And a few Titan will arrive, he is from the time of Pernos, when they are together- another one will come to listen in the next chapter or so...
Chapter 3 - Reading Into the Storm Front
Before Annabeth had gone far she abruptly stopped and looked back at the Cocytus with a thoughtful expression. Her eyes scanned the river, searching for a flash of bronze. "Hazel, is there something made of celestial bronze in the Cocytus?"
"I dropped my dagger, in the river when Percy and I went there" Annabeth stated and held up a new one, a drakon bone sword.
Hazel raised an eyebrow and studied the river, reaching out with her power over riches. "Yes, there is," she said in shock, "how?"
Annabeth smiled, "Can you get it out for me?"
Hazel nodded slightly and drew the piece of metal towards her through the river. Annabeth stuck her hand into the water and scrabbled around for several seconds until her hand closed around the hilt of a dagger. She quickly drew back with a gasp, her face pale as she looked at the dagger in her hand.
The blade was shiny as if it had just been polished, but the edge was now serrated like someone had hacked away at it. Thalia's eyes widened as she recognized the dagger. "That's… impossible. Your dagger has been lying in the Cocytus for three hundred years?"
"Apparently so," Annabeth murmured.
Nico frowned, "Annabeth, you stuck your hand into the river. What did it say?"
"He's gone," Annabeth recited, "they have him. Give in; daughter of Athena, Perseus Jackson is gone."
Rachel stopped reading and looked up at Hades and then at Annabeth and Poseidon.
Annabeth lost her boyfriend and Poseidon lost his son, but they were keeping it together.
Poseidon had lost his son many times, each time he went back to his godly business, every time he let his son walk away, but the god always got him back, and Percy loved his dad no matter what happened.
Annabeth now knew what Percy had felt when he lost her on the cliff, when the manticore got her, but she didn't know what to think now since he had willingly stayed in the pit.
"He loves you, you know right?" Rachel said to her friend.
"Yeah, I just miss him. Thanks Rachel, you're a good friend"
The demigods were silent, and Thalia shook her head. "No. Kelp Head wouldn't give in; give him more faith, Bird Brain."
"Thalia's right," Nico said, "Percy has defeated Kronos before. Not even Tartarus will be able to make him give in."
"You should know that maybe Tartarus isn't the one torturing him" a voice mused, and when they all turned they saw a Titan dressed in Silver armor and silver hair.
"Bob!" Nico exclaimed and looked at the Titan.
"Ugh, Perseus insists that he calls me that, only to annoy me, Son of Hades, call me Iapetus."
"How did you get here, Titan!?" Zeus demands.
"Anake, she brought me here" with that the Titan of the Underworld nods to Rachel. "Continue Mortal, I would like you to read more."
"That's what I'm afraid of," Annabeth said as she studied the dagger that Luke had given her so long ago. "What if the Titans want revenge? He's been down here for three centuries – that's more than enough time for them."
"Well," Clarisse said, "if he's given in I'll happily help you to bring him back to his senses."
"She's right," Jason said, "we'll all help you. If Jackson's given in I'll happily help haul him out of this Pit kicking and screaming if I have to."
Iapetus stared at the demigods, "You call yourself his friends and you want to do that?!" he demands, the shadows swirl in his anger, but dissipate after a small talk with his brother.
Annabeth laughed, "We should go. The longer we stay in one place the more likely it is that a monster will find us."
The demigods nodded in agreement as Nico scanned their surroundings for any monsters. Annabeth quickly strode off in the direction of the cliffs.
It hadn't taken Jason and Frank long to safely fly everyone down the cliff. As Annabeth walked she inspected the new look of her dagger. The middle of the blade was jet black and freezing to touch, and the hilt seemed molded to her grip with intricate black swirls on the once simple leather-bound wooden hilt. Leo handed one of his home made quivers of arrows to Frank and another to Thalia as they walked to distract him.
"That is so pretty! I can so imagine that!" Leo exclaimed and Hephaestus nodded.
