"LUKE WATCH OUT!" Bobby screamed. He was next to Bianca whose hands were elbow deep into the ground as if it were a pile of play-doh. Her eyes were closed in concentration and from both of her arms, a crack formed. A deep, narrow fissure opened in a long zigzag across the middle of the clearing.

The earth rocked under Mrs. O'Leary and expanded faster than Luke could react. In seconds, a chasm in the middle of Half Blood Hill was swallowing monsters. Unfortunately, Luke and Mrs. O'Leary barely had enough time to leap away from their collapsing piece of ground.

Her force wasn't strong enough to deliver them to the edge, so instead they landed on a tiny ledge about twenty feet down from ground level.

"Luke!" His mom screamed, her grey eyes intense with fear.

"I'm fine!" He shouted. Beside him, Mrs. O'Leary was getting comfortable on her half of their ledge "We both are."

"Thank Athena" She muttered "Don't move. I'll get help."

"Not like I can go anywhere." He saw his mom disappear. Luke turned to Mrs. O'Leary and rubbed her face "I don't suppose you can shadow travel?" She looked away and pinned her ears back "I didn't think so."

Luke sheathed his sword and studied his surroundings. The ledge seemed steady enough to hold an enormous Hellhound and a demigod, but he didn't know for how long. The walls were too steep to climb and unfortunately he can't control wind spirits to fly out of here. Luke looked down. He couldn't see the bottom but Bianca's chasm had created a quick way to dispose of monsters, somewhere very deep in the ground.

"Jackson, you okay?" Sam Valdez resonated from above.

"Fine." Luke answered.

"Hold on," He said "I'll get Mrs. O' Leary out first."

He closed his eyes in concentration. A small breeze made Mrs. O' Leary's fur ruffle. She then started levitating slowly until she was level with Sam, twenty feet in the air. She leaped forward and was back on the ground, no longer confined in their little space next to Luke.

"Your turn, Jackson." Sam raised his hands and Luke felt a gust of wind surround him. His body became ten times lighter, as if he were a helium balloon. He felt his feet lift off the ground.

Just before he reached the edge of the chasm, a wolf leaped at Sam and broke his magic. Sam's hold of the winds immediately deteriorated and Luke's stomach dropped.

He was free falling deeper into the darkness. Luke had to think quickly. He unsheathed his sword and swung it at the walls. The blade gripped tightly in a fissure within the rocks.

"Okay, okay" He told himself and tried to steady his handhold on the hilt of his sword but just as he readjusted his weight the crevice grew. "Crap." He muttered and looked up. The edge of the chasm was at least seventy feet above. His mom and Sam's faces were back, barely visible in the dark night

"Jackson!" He shouted "Do you have a good grip?"

"For now." Luke said "I'm not going to hold out for long."

"I can't bring you up from this far down." He admitted.

"Great." Luke groaned. His fingers were already feeling like molten lead and his arm muscles were shaking. He was never good at rock climbing and he hated himself for not taking those practices more seriously. He wondered how long the drop would be and where it would lead... if he survived it.

"Luke!" Another voice screamed. Luke looked up and saw Tom's silhouette. He spoke to Sam, but Luke was too far to hear what he said. When Tom looked down again, he did the craziest thing anyone had ever done.

He jumped.

Tom threw himself downward, with his arms tucked and plummeted headfirst. In a heartbeat he surpassed Luke but he quickly managed to float midair before he was too far down.

"Are you crazy?!" Luke scolded. Tom had barely learned how to fly a few hours ago. He shouldn't even be flying without supervision, let alone plummeting into a deep chasm that led to gods know where.

"A little." Tom admitted while trying to balance himself. He got closer to Luke and gripped him by his wrist. "Let go of the sword."

Luke looked at Tom, his face was deadly serious. Luke made a silent prayer to every single wind god ever and let go of his grip, but as soon as he did so, Tom lost his balance and they started free falling again.

Luke's stomach contracted in tension. Wind whistled in his ears. "TOM!"

"Something is wrong" He shouted while flailing his free arm around "I can't control the wind here."

Luke cursed. He looked up and heard his mom and Sam screaming for help. He was falling into darkness, spiraling down and down, away from the noise of the battle, away from everyone and everything.

