Day One
Percy
"The mentoring process is long and tedious. You're going to start with strength and endurance training first, so you don't end up like that guy," Thunder pointed to a guy who was being dragged off, he was screaming complete nonsense and looked completely terrified.
"What happened to him?" I asked, I'm not sure I wanted to know though.
"He couldn't handle it. Tartarus wasn't really meant for humans, there are so many horrible things down here the mind can't adjust quickly enough, or handle some of it. In many cases people go crazy, like that guy." Now this is seeming more like Tartarus, I thought to myself. Everything had seemed way too easy when we first got here.
"So, what are the chances of me going crazy?" Thunder stopped, turned around, and scrutinized me.
"If I do my job correctly, none. The more powerful you are the less likely it is, you also seem to build up a resistance to it if you see more of Tartarus. Take Aina, Raven, and I for example. Aina has been down here the longest, but she has the least resistance for it because she always sees less of Tartarus. While Raven has been down here the least she has the biggest resistance, because she's fucking crazy and tries to find every nook and cranny in this hell hole. I'm surprised she didn't go crazy. As for me, I'm right in the middle, and down here the middle is a pretty good place to be."
"How long have Aina and Raven been down here?" I might as well ask now, since he's talking about it.
"Well Aina came down here in 1965, and Raven popped on down in 1990," Thunder answered. "It's really is weird that you and your friends are the first ones to be banished since Raff came down in 1993."
"Maybe the gods were afraid we would form an army," I commented. Thunder's face lit up like he just realized something amazing.
"You might be right. They never send the really bad people down here, we always wondered why." Thunder grinned. "Thanks Percy, that could be change things." Okay, now I'm confused. I didn't say anything important, what would I change?
"Um...You're welcome, I think." I decided to change the subject, Thunder was confusing me.
"So how many demigods have you trained?"
"One, you'll be my second." I nodded, I'm not sure if that's a good sign or not.
"Oh, is this other demigod still...sane?" Thunder chuckled. I don't see why, I thought it was a good question.
"Well you've met Raff, do you think he's sane?" Oh, that's why he was laughing. Now I get it.
"I can't say I know him all that well, but he doesn't seem like a psychopath." I didn't think much of Raff when we met him , I guess I'll just have to talk to him sometime.
"Not yet, I only got to mentor him because A) I found him, and B) he's my brother." I've known I was a demigod for four years now, and I still didn't make the connection right away. I wasn't thinking godly parent, I was thinking 'hey you guys don't look alike.' Stupid.
"That's...nice, right?" I'm not quite sure if he was happy about having his brother down here or not.
"Yeah, yeah it's great considering my other brother didn't...work out too well." There was an awkward silence as I debated asking about his brother, or not. Thunder started talking before I could make up my mind though.
"Okay, we need to train. What are you the worst at?" There's a no brainer.
"Archery, I really suck at it. Once I've hit Chiron, and I almost shot myself in the foot once."
"I'm really good at it, so you should improve by the time I'm done with you. Here's the plan, for our first two hours you're doing strength and endurance, then in our next five hours we'll work on your archery skills, finally for our last four hours we'll do more endurance and strength training, archery again, and some sword play," Thunder explained.
We head over to the fourth section of the training room. It was filled with exercise equipment; there were weights, treadmills, ellipticals, yoga balls, monkey bars, and obstacle courses. I was starting to fear for my muscles when Thunder tossed me some strap on weights.
"Stretch, and then put these on your ankles and wrists. We're going to start on the treadmill," Thunder ordered. I nodded and did as he said. After stretching I walked over to the treadmill Thunder was standing near.
"Run for half an hour," he told me before getting on his own treadmill. The running wasn't too bad, it was kind of nice actually. It gave my mind time to catch up and process what's happened. I was really worried about my mom, what had the others told her? She probably thought I was dead. That was a painful thought, I hope she figures out something is wrong. I'm glad she had Paul though, at least she won't be alone.
The half hour was over sooner than I thought, and then Thunder had me lifting weights, doing push-ups, sit-ups, crunches, squats, and other exercises for another hour. Then he had me go through an obstacle course. The first course went like this; I had to climb up a wall, them grab the rope at the top and swing to a platform on the other side of a pool, I had to then run down a slope and jump from rubber tire to rubber tire, then I had to army crawl under barbed wire while dragging a bag of rocks, next I had to figure out a way to carry the bag of rocks while I swung from monkey bar to monkey bar for seventy-five feet, finally it ended with a short dash to the finish line. As I finished I was starving but my muscles didn't ache too badly yet, tomorrow is going to be a bitch though.
When we arrived at the cafeteria Nico and Raven were already there, and they were glaring at each other. It seemed they'd been in the middle of an argument when Thunder and I arrived. I decided to ask about it after I finished eating though, I inhaled my food, and was about to ask Nico what's up when Thunder interrupted me.
"Raven tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing." Raven put down her drink.
"I can't tell you that, it was his choice. This is what he wants to do," She answered.
"That's not very wise," Thunder cautioned.
"Dude chill, if anyone can handle it is him. He knows the risks, so back off." Thunder opened his mouth to say something, but then he was interrupted.
Aina, Thalia, and surprisingly Raff plopped down in the remaining chairs. They were laughing and covered in some sort of white foamy stuff. That ceased any thought of our old conversation, and we all looked questioningly at them.
