Oh my gosh, I have a problem. I couldn't find a way to split up this chapter. 10,000 words. I am so sorry all you dedicated readers (if you're out there), I don't like going over 8,000 even when I can't find a way to break up a chapter, and my initial goal was 4,000 per chapter.

Apologies.

Someone Awesome: You are indeed very awesome. Thank you for the feedback on the story, for one, pointing out things that I was trying to get across and wondered if anyone noticed. I've seen the same problem with people following the main storyline of a story, and this is what I do because of that. As for Audrey's little conflict, I was already working on something before you even mentioned that, and my friend Amalspach has been commissioned to write it. If you go to Amalspach's profile, there's actually a story centered around Audrey's past that you should read if you're interested (apologies in advance for continuity errors, we didn't collaborate on it to sync the stories perfectly before it was posted, and we were too lazy to go back and change stuff). I was told I'd have the new stuff in a month, it's been a few weeks, I've been warned of procrastination, and school is obviously choosing this moment to slam us in the face with tests, projects, essays, oh my!

So yeah. Go bug Amalspach.

For now, enjoy!

:)

First Person: Zytaveon

"Where is Lu? She wasn't with Percy and Annabeth in the north gate you showed Hazel."

"Because she will not be there, not with Percy and Annabeth, at least. You and she, Zytaveon, hold your own crossroads."

The crossroads images flickered to life again. The western door showed an image of my eyes glowing pure white, the eastern door showed my eyes pure black, and the northern gate showed my regular face, unaltered. At least, that's what I thought at first, before I realized my eyes were slightly glossed over. It was an image of me dead.

"What's this?" I demanded.

"You have paths leading only to pain. These are the only paths I can see. Beyond this, your future is blinded, cloudy, impossible, and invisible to even I. Yet these are the clearest options left to you. You will either host Chaos, Order, or you shall die. Of what? I cannot say. Hosting the Primordials will be naught but pain for you, whether you host Order or Chaos. However, your friend proves to be a contradiction."

The images changed again, western, eastern, and northern changing to an image of Lu - but one of her eyes was white, the other black - an image of her lying on the grass of a field - eyes open and blank, with a blue flower in her open hand - and finally, the only moving video of the lot. It showed a video of the two of us together, holding hands as we danced. We were absolutely terrible, and she was laughing it off. Though she did actually seem to be enjoying herself. Not to mention the fact that she was in an actual dress. It was a pure white dress that hugged her figure down to her hips before flaring out into a skirt part that went down to her knees. She was wearing black boots that went up her legs, leaving her knees the only part of her legs revealed, and the dress was sleeveless but still covered her chest and over her shoulders. It was basically everything she liked about a dress. Then there was me, whose only difference was that I was wearing a jacket from my choir tux with a white T-shirt.

"What's that?"

"A happy ending. Or at least, a mere dream of one. Though it looks appealing at first glance, there is a malice hidden beneath the image. She is trapped in that place, a place she believes she is happy, a dream where she can be forever who she wishes, have anything and anyone she wants with her."

"And did she choose to be there?"

"In a way, yes. She could choose not to accept the reality laid before her, but whether she can escape it or not remains to be seen. Everything with her is…blurry. I can't predict her future; I can barely predict the crossroads that she faces. Both of you are contradictions that even I cannot fully predict. In the end, I can predict what all can predict. You will face your demise one way or another, you will suffer through many choices and hardships, and the Primordials will play a large role in your future. Will you face death from Order, or Chaos? Will you find your friend or will you lose her? What shall become of you in your uncertain future, and how will you react to it? All interesting questions. You are quite a mystery, Zytaveon. After all, a proper host of Chaos doesn't appear every day. You will be quite amusing to observe."

"Gee, thanks."

"I shall allow you the assistance of my Mist. It can aid you in hiding your condition from your fellow crewmates and help buy you time in sustaining Order. However, when you reach the House of Hades, you may need to use the extra reserves of Mist I give you. You can bend the natural Mist as you normally have without expending the extra that I give you, however, if you wish to perform bigger tasks in shorter amounts of time, you may need to use your sustaining Mist as a last resort. Be warned that my Mist cannot completely halt the degradation process put upon you, it will merely slow it down. The less Mist you have sustaining you, the less it can do to delay the process. Once all of the Mist is gone, I predict you won't have much remaining time to either transfer Order back to your friend and take in Chaos instead, or you shall die, along with the Primordial within you, the Primordial within her, as well as all their creations."

"And how will I be able to do that, if she's not going to come through the Doors of Death?"

"That…is a very complicated answer. Another blurred future that I cannot foresee. The two of your destinies are intertwined, so much so that I even have trouble distinguishing between the two of your futures, your souls."

"The only thing that's certain is some crazy hell is about to go down, right?"

"Metaphorically speaking, but hopefully literally as well. You shall face hardships with the Pit, as well."

I chuckled. "What else is new?"

"Good luck, Zytaveon Kanazoi. Oh, and don't forget your dear mother is a great and powerful witch. You should consider using her power more often."

A wave of darkness blotted out the world. I felt the Mist consume me, make the world spin just a bit, and when my vision returned, the storm, the goddess, and her minions were gone. I was standing next to Hazel on the hillside in the morning sunlight. Hazel seemed to just open her eyes, as though no time had passed since she was consumed by the Mist so that I could talk to Hecate. Arion and Zoltan were pacing, Arion nickering impatiently and Zoltan complaining about Arion's complaining.

"Can we go already?" Arion asked.

