I… didn't know what to do.
I had just been given information that any single Titan or giant could attack me, any god or goddess, and… and I would have to fight them. Fight for my life if I wanted to see Annabeth or my family again. All of my friends from both camps.
I was so out of my league here. How was I supposed to fight even remotely on that level? But I didn't have a choice in this development. What a familiar feeling, and one I hated, but dialed up to eleven... or eleven hundred. How could I even defend myself? Most of those beings wouldn't be stopped by ice and rock walls.
I don't remember going back inside, but the next thing I knew, I'd dismounted the horse and stumbled through my bunker.
(It wasn't safe anymore.
Nowhere was safe.
But it was the closest thing I had to safety.)
I vaguely remembered flopping down into my pool bedroom, pulling my pelts and such to me with currents, and then curling up under my ice bed.
I don't know how long I stayed there. It could have been hours or minutes, but I eventually drifted off to sleep.
I'm not entirely sure how.
xXx
For the first time, I spoke to someone who wasn't Annabeth. When I realized I was in Camp Half-Blood, I immediately went searching for her, knowing this was a dream and desperately wanting her presence. Instead, I stumbled across a boy with ash-blond hair and eyes that seemed to change color every time I looked at him, not like the kids from the Aphrodite cabin but deeper somehow. I couldn't describe it any other way. I thought his eyes were brown in real life, but couldn't quite remember. (Had it been that long?)
"Clovis?" I asked with a shaky voice. He looked… older. Which made sense. He'd been a teenager the last time I'd seen him, but seeing that still drove just how long it had been home. Again.
He looked up and smiled. "Hey! It worked!" Then he frowned thoughtfully. "Without Annabeth here. Weird."
Immediately my heart sank. "She's not here?"
He shook his head. "Sorry." Wow, he seemed much more… awake than I was used to. Alert maybe? And sad. Genuinely sad for me, though I saw no pity. I appreciated that. "She's been… busy lately. But I do have some other people I could connect you to."
I blinked at him. "You're… the one that's helping me? With these dreams?"
He raised an eyebrow. "Didn't Annabeth tell you?"
Yeah, she had, but still.
"Thank you," I said, not caring how my voice broke. "It's kept me sane." I snorted self-deprecatingly. "Well, saner."
The other man's face softened. "Yeah. I don't know how you do it, but… we're all glad you're alive. I've also made sure that your dreams can't be seen by any god… except my father, and maybe Morpheus. But I'd know if they did peek in, so yeah."
Something occurred to me just then. "Wait, have you been looking for me every night?"
He shrugged. "It's part of my routine now. I always keep an eye out for you, though there's a lot of interference. It's not easy to find someone in… well…" he trailed off.
This. This was why the children of the gods had my loyalty when their parents really didn't. He'd gone so far out of his way for me… and I'd talked to the guy maybe a handful of times.
So I just walked up and hugged him. I hadn't even known him very well before… well, everything, but he'd still gone out of his way to help me.
"Thank you," I said again. It didn't feel like enough.
"No problem, man," he replied, then stepped back. "But maybe ask before you hug me next time?" He said it with a wry, very real smile, but I still felt ridiculous.
"Ah, sorry."
He shook his head. "No worries. I get it. You're probably touch-starved… among other things."
I snorted both in relief and wry amusement. "You have no idea."
He nodded. "I'll bet. Anyway, I don't know where Annabeth is right now. She took a job but wouldn't tell us where. It'll take me a while to find her. Probably would even if I knew where she was. She doesn't come around camp too much anymore—too busy."
"I'm kind of surprised you're still at camp," I said with a smile. "Shouldn't you have graduated or something?"
He snorted. "What else am I supposed to do? Sleep therapy? For mortals?"
Eh. Fair. "But what about for demigods?" I asked. "At Camp Jupiter or something."
Clovis thought about that for a moment, then shook his head. "I think I'd prefer to build up New Athens instead."
I froze. "Wait, what?" Had I heard that right?