The air quickly grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. Luke tried to think of a plan, but unfortunately, he wasn't Bobby. There was nothing to do.

Tom's hands began to slip away from Luke's as the darkness got deeper. Luke extended his other arm and gripped Tom tighter. He wanted to tell him to strengthen his grip, but there was no way Tom would hear him over the whistling winds in their ears.

Luke thought about this being his last moments. What had he done to be proud of? He'd never managed to walk in his parents' footsteps. He never became the leader everyone expected him to be. He'd never been on a quest. He never even managed to find a way to cure for Thalia... and now he was taking down a praetor down with him. His life had been a serious of moments of standing in the backgrounds, training for a death he couldn't prevent.

The darkness slowly began to turn into red tinge. The whistling in Luke's ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell of acid.

The chasm they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below them, Luke could see the bottom. For a moment he was too stunned to think properly. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape was rocky black plains. To Luke's left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.

The stench of sulfur made it hard to concentrate, but he focused on the ground directly below them. "FLY!"

He didn't know if he could hear him or if Tom's powers would even work here, but Tom understood. He raised his arms and closed his eyes. Luke became lighter as Tom summoned the wind to cushion their fall just before they hit the rocky ground and bashed their skulls.

"Ow." Luke muttered as he pulled out a shard of glass sticking out from his elbow. He looked at the ground underneath him and saw that the whole floor was made of broken glass.

"Are we in...?" Tom asked, but he didn't finish his thought. Luke stood up next to him and both gazed across the rocky plains. Above, Luke saw no sign of Bianca's chasm. In fact, he couldn't even see the cavern roof, just blood-colored clouds floating in the hazy grey air.

"Yes," Luke answered, almost not believing it himself "We're in enemy territory–Tartarus itself."

Tom placed his arms behind his head in exasperation. Luke noticed that the back of his hands were already blistering because of the acidic air.

"We need to move." Luke said as he offered to held Tom up.

"Where?" Tom asked "Jackson, we have no food, no water, no supplies. You even lost your sword. This is Tartarus... we're already dead."

"Maybe," Luke admitted "But that doesn't mean we can't do something to help from down there."

"What do you mean?" Tom furrowed his brows.

"Well," Luke said as he helped Tom up. "Maybe we can find this guy's weakness down here and help slow down the battle."

"He's a primordial god." Tom looked at him like he was crazy "He doesn't have weaknesses."

"Man," Luke started moving "How did you become praetor with an attitude like that?"

"Jackson," He followed him "This isn't like the time we single-highhandedly beat Camp Jupiter in the war games."

"True." Luke kept walking, trying to hide his own fear "But, my mom and dad made it out of here. So did Nico."

"Because they got help from Bob, the Titan." Tom pointed out. Man, that guy was a downer. "And might I add that they are the greatest heroes known in Greek History."

Luke started ignoring him. He started hearing multiple roars echoing across the plains. Tom instinctively drew his sword. Luke was without a sword, but if there was anything he knew is to never to leave home without at least two weapons handy.

He drew his favorite weapon, his mom's bronze dagger. He remembered the day he'd gotten it like it was yesterday. This is my favorite weapon, she had said. My brother had given it to me when I was your age.

Is he with dad? Luke had asked.

His mom gave him a warm smile. No, but his name was also Luke. He was the bravest hero I've ever known, and one day, you'll be as brave as he was because you're carrying his dagger.

So much for that... Luke gets to die painfully and not-so-heroically in Tartarus, hooray! He wished he was Luke Castellan right about now, the one hero no one ever seems to forget about at Camp Half Blood. Partly because of the statue of him in Main Square at New Athens, but mostly because of how he managed to save the world by one simple act. Luke had always wished it were that easy.

"Well, well, well," A voice said from behind. Tom and Luke turned around together and saw a girl in white silk dress. She was the brightest thing in the red atmosphere of Tartarus and was unnaturally pale, with skin the color of snow. Her hair was black and shiny despite the humid and acidic atmosphere. She focused on Tom with her coffee brown eyes and gave him a sideways smile. "If it isn't the son of Piper McLean, my mortal enemy." She laughed evilly "And the Jackson boy. The master will be pleased. Very pleased."