Author's Note;
Hello my friends, welcome back to my stories. I know it has been quite a while. This is the rewrite of my first story, The Lone Survivor of Tartarus. The general idea is mostly the same but the plot is vastly different. I had plans for the original then promptly forgot them, so my bad for those who truly enjoyed that fanfic. In this fanfic, Percy will remain the son of Poseidon. Now on with the story!
Chapter 1, The Fall from Grace
Percy groaned as he fell into the Greek depiction of Hell.
"I always manage to get myself in the worst situations, don't I?" He snarked to himself as he fell at a relatively slow pace. Percy started flipping mid air as he fell, trying to do something to quell the boredom. All of a sudden he heard a voice in his head, a voice that sounded male yet also slightly demonic.
"You, Young Demigod, have a pure soul. What are you doing falling into Hell? Have the Gods thrown another innocent in here?" The slightly demonic voice spoke with kindness in his head. Percy pondered how to answer for a few seconds before responding.
"The Gods have not thrown me in here, I fell in saving my girlfriend from getting dragged in by Arachne's webs." Percy said to the voice, not at all surprised the Gods threw innocents in Hell before considering what happened at the end of his first quest.
"Ah, I see. You realize there is a chance you will never see your girlfriend again, yes?" The voice asked, seemingly worried for the young demigod. Percy was puzzled that a demonic voice would be worried about him nor how this voice could know about him, he was positive he had never heard this voice before. Percy just nodded in response to the voice's question, not wanting to voice his agreement.
"Well, Young Demigod, I shall offer assistance, if you so wish to accept it?" The demonic voice said to Percy. Percy was shocked at the offer, not knowing why this mysterious voice would ever help someone they have never met. Again, Percy was quite sure he had never spoken with this voice before.
"One could use some friends in Hell, but I would like to know who I am speaking with before I accept an offer from a voice in my head." Percy said snarkily.
" Fair enough Young Demigod, I believe in your history, I am known as Orpheus. We can help each other, Perseus, I can keep you alive down here and you can release me from my burden." The demonic voice said to Percy. Percy was shocked that he was speaking to Orpheus, but then was immediately put on edge that the supposed legendary singer had a demonic voice. He also wondered what this burden of his was, he was not aware of any punishment being forced upon Orpheus by the gods.
"I agree to your help, but at the first sign of you being untrustworthy I will kill you." Percy said with a slight edge to his voice. As he was speaking to the voice in his head now known as Orpheus, he noticed that he was coming close to the end of his fall.
"Once you reach the floor, follow the River Cocytus until you come across a small cottage, that is where I am. Meet me here and I will help you leave Hell." Orpheus said as his voice faded from Percy's head. Percy watched as the ground got closer to him, just barely managing to pull the Cocytus to slow his fall.
Time Skip - 15 minutes later ~
Percy has been following the Cocytus for about fifteen minutes now as he came across what looked like a cave with a shack built into it. Believing this to be the cottage Orpheus was talking about, and after drawing his trusty sword Riptide, he cautiously walked forward. Percy was quite wary about meeting this man who calls himself Orpheus due to the myths stating he was a great singer and poet. How could a great singer and poet have the voice of a demon? It just doesn't add up.
Right as Percy was going to enter the cave, Orpheus spoke in his mind once again.
"Perseus behind you!" Percy swiveled instantly bringing his blade up to a guard position just in time to catch the large paw of a young hellhound. Realizing that this beast was stronger than him, Percy used Riptide's guard as a hand hold to throw the hellhound to the side before following up with a quick slash to its side landing a light cut. As soon as the hound landed he jumped at Percy again who responded by side stepping at the last moment and using a strong two-handed overhead swing to decapitate the beast. Once the head of the hellhound hit the ground Percy realized it was not dissolving into dust as normal.
