A/N. review time

"awh, I get not wanting to do something in the same world lol, still was kinda looking foward to what you would do, now ima read this chapter lol" -allisonj1008

Sorry. Hope you enjoyed the chapter nonetheless

Onto the chapter!

Percy sat on the bench of the piano. He had lifted the wooden cover on the keys and removed the fabric that laid gently on top of them. He looked down at the black and white notes and laid his fingers on the keys. He didn't play a single note. He didn't feel any desire to play. He hadn't played the piano in years, but he knew that if he played, it would sound lovely.

He removed his hands and sighed. Disappointment swelled in his gut as he laid the velvet strip over the keys and folded the wooden cover over them. He stood up from the bench and left the piano sitting there, continuing to gather dust.

He walked into the living room, where the room was decorated with black and red decorations. A huge 21 balloon hung above the fireplace, which cackled as flames consumed the wood.

He looked around with pride. He had raised a child. And he did it better than his father had. Aurora hadn't left, and he hadn't banished her.

He had been nervous when Zoë had been revealed to be pregnant. It had been their dream for so long, and yet he was anxious about it finally coming true. His main worry was him becoming his father. He didn't want to end up like God, who exiled his children when they disappointed him.

But now Rory was turning twenty-one, and that was huge. Percy spent his twenty-first birthday in Hell. And his twentieth, and his nineteenth, and every birthday, because he was exiled about a month after his creation. Fun times. But Rory didn't get that. She spent every birthday surrounded by her family. It was one of the rare times where Amenadiel and Charlie would come visit.

Percy walked up the stairs. Rory's room was on the second floor. He suspected that she was in her room, considering that the loud rock was blaring through the walls. He knocked on the door.

The music was paused, and the door opened, revealing his daughter. She stared at him. "Yes?" She asked.

Percy smiled. "Can I come in?"

She looked at him weirdly before opening the door. Percy walked in and sat on her bed. "How does it feel being twenty-one?" He asked.

Aurora shrugged. "No different than twenty."

Percy chuckled. "Never does." He muttered. "There's one change though." He said.

She stood across from him. She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"You can drink now." He said, reaching into his suit jacket and pulling out his flask.

She looked at the flask with hesitance. "And mom is okay with this?"

Percy smiled. "She doesn't have to know. Go on."

She grasped the flask and opened it. The smell of the whiskey wafted into her nose and almost made her jump back with how strong it was. She hesitantly lifted it to her lips and took a small sip.

Her face scrunched up as the alcohol washed over her tongue. She swallowed the liquor. "Not bad." She said.

Percy smiled.

"Perseus." A voice came from outside the doorway.

Percy froze and turned around to see his wife looking at them with her arms crossed and eyes glaring daggers. She crossed the doorway and stuck her hand out before Aurora. The daughter sighed and placed the flask in her mother's hand.

"Thank you." She said sweetly, before turning to Percy. "Meet me downstairs in the kitchen."

Percy nodded as Zoë walked out of the room.

Percy smiled at his daughter before standing up and walking out of the room and closing the door behind him. He walked down the stairs and paused outside of the kitchen. He took in a deep breath and walked into the kitchen.

Zoë was already sitting at the island in the middle of the room. The flask was sitting in front of her on the counter. Her eyes were trained on Percy, which unnerved him. She motioned to a chair.

"Why was Rory drinking out of your flask?" She asked him once he sat down.

"It's her twenty-first birthday, Zoë." Percy said softly. "And she's an angel, her metabolism won't let her get drunk even if she drank an entire bar." He waved at his wall of booze that took up a side of the kitchen.

Zoë's eyes softened for a second, before hardening again. "I know, Percy, but I don't want her to start drinking so early. She's still so young."

Percy sighed. "Yeah, but she's only going to get older. I'd rather she do it here at home, safe and sound y'know?"

"I know. But I'd rather her not. At least, not right now."

"Alright, Zoë."

Zoë got up and walked over to him. She wrapped him in a hug and pressed her lips to his. She pulled away a second later. "We can drink later tonight though." She said with a small, suggestive smile.

Percy grinned. "Sure. But we still have a party to go to."

Percy awoke from his sleep to a dark room. His dream had made him wake with a smile on his face, yet he felt an empty pit in his stomach. Rory was captured, and Zoë was "dead". Reforming, but gone.

He didn't move from his position, not rising, but also not falling back asleep. It was currently the middle of the night, or whatever the equivalent of night was in this place.

He didn't need sleep. He highly doubted that Tartarus needed sleep. So why were they sleeping? Oh, right. Because Percy was stalling signing the transfer papers.

