Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related characters! Please, please, PLEASE review if you read; all feedback is greatly appreciated. You all are awesome, and thank you for reading my story!
Percy told himself that he would never jump into a shimmering, deathly gray-white energy portal again. It was, in a word, traumatizing. In the span of about six seconds, Percy felt his molecules explode and re-arrange repeatedly. His body was dissolving and being put back together; he was there, then he was not, then he was there, then he was not.
And then he was there. Finally, they came out of the body of a tree and landed hard on the ground. Percy saw that they had landed on a ground with black grass. Percy, Thalia and Grover shivered and stood up. Percy looked around; they had entered the Underworld through the body of a stunted black poplar tree. A swirling black energy portal was spinning on the tree, as if it was one of those age spots that trees have. Next to that tree were two similar trees, except they lacked the black portal. Behind them was a huge field full of people behind them. The crazy thing about it; it was nearly silent.
It was a huge wheat field that looked like it belonged in Kansas or another rural part of America. The grass and the wheat itself was black as well, and the sky was a swirling gray. Due to the gray sky, the black grass, and the overall atmosphere of death, it was very dark, as if people were standing outside in a field at midnight on a starless night. Everything and everyone seemed to be drained of color. The people were walking around trying to talk to one another, but nothing was coming out. They seemed to be very purposeful in what they were trying to communicate, but the other person wasn't understanding. After a few seconds of this interaction, the people would leave their temporary conversation partner and walk around once more. Their faces were blank, with a little bit of sadness etched into them. Percy recognized this field; he had seen it years ago.
Thalia stepped forward; though her shirt was black and her pants a silvery camo color, her Hunter aura made her body's silver outline/aura literally glow. She looked like an angel among the dead. Thalia looked around, her electric blue eyes glowing a light blue as well. In contrast, Percy's petal glowed a dark blue.
Thalia informed them, "The Fields of Asphodel."
Grover nodded; he had been here before. "The place where the neutral go after death. They drink from the River Lethe before entering the fields, losing their identities, memories, emotions, likes, dislikes; everything that makes them individuals. After that they just aimlessly walk around like machines."
Thalia shook her head sadly. "It's so devoid of…the spark of life. I remember Artemis told us that Hades gives a weird offer that sucks for some people and helps out a lot of people as well. He provides an 'EZ Death' train line that allows people to skip past their judgment. Everyone who chooses that option though, is deemed a specific type of coward and is sentenced here…to the nothingness."
Percy thought it simultaneously didn't make sense and made a weird kind of sense. He guessed that if a person refused to step up and be accountable for their actions in life, then the punishment of walking around aimlessly for all time makes a weird type of sense. But if someone had an awesome life, but they took the EZ death line because they were scared or insecure about their life, they drew the short stick and ended up here. Whether it made sense or not, Percy thought it wasn't fair. Everyone should have the opportunity to be judged.
Percy was pulled out of his thoughts by Grover saying, "Look." Percy followed his finger towards Hades' palace. It was the same glittering black palace with black columns, black marble portico, and just an overall black exterior. It stood amongst an icily beautiful and colorful garden, which Percy knew was the garden of Persephone. The castle and the garden stood behind huge, two-story-tall bronze gates that Percy knew had various scenes of death engraved upon it. Furies flew around the fortress.
Thalia exhaled. "We need to find this Pool, and fast. It's not good for the living to spend too long in the Underworld."
Grover turned to her. "What happens?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. But it's advice from Artemis and I don't plan on finding out."
Percy agreed. He swept his eyes to a familiar steep slope that led to a rocky tunnel. It looked like a regular cave (as regular as one has in the Underworld), but he remembered that it was something more.
The entrance to Tartarus.
Grover's flying shoes taking him straight into that tunnel at such a speed that Percy and Annabeth had to sprint to keep up with them years ago. A shiver went down his back when he remembered Kronos trying to pull Annabeth, Grover, and Percy into Tartarus via a freezing gust of wind.
He exhaled. "This way. That's the entrance to Tartarus, and somewhere in that cave is the Asopio Pool."
