Chapter 24

Natalie's P.O.V.

Natalie hated her life. She hated her existence. Why in the name of Hades did she have to be the one going through whatever she was going through. Couldn't she just be like a regular teenager worrying about homework, but still procrastinating by putting her feet crossed upon the study table and wearing a smug expression as the end of the world loomed closer? She could even imagine Atropos shouting from above, LOL, NO! and cackling like those evil grannies in movies.

She turned to find the source of the voice, and was definitely shocked to see it was a teenager. He was of her age, maybe a bit taller than her. But his face was hidden by the hood of his black leather jacket. He looked like those assassins, dressed completely in black, face hidden, two hunting knives on both sides of his jeans, a sword in his hand.

"Who are you?" Percy asked, uncapping Riptide. Natalie willed her sword into her hand, and it appeared. She was so confused and angry and sad right now that a part of her wanted to sob, that at least her imperial gold weapon had appeared to her when she needed it.

"Depends on who you think of me as," he said. He spoke with such confidence that Natalie seemed puzzled. How can someone, someone human, be in Tartarus and behave like he owned the place.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind, I'd request you to lay down your weapons and surrender yourself, or you don't wanna know the other alternative."

"Really?" Natalie mocked. "What if we say the same?"

"Then you would be lying. And trust me, you don't wanna do that, it adds up to your bad things column, and that might not get you to Elysium."

Natalie didn't know why she felt strangely drawn to him. His voice, his hidden face.

"Don't be so overconfident," Annabeth said over the rushing sound of the lava river. "We're three, you're one. And believe me, we have seen some serious stuff."

Natalie could feel a ghostly smile upon the face of the boy, as though he was amused. His lips, partially visible, curved into a smirk. And then he charged.

Natalie hardly had the time to react as he attacked with blinding speed. He attacked and kept each of them busy, and had no problem doing that. She hadn't expected the person to be so quick and agile. But then again, she and her friends weren't at their best right now in Tartarus, and the boy looked as though he was playing in the backyard of his home.

She had never fought someone this good before. And well, anyone who casually strutted around Tartarus wouldn't be so if they weren't extremely powerful. She had many close calls while fighting. Percy waved his hand. Water from Phlegathon floated towards the boy, but just before it could scorch him, he waved his hand. The water stopped midair, stuck between two people using it. But she was confused. The boy was holding the water back. It was obeying him too.

"You're a son of Neptune," he mused. Neptune. So he was a Roman demigod.

"It's Poseidon. But in a way, back at you," Percy growled. The boy lowered his hood. His face resembled so much to Neptune, Natalie thought that maybe she might have been looking at him. Sea-green eyes, brooding smile. And he radiated the power of the sea. He looked very similar to Percy, except for one scar that ran from the bottom of his left eye to the middle part of his cheek.

"So are you," he looked at her.

"I'm a daughter of Neptune, not a son."

"Don't you have something called 'common sense' these days?" he laughed.

"Of course you're a daughter of Neptune. I can see that you're a , siding with dad? Trying to help him for all he's doing, huh?"

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked him.

He mocked a confused face. "You don't know? Oh, that's so bad. And I used to think that the Greeks would probably be smart."

"Yeah, well at least we are standing by him, unlike some people," Percy said sarcastically.

"Enough!"

He pushed the water back into the river. "You've lived for too long now," he charged again. But this time, Natalie helped Percy in controlling the water. It was something that, when they both did it together, became more effective. She felt the same power surge inside her that she had felt when she had controlled the water of Little Tiber from Percy. This time, the boy had trouble holding them back. Percy attacked him, and he had to flip back to avoid getting sliced in half by Percy.

But that's not what caught Natalie's attention. When he had flipped, something silver had emerged from inside his black t-shirt. Something familiar. Annabeth had started to attack him too, but Natalie just kept standing there, staring at him.

His age matched, his looks matched. Everything did. But how could it be him, after all those years? Someone could survive Tartarus like that? Her mind was filled with so many thoughts. She felt numb. And finally, she caught a clear glance of the thing he wore on his neck.

It was the same pendant she had around her neck. And after all this time, now she was sure it was him. He was alive. She kept staring at them fighting. He was getting slightly overpowered now. Percy would just have stabbed him in the thigh when her senses finally came back to her.

"No! Percy, stop!"

Three pairs of eyes turned to her. Even the boy, who seemed so amused that he didn't even attack while Percy and Annabeth were not focusing on him.

"What's wrong? You want to show mercy to him? Someone who's betraying the Olympians. I don't care about them, but he might have killed so many people on our side by now," he spat furiously, sword ready to attack the boy. Natalie clenched her sword in her hand tightly. She pulled out her pendant from her neck and held it in her hand, showing it to them.

The boy's, no, Ben's eyes widened. His sword clattered from his hand. With all the courage she could muster, she slowly whispered, "Ben?"

"Natalie," he stated, shocked from head to foot, his brows furrowed. He ran towards her, and threw himself on her. Natalie was almost sobbing as he hugged him back, but she didn't let tears come to her eyes.

"You're alive?" she exclaimed, pulling away. "But how - how did you?"

"I want to ask you the same thing. What are you doing in Tartarus?"

"Hold up," Percy said. "You're Ben? Her brother? My half-brother?"

"Benjamin Carter, without a doubt," he said. "And you're Percy Jackson. I know you too."

Then suddenly, as if a sudden realization had dawned upon him, he stiffened. He stood protectively in front of her, his two hunting knives clutched in his hands defensively.

