Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HOO all rights go to Rick Riordan.
A/N: Welcome to my first ever fanfic!
I had this story idea a bit ago and thought I should take a swing at writing it since I have nothing better to do. I've of course seen the stories of Percy as the champion of Nyx or some other primordial, but never have I seen a story where Percy AND Annabeth become the champions of a primordial while down under.
This story stems from that, so expect powerful (but not stupidly OP) Percy and Annabeth, both will be kinda fucked up in the head from what goes down in Tartarus, among other things.
I'll do my best to keep the characters as in character as my idea and plot allows, if things get too OOC too fast please tell me. This story will be dark and will feature graphic violence, and possibly some lemons too.
This will start out as a HoH AU, from when Percy and Annabeth fight the Arai and go from there, before that just assume normal HoH cannon. There will probably be some similarities and direct quotes from chap 29 in HoH the first part of this chapter, but it will diverge quite quickly.
As I said before this is my first attempt at writing, so please take that into account.
Anyway enough of my babbling time for the story!
Percy POV.
Demonic grandmother's were the absolute last thing Percy wanted to deal with right now.
He was hungry, and he just wanted to curl up with Annabeth for a nice long nap. Unfortunately, they were stuck in Tartarus, so hotels with nice beds and good food weren't exactly available.
True, he was relieved when the evil grandmother's started coming in for the kil, but he couldn't deny he was terrified. Fighting he at least knew. He much preferred fighting to wandering around in the darkness, which felt oppressive and somehow alive.
We are the Arai, you cannot destroy us. The voice exclaimed, sounding like it came from all around us.
"Be careful not to touch them, they're spirits of curses." Annabeth warned us.
"Curses are bad, Bob doesn't like curses." Bob said. At that Small Bob let out a hiss before retreating into Bob's coveralls.
Bob had been keeping them at bay with wide arcs of his broom, but they just kept coming back in closer.
We are the spirits of the defeated, the bitter! We serve the slain who prayed for vengeance with their final breath. You, Perseus Jackson and Annabeth Chase, have many curses we will share with you.
That set Percy on edge. He could only guess at the amount of monsters he and Annabeth had killed that would have cursed them with their final breath.
Finally, one of them lunged at him, talons extended ready to tear him to shreds. He swung Riptide up in an arc and sliced right through her. The second she turned into golden dust, the sides of his chest exploded in a piercing pain. He put his hand down to his ribs, when he pulled it away it was covered in blood.
"Oh gods, Percy, you're bleeding!" Annabeth cried. At this point, he would've assumed that was quite obvious. Percy looked at his sides, and found both dripping blood, almost like he was struck with a spear...or an arrow.
As that thought crossed Percy's mind, he pieced together who this curse came from. A certain monstrous rancher from a couple years ago flashed into his head.
"Geryon," Percy said. "I killed him like this..."
The Arai cackled at that. Yes Perseus, feel the pain you inflicted upon Geryon. With each of us you kill, another curse will be leveled upon you. We have quite the impressive list of curses for you. Which will be the one to kill you?
The bleeding from his sides had stopped spreading but the blood loss was already getting to him. He was swaying on his feet, his sword arm felt heavy and weak.
"What do we do? If we kill them they curse us, if we don't kill them..." Percy said trailing off.
"They'll rip us apart." Annabeth finished for him.
The hags continued pressing ever closer, eyes glowing and wings fluttering as they approached. One lunged straight for Annabeth who, on instinct, swung her rock straight down on the Arai's skull, vaporizing it. The next second Annabeth screamed as blood blossomed across her back.
"Annabeth!" Percy yelled. Before he could reach her though, the first row of Arai burst forward.
"DUCK!" Bob yelled. Grabbing Annabeth by the waist, Percy pulled them down just as Bob swung his broom overhead, turning their whole first wave to dust. Bob speared a couple that tried to rush him and Annabeth while they were on the ground.
"Are you ok?" He asked Bob. He couldn't see any evidence of curses on him, which was odd considering how many Arai he just vaporized.
"No curses for Bob!" Bob exclaimed.
The Arai seemed to smirk at that, looking from Percy to the Titan. Why should we curse him further? After all, he is already the bearer of a curse, one of your own making, Perseus Jackson. You did destroy his memory, that is torture enough.
Bob seemed to deflate at their words.
"Bob!" Annabeth yelled. "Don't listen to the, they're evil!"
Percy felt frozen in place. It was almost like Kronos was somewhere close, enjoying this and making the moment last forever, laughing at his torment.
Bob turned around slowly, looking at Percy, silver eyes dimmer than usual. "My memory...it was you? You...you took my memory?"
"Bob, it's a long story. I wanted you to be my friend, I didn't want us to be enemies." Percy tried to explain, his heart hammering in his chest.
By destroying his life? By making him nothing more than a janitor for Hades? The Arai snarled, eyes gleaming with a malicious light. Curse him Titan! Add to our numbers!
"Bob, don't listen to them! They are trying to make you angry, they spawn from your bitter thoughts. I really am your friend. We are your friends." Percy said desperately, gesturing to himself and Annabeth.
