Chapter Five, let's not waste any time.
Sorry this is a bit late, been pretty busy with life, you know how that goes. Still love this story, and I promise I will finish it one day hehe.
Got a couple of reviews to respond to, then we'll jump right into it.
Shadowhunter2077: "Oh my, Tartarus is completely fucked up, like he knows how to break you the moment you arrives down there, but now it's brings the question is real or not.
And I really liked the fact that Zeus is confused about Tartarus and unsure how to deal with him, it's shows how much of a threat he is in this arc.
Also man I want to recomend a youtube channel called Literally who, the guy talks about power level of mythological gods and I think you might enjoy then"
Response: Yeah, Tartarus is brutal. He attacks pretty much every facet of his victim's mind, and he really went in on Matt's. Yeah, Zeus doesn't really know too much about Tartarus, given that like he said, the guy is pretty reclusive, and doesn't fight or even talk that much. Until now that is. That's why he's a bit confused on how to deal with him. And thanks, I'll check out that channel man.
MANGOLYFE: "Hopefully this is just an illusion to strengthen maths resolve I truly pray I pray"
Response: You'll find out this chapter.
KylerChu:"Hey, just want to say I love the story. But something has been on my mind lately. In PJO, fatal flaws are mentioned sometimes, and each character has one. It's a really interesting concept, but I don't think you've touched on it in this fic with the OC's. Will it be mentioned? What is Matt's fatal flaw? And the others?"
Response: Thanks for reviewing, I'm really glad you like the story so far. As for fatal flaws, that's a great question, and I'm actually surprised no one has asked this sooner. I love the concept, and I was planning on mentioning it in this story a few times, for several of the characters, Matt included. But just so there's no confusion, I'll just list the character and their flaw right here, because I actually have all of them planned out, just never found a place to tell it in the story. I'll stick to the five main OC's, since you already know the canon characters flaws.
Matt's fatal flaw is wrath. His anger plays a large part in both his power, and his character. He has a good control on it now, but if used wrongly, or if let loose, he will cross lines that he is otherwise unwilling to cross, and not think about his actions, becoming wreck less. Oddly enough, his fatal flaw is also his greatest strength.
Harper's fatal flaw is holding grudges. Due to her traumatic childhood being caused by her family, she vowed revenge against them, and hated them for most of her life, bringing her down a dark path that she nearly didn't escape from. It can make her reckless, for example, sacrificing one of her eyes for information on Levi. If somebody wrongs her, she will go to the extreme to get back at them. She has gotten better about it, though.
Talon's fatal flaw is recklessness. He often doesn't think about things and acts impulsively, which usually gets the group in trouble, and can even put them in danger. He fears that if he overthinks things, it will become too complicated, so he chooses to act as soon as possible.
Malachi's fatal flaw is self-hatred. Naturally, being the son of Ouranos, he thinks he is inherently evil. That, coupled with committing violent acts against his will, he thinks he is a bad person that doesn't deserve love, or even redemption. If he doesn't set it aside and eventually learn to forgive himself, he can never truly fight at his best.
Sera's fatal flaw is low self-esteem. Being told all her life that she is weak and pathetic by her family has her convinced that she isn't powerful, when in fact she is. The moments where she gains confidence in herself, are her best moments. For example, tearing down her old home and defeating her abusive family in Book Two.
Hopefully that answered your question!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters (except the OC's) Percy Jackson & The Olympians, Heroes Of Olympus, or Trials Of Apollo. All of that belongs to Rick Riordan.
Another Disclaimer: This chapter contains child abuse. It's towards the end, so if you wish to skip, here is the warning.
5. I Swim In The River Of Despair
Matt
Phrase of the century; things couldn't get any worse.
But somehow, we just keep going...lower.
At least, I do.
What now? Now, I'm sitting by a river, holding my dead girlfriend in my arms.
It was almost instinctive. I didn't say a word for a long time, I didn't even think. I just picked her up and came here.
The sight was actually a lot like camp, funnily enough. The beach came out into a clearing from the freaky jungle, with black sand and colorless water. It was a lot bigger this time, bigger than the other streams I'd come across. Something told me this was one of the five main rivers. Styx, and the others that I can't think the name of.
It didn't matter which one it was. I was staring at it, because it reminded me of a memory.
