Percy

I tried again. And again. A total of five times more, and every time I fell down because the nightmares were so real and so discouraging. I actually kept progressing up the climb, but I kept falling down because a real and new nightmare kept coming up.

After I got past the me-as-a-child nightmare, it was the Minotaur taking my mom and me thinking that she was dead. Literally, all the feelings and emotions came rushing back as if it was just happening right then and there.

Then, the second one was when Polyphemus picks up Annabeth when she was invisible and pretending to be Nobody and the Cyclops throws her into a mountain, leaving me to think she was dead. I had stumbled and fell back to the ground, landing hard once again.

The third time was when Annabeth was fighting Dr. Thorn and both of them tumbled off the cliff without a trace. I fell again due to the distraction.

The fourth time, it was landing on Calypso's island and the guilt that I felt for wanting to stay, and the heart that I had broken when I decided to leave; Calypso's. I screamed and fought, but I fell again.

The last time was learning of the prophecy and when Annabeth got in my face and called me a coward. I was 100 feet up, halfway up the prison when the brick I was holding onto slipped and I fell, disappointing the expectant crowd that had gathered.

Now, since all the hype was downplayed, most of the inmates were playing cards (don't ask me how the cards were there), and Theseus was sitting in his corner staring me down. He had called me a coward and a fake Greek hero because of my unwillingness to try again. I just didn't want to try again. Why? Because a new nightmare would appear and I would fail again.

I was done. Defeated. I've beaten everybody I could beat, demigods, gods, monsters, humans, everyone, but I get beaten by myself. I was slumping down in the corner when Theseus approached me. "Who is Annabeth?"

I looked at him. I tried to not let the resent I felt for him show on my face for him misleading me in the way to get out of here, but apparently it was evident because Theseus smirked. Why was he bringing up Annabeth? What does she have to do with this? I had failed her, so she was done. The hero spoke again as he had read my mind.

"You talk in your sleep, young demigod. Is she your female romantic?"

I rolled my eyes. Greeks and their language. I remembered going to sleep only once; after my third time falling down. I tried to rest up my body to get physically strong, but apparently that was the wrong approach. Not like dead souls actually need sleep, it was just out of habit in the world above full of life. "She was my girlfriend. In life. But I'm by myself now."

I hadn't meant for it to sound disrespectful and challenging, but Theseus laughed instead of getting mad or something. He looked wistfully out towards the exit. "Then do it for your lady. Why wouldn't you? She would do the same for you."

The people playing cards jeered and laughed. The monster lady with wings cackled, "The pathetic 'hero' doesn't know how to get out. He'll fail like all of us and stay down here to rot."

I slumped my shoulders. So far, it seemed like they were right. I've tried 6 times and fell 6 times.

Then, I heard a scream. Not just any scream. Annabeth's scream.

Perseus.

He was still up there in Asphodel plotting. And Nico, Annabeth, and Grover…were visiting the Underworld. I hopped up and pushed Theseus out the way. I was aware of everyone staring at me. Theseus raised an eyebrow. "People scream all the time, hero, from Tartarus and the painful parts of the Underworld. What makes this different?"

I turned to him. "This is different because that's ANNABETH!" I ran to the exit and looked up. Perseus looked down at me. I saw that he had Annabeth in a chokehold. He grinned at me. "Hey, twin. Having fun down there? Your little girlfriend actually found a way to the Underworld, killed all these monsters in her path, and came down here to try and actually save you! Can you believe that?"

I actually could, because I would definitely try to do that if our places were switched. Then again, I wouldn't get my ass handed to me by an evil Annabeth. Actually, scratch that. Don't quote me on that.

I gritted my teeth in anger. I balled my fists and was about to say something smart and witty, but Perseus raised his eyebrow and laughed slightly. "You're going to get out the prison some way that I don't know of?" He pressed the sword under her chin and brought her out my view. I could still hear his laugh. Then, I heard another bloodcurling scream.

Looking back, Theseus said that when he saw my eyes, they were literally filled with miniature greenish-blue waves. The power of the sea. All I know was that I was angry. At Perseus. At myself. That's my girlfriend. Annabeth Chase. I was going to save her.

I put my foot on a brick, and climbed. Visions flashed through my mind as before, but I was determined to get there. Her screams were echoing through the prison. I could hear the prisoners gathering at the bottom to watch me. I climbed and climbed. Visions of Smelly Gabe hitting my mom and her flying across the room flashed across my mind. I almost slipped, but Annabeth's screams jolted me back to reality. I kept climbing. I was 80 feet up. Left arm, right foot, right arm, left foot.

