A/N: Before I forget, DO NOT OWN (sadly).

Into the Depths

I saw a beautiful sight descending toward me, a giant Greek trireme with several people aboard as I stood with Reyna, Frank, and Hazel in my purple praetor toga over my old tatty orange camp shirt. I smile softly as I see a poof of smoke aboard the ship in the air. A few minutes of watching the stationary ship while Romans fill the court yard finally gives way to seeing a rope ladder being lowered. I start walking forward to see who will be first down. I start walking a little faster once I notice that someone is now on the ladder. I see a mop of curly blonder hair, "Annabeth!" I shout across the court yard as I'm now sprinting in that direction. I make it to the base of the ladder when she's just a bit off the ground. She quickly climbs the rest of the way down, and I pull her into my arms for a hug burying my face in her messy hair.

"You really remember me?" she whispers breathlessly into my neck after a few minutes as I just continue to breathe her in.

I pull back a bit to look her in the eyes, "I never forgot you. Even Hera could never make me forget you." I pause because I hear a small gasp. Apparently, the rest of her crew has come to the ground. Also, Frank, Hazel, and Reyna have come close. I kiss her forehead and then place my forehead against hers and breathe onto her lips, "I love you, Wise Girl."

She blushes vibrantly, "I love you too, Seaweed Brain." She whispers quietly. Then she pulls me in just a little more for a whirlwind, earth shaking kiss. Then all of sudden, I'm being judo-flipped and.. yep. I'm on the ground on my back with Annabeth straddling my hips with her forearm across my neck. I notice her eyes are watering. "D-don't you EVER do anything like that again! You had me worried sick!" Her eyes are blazing with anger that I know is actually just a maelstrom of emotions.

I tilt my head sideways, bring a hand up, brush her hair out of her face, and answer, "I missed you too." She pulls me up by my shirt for a rougher passionate kiss. Once we break apart, I say, "Can you get up now or do you want to stay right where you are on me?" with a smirk. Her face absolutely flames, and she scrambles up really fast.

"Shut up, Kelp for Brains. Gods, I forgot how annoying you are." She says with a fiery blush and a tiny smile while purposely not looking at me. I get up and ruffle her hair to which she gives a small glare and elbows my side. I just smile at her, and she smiles back as the blonde dude she came with starts talking with a faint blush on his face.

After having Coach Hedge shoot ballistae at the Italian parking lot that Nico insisted hid Annabeth from our view. Eventually, I see an ivory and gold statue come into view. I decide I want to get down there and jump on the swinging rope ladder climbing swiftly to the bottom. I hear a beautiful sound, "Percy?" from the cavern as I get to the bottom.

I turn so fast that my foot catches on the ladder, and I trip, twisting my ankle a bit. I land hard on the ground and pop back up really fast. "Hey. Just a sec." I walk over to her and pull her shaking form into my arms, walk as far away from the edge as possible, and murmur, "We're together. We're alive, and we're together." She sighs contently into my shoulder when all of a sudden, she's being yanked out of my arms. I manage to keep a hold on her and slide tumble behind her towards the gaping pit in the ground. I scream over the wind, "The stuff! Your ankle! Cut the stuff!" as I pass my sword up to her. We're still sliding fast, but she gets it cut right as my thighs hit the edge so the top half of my body is dangling over the pit with her cradled between my knees in front of me, her head on my shoulder looking into the pit. I say slowly, "Get up very slowly, and we should be fine." She nods terrified and starts inching back off of me. She's on her knees, getting up slowly when I feel the support under my thighs crumbling. I lift my hands swiftly to her shoulders and shove as hard as possible back away from me. I try to jump up and bash my knee against the edge as I fall. I throw my hands out to the wall with a shout (it hurts because they're torn up from being dragged across the ground), and my hand finds the lip 5 feet below where I just was. There's no way I can get back up. I look up desperately into her eyes as she's crying. I see that Nico has caught up with her and is restraining her from jumping after me with a tormented look on his face. "Annabeth, I love you! Nico!" His eyes meet mine, "The other side! Promise me! Bring them there! I'll meet you there!" he nods shakily, "We'll be together again." I shout up as the lip crumbles. I feel tears stream on my face as I see Annabeth nod shakily. Then, I plummet into the depths to a scream of anguish from above me.