"So, hydra, heavy, explosive, sonic, barbed, fire, and net," He said with a wide grin, "Hydra arrows split up to form a ladder when they hit something. Heavy arrows are heavier than normal ones and can – hopefully – punch straight through the best armor. Explosive arrows are like Greek fire bombs, they release an explosion of Greek fire. Sonic arrows, well Apollo cabin has them back at camp. Barbed arrows catch on flesh as they are pulled out, effectively causing double damage. Fire arrows release a wave of fire upon contact, and net arrows make nets."
Frank's eyes were wide as he took his new quiver and slung it over his back, "You made all of these last night? You couldn't have gotten any sleep."
"Well, no," Leo muttered sheepishly, "but it was worth it."
Thalia laughed, "I think you've outdone yourself, Leo. These will be very helpful down here, I can feel it."
Leo shrugged, "Well, I didn't want any of us to die down here, so…"
"Leo," Jason said sternly, "what happened to Percy and Annabeth three centuries ago wasn't your fault, so stop beating yourself up about it."
"Jason's right, Leo," Annabeth called. "I don't blame you, and I know Percy won't."
Leo frowned, "Were you eavesdropping?"
Jason grinned, "Maybe."
Leo rolled his eyes, "Yeah, well, that was a private conversation, so-"
Annabeth suddenly head something scrapping across the ground, and held her hand up. The demigods immediately all stopped. Annabeth's eyes scanned the area around them and picked out a black shape against the rocks. Her wrist flicked forward as she threw her dagger, striking the monster in the chest.
The monster let out a shriek, but didn't disintegrate and writhed on the floor. Annabeth's eyes widened. "What?"
"Annabeth, your dagger is celestial bronze, right?" Nico asked as he didn't take his eyes off the dracaenae.
"Yes, at least it was."
Nico nodded and unsheathed his stygian iron sword to stab the dracaenae. He thoughtfully picked up Annabeth's dagger and brought it back to her. "Something happened to the dracaenae, even if your dagger didn't kill it. The snake was definitely in pain."
"Wow, torturing monsters? That is what your blade is doing, that isn't cool," looking up they see Hyperion walking down to the center of the throne room. "Iapetus-" they speak in the old tongue and the only thing they all understand is Percy, Kronos, Poseidon and Oceanus.
"Or misery," Clarisse suddenly said.
Annabeth's eyes widened, "Of course," she murmured, "my dagger has been in the Cocytus so long that some of the river water has been absorbed into the blade."
"You know that isn't really awesome right? What if you nick yourself?" Frank said, he had been awefully quiet, he had been whispering to Hazel for a minute before they asked to be excused.
Jason nodded, "It explains why the dracaenae was in pain, but didn't die from being hit by celestial bronze."
"Annabeth," Frank suddenly shouted, "we're at the Phlegethon."
Annabeth nodded slightly when she looked up to see the river of fire stretching across the landscape in front of them. She was tempted to try a drink to see if she would burn up or if it would heal her since she was now half-immortal. "Follow the river bank; I know when to turn away."
"Annabeth, can monsters smell us in Tartarus?" Piper asked carefully.
"I don't think so," Annabeth said, "but I'm not sure."
Hyperion laughed, "They can smell you, you guys smell"
"Well!" Conner snapped. "You don't smell good yourself, what did you roll in? Shit?"
Apollo paled, and looked at his once temporally mentor before he had gone insane on power.
The titan breathed deeply and stared hard at the son of Hermes, "You best watch your tongue, lest you face the wrath of our King…" he trailed off mysteriously, a cruel smirk playing his lips.
"What if they can?" Hazel asked, "We'll have hundreds of them charging at us."
"Tartarus has let us down here for a reason. He obviously doesn't want to kill us, I think he actually wants to help," Annabeth replied as she stayed away from the river bank of broken glass.
"And if he doesn't and just lured us down here to kill us?" Frank asked.
Annabeth opened her mouth to answer, but the ground shook and a spire of purple rock jutted out of the ground in front of Frank, nearly impaling him. He cursed and jumped back. "Does that answer your question?" Annabeth asked in amusement.
