"My knife- Percy, please..."
Percy turns to look over his shoulder just in time to see Annabeth throw her knife towards him, and he bends down to pick it up. She's laying on the ground, her injuries and fatigue only worsened after battling Kronos in an attempt to bring Luke to his senses. But against the odds, she succeeded; for the moment, Luke has wrestled back control of his body away from the Titan Lord. It seems that despite rallying an army and storming Olympus, hurting the one person he cared about made him realize just how worthless it all was. He'd fallen to his knees unarmed, his sword having been kicked away into the hearth where Hestia watches as Percy advances on Luke.
"Jackson, I won't-"
"Let it happen again..." Luke cuts off Kronos, his eyes flickering between blue and gold. Slowly, he undoes the clasps on his armor and lets it fall to the floor. "Promise me... that the Gods won't ignore their children... Ethan, me, everyone in Cabin Eleven... Don't let it-"
"END LIKE THIS! I WON'T-"
"Finish it! Here!" Luke places his fingertips at a point on his side, a small spot that would hard to hit on purpose, especially if Luke had carried a shield instead of wielding a two handed weapon. "I can't hold him! Hurry!"
Percy places one hand on Luke's shoulder, and Annabeth can see his skin is glowing red and letting off steam, his eyes shining and his veins glowing gold beneath his skin. "I promise." He says, before stabbing Luke in his mortal weak point. Despite the numerous monsters he's killed and the deaths of other demigods he's seen, actually killing another person immediately makes him feel sick and he knows it's not something he ever wants to do again. As evil as Luke was and everything he'd done, Percy couldn't pull any joy or satisfaction out of his murder.
Unfortunately, the worst was yet to come. Luke howled, and his entire form glowed brighter than Apollo driving the sun chariot at top speed, and it feels like it too. Percy closes his eyes as he feels the ground shaking, and focuses solely on keeping the knife embedded in Luke as he silently prays, "Please, let this be the end."
An explosion rocks the world, and he blacks out as the force of it sends him flying, and everything goes dark as the shine of Kronos' destruction fades away.
For a long time, Percy is floating through an empty void, with visions of his loved ones . He sees his mom and Paul, the latter clutching a hand to his wounded chest as he's pulled into an ambulance while his mom accompanies him. He sees Chiron and the campers, fighting monsters that are still trying to storm the Empire State building. He sees Tyson saving Thalia from Hera's statue, and the two making their way to the throne room of the gods, where Grover is holding Annabeth. She's looking for something, and suddenly she screams out.
"Percy! Wake up!"
Suddenly, his eyes snap open and he jumps up, adrenaline rushing through his body as he readies Annabeth's knife, which remains in his right hand. He looks around wildly, struggling to see anything in the darkness. But as he squints and extends the dagger out in front of him, he can make out a semi-transparent figure. "...Luke?" He asks cautiously, slowly bringing his arms in to a fighting stance.
"That's right. But not in the flesh." He grimaces, looking at his shimmering form. "I guess this means you did it."
"So you're-" Percy asks, looking down at himself and patting his chest as though to make sure his arm won't pass through his body.
"Yeah, that's right." Luke cuts him off bitterly, turning to observe their surroundings.
Percy does the same, but all he can see is darkness in all directions, yet somehow he's able to make out the outline of distant hills and mountains. Looking up, he gasps as he sees a ring of light in the sky, as though he's standing beneath the totality of a solar eclipse. "Where are we?" He asks, turning back down to Luke. "I've never seen a place like this. Never heard of a place like this either."
Something rustles around in the shadows nearby, and Percy whips around to face it. "Where all the monsters go when you defeat them. Where Kronos and the other Titans spent millennia imprisoned." Luke answers quietly.
Percy's stomach drops and for the first time in a long time, he can feel panic gripping his chest. "We're in Tartarus!?" He asks, his eyes widening as more movement can be heard nearby. "But- But- How!? How did we get here? Shouldn't you be in the Underworld?"
"Perhaps I should be." Luke agrees, his voice glum. "Or maybe the gods felt that nothing in the Fields of Punishment would be enough for the mortal who raised their mortal enemy and nearly destroyed Western Civilization. Maybe it's because I was possessed by Kronos when you killed me. You had your hand on me when it happened; maybe you got pulled in by accident."
"Then how do we get out?" Percy asks. A small part of him thinks that he shouldn't trust Luke to accompany him, while another part argues that he won't be able to do much now that he's a shade. But another part of him thinks that Luke had come to senses in the end, and eternity in Tartarus was no way for anyone, even someone with as much evil in their past as Luke, to be punished.