"You remember that?" I asked, "Our first kiss? Well, real kiss, by the beach?"
She didn't say anything. Sure, the atmosphere was a bit different, well, a lot different. Instead of an orange sunset sky, I had a red, hellish background to touch up the scenery, and instead of an ocean, I had some river that would probably turn me into a zombie if I swam in it.
"I wish it had ended there." I said, shaking my head. I even smiled. "Things would've been better. Or…maybe not, I don't know."
I looked down at her. Her eyes were closed, and her mouth was parted, like she was in a deep sleep. If I didn't look down at the bloody hole in her stomach, I could almost imagine that she was.
My voice broke, "But I know one thing. Being with you on that beach…made me happy."
"I'm going to visit my mom; I need to get out of here."
"Matt, don't walk away from this!"
Our last words to each other. A useless argument. We hardly argued before, but all of a sudden, things just changed. We changed. If only I had known.
I can't change anything. Not fate, not a damn thing.
"I'm sorry, Harper."
I gave her a squeeze, and kissed her forehead. I thought about putting her down, but I just wasn't ready to say goodbye yet. I had to sit with her a bit longer.
Then, I heard rustling in the bushes, and I turned slowly to see what was going on, my eyes sore and half-lidded.
It was Yuri. She held her sword loosely in her right hand, she had a small trail of ichor coming down her forehead, like she'd been roughed up a good bit after Tartarus took her out of view.
For a moment, my attention was taken away from Harper, but I still didn't let her go.
"Yuri?" I croaked, "What happened?"
She staggered over, sheathing her sword. "It's nothing. Your safety is more important."
"No, it's not."
She looked at Harper's body, and her eyebrows drooped.
"I'm so sorry."
My mouth quivered, and I turned away from her. "I-It's fine, just…I just need to be here for a minute, alone, okay?"
She didn't move.
"Yuri, please. I need to be by myself right now."
She nodded. Thinking she was about to walk away, I almost sighed with relief, but quicker than I could, she started making her way to me.
"What are you doing? Didn't you hear me? Go!" I snapped.
Yuri didn't even flinch, she just wiped away the ichor on her forehead and sat down next to me.
It was silent for a moment, and I just stared at her, a bit angry. Couldn't she see that I needed time right now? I didn't want to be around anyone else!
Reading my mind, she said, "I won't speak to you or comfort you, but I will sit here."
I wanted to argue, but I just couldn't. Maybe fatigue, heartache, or just knowing the fact that she probably wouldn't give in, I turned and faced the river.
Just like that, my bubble had been popped. The little dome I had built around Harper and I was gone, and I was out of my own little world of denial. It all came crashing down like a ton of bricks.
"I killed her, Yuri. I killed her, and I can't do anything to bring her back."
She looked at me, immediately replying. She had been waiting for me to open up, knowing I would.
"Tartarus did this. Not you."
"I'm never strong enough." I ignored her, "Not with my dad, not with Levi, and now…Harper. She was the most important thing in my life. If I didn't protect anything else, I vowed that I would always protect her." Memories flashed in my head, most of them were her smiling at me. "And this time, I couldn't, because I'm too damn weak. No matter how much I train, how many new weapons I get, I'll always get beaten, and lose someone I care about."
"Matt-"
I chuckled humorlessly, "Even if I became a god or something, I couldn't do a thing. How can I say anything? How can I even call myself a demigod, or a hero, when I can't even protect the thing that I care the most about?"
"Matt." She put a hand on my arm, I flinched, and looked at her cautiously. She took it away and put up her other hand in surrender. "My apologies, I said I wouldn't do anything. But may I speak?"
I gave a small nod.
"Okay. First, this was not your fault. This place is his playground, and you being here is all part of some sick game he is playing. Direct your anger towards him, not yourself."
"I told you, I let it happen! If I were stronger-"
"You couldn't have known this was going to happen." She remained calm, and I found it oddly annoying. "And it's not all on you. It never has been. You have your friends, you have me, you have humanity."
"No…I don't. I pushed them all away the minute I became obsessed with that stupid search. I had this idea that I needed to become some symbol, some kind of anti-Ouranos that never sleeps, never gives up, to defeat him. The whole time…we were all dealing with things that we just weren't ready to talk about. We were hurting, and instead of dealing with it, I only thought about one thing."
