Tartarus- Jercy Style

Yo!

Chapter 6 will begin shortly!

Summary: What if Jason saved Annabeth when she was beginning to fall in Tartarus? What if Percy and Jason closed the Door's of Death together? Follow Jason and Percy as they conquer Tartarus together. Slight Pairing (JasonXPercy). Spoilers for MoA and HoH. Rated T.

Warning: Violence.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HoO

In the last chapter

"He is peaceful," Bob continued. Are you sure? What I just saw does not describe peaceful at all. That was downright murderous. Even my father would never do that. And he is crazy!

"He can cure poisons," Bob finished. That is probably the best thing out of this entire situation, well besides the fact that the drakon's pine-ginger poison still lingered in the air. Ah, refreshing. I need some of that air in a large bottle or something.

I stared at the giant that was now ripping parts of drakon meat. Chunk by chunk. The blood from the meat flowed down his hands changing his already red hands to a darker shade. He ripped them apart from the carcass with his bare hands.

"Peaceful," I said. "I can see that." My voice literally flowed with sarcasm, as if a waterfall had just come and made my words flow with sarcasm down a giant cliff. Plunge! It dropped like my stomach.

"Good meat for dinner." Damasen's started. No way in Tartarus am I eating drakon meat. I have no idea where his hands have been considering he uses drakon hide for toilet paper. Wait. He said, "good skin for the outhouse..." What does he use as toilet paper on days that he gets all bad skin. Ew. I did not need that mental image. I'm practically gagging.

Damasen stood up straight and studied me curiously, as if I was another potential source of protein. "Come inside," Damasen continued. Rapist. Alert! Alert! Rapist. I cannot believe I am trusting this guy with Percy. Rapist! Alert. Alert. Rapist! I repeat! Rapist. Alert! Alert! Rapist. Run for your lives! Damasen will rape you.

"We will have stew," Damsen continued. If you stir your stew with your gross hands then I will personally dump the stew on your hut. If you don't then I will gratefully eat it or should I shove it down Percy's throat. I do not want to eat that stew if his hands touched that meat again. Use gloves or something. I do not trust your hands.

"Then we will see about that promise," Damasen finished. So, Percy might die if Damasen says "no" to the promise? Great! Annabeth will surely kill me now. Everyone will blame me. So, I followed him inside. Now, you must be thinking why I would follow a apparent "rapist" into his house. I still have no idea and I am currently sitting on a chair in his dining room. Let me tell you what I am also thinking... "Help! Get me out of this hut! Get me out of this pit! Help! This hell hole is so strange! Plus, this entire time Aether and Tartarus haven't even spoke.

"I don't know if this will go well or not," Aether spoke.

"Me neither..." Tartarus agreed.

Tartarus

You must think that Jason is crazy right now. You may be right. You may be wrong. Well, he seems crazy, in my opinion. I actually like Percy better than Jason. After all, Percy did defeat all of the arai... by himself. Amazing, right!

Moving on, we went into the hut of Damasen and sat in the chairs of the dining room waiting for Damasen to serve the stew. Percy was resting on a large bed in Damasen's bedroom. Soft snores could be heard as he slept. Earlier, Damasen had given him medicine so he could heal. It seems to have done the trick. I could've given him ambrosia, but I knew that going to Damasen's hut was a key role in the closing of the Doors of Death. After all, they needed Damasen.

Damasen's hut was pretty cozy. The giant's hut was as big as a planetarium and constructed of bones, mud, and drakon skin.

In the center, a blazing bonfire burned brightly (A/N~ I didn't mean for this alliteration to be here...) and occasionally the height of the fire would increase. The smoke was white and odorless, rising through the hole in the middle of the ceiling. The floor was covered with dry marsh grass and gray wool rugs. At one end lay a massive bed of sheepskins and drakon leather. At the other end, free-standing racks hung drying plants, cured leather, and what looked like strips of drakon jerky. The whole place smelled of stew, thyme, basil, and smoke.

It seemed pretty lonely in Damasen's hut, after all, not many other giants lived in the pit. I'm still thinking of the other giants, my children. "Damasen... do you hate me?" I wondered,

"Why would I? I forgave you many millennia ago," Damasen replied.

I was glad that he had forgiven me. "If you help these demigods and bring them to the Doors of Death, I'll hold the button for the elevator for you guys and then you can go back to the mortal world."

"R-r-really!" Damasen exclaimed.

I nodded and smiled at my child. "Yes."

"Thank you!" He answered.

"You're welcome!" I finished.

Damasen served the stew with a bright smile on his face and we are the drakon stew together, with Percy sleeping softly on a bed.

"Bob said we could hide in some sort of Death Mist," Jason blurted.

"Death Mist?" Damasen's smile faltered. "You would take them to Akhlys?"

"It is the only way, Aether and Tartarus cannot help because of Ancient Laws..." Bob said.

"You will die," Damasen warned. "Painfully. In darkness. Did you forget that Akhlys trusts no one?"

"No. I have not. It is the best plan, but it is still a terrible plan. Will you help us?" Bob asked.

"I will help you," Damasen agreed.

Percy

The Maeonian drakon roared in the distance.

I bolted upright. "What? What-where-what?"

