Dear Anonymous/Bored/Whoever the hell you are: Why don't you just grow up and quit calling me a lazy bitch for not updating? Just because I'm at the end of the story doesn't mean I can update faster. I have to actually write the chapter first, and this isn't my only story that I have to update. I have a life other than writing and things that I want to do. So if you can't act more mature and quit spamming me with comments, then just quit reading my story.

Sorry for typos/OOCness. It's fast paced, I guess, but I hope you like it!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 45

Percy

For the love of the gods, they just couldn't get a break, could they?

They'd already been to Where the Lost are Revealed. They'd had a freaking makeup fight inside of there. And the thing they had felt… pulling them into the basement. That had been Gaea, pulling them into the House of Hades. The Doors of Death were inside of there, and they had been ignorant enough to leave the place and keep searching. They were going in one huge circle.

And Nico was the one who had told him that the House of Hades was in Epirus. Had they found out that it was actually in Tartarus? What if they kept searching for it? They would never be able to find it

"Are you sure?" Percy asked quickly.

"I'm positive," she insisted. "Now, you have to leave, he's getting closer."

But Percy couldn't just leave. Calypso was wrongly locked up in prison. He could understand all of the monsters, but she was a Titan that had helped him a long time ago. She had even said that they would never see each other again. It went against everything Percy believed in to just leave her to be tortured, but he knew that if he closed the Doors of Death and stopped Gaea's army, it could free her.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts that he didn't feel Annabeth tugging on his hand, urging him to leave. Once he realized what she was doing, he followed along in quick steps. "We'll get you out of here," he whispered hoarsely. "I promise."

Calypso didn't say another word as she turned around in her cell and walked to the back of it. Percy eyeballed the other monsters, who were fearful of this Orcus that was coming down to hurt them. It was pitiful and sad. Percy cared about Calypso, but he cared about Annabeth even more. He had to make sure the person he loved got out alive.

So, without caring about making no sound, they ran.

Percy heard Orcus shout at them with a gruff voice. "Blasted demigods!" That was followed by a string of curses that would've made any trucker driver proud. Heavy footsteps began to thunder rather than walk casually. Percy squeezed Annabeth's hand as they ran down the stairs and through the hallways past the rotting body parts and blood puddles.

Percy heard the sound of a whip against the wall again. He thought about turning around and fighting this Orcus guy, but they didn't have time for that. If they got back on the four wheeler, it would go a lot faster than that monster could run. Plus, he couldn't stray far from the prison, because he had prisoners to look after. Hopefully, he wouldn't send Mania and Mantus after them either. They didn't sound like they were a lot of fun.

For some reason, when he reached the gate, he turned around.

Big mistake.

Orcus was already outside, right by the doorway. He was huge, like a sumo wrestler. His greasy hair was back in a ponytail and he had a very long leather whip hanging around his neck. Worst of all, he wore a loin cloth. What was up with the ugly monsters and people wearing diapers?

The worst part was his face and chest. His chest was a mixture of different types of hair, clumpy and covered in blood. Some of it was shredded off because of cuts, and Percy could see the deep scars covering his body. His face was contorted, as if someone had repeatedly slammed him into wall. Teeth were missing and those that were there were dripping with crimson.

Orcus unfurled his whip from around his neck and snapped it against the concrete walls. The hit was so hard that the wall crumbled a little bit. Percy and Annabeth weren't even at the four wheeler yet. They needed to get out of there, but Orcus was close. No doubt he was going to fight them.

They backed up and aimed their weapons at the Orcus, in case he decided to come after them. But instead, he laughed.

That was wrong on so many levels.

It should've been illegal for him to laugh. It wasn't even a laugh, really. It sounded choked, like he was trying to be villainous but sort of failing at it. Percy knew that the guy could obviously really hurt them, because he had seen all of the prisoners, but the evil laugh just didn't work for him.

"Do you really think that your demigod weapons are any match for my power?" he demanded. "I run this entire compound, and I have been for millennia. I could crush you with my pinky finger and you wouldn't even know what'd hit you. You two are nothing. You may think you are special but you aren't."

Percy should've grabbed Annabeth and gotten out of there, but they had to face their enemies.

"Where'd all that come from?" Percy asked, tauntingly. "Seems to me like a certain someone is a little jealous, no?"

Orcus's face got bright red with anger, but it looked like someone was trying to strangle him. His hand clenched into an empty fist and he kept whipping his whip with rage, causing all sorts of things to break. But the entire time, he did not move any closer. He stayed by the door and the two of them stayed by gate, in defensive positions, eyeing one another, waiting for the other to make their move.