Thalia turned and followed his gaze. Grover ran his fingers through his hair and horns. "Guys, you're sure I can't sit this one out? I have bad memories of this place."
Percy couldn't blame him, but he replied, "I've been through Tartarus and back, Grover. I don't care what it takes, we need to get my sister back. Whether Annabeth is there already or not, I'd rather get there early and wait than get there too late. Follow me."
He waited for Thalia or Grover to argue or protest, but he was met with silence and a tentative step back from Grover. Percy felt his Wolf stare on his face. He thought about dissolving it, but he needed figured that if he was going anywhere near Tartarus, it would be good to have on him. Percy was a bit worried that his Wolf face sometimes turns on involuntarily, scaring whatever company he's with (unless it's Thalia). He hoped that one day, he didn't accidentally give Cyrene the look; she may cry for a few days straight.
The Wolf began to come up and adrenaline began to surge as Percy led his friends towards the cavern. Six years ago, his twelve-year old self would have never believed that he was going to come back here voluntarily.
After a good amount of walking (the cavern was farther than it looked without Percy chasing after a friend in mortal danger), they finally reached the entrance. The rocks around the cavern entrance were pure black, as well as the inside of it. It was so pitch-black inside the cave that neither Percy, Thalia, nor Grover was able to see past the entrance, even with all of their enhanced senses. However, Percy felt all different types of evil stirring in there. For a second, he was afraid that he was going to hear Kronos, but he didn't feel his energy in the cavern. Thalia shined her flashlight into the tunnel, and Percy saw stalactites hanging from the ceiling, slightly glowing in the presence of Thalia's light.
Percy uncapped Riptide and, despite his senses telling him that he was in mortal danger, forged into the tunnel. His petal glowed a strong red and he felt anger going through his body; at some point, Annabeth planned to take Cyrene through this disgusting, evil tunnel and sacrifice her in here. He was not going let that happen, even if his cost him his life. Cyrene deserved the best life possible.
They crept in and the grass turned to rock underneath their feet. The walls were lined with black gravel. Percy's senses were working hard, and he realized that this place was disrupting his senses. His senses were telling him that he was in immediate mortal danger, but nothing was happening. Nevertheless, he gripped Riptide and got ready to swing at whatever came out of the darkness. Percy wondered if it was dark enough that they could shadow travel out of here by just thinking of a destination. Not wanting to take the risk, Percy began to hum.
After a few seconds, Thalia coughed. "Is that 'Come and Get Your Love' by Redbone?"
Percy chose not to reply since Thalia seemed like she knew the answer to her own question. They continued to go through the cavern until they came to a crossroads. Percy's humming faded out as he looked down each tunnel. He felt evil down both tunnels, but wasn't sure which one to go through. They had been chasing Grover so intently that they didn't see another choice of path to go down. Thalia shined her light down both paths, but could see nothing but the ceiling, which began to get lower as both paths went on. The paths also both seemed to be on a decline, meaning that they may end up underground in the Underworld soon. Percy wondered if Janus, the god of sides and choices, was laughing at him in the shadows.
However, Grover pushed past him. He pointed at the path to the Percy and Thalia's left. He almost glowed with confidence. "That was the one that Luke's shoes took me to. This tunnel took us straight to that huge chasm that tried to swallow us. So, I assume the pool must be that way," he pointed at the path to their right. Thalia looked at Percy. He trusted Grover and assumed that this cavern didn't shift and change like the Labyrinth. He nodded, and the three of them went down the selected path.
As they walked, the tunnel got darker and colder, until it was pitch black. Percy's senses were still activating his sympathetic nervous system, but he tuned it out and used his senses to know where everything was. Thalia and Grover followed him out of faith.
On cue, Thalia thrust out her hand and shot of bolt of lightning down the long tunnel. It lit up the entire tunnel for a split second as the bolt arced through it. What Percy saw in that split second froze his insides. At the end of the tunnel, about two hundred feet down, he saw a woman wearing a robe and hood made of darkness that seemed to be made of black mist/smoke. She was waiting at the end of the path with her head down, but once the lightning flashed down the path, she turned and continued to walk down the path. When Percy saw her, images of a dead Cyrene, his mother and Paul dead, his friends dead on the ground, a burning Camp Half-Blood, a destroyed world, and a razed Olympus flashed through his head.