He grinned. "Didn't Annabeth tell you? We're going to be expanding the ward boundaries—it's possible with the Fleece—and building a city, kind of like the Romans did. Though if anyone asks, we're not copying, we're expanding on what they've built. Turnabout's fair play, after all.
"Annabeth has been part of the planning for years now and we've got a small community up and running."
I frowned. "No. She hasn't told me anything."
"Oh," Clovis said, looking more than a little worried. "Um… then it was probably supposed to be a surprise. Act surprised, please? Annabeth isn't stupid enough to try and murder me in my sleep, but…"
I laughed. "No, she isn't. But you know it's fine, right? She'll be disappointed but probably happier that I was able to talk to someone who wasn't her or a monster."
"Right," he nodded, but didn't look entirely convinced. I was reminded once again why no one crossed my girlfriend.
"Anyway, even if I can't find Annabeth, I can hook you up with someone else. Piper? Leo? Clarisse? Grover—"
"Grover, really?" I asked.
Clovis seemed a little taken aback by my reaction. Maybe he didn't realize how close to best friends the satyr and I were.
"Yeah, sure. He should be asleep right now. Give me a sec…"
His gaze went distant and his eyes started changing color rapidly. It was a little awe-inspiring to see. It took a couple of minutes, during which he didn't move at all. Which was weird as we'd switched surroundings at least three times by then and were both ADHD, even in this dream state.
Finally, he blinked and glanced over at me. "There! Got him. Okay. I'm gonna ward your dream so nobody can hear and then… actually rest. That took more out of me than I thought it would. You guys do know you have a link, right? That's the only reason I could find him. And no, he wasn't asleep. Workaholic."
"Yeah, that sounds about right," I said, smiling. Then I stuck my hand out. "Really, thanks again, Clovis."
He looked down at my hand, then back up at me as he took it. "We're behind you, Percy. All of us. What happened to you was wrong. And we'll do what we have to to change it—to make it right again. We know Annabeth has a plan and even though she can't tell us much, we believe in her. She'll get you out."
"When I get back, I'd like to get to know you better," I said. I really wanted him to know how much this meant to me.
"We'll go out for drinks sometime."
"Wait, who's drinking and can I have some?" a new, very familiar (if much deeper) voice asked. For a moment, I swear my blood froze.
"And that's my cue. Later," Clovis said, giving a two-fingered salute and vanishing.
"Percy!" I turned around and saw an older Grover heading right towards me. He still wore his typical cap, but had needed to cut some holes in it for those horns, apparently. They weren't large, but they were there… curved and sharp. He also had a huge smile and an actual beard for once, not the scraggly whiskers I remembered. He looked good. He was, what, 42 now? Which made him about 21 in human years, right? Ish… I never had been good at math.
That was all I could really see before he barreled into me, almost knocking me over.
"Di Immortales, Percy! I can't believe it's you! I just…" He hugged me tighter. At least, I think he did. I still couldn't feel him, much like I couldn't feel Annabeth. I could feel Clovis though… I wondered if that had something to do with his powers.
Then I shook my head and pushed that thought aside. "I missed you too, man," I said, patting his back.
"I've never been so mad at the gods before," he said as he stepped back. "I still won't talk to Mr. D. Apparently he voted for this. I think it's annoying him, but I don't care. At least Artemis was against it."
It hurt to know that my camp director, who used to be human himself, had voted for throwing me down here. Once I was out, I wanted him out of camp. I'd do whatever I had to do to make sure that happened.
"I'm not the only one, too," Grover went on, grinning maniacally. "Most of the satyrs and nymphs won't talk to him these days. Only the elders really listen to him or will even acknowledge him. But it serves him right!"
I felt warm, knowing that even the camp's nature spirits were behind me. Annabeth said the camp was, but I hadn't thought she meant everyone (except Mr. D, of course). But, I also knew it wasn't wise to upset a god. Then I thought about Tartarus… and Zeus. Not wise, but sometimes necessary, unfortunately.
"I don't want you all getting hurt for me," I said. "Don't tick him off too much."
Grover snorted. "Says the guy who made it his duty to tick off the gods at every turn," he said wryly and put his feet over the edge of the rock we were sitting on. Oh, on top of Zeus' fist. I thought it's other name fit it even better than before…
"And look where it landed me," I muttered. "Please, I don't want you all hurt too."
