Perseus had been running for an hour.
Luckily it wasn't like Tartarus could project his location to all of the monsters, meaning the hounds, despite being far faster than him, couldn't always locate him right away.
Hearing the monsters closing in on him once again, Percy pushed out from the rock he was hiding under, taking off towards a cave he had been eyeing for a while, hoping it had an exit so he wouldn't be trapping himself.
As he sprinted into the cave, Percy quickly found himself in pitch black darkness, unable to even see his own feet or hands.
Feeling the ground in front of him before he stepped, he continued this way for what felt like hours until suddenly, torches along the wall lit up as quick as a firework. The flames continued down the seemingly endless cave, a mix of black and purple flames.
Making his way further into the cave, Percy felt the injuries start to weigh on him.
A few times, a hound got lucky, catching up to him or taking him by surprise in the very advantageous darkness of Tartarus.
The son of Poseidon felt the numbing burn, the constant pain of all the claw marks and scratches he had sustained before being able to end the monster's life.
They would surely leave scars across his body, which Percy would've found awesome if it wasn't for his immediate death in the near future.
Walking deeper and deeper into the cave, Percy didn't think he was going to find anything, ever. Of course, that was when he arrived at a pond.
Suddenly, from far off, probably at the entrance of the cave, Percy heard a loud howl, one that sounded ever so familiar to that of a hound.
Flicking off the cap of Riptide, he let the bronze blade loose, ready to fight to his death amongst the barely lit darkness.
"Touch the water, my love." A voice whispered within his head, making the demigod jump with a startled expression.
"Who are you?" Percy asked out loud. He was concerned about his pursuers, but it had taken him hours to reach this point, he had some time to spare.
"I cannot reveal such information, but I can give you a choice, one that shall change your fate, forever." The voice replied.
The son of Poseidon had no idea who this stranger was, but if they could help him, he'd take anything he could get.
"I control my own fate." Percy responded, to which the voice laughed melodically, their laugh sounding like a peaceful summer day, he didn't know how to describe it any other way. "I suppose, that is true. You've never been one to accept what everyone else believes to be set in stone."
This person seemed to know a lot about him, or at least acted that way.
"Thank you?" He responded, unsure if that was a compliment or an insult.
The voice giggled. "You're welcome." He could somehow feel the warmth behind their smile, through his head which felt really weird...
"So what did you mean, when you said to give me a choice?"
"Your life has been as unfortunate as it gets, no matter how much I care, how I wish to end your suffering, I am now in a position where for you to live, I must offer you a path no one has ever lead."
"I'm flattered that you care about me, Ms, or Mr Stranger, but can you please just tell me how to survive this. I can't die here. I won't."
"This power, this choice I'm offering you. It is derived from the xakoc."
"The evil?" Perseus translated. He could sense the being's fear for it. "Yes, as straight to the point as the name suggests, this pool is the purest source of evil in the universe, no being nor entity surpasses it."
"And what has stopped someone from using this so called 'power' before?" Percy asked.
"They all go insane within three seconds of touching the water, disintegrating themselves from the inside out. The longest I've ever seen, was a young boy, brimming with purity in his soul, and he only lasted twenty four hours. In those twenty four hours, he caused irreversible damage to the universe because the power had consumed him immediately."
"That's... reassuring?" Was all Percy could think of saying.
"The only reason I believe you can survive this Perseus, is because there has never been another like you."
"Your soul, it's beyond anything I've ever seen, there has not, and will never be, a soul purer than yours."
"The choice is now clear, attempt to harness the power, and risk the embodiment of evil corrupting you forever, or die, fighting in this dirty, dark cave." The voice finished.
Percy looked down at the pure darkness of the small pool.
Was the risk of becoming someone who he was not, worth seeing Annabeth again?
Finalizing his thoughts into an untouchable decision, Perseus removed his shirt.
"Perseus? Why are you removing your shirt? I told you, you only need your hands." The voice called out, confused.
Stepping towards the water, he took a deep breath. "Percy! Stop!" The voice yelled.
Taking another step, he was almost upon the pool of darkness.
"IT WILL KILL YOU PERSEUS, DON'T DO THIS... please."
The stranger behind the voice sounded like they truly cared for him, which made the son of Poseidon feel guilty for what he was about to do.
