First things first: I'm so sorry that this update took so long, I really don't know how I managed to avoid writing this for so long, it must be a gift.
Shout outs:
BABYGATO1854: The escape chapter will be dramatic don't worry, I have an evil plan (mwuhahah)
Checkingdude: Oh yeah, woops.
Haiselover: I really want Percy to mess with the gods too. Thank you xxx
Raxacoricofallapatoreous: Ok, calm down. I'll see what I can do.
Aviendha Aviendha Aviendha: Ha ha. Brilliant.
DemiWitch75: OK, thanks.
dizzydaisy37: Ooooooookkkkkkkk.
Guest: I'm sorry but I don't know who that is D: I'll look it up though.
thisisname42: Oh yeah, oops. I forgot what he was when wrote that chapter and didn't have the book or the internet to look it up.
whatsup: now.
plz: Ok, ok; I'm updating.
yo: Sorry about your possible death. But I'm updating so...
angrybird: I have a habit of leaving it on a cliff hanger.
gg: Don't worry I will.
Guest: I haven't abandoned anything.
PERCY
The fire in the middle of the cave let off little heat against the immortal cold of Tartarus. It was like putting one drop of water in the middle of a desert; pointless.
It was the thought that counted though, Percy supposed. Across from him, Leo huddled closer to the fire. The boy's eyes lit up until they blended in with the flames perfectly. Well, his efforts were appreciated then. That felt nice, he wasn't going to lie.
"Ok, as…" Annabeth struggled for the word, "creative as your plan is, we need to have more weapons and backup plans before we're even going to think about taking on the forces of a Titan." The daughter of Athena's eyes bored into his owns, waiting.
"What?" he asked when the staring got too intense.
"What do you mean 'what'? It's your plan, so execute it." She snapped, by now the other Demigods were staring at the two of them looking a bit irritated. Holy Tartarus, what was wrong with them now? Percy thought.
"Do I have to do everything around here, I mean I saved you, fed you, saved you again and I gave you badass code names; must I do even more for you when most of you left me to die a horrible, painful death?" Percy snapped, glaring at all of them, bar Nico who had stayed to help him.
"Oh yes, code names were things we really needed," Leo nodded. Percy scowled at him and under him, the stone floor shifted and groaned.
"Careful there Imp-boy," Percy warned as the fire flickered and died, except a few embers. "You never know who might be listening in…"With that and an ominous raising of his eyebrows, Percy got to his feet and walked out of the cave that he had considered one of the few safe-ish places in Tartarus and wondered back into the wolf's den.
"Where are you going?" Nico asked, Percy pivoted on his heel and watched the Son of Hades jogged to catch up with him.
"I'm going to the land of rainbows," Percy answered simply before stalking back into the shadows.
"How do you not know about cameras or Sat-Nav, but know about rainbows?" Nico asked, annoyingly Nico couldn't take a hint and continued to march after him.
Percy scanned the area around him for an escape. He could see a wall to his right but he knew from experience that it only led to a small ledge that was way too low for him to travel anywhere. To his left, there was nothing but darkness that, again, he knew led to Kronos' Keep, which was definitely a place to be avoided at all cost.
Fine, he had to go forward.
"Look, Nico you're a nice guy but please leave me alone." Percy smiled encouragingly. Nico snorted under his breath (did he really think no one would hear him?) and Percy flipped him off over his shoulder.
"I'm not leaving you alone," Nico informed him gravely (Heh) and mockingly slowly so that Percy could absorb the information. Yet Percy was still baffled by the idea.
"Where are you guys going?" Leo shouted stealthily as he stomped his way across the echoing cavern. Leo Valdez – silent Ninja.
"I need to get something," Percy answered ominously, not even turning around. Honestly, all the talking was beginning to piss him off. Why must everything be interpreted through words? Why aren't actions enough?
"And we're coming with you," Nico nodded shoving Leo forward so the boy got the hint to walk with them.
"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea; Annabeth sent me to get you to go back to the cave." Leo protested even as he marched with them.
"Well, Annabeth dearest is just going to have to wait, isn't she? Pity." Percy sighed.
Out of nowhere, Thalia seemed to materialise behind them. The daughter of Zeus announced her arrival with an "I'm coming too!"
And that was that apparently.