I don't know how long I fell. Time is… hard to tell when there is no light. It could have been minutes, hours, or days and I wouldn't know the difference. I suddenly feel a presence of water below me and call it up to me with all the strength I have left. I don't want to be a Percy-pancake. I remember the rivers from listening to Annabeth: fire that heals, one of sorrow that makes people suicidal, the one of anguish, the Styx, and the Lethe. Okay, so I don't remember all the names, sue me. I remember all the important information. I wonder which one I am pulling up to meet me. Then, I meet the water and feel as though I've been frozen. What is the point of living? What is the point of being all alone? You're a failure. You're step-father was correct about you. Useless piece of trash, you should sink into our depths with us. What is the point of living as a failure? I force myself to concentrate on Annabeth and Nico's faces of sorrow as I plummeted. This allows me to focus enough to force the water from my skin. I wade through the viscous water to the black bank and crawl out and feel sharp pain everywhere touching the ground. Great. The ground is glass. Like I needed that. I take a deep breath to refocus and become light-headed. Sulfur. Great. Maybe I should go back in the water? No, doors. Got to get to the doors. I force myself up and slump, limping wearily down hill. I don't have the strength to go up-hill right now. Wait, my sword could be used as a crutch if nothing else. I can- I don't have my sword. Right, I let her borrow it. Why didn't it return to me? Oh right, this is my luck. I sigh deeply and limp forward seemingly endlessly until I stand at the edge of a set of cliffs and see a streak of red far below me. Could this be water? It's red… Fire. There's a river of fire whose Greek name means "to heal"… Best shot. Let's go. I climb (more like stumble) down the cliff at a snail's pace trying not to plummet to my death (again).

I finally make it to the edge and feel the blisters from the sulfurous air begin to pop from the overbearing heat. I finally fall to my knees at the edge and look at my torn up hands. A few more marks can't make it too much worse. I dip my hands in the fire water. Maybe the fire water won't burn me since it's kind of water? It's like there was someone laughing in my face, "NOPE!" It was a searing burning feeling. I ignore the pain and do something stupid. I drink fire water. I immediately feel bile rise and force it down while every last one of my lovely new blisters that hadn't yet popped, popped in sync with a wave of agony. I crumple and almost fall into the water when I finally feel just a sliver of strength returning to me. My ankle, hands, and other minor injuries don't seem to hurt as much. I stretch my fingers, spicy yet… doable. I find the water bottle in my cargo shorts and fill it with fire water in case I get separated from the river anytime soon. For now, my best chance at survival seems to be following the river. I get up and start trekking into the lurking darkness far ahead since "Doors of Death" doesn't exactly sound very sunshine-y and rainbows.

I was doing fine until the hell hounds found me. Not like I can really hide in this plain, but still. They have me surrounded and in desperation I reach out with my senses closing my eyes desperate for some sort of water when I feel a source, no several sources all around me. I pull this water to me to try to use it when all of a sudden all of the hell hounds combust into gold dust simultaneously. How did that happen? I don't even feel the water source any more? Wait… was… was it their blood? I- That's horrifying, but I lived. I then trudge ahead ever onward drinking the fire water every couple hundred yards. I walk on and on and on. I feel as though I should sleep, but where could I sleep here in Tartarus? No. Surely, if I fell asleep, I'd die because something would ambush me. Just keep going.

I go for what feels like a long time and notice that I'm very hungry. The fire water is sustaining but not filling. That's just great. I keep trudging onward, ever onward. I run into gaggles monsters every so often and have gotten used to pulling on the blood in their veins since I still have no weapon with which to fight them with. Then I am grabbed by a cheerleader and thrown over her shoulder while she cackles, "She will like to have this morsel!"