The images seemed so real that his knees buckled and he had to put his hand on the black granite wall for support. However, his hand sunk through and it seemed like there were spirits inside of the wall pulling him in. He jerked his arm back, but they had grips like Nereus. His body started to get swallowed by the wall, but Grover pulled him by his legs and Thalia pulled him by his waist. The wall finally let go of him, and his hand was burning. Percy wished he had water to take care of it, but immediately, Thalia took out ambrosia and had him eat it. Percy began to feel better and they cautiously continued to go down the tunnel.
Grover gulped. "Is no one going to talk about that smoky woman?"
Thalia's hands gripped her spear. "I hope Smoky Woman is not who I think it is, but her smoky robe is crushing that hope. If it who I pray it's not, then she is Melinoe, the Underworld goddess of ghosts, darkness, and fear. Every single nightmare that anyone has flows through her. I got a vision of my worst fears just by looking at her hundreds of feet away."
Percy felt the sweat cooling on his head. He and Thalia ran into her one time and she was not a nice person. He thought about the images that had flashed through his head and realized that those were his worst fears come true. He always feared that he would one day come against a monster that was too big, too strong, too fast, too cruel, too powerful, etc. He would try his best, but he would meet his end. However, he wouldn't die before the monster destroyed everything he loved. And those images were everything he loved.
They continued down into the darkness, but they started to feel the tunnel get skinnier. They eventually had to walk sideways and shuffle to avoid touching the hungry wall. Eventually, they shuffled into an open space, where they fell about fifteen feet onto the ground. The ground was a fifty-foot circle made out dark gray marble, with glowing white letters of ancient Greek illuminating the perimeter of the circle.
It reminded Percy of an arena. The circle was surrounded by a chasm. Percy peered over the edge of the circle arena and saw that there was lava about a hundred feet down. It cast a red-orange light around the entire circle. Percy looked back to where they had entered from; there was a small space from the tunnel that led into open space right above this arena. They had fallen from there onto this area, where the floor outside the arena was literally lava. Percy looked to the other side of the arena; there was another opening about fifteen feet above the arena on that side that led into a continuation of the tunnel, which he assumed led to the Asopio Pool.
Percy, Thalia, and Grover scrambled up and got their weapons ready. Heat assaulted their faces, immediately prompting Percy to sweat. He began to get jealous because Thalia was immortal (so she doesn't show any signs of physical exertion or tiredness) and satyrs don't sweat.
Out of nothingness, the darkness in the room seemed to bend and concentrate to the space across from them in the arena, forming a woman with black robes of shadowy-smoke. It seemed to flow off her and into the air, and it looked like Tyson could blow the robe off her with one of his strong exhales. The woman had her hood up, but she took it off.
Standing there was a woman that reminded Percy of Two-Face from the Batman comics. Her left side was black, hardened, and cracking as if she was a mummy, and her right side was pale, chalky, and dry, as if one drop of lotion would destroy her. Her hair fell past her shoulders, and they looked like they were made of darkness as well. She took one look at Thalia and immediately transformed into something that Percy thought was vaguely familiar.
She had turned into a tall woman with blonde hair that was so disheveled and uncombed that it looked like a bee's hive. It lazily stood up as if she hadn't had the strength to put in the necessary hair products to make it stand straight. She had a stern face as if everything everyone did was unsatisfactory, all the time. Her eyes were blue and she regarded Thalia. She had a bottle of alcohol in her hand that was three-quarters finished and she moved towards Thalia.
Immediately, Thalia was frozen. Her eyes shook with fear as she scrambled back from the vision. "M-mom…"
Melinoe's illusion zoomed towards Thalia with unnatural speed, prompting the Hunter to scramble back so far that she almost fell into the lava. Percy yelled, "NO," and threw Riptide as Melinoe. The sword went through her and she turned towards Percy. When she had turned, she had turned into Luke.