"You stay away from my sister. Natalie, what are you doing with them? Did he and his friend hurt you?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Hold up," Percy said. "What do you mean? Stay away from my sister? Look man, she's my sister too. And why would I harm her?"

Natalie looked at Annabeth, who looked as confused as she was.

"Don't lie to me," Ben growled. He went to attack Percy but Natalie beat him to it and placed herself between Ben and Percy.

"No Ben, wait! Percy is not trying to harm me!" she exclaimed.

Ben looked furiously at her. "You don't know him, Natalie. You always trusted people easily."

"No."

Ben lowered his knives, looking at her weirdly. Natalie knew something was wrong.

"Look, Ben. I can trust him with my life, because Percy has risked his life many times to save mine," she told him. "I won't let you do anything to him."

"I think there's a huge misunderstanding," Annabeth finally said. "Between all of us."

Ben flipped his knives. "Care to enlighten us, daughter of Athena?"

"You keep your knives back inside, and then I'll talk," Annabeth folded her hands.

"Wh–,"

"Ben," Natalie pleaded. Grudgingly, Ben put his knives back in their sheaths and folded his hands.

"First things first, why do you think I would hurt Natalie?" Percy asked.

"Because you are on the gods' side. Plotting with them. Torturing demigods. I've seen many of the demigods from Saturn's army. I've seen how they were treated. And I've seen how the gods have been treating my sister."

"What do you mean?" Natalie asked.

Ben looked at her with a strange fire in his eyes. It was like a spark of revenge. Natalie was not sure whether she liked it or not. Surely, she was happy to see him alive. But first, they needed the misunderstanding cleared between them.

"Gaea showed me how the gods have been torturing you. Sending you to fight Atlas. To fight Drakons for fun."

Gaea. That woman.

"It's not the gods that have been torturing me, it's Gaea. That's why she's twisting your mind. Showing you fake stories. Those were a part of my quest, Ben. Not torture. It's Gaea who's wrong. Not the gods."

Annabeth gasped. "So that's it. Gaea sent you here to kill us. She's been using you, the whole time. Telling you the wrong things."

"But why should I believe you?" Ben said.

"That's right," someone said from the left. "You shouldn't believe them, Ben."

Natalie turned to see a horde of women with fiery hair and mismatched legs.

"Empousai," Annabeth said. "I hate them."

"Back at you, Annabeth Chase. We meet again," their leader said.

"Hey Kelli," Percy held his sword in an attacking stance.

Kelli chuckled. "Now, Ben, Gaea sent you to kill them, I believe. That should have been easy for you. Since when did you soften up for these demigods?"

"Since I knew that my sister was among them. What else have you been hiding, huh? Gaea told me she would let me go above and meet Natalie after this. Not that she'd be sending me to kill her."

Kelli picked at her fingers. "Drastic times call for drastic measures. Now either kill them, or step aside, and let us finish the work."

"I won't. I never liked you much anyways."

"Well then, killing you shouldn't be a problem as well."

Kelli lunged. So did her horde of empousai. Natalie kicked one before willing her sword into her hand, then got into action. The problem was, the empousai weren't dying faster than they should have. Natalie and her friends were four, they were at least hundred. They had already been squeezed into a tight pack, and Natalie was so tired that she wanted to collapse and sleep for a million years. Then they heard a defiant yell. And in Natalie's field of vision came the strangest weapon she had seen. A janitor's mop.

Standing before them, was someone huge. He looked like a Titan. Great, that was just what she needed right now. A janitor dressed Titan killing-machine. Now they had even lesser chance of surviving. Ben tried to attack him, but Percy stopped him.

"Don't!"

"Have you lost your mind? He's a Titan, in case you haven't noticed!" Ben told him.

"He's good."

"Is that Bob?" Annabeth asked.

"Yep."

"Oh, wow."

Bob didn't need help in killing the empousai. Half of them fled after seeing him.

"Who's this Bob?" Ben asked him.

"He's actually Iapetus. But I kind of made him have a swim in the Lethe, so he doesn't remember that. He thinks he's Bob, our friend."

"Percy!" Bob exclaimed, picking him up like a rag doll and hugging him.

"Yeah, Bob, it's nice to see you too," Percy said awkwardly. Bob turned to the three of us. Natalie was sure they all looked so stupid right now that Bob wouldn't even consider them. "Enemies?" he asked.

"No, uh - friends," he said looking awkwardly at Ben. "This is Annabeth, Natalie, and Ben."

Bob waved at them jovially, which would have looked nice if he hadn't been holding his janitor's mop in his hand.

They waved back, Ben a little hesitantly.

"How d'you come here?" Percy asked him.

"From the underworld."

"Ywah, but - I mean - how did you know we were in trouble?"

Bob sighed. "Bob did not know you were in trouble. But Bob heard you call him. So Bob came here. To his friend, Percy. But how did you come here?"

"That's a long story, Bob," Annabeth said.

"Then Bob will hear it later. For now, Percy and his friends should move quickly. Bob will help them."

"Uh - help us with what?" Ben asked.

"Polybotes. Gaea sent him after you. Bob heard them talking. He was talking about Ben too," Bob said innocently.

"What was he saying about me?"

"That if Ben realizes who he is going to kill and doesn't, then capture or kill him too."

"Believe us now?" Percy turned to Ben.

"That double - crossing…," Ben said something in Latin that made Natalie say, "Ben!"

"Sorry. But I thought she was - how can she?"

"Gaea has always been evil," Natalie put her hand on his shoulder.

"But she - never mind," he looked away. What was wrong with Ben?

"Well, seems that just like us, you need a way outta here too," Percy told Ben. "Come on, let's go find the Doors of Death."