A/N- I am SO happy about the reviews I got, I hope we can keep them up.
And sorry for the really late update but I have a few excuses… I had a lot of schoolwork, I have been working on a state presentation, and I have barely been home much less on the computer. However when I was home and on the computer I tried really hard on this chapter and went over it like ten times, changing something every time, plus this is also the longest soo…
Big thanks to percyjacksonfan16 , Retrobution , and HadesGirl818
Disclaimer: I own nothing… except maybe a few OCs and the plot… but I don't own the real PJO or HOO books… sadly
~Almost as soon as the goddess crumbled to the ground the hooded figure Tartarus stood before me and spoke four simple words; "you have proven yourself."
And started walking away with a motion for me to follow, to who knows where…~
Percy pov
With every step, I took, I could hear less and less of the screams from above in the fields of punishment. Every step brought more darkness to surround me. Deeper, that was my only assumption; Tartarus was bringing me deeper into Tartarus.
Even though the screams above faded, we past sounds, screams, cries that were much worse. At one point, I would have sworn that we walked through the middle of an active battleground. I heard scream and cries much worse than any scream or cry that ever came from the fields of punishment.
A hand reached out in front of me, stopping me from walking into a pair of doors. Huge does not even begin to describe them. They are at the least one hundred feet tall, made from some strange solid black metal that seemed to glow. Just before the doors was a torch on each side that flared blood red. However, the strangest thing, as far as I could see there was no wall connected to the doors. They were just, there.
Both torches crackled and the flames grew larger, in a way that seemed as though the flames mirrored each other as we walked forth.
Tartarus just reached out and touched the doors with the lightest touch and the door swung open with ease.
Beyond the door was a cross between the Ares cabin, the Hades cabin, and the training arena. Weapons, most of which I had never seen before in my life and there were millions of them hanging all over the walls. However, it reminded me of the Hades cabin because of the blood red design on the black walls that well almost looked like blood. Scattered along the ground had to be what creped me out the most. Skulls, bones, and broken weapons and armor, all over as though every fight held in here was never cleaned up and everything just stayed the way it was left for Zeus knows how long.
There was no ceiling, just the crack that reopened to provide the same limited amount of light as given before. It was strange; no matter where you went in the pit, when you look up you would always be staring through the center of the crack as though it follows you.
Only now did I realize that we had stopped walking and that Tartarus was staring at me, looking rather amused at my reaction to the place. Just guessing but my expression was probably like 'WO,' in other words complete disbelief.
After giving me a moment to take it all in, he spoke two simple rules that would either 'make or break me.' "No powers and you are only allowed to use the weapons displayed before you on the walls."
Now that there is actually some light, I might stand a chance without powers…
I thought too soon.
Just as the thought seemed to cross my mind, the only source of light began to fade, much like before. Only difference this time was the last thing I saw, it sent a chill shooting through my spine from the back of my neck to the tips of my toes. A glare and the slowly forming smirk on Tartarus' face told me that I was in for a big fight.
I stood there. Frozen in shock, it was a moment too long.
I felt the faint breeze of a swing of something, something big that sent me scrambling for a weapon, anything at this point was better than nothing.
My hands stretched out in front of me frantically searching for a wall, which, by the way, made me feel really stupid but I had nothing else to rely on. When Tartarus said no powers, he really meant it, because not only could I not control any water but I couldn't even feel the water. As if all my abilities over water and the other elements that I gained control over were just gone, as if I were a mortal. I feel empty like a part of me was taken away, leaving me alone, in the dark. Lost. Leaving me feeling venerable (sorry if that's spelt wrong but it's what auto correct gave me and won't let me change it), and weak.
I flinched at the feel of a sharp point to my fingertip. I quickly followed the point down a long wooden shaft until I found what I assumed to be a handle. As soon as I removed the weapon from the wall I found myself stumbling, realizing how 'top heavy' the weapon was.
Both my hands gripped the handle of the unknown weapon as if it was the only thing keeping me alive.
Only now did I realize the eerie silence that surrounded me as I was searching. At first I figured that it was just me being delusional, imagining silence. Man was that a stupid thought.
Breaking the silence was a soft 'swoosh.' Before I could even register what was going on, my instincts and reflexes took over forcing me to doge as the 'swoosh' swept down clean through where my neck was moments before.
Sure enough, more attacks followed and I was struggling to keep up with them. My unbalanced weapon was no help whatsoever. I already knew that it had a long wooden shaft and a hefty point at the other end. When Tartarus' sword swept upward, I went out with my weapon, treating it like a sword out of instinct, and I swept down to block his blow. Stupid does not even begin to describe how I felt after that. My weapon clashed with his as I kept trying to bring it down, that is, until I got stuck. Apparently, the other end had a point that bulged out of the shaft leaving me to believe it's more of an ax.
As soon as Tartarus realized this, his force shifted. Instead of upward to my neck, noticing that he was stuck he move the sword swiftly down my shaft, away from the point. In the whole process, he managed to cut my hand.
The cut had to be fairly large as pain slowly made its was from my hand throughout my body, as if his sword –guessing it's a sword- was enchanted or poisoned. Either one did not help my case because as soon as the pain resided I realized that I had no feeling in my right hand.
In the time it took me to register everything, Tartarus managed to pin me to the ground with a point to my neck.
Moments like this are when I actually appreciate the darkness due to the fact that it hid my expression which was probably priceless.
Slowly hefting myself up after he removed his point to my neck, when I felt, sensed him standing right before me. "it would do better to know your weapon just by the feel when you pick it up. It saves both time and mistakes, two things that you have no extra to spare in a battle. Too much time wasted leaves you open; a single mistake could give your opponent the chance for a final deathblow. This is why we are training in the dark, you need to know how to use other weapons and enhance your other senses to the point where you don't even need to see what you or your opponent is doing to be able to win a fight."