"They're here, we can go," Zoltan said.

"Finally!"

"Yes, indeed. Finally, you can shut up."

"Let's get out of here," I translated, mounting my horse.

Hazel seemed more than eager to hop onto her horse as we sped back over to the Argo II.

"What happened?" Leo asked as we dismounted aboard the Argo II once more.

Hazel's hands were still shaking from the talk with the goddess. My Mist illusion had wrapped around me, and I hadn't realized how weak I had been now that I was recovered. I glanced back over the rail and saw the dust of the horses' wake stretching across the hills of Italy. I hoped that we'd see them again, but I couldn't blame them for wanting to get away from this place as fast as possible. Still, if they'd stayed, their speed would've been really helpful. The countryside sparkled as the summer sun hit the morning dew. On the hill, the old ruins stood white and silent - no sign of ancient paths, or goddesses, or farting weasels.

"Hazel?" Nico asked.

Her knees buckled. We helped her over to the steps of the foredeck. I knew that meeting Hecate had to have shaken her, not to mention meeting her at one of her crossroads, no less. It was only a matter of time before she lost it, but at the very least, she was in much better condition than she could've been.

I explained the situating about meeting Hecate, but didn't tell everything. Like Nico had said, their courage is already stretched to the limit. But we explained the secret northern pass through the mountains, and the detour Hecate described that could take us to Epirus.

Once we were done, Nico took Hazel's hand, his eyes full of concern. "You guys met Hecate at a crossroads. That's…that's something many demigods don't survive. And the ones who do survive are never the same. Are you sure you're-?"

"I'm fine," Hazel insisted quickly.

But I knew that she wasn't. She had been bold and angry, telling the goddess that she'd find her own path and succeed at everything. Now her boast seemed ridiculous, her adrenaline rush gone and her courage abandoning her.

"Hecate was there to help us," I said. "Even she knows what's at stake if we fail here. The meeting wasn't a normal one. She knew we'd be fine in the end, but obviously warned us that there is no easy way forward, not a big surprise. She gave us a path to follow, and the chance to accomplish all our goals. As far as I'm aware, that's invaluable right now."

"What if Hecate is tricking us?" Leo asked. "This route could be a trap."

Hazel shook her head. "If it was a trap, I think Hecate would've made the northern route sound tempting. Believe me, she didn't."

Leo pulled a calculator out of his tool belt and punched in some numbers. "That's…something like three hundred miles out of our way to get to Venice. Then we'd have to backtrack down the Adriatic. And you said something about baloney dwarfs?"

"Dwarfs in Bologna," I corrected. "Bologna is a city, I assume. Hecate said they might have some sort of treasure that could help us with the quest."

"Huh. I mean, I'm all about treasure, but-"

"It's our best option," Nico declared, pulling Hazel to her feet. "We have to make up for lost time, travel as fast as we can. Percy, Annabeth, and Lu's lives might depend on it."

"Fast?" Leo grinned. "I can do fast."

He hurried to the console and started flipping switches.

Nico pulled the two of us out of earshot. "What else did Hecate say? Anything about-?"

Hazel cut him off. "I can't."

"Look, Hecate's trying to help, but she can come off a bit strong," I agreed. "The crossroads combined with the magnitude of our quest can be overwhelming."

The images Hazel had seen had to have overwhelmed her: Percy and Annabeth helpless at the feet of the black metal doors, the dark giant looming over them, Hazel herself trapped in a glowing maze of light, unable to help. Not to mention that Lu wasn't going to come through the Doors, and who the hell knows where I was? 'You must defeat the witch,' Hecate had said. 'Together, you and Zytaveon can defeat her. Unless you manage that…' Game over. All gateways close. All hope extinguished.

Nico and I had communed with the dead, heard them whispering hints about the future. The three children of the Underworld would enter the House of Hades. They would face an impossible foe, and one wouldn't make it to the Doors of Death. Hazel couldn't meet her brother's eyes.

"I'll tell you later," She promised, trying to keep her voice from trembling. "Right now, we should rest while we can. Tonight, we cross the Apennines."

First Person: Lucy

I woke up on the ground with shards of glass digging into my skin. My face was the most sensitive, and the only thing exposed other than my hands. I pushed myself to sit up, carefully removing any shards that had pierced me. The small cuts didn't heal, but ones that were deeper and bleeding heavily began to seep a black smoke before they sealed into scars, still covered in blood. The Primordials, who cares witch, were going to be looking after me during this trip. But neither was going to make it a joy-ride, that was for sure.

I grabbed Veon's lance and hauled myself to my feet, my limbs still aching. Being in that fake world - maybe a dream, maybe something else - had healed all my injuries. I could adjust to pain, but having it completely cleared up before having it smacked in your face again was the real kicker.

I sighed, but if I was back in Tartarus, it meant that there was something I had to do in that dreamworld, while something else was trying to keep me here. One Primordial wanted me to go to a happy place, and the other wanted me to face reality here. I could only assume that it was Tartarus trying to make me docile in the dreamland so he could easily take over and Chaos had woke me up, but who knows? Possibly Chaos was trying to get me into a safe place to concentrate on the Trials while Tartarus was trying to keep me in - ahem - Tartarus.

In any case, the priority now was to find Percy and Annabeth. I could figure out the rest later.