NICO
"Okay, this is a really bad idea," Nico commented, twisting his skull ring around his finger.
"Pft, nah I'm fine, and so is everyone else," Percy exclaimed, jumping up to the next ledge.
"Um… I'm not fine," Leo slowly raised his hand and pouted. Although Percy couldn't see his face Nico got a distinct feeling that Percy knew exactly what Leo was doing.
"Aww, don't be a crybaby," Thalia huffed pinching Leo's cheek, much to the son of Hephaestus' dismay. "Come little baby don't you cry…" she sung, well 'sung' might be a bit too strong of a word for it. Croaked might've been better… or 'sounded like a hellhound in a rather large pit of candyfloss '.
Up above them, Percy swore violently as the slab of rock his was clambering on broke and he fell a metre before grabbing onto a bigger ledge.
"You alright, Lara," Leo shouted up.
"That's not my name. And yes, Imp-Boy I'm just dandy," Percy snarked back suddenly jumping to the side to get to a small sticking out piece of rock.
"Hey," Leo elbowed Thalia, "do you get it; Lara? Tomb Raider? Parkour?" Leo laughed loudly. Thalia grabbed the intruding elbow and gave the boy a shove away from her.
"No I don't get it, you wanna know why?" Leo's laughter died down and he took a wise step back, "It's because I spent the last few years as a tree!" She shouted. Nico winced and risked a glance up at Percy, who was now about six stories above them, AKA pretty damn high.
"You were a tree?" Said boy questioned, his voice clear despite their proximity or lack thereof.
"Yes, I was a tree. Have you got a problem with that?" Thalia challenged, running a hand along her spear.
"Nope, but uh… did animals like, pee on you…" Percy seemed to pick up speed out of nowhere and quickly scaled the rest of the wall.
"I don't…" Thalia trailed off, her eyes widening in horror. Leo cracked up again and Nico couldn't help but join in slightly. "Oh, gods I hope not." She shuddered.
"GOT IT!" Percy screamed down at them. The boy descended the wall an awful lot faster than how he ascended it.
"Well, are you going to tell us what we came here for now?" Thalia huffed, stalking closer to get a look at the mysterious device in Percy's hands.
It was a small cylindrical object with no defining features except for a red button on the front. Leo sucked in a breath.
"A bomb, why would we need a bomb," Leo said slowly. Percy clicked his tongue and tucked to object into his backpack.
"It's not a bomb, per se. But it'll bring Kronos' Keep down and buy us time," his voice turned tight "hopefully,"
"'Hopefully' oh great and to think I was worried the odds weren't in our favour and that we were all going to die horrible deaths," Leo muttered burying his hands in his jeans.
"If the odds were in our favour then we wouldn't be doing anything," Percy snapped, swinging his backpack over his shoulder and running back into the shadows. His clothes were eerily good at camouflaging him into the shadows; Nico could hardly make him out until he had sprinted as fast as he could.
"Annabeth's going to be really mad, you know that right?" Nico asked Percy once he'd caught up with the boy.
"I know; she's always mad at me." Percy trailed off and squinted into the distance. "You know, I get the feeling she doesn't like me very much," Percy gave Nico a look that suggested that even though he sounded like he cared about her opinion of him, he really didn't.
"She's not that bad once you get to know her," Thalia added mildly. Nico wasn't sure that was true; he had known her for years and she still gave him the shivers.
"She's just… protective…" Thalia flailed her hands wildly.
"Look, I know that she and I will never get along but that doesn't change the fact that-" Percy trailed off abruptly and tackled Nico to the ground and slammed a hand over the son of Hades' mouth. Nico struggled against the restricting hold for a fraction of a second before he noticed the slope to his left, and more significantly, the hoard of monsters at the bottom of it.
Nico gave Percy a nod and the boy clambered off him and crawled on his elbows to the edge. Thalia and Leo gave Nico a startled look but joined him on the ground.
The three of them pressed themselves as close together as they could. Nico was highly uncomfortable with this but didn't want to say anything in case he got heard or worse: seen. Percy returned to their impromptu man pile and slipped his backpack off his shoulders. Without it, all his weapons practically shone in the dark. Daggers, throwing knives and arrows, you name it and he probably has it.
