grabbed the collar of his torn up shirt and pulled him back in. The kiss was hasty, like you were trying to make up for lost time. Percy gently wrapped his arms around your waist, pulling you up onto his lap. In turn you slotted your arms behind his neck. They fit perfectly, like they were always meant to be there. You reached up to tangle your fingers in his hair, pulling his head back. His lips parted slightly and you took that as an opportunity to get him back for teasing you. You snaked your tongue in, quickly establishing yourself as the dominant one. Percy didn’t fight back, instead giving in to you without much thought. You pressed him up against the couch, the momentum causing your teeth to clash with a sharp ‘clack!’ You pulled back and laughed, rubbing your teeth through your lips. 

“You’re not too bad at this.” Percy said, looking up at you with a dumb smile on his face. 

“What? You expected me to be terrible?” 

“I expected you to burn me or set me on fire.”

You scoffed. “I can control my powers better than you think sea-brain.” 

“Really? Cause you feel pretty warm right now. Warmer than most people can handle.” He gave your hips a teasing squeeze and you were promptly reminded that you were sitting on his lap. As if to prove his point, you feel your body grow hotter. 

Quiet but heavy footsteps sounded and the front door opened. Damasen peaked his head in before seeing you two sitting on the couch, faces red. “I invite you into my home, I get rid of your curses, and I offer you food. The least you could do is not try and reproduce on my couch.”

“Dude what–!” 

“What?! We were not about to–!” 

“We were just– !” 

“Shut up!” 

You both exclaimed at the same time, voices overlapping each other. The giant rolled his eyes and walked passed to where the kitchen was. You glared after him, feeling ready to burn him and his stupidly cool looking hut down to the ground. You sighed and turned back to look at Percy. His eyes were trained on your lips. He wasn’t even trying to make it less obvious. You couldn’t help but look at the bags under his eyes though. As much as you would’ve wanted to kiss him until Gaia overthrew the earth, you two needed some sleep for your journey tomorrow. 

“C’mon Perce. Let’s go get some sleep.” You reached down and grabbed his hand, climbing off his lap and leading him back to the bed where you two were staying. Damasen was nice enough to let you two sleep in his room, since he didn’t technically need sleep as a Giant. Was it a little more awkward now that you two had confessed your feelings for each other? Only slightly. But you’d rather feel awkward than sleep alone and risk having another nightmare. You had enough of those things to last you years. Percy crawled into bed first, opening his arms for you to burrow into. You pressed yourself close to him, letting out a content hum now that you were back in the safety of this godly amazing fur blanket. You’d have to ask Damasen to make you a smaller one if it wasn’t too much trouble. But of course, the Giant would probably complain about how much work it would take before making you one regardless. He was strange like that. “So, do I get to be the boyfriend of the great daughter of Ares? Or do I have to earn that status too?” 

You opened one eye to Percy’s crooked grin. You hummed thoughtfully for a minute. “I’ll tell you what. If we make it out of here alive, I’ll let you be my boyfriend.”

“Oh well that’s just a given. We’re making it out of here alive, because you’ve yet to beat me in that capture the flag rematch. “

You scoffed. “Oh yeah? Well you have yet to beat me in archery.” 

“That’s not fair! You know how terrible I am with archery! I’m cursed.” 

“Oh please. A curse couldn’t explain how you shot an arrow backwards into Chiron’s ass.” 

“That is not fair. Look, they just handed me the bow and arrow and pointed at the target! Didn’t even tell me how to hold it or anything. What was I supposed to do? Channel my inner Katniss Everdeen?” Percy groaned before going off on a small rant about how Apollo must’ve seen the future and decided that it would’ve been super funny if he made Percy the worst at archery in the history of archers. You rolled your eyes, and fell asleep to his story about how his mom once got him a toy bow and arrow and he somehow shot the bow all the way across the room while the arrow stayed in his hand. 

Xxx. 

Having breakfast with a giant and a titan was very weird. While Damasen sat comfortably at the table, Bob required a large stone to be able to sit comfortably, while you and Percy had to sit on the table itself. The height difference in you all was amusing. With Damasen towering you all at twenty feet, Bob was a solid twelve, and you and Percy sitting at roughly half his size. You’d never told anyone how tall you really were, but no one had to bat an eye to know you weren’t 6’1. Damasen, had taken the time to make you and Percy some smaller sized items to use for breakfast, and your journey. 

“You’re sure you’re not coming with us, Damasen?” You asked cautiously as you took the leather bags of food and a canteen of water the giant was gracious enough to give you both. 

“I truly am sorry, little demigod.” The giant sighed and crouched down on the floor  to be able to see you and Percy eye to eye on the table. “If I could, I would assist you both in your quest. But alas my destiny is here, as it has been, and as it will remain. I hope your destinies prove to be a better fate than mine.” He held out his hand to you, a small weapon lying in the middle of his palm. It was an axe. You had lost yours in the battle with the arai. The battle axe was beautiful, carved from a drakon bone. Its edge was sharp, and it had a comfortable weight. Nothing too heavy that would tire you out when you swung it, but nothing so light that you felt like it wouldn’t do any damage if you tried to hit someone. It’s weight was nice, like a second arm that would cut and damage like a beast. 

“Thanks for everything Damasen. You really are the nicest of your kind.” You said, without any of the usual sarcasm you gave him. Damasen helped you both down from the table and walked with you to the door before waving goodbye. It was a somber moment, having to leave your friend to such a terrible fate as his while you all left to go back home to your friends and families. You would’ve turned back and fought Damasen to change his mind if it weren’t for Percy keeping a tight grip on your hand. You could see the doors in the short distance, it wouldn’t be too long now. You looked around at your group. A titan, a sabertooth cat, and two demigods. It wasn’t exactly the most orthodox group for taking on Tartarus himself, but it would do. 

For the most part the walk there was quiet, save for Bob occasionally telling you two about the different kinds of monsters he could sense in the distance. He’d occasionally have you practice, sensing the smaller creatures that wandered around you that didn’t attack. It was like a neat little way of playing eye spy while also training your newfound ability. It also helped to calm down your nerves as you approached the end. You could hear the yelling and howling of the monsters as they waited their turn for the doors. It was a scary amount. The plan was, while Percy and Bob fought off the monsters and drew all the attention to them, you  would go and burn the chains holding the doors down while Small Bob acted as your guard, keeping you safe while you worked. It was simple, not too complicated, not too vague. Everyone had their roles to play. 

You neared the place where you all would split up. You hugged Bob as tightly as you could, the titan whispering comforting words to you. “Bob knows you will do fine, little demigod. Firecracker is strong.” He pulled back and smiled at you, gently tousling your hair as if it were the last time. You nodded and turned to Percy. 

“Do I get a hug?” He asked with a crooked grin. You scoffed and rolled your eyes, but moved to hug him anyway. “Don’t you dare die.” You whispered in his ear, gripping onto him tightly. “I won’t. But you better not either, okay? If you die I’ll jump right back down here and drag you back up through these doors myself. Understand?” Percy pulled back to look you right in the eyes. You chuckled. “Yeah, yeah I got it seaweed brain.” You two shared a subtle look with each other before Percy leaned in and kissed you. You smiled into the kiss before wrapping your arms around him again. You pulled back but Percy leaned back in and stole another kiss before grinning and stepping back. “See you in the elevator, fire girl.” 

“Not if I see you first, water boy.” You snickered before turning to walk in the direction of the chains, Small Bob trotting along on your side. You reached for your drakon bone axe, rubbing the smooth hilt in your hands. It brought you a new form of comfort now. Damasen had wrapped it in leather, but you knew he had done something to it. You didn’t know what yet, but you knew you’d find out. You let out a quiet breath. “C’mon Small Bob. Let’s get this done quickly.” You turned and hopped onto the tall beast, leaning down and holding on tightly as the saber tooth tiger took off into a run. The scenery blurred by as you avoided monsters headed towards the doors. ‘This is it.’ You thought. ‘All these days of torment. I just pray to Nyx that we aren’t too late.’ 

You neared the chains and let out a groan. Of course it wouldn’t be easy. Monsters surrounded the chains, guarding it. There were a lot more than you could handle alone. You glanced down at yourself and Bob. You couldn’t approach like this, looking like a demigod. You climbed off of Small Bob and set yourself on fire, breathing out enough smoke to cover up your demigod stench. Taking a deep breath and exhaling, you approached the monsters. 

“No! It is Mich’s turn to hold the chains! Dyra has held the chains for long enough now!” The minotaur, Drya you assumed, was holding onto the chains with an angry expression. 

“It is not Mich’s turn! Mich held the chain's last shift! It is Shinra’s turn.” Mich, a scorpion-like beast, yelled. He looked to be a mixed breed of a chimera and a harpy. 

“It is not my turn!” A harpy screeched. “Brother you didn’t take the last shift you liar! That was Odenesse!” 

So the harpy is Shinra. And the lion with a scorpion's tail roared. “Yes! I took the last shift! It is Mich’s turn!” 

“Does it have to be anyone's turn?” You called as you approached. 

All heads snapped to you. “Who are you?! You are not a part of Tartarus Chain Guard!” Odenesse growled, baring her teeth at you and Small Bob. 

