Chapter 5: Dreams and New faces

Percy looked around the campsite. It was evening at Camp Half-blood, but no one was singing songs at the campfire. Come to think of it, no one was there at all. The brunette turned around a couple times, like a dog chasing his tail, before he heard a noise from the arena. Percy spun around one last time, and ran off to see the source of the noise.

He finally arrived to see Annabeth standing on an elevated platform, talking to all the campers. "Percy has disappeared, and with 15 of our explorers found dead, we must take additional security measures. No one here can go into Tartarus unless they have the necessary skills and qualifications. Do you understand?"

The audience nodded, before walking off to their daily activities, chatting amongst each other the entire time. Annabeth waited for all the campers to dissipate, before stepping off the stage and walking off. She turned around one last time.

"Percy… Where are you?" She said to herself, before the blonde walked up the remaining stairs. "Wait!" Percy yelled as she walked away, but she couldn't hear anything.

Suddenly, the world swirled around Percy as he was warped out of the dreamscape. He ended up in a crowd, where someone was telling the crowd about something. Percy looked around, to find the vast caverns of Tartarus… The caverns where the city of Trox was.

He looked up to where a person was speaking, to find Clarisse behind the podium. "Because of the bodies found, horribly mangled too, we have started to suspend search efforts for the gateway and Percy. No one is to descend past the Daianerya caverns, and we advise everyone to move up to the mortal world or even to Sub Olympus, if you're a rich asshole. Thank you." Clarisse finished, before frowning as the crowd began clapping. "What, this isn't some prissy little education speech; This is a warning to get the actual hades up to the mortal world! Shut the hell up!" Clarisse yelled, before walking off the stage, muttering to herself about stupid people and stupid clapping.

Percy chuckled a little, until he heard a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lou. He turned around to see Lou talking to Beckendorf. "Where the hell is Percy?" She asked Beckendorf, who shook his head. "The last I've seen him was when he went back down to see the gateway." Lou facepalmed. "The idiot!" She yelled, drawing some attention from other people. She smiled sheepishly, before walking forward and gesturing for Beckendorf to follow.

Percy once again tried to talk to them, yelling out "Guys, I'm right here!" But the two turned away, and Percy was sucked out of his dream.

"Hey, wake up person." Percy jolted awake, looking around, to see the white cloaked figure standing in front of him, his cloak blowing in some non-existent wind. The hood was off, and the brunette could clearly see his kidnapper's features, some of which were white hair, a smooth, beautiful face, and sky-blue eyes. Percy shook his head once. He could not get distracted from his priority (escape).

"Um, where the hell am I?" Percy asked, to which the guy rolled his eyes. "Safe." The brunette tried lifting his arms, only to hear a clank. He looked down, to see that his arms were bound behind his back by metal chains. Percy looked back up. "I don't really feel safe with a knife-throwing maniac next to me while I'm in chains.

The white-haired guy looked offended. "Hey, don't call me a maniac. My name's Ikaros. Now get up, we have places to go." He walked forward, and with one hand yanked Percy off ground. "Ouch." Percy said once, as he stumbled forward and slammed into the cave wall. They were in a small cave, with one entrance, which Ikaros was slowly walking to. "Hey, wait for me!" Percy cried, before he ran forward, only to stumble and almost fall again, before slamming into the cave wall next to the exit. "Ow."

"Here, let me help." The brunette looked back to see Ikaros pull out a knife, and walk towards Percy. "Wait, now hold on. We don't have to do it like this!" Percy got out, before Ikaros slashed the metal chains clean in two. "Huh." The brunette said, before Ikaros rolled his eyes and walked out of the cave, quickly followed by Percy.

"Wait, so where the hell are we going?" Percy asked the albino, who was more than a head shorter than him. "Somewhere safe. I knocked you out because there was a group of monsters around the corner. I saved your life." Percy looked down at him in shock. The white-haired teen looked up at Percy, his sky-blue eyes dead serious.

"Um… Thanks." The brunette said, before they continued to walk on.

They walked in silence for about 5 minutes, when Percy suddenly realized that this was an uncharted territory. "Why are we in uncharted territory? This is TARTARUS, not some flimsy dimsy cavern! We could be walking straight into an ambush!" The brunette yelled, before Ikaros turned around and slapped him across the face. "First off, shut up. I have personally mapped out this part of Tartarus, and if you keep yelling like that, we're gonna get attack-"

"Grrrrrrr…" "Shit. Good job asshole." Ikaros finished, as they went back to back, Percy drawing out Riptide while Ikaros pulled out twin daggers, preparing to fight the hellhounds that lept out of the darkness, ready to rip them apart.

Oh snap, ending right before a battle scene! Well, let's hope that Ikaros and Percy are ready for this battle, or else theyĺl be torn to pieces (I can tell that there's at least one person who wants that). Also, Percy doesn't trust Ikaros yet, but he knows that Ikaros is the only way to get back to Trox, or even safety. Soon enough we'll get to why Ikaros is there in the first place, who he is, and who else might be down in Tartarus! Also, name change is changey :I

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