Chapter 9: Pandora's secret treasure

Annabeth

When we met the angry woman, I wasn't sure whether we should trust her and stay, or get the hell out of here. Turned out we chose the wrong option when we decided to stay. Not that Pandora is evil, or tried to harm us. When she calmed down, she even turned out to be very nice, which is not a common trait among immortals. But the problem is: she's freakishly annoying. She keeps asking questions about who we are, what we are doing here, why my hair is blond and why Percy has got a tattoo. It simply does not stop, and I'm becoming irritated.

From the little we managed to ask Pandora, we learned that she ended up here the same way we did. She was visiting Rome out of – right – curiosity, when she saw the big pit leading to Tartarus appear. Drawn by her never ending need to find out why things are as they are, she took a closer look and was sucked into to hole. I figure she must have arrived here not long after we did.

During her time down here, she managed to collect all sorts of things while she wandered this land. I know that, because the cave I was about to inspect when Pandora bumped into us is looking a lot like the one the little mermaid has in the Disney movie – Pandora calls it 'her gallery'. It's loaded with numerous objects. Some of them are useless, like corks, Ikea bags and other random pieces of junk, while others can come in quite handy. Between all the stuff, I spotted some food, several books and an EHBO kit. Things we need, but I didn't get the chance to ask Pandora if we can have them, because she keeps firing questions at us.

"So, Annabeth, why's your hair so dirty?" Pandora asks. Percy rolls his eyes. Clearly, he's also tired of her.

"I fell and landed into a pile of mud," I tell her, although that's not the truth. But one thing I learned from talking to Pandora: she never asks you if what you tell her is true. Percy even managed to make her believe we're looking for my lost puppy when she wanted to know the reason why we are here. Pandora simply replied that she did not find a puppy yet, but she would let us know if she did.

"Was it a large pile of mud?" Pandora asks while she hands Percy another piece of junk, so he can put it somewhere between the other stuff in the cave.

"Oh, yes, it was. Very large one," I reassure her.

"How large was it?" I can hear Percy sigh.

"I don't remember, but it was very, very large," I say. Pandora shivers.

"Did you hear her too, in your head? When you touched the dirt?"

Her? Did she mean Gaea? I exchange glances with Percy, who frowns. Because we do not answer her question immediately, Pandora repeats: "Did you hear her? Did you feel the earth goddesses presence?"

"Should we tell her?" Percy mouths at me from behind Pandora's back. I hesitate, because I'm not sure if it's a good idea. Pandora is not a bad person and she treated us well (although she's annoying), so I decide that we might as well tell her everything she knows. We're already in hell, trusting Pandora can't probably make things worse. So I nod at Percy.

"Yes," he says, "I did. She could control me, like a puppet. She did the same thing to you?"

Pandora shakes her head, "No, she was just talking to me. I was curious about who she was and what she had to say, so I kept asking questions. She was really nice, in the beginning. She told me there was something she wanted me to find down here, something valuable to her. She promised me she would keep all the monsters away from me if I went looking for it so I agreed to do it. Those monsters hate me. They kept attacking me, telling me I should have never opened that jar of mine."

"Why's do they hate you? Didn't you release them from their prison by opening your box?" I ask bewildered.

"It's was a Pithos, actually. And yes, I set them free, but most of them got slaughtered and were send here, to Tartarus. They told me they preferred the Pithos." For the first time we met her, Pandora remains silent. I feel pity for her. She did not ask for that damned box anyway. It was given to her by the Gods, just like they'd given her beauty, curiosity and deceitfulness.

"Did you find it? Whatever Gaea wanted you to find?" Percy asks quietly. Pandora nods: "I did, but I never gave it to her. She tried to make me, she showed me many awful things in my head. I believe she would have killed me if she could, but I'm immortal. I cannot die."

"But you said you never gave it to her," I remark.

"No."

"How could you resist her?"

"I'll show you," Pandora says. She steps back and lifts her dress. I gasp. Pandora's feet aren't touching the ground. She's floating a few inches above the ground, because she's wearing winged shoes. My hearts drops when I look at those shoes, because they look strangely familiar. Those are the shoes Luke once gave to Percy, the shoes that were sucked into Tartarus several years ago. I'm suddenly overwhelmed with grief . I waver and just before I fall down, Percy catches me.

"The shoes," I whisper. By the shocked look on Percy's face, I can tell he recognized those shoes as well.

"What's wrong?" Pandora asks panicky, "Did I do something wrong?"

I wanted to tell her she did not, but when I try to speak, words do not come out. So instead, Percy answers her question: "No, not at all. It's just – Annabeth is allergic to winged shoes." That lie does not sound very convincing, but Pandora seems to buy it – just like she always does.

"Thank goodness." She looks relieved and continues her story: "I found these shoes not long after I found that thing she wanted me to look for. I tried them on and found out I was able to fly with them, and suddenly, she was gone."

"Gaea disappeared?"

"I'm not sure if she did disappear, but I couldn't hear her anymore, in my head," Pandora whispers. Once again, we all remain silent. I'm still too shocked to say a thing. The unexpected confrontation with my past hit me like a bullet. I never expected that thinking about Luke would sadden me this much. I bury myself in Percy's shirt and start to sob. I can hear Pandora asking why I react like this.

"Allergic reaction," Percy tells her.

It takes me a while to calm down. Percy holds me in his arms the entire time, and I'm so thankful for the fact that he refused to let me fall into Tartarus alone. I don't think I would stand a chance down here, all by myself. The silence and loneliness would give me too much time to think, and eventually, it would drive me crazy.

When I finally quit sobbing, all of the things Pandora told us starts to dawn on me. Gaea has no control over her, not since she found the shoes, because… Because she does not touch the ground! It's just like Gaea told me: she is everywhere – above me, beneath me and beside me. But she's not in the air, she can only control us when we touch dirt, which is her domain.

"You told us Gaea wanted you to look for something," I let go of Percy and look at Pandora, "What was it?"

She stares back at me and a bit disappointed, she says: "It turned out to be nothing special. It's old and dirty, but I kept it close. I just don't want Gaea to lay her hands on it." Pandora reaches her hand in her dress and pulls out a long golden chain on which is dangling a little golden pocket watch.

"You can inspect it, if you want to. Maybe you will be able to find out what it does, but according to me, it's broken. I pressed every button, but it does not work. The clock-hands move either to fast or to slow. I tried to open it, in order to fix it, but I think it's stuck." Pandora tries to give the watch to me and I reach out to take it, but Percy stops me.

"Don't take it, not now," he whispers in my ear. I look at him, and to my surprise, he looks frightened. His eyes are fixed on the watch, the shimmering gold is reflected in his eyes, so they look like they golden instead of green.

Hey,

First of all: OMG OMG OMG. Have you already checked out the new cover for the house of Hades? I'm so excited about it, as it shows Percy and Annabeth on the cover - I'm so glad they will be part of the story! The image reallt looks promising. In case you haven't seen it, you can find it here wiki/The_House_of_Hades .

Alright, I also got some other new: I finally found a Beta: IAmHayleyDaughterAthena! She will be looking after my story, so it make take a while before I upload another chapter. Anyway, feel free to leave commentary if you like in the meantime. I'll post as soon as possible, but I got to give my Beta some time to re-read and corect all of my chapters. I'm so sorry to put it on hold for a while, as I nearly finished the next chapter.

Thanks for giving this story a chance!

xxx Ellyn