It took me almost two (ish) hours to find the ice pillar and my things. By that time, my gut had really started to ache again. I melted the pillar and recreated the ice room from the night before. Then I forced myself to eat a large dinner, complete with some ambrosia (I would not be able to take these trips often if I had to use that much just to keep myself in fighting shape—not that I wanted to after how this trip had turned out) and then retired for the 'night'.

Fortunately, tonight was an overlap with Annabeth and my knees almost gave out in relief when I saw Camp Half-Blood materialize around me. I almost did collapse when I found her in the pavilion.

"Percy?" she asked worriedly as I rushed over to her and just held her, trying (unsuccessfully) not to cry. "Percy, what's wrong?!"

I didn't want to tell her…

But I also wanted her to know.

And I felt stupid for feeling both.

Finally I bit the bullet and just told her everything, about flying over the Dark Lands, the pit scorpions (she was very impressed with my solution), finding the swamp, then Thorn and Damasen… and then I paused, knowing it only got worse from there.

"He said to say hi, you know… before he died." I choked a little, not wanting to say the words but also needing to.

Annabeth squeezed my hand and then hugged me. It almost felt real, like the waves licking at my feet.

(Di Immortales I missed the ocean.)

"But… that wasn't the end of it…" I said. "Damasen died again, in my arms this time and…I couldn't do a thing about it. And then…"

"And then what?" she pressed softly.

"I didn't have time to summon seawater, so I just reached for the closest liquid I could, underground and above ground, when I fought the monster army."

She blinked. "You mentioned the tar pits…"

I laughed mirthlessly. "I tried for those but… no. It didn't respond fast enough either. So the other liquid there had to do."

"What other liquid?" she asked, frowning.

I hunched in on myself, burying my head in my arms resting on my knees.

"Monsters don't have ichor," I whispered, knowing she'd hear me. "They have blood. But if they didn't, I'm pretty sure I got whatever that was too."

Annabeth gasped, putting a hand to her mouth. "You mean you…"

I nodded.

"Oh… Percy."

"It was so easy. Easier than Ahklys' poison… I didn't even notice until Damasen had—" I cut off.

"Hey," she said, putting a hand on my shoulder and drawing me into another hug. "Hey."

"Don't say it's okay."

"I won't."

I sniffed. Some adult I was. I didn't feel strong or capable just then. I felt so weak… and helpless, relying on my girlfriend who I could only meet in dreams.

"What am I becoming?" I asked.

"Hey," she said again, putting her hand on my cheek and turning my head up to meet her stormy gaze. "I don't care. I won't stop loving you."

"Even if I am the child of the prophecy?"

"You're not."

"But—"

"Percy, you're not."

I shook my head, jerking it away from her grasp. "That's besides the point! I'm… I'm becoming one of them! I… just what I have to do to survive down here…"

"I know," she said. And actually, I realized, she probably did. "I know it's so much worse than when we were there last time, which is why I'm so proud of you. And I love you anyway. And I wouldn't blame you for wanting to overthrow the gods."

I took a shuddering breath. "You mean that?" I hated sounding so young, but I needed that reassurance.

She leaned down and kissed me. I almost felt it.

"I love you. I'd love you even if you somehow came back a Titan or a giant or a monster. I don't care, because I know you'll still be you."

I couldn't help curling into her arms then. I didn't know how long I sat there, or if I cried, but I did know that eventually, I could sit up without just wanting to hide away again. It was an improvement, so I'd take it.

"You didn't finish your story, I don't think," she said.

I winced, but then sighed and gave in, telling her how I'd run and about the purple fields of sucker-grass and Jane.

At first, Annabeth was shocked. "You met a new monster?"

"I… think she may have been a goddess of some kind? I mean, she's Tartarus' daughter, so on Titan level…"

"But… that's amazing Percy!" Because she liked discovering new things.

"Not really."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

So I went on, telling her about the being's ability to make me speak and tell the truth, about how she fed on my emotions and how she wanted to keep me. Then I described how I got away.