I headed in the direction of Cocytus, my body still able to function, at least. I was both freezing and hot at the same time, my insides were burning, my skin was stinging in all the places I was cut, but at least I was still in good enough condition that I could power through it. It wasn't a very long trek to get to them, but when I found them, they were lying on the glassed beach beside the river, right where I'd left them. Either not a lot of time had passed, or they'd stayed here to recover their energy. Or take in the futility of their situation, but hey, semantics.

Percy coughed. "This place smells like my ex-stepfather."

I smiled. I'd heard stories about Smelly Gabe. Sally was a nice woman, and I was glad that Percy had been able to help her with that little situation. At least Percy was still in good enough shape to try and brighten the mood. If Annabeth had come here alone after everything with the Mark of Athena, she probably would've broken down already.

"How's your ankle?" I asked, kneeling beside Annabeth and leaning on Veon's lance.

"Zy! You're okay!" Annabeth exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah. Glad to see you too. And about that ankle?"

She looked down at her foot still wrapped in its makeshift cast of board and Bubble Wrap and cobwebs. She moved it carefully, but didn't seem to be in pain. "It's good, I think."

The ambrosia she'd eaten in the tunnels under Rome must've finally mended her bones. She didn't have her backpack on her anymore - lost during the fall, or maybe washed away in the river. Losing Daedalus's original laptop was a shame, but I'd commissioned Kaze to examine the thing and he was working on making a replica last I heard. Well, I guess now I had a birthday present for Annabeth. Her Celestial bronze dagger, which she'd had since she was seven years old, was missing, and that was something that could be replaced with another weapon, but the sentimentality was impossible to get back. I knew that I'd I lost a weapon of that importance, I'd be crushed, but we had more to worry about right now.

No food, no water…basically no supplies at all besides my small emergency rations of ambrosia, my myriad of weapons, and very little power left within me. Yep, off to a promising start.

I looked over to Percy. His dark hair was plastered across his forehead, his T-shirt ripped to shreds. His fingers were scraped raw from holding on to that ledge before the two of them had fallen. Most worrisome of all, he was shivering and his lips were blue.

"We need to keep moving or you'll get hypothermia," I announced. "Can you stand?"

He nodded, and the two of them struggled to their feet. Annabeth put her arm around his waist, though it wasn't clear who was supporting whom. Looking up, there was no sign of the tunnel we'd fallen through, and there wasn't even a cavern roof - just blood-colored clouds floating in the hazy gray air. It was like staring through a thin mix of tomato soup and cement. The black-glass beach stretched inland about fifty yards, then dropped off the edge of a cliff. From the angle we stood at, we couldn't see what was below, but the edge flickered with red light as if illuminated by huge fires.

"Fire…"

Something about the idea of fire sparked an idea. I'm not sure where it came from, but I knew that I had an extreme urge to go and search for the source.

Percy inhaled sharply. "Look."

He pointed downstream. A hundred feet away, a familiar-looking baby-blue Italian car had crashed headfirst into the sand. It looked just like the Fiat that had smashed into Arachne and sent her plummeting into the pit. (AN: Wasn't the Fiat that did that red?)

It was possible we were wrong in that assumption, but how many Italian sports cars could there be in Tartarus? Annabeth gripped Percy's hand and they stumbled towards the wreckage with me following behind. One of the car's tires had come off and was floating in a black-water eddy of the Cocytus, the Fiat's windows had shattered, sending brighter glass like frosting across the dark beach, and under the crushed hood lay the tattered, glistening remains of a giant silk cocoon - the trap that Annabeth bad tricked Arachne into weaving. It was evidently empty, slash marks trailing downriver, as if something heavy with multiple legs had scuttled into the darkness.

"She's alive," Annabeth said with dread.

"Well, isn't that just cheery?" I muttered sarcastically.

"It's Tartarus," Percy reasoned. "Monster home court. Down here, maybe they can't be killed."

He gave Annabeth an embarrassed look, as if realizing he wasn't helping team morale.

"Or maybe she's badly wounded, and she crawled away to die."

"Let's go with that," Annabeth agreed.

Percy and Annabeth were still shivering from the cold of the river, despite the hot, sticky air. The glass cuts on us were still bleeding, which was unusual, considering that even if Annabeth and Percy didn't heal fast, I healed like a mutant because of my Apollo genes. It wasn't much of a surprise that Tartarus wasn't making this easy. Even if he wanted me alive, that didn't mean that he was going to make my time spent here nice.

"This place is killing us," I announced. "I mean, it's literally going to kill us, unless…"

"Tartarus. Fire."

A memory seemed to come into focus, as though it was forcing the way to the front of my mind. It was an absolutely crazy idea, but it might be the only chance of helping Percy and Annabeth. It was dangerous, but the small chance that it might actually work made me feel like I'd just come up with a great idea for one of my stories: euphoric.

"Unless what?" Percy prompted. "You've got a brilliant plan?"

"It's a plan," I admitted. "I don't know about brilliant, but it's an idea, and it's a goal. We need to find the River of Fire. And I think we already have."

I looked over to the cliff ledge at the end of the beach. Percy and Annabeth shared a nervous glance, but also the acceptance that they didn't have many options left. They didn't know how to survive, let alone where they were supposed to be going, if they'd be able to accomplish their task, and really anything at all.

We made our way over to the edge of the cliff, looking down to see the cliff dropped more than eighty feet. At the bottom stretched a nightmarish version of the Grand Canyon: a river of fire cutting a path through a jagged obsidian crevasse, the glowing red current casting horrible shadows across the cliff faces. Even from the top of the canyon, the heat was intense. The chill of the River Cocytus left Annabeth and Percy freezing to the bone, but the heat now made their faces feel raw and sunburned. Every breath taken took more effort, as if my chest was filled with Styrofoam peanuts. The cut on my arms, legs, hands, and face seemed to bleed more rather than less.

