Son of Time
Chapter 3
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters nor plot, all rights belong to Rick Riordan.
Two weeks.
It's been two long and agonizing weeks for the hunt since Perseus' disappearance. It took everything in Zoe's power to stop her mistress from wringing Phoebe's neck once she had found out what the huntress did.
Artemis knew Perseus wasn't dead. They shared a bond due to her being his mother, which was especially powerful due to him being her only child. If he was dead, she would've felt it. Knowing this information, Artemis had been constantly searching for her missing son every moment she possibly could. Even going as far as not getting an ounce of sleep since his disappearance. Due to her being a goddess, she could go quite sometime without sleep. Eventually, though, it began to catch up.
Who would've thought that a male's safety could've caused the man-hating goddess so much trouble?
"Milady," Zoe bowed, having just entered Artemis' tent. "We still have no information on Perseus' location."
Artemis sighed. She and the hunt had been searching every foot of the entire country for any trace of Perseus, finding none. There was no possible way for Perseus to hide from the hunt for this long. Not without the help of someone else, at least. But she doubted Perseus was hiding, whenever she focused on their bond, she felt slight traces of fear. He must've been abducted.
"Perhaps you should get some rest," Zoe suggested, taking notice of the dark bags under her mistress' eyes.
"I cannot rest when my son is in danger," Artemis said, through narrowed eyes.
"Milady I understand your pain, I was close to Perseus as well," Zoe said. "But you depriving yourself of sleep won't help in finding him. Get some rest, I shall alert you the moment we find anything related to him."
"You're right," Artemis sighed. "I apologize for getting angry."
"I understand, milady. After all, he is your only son," Zoe said, before exiting the tent.
Artemis snapped her fingers, changing into her sleeping clothes. She then crawled into bed and closed her eyes, allowing unconsciousness to take over.
Perseus opened his eyes to find himself in an empty landscape surrounded by bloodshot cliffs of all sizes. There was a green mist all around him. Something about this place seemed oddly familiar.
"Welcome to my home!" A deep and terrifying voice boomed from all around him before it began to laugh. That horrifying laugh that sounded as if a mountain was cracking in half, there was no doubt about it. It was Tartarus, meaning he was in the same place he dreamed of.
"What do you want with me!?" Perseus asked, trying to sound intimidating but it came out as more of a squeal.
"What I want isn't important at the moment," he said. "Your first task is to find me. Oh and try not to get killed, I'd rather not have to deal with your father," then his presence vanished.
Perseus realized that it was beginning to get difficult to breath. He also noticed blisters were beginning to form on his arms, both probably effects due to the green mist shrouding him and everything around. He needed to get somewhere safe, and fast.
Perseus looked around and saw a river flowing to his right. He couldn't even see the end of it, as if it flowed endlessly. Though something about the river seemed to be drawing him in.
He walked towards the river slowly, now beginning to hear soft voices from it, though he couldn't decipher what they were saying.
Perseus walked up until he was at the edge of the river, where he kneeled down. Looking at the river, it was too dirty for him to even see his reflection, as if it were polluted. He could now hear the soft voices.
'Life is meaningless,' they whispered, soothingly.
"Life is meaningless.." Perseus repeated, as if in a trance.
'Yes.. Come take a dip, all your worries shall disappear.'
Images of good memories with his family, the hunt, flashed through his mind. Hunting with his mother, archery practice with Zoe, his pranks on Atalanta, all of the good times he had adventuring with his sisters.
"No!" Perseus snapped. "Focus, Perseus! You have to get back home! Think of your mother, Zoe, Atalanta, all your sisters!"
'Quit your struggling young one,' they began. 'Life is despair.'
Perseus knew he would end up losing this battle if he listened any longer. He quickly stumbled backwards, away from the soothing whispers of the river.
Feeling something prickling his hands and legs painfully, he raised his arms to examine them. He found jagged chips of black glass puncturing his arms, causing minor bleeding. His legs weren't holding up any better. The ground, he realized, was filled with these jagged chips of glass. The place also stunk, causing his nose to wrinkle in disgust.
Perseus stood up and scanned his surroundings. Looking above, there was no sign of his mother's nor his uncle's chariots in the sky. All he could see above were blood-colored clouds. The beach of glass stretched for a hundred or so feet before dropping off into a cliff. Though he couldn't see over the cliff, he could make out flickerings of red light as if illuminated by a fire.
'Seek the River of Fire,' a deep and soothing voice said. 'It shall lead you to safety.'