Annabeth sat there in front of the big house for several seconds, looking out over the camp. "Wow. I'm… really impressed, Percy. That was a great solution."

"You shouldn't be. Proud of me, I mean."

She frowned. "Why not?"

"Didn't you hear what I said? I… I didn't even know how much… how much I hate them!"

"The gods?"

I stood and began to pace. "Yes! And now Tartarus knows and—"

"Percy! Names!"

I winced. "Right. Sorry. It's just… they know now."

She raised an eyebrow. "And how is that different from before?"

I opened my mouth to explain it, but nothing came to mind. "Well… now they'll think I'm the child of the prophecy even more."

"So?"

"They'll send bigger, meaner monsters after me."

She bit her lip. "Okay, that does suck, but… they probably would have anyway."

I sighed and slumped next to her again. "Yeah, you're probably right."

"But if that's the worst thing that comes of it, then you're not doing too badly."

I didn't respond to that for several seconds. When I finally did, I mumbled more than anything. "It feels like a big thing," I said. "If… if I could overthrow the gods without hurting the demigods… I think I would, Annabeth. And I hate to say it because… does that make them right to throw me down here?"

She snorted. "No. No, it does not. Because you didn't do anything. How is throwing you down there as a punishment for what you do because they tossed you down there in any way justifiable?"

"It feels justifiable."

I felt (well, sort of) a hand on my cheek again and looked over to her. "It's not. I know you may not believe that right now, but know that I do believe that. And if all you can do is believe in me for a little while until you know yourself, then that's okay."

My mouth melted into a longing, sad smile. "I don't deserve you."

She rolled her eyes. "You do, Seaweed Brain."

My smile grew. "Enough about me, what about you?" I asked, glad that my conjured, albeit small smile, felt real enough.

So she told me about her pursuits in architecture, about how she was getting to be well known in the field and even taking some other classes on the side. I was proud of her, and I told her so. I was also a little jealous. I didn't tell her that.

Eventually, though, Annabeth perked up and looked over. "Oh, my alarm! I have to go, love you!" She reached for me, but vanished before I could reach back. And then I found myself very suddenly left alone in the camp.

I ended up wandering back down to the beach and waded into the water.

I spent the rest of the dream drifting contentedly in the ocean, pretending that I was home again.

xXx

The week following that had me focused on cutting trees, stripping them of their branches and then bundling everything up. I wanted to make sure I used everything I could, so at the end of the week (ish) I had about twenty to thirty trees bundled together with a good three feet of branches stacked and secured on top.

I certainly had a new respect for loggers. The chore of chopping wood seemed like it would be easy—and to an extent it was, but it was also frustrating for a few reasons.

Firstly, the thorns. They weren't everywhere, but the smaller branches had enough of them that they caught on my clothes and skin often and I found myself bleeding more than once. Of course, some of that may also have been the fact that I had to cut the branches with water or Riptide. The latter certainly didn't work very well and tended to split the wood more than shave branches off due to the wood being so hard. Water, initially, hadn't worked much better until I'd gotten the bright idea to make a handsaw.

However, cutting down trees with a handsaw sucked. Even when said handsaw was actually water I could move telekinetically.

Then I'd gotten the idea to try and make a circular saw and spin it. That had worked way better, even if it had required more concentration than the handsaw, and sped up the process of cutting the trees down and the limbs off. It also gave me a very effective—if rather bloody—new way to fight monsters.

I looked around as I prepared my bike and shuddered. I didn't hate the swamp… but it held painful memories for me, and I wasn't unhappy to leave. I wasn't sure I'd ever come back, to be honest. I'd had to go back to Damasen's hut to get the canteen I'd dropped when I'd run from… well, yeah. It had been… quiet. Disturbingly so. Especially with all of the destruction my fight with the monsters had left.

The fact that it was right beside Jane's territory helped to hurry me along. Thankfully, she hadn't come after me, but I didn't know if she couldn't or if she'd just been ordered not to by Tartarus for some reason.