My hands are pinned under me, and she's moving fast. I see the line of red disappear in the distance before I can even begin to wriggle my hands free enough to take her out. When I finally do, I pull at her blood, and she drops me. Hard. She screeches as I continue concentrating to pull with all my might, and she finally explodes in an angry cloud of gold. I cough and look around. I see no trail of which way we came from or any hint as to where I should go. This is hopeless! Keep going. I decide to just spin with my finger out and walk whichever way my finger points. I go for several more miles, trying to keep my pants up. I have no idea how long I've been here, but apparently, it's enough to where I've lost weight and my pants are loose. My shirt is in tatters from all the monster fights and dripping blood because the fire water makes me able to continue. It doesn't actually get rid of the wounds or left over blood. I decide to tear my shirt to use as a new belt; it works even if it looks weird. I trudge forward for miles, executing monsters on my way and taking tiny sips of my fire water from the bottle to stay alive. I can't even drink freely any more since I don't know where the river is any more.

I keep trudging when I see a line of black snaking through the valley below. It's a constant downward trudge, lower and lower into the darkness. I decide to head to the black streak. It may be a river. What if it's the Styx? It's a few miles ahead, but I can probably stay alive until I reach it. I start the continual descent again and notice that the attacks are definitely more frequent now. Great. Deeper I go, more dangerous. I pray to whatever gods can possibly hear me that the river in the distance is the Styx like I thought. I trudge onward and realize time must be very different. I haven't slept yet, but I can tell my hair is longer and I've lost a significant amount of weight. Basically, all that's left are the muscles from the oh-so-frequent monster attacks. This is concerning because who knows how long I've actually been here witnessing these horrors? What if I'm going insane? I shake my head to clear these thoughts and keep going. I make it to the edge of the riverbank and can see my reflection in it. It's definitely worse than I feared. I look like a skeleton with skin and wirey muscles. My hair falls below my chin in length now but is so congealed with blood that I didn't notice how long it had gotten.

It was definitely the Styx though. Nasty things were hidden in the depths soggier than in the Underworld like they'd been in there awhile. I took a deep breath and thought about Annabeth. I walk into the horrid water and face-plant again. Desperately clinging to thoughts of Annabeth. I see the world flash before my eyes. Everyone will die. It is hopeless. No! Annabeth! I feel a sharp tug like a line is poking out of my skin between my shoulder blades since this seems like a protect-able area. I reach up to take her hand and pull myself up to her smiling face and instead break the surface of the Styx and remember with crushing clarity where I actually am.

No use moping. Just keep going. I look at my reflection in the murky surface and my wounds were all freeze-healed, so they all looked like scars. At least they're not open any more. I have a multitude of scars littering my body from all periods of life, why not add more? I sigh and move on. I trudge, fight, and sip my fire water which now just tastes hot; it doesn't burn me anymore. That's nice. I finally see a building with a caduceus at the top. No way! A shrine? Here? I go inside and find scraps of food and scarf it all down greedily. I am still hungry by the time it's all gone. I quickly fall asleep due to being full. Bad mistake. I have horrible nightmares of my friends being overtaken in battle because I can't find the Doors. I wake up to someone shaking me.

"Percy! Friend! Wake up!"

I groggily wake up and stare at the titan in front of me, "Iapetus?"

"No, I am Bob. Though, that does sound familiar… No matter! You need to get up and go! Far! You are being chased!"

I stare at him and make a quick decision that I know could prove to be fatal, but I don't want to lie to him. "Bob, I need to tell you the truth. You are a titan. You were named Iapetus the Piercer, and you tried to kill me. I-I used the Lythe to wipe your memories and renamed you Bob. I am not a good friend to you."

His silver eyes widen, then water, "But you are friend. You told me dangerous truth. I-I choose to remain Bob even though I remember my old self now. We need to go!" I jump up and start running. He follows and quickly overtakes, leading me onward. Eventually, he turns around, tosses me over his shoulder and sprints hard out of that area as I hear a loud distant bellow.

"PERSEUS JACKSON! I CAN SMELL THE SEA ON YOU!"

"That's-"

"Yes, but you don't want to say his name down here." Bob says seriously as he sprints with me over his shoulder like a hitch hiker's bag.

"Okay." We eventually stop running, and he sets me on the ground. "How did you get here?"

"I jumped. I felt that my friend was in trouble and decided to help and jumped."

