Chapter Six

Percy woke up with a headache. A throbbing pounding in the front of his brain. His situation with Venom had kept him up all night. Venom had gone through his memories, making comments on each and everyone of them.

Notable mentions were, "That sucks." when he fell into Tartarus, "She's hot." whenever he saw Thalia or Artemis, and "Pussy." when he refused to kill Ethan Nakumara in the arena in the Labyrinth. Needless to say, Percy was kept up all night, reliving everything.

So when it was time for him to get up for the day, he was wide awake. He figured that chocolate kept Venom from eating his internal organs, so he popped some chocolate chip waffles in the toaster.

"I prefer the brains of my enemies, but this'll do." Venom said, having to give his two cents on everything.

"Do you ever shut up?" Percy asked him.

Venom decided to be a petty bitch and not say anything. Percy smirked slightly. Finally, some peace and quiet. Which was immediately interrupted by the beep of the toaster. He grabbed the waffles and scarfed them down.

Percy wondered what kind of monster he would have to fight today. Maybe it would be an Olympian, in which case he was majorly fucked. He wasn't fully confident in his abilities to take down a major God, even if he had taken one down when he was twelve.

"I can help you with that." Venom said.

And he was back. Percy groaned. "What can you do?"

"More than you know."

"Well that's just perfect. Leave me in the dark will you?"

Venom was probably going to respond when the automated voice came over the loudspeaker, telling him to go to the arena for his battle.

"Well, guess we're about to find out." Percy said before leaving his room.

He walked down to the arena entrance and waited. The door opened and he walked into the arena. Cheers came from the crowd of monsters. That came as a shock to Percy. The monsters were cheering for him.

He paused near the middle of the arena. A couple of cyclops were clearing the corpse of a centaur off the floor. Parts of its brain were exposed and Percy couldn't help but look at it hungrily.

"Just one bite." Venom said.

"No." Percy said, reining in his self control.

"You're seriously no fun." Venom pouted.

The door on the other side of the arena opened. A woman walked out and towards him. She was a little shorter than him, her head coming just below his chin. She had black hair, cut short, and styled in spikes. She had electric blue eyes, with black eyeliner around them. The black contrasted with her pale skin. She had a bow slung over her shoulder, with a quiver full of arrows on her back. She wore a pair of ripped jeans, a Death To Barbie T-Shirt, and a silver jacket that was unzipped.

"Thalia!" Percy exclaimed. He ran over to her, meeting her halfway. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly.

"Geez Kelp Head, what's with the warm welcome?" She poked fun, but secretly she enjoyed it as she hugged him back.

"You have no idea how relieving it is to see a familiar face." Percy said, breathing out a sigh of relief. He felt like he could cry. He forgot that he was in Tartarus while he was in her arms.

At least until the cries for blood interrupted their tender moment. They separated, their cheeks burning bright red.

"What are you doing here?" Percy asked her.

"I uh, I kinda got kidnapped. I was blindfolded and when I was able to see again, I was pushed into the place, and then I saw you. What's going on?"

"Um. Well, as you can see, we're in an arena. And um, I'm supposed to be fighting something, so I could earn my freedom. Don't know why you're in here, unless..." Percy trailed off, a realization dawning on him.

"... You're supposed to fight me." Thalia finished, coming to the same conclusion.

The screams for blood became louder. The monsters were tiring of the reunion and wanted some action. Fighting action, they didn't want to see clothes come off. Unless they were the ones to be taking the girl's off. They would very much enjoy that.

"You're hearing the audience, Perseus. Are you going to give them what they want? I bet her head would make a great wall decoration above your bed." Tartarus said.

The thought of him cutting off Thalia sickened him. "I'm not fighting her. I'm not doing it." He told the Primordial.

"Well, then we have a conflict of interest."

"Indeed we do."

"Well, I guess if I can't watch you fight your girlfriend, I guess I'll have to settle for you two getting overwhelmed by every monster in here."

"What are you playing at Tartarus? I thought I was supposed to fight monsters, and then I get my freedom. She isn't a monster. She isn't my girlfriend either."