"You are just as arrogant as Poseidon himself," he thundered. His knuckles were white. He looked like he wanted to strangle them. "But I cannot be the one to kill you, unfortunately. The Earth Mother has seen for your passage back to the House of Hades."

"But, why would Gaea do that? Doesn't she want us dead?" Annabeth asked. Percy was getting ready to ask the same thing. If they got to the House of Hades, they would have to close the Doors of Death, and that would stop Gaea from rising. Why would she want them to go there? Percy thought that she'd doing whatever she could to stop them.

"Some daughter of Athena you are," huffed Orcus, tapping his foot restlessly. "Seems to me like you're more of an idiot than a braniac."

Annabeth started forward like she wanted to fight the torturer, but Percy wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her back. She struggled for a second before giving up and standing beside him again. The hand with her knife in it twitched. Percy wanted to run over the guy with a eighteen wheeler truck, but he was out of those, and that wouldn't be the best way to not get killed.

"She needs a sacrifice to be awakened. One or both of you, it does not matter. Someone must die in order for her to rise, and that's why I must let you pass. You have to go to close the Doors of Death, because that is the whole point of your quest, but if you go there, you both shall die and Gaea will rise and the Doors will remain open. In other words, your entire mission is useless, but stupidity is something you were born with, and you guys will go there anyway."

Percy blinked, and Annabeth tried at a comeback. Orcus laughed again and a shudder rolled through Percy.

"So run now," he told them. "You'll just fail and die in the end."

With those words, Orcus crossed his arms over his chest and waited. He still did not attack them, and so Percy pulled Annabeth away from the fence. Once it was behind them, it slammed shut. Percy turned around, but Orcus hadn't moved from his position at the opening of the place. Weird. Percy felt Annabeth's arms go around his waist as he turned on the four wheelers.

He gave one last look to the prison. Orcus stood there still, and he said one more thing. "There's a fair chance you won't even make it to the House of Hades. The Graveyard of the Respectable has a line of its own monsters that will murder you without a single thought, because they don't work with Gaea."

Calypso was still inside. She'd be tortured. There was nothing Percy could do. Orcus would protect his prison, and he wouldn't kill Percy or Annabeth, but he would probably do worse. They had to stop Gaea. It was the only chance for peace.

As Percy zoomed away, neither of them said a single thing. Percy thought about what Orcus had said. He remember what Annabeth had said a few days back, about seeing something move in the graveyard. Had they seen these monsters that Orcus had talked about? He said they didn't work with Gaea, but was that a good thing or a bad thing?

They drove through the forest and the fields and the hills for a little while. They still didn't really talk to each other. Percy wasn't sure what he was supposed to say. Maybe he should say something about Calypso. Words didn't come easily to him though. He wasn't sure what he would say. Calypso had saved his life, and yeah, there had been a part of him at the time that had kind of liked her.

But Annabeth was it for him.

Over the time they rode all the way back to Where the Lost are Revealed, he felt Annabeth lean forward and kiss him on the cheek. "That went a lot easier than I had expected it to. I still can't believe that Orcus didn't attack us, but I think we're going to have an even worse fight ahead." She sighed. "I'm glad you're okay, and I hope Calypso is going to be okay too. She must've really liked you to help you like that."

Percy, still at a loss for words, nodded.

After that they didn't talk, but soon Percy saw that giant, fatal building, looming in the cloudy green sky. He couldn't believe that the House of Hades had been in the basement of the place the entire time. Nervous excitement bubbled inside of him. This was the end of it all. They just needed to close the Doors of Death and then find a way out of Tartarus, and it would all be over.

Once they got close to the surrounding fence, Percy parked the four wheeler and helped Annabeth down. They each took a swig of nectar and got their weapons ready once again. This would be a fight against a lot of monsters, but when Percy looked into the graveyard, he didn't see anything. After a moment, he saw one thing dash in between tombstones, but it was too fast for him to make out any features.

He turned to his girlfriend and kissed her once. "Good luck," he breathed into her hair.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. "Same," she said.

They broke apart and hopped over the fence. They stopped for a second and examined the area. Just a bunch of corpses and tombs. Percy still didn't like graveyards and wanted to get through it as fast as he could. He took one step forward. That's when everything started to go downhill.

Girls were everywhere!

They popped out from behind the headstones and from the ground, spreading for a while in both directions, eyes trained on Percy and Annabeth. They were gorgeous, even though they were covered in dirt and rotting flesh. Their hair was lush and he could see their sparkling eyes. What ruined it all was their hands, with were ugly and crippled with claws six inches long.

Annabeth sucked in a breath. "It's the Danaides! RUN!"