I didn't want to test it more than I had to either.

Maybe I can ask the Primordial in my dreams, I thought bitterly to myself. It seemed as if the times I slept after meeting Annabeth in my dreams had done their best to make up for the restful sleep I'd gotten that night. Tartarus kept showing up and alternating between showing me the power I could have and berating or outright threatening me for not siding with them or being too indecisive or passive or whatever. All without even speaking to me… except for the first time.

That first dream had been…

"So you escaped my daughter, Grandson. Impressive."

I looked around and found Tartarus floating behind me in the ocean. The coral reef I'd been exploring suddenly vanished, and I found myself in the depths of an ocean trench, so deep I could barely see anything through the darkness. Except Tartarus, of course.

"No thanks to you."

I sensed amusement from the other being. "Were you expecting help?"

No. And I said as much. "I don't understand you. You tell monsters to keep me alive, but you're fine with leaving me to be kept like a pet? Would she even have known to feed me? That I need food to live?"

Tartarus blinked… or at least that was the sense I got as those eyes were still pits of darkness, sucking in everything around them. "You… do?"

It was my turn to blink. Did… he not know that? Or did he just not understand mortals? Probably the latter… "Yes. Mortals need food to live. I'm mortal. We need to eat constantly to survive. Did you think I just killed monsters and ate them for fun?"

A pause before he responded. "Yes."

That… actually made a lot of sense. In a very disturbing way. "Well, I don't."

More silence as Tartarus seemed to contemplate that. "My children were correct. I did not understand the true frailty of mortality."

Sometimes I hated being right."Oh. Well… you do now." That… probably wasn't entirely true. "Or you know… a little better, I suppose."

"Why are you not dead then?" He sounded genuinely baffled. To be fair, so was I when I thought about it.

"Well, I'm… pretty good at surviving, for a mortal."

"I had heard mortals could not live without air… yet you do."

Okay, fair point. "Most mortals aren't the son of Poseidon. I can breathe water, but it isn't common. Even for demigods."

An even longer pause followed, during which time I noticed we were no longer under the ocean, but in that creepy void with the strange colors shifting around and the terrifying shapes.

"I do not understand why the gods would create something so weak," the Primordial finally concluded.

I scoffed and shook my head. "Mortals aren't weak. They just have… a different strength, I guess." I sighed. "Or, they can."

"Such as?"

I frowned and thought about that. I wasn't sure I could explain people like my mother, so resilient and strong while looking or seeming weak, to someone like Tartarus. How did I describe friendship, loyalty, or love? I was pretty sure the Primordial knew about those concepts but… it was pretty obvious he didn't actually know them. Or understand them. Not like humans did.

It occurred to me that perhaps as incomprehensible as gods could be to humans, perhaps the opposite was true too? And wouldn't it hold more for Titans, giants and especially Primordials? Was it because of how short humans lived that they became so adaptable? So able to change? Something that immortal beings did not seem to understand at all.

I didn't know, and thinking about it frustrated me. This was why I left the smart thinking to my girlfriend. She was good at it and actually enjoyed it. I liked to live in the moment. I always had. And not think about things like this if I didn't have to.

Unfortunately, it now looked like I had to.

And as usual, I fell back on something my Wise Girl had told me.

"Did you know that humans have created buildings as tall as mountains? And not mountains themselves, but tall structures right next to each other in a fairly small space, but the buildings go thousands of feet high?"

"Why is that significant?"

"They didn't have any godly powers. Or if they did, it was specifically them—us—figuring out the world around us. Understanding the world's natural laws and using them. We can travel faster than the speed of sound. We need cars and planes and stuff to do it, but we can. We've gone into space—to the moon, and how cool is that? All without the absolute power that makes gods and Titans so… well, powerful."

"Even the weakest god could do the same."

"But without powers?" I asked back. "There's a strength in that. Of mind, I suppose. Or of heart. Or both or whatever." I didn't want to admit how utterly cheesy that sounded. It was still true.

