Disclaimer: Characters from the books like Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase belong to Rick Riordan, not us.

Chapter 1 - The Fatal Mistake

It was finally all over. Percy was standing, still in a little bit of shock. The gods had finally arrived, and the Fates took Luke's body. The throne room was in the process of being repaired, and most importantly, Annabeth was alright. That one fact made the entire war worth it to Percy. Looking around, he noticed the gods were starting to finish their repairs.

Once they finally finished and healed some of the injured, like Thalia, they took a seat and called in the armies, including Poseidon's sea army, the campers, and hunters of Artemis. Artemis herself gave a proud look towards the hunters, and they seemed pretty smug. Percy looked around and simply sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. Some things truly never changed.

Poseidon himself came up to Percy and gave him a hug, something that seemed to make him immensely happy. He returned the hug, tearing up a little bit. When Poseidon went to sit down, Percy noticed Zeus giving him a suspicious look. He wasn't sure what that was all about, but he figured he was just worried that Poseidon was going to start breaking the laws about interacting with their kids.

The gods started the meeting, and Zeus spent forever talking. Percy knew he was the King and all, but his speeches were so long they bored him really quickly, especially with his ADHD. Annabeth stood at his side, and smiled happily, leaning against him a little bit. He couldn't quite believe how good things were going. Zeus didn't seem to be finishing any time soon though.

After a painful amount of time, Zeus finally finished and they began the rewards. Certain campers were called forward by the gods and given special honors. Annabeth herself was called up, and was given the title of "Architect of Olympus." She walked back over by Percy, extremely happy. He gave her a smile, something that she returned. That smile caused his heart to run a lap.

"PERCY JACKSON!" His name was yelled. Giving him a comforting pat on the back, Annabeth pushed him forward. He walked up the gods. Just as he was about to take a knee in front of Zeus' throne, something fell out of his pocket. The gods gasped, all looking at it, the campers and hunters looked too, and they gasped in shock. Percy was so confused. Then he realized.

It was Silena's scythe charm bracelet.

"What-? No, that's not-" He tried to say, but Zeus interrupted him, his master bolt in hand. "SILENCE, TRAITOR!" He yelled, pointing his master bolt at him. Percy couldn't believe what was happening. "It's a misunde-" "Quiet, mortal." Athena interrupted him, glaring with her spear in hand, shield attached on the other. All the gods had their weapons out now, and he was in shock.

"You will be punished for your treachery, Perseus Jackson." Zeus growled. Poseidon gave him a look of betrayal and anger "How dare you? You make me proud and then rip it all away?" He yelled, pointing his trident at him. Percy still couldn't believe what was happening. "IT'S NOT TRUE! THAT'S NOT HIS!" Clarisse yelled, quieting the gods accusing him.

Ares turned a glare towards her. "Explain then, daughter." Ares hissed. Gulping, Clarrise said "That's Silena's, and she gave it to Percy when she died as a sorry for spying. Ask Annabeth!" She yelled the last part. Everyone turned to Annabeth, who was standing there, looking confused. "Is this true?" Athena asked.

Annabeth opened her mouth, and then her eyes became unfocused for a moment. Her mouth closing, she suddenly gained an angry expression. "No, what Clarisse said is not true. Percy is the spy." Annabeth glared accusingly at him. Clarisse began yelling at her, trying to figure out what was wrong with her. Percy paid attention to none of it.

It was like his heart shattered into a million pieces. How could Annabeth do this to him? She was there when Silena gave him the bracelet. She knew exactly what happened, why decide to betray him? He was speechless as the gods silenced Clarisse, and then turned back to him, glaring their best glares at him. He started shaking, watching as his fixed world started to crumble.

"You will be sentenced to Tartarus to suffer and rot for your crimes against Olympus." Zeus said, and the other gods nodded their head in satisfaction, all except for Artemis, who seemed a little bit skeptical, her eyes darting between Clarisse and Annabeth. Zeus pointed his master bolt, and then threw it at the ground in front of him.

On impact it exploded, causing the flooring to crack. All of a sudden, pieces of the floor started falling into a dark hole. Percy tried to get out of the way but couldn't as he fell. He couldn't help but scream "I TRUSTED YOU!" at Annabeth, but she just looked down in satisfaction. Percy couldn't believe this. He watched as the light disappeared, either falling so far or the hole was closed up.

Back up on Olympus, the gods applauded Annabeth for her bravery and honesty. Artemis still eyed Annabeth, only lightly clapping. The gods started the party, and everybody started to enjoy themselves. During the party Annabeth all of a sudden got confused, and then ran off crying. Nobody knew why. Shrugging it off, they'd find out later.

The party ended soon, and everybody went home. The gods teleported the campers back to Camp Half-Blood, Artemis took her hunters to a forest where they would continue their normal duties, the army of Poseidon was taken back to their home in Poseidon's kingdom. Everything was great for them, going well and a happy day.