"I'm not sure. Maybe the monsters can tell you." He points to the edge of the circle of light cast by the celestial bronze, where a single Empousa shuffles into view, snarling at him. Percy strikes as fast as thought before it can try charming him and taking a bite out of him, and the Empusa shrieks and explodes into dust. But as he and Luke watch, the dust starts re-forming the monster right in front of them.
"The rivers..." Percy mumbles as he strikes the monster again.
"What?"
"The rivers of the underworld: The Styx and the Lethe, they flow from the underworld into Tartarus right?" Percy asks, grasping at the one dim ray of hope he has. "If I can find one and follow it upstream..."
"You can get out." Luke finishes. But before Percy can say anything else, Luke turns away from him. "Then this is where we part ways." The ground shakes, signaling to the duo that something large is approaching. "I'll draw them away from you. Pick a direction and go, Percy. And- Don't tell Annabeth, alright?" Before Percy can protest or make that promise, Luke steps forward and yells, "Heeeeeere! Come and get me!" He continues shouting as he runs into the darkness, and Percy stares in stunned silence before his brain turns back on and he bolts in the opposite direction.
He'd like to say that he had some natural instinct drawing him towards the nearest river, but the truth was that the initial feeling of panic had come back ten fold, and as more and more monsters came at him and he got increasingly tired, he was just running around like a headless chicken. The ground felt strange under his feet; like it couldn't decide if it was sand or dirt or a metal grate or mud or anything else. More than one time each step landed on different terrain and made him stumble unexpectedly.
The war in Manhattan had been a cakewalk compared to this. He'd had allies then, reinforcements, traps to lure enemies to, and the enemy commander retreated at dawn and they had a chance to regroup. All he had now was a perpetual solar eclipse and Annabeth's dagger.
He ran and fought, ran and fought, ran and fought. He was exhausted, and desperately needed to rest. He was constantly on the verge of collapsing and when he did he knew that Achilles curse wouldn't save him. The monsters would just have to poke him enough until they found the one place they could actually hurt and then he'd be dead.
Annabeth's dagger came in handy on more than one occasion. He was more experienced with a sword and shield, but he'd foregone his shield after bathing in the river Styx. All he could think about was getting this back to her, returning to her in one piece and telling her everything: That he loved her, that it was his love for her that had overpowered the destruction of the Styx and made him nearly invulnerable, that she had been right to call him a coward.
Personally, he thought she'd overreacted to him suddenly getting a new female friend he got along with, but he'd gone and made things worse by never bringing up their kiss in the Labyrinth, then spending all summer going out with Rachel instead of hanging out with Annabeth.
He'd been scared.
Scared of a lot of things; of the monsters taking his friends away, of the battles where he would inevitably fail and lose the people he cared about, but nothing had scared him more than the thought of losing Annabeth. She'd been with him through the most difficult times of his life; he'd never given much thought to his future, the kind of career he'd be interested in, where else he might like to live if not in New York. That had always seemed so far away while he'd been struggling to grow up with Gabe while getting kicked out of every school he attended. But when his entire world had tilted upside down and he'd had no one to lean on, Annabeth had been there for him. At first, she'd only wanted him for her own reasons: to get out into the world and complete a quest to prove herself, but surprise surprise! Multiple life or death situations where the fate of the world or camp or each other was at risk had brought them together.
And out of fear of losing her by changing their relationship into something more intimate, he'd run away. He was a coward. He'd tried to get a kiss from her before battling the Minotaur for the second time at the Williamsburg Bridge, but all he got from her was, "Come back alive, Seaweed Brain. Then we'll see."
So as he grabbed her knife from the remains of a monster, he promised that even if he had to swim up the Styx itself, he would return to her.
Which meant it was the perfect time for the absolute worst thing to happen.
He'd stopped trying to keep track of time a while ago. It could have been days or hours after arriving, but as he was running after destroying something manifest in front of him. The thing in front of him was hard to make out with the dim light of his sword, but it looked like it was wearing a hooded poncho, vertically oval-shaped and taller than he was, maybe about six or seven feet, and hovering above the ground. The presence it gave off reminded him of the time he'd nearly been pulled into Tartarus on his first quest while trying to save Grover from cursed flying shoes, only it was a million times worse. Then, as he tried to shake off the overwhelming fear, he noticed that it was shifting slightly; not because it was moving, but because its form was constantly changing, growing limbs from monsters, teeth rising from it's inky depths to lash out before sinking and disappearing, eyes forming and fading over and over. "A mortal?" It asked.