"We would have been here sooner, but we..*laugh* had to put out a fire," Thalia explained. Thunder raised his eyebrows at Raff. Raff raised his hands in defense.
"Hey, all I did was take the fire extinguisher and spray the fire."
"That's not all he sprayed," Aina muttered.
"Which then resulted in you guys getting in a white foamy stuff fight?" Raven asked. They all nodded.
"It went something like that," Thalia said. Nico stood up after that.
"I'm done, are you ready to go, Raven?" Raven took one last swing of her coffee before standing up.
"Of course I'm ready, the question is are you ready?" Nico scowled.
"Yes." Raven shrugged and stood up.
"Let's go then." Thalia and I watched them leave.
"Hmph, they didn't even say goodbye," Thalia muttered. I grinned at her.
"So your training was a blast so far?" Thalia smirked.
"You could definitely say that. What about you? Do anything fun?"
"I wouldn't consider it fun, I think I saw Thunder laughing at me once or twice though," I told her. Thalia raised an eyebrow.
"What did you do?"
"Just some strength and endurance training, I'm sure you'll do it soon enough," I assured her.
"Ah yes, strength and endurance training. I'm looking forward to it," Thalia replied sarcastically.
"Hey Percy, when you're done flirting we can go back to training," Thunder said. Thalia snorted.
"You're the one who was making out with my mentor just a minute ago." Aina and I snickered as Thunder's face turned red.
"Whatever, let's just go," he muttered as he walked away.
Back in the arena, we busted out the bows and arrows. First, Thunder had me shoot some targets so he could see just how bad I was. It turns out I'm not as horrible as I thought.
"Right now you suck, but it's clear that you were never properly taught on how to actually use a bow and arrow," Thunder told me. Then he immediately started to explain the proper way to hold the bow, how to stand, how to aim, and how to notch the arrow. He made me practice the stance a few times before letting me shoot. I hit the target on my fifth try, it was easier now that I actually knew what to do. I practiced shooting for the next hour and a half. Then Thunder decided it was time to take a break, so he tossed me a water bottle and we went to the monsterology section.
The next two hours were spent discussing monsters, their weaknesses, and their strengths. Thunder was a surprisingly good teacher, he managed to keep me from falling asleep. Hell, if everyone at camp had taught like him I'd know all about the monsters. We also talked a little about ourselves too, Thunder's pretty cool, and as it turns out his favorite color is blue too. Unlike breakfast, lunch was quiet. I didn't see anyone I knew in the nearly deserted cafeteria.
I went back to strength and endurance, which I started calling S&E, after lunch. I lifted weights and ran for an hour before Thunder gave me a short break. Then we did some swordplay for another hour. Unsurprisingly, Thunder is also an outstanding swordsman.
"Hey, is everyone here amazing at everything?" I asked curiously when we finished fighting. Thunder shook his head.
"Nah, it's just that I'm rank two. Only the best of the best get that rank, if you keep to my training you'll be great," Thunder informed me.
"Do you have any weaknesses?" I asked curiously. Thunder grinned.
"Of course! I have Aina, and I can't eat meat. Don't give me that look! I'm severely allergic to meat," Thunder said gravely. I shook my head.
"No hamburgers? What a bummer man!" Thunder laughed again. After that we switched back to archery for and hour. Then I had another hour of S&E.
"Phew, you reek man!" Thunder laughed as we headed to the dorms after we ate dinner. I made a face at him.
"Clearly you're smelling yourself," I shot back. Thunder laughed again, and I couldn't help but grin. Thunder has a loud contagious laugh.
"Come on, I've got some old clothes that you can have. That way you don't have to go around smelling like a dump for a few weeks."
"How do you have old clothes? It's not like you can outgrow them."
"They were the clothes I had before I got buff," Thunder explained. When we got to his room he tosses a pile of clothes at me, then he threw a bag, soap, shampoo, a key, and a toothbrush.
"You can put those things in your trunk, at the foot of the bed. The key locks and unlocks the door. I'm gonna go take a shower," Thunder said before walking out of the room with a bag of toiletries. I took a moment to examine the room. Apparently Thunder doesn't have a thing for bunk beds because instead of having one bunk we had two twin sized beds on either side of the room. I assumed the lonely looking bed was mine, so I dropped most of my new clothes in the trunk that was, indeed, at the foot of the bed. The room was kind of empty looking. Besides the bed and trunks, there were only two filing cabinets at the back of the room.
Standing in the nearly barren room was making me feel lonely, so I quickly grabbed the bag and stuffed my new toiletries in it, before I went to take a shower. It was in the shower that I realized how tired and sore I was. I wondered if the others were this tired, but I didn't think much about it. When I got back to my room I collapsed on the bed and promptly fell asleep.
NICO
Raven and I were the last ones left at the table. I figured she had something to say to me that she didn't want the rest of the group to hear, it probably has to do with what I asked to learn first.
"So you really want to start with the hardest stuff, huh?" Raven asked. I nodded.
I want to build up a resistance; Tartarus should drive people crazy, because of all the horrible things that go on here. It screws with your mind the further into reality you go. Simply put, the deepest level of reality is going to be Level One, you'd be insane within minutes of being there. The level of Tartarus we're on is Level 267, and there are 275 levels of reality in Tartarus. I want to be able to not go crazy when I go deeper into Tartarus. That's what building up a resistance is, it's like strengthening your mental capacity. The most difficult thing about it is you have to build up resistance by going deeper into reality, and exposing yourself to things that are tougher for your brain to handle. This process is very dangerous and could kill me.
