Hanging out with Thalia was pretty fun. Daímonas thought so, anyway. Percy wasn't as excited about it, though. He knew as soon as he came back out she would yell at him and ask him why he didn't come back sooner. And that was something he didn't want to answer.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on how you see it), he didn't have to. Daímonas did it for him.
It was a normal day. Daímonas spent most of it in the arena, training vigorously, and most of the campers watched. When he destroyed all of the dummies, he repaired them using moisture in the air.
The repairs weren't perfect. The repairs made them last longer, but he had to make new dummies every few days. Sometimes, Thalia would join Daímonas. They would also spar occasionally.
Daímonas would always win. He had spent hundreds of years fighting and killing monsters and titans. Demigods, even ones who had been fighting for a few hundred years, were no match for him.
There was one time she came close though. That was today. She had used her regular weapons, her spear and shield, but she had used a new tactic. Daímonas played heavy offense with almost no defense. In a way, his offense was his defense.
She decided to try that. During the fight, she had pushed him hard, trying to give him no breathing room. Unfortunately for her, he was used to this. He had fought plenty of enemies who had used a similar technique to his, so he knew how to counter it.
However, Thalia still had her shield and, while it didn't scare him at all, she used it to block almost all of his attempts to hit her. She would jab with her spear, he would roll out of the way and try to stab, she would block with her shield, rinse and repeat.
Throughout the fight, Thalia tried to keep her concentration, but it was hard with Daímonas' constant cackling and creepy smiles. The look in his eyes wasn't much better. It was a crazed look of glee, like he enjoyed fighting. He probably did.
But, after almost an hour, she was running on empty. He was still going strong though, so he was able to get the upper hand in the fight. He got one sword to her neck and another above her heart.
He was breathing hard, but Thalia was exhausted. "That was good," Daímonas told her. "But, in the end, no match for someone who spent hundreds of years in the pit, constantly hunted by anything and everything."
Thalia didn't like that. She yielded and he backed off. "Take a walk with me?" He asked, sheathing his swords. Thalia hesitated, then nodded. He walked off, motioning for her to follow.
They walked in silence until they reached Zeus's fist. He jumped and climbed to the top in seconds. She followed him, taking a couple of minutes to climb up. When she got there, she found him staring at the sky.
It was getting kinda dark out, almost nighttime. "What are you looking at?" she asked.
He jumped, then looked away. "Nothing. Just the sky." he sat down and patted the ground next to him. She sat down.
After a minute, he spoke, "I know what you wanna ask, so just ask it."
She cringed. "Alright. Why didn't you-Percy-why didn't he come back?"
He waited a moment before answering. "Leaving Tartarus is not easy. It takes a lot of strength and skill in order to get to the exits. It took Percy about 60 years to gather the strength and skills necessary to leave.
But Tartarus does terrible things to your mind and body. Did Annabeth tell you about what happened down there?" Thalia shook her head. "No, I suppose she wouldn't. Unless you were there yourself, you wouldn't be able to understand.
Anyway, as soon as Percy arrived down there, the corruption of Tartarus started to seep into him. Had he left with Annabeth, it would have dissipated. He would've been fine, given time. But he didn't.
After he escaped from the heart of Tartarus, he began to roam. He killed monsters, drank fire-water, you know, normal Tartarus stuff."
Thalia nodded uneasily. "Yeah… sure."
Daímonas continued. "He didn't win all of his fights, obviously. But he won most of them. He found new weapons, mastered one-handed and two-handed sword combat, honed his water powers, and learned how to dual wield.
By the end of those 60 years, he had realized several things. 1: he wasn't aging anymore. He had stopped in his mid-20's. 2: he was becoming darker. He was using new techniques, making hard decisions easier. He didn't like who he was becoming.
When he arrived at his destination, an exit from Tartarus, he stopped. He reflected back on everything he had done since he had landed in Tartarus. He believed that he had become a monster. And that's where I come in.
I had already been coalescing in his mind and body, a little voice pushing him to go farther, to fight harder. Like whatever the opposite of a conscience is. When he started believing himself a monster, all of that darkness took form.
That form was me. At first, you couldn't tell the difference between me and him. We were almost identical. But as time went on, he realized that he wasn't always in control. After leaving the exit, he roamed around Tartarus."
"Doing what?" Thalia asked.
He shrugged. "A bit of this, a bit of that. Became a mercenary of sorts. But someone like him, living in a place like that? It's not good. He started spending less and less time as himself, and more time as me.
Eventually, he let me take the wheel permanently. So, I went around, mastering new skills, finding new weapons, learning new techniques; anything to make life down there a bit more interesting."
Thalia's frown had only grown since he started talking. "So, what changed."
He looked away. "Tartarus. unbeknownst to me, he was plotting revenge. Revenge on those who had killed Gaea. He has gathered an enormous amount of monsters and is letting them leave easier than he normally would."
Thalia looked confused. "He lets monsters leave?"
"Not in the way you might think. Tartarus is the pit, and the pit is Tartarus. He doesn't really do anything but let monsters go about their lives, if you could call them that, and leave if they have the strength and knowledge.
However, he has relaxed his system a bit, letting monsters leave easier and more often. That's why…" Daímonas stopped. He cocked his head. "Do you hear that?"
Thalia listened. "Hear what?" then she heard it. Yelling. Screaming. Then another noise cut through the forest: the conch horn. The camp was under attack.
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A/N: sorry for no updates last week. high school is kicking my ass. also, the "Children of the Jacksons" rewrite is not coming along as well as I had hoped. there might be a chapter next week, but no promises.