He didn't need to be told twice. He and Annabeth took off as fast as they could, but the Danaides, whoever they were, seemed to be just as fast. They gathered around Percy and Annabeth and lunged at them, claws outstretched.

One of them landed on top of Percy, and her claws raked his chest. He gasped in pain and struggled to put his sword between them. "Pretty half-blood," she purred, then slashed at him again. Percy brought the hilt of his sword up and slammed it against her face. She reeled back with a scream and Percy kicked her off. She flew backward and hit the ground.

She was replaced with another, who leapt on his back once he'd stood up. His face hit the ground and he grunted. These girls were relentless. Another one jumped on top of him too. He felt their claws scratching through his clothing and skin, and blood being drawn. It ran down his body in rivers. But the cuts weren't too deep which was good.

Annabeth screamed, and Percy wanted to help her, but he was struggling against the girls that were already fighting him. "Annabeth! How do you fight them?"

"You can't," she yelled back, and she sounded far off. "You don't."

Percy arched his body off the ground and then flipped the two of them off. They landed down in the dirt, and Percy jumped to his feet. He slammed his heel down into their face, over and over again, until they were bleeding golden ichor. Once they were in no condition to be fighting him, he turned around and observed how many were left.

There were too many. Over thirty, by far. And they all looked just the same.

Three had surrounded Annabeth, while the others were rooting them on. Annabeth was holding her own. She hadn't gone down like Percy. She deflected a hit and then twisted around to embed her blade in the eye of one of them. She yanked her knife out and then stabbed it through the chest of another. Then she did a butterfly kick in the last ones face, and it collapsed down. She smiled victoriously.

The Danaides booed, and Percy was so caught up in watch her that he hadn't realized that more of the girls had come after him. One let loose a battle cry and ran up to him so fast that he didn't have time to react. She kneed him in the stomach and then did a roundhouse kick to his cheek. Thankfully, he recovered quickly and then lashed out at her with Riptide.

With a hack she was down on the ground, but like the others, she did not dissolve. She merely just rolled around in pain. He brought his sword down again on her leg so she wouldn't be able to stand. Sweat poured down his body as his blade met the claws of one. Sparks flew, proving that they had some really sharp talons. He swept her legs out from underneath her with one slick move.

"KILL THEM BOTH!" the Danaides chanted as they circled them. Lovely.

For a minute, Percy and Annabeth ended up back to back as they had been so many times before, but after the fighting had commenced, they were quickly separated from each other, fighting for their lives. It was a normal routine, but then he noticed that the ones that had already gone down were standing back up and joining the fights again, wanting revenge.

They went down, but they were healing too. There were too many of them for Percy and Annabeth to fight off. The only chance they had was to run.

So he did. He ran over to Annabeth and grabbed her from her fight, and the jumped over the fallen sisters as they ran towards Where the Lost are Revealed. It seemed so far away, but they jumped on top of tombs and didn't look behind them. The only indication they had that the Danaides were following them were the shrieks and cries.

Once they reached the back door, they ran inside and slammed in shut behind them. They pressed their weights into the door, but the Danaides pounded against it. "Who are the Danaides?" Percy asked breathless.

"The Forty Nine daughters of Danaus," Annabeth informed him. "They all murdered their husbands and were forced into Tartarus for all eternity. They were supposed to be condemned to carrying water jugs, but that clearly didn't work out right. Now, I guess they are just a bunch of sociopaths that kill anything in sight."

"Orcus was right about the monsters wanting to kill us," he said. One of the Danaides body slammed the door, managing to kick his body forward. He swallowed loudly. "We need to get to the basement."

"Do you want to let go of the door?" she questioned. "Then they'll all come in, and we won't stand a chance this time. We'll have to get straight to the stairs."

"We'll have to be fast," he answered. "On three. One. Two. Three."

They let go and sprinted down the aisles. The door banged open with angry screams, but they didn't stop. Once an aisle was behind them, Percy would push it down. Plumes of dust went into the air and created some sort of smoke screen that would hopefully confuse the monsters. The wreckage that they created would be hard to get across too.

Percy and Annabeth reached the staircase that went down instead of up. It was still roped off, and he slashed through it. It tumbled down and disappeared.

They glanced at each other before plunging into the darkness that was the House of Hades.

I hope you liked! I tried my best to do this... and now there are only five chapters left. Review Challenge: What is your favorite website? Mine is a tie between FanFiction, YouTube, and a bunch of random Twitter pages (cough, Amanda Bynes, cough). I also like looking a book blogs, like Rick Riordan's and Jennifer Armentrout's.

Reviews and ideas are loved. Oh, and for everyone who asked, you have to actually buy the first chapter of the House of Hades. It comes with the ebook of the Son of Sobek.

-BBH