Hey guys! Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. :) A lot of you have been asking when we'll see Zoe. What? You didn't know Zoe was going to be in this?! Then you obviously didn't look at the pairing for this story! :P Don't worry though; now you know! Hey, that rhymes! :) Did anyone notice that I just avoided the question? ;) Ok, here's the answer to when you're going to see Zoe and Percy meet: Right now. That's right, Zoe is in this chapter! Yay, get excited! :) I own nothing but please enjoy this chapter.

Percy's POV (right after sending Nico away to Olympus)

I watched my former cousin shadow travel away. He was a good messenger. Much better than those cat-spider hybrids crawling around this place. Much faster too. Although I'm not sure if he's more fear inspiring... Maybe I should've chopped off one of his arms first. Oh well.

I strode out of my cell and down the hall. All the monsters had heen guarding my cell; I was their only prisoner. All the others were dead. (That may or may not have been my fault.) When the door exploded, it killed the monsters closest. Then their weapons went flying into the monsters behind them. It was a chain reaction.

Past the piles of golden dust, it was easy to leave the prison-like area. Soon I was running through plains of red sand and dodging behind large red boulders. I saw no pursuers, and there didn't seem to be any monsters roaming around. Relaxing slightly, I sat down behind one of the boulders to rest.

That turned out to be both a mistake and a blessing.

I had just set my butt on the ground and had learned my back up against the giant red boulder when something cold bit into the skin of my neck. Startled, I glanced down to see a silver dagger held against my throat, ready to slash the skin. I started to look up at it's owner, before a slightly familiar voice stopped me.

"Don't move," a female slightly to my left hissed coldly. "Make any sudden movement and your head rolls."

I squeaked out an "okay". To think that all that effort of escaping the prison was going to be wasted. I wondered what monster would find my body first.

A rusrling of fabric told me that my soon-to-be-murderer was moving. A second later, a pair of legs (long and shapely legs, mind you) clad in form-fitting black pants appeared in front of me. On her feet, she wore thick leather combat boots. They were also black.

I wondered how she could wear that down here. Hell was known for being burning hot, and those tight black pants and heavy black boots could not be keeping her cool. Then I realized that she was going to kill me any second, so I shouldn't care anyways. I stil found myself caring though.

She leaned down towards me, not far enough so that I could see her face, but far enough so that her long black hair spilled off her back and over her shoulders. It brushed my feet lightly, tickling my sensitive skin. After feeling nothing but torture for years, her soft hair tickling me felt like a new sensation. I was happy knowing that one of the last things I felt would be a woman's soft hair tickling me.

Suddenly, the woman drew back with a gasp. She was silent for a moment, then she whispered, "Perseus?" She pulled the dagger back from my throat slightly so I could speak.

"How do you know my name?" I answered, defensive. I resisted the urge to rub my neck where the cold metal rested.

"What are you doing in Tartarus? I thought you were a hero."

I frowned. "I haven't been called a hero in a long time. I'm sorry, but I don't think I know you. So, if you let me move without driving that dagger through my heart, I'll just be on my merry way through this hell hole. You can go rob someone else."

The dagger dropped to the woman's side, but she still held it ready in her hand. "There's no other humans in Tartarus, even if I wanted to 'rob' someone. I doubt the Minotaur has anything I want."

"You could always steal his Fruit of the Loom gift card. He's always getting underwear from them."

She laughed dryly. "I wouldn't wish seeing that on anyone, not even my worst enemies. Not even Atlas."

The way she singled out the Titan struck me as familiar. First her voice, now this. I must know her, but how?

"Not that I don't love staring at your boots, but I'd really love to move my head. Preferably to look at my soon-to-be-murderer. You won't end my life right now if I move, right?"

The woman made a noise that sounded like a mix between a sob, laugh, and scoff. "Perseus, I might be stranded in Tartarus, but this hell has not made me forget my debt to you. i won't be killing you any time soon, unless of course you do something stupid."

A debt? "You must not know me very well then. Everyone used to call me stupid all the time. My name was usually followed by the words 'is stupid'."

"'Used to'..." She repeated. "What do they call you now?"

I sighed heavily. "Traitorous, conniving, murderous. Just to name a few."

She gasped, and mumbled something to herself. I was getting pretty fed up though.

Frustrated, I said, "I'm just going to move my head, permission or not. Try not to freak out and stab me."

Before she could do anything, I looked up into the face of someone that I had watched die nearly twenty years ago.

Long black hair framed her sculpted face, pale from years of not seeing the sun. Her black onyx eyes stared at me with expressions that I couldn't quite place, and her lips were pressed together in a worried frown. They were a soft shade of pink, like a strawberry that was still trying to ripen in the sun.

"Zoë," I whispered. The woman that was going to kill me was the dead huntress, Zoë Nightshade. One of the many people I mourned for.

She nodded gravely, her soft black hair tickling my toes again. "Yes, Perseus. It is I."

"What are you doing in Tartarus?" I asked weakly, shocked and numb. "I saw Artemis put you in the stars."

Zoë sighed and shook her head. "Zeus grew angry that a mortal— a demi-Titan, no less— was in his skies, higher up than he was. So he cast me down. To Tartarus. He said that any mortal that thinks themselves above the King of Olympus deserves to rot in Tartarus."

"How long ago was this? Approximately?" I asked, my voice barely containing my fave towards Zeus and the rest of the Olympian council, save a few.

"Fifteen years. Roughly."

My blood boiled. Zeus had left her to a torture arguably worse than mine for something a goddess was responsible of, something that wasn't even wrong. I had to get more revenge because of this. But I couldn't leave Zoë.

I quickly explained my situation. "The gods wronged me too," I concluded. "We both deserve vengeance. Will you come with me?"

I held out my hand towards her invitingly. For a moment, it seemed like she would reject my offer. Then she clasped my hand tightly and hauled me to my feet.

"Count me in," she answered, grinning.