Dearest Readers,

I'm back officially from my travels, so now I can keep updating! I hope you enjoy this chapter. It was a joy to write :)

XOXO Ally Layne

Holy Water

Chapter 35: A Different Kind of Misery

Following Akhlys, the primordial goddess of Misery, on the path of poisonous plants was not exactly a walk in the park.

It was a walk in Tartarus, yes, but it wasn't even a pleasant one at that.

It made sense, in a way. Following this beastly crone into a path that led to darkness. As time went on in the pit, Persie realized that the deeper they went, the darker and more harrowing it became.

And now, they didn't have Bob… who had saved her from an eternity of being cursed to be violated in ways she couldn't even put into words.

She steeled herself and pushed away those thoughts.

She couldn't break now.

"Here we are."

It was as if they were in the big toe of Tartarus himself. The fog around them dissipated to show a pitch black void that was endless below them.

If falling into Tartarus was the worst trip ever, she didn't want to think about what that might be.

"Uh… great. Where is here?"

"The verge of final death," Akhlys explained. "Where Night meets the void below Tartarus."

She watched as Annabeth slowly peered over the edge. "I thought there was nothing below Tartarus."

"Oh, there certainly is…" the beast coughed. "Even Tartarus had to rise from somewhere. THis is the edge of the earliest darkness, which was my mother. Below lies the realm of Chaos, my father. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been. Can you feel it?"

Oh, she could feel it alright.

All too well.

The void was sucking the air from her lungs and the oxygen from her blood- which looked to be true enough as she noticed that Annabeth's lips were turning blue.

"We can't stay here," Persie insisted.

"No, indeed!" Akhlys said. "Don't you feel the Death Mist? Even now, you pass between. Look!"

White smoke gathered around Persie and Annabeth's feet, but it wasn't surrounding them. Instead, she saw that it was coming from them. Their bodies were dissolving… they were becoming wraiths of the pit itself.

She looked up to Annabeth's face and yelped. "You… you look…"

She couldn't bring herself to say it.

Annabeth looked dead.

"Oh gods," Annabeth gasped as she looked at her with wide, silver-lined eyes. "Persie… the way you look…"

"I've been better." She tried to shrug, but felt a whole lot of nothingness at the movement, which kinda freaked her out. "I can't move very well… but I'm alright."

"Oh, you're definitely not alright," Akhlys spoke, eying them predatorially.

Persie frowned. "But we'll pass unseen now? We can get to the Doors of Death?"

"Well, perhaps you could," the goddess said, "if you lived that long. Which you won't."

Her gnarled fingers spread, and more poisonous plants bloomed along the edge of the pit. "The Death Mist is not simply a disguise, you see. It is a state of being. I could not bring you this gift unless death followed– true death."

"It's a trap," Annabeth said.

Akhlys cackled. "Didn't you expect me to betray you?"

"Yes," Annabeth and Persie said together.

"Well then, it was hardly a trap! More of an inevitability Misery is inevitable. Pain is–"

"Yeah, yeah," Persie cut her off. "Let's get to the fighting."

She drew Riptide, but like the rest of her body, the blade was made of a smoky mist. "Ah fu-"

The goddess's ruined mouth split into a grin. "Did I forget to mention? You are only mist now– a shadow before death. Perhaps if you had time, you could learn to control your new form. But you do not have time. Since you cannot touch me, I fear any fight with Misery will now be quite one-sided."

Akhlys's fingernails grew into talons.

Her jaw unhinged, and her teeth grew into yellow fangs.

Luckily Annabeth was with her. Persie's stupidity allowed for the goddess to get a slash in, sending burning pain throughout her chest as she let out a harsh groan.

Annabeth was better at moving than Persie, which was no surprise to her. The Daughter of Athena dove straight between the goddess's legs and somersaulted to her feet, and when the goddess turned and attacked again, Annabeth dodged once more.

As soon as the goddess actually made contact with Annabeth, Persie was stunned from her stillness.

"Hey, Happy!"

The goddess spun, dropping Annabeth's arm. "Happy?"

"Yeah!" She dodged a swipe at her head. "You're downright cheerful!"

She let out a scream.

"Pleasant!" Persie called, leading the goddess further from Annabeth. "Delightful!"

The goddess snarled. "I will kill you slowly! I will cut you into pieces as a sacrifice to Night!"

Persie saw Annabeth ruffling through her pack from the corner of her eye, and knew that any time she bought them would be another second that Annabeth could use to save their lives.

"Cuddly!" She yelled. "Fuzzy, warm, and huggable!"

"A slow death!" Akhlys screamed. "A death from a thousand poisons!"