"Fire…"

I knew that this river didn't mean anything good on the surface, but something pulled at me. I needed to get down there. It would be in my benefit, it would be in Percy and Annabeth's benefit. We should go. I examined the cliff and found a tiny fissure running diagonally from the edge to the bottom.

"There. Come on."

Annabeth still looked hesitant, but Percy shrugged. "We can try. Might be able to climb down."

She noticed that he managed to sound hopeful, though she still seemed concerned that we were going to our doom. I couldn't help but feel scared that I could end up killing them because I could take any risk I wanted and the Primordials would keep me alive, but they were fair game to any monster or accident down here. Of course, if they stayed here, they would die anyway. Blisters had already formed on our skin from exposure to the Tartarus air, and the whole environment was about as healthy as a nuclear blast zone.

I climbed down first, hoping to map out places that were unstable and take the risk before them. Veon's lance didn't seem to be working - I couldn't use it to fly and its power seemed to be extremely weakened, if not non-existent. It wasn't even able to retract down into cuff-form, so I clipped it to my belt and moved to climb down.

The ledge was barely wide enough to allow a toehold, and my hands clawed for any crack in the glassy rock. Percy came in behind me with Annabeth last, though her ankle seemed to be troubling her again thanks to the river's aura, as every time she put pressure on her bad foot, she looked ready to yelp. She'd ripped off the sleeves of her T-shirt and used the cloth to wrap her bloody palms, but her fingers were still slippery and weak. I had been on rock climbing walls before, and I had been in plenty of situations in my life on the run where I'd had to hold on for my life on rock walls. I may not have been skilled at gym class, but I knew how to turn on my survival-mode where pushing myself was a do-or-die situation.

A few steps above me, Percy grunted as he reached for another handhold. "So…what is this fire river called?"

"The Phlegethon," I relayed.

"The Phlegethon?" He shinnied along the ledge. We'd made it roughly a third of the way down the cliff - still high enough up to die if Annabeth and Percy fell. "Sounds like a marathon for hawking spitballs."

I was forced to stop as a laugh swept through me and broke my concentration. "A marathon for Phlegs is what I thought when I first heard of it."

"Please don't make me laugh," Annabeth said, seemingly finding the same problem.

"Just trying to keep things light," Percy said.

"Thanks," She grunted, nearly missing the ledge with her bad foot. "I'll have a smile on my face as I plummet to my death."

"Well, you'd probably be the first," I said. "Go down in the Guinness Book of Tartarus Records."

We kept going, one step at a time. My eyes stung with sweat, my arms trembling as the fatigue ate away at my strength, but I just mentally kept intervals, each goal getting me closer to safety and renewing my drive more and more the closer we got and the less time we had until we could relax. We finally managed to make it to the bottom, and I was quick to hop out of the way so that Percy and Annabeth could get off as soon as possible after me, because I knew that every second they were up there had become hell for their arms.

When Annabeth came off last, she stumbled, Percy catching her. I was alarmed by the red boils that had erupted on their faces, making them look like smallpox victim. My own vision was becoming blurry, my throat feeling blistered, and my stomach clenched tighter than a fist. We needed to hurry.

"Just to the river," I urged. "Come on. We can make it."

We staggered over the slick glass ledges, around massive boulders, avoiding stalagmites that would've impaled us with any slip of the foot. Our tattered clothes steamed from the heat of the river (My poor beloved jacket!), but we kept going until we crumpled to our knees at the banks of the Phlegethon.

"We all have to drink," I commanded.

Percy swayed, his eyes half-closed. It took him a three-count to respond. "Uh…drink fire?"

My throat felt worse than a day's worth of singing crazy-high notes in choir class, my throat closing up from the heat and the acidic air. "The Phlegethon flows from Hades's realm down into Tartarus. The river is used to punish the wicked, but some legends call it the River of Healing."

"Some legends?"

"Only some of them get it right," I corrected. "The Phlegethon keeps the wicked in one piece so that they can endure the torments of the Fields of Punishment. Take it from the healer who had a Primordial deity within her, it's the Underworld equivalent of ambrosia and nectar. Heck, that very deity was the one who made this river in the first place for that reason. She has that sadistic side where she heals just for more suffering. You get used to it."

"Where is that goddess, anyway?"

"She can't come to Tartarus to get Chaos, obviously, or she'd be trapped down here too. I came here instead of Veon, so I don't have her anymore. I'm working on getting Chaos's trials, but Tartarus is interfering for obvious reasons. Any chance of your survival down here is going to come from here and here alone."

Percy winced as cinders sprayed from the river, curling around his face. "But it's fire. How can we-?"

"Like this," Annabeth said, thrusting her hands into the river.

It was rash, especially for her, but she knew that if they waited any longer, they would pass out and die. Better to try something foolish and hope it worked. I thrust my hands in beside her, knowing that this was going to be just as fun as taking one of those large allergy pills - it's better to just get it over with. On first contact, the fire wasn't painful. It was cold, which actually meant it was so hot it was overloading my nerves. But I had resorted to Phlegethon fire before (long story involving a trip to talk to someone in the Fields of Punishment) and I knew that the river was painful, but it wasn't meant to kill anyone.