“What? Yes I am. Do you not recognize me? I was with you when we first got assigned.” You lied, pretending to know them. 

Odenesse paused and stopped growling to think. “I… Yes. I think I recognize you.” 

“Remember? You called me Smokey? And we complained about how Mich was always neglecting his duties?” You egged on, trying to get as many vague details as you could. 

“Yes! Yes I remember Smokey! How could I forget?” The Lioness grinned. 

You let out a sigh of relief, more smoke pouring out of your mouth. Thank Nyx that there were so many fire monsters around Tartarus. 

“Well Odenesse, I’ve got a question for you all.” You crossed your arms and leaned against a large boulder, trying to appear relaxed. 

“Go ahead.” 

“Why are you lot stuck here while I’ve just reformed?” 

“You what?!” Shinra shrieked. “No way you just reformed! You’ve been through the doors?” 

“Yes, everyone's going. Gaia just rose and everyone is waiting in line as we speak! I was wondering where you all were.” 

The monsters looked at each other in shock. 

“Wait wait wait!” Dyra called. “Who’s going to hold the chains if were all in line?” 

They looked at each other, and immediately started fighting. You groaned and rubbed your face with your hands. While it would be easier to wait for them to kill each other so you had an open access to the chains, you didn’t have the time to do so. 

“I’ll watch them.” You said loudly, enough for them to hear over their bickering. 

The monsters stopped and turned to face you. 

“You’d really do that for us?” Shinra looked at you suspiciously. 

You shrugged and pretended to look like you didn’t care. “I’ve been up there twice already, but that damn son of Zeus keeps striking me down. I’m waiting for Gaia to fulfill her part of the prophecy and kill him before I return to take revenge on that son of Demeter that killed me in the first place.” You lied smoothly, adding just the right amount of background context to seem true. Mixing it in with the truth helped, mentioning the prophecy and Gaia? Just seemed like the nail in the coffin. Shinra no longer seemed suspicious. 

“Wait, but wont you melt them?” Dyra asked, looking at you hands which were encased in flames. 

“I can lower the temperature. Besides, these are Tartarus’s chains. Do you really think I of all monsters would be able to melt his lord’s chains?” You scoffed. 

“True. Well then, come take the chains.” Dyra let go of the chains and stepped away. You pushed off the rock and moved over, firmly grasping onto the chains. True to your word, you lowered the flames on your hands to be barely flickering to cover the fact they were human hands. 

“Thank you Smokey! We’ll send for you once that bastard spawn of Zeus is dead.” Odenesse grinned before running off, her siblings following shortly behind her. You looked at Small Bob and motioned your head towards them. The saber tooth tiger nodded and climbed up the hill to watch and make sure no one else was approaching.You cooled the rest of your body down, no longer having to keep up the front of being on fire anymore. You held the chains tightly. You followed the length down to the ground where they were deeply embedded in the ground. It was unlikely you could pull it out. Looked like you’d have to go with the original plan of melting the chains. 

You took a deep breath and channeled the fire within you. Your hands ignited a bright blue, and the chains remained unaffected. You sighed, realizing this would take a while before the metal would reach it’s melting point. You grumbled to yourself and increased the temperature. You couldn’t help but wonder what Percy was doing right now. 

Unicorns were not the most friendly people. Take note of that. They’ve been around for eons. The amount of curse words they knew from old times was absolutely astonishing. Percy didn’t know half of what was being yelled at him through a patchy and hastily formed mental link, but he knew that it was nothing he’d even think around his mother lest he end up with blue soap between his teeth. Percy took a deep breath. Here goes nothing.

.

…

…….

………

“I’m at a payphone trying to call home, all of my change I spent on you!” Percy belted out as he rode through the line of monsters. “Where have the times gone?! Baby it’s all wrong, where are the plans we made for two!” The monsters were so surprised at the sight that they forgot to react, just staring at the son of Poseidon riding a dead unicorn with a river of fire following behind them like a magical trail. “I forgot the words but I’m pretty sure the next part is and in our time that you wasted all of our bridges burned down! Uh-  wasted my lights, you turned out the night? Now I’m paralyzed still stuck in that time when we called it love, but even the  sun sets in paradise,” Percy cupped his hands around his mouth and sang as loud as he could. “Now I’m at a payphone trying to call—“ 

The monsters roared, finally coming to their senses. Percy’s sudden Karaoke needed to be stopped. As he rode a strange looking skeletal unicorn through the army, he was looking around to make sure that Bob was doing alright. He and Bob had split up a little while ago to divert the focus of the monsters into two different places. The monsters were already frustrated from waiting so long in line, so when the opportunity arose to take their anger out on Percy emerged, they jumped. Surrounding Percy was his poison, ready to fly out at the nearest monster that tried to attack him from the sky. He felt powerful. Destructive. In his element. He leaped off the unicorn, falling onto a minotaur. He took Riptide and stabbed it into the back of its neck. The minotaur vanished into golden dust and Percy landed on the ground. The moment his feet hit the ground he took off running at the nearest monster. He fell into a rhythm. Dodge, slash, dodge, kick, slash. 

The Empousai launched at him, and he dodged her claws, slashing at her as she passed. He managed to draw blood, but all it did was enrage her further. She let out a shriek and dove for him again. Percy dodged low this time, kicking up to knock the Empousai off her path. She crashed into the ground and Percy quickly delivered the finishing blow. She yelled and burst into dust. 

Kick, taunt, get low, roll away, punch, slash. 

Percy ran at the nearest monster, kicking it as hard as he could before jumping back to get some distance. “Liked my singing? Here’s some more of it.” Percy took a deep breath. “TRYING TO CALL HOME, ALL OF MY CHANGE I SPENT ON YOU! WHERE HAVE THE TIMES GONE? BABY ITS ALL—“ the monster roared and charged. Percy waited until the last minute before getting low, causing the beast to trip over him. Percy rolled away and jumped at the monster from above, giving it a solid punch to stun it before slicing through with his sword. “Man, I guess you guys really like my singing huh?” He grinned. 

Dodge, dodge, jump, dodge, throw poison, run. 

This time it was a chimera. Percy furrowed his brow. This Chimera looked weird. It only had the body of a lion with the tail of a scorpion. Mixed breed? Percy dodged its claws, only to have to quickly dodge its tail. Percy jumped to avoid a thrown spear before dodging the chimera again. He gritted his teeth and summoned his poison into a sharp spear and sent it at the beast, effectively killing it. 

Slash, kick, dodge, parry, parry, dodge, stab. 

At the death of the Chimera, a Harpy screamed, nearly bursting Percy’s eardrums. “Sister!” Percy quickly slashed at her, giving her a warning, but she persisted, Percy ducked under her claws and kicked her in the gut, dodging to the side to avoid her retaliation. She grabbed a sword from the floor and sloppily swung it at him. Percy blocked her attack, parrying each of her attempts at stabbing him. The moment he saw an opening, Percy quickly angled his body to the side to dodge her attack and stabbed her in the stomach. He pulled Riptide out and started running, not planning on staying in the same place for too long. 

By the time the army started to clear up, Percy looked up to see one of the two chains on the doors go limp. He looked around. No one else noticed. Perfect. He wanted to keep it that way. Summoning the Phlegethon from where it laid in a puddle on the floor, Percy used it to make a platform for him to lead the monsters further from the door, closer to where Bob was currently sweeping away the bodies of the monsters as they continued to fight him. Percy winced as he saw the injuries on Bob. Scratches and gashes all along his back, weapons and arrows sticking out of him, but the titan didn’t seem to notice, continuing to fight off the monsters as if it was just another thing to do on his list of chores back at Hades; castle. A loud roar pierced the air, and Percy’s head snapped over to see Damasen riding the Drakon, holding a badass looking spear in the air. Percy grinned. 

“Incoming!” Percy yelled as he aimed for the nearest huddle of monsters. He encased himself in the river, landing with a boom on the ground. When he emerged from the protective shield, all the monsters that had been where he landed were golden dust. Percy looked up at Damasen on the Drakon and grinned. “You came.” He said. Damasen let out a scoff. “Of course I came. You thought I would let you two charge into battle against my parents. All on your lonesome?” Damasen rolled his eyes. Percy let out a chuckle. “Nah, of course not. Anything to rebel, huh?” Damasen hummed. “Well, this does put quite the thorn in their side. Consider it my revenge for trapping me here for so long.”  Percy let out a yell as one of them managed to stab his side while he wasn’t paying attention. Percy let out a growl and tore it out of his side, chucking it back at the Harpy.”Well, I’m glad you’re here Damasen.” He said before turning back to the monsters rushing at him. Spinning Riptide in a circle, Percy leaped back into the fray. Percy dodged a ball of fire headed his way, and couldn’t help but worry about you. 

“And that takes care of that.” You breathed out a sigh of relief, letting go of the chain. It fell down,  the chains disappearing as they no longer held the Doors of Death down. The doors shimmered, showing that they were ready for their last transportation trip out of Tartarus. You turned around and wrinkled your nose at the burnt bodies of the monsters that had tried to fight you. You had attempted to use the same trick earlier, but of course no trick ever works twice. You ended up burning them to a crisp, and then melting the chains. It took a lot of effort, but you were ready to join Bob and Percy and leave to get back home. You let out a quiet sigh before all your instincts flared up and you dodged to the left. A large sword struck the ground where you stood. And I’m talking, huge sword. Maybe as tall as Damasen. You turned to look in the direction of who threw the sword and your eyes widened. 

