A/N: Right then... What is up, my people? I know, I know. I've been kind of AWOL and erratic for a while, but I'm here to tell you that—that will never change because that is how my schedule works out... sorry. So, I think I'm getting back in my groove, I've got the next few chapters relatively planned out, and hopefully they'll be out quicker than the last few were.
I'd just like to give ToxicPineapple a shout out. You, my human, are awesome. Seriously, though, your reviews warm my heart. You all have no idea how excited I get when that little notification pops up in the corner of my screen that says review. Your suggestions are also awesome! And I'll definitely see if I can possibly use a few of them, so thank you!
Alright, with all of that out of the way, here you go, hope you enjoy! I made it longer than usual to make up for its lateness.
The familiar fall into darkness made Percy's heart race with pure terror. That was no small feat. After all he had been through in his short miserable life, not much scared him anymore. But this definitely did it. Not only was he reminded of his first terrible experience and subsequent torture at the hands of this place, but he was going back in, and that was enough to send him on a downward spiral, literally.
The darkness felt like it was creeping in on him, crushing him under its weight and leeching out any of his hope of ever seeing the light again.
His friends were right there, falling next to him, but he couldn't focus on that. In fact, he hardly even felt them there.
He was lost to a full-blown panic attack the second he had felt his feet leave the solid ground of the Underworld, and the symptoms were extremely apparent.
His aura reacted, as it always did, to his wild emotions, but this time, it was different. Other times, it had spread out, and the entire area around him and then some would automatically get colder. But now his aura seemed to condense into one solid ball of pure frozen air, and his wings immediately opened and wrapped around both him and the ball, trapping them both inside a tight cocoon of feathers.
Xavier's own wings opened, and he called on the winds to slow the group's descent, but he got no response. Of course he wouldn't. This was Tartarus! Did he really think that it would be that easy?!
His wings still worked though, and he used them to propel himself down towards his friend.
As soon as he drew near he felt the coldness that warned him to keep away. But Xavier knew him better than that. He could feel the raw vulnerability and helplessness subtly radiating off his friend in waves.
His hand reached out to touch the ball of feathers, and they immediately opened, bringing with it a wave of such deep cold that frost coated the feathers of his golden wings.
His wings! The Chaos-inducted entity of heat's wings were coated with frost. This was some panic attack.
The other seven on the quest watched as a blur of gold zoomed past them, somehow moving faster than them even though they were all in a dead free-fall. They didn't try to follow.
"That Xavier kid is something else, man", Jason yelled over the wind. If he had seen Percy get that worked up, he would have stayed far away. Very far away.
Annabeth shook her head as if clearing away confusing thoughts.
"Every time I think I have him figured out, he goes and does something like this and messes it all up again", she yelled back.
The others nodded their heads in agreement to her statement.
"He's like a mixture between Leo and Will Solace!", Piper yelled.
"Hey!".
They all grinned, including Leo, and Annabeth realised in surprise that Piper's evaluation was surprisingly accurate. She kept forgetting that Aphrodite's children had a knack for reading people.
He was goofy, and always trying to lighten the mood just like Leo. But his domain over heat wasn't hostile at all, and he seemed to always want to make everybody feel better all the time, just like Will.
Hazel chuckled to herself as she remembered something that Thalia had said back at camp.
"What are you laughing about?", a slightly terrified-but-i'm-trying-to-hide-it Frank asked. The attention of all the others was immediately on her, and she blushed slightly under their gazes.
They had all joined hands and were now falling in a connected circle, that way all their heads were close together and they could talk while Percy and Xavier were falling at a slightly faster pace below them.
"I'm remembering something that Thalia said is all", Hazel replied. "After the whole misunderstanding was cleared up, she noticed how Xavier was hot and Percy was cold, like opposites". The others nodded, and slowly understanding began to dawn on each of their faces.
"Holy Hera she's right!", Jason said, laughing.
"I wonder if Chaos planned the whole thing?", Annabeth asked to herself, though she too had a smile on her face.