I shrugged and remembered the ocean abyss we'd been in earlier. "I can go down to the bottom of the ocean because I have powers… but humans have figured out how to do that too—again, without powers. I can go deeper, sure, but… that gives them room to grow, I suppose. There's always something new to discover and humans want to. The gods and other immortals I've met… don't. Not usually, and if they do, it's more like a hobby or fad.

"So there. There's…" I paused and thought about it, still wishing this was easier for me—I felt like I was just screwing this up more. "Dedication, the room, ability and motivation to grow, love, loyalty, the ability to look outside of yourself… how many immortals do you know of that have any of that? Could any of them survive as a mortal?" I thought back to Apollo as a mortal. That had been… well… a disaster in the making. And if the god-turned-mortal hadn't had support, he definitely wouldn't have survived, even if it turned out alright in the end—only alright because of Jason…

"They're weak emotions."

"How would you know that? Personally?" I scoffed, openly showing my skeptical disdain.

More silence.

"We have gotten off track. No matter whether mortals are strong or weak, that does not negate the fact that gods are no better than any of their predecessors."

It was my turn to look away because he had a point.

"Maybe not but… at least they sort of understand those they see as underneath them." I snorted. "That's really sad, actually, but it's true. They understand mortals better than Titans or giants." Or Primordials, I didn't say, but knew Tartarus had heard it.

"Does that not make it, as you say, worse? What they did to you?"

I closed my eyes and this time didn't answer. Because it did. It really did.

"You have given me much to think about, Grandson, as I believe I have given you."

I had woken up after that, and I hadn't slept well since. Tartarus had shown up again the next night, and the next, and the next. Those dreams had not been remotely usual.

In one, I'd been the ruler of the sea in the place of my father, having all of the power of that realm at my fingertips. In another, I'd been the king of the gods, forcing them all to listen to and understand their children and the other mortals they supposedly couldn't interact with and yet sought out to have short relationships with at their whim. I'd put a stop to that and the other gods actually listened to me. In another, I'd been the king of Olympus, but instead of gods, Titans had ruled there. Annabeth had been with me in that one but… I'd known it hadn't really been her. It had taken me a little while to figure out, but with some of what she'd said to me… In another one of them, I'd been a monster, but welcomed back with open arms once they realized I wouldn't fulfill the prophecy.

Last night, I'd once again been king of the gods, but instead of other gods or Titans, my friends had been there with me. Annabeth in her mother's place, Nico and Hazel instead of Hades, Clarisse instead of Ares…

I hated how that one had been the most tempting… but I also knew that it couldn't ever happen. The Titans and giants wouldn't allow it. And besides, I still did not want to rule. I'd only liked the idea because the other demigods would finally be listened to. I could stop so many wars… theoretically. But the idea of that much responsibility on me… it had been hard enough with the prophecies. Ruling would be worse and I just couldn't see myself really doing the job right. It would feel too binding, too constricting, and the sea hates to be restrained.

Tartarus had been in every single dream, but he hadn't actually spoken. No, in all of them, he'd done nothing but stand in a corner and stare at me. It had been… unnerving to say the least.

Maybe once I got back to my base camp I could go back to having normal demigod-Tartarus dreams. They sucked, but it was better than… well… that.

Now I took one last look around, I checked for the umpteenth time that I had everything before I lifted into the air, the wood secure behind me, and began my trek back to the shrine. Or the Phlegethon. I'd take that too. I had a couple more mouth-fulls left, but even if I stretched it, that would last me two days at most. Just one more reason to leave.

Deciding I needed some perspective, I pushed my make-shift bike/logging truck into a steep rise, wanting to get as high as I could as fast as I could. I wanted to get above the sulfuric fog, but that wasn't difficult, and the air in this area of Tartarus tended to be a bit clearer than in the Phlegethon area.

After a couple of minutes, I could see Jane's fields off to my right and behind a little. They stretched… quite far, actually. Was that all her territory? I wondered, then shuddered, hoping to never find out.