I knew all of this in the back of my mind, and it felt no better to talk about it. It just made it worse. I couldn't make up for any of it now.
Yuri never took her eyes off me. With every word, she nodded and tried to shush me, like what I was saying was physically hurting her, as much as it was hurting me. Her arms kept twitching, like she wanted to reach out and give me a hug, but because I said not to, she held back.
"Matt, listen to me. Sometimes I think you forget that you're a child. A child that has been through far too much, far too fast. Reeling from so many deaths, especially your father, of course you'd think of nothing else than revenge."
I wanted to argue that it wasn't about that, but how could I deny it? She was right. As much as I respected Harper for letting Atlas live, and not taking revenge on him for what he did to Levi…I wasn't in the same boat. I always held that hatred for Ouranos. If I'm being honest, I can sugarcoat it as much as I want with the 'protecting humanity' bullshit, but at the end of the day, it can't hide the truth.
"I do want revenge," I said, probably for the first time to anyone else. "It's the thing I want most out of all this shit, is revenge. But it shouldn't be that way, don't you understand?"
She shrugged, "Nobody is perfect."
"I'm not talking about perfection. I'm talking about being the good that this world needs. I accepted a long time ago that this was the world I'd been born in, and even though I didn't choose this life, I would make the best of it." I thought back to that first day at Camp, when Grover brought me for the first time, and my vision fell on the old-style buildings, the strawberry fields, the lake. "For the longest time, I hated the gods, and I hated every part of our world. But…when I met her, when I met the others, I knew that it wasn't all bad, and that some things were worth protecting. I…wanted to be that protector, that hero for them, just like Percy was. 'Here's a guy that has it all together' I thought, and I wanted to be just like that."
She furrowed her eyebrows, not knowing who Percy was, but still listening to me.
I wasn't done. "But I'm not him. I'm not my dad, a protector, or even a hero. I'm just a failure. I thought my resolve was enough to defeat any enemy, no matter who it was. I…thought we'd all just ride off into the sunset one of these days, but that's just wishful thinking." My eyes drifted down to Harper's form once again, and I thought back to that vision that Tartarus had shown me. The one of Percy and Annabeth being taken.
"Harper's dead. Percy and Annabeth have been captured, and probably fighting for their lives down here as we speak." I sighed, already feeling more tears building up, threatening to fall. "Malachi, Sera, and Talon are probably next. They'll try and come after me, and it'll end up with the same results."
Yuri, for the first time in the conversation was speechless. Even she could tell how far I had sunken, that she couldn't reach down and pull me up.
But she tried anyway. "You can't lose hope, Matt. The minute you lose hope, he wins. It's what he wants."
"He can have it, then." I said, feeling completely drained of energy. Gently, I shifted Harper over to my right and set her down on the black sand. Wiping my pants and armor of her blood, I stood up.
"I'm tired of it all, Yuri. I just want it to be over."
She stood up with me, her eyes wide. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that I'm done. He can kill me for all I care." I took a few steps forward and took time to look back at her over my shoulder, vowing that it would be the last time I saw her again. "I'm done fighting, Yuri. I…failed."
"You haven't failed, not yet!" She said, and reached out her hand to me, "Please, come here. Don't go any closer to the river."
It was then that I noticed I actually hadn't stopped to talk to her, I had just kept walking, and was now ankle deep in the river. Up close, it was a lot wider and deeper than I thought, with clear, surface world like water that felt cool and soothing on my skin. It was actually quite inviting.
I looked down at it, and suddenly felt the intense urge to throw myself at the bottom and never come up.
Yuri practically screamed to get my attention. "Whatever you do, don't get in the water! It's Acheron, Matt, the River of Despair. It will feed into your negative emotions, and slowly pull you away from reality!"
"Acheron?" I said, mindlessly.
"Yes! You won't be able to come back, so please, please take my hand!" She thrust it out again for emphasis.
I won't be able to come back? Despair?
"Will it be over?" I asked, not moving. "Will it all be over if I jump in? Will I die?"
She looked like she was about to cry herself, "Please, take my hand. I'm begging you Matt, don't get in the river!"
I glanced back at Harper's lifeless body, and felt a certain cord in my brain snap in two. At that moment, I didn't care what happened to me. If death waited at the bottom of this river…then so be it.