"It's more than just the hot and cold thing, too. They are actually complete opposites. Like Percy's all cold and hard like an ice cube, and Xavier's all warm and healing like Will at the campfire", Hazel continued.
"Will is still better!". The others looked at Nico in surprise. The younger boy hadn't said anything throughout the entire conversation and they had almost forgotten he was there, despite him holding hands with Hazel and Annabeth as they fell.
Annabeth smirked, and Piper cooed.
"Oh my gods! You guys are just too cute!".
Another round of laughter followed Nico's completely red face while Leo just stared at Piper with a look that said 'who are you and what have you done with my friend?'.
They were interrupted by a huge blast of cold followed closely by heat. Immediately recognising what it was, the entire group immediately looked below them, and just had time to let go of each other's hands and spread out before Xavier and Percy shot upwards past them.
Both their wings were open, catching the air and slowing their descent enough so that they were now just above the others in their fall.
The icy blue fog of Percy's true aura leaked out from his skin and surrounded him in a protective coating. Xavier retaliated, and soon the two fogs, one ice blue and the other a light orange were mixing and battling as Xavier fought to get through to his friend who was still lost in the throws of his own panic.
"Percy! Relax! This won't be like the last time, okay? We'll make sure of it! I'm here with you, all of your friends are here with you!".
His muscles relaxed, and the two drifted back down so that they were level with the others, but the tension was still not completely gone from his shoulders.
Annabeth immediately angled her body so that she drifted over towards them and tackled Percy in a sort of awkward mid-air hug that sent them flying backwards and shocked the fear right out of him.
Her lips firmly planted on his, and the remaining tension drained out of him.
Annabeth.
Suddenly, the dark didn't seem so dark anymore. His vision was no longer tunnelled, and his nose was filled with the infinitely comforting scent of lemons and strawberries from Annabeth's hair.
Even after they had pulled apart he held her close. Xavier was the one who could bring him back, but Annabeth was the one thing that he could always rely on to keep him grounded. His panic about their location completely disappeared as he realised one thing: as long as he was with Annabeth he would be okay.
His vice-like grip around her loosened, though only back to the strength of a normal hug, and he opened and beat his wings a couple of times in order to take him back over to where the rest of the group was still free-falling through the air.
"Don't say a word", Xavier hissed at the others as he saw Percy returning. He knew that his friend's grip on his panic was tenuous at best, and he didn't need any of the others setting him back into another attack, but they seemed to have already realised that, and just nodded solemnly at his words. Well… as solemnly as Leo could nod.
"Now all we have to do is add protectiveness like Percy into the mixing pot and we have the complete Xavier", Piper said more quietly so that only Jason, who was next to her, could hear her.
The couple returned. Annabeth looked like she had had the life hugged out of her, but she still smiled up at Percy fondly and with a hint of concern in her stormy eyes. Percy looked miles better. The fog had retreated back into him, and his eyes, though still darker than usual, didn't look so anguished.
The group fell in a comfortable silence for what felt like an eternity. They had resumed their earlier position of holding hands in a circle as they fell, but they didn't speak. What was there to say when they were literally falling into hell? On purpose no less.
Annabeth was the first to break the silence.
"So, Xavier… where are you from? How did you get picked up by Chaos?".
Xavier immediately tensed up. He didn't like talking about his past, and he was immediately on guard about the question.
His eyes began to glow slightly golden in the gloom, and he turned his suspicious gaze on Annabeth alone.
"Why do you want to know?", he asked tightly.
She looked slightly shocked at his sudden change in mood and tone of voice, but that only made the slight spark of curiosity in her eyes grow larger.
Thankfully, Xavier had a much better control on his emotions' effect on his aura and managed to keep it under control. But his body was tense, and Percy began to shoot him nervous glances. He wasn't the only one who would occasionally snap during their training with Chaos, and it was already pretty hot in here, he really didn't feel like covering the entire group in ice to protect them while Xavier turned into a human supernova out of agitation.