Off to my left and ahead of me, the swamp continued on until it hit the Dark Lands. A couple of kilometers behind me, a reddish purple mist hung close to the ground, with what looked like strange green patches in it. I didn't remember seeing that before and decided I didn't really want to see it again or explore there at all.

So I ignored it and climbed higher.

Finally, off to my left and behind, I could see where the Dark Lands ended… sort of. Well, I was able to make out in the strange glow that somewhat permeated Tartarus' darkness, a large stretch of emptiness, but the ground looked lighter. A desert perhaps? Only some place as insane as Tartarus would have a desert right next to a swamp. And the Dark Lands.

I considered trying to go over the Dark Lands from here, but the idea of just setting off with my new situation struck me as a bad idea. I needed to see if I could make it with the new load, so… back the way I'd come, I supposed.

I turned to look forward again, able to see the dark stretch ahead of me that was the rocky area where the Acheron was. That was actually all I needed. With a determined nod, I pushed forward, turning around to make sure my load was still there once or twice before it registered how heavy the load really was. I could feel it pulling on my ability to use my power more than I'd thought. Still I pushed on.

I decided I wanted to stop at the river now that I had a few empty water bottles that I could store the water in. Having it around as a weapon, as Annabeth had suggested, definitely seemed like a good idea.

Once I reached the river, I lowered myself and the whole load a little ways, then reached down for the water with my power, drawing a small amount up to me. Once I was sure I had a grasp on said water, I searched in my backpack for the empty water bottles I'd brought with me. I filled two of them with the water and let the rest of the stream drop back to the river below. The sense of guilt and pain and longing dropped when I let go of my hold on the water, and once I had both bottles securely capped, I didn't feel anything from the water at all.

That… was probably something Annabeth would want to know about.

I finished securing everything again and decided to just keep going without raising back to the height I'd flown at (still weird) before. I was deep in the mountains with the bottomless crags when I finally admitted to myself that while I could still go on now, I wouldn't be able to fly for twelve hours straight with this load. Maybe three or four? Five if I pushed it. That wouldn't even get me half-way there, and that's if Tartarus hadn't moved the other side farther away again.

I cursed and bit my lip as I tried to come up with something that could help me get over the Dark Lands without setting down and getting lost inside the place. With how Tartarus moved around, that would be all too easy to do. Also, the idea of having to land and deal with whatever the Hades I happened to land on did not appeal to me either.

I could take a couple of extra days and go around either way, I supposed. The problem with that was that I didn't know what was out there, and I'd already proved that wandering into the wrong territory could be fatal if I wasn't careful, and I was getting really low on food. I'd need to stop by the shrine or start seeking out monsters to flash boil.

So if I wanted to go over the Dark Lands, I needed a way to lessen the weight. Or carry the weight better.

So I thought… and thought. The only thing that was really any extra weight was my… well, bike. I could sit on top of the logs and just direct them, I supposed, but… would that really make that much of a difference? And what would I do with the leftover water? Dump it? I did not feel comfortable just getting rid of that much water.

Too bad Tartarus didn't have any airports.

Wait…

I blinked.

Could that work? Theoretically, I supposed… I remembered looking at a side view of a wing in school a couple of times. It had stuck with me because it hadn't been something I'd had to read. Pictures had always been better.

I supposed there was only one way to really find out. I closed my eyes and pulled on my seashell necklace with my power. It took several seconds, again, but eventually the water I needed burst forth. I thought about what to do with it for several seconds before deciding that the middle part with all the wood needed to look like a rocket. That was what airplanes looked like, right?

So I shaped the water around the wood and froze it in what I hoped was the right shape. I did feel less resistance once I finished with that, although me being inside the 'cockpit' area made it difficult for me to see. Well, I'd figure that out in a minute.

Now I needed wings. And that would be harder, I thought. Yeah, I'd need to see that to make sure it worked.