All except for Perseus Jackson, who continued to fall straight down into the depths of Tartarus. He was falling for a long time, but all of a sudden he began to see a light below him. He suddenly fell into open air, and began free falling. The land he was below him was horrible. It looked like something you'd see in a really bad nightmare.

He saw a river, and summoned some of the water towards him, using it to grab him and slow his fall to the ground. The water hurt pretty bad, and he recognized it as the Styx. He still hit the ground hard, seeing as he couldn't fully control it when the water hurt him and tore at his soul. The water splashed down into the ground around him, and he got up and looked around.

Now that he wasn't falling fast, he could properly breathe. The air in Tartarus was AWFUL. It hurt just to breathe, making Percy not want to bother, to stop breathing and never start again. Seeing monsters, he quickly started looking for somewhere to hide, so that he didn't die right away. The monsters looked hungry and angry.

He realized the monsters must've been involved in the battle. Percy wasn't sure how on earth they managed to reform so quickly, but he didn't really care. The bad side was soon, the monsters would begin to start pouring back into Tartarus as they reformed, and Percy would be stuck in Tartarus with them. It was truly an awful fate, and bad timing.

The area he was in was relatively safe. However, when a monster started getting really close, he had to leave. Taking off slowly, seeing as he was injured from his fall and emotionally hurt, he couldn't exactly force himself to move that fast. He reached a river of fire. Sitting down at the banks, he began to cry. Even that hurt, with his breathing picking up.

After a minute, it started to get too painful so he stopped crying. Tartarus immediately caused the tears on his face to dry. It was awful. He began to get thirsty, and hungered for food. Not to mention he was extremely tired from all the fighting back up on Olympus, when he fought Kronos. Then that reminded him of what happened again..

It broke his heart, but it also wrapped his brain into a million different types of knots. He had no clue why or how, but Annabeth just betrayed him without even looking hesitant. He remembered she paused for a moment, but it wasn't that slow. It was confusion, then the next second a look of anger, and then the betrayal. He wanted to cry again.

He was sitting there, contemplating jumping into the river that appeared to be made of liquid fire and just get his pain and suffering out of the way. It was impossible to escape Tartarus. What was the point in even trying anymore? He'd never get out alive. He was on his own, with no Owl-Head to be smart and think of something to keep them alive.

He looked back at the river again, really tempted now. Then, all of a sudden, a part of the river began to float up, and after another moment he realized it wasn't floating, somebody was walking out of the river. He was too tired to move himself into a defensive position against the new person. They shook off the liquid of the river, and took a seat next to him.

"Some day, huh? Why are you, of all people, down here in the foreign pit?" The mysterious guy questioned. Percy frowned. The man was hooded, and none of his skin or anything was showing, because everything was covered by some type of clothing Percy didn't recognize. Also, what did he mean by the foreign pit? Percy cleared his throat, just doing that was painful.

"Annabeth. She- she betrayed me, and the gods- they threw me down here." He said, his voice pathetic. Not only was he in a lot of emotional pain, just talking here hurt. It seemed that no matter what he did here, it would hurt somehow. He could try and do everything, and somehow Tartarus would find a way to make it painful for him.

The man shook his head, seemingly disappointed. "Always knew those gods would make a mistake. It may have been their final." He said, looking over at Percy. Percy was starting to realize two things: 1. The man had a voice on the deeper side. 2. The man's voice was not affected by Tartarus, or seemingly the air in it. Now he was really confused.

"Your questions you do not speak will be answered in time. For now, I have a proposal for you. Whether you like it or not, if I'm being quite honest with you, this is your best shot at a new life and escaping this hell hole." The man said, looking around at Tartarus. When he said hell hole, it sounded angry or loathing. Percy shrugged. "Let's hear it."

Percy could almost feel the man's grin as he started to speak, "Now, as you know, champions are a thing when it comes to gods. Should you accept my offer of becoming my champion, I will take you to a new life, a new place in which you can live and thrive, far from this place, and far from the gods that betrayed you."

Percy thought about it. Not only did he not know or recognize the guy, he wasn't sure he wanted to submit to somebody else's command. He did that with the Olympians, and now that he was in Tartarus suffering, what was to say that this guy wouldn't pull an Annabeth and betray him, sending him somewhere potentially worse?

He wasn't sure what could be worse than Tartarus, but he decided he'd need to see the place the man was talking about before he went. Percy spoke in his raspy and pained voice, "I want to see the place before I agree to your terms." Nodding, the man said "If you decline, I will have to take you back here." Percy nodded in agreement.

When the man stood, a portal opened next to him. "Let's go." He said as Percy got up. The man walked into the portal, and Percy followed, hopefully walking into a new and better life than he had before.