"If it means throwing away my humanity, if it means becoming a monster, if it means she'll look at me like I'm her worst nightmare..."
"I-I'm okay with that." It had been awhile since Percy had heard his voice become so soft, so vulnerable. Choking on every word because he knew this was it.
"As long as she's safe." He told himself.
To lose one's humanity, is usually never seen as a heroic act. To become one's worst nightmare, is seen as the greatest torture.
"SHE WILL HATE YOU!" The voice was trying to say anything that would convince him otherwise.
"But she'll be safe."
A tear leaked down his face, a rare sight for the son of Poseidon.
Annabeth would never let him make this decision, she would disagree with it on all fronts that it was the worst decision anyone could make.
But a man, with the purest soul, willing to do anything...
They say the most dangerous thing to exist, is a man with nothing to lose.
But how far is that man willing to go, when there is nothing, to fight for?
A true man with everything to lose, will fight beyond his dying breath, to protect what he holds dearest.
"I'm sorry Wise Girl, but this is for you."
"It's always been for you."
As the of son Poseidon threw himself into the pools of darkness, there was silence...
The water began to shake, thrashing around as the son of Poseidon felt himself drowning. His secret fear, an ironic, but now a very real possibility, causing him to panic as he struggled to stay calm under the water he couldn't breath in.
After a minute of the water thrashing around, everything went silent again as the savior of Olympus started to fall unconscious, deeper into the endless darkness.
Suddenly, his eyes shot open, the pool of darkness suddenly burst into the brightest light he had ever seen. Percy didn't know why, but he didn't feel like swimming all the way up. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, he suddenly flew out of the water, landing back on dry land in almost an instant.
Letting out a deep shudder, the son of Poseidon took a moment to physically look as bothered as he was mentally. The things he had seen within those waters...
Starting to think about just a single vision that had played across his mind while he was submerged, Percy started to lose himself, somehow he could feel his conscious lifting away as he struggled to stay present in the moment.
He tried to think of anything, anything that wasn't those images, visions and nightmares, anything that would bring him back to down to Earth.
Annabeth...
That's right, he had a reason to fight, the reason why he jumped head first into that pool in the first place.
Feeling himself regain control of his body, Percy grabbed his head, feeling a small headache forming.
He must've been talking to that voice for longer than he had thought, ignoring the fact that the voice had seemingly been shut off from him ever since he entered the darkness of the pool, Percy watched as a group of hellhounds came into eyesight across the cave.
Digging his foot into the ground, gripping Riptide, Percy prepared himself to fight.
He wasn't exactly sure what power he had gained, but when he pushed off his foot towards the hellhounds, his singular step created a large crack in the ground, before Perseus felt himself fly forward.
Becoming a blur, he flew past the hellhounds, crashing into one of the stone walls inside the cave. Climbing out from a human sized hole in the wall, Percy dusted himself off, realizing he felt no pain, no bruises, absolutely no pain from that impact.
"Hmm." The son of Poseidon pondered to himself, ignoring the confused group of hellhounds who had turned to charge at him.
Turning back to where he just was, he pressed off his foot again, hearing the ground crack as he burst forward with a sonic boom.
In what felt like an instant, Percy was on the other side of the massive cavern. Looking back, he saw the hellhounds looking down at their companion, who Percy had turned into a pile of dust merely by running too fast.
Growling as they approach him with more caution than before, the son of Poseidon looked at the canine. "Look guys, he got in my way."
Ignoring his words, the hounds lunged.
Remembering how he had exited the pool of darkness, Percy had a new idea, one that could go very wrong. He thought of the hellhounds flying against the wall, before a giant rock would fall from above them, crushing them under it's weight.
Exactly how he thought of it, the entire group of hellhounds flew against the wall closest to them, before massive rocks seemingly broke off randomly, before crushing them into golden dust.
"What... is this?" Percy asked himself, looking down at his arms, noticing how his veins were glowing with dark purple tint.
The extent of his new abilities were unknown, which was slightly unsettling because he was going to have to fight a primordial to escape this place.
Walking back the way he came, Percy took each step slowly, spending the time he had to try and discover what had happened to him.
Feeling his stomach growling, he wished he had some of his mother's amazing cooking.
In an instant, his hands suddenly felt heavy. Looking down, he realized there was now a plate in his hands, with the smell of his mother's cooking resonating off of it like a beacon.