Frank paled and nodded. "Yes. So, when we find Percy how are we going to get out?"
Annabeth shrugged, "I don't know at the moment. Maybe we'll find something that'll help."
"Or maybe we'll have to run and hope for the best," Nico muttered.
"Ugh, I must be mad to say that!" Nico stated and leaned back into his chair
"You're just full of optimism today, aren't you?" Leo asked.
"Trying to keep things real, then I won't be too surprised when this goes horribly wrong," Nico retorted.
Leo rolled his eyes, "We have a lot of gadgets specially created to kill monsters, and several centuries of experience."
"And?" Nico asked, "We get too comfortable then something bad will happen."
"Boys, stop it," Piper said firmly, "we can't argue down here. We have to work together."
"You're right, Piper," Nico said, "Tartarus plays with your mind; Sorry, Leo."
"Sorry…Death Breath."
"Leo!" Nico exclaimed, "That's not my name!"
"Sorry, Zombie Boy," Leo grinned.
"Oh my!" Aphrodite squealed and clapped her hands together. "Do you like Nico Leo?! Is that why you always annoy him?"
Three boys gaped at the love goddess, while the room turned to look at the son of Hades, son of Apollo, and son of Hephaestus.
"Nico is mine" Will snarls and turned to glare at Leo.
"Dude, I am not gay, in case you haven't noticed I am dating Calypso-"
Laughter is heard and they all turn to see the Titans laughing, while speaking in the old tongue than laughing more.
"Can we get back to the book?" asks a hesitant daughter of Demeter: Shelly.
Nico narrowed his eyes, but Jason quickly slid between them. "Stop it, seriously. What the Hades, guys?"
"Here," Annabeth said. She was studying the area around them with a calculating eye. A boulder lay on the ground in front of her and looked like any normal one to the other demigods, but Annabeth remembered hiding behind it as she and Percy eavesdropped on theempousai.
Annabeth scanned the landscape until she saw the ground drop away suddenly several miles away from them. "Over there," she pointed. "Keep following the Phlegethon; it meets the cliff where we have to climb down."
"Are you sure?" Thalia asked as she warily scanned their surroundings, her bow tightly clutched in her hands.
Annabeth frowned slightly and sat down with her back against eh boulder to open up her silver laptop. "Look," she said as she placed her finger over a point on the map, "we're here." She moved her finger to another point – the altar of Hermes. "This is where we went next. We have to go this route."
"The way you and Percy went?" Hazel asked as she followed the route in her mind.
Annabeth nodded and folded up the laptop. "Yes."
The immortal demigods quickly scrambled to their feet again to jog after Annabeth. They were careful to only make very little sound as they travelled, not exactly wanting to attract any attention from hostile beings in the area.
Time blurred as they slowly sped up, running across Tartarus after Annabeth. The smoke rising from the Phlegethon beside them covered the ground and the demigods in a thick black layer of soot and ash.
A howl echoed behind them, and Thalia glanced back to see a hellhound barreling towards them. She shrugged her bow off her shoulder and quickly knocked an explosive arrow. Thalia waited for the right moment as the hound opened its mouth to howl again, and fired. The hellhound continued loping after the demigods for several seconds, and then it suddenly imploded.
Leo whooped, "That's what I'm talking about!" Monster dust settled on the ground and Annabeth frowned slightly.
"More monsters will start to come now," she warned. "The howl would've led some straight to us."
"We're nearly at the cliff," Jason said, "when we fly down we should be able to lose them."
Nico nodded grimly, "It should work, butempousaican climb down like satyrs."
Annabeth glanced around them as howls struck up, sounding like they were in the middle of a pack of hellhounds. "Well, if we don't want to end up as dog food we'd better go."
Leo frowned slightly as he followed Annabeth, studying the Phlegethon thoughtfully. He had an idea, but wasn't sure if it would work. The river of fire was liquid fire, which shouldn't really be any different from real fire. If he could...
