Percy found himself standing in the middle of the throne room on Olympus. The hearth that always laid in the middle barely lit up the room, the once beaming flames now a small, lifeless crackle. No one was in the room at the moment, the goddess who tended the hearth nowhere to be seen. That is until the scene in front of Percy began to shift.
The twelve thrones of the beings he despised morphed into a luscious, sunny beach with palm trees dotted around the perimeter. The sun was beaming down on the soft, white sand, no clouds could be seen, and the ocean shone a beautiful sea green, just like Percy's eyes. Percy looked behind him to see a massive resort, the name The Royal Guam Resort plastered to the side of the huge building.
That's when a confused look appeared on Percy's face. Guam? Why was he in Guam? Shouldn't he be in Tartarus? Not that he was complaining of course, anywhere would be better than that hell-hole, but it didn't make any sense.
While thinking, Percy began walking down the beach, looking out into the sea green ocean. Even when he was disowned by the Ruler of the Seas, the ocean brought peace to Percy, watching the waves lightly lap against the shores. He continued his walk for a couple minutes, just enjoying the serene scenery, until he heard the sound of a young woman screaming. His eyes left the ocean and his eyes darted forwards to a scene that made Percy freeze in his tracks.
In front of him stood the twelve Olympians who had tossed him in the pit, all smugly looking at a terrified and angry Hestia who stood in a small, enchanted celestial bronze cage, gripping the bars tightly making her fingers go white. The Olympians didn't seem to notice Percy's presence and Zeus began speaking.
"Sister, your support for that monster, Perseus Jackson, is forcing us to do this. If you swear on the Styx to forever despise that over powered brat, we will gladly release you."
Hestia just looked defiantly at her younger brother. "What in Chaos' name is happening to you!" looking at all the Olympians angrily. "You all are acting insane! How could you throw the hero who protected us from a cruel fate, twice, into Tartarus?"
Zeus just stood there with an emotionless face when Poseidon spoke up. "He was becoming too powerful." he said passively. "If he continued his growth he could have become a threat to Olympus."
Hestia's glare snapped to the Sea God's direction. "And you!" she spat. "How could you have disowned your favorite son! Have you forgotten that his fatal flaw is loyalty? He would have never betrayed Olympus for as long as he lived!"
"Enough" Zeus shouted, thunder booming in the sky above. "Sister, this is your last chance. Swear on the Styx or we shall have to imprison you in that trench for eternity for supporting Perseus Jackson! You may be the Goddess of the Hearth, but even your fire is no match for the weight of the seas."
Percy finally realized what was happening. Hestia was still supporting him, trying to convince the Olympians that they had made a mistake and to bring him back. But this had only made the Olympians angry at the Goddess, and they had made the decision to imprison her in the deepest depths of the Ocean, Marianas Trench.
Hestia continued to glare at Zeus, refusing to be submissive. "I am also the Goddess of Family, and family never stops supporting each other." Then glaring back to the rest of the Olympians, "nor do they lie about them and cast them into Hell." Speaking with venom.
Zeus looked shocked at Hestia's words until his shock soon turned into anger. "Very well sister, you have made your foolish choice. I hereby banish you, Hestia, Goddess of the Hearth, to the depths of the trench where you shall remain for as long as we rule!" he roared.
Percy tried to cry out to the Gods and Goddesses, finally finding his voice. No reaction came from any of them as if they hadn't heard him. He watched in horror, as the cage that jailed the Goddess of the Hearth, one of the only people to believe in him, was dragged into the sea, taking her to the darkness of the bottom of the ocean.
Percy woke with a start, his arms and legs jerking until he felt something restraining them. As his mind woke up, a sudden ache washed over him as he remembered his less than graceful landing. He slowly turned his attention to his wrists and ankles, only to see that he was bound to wall, celestial bronze chains holding him in place and stripping him of his ability to move.
Without being able to do anything at the moment, Percy thought back to the dream he just had. Knowing that as a demigod, his dreams tended to mean something, he couldn't help but feel depressed about Hestia's imprisonment. She was suffering because of him, because she chose not to conform to the Olympians and defended him instead. His rage towards Olympians somehow seemed to grow. Not only had they wrongfully sent him to Tartarus, they were now hurting those who he was close with. He had newfound determination, he was going to get out of the Pit and save the only Goddess who stood up for him. He was going to bring the Olympians down to their knees.
His thoughts though were broken when he heard a sound come from the entrance way of the room, now registering the situation he was in. He was in Tartarus, chained to a wall in a small, dimly-lit room with a blood red floor. The walls were a pale brown that seemed to be made out of the skin of monsters, possibly cyclops or laestrygonian giants. He involuntarily shuddered at thinking about a person or monster who was cruel enough to use the skin of humanoid creatures as the insulator to their home. Then again, he remembered he was in Tartarus, home to some of the most sinister beings in the world.