Percy ran on pure instinct. The voice was the worst thing he'd ever heard, worse than his father yelling at him when he'd sat on his throne, worse than Kronos' voice had been when he'd dreamed of him before Luke had raised him, worse than Grover summoning the power of Pan, it was pure chaos and madness and violence, emanating not from the thing in front of him but from everywhere in the realm.
"Where do you think you're going?" It asked him. "I am omnipresent in my realm; there is no escape." It appeared in front of him and Percy slashed with Riptide. The beast divided into two before the blade could connect with it and Percy ran in between it while it casually pulled itself back together. "Come back mortal, and answer me!"
It roared and Percy nearly blacked out from the force of it raising its voice. "What do you want!?"
"Why are you in my realm, mortal? This place is beyond the likes of you." It asked as three of the shapeless forms appeared and blocked Percy's path, forcing him to turn so hard he nearly fell before getting back to his feet and running away.
"I'm trying to get out." Percy knew the only thing that would buy him time would be to talk. "So, point me to the exit and I'll gladly take my leave."
There was the sound of something like laughter. "It is through your own power that you leave my domain. That is how the beasts go when you send them here with that weapon of yours. How much power do you have, mortal? Show me." It asked, and suddenly there was a low howl as the thing emerged from the darkness and began fighting with Percy.
He wasn't sure what happened. He spun his sword in a wide arc, stabbed and slashed with the dagger, thrust both into the monster, but nothing seemed to work.
"Hmph. How... inadequate." It sounded bored as it formed in front of him again. "You're able to withstand my attacks, but not out of strength, out of trickery. Did you turn invulnerable in the river Styx, perhaps? No wonder you survive my realm, mortal. You have the strength of forces stronger than you. What would you do without them?"
"You keep saying 'my realm'." Percy notices. "What are you? Who are you?"
"I am Tartarus, as much the realm you are in as I am the form in front of you. Born of the first Chaos, I allow the slain monsters to reform here and return to the surface. But you are not a monster. You cannot escape." It says. "So tell me: How did you come to be here? Mortals slain must go to the underworld, as I understand it."
He doesn't see the point in answering, but as the conversation goes on, Percy starts to get his wind back and decides he might as well buy all the time he can get. "The Titan Kronos rose from here and
inhabited the body of a mortal to reform himself. I spent years trying to stop the mortal doing this, but I
failed, and we were forced to fight. I struck him down, and the next thing I know I'm here."
"So that's what it was." Tartarus muses. "I am normally not awake like this. But bringing a Titan back to my realm does tend to disturb the peace..."
Percy cleared his throat, not wanting to think about Tartarus' definition of peace. "Well, I should probably get going. Where's the nearest river? I can take it up to the underworld and you can go back to sleep."
"It doesn't matter." Tartarus floats a foot closer to him. "I want to know something. How would you fare if you were not invulnerable? How long could a mortal truly last in my realm? Show me your weakness!" It attacks Percy again, and he rolls and runs.
He runs and runs and runs, barely able to keep his sword and dagger in his hand as he fights Tartarus and the monsters it sends at him.
Time passes. At least he hopes it does. With nothing except darkness and monsters, he has no idea how long he's been here.
Finally, after coming to the top of a hill with black jagged steps, he sees the infinite darkness in front of him, broken briefly by Typhon's fire breathing roar, and wonders if he should keep going. None of the gods have answered his prayers. The was no indication that a river was anywhere nearby.
"There you are."
And then, the most intense pain he'd ever felt wracked his entire body. He'd been stabbed, poisoned, burned, and everything in between, but this was what his nightmares of failing to hold up the sky felt like. He fell to his knees, clutching at the small of his back and pulled out the black spike that had impaled him, and he fell onto his side. "What did I do to deserve this...?" His voice his hoarse and rough from all the fighting and running, but it's also deathly quiet as he closes his eyes, thinking of everyone he loved: his mom, Grover, Annabeth, Tyson, Poseidon, Thalia, the campers. Then his eyes close and he lets out a final breath.
"None of that now." Tartarus says from behind him. "There is much I am curious about regarding you. Now that your little trick is gone, I can finish my analysis. I don't have mortals down here very often, you know, so you'll just have to live while I study you. When my work is done, I'll let you die. But not before. Not before."