"Thank you." he nods absently.

"Where are we going?"

"Doors of Death. This is where Nico was trying to go. You need to go there too, right?"

"Yes, that's true." I follow in silence for a long while. Strangely, there are no attacks while we're on our way. Maybe because of Bob here. We both stop when we hear a thunderous sound from just ahead in the fog. Then it comes closer and jumps at us. It's a tiny kitten! We decide to keep it and name it Small Bob. We trudge forward without words and come to a cove of trees with bat-ladies swirling around.

"We are the arai! The curses!" We start attacking them as a team, and Bob isn't affected by the birds. Every time I implode one, I feel small impacts. I'm glad I have Achilles blessing right now or this would hurt. A lot, I'd wager. Finally, we're getting to the last one when I'm overcome with a searing, burning feeling charring my insides. "That will be the gorgon's blo-" is the last thing I hear as my vision turns dark.

I wake up in the Giant Damasen's cave wrapped in blankets, lying on a feather bed. He heals me and declines my request that he join me to the Doors of Death to change his fate. He gives me an over the shoulder bag that has some random flowers for healing I think, a drakon bone sword, and a canteen of drakon stew since I ate so much of his. He also ties my hair back with some of his loose flowers after making the matting not as bad. He has no water, so the blood is still in my hair, it's just spread out instead of in congealed blobs all over. Lovely. I feel like the flower child of death or something with all the flowers added to the gore on my person. I don't protest anyway. We leave Damasen to what he thinks is his eternal duty.

Bob and I walk on, and suddenly, he's gone and I'm staring at an old sobbing woman sitting on the ground. "Hey, are you okay?"

"Okay?!" she screeches, "I am Misery! Of course I am not 'okay'!"

"Alright… can you provide me with Death Mist then, so I can exit through the Doors of Death?"

"What!? Impertinent child! My Death Mist is only for the dying! Those dying in misery! Not for whelps who think they can traipse up to me and ask whatever they wish!"

I raise an eyebrow, "Okay, then you must not be as powerful as Bob said. I will call him back, and we will find another method."

"No! I am powerful! No one else can give you Death Mist, ever!" she looks pained, "Fine, bring me to my flowers in the garden I will show you, and I will give you the Death Mist. You torture me, young hero." She turns and follow shrugging to myself. It's likely a trap, but hey, it's my only chance. We walk further into the thick fog until we come to another chasm. She laughs maniacally, "I will kill you, young hero! You have my Death Mist now because you are about to die!" She grins crazily, and I see a sea of poison making its way toward me across the ground.

Thinking fast, I retort, "Well, that was a lame trap. Totally could have seen that coming. I bet any of your siblings could have done a better trap than that!"

The poison stops in its tracks as Misery stares at me uncomprehendingly. "So! You think you are better than my child?" a new booming female voice says from the darkness. The darkness solidifies into the form of a tall woman atop a horse. "Would you do better than she does? I am Nyx, now answer me boy!"

I stare dumbfounded until she yells at me to answer, "Yes! I could! Her tricks of Misery are some of the worst I've ever seen! Poison death? Faced it! "Scary" fog? Over and done with!" I scramble for fake confidence in the face of Lady Night.

"Well…" she pets her horse in thought, "Prove you are better, then! Take her out!"

I gulp, crap. How can one take out a goddess? Misery glares at me and begins to send the poison in my direction again. It licks at my toes through my worn shoes, and I actually feel it. Gods, this sucks. It moves like a sea rising around me- wait. A sea? Water? That could never…. I pull at the poison, and it responds. I push it back towards her and also pull at the ichor in her veins like with the monsters before. "See! Much more miserable! Your own blood is fighting you, and you're being overwhelmed with poison!" I cry out and see a triumphant gleam in Nyx's eye as Misery screams in agony and her blood finally expels out of her covering me in golden ichor splatters from head to toe.

"You have proven yourself. Step forward, and you will be the god of Misery from now until forever."