Percy sat up, the covers falling to his lap. He ran his hand through his hair as he observed the room. Nothing had changed from earlier that 'day', except now it was all shrouded in darkness.

There was a quiet still, one that only happens in the dead of night when you're all alone. One that makes you feel simultaneously on edge and calm at the same time. Percy lit a finger on fire and got out of bed.

He opened the door, trying to keep the creak from the hinges from becoming too loud. As he stepped out into the hall, he heard noises coming from Tartarus's room. He crept down the hall and down the stairs. He reached the dining room and followed the stairs down another level.

The castle was empty. No Scythian Dracaena were walking around, which seemed weird. Percy saw that the stairs went down another level. Curious, he started to descend these stairs. He looked over his shoulder to make sure no one was watching him, before walking down the rest of the stairs.

He ended up in a long, dark, musty hallway. Every surface was made of smooth stone. The area around him was only lit by the fire on his pointer finger. He spread the fire to his entire hand to give him more light.

He slowly crept down the hall. After a dozen feet, the walls changed from smooth stone walls to bars made of Stygian Iron. Percy looked through the bars and understood that this hallway was actually a dungeon.

Inside the cell was Typhon. The legendary Father of Monsters was the size of a human and trapped in a cage. The last time he had seen Typhon had been a couple of millennia ago when he stole Zeus' tendons. He agreed with that course of action. But he had been as tall as the sky back then… Now, he was nothing more than a man locked in a cage.

Percy turned away from the monster and walked further down the dungeon. Inside each cell was something. Ranging from a lowly hellhound to a titan or two. Each one was unresponsive to Percy's gaze. They were all on their knees, their arms shackled together, and their heads looking down at the ground.

He passed by another cell and looked inside. Percy recognized the woman. She was dirtier than the last time he saw her, but her features were still the same. She wasn't like the others, as she held her head up in determination and unbroken will. Her hair was brown, and her eyes were green. Her skin was olive, as in, green. Like she was filled with a hint of chlorophyll. She wore an oversized tunic that covered her gaunt body. This was Famine, the third Horseman of the Apocalypse.

Her eyes were trained on Percy as he stared back at her. "Can you hear me?" He whispered, to which she nodded.

"Good. I'm going to get you out of here." He said. It couldn't be this easy. He could rescue Famine and leave the castle without Tartarus betraying him. (Was it betrayal if he knew it was coming?) They could escape to the surface and be well on the way to the last horseman and his daughter.

Percy examined the cell. There was a door, but he couldn't see it. There seemed to be no place where the metal bars detached to swing open.

Maybe he didn't need a door. He grasped the bars of the cell and began to pull. It took a couple of tugs because of Percy's habit of pulling punches, but he finally ripped the cell wall free from the stone that separated the cells. The sound of the metal breaking free made an enormous clatter that resonated throughout the hallway.

Percy stepped into the cell and approached Famine. She had been standing still the entire time, but now she held her hands out. Percy gently grasped the chains that shackled her hands together, and shackled her to the wall. They were also made of stygian iron, much like everything metal down here seemed to be. They were wrapped and stung tight, leaving almost no room for movement and comfort.

Percy set his other hand ablaze. The Iron began to heat up, starting to glow orange. Stygian Iron had a high melting point, so it would take a hotter fire and a longer amount of time before the chain was melted enough.

Percy willed the flames on his hand to become hotter. The chains he was holding started to glow red now. The metal was no longer fully solid, not starting to move and flow, much like a liquid. It was slow moving, since it was still mostly solid.

Percy put out the flames and grasped Famine's hands gently. He looked her in the eyes. "Hold still." He said.

Violently, he pulled the arms away from each other. The chain snapped and the two halves whipped around in the air. The hot metal smacked against Famine's flesh, burning her. She cried out in pain as Percy shushed her.

With Famine keeping from screaming, a result of very admirable self-control, Percy listened intently to the cell and hallway. "I heard something." He said.

He turned back to famine. "I'm going to get the chains that are connected to the walls now." He said softly.

He went to the left chain and repeated what he did with the first chain. The metal glowed red before he snapped it. He was just about to go to the other when a large boom came from somewhere above them. They froze for a minute, listening, but there was no other sound.

Percy grasped the other chain. He summoned his fire and began melting the chain. He snapped the chain after a few minutes of melting. Famine took a hesitant step forward. She was free now. Shackles still hung from her arms, but they were more like bracelets now.

They slowly walked out of the cell and their hearts dropped.

Standing in the hallway, blocking off their only avenue of escape, was Tartarus and Pallas.