My oldest friend snorted. "You're in the Pit—the actual Pit—and you're still worried about us? Only you, dude. Only you."
"I'd like to be the only one tossed into the Pit," I said.
"I'd like you to not be in the Pit at all."
I slumped at his words. "Yeah. Me too."
"Hey," Grover said quietly, "I'm sorry, man. You gonna be ok?"
I shook my head. "I don't know, Grover. I really don't anymore. Not after what I was just told."
He looked worried. I couldn't blame him. "Told by Clovis?"
I sighed and shook my head again. Then I told him everything Tartarus had ever told me, ending with what he'd just said. I watched my friend get paler and paler, eventually ending in a shade I hadn't seen since those first few quests, so long ago.
We were sitting on the pier by the lake when I finished, my eyes fixed on the water below me as I made it swirl gently. Apparently I even had control over dream water. Who'da thunk it?
"Baa-ah-ah," Grover finally said, before slapping his hands over his mouth. "Oh… that's embarrassing. I haven't done that since…"
"Before the end of the Titan War?" I asked with a smile.
"Yeah, let's go with that," the satyr muttered, bringing one of his knees to his chest and putting an arm around it.
I laughed, but it was forced and nowhere near as happy as I wanted it to be. It just sort of faded off into an awkward silence.
"Gods and Titans and giants…" he shook his head. "How are you supposed to fight those?"
I knew the answer, even if I hated it. "By becoming a monster," I muttered.
"Baa-ah-ah," he said again, this time not even seeming to recognize he'd let the bleat out.
"It's already happening," I whispered, feeling tears begin to run down my cheeks. "I'm always so angry, these days, Grover. More violent, less merciful… and… I'm starting to enjoy seeing them freak out at the sight of me."
Silence as I focused on the water. I didn't want to move. I liked the lake. It was… comforting.
"Okay, let's try that," Grover muttered, seemingly to himself. "Emma, please help me."
"Try what?" I asked miserably, not even bothering to ask who Emma was.
"Well, you haven't talked with people in a while, so… um… why are you angry? Because you keep getting attacked by monsters who won't leave you alone? Or because of the Pit's creepy anger miasma that you said affected you…?"
I frowned. "Well, yeah." What was he getting at?
"Those sound like external issues to me. Not you."
I frowned. "Okay, but I'm still letting them affect me."
The satyr frowned and seemed to think on that for a bit. "Okay, let me ask this then. If Nico got thrown down there and said he was angry because of it, would you blame him?"
"What?" I asked, shocked, "of course not!"
"So why are you blaming yourself?"
I closed my mouth, blinking in surprise at my friend who stared back hard, expression unrelenting.
"Th-that's different," I said, but it sounded weak even to me.
"How?" Grover pressed.
"I…" I started, unsure of how to answer that.
Then he shook his head when I couldn't say anything, but he must have realized that his words didn't seem to compute, no matter how logical they sounded. "You take too much on your shoulders, Perce. You hold yourself to a different standard. That isn't fair to you, and it's probably hurting you more than helping."
"But… you haven't seen what I can do now."
"You could dry the entire ocean on this planet and I wouldn't have a different opinion," he returned stubbornly. He really had come a long way since the satyr I met at Yancy Academy. It was kind of awe-inspiring.
"I enjoy it… sometimes," I whispered, needing him to understand. "Hurting the monsters."
"Hurting the monsters that have hurt you? That sounds like a reasonable reaction to me."
I shook my head. "I don't want to be like that."
To my surprise, Grover relaxed, his face softening. "I know, dude. And as long as you don't want to be like that, then I'm pretty sure you're still human."
His words seemed to release a knot in my chest I hadn't realized was there. I felt I could breathe easier as I thought over what he'd said. I don't know how long I sat there, but eventually I managed to send him a smile. "Thanks."