"I wonder if I can control the underworlds Fire River." Leo asked and looked at the expert.
Hades shrugged, "no one has ever tried, neither has Percy, so…"
"Hey, Leo," Jason called and Leo looked away from the Phlegethon to see his friend gesturing for him to hold his hand, "you coming or not?"
Leo quickly grabbed Jason's hand and the son of Jupiter started a controlled descent down the cliff face. "So, Annabeth," Leo said casually, "where next?"
"Into the storm front," Annabeth replied.
"Uh, what storm… never mind," Leo cut himself off as he saw the red mist clouds condensing in front of them, creating an effective storm front. The darkness seemed heavier and thicker in the shadow of the mist, which didn't really help to calm his nerves.
Jason whistled as he landed on the ground, "That's one big storm."
"We don't have to go far into the storm," Annabeth reassured them, "just until we reach the Shrine of Hermes."
"SO THAT'S WHERE IT WENT!?" Hermes yelled, and he changed Martha and George until they turned into a sword and he charged his brother the sun god.
"It wasn't my fault!" Apollo yelled though he was laughing.
"It is! It was in the time of Greece that stupid prank you did!" Hermes screamed and they disappeared.
"A shrine of Hermes in Tartarus?" Clarisse suddenly asked.
"Yes. It fell from somewhere long ago, "Annabeth said as she remembered what Bob had told her, "maybe the mortal world, maybe Olympus. Monsters stay clear, though so we can rest there."
"How do you know that?" Frank asked.
"Bob told me," Annabeth said and received strange looks from her friends.
"My brothers never let me hear the last of that! Damn that Jackson!" Iapetus said but it wasn't harshly said.
"It was the first thing he thought of when we saw you in the Underworld." Nico explained his cousins actions.
"Bob?" Thalia asked, sounding like she had something stuck in her throat.
"Who's Bob?" Hazel asked.
"Iapetus," Nico answered, "the Titan," he eyed Annabeth carefully. "I didn't know he helped you down here."
"He guided Percy and me across Tartarus," Annabeth said bluntly, "I think Tartarus would have killed him at the Doors. I don't even know."
"Nope, he was trying to kill the more powerful ones, me" Iapetus said and popped the p.
"What's the chance of us finding Percy?" Piper suddenly asked, "The only thing we have is a map that isn't even finished. This is an impossible quest."
Annabeth frowned slightly, knowing that Piper had voiced all of their suspicions. Everything came crashing down on her at that point. The Cocytus had been right; there was no chance of her finding Percy. He probably wasn't even immortal and had died two centuries ago from old age if the monsters hadn't killed him first.Wisdom, skies, beauty and fire, will find help when all seems most dire. If that line of the prophecy didn't mean that moment, Annabeth didn't know what it would be referring to. She opened her mouth to reply, when the temperature suddenly dropped to near freezing. Leo immediately lit his hand on fire to give them all some warmth. Annabeth's eyes darted around as she continued walking, the atmosphere becoming heavier, like something immensely powerful was around them.
"Annabeth?" Nico asked worriedly, "Did this happen when you were down here before?"
"No," Annabeth murmured, "something, or someone, is here." Her eyes focused on the top of the shrine of Hermes which was only just visible. "Stay here, I'm going to take a look."
"Annabeth," Thalia started.
"No," Annabeth said firmly, "I have my Yankees cap. I'll go invisible and check it out. Watch out for monsters."
Before any of them could argue with her, she had slipped away with her Yankees cap on, and started jogging in the direction of the shrine of Hermes a hundred yards away. A quietly as she could, Annabeth eased herself to the ground and peeked over the edge of the small drop.
What she saw in the shrine immediately made her gasp. Two immortals were glaring at each other in the center, each of them standing one side of the altar like it was a barrier between them. Annabeth shifted closer as she realized that they were talking to each other, careful to give no sign of her being there to the two Titans.
"Who are the two Titans? And what is going to happen?" Apollo said mysteriously, than to add to that he made dramatic music happen.
Dun dun, dunnnnn…..