Chapter 7. All I have to mention for this little opening blurb is that yes, this is a dark story. Mostly because I like dark stories with death, tragedy, and heartache; yeah I'm just sadistic like that. Also, one more thing, this story has hit 1500 views. Thank you so much to all you readers, it may not be much compared to other stories, but it's more than I thought I'd get, especially in just 7 chapters. Reviews are nice...

Disclaimer: I do not own PJO or HoO

Blake could feel his father close by, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. While he was trying to figure it out, Alabaster and the woman were arguing about what to do with him. Alabaster didn't want to be chased to his death by another child of Poseidon, but the woman was very insistent that he would be necessary for their plans. Blake didn't know what the plans were, except that Percy had to be out of the way.

Suddenly, the cavern started shaking. Hard. Stone was falling from ceiling, it seemed like shelves that he hadn't noticed before, because the light wasn't bright enough, were falling off the walls and breaking apart. Suddenly, an entire wall just exploded, and after Blake's eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, he saw what he had been feeling.

His father, surprisingly standing with Artemis and her hunters behind him, started filling the cavern. The woman, who had fallen over when the wall exploded, stood up and cursed. Percy seemed to be having no trouble hacking and slashing his way through their forces, heading straight for Blake.

Once Percy caught sight of his son chained to a wall, bleeding in several spots, and barely conscious, his eyes became flaming green orbs, his anger barely being contained, for fear he would hurt the Hunters and helpful Amazons, long story. He didn't want to hurt anyone helping him, but he knew that if he didn't release it soon, it would be too much to hold in.

So he stopped his rampage to his son and turned to Artemis, "Get the Hunters and Amazons out of here, I will finish this." he said, dead serious. Even Artemis knew better than to contradict or question his orders, so immediately flashed away to Thalia to relay the orders to get everyone out, before flashing over to Hylla and telling her the same.

Suddenly, out of the corner of Percy's eye, he saw someone he never expected to see again. Luke Castellan, who was currently swinging a sword at him, aiming for the neck. Percy instinctively blocked, and then locked their blades together.

"Luke! What are you doing here." he growled, barely keeping himself from throwing Luke away and killing him, wanting to get information first.

"Gaea isn't the only one with influence over Tartarus, Jackson." he growled right back, wishing he could yank his sword free and swing it right through the son of Poseidon's neck. Percy glanced around, never taking his eyes off Luke, and saw that Artemis was the last one leaving the gaping hole in the cavern wall.

Just as he was about to release the ocean within him, he heard a voice that he had only heard the last time he was in Seattle, "Stop.". The one word made Luke stop struggling to release his sword from the lock he was in, while Percy relaxed his stance slightly. He then realized it was charmspeak, pushed its effects out of his head, and tightened his grip on his sword while slowly turning around.

There she was, Otrera, the first queen of the Amazons. Except this time, instead of walking around with an entourage, she was holding a dagger to his son's throat.

"Give up Jackson. I know you won't do anything to endanger your son here." she purred, she was certain this was only a positive scenario. Even the pesky little Hunters and Amazons loyal to Hylla had left him!

He was struggling against her charmspeak, then realized something. She wasn't a child of Aphrodite, she didn't have charmspeak... This must be some mist-manipulation she had, and was pushing it into his mind. Once he remembered this, he wasn't affected at all. It was like flipping a switch to turn something off; it just stopped affecting him altogether.

"Otrera. It's been awhile, and I assume that Nyx brought you back to take control of the Amazons again?" he was just buying time for the others to get a safe enough distance away from them.

"Of course she did, who better to lead the Amazons than their first queen?" she kept trying to control him, not realizing he wasn't affected in the slightest. "Enough talk, Jackson. Swear on the Styx to not involve yourself in this war, and we'll let your boy here go free." she was suddenly all business, probably thinking about why he wasn't swayed by her words.

Percy hesitated, all he wanted to do was keep his son safe. He didn't particularly care about most of the gods, but he knew that he couldn't abandon the one's nice to him; Poseidon, Hestia, Artemis, he couldn't just leave them all to be enslaved by Nyx and Erebus. Even through all the tragedies he'd endured in his life, his fatal flaw was still loyalty, he couldn't just back out.

So he decided to make Annabeth proud, he was going to use trickery. He pretended to be contemplating her offer, but he was really just figuring out his wording to get his son back safely.

"Fine. I, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, swear on the Styx that I will not fight in this war, unless provoked." he was somewhat careless on the last few words, he just hoped she wouldn't think too deeply into it.

She considered this, and after what seemed like an eternity of waiting, she said "I, Otrera accept your oath and will keep my word." thunder rumbled around them, Otrera wore a satisfied grin and threw the boy back to his father.