"Er- Lady Night? I, no offense, I have a quest I need to finish. I can't be a god anyway because this girl-"

"I sense this is not the first time you have been offered godhood? Yet, you turn it down. Again. Who is this girl? Tell me about her." She gets down from her horse and makes chairs and a table appear from thin air, gesturing for me to sit in one the chairs.

I gulp, "Um, her name is Annabeth Marie Chase. She's a daughter of Athena. She's strong, kind, smart, and loves me. We've been side by side since we were 12. She lights up my whole world with joy…" I continue for a long time.

When I'm done, Nyx just whispers, "Such a love, I've never witnessed. Fine, you do not need to be a god, dear one. Take my blessing with you. It will lend you aid and make you more unstoppable to your foes, god-killer." I nod, and she takes my arm and burns a new mark on me. "This is my symbol. You will be my champion. The only champion I have ever claimed. You are good as my son to whoever asks, okay? I know you will die, and at that point, I will offer godhood to you again, but I fear you will not take me up on it. I will memorialize you forever in the House of Night. Walk through with eyes wide open to seal our relation. Live. I will be watching." She points to an large mansion just below the edge of the chasm and disappears.

I take a deep breath to steady myself. I look at the mark on my arm; it looks like a mini-mansion outlined in black with a dark purple accent laced through. I go to the House of Night and walk through. Taking everything in. It's a new level of dark, and it takes awhile for my eyes to adjust. I see her children lurking in every corner, luring me with sights of such horror. From the past, scenes I never could have imagined of torture. From my life, of moments where I was the terrifying one murdering my foes. I then walk through a long hall of mirrors that show my every darkness inside written in inky letters somehow darker than the dark of the room. Self harming. Distrusting. Tortured. Unforgiving. And so on, giving me chills due to the depth of understanding this house seems to have of me. I then continue going and see a giant black heart that's pounding so hard it shakes the floor with purple veins running through. I can feel it trying to pull me in and force myself to the doorway on the opposite side.

The light hurts my eyes as I come back to the reddish world of Tartarus. A river below me screams at me that I should join them because I'm a murderer just like them. Horrible torturer, just like them. That I deserve a fate, just. Like. Them. I jump over the River of Torture I'm guessing, and Bob catches up to me. He stops about 3 feet away and goes on one knee. "Hail, Champion of Night, Perseus Dillon James Jackson." Bob cries out with a loud voice. He gets up and wraps me in a hug, "You made a friend! This is good! You still have Death Mist! This is also good!"

"Err- hi Bob. To the Doors, then?" He nods and leads the way. We come up on a huge crowd of monsters around a small set of elevator doors. I hide in Bob's footsteps as we make our way through the crowd. I get the back and am about to slice one half of the doors anchors when I get blasted to my rear.

"HAHAHAHAHahahaha! A mortal form feels nice! I am Tartarus! Primordial of the Pit! I have not taken form for anyone else, mortal. I have watched your progress, steadily. You've lived in and on me for almost a year to your puny body, but still! You live! Remarkable! You cannot be allowed to continue however, even if you are the Champion of Night!" a large red-purple ripped dude yells over the crowd after absorbing the two titans guarding the doors.

"I will not let you harm my friend!" Bob cries and charges. Before he makes it half way, we hear a distant battle cry and see the drakon being ridden by Damasen charge in for battle.

"You wanted me to be a fighter? How about I start with you!" Damasen cries throwing a giant drakon bone at Tartarus. Thankfully, this distracts him. I cut through the chains and jump in front of the elevator, holding it open with my ankle. Bob comes up and fights off the monsters around me and pushes me in the elevator.

"Tell the stars hello for me." He whispers to me as a tear treks down his cheek. "I will miss you, friend." I hug him right before the doors close and then struggle to keep the doors closed.

I fall on my face when the doors open and black out due to the change in lighting being such an adjustment. I wake up to ambrosia being forced down my throat by a shadowy panicky Leo. "Dude. I'm fine. Save it for someone who needs it." I say shoving away the ambrosia. He stares at me startled. "Why are you all misty?"

"Hazel is keeping us alive, but she's losing the battle…"

I jump up and stride over to her battle with my sword out leaving a gaping Leo behind me. Before I can get close, the others charge in ready to fight and take out the guy with Hecate finishing him off. Then, Nico and Hazel shadow travel everyone to the surface. Once we're fully topside, I decide to pipe up.

