Everyone on the ARGO II were in a state of shock.
Everything had happened so quickly. They had secured grappling lines to the Trojan Pallidum just as the floor gave way, and the final columns of webbing snapped.
Frank, Lou Ellen, and Terrell dove down to save the others, but they'd only found Pranjal, Leila, and Katie hanging from a makeshift rope ladder connect to the main rope ladder. Percy and Annabeth and Jason and Octavian were gone. The pit to Tartarus had been buried under several tons of debris. Leo pulled the Argo II out of the cavern seconds before the entire place imploded, taking the rest of the parking lot with it.
No one was sure what had been more heartbreaking the mournful howl that Lina gave, the cries and desperate pleas of Jake as he fought to throw himself into the cavern, or the wail of grief that flew from Drew's mouth like a sonic boom and brought everyone around her to their knees.
The three of them had needed to be sedated where Pranjal and Will were overlooking their vitals in the infirmary alongside Nico.
(Not that it helped much as Lina burned through the sedatives quicker than they thought possible.)
The ARGO II was now parked on a hill overlooking the city. Almost all of them had returned to the scene of the catastrophe, hoping to dig through the rubble and find a way to save the quartet, but they'd come back demoralized. The cavern was simply gone. The scene was swarming with police and rescue workers. No mortals had been hurt, but the Italians would be scratching their heads for months, wondering how a massive sinkhole had opened right in the middle of a parking lot and swallowed a dozen perfectly good cars.
Dazed with grief, Leo and the others carefully loaded the Trojan Pallidum into the hold, using the ship's hydraulic winches with an assist from Frank Zhang, part-time elephant. The statue just fit, though what they were going to do with it, Leo had no idea.
Rue wondered if ast was going crazy because to them, it looked the statue was grieving.
Coach Hedge was too miserable to help. He kept pacing the deck with tears in his eyes, pulling at his goatee and slapping the side of his head, muttering, "I should have saved them! I should have blown up more stuff!"
Finally Leo told him to go below decks and secure everything for departure. He wasn't doing any good beating himself up.
The remaining twenty-six demigods and one lykánthropos gathered on the quarterdeck and gazed at the distant column of dust still rising from the site of the implosion.
Leo rested his hand on the Archimedes sphere, which now sat on the helm, ready to be installed. He should have been excited. It was the biggest discovery of his life—even bigger than Bunker 9. If he could decipher Archimedes' scrolls, he could do amazing things. He hardly dared to hope, but he might even be able to build a new control disk for a certain dragon friend of his.
Still, the price had been too high.
He could almost hear Nemesis laughing. I told you we could do business, Leo Valdez.
He had opened the fortune cookie. He'd gotten the access code for the sphere and saved Frank and Rue and Jake. But the sacrifice had been Jason, Percy, Octavian and Annabeth. Leo was sure of it.
"It's my fault," he said miserably.
The others stared at him.
"No tienes que disculparte, duende. No has hecho nada malo." Lina immediately protested, their native tongue falling from her lips like a comforting blanket. "Por supuesto que no. Todo esta bien."
Rue seemed to understand. Ast had been with them at the Great Salt Lake.
"No," ast insisted. "No, this is Gaea's fault. It had nothing to do with you."
Leo wanted to believe that, but he couldn't. They'd started this voyage with Leo messing up, firing on New Rome. They'd ended in old Rome with Leo breaking a cookie and paying a price much worse than an eye.
"Leo, listen to me." Lina gripped his hand. "I won't allow you to take the blame. I couldn't bear that after—after Liv..."
She choked up, but Leo knew what she meant. Octavian had already been blaming himself for the death of Livia. And he, himself, had and still was blaming himself for the death of his mother.
But—
Leo didn't want to make Lina miserable all over again, but this was different.
True success requires sacrifice. Leo had chosen to break that cookie. The four had fallen into Tartarus. That couldn't be a coincidence.
Travis Stoll shuffled over, arm wrapped securely around Katie. "Leo, they're not dead. If they were, I could feel it."
"How can you be sure?" Leo asked. "If that pit really led to...you know...how could you sense them so far away?"
The children of the Underworld (Rue, Lou Ellen, Cecil, Travis, Marcus, and Hank) shared looks, maybe comparing their notes on their death radar. It was weird in a way. Most of the kids at Camp Half-Blood whose parents had chthonian aspects usually didn't pay attention to it, but that didn't mean those powers weren't there.
"We can't be one hundred percent sure," Rue admitted, eyes tilted towards the sky. There were tears dotted aster's eyes. Octavian was a good friend of theirs plus ast had recognize Jason and Percy as aster's cousins. "But I think Travis is right. They're still alive...at least, so far."
Terrel pounded her fist against the rail. "I should've been paying attention. I could have flown down and saved them."
"Me, too," Frank moaned. The big dude looked on the verge of tears.
Piper put her hand on Terrel's back. "It's not your fault, either of you. You were trying to save the statue."