It was horrible. Pure horror. Whatever that thing was, it wasn’t human. It radiated power, the same kind of power as Nyx held. With a nauseated feeling, you recognized this as Tartarus. He was tall, but misshapen. As if he was put together with only monster parts. Extra eyes and sharp teeth poking out through his lips. His face was a dark red, lined with white. He looked like the skin had been taken off to reveal just his muscles. You looked down. His armor was simple. No sharp shoulders or exaggerated collar. No. The focus point of his armor was the fact that there were faces beneath the surface. Faces that screamed in pain only to disappear and be replaced by another face. Monsters. Humans. Demigods. So many people were trapped in his armor. You looked back up to face him. 

“Tartarus, Lord of the Pit. Father of Titans and Giants. King of punishment and torture himself. First ever generation of gods. Son of Chaos” You bowed respectfully, not wanting to piss him off more than you already had by causing so much disrest in his kingdom. 

“Blood-born scion of Ares.” He spoke, his voice a deep treble that reverberated through the pit. His voice held power, and his accent was something from times long long ago. He continued, stepping forward and grabbing his sword, setting it back into his sheath. “By your will did Akhylls fall, undone not by blade, but by a decree given to the spawn of Poseidon by you. Foul daughters of vengeance the Keres are, but they are no more. They scattered to dust when met with the sharp edge of your blade. You rose, as storm and star, a reckoning force clad in a mortal body. The Keres, once bound to their mother, now march at your whispered breath. Their talons serve your bidding now, don’t they? You are her, the Scourgeborne” 

The word vaguely registered in your head. You didn’t know what it meant exactly. But the way he said it made it seem like it was some kind of honored  title. Like it was something you’d earned a long, long time ago. You noticed that he had put away his weapon, and you hesitantly set your axe back in its strap. 

“Might I ask what the purpose of your visit is, Lord Tartarus?” You said, putting as much politeness in your voice as you could. “I hope my friends and I haven’t caused you too much of a… headache.” Your words felt like nothing compared to his vocabulary, his way of words. Like you were a toddlers trying to communicate with a poet. Your babbles doing nothing but amusing them. 

Tartarus let out a loud sound, similar to that if you stood too close to a garbage disposal. You didn’t know what the sound was until he looked back down at you and his mouth was open in a wide smile. “Daughter of Ares.  Survivor of the pit.” The god held out a hand and the ground below you trembled and rose up, lifting you to be eye to eye with him. “You have caused quite the commotion with the beasts that roam around my kingdom. You’ve fought valiantly against them, with your treasured weapon and beloved person.” He chuckled, the sound still as terrible to hear as it was the first time. “I have not been so graced by a show as the one you’ve played in your time down here. Watching you give into those buried hungers that prod at you through the cage you’ve trapped them in as you slay my subjects. What was it that philosophers of yours said, muttering in madness as he drowned in his guilt?” Tartarus reached up and rubbed his chin, as if in thought. He looked back down at you with that same creepy smile. He knew what he was talking about. He was only toying with you now, making you hang on his every word. “Do you hear the wet rhythm of the heartbeat that sounds beneath the floorboards in the home in your mind? Do you hear the scratches as it peels back the floorboards? Do you know what causes those very sounds? It’s those very tainted thoughts of yours  given life. Whispering to you all the things you think but never say. Tell me. Those  whispers, do they keep you from sleeping? Do they keep you warm? Do they curl up besides you and keep you company on lonely nights? When those urges scratch at the walls in your mind, do you scratch back?” 

The primordial seemed intent on tormenting you. You could hear your heart pounding in your ears as you always did, but now that you’d heard the words the primordial parted to you, you couldn’t help but wonder if that sound was yours, or the creature under the floorboards. “It beats still. Louder now. It knows I am listening.” He beat his fist over his chest. The heartbeat in your ears changed to match his new rhythm. You reached up to your chest, nails gently scratching, and the sound quieted. You didn’t know what his endgame was. What was his point? Why do this? Why put you under such emotional turmoil before killing you? 

Tartarus grinned upon seeing your actions, knowing he was proven right.. “I am the son of Chaos as you said. What more would I love to see than that of chaos being wrought onto the very gods that supposedly rule over everything? It is one of the simple pleasures I enjoy watching from the comfort of my tortuous pit. I can hear mother, whispering in the roots and the winds when such deeds occur. Her quiet, coiled breaths when fate has unexpectedly untangled itself and woven into a new pattern. For a moment she’s returned, and I can feel her love for me, her ghastly son.”

Tartarus started walking, and the platform you stood on followed him. 

You hesitated before speaking. “So, are you not going to kill me…?” You questioned.

“Kill you? No. I am releasing you from this place, and sending you to unleash Chaos upon the world.” 

“But why?” You asked, not understanding. “Why would you just let us go? We’re going to put Gaia back to sleep and defeat her army. Won’t that just cause more unrest for you? All the monsters coming down here, the giants, even gods coming down here and messing up the hierarchy you’ve got?” 

“What chaos shall stir when you and young Perseus claw your way back onto sunlit lands? Will they cheer in triumph, will they cry out in tragedy? When you kill Gaia with your gifts, honed  beyond their moral potential in the pit; Well, hah, the gods will take notice then. They always do, when one piece moves too far from the board they put. They like their little pawns to be put away back in the box at the end of the game. But you two are playing a different game entirely.” He chuckled and turned back to look at you. You felt weird, like he was drawing something out of you. Even though he was taking you back to the surface, it felt like he was dragging you back down into the pit. He tilted his head, the light in his eyes far too cold to be alive. “You and your lover will write a tale so twisted, so unpredictable from fate's spindle that they will blink for the first time in ages.” He chuckled, as if he said something funny. “I do not meddle, No. No, I only watch. The world up there is far more interesting without my influence. Unfortunately as it spins and spins, it’s become dreadfully predictable. But you two, ah you two. You will be the ones to stir the pot just enough to make it interesting again. So, let the gods scramble.” He spoke, seemingly already excited by the outcome of his actions. “Let Olympus fall and scream as it plummets into the ground. Life is so very dull, here in the pit. Until something falls in.” 

You felt that scratching at your rib cage again. The feeling is no longer foreign or unknown. You shook off the feeling, watching as you approached the fighting monster army surrounding Percy and Bob. The army seemed to freeze upon seeing Tartarus, all falling into a kneel. Percy and Bob looked around in confusion before seeing you with Tartarus. Percy instantly raised his weapon, while Bob looked rather cautious. 

“Percy! Bob! Don’t- Damasen?” You furrowed your brow at the sight of the giant. He waved his spear at you from where he sat atop the Drakon. You shook your head and focused. “Don’t freak out. He’s kinda… helping us?” You called down to them. 

“He’s what?!” Percy yelled back 

“I am offering you my assistance. “ Tartarus answered. He  lowered your platform and lowered you to the ground. You leaped down and quickly ran towards Percy, throwing your arms around him. Percy hugged you tightly before pulling back and looking you up and down. “He didn’t hurt you, did he? Did he offer you anything? What happened?” He asked quickly. “No, no nothing happened.” You reassured him. “We just talked for a little bit, I’ll tell you about it later, I promise. But right now he’s giving us a way out. So we need to leave.” 

Percy looked warily between you and Tartarus. He wasn't exactly the most trustworthy person that you knew. But he was currently the most powerful you’d met– aside from Nyx, and the one that was giving you the option that would get you both out of hell. 

“Daughter of Ares,” Damasen knelt down. “Are you sure you can trust my father?” He asked, looking warily at the primordial. You nodded. “What happened is…. It’s  complicated, but I can trust him” 

Damasen let out a tired sigh and stood back up. He pointed his spear at Tartarus. “Should you go back on your word, I will be the one to ensure that you pay for it.” 

Tartarus only grinned, seeing his son threaten him. “As much as I’d love to see you take revenge on your father, that will have to wait for another time.” 

Percy looked between Damasen and Tartarus before looking at you. “Trust me?” You asked.  With a reluctant sigh, Percy nodded. “Okay, Okay let’s go.” You let out a relieved sigh and took his hand. Percy gave you one last look before turning back to face Tartarus. “Alright. We… accept.” He said. Tartarus nodded and stepped aside to reveal the doors to you all. You led Percy into the elevator, but Bob and Small Bob didn’t follow. 

You turned around in confusion. “Bob? Aren’t you coming?” 

Bob smiled sadly and shook his head. “No. Bob will not be accompanying you to the surface.” 

“But why?” You asked. 

“Bob has talked with Damasen.” Bob turned back to look at the giant. Damasen nodded, giving Bob a reassuring look. Bob turned back to face you both. “ Bob knows if Bob goes back the gods will kill him because of Bob’s fellow titan’s help in this war. Then Bob will truly be stuck here.”

“No! No we’ll– we’ll vouch for you we-” You turned to Percy, who looked just as torn. 

“Bob, come on please. You know we can make sure you’re safe. They won’t hurt you. I promise.” Percy begged. 