"Xave? You good?", he asked, meeting his friend's eyes.
He nodded his head tersely and took a deep breath to calm himself down.
"Yeah, fine. What do you want to know?", he asked, turning to Annabeth. If he wanted to get close to them and get them to trust him then he was going to have to open up a little bit. He couldn't take some without giving some too.
Percy looked surprised, but happy too. If he was opening up it must mean that he trusted them, and Percy wanted nothing more than for his two groups of friends to get along.
Annabeth looked surprised too, but she quickly recovered and began firing off questions before he could change his mind.
"Well… we know that your father is Helios and that you were supposedly bred to oppose us, but we've never heard of you or any other demititans so…?", there was an unasked question there, and thankfully Xavier seemed to pick up on what she was trying to say.
He seemed to scowl even more, if possible, at the mention of his father, but then his eyes seemed to soften, and he got lost in his own memories.
"Me and all the other demititans were born when our fathers raped our mortal mothers. After we were born… they killed them", Xavier choked up a bit when he remembered his mother's death. Most of the others had never known their mothers, but Xavier's had managed to escape the titans after he was born, it was one of the reasons his father hated him so much. She had died when he was only 6, but he could still clearly remember her kind brown eyes and beautiful smile. He missed her immensely.
"They trained us and brought us up to be soldiers. They didn't remotely act as our parents or anything of the sort. There were only about 10 of us, and we were meant to lead the army of demigods that had joined the titans' cause. As much as I don't like to admit it, it was that training that's gotten me to where I am today. Without it, I probably would have died a long time ago".
The others around the group said nothing, not even quietly to each other. They were all curious about this hidden aspect of the war that nobody had ever heard about.
"Our parents didn't treat us like their children, but we treated each other like siblings. I loved all of them".
There was pain and sadness in his voice, and they could already tell that it probably wouldn't end up well for his surrogate 'siblings'.
"There was one other boy, Jake. He and I were born at almost exactly the same time. He was a son of Oceanus, though, but we still acted just like twins. He was my brother and my best friend for as long as I could remember".
A few tears dripped from his eyes but were quickly blown away by the force of the air rushing past them, and the glow that his body always seemed to emit dimmed slightly.
"I think that we finally realised what exactly they were doing when we were 13? Yeah, that sounds about right. At first we just thought that they were really strict and wanted us to be strong, but when we found out what they really wanted, the whole purpose of our existence… well, you can already tell it didn't exactly make us happy. We were all extremely powerful, having been taught by our parents in our powers since we were old enough to walk. We were all angry, even little Kayla, who was only 10".
He smiled fondly, but it was quickly wiped away by an expression of grief.
We probably would have just tried to storm out of there, take on our parents ourselves, but Jake stopped us. He said that we needed a plan, that we couldn't just go and attack the titans, our parents, some of the most powerful beings in the world. Of course, he was right. We planned our attack for around two months, it probably would have worked too, but we made a mistake. Kayla couldn't remember her role properly whenever we went over it, so we wrote it on her arm so that she could remember, but her father, Krios, saw it in one of their training sessions. He called us all together into the training area for some sort of meeting, but when we got there, it was just Krios. He was holding his daughter up by the neck and she was struggling, kicking and screaming. I was actually kind of proud of her for fighting, but then he squeezed just a little bit harder, and he snapped her neck. Right in front of us, he killed his own daughter to make a point!".
Xavier began to shake, and he drifted apart from the rest of the group so that he didn't accidentally burn them in his anger. His eyes burst into flames even though he was still crying, and his pen that turned into his two golden swords seemed to grow heavier and warmer in his pocket.
"It's okay… let it out, Xave", Percy soothed. He knew from experience that once Xavier got on a roll with his feelings, he wouldn't stop until everything was off of his chest.