So I created a hole in the ceiling of the cockpit and climbed out onto my half-finished 'plane', still moving the whole thing with my own power. Concentrating on that made walking along the top a little difficult, but I didn't want to land until I had to, so I'd have to deal with it.

I got to about the middle of the load and contemplated each side. Then I pulled out more water and willed it into shape, hardening it and freezing it in place. How big were wings supposed to be?

(This would be so much easier if I'd just built a boat… but that would have the same problem I'd had before, so…)

I continued to play with the wing size and ended up with some pretty long ones, slightly angled back seemed to work the best. Adding the wings did help a lot, but I still had to use a lot of energy to just control the plane. I was starting to think this had been a waste of time and energy when I remembered the movie Piper and Jason had brought over to watch with everyone else just after the second Giant War. Leo and Annabeth had both really enjoyed the applied physics behind the movie, even if it had been about dragons. And the one dragon had lost half of his tail fin. They'd had to create a prosthesis to fix that issue and allow the dragon to fly again.

And now that I thought about it, planes did have tails, didn't they.

So I shaped one. It helped… a little. How big were these supposed to be again?

It took another hour of messing around to get something that felt stable enough for me to even let go of for a couple of seconds and, if I pushed the thing fast enough to begin with, it kept gliding along. Admittedly, it started to slow down and drop pretty fast, but even a couple of seconds rest here and there could extend the time I had in the air. Also, it was easier to move the whole load through the air with the make-shift plane around it. All I had to do was keep it moving forward and the rest would work itself out. I remembered something about aerodynamics and wondered if that was at play here.

Well, whatever it was that made planes fly, it had worked for me too. For the most part. I was glad I'd at least remembered the basic shape of a plane. I doubted I would have been able to come up with something like that on my own.

Not for the first time, I felt a little jealous of Leo and his ability to make just about any gadget for any situation. That would be extremely useful right now. Instead, I'd had to stumble my way through trying to figure out what even remotely worked for a couple of hours. I'd already almost reached the area where I'd exited the Dark Lands on my way here and my gut was aching again. I could still go for a little while if I needed to, but with the day I had planned for tomorrow, rest would be better. Just… hopefully not with pit scorpions.

So I began to look for a place to land. I really missed just being able to look around or down and see everything I needed to. Then I frowned. Freezing ice made it opaque, and heating it made it transparent… right? Worth a shot I supposed.

The result ended up a little distorted, but not enough that I couldn't get a good idea of the lay of the land through the bottom of the cockpit. Nodding and grinning, I searched for a place to… land my plane. Oh. I wouldn't really be able to sneak into a rock formation of some kind and create another ice room with this, would I.

Well, why did I have to leave the plane at all? And if anyone attacked said plane, I'd… well, I'd deal with that when it happened, I supposed. With extreme prejudice.

"Looks like I'm having a layover," I muttered to myself. That was what they were called, right? I didn't know from experience, seeing as the only time I'd ever been on a plane it had been a one-way trip. With a sigh, I found a decently open place away from any monster bubbles and hair-trees, then aimed for that.

To my relief, I was able to set the plane down very gently before slumping back against the wall. I had one thing I had to do at that point… pee. I actually didn't even bother getting out of the plane, opening a hole in the cockpit to do my business. It was cold, but that was honestly not a bad thing after being down in the Pit for so long.

Then I made sure to open some holes in the side of the plane, ate, brushed my teeth, got my Nemean Lion coat and draped it over me before crawling into my sleeping bag. Eventually, I was able to drift off.

xXx

AN: So I think Annabeth comes off a little OOC in this chapter, but there are reasons for it. We'll touch on it more later, but FYI. Also, they're a couple of years older now and definitely more mature, so yeah. Sorry if it seemed a bit chaotic, I wanted people to feel how unsettled Percy is, so I hope that's how it came across. :)

Thanks to SmolAvidReader, Berix, Asterius Daemon, and Quathis for their help! :D

Title of next chapter: Of Rejections, Airplanes and Arai

Discord: discord. gg/xDDz3gqWfy (no spaces)