Percy took a second to inspect the hounds body and made the assumption that when a monster dies in Tartarus, it stays dead. For the moment Percy decided to trust this Orpheus fellow and went into the mouth of the cave where he came across a stone door, which he promptly opened. As he walked into the stone cottage the first thing he noticed was the emaciated man heavily chained to the ground in the center of the room. His skin is deeply pale and is covered in countless scars. The most prominent scars being the deep curved diagonal wound going from the top of his left pectoral, over his heart, and ending at the bottom right side of his ribs, the large vertical scar spanning from his right temple to the bottom of his jaw, and a deep horizontal scar located at the base of his neck right above his clavicles.
"Done staring at me, Young Perseus? I am not as attractive as the story in your myths states I am, eh?" Orpheus stated sarcastically to Percy, having noticed his open jawed staring. Percy stuttered as Orpheus started laughing, which sounded quite weird to Percy due to his demonic voice amplifying the noise. Percy, who was still holding a blood covered Riptide, cut through the chain that appeared to be made out of a silver material he could not identify.
"Sorry Orpheus, I did not expect to find you chained down and injured this badly." Percy responded just as sarcastic as the scarred man in front of him. As Percy cut the final chain, he assisted Orpheus to his feet and sat him in a nearby chair. At this point Percy got a better look at Orpheus, Orpheus, when he was standing anyway, stood at 5'9 and had shaggy dark brown hair that offset his disturbingly red irises. Despite being emaciated Orpheus was clearly once a very handsome man in his youth and now pulled off a more ruggedly good looking look with the rough yet short beard lining his somewhat chiseled jawline.
"Thank you for freeing me from those accursed chains, Perseus, I have been trapped here for so long now. You saved me from my prison and are now one step closer to easing my burden, however that day will be far from now. I can see it. I, however, have not kept my side of the bargain yet. The journey that will release from this Hell-Pit will be a long one, are you prepared Demigod?" The disfigured man spoke in his demonic voice once more. Percy, having thought that his imprisonment was his burden, was quite confused about his words on the matter. He capped Riptide as he sat in the chair next to Orpheus to speak with him.
"You mean this wasn't your burden? And how long of a journey are we talking about here?" Percy asked quizzically.
"My burden can be explained during the journey, for it will be a long one. The length of this journey will be different down here than the above world's time, Perseus." Orpheus responded as he gestured to help him up, which Percy promptly did, and the two of them left the stone cottage that hid the cell of a man known as Orpheus…
- Present Time, Starboard Deck of the Argo II ~
Annabeth but her lip as she reminisced about Percy Jackson, the boyfriend she just got back only to be the cause of losing him again due to her own plan. While the rest of the Seven don't blame her for Percy falling in Tartarus, she certainly blames herself. It was her plan that trapped Arachne in her own webs, it was her plan that collapsed the already crumbling floor straight into the Pit, it was her own hubris that caused her lack of noticing the web still tied to her ankle.
But Percy, Percy did notice. And he lunged for her as she fell just managing to catch her by the hand before he tumbled over as well. Yet the web pulled and pulled, Annabeth fell again, managing to cut the web at the last second before she fell, this time Percy came with her. He grabbed a cleft in the wall just in time to stop their descent to Hell, and pulled Annabeth up high enough for Nico, who scrambled to the cliff edge as soon as he heard Annabeth scream, not knowing how the two of them fell, to grab her and pull her up. As Annabeth and Nico went to help Percy up they couldn't reach him, Percy realized this as well.
"Nico! You know where the other side is! Lead them there, promise me!" Percy shouted as he started to lose his grip on the wall cleft.
"I will Percy, I promise you that." Nico cried out in both horror at what he knows Percy will go through personally and in determination to keep his promise.
Annabeth on the other hand was full on sobbing, afraid she might never see Percy again. Nico just barely survived Tartarus and that was with the help of pomegranate seeds from Persphones garden. Annabeth knew he would more than likely die, and what scared her most was that a large part of her wanted Percy to die down there…
Authors Note;
And that's a wrap my friends, this was fun to write. I definitely missed it. The next part will be up in the next couple days and I will try to stay on a more consistent update schedule.
Ye-Olde-Erebus, signing off