Percy held in his thoughts and worries, but when it came to his emotions he wouldn't hesitate to plunge an entire country into a deep freeze. Xavier was the opposite, he was very expressive about his thoughts, but he held all of his feelings inside of him, and when he let them out, bad things tended to happen.
Percy surrounded the rest of the group in an aura of cold just in case Xavier lost control.
Xavier stopped shaking, but he still looked upset, and his eyes were still aflame.
"Needless to say we all freaked out. Kayla was everybody's little sister, we all loved her, and Krios had just murdered her. We pushed our plan forward and leaped at our parents who were all gathered. They yelled at us for being traitors to our own kind, they told us that they had given us life and that we should be grateful. We just yelled at them about how they weren't and never would be our family. It was kind of like our last stand", he smiled bitterly to himself.
"We probably could have won, Hyperion was off doing who knows what in Manhattan, Oceanus was attacking Poseidon's palace under the ocean. We had heard rumours of the resistance of our forces by the demigods, and that only motivated us the fight harder. But we weren't ready, we weren't battle hardened in the slightest, and we didn't know what we were getting into. Out of the 9 of us that remained, I was the only one to survive. The tunnels underground Mt. Orthrys where most of us had been living since we were born were destroyed completely in the battle, Jake and I made sure of that".
Xavier's body now emitted no glow at all, he curled in on himself as he fell, and rather than let all of his emotions out in a fiery explosion like Percy half expected him to (that's what he would have done), Xavier mourned for his lost siblings just like any normal mortal would have. He cried. His body shook, his warm comforting aura all but disappeared, and he couldn't stop reliving his last moments with his brother.
Flashback:
They ran down the long never-ending tunnel, leaving everything they had ever known behind. Xavier didn't want to believe it, but deep in his heart he knew that all of his other siblings were dead. They had been separated, and allowing it had been their biggest mistake. It was only by pure luck that he had found Jake again amidst all the chaos. Together they had run and never looked back.
Each of his siblings' death weighed on his mind, and it was like there was a hot dagger stabbing him in the heart every time he felt one of them pass into Hades' realm. He just hoped that the Lord of the Underworld would show mercy on them and look on their final heroic moments rather then judging them for who their parents were.
A breeze blew past them down the tunnel coming from directly ahead. There were slight granules of sand and dirt as well as the scent of flowers and grass, something he never thought he'd smell ever again. They were going to make it.
"Come on, Jake! We're almost there!", he yelled back.
They couldn't run as fast as they probably could of. Both had been injured in the fight, Xavier with a large burn mark right beneath his ribcage on his right side from a concentrated blast of sunlight that he wasn't able to deflect in time from his father, and Jake with his knee that had swollen to almost twice its size and was twisted at an extremely unnatural angle.
If they could just get out of this Chaos forsaken fortress then they could hide somewhere. They would run away and finally be free from fighting other people's wars.
Just when the feeling of hope began to bloom in his chest, he noticed ice beginning to creep along the walls on either side of them.
Koios.
The sneaky bastard had to be here somewhere, but they didn't have time to look for him, all they could do was try and push themselves to run faster, to outrun the ice that chased them down even when they had already sacrificed so much.
He fought back tears as he thought of the others they had left behind. Their older brother Oliver who had jumped in front of a spear aimed for their younger sister Leila. She had held him and cried while he died, slowly bleeding out from the wound in his stomach, just to be smacked aside and impaled on another spear held by their uncle Iapetus. Her bright green eyes had widened in pain and fear as she choked on her own blood before they had dimmed and she had gone limp. They would never even get the chance to go back and get their bodies, give them proper death rites.
Xavier wiped away the tears that had managed to escape. Their sacrifice was the reason that he and Jake had to live. At least they had to make it out, to tell their story and let their siblings' legacy live on.
The entire tunnel shuddered, and the walls began to crack and groan from the stress of the explosions that his little brother Alex had died setting off. His sweet, handy baby brother with the sparkling silver eyes had sacrificed himself when the timer mechanism on their homemade bomb had malfunctioned. They had no time to escape the cavern before it would go off, and they could only watch as Alex had shoved them out of the cavern with promises to follow later before running back and setting off the bomb, despite the fact that his body would be blown apart.
