The Quest for the Magic Sword

Part 6: Tartarus

OK here goes the next one… Percy and Annabeth are in Tartarus and they can't get out!

"Percy… Percy, where are we?" Annabeth said. We were in Tartarus. I was sure of it. I was completely speechless. Annabeth and I had just fallen into a big black hole that was a jail for the nastiest beings in the universe. I rubbed my aching head and looked around. Nothing. Literally nothing. The sky was black, the ground looked like mist yet it was still solid, and there was nothing on every side. But the noises… I could hear voices from every direction, strange, distorted noises that didn't seem like English. Japanese, maybe?

"Annabeth! Are you okay?" I asked as I helped her get off the ground.

"Yes," she said shakily. I had never seen her like this before, she was whimpering every now and then. This place was evil. Pure evil, driven by fear and hate, just pure evil. I could just tell.

I looked up to try to find the crack we had come through but nothing. Just the black sky above us, a swirling mass of darkness. We were trapped deep underneath the world, yet we weren't in the world. Not anymore.

I walked around for a few steps to see if I could see anything but it was an empty place.

"Where are all the jail cell thingys that the titans are kept in?" I asked.

"I don't think it's that kind of jail, Percy. Look around. This place is jail itself even without jail cells," Annabeth replied. "How do we get out, Percy?" Her voice was a whisper that floated around until it reached my ears and then drifted away and mingled with the quiet yet loud voices of… who knows?

"I don't know… Are we stuck here forever? Is there a way out?" I said, hoping for an impossible 'yes.'

"C'mon let's look around to see if we can find… anyone else. Anything else," Annabeth started walking forward into the immense darkness. And I followed, and together we ventured forth deeper into Tartarus.

***

The skeleton slumped onto the ground and fell into pieces, then disintegrated into dust. Panting, Thalia and Grover stood very still; unable to fully understand what had just happened. Thalia put away her spear and Grover sheathed his new sword he got from Tyson. The blade gleamed in the pale light of the lanterns scattered across the room, the only mark of destruction the battle had left on the smooth unscratchable (which is not a word I know!) tower.

Cuts and bruises covered the two friends, but nothing serious.

"That… Was hard…" Grover said.

"Huh, ya think?" Thalia gestured to a scar on one of her legs that was bleeding. Then she got serious and said, "Percy and Annabeth… They…"

"I'll look for the shard and you go down and check out if you can see them," Grover said. Worried as he was for his two friends, he still needed to find the fourth shard of the Magic Sword.

Thalia hurried down the ladders and soon got to the bottom of the tower. Peering over the edge, she looked into the pit.

"I can't see anything at all! Just darkness!" Grover heard Thalia shout from below. He frowned and searched harder. Then Grover noticed the pile of dust and gulped. He reached in the pile and there it was: the fourth shard!

Pulling his hand out of the dead skeleton dust, Grover rushed back down the ladders as Thalia did and after seven minutes or so reached the bottom. Thalia was sitting on her knees near Tartarus, crying.

"Their gone, Grover, their gone!" she said sadly.

"No, no their not. They can get out of this, Thalia. Have faith in those two! They… can get out of anything."

"You think so?"
"I know so."

"Okay then, what do we do now, Grover? Wait for them to come out? Or should we leave and get help?"

"Well, erm… Well I don't know! You're the tree!"

Thalia flashed Grover an angry look as he apologized after realizing that he had offended her.

"Then… I think we should go back. We should go to Olympus and get some god to help us. Or we could go to Camp Half- Blood and get Chiron or Mr. D to help us get them out. They might know a way…" Grover suggested.

"You sure we should leave?" Thalia asked.

"Yes!" Grover said confidently.

"Then let's go."

And with that, they sneaked past everyone in the Underworld, past Cerberus who cocked one of his heads up as they ran past him, and back up to the world of the living, where the air was fresh, and life buzzed like an angry bee.

"WHAT?!" Chiron shouted as Grover and Thalia finished their story of how Percy and Annabeth fell into Tartarus. "They fell… into… into… into… they… fell… into…"

"Tartarus, I know. But you gotta help them!" Thalia said desperately. Could nobody help Percy and Annabeth?

"Tartarus? Thalia, nobody in the history of history as far as I know has ever gone into Tartarus, save for the titans of course, let alone come out ALIVE!" Chiron stammered. "I don't think there's anything we can do…"

"We have to think of a plan! There has to be a way!!!" Grover said. "We should… throw a rope down the pit and pull them up!"

"That's stupid!" Thalia said.

"Tartarus… Unthinkable," Chiron shook his head in despair. "Thalia, Grover, you just have to accept, they could be gone forever."

***

I felt weak in the knees.

"Percy, I can barely feel my knees, what's happening? I feel like there's a block of lead on both my shoulders, and I'm getting tired so fast… What's happening?" Annabeth asked, worried.

"I think… This place is sucking the life out of us. I'm so sleepy…" I replied.

"We have to get out of here! I wonder if Thalia and Grover have already abandoned us… After all, we are in Tartarus..."