"Tsk tsk tsk. Uh uh Perseus, I said that I was having a tournament. I never said that you would be fighting only monsters. Did you really think that I wouldn't twist this on you?"

Percy's eyes widened. "I was never going to win, was I?"

Tartarus laughed. "Of course not! You really think I would let you out of my domain a second time?! No, I was going to watch as you were forced to fight every monster in here that you could. And if you survived, I would have fought you myself, and that would have been your end. My revenge would be complete. But now you've ruined it, and I'm not happy about that." The Primordial said, standing up from his throne.

Percy turned to Thalia. He reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a keycard. He gave it to Thalia. "Take this. Find room 420 and use that to open it. Stay there until I come for you. You'll be safe there."

"I'm not leaving you behind to deal with this! Are you crazy?!"

"Thalia, please. I can deal with this. I promise."

Her hands grasped the keycard. She stared at him. Percy got the feeling she was about to punch him and was trying to convince herself not to. Her eyes kept moving down and up. Finally, she spoke. "Just, survive. Please."

"Of course I will. I have a plan."

Thalia looked like she wanted to do something, but decided against it before turning and running to find his room.

Okay, so maybe Percy was lying about being able to handle it. And about having a plan. And about surviving. In all honesty, he was probably headed to a glorified suicude.

Tartarus jumped down into the arena. He towered over Percy. A sword appeared in his hand. The thing was massive. Think Megatron's sword from Transformers: The Last Knight. If you can imagine that, you can imagine what Tartarus looked like, along with his sword.

Percy was not feeling confident. Especially because all he had on him was a knife. He drew it and tried to appear more confident than he felt.

"Monsters of Tartarus! Enjoy yourselves, for your bane is about to be destroyed!" Tartarus announced.

His decree was met with cheers from the monsters. "KILL THE DEMIGOD!" They started to chant. Each word was emphasized with a clap, or a stomp, or a thump of some kind.

Tartarus raised his sword and slammed it down on Percy. Percy raised his left arm in order to block the strike. It was a foolish hope. The sword was gonna cleave him in two no matter what he did. He looked away, not wanting to see the moment the blade cut through him like butter.

Percy felt a huge blow in his arm, but he was still alive. He looked at his arm and saw a black sludge blocking the sword. "What the hell?"

"I'm not letting you die so easily. It would be foolish to waste such a good match." Venom said.

"That's peculiar. What are you hiding, Perseus?" Tartarus muttered. He raised his sword.

"Quickly! We have to move."

Percy ran to his left. He felt a rush of wind as the sword slammed down behind him.

"Jump!" Venom said.

Percy jumped, leaping over a swipe of Tartarus' sword. He watched as the blade halted and started to swing towards him. Percy's arm raised on its own and reached for the rafters. Black sludge shot out of it and latched onto the rafters. Percy started to float in the air as Venom pulled him up. He just barely missed getting cut into two.

Percy reached the rafters. He sat on them, looking down at Tartarus.

"Come down, Perseus! Face your death like a true demigod!" Tartarus taunted.

"No thanks, I'm good up here. How about you come up here?"

"Percy. Give me control!"

"Why would I do that?" Percy asked.

"Percy! We are going to die unless you give me control!"

"You're going to go crazy! You'll probably eat him!"

"I am. But we'll also be alive! Maybe. And you'll be able to go save your girlfriend."

"Who, Thalia? She's not my girlfriend."

"You wish she was."

"No I don't."

"Don't lie to me. I am literally inside of your head."

"I hate you."

"Just let me have control so I can fight this guy!"

"I'm going to enjoy tearing your flesh from your bones!" Tartarus said. He raised his sword and leapt into the air. His sword smashed into the rafters, causing Percy to lose his balance and fall off the rafters.

He fell through the air. The sandy ground was rapidly approaching him. In those few seconds he decided that it couldn't be that bad. "Take control!" He yelled.

"OH YEAH!" Venom said.