"No prob," he said with a grin, knowing he'd won that round. I was fine with that, honestly. "Besides," he went on, looking back out at the ocean—we were on the beach now, but I wasn't complaining. "Monsters belong to a different cycle than mortals," he said. "Even if you did turn into one, I'd still want to be your friend once I came back."
I blinked. "Came back?"
He smiled. "I told you. I'm a nature spirit. Like nymphs, my life cycle is tied to the natural cycle of the Earth. Humans go through a completely different cycle themselves. They die and go to the underworld to be judged and the evil ones are weeded out before they can come back. It's still a cycle, even if the three lives a human can live will all be without any memories. Their spirit is tied to the underworld. Monsters are just tied to the Pit. And while that would suck," he shuddered, "well, I hope you'd look for me when I come back as a flower or a tree or another satyr. Maybe a blue whale so you can talk to me and I'll finally be taller than you."
I snorted. "In your dreams."
"Or yours," he pointed out wryly, gesturing around us at the beach.
I actually laughed. "Thanks, Grover. That helps. A lot." I still didn't know what I would do about the 'monsters' that could come after me now, but I felt so much better about my situation as a whole. Not fabulous, but I'd take better.
"Anyway, let me tell you what's been going on at camp recently," Grover said, changing the subject. "You heard about the ward extension, right?"
I nodded. "Yeah, Clovis told me."
"Annabeth didn't?" Grover asked, looking surprised.
I shook my head. "I think she wanted to keep it as a surprise."
To my amusement, my friend paled again. "Oh, she's gonna kill us."
I just laughed.
It felt so good to laugh like that.
xXx
It took me a couple of days (or sleep cycles or whatever) to work up the will to go outside again, though this time I made sure I took all of the remaining Tartarus river and delta water I still had as well as my seashell necklace and some backups. I froze everything else underground and hoped that worked well enough. It was literally the best I could do at that point.
Then I decided to just go for my typical ice-bike, taking the one I found most comfortable, and headed outside.
Nothing was there waiting for me. Again.
Swallowing, I pushed my bike out, left my bunker as protected as I could, and headed up the river.
I met more than one monster, but most of them seemed all too wary of me and few approached me. Those that did were easy to take out.
That was until I came upon a literal hoard of drakons about a day into my trip. Not a small group either. At least ten of them… Flying drakons, snake-like drakons, wyvern-like drakons, even an ice drakon. At least, that was what I sensed. I'd noticed that the sixth-sense demigods tended to develop in battle had… well, grown. And maybe if I'd been paying attention to it, I would have sensed the drakons (had I gotten complacent… in Tartarus?!) and thus been more prepared for them.
The weakest among them was as strong as the last drakon I'd taken out.
And as much as I hated to admit it, faced with one again I had to admit, even if only to myself, it wasn't weak. Of course, I pushed that thought to the side to focus on later. Much later. Or never. Never was good too.
I know I went pale enough to nearly pass out when I saw them around that same bend in the river I'd met the Laistrygonian giants all those years ago. (Had it really been years? It seemed more like weeks and lifetimes at once.)
None of the drakons could speak, I could tell, but that didn't mean they weren't intelligent. I remembered the drakon Damasen had fought and wondered if I could, perhaps, reason with them. I doubted it, but I had to try, right? Otherwise it might get a little dangerous. Then again, what else was new?
"Uh… hey guys," I said, maybe a little weakly. "Um… I'm just going to pass by here, you know? No one has to get hurt, right?"
The multiple shots of fire, acid, and even ice told me otherwise.
So I set my jaw and dropped off of my bike towards the river below, drawing it up and superheating it. They wanted to attack me? Well fine.
And I'd do as my girlfriend had asked—what I had to do to survive. Even if I hated it.
I don't remember much of that fight except a lot of dodging and rushing through large feet that wanted to stomp on me (and succeeded a few times, that would have killed me had it not been for my armor).
The ice drakon didn't fare well against me. I reached for the ice it kept inside itself (it seemed like it summoned the water from somewhere magically, but I didn't care where) and just had its own water grow into spikes, killing it from the inside.