Bob smiled and reached over to the elevator button. “Damasen will be lonely. Bob does not want to leave his friend behind.”

“I don’t want to leave you behind Bob please! You’re my friend.” You exclaimed, tears brimming your eyes. Percy held you tight in the elevator, preventing you from jumping out. 

“Goodbye Starfish, Firecracker. Perhaps Bob will visit you sometime. Or you can visit Bob.” The titan smiled before pressing the button. 

“Bob!” 

“Tell the stars Bob says hello.” 

The doors closed, and the elevator started moving. You stared at the doors, as if waiting for Bob to come through them. To change his mind and come back in there. To tell the stars hello himself. So you could tell him all the constellations and their stories.But the doors remained tightly shut, and it was just you and Percy in the elevator. The hum of the elevator quietly droned on in the background. Honestly? You preferred it to Apollo’s terrible haikus. You slowly sat down on the floor, still staring at the doors. 

“Hey, are you… are you alright?” Percy asked, kneeling down next to you. You looked up at Percy, really looked this time. His cheeks were slightly sunken in, no more of those slightly chubby cheeks you liked. His eyes had that haunted look in them. One you’d seen in the older members of the camp who had been in the center of the battle of Manhattan. His skin was covered in golden dust, blood, dirt, and scabs from the healing wounds you two had received. His clothes were torn up, shirt nearly gone at this point. You winced at just how beat up his shoes and the bottoms of his jeans were. You didn’t imagine you looked much better. You looked down at the reflective floor. Your hair was strewn about, regardless of the braid you had it in before. Some pieces were stuck to your forehead with dried blood. Your eyes seemed like they’d become a few shades redder, a different from the usual rusty brown color they were before. Alike Percy, you were covered in blood and dirt, but you also had the dried poison from your encounter with Akhylls stained… tainting your clothes. 

‘Those very tainted thoughts of yours, given life.’ You could hear Tartarus’ voice echoing in your head. ‘Will you scratch back’  You shut your eyes, taking a deep breath. 

“I’m…. not okay.” You admitted, rubbing your knuckles. “But I will be. After a ten year nap and therapy from an Aphrodite kid.” 

Percy let out a quiet chuckle. “Loads of therapy. And naps.” He sat down next to you, letting you lean on him. 

‘When you kill Gaia with your newfound ability, what will the Gods think when their favorite pawns start to make their own moves?’ Tartarus' voice whispered in your ear. You opened your eyes. 

“Percy?” 

“Yeah Lava girl?” 

“You know how our powers got stronger in the pit?” 

“...yeah.” 

“We can’t use them too much when we get back, can we?” 

“Zeus will kill us.” Percy was familiar with this little dance before. When he started making hurricanes and earthquakes, when he helped during the Battle of Manhattan, when he kept surviving quests he wasn’t supposed to come back from. It was always a fight for his life with them. At the time, he always had his Dad and the other gods to back him up.

“No one could stop them then.” You continued. “ Not your father, not Hades, not the rest of the council.”

Percy sighed. “We have to play it safe. At least until we have to kill Gaia.” 

The doors started to vibrate and you knew your stop was next. “Alright. Let’s go put some millenia year old primordial god of our lovely planet earth back to sleep.” You stood up. Percy stood alongside you. You both grabbed your weapons, ready to face the world as soon as the elevator doors opened. 

Ding!

When the doors opened, you and Percy were met with a destroyed hill with bodies everywhere. At first your heart dropped. Did you two miss the fight? Percy grabbed your hands and led you out of the elevator. You blinked, rubbing your eyes as the harsh sunlight seemed to burn your eyes. You coughed and hacked as air attacked your lungs. You vaguely registered Percy wheezing next to you, harshly hitting his chest. You gasped for air, kneeling over until you could breathe again. You looked at Percy, blinking away tears. “What…?” 

“Air is different up here.” He muttered. “Tartarus was… humid. Very humid and toxic.” 

“Ah.” You two had already gotten used to the air down there in Tartarus. Now that you were breathing in air that wasn’t trying to kill you, it was a rather new sensation. 

“Guys!”

You jumped back to stand at Percy's side while he lifted Riptide. You held your axe low, ready for whatever threat was about to come over the hill. Golden eyes and curly hair came into view. Your body registered it before your mind did, relaxing and standing up straight. 

“Hazel.” You said, as if reminding yourself. ‘She isn’t a threat.’ You thought, staring into her eyes. But all you could see were the eyes of the Primordial staring back at you. You blinked and it returned to Hazels warm golden ones. You vaguely registered that she had gotten closer before she threw you both into a hug. Behind her was Nico, who’s eyes widened. He ran over as well, stumbling over the rocks before looking between you and Percy. He joined in the hug, shutting his eyes tightly. “Don’t ever do that, ever again!” He looked up and glared at you. “You! You watch where you’re going dammit! I don’t want you falling anywhere else you’re not supposed to be!” He turned and glared at Percy. “And you Jackson! Don’t you ever pull some stupid stunt like that ever again! What were you thinking jumping in after her into that place?! No–” Nico groaned. “Don’t not jump in– but don’t- don’t just–” Nico’s voice cracked. Percy reached out and gently ruffled Nico’s hair. The motion bitterly reminded you of how Bob used to do that to you. “I know, little cousin. I know. I won’t do it again Neeks, okay? I promise.” Percy said comfortingly. Nico nodded before turning back to you. “I’m…I’m sorry I couldn’t–” You shook your head quickly. “Don’t apologize Nico. No one knew the floor was that unstable. Only the flash himself would’ve been able to save me, and unfortunately he’s tied up in Central City, right?” You gave him a smile, and the italian boy let out a scoff and a grumble about ever telling you about his interest in comic books. 

“Nico! Hazel! You two can’t just–” Piper stopped midway, voice caught in her throat at the sight of you and Percy. “Piper be careful.” Jason came into view behind her, floating a few inches off the ground. Joining him was Frank and Leo, both looking out of breath. “Guys! Where are we–” Annabeth froze as soon as her eyes met yours. She was the first to break out of her shock, bolting down the hill. Hazel and Nico quickly moved away as the daughter of Athena tackled you to the ground. Percy tensed as she tackled you, but calmed down when he remembered that Annabeth wasn’t trying to hurt you. Instead, he turned his attention to the rest of their friends who’d already made their way down the hill. 

You let out a grunt at the impact but didn’t complain. “Hey there book nerd. Whats–” You let out another grunt as she punched you in the shoulder. “Don’t you ever do something like that again!” She exclaimed, pulling back from the hug to look at you. Tears filled her stormy grey eyes. “That was so stupid! You should’ve just– Just left me and gone on that damn boat! I had dreams that you- that you died down there and I- I was so worried! Promise me that you won’t ever do something stupid like that again! Swear it on the Styx.” She shook you by the collar of your shirt. You gently grabbed her wrists. “Annie,” You said softly. “I’m fine. I’m alive, and I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere.” You reassured her. Annabeth’s anger slowly melted, making way to her distraught expression. She sniffled and pulled you back into a hug. “I was so worried.” She mumbled quietly. You reached up and rubbed her back. “I know, I know. I’m sorry. I’m not leaving, not anymore. We’re going to finish this, go back to camp, and you can finish teaching me about all the different kinds of windows and how they influence the way the room feels and all that jazz, mkay?” 

Annabeth scoffed and sat back up, punching you gently. “I do not rant about windows.” 

“You were pretty adamant about how the new cabins were built.” 

“Well that’s because the windows in the older cabins didn’t make any sense. There was barely any lights inside the cabin so we were relying on the sunlight but the windows were so terribly placed that we had to have an obscene amount of lamps to make up for the lack of lighting.” She grumbled. Annabeth got up, holding out a hand to you. You gratefully took it, standing up. Annabeth led you back over to the rest of the group, where they were practically interrogating Percy with questions. You noticed his weary expression, how he hesitated a lot on certain questions. 

“Hey guys, maybe the questions can wait until Percy and I have had some real food, a shower, and a nap.” You piped up. All eyes darted to you, and you suddenly felt like you were being put under a microscope. Their eyes looked at your injuries, your torn clothes, and a few drifted to your new weapon in curiosity. Annabeth, ever your hero in times like this, backed you up. “Yeah guys, they’ve been in Tartarus,” At the name, you and Percy couldn’t help but wince. “For a while now. Let’s give them a break, and then we can start quizzing them. For now let’s get to the Argo and rest. Now that they got the Doors back, we shouldn’t be dealing with the next wave of monsters for at least another day. Lady Artemis said they were stationed too far to function as proper backup.” 

The group reluctantly nodded. Leo stepped forward and grabbed you and Percy by the wrists. “Come on fire girl, water boy, I’ve upgraded you two’s rooms while you were gone.” Leo grinned. You narrowed your eyes. “You better not have touched any of my stuff.” You warned him. “What? No! No! Leo Bad-Boy-Supreme would never.” 

“...”

“Okay I might’ve moved stuff around but I didn’t go through any of your belongings! I swear it.” 

“Fine. Let’s go see the new rooms.” 

“Awesome sauce.” 

Xxx. 