Percy froze. Luke spread his hands and smiled towards Percy. "Hey, buddy."
Percy's heart leapt into his throat. His petal glowed a combination of a deep yellow and a deep red. He uncapped Riptide, and the sight of Luke along with the lava was making him sweat. "Get…away from me."
Luke smiled. "Oh, Percy…you're not still mad about Annabeth, are you? It's simple; she never loved you. And now she's going to kill your sister. That will go down as one of the wildest betrayal stories of all Greek mythology, and you will go down as one of the biggest fools of all time. It was all a lie, Percy. She planned your death. She served a greater force. And now she will consummate her service to Arachne with one last act. You would deny her that? You would stop her from freeing herself due to a personal desire?"
Suddenly, the vision of Luke shimmered and Percy saw Melinoe again. She looked like she had just gotten hit and Percy saw Grover behind her, with a reed pipe in hand. Grover had hit the goddess of ghosts, nightmares, and darkness in the head with a reed pipe. She turned to him and Grover went pale. "Poly-Polyphemus."
Melinoe stalked towards him and Percy made eye contact with Thalia. She looked shaken, but she nodded to him. Together, they drew their weapons and charged Melinoe. However, she sensed them coming and closed her fists. Darkness surrounded the arena and Percy was at Camp Half-Blood.
It was on fire.
The grass was scorched and there was still green fire burning everywhere. All the buildings had burned to the ground. The ground was covered with demigods lying on it. Campers were lying dead on the ground, some with weapons still impaled on them. Kofi had a knife through his skull. Connor Stoll had a sword through his heart. Jason had two arrows through his throat and his lifeless body was lying against the ruined Big House, as if he had crawled there to die. Piper's body was on fire and on the ground. The green flames burned over her entire body. Percy expected to hear screams, but he saw that her face was charred and destroyed. She wasn't going to scream because she was already dead. Her body was just still burning. Chiron was lying by the volleyball court, his human and his horse halves bloodily torn apart from each other. Rachel's arms and legs were cut off, and her torso was lying face-down on the ground.
Percy began to walk and had to step over bodies for every step. Every dead body was someone he had met or recognized. He saw a huge monster in the distance grabbing Leo and swallowing him whole, while crushing Calypso with his foot. Percy began to run and uncapped Riptide. He had to stop this.
I have to end this, he thought. Somehow he knew Olympus had burned, and somehow he knew who was responsible. He knew to run to the lake.
When he got there, Annabeth was standing there next to a pile of dead bodies. The bodies were stacked on one another like a pyramid, and one spear was thrust through the bodies like it was holding the pyramid together. Annabeth was standing in the middle of two other people standing beside her; his mother and Paul. Percy screamed and sprinted towards her, but she held up the dagger that Luke gave her over Cyrene.
She raised her knife and tsk-tsked. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
His parents were tied up, standing in front of the lake. Percy's mother's eyes pleaded to him to save her while Paul thrashed against his bonds and Cyrene cried in her arms. Annabeth gave him two words that he was dreading.
"Choose one."
Percy couldn't move. He was forced to choose. He hesitated and looked from Paul to his mother to Cyrene. "Annabeth, please! This isn't you."
"Choose. And all of this will be erased."
He couldn't. "I…I can't."
Annabeth shrugged. "Death then."
In one move, she extended her left arm that wasn't holding Cyrene and impaled her hybrid sword through his mother's neck. Percy screamed as Annabeth removed the sword and beheaded Paul in one strike. She dropped Cyrene on the ground and plunged the sword through his baby sister. Percy tried to move, but he couldn't; he was frozen. Annabeth walked up to him and hugged him. He smelled her normal scent, but it was mixed with fresh blood. She put her chin on his shoulder in the hug and whispered, "This is for Luke."
She stabbed him through the stomach and he felt the Stygian ice spreading through his insides, freezing that area. He had not felt pain like this before. She pushed him down and his dying body fell to the ground. He had failed to save the world and his family. This was all his fault.