"Why are you so set on doing this first anyway?" Raven asked as we got up to leave.
"I want to be the best I can be. This is the underworld; it's my domain and... I don't…want to be shown up again by Percy and Thalia." Raven looked surprised. I can't believe I actually told her that; I don't like to be the center of attention, and I'm glad I wasn't the child of the prophecy, but people always underestimate me. They assume Percy and Thalia are the heroes and I'm their weak cousin who plays with the dead. I'm not jealous, or mad at them I just want to prove that I can do things. Percy and Thalia would say they know I'm tough, but it's not them I'm worried about.
"I guess I can understand that, Percy and Thalia prove their worth everyday and now you want a shot," Raven commented. "Oh yeah! You probably want this." Raven tossed me a pure black watch.
"Thanks," I said as I strapped it on.
"So are you ready to go crazy Nico?" Raven asked. If I was being honest I'd say no, going crazy is a slight concern of mine; going crazy isn't exactly on my agenda, but neither was going to Tartarus. However, I'm not being honest, so I shook my head and rolled my eyes.
"Do you think I might go crazy?" I asked her. Raven paused, and thought for a minute.
"Well, you're already crazy from what I've heard; but to answer your question, no. We're starting off easy, if you show any sign of trouble we'll stop. I'm pretty sure you'll be fine, you might not, but whatever." Raven just shrugged her shoulders.
"Gee, thanks, that makes me feel very reassured," I mutter. Raven rolled her eyes.
"You should, the boss was never that easy on me," Raven stated.
"You call seeing the deepest, most dangerous, the most horrifying corners of Tartarus easy?" I retorted. I was waiting for a snarky retort, but Raven just shook her head.
"No, I don't, it is hard, but I'm not going to push you too hard. I'm know the dangers from experience, don't worry," Raven assured me. I felt curiosity prickle under my skin as I thought of how she had experience about going crazy.
"Raven who is the boss? How do you know him?" Raven smirked at me.
"Can you wait, like, five hours? He requested lunch with us, alone. He said he wanted to see how the student had become the teacher, or some crap like that." I nodded with a small, triumphant smile on my face.
"Okay, we aren't going to do the serious stuff until after lunch. We're going to start where Thunder found you, and I want you to tell me what level it is," Raven explained. We walked over to the factory where Percy, Thalia, and I were first found. Raven stopped, and then she frowned.
"Nico, what level is this?" she asked me.
"275," I responded immediately. I was surprised for a second that I knew what level it was, then a grin crept up on my face. This was going to be a useful power.
"That's what I thought," she muttered.
"What? What's so bad about it?" I asked her.
"You landed in a 275 area. That's the safest area to land, it's the highest level, and monsters aren't around it as much. If the gods really hated you then they wouldn't have dropped you in the safest spot possible, are you sure the gods are really out to get you?"
'There is not doubt in my mind,' I thought before replying.
"You should have seen them, my dad didn't even look ay me, he just sat there scowling. I don't want to talk about it," I told Raven. "So, what level did you land in?" I asked. Raven's face darkened considerably.
"Level 247, and it nearly got me killed. First there were the monsters, the boss found me and we took care of them, but I was on the 247th level, I was going crazy. I was in the infirmary for a few months after that. The boss decided to be my mentor. The only problem was that he pushed me too fast. I passed out during a monster attack on Level 220 and was then stuck in the infirmary for a couple more months. I guess I'm slightly mentally unstable now, that's not gonna happen with you though," Raven said firmly. I decided not to argue with her after that. We quickly returned to the cafeteria after two hours, we made it back before any of then others.
We sat there quietly, eating our breakfast. Then Percy and Thunder arrived, Percy kept glancing at me, I guess I had a weird expression on my face. Thunder took one look at me and then glared straight at Raven.
"Raven please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing." Raven put down her drink. I'm glad she told me what happened to her, otherwise I would be totally lost, like Percy, who isn't even trying to cover his confusion.
"I'm afraid I can't tell you that," She answered.
"That's not very wise," Thunder cautioned.
"Dude chill, if anyone can handle it is him. At least I gave him a choice. He knows the risks, so back off." Thunder opened his mouth to say something, but then he was interrupted. I was actually happy with that statement, mainly because Raven actually complimented me.
Aina, Thalia, and surprisingly Raff plopped down in the remaining chairs suddenly. We were so caught up in our cryptic argument that we didn't notice them come in to the room. They were laughing and covered in some sort of white foamy stuff; that ceased any thought of our old conversation, and we all looked questioningly at them.
"We would have been here sooner, but we..*laugh* had to put out a fire," Thalia explained. Thunder raised his eyebrows at Raff. Raff raised his hands in defense.
"Hey, all I did was take the fire extinguisher and spray the fire."
"That's not all he sprayed," Aina muttered.
"Which then resulted in you guys getting in a white foamy stuff fight?" Raven asked. They all nodded.
"It went something like that," Thalia said. I stood up after that, I was ready to get going, I really didn't want Percy to start asking me questions.
"I'm done, are you ready to go Raven?" Raven took one last swing of her coffee before standing up.
"Of course I'm ready, the question is are you ready?" I scowled.
"Yes." Raven leaned closer.
"Are you positive?"
"Yes!" Raven shrugged. "Okay, let's go." We grabbed our trays and left.
