A/N: hey everyone. So I'm very disappointed in the lack of reviews I got. I'm going to shoutout the one person who reviewed! Thank you Faulcuem Tano for reviewing and encouraging me to continue writing! Enjoy

Disclaimer: not mine

Chapter 8

Percy's pov

I wasn't for sure how much time had passed after Kronos left. My blood had stopped flowing from my back a long time ago and it had dried into a crust on the floor beneath me. It's metallic sent filled my nostrils and I could here the slow drip of water echoing around my cell. Ironic isn't it? My strenght, my domain, is literally inches away from me and I can't even use it. Even if I could reach water, it would do me no good. I have no powers over water anymore.

I was too afraid to close my eyes. I couldn't stand to here the voices again, to watch them die all over again. So I stayed awake. I focused on the pain to keep myself from closing my eyes, because the moment I closed my eyes the nightmares would overtake me.

I thought of my friends, of the gods, of my mother. What does she think happens to me? What did the gods tell my mother? Does she know where I am? Somehow I doubt it. The gods are too prideful, too selfish.

What about my friends, the ones who voted for my innocence. I wonder if they are trying to save me, trying to help me. My thoughts sank deeper into a despair as I thought about them. No. They weren't trying to save me. They could try, they would fight, but they wouldn't succeed.

Worthless

I saw Michaels face in my mind, sneering at me. I saw Zöe, glaring at me, yelling about how I couldn't save her. Silena, Charles, Bianca. Yelling, glaring, crying, screaming. Then I started seeing other faces. Thalia, Nico, Leo. Turning their backs on me, saying how I wasn't worth saving.

Tears leaked out of my eyes and cut trails through the blood that had dried on my cheeks. No, my friends wouldn't turn on me like that. They wouldn't.

As I was wallowing in my thoughts, I didn't notice my surrounding change. By the time I did realize, it was already to late. I felt the ground change beneath me and I soon found myself staring at the blood red clouds above me. I was still wrapped tightly in chains and blood was dripping from my wrists onto the dark glass shards that covered the ground.

I heard the roaring of a river and angled my head towards the sound. I was met with a terrible sight. The rivers of the underword. I was on a island surrounded by every river. They all emptied into a large lake that was a mix of the fiery red, cold black, chilling grey, and dulling white of the rivers. What was strange about the scene was the individual rivers entering the lake. Some had multiple types of water while others had just one type.

As I surveyed my surrounding, dread sank deeper and deeper into my mind. Whatever was going to happen wasn't going to be in my favor. "Well little demigod. Do you like the view?"

I whipped my head around and my gaze locked onto Kronos's golden eyes. They glinted dangerously as his face stretched into a cruel smile. "They say the four rivers of the underworld aren't supposed to mix. That if they do, destruction will rain down. They were wrong. When the rivers are mixed it creates a fascinating combination." As he was speaking, Kronos's smile seemed to grow wider and wider with glee. "If you were to step in the lake you would feel many things. Experience many things. You see when you step into the river, you won't die. The Phlegethon makes sure of that. It heals you keeps you alive, while at the same time burns you with its fiery waters."

Kronos was staring at the lake with a sick fascination reflecting in his eyes. "While the Phlegethon burns you, the Cocytus freezes you down to your bones and fills your mind with despair. You lose your hope and love and feel only sorrow and misery. It's a horrible sensation to feel a burning heat and a chilling cold at the same time."

"The River Acheron, or the River of Pain, is truly astonishing. It causing you to feel the worst pains you have ever felt all over your body. It fills your ears with screams of pain and torture."

"Then there is the Lethe. The Lethe would normally wipe your memory clean but combined with the other rivers, it does something a bit different. As the Lethe takes away memories, the Phlegethon restores them. But there is a catch. The Acheron and the Cocytus fill the memories with pain, despair, torture, and hatred. It turns even the good memories into horrible experiences. Truly a wonderful combination."

"The Styx is unique. You see, parts of your body will start to disintegrate and then solidify again because the Phlegethon with heal you. The Achilles Curse will be wiped away with the rivers so all you get out of it is tremendous pain. It really is amazing."

I was staring at the water with horror painting my features. It was eerily beautiful. The way the colors blended together to create and swirling mix. The way it flowed with a power that should never have come together. It was terrifying.

Kronos yanked on my chains and brought his face inches from mine. His eyes were clouded with madness and a sick desire. "Are you ready for a swim?"

I didn't even have time to register what he had just said before I was thrown violently into the waters. I prayed to every god hoping, begging, for help, comfort, anything. Right as I was about to hit the water I felt something warm inside me. Like I was sitting next to a cozy fireplace, relaxing with my friends. Then I hit the water and it was gone in an instant.

It was like nothing I have ever felt before. I was burning then I was frozen. I felt my memories slip away only to come back again with wave after wave of pain. Knives seemed to stab me all over my battered body. I felt my limbs disintegrate in the water and then reform itself. All thoughts all hope were washed away and replaced by despair and misery.

The voices in my head reached an extreme and they screamed in my head. WEAK, USELESS, MURDERER. I screamed and thrashed around as I was put through the worst kind of torture imaginable. The only thing that existed was the pain. Just pain and misery. Nothing else existed at that moment.

Just as I thought I couldn't take it anymore, I was tugged out of the lake. I lay on the glass shards of the shore and coughed up river water, still feeling the affects of the water on my mind and body. I faintly heard Kronos muttering to himself. "Yes, yes... That was good but still not enough... we will have to experiment with this... Yes."

I curled in on my self and squeezed my eyes close. I felt pathetic, curled at his feet like that. A small voice in the back of my mind whispered in my ear. Is this what the hero of Olympus has come to? A sniveling coward?

As I started to lose consciousness, I watched as the lake churned angrily and crashed onto the shore, as if it was furious that I had been taken from its grasp. My eyes slid closed and maybe, just maybe, I thought I heard a soft whisper in my ear. Someone I knew. Someone who cared. Perseus. Hold on. I'm here.