"Good job, guys!" I say.

They all turn around and hug me as one while crying out, "Percy! You're alive and awake!"

"Yep. Alive alright."

Hazel looks at me with concern, "How long was it for you down there? You look like a ghost."

I rub the back of my head and close my eyes thinking, "I think Tartarus said it was almost a year of time for my body?"

"Wait what-" cried Hazel and Piper.

"a year!" yelled Nico, Annabeth, and Frank.

"Tartarus!" yelled Leo and Jason.

"Yeah…. you heard me right. Tartarus said it was a year to my mortal body. How long was it topside?"

"Only 3 weeks." Nico mumbled staring wide eyed.

Annabeth hugs me again, "I'm so glad you're alive! But, where is your shirt? Where did you get all of these scars?"

I look down and cringe. You really can see all of my scars. "Annabe-"

"No, no platitudes. Why does your chest have these crude words carved into it? These look old! You have 'my man whore', 'mine', and 'Gabriel's property' carved into your skin! Wait… Your stepfather… You called him 'Smelly Gabe'… Gabe as in Gabriel. Did your stepfather do this to you? Why did you never tell me?! Also, what is this?!" she holds up my arm with Nyx's mark.

I can't look her in the eye, so I mumble, "I made a friend of Lady Night and am now her only champion in the history of ever because she liked our love story."

"Percy… but was it your stepfather?"

"My shirt is being used as a belt and was bandages before I found the Styx." I whisper to the ground as the rest of the group is staring at me in silent horror. I turn and start heading to the boat to get a shirt.

I am interrupted from my thoughts by Annabeth, "Seriously! Tell me where you got those scars! There's another on your back!"

"I am not ready to talk about them, hence my clear avoidance." I call over my shoulder and keep walking.

"Tell me, Percy, tell me!"

I stop and turn back toward her, "I'm not ready to face the demons of my past." I gesture at my chest and over my shoulder to my back. I look her in the eye and ask sincerely, "Please let it go for now. I may one day be ready to talk about it, but not right now. Please respect my request to drop it." I nod and turn back around.

"Perseus Dillon James Jackson! Tell me right now, or-or we're through!"

I stop, "Fine then." I hear a deep sigh from behind me, "We're through."

I hear a sharp intake of breath, "What? I thought you loved me! Why won't you tell me?!"

I turn back around swiftly and look her in the eyes, "I do love you, more than pretty much anything else in the world. I just went through Tartarus for you, but I asked for a respect of privacy. I'm not ready to think about the demons of my past much less talk about them. I asked that you let it go, and you obviously don't care enough to go with this simple request. Then, you threaten our relationship over it? Obviously, our relationship isn't as valuable to you as it is to me. I can't do this anymore. You treat me like I'm just your stupid, loyal bitch. I'm no one's bitch, and I'm done. We're through." She gapes at me.

Then she storms towards me. I close my eyes to her pain. She yells, "You coward! You can't even tell me this one little thing!" She punctuates this with punches to my chest and shoulders. "If you loved me, you would tell me everything!" She slaps my face, and this continues for awhile. I just have my hands limp by my sides as she wails on me, calling me names. Eventually, she just starts crying into my chest. I raise my hands to her back in comfort and turn my face to look at the sea in the distance. It's roiling with my emotions. Still, I say nothing. "Why are you so good to me?"

I close my eyes again, "I still love you. That's why. I just can't do this anymore."

She sniffles and nods then pulls away, and I hear her walk to the boat. I plop down and stare at my hands. Our other friends were just staring frozen in shock. Nico walks over and plops on the sand next to me, and I mutter, "Not what you expected, huh?"

He chuckles nervously as he bumps my shoulder, "Not exactly." Our other friends slowly just sit in the sand close by lending support to me. We sit for awhile watching the sunset. Nico eventually states with full authority in his voice, "You know, you're not a coward at all right? That took guts; I mean standing up for yourself like that." He smiles at me, "You're pretty brave, Percy."