Images of the way that Annabeth looked at Luke and when he tried to poison me with the scorpion flashed through my mind. I could feel the scorpion on the hand as I shuddered. But I bore down. 100 feet left to climb. I kept climbing, with cheers from Theseus and the others doing some chant that I had never heard. The visions that flashed were even worse because they were nightmares. The first one was me losing my memory and forgetting Annabeth. I remembered being lost, confused, and upset when the wolves and the harpies came. I was afraid. I ran for my life. Then that crumbled.

It then showed me and Rachel and me and Annabeth kissing in the same week. Then it shattered and showed me on the cruise ship and Beckendorf raising his hand to his watch. I watched him blow up as I jumped in the sea like a coward. And Silena's face when she realized what had happened.

I lost focus and dropped 10 feet, 20 feet…until I grabbed back on the bricks. I was going to do this. I had like 70 feet to go. The bricks started to get hotter and hotter, but I kept climbing up and up. Annabeth's screams turned into sobs and crying. I felt the ocean surge through me and I doubled my speed of climbing. As a result, the visions sped up.

I saw Annabeth accepting to go to the Hunters and me begging her not to, and her being forbidden to see or interact with me on a friendly level. I saw Paul Blowfish(sorry, Blofis) leaving my mom, leaving her in tears and sobbing in her hands. I then saw Frank and Hazel dying; Frank's firewood burning out, and Hazel being killed by her father. I saw the Greek warship descending on the Roman Camp and we attack one another, killing people in the progress.

I screamed out loud, but kept climbing. Tears formed in my eyes. My arms started to hurt, but I didn't mind. I had like 50 feet to go. I saw Perseus attacking Thalia and beating her into submission. I then saw way back when Thalia and I had argued over a capture-the-flag game and she struck me with a blast of lightning and I willed the whole river to rise. I was ready to beat her down. That wasn't like me. What was that?

Then, the vision shimmered into me walking in on Annabeth kissing Luke in our apartment. I yelled and almost fell, but was jarred back to reality when Theseus yelled up at me to stay focused. I was almost there. I was 10 feet left to go. Left, Right, left, right. The bricks were burning now. I was so tempted to just let go and suck my thumb.

Then, the worst of all came; it showed me presented with the choice of the prophecy. Luke asks me at Olympus, "Just give me the knife." I look at him and all my resentment and hate towards him and his relationship with Annabeth came back and I try to stab him myself. Kronos takes over the body at the last second, catching the knife and throwing at Annabeth at a speed unrivaled by even Hermes. It impales her, and Kronos knocks me across the other side of the room. He laughs and looks at me with the golden eyes. The whole body starts to glow golden and Luke's body explodes and disintegrates. I look away but I realize the harsh light of a Titan. He laughs again coldly and destroys all the gods' thrones. And goes down to Earth to take over North America. I run over to Annabeth to see if she's okay, but she uses all her effort to turn her head away from me, close her eyes, and die silently with a tear falling down her cheek.

That was it. The bricks had turned scalding hot. The brick I was holding onto crumbled and I fell. I heard Annabeth's screams and sobs and matched them myself. Then….

"Woah there, watch yourself."

An arm snatches out from nowhere and grabs my hand. The arm was so strong that it was able to support me and keep me from falling 200 feet down a chute. It pulled me up and I scrambled up and out of the prison eagerly. There was standing Nico Di Angelo with Mrs. O'Leary behind him. She barked so loud that it knocked me to the ground. I don't know how it's possible, but I could've sworn she grew.

I could hear the inmates below cheering and chanting. Theseus just looked up at me wistfully. I was so overjoyed to get out that I almost ran around the depressing Asphodel cheering and leaping around, but I realized something. Theseus wasn't supposed to be down there. He had taken the hit for somebody who left him for Mr. D. I called down to him, "I'll come back for you. Don't worry. No, not all of you cannibals. Just Theseus."

Theseus just made a three-fingered claw over his heart and pushed outward; a gesture for warding off evil. I mirrored the signal and hopped on Mrs. O'Leary's back.

I was breathing heavily and Nico raised an eyebrow at me. "You know you're going to have to be at full strength?"

"How am I supposed to do that when I'm dead?"

"The only way is if you bathe in the 5 rivers of Hades. I know I had only said the River Lethe, the one that Iapetus…er, Bob I mean, fell into. But you need all five. You've already bathed in one, the Styx, so you need four more."

"Four? What are the other ones?"