Raven refused to leave the factory for the next five hours. She had me practice sword fighting instead, and refused to tell me why. She didn't go hard on me though, which was kind of annoying because I could see her straining to hold back. Finally I snapped.
"Why are you holding back?"
"Dude, I'm not trying to tire you out, trust me, you'll need your energy for after lunch. I'm just making sure you've got your moves down for if we find any monsters. Don't say anything. I know you were in a war, but I don't know how skilled you are, so I need to test you. Come on, it's been five hours. We gotta meet the boss for lunch."
Raven lead me to the boss's big oak door. She knocked on it five times before walking in. I followed her, behind a large metal desk was an Italian looking man.
"Ah, you must be Nico di Angelo, I have been looking forward to meeting you," the man said. I nodded.
"Thank you, and you are?" The man smiled.
"I am Al Capone."
"Take a seat young demigod. I believe you are the son of Hades, yes?" Al Capone affirmed. I nodded.
"I suppose Thunder told you who my dad was," I said as I took a seat in front of his desk.
"Of course he did, you couldn't have been admitted without me knowing who you were," he answered.
"So Mr. Capone why'd you want to meet me?" I asked him.
"You can call me Al, and it's simple. We've never had a son of Hades in Tartarus before, I want to know if you have any special skills. Now let's eat lunch."
'That wasn't quite what I was expecting,' I thought to myself, 'I was alive in the 1930's I had heard about Al Capone. I never once thought I would met him in Tartarus, and would be calling him Al though.'
The door opened and two figures dressed in black, carrying food entered. They deposited the food on the desk, and then left. I paused for a minute, think Al would say something, before eating. Al waited for Raven and me to finish eating before talking.
"Tell me Nico, what is Raven teaching you first?"
"Raven is teaching me the same thing you taught her first," I replied. Al leaned over his desk.
"Here's some advice then; don't push yourself, and don't let her push you past your limit," he cautioned.
"Hey, I wouldn't push him past his limit!" Raven argued.
"You never know what might happen, just be careful," Al advised. "It was nice meeting you Nico. I hope to see you again." I frowned, this was a disappointment. I thought we were going to really talk, or that he would at least ask about my powers.
"Come on Nico we have things to do," Raven told me as she stood up. I followed her out the door, and then she lead me to her room.
"What are we doing here?" I asked, gesturing to the room.
"I'm grabbing weapons, some ambrosia, nectar, and a few bandages incase we run into some monsters," Raven replied. I leaned against the door as I watch Raven grab a backpack and stuff two rolls of ace bandages in it, a canteen of nectar, a bag of ambrosia, two daggers, and disinfectant. She then strapped a sword to her belt, and stood up.
"Where's your sword? I saw it earlier," Raven asked in confusion. I looked down to see my sword had disappeared. I thought about it appearing in my hand and it did, then held it up for her to see. I guess I found another skill I have down here.
"My sword is right here," I said with a grin. Raven rolled her eyes.
"We're going to start on level 260, and go down progressively. When we get to a level that is tougher we hang out on it until you don't have a problem on it," Raven explained to me. I nodded, the process itself it's complicated, it's doing it that's hard.
We started walking, which can take a long time. Tartarus really needs a better way to get around down here.
"We're here," Raven announced. I looked around, we arrived at what appeared to be a burned down building.
"Where is 'here' exactly?" I asked.
"We're on Level 260. The boss had help from the big guy to make this place especially for building up resistance. It makes traveling between levels easier. Usually levels are all over, you could be walking through 265, and then be walking on 257. That makes it really hard to build resistance, because you never know what level you'll be on. In this building each new floor is a new level. The farther down you go the closer it is to level one. Unfortunately, it's also like a dungeon in a game. The further you go the tougher the monsters are, and there are always monsters. You ready to go in?" I nodded.
We walked over to a stairwell, and started down. Levels 260 - 250 were a breeze. I was fine on Level 247, but at Level 245 I got a minor headache. I didn't tell Raven though, I should have, but I didn't think it was that pressing. I was wrong. Everything went downhill fast for me, my headache got worse, everything seem to loud, my vision got blurry, my mind seem foggy and incoherent. All that was just by 240, it's a good thing Raven noticed.
"Nico, are you okay?" Raven asked worriedly. I mumbled some gibberish. Now I can't even speak right! Raven shook me.
"Nico you need to speak words," Raven said frantically. I did manage to get out something.
"Head hurts…everything foggy… too loud…feeling crappy." My stomach was churning, and I was feeling really dizzy.
"Crap, why didn't you tell me earlier!" Raven yelled. She grabbed my hand, and started to run. I kept tripped over my feet, but we reached wherever it was Raven wanted to go. She sighed with relief, and pushed open a door.
Inside was some sort of room. There was a cot, a pile of blankets, and a little cupboard thing. Raven led me in, and had me lay down on the cot. She then slung off her back pack and pulled something from it. I didn't care what, right now I just wanted the world to stop spinning, my head to stop pounding, and my stomach to stop churning. I saw Raven move to the cupboard and pull out a cup and a bottle of something else.
"Nico I need you to drink this, it will help you feel better," Raven told me. I tried to nod, but that hurt to much, so I grunted. Raven knelt besides me, and lifted a cup to my mouth. The liquid was so sour I almost spit it out, but then it tasted like Mrs. Jackson's cooking, which is really good. I closed my eyes for a moment to savor the taste.