'Stay here' he mouthed before saluting and vanishing down the slope. Nico moved to follow him but Thalia grabbed his forearm and shook her head. The daughter of Zeus slowly edged her way closer to get a better view. Nico almost growled at the; they should help him not watch like cheerleaders, but didn't intervene.
Down near to hoard that consisted of Empousai, hellhounds, Aeternae and others that Nico couldn't even begin to name.
With no stealth what so ever, Percy marched up to one, patted it on the shoulder and punched a dagger straight throw its head. As soon as he had, the thing disappeared into golden dust and a dozen hellhounds turned and glared at the intruder.
With grace that shouldn't be possible, Percy cartwheeled into a flip onto one of their backs and buried a dagger in; once it had vanished he jumped into a forward roll between another hellhounds legs and slit of two rather important limbs.
"Holy shit," Leo muttered beside Nico, who couldn't help but agree. He had faced giants, gods and even some titans in his life but never had he seen someone fight with so much ease and passion.
Percy grabbed and arm of an Aeternae (and ugly thing with bony saw tooth bits sprouting from its head (it should consider hiring a new barber)) and snapped the bone in two, he then rolled over its back until he was on his feet and the thing was hissing on the floor, whack: knife in the eye.
Things went badly remarkably quickly, an Aeternae wrapped its arms around Percy's middle, pinning his arms down, whilst an Empousa delivered a painful looking blow to the boy's cheek. And then things went ok again as Percy swung his head back straight into the Aeternae's nose before he jumped and pushed both his feet into the Empousa's chest (and no boys and girls; that's not how you're supposed to treat a woman) successfully knocking both of them off their feet. However, Percy recovered much faster as he jerked his arms over his shoulders and used his strength to throw himself back to his feet just a second after he hit the floor.
Nico was tempted to cheer, or would that be a bad idea? He wasn't sure but a grin was twitching up his face as he thought of what might happen when the boy meets Ares. Percy sprinted towards the dazed Empousa as soon as it was on its ugly feet and used its knee as a ledge to hoist his left leg around its shoulder and buried a knife in its neck before spinning the two of them back to the floor.
Half a dozen hellhounds and one Aeternae remained, each had a matching look of 'I hate you' on their faces that didn't deter Percy or his trio of supporters. "Who's next?" he demanded drawing a hunting knife of his back about the length of his thigh. The Aeternae charged at him; Percy pressed his knife to its throat and drew it to the side (you didn't need that neck, did you?).
"He has a bow," Thalia muttered as Percy continued his massacre, "Why doesn't he use it?"
"Don't you see?" Leo exclaimed quietly. At their blank looks, he elaborated, "He's happy; he loves this." Nico blinked at the son of Hephaestus slowly before turning his gaze back to Percy, he was just in time to watch him lob his knife into a hellhound's skull. He was indeed happy, it was blatantly obvious from the wicked smile on his face and even though he was quite a distance from Nico, he could see his sea green eyes gleaming with life and something far more deadly.
"I suppose," Thalia drawled. "That when one spends a lifetime killing," her voice dropped low "one learns to enjoy it," she looked straight into Nico's eyes "and crave it."
Nico swallowed thickly and watched Percy brawl with a beast ten times his size.
"You sound like Zoë when you speak like that," Leo snorted. Thalia's wise gaze turned angry in a heartbeat.
"I hate that girl," she hissed, much like George and Martha did.
"Just because she beat you in combat," Leo pointed out. "And hunting and archery-"
"Leo shut up before I make you,"
"Alright, bossy." Leo huffed.
And with one final hit, it was all over.
PERCY
"Welcome back, and thanks for volunteer to go collect them Leo, and then Thalia. You two really helped a friend out." Annabeth commented, her voice void of any emotion.
"I tried." Leo threw himself to his knees and clasped his hands together. Annabeth merely raised an eyebrow at him before levelling Percy with an unimpressed look.
"You would be much happier if you stopped being so upset," Percy pointed out, which did bugger all to help him out of his predicament as Annabeth stood up and marched right up to Percy's face.
"What is your game?" She demanded.
Percy narrowed his eyes at her, "What did you mean?"
"Your plan, your goal, your motive – what is it?" She hissed grabbing a fistful of the frayed fabric that covered his chest. Percy took a deep breath and pushed his feelings aside. He ignored his panic at someone being so close to him.
