This is a story of betrayal, anger, hurt, pain, and maybe even love. This is a story of vengeance; a story a family ties torn and friendships severed. This is the story of revenge.

After the Giant War. Thalia. Nico. Annabeth. And me, Percy. We're all that's left of the old demigods. We four are the only remnants of what was once the greatest half-blood generation. Now we are considered archaic. Archaic, and we're all 18, save Nico who's only 16. We fought in the Titan War, but now were cast out and down. Down as in the Underworld, Hades, Hell… none of that matters to us anymore. We have a slipping grip on sanity. We're put through heinous tortures every day, and we can only guess at whether it's day or night. For all we know, an eternity could have passed in the mortal world. But we're still stuck down here.

But that's all news to you, I expect. You don't know the story, and you must for the one to come. We were cast out without much of a second thought.

I suppose you know of Frank, Leo, Piper, Jason, Hazel. Son of Mars, son of Vulcan, daughter of Aphrodite, son of Jupiter, and daughter of Pluto respectively. The other five demigods in the Great Prophecy. Not sure if there's another one yet. If you're wondering what they're doing these days, here's your answer. They're lounging around in Elysium as of right now.

A week after the war was over a stray group of rather odd hooded monsters that ambushed us in the night. We were out in a forest in Colorado on a getaway camping vacation. Thalia had insisted we go with her to learn how to hunt. We were out in the forest when an earsplitting scream pierced the natural silence of the nighttime woods.

We raced back to the campsite to see strange robed figures slitting throats. With a hoarse yell we leaped into combat. After cutting down our enemies, our swords were dripping with blood. Red blood, mortal blood. We could never find out what these mysterious assailants were, their bodies and robes, along with their weapons vanished into darkness. Almost like liquid shadow.

As if on cue, the Olympians arrived. All of them, every major god. They had confused, puzzled, disappointment on their faces. They stood there looking at the scene.

Zeus stepped forward and spoke. "For the murder of five important demigods of the Great Prophecy, you are sentenced to a lifetime of torture in Tartarus."

All of our jaws dropped. I spoke up. "Are you serious?" Zeus just nodded, face growing angrier by the second. "We didn't kill them. We killed the murderers, they were robed in black and misted away into darkness."

"Then why is your blade dripping blood, boy." Artemis said in a voice so cold I saw Thalia shiver beside me.

Unfazed, I replied. "Lady Artemis, these assassins were mortal." Her face was cold. I glanced at my father.

"I cannot believe you Perseus." He said in a whisper. I was shocked, how could he think this.

"For crimes against the Olympian counsel, I sentence you all to a-" Zeus was interrupted by Hades.

"My lord, what if they are telling the truth?" Hades asked in a quietly respectful voice.

"Silence!" Zeus thundered. "You are all sentenced to a lifetime in Tartarus. Maybe this will give some of the… others something to do." On that ominous note, all of them flashed away and the world turned black.

That is the reason we are in Tartarus. Hades is kind enough to come down here and give us some respite from the torture, and I believe that he was not involved in the making of our current regime.

Our first punishments came from the gods themselves. Artemis personally took away Anaklusmos saying I had shamed Zoë and left permanent scars on my face. A jagged x on my left cheek and a crescent moon going from the corner of my left eye to the corner of my mouth on the same side. That line went through the middle of the x while the outside line just touched the outside of the two lines that made up the x. It was like a face painting… At an abusement park.

Not once did I let tears gather in my eyes and fall. Not once did I let a cry of pain, but kept glaring defiantly. Artemis then went over to Thalia, she tried to keep the tears from falling. But they came down like a waterfall. Artemis whipped an arrow out of her quiver and scarred Thalia's flawless face with deep, long scratches down each side of her face so much like the tears falling down her cheeks at that moment.