"Nico I want you to rest for a few minutes. You had a close call there, so when you can talk and work properly let me know."
It took five minutes for the world to stop spinning, my stomach to calm, and my head to not hurt. I waited another five minutes before sitting up though, just to be sure.
When I sat up Raven grinned at me.
"That is what happens when you push yourself too hard. What you had was minor, we caught it in time. For now you're safe."
"Where are we? What is this room?" I asked. How can I be fine if I'm still on the same level?
"This is a room made just for people like you. There's one every ten levels. It has some of the things required to…make you better again, and it's like a safe zone. Monsters don't come in, and it's like a small level 275. If you don't have anything to heal yourself with from pushing yourself you'll be fine in about a day as long as it's not too serious. If you need to speed up that process there is this medicine thing, that Al cooked up. It cuts the time of your healing without medicine in half, and if you add in nectar it goes faster depending on how much you put it.
"How much nectar did you use?"
"I used about a fourth of my canteen." I made a mental note of that number incase I ever needed it.
"How am I going to leave? If I leave this room won't the…side effects of pushing myself too hard come back?" I asked confused.
"That's simple all we have to do is open the door. It's like walking around on a level that's a little tougher, you sit next to the open door for two hours or so you should be well enough to get to a level you can withstand," Raven answered.
I got up and opened the door.
"This is going to be boring," I commented. Raven sat up a little straighter, and then dashed over to the cupboard.
"I think there's a deck of cards in here somewhere." She turned to me looking triumphant.
"I found it! Wanna play war?" I nodded, and Raven started to pass the cards out. By the time we had finished a few card games two and half hours had passed. Raven put the cards back, and put her backpack back on.
"Ready to go?" she asked.
"Yup."
We headed back to the stairwell, and started to climb the stairs. When we got to Level 245 though there wasn't another flight of stairs.
"Crap!" Raven exclaimed, slamming her fist into the blank wall in front of her.
"Now what we do?" I inquired. Raven sighed.
"The stairwell was moved to the other side of the level, now we have to cross the monster infested area to get there. It's happened to me before, I was just hoping we wouldn't have to do it today. It shouldn't be too hard, though. After all, isn't this the level your headache started on? It will build your resistance at least," Raven assured me.
"Let's just get this over with," I told her.
We had really bad luck on that level. We encountered a Manticore within the first few minutes of walking, we managed to kill it relatively unscathed. We weren't as lucky in our encounter with the Cyclopes.
They charged us. Raven and I drew our weapons and attacked. We teamed up on the first one. Raven got his attention while I stabbed him with my sword. We had to take the other two by ourselves though. My Cyclops came at me with everything he had. He nearly smashed me with his hammer, before I could dodge it. He wasn't very smart though, because he threw his hammer at me. It missed and went flying down the hall. I ran at him this time, and he backed up. I didn't stop running though, when I got to him I jumped up and stabbed him in the eye. He was done for. I turned around to see Raven collapse. Her Cyclops was smarter than the others, and he had a knife which was now sticking out of Raven's shoulder.
"Raven!" I yelled. I ran forward, surprising the Cyclops. I struck him right in the stomach with my sword, pushing it in to the hilt. Then I yanked my sword out and knelt by Raven. Raven had sat up already, and pulled the dagger out.
"Are you okay?"
"Dude I just got stabbed with a knife, what do you think? But yeah I'll live let's just get to the damn stairs."
"Shouldn't we bandage your shoulder?"
"Not in the middle of the hallway, we're sitting ducks! I'm fine, we can deal with my shoulder later," she snapped. I could see by the way she winced that she was not okay. I didn't argue with her though, something told me she wouldn't listen to me.
'As soon as we got to the stairwell I'm going to treat her shoulder,' I promised myself. The stairs aren't perfect, monsters use them too, and we ran into them a few times, but it's better than nothing. Of course, then we had to walk into a trap.
We were completely surrounded by monsters. They flanked us on every side. Raven and I were back to back, I could feel the blood from her wounded shoulder seeping through my shirt.
"This is another good reason why I had you practice your sword fighting skills today," Raven yelled to me. I could barely hear her over the sounds the monsters were making. "Now don't let them separate us, if they do we'll probably die," Raven warned me. I nodded.
We started to attack monsters, and one by one they fell. I felt their life end and start up again, just on the other side of Tartarus. We slowly took down all the monster, but by then Raven looked ready to pass out. Her face was paler than usual, her shoulder was heavily bleeding, and she was covered in sweat.
I grabbed her hand and shadow traveled us back ton the room we had been in when I had almost passed out. I knew there wouldn't be any monsters there, it was close, I knew where it was, and there was supplies if I needed it.
You're probably wondering why I didn't just shadow travel back to the factory, it's because shadow traveling is different down in the underworld, it's warped in a way. It's best to shadow travel to close by spots, because I need to practice it more down here until it can be as reliable in Tartarus as it is above ground.
When I arrived in the room I laid Raven down on the cot and cut off her shirt sleeve. The wound wasn't pretty, and I'm not an Apollo kid. I shuffled through the cupboard till I found two bottles of water. I didn't want to waste all of our nectar washing her wound out. I took Raven's hand.
"This might hurt a little," I told her. I poured the water over the wound. Raven squeezed my hand, but looked to tired to do anything else. I then poured some nectar on the wound, and wrapped it as tight as I could with the bandages in Raven's backpack. By then Raven was either asleep or unconscious. I had to wake her up though, because I wanted her to eat some ambrosia too. I shook her lightly.