Next to him, he saw Thalia on the ground, dying as well. He wasn't sure how he didn't see her when he was looking at Annabeth, but he was too distracted by the broken look in her eyes. She looked at him and Percy saw that Riptide was sticking from her stomach. She reached weakly to him and whispered shakily, "You could have saved us, Percy. Why didn't…why didn't you…"
The life left her eyes. Percy lay there and screamed; not from physical pain , but from despair. He felt his heart and soul absolutely broken.
He reached towards Thalia's face but couldn't quite reach her. "I'm so…I'm so sorry."
Suddenly, Thalia opened her eyes and looked at him. "Percy…before we die…we have to get something from the dam snack bar."
Grover's dead body was suddenly on the other side of him. Percy turned his head to look at him, and he was half smiling with a knife through the top of his neck. "Yeah, and I'm feeling like a dam sandwich."
Thalia laughed, then coughed up some blood, then laughed some more. Percy turned to her. "GET ME MY DAM SANDWICH."
Grover laughed and Percy turned to him. "FROM THE DAM SNACK BAR."
Percy thought back to the time when they were headed to the Hoover Dam's snack bar, and thought about he, Grover, Thalia, and Zoe joking about it. Though he was dying, Percy smiled. He assumed it was a gruesome sight and it hurt him like crazy, but he smiled. He was at peace, dying next to his friends. As Thalia and Grover laughed, Percy began to laugh as well, glad that he died having a good time.
Immediately, the entire scene faded away and Percy was on the ground of a circular arena with dark gray marble and glowing markings. Percy looked up to see Melinoe attacking Thalia and Grover with obsidian black energy. It took him a second to register what was going on.
It was a dream. A horrible vision created by Melinoe to attack Percy and Thalia as they were going to protect Grover. But somehow, the tables had turned and Thalia and Grover had saved him. Now, they were fighting her. Percy felt Riptide in his pocket from after he had thrown it at Melinoe.
He uncapped it and gave her a tomahawk slice. Just like the last time they had faced her, Riptide went straight through her though. In the same heartbeat, she turned and struck him in the chin. But once she had turned solid to attack him, a glowing arrow went through her heart, another one through her neck, and another one through her head. Melinoe gave a shriek as the light from the arrows arced through her body, and she faded into darkness.
Percy flew back from Melinoe's hit. He flew past the edge of the circular arena, and fell towards the lava. However, two strong arms grabbed him and Grover was smiling down at him. "Come on, Perce. One…two…"
On a telepathic "Three!" Grover pulled Percy up as the latter pulled upwards. They made it back onto the arena and collapsed, breathing hard. Thalia stood over them with a grin. "Well, hello, boys."
Percy and Grover panted, but Percy was confused about one thing. "How…heh…how did you all save me?"
Grover laughed a bit. "Heh….it was all Thalia."
Percy looked up at Thalia, who had her arms crossed. "How'd you do it, Wonder Woman?"
"I think you answered your own question." She bent down and grabbed his wrist, helping him up. She grabbed Grover's hand as well and pulled him up.
She enveloped Percy and Grover into a hug, and Percy smelled the familiar scent of Christmas. He decided that he would never forget smelling Christmas while in the Underworld underground, heading to the entrance to Tartarus.
Thalia pushed away from them and said, "She went straight for me first; she must've remembered our previous encounter. I saw my mother and I hadn't seen her in so long and…I froze up. She was about to push me off the edge when you had distracted her." She gestured towards Percy, who waved weakly.
Thalia continued. "She started to attack you and you had frozen up, but I could see that she had turned into Luke. It almost froze me up again, but Grover came flying at her with his reed pipes, going crazy on her head with them."
Grover smiled in turn. She finished the story. "She turned towards Grover and started attacking him. You and I went to attack her, but she put us in our own personal nightmares. I don't plan on ever telling you mine, Percy, but you were there…and I thought attacking you at the Roman baths earlier this week."