"I would've expected something like this from a man. But not you. You're just like them." Artemis uttered the last part as a whisper, but I caught it and the sob that came from Thalia was heart wrenching. Nico and Annabeth were too far away for me to see but I didn't hear a peep from either of them. Good. They were still strong.

When Artemis finally stepped away, uncontrolled fury rushed over her features and she began speaking in ancient Greek. "Με τις αρμοδιότητες που έχουν ανατεθεί σε μένα, εγώ σας βρίζουν Θάλεια Γκρέις. Μπορεί ποτέ βέλη σας πετάξει κατ 'ευθείαν και ο στόχος σας δεν είναι αλήθεια."

I barely caught what she was saying but when I deciphered it, I gasped. No, that was cruel. To take away her archery… Now Thalia was truly cast away from the hunters.

Artemis assumed her place on her throne and Zeus stood up. "Demigods, you're act of treason is great. I now renounce your parentage and take away your powers." He pointed his master bolt at us and an excruciating pain lanced through me like a hot knife through butter, splitting me in half, again the world went dark.

That was a walk in the park compared to the torture that followed. The three Furies worked on us personally 24/7. Our bodies were littered with scars. We were never blinded no matter how much the Furies pleaded. The reason was so that we could see our friends bodies bloodied and battered. Our faces remained clear of scars except for what Artemis left. I found that Annabeth had Daedalus's triangle on her right cheek and Nico had the Roman numeral II on both of his cheeks. I never figured out why that was important. I never had a respite and the resolve to ask him.

Now, back to the present day… or night. Either or. With the increasingly frequent visits from Hades, I learned that we had been in Tartarus for several years. We were shocked. We hadn't noticed. But after we glanced at one another, we noticed a lot of changes. I was taller than ever, and my hair had bleached to a horrifyingly white color and my eyes turned gray. I had also noticed it had straightened and was now down to my shoulders. Thalia's hair was still a luscious black, but it now fell down to her hips and her eyes had also grayed. It was the same with Annabeth, her hair was the same color, though much longer than it was previously. Nico had always had long black hair, and it seemed untouched, along with eyes. They were still black.

Hades gave us a proposition. He would release us from our torture and we would have a lifetime indenture to him and working to bring in souls and things like that. As you could expect, we leaped at the chance.

We were unshackled and led to Hades' palace, passing through the Asphodel Fields, and through the garden with silver trees. As the black gates opened, we stepped inside and Hades flashed us to a room. A blank room with nothing but a table with five black boxes on the table.

"If I remember correctly, Artemis stole your powers Thalia." Hades started, almost hesitant.

"Don't call her that. No longer use our names. We don't exist to the world." I choked out harshly, Hades looked chastised as if I had reprimanded him.

"Right, well… I remember you have a reasonable skill with a spear, am I correct." Hades asked, carefully this time.

Thalia cracked a grin and said with dry sarcasm, "Just ask Kelp Head." I played along with her.

"Since when could you ever beat me, Pinecone Face." I said, my voice came back with some of the humor I possessed.

"Since you couldn't beat me anymore." Annabeth joined in. I glared at her.

Nico started cracking up and Thalia, Annabeth, and I joined him a moment later. We laughed in front of a very bemused Hades for several minutes, until I caught my breath and said between gasps. "Man, I needed that. Two years of solid torture can give you a cramp in the funny bone."

"Wow, Seaweed Brain. Your humor hasn't gotten any better." Annabeth said with a dead straight face in a monotone. But it didn't hold and she grinned. I smiled as well. The old gang was back again.

"Well… um… Back to what I was saying before, I have weapons for all four of you. Tha…" Thalia glared at Hades hard. He stopped. But jumped right back in. "Well what do you want me to call you?!" Hades said exasperated.

We glanced at each other. "We don't know, but we'll figure it out sometime soon."