The first time was always the worst, like downing a ghost chili smoothie. And it wasn't like it got any better; you just knew to expect the pain. My sinuses filled with liquid flame, my mouth felt like it was being deep-fried, my eyes shed boiling tears, and every pore on my face popped. Annabeth collapsed beside me, gagging and retching, her whole body shaking violently. I leaned forward and leaned on my arms as the fire spread through me and I powered through it.

"Annabeth!" Percy shouted, grabbing her arms and just managing to stop her from rolling into the river.

The convulsions passed a moment later, and I breathed as I finally felt the healing over the pain. It was like a cool down after a battle or just exercising in general, the fatigue feeling good, or at least better. My muscles still felt weak and I was holding down some nausea as well, but my breaths came to me much easier afterwards. The blisters on my skin started to fade, and some of my deeper cuts began to seal themselves.

"It worked," Annabeth croaked. "Percy, you've got to drink."

"I…"

His eyes rolled up in his head, and he slumped against her.

"Get some in his mouth!" I ordered.

Annabeth desperately cupped more fire in her palm, ignoring the pain and dripping the liquid into Percy's mouth. I put my hand over his forehead and forced his swallow motion to activate using my regained strength.

"More, Annabeth!"

She poured a whole handful down his throat, and this time he spluttered and coughed. Annabeth held him as he trembled, the magical fire coursing through his system. His fever disappeared, his boils faded, and he managed to sit up and smack his lips.

"Ugh," He said. "Spicy, yet disgusting."

Annabeth and I laughed weakly, and Annabeth's relief made her feel light-headed. "Yeah. That pretty much sums it up."

"You saved us, Zy."

"Call me Lucy, or Lu, Luce, Cee, or Lee if you're feeling like it. I don't really mind how many ways you break up my name. I'm not Zyanya anymore. Zyanya is a goddess, a woman hosting a goddess. I'm just me right now. Anyway, we're safe for now."

"The problem is, we're still in Tartarus," Annabeth pointed out.

Percy blinked. He looked around as if just coming to terms with where they were. "Holy Hera. I never thought…well, I'm not sure what I thought. Maybe that Tartarus was empty space, a pit with no bottom. But this is a real place."

I chuckled weakly. "Yeah, well I first believed that Tartarus was some kind of jail and torture chamber. You know, with a building, metal bars, and chains. And we haven't even seen anything close to all of it. Remember those series of plateaus leading downward we saw when falling? This is the easiest level, my friends. It only gets worse from here."

"The welcome mat," Percy suggested.

We gazed up at the blood-colored clouds swirling in the gray haze. Even if I had the strength to muster out the dedication and strength to make it back up that cliff, there was no way Annabeth and Percy would be able to climb out even if they wanted to. Now there were only two choices: upriver or downriver, skirting the banks of the Phlegethon.

"We'll find a way out," Percy said. "The Doors of Death."

I remembered what Percy had said just before they had fallen into Tartarus. He'd made Nico promise to lead the Argo II to Epirus, to the mortal side of the Doors of Death. 'We'll see you there,' Percy had said. That idea seemed even crazier than drinking fire, especially considering that Percy hadn't even known that I was going to come down here with him as well to complete the trials. Or maybe he just assumed that Veon would go along with the plan anyway and go down with them anyway. But I doubted that Percy had much hope when he'd let go, making some kind of thought-out plan.

Even with me down here, trying to figure out some way to conquer the trials, we'd barely been able to stumble a hundred yards in this poisonous place without dying. How were we supposed to navigate the deeper parts of Tartarus and find the Doors of Death in time? I didn't know how this trial thing was supposed to work, I didn't know if I was even going to be compatible for Chaos, or even if I did get his power that I'd even have instant access to it. What if it took time to charge back up? What if Tartarus was still able to nullify the power of Chaos while I was still down here in his realm?

"We have to," Percy continued. "Not just for us. For everybody we love. The Doors have to be closed on both sides, or the monsters will just keep coming through. Gaea's forces will overrun the world."

I knew he was right, but I took into consideration what we had to do. Even though we knew the Doors were down here, we didn't know exactly where. Gaea could chain the Doors, but that didn't mean she had the ability to move them freely. She could either keep it in place, or let it go free to shift locations randomly until it was where she needed it. She and Tartarus didn't necessarily have it in the deepest part of the Pit, but it was going to be swarming with monsters lining up to get back into the world of the living. Not to mention the fact that we needed to be as synchronized with Nico's group as much as we could. Did time in Tartarus work the same as up in the mortal world? If not, was it faster or slower?

I knew not to mention any of the concerns I had. I was said to be the one always looking at the glass-half-empty side of life, but that's pretty much what a demigod was destined to think like or die. Or, at the very least, have very bad days with. Then again, I was also the person who said that the glass was refillable, or that it was dirty, or wondering what was in the glass in the first place. Might as well look on the odd side rather than the negative one, right?

"Well," I began, taking a deep breath, relieved that my lungs didn't hurt. "If we stay close to the river, we'll have a way to heal ourselves."

"So we can stay alive," Annabeth concluded. "And what about these trials of yours that get Chaos's powers?"

"I'm working on them," I said. "I don't exactly know what I'm supposed to do, though. But I know that I was able to get into the…dreamworld of the trials, but now I need to figure out what I need to do."

"What did you see in there?"

"A vision of New Rome, living a happy life. I didn't have a lot of time to ask questions before I was kicked back out again. I'll go back and see what I can find next time that I do."

"It could try and trick you into staying and accepting that life," Annabeth considered.

