Hey guys! Okay so like- I know it's bad now, and it'll get a bit worse- Alabaster knows he can't actually beat Percy in a fight but he has other advantages which he can use. But don't worry too much, Percy will get away. Also- you can see how pissed off and done Percy is at certain points but she will do whatever it takes to survive long enough to get her brothers out of the pit.
Replies:
Undeath9087: Well you'll have to wait and see, but yeah, I have had a certain scene which I've finally reached sort of planned out for ages- though I do kinda wonder if I went too far in it lol. Right now Alabaster has the power but there will be a point when she cracks and it all shifts, mwahahahah.
Guest: To be fair Percy was distracted by Nico and Leo, and by Nico almost falling into the Plegethon- also, to be fair to her Annabeth wasn't there with her so she wasn't half expecting Arachne to show up. And the grass thing was an exaggeration.
Drizzle: Don't worry, you will get to see Percy being a badass- believe me on that one.
Oujiswan: Thank you!

"No need to be like that." Alabaster crouched next to her- he looked rough she'd admit that, it hadn't been long since she'd seen him but he was paler than usual, bags under his eyes, battered and bruised. "I just saved your life Princess-"

"You do realise I hate you calling me that right?" Percy winced as she sat up, her head spun and a sharp pain shot through her ribs- and wonderful, just wonderful- and then Alabaster was crouching, and a moment later he was holding out a square of ambrosia.

Percy blinked slowly, eyeing him suspiciously. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Saving your life." Alabaster snapped back, eyes narrowing, "What do you think I'm doing. You won't last down here when you're injured."

"I don't want your help." Percy snapped the words- she had to be careful though- he was right she was inured- and she had no doubt that if she tried to fight him now it would not go her way with how dizzy she felt.

"You're so fucking stubborn." Alabaster almost snarled the words, "Why won't you let me he-"

"Oh stop with your sanctimonious good Samaritan bullshit." Percy let herself flop back onto the ground, pressing her hand to her face and exhaling slowly. "You might just be the single most infuriating annoying person in the whole fucking universe. Gods what did I ever do to deserve this? Isn't Tartarus bad enough without you being here too-" she paused, lowering her hand and pushing herself up onto her elbows, eyes narrowing, "Wait one fucking second why are you don't here?"

And Alabaster's pale skin flushed at that and he looked away. "Your brother dragged me to the shore. Gaea-" he looked away, and Percy could see from the way his face twisted that he wasn't happy with what he was saving to say. But he didn't need to say it- Percy couldn't help the laugh that slipped past her lips.

"She wasn't happy with you was she? You can't do anything right so she brought you to the Underworld and tossed you here-"

"No!" Alabaster lurched to his feet, a furious look on his face, "No! No she brought me here to give me one last chance at capturing you-"

"Oh bullshit." Percy almost cackled, "You fucked up yet again like you always do and that bitch sent you down here to punish you for his fuck up- and possibly partly to fuck with me because she seems to take pleasure in doing that-"

"Shut up!" Alabaster yelled the words- and suddenly his sword was in his hands, the tip against her throat.

"Oooh-" Percy lifted her hands, almost mockingly, "Please don't kill me Alabaster, I'm ever so so sorry for laughing at you- I totally don't want to die-"

"You- UGH!" Alabaster let out a frustrated growl, tossing the sword to the side and then he was dropping down on top of her, his knees on either side of her, hands shoving her back down onto the glass ground, "Why are you like this?!"

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's the years of harassment and trauma." Percy spat up at him-trying to ignore the terror that was pounding through her veins. She refused to let him see her as weak, she refused to cower away from him. Not any more. "Now get the fuck off me before I beat you down so hard that I break every single bone in your body and make you beg for me to stop-"

"You're the one who'll beg before I'm done." Alabaster's fingers curled around her throat, and Percy forced back a whine of pain when he shifted forward, putting his weight on her broken ribs.

"Beg you to go fuck yourself most likely." Percy shot back, "You're going to get the fuck off me or-"

"Or what?" Alabaster was suddenly leaning in close, his lips inches from hers, eyes gleaming with madness- "What will you do? What else is there that either of us can do to one another? Aren't you tired of this?"

"Yeah, yeah I am." Percy resisted the urge to roll her eyes, "As I've said, a million times- but you and I have different ideas of how to end it. Yours include me somehow falling in love with the guy who tortured, abused and betrayed me over and over again, and mine include you fucking off and leaving me the fuck alone. And honestly there's not really much room for compromise there."

"All I want is you." Alabaster breathed the words, "Is that really too much to ask for Percy?"

"Yes." Percy didn't even falter, "Yes it is. You gave up any chance of there ever being an us a long time ago and you have to get over it Alabaster- not that I think you're going to listen to a damn word I say because you never do."

Alabaster stared down at her for a long moment, fingers tightening slightly around her throat before he pulled back, suddenly looking smug, as if he'd just thought of something- and that look made Percy feel very, very nervous even as he shifted so that he wasn't kneeling over her, rising to his feet as Percy pushed herself so that she was sat up again

"What are you doing?"

"Listening to you." Alabaster answered- and no, no Percy wasn't stupid, she knew that that was too good to be true. "But uh- there is something you haven't considered when you keep telling me to leave you alone."