Nico sighed and looked ahead. I was looking at him expectantly, because I was pretty much ready to do anything to beat Perseus. It seemed like he had done this before. "Well, Death Boy?"

He looked into my eyes. "There's five rivers of Hades. The River Styx, you're already familiar with. That's technically the river of hate and broken dreams. That one made you invulnerable from the hate of others. You don't have to bathe in that again, but you need to bathe in the other 4. This is because when two people of the same soul, you and Perseus for example, bathe in one of the five rivers of Hades, one of you gets the good deal, the other, not so much. If you two bathed in the Styx, and say that you won. You would come out invulnerable, but the other would dissolve into nothingness from the hate of others."

"Wonderful. What's next?"

"You're already familiar with the River Lethe. It's the river of forgetfulness and unminfulness. This time, if you win the mental battle, Perseus would come out not knowing or remembering anything, and you would come out just your normal self. So either permanent amnesia, or nothing. That one's going to be last, because if you beat him in all of these rivers, you want him to not remember anything so he won't be any threat anymore."

I nodded my head. "Okay, so have to bathe in the river of memory loss. Great. What's the other one?"

Nico hesitated. I looked at him. This, apparently, was pretty bad. Our whole bodies almost fell off the dog when he knocked down a tree. He continued.

"As we get close to the rivers, one of the features of them is that you can actually attain and retain injuries, so you need to be careful and injure Perseus. The next one is the River Akheron. This is the river of pain and suffering."

"Just my speed."

"Whatever you felt in the Styx, is nothing compared to this river. Along with it being the river of pain and suffering, it is also the river of healing. If you have injuries in the battle between you and Perseus, it will heal one of you and it will give the other one extreme pain and suffering."

"Um, so why do I need to bathe in these again?"

"Because it's the only way to rid yourself of your evil self, which is actually physical in this case; your clone Perseus. Ancient Greek way."

I rolled my eyes. "What's next?"

We rode past some depressed-looking souls standing under a tree. I waved at them, but they just looked at me with big solemn eyes. Nico raised his eyebrows. "I'm surprised that you're not running off in terror and giving up on defeating Perseus."

"Just get on with it before I change my mind."

"The River Kokytos. It's the river of regret. Lamentation. When you bathe in it, it feels just like a normal pool, except it shows you visions in the background of the things that you've done in your life that you're not proud of. And you're also vulnerable so you can keep fighting as long as you stay completely focused on winning the fight."

Wait. Now I was confused. "Wouldn't we have the same visions pretty much, since we have the same memory?"

Nico shook his head. "Not necessarily. It depends on the things that you two view as things you would regret."

"You talk about this with an awful amount of precision and experience."

"The River Phelegethon."

"The River Fire?" I translated.

"Yes. It's a burning river, and if you win out the battle, the victor has superior strength just as a metal is tested under fire and it gets stronger in the process. It's symbolic….only it's not."

"Right." I sighed. "What about the loser?"

"The fire will burn his skin and consume him mentally. It will hinder his fighting ability."

"Marvelous." My sarcasm was interrupted by a muffled scream. Mrs. O'Leary stopped abruptly. Right ahead of us was Perseus with Annabeth in his arm. Annabeth had a gag in her mouth like Luke put her in a couple years ago. Perseus grinned. "Shall we journey to the rivers, clone?"

I tensed up. How did he know? Annabeth was shaking her head vigorously, warning me not to do it. Her blond hair whipped back and forth.

Perseus smiled slowly, like a serpent. "I hear things. But you think that you're mentally stronger than me? I will not hesitate to beat you down to the brink of death when you're already dead."

"And maybe that's your greatest weakness."

Perseus sneered. He draped my girlfriend over his shoulder. Annabeth pounded his back with her fists and her knees, but the clone didn't seem fazed.

"Meet me at the Cave of Hypnos. I've arranged a little…audience. So this will be fun. All our little friends will be watching. The gods will be watching. You can either come and die in humiliation or avoid the pain and just leave Annabeth to die with me."

I balled my fists so tight I was surprised they weren't bleeding. "That's not a question."

Perseus raised his eyebrow as a matter-of-factly. "I always did have respect for your…our work ethic. Come and challenge me. I never give up."

"Neither do I."

"Wonderful. See you there?"

"It's a date."

Perseus smiled. He snapped his fingers at me and the world made a 360 as I fell to the ground. Nico was next to me on the ground. I recognized that trick. The same one Ares had used on me the second time I encountered him. That's not a good sign.

I helped Nico up. "So when are we leaving?"

Nico brushed the deathly dirt off him. "As soon as possible."