Honestly, he felt like a liar and an ass saying they were friends. What made them friends? The fact that Percy needed him? He hadn't even spared Bob a thought after he left him with Hades, until he was in a shitty situation that is. Percy hated being a pawn to the Olympians, but was he any better than them for using Bob the way he had?
"You never visited," Bob finally said. "The other one did."
Percy felt like his thoughts were frozen molasses with how slow they were moving. "Other one?" He asked.
"Nico." Bob replied "He came to see me, he talked to me...told me about Percy...how good Percy was. How Percy was a friend That is why I helped you." Bob said slowly.
Words left him as what Bob said washed over him. He had never felt like a more shitty person, completely undeserving of a friend like Bob.
The Arai must have taken my defeated look as a cue, because they lunged. This time Bob didn't intervene, him and Annabeth were on their own.
Annabeth POV.
"Right!" Percy yelled as he slashed through the Arai in front of us, grabbed her arm and pulled her to the right. Annabeth did her best to fend off the swarming Arai with the rock she held but she could only do so much with it.
She and Percy went back to back as the Arai kept coming. She slammed her rock into a hags throat, crushing her windpipe, before crashing it down on her head vaporizing her. The curse hit and Annabeth heard a sharp crack, before white hot pain exploded in her left arm. She stumbled, screaming from the sudden pain of her broken arm.
Percy had glanced over his shoulder at her when she screamed, it was only a glance, but that's all it took for an Arai to get in close enough to claw the side of his face. He yelled in pain, clutching his face. Annabeth quickly spun, slamming her rock right into the hags chest sending it sprawling. Percy quickly recovered and stabbed it.
They continued for another minute before it really turned to shit. Annabeth had just killed another, getting a slash across the stomach for her efforts, when an Arai came out of nowhere and body-slammed her away from Percy. As quick as she could she painfully got back to her feet, ready for the onslaught. Instead what she saw horrified her even more.
Percy was trying to make his way to her, bleeding profusely from the wounds he had collected, but the last curse he had received shattered his right leg with a sickening crack. Percy toppled, screaming in pain as his leg gave out. Once he was down the Arai closed in, cackling in glee as they approached their kill.
Annabeth snapped. Percy, her Seaweed Brain, was about to die. He couldn't get up, he couldn't defend himself in that moment. She couldn't, wouldn't, let it happen, she couldn't bare it if he died, not after all they had been through, not after she just got him back. She would kill them all! None of those bastards would take Percy from her, she would tear them apart with her bare hands if she had to.
Maybe it was just Tartarus affecting her,maybe it was all the stress, hopeless, and frustration coming to a head, but Annabeth wanted them to die slowly, wanted their blood, her very soul howled for it.
Annabeth rushed to her downed boyfriend, for once with no plan, only the burning need to kill those who harmed Percy. Vision red, she yelled as she swung the rock into the back of her first targets neck, snapping the hags spine.
Annabeth continued her rage fueled path of death, not paying attention to the numerous curses landing on her, all she cared about was getting to her Seaweed Brain, all else be damned.
As Annabeth neared him she noticed Percy was attempting to stand, to help her fight. His face was scrunched in a grimace from the pain, his eyes hard as he watched her desperate charge. Just as Annabeth was about to reach him an Arai lunged at her. Acting on instinct and years of experience she ducked the swipe, coming quickly back up, she crashed the rock into the Arai's jaw, breaking it with a snap, then swung it into her temple, vaporizing it.
That's when the curse hit.
Annabeth's vision immediately went dark.She couldnt see!
She started panicking, not knowing where anything was, where Percy and the Arai were. She called out to him, hoping to use his voice to guide her to him. He never answered. All Annabeth heard were whispers, voices telling her that Percy had left her, abandoned her to die down here, alone, abandoned. She tried to fight it, tried to deny it but with every scream of his name and only silence answering, her heart sank.
Percy POV.
Percy had tried calling Bob multiple times when his leg shattered. He had begged, pleaded with him to help but he never did. Bob was leaving them to their fate. He was desperate, he couldn't leave his Wise Girl like this, not here.
Percy looked up, through his haze of pain, when he heard a yell of rage. His eyes came to rest on Annabeth as she crashed her rock into an Arai's neck, snapping it.
He had never seen her this way before, her grey eyes, normally so bright, had darkened to almost black, her face contorted in a snarl as she savagely cleared a path to him.
Percy was attempting to rise, to help Annabeth, when he heard her scream his name. He whipped his head up to see her stumbling around, eyes a milky white, as she cried out for him. He had shouted back but she didn't seem to hear him.
Percy was trying to drag himself to her, despite his shattered leg screaming in protest, to assure her he was here, that he hadnt left, but whenever he got close it was like she just moved farther away.
He heard the Arai cackling full of glee to his side, watching him struggle to get to her.
Ah yes, the curse from Calypso. Said the Arai, sounding smug. After you left her behind, heartbroken, she cursed Annabeth in the depths of her despair one night. Calypso cursed her to know her torment, to die abandoned and alone.