She was not ready for poison ichor hat was flowing all around her, making the ground steam and the air burn. She fell to one knee.

Persie looked over at Annabeth. She wanted to tell her to run, but she couldn't speak.

"You will feed the eternal darkness," the goddess spoke. "You will die in the arms of Night!"

She was dimly aware of Annabeth shouting at the goddess, throwing random pieces of drakon jerky at the goddess.

But the poison kept pooling.

Little streams trickled from the plants as the venomous lake around her became wider and wider.

Lake.

Streams.

Water.

It might have been her brain being fried from the poison fumes, but she laughed. Poison was liquid. If it moved like water, it must be partially water.

She remembered extracting water from Jason's lungs back in Rome. If she could control that… then why not other liquids?

She glared at the poison flood that moved in on her on all sides. She concentrated, and could have sworn that something inside of her cracked… a crystal ball had shattered inside her, and warmth flowed.

The poison tide stopped.

Fumes started blowing away from her, and back toward the goddess. The lake of poison rolled toward her in tiny waves.

Akhlys shrieked. "What is this?"

"Poison," Persie said. "That's your specialty, right?"

Her anger grew as the warmth in her gut burned hotter and hotter. As the flood of the venom rolled toward the goddess, the fumes began to make her cough.

The goddesses eyes started to water.

Water.

More water.

Akhlys gagged. "I–" The tide of venom reached her feet, sizzling like droplets on hot iron. She wailed and stumbled back.

"Persie!"

The goddess retreated back to the edge of the cliff, even though the poison wasn't after her. She sounded terrified.

It only took a second for Persie to release she was terrified of her.

A wicked grin overtook her features.

Good.

"Stop…" she pleaded.

But Persie didn't want to stop.

She wanted to choke this goddess. She wanted to watch her drown in her own poison. She wanted to see how much misery Misery could take.

.

.

.

"So you're Dr. Gregg's lab assistant?" Dean asked, as he walked into a small, cluttered office that was holding boxes of different papers and items that were being ready to be shipped.

"That's right," Sanders, the assistant, said.

"Well, his death must've been a shock to you," he continued, scanning the room and it's contents with Annabeth at his side.

"Yeah, it did," she admitted. "But still, to go in your sleep, peaceful… that's what you wish for, right?"

Dean's brows furrowed and his jaw clenched.

"Yeah, right," Annabeth said, looking over at the other woman. "So Dr. Gregg studied sleeping disorders, is that correct?"

"I don't understand," she said, "I went over all of this with the other detectives."

Dean turned around. "You already spoke to other detectives?"

She nodded fervently. "Yes, the very nice older man with a beard and the woman with him who had dark hair and the most startling green eyes."

Annabeth blinked. Well, that's right on the money.

"Well, I'd love to hear it again if you don't mind," Dean said, and Annabeth watched as a signature grin plastered onto the man's face as he upped his charm.

"Thing is, I'm sort of busy," she said. "Maybe we could do this laer?"

"Later?" Annabeth repeated.

The assistant nodded.

Dean's smile disappeared. "Sure, yeah. I'll just bring you down to the station later this afternoon and get your statement on tape, do it all official like."

She sighed. "Look, okay, I didn't know about Dr. Gregg's experiments, not until I was cleaning out his files."

"The experiments the–"

"The ones he conducted on sleeping disorders?" Annabeth finished, eyes narrowing in on the woman.

"No one knew, okay," she added. "Not the University, not anybody. I already spoke with a lawyer and he told me I can't be held liable for anything." She crossed her arms.

Dean opened his mouth and closed it once before continuing, "Well, maybe you couldn't, but that was before the new evidence came to light."

"New evidence?"

"Mhmm."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "What new evidence?"

Dean shrugged. "I'm not at liberty to say."

She let out a huff. "Ugh, look… I'm just a grad student. This was just a gig to cover tuition…"

"Maybe so," Annabeth said, clasping her hands together professionally in front of her. "But this is quite serious."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, it could go on your permanent record… unless you hand over the doctor's research to us. All of it."

Annabeth looked over at Dean with wide eyes. "Permanent record?" she mouthed.

He shrugged.

And, a few minutes later, they walked out with a crap ton of research to go through and a smug Dean Winchester looked over to where Annabeth was rifling through some files in the passenger seat of the Impala.

"For your information, Blondie, the permanent record thing works every time."

She glared at him. "Until it doesn't."

He let out a chuckle. "Yeah, well, don't get your hopes up. I probably won't live long enough to see that day."

They met with a kid named Jeremy Frost later, and he gave them a little bit more detail of what kind of experiments the Doctor was running.