The black sludge covered Percy's body. He grew in height, his muscles became bigger, his eyes became milky while and larger, stretching across his face. His mouth stretched across his face as well. His teeth were sharp, and his tongue became long and pointy.

Venom hit the ground in a superhero landing. He stood up on his feet. "Eyes. Lungs. Pancreas. So many snacks, so little time." Venom said, licking his nonexistent lips.

"What's this?" Tartarus said, looking at Venom in interest.

"I think I'll take the brain."

"You can have him all. Hell, I'll let you eat EVERYBODY in here."

"FUCK YEAH!"

Venom charged at Tartarus. He crawled fast on all fours, running like a lion. Venom tackled the primordial, who was caught in surprise. Venom licked Tartarus's face. Drool dripped from his mouth as he tasted the flesh of the Pit God.

Venom gripped Tartarus tightly before biting into his chest. He ripped a chunk of flesh off of him before chewing. Ichor sprayed all over Venom but he didn't care. He continued to chow on Tartarus.

Organs squelched, bones crunched, and Tartarus screamed in pain. After another bite, Tartarus's heart was revealed, still beating. Venom grabbed it and ripped it out of his chest. He held it above his mouth, before squeezing it. Ichor shot out of the heart and into Venom's mouth. He slurped it down hungrily.

Tartarus' entire chest was open to the air, and Venom showed no sign of stopping. He grabbed a rib and tore it off of the ribcage. Venom picked the meat clean from the bone. Ichor continued to spill onto the sand.

Tartarus was somehow still alive, feeling everything. Venom grabbed one of Tartarus' arms and pulled it straight off like Pennywise did to Georgie. The symbiote bit into the arm like it was some KFC chicken.

He hacked up a bone before reaching into his throat and pulling it out. He threw it behind him and into the crowd of monsters. It hit a cyclops in the eye, stabbing it and making it blind. Blood leaked out of its eye. It screamed in terror. The rest of the monsters scrambled for exits, not wanting to be the next one to be eaten.

Venom continued chowing down. He bit into limb after limb like he hadn't eaten in years.

When he was done, all that was left was a pile of miscellaneous bones. Venom looked around and noticed that it was just him alone in the arena. Tartarus was certainly dead, or whatever a God calls death.

Venom retreated back into Percy, who promptly vomited. His stomach felt awful. He wanted nothing more than to forget what he saw. He had watched as Venom devoured Tartarus, and in all honesty, he was kind of scared.

"Do not worry Percy. I will not eat you."

"That's so reassuring." Percy said, before vomiting again.

Once everything had been emptied from his stomach, Percy stood on shaky legs. He wiped his mouth, before turning away from the bones. He slowly made his way to his room. He knocked on his door.

It took a couple of seconds before he heard the knob turning. The door opened to reveal Thalia, whose eyeliner streamed down her face. Her eyes were red and puffy. Her cheeks were wet with fresh tears.

"You look like shit." Percy commented.

Thalia laughed shakily. "You should- you should see yourself, you look green." She said, still sniffling.

"Yeah, yeah. Some shit happened. But I'm fine, or I will be."

Thalia moved to the side, letting him in. Percy made his way inside, before sitting on the bed. Thalia sat next to him. Really close to him. He could feel the heat emanating off of her.

"What happened?" He asked.

"I should be asking you that. You're the one who faced Tartarus."

Percy's face became greener. "You don't want to know."

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I will be. I will be."

She pulled him into a hug, putting her head on his shoulder. "Please don't do something like that again."

"Thalia, what's going on? This isn't like you." Percy asked worriedly.

She pulled away and looked him in the eyes. "I thought you were going to die, Percy. I thought that that was going to be the last time I saw you. I didn't want to... I didn't want that to be how I remember you." Thalia looked like she was going to cry again.

Percy pulled her into another hug. He rubbed her back as she cried on his shoulder. He felt so bad. He had caused this. He didn't like it. He didn't want to see her cry. But he caused this, and he was going to try and fix it.

"Well I'm here, and I promise that I'm still going to be."

Thalia raised her head. "You better."

Percy smiled, hoping to ease her worries. "How about we get out of here?"