"I don't have one, frankly I rarely have one until the very last moment. And guess where it got me? Here, in this dark, damp, hellhole but more importantly, it kept me alive." With a level hand, he pushed her hand away from his body and took an even step back.
"You're lying," she snarled.
"Maybe I am. I don't really know anymore. Eventually, you get so used to telling lies that the truth seems improbable, impossible even." Percy glanced at each of the people before him and sighed.
"I don't pretend to know the life you like so please do the honour of not pretending to know mine." Percy nodded his head at Annabeth, silently pleading that she would leave him alone, just like everyone else he'd met had.
She didn't.
Instead, she whipped out one of the old flintlock pistols he'd gathered and aimed it between his eyes. For half a moment, all was silent and then the world descended into chaos.
"Annabeth!" Jason jumped forward to push her down, but the wisest member of their group simply rolled back her shoulders and strengthened her grip on the gun until all the muscles in her arm stood to attention.
"Put the gun down," Piper said softly yet her words rattled in Percy's skull. Annabeth still didn't flinch.
Nico tried to pull Percy backwards but Percy stood strong. "Ok," he whispered. "talk." And talk she did.
"You sadistic liar: you speak as if you're the good guy down here but you aren't you're nothing more than a little boy running into the flames as if you're invincible. You're human, Raider." She drawled the nickname mockingly. Percy bit his cheek until he tasted blood. "You don't deserve any of the luxuries that have been handed to you; you don't deserve to live in the mortal word with us. You deserve to rot down here, like all the other monsters."
"What if there aren't good guys or monsters. What if there are only beings that have different opinions. Over the years I've been called 'bad guy' by people who believe that the sun shines out of their arse. The truth is this: there aren't good or bad versions of ourselves we're all simply products of our environment and that's the gist of it." he shrugged gently. "We are what we are and you're a demigod, I'm just me." Annabeth's eyes were wide yet she didn't move her arm; his life was still in her hands.
"You killed him" she whispered.
"I've killed lots of 'hims' so you'll have to be more specific." He tried to keep his voice even but her eyes flared with anger.
"Luke Castellan, son of Hermes - my boyfriend." Percy wracked his brain for the name but it rang no bells. He was a bit offended that she had accused him of such.
"Never heard of him, sorry."
"Blond hair, sharp jaw and a scar right down his face." She described her voice tight with impatience.
"No clue, if he came down here a claimed demigod then chances are that he was killed before he even opened his eyes," Percy tried to explain but Annabeth didn't want to hear his words, to her, he assumed, his voice meant nothing.
"Zeus told me himself." Before Percy could scold her for naming the king of the Gods in Tartarus, she ploughed on. "He told me that Luke, the poor soul, had been brutally beaten to death by a sixteen-year-old boy called Percy Jackson." The room (cave?) fell silent, not that it hadn't been fairly silent before but suddenly it seemed like people were trying to keep their heartbeats silent along with their breath.
"Zeus," Percy couldn't keep the contempt out of his voice as he all but spat the name that had haunted his thoughts for a decade. "Is a lying bastard too stupid to notice his own downfall?"
"Steady on," Jason interrupted. "He's still my dad, no matter how messed up he is." Thalia nodded in agreement and that somehow made everything so much worse.
"Enough!" Annabeth snapped as if she wasn't the one responsible for everything that was currently happening. She cocked the gun and steadied her finger that rested on the trigger.
Nico suddenly appeared behind the daughter of Athena, causing the girl to flinch and pull the trigger.
BANG
The sound of the bullet echoing straight into the ears of his enemies was the last thing he heard before he felt arms wrap around his waist as he tumbled to the floor with a grunt.
The rest was lost in agonising pain and then nothing.
A.N: You love my cliff hangers, right?
OK, sorry again about the long wait but things have been a bit hectic around here recently and this wasn't high on my priority list even though it should have been. This is my first time writing a fight sequence so please go easy on me, I tried to not drag on too much.
Also, I have started reading from a bunch of other fandoms which has made me not think about my darling Percy as much as I should have. Do any of you read from Archives of Our own? Because I've started to and it's really fun. I wrote my first story on there for the Magnus Chase fandom if you want to check it out it's under the same user name (Lexi13930).
I've also fallen in love with Hamilton so that's ruined my life XD. Anyone else a fan?