АН: All rights belong to Rick Riordan. It's all just my imagination.
Here's the new part. If you haven't read Broken, read It first. And those who read enjoy the new part. Thank you for reading. I am waiting for your comments.
Chapter 1. Act 2 – the beginning.
POV Percy (after falling into Tartarus)
I didn't think it would take so long to fall into a hole. We've been falling for hours, and I still haven't seen the end.
"I wonder how long we'll be falling." – I don't know, but Wake me up when you see the end." Perseus yawned.
"Are you going to sleep?" I asked incredulously. And you will give it to me. I'm tired. Too much stress in one day. – Perseus. Well, I can understand it. There have been too many shocks in the past two days. It turns out that I was attacking the campers, not the monster. Annabeth broke up with me. Thinking about her made me feel like I was being turned inside out. I'd rather not think about it. Then they grabbed me and threw me into Tartarus. And all that happened to me was the plan of Zeus and Athena. When I get out of here, I'll get even with them.
- ZEUS. I WILL KILL YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER. - I shouted into the void. Shut up you're interrupting my sleep. – Perseus. I'm disturbing his sleep. Blessed. We're falling into the worst place in the world, and he's going to sleep.
What should I do? There's only darkness around me. The only thing that is there is the sound of the wind from the fall. I'm still chained up. My arms. I stopped feeling them a long time ago. Why couldn't Ares have made me more comfortable? Did you have to chain them behind my back? And it seems to be at a slightly wrong angle. They used to at least get sick, but now they don't get sick at all. He didn't break them for me, did he? Well, he could have done it.
"Why does a demigod need hands in Tartarus?" that made me laugh. And the simple laugh turned hysterical. All the stress of these days has been released. If anyone could hear me now, they'd think I was crazy. Although stop. I am.
- I AM CRAAAAZYYY. - I yell again, between fits of hysterical laughter. SHUT UP. Perseus screams in my mind. I'm finally having a fit of laughter. And it seems that the space around me has become warmer. I look down and see a small red glow. Am I approaching the Tartarus. What should I do?
- Perseus. Wake. We're almost at the bottom. - I Wake him up. That's it? – Perseus. "Yes, we got there. I just don't know how we're going to land. – after I told him that, we fell out of the tunnel we were falling through. And before us opened a view of the seemingly endless Tartarus. Instead of clouds, there were some red clouds. But as we fell through them, I realized that they were made up of poison. As soon as I took a breath next to them, I felt sick. Hey, look down there's a lake. Maybe if we fall in there, we'll survive. I hope the water will soften the fall. Perseus was right, we were falling right into the lake. But it was strange, and more than one river flowed into it. One was on fire.
"Is that a river of FIRE?" if we fall into it, we'll burn. Well, it only flows into the lake. The lake is not burning. – Perseus. We didn't have much choice-either a lake with a chance of survival, or death on the rocks. I didn't like the latter option. We were fast approaching the lake. If only we could squeeze it out. Survived, survived. I prayed to myself. Then we fell into the lake.
- at the bottom of the lake-
I don't know what water the lake is made of, but it was very painful even worse than my swimming in the river Styx. I felt like I was back in it, but now the pain was even worse. I could feel my flesh burning. I saw through the water as my body burned to the bone, and then regrown with skin again. I felt my eyes burning out. Every breath I took was painful, like I was drinking fire. The desire to live was being pulled out of me. Why am I still alive? Who needs me? Maybe I should die here at the bottom, but I couldn't do it. After the water turned my guts out and burned them. She restored them. It was awful to feel new skin grow and then burn. I wanted to die from all this. I opened my mouth to scream in pain, but no sound came out because my vocal cords were burned. Not give up. Whose voice was that? Not die. Who is it? PERCY LIIIVEEE. I remembered. It was Perseus. How could I forget about him? I continued to feel all the pain, but now I could abstract myself from it. Perseus. It's you? – Percy. Who else? Let's get out of this damned lake. – Perseus. I agreed with him, but how do I do it? I didn't even notice that the lake had destroyed the chains that bound me. After that, I started crawling along the bottom. I didn't know which way I was going or for how long. All that I could feel it burning the flesh. But I did not give up and moved forward. It took us a hell of a long time to get ashore.
- the shore near the lake –
The beach was made of broken glass, and the air was laced with poison. But compared to the lake, it was Paradise. I rolled over on my back and tried to recover from what I had just experienced. After I got up, I noticed that I wasn't wearing any clothes. It's probably all burned up. I panicked because my trusty sword was in my pants.