"Raven wake up," I said sternly. Her eyes fluttered, she blinked, and then stared at me.
"I want you to eat this." I handed her some ambrosia. She chewed and swallowed, she seemed to improve immediately. She leaned back against the wall.
"Thanks, for the help. I really hate being weak like that, and having to have others take care of me," she thanked me. I shrugged.
"You would have done the same for me, and just because you can talk and sit up doesn't mean that you're not still weak," I reminded her. She scowled.
"How did you get us down here?" she questioned. I explained to her about shadow traveling, and how I shouldn't use it to get us back to the factory.
"I know what we're going to be working on while my shoulder heals. Man, I am so glad I'm right-handed. Nico I want you to take some ambrosia too. You have some cuts, and you must be tired," Raven commanded. I did, and I have to say I'm glad I did. It healed my cuts, so I don't have to deal with my pain, and it refilled my energy.
"How are we going to get to the factory? We can't risk getting in another fight, with you being so weak, and we need you to get checked out by someone who knows what they're doing." Raven looked thoughtful.
"Can you shadow travel us to level 260, where we entered this place?" she asked me. I thought about it for a moment.
"I think so." I picked her up.
"Nico you don't have to-" I cut her off.
"It's easier this way. I don't want to lose you on the way there, this way I have a better grip on you. Don't worry, I'll put you down when we get out of here," I promised.
"Fine."
I ran into the darkest corner there was, and focused on the entrance to the place we were in. When we appeared outside of the entrance I sighed with relief. I put Raven down gently on her feet. She swayed a bit, but could walk, for now. She did pretty good for the first quarter of the walk, but then she started leaning on me. By the time we were three-quarters of the way through I was pretty much supporting her whole weight, she refused to let me help her more though.
"God, what is your issue?" I asked annoyed. Raven shrugged sheepishly.
"I guess independence is my weakness, that and pride. I just can't accept help from others," she answered helpfully. I rolled my eyes.
"That's dumb."
When we walked into the factory I looked around lost.
"Where's the infirmary?" I asked Raven. She told me to turn left, I did and almost walked into Raff.
"Raven! What happened?" he exclaimed.
"She got stabbed, now where's the infirmary?"
"It's down the hall, but we only have two healers and they have their hands full. You can bring her to my room." He led me to his room, and opened the door. Raven sat down on the bottom bunk of his bed. I stood back then, and let him take care of her wound. It didn't take long. I didn't see what he did, but I know he changed the bandages.
"She should be okay, just don't let her do basically anything with her left arm for the next couple of days, and she'll be fine," he told me. I looked at Raven who was now asleep. She looked better, Raff had wiped off the sweat, her bandages were clean, and she didn't look to be in too much pain.
"Let's take her back to her room to sleep. She'd be pretty confused if she woke up in my room tomorrow," Raff said. I nodded, and moved forward to get her but Raff picked her up. At her room I opened the door, and Raff put her in bed.
"Do you want to get dinner with me Nico? I was just heading down there when I ran into you guys," Raff offered. I stifled a yawn.
"Sorry Raff, I'm beat. Some other time." he nodded.
"Goodnight then."
"Night." I closed the door, switched off the lights, and climbed into the top bunk. I was asleep by the time my head hit my pillow.
THALIA
"I think we should practice your powers first," Aina suggested. I shrugged, it didn't seem like a bad place to start.
"Yeah, okay," I responded. We headed to the training arena.
"So what are your powers?" Aina asked me. I hadn't really thought about it before, I can only really think of my lightning, which is weird because both Percy and Nico have more powers than that.
"I have the power to call down lightning, and that's about it," I revealed to her. Aina stared at me for a moment before regaining her composure.
"You're kidding, as much as I don't like Zeus, no offence, he is the most powerful Olympian. You should have more powers than that," she said in surprise.
"I'm not kidding, and no offence taken, Zeus is the one who banished us, I hate him. I'm being honest to say that the only power I know of is my lightning, there could be more but I doubt it," I told her. Aina frowned.
"We'll work on that for now, but I will find more of your powers. Now, I should probably tell you that Tartarus mutes your powers in a way, it's like starting all over but actually knowing what you're doing," she informed me. I nodded.
"You might want to take cover then, I have no idea how this is going to turn out." Aina ducked behind a cement wall. I focused on drawing lightning down on the dummy in front of me. It came out as a normal blast just how I wanted, but it was on the other side of the room. Aina came out and looked at me admirably.
"That's pretty good, all we have to work on is your aim. Now we need a target, wait here." Aina ran out of the room and returned a few minutes later with Raff.
"Raff, I want you to hold up the shield, and Thalia, I want you to hit the shield with your lightning," Aina instructed.
"You want her to try to hit me with lightning?" Raff asked incredulously.
"No, of course not," Raff looked relived, "I want her to hit the shield, you just have to hold it."
"What if she hits me?"
"Then it's a good thing your brother is a good healer." Raff looked really nervous after that, Aina laughed.
"Relax, Thalia won't hit you, she has talent. I don't think you need to worry," Aina assured him.
"Okay, I'll do it, as long as she doesn't hit me." Raff walked over to a giant shield and hauled it over his head. He gave me a thumbs up, and I called on my lightning.