Letting my body go slack, I teetered over and fell face first into the water. Yuri screamed my name once more, and ran over to grab me, but it was too late. I was above my head in despair, and I wasn't coming back.
Harper
We're not dead. Which is good, because that would've really sucked.
The teleportation went smoothly for the most part. After we disappeared from Olympus, we were slammed into a soft, grassy surface, the air around us chilly and smelling an awful lot like a campfire.
I instantly shot up and looked at our surroundings, not caring if I had frost or snow residue all over my clothes.
We were in the forest next to Camp. I knew, because it sat in the distance, a multitude of buildings with warm glows of fire and trails of smoke to match.
I sighed and fell back onto the snow, "Oh, thank the gods."
I thought for sure we'd be caught in the crossfire, hit with some kind of godly shrapnel, or something. That was intense. Tartarus was on Olympus right now, probably fighting Zeus.
Tartarus…fighting Zeus.
The idea was surreal. The whole idea of this entire thing is surreal, but that's even more so. I can't believe we even got out of there in one piece.
Malachi seemed to either be thinking the same thing, because he was on his knees, beating his fist against the ground.
All of us but Talon, who was still flat on the ground, looked at him.
"Kai, what is it?" Sera asked, hesitant to touch him.
Finally, he stopped to clutch his stomach. I could see him wincing, and…was that blood on his chin?
"You're bleeding!" Sera noticed, and grabbed him then.
I shifted around to kneel down near them, "Did you get hit with an attack?"
He shook his head and gently pushed Sera away. "No, that would be far more comforting, " he grumbled, wiping his chin of the blood and showing us his now red fingers. "It's the damn sickness. The ambrosia poisoning."
Sera gasped, "I-I thought it was out of your system…L-Logan said-"
"He was wrong." Malachi growled, "I'm still sick. That teleportation…my body feels like it's on fire."
I thought about suggesting ambrosia or nectar, then about punching myself in the jaw. That would be stupid. Glad I caught myself.
"Do you need anything?" I said alternatively, "Will any mortal medicine work?"
He waved a dismissive hand, "I am fine. It's just a little blood."
"It is not just a little blood!" Sera cried, craning her neck to look closer at Malachi's complexion. "You're pale! You look like you're about to faint!"
"It's nothing." Malachi insisted, gritting his teeth in frustration. "I hate being so weak, so damn feeble. I haven't felt like this since the island."
I didn't know what he was talking about, but I still tried to reassure him. "Don't beat yourself up, you're still stronger than any of us, and you got us out of there safely."
He wasn't convinced. "If we want to get Matt back, and defeat my…uncle, I suppose, then I need to be at one hundred percent." He shook his head, looking like he wanted to burn down all of the surrounding forest just to take out his anger. "Any less is useless."
I didn't say anything, I knew nothing would make him feel better. He and Matt were a lot alike, in the sense that when they get saved, when they think they haven't done anything to help, they sink into this deep pit of self-doubt. It was annoying, if I'm being honest.
I just shook my head and looked over to Talon, who hadn't moved since we landed. He was facing the sky, sunglasses intact and his face emotionless.
"You good?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He didn't answer. Instead he reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out a cigarette, popping it in the corner of his mouth. He took his other hand and reached for a lighter. But after some digging, he didn't find one.
He gave a small gruff of annoyance, but didn't lose his cool. With a quick finger snap, he summoned one through golden light and placed it in front of the cigarette. But when he pushed it, it didn't work.
He tried several times, but it only ignited a little spark, never even singing the tip.
He stopped, and sat there for a moment. Then, his hands started to shake, and I could tell he was about to freak out.
"SHIT!"
Talon got up faster than the blink of an eye, threw the lighter at a tree, threw the cigarette on the ground, pulled out his revolver and threatened to actually shoot it in the air.
That was when I grabbed his arm, "Calm down!"
He turned on me, "How can I calm down, huh?! We just witnessed a freaking circus on Olympus! Percy and Annabeth are captured! And we're not any closer to Matt than we were when we started! We're in a damn mess!"
"Just take a breath! We can figure something out!"
He lowered his gun and got in my face, seething. "A. Mess. Get it? Clusterfuck, whatever you want to call it. But we're screwed." He put his gun back in his belt and started pacing, using his hands to gesture angrily with every word that followed.