"I know. I've thought about that. I'll handle it, but I can't control when I go in and out, and I don't know if time passes relatively. I need to figure out how to complete the trials, and figure out what they want from me in the first place."

"So until then, we need to start making our way towards the Doors and hope you get that power in time."

"Pretty much sums it up."

"So, up or downstream? I mean, down seems like the more logical option, since down goes deeper into Tartarus, right? Gaea and Tartarus may not be able to put it in the best possible location, but deeper is the only logical place they'd put it. Besides, there aren't any monsters around here, and like Nico said, there'd be a large swarm of monsters that wouldn't be hidden considering that we saw a large deal of the place when we came. So going downstream-"

My hand twitched, and I grabbed my bow to swing it behind us, knowing that I would hit something, but unable to process what I planned to hit. It happened so fast, Annabeth would've been dead if she were alone. I ended up smacking a massive dark shape, a snarl screeching out upon impact - a monstrous blob with spindly barbed legs and glinting eyes. It quickly rolled to its feet again from the attack and I realized that it was Arachne. There was a familiar 'shink' of Percy's ballpoint pen transforming into a sword, and I nocked an arrow to fire at the spider's mouth as she charged again. A screech echoed through the canyon, and Percy swung his sword in a glowing bronze arc. A final horrible wail went out through the air, before all that was left of Arachne was yellow dust raining down around us like tree pollen.

Annabeth was standing there in shock, everything happening so fast that she barely had time to realize what we'd killed.

"You okay?" Percy asked.

The two of us scanned the cliffs and boulders, alert for more monsters, but nothing else appeared. I worried that Arachne had caused enough of a fuss to draw attention, and it was only a matter of time before something took interest, but the area had seemed clear enough when we'd first fallen into Tartarus. Unless the Titans that I'd killed earlier had reformed already - which was unlikely, considering that the power of either Tartarus or Chaos had killed them when it had entered me - there wasn't a monster for miles. The golden dust of the spider settled on the obsidian rocks, and was slightly unsettling, but it didn't look like she was instantly reforming. For now, we were safe.

Riptide's Celestial bronze blade glowed even brighter in the gloom of Tartarus. As it passed through the thick, hot air, it made a defiant hiss like a riled snake. I was concerned that if Riptide wasn't able to stay drawn without having to waste energy on fighting the aura of Tartarus that Percy should keep it out sparingly, but it seemed to be doing just fine.

"She…s-she would've killed me," Annabeth stammered.

Percy kicked the dust on the rocks, his expression grim and dissatisfied. "She died too easy, considering how much torture she put you through. She deserved worse."

"Death is always like that," I said. "Vendettas and revenge. Even if you kill the person you hate, it's never as satisfying as you think it is."

"How did you move so fast?" Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged. "Gotta watch each other's backs, right?"

"Natural instincts," I explained. "Learned to know that threats are everywhere before I was five, and even when I tried to settle down, I never got rusty. Now, downstream?"

Annabeth nodded, still in a daze. The yellow dust dissipated on the rocky shore, turning into steam. At least now we knew monsters could be killed in Tartarus, though we didn't know how long she'd stay dead. I knew we wouldn't be staying long enough to find out.

"Yeah, downstream," Annabeth managed. "If the river comes from the upper levels of the Underworld, it should flow deeper into Tartarus-"

"So it leads into more dangerous territory," Percy finished. "Which is probably where the Doors are. Lucky us."

We all picked ourselves up, and I checked my guns to see if they were going to work in the Tartarus air. They were made from Celestial bronze and Imperial gold together, along with a bit of Damascus steel, since I wanted to be able to hit things other than monsters in case of emergency and Damascus steel sounded so cool when I heard of it. Of course, without the goddess, my bags that I'd enchanted to give me infinite ammo was now very finite. I only had three extra magazines, one quiver of arrows - one arrow now broken from shooting Arachne - and my own powers weren't very strong at the moment. Thanks to the river, I didn't feel on the verge of death being forced to continue to live, but I was still in pretty bad condition. I couldn't waste energy on healing small things that had healed without me even realizing it before. It was liking going through withdrawal after a drug addiction. My body was still getting used to being without Order's power, and instead, having to get used to the dark powers of Tartarus and Chaos.

So yeah, this was going to be a joyride.

We'd only traveled a few hundred yards when we heard voices. We plodded along, half in a stupor, trying to figure out a plan. Of course, as a daughter of Athena, plans were supposed to be Annabeth's specialty, but it was kinda hard to strategize with her stomach growling and her throat baking. The fiery water of the Phlegethon may have healed us and given us strength, but it didn't do anything for hunger or thirst. It would keep them alive, but it wouldn't make it painless. Just like everything here in Tartarus, I supposed. It wasn't like the river was about making you feel good. It kept you going so that you could experience more excruciating pain. Joy.

We made our way forward, Percy and Annabeth looking exhausted, and I knew that I wasn't much better. It was best not to concentrate on the pain and you could block it out, but I knew that my limbs were shouting that I needed a break, not just from the exertion, but from the air itself, this place. Then, we heard them - female voices having some sort of argument - and we were instantly on alert.

"Down!" I hissed.

I pulled them behind the nearest boulder, wedging so close against the riverbank that my shoes almost touched the river's fire. On the other side, in the narrow path between the river and the cliffs, voices snarled, getting louder as they approached from upstream. I tried to keep my body under control, taking quiet, shallow breaths, and relaxing my muscles so that they rested and didn't push against anything that might lead to a stray rock or something making a sound. My mind buzzed with panic, I could feel adrenaline rushing through me, but I knew that I needed to stay calm right now and pushed it all down as best I could.