Percy raises his sword in defense, an icy grip in his chest as he recognizes a feeling he'd almost forgotten: He was no longer invulnerable. He'd only been that way for a few days, with the battle for the fate of the world taking place so soon afterwards, but he'd gotten used to it. Now, his skin crawled and he felt... everything. He was more aware of the hot breeze on his skin, the blisters on his hands, everything. He knew getting hit in his week point would be fatal, since it would be the same as getting stabbed everywhere, so he'd never thought about what would happen if he lived after it. At least he knew now, and the answer didn't make him feel any better. "What do you want from me?"
"Show me how strong you really are!" Tartarus laughs gleefully, like a mad scientist in an old science fiction movie. "Prove to me that a mortal could really best a Titan!"
It lashed towards him, and Percy cried in pain as he started to choke on his own blood. Tartarus had impaled him on several claws, then groaned.
"That was pitiful. Impress me!"
Suddenly, Percy was whole again. He pressed a hand against his chest in disbelief that he didn't look like a block of cheese. "If Tartarus can regenerate monsters, then I guess it can do the same to a mortal." He realized with despair.
He doesn't have time to react before Tartarus attacked again.
Again and again, the embodiment of the pit attacked. He lost count of how many times he'd been slashed apart, eaten whole, burned, poisoned, impaled; all he knew was the constant torment that Tartarus put him through.
Until finally, when he'd been put back together and Tartarus advanced upon him once more, he cried out, "Please don't! Please! Please! Please! Please don't!" Tears fell down his face as the shame burned through him. Not once had ever given in to his enemies. Not once had he failed when the odds had been stacked against him. But he'd finally reached his limit: he would rather die than live in this eternal torment. He was 16, he didn't even have a drivers license, he was alone, he had nothing. All he wanted was for the pain to end.
"You're very polite Percy." Tartarus slowly moves in to close the distance between them. "I appreciate that."
And then it begins again.
"That's enough!" A voice calls out, surprising Tartarus to the point it drops Percy's broken body.
"Nyx. This is unexpected."
Percy is whole once more, but he doesn't comprehend what's in front of him. It's too normal a sight for his reality. Despite the constant pain and fear and death, there is a woman standing a few feet away from them. She is dressed relatively plainly, a black dress that reaches to the ground, her dark hair in a ponytail, with little lights glittering across her form like twinkling stars. She's wearing a crescent moon necklace, which glows a beautiful shade of gold. Her face is normal, with slight wrinkles by the eyes and her mouth drawn into a thin tight line.
"Look what I found." Tartarus moves towards Percy, who curls into the fetal position and cries again. "A mortal!"
"Not much of one." Nyx looks down at him with disdain, but Percy doesn't notice. "I was as curious as you to see the limits of his strength, but you've clearly overestimated the mortal's strength. It is time to let him return to his realm."
"This is my realm Nyx, and I will decide when I've had enough."
"Do not challenge me Tartarus! Return to your slumber, and let the mortal leave. I will not say it again."
Tartarus and Nyx stare at each other, and then, the shapeless form dissolves with a low growl.
Nyx walks up to Percy, staring down at him without emotion. "Don't... Don't... Please, don't..." He mutters over and over, his eyes screwed shut. She leans down and picks him up, throwing him over her shoulder as he goes slack in total fear. "No, no, no, no, no, no..." He whimpers over and over again.
She walks through Tartarus, and the monsters give the primordial a wide berth. Effortlessly she makes it to the shores of the river Styx and sets Percy down, who looks up at her with a wild look in his eyes. "Charon!" She shouts into the darkness.
Moments later, a boat speeds down the Styx, coming to a stop beside Nyx. "Mother. You... never call me. What do you-" And then the ferryman for the dead notices Percy laying on the ground.
"Return this mortal to the realm above. He does not belong here." Nyx raises her hand and Percy levitates, letting out a scream as he is deposited on the ferry.
"...As you wish." Charon stares in disbelief at the former hero, and Nyx turns and heads to her home within the depths of Tartarus.
The ferry turns in the Styx and begins traveling upstream. Charon glances behind him at the former hero and shakes his head. "The only reason I don't toss you in the Styx and end your suffering once and for all is because you actually kept your end of the promise all those years ago. Hades gave me a pay raise and with Daedalus in Hades employment, I can actually do my duty instead of sitting in that blasted lobby listening to the dead cry forever."
Percy doesn't respond. He doesn't even acknowledge Charon's presence. His mind has been broken by the constant pain and fear, and slowly, his eyes close as he rests for the first time since his arrival.
~A/N~
The first three chapters may have been a rocky return to form, but the future chapters will be much more focused! I appreciate everyone who has followed, favourited, and reviewed so far!