"No wonder why someone would want to kill him," Annabeth muttered as they drove the impala back to the motel they had taken over and were now staying in. "The yellow tea Jeremy described? From what I remember some Hermes kids talking about that was typical of the African Dream Root. He was making them dream… and then would control them."

"At least he only thought they were bad acid trips," Dean commented.

"No, he compared the two, so I don't think you can fall for the victim card just yet," Annabeth spoke aloud as she was combing through some more reports from another one of Dr. Gregg's studies. "Any of the people he did studies on would definitely be a prime suspect. Jeremy included."

Dean nodded slowly as he pulled into a parking space and put the Impala into park. "Uh, Blondie, I have a quick question."

She looked over at him curiously. "Hm?"

He watched as she slowly continued to put the reports back into their folders mindlessly before he asked, "How do you know so much about the African Dream Root? You said that you've heard about it through Camp? Does that mean Seph-"

Annabeth sighed. "I'm not sure how much Persie knew about it, but there was a time after the First War where… Well, the nightmares were bad for a lot of people. And sometimes, people go looking for cures that they shouldn't, you know?"

Dean pursed his lips. "As in ways to control their dreams?"

"I'm not sure why they felt like that was the answer, but yes. Some campers got their hands on some of that stuff, and it became a complete nightmare for everyone involved. Luckily we were able to stop it and confiscate the remaining roots before anyone got hurt."

He nodded. "So… in your opinion, having dealt with this before… do you think this is bad?"

Annabeth blinked. "We'll save her, Dean. We'll save them both."

"That's not what I asked."

"It's not going to be easy, and it's going to be dangerous. Especially if we're going to need to do what I think we will in order to get them out of whatever they're stuck inside of."

Dean tilted his head. "You think they're stuck?"

She sighed. "They're stuck in their worst nightmares right now, Dean. That's why we need to hurry." Her eyes went hazy. "Because if Persie's mind brought her where I think it did… we're running out of time. Fast."

He realized what she meant after a brief moment of silence.

"I was in there for months, nearly a year, we think," Persie said, looking up at the Brothers with red eyes and grit teeth. "My friend was with me for most of it."

He looked over at Annabeth, and after hearing their version of what happened… and the moments Persie had tried her best to explain to them before she was ready; everything was quickly piecing itself together.

It was nearly too much.

"I am so sorry that you are on the road to torture, but trust me- you are going to be grateful that is where you're going, and not the pit."

And for the first time in a long time, he felt like he was about to cry.

He had to get her out.

.

.

.

They were back in the hospital room, sitting at Bobby and Persie's bedsides.

Sally Blofis was still there, looking worse for wear. "Did you find anything?"

Annabeth looked at Persie's still form on the bed in front of her. "It might be something that I've had dealings with before, but we will need to check with Sam to make sure whatever information he's gotten will tie into what we were told."

Sally nodded slowly. "So you're still doing research, then?"

"And Sam is looking into some experiments that were done from a doctor who's death they were investigating. It seems like there might be some continuity there."

Dean watched as the two women spoke to each other about what they had discovered, and was somewhat surprised to see such a kind woman take morbid details in stride.

But who was he kidding?

This woman was Persie's mother. She's probably seen far, far worse.

He let out a sigh, and looked down at Bobby, who was frighteningly pale. Hell, he'd never seen the old man this still before, even knocked out from being drunk off his ass.

Whatever this dream root stuff was doing to him… it wasn't good.

As Sam entered the room, Dean noticed his brother's eyes immediately go right to the blonde daughter of Athena.

He rolled his eyes.

Sam quickly looked back over to where Bobby was lying, and made his way over to his brother's side. "How are they?"

Dean rubbed a hand over his face as he looked at where the two women had gone silent, and were now holding each other as they looked over his girlfriend in grief. "No change." He turned to him. "You got anything?"

Annabeth's gray eyes flickered over to the two of them, and looked to be listening intently.

"Well, considering what Annabeth told me about the doc's experiments," Sam began, "The wall in the motel room is starting to make a hell of a lot more sense."

"How so?" Annabeth herself asked.

Sam held up a picture of the plant from a folder he'd brought of the clippings from the wall. "This plant, Silene Capensis, you mentioned it was also referred to as African Dream Root. It's been used by shaman and medicine men for centuries."

"Which is probably why it was the Hermes and Apollo cabins that got their hands on that stuff," she grumbled, crossing her arms.

"Wait, what?" Sally cut in, eyes wide. "This was used in Camp?"

Annabeth ran a hand through her ponytail. "Not condoned, by any means. But yeah, some campers started to use it after Manhattan… they said they wanted to try and get rid of nightmares, but it only made them far, far worse. Turns out it allows you to actually enter another person's dreams and poke around in their heads."