Before he could ponder who the voice belonged to, the hair on his neck stood, sensing a strong gust of wind from behind. His natural battle reflexes taking over, he ducked, avoiding a giant wooden club by a hair. Perseus swiftly grabbed his silver dagger from inside his boots and turned around to face his attacker.
Looking at him hungrily was a gigantic eight foot, one eyed ogre, a cyclops, he realized. It was holding a huge wooden club on it's back.
"You smell good!" The cyclops drooled.
Quickly pushing down all the fear and doubts he had, he put his dagger in a icepick position. Perseus doubted his 16 inch dagger would do much good against a six foot club, but he definitely wasn't going down without a fight.
Perseus moved first. Dashing as quickly as his injured legs could carry him, he made a beeline straight for the cyclops' legs. He managed to scrape it's legs, causing black goo to leak out, but it wasn't enough to do any damage, in fact it only seemed to anger the cyclops.
"I eat you!" It roared before charging towards the four year old.
Before Perseus could even roll out of the way, the cyclops swung at a speed he didn't believe was possible for something so large. It landed directly in his face, causing him to get flung backwards near the edge of the cliff, where more jagged glass imbedded itself into his body.
Clutching his bleeding forehead, he tried to stop his vision from spinning. Once it had settled, he looked up towards the cyclops from his sitting position. He could now see two cyclops – double vision, he realized – charging towards him with it's club raised overhead, prepared for the finishing blow.
Perseus knew he couldn't defeat the cyclops. In a final effort of survival, Perseus chucked his silver dagger towards the cyclops. Time seemed to slow down as the dagger slowly spun towards the charging cyclops. After what seemed like an hour of anticipation, the dagger hit it's mark. It imbedded itself right in the center of the cyclops' giant eye, causing the cyclops to drop on the floor before dissipating into a pile of golden dust.
Perseus stayed on the floor, trying to catch his breath. It was becoming even more difficult to breath, and the blisters were beginning to increase significantly. The pieces of glass in his body also didn't help. He knew he needed to carry on.
Slowly standing up, as to not fall back down, he made his way towards the golden pile where his dagger lay. He picked it up and tucked it back into the side of his boot.
Now that he was close to the edge of the cliff, he could make out a long line of fire, almost like a river. The River of Fire he recalled the voice saying. As he had no better leads, he decided it would be best to do as the voice suggested.
Walking over to the ledge, he nearly lost all hope. It was a nearly hundred-foot drop into an obsidian canyon with the River of Fire cutting through. It was either to sit on the top of the cliff and wait till he certainly suffocated to death or risk a chance with death by attempting to climb down the glass filled wall.
Taking a deep breath, Perseus jumped off the ledge. He allowed himself to fall a dozen or so feet before grabbing for the shard filled ledges, that was his plan, at least. But of course, nothing ever goes as planned in the life of a half-blood. He ended up continuing his fall as he wasn't strong enough to catch himself mid fall. Once he finally managed to grab a hold onto a ledge, he had already basically destroyed his hands with his failed attempts to grab on previously.
'Well at least I'm halfway down,' he thought dryly.
Perseus continued to climb, one step at a time. It was difficult though as his hands were oozing with blood and the jagged glass was piercing through his boots, prickling his feet with small cuts. He couldn't believe it when he had finally reached the bottom of the cliff.
His vision was blurry, he had a major headache from the club hit he took earlier, and he was still blistered and cut all over due to a combination of the glass and air. He knew he wouldn't last long, twenty minutes at most.
'Drink from the River Phlegethon,' the same voice that had told him to follow the river of fire said. 'It shall heal you.'
Looking around, he tried to spot the 'River Phlegethon' but found no such thing. The only river that was even near him was the... River of Fire! Was the voice crazy? It expects him to drink fire? But then again.. he didn't see any other choice.
Sighing in defeat, Perseus crawled to the banks of the River of Fire. He cupped his hand and as quickly as he could, scooped it into the fire. To his surprise, the fire felt cool. But he decided to not risk it any further and raised his hands to his mouth and drank the cool liquid.
At first it didn't taste like anything. Then it burned, bad. It felt as if someone had replaced all the insides of his body with gasoline then set it aflame, except the pain would've been multiplied tenfold. He let out a blood curdling scream as tears of pain leaked from his eyes. He curled up on the ground in a fetal position and just stayed there shivering for what felt like hours, waiting for the pain to pass.
The pain finally passed. Perseus stood up, slowly. The first thing he noticed was that his vision was clear once more. He felt refreshed, as if he had just slept for a full week. The blisters that had previously accumulated on his skin were rapidly closing up. His hands were reforming back to their original form and his feet no longer stung whenever he put pressure onto them. Though his throat still felt as if it were on fire and he was sweating profusely, the pros outweighed the cons at the moment.