Now that I was finally standing still the full effect of the fight hit me, breathing was fast and difficult, sweat slowly rolled down my face and clung to my cloths leaving me drenched.
In less than five minutes, we started again.
It seemed as though we were going like that for at least 40 minutes, just Tartarus attacking and me barely able to defend the attacks.
~#~#~#~#~#~#REVIEW~#~#~#~#~#~
If I had the chance, my jaw would probably be halfway to hitting the ground. I was amazed to say the least at myself. The only thing I had to rely on, the only thing that was currently holding my life was my reflexes to sounds that are barely noticeable.
Nearly an hour has past and I would be frozen in shock -at how long I lasted in a fight against a primordial in a pitch-black arena- if I wasn't still fighting.
A quick almost silent swing came from my right and I responded with a downward sweep of my –different- double-sided ax that unlike the other one was short but still powerful. As we clashed, the weight of my ax outweighed the force of Tartarus' sword, forcing his hand with his sword to the ground. The moment his sword hit the ground I stepped flat on the blade and swung the ax upward, stopping just before where his neck should be.
Everything went still. The quick and short gasps for breath came from the both of us. I don't know about Tartarus but I was drenched in sweat even more than an hour ago.
The sudden sound of clapping below startled me. Tartarus stood up grasping my shoulder as a father would. He seemed almost proud.
Well after all the days I spent practicing with him we have gotten to know each other better. Now I know, 'what are you thinking Percy, you can't just 'hang out' with a primordial.' But to tell you the truth it gets pretty lonely down in Tartarus and he looks to me as an equal now considering that whenever we fight now –no matter what weapon I use- I win about half the time.
In my training process, I learned how to use thousands of different weapons, which is just about every weapon ever made even before the gods, ones that date back to the time of the primordial and were never introduced to the gods and mortals.
Anyway, as I was saying, it gets lonely which would explain why Tartarus was always so silent and serious. He wasn't used to talking to anyone because he was always doing his job to make sure no one escaped before they were ready which just about explained it all. In all honesty, I felt bad for him.
"Percy, you have learned as much as I am able to teach you. Winning half the battles you are just as skilled and powerful as I"-we have also been fighting with powers- he cut himself off with a chuckle "you know, I truly wished I had found you before Nyx. However I did not and it is time for you to return to her." As he spoke, the blood red light slowly began to seep back down into the pit. Its' strange but after being in the dark for so long I felt blinded by the faint glow from above.
I followed Tartarus back out the giant doors of the training hall until Tartarus motioned for me to stop just between the twin torches outside the doors.
The flames flickered. With a sudden crackle, the flames seemed to explode. They grew larger and larger, flickered faster. I looked to Tartarus to see if he was the one doing this but instead he stood there with a rather intrigued look as if he was watching a show and didn't know what to expect next. I remained calm knowing that he would let nothing bad happen to me. After all this time I gained to trust him as he did me.
The crackling grew louder as well as the flames seemed to rise and move in a way almost like arms extending from the torch. The long 'arms' of flames coiled out from both sides and started wrapping around me, leaving me in the center as they crossed each other while circling me. While in the funnel, the once blood red flames shifted color and formed images from my old life starting from the beginning. When it reached the point just before Nyx found me an image of a horse appeared before me. It was black and galloped across a land of flames; it seemed to turn to me and started running at me. Its image grew until it appeared as if it were right in front of me and slid to a stop before it could hit me. It stared at me for a moment then stood on its hind legs and reared, as doing so it caught fire. Before me was once a black running horse is now a horse of dark ocean blue colored flames, rearing.
Slowly the flaming horse faded and what replaced it was the continuation of my life from the point where I joined Nyx to the point just before I came to Tartarus. This time what replaced it was the image of a large black bird (ok think of an eagle they are big birds well this one was bigger almost half the size of me) and like the horse it was headed straight at me. When it was right in front of me, like the horse it caught on fire but not ocean blue like the horse instead it was more of a midnight black. And just like the horse it faded, but this time it brought all the flames with it, leaving me standing once again between two blood red torches with Tartarus watching, still intrigued.
Silence set in as I tried to understand what had happened.
"Did you see what I saw?"
"Not everything I just saw the flaming horse and bird." He seemed as if he was trying to piece together a puzzle that had all the wrong pieces until something seemed to click. "Whenever a soldier, a hero worthy enough passes the flames bless said hero. Those torches are ancient, they go back to a time before me, well not the whole torch but the fire. Those flames are the original flames; they came from the creation of this universe, and when a worthy hero stands before them- after proper training- they will bless the hero with an ability unlike any other blessing could provide. The horse represents your old life as the son of Poseidon, hero of Olympus. The bird represents your new life among the primordials and as leader of Nyx's army. The blessing allows you to use powers with the blue flame, scorching hot which is truly dangerous because it's a flame that burns hotter than a young star, and the black flame one that burns so cold that it burns as it freezes(don't know how much that makes sense but basically its really cold and could freeze anything and I mean anything to the core). Not only can you now harness the flame but also you can take the shape of the black flaming bird or the blue flaming horse. Not many heroes get this blessing Percy, but you are the first to get two ends to the blessing. You truly are a special hero and I wish you the best of luck."
It was too much to take in at once, but he just flew through everything. Before I knew it I found myself saying good bye to Tartarus. "Thank you Tartarus for everything I hope that one day our paths will cross again." Little did I know that the next time I would see him would be in the middle of a battle that could mean the end of everything.
With that, I left headed for the underworld, and then Earth's surface, and hopefully back to the void of night so I could get back to my home.
Key word: hopefully. Unfortunately as we all know things never go the way I plan…
A/N- well that came out longer than I thought. I hope you liked it.
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