The shower felt like a blessing from the gods themselves. You were finally clean of all the blood and dust and grime that had nearly become a second skin. You’d showered and dressed in fresh clothes. As you stared at the torn shreds in the corner that was your old clothes, you didn’t feel right. You’d worn them for so long. You shrugged it off and put on your drakon-leather weapons holster, along with the weapon Damasen had carved for you. You felt a pang of sadness at the memory, but you didn’t feel right not having it with you. You walked out to your bedroom, picking up the backpack you’d gotten from Damasen. You opened it up to unpack your things when you were met with more leather. Furrowing your brow you pulled it out and blinked at the sight. Somehow, Damasen had managed to shove a nice furry cloak into your backpack. You ran your fingers along the black and white patterned  fur on the inside of the leather cloak and was instantly reminded of the comfy bed you’d slept in while down there. You lifted the cloak to your nose and took a sniff. It smelled like the hut. You smiled softly and set the cloak down on your bed, deciding that you’d wear it to bed later. You finished unpacking the rest of your ruined things with a silent promise to fix them up later. With that, you stepped out of your room and joined the others at breakfast. 

Percy was already there, looking much better than he did before. Sitting on his left was Jason, who was already telling Percy about his and Piper's adventure. There was a spot on Percy’s right, open and waiting for you to take it. You sat down, and Percy didn’t even flinch, as if he already knew you were there. His hand moved from the top of the table to reach under and grab yours. You let a soft smile slip, squeezing his hand. 

“So, you wanna tell us a bit about what happened down there?” Piper asked from your side. 

“Ah… a lot. Nothing… nothing really interesting.” You winced, knowing that was a damn lie. “Well, I guess yeah some interesting stuff happened. I just,” You paused. “I’m not really up to talking about it in detail. I’m not the best story teller in the world.” 

“Well could you try?” Piper asked, her voice seeming to spark something in you. You felt compelled to spill everything, including the talk with Tartarus, and you and Percy’s newfound abilities. You gritted your teeth, resisting the charmspeak laced in her words. Percy’s thumb rubbed against yours in a soothing manner. You took a calm, controlled breath. 

“I’d like to start,” Percy spoke up instead. “If you don’t mind, Lava girl.” He turned to you. You gave him a small nod and went ahead. 

“So it started with this super sad river right?” 

Percy’s rendition of Tartarus somehow managed to make it seem funny, with things like:

“So we passed by this super huge sand castle that had these really fancy statues around it and a moat filled with fishes that were just straight up assholes.” 

And: 

“So we had to fight off these bird ladies that all spoke in unison, like a barber shop quartet of Harpies that was singing us a song about how we were going to die and they were gonna kill us. Y’know, the usual tune.”

And: 

“So Lava girl had the genius idea for me to stick my finger in the liquid fire.”

“I did not! You did that all by yourself!” You jumped into your defense. 

“And I was thinking, hey this is technically water so it might heal me right?” Percy continued, as if you hadn’t interrupted. “And surprise, it did. But it did hurt like a–”

“Language.” 

“Like a very hot river of lava.” 

Percy didn’t joke as much when it came to talking about Akhyll’s. In fact, he quickly skimmed past that bit, saying that you two had met her in the tunnels after a power nap in Shrek’s swamp and managed to trick her into letting you two pass by saying you two were just dying to see her Death Mist in person. Pun intended apparently. 

He talked about meeting Bob and then finding Hermes shrine, and how you two had managed to get that message out to camp. He went on to talk about how you two had come across some arai, skipping over the curses you two got, and then how you met Damasen. He wrapped up the getting to the doors a bit fast, saying that you had burned the chains, and Bob and Small Bob stayed behind to press the button for you two. When he finished the story, everyone seemed to be in various stages of shock. No one seemed to have any words. I mean what were you supposed to say when your friends just escaped literal hell? Congratulations? How’d you survive that? Can you do any new tricks now? So that’s why you have a new axe? No question really seemed fitting. Piper, taking the lead on this, decided that now was a good time to tell you two what had happened on their end. The story took a while, everyone jumping in to add their bit, Leo adding jokes and puns in while Frank tried to pretend like he wasn’t laughing at all of them. It was nice. As you two listened and laughed at the crazy series of events, Percy’s hand never left yours. 

“So, now we got two main things to do. First, put Gaia back to sleep. And second, stop the Romans from attacking camp-half blood by returning the Athena parthenos. Obviously since we’re already here, we’re going to take care of Gaia first.” Piper informed you both.

You tensed at the mention of putting Gaia to sleep and turned to Percy. You two had promised Nyx you’d return her sister to her. While you didn’t think that Tartarus would exactly like you two killing her, you didn’t think he’d hate the idea either. Having his wife back while the world erupted into chaos so she could watch it with him? He’d probably let it slide. Maybe. Percy turned to look at you, that expression when he had something to say but wasn’t going to was painted on his features. You knew what he wanted to say. You glanced at the table, looking at you expectantly for your answer. 

“So, how do we put her back to sleep?” You said, looking determined.

That seemed to be the right thing to say, as the tension lifted and they began telling you about their tactic to finish off her army. You weren’t listening, too focused on Percy. He turned to face you. ‘Later.’ He mouthed before turning his attention back to the conversation. 

‘Later.’ You thought. 

Later couldn’t come fast enough. You and Percy hadn’t had a moment to yourselves until it was lights out. You sighed and went to your room, laying down on your bed. You pulled the drakon cloak close to your face, turning and breathing in it’s scent. It was nice. The familiar smell. It relaxed you a little bit, but not enough to sleep. An hour later you were wrapped in the cloak, tiptoeing to Percy’s room. You didn’t even have to knock, Percy held the door open for you the moment you stopped in front of his door. You opened your mouth to ask a question but he beat you to it. 

“Sensed you.” He said simply. You furrowed your brow. Since when did Bob teach him about sensing? 

“Your blood.” Percy clarified. He stepped aside and held open the door. You walked inside, laying down on his bed. Percy closed the door and walked over. You held the cloak open a bit for him to crawl inside with him, pulling it over him once he's gotten comfortable. 

“Couldn’t sleep?” He whispered. 

“No.”

“Nightmares?” 

You shook your head. No nightmares. At least, none yet.  “Couldn’t relax.” You said instead. You didn’t have to explain why, he knew. 

“Ah.” 

Now comes the big question. The one you both had saved for later. 

“What are we doing about… her?” 

Percy looked up at you. “Killing her. Like we promised Nyx.” 

“The others won’t agree.” You whispered. “They want to put her back to sleep.” 

“I know.” 

“So what? We take out the army, and then what? We just– let her rise? They’ll try to put her back to sleep before we can even try.” 

Percy sighed and stared down at the fur lining the inside of the cloak. He reached out to wrap his arm around your waist and pull you snug against him. “We’re going to help them put her back to sleep” He whispered in your ear. 

You tensed and glanced at him out of the corner of your eye. “Percy what are you–”

“I have a plan.”

“Care to let me in on it?” You raised an eyebrow. 

Percy paused. 

“We’re doing this together or not at all.” You said firmly, grabbing his chin and forcing him to look you in the eyes. You had been to hell and back with him. You were going to see this stupid quest to the end if it killed you. Percy met your eyes, and upon seeing the determination he let out a sigh. 

“Okay, okay. Here’s how we’re going to play it.” 

Xxx. 

Towards the middle of the night, you found yourself woken up by a sudden pressure behind your ribs. You raised your hand to your heart and that’s when you felt it. That scratching behind your ribs. You sighed and let your head hit the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. Percy was a little bit lower, clinging to your hips and resting with his head on your stomach. You watched him for a few moments, checking for any signs that he was having a nightmare. Upon seeing none, you relaxed and stared back up at the ceiling. That scratching was back, but this time it gently prodded at your ribs, as if checking if you were listening. You reached over and pressed down on your ribs. The pressure lessened, as if backing away in surprise. Timidly, it poked at your ribs again. When you responded with two light taps, the pressure shrunk. You didn’t know what you were doing. What that pressure was. If what Tartarus said was true, about it being your ‘tainted thoughts given life.’ You wish you had asked questions then. That you had asked him why those urges would suddenly manifest so physically. All you could think of to explain it was the time in the pit. As you recalled, the urges never made themselves known as anything other than the occasional intrusive thought before you fell in. But the more time you spent in there– well, time spent when you weren’t fighting for your life or dying, you’d felt like you were walking further and further away from your humanity. Embracing the lifestyle of the pit, the fighting and the bloodshed. The murder over mercy. 

‘Blood before benevolence.’ 

You shivered, hearing the familiar timbre of Tartarus' voice. 

‘I have to kill Gaia.’ You thought, but even in your thoughts you heard the hesitation in your inner voice. It was like you couldn’t bring yourself to accept the idea of killing her. You repeated it again, as if trying to convince yourself. ‘I have to kill Gaia.’ 

‘Mother earth bore you with no care. Why give her what she never gave you? Mercy in the face of such malice only serves as a detriment– a betrayal to yourself.’ 

‘I am not showing her mercy!’ You argued, clenching your fists. 

‘Mercy is extinction and compassion is the coffin. When you whisper the words that will bring her to her death, will you stop and think of the flowers you’ll lay atop the gravestone? Nay. There is no honor in mourning what you’ve ended. You are blood marked now, hands staining the white flag you cling to.’