"And what would a demigod do in the most densely populated place without weapons or clothing?" – the sword must rest at the bottom of this lake. "I don't know how I can't get it back." "A terrible start. Perseus Joked. I smiled at his words.
- If you turn around here is a demigod, then maybe we can help you. a very soft but commanding voice said from behind me. I turned around and saw four beautiful women. They were all similar to each other. All of them had skin the color of ivory and black as night eyes. Three of them had sadistic smiles on their lips. And the one who I understood was addressing me was smiling at me gently and affably as if we were old acquaintances. The only difference between them was the color of their hair: one was a fiery red, the other was gray like old people, the next had white hair streaked with black like dirty snow, and the last had black hair like their eyes. When I realized that they were looking at me, and I was completely naked, I blushed like a ripe cherry and quickly covered myself with my hands. I was very ashamed they noticed it and started giggling. They are beautiful. Perseus I ignored his comment.
"Don't worry, we've already seen all this while you were in the lake. the lady with the red hair said to me, and smiled sadistically. It gave me the creeps.
"Don't frighten my champion, Phlegethon," said the lady with the black hair. I do not remember to have been someone's champion.
"Who are you?" I asked them.
"We are the spirits of four of the five rivers of Tartarus. Maybe you remember me, I'm Styx. - said the lady with black hair, who apparently was the spirit of the river Styx in which I bathed before the war with Kronos.
"Why did you say I was your champion?" I asked her. – And who are the others?" "they all smiled at me. I shivered again.
"I am the spirit of the Phlegethon river. the lady with the red hair introduced herself.
"I am the spirit of the Coquitos river," said the lady with the gray hair.
"And I am the spirit of the Acheron river." the last lady with white hair and black streaks said.
"We're here to help you." For being able to get out of this lake. Styx said, waving her hand in the direction of the lake. Are you sure you can trust them? – Perseus.
"I don't know, but we don't have much choice." - I muttered softly.
At this time, Styx continued. – And about your question, you became my champion when you bathed in my river in hell." I nodded at that.
"How do you want to help me?" I asked them.
"Each of us will give you something. "This is my gift to you. she handed me a set of clothes. I nodded my thanks and took it. Although I was secretly hoping for something better.
"Thanks for the clothes." I replied sarcastically.
- Don't think this is not ordinary clothing, it is indestructible and if you lose it, it will return to you after a while. But if you do manage to damage it, it will repair itself in a day. "I'm sorry," she said. It turns out this armor in the form of clothing. The clothing consisted of regular black jeans. Gray t-shirt and the same color of sneakers. I gave her another grateful nod and a smile. I immediately tried to put on my clothes. Which made them laugh at me. This made me blush even more quickly. When I unfolded my t-shirt to put it on, a pair of gray underpants fell out. If I could have blushed even more, I did. After I got dressed, I turned to face them. They all smiled at me mockingly. I blushed and lowered my head in shame. After that, Acheron came up to me and handed me something. When I took it, I realized that it was my sword. My trusty Anaklusmos.
"My gift is that I returned your weapon to you. – no, " she said coldly. After I nodded to her. She turned and went back to where she had been standing. Phlegethon came next.
"My gift to you is my protection from poisons. she put her hand on my shoulder as she spoke, and I flashed orange for a moment. – Now you will not suffer from the destructive environment of Tartarus. The poison in the air will no longer harm you. This will help you survive. – at this I started to smile at her, I had already experienced its effect on myself while falling, it was terrible. It completely paralyzed your body and you couldn't even breathe. And if you touched it, then there were terrible blisters on the skin, which quickly burst and began to fester. After she gave me protection, she nodded at me and pulled back out. After that, all three spirits disappeared, leaving me with Styx.
"And now I'm my champion," she said in a soft voice. – My gift will be to change the place of your Achilles ' heel. But keep in mind that the place you chose earlier will still be vulnerable and if it gets hit it will cause you terrible pain. But you won't die from getting there again, " she said, smiling softly. Then she put her hand on my chest. I flashed black for a second. – Now your Achilles ' heel is in the heart. And to kill you now we either have to throw a mountain on you. Since The protection of Phlegethon gave immune to the poisons of Tartarus, you will not be poisoned. Good luck my champion. I hope you can get out of here. with that, she disappeared.
- Well, Perseus, it seems we need to find a way to escape from here.
Right. We'll make it work. We've come out of various scrapes alive, and we'll get out of this one. And then we will take revenge on all the guilty. – Perseus.
"Well said. – after that I opened my sword and went to explore Tartarus for the presence of way out of here.