Perseus began to walk upstream before he heard the same voice again.
'Other way,' it said. Perseus could've sworn he heard a laugh before it stopped speaking.
Turning around he power walked downstream. Every breath caused temporary pain to the boy, though whether it was from the heat of the river or due to the fact he just gulped down fire, he didn't know.
As he was walking he let his thoughts stray. Was his mother searching for him? Oh what he wouldn't do just to be back home again, in his mother's arms, where he always felt safe. He knew the probability of surviving Tartarus was low, in fact he didn't even know if you could survive. But he had to keep trying, how else would he get to see his mother again?
Why was he even here in the first place? Oh, that's right. He had found out he was actually adopted and ran away. Looking back at it now, that may have been a dumb decision. I mean, his mother took care of him for four years, clearly she loves him regardless of blood. And to think this entire mess could've been avoided if he had just stayed calm.
After what he was pretty sure were several miles of walking, he reached the edge of a cliff. The River of Fire spilled off to the side in a waterfall of fire. At the bottom was a ashen grey plain scattered with large black trees.
Sighing, Perseus began his trek to the bottom. This cliff wasn't as bad as the first, around forty feet. His fingers still got cut and it stung like Hades. After fifteen minutes of careful descending, he finally reached the bottom of the cliff.
Usually Perseus would be quite happy to be in a forest, as he shared a special connection to them due to his mother's domains. But it seemed that it didn't apply in Tartarus. Ignoring the odd black forest, Perseus continued to follow the flaming river, until he heard voices.
"I'm hungry, ma!" Said a male sounding voice.
"Then keep searching you useless oaf!" Another voice said, probably his mom. "Word is, there's half-blood food somewhere around here."
Perseus quickly hid behind a tree as the two voices came passing by. He got a quick look at them and saw that it was two cyclopes.
He continued to follow the flaming river but he only stayed close enough to be able to see it. Perseus made sure he was near trees or some kind of cover at all times.
Eventually, the river of fire went through a area of thick black fog. Perseus would've continued to follow it, but, there were hordes of monsters. The only reason he even defeated the first cyclops was because of pure luck. How would he fight against nearly a hundred different monsters?
'Use your powers,' the voice spoke. 'Imagine them all frozen in place, time shall bend to your whim.'
Perseus had no clue what the voice was talking about. As far as he knew he didn't have the ability to freeze anyone, but the voice seemed to be trying to help him. Deciding that it wouldn't hurt to try, Perseus closed his eyes and concentrated. When he felt the same tug in his gut from the sight of the Drakon, he opened his eyes.
What Perseus saw astonished him. All the monsters that were previously trampling through the area, were now moving in slow motion.
He began sprinting through the horde, following the river out of the black fog. Once he had finally lost sight of any monster, he released his concentration and felt the tug in his gut disappear. Immediately, he began to cough. His coughs were hysterical and painful. Soon he realized he was coughing out blood, but there was something odd. This wasn't the regular color of red, it was changing between the normal blood color and gold, as if it wasn't sure which one it should stay as.
Despite how much the changing of color intrigued him, he needed to continue.
For what seemed to be several hours, Perseus wandered. He came across multiple monsters, a few cyclopes, some bird ladies, and hellhounds. Using his slow-mo trick, which he still didn't understand how he had, but decided not to question his good fortune, he slowed them to snail speed and ended them with his dagger.
At times, he wondered what it felt to be them. Did they realize that they were slowed down? Did everything around them just seem faster? How fast did it look like he was going to them?
Perseus felt like he was getting better at this new-found ability of his. Sure, he still coughed up the same changing colored blood, but it wasn't as much as previously. One change he noticed, however, was that the previously equally changing color of his blood was now swaying towards the golden color, which reminded him of his mother's golden ichor.
But this wasn't ichor, it couldn't be. Could it? After all, ichor was the blood of a god, not a half-blood, and that's all he was, a half-blood.
Anyways, back on topic. Perseus was rapidly losing energy. His entire body felt sore and he could barely feel his muscles. His vision was beginning to blur, not that it mattered as the black fog was blocking off most his sight. His stomach was cramping due to the lack of food, and his throat was as dry as a desert after having taken another go at the River of Fire, despite that, he still wouldn't be able to hang on for much longer. Fire could only heal so much, odd sentence.
Perseus finally managed to escape the dark fog, stepping out onto the regular toxic grounds of Tartarus. He could now see more than ten feet in front of him, though his vision was still blurred.
Just as he was about to breath a sigh of relief, he was once again enveloped in darkness, except this time it was darker.