‘We’re going to stop her.’ You replied firmly. You and Percy would put a stop to Gaia. She wouldn’t have the chance to rise again anytime soon. 

“We? While your friends are united in grief you stand alone with your guilt.” Tartarus scoffed, and you could practically picture him crossing his arms. “They will not understand what you’ve grown accustomed to. They will not understand why the floorboards creak with a hollow echo in your home. They will not understand that the sound beating within your chest is not your heart, but rather the knocking of a creature waiting to be let out.” 

You closed your eyes and when you opened them you were back on that platform, standing eye level with Tartarus. You stared into his golden eyes, but you didn’t flinch, not this time. “What is it? Tell me. The scratching in my chest.” You demanded, not letting the opportunity slip away. Tartarus let out a sigh, toxic smog spilling from his lips. You were hit with a sudden sense of familiarity. You often did that, breathing out smoke when you were angry or stressed. You slowly sat down on the platform. “Could you please, tell me what this means?” You asked, calmer this time. Tartarus’ eyes, though pupilless, seemed to look up at you. You could see the surprise written in the crevices in his face at you actions. He paused, debating whether or not he’d tell you. This time he let out a sigh, and you knew it was one of annoyance. 

“Fine.” Tartarus said reluctantly. “Do not delude yourself into thinking I will waste my breath recounting what should already haunt your lineage. The gods are seldom eager to confess their sins to their scion, so I will pardon your ignorance just this once. Etch this into your mind, demigod. I will not repeat myself.” 

You nodded, waiting patiently to hear the story.

“During the war with the giants, Ares was a reckoning force on the battlefield. Fueled by anger, he lusted after blood not for its honor or for the benefit of the gods– but just for the pleasure of taking a life itself. Many stories speak of how his heart pounding deep in his chest with adrenaline sent waves of power to his two children whom ran alongside him. The children Deimos and Phobos, fear and panic, absorbed his frenzy and spread it across the battlefield, causing widespread chaos. When all of it was said and done, Zeus realized that Ares bloodlust had manifested itself, growing a will of its own, and risked creating a new god. So in fear, his usual reasoning for doing things, Zeus took that bloodlust and locked it away in the ribcage of Ares' chest.”

You blinked, trying your best to absorb all the new information as fast as you could. So during the war, Ares had killed so many people that all the death and violence started to take form. “And that relates to me… how?” You questioned. “Bloodlust isn’t exactly something in our DNA that I can just inherit.” You couldn’t help the slight snark in your tone, it was a bad habit. 

Tartarus pinched the bridge of his crooked nose. “Bloodlust is not something in your DNA, nor is it a flaw within your feeble little mind. It is a function of Ares' godly power. His offspring inherit it, not through love, but by design. Without you and your siblings, Ares' mind would’ve unraveled long ago and he would’ve lost himself into a madness even Dionysus could not have created.”

“Oh.” You slowly nodded. “So that scratching, that’s a part of the creature locked up in my dad? And just- unloaded it on me so he didn’t have to carry it?” 

“Correct.” 

Great. So your dad, the asshole, broke his curse into small pieces and chucked it at his kids so he didn’t have to deal with the full consequences of his actions. This kids, is why we don’t deal with assholes. “What do I do about it?” You asked. Tartarus raised an eyebrow and you corrected yourself. “If it’s locked up inside my chest, what can I do to make the scratching stop? Can I- I don’t know. Kill it? Heal it? Give it back even?” You asked, starting to sound desperate. You didn’t want your father’s bloodlust. All you’d ever wanted was his attention. His affections. 

"You still believe this is something foreign, don't you? Something that doesn't belong inside you?” Tartarus’ eyes seemed to pierce through yours and look deep into your soul, as if he was looking directly at the beast inside you. “As much as I love to be the bearer of bad news, you need to accept this. That thing inside you is not a passenger. It is you. it is your birthright.” He reached out a finger and poked at your ribs. You winced as the scratching started up again, so furiously. The moment Tartarus removed his finger it stopped, and you were left with a dull throbbing. You reached up and rubbed your ribs to soothe the ache. 

“So,” You started out slowly. “I can’t break the curse? Cure it, get rid of it, or give it back?” 

“You still want to be rid of it?” Tartarus raised an eyebrow, as if surprised that you were still clinging to the idea that it could be removed. He chuckled, amused that you were still so hopeful. He leaned in close to you, letting out a heavy breath to cover the ground around you in smog. “Understand, scion of the cursed Ares, that it is not a parasite but rather a limb. You rip it out and you rip yourself out. Cry all you want. Run yourself ragged trying to search for some cure, but you will never be rid of it. It will be waiting in every breath you take. There is no freedom from yourself." 

You stared at him, feeling your heart pounding. 

Ba-bump. 

Ba-bump. 

Ba-bump. 

But behind the loud beating of your heart, you heard it. Subtle, but there. That faint knocking. You looked down at your chest before looking back up at Tartarus “Why are you helping me?” You asked.. The primordial grinned, seeing you finally let go of your denial. “To ensure that when your blade meets her neck, you do not hesitate to cut off the head of the snake. Arise, young scourgeborne. Your battle awaits.” 

Xxx.

You stood in the middle of the battlefield, watching the monsters in the distance approach. You all had branched off to go stand with your godly parents, so you were standing next to Ares. It was terrible. Not even two weeks ago you would’ve been jumping for joy to be standing next to your dad. But now that you’d seen him, godly armor and all, he didn’t seem all that impressive. 

“Dad, I've got a question for you.” 

Ares turned to look down at you. 

“Shrink down for a minute. This isn’t exactly something I want everyone to hear.” You crossed your arms. 

Ares looked slightly miffed but shrunk down to a 6’7 size. You grumbled, because of course he still had to tower above you, but didn’t complain any further. 

“When were you going to tell me about the curse?” 

Ares furrowed a brow. “Percy’s curse? Look kiddo, I didn’t mean for it to hit while he was in Tartarus okay? I didn’t think that–” 

“No. Not that.” Well, you were slightly pissed off about that curse. When fighting the Arai Percy had almost lost you because he’d dropped Riptide when he needed it most, forcing him to use that poison to kill them. But that wasn’t what you wanted to talk to him about. You reached over and poked Ares' chest in the same manner as Tartarus had done to you the night prior. Your siblings standing a few feet behind you gasped in shock that you’d laid a hand on your father. Ares bristled, eyes lighting up in slight anger. “Just what the hell do you think you’re doing, brat?” He narrowed his eyes at you, huffing out smoke. You just rolled your eyes and crossed your arms across your chest. 

“I know about the bloodlust. The giant war and Zeus locking it away. I know you’ve been passing it on to your children.” 

You watched in smug satisfaction as the anger melted off of Ares instantly. He shrunk down further, 6’1 now. He stepped over and stared down at you. “What are you playing at? You trying to threaten me or something? Just how in the name of Olympus did you find that out?” 

You didn’t back down, holding your ground. You were ten toes in now. You couldn’t step back now. “I found out, alright? Doesn’t matter how. What matters is that it stops now. You don’t give that curse to any more of your kids. They don’t deserve that. None of us did.” 

“You think it’s that easy? If I don’t keep giving up pieces of that thing, it’ll become a god and we won’t be able to stop it. It’ll take all the gods to imprison it somewhere. And by the time we do, how many lives will have been lost?” 

You let out a growl. While he did make a good point, it wasn’t fair for you and your siblings to have to deal with your fathers mistakes. “Fine. But you’re going to figure out a way to make it easier for the rest of us to never have to deal with it. I don’t care if you have to kiss Apollo’s ass or admit to Hephestus that he’s a better lover for Aphrodite or even go to Zeus himself and tell him where he can shove that Master Bolt of his. You will make this better for us.” 

“Or what, kid? You really think you can try and make a deal with a god?” Ares glowered at you, and you could practically hear the pounding in his chest. It wanted your blood. You saw Percy in the distance, raising his hand. You shook your head, and he put his hand down. This was your battle. Percy nodded and put his hand down, turning to face his Dad’s confused expression. You glared back at Ares, and let the creature in your chest pound at your ribs. Ares' eyes widened and he took a step back. Victory. He crossed his arms. “So you’ve awakened yours. I should’ve known being in Tartarus would’ve allowed it to slip through the cracks.” 

You tilted your head. “Are you going to tell the other gods?” 

“And what? Reveal that I can give pieces of my curse to my children?” Ares scoffed and rolled his eyes.  “Tch. Athena would have a field day with that. No kid,” Ares sighed and looked out at the other gods. “I won’t tell. That’s your own beast to keep contained. Not mine, not anymore.” 

You nodded and followed his gaze out to the gods. 

“Be careful.” Ares warned. “I know you’re planning on using it, as fuel or motivation or maybe even a source of power.” He turned to face you. “Once you open the door you can’t close it. Ever.” 

You chuckled and reached for your axe as the monsters finally reached the middle of the battlefield. “I know.” You replied. But  I’ve already accepted that it’s a part of me. I suggest you do the same.” Ares let out a grin, seemingly impressed. “Maybe you could teach me sometime.” Ares rose back up to his full height. 