The fire drakons were more difficult, and I had to constantly duck and regulate the temperature of my water armor when their strikes hit true, shifting it around so it completely protected me to avoid being burned by their attacks. Eventually, I just used some of the poison spit from the remaining poison and acid drakons, shoving that down the gullet of the fire drakons. Acid and fire don't mix well. At least, judging from the explosion.
Which made me wonder.
While still dodging where I could, I felt for the acid and poison I could feel inside the other drakons and heated what I found up. They all stopped and then shrieked in pain after a couple of seconds. I winced at their sudden cries but didn't stop. Several exploded. Some just fell into gold dust.
In the end I stood in the empty clearing where the drakons had been earlier, realizing that I'd literally just destroyed at least half-a-dozen of them by myself. I knew I still wasn't on god or Titan level but… I almost saw why Tartarus thought I could handle that now.
The kind of power I had… and how that made me feel…
I tried to ignore it. It still scared me, and that was what I had to grasp onto. That was what still kept me human, just like Grover said. I didn't want to be a monster.
Climbing back onto my ice-bike (that had remained in the air during the whole fight… I hadn't even realized I'd kept it there), I pushed off towards the Hermes shrine.
Nothing else attacked me.
xXx
The shrine was a respite I desperately needed, and even though I could only stay there a couple of hours (ish), I still very much appreciated burning all of my letters and receiving some back. I spoke to Piper, Leo, and apparently Frank was there too. That was awesome. I wondered why Clovis hadn't asked if I'd wanted to speak to him earlier.
In any case, I left after a large sacrifice of my own to Hermes, Hestia, and my father before taking everything else and freezing it behind the bike so I could drag it all back to base. I'd barely gotten beyond the first turn in the river when I ran into my next fight.
It was someone I'd fought before; someone I'd seen in my nightmares too many times, especially when Annabeth had told me her mythology—how she was powerful enough to hold Titans, giants, and gods in check here in the Pit. As I watched her land heavily on the bank of the river, I realized I'd forgotten how large she was. It also occurred to me that when I'd fought her before, she was weakened on the surface. Even then, I'd barely kept up and would have died if not for the hundred-handed Briares.
The top half was that of a woman, the bottom more drakon-ish. Black and scaly with enormous claws and a barbed tail. Her legs seemed constantly tangled in moving vines that I knew were actually poisonous snakes, as was her hair. The skin around her waist changed in rippling waves, growing into the faces and heads of large, carnivorous or simply dangerous animals, some of which I knew didn't exist now. (I hoped they'd never exist while I lived.)
Behind her, two large bat wings rose into a threatening position and she had a wicked grin on her face, showing off the fangs and otherwise sharp teeth through which a serpent's tongue slipped out and back in.
She only had two hands, but she held a scimitar as large as me in each of them, glowing green in the darkness of Tartarus. I knew it was poison.
Kampê, the prison steward of Tartarus. And she was here to fight me. I knew it. Why else would she be here? My mind raced and I went through all of my options. It really boiled down to one: I had to fight. I supposed I could try and fly away, but I doubted that would work. She had wings and could fly herself. She'd just chase me until she caught me or I couldn't reach the Phlegethon and… then what? No, I had to fight her… And I had no one to help me this time. No Briares, no cyclopes, no other demigods to back me up. I would have to fight her one on one, alone, where she was literally at her strongest. No holding back.
I gulped, and set my bike down at the edge of the river before grabbing Riptide and uncapping it. My stomach fell to my knees, but I walked forward towards the enormous woman-monster waiting for me. I summoned water to form my armor and a couple more bubbles on the way.
She grinned down as I finally stopped walking just out of reach of her scimitar.
For several seconds, we just sat there, staring at each other, until she finally spoke, grinning and showing off her sharp teeth the entire time.
"So, we meet again, Percy Jackson."
xXx
AN: So yeah, Kampe. I think she was underutilized in the books, and she's a lot more powerful than we saw. So, yeah.
Thanks to Berix, Ajax, Asterius Daemon, Starlight3 and Quathis! Betar Readers of Awesome! (Imagine that being said in Jack Black's voice, please. ;) )
Thank you for reading!
Next Chapter: Kampê and Phlegethon
Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)