The voices sounded vaguely human, but that meant nothing. Anything in Tartarus was our enemy, and there were plenty of monsters that wanted to kill Percy and Annabeth, particularly Percy. I wondered how they'd failed to spot us already. After all, monsters could smell demigods - especially a son of Poseidon and a…well, a me.

My mother didn't have children, heck, she didn't even interact with humans at all. My father had told me the story of how she had come and possessed a woman that he'd saved in a hospital, as my mother had given her strength to live, making her compatible for a host, and he had had to show her around the world. He had said that she had to go back, as gods weren't supposed to interfere with human lives, and possessing one without their knowledge was a violation of that rule, but he always told me she was looking out for us somewhere. I had always wondered why she didn't just take up another host and stay with us, but it was the whole thing about not staying after having a child, I assumed. Being the daughter of a rare goddess, an adopted daughter of Zeus (for reasons that were complicated) as well as a son of Apollo gave me a big target on my back. One of two hosts for the power of Primordials didn't help either.

Still, as the monsters got nearer, their voices didn't change in tone. Their uneven footsteps - scrap, clump, scrap, clump - didn't get any faster or slow down, indicating that they sensed us. But logic here worked differently. It could be that the air of Tartarus made our scent untraceable, it could've been the fire of the Phlegethon cloaking us because of our proximity, or it could've been Tartarus or Chaos, cloaking me to either protect me (Chaos) or cloaking me to make sure that I wasn't disturbed (Tartarus), as they both had some reason to want me alive, sadistic or not, and were protecting Percy and Annabeth to that extent.

"Soon?" One of them asked in a raspy voice, as if she'd been gargling in the Phlegethon.

"Oh my gods!" Said another voice, much younger and much more human, like a teenaged mortal girl getting exasperated with her friends at the mall (believe me, I'd know; I'd been in that position before). "You guys are totally annoying! I told you, it's like three days from here."

Percy gripped Annabeth's wrist, looking at her with alarm. Both of them seemed to recognize the voice. Sound was one of my specialties, and even without Order's power boost, I could recognize a voice. I would always try and challenge myself when I played videogames or watched cartoons, trying to connect voice actors, but this voice was unfamiliar to me, something that bugged me deeply. Well, I knew it now.

There was a chorus of growling and grumbling. The creatures - maybe half a dozen based on what I could make out, the number of footsteps, the number of grumbles, etc. Every sound, however small, was allowing me to make out a bit of the scene, like sonar. I had learned to use this to my advantage back when I was on my own, surviving as a child after my father had died and left me alone at only age four.

With my father found dead when I was little, I knew that I couldn't be taken in by the authorities. They didn't suspect me for his murder or anything - he was torn to shreds by a 'wild animal' - but they knew something about me, about being a demigod. We had been in Britain at the time, where I learned my first bit of English, but my father also forced me to learn Japanese to communicate with him (Chinese being so similar that it wasn't hard to pick up that too). They knew I was different. They had been tracking dozens of demigods and taking them away under many different circumstances, though I couldn't tell you if they were deliberate or not. My dad and I faced the occasional monster attack, and we drew attention.

I broke out of the holding facility that they'd kept me in. I learned that no one took me seriously as a four-year-old. I couldn't buy things, so I stole; I couldn't get people to listen to anything I had to say, so I didn't talk to people; I couldn't live anywhere without getting taken in, so I lived on the wild side, taking my father's teachings to their fullest extent and also learning on my own. I hunted, I learned to keep what I had close, I learned the best places to hide and sleep throughout different times of the year so that I didn't freeze to death, I learned how to steal without tripping off alarms or getting caught, I learned about the environment, how certain plants and animals acted. I learned how to survive.

Most of all, I learned how to use my powers. I learned to shoot a bow with both hands, ambidextrously, how to nock, draw, and shoot an arrow using only one hand and my teeth. I learned how to carve my weapon for effective shooting as well as melee attacking. I learned how to meditate and then to concentrate my body's electrical potential into a weapon, growing my lightning powers as well. I even learned how to superheat air into plasma beams, but it wasn't easy, and it was very deadly, so no Dragon-Ball Z style kamehameha attack for me. I learned the weak points of animals and humans alike, how to sing for money on the streets that I was able to use once I got old enough to pretend that my parents had told me to go buy something, or to attract certain animals for a kill.

Most useful was my sonar abilities, helping me prevent ambushes, as well as use sound to keep myself silent or deafen other people. I could go all Black Canary and scream with a concentrated shockwave strong enough to blast people or items back, and even go all Quake and use them to vibrate things in all kinds of fun ways (Destructive ways! Get your mind out of the gutter!) Of course, these were draining tasks, and using them constantly was about as healthy as putting myself under constant stress. I've nearly pushed my limits on multiple occasions, and that survival aspect isn't even counting how I had to learn about monsters, how they could smell me, how I was a big target in their eyes, and how deadly this part of the world was (as I wasn't in America until Zyanya took me there).

Of course, then I got taken in when I followed a monster into a subway. A loud train had blocked out my abilities - like Daredevil, you know? - and I couldn't track anything with the sound and vibrations of the train obscuring my abilities. I was taken by that government organization that took in demigods as prisoners to study and brainwash into becoming their soldiers. And that was where I'd met Kaze.