The ground shook from the weight of the heavy footfalls of those that followed them. Koios and Helios, his father, rounded the corner just as they reached the exit.
A thick layer of ice formed over their only way out, blocking them in the tunnel with his maniac father and Uncle. Xavier's hands immediately heated up, and he shot blast after blast of sun energy at the ice in an attempt to melt it, but every time some of it would melt more ice would grown in its place. He screamed in frustration and anger.
"Jake! You have to distract them! I can't melt the ice while he keeps making it come back!".
His twin in all but blood nodded with a determined glint in his eyes, despite his mangled leg, and ran at the two titans now slowly approaching them like predators stalk their prey. Before they could react, he came at them with a thunderous punch that startled Koios and knocked him back. Ichor dripped from his now broken nose, and Helios' eyes lit on fire with rage.
"You insolent brat!", he yelled before jumping in and joining the fight.
Jake was able to hold his own for a while, though he was constantly on the defensive and just barely able to dodge and duck underneath their blows which flew at him with godly speed.
Still, it worked, Koios was distracted and when Xavier melted the ice it stayed melted. It was around a meter thick, and Xavier was just barely able to carve a tunnel big enough for them to crawl through to the other side.
He turned around to shout for Jake just as his father managed to get in a lucky shot and disarmed him. There was a moment of silence when time seemed to slow down; the tunnel continued to shake as it was too unstable to support its own weight anymore, Jake's eyes flicked towards the water that was on the floor from the melted ice, and his father's lips quirked in a sadistic smile.
There was nothing he could do, and Jake knew it. He met his eyes one last time, deep blue on watery gold, and mouthed one word, 'Go!', before throwing the water at Helios and launching himself at Koios. Xavier couldn't leave, not without his best friend and brother, but as he watched, Koios snarled, a jagged length of ice flew at Jake made of the water he had thrown at Helios, and impaled him right through the heart.
Crimson blood spilt on the floor, Jake slid off the end of the knife and collapsed to the ground with his head lolled towards Xavier who was staring at him in horror.
'Love you', he mouthed before Koios' foot came down and crushed his windpipe, instantly killing him.
Flashback End:
"Jake and I almost made it out, but Koios and Helios caught up with us before we could. He sacrificed himself so that I could live, but now I'm all alone", he concluded in a soft voice that could barely be heard above the rushing air.
Tears still dripped down his face, but now he wiped them away angrily.
"So yeah… I lived on the streets for a couple of years. Probably would have just killed myself after a while, but Chaos found me before it got to that point and offered me a second chance".
Annabeth nodded her head, looking quite satisfied with the amount of information that Xavier gave her about his past. Most of the others around the circle, though, just looked sympathetic. All demigods had a hard life. Something horrible happening to them was practically like an initiation ceremony into the mythological world. But Xavier's story was worse than anybody's, especially since it happened when he was just barely a child.
Percy wanted nothing more than to grab his friend, open his wings and drill him to see if he was okay. But he knew that that would never work, Xavier just needed some time to emerge from his own memories and shake himself out of it.
Gradually, the glow that always came off of Xavier began to return, and he looked up at the rest of the group.
From across the circle, Percy mouthed, 'You okay?'.
Xavier just nodded and turned to Jason who had broken the silence.
"For what it's worth, man. I'm really sorry all that happened to you".
"Yeah. We've all had hard lives, but I think you take the cake", Leo agreed.
Xavier spared them a small smile before his expression hardened and he was brought back to the matter at hand.
The never-ending dark tunnel that they had been falling through for the past what felt like days began to get lighter. An eerie red light originated from somewhere below them, and suddenly, the tunnel that they had been falling through gave way to an enormous cavern. They fell through blood red clouds that stung their skin, and the others could just gape as the landscape of Tartarus was laid out before them. Sharp black rocks that Percy knew to be as sharp as glass jutted up in random places to create spires and mountains with caves that monsters could hide in. In the distance, the Phlegethon cut a fiery path through the dark terrain, and below them ran another river. It was strangely white coloured, and even from the great height Percy could hear the anguished voices crying out from its depths.