Now I would like to say I got it the first time dead on, but I didn't. In fact by the time Raff was putting the shield down to take a break I still hadn't hit it.
"Why don't you try to hit the dummy, he can't run away," Raff joked. I scowled at him, then decided to do it. I focused on the lightning, I put all my frustration in it; then I focused on the dummy, and then I brought down the lightening. That was a big mistake, I hit it head on, but it was made of straw. It burned, fell over on to other dummies, and then caught the other dummies on fire. In minutes we had a huge fire on our hands. Raff ran to the other side of the room and grabbed a fire extinguisher. He sprayed the life out the thing, but in his mad spraying he caught me, so I took another extinguisher and sprayed him back, Aina just happened to be in our cross-fire, and that's how we got into a three person fire extinguisher fight.
We stopped our fight only because we ran out of juice in our cans. Then we picked the white, foamy stuff and threw it at each other. We're so mature, aren't we?
"Oh hey, it's been two hours," Aina commented.
"Really? It has? Let's get some chow then!" Raff exclaimed. Ania and I laughed at that.
When we were nearly there a thought occurred to me.
"Whose going to clean all that stuff up?" I wondered aloud. Aina shrugged.
"Somebody will, or maybe nobody will and the whole arena will be covered with the stuff and the next time someone walks in there they'll start playing with it and soon everyone will be in there and forget about everything because it's so much fun," Raff suggested. Aina and I looked at him as if that was the stupidest-idea-we've-ever-hear looks, we held it for about five seconds before cracking up. The rest of the way to the cafeteria we kept cracking jokes about it and were still laughing hard when we sat down at the table.
I have a feeling we interrupted something important, there was a lot of tension. It was obvious we broke the tension when we sat down, and made our existence known. They all turned and looked at us. Of course, it would have been weird if they hadn't because we're hard to miss, three demigods covered in fire extinguisher stuff and laughing their heads off, that totally blends right in.
"So what do you have in mind now?" I questioned Aina.
"I'm showing you to our room," she responded. That still didn't answer my question.
"Okay….then what are we doing?"
"Then we are going to talk."
"About what?"
"I don't know, anything. I just want to get to know you." I considered this, she didn't seem all that bad, and it's not like it'll kill me. The world won't end if I open up, and talk to someone.
"Sure, sounds fun," I told her.
"Great! There aren't that many girls here, and Raven is just so…Well, I'm glad I have someone else to talk to." A thought occurred to me, but Aina couldn't be, none of them would ever survive in Tartarus, she sure acts like one though. I might as well ask.
"Who is your godly parent?"
"Oh, it's Aphrodite, hey here's my room!"
'So I was right,' I thought to myself as I walked into her room. I plopped down on the bottom bunk of her bunk bed.
"So how'd it happen?" I ask casually.
"How did what happen?' Aina warily asks.
"How did you get sent down to Tartarus?" Aina sighed, like she saw this coming and knew she couldn't prevent it, but still hoped it wouldn't come up.
"It's pretty stupid, I was talking to my mom and she gave me the idea that Poseidon and Athena would make the best couple. Then I shared the idea with a couple of siblings. Poseidon and Athena caught wind of it and banished me here because I was the 'the stupid Aphrodite girl who paired them up'."
"That is a stupid way to get thrown down here. I don't really get it."
"Most of the people down here are down here for stupid reasons, SO why were you tossed on down?"
"We were framed."
"By who?"
"The gods and some of our closest friends."
"That sounds similar to someone else's story."
"Really? Who?"
"They don't want me to tell, but I'll tell you why this person was sent down."
"What'd they do?"
"They were framed for the stealing some things."
"They didn't do it though."
"No, of course not. After the things went missing one of their cabin mates claimed they stole them. Then their cabin mate lead the gods through the woods to a secreat hiding spot. The things were there along with some of the belongings owned by the person framed." I nodded. It's not quite like what happened to us, but close enough. I could only think of one thing to say though.
"At least they have an interesting story to tell." Aina grinned.
"Yeah, I guess. It's kind of a competition down here, who has the coolest banishment story." I decided to change the subject, I don't really want to talk about what happened.
"So do you have any past mentoring experience?" I ask curiously.
"I'm not sure if this counts, but I mentored Thunder," Aina joked, I think, I don't really know her that well.
"And now you're dating him," I stated. Aina grinned.
"Well of course, when you get your mentor you're paired with your best match. Usually it's someone from the same gender so dating isn't a problem, but sometimes it's a guy and a girl and then they fall in love," she ended happily.
"Dose this happen all the time?"
"Well all the times I've seen with a mentor from a different gender they end up going out, it could be different with Nico though."
"How did you know I was talking about Nico?"
"Why else would you be asking?"
"Good point, Nico is like my little brother, I feel almost responsible for him especially since his sister died."
"I know you feel all big sistery, but I kinda like where this is going….." Aina trailed off muttering something about Raven, Raff, Nico, triangles, and jealousy. I frowned.
"I seriously doubt Nico will date a girl ever," I told her. Aina looked at me curiously.
"Why do you say that?"
"Well...I think Nico is gay," I told her. Aina shrugged.
"That may be an issues, I guess he can go out with Raff then," Aina said absentmindedly. Then she burst out laughing at the look on my face.
"I'm kidding! Raff is straight, you know Nico could be bisexual though." I shrugged.
"Yeah, I still don't think he'll be interested in girls anytime soon though."