"She's right," Travis said. "Even if the pit hadn't been buried, you couldn't have flown into it without being pulled down. Nico's the only one who has actually been into Tartarus and from his mindscape..." The son of Hermes swallowed thickly, eyes going a bit distant. "It's impossible to describe how powerful that place is. Once you get close, it sucks you in. He never stood a chance."
Frank sniffled. "Then Percy and Annabeth don't stand a chance either?"
"Nico said that Percy was the most powerful demigod he'd ever met." Rue twisted the silver skull ring that ast had gotten from aster's brother. "And I can honestly say that Jason is the most powerful demigod that I've ever met. If anybody can surive, they will. With Annabeth and Octavian at their sides... They're going to find a way through Tartarus."
Billye turned. "To the Doors of Death, you mean. But you told us it's guarded by Gaea's most powerful forces. How could four demigods possibly—?"
"I don't know," Katie admitted. "But Jason told us to lead you guys to Epirus, to the mortal side of the doorway. He's planning on meeting us there. If we can survive the House of Hades, fight our way through Gaea's forces, then maybe we can work together with the others and seal the Doors of Death from both sides."
"And get them back safely?" Leo asked.
"Maybe." Travis murmured.
Leo didn't like the way he said that, as if he wasn't sharing all his doubts.
Besides, Leo knew something about locks and doors. If the Doors of Death needed to be sealed from both sides, how could they do that unless someone stayed in the Underworld, trapped?
Rue took a deep breath. "I don't know how they'll manage it, but they'll find a way. They'll journey through Tartarus and find the Doors of Death. When they do, we have to be ready."
"It won't be easy," Lilith said. "Gaea will throw everything she's got at us to keep us from reaching Epirus."
"What else is new?" Chiara sighed.
Damian nodded. "We've got no choice. We have to seal the Doors of Death before we can stop the giants from raising Gaea. Otherwise her armies will never die. And we've got to hurry. The Romans are in New York. Soon, they'll be marching on Camp Half-Blood."
Leo straightened. "We can do it."
Everyone stared at him.
"The Archimedes sphere can upgrade the ship," he said, hoping he was right. "I'm going to study those ancient scrolls we got. There's got to be all kinds of new weapons I can make. We're going to hit Gaea's armies with a whole new arsenal of hurt."
At the prow of the ship, Festus creaked his jaw and blew fire defiantly.
Yan managed a smile and clapped Leo on the shoulder.
"Sounds like a plan, Admiral. You want to set the course?"
They kidded him, calling him Admiral, but for once Leo accepted the title. This was his ship. He hadn't come this far to be stopped.
They would find this House of Hades. They'd take the Doors of Death. And by the gods, if Leo had to design a grabber arm long enough to snatch his friends out of Tartarus, then that's what he would do.
Nemesis wanted him to wreak vengeance on Gaea? Leo would be happy to oblige. He was going to make Gaea sorry she had ever messed with Leo Valdez.
"Yeah." He took one last look at the cityscape of Rome, turning blood-red in the sunset. "Festus, raise the sails. We've got some friends to save."
The old Greek poet Hesiod once wrote that a bronze anvil would take nine days to fall from Earth to Tartarus.
Octavian suspect he used the word nine as shorthand for I don't know exactly how long, but it would seem like a long, long time.
Hesiod was right.
But oh, how he had wished that he had been wrong.
He lost track of how long the four of them had been falling– hours? A day? It felt like an eternity. They'd been holding hands ever since they'd dropped into the chasm. And yet, somewhere along the way, Percy and Annabeth had disappeared, the pull of pit separating them.
It was terrifying and it gave Octavian the distant wonder if the curse hadn't been lifted... if this was the last punishment from Athênê. A way for her to rage. He wondered if this was her way of saying that just because he made up with her daughter, it didn't mean that his family was off the hook with her.
He tried to banish that thought. He remembered how in the Odyssey Zeus commented that humans like to blame the gods for their misfortune. Octavian knows it was time to stop with those thoughts lest someone else goes on to steal another beloved statue of one of the gods and get their entire family lineage cursed.
Besides, even the gods couldn't devise a fate so twisted.
Wind whistled in Octavian's ears. The air grew hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. He was beyond pain. He was now in the realm of extreme agony is the new feeling great. Jason pulled him close, hugging him tight as they tumbled through absolute darkness.
That cursed monster Arachne. Despite having been trapped in her own webbing, smashed by a car and plunged into Tartarus, the spider lady had got her revenge.
Honestly, he didn't care what she did to him, but to drag Jason along with it was too much.
If he saw her when they reach the bottom... well, assuming there was a bottom.
He wrapped his arms tighter around Jason. And to think, he had tried to convince himself that he could have had a life with this boy and that pushing him away at one point had been a good decision. He fell to literal hell for him. He pulled the boy into a desperate kiss, pouring all his love and fear and frustration and desire within it.
If he was going to die, then the last thing he wanted was feel the press of Jason's lips on his.
He knew the boy was doing his best to slow their fall, but Tartarus worked on different rules. Every time it seemed like Jason had control, something knocked him out it. Winged monsters that needed to be pushed away. A pair of winged tennis shoes that kicked kicking at them.
