Sword...or knives? Sword...or knives? Hmm...knives...or sword?
Percy wasn't getting anywhere with his choosing of weapons. Normally he would grab his armor, shield and sword, kill stuff and leave, but this was an extraction mission.
He read up on the target's biography again. Nico di Angelo, 12 years old, pale complexion, loves Mythomagic. Percy never got why the Mythomagic was involved, but he supposed it might be useful, considering all the mythology he needed was there.
Turning his attention back to his weapons, he barely had time to even look at them before a loud knock came from the other side of the door. Not bothering to wait, an overly excited Bianca burst through the door, with a smile so wide it made Percy wince.
"C'mon, Perseus! My brother isn't going to come to Tartarus without knowing it exists!"
Percy bit back a groan. It was times like these where Bianca acted juvenile and happy. Didn't suit him at all. "Nyx got a nickname for me. It's Percy."
Bianca thought for a second. "Okay, Percy it is! Now let's go! I have six years of memories to catch up on…" she trailed off, most likely thinking about the experiences she should have had.
Percy smiled and quickly chose the sword, knowing she wouldn't wait for long. Adjusting his helm, he turned to leave and bumped into...Bianca. His cheeks filled with red.
"Ah, sorry, should've watched where I was going -" he was cut off by an equally red Bianca.
"No reason to apologize, I was in the way. Now, uh, let's go." Percy quickly nodded his approval, and the two quickly hastened towards the entrance of Tartarus.
Standing impatiently was Alcyoneus at the foot of the massive cliff. He sighed when he saw the duo making their way towards him. "Well, you're finally here, so let's go." After a few seconds of no movement, Alcyoneus snapped, "If you're done looking at the wall, come here so that I can flash you out.
"Sorry," was heard as two former demigods grumbled. Alcyoneus put a hand on each of their shoulders, and they reappeared on a ledge about five feet from the top of Tartarus.
"This is as far as I can go. Good luck you two," Alcyoneus murmured, then he turned and disappeared into a puddle of darkness, which fell back into Tartarus.
Percy and Bianca climbed up with ease, observing the Underworld around them. A whispering river snaked to their right, full of sorrow and pain. The Cocytus.
Pulling out her map of the Underworld, Bianca studied it carefully until she came to a decision. "If this," she gestured to the river with a hand, "is the Cocytus, then we have to follow it to the Triple Wall of Bronze. From there, we follow the wall to the Lethe, where we climb over the wall to get to the Garden of the Hesperides."
Percy took a look at the map, and shortly agreed, but internally whined at the distance. Did the Underworld have to be so big?
Apparently Hades thought yes.
In any case, Percy and Bianca started the 42 mile jog to the Lethe.
7 hours. It robbed their energy completely, with a pair of sweating teenagers barely getting to the Lethe before collapsing.
"We...can keep...going...in the...morning," Percy panted out.
Bianca shook her head, wincing at how much that took out of her. "We have to...move...we won't last long sleeping."
"At least take a break...I don't think we have...enough energy to climb walls...in our current state."
Bianca nodded wearily, too tired to argue, and laid down about thirty feet from the Lethe. Percy sat beside her, nibbling half a piece of ambrosia.
"Percy, what are you doing? That's healing material, not an energy drink!"
Percy grinned. "It's not an energy drink, now that's nectar. Ambrosia and nectar allows demigods to recover energy faster."
Bianca sighed. "You never had patience."
Percy puffed his chest out with mock arrogance. "Me? Impatient? For anything? Never! You wound me with your words, di Angelo."
Bianca smiled. As she was about to retort, she heard a distinct shriek that could only belong to a Fury. She stayed frozen for a split second, but in that split second, two things happened.
One is that she now had three Furies dive bombing at terminal velocity to capture her, no doubt. The other is that Percy packed up everything, and I mean everything, and drew his sword and trusty shield.
The Furies managed to stop before flying straight into the blade, settling for glaring daggers at Percy instead. The middle Fury cleared its throat, which sounded much needed, and spoke in a still raspy tone, "Lord Hades has commanded that we bring you two to him. He said to try to capture you alive," and she licked her lips in anticipation for something, "but to use, ah, force if necessary…"
Percy raised an eyebrow. "I don't think so."
The Fury who had spoken furrowed her eyebrows together. "What do you -" She was saved the hassle of speaking by Percy decapitating all three Furies at once. They burst into piles of gold dust.
Bianca slowly let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. The Furies had been out for them, and if it hadn't been for Percy, she doubted she would go free.
"Come on," a gentle voice urged her. "Let's get to the other side. Then we can make camp and sleep."
Bianca sucked in some air, then nodded. "Yeah, yeah, let's go," she whispered as she made to climb the wall.
Percy grabbed her arm gently. "We're not climbing today." Still holding Bianca's arm, he ran right at the wall, and at the last second, pulled her closer, jumped and phased into a shadow.
Bianca did the natural thing. She yelped and kicked him in the shin.
"OW! What was that for?" Percy whined, rubbing his shin.
"For abducting me into a shadow without any warning! For all I know…" Bianca trailed off as she took in her surroundings. "Percy, where are we? Are we still in the shadow?"
Percy kicked himself in his other shin. "I forgot to take us out of the shadow. Hang on - this will get bumpy." He murmured some words she couldn't hear, then took two steps forward in the darkness and fell over an invisible ledge.
"Percy!" Without thinking, I lunged forward and fell like Percy. Idiot, you're only joining him in death.
The shadow shook: a gentle tremor, gradually increasing to a deafening roar. Soon, it's the only thing that Bianca noticed.
Just as she was about to go deaf, the shadow threw her out onto the grass of the Garden of the Hesperides. Nearby, Percy lay face down on the grass, shaking violently.
"Percy, you okay?" It blurted from her mouth before she could have a chance to stop it. Percy turned over, and Bianca realized he was laughing.
Angrily, she socked him in the stomach. After a few minutes of calming down, Percy mused, "Was that going too far?" He studied her eyes, searching for any true fear.
Bianca smirked. "I got my pleasure for you having yours. I'd say it's good."
"All right then, set up your stuff, I don't think you would object to a good sixteen hour nap, now would you?"
She nodded. "I wouldn't mind sleeping till the day after tomorrow."
Percy grinned. "Night, Bianca."
"Night, Percy."
AN: Go eat a cookie or whatever makes you happy.