Grover gazed at Percy and he felt like the satyr was reading his emotions again. Thalia wasn't fazed though. "That thought made me smile and suddenly, the entire vision tipped over. I realized that positive thoughts during a nightmare helps combat the effects of it. I continued to think happy thoughts and the nightmare began to crumble. I was back in the world, and saw her. She was attacking Grover, and I kicked her away, breaking the spell. We rushed over to you and we were screaming in your ear that joke about the dam snack bar, and sure enough, you woke out of the nightmare. And that's when history repeated itself; you attacked her with Riptide, she phased right through it, but while she was distracted, I lit her up with arrows. And that's how we got here."
Percy couldn't but wonder what he was doing in her nightmare. He figured his snoring wasn't that bad. However, Grover pointed towards the entrance into the cavern on the other side of the arena. "We should probably head out. Annabeth could be there by now."
Percy agreed. Thalia ran and jumped the fifteen feet up to the cavern entrance. Percy felt jealousy twinge through his body again as he saw her awesome physicality. Grover ran and jumped as well. His power satyr legs propelled him only about thirteen feet up in the air, but Thalia grabbed him just in time and pulled him up. They looked towards Percy, who put his arms out to his sides as if saying, Really?
Thalia yelled at him, "Get up here, Aquaman! Find a way! You got this."
Percy's petal glowed a strong green. He had an idea and put his hand on the marble arena. He felt trace amounts of water down in the lava. He combined his energy and distributed it to his gut and his chest, using his water and earth manipulation powers at the same time. The lava started to course and flow upwards towards Percy. He flinched as the lava enveloped the marble structure and washed over his feet, but he remembered the telkhines throwing lava at him years ago. It didn't start to burn until after a few minutes when they had covered him in it. They had told him that his lineage protected him.
Percy willed the lava to form into steps and he took the steps up to the second cavern entrance. He knew he only had a few seconds of invulnerability. As he stepped on the lava, he just felt warmth. But as he ascended, the steps began to get hotter. Luckily, he reached the entrance before it became scalding, and Thalia and Grover pulled him up into the cavern.
They collected themselves and headed down the cavern once more. The cavern's size went in the opposite direction; it started off narrow and grew wider as the path went on. After about a minute of walking, they finally arrived at a large room the size of a college baseball field. The floor was a lighter gray marble, but it was cracked in a few places. Littered on the ground was crystals that glittered different colors, reminding Percy of the Roman baths. The crystals spread over the large floor and the walls. On the ceiling were different depictions of monsters; some Percy recognized, some he didn't. He saw the Minotaur, the Nemean Lion, empousai, the Hyperborean Giant, and much more. He realized that all these creatures were in Tartarus at the moment, and were all available to be brought back by the affordable price of one infant. What really struck him was in the center of the room.
In the center was a huge circle that looked like a hot tub. It looked to be about the size of the arena they had just fought in, width-wise. However, this one was also tall, protruding about ten feet from the marble floor. The outside of the tub was obsidian black, glowing with white markings. The markings were Ancient Greek illustrations of Greek monsters, but they were more simplistic drawings that contrasted against the more detailed depictions on the ceiling. Around the tub was a circular garden that extended only about three feet away from the tub all the way around. The garden that circled the tub had black and white flowers, alternating with one another to form an arrangement that looked like it was for Hades and Persephone's wedding. Percy could barely see over the tub, but once Thalia saw him straining to look over it, she bent down, gave his knees a bear hug, then lifted him up as if he was a kid at a baseball game.
Even though he was scared of falling, Percy saw that the tub had pale white liquid inside that was producing deathly white steam. The steam curled around it in tendrils and made the water in the tub seem either scalding hot or freezing cold. Percy's senses, despite him suppressing it, decided to override his suppression and scream at him that he was in danger. They seemed to tell him, "There are monsters in that tub thing!" He felt evil and monsters stirring in the tub, as if they were having an underwater party in it.
Percy knew what he was looking at, and beckoned for Thalia to put him down. Once he was on the ground, he stared at Thalia and Grover in the eyes.
"We're here. This is the Asopio Pool."