"And what would that be?" Percy rose to her feet slowly, ignoring the pain from her ribs- sure it was probably stupid but she was not asking him for the ambrosia- no way in Hades. Not happening.

"We're in Tartarus and the only way mortals can survive here is drinking from the Phlegethon."

"No, no I am aware of that." Percy crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head slightly as she eyed Alabaster, "Guess you're not as-"

"And we're miles from it. Tell me Percy. How does your chest feel now? It's starting to hurt to breath isn't it?" and- now that Alabaster had mentioned it it was impossible to ignore the fact. "Do you think you'll make it back there in time? You have no clue where you even are down here-"

"I'll find it-"

"No, no you won't and you know you won't-I can see it in your eyes." Alabaster's voice was smug, and he pulled a bottle out from a little case that was strapped to his side, "This is enchanted, nothing special but it refills itself from the Phlegethon. I have an endless supply. If you think you'll be able to find your way back to the Phlegethon before Tartarus kills you that's fine by me." and Percy felt the urge to strangle him at that.

"What's stopping me from beating the shit into you and stealing it?" because there had to be something. There always was.

"That would be the fact that it needs to be close to me for the magic to keep working. Especially down here. And it only works if I open it." Alabaster made a show of unscrewing the lid and tipping the bottle- and Percy could see the fiery liquid as he drank it- her fingers curled into fists as she watched his face scrunch up before he gave her a smug smirk.

"You need me Princess. What's your plan anyway?"

"Follow the Phlegethon." Percy admitted, "Find Nico and Leo, get the fuck out of here. Nice and simple."

"You'll never last long enough to find them on your own." Alabaster held out the bottle, "You need me, like I said. No matter how much you hate me, right now you need me. Now my love. Can we come to an... arrangement?"

And Percy wanted to tell him to fuck off, to go die in a pit- or, well, in the pit since that was where they were but- as much as she hated him he wasn't actually wrong and Percy knew he wasn't.

"What sort of arrangement."

"I will help you through Tartarus to Nico and Leo. Who knows I might even help you find your way out in the end, in return you don't attack me, you don't let them attack me and you at least pretend that you don't despise my existence-"

"Now that's going to be hard-"

"And-" Alabaster waved a hand and suddenly there was a charm bracelet in his hand, and Percy's face scrunched up, the chain was thick, and there was only one charm, the two torches of Hecate, "You will wear this."

"And what exactly will it do?"

"It will bind your powers, make you weak if you venture too far from me." Alabaster shrugged, "Much like the first one except instead of being anchored to a place- Mount Orthys the first time, it's anchored to me."

"Gods you're sick in the head." Percy muttered the words, mind desperately working on finding a way out of this but- but no matter how hard she as trying to think, well, it wasn't hard to realise that she wasn't going to have an easy way to get out of this.

If she tried to venture off on her own... well, she was smart enough to know that it would end with her dead on her own and her baby siblings having to make their way through Tartarus without her. And she knew them. Even if they could find their own way out- which... they were capable of without her, but they would struggle.. well, even if they did find their own way out they'd never leave without her- she knew that because she'd never even consider leaving without them.
Percy gritted her teeth. "How can I trust that you'll help me get to them? Once I have that bracelet on you'll have me at your mercy. How can I know you won't just hand me over to Gaea's monsters."

"Oh I know I will." Alabaster looked amused, "But stop acting as if you have a choice here Percy. We both know that it doesn't matter if I'm telling the truth or not because we both know that I'm your only option here." he spread his arms wide-and in the light of Tartarus he did look truly evil with the scarring on his face from his fall off of Mount Tam years earlier. "If it makes you feel any better, when we do find them, they'll be able to take it off of you. The only one who won't be able to is you Perce."

And gods but Percy knew it was stupid, she knew it was insane to even think about it but she really, really didn't have a choice if she wanted to ever see her baby siblings again, so, slowly, her heart pounding in her chest, Percy held out her wrist.

The bracelet felt light when Alabaster fastened the clasp- that somehow felt wrong. It shouldn't feel light it should weigh her down, with everything it did it should weigh her down so heavily that she couldn't raise her hand. But it didn't. It felt like a totally normal bracelet.

"There you go." And before Percy could pull her hand away Alabaster was gripping it, raising it as he bent his head so that he could brush his lips over her knuckles. "My love-"

"Don't do that." Percy snatched her hand free. "I agreed to try and act like I don't hate your guts. I did not agree to pretend that I like you enough to let you do stupid crap like that." Percy's fingers curled into fists. And really, would punching him be considered showing that she hated his guts? Probably, mores the pity.

"Of course my love." Alabaster winked, "Don't get too flustered. We have time-"

"You-" Percy tilted her head back, exhaling "Gods you don't think you can use this as a chance to somehow win me over?"

"Oh I have no doubts." Alabaster smiled, "I'm helping you, I'm listening to you even- giving you choices. I will make you see that I love you."

And gods but he was totally delusional wasn't he? That was the only way he could even consider it a possibility.
Of course pointing that out probably wouldn't be helpful right now. Truly, Percy's best bet was to play along, find Nico and Leo and then get as far away from Alabaster as was physically possible.