"Uh..." Percy didn't know what to think of this, did he have telekinesis? But that wouldn't explain this ability, was he a magician? Carter and Sadie came into his thoughts, but he wondered what the extent of their magic was.
Holding the plate in one hand, he carefully picked up a blue cookie from the assortment of various foods stacked onto a single dish.
"Fuck that's good." Percy hummed happily, devouring the cookie before he heard more commotion up ahead.
"Alright listen here Jackson." He spoke to himself. "You have no idea what this power has given you, but you need those cookies to see the light of day once more. And Annabeth, don't forget Annabeth."
"So you're going to go out there, and kick butt and go ask your girlfriend for some victory sex!"
With a cheer and a whoop, Percy was off, with a new level of determination to face, deciding to be happy about the power he now had, instead of being worried that he had no idea how to whatever there was after the telekinesis and summoning.
The primordial of the Pit sat atop a small mountain, smiling widely.
The sea spawn had finally cornered himself ina large cave. With his army stationed at the only exit, there was no possible way he could-
Breaking his thought, an explosion burst forth from the cave's entrance, decimating a quarter of the army with the mere size of the explosion.
Tartarus watched, jaw to the floor as Perseus stepped out from the rubble, dusting himself off as if the explosion was some minor inconvenience.
Looking at the damage he had caused, the demigod frowned.
"I did not mean for it to be that big, I literally told myself cool, but small explosion."
"Or was it just cool?" He questioned himself. "Yeah, I think I forgot to mention the small part."
Breaking him out of his little comedic stunt, Tartarus stood atop the mountain, with an enraged look on his face.
"How are you alive?!" The primordial bellowed.
"A little bit of this, a little bit of that, you know?" Percy imitated an older Italian women explaining how much spice to put in with the food.
"You infuriate me son of Poseidon, for that, I won't end your suffering today, the horrors of my abilities few have ever seen."
"Respectfully, it sounds like your talking about your small dick, sir."
If it was possible, the primordial's face managed to deepen in fury.
"Joke all you want Perseus, but you are a mere demigod, and I have an army." Tartarus spread his arms, showing off his legion consisting of thousands of monsters.
The primordial watched as Perseus pushed his blade towards the sky.
Instead of fighting the monsters who were now running at him, Percy merely closed his eyes in concentration.
A few moments after, his eyes burst open as the bronze blade, without warning, multiplied in size a hundredfold. With his new, gigantic blade, Percy swung it like the weight hadn't changed, one arm, one swing decimating half of the army.
The blade then grew to the size he needed, to swing once again, this time taking out the back half of the army as well.
"You think a little magic trick can scare me?" Tartarus growled, though his deranged voice sounded... confused.
"Let's be honest here, neither of us know what's really happened to me." Percy offered, but the primordial was having none of it.
Launching himself down from the mountain, Tartarus landed before immediately sending a beam of raw red energy towards the son of Poseidon.
The projectile was faster than sound, yet as it neared Perseus, the demigod noticed that it became slower, and slower, until it was moving as the speed that he could run.
"Impossible." Tartarus growled, watching the exchange as the mere demigod easily side stepped the blast that decimated the cave Percy had just been in.
Holding Riptide in it's normal size, starting to walk towards the primordial, Tartarus had no choice but to summon his own blade, made from primordial steel.
As soon as he gripped his blade, Tartarus's eyes widened, feeling a presence behind him. Pain erupted out of the primordial's roar as he felt Riptide's sharp edge drive itself against his back.
Swinging around immediately, Tartarus kicked the son of Poseidon into a nearby mountain.
Feeling the large wound on his back, dripping silver ichor onto the floor, the primordial swelled with rage.
"ENOUGH!" His voice was loud enough to echo throughout the wasteland, his aura expanding until he was soaked in it, glowing with powerful, raw maroon energy.
As Percy stepped out of the human sized hole he had made in the mountain, something told him to run.
Planting his foot into the ground, he pushed off it with incapable speeds, yet barely making it out of the blast zone before the entire mountain was decimated. Seeing as how he took the kick from the primordial with little to no pain, Perseus wondered if he could've survived that blast.
Looking back at the primordial, glowing with power and rage, he thought probably not, though he'd never be sure of it.