Then their surroundings changed. The darkness took on a grey-red tinge. He realized he could see Jason's hair as he hugged him and the blond streaks reminded him more of the sun than either of his ancestors. The whistling in his ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell like rotten eggs.
Suddenly, the chute they'd been falling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below them, Octavian could see the bottom. For a moment he was too stunned to think properly. California by itself could have fitted inside this cavern – and he couldn't even see its full extent.
Red clouds hung in the air like vaporized blood. The landscape – at least what she could see of it – was rocky black plains, punctuated by jagged mountains and fiery chasms. To Octavian's left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss.
The stench of sulphur made it hard to concentrate, but he focused on the ground directly below them and saw a ribbon of glittering black liquid – a river. But more importantly, he saw two bodies descending rapidly into it.
"Jason," he yelled. "Look!"
He gestured frantically. Jason's face was hard to read in the dim red light. He looked shell-shocked and terrified, but he nodded as if he understood. His features morphed into concentration and determination and their descent smooth just a bit more.
The river hurtled towards them.
The two of them shot down towards.
They heard the echo of a yell.
And then, the water erupted in a massive geyser and swallowed them all whole.
WORD COUNT: 2433
Translation:
1) No tienes que disculparte, duende. No has hecho nada malo. Por supuesto que no. Todo esta bien. - You don't have to apologize, leprechaun/elf. You haven't done anything wrong. Of course not. Everything is fine.
1A) I find it funny how I have Lina making fun of Leo's height when she's literally an inch or two shorter than him.
Things to Know:
1) In the Odyssey, Book 1 around line 37. Ζεύς says:
"Ah how shameless – the way these mortals blame the gods. From us alone, they say, come all their miseries, yes, but they themselves, with their own reckless ways, compound their pains beyond their proper share."
2) Humans tend to blame the gods for their miseries, but humans are at fault by making their own lives a misery through reckless behavior. It's interesting because even in modern times, it still happens except the blame is laid on the feet of the Devil for those that worship Christianity.
3) Its also a recurring theme that comes from modern scholars and something that Rick touches on and makes fun of is the drama that surrounded the Ancient Greeks. It's something the characters note also, like Annabeth says on their fall to Tartarus that the gods love tragedy.
4) But as Ζεύς says: they're the blame for their own actions. People need someone to blame and they don't want to admit themselves as the problem.
5) This is honestly one of favorite topics and gives me a need to start studying philosophy.
Comments from the Author:
1) I really understand why Rick kept it down to seven demigods and a satyr because trying to remember everyone that's on the ship is draining, but I wrote and I'm sticking to it.
2) Truthfully, I am not fond of how I ended ARC IIII especially the god-emperors part, but you know what they say. Practice makes perfect.
2A) I have a few more stories planned with them though that I can make it better with or without Octavian.
2B) And the whole fasces? thing wasn't going to work here because I don't know what that means, lmfaooo. So, I changed it. They have partial immortality and the Doors of Death are semi-opened. Thanatos just rolled up to grab them and placed them in a box until the doors are completely back under his control.
2C) And still, regardless... ARC III has been my favorite to write simply because Octavian is always one step away from a mental breakdown but he pushes past everything through spite alone.
3) I also imagine that Annabeth's quest was a lot more daring than what Rick wrote. Like reading it for the first time, it did seem impressive, but now it's a bit childish though it makes sense because it's presented as a children's book.
3A) But the quest is suppose to show her wit and skill and dumbing her enemies down isn't all that impressive to show off how smart she is. I think the most impressive part would be her using Arachne's pride against her and the part where she crosses the cavern by making her own bridge.
3B) I suppose the fact that the spiders, which are her greatest fears, following her adds on to it, but the fact that she has to face Arachne doesn't do much you know.
3C) And it's with those thoughts that I'm disappointed in how I handled Octavian versus the god-emperors because Octavian is set up to be this good haruspex (because he is not an auger) and a good orator, but I'm not good with dialogue and I didn't actually read ToA to be able to manipulate their words against them.
3D) But he was also written as being weak in the books? and I hyped him up to be a great fighter.
3E) I mean he lives at military camp and apparently comes from an affluent family that had been sending ppl to CJ for centuries and who have no doubt paid for private lessons and he was in the First Cohort with was suppose to be the pride of the Legion so like the math is not mathing.
3F) ANYWAY! Annabeth went through some shit before she got to Arachne.
4) Originally, it wasn't going to be the four of them falling. It was going to be Annabeth and Octavian, but then I remembered the rivers and Iapetus so then it was going to be Octavian and Percy, but I really wanted to expand on that reconciliation with Annabeth and Octavian as representatives of Diomēdēs and Aineías (Argrives and Trojans) and then as I was consistently rewriting it, I remembered that in this verse, Octavian and Jason are essentially the equivalents to Percabeth and I just could not leave Jason out so in the end... All four of them fell. Dun dun dunnnn.