Sally's posture relaxed. "Persie never said anything…"

She shrugged. "It was when Persie was home, so she was removed from the situation, and didn't ever hear about it after the fact, I guess."

"Yes, with being kidnapped by Hera, I can assume why."

Annabeth pursed her lips. "Well, I didn't want to come out and say that, but-"

"But that's what happened, correct?"

The Winchesters were looking at Sally with wide eyes. "Seph was kidnapped by who?"

"Hera, the Queen of the Gods?" Annabeth said. "Get with it, Dean. That's when she lost her memories."

"Oh, yeah. That."

Sally frowned. "Yes, that."

"So, let's say, uh, let's say this doc was testing this stuff on his patients, Tim Leary-style," Sam said, gesturing to the photo of the African Dream Root.

"Somebody gets pissed at him, decides to give him a little dream visit, he goes nighty-night," Dean finished.

"But… what about Persie and Bobby? If the killer went after them, how are they… you know-"

"Still alive?" Sally deadpanned.

Annabeth felt a faint blush color her cheeks. "Kind of seems wrong to suggest, but… it is a fair question."

Sally shrugged, and Dean instantly noted how similar Seph's mannerisms were to her mother's. "We don't know how they're still alive," Sally said. "But we should be thankful for it, anyway."

Dean looked over between Sam and Annabeth. "So how to we find our homicidal sandman?"

"Could be anyone," Sam admitted.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Annabeth confirmed reluctantly.

"Anyone who knew the doctor and had access to his dream shrooms?"

"Well, it certainly could be one of his test subjects. They would certainly have a motive," Annabeth concluded aloud. "But it's hard to determine who they all are. All we know is that one kid we met-"

"Jeremy, right."

"Yup."

Sam let out a breathy laugh. "Any other case, we'd be calling Bobby and asking him for help right now."

Dean looked at his brother for a minute, just as a thought crossed his mind. "You know what? You're right"

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"Let's go talk to him."

"Dean, he's asleep," she said. "As in, we can't talk to him."

"Yeah, I think that conversation would be a little one sided," Sam said.

Dean's smirk immediately had Annabeth wanting to run for cover. "Not if we're tripping on some Dream Root."

"What?" She asked.

"You heard me."

"You wanna go dream walking inside Persie and Bobby's head?" Sam asked, eyebrows skyrocketing.

Dean rolled his eyes, throwing his hands in the air. "Why not? Maybe we could help."

"Do you know how dangerous that could be?" Annabeth asked, staring at the older Winchester as if he'd just gone insane. "Do you have any idea what kind of shit we'd be walking into?"

"Well, it's all a dream, isn't it?"

Sam sighed. "Dean, we have no idea what's crawling around in there."

"How bad could it be?" Dean shrugged.

But he knew just how bad it could be.

He heard Seph tell her story, and he knew that Bobby was holding onto his cards close to his chest for a reason.

No one became a Hunter for the hell of it.

"Bad," they both admitted in unison.

"It's Seph and Bobby."

A low pause rang between them.

Sam started to nod, followed by Annabeth. "Yeah, you're right. One problem though. We're fresh out of African Dream Root, so unless you know someone who can score some of it…" Sam looked at Annabeth curiously. "Didn't you say there was some at your camp-"

"Oh, it's since been contraband. I can't go asking for some from any demigod and keep my position as a head counselor, and no one would even think to give me some if they had some. Think undercover cops, demigod edition."

Dean smirked. "Ha. What other-" his smirk turned into a grimace. "Crap."

"What?"

"Bela."

"Bela?" Annabeth asked. "That blonde bi-"

"Crap," Sam scoffed.

Annabeth wasn't having it. "You're actually going to ask that piece of-"

Dean frowned. "I'm feeling dirty about it, but yeah."

Annabeth looked at Sam. "Sam, come on. There's no one else?"

He sighed. "No one else who we know of, at least."

Her eyebrows furrowed as she let out a huff. "Fine." She packed up her stuff and said a stiff goodbye to Sally, and turned back to the boys. "We need to go prepare for her Highness."

The brothers watched her walk out in confusion as to why she was having such an overreaction. Not that they'd ever tell her that to her face, but still.

"Well, I'll go make sure she doesn't kill anyone on her way out," Sam said, before nodding to Sally once, and followed the wake of the angry daughter of Athena.

Dean looked over at the beds that held both Bobby and Seph with a sigh. Before he went to leave, he saw Sally give him a knowing look.

"What?"

She winked at him. "I'll watch these two. You three go take care of what you gotta take care of."

"Thank you."

A twinkle in her blue eyes reminded him of some sea green ones he was quite fond of. "No, thank you."