Hey guys! I'm officially off antibiotics now! Yay! As of this morning. ;) Also, I'm gonna skip the reviews for today just cause this chapter was late and j wanna make up for it. I'm so grateful that I got so many before and while I was away. :) Also, I just want to say I'm really sorry for any and all grammatical errors. I'm typing on the screen of an iPod touch, and sometimes my fingers screw up the words. Or sometimes auto correct decides I'm an idiot and tries to fix stuff. Or sometimes I am just an idiot and I screw up stuff without realizing it. So I'm cool if you guys point stuff out for me! As long as you don't flame me. :) I'm not Leo; I'm not fire-proof. Anyways, onto the story! I own nothing but please enjoy this long awaited chapter. :)

Percy's POV

I ran to my cabin to grab a few essentials for my (hopefully) brief mission. Looking back once more at the tents that contained my friends, I hurried off towards Pontus and Aether.

I walked through Tartarus for what felt like days but couldn't have been more than two hours. All the while a little voice-like presence in my head kept guiding me onwards. I passed several monsters, all of which ignored me. Not once did they just look at me.

"You're welcome," Pontus said in my head.

"You did that?" I asked.

I could feel his smugness radiating off him, even if I couldn't see him. "Yep. To the monsters, you're more than invisible."

"Cool."

He sighed deeply. "Is that all you can say? 'Cool'?"

I shrugged, not caring if he could see me or not, and changed the subject. Now that I had him, I didn't want to lose him. "Am I almost there? My feet hurt."

Pontus sighed deeply again. "Yes, you're almost there." I heard him mumble something about brats, teenagers, annoying godlings, and headaches. Not sure what any of that had to do with me, but...

The rest of my walk was in near-silence. The only noise came from my feet crunching on the sand, my breath as I panted in exhaustion, and my backpack of food rustling on my back. There was also the occasional chatter of the little directional voice in my head.

Finally, the little voice stopped. I stood there, looking around at the "super secret lair" of two primordials.

It looked just like the rest of Tartarus. Red hazy sky, red gritty sand, red misty horizon, red oozy blood... Wait...

Cautiously, I followed the trail of thick liquid further into Tartarus. It wound around large red rocks, sometimes disappearing.

I reached the victim soon enough. It appeared to be a demigod, but I couldn't be sure. As I drew near to the limp carcass, I could see the boy's ragged breathing and the vicious stab wounds all over his body. It wasn't enough to kill him.

I stood over the body. The boy's eyes were closed, and his skin and hair were so soaked in blood that I couldn't distinguish any other defining characteristics. I bent down to get a closer look at the wounds on his body.

Suddenly a cold, slimy, blood-coated hand grabbed my wrist. I gasped, glancing into the boy's face, and saw one blue eye and one hazel eye staring wildly at me. "Run," the boy breathed, his chest heaving madly up and down as he struggled to keep his soul in his body.

I grabbed his shoulder and shook him gently. "Look at me!" I demanded. "I won't have you dying on me!" His eyes remained locked on mine, his frantic and pained, mine worried and forced-calm. "Talk to me. What's your name?"

His is eyes started to drift shut, so I slapped his cheek. "No sleeping! What's your name, boy?"

"T-Tyler-r," he gasped out, chest heaving more rapidly than before.

I nodded, absently ripping apart my clothes to try to bandage his wounds. I couldn't afford to break eye contact.

"I'm Percy. Do you have a family Tyler?" I asked. Anything to keep him talking. Anything to keep him focused on something other than death.

"S-sis-t-ter," he choked out.

"Older or younger?"

"Y-young-g..."

I clucked my tongue at him. "Then what are you doing dying here in Tartarus?"

He started coughing, choking up blood. "Q-q-quest," he spat out with his bodily fluids.

I screwed up my face. The gods were sending demigods on quests to Tartarus? They've all gone insane! Risking their children's lives for...

"What was the quest for, Tyler?"

"Z-Zeus... H-Hera th-threw... M-mor-t-tal l-l-lov-ver..." I could barely understand his words, but somehow I got the message.

"Zeus ordered the quest because Hera threw his mortal lover into Tartarus," I repeated in disbelief. What a complete son of a—

Tyler cut me off of my train of thought with violent hacking. He spewed blood all over himself, the floor, and me. I didn't pay any attention to that. I knew, without being a child of Hades (sadly; Uncle H wouldn't have disowned me), that Tyler's life force was fading.

"Come on Tyler! Think of your sister back up top. She wants to see you again! Don't die on her! Don't die on me," I begged, trying to prolong the inevitable. It didn't work.

A moment later, Tyler's grip on my arm went slack. His blue eye and green eye both glazed over as they stopped seeing the world around them. I gently lifted a hand to close his eyes. As soon as I lifted my hand away, Tyler's body disappeared in a brought flash of light. All the blood on the ground turned into water and was absorbed by the ground. All the blood on me stayed as blood, a reminder that I'm not cracking up.

"What the...?"

"Very good Perseus!" A voice behind me exclaimed. I whirled around to see two men standing there.

The first man was the shorter of the two. He reminded me of Apollo, with his surfer-dude blond hair and blinding smile. He, however, appeared in a black leather biker jacket over an orange shirt and blue jeans. There was a pair of aviators perched on his head, chosing not to hide his bright green eyes.

The other man was a head taller than his companion. Loath to say it, he reminded me of Poseidon with his dark messy hair and seemingly-easygoing manner. Thankfully, that's where the similarities stopped. Instead of my former father's green eyes, this man had blue eyes the same shade as Tyler's. He had a powerful build, like a football player, but most of it was concealed in a navy blue pinstriped suit.

"Who are you?" I asked, but I already knew the answer. "You're Aether and Pontus, aren't you?"

"And Tyler," the blond man— Aether— added with a mischievous grin. Pontus rolled his eyes.

I was confused for a moment before the answer hit me like a bag of bricks. The one green eye and the one blue eye, the same color as the eyes of the primordials... "You, you tricked me!" I shouted, offended, wary, and indignant. "Why'd you do something like that? Making me think a poor kid was dying... You're both—"

Pontus cut me off. "You're not wrong. But hear us out. We had a reason to do that to you, and if you'll let us explain, you'll realize that it was an important reason."

I sighed, mentally thinking up pros and cons. "I guess I'll let you explain. Worst thing that can happen is that you torture me to death, then use my leaked knowledge to find my friends and then murder them to death too."

Aether grinned and flashed me a thumbs up. "Great positive thinking, man!"

Pontus smacked him on the back of the head. "Please excuse this idiot. He's been spending too much time with his wife. It's turning him into an extremely annoying hippie at times. Kind of like a powerful Shaggy Rodgers from that mortal TV show... Oh what was it? Ah, Scooby Doo!"

Aether rolled his eyes. "And you say I'm strange. I'm not the one poisoning my brain cells by watching mortal TV." He shuddered in disgust just saying those two words.

Pontus opened his mouth to retaliate before I interrupted. "Uh, hey. Im still here."

They both stared at me for a moment, letting me know that they had forgotten my presence.

Pontus shook his head. "Sorry. Anyways, the reason." He took s deep breath. "We wanted to test you, to see if you were worthy of our help."

I gulped upon hearing that. They had just tested me without my knowing (I didn't even have a number 2 pencil!) to deem if they should either be our allies or foes in a difficult war. If I failed, the war is immediately over. No pressure at all.

I hope you could see that sarcasm.

Neither of them said anything. With the suspense killing me, I asked, "Did I pass the test?"

And now the suspense can kill you too. ;)