We continued to walk forward until I heard a strange sound: a shuffle somewhere off in the distance.

A weak voice said, "Who's there… who is it?" It was a boy's voice.

Annabeth and I looked at each other in surprise. Another person?

"We won't hurt you!" I shouted, hoping the boy would hear. How long had he been here? Was he a titan in disguise?

"I'm Annabeth and this is Percy!" Annabeth also shouted.

And slowly, a pale boy stepped forward. His hair was black and short, and he had a tattered old T-shirt and some ripped jeans. His shoes were covered in dust, and in his hand was a long bow.

"I- I'm Daniel. I'm a half-blood."

My eyes widened. "You're a half-blood? Really? So are we! We fell into Tartarus! Some skeleton on top of the Tower of Monsters threw her down and I tried to save her! How long have you been here?"

"A few days, probably five. This place sucks the life right out of you, I can barely stand now. I was just taking a walk in the park when this guy called Luke jumped out of nowhere and asked if I wanted to join him or something. When I refused, he attacked me, tied me up and threw me down here."

"Luke!" Annabeth and I both said simultaneously.

"You know him?"
"Yes, he's working for Kronos," I said.

"Kronos?"

"You know, the big evil titan dude who wants to take over the universe or something."

"Right… Anyways, do you know how to get out?"

"Nope, we're as stuck as you are, Daniel," Annabeth said.

"Do you go to Camp Half- Blood?" I asked, curious. I had never seen him before.

"What's that?"

"Um… a camp. For half- bloods. We'll take you there, they can help you. They can help you survive."

"They can? All my life, monsters have attacked me and my family and we could do nothing about it until my dad, who my mom says is this guy called Hermes or something, sent me this bow in the mail as a birthday present."

Annabeth nodded. "Hermes is a god, you do know that right?"

"So it's true… My mom hasn't told me very much about Hermes…"

I coughed as I dropped to the ground, on my hands and knees.

"Percy! Are you okay?" Annabeth reached down and pulled my up onto my feet again.

My vision flickered as I nodded. I wasn't going to survive for very long. We all weren't going to survive for very long. We had to get out.

***

"So my son just fell into Tartarus?" Poseidon cocked an eyebrow at Chiron, Thalia, and Grover, who all nodded.

"This is bad." Was all he said for a long time. Then, "I'll try my best to save him… But Tartarus? What mess has he gotten himself into this time?" Poseidon sighed. He closed his eyes and concentrated deeply. After about a minute, they opened. "You said the two of them fell in, right?"

Chiron nodded, anxious.

"I sense three people… limping across Tartarus."

Chiron's eyes widened.

"You think it's a monster?" Thalia asked.

"Probably not, or else they wouldn't be talking," Poseidon said. "But whoever it is, we can deal with him or her. I might be able to teleport them out. But I need someone to help me from the other end, Percy, to be exact. I'm going to send and Iris- Message to him." Then Poseidon created a crystal clear sphere of water that glittered in the divine light of Olympus before him. Throwing a gold drachma in the sphere, Poseidon, Chiron, Thalia, and Grover could soon see Percy face.

Percy's face was that of surprise as Poseidon said, "Percy! Are you okay?"

"He looks awful…" Thalia muttered to Grover. Grover nodded.

"Yes I'm alright… Well kinda. Well-" Percy coughed, "-not really. This place if full of evil. It sucks the life out of you, dad!"

"That's bad… We have to get you out quickly. An Iris- Message to someone in Tartarus won't last long; we probably have a few seconds left. Listen Percy, I'm going to try to teleport you out of there, but I need your help."

Percy nodded. "What do I have to do?"

"Concentrate hard on the intention to get out and use all your power. I shall try my best."

Percy nodded again and then the Iris- Message ended.

Poseidon then closed his eyes once more. "Please look away now."

Chiron, Grover, and Thalia turned away as Poseidon turned into his divine form.

The air hummed all around, and the smell of the ocean drifted into the noses of the three. And then with a flash of light, a giant ball of water appeared in the room, carrying three children.

"PERCY! ANNABETH!" Grover went over and hugged me and Annabeth really hard.

I looked over at dad to see him gasping for air. Teleporting us out of Tartarus must've been really hard. And I was worn out from the feat too. I was worn out from Tartarus and everything that had happened today, and so I fell asleep right there and then.

***

"Oh Percy wake up already, you've slept for three days!" I could hear Grover faintly. I pushed myself off from the bed and yawned, well rested.

"What did ya say? Three days? Cool," Grover helped me up from the bed. I looked around to see myself in the Poseidon cabin of Camp Half- Blood.

"Cool??? I was bored as heck man!!!" Grover pretend- slapped me in the face.

"What happened to David?"

"Oh, he has found a place in the Hermes cabin and they have taken care of him. And Poseidon thanked us for letting us know about you in Tartarus. I'm so glad your safe, Percy! Oh and I got the fourth shard of the Magic Sword!" Grover waved the four shards in front of my face.

"Then let's go get the fifth one, and find the rest, and finally defeat Kronos."

Hope you guys liked this one, please review! Cya for now!