I do not own PJO or HOO.

Calypso

If the fall takes nine days, I'm actually going to personally murder the Fates.

That's how long the fall to Tartarus is estimated to be. But when have the legends ever been reliable? The stories make Zeus out to be some wonderful king, generous and all-powerful. The gods are mighty beings, never to be messed with. Yet they rely on heroes to safe them.

I'm no hero. By definition, a hero is a demigod, the child of a god and a human. They are admired for their courage, selflessness and bravery and and lots of other things that mean nothing to me.

Heroes protect the innocent and each other. And 'most importantly', the gods.

I am Calypso, daughter of Atlas, Titan of astronomy and navigation, also known as 'the idiot holding the sky'. My mother is unimportant, mostly because I never knew her. Either she left me at birth or my father, Atlas killed her.

Atlas was a horrible father. I don't even consider him my father anymore. Atlas was the one that drove me to the gods. I came to Artemis first, we became friends and she introduced me to the council.

I became their spy.

As daughter of the General of the Titans. It wasn't hard to get information. I never got caught and I was the gods' main weapon in the final battle. I killed most of the Titans and almost Kronos until Zeus stepped in. Zeus then wiped my memories and banished me to an island for suspicion of me betraying the gods (completely untrue).

I named my island Ogygia. It was my home and prison for a long time. Then seven boys and girls appeared on my island. Demigods. Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel and...Leo. They helped me escape Ogygia and brought me on a quest to save the gods, again.

The quest was going fine until Athena's stupid statue ruined it. Athena herself isn't bad, she's quite fair and very clever. But her statue is now the reason I'm falling into Tartarus.

Leo and I are still holding hands. We have been since we fell.

Leo, surprisingly, isn't screaming. He just pulls me close to him and hugs me tightly.

"Are you okay?!" I yell in his ear over the wind.

"Yeah!" Leo shouts back. "You?!"

"I'm good!"

That's when everything gets slightly lighter and develops a red tinge, and the air becomes unbearably hot. I don't have time to warn Leo before we hit the river.

Boom!

The impact we make with the river should kill us, but it doesn't. Voices fill my mind, telling me to give up, to stay at the bottom of the river.

All hope is gone. Why bother? What's the point in struggling? You'll never leave this place anyway. Give up.

I nearly do.

But then I catch sight of Leo's face, filled with panic as he tries to pull me to the surface. I stop resisting and even kick slightly, allowing us to surface above the water.

Life is despair. Everything is pointless.

Leo and I gasp for breath once we reach the top and we start swimming weakly through the murky waters to the shore.

"C'mon, Cal," Leo whispers, half dragging me through the water.

Slowly I start to kick harder and we reach land. We both immediately collapse on the riverbank. I cry out softly as sharp pieces of glass dig into my face, arms and legs. I weakly sit up and examine my self, nothing serious. Just a few scratches and cuts.

I then check on Leo. I roll him onto his back and examine him. I pull a few pieces of glass from his arms but he otherwise seems fine. Just exhausted to the point of not moving.

I then check my surroundings, cursing myself for not doing it sooner. Red plains stretch out for miles and miles until I can't see through the red mist anymore. The riverbank isn't made of sand or dirt or anything normal. It's made of broken glass. No monsters are in sight, but that means nothing. They can he hiding.

"Cal?" Leo's eyes flutter open.

I envelope him in a hug, "Thank the gods, you're okay!"

"That sucked," Leo sighs, sitting up. "What kind of water is that?"

I regard the river with distaste, "That's the Cocytus, the river of misery. It's one of the five rivers of the underworld."

Leo shudders, "I personally hope we don't see the other four."

I couldn't help but silently agree with him.

I look around nervously, "We need to get out of here."

Leo rolls his eyes, "Yeah, no kidding. Tartarus is exactly where I wanted to end up."

"No, away from here. Something's watching us," I say, scanning the dark plains.

I grab Leo's hand, "Come on!"

I pull him onto his feet and start to drag him away.

"Do you know where you're going?!" Leo asks as he nearly trips over.

I glance behind us, "The way that feels the most dangerous, of course."

"Why?!" Leo asks/complains.

"Because that's where the Doors will be," I answer. "They will be at the heart of Tartarus. The centre of Tartarus. We won't be able to miss it."

"The centre of Tartarus?" Leo asks. "So it'll be in the middle of nowhere, not up against some wall?"

"Precisely," I reply.