Hades started again. "For you," He pointed at Thalia. "Gungnir. The spear of the God Odin, The All-Father." We gaped at him. "Yes, the Norse Gods were real enough. They are, or were, many times stronger than us. But through a series of events that was not shared with us, all of the gods were wiped out and only two weapons survived. And we would find them at the beginning of our existence. They were locked away down here where no one but myself, Zeus, and Poseiden knew where they were."

I opened my mouth to protest but was cut off. "I have decided to give them to you as a gift. Because what you are doing is similar to what the Valkyries did." He smiled and continued. "I know that you," He pointed at me, "Have an exceptional skill with a sword; and you," He pointed at Thalia this time, "Are rather advanced with a spear. So, she gets Gungnir and you get the legendary sword Völsung, wielded by Siegfried and used to slay the great Dragon Falnir."

I was stunned into speechlessness; we were being given weapons of legend beyond what I could ever have imagined. Hades walked up to the table and motioned us closer. We stood up and walked to the table. "Here, this first one is Gungnir." He opened up the box and everyone leaned closer. What we saw was magnificent. A gleaming golden shaft with a silver, four-edged spearhead. A glimmering pearl of no discernable color was set just behind the tip.

"Here" Hades reached into the box and gently took out Gungnir. He gave it to Thalia. "If you speak the words Það er fært* it will shrink into a ring. Speak the words Réttlæti mun vera liðin** and it will transform into its natural form. In ring form it will never come off your finger, so you don't have to worry about losing it." Hades gave it to an awestruck Thalia. "Go ahead, try it."

"Það er fært." Thalia said, getting it right the first time. Gungnir glowed softly and shrunk to a golden ring with a pearl at the top. "This is so cool." Thalia muttered with barely contained excitement.

"Next up is Völsung." My head snapped back to the Lord of the Dead. He went and opened up the second box on the table. I rushed to it, eager to see my new weapon. What I saw was the biggest sword I've ever laid eyes upon. The blade was gleaming silver with rays of blood red shooting through it. It must have been six feet long and six inches wide. The hilt was, if possible, was even grander. It was gold with red leather inlaid into the handle. The pommel had a ruby with a nasty spike pointing down. That would leave a gory wound if slammed into a head. The cross guard was ornate. A golden topaz was set just below the blade and red lines shot out from it across the blade and the rest of the cross guard, like rays of a sunset. The rest of it was a dragon, its roaring head was on the right side and its spiked tail on the other.

Hades picked it up out of the box and handed it to me. I felt a surge of power run through me as my hand touched it. Looking at it again, I realized it was a good thing I was much taller, now pushing 6' 6". As both my hands wrapped around the hilt, and I took the entire weight of the sword, I almost dropped it. "Holy shit! This thing must weigh at least 50 pounds!" I exclaimed.

Hades smirked. "About 60, actually."

My eyes bugged out. "How am I supposed to swing this thing if I can barely even old it?"

Thalia laughed at me. "Grow some muscles Seaweed Brain."

"I have muscles!" I protested vainly.

"Yeah right." Nico said sarcastically rolling his eyes.

"Shut up Dead Boy, or I'll make you one." I said ominously, but with a playful undertone. "I may not be able to swing this very fast but it has one hell of a momentum."

Nico paled, obviously not catching the joking around. Annabeth and Thalia must have because they started to laugh.

A deep rumble shook the room and everybody froze immediately. "Damnit!" Hades cursed. "That'll be Zeus. I am going to have to send you away from here for now. But I need those weapons back. He comes to check on them every two years. I forgot that this was the day he was coming. Damnit!"

Thalia quickly handed Gungnir back to Hades after speaking the incantation to return it to its spear form. I put Völsung back in its box and Hades waved his hand at us.

"Wait, where…" I was cut off as I felt us being teleported.

A/N: I am going to try writing. It doesn't give me a physical output, but I already have something for that… Martial Arts… This is a way to pour out my conflicting feelings. I hope you like this combination of Greek and Norse Mythology.

*It is brought.

**Justice will be passed.

These are in Icelandic.