Percy picked him up, hugged him tightly, and teleported him away using the sea in his veins. Then he turned back towards Otrera with a smirk that could only mean trouble. "Otrera, I thought you smarter than that, oh well. It seems I must kill you without even a fight. A shame it is, to not be able to fight the first queen of the Amazons, but with this many people around us, I wouldn't trust one of them not to stab me in the back." he finished his rant, while Otrera just looked confused.

"What are you talking about Jackson, you can't fight us. You swore on the Styx to stay out of this." she was basically begging with him to leave, she knew that if he decided to fight, she wouldn't survive.

"Ah, I did but there was one little thing you missed. I said I wouldn't fight unless provoked, and kidnapping my son seems like a good reason to kill you where you stand." he finished, uncapping Riptide, which seemed to be glowing dimly with a sea green light. In fact, even Percy seemed to be glowing with this strange light.

He then proceeded to stab his sword into the ground, release the ocean of pain he'd been harboring in him for the past two months, and bring the entire cavern down. The last thing he saw before he teleported away was Alabaster teleport Luke away with the mist, to which he mentally growled at. The son of Hermes was back from his time in Tartarus, and he would not get away with his crimes.

Line Break (This is normally when one of my other chapters would end… Lucky you..)

Percy mentally sighed, sure of the conversation that would be coming as soon as he solidified. Blake was always curious, he got it from Annabeth, and he would ask questions rapid-fire, just like her. They were so similar in their mannerisms, it was almost like having her with them. Percy solidified, and braced himself.

"How did you find me? How did you manage to get the Hunters and Amazons to help you? How did you take down the whole cavern like that?" Blake shot out, just as expected, although he couldn't even stand, and looked like he was fighting unconsciousness.

"Now is not really a good time, we have to get moving. I'll try to answer your questions on the way, but some of those are a long story." was the only answer he got, while simultaneously getting handed a canteen of nectar and a square of ambrosia.

They started jogging, the Hunters nor Amazons were nowhere to be seen. Of course, neither wanted to be close to males who weren't in chains.

"Alright, shoot." Percy said, after a long silence, the only sound being the undergrowth of the forest they were jogging through.

"Let's start with the Hunters, how in the world did you manage to get them to help?" Blake asked, knowing this was going to be one of the longer answers.

"Before I answer that, do you know how long you were kept there?" he asked, "No", came the short reply. "You were there for two months, and once I saw you were gone I started searching for you across the states. I would just camp out in forests through the night, and one night I heard a couple of demigods walking under the tree I was in." He took a deep breath, and told him of the rest of events that happened. Excluding the more gruesome bits of torture, of course.

"Anyways, I got the information out of them, and the Hunters, who had been pursuing me for awhile, wouldn't let me leave without them. Ironic, the man-hating girls wouldn't let me leave." He just decided to continue the story, knowing the next questions that would be coming anyways.

"Next we got to Seattle, and I went to the only place I knew. The Amazon building, headquarters for the actual Amazons. There we powered our way in; freed Hylla, who wasn't killed by Otrera for some reason, and fought our way back out with some of Hylla's loyal supporters."

"From there, I could feel you nearby and just started destroying things until I found you. A couple of Starbuck's and restaurants later, there you were." he finished, letting out the rest of his breath.

"Dad! You can't just go around causing earthquakes and killing mortals!" Blake exclaimed, suprised that Percy would do something like that, even for him.

All he did was chuckle. "Look up; incase you didn't notice, it's the middle of the night. No one got hurt." was all he said, then took another breath; "Anything else?"

"Yeah, where are we going? I need to rest, I can't feel my legs and I've been hanging from a wall for two months." at this Percy's eyes flared with anger, becoming powerful; almost like a god's eyes.

"Camp, but I just wanted to get away from Seattle and didn't feel like talking in the cabin. I figured you'd have a lot to say, and I want to hear what happened to you-but after you rest" he added, seeing Blake open his mouth to speak.

Percy teleported them right back into Cabin Three, where Blake immediately collapsed on a bunk and started snoring away.

Alright… I know I've missed a lot of days. I can't do daily updates anymore, maybe 2-3 days if I'm lucky. I'm also considering just putting the story on Hiatus until further notice. Lack of muse, lack of joy. If you want me to keep updating, however irregularly, let me know. Thanks for the reviews on my little update, and remember, Criticism is appreciated! This will be the last update until I decide to continue the story. Yes, it will continue, but maybe not for awhile. This little line of words right here makes it 2000 words exactly.

Thanks for reading,

~Lou