Looks like nothing's changed.
He took all of this in in a second having already known what he would find, but most of the others were still gaping stupidly as they continued to fall through the now limited air.
"Guys! Come on, pay attention! You can take in the beautiful scenery later. Annabeth, how did you want to do this?".
Annabeth, of course, had been there before too, but she still had to shake her head to clear it before she could answer.
"I was thinking that since you guys have control over the winds that maybe you could just lower us down gently on the ground?".
Now all of the group's attention was focused on them, and both he and Xavier nodded before closing their eyes in concentration.
Percy was the first to wince.
"Yeah, I don't think that's going to happen for me".
"Me either. They're being really stubborn".
"What?", Annabeth asked confused, casting another nervous glance below them at the rapidly approaching ground.
"There are no wind spirits down here for us to control, so that leaves only one option with regards to the wind, and that's to summon some spirits from the surface", Xavier explained.
"Exactly, but last time I asked the northern wind spirits to do something they didn't want to do, they through a temper tantrum and destroyed half of Denmark. That took forever to clean up", Percy said, shaking his head.
"Wait, that was you?", Frank asked, but Annabeth interrupted before he could explain further.
"Guys! If you haven't noticed, we are literally falling into Tartarus! Now if you don't want to end up as a demigod pancake, I suggest you all shut up and help us come up with a solution!".
Leo's face blanched, but Percy just smiled at her fondly.
Now that's the wise girl that he knows and loves.
Seeing his expression, she raised an eyebrow at him in challenge, and he quickly did as she said and got back to the task at hand.
"When we fell in here the first time, I used the river to catch our fall, but Xavier and I wouldn't be able to survive that a second time".
Annabeth nodded her head in understanding and sympathy, but the others were still confused as to what he was talking about. The only one who had a slight clue being Nico.
"What do you mean? What's so bad about a river? And if you guys can't survive it, what makes you think that we can?", Piper asked, casting the occasional nervous look below them to the rapidly approaching ground.
"You want to catch us with the Cocytus don't you?", Nico asked.
Percy only nodded.
"Can someone please explain what's going on? I don't like being in the dark about decisions like this", Jason said, exasperated.
Percy looked to Nico, and he nodded before turning back to Jason to explain.
"The Cocytus River is the river of misery. It whispers to you and tries to get you to give up. It's very dangerous, and it's said that just one drop can make somebody kill themselves. So if we're going to jump into it, then you all need to hold onto and remember the one thing in your life that makes you purely happy. The one thing that the river could never corrupt. You have to hold it in the front of your mind and get out of the water as fast as you can".
"Okay? Everybody got that?", Annabeth half asked half yelled around the circle. Everybody nodded.
"Good. I'll try to keep you as dry as I can, but the Rivers of the Underworld are tricky and more difficult to control, so try and get out as quickly as possible. Xavier and I will meet you on the banks and help you all out".
There were more nods and nervous glances towards the water below them.
Xavier and Percy exchanged a glance and opened their wings at the same time, pulling back from the free fall that the others were still in. Percy waited until their grips were all secure before focusing on the cold aura of the river below them. His domain over the cold made this river slightly easier to control then all the others, but only slightly. Sweat beaded on his brow, and he held out one hand in front of him. Nothing happened.
Just when Xavier was about to ask him if he was okay, he opened his eyes which were glowing icy blue with power and the entire stretch of visible river shot into the air in a pillar of water.
Those still in the free-falling circle held each other's hands in grips so tight they were borderline painful, but nobody minded. This river was potent, and they all needed a nice reminder of family every once and a while.
With one last nervous glance at the others around the circle, they braced themselves, and a force of freezing water slammed into them at full force.