"I mean, that's Tartarus! The literal underworld for immortals in the flesh, or whatever that black, smoky shit was! And you want to know the best part about all of it? He's full power! We thought Ouranos was bad, but he wasn't even in his prime! This guy is, and always has been. He's never experienced a loss, or even been hurt, I'd imagine." He looked to Malachi, expecting an answer. "Right? Did he ever talk about him?"
Malachi was confused, "Who?"
"Ouranos. Did he ever talk about Tartarus to you?"
Now he understood, and nodded. "Sometimes. When I was a boy, he mentioned him a couple of times to me as 'your uncle.' I can't really remember what he said, I think it was just that he missed him, and something about me meeting him someday." Malachi cocked his head, like he was remembering something recent. "But you know, a few months ago, when I was held captive by him, and we were actually travelling to Tartarus, you know, to free Hendricks and Briares?"
"The dimension travelling freak?" I snorted, "Yeah, I remember."
"Well, on the way there, he said something rather interesting. He said that if it came down to it, even in his prime form, he wasn't sure he'd be able to beat Tartarus." Malachi seemed to shudder at the thought, "My father has only ever said that about one other person, and that's Zeus. As egoic and prideful as he is, for him to admit something like that…well, we already know Zeus's might, so it's safe to say we're dealing with a very serious threat here."
We all let that sink in. I didn't know about that. I mean, I'd heard about Malachi's trip to Tartarus with Ouranos, but I never knew he mentioned Tartarus as much as he did. Maybe all of this was a genuine team up, and it had been from the very start. So far, Ouranos has only had pawns, people he doesn't give two shits about. But now…maybe there's been a turn of events, maybe Ouranos actually wants to rule the world with his brother.
Talon just nodded, "Yep, you see? That shit right there." He put his hands on his hips and squeezed them, "Why does this shit keep getting worse and worse? Every damn year!"
I held my palms up, calling for attention. "Guys, I know it's bad. Downright horrible, even. But we're not turning back, right? We're still gonna do what we have to do." I looked around, they weren't showing any signs of response, and I started getting a little worried. "Aren't we?"
"Of course we are," Malachi said. "You know we aren't just going to let Matt suffer in Tartarus. It's just…the stakes, they've gotten so much higher, and now we have two threats that we must deal with. Two very psychotic, massive threats."
Sera nodded, looking at the ground sadly. "A-And we didn't get any help from Olympus."
"Percy and Annabeth are captured." Talon said, not letting us forget. "Those two…they've already been in that hell before, and now he's brought them back. We can't let them die either, we have to prioritize them as much as Matt."
I looked at him in shock, "So you-"
"I know what I said, goth girl. I know I sound like a pessimistic, scared little brat, but that don't mean I'm scared. I'm still going to hell and dragging all three of them back, aiming for a shot at that prick's head all the same." He offered a smirk, "You got my gun."
I smiled thankfully at him.
Malachi got up, wincing and no doubt in pain, but he still came over to me and nodded with determination.
"And you have my lightning."
I returned his nod.
Sera had followed Malachi, and all of our eyes fell on her. She hadn't noticed that we were doing a little group rah rah thing, so when she finally found our gazes, she blushed and jumped a little.
"O-Oh! Sorry." She straightened, and smiled brightly. "You have my ice, always."
We all chuckled at the sentence, finding it pretty ridiculous, but I didn't give a shit how cliché or stupid it was. It meant a lot to me that even though we faced one of the most powerful beings in the universe, Ouranos's crazy brother, father of Typhon and owner of the worst place imaginable…they would still fight by my side.
Our resolve wasn't broken.
I put my fist out, and all three of them did the same. In a circle, our knuckles connected, like some kind of sports chant was about to ensue.
"And all of you, you've got everything I can give." I said, "For whatever it's worth. Even if we don't have the gods' help, we're gonna do whatever it takes to get Matt, Percy, and Annabeth back, right?"
"Right!" They all shouted, in unison.
"There's no time to waste," I said. "Now, let's bring the fight to this bastard."
Matt
I floated in darkness. My eyes were open, but I saw nothing, nothing except the flickering light of my watch.
The master bolt. I'd almost forgotten I had it with me.
I was ready to take it off and let it sink into the depths, never to be seen again. It wouldn't find it's way back to me. It wasn't like Percy's sword.
What do I need it for? I'm done. It's not like I'm going to use it again.