"I wonder if I can do that." Percy wondered.
"Harness the aura within you, with the aura that surrounds you."
The voice that had been speaking to him earlier seemingly reappeared out of nowhere.
"Uh...okay?" Percy thought before realizing he had no idea what aura looked or felt like.
Looking at Tartarus, he noticed the aura around him sort of looked like a flame, though it didn't burn, but flowed around his body like a wave.
Percy knew waves. Collecting his thoughts, he imagined the new power inside of him as waves, the apparent aura around him as waves, everything flowing into him like the lightning rod to a wild, unbridled storm.
Feeling as if he wanted the storm to flow into his hands, Percy looked down to see his veins glowing that dark magenta it had earlier, but this time it flowed into his wrists before appearing as two medium sized spheres of pure, harnessed power.
Tartarus's eyes widened, almost as if he recognized the power, or at least knew it was strong enough to injure him badly.
Tilting his head to the side, Percy let an uncharacteristic, deranged smirk to dawn his facial features.
The surrounding area lit up in a flash of the same dark magenta that had been in the son of Poseidon's hands...
"Annabeth! Focus!" Piper yelled as they fought through a powerful night storm.
Snapping out of her thoughts, the blonde quickly returned to her job atop the ship. Crewing the massive flying ship with the numbers they had was difficult.
"I'm sorry. I was thinking about Percy again..." The blonde admitted as they finally got out of the storm, into the clear night sky.
"We've all been thinking of Percy." Her friend reminded her, with a small smile to go along with it.
Jason, Hazel, the entire crew of the Argo II nodded their heads in agreement.
Later that night, Annabeth lay in her room, having a little girls night before they had to fight for their lives.
Piper lay next to her, Hazel at the top of her bed with the large pillows, Reyna joined them on the floor. Ever since she had confronted them, she had joined the journey proceeding their talk where she had heard them out.
Artemis had sent Thalia to travel with the Athena Parthenos, protecting Nico along his journey ahead.
"You know Beth, you're one lucky girl having Percy." Piper cleared the silence with a surprising statement.
Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You don't need to say that just to make me feel better, Piper, if I remember correctly you called my boyfriend 'unimpressive'."
The Cherokee demigoddess chuckled, "Oh please! That was just to get Jason off my ass, constantly telling me I was looking at Percy too much!" Piper complained, making Annabeth's eyes widen in shock before she burst out laughing. The first genuine laugh she had let out since Percy fell.
"You were checking out my boyfriend?" Annabeth looked at her best friend with an amused expression, clearly not bothered by that.
Piper blushed slightly, a victim of her own implications. "Maybe..." Annabeth gave her a knowing look. "Ok fine! He just looks really good okay? I know I have Jason, but what am I supposed to do when Percy walks in, greeting me with his husky morning voice!"
Annabeth sighed fondly, letting a little drop of sadness into her thoughts as she remembered that ever so attractive tone vividly. "That, I cannot blame you for."
"You're not the only one who's been caught staring at Jackson." Reyna grumbled from the soft carpet.
The two girls looked at her, though Annabeth had already figured this out, and Piper could feel it as a child of love, they were interested in her decision to speak up about it.
"Before I knew who you were to him, I hunted that bastard to the ends of the Earth, doing anything to make him look at me, the way he looked at you." Reyna chuckled, glad she was able to laugh about it now, because she used to cry about it back then.
"If it wasn't for me, Reyna, I'm confident he would've had eyes for you. We share similar values, and Percy holds his utmost respect for you, which is the first step to his heart." Annabeth told the praetor to smiled gratefully towards the daughter of Athena.
"Well, as much as I would have loved that, you are his one, and only. Which is why we must get him back."
It was Annabeth's turn to smile gratefully towards the praetor.
"Indeed, now let's get some sleep, tomorrow is the day where we either survive and Percy meets us there, or everyone dies..." Hazel cut in.
The other three girls looked at her, making her blush in embarrassment.
"What?" The younger girl asked.
"Nothing, just happy to see you contributing to the conversation." Piper smiled, making the daughter of Pluto even shyer.
"Don't let it get to your heads." Hazel huffed, making the other three girls laugh.
A few quick hugs, a few quick goodbyes, Annabeth was left to her own thoughts, having trouble falling asleep.
"Please be alive Percy."
"I need you more than you know."