It was time. You looked at Percy and he nodded. He raised Riptide into the air and the demigods yelled, charging into battle. You ran in first, setting your arms aflame and swinging your axe onto the first monster you saw. That’s how it went, for what felt like hours and hours. You’d narrowly avoid attacks, dodging and swinging your axe at the monsters. Occasionally you’d have to jump into the battle with another demigod, trying to make sure that no blood was spilt. Waking Gaia now, in the middle of the fight, wouldn’t be good. Occasionally you’d see Percy and his father, bringing in so much water that it seemed the place might flood. Poseidon rode a large hurricane, cutting through the monsters with ease using his trident. Percy was behind him, taking care of the other monsters trying to swarm them both so they would lose focus on the giant. Even through the distance, you could see the way Percy’s eyes were glowing as he used his powers. If you looked carefully, you could see the poison sneakily making its way through the horde of monsters, causing them to randomly drop dead on the floor. You ducked under a monster. It was hard to see everything that was going on while monsters tried to jump at you. Shaking your arms, you allowed the fire to coat the rest of you, putting you in a protective layer against the monsters that flat out tried to grab you. You moved forward and started to carve a path out through the monsters. The gods along with their children were a sight to be seen. Annabeth fighting with Athena, yelling out orders at her siblings. You could see Leo flying above Hephestus with Festus. Jason and Zeus were in the middle of the world's most dangerous storm. You couldn’t look over there for too long, otherwise you felt like you’d have a seizure from the amount of flashy lightning that struck every few seconds. You could see the Apollo children surrounded in a glow as if they were the sun themselves coming onto the battlefield. It seemed like the presence of your godly parents enhanced your abilities. They worked quickly, finding any injured and patching them up quickly. Faster than you’d ever seen them able to do it before. You had to assume the bright glow was courtesy of Apollo giving them his blessing while on the field. In the distance you could see the archers taking turns sniping monsters. Occasionally they’d fire an arrow lit with fire or some strange contraption attached. You followed the path of one with your eyes, covering them quickly when it blew up and the dust flew everywhere. There was a lot of smoke scattered across the field. You couldn’t tell if it was the bombs of the Hephestus kids, explosive arrows from the Apollo kids, or even the fire of the Ares kids setting monsters aflame. Speaking of Ares, he wasn’t too far ahead of you, currently picking up the fires from the battlefield and directing them towards the monster defenses set up in the distance.  You moved to fight next to him, feeling a sudden surge of strength and energy. Was this the wave of power that Deimos and Phobos felt when fighting alongside him in the first giant war? 

The rest of the battle went on in a blur. You saw kids you didn’t recognize, but upon seeing the branding on their arm you knew they were romans. It was a strange sight, seeing a roman throw their shield in front of a greek to protect them from an incoming monster attack. Working together, protecting each other from danger. You narrowly dodged a spear and quickly refocused on the battle. A sharp whistle pierced the air and you followed it to its source. Percy stood atop the body of the giant he and Poseidon had just killed. You avoided a sword and swung at the monster, killing it quickly. You looked back up at Percy. He laid his hand flat, palm up and made a fist with the other, bringing it crashing down onto his palm. You nodded and he motioned his head in a certain direction before taking off that way. 

You took a breath and reached up to your chest, scratching in the center. You closed your eyes, listening for the sound. There was a silence before you heard that familiar scratching back. With a grin on your face, you opened your eyes and summoned up your flames. Focusing on separating the monsters from the demigods, you raised your hands up above your head, and you were enveloped in bright blue flames. You slammed your hands down and the fire burst into a ring that spread across the battlefield, disintegrating any monsters nearby. Demigods looked around in confusion before spotting you. You felt a small sense of pride as they looked at you in awe, but you couldn’t stay on that for too long. “Dad!” You yelled, running towards Ares. “Give me a boost!” You pointed in the direction where Percy was at. Ares looked that way and nodded before setting his large spear down on the ground. You jumped onto the flat blade of the weapon, crouching low. Ares lifted up the spear before launching you in the air. You lit your hands on fire and helped guide yourself that way. You shut off the flames once you had enough velocity, letting yourself free fall the rest of the way there. You were about to prepare for a crash landing before two arms wrapped around you and picked you up. You turned and saw Percy grinning at you. “Hey shooting star.” 

You rolled your eyes at his cheesy one liner. “C’mon. We’ve got a job to do.” You looked around before spotting a space behind enemy lines where there were no nearby demigods or gods. You pointed there and Percy nodded, carefully controlling the hurricane beneath his feet to go that way. He set you down on the ground before leaping off his hurricane. “How do we play this?” Percy asked, moving to press his back against yours. You raised your axe. “Just like we talked about. Kill the monsters, then we wait for everyone to move far enough so they won’t get hurt.” You answered. Percy grinned. “I love when plans work out like this.” 

The battle went on quickly. You and Percy were a storm, destroying wave after wave of monster until it died down. Once the last monster was taken out, you leaned against a rock to catch your breath. You looked over at Percy and he gave you a thumbs up. 

“Wouldn’t you like to go back to sleep?” A soothing voice echoes across the battlefield. 

You suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness washing over you. You did want to sleep. It would be so nice if you could just lay down and sleep. 

“You’re just so tired. So much fighting, it’s all just so exhausting. Your energy is draining, can’t you feel it?” 

Percy leaned against the rock next to you, slowly sitting down. He looked up at you, eyelids heavy with sleep. You could feel your energy seeping from you. 

“After all this work, you deserve a nap. You’ve earned just five more minutes, don’t you agree?” 

“Yeah…” You mumbled. “I…I do.” 

“That’s it. Go to sleep. You deserve this, don’t you?” 

“Yes. I deserve it.” You yawned, slowly closing your eyes. 

….

“ARISE SCOURGEBORNE!” 

You jolted and stood up, looking around in panic. Percy woke up, quickly scrambling to his feet. “What’s happening- what- what’s going on?!” He asked, grabbing Riptide. 

“Piper- fuck. Piper just put Gaia back to sleep!” You exclaimed. Percy’s eyes widened. “Shit- shit we- dammit! We have to go!” 

Percy grabbed your wrists and dragged you over to where Piper and the rest of your friends– and the gods, were all standing around the earth where Gaia had started to rise. They waited with bated breath for Gaia to fall back asleep. You glanced at Percy and he nodded. While everyone else was focused on trying to stay awake despite Piper’s Charmspeak, you subtly grabbed your axe and moved to hide yourself behind Percy. You took a deep breath and made a cut on your arm, big enough to bleed out a steady stream. You stepped forward again to stand next to Percy and carefully angled yourself so the blood wasn’t too obvious. You wiped the axe on your pants before placing it back in it’s holster. Percy glanced at you and grabbed Riptide with his left hand, carefully cutting the palm of his right hand. He cut off a piece of his shirt and tied it around his hand, loose enough so the cloth wouldn’t be able to absorb all the blood. He put Riptide away, and looked back at where Gaia was. 

You took a shaky breath and reached for his non-bloodied hand. He laced his fingers with yours and gave you a reassuring squeeze. 

Ba-bump. Ba-bump. 

When the ground calmed down, everyone let out a sigh of relief. She had gone back to sleep. Instantly everyone was cheering. You saw people giving each  other hugs and laughing. It hurt knowing you’d be the one to ruin this. You and Percy walked over, both wearing bright grins. 

“We did it!” Hazel cheered. “We did it!” Your friends walked over to you two, excitedly talking about the victory. You chuckled, “Yeah. Yeah we did it.” You could taste the copper in your mouth. You knew someone was bound to smell it now, your blood. You’d cut a little too deep. Annabeth was the one to notice, she always was. 

“Guys wait, what’s wrong?” She asked, looking between you and Percy. 

“Just feeling tired after everything. I mean we just put Gaia to sleep.” You shrugged, reaching up to brush some hair out of your eye.  Hazel let out a gasp. “Her arm! Dry it! Dry it!” You looked at your arm. Oh wow, you did cut too deeply. Blood was pouring out of the gash in your arm. Percy was the first to react, reaching to tear off another piece of his shirt, and thats when Piper noticed the hastily applied bandage on his hand, soaked in his blood, had just fallen off. 

“Percy no!” She yelled, but it was too late. The blood from your wound and the blood soaked in Percy’s shirt had touched the dirt. The world seemed to move in slow motion, everyone  freezing and staring at the ground. For a few moments nothing happened, but then a laugh pierced the air and the ground shook. 

A large being rose from the dirt, Hair made of grass and roots, body made of dirt. She was beautiful, in an earthly way. Eyes as blue as the sky and flowers decorating her dress. She looked exactly how you pictured a goddess of the earth would. 

“Foolish demigods.” She cackled. “And you, you cowardly gods. Trembling atop your hollow thrones, how far you have fallen.” She grinned, lookin smugly at the gods as they held their weapon of power. “Did you truly believe yourselves the stewards of this world? You allowed yourselves to believe that I would slumber forever beneath your temples of lies. You built cities on my back, scarred my skin, and polluted my soil with your sins, praying I would not feel it. And now, I’ve risen. Thanks to our dearest little scourgeborne child of war and ruin herself.” Gaia turned to look at you, grinning brightly. “Your blood speaks the old tongue. It called to me, beckoning me to rise, and I answered.”