Percy shook his head, disbelieving, Calypso wouldn't do that...would she?
The pain and blood loss from his wounds was making him woozy, all he could think of was Annabeth and her curse, all Percy could hear was the cackling of the Arai.
He wanted to kill them all for what they did to her, but his leg was useless he couldn't fight like this!
Desperately with rising fury and panic, he searched for water, anything that could aid him. He used his mounting fury to fuel his search, poured all the worry and panic for Annabeth into it. Finally, after what felt like eternity, he found water nearby. It was odd, it felt heavier, thicker, like it was resisting his pull.
He grabbed it with an iron fist, physically reaching a hand out to help focus his powers. After a bit more struggle, what felt like a pane of glass shattered in his mind, the water finally obeying his will.
The Arai abruptly stopped cackling, instead they started making pained gasps, squirming uncomfortably where they stood. With a start Percy realized what this water was, why it was thicker, he had ahold of their blood. He almost let go when the shock and disgust hit him.What was he doing?! A part of him wanted to bury this as deep as it could be buried, never to speak of, or do again. It felt wrong to do this, even to monsters.
Another part, the larger, darker part, was reveling in it, wanting blood, wanting their pain for what they did, wanting their slow deaths that they deserved.
Percy's internal battle raged for another moment before he heard a heart breaking sob. Looking over he saw Annabeth, curled into a ball, bleeding, alone, and unable to see or hear him. Seeing his beautiful, strong, willful, and brave Wise Girl reduced to being this vulberable, hardened his resolve and heart.
Turning back to the Arai he gave into the darkness, the bloodlust, and pulled.
The hags screeched, flailing in pain as Percy willed their blood to him slowly, painfully. A moment later and all those who dared to harm Annabeth went up in a cloud of dust. He knew what was coming next, Percy was just glad he had protected Annabeth. Suddenly, his body exploded in pain and his world went black.
Unknown POV
From the darkness of the forest a man watched the preceding's with a smile.
He had felt when the two demigods had arrived here in Tartarus. He was interested, as these were the 2nd and 3rd demigods to be down here in a short span of time.
The first he had barely sensed, the demigod was not here long before getting back to the mortal world. This pair however, had been here much longer.
The man was curious how the Pit might change these mortals, what darkness may wake in them. After millennia of being trapped here, he was pretty desperate for something to amuse himself with.
So he had been keeping an eye on them, watching their progress to see if anything interesting happened.
He was glad he had after witnessing what he just did. He had sensed the darkness in the pair slowly growing as they spent more and more time down here. Then it happened. The boy went down after his leg shattered, screaming in pain as the Arai circled him.
The daughter of Athena gave into her darkness, into the need to kill, the need for the blood of those that harmed her lover. It was a beautiful thing, seeing that darkness explode in her, her grey eyes going nearly black as she viciously tore through the monsters.
When that final curse had taken hold, the man knew something spectacular was coming from the son of Poseidon, he could almost taste the darkness growing in him. He was not disappointed!
The man watched, utterly giddy, as the boy controlled the Arai's blood to slowly and painfully kill them. A savage, almost demonic look took over the boys face, eyes dark and glinting with fury. He hadn't been this happy in ages!
The man finally let the Titan go to the demigods. He had held the Titan back, wanting to let this play out without interference.
The boy had collapsed after his magnificent feat, the blood he had pulled from the monsters splattered all over him and the ground. The girl was still crawling around somewhere, searching for her lover desperately. Making a snap decision, he decided on his course of action.
The man had of course heard that his bitch of a sister, Gaea, was attempting to rise again with her Gigantes, trying to destroy the mortal world. He smirked, thinking of the face she would make when she found out his interference in her plans.
The man didn't care too much for the mortal world, but oh, how he wanted revenge, craved it, for millennia. The time had come, he had seen the way in the two demigods before him. Through them he would take his sister down.
Oh yes, i will finally have my revenge, sweet sister.
He should probably intervene and lift the curses if he didn't want the, yet unknowing, instruments of his revenge to die on him. Smiling to himself, the man stepped out of the shadows and set his plan into motion.
A/N: So how was it? Hopefully not super cringey. The fight scene was a bit difficult mainly cause Annabeth only has a rock at this point. Only so much you can do with that.
Hopefully as I settle into writing the quality will improve. Constructive criticism is appreciated!
Little explanation on Annabeth's little freak out. It may seem OOC but personally I can see it happening. All the built up stress, physical and mental, hopelessness of just being in Tartarus, her frustration with only having a rock as a weapon, all that and more is piling up so when Percy goes down she snaps. I've always thought that Tartarus would eat away at a mortals humanity, so there is some outside interference amping up her bloodlust as well as Percy's in such an emotionally charged moment.
As far as Percy goes, well we've seen him get in this sort of state before with Akhlys, except here there's no Annabeth to stop him. We will see more of Percy controlling blood, though he will struggle with the morality of it for a bit so as not to be totally OOC.
Please, please, let me know what you think in the reviews! I'll hopefully have chapter 2 out soon.