'Just my luck,' Perseus thought dryly.
Luckily, the darkness disappeared just as quickly as it came. Now though, standing in front of him was a woman. The woman had a long and smooth pitch black dress, with colors of a nebula. Her skin was pale, as if it had never come into contact with the sun before. Her hair was long, silky, and void black. Her eyes shone like quasars.
Perseus could tell this wasn't a monster, or if it was it would be on a whole new level. If he were to get out of this with his life, he would need to be wary and make absolutely zero mistakes.
"Who are you?" Perseus asked nervously.
"I didn't expect you to survive this long," she said, completely ignoring his question. "Then again, you are his son."
"Who's son?" Perseus questioned. "Do you know my father?"
Nyx rose an eyebrow. "Even after being able to use your abilities, you still don't know who your father is?"
Perseus gained a thoughtful expression before shouting, "But Kronos is in Tartarus!"
"Whoever said it was Kronos?" Nyx asked. "Besides, he isn't the only one with control over time, is he?"
"The only other one is Chronos..." Perseus trailed off, a look of realization crossing his face. "But that can't be! Primordials don't have mortal children."
"Oh really?" Nyx questioned. "And who told you that?" At Perseus' silence, Nyx asked, "Do you know who I am, child?"
"If I knew who you were I wouldn't have asked earlier," Perseus snarked.
"I am Nyx, Primordial Goddess of Night. That would also make me your aunt," she said the last part with a small grin, deciding to ignore his snarky comment.
Perseus quickly suppressed his shock and pulled out his dagger in a icepick position. "I'm not going down without a fight!"
"Hmm. Alright," Nyx said, completely amused.
Perseus focused on that familiar feeling, the tug in his gut. He imagined Nyx being in one spot, unable to move.
"Are you really trying to use your ability on me?" Nyx asked while walking towards him at a normal speed, completely unaffected by Perseus' attempts to slow her down.
"H-how are you moving normally?" Perseus asked bewildered.
"Oh please," Nyx said cooly, "That trick may work on weak monsters, but it definitely won't do you any good against someone of higher caliber when you're as inexperienced with it as you are."
'This is it, I'm going to die. No! Stop thinking like that!' He chastised himself.
Suppressing his negative thoughts, for now, Perseus lunged towards the goddess. He made a wild slash for her neck, expecting a killing blow, but instead hit nothing but the air. Perseus crashed into the jagged floor of Tartarus. In a moment's notice, Nyx had a pitch black xiphos right above his neck.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Are you going to kill me?" Perseus asked, accepting his fate.
"Did I ever say I wanted to kill you?" Nyx asked after making the sword vanish. "Besides, if I were to kill you, your father would cause me a major headache."
"Doubt that," Perseus muttered under his breath. Nyx, though, still heard it.
"And why is that?" Nyx asked.
"My father doesn't care about me! He didn't even bother telling me who he was! He's the reason I'm in this crappy pit!" Perseus shouted, his eyes glowing gold with anger.
"I doubt you made it all the way here by yourself," Nyx said bluntly. "Who guided you?"
"The voice in my head," Perseus said, still angry about his useless father.
"And just who do you believe that voice belonged to?" Nyx asked, smiling slightly.
Perseus was confused for a moment, before he realized it was his father who had guided him. The anger left his now again silver colored eyes.
"Well come on," Nyx held out her hand towards Perseus.
"Where are we going?" Perseus asked, taking her hand and getting off the ground.
"My house," Nyx smiled.
Then the darkness engulfed them.
Author's Note: Start suggesting what pairings you want so that I can be ready.
That took a lot longer than I actually expected it to. I hope it wasn't boring or anything though. Tell me if I missed anything or if I had grammar/spelling mistakes.
Finally hit 10,000 words, all thanks to the support you all show!
As you guys may have noticed, Nyx is OOC. Reason for this being is I don't agree with how Rick depicted her. She's one of the oldest beings in the universe, makes no sense for her to have an IQ of less than 50. It'll be the same for Achlys, if I decide to add her. She'll still be depressed 24/7 but she won't have the intelligence of a eight year-old.
Shout out to Death Fury, IAmHelenOfTroy, and krios66 for being constant reviewers ;) And a thank you to everyone who has reviewed and/or followed/favorited the story, it really motivates me.
With that being said, while I am focusing on this story, I am writing another two stories so I may sometimes be late on updates. Go check them out if you'd like. Also once school starts for me, which is in like 3 weeks, I won't be able to update as often so just a heads up and I apologize if that disappoints you but I have a life outside of just writing fan fiction.
Leave your thoughts in the reviews or private message me!