"It's okay, Percy," Jason reassured.

"That noise... where are we?!" I asked.

"How much do you remember?" Tartarus asked.

"The demon-grandmothers- and then... not much."

Jason told me everything about what I had missed.

"THE SEA GOD'S SON! HE IS CLOSE!" The distant voice of Polybotes could be heard.

"That is our cue to leave," I said.

Together, Jason, Tartarus, Bob, Small Bob, Aether, Damasen, and I took off, running into the direction of Death Mist. We had ignored the drakon, which luckily, hasn't noticed our presence.

Aether

The darkness dispersed with a massive sigh, like the last breath of a dying God. In front of us was a clearing- a barren field of dust and stones. About twenty yards away, in the center of the field, knelt the gruesome figure of a women, her clothes tattered, her limbs emaciated , her skin leathery green, like drakon skin. Her head bent as she sobbed quietly, and the sound seemed to shatter Percy and Jason's hopes.

"We're here," Bob announced. "Akhlys can help."

"If that sobbing ghoul was Bob's idea of help, I am pretty sure I don't need it," Percy whispered to me.

I chuckled softly, alerting Akhlys about our presence.

"Akhlys!" Bob called.

The creature raised her head.

Her body was bad enough. She looked like the victim of a famine-limbs like sticks, swollen knees, and knobby elbows, rags for clothes, broken fingernails and toenails. Dust was caked on her skin and piled on her shoulders as if she had taken a shower at the bottoms of an hourglass.

Her face was utter desolation. Her eyes were sunken and rheumy, pouring out tears. Her nose dripped like a waterfall. Her stringy hair was matted to her skull I'm greasy tufts that even Aphrodite couldn't fix. Her cheeks were raked and bleeding as if she 'd been clawing herself.

I looked over at Percy, who seemed not able to meet her eyes, so he had lowered his gaze. Across her knees lay an ancient shield- a bartered circle of wood and bronze, painted with the likeness of Akhlys herself holding a shield, so the image seemed to go on forever, smaller and smaller.

"That shield," Jason murmured. "That's his. I thought it was just a story."

"Oh, no," the old hag wailed. "The shield of Hercules. He painted me on the surface, so his enemies would see me in their final moments- the goddess of misery." She coughed so hard, it made Percy flinch and touch his chest. "As if Hercules knew true misery. It's not even a good likeness!"

Percy gulped loudly, Jason copying him. When they had encountered Hercules at the Straits of Gibraltar, it hadn't gone well. Me being the god of (high) air, was able to spot them from above. No, I am not a stalker. The exchange had involved a lot of yelling, death threats, and high-velocity pineapples. The racket had alerted me about their presence, so naturally, I watched the encounter.

"What's his shield doing here?" Percy asked.

The goddess stared at him with her wet milky eyes. Her cheeks dropped blood, making red polka dots on her tattered dress.

"He doesn't need it anymore, does he? It came here when his mortal body was burned. A reminder, I suppose, that no shield is sufficient. In the end, misery overtakes all of you. Even Hercules," I explained.

"Will you help us? Bob brought us all this way because he thought you could help," Percy said.

Akhlys wailed and glared at the Titan. "Why did you inflict these annoying children on me? Did you forget that the Death Mist is not for helping!" Akhlys shrieked. "It shrouds mortals in misery as their souls pass into the Underworld. It is the very breath of Tartarus, of death, of despair!"

"Awesome!" Percy exclaimed. "Could we get two orders to go?"

I resisted the urge to face-palm.

"Umm, Percy," Tartarus began.

Akhlys hissed. "Ask me for a more sensible gift. I am also the goddess of poisons."

"That's very nice of you," Percy began. "But I've had enough poison for one trip. Now, can you hide us in your Death Mist or not?"

"Yeah, it'll be fun," Jason said.

The goddess's eyes narrowed. "Fun?"

"Sure," Jason promised. "If we fail, think how great it will be for you, gloating over our spirits when we die in agony."

"Or, if we succeed," Percy added, "think of all the suffering you'll bring to the monsters down here. We intend to seal the Doors of Death. That's going to cause a lot of wailing and moaning."

"I enjoy suffering, and people dying in agony. Wailing is also good," Akhlys considered.

"Make us invisible, it's already settled," Percy said.

"If you survive the process, you will be able to pass unnoticed among the armies of Tartarus. It is hopeless, of course, but if you are determined, then come. I will show you the way. Also, the Death Mist comes at the moment you are closest to your end. Your eyes will only be clouded then. The world will fade."

"Sounds good to me, but where are we going?" Percy asked.

That was the last thing I heard from them before they disappeared.

"They are still in the pit, I can sense them walking across my actual body," Tartarus said.

Percy

The goddess was already shuffling into the gloom.

I turned to look at Bob, but the Titan was gone. How does a ten-foot-tall silver dude with a very loud kitten disappear?

"Hey!" I yelled at Akhlys. "Where's our friends?"

"He cannot take this path," the goddess called back. "He is not mortal. Come, little fools. Come experience the Death Mist."

Jason exhaled. "Well... how bad can it be?"

Bye!

Finished with this chapter!

I'll see you again on either Saturday (most likely)

Or Sunday...

Updated~ 1/25/17