"So it'll be easy to spy on?" Leo continues questioningly.

"That's just the type of thinking you need in here," I say approvingly.

Leo grins, "It must be because I'm so-"

Leo cuts himself off with a round of violent coughing. He doubles over, covering his mouth.

"Leo?!" I ask in shock. "What's the matter?"

Leo's coughing fit eventually eases up and he stands up straighter, "Don't you feel it? There's something wrong with the air."

Leo starts coughing again and I rub his back comfortingly.

"The air is like poison to gods and their children," I remember.

"Poison?" Leo coughs out.

"Hades," I start dragging Leo back across the plains again.

"Where-going?" Leo manages between coughs.

"The Phlegethon," I answer briefly. "It's the river of healing."

"How-know-where-is?" Leo splutters.

"The five rivers start from the Underworld, follow the outside walls of Tartarus and then flow to the heart of Tartarus. They have to eventually cross each other," I reply.

I doubt my own logic. I have no idea how big Tartarus is and it could take hours to find the next river, let alone the Phlegethon. Leo looks like he has minutes. In the short amount of time that we have been down here, his face has gone a sickly white and though he tries to hide it, I can see the blood on his hands from his coughing.

I've given up almost all hope when I see a change ahead. I squint, not believing my own eyes (or luck). The dark murky waters are no longer dark. The water has turned to a fiery red with specks of orange and yellow.

I move with more energy now, half carrying Leo as I struggle towards the river. To his credit, Leo is trying to be as manageable as possible when having a coughing fit.

I dump Leo on the ground next to the river and kneel beside him. I take an empty flask of nectar from my backpack and lean over the side of the Phlegethon. I scoop up some of the liquid fire in the bottle and wait for a break in Leo's coughing.

Leo's coughing gets slower and slower, but so does his movements. With one final cough, Leo stops writhing on the ground. I immediately pick up his head and place it in my lap. I pour the fire carefully into his mouth and Leo starts spluttering and coughing again.

After a minute, Leo stops coughing and sits up. His face has slightly more colour and his eyes are no longer filled with pain.

"Are you okay?" I ask softly.

"That tasted disgusting!" Leo complains. "It's like a hundred ghost peppers mixed with gas!"

I laugh, "I wouldn't know."

Leo examines my face, "What about you? Do you need any?"

"No," I reply. "I'm the daughter of a Titan. This is the home of all monsters, Titans included."

Leo huffs, "That's unfair. So while I get refreshing liquid fire, you can just watch and laugh?"

"Pretty much," I smile. "But don't worry, I've still got some water in my bag for me."

Leo rolls his eyes, "Do we just keep on following the river until it goes inland?"

"I suppose if you want to live, we have to," I say.

"You know?" Leo says. "When you explained about the rivers forming a circle then going inland, it sounded a lot smaller."

I roll my eyes at him, "I didn't say they form a circle. The rivers follow the edges of Tartarus. Picture it as America. It doesn't form a circle, does it?"

"Well America is freaking huge," Leo grumbles back.

"It's America," I remind him.

"Fudge America," Leo replies.

"You just insulted a whole two continents," I say absentmindedly.

We've been walking for about an hour. Since then the red plains have changed, developed into dead mountain and dead forests. Dead. That's a good way to describe Tartarus. The air, the noise, the area, everything. Dead.

Occasionally we see a monster swooping down from above and probably to some unsuspecting monster. Our forest has no signs of life so far. There is no greenery or foliage. The trees are thick but most likely hollow and brittle. Twigs litter the ground at random and Leo and I do our best to avoid them.

Being quiet has proved pointless, so we just create mindless and meaningless chatter. Just words to fill the silence.

"Why are there no monsters?" Leo asks abruptly.

"I don't know," I reply, looking around uneasily. "It's not natural."

"Maybe they're all above ground?" Leo suggests hopefully.

"That would be a bad thing Leo. That means that the second we get out of here, we have to deal with thousands of monsters."

A branch snaps behind us.

I drop into a crouch, pulling out my bow and aiming it behind me.

"What?!" Leo hisses urgently from behind me.

"Are you deaf?!" I whisper back.

A boy stumbles out from behind a tree and freezes. His eyes lock onto us and he unsheathes a long black sword. He is wearing dark clothes and has brown hair and eyes. His hair is messy and matted with blood. His clothes are ripped and torn in some places and he wears a black aviator jacket.

The boy points his sword at us, "Who are you?"

-SAW