"Whatever you say," Aina sang. I glared at her and swiftly changed the subject.
"So who is Raven?"
"I think you should be asking Raven that."
"She's mentoring Nico; Nico's safety lies partly with her. Who is she?" Aina giggled for a moment.
"What's so funny?"
"We joked that the world would end when Raven held someone else's safety in her hands."
"Well, that's a good sign."
"I'll tell you what I know, if it makes you feel better, but I don't know much about her life before this. Raven's about as open as a crocodile. She grew up somewhere cold, and she got to camp when she was 11 and a half I think, Raff was there too, but he was 9 and a half. She had a life like most demigods and then most of the people who she trusted betrayed her. We are really lucky Raff thought she was innocent, she might have killed him on the spot otherwise. Now the two of them are as tight as…something that's really tight. Anyways, she has her issues, but she's okay." Aina sighed again and started to stare off.
Aina does act like a daughter of Aphrodite, she seems to have a definite interest in pairing everyone up. She also seems to be good at finding out who people like, I hope she doesn't find out about my crush on he-who-shall-not-be-named.
"Hello? Earth to Aina? Whatcha' thinkin' 'bout?"
"Oh just Raff and Raven, they'd make a good couple too." That's it, I've had it with this mushy stuff, I'll think about some of it if I'm staring at him, but otherwise too much of it makes me sick.
"Let's talk about other things, like Tartarus," I suggested. Aina nodded.
"What do you want to know?"
"Has anyone ever gotten out of Tartarus?"
"What? That's absurd, the world would end before that would happen. It's so not possible, it's not like the boss is working on a secret way out of here, psh no."
"Who is the boss?"
"Al Capone."
"Al Capone? Go figure." I was thinking something along the lines of who Al Capone's godly parent was when I heard Aina mutter.
"I thought she was going to catch me for a moment there, good thing she got distracted."
"Um, Aina, what are you talking about?"
"Me? Nothing, I don't have any secrets at all, I'm not trying to be secretive either."
"Really? You don't seem at all secretive to me." Aina rolled her eyes at my sarcasm.
"Can you keep a secret? Nobody can know I told you," she said urgently.
"I managed to convince Artemis and the hunters I didn't 'have a crush on anybody', what do you think?" Aina's eyes widened slightly.
"So you do like someone!" she exclaimed to herself. I scowled, I didn't mean to let that slip out.
"So what did you want to tell me?" I said impatiently. Right now I didn't care whether she wanted to talk about Raven or Raff, or tell me where Percy's old Achilles heel was. I just want her off my trail. She leaned closer.
"Capone is working on a way to get three to five people out of Tartarus." I stared at her, shocked.
"Well, look at the time! We need to eat. Let's go Thalia."
In the cafeteria Aina handed me some food, pointed me towards a table, and then left. I sat at the table for a minutes before Raff sat down in front of me.
"Hey, Raff do you know where the others are?" I asked him. I just realized he was the only person I knew in the whole room. He shook his head.
"Actually, I saw Nico and Raven headed for the Boss' office, they might be eating there. Percy and Thunder might still be training. As for Aina, I have no clue."
"That mostly makes sense, but why would Nico and Raven be eating with the Boss?"
"The Boss mentored Raven. So what did you do after breakfast?"
"Went to my room and talked to Aina about all sorts of stuff. What did you do?"
"I had quite possibly the easiest job, Hall Monitor. I have to wear this tag that says Hall Monitor, I don't mind because all I have to do is walk around the halls and make sure people are doing their jobs and not just being idle." That's easy job, I wonder how many are like that.
"How long have you been doing it?"
"About five days, I should get a job change soon, the easier the job the longer you have to do it though."
Raff and I sat together through lunch, and he waited with me while I waited for Aina to come back. She didn't come back so Raff said I could come with him as he did his Hall Monitoring. I learned my way around pretty well after that.
"So, Thalia, you hungry or what?" Raff asked. I shook my head, I wasn't hungry at all.
"You go eat, I'll come down later if I'm hungry," I told him. He shrugged.
"Okay." I walked back to my room, and walked right into Thunder.
"Hey, where's Percy?" I asked him.
"Percy's K.O.'d we did some sword fighting, and he just flopped on to bed. He was asleep in seconds."
"Do you know where Aina is?"
"Oh, she had to do an errand for the Boss, she'll be back tomorrow." I nodded, and suddenly I was hungry.
"I'm going to head down and get somethin' to eat, wanna come?"
"Sure, I ate already, but I'll keep you company." I went down to eat with Thunder, but Raff wasn't there. I figured something held him up, and went on with eating. When I was done eating I walked back to my room with Thunder.
"Do you know where Nico and Raven are?" I asked him. He shook his head.
"They were doing something dangerous though," he informed me.
"Do you think they got hurt?"
"Naw, the world would end before Raven got hurt down in her dungeon, the Nico fella is safe with her," Thunder assured me.
"Well, we all must be dead then," said a voice from behind me. I turned around and saw it was Raff.
"What do you mean?"
"I ran into Raven and Nico, Raven was unconscious and still is, she had a nasty shoulder wound. Nico was okay, he just looked a little shaken up."
"Is Raven going to be okay?"
"Of course, I treated her shoulder, everything will be back to normal in a couple of days. Nico also just went right to sleep, if you were wondering." I nodded.
"Thanks Raff, I'm going to sleep now too."