The group of monsters paused just on the other side of the boulder, but they still gave no indication that they'd caught our scent. I had my arrow nocked the entire way we'd been walking, and now was no exception, but I kept my muscles relaxed, knowing that I needed to pretend that we weren't even here in the first place. I was nothing but a rock as well, not living, not breathing, not cautious of anything around me. Just there, but not there. I was beginning to remember all of the things from my old days of survival - especially the ones where I had Kaze to protect, only this time it was Percy and Annabeth, and we were much older. Instincts came back to me, like riding a bike, the muscle memory had never left me, I just needed to get them active again, get back in the zone.

Annabeth and Percy were tense, ready to spring into action at any moment. But they were wasting the adrenaline rush of their fight-or-flight responses as they dragged out their readied states. I put my finger to my lips calmly. They needed to contain their energy for when they needed it, not spread it thin and have it wear off by the time the action took place.

"I wonder," Said a third voice, gravelly and ancient like the first. "If, perhaps, you do not know the way, young one."

"Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone," Said the mall girl. "When's the last time you escaped to the mortal world? I was there a couple of years ago. I know the way! Besides, I understand what we're facing up there. You don't have a clue!"

"The Earth Mother did not make you boss!" Shrieked a fourth voice.

More hissing, scuffling, and feral moans - like giant alley cats fighting. I stayed calm, ready to spring into action any moment, but knowing that the girls were too busy with each other to notice us, so long as we didn't draw attention.

At last, the one called Serephone yelled, "Enough!"

The scuffling died down.

"We will follow for now. But if you do not lead us well, if we find you have lied about the summons of Gaea-"

"I don't lie!" Snapped the mall girl. "Believe me, I've got good reason to get into this battle. I have some enemies to devour, and you'll feast on the blood of heroes. Just leave one special morsel for me - the one named Percy Jackson."

Annabeth's hand curled into a fist, and she looked ready to jump out there and slash the monsters to dust with her knife - which she didn't have any more. I put my hand onto hers firmly and gave her a hard glare, shaking my head. "Do not blow our cover now, or I swear I will murder you along with the monsters!" Thankfully, Annabeth got the message. I had had to teach Kaze about the art of holding still and being patient, keeping impulsive desires down, and as he was a very jumpy child, it wasn't easy. It required a bit of starvation because he scared animals that we had to hunt away, and so when I eventually killed the animal on my own, Kaze got none. I felt bad on the inside, eating in front of him while he begged me for some, but I kept my feelings inside, and thanks to the lesson, he learned quickly after that. Patience still wasn't his strong suit, but he knew when he needed to take things seriously.

"Believe me," The mall girl continued. "Gaea has called us, and we're going to have so much fun. Before this war is over, mortals and demigods will tremble at the sound of my name - Kelli!"

Annabeth opened her mouth, possibly to gasp, possibly to yelp in terror because she knew who Kelli was, but I quickly slapped my hand over her mouth, tossing a rock into the river when a couple heads turned our way, and causing bubbles to form in the raging fire river. The ones that had turned our way quickly dismissed the sound and went back to the conversation like nothing happened, and everyone else's attention was focused on Kelli's speech.

Percy had managed to keep calm, his face seeming waxy in the red light of the Phlegethon. I slowly released Annabeth's mouth, and luckily she knew to release her breath slowly and silently instead of gasping for air.

"Empousai," She mouthed. "Vampires."

I nodded. I remembered Kelli now. It had been in one of Annabeth's many stories that she'd told me while I tried to get her mind off the missing Percy. I had gotten her to tell us all the stories that they'd had together, one of which being at Percy's freshman orientation where he and Rachel Dare had been attacked by empousai disguised as cheerleaders - one of them being Kelli. Later, the same empousa had attacked them in Daedalus's workshop, and Annabeth had stabbed her in the back and sent her here, to Tartarus.

The creatures shuffled off, their voices getting fainter. Annabeth crept to the edge of the boulder and risked a glimpse. Sure enough, five women staggered along on mismatched legs - mechanical bronze on the left, shaggy and cloven-hooved on the right. Their hair was made of fire, their skin as white as bone, most of them wearing tattered Ancient Greek dresses, except for the one in the lead, Kelli, who wore a burned and torn blouse with a short pleated skirt - her cheerleader's outfit.

As Annabeth tensed again in anger, gritting her teeth, I put my hand on her shoulder. She held a grudge against empousai, I see. In addition to their nasty claws and fangs, they had a powerful ability to manipulate the Mist. They could change shape and charmspeak, tricking mortals into letting down their guard. Men were especially susceptible - unless they had another sexual preference, but that was a whole 'nother story that I wasn't interested in pursuing. Let's just say it involved finding out how Kaze was homosexual, which led to a very awkward conversation with child who had barely reached double digits. The empousa's favorite tactic was to make a guy fall in love with her, then drink his blood and devour his flesh. Not a great first date.

Kelli had almost killed Percy, and manipulated Annabeth's oldest friend, Luke, urging him to commit darker and darker deeds in the name of Kronos, ultimately leading Luke into an inescapable situation that resulted in his death despite him realizing the error of his ways. Or something.

Percy rose as the empousai got out of range. "They're heading for the Doors of Death," He murmured. "You know what that means?"

I sighed. Sadly, this squad of flesh-eating horror-show women might be the closest thing to good luck we were going to get in Tartarus. Until I figured out the trials of Chaos, we needed to start heading for the Doors. Hopefully, by the time we got there, I'll have gotten the power we need to make our move, but until then…

"We need to follow them," I agreed.