She stepped forward, and everyone stepped back– save for you and Percy. Percy stood behind you, ready to jump in and defend you if needed, but you continued to face off against Gaia. Gaia looked at you with a strange warmth. Like she was sharing a secret with you, one that you’d buried deep in your cursed marrow. She stopped a few feet away from you, kneeling down. The world seemed to hold it’s breath. 

“You were cast out, weren’t you?” She said quietly. Her voice was soft, not pitiful, but… intimate. “Too dangerous, too violent for your mother to handle. She saw that darkness within you and she shut the door.” You tensed. How could she possibly know about that? You’d only told three people that. Two were in Tartarus, and the other was right behind you with a sword at the ready should you give him the word. “I see you child. I hear the scratching in your bones. I do not fear it. I do not seek to cage it. Mother Earth is kind, she is nurturing, she is loving. You need not be ashamed of the monster withing. I will not chain it, but crown it.” The earth gently split open in front of you, vines reaching up and blooming as they reached for you. You watched as it formed a crown of flowers, a nice little ruby centerpiece in the middle. 

“Say the word, my Scourgeborne. And I shall call you my daughter.” 

You stayed frozen in place. Daughter. That’s all you wanted. You wanted someone to love you for who you were. Even your father had flinched when he’d seen that beast inside you. How you had let it fester and grow while in Tartarus. Your mother left you long ago, before she’d even gotten a chance to see the beast. What Gaia was offering you was a family. Was a loving, nurturing place at her side. As her Scourgeborne, her daughter. Percy’s hand rested itself on your shoulder. “You have to choose, fire girl.” He whispered. You looked at him in confusion. “I went to hell and back with you.” He said, lowering his sword. “If you asked me to, I'd jump right back down there and build a home with you. Wherever you go, I’ll follow.” You looked at Percy, into those warm green eyes of his, and you made your choice. 

You turned face to face Gaia. “How could I let you call me your daughter when you sentence your own son to Tartarus because he dared to defend his friends. What kind of mother curses her son for all eternity? Huh?!” 

Gaia’s kind face immediately twisted into a sneer and she let out a load roar. “How dare you!” She screamed. The vines in front of you immediately wilted and the earth closed. “I try and offer you a place at my side and you dare deny? I will kill you, and make you wish I’d cursed you the way I did my son!” 

She brought her hands crashing to the ground and the earth rumbled, sending everyone to their knees. The battle had begun. The gods and their children rushed forward with their weapons, attacking her with everything they got. You and Percy ran forward, careful to avoid the attacks as you two went for the up close and personal approach. While you hacked at her side, Percy protected you from any incoming attacks. Gaia roared and swatted her hand at you both, sending you two flying. Percy grabbed you and tucked you tightly into his chest. You grunted as you two landed, quickly climbing to your feet. You held out a hand to Percy and he took it. You tuned back to Gaia, eyeing the plants and roots making up her hair. “Get me up there.” You said, pointing to her head. Percy nodded and summoned up one of his hurricanes. He pulled you on top, directing the storm over. Once you were close enough you leaped off and Percy quickly jumed down in front of her to be a distraction. “Hey dirt mouth!” He yelled, using his water to cut a large gash in her stomach. She howled in pain, but the wound closed itself up with more dirt. You quickly climbed her hair, making your way to the top of her head. You took a deep breath and opened your eyes, setting yourself alight. Blue fire coated your body, quickly spreading along the roots and the plants. Gaia screamed and tried to reach for you, but you dodged her large hands. You jumped down onto her shoulder and ran across the back of her neck, hand setting the rest of her hair on fire as you went. Just as you made it onto her other shoulder she grabbed you and threw you onto the ground. 

You heard a sickening crack in your chest and you let out a pained cry, reaching up. Your eyes widened in shock. Two of your ribs were poking through your shirt, blood quickly spreading across your orange shirt. You let out a groan, trying to push yourself to your feet when two hands held you down. “Steady, child.” You looked up and squinted when you saw Apollo, god of the sun. “Take a breath and let it out.” He said, placing a hand over your chest. You did as he said, and the moment you breathed out your ribs snapped back into place. You let out a yell, but the pain vanished as quickly as it came. Apollo helped you up, patting you on the shoulder. “Go.” He said, before reaching for one of his arrows and taking aim at Gaia. You nodded and didn’t waste anymore time. Apollo’s help had given you a bit of an energy boost, and your other injuries seemed insignificant. All that matters now was killing Gaia, and putting her in the ground. Putting her in the ground… You paused. She drew her power from the ground. You needed to separate her from the ground. 

You let out a growl and summoned your fire to blast you up into the air. Redirecting yourself towards her. Dodging her first your pulled back your arm and hurled a punch at her cheek. You made contact, cracking the earth. Gaia coughed and spat out chunks of rock and muid. You kicked off her face, blasting backwards using your fire as a jet and causing her to cough on the smoke. You grinned and used your fire to push you back into the air. Summoning your fire whip, you threw it to wrap around her wrist and yanked it up. You summoned a second and grabbed her other wrist, forcing both her hands up. You grunted and the flames at your feet grew larger, propelling you up into the air. “Leo!” You yelled. “Grab her!” You couldn’t see if the son of Hephestus had heard you, but as soon as you felt something take half the load off, you breathed out a sigh of relief. You pulled harder, lifting Gaia up into the earth. The winds picked up around you. You looked down and saw Jason and Zeus creating a large tornado around her, preventing her from breaking off into pieces and trying to reform back on the ground. Piper was holding onto Jason, looking determined.  When Gia tried to escape your grip you summoned more fire, this time in the shape of chains. They shot out from your chest, a furious white color, and wrapped around her torso. These chains felt more than just your power, they felt personal. They felt like they were truly coming from you. 

You saw something approaching from the corner and you turned. Percy was there with a small hurricane keeping him upright. He brought up a pool of water, slowly enveloping the rest of her body to prevent her from splitting off anymore. Hazel rode up on a pegasus. Frank, you assumed. She moved over to Jason and Piper, and Piper quickly climbed atop the pegasus with Hazel. Piper said something to her, and Hazel nodded, patting Frank. THe Pegasus whinnied and flew upwards, closer to Gaia but still keeping a safe distance. 

“You’re so tired Gaia. Don’t you realize how exhausted you are? You don’t need to fight anymore. Relax.” She called over the winds. “We don’t have to fight! We can all relax and have a nice talk. There’s no need for fighting!” 

You felt tempted to let go of your chains but you caught Percy’s gaze, warning you against listening. You nodded and shook your head free of the charmspeak, putting up a quick mental barrier before tightening your hold on Gaia. “Percy!” You yelled, motioning your head to Jason who had began drifting off. Percy nodded and moved a ball of water to splash over Jason’s face. The son of Zeus jolted as if shocked and looked around. “Stay awake Superman!” Percy yelled. Jason nodded. “Thanks!” 

Piper continued to speak to Gaia, trying to get her to rest. Meanwhile, it seemed like a constant cycle of keeping everyone awake despite how much they wanted to give into Piper’s charmspeak. The goddess had slowly started to listen, fighting less and less. You turned to look at Percy and he nodded. 

‘Do not hesitate to cut off the head of the snake.’ Tartarus' voice echoed in your mind. 

Percy moved over to you, wrapping an arm around your waist and bringing you over to Gaia. Upon seeing you, she grew angry and started to resist Piper’s charmspeak. Percy held out a hand and the goddess froze. The poison flew off his arm and slipped into her mouth. She coughed and spasmed, but seemed to be frozen. Percy had control over her blood now. You picked up your axe from its holster and raised it to her neck.”Go to sleep, Gaia.” You said, before bringing your axe back and cutting through her neck. Her ichor splashed everywhere, boiling hot. You saw her body spasm before eventually going limp. Percy pulled his hand back and the poison seeped out of her body, returning to his arm. Everyone was in shock for a minute, as if worried she’d wake up again and say “Sike! Now you’re all going to die!” But she didn’t. Her body slowly disintegrated into golden dust and scattered in the wind. The winds dies down and everyone slowly sunk back down to the floor. 

‘It is done.’ Tartarus whispered to you. 

“It’s done.” You said, voice echoing in the quiet battlefield. “Gaia is dead.” 

There was a few moments of silence before cheers erupted throughout the field. You let out a sigh, finally allowing yourself a moment to relax. Your legs shook and a firm arm wrapped around your waist, gently helping you sit down against a destroyed pillar. 

“We did it, fire girl. It’s over.” Percy whispered, kneeling down next to you. You nodded, letting out a chuckle. “It’s over.” 

“We did it.” 

“Mm.” 

You looked up into the sky, staring up at the stars that began to peek through as the sunset. “Bob says hello.” You whispered. You saw Percy lookup and search for that familiar constellation. The Huntress. “Bob says hello.” He echoed. 

Fin. 

(For real this time.)

Hello everyone thank you so much for reading! i capped this at 45,191 words, and a crap ton of pages. The origional goal was 20k, so it's safe to say that we doubled that. This fic took up a lot of my time researching and writing on editing. Let me know if you all want an alternate ending where they go bad or if you want another part where they just relax after all of this.