The sound he heard earlier seemed to get louder and he knew that he would soon be meeting his captor. It sounded like hundreds of small hisses, as if he was in the middle of a snake pit. Whatever was coming towards him was definitely reptilian, making Percy's mind fill up with images of all the deadly types of monsters that he could possibly meet. Finally, his host appeared in the entrance way.
As they entered, a long, poison green, snake like body neatly coiled up into a spiral looking like a garden hose. The scales that coated it glimmered from the limited light and looked smooth, yet if touched, was sharp enough to shred skin. Percy continued looking up the body where the green scales seemed to completely disappear as the serpent body melted into smooth, pale, green-tinted flesh. There, the curvy frame of a woman could be seen, wearing a small breast plate that exposed the woman's stomach and showed off a fair amount of cleavage. If Percy wasn't constrained to a wall in Tartarus, he probably would of blushed at the sight of the beautiful woman's body. The thought however, immediately left his head when he looked at her face. The woman, or monster, had a heart-shaped face with full lips underneath the most radiant eyes he had ever seen. They were a solid emerald green with piercing, midnight black pupils. Percy couldn't help but stare at the woman before him, she was very beautiful. But as his eyes travelled upwards to the top of her head where he expected to see a head of hair, color drained from his face and his eyes widened in fear and shock. Hundreds of bronze and gold colored serpents with green venom drenched on their teeth, nestled and hissed a top her head.
In front of Percy stood Medusa, the gorgon he killed on his first quest as a demigod when he was 12 years old. The monster who could turn any living being into stone just from a look at her hideous face, according to the legends.
Wait a minute. Hideous? The woman in front of him was gorgeous. And why hadn't he turned to stone yet? He had been looking at her for several seconds already.
He was cut away from his thoughts when she finally spoke.
"Perseus Jackson" she spat his name with venom.
For some odd reason, he remembered the Ancient Greek stories of the original Perseus, son of Zeus, who had slain Medusa the first time. Now that he thought of it, she probably wasn't very fond of demigods with the name Perseus.
"What a surprise it was for me to come upon you next to the River of Styx. Have the Olympians finally tire of your existence and banished you down here for me to enjoy" she smirked evilly, emphasizing "enjoy". While Percy was scared, he scowled at the mention of the Olympians.
"Those Olympians are dead to me, the way they rule this world is no better than that of what Kronos or Gaia would have done. All they do is take advantage of others and toss them away once they have expended their use." his words laced with malice. Percy's sea green eyes began to darken until they could have been mistaken for black. "I will make them pay."
Medusa's emerald green eyes widened in surprise, before the emotion disappeared as quickly as it has shown. She could somewhat sympathize with the demigod, remembering her own unfortunate past of feeling the wrath of the Olympians. She used to be a faithful priest of Athena, but one day she had met the God of the Seas and fell in love. When Athena found out her relationship with Poseidon, she placed this horrid curse on her, changing her once beautiful appearance to the hideous gorgon she now was. When she had tried to turn to Poseidon for help, the God of the Seas simply ignored her, treating her as if she was another monster for his demigod children to kill.
Medusa quickly shook the memory out of her head and returned her attention and anger to the demigod before her. He had killed her once before, and now she was going to return the favor by torturing him very slowly and painfully.
"To bad you won't be able to do that without knowing how to escape Tartarus." she said with a cocky smile and her hands on her hips. "Not that you would ever get the chance to when you're going to be my torture pet for eternity".
A look of realization crossed Percy's face. He was in front of one of the most famous monsters in Greek history, a monster who probably has a huge grudge against him.
Medusa noticed the look on Percy's face before smiling wickedly. She slithered up to him, her face merely inches apart from his. "That's right Perseus, you didn't think I would forget about you sending me back to this Gods forsaken pit…" she paused before moving her mouth up to his ear and whispering, "did you?".
Percy visibly shivered at Medusa's words. He may have been the twice over Hero of Olympus, but that didn't mean he was invulnerable to terrifying monsters. If he didn't find a way to escape soon, he was going to spend eternity tortured.
Medusa took one more look at Percy, sharp emerald green eyes staring into anxious sea green. She turned from the demigod and began to exit the room, smiling as she thought of all the ways she could deliver pain to the son of Poseidon.
Suddenly an ear-shattering roar erupted from outside her home interrupted her thoughts. A giant tail crashed through the walls, destroying the room instantly, and covering Medusa and Percy in rubble.