Yes, you will. A voice said scoldingly.
No, I won't. I…can't bring myself to fight anymore, not after that.
The white light continued to strobe, I sunk deeper and deeper. The water was cool, not too cold, and it wasn't painful. It was actually rather soothing. I expected something painful, but this water seemed to feed into my emotions, my longing of…sleep.
Sleep. What kind of sleep? I don't know. I'd been holding my breath for the past few minutes, and I knew I was able to for a much longer period of time, it was all according to when I let everything go. Why didn't I? What was I still holding on to?
The river was vast, I hadn't touched the floor yet, if there even was one. Was there? Was I even moving?
I didn't care. I could drift and drift and that would be fine. This was the most peaceful I had felt in months.
Finally, moments after questioning whether this river was bottomless, my back landed softly on a sandy surface. But instead of lying flat, the instant I felt a sensation, I was pulled back up to the surface of the river.
With intense force. Someone had wrapped their hand around my body and yanked me back up. I cleared the distance in a single second, coming at the top like a speeding car, still managing to hold my breath.
But the impact never came. I slowed down at the last second, inches below the surface, just enough to where I could see the shore of the river and the top of Tartarus's cavern.
I looked around, unable to move my arms, even raise my head to breathe in some air. What was going on? Was this a dream?
In my peripheral, a figure approached me. It walked up to the edge of the shore and looked down, shaking it's head.
I peered up at it, thinking at first the obvious, that it was Yuri. But upon closer inspection, it was clearly a male body, and oddly familiar.
It cocked it's head at me, and leaned down to get on one knee. That was when I could see it's face in a clearer light.
It was me.
Not an evil version of me, or an older version, but just…me. Splitting image. He had his head just a foot above mine, the same amount of distance above the water that I had under the water. We were parallel, in appearance and distance.
"Wh-Who are you?" I said, in the water. I didn't even question how that was possible without taking in a gallon to the lungs.
He smirked, "I'm the voice inside your head, telling you to snap out of it."
"I can't snap out of it."
"The river is tempting you. Don't let it make you lose sight of what you are, and what you need to do."
"The river has nothing to do with it." I said, my eyes burning, "Harper's dead! Don't you understand? She's dead! That alone…I can't even think about going on. I can't do it without her!"
"Yes, you can." He said, not even blinking. "You have a fire inside of you, a fire that burns for those that don't have a voice, don't have a fist to strike. Those that have been wrongly killed by the enemy."
"I don't have a fire."
The other Matt was getting frustrated, "Yes, you do! You've just lost sight of it."
"Of what?"
"The anger. The rage. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. You shouldn't hide from it, you should embrace it, and use it. Use it to defeat them!"
"It's not enough."
The other Matt growled in annoyance and reached down for the first time. He grabbed me by the collar of my chestplate and pulled me up.
The entire world was flipped upside down when I fell out of the river. The scenery did a complete one eighty, and changed before my eyes from Tartarus to New York City.
I fell in the sky, now dry as a bone and in my regular clothes.
"W-Wait!" I shouted, looking around frantically for the other Matt, but he was nowhere to be found in the freefall.
I tried to bend the wind to my will, but it was no use, I tried to clap my hands in front of me, again, nothing. I was powerless, and falling to the ground fast.
As a last-ditch effort, I simply covered my face with my hands and closed my eyes tight, bracing for the hard landing.
But it never came. In an instant, the wind stopped rushing in my ears, and I stopped moving altogether. It wasn't whiplashing, or even intense. It was like a slow, calm descent.
Carefully, I moved my arms and opened my eyes, finding that I was mere feet away from a grassy cliff overlooking the city. Where this was in reference, I had no idea, but I knew that we were far above sea level, and everything was quiet.
Gravity gave way, and I felt my knees and hands touch the grass. I began to breath rapidly, feeling around to make sure it was all real, or at least…felt real. It did.
"Look at the city."
There was the other Matt, next to me in a flash. No, this had to be a vison. No way was I transported that quickly back to the surface world, unless this was another of Tartarus's tricks.
"It's not. Forget about him. Forget about all of it, and look at the city!" He urged, angry with me.
"O-Okay! Okay!" I calmed my breathing, and looked down at the city. "It's New York City, same as always. Nothing's different."
He couldn't argue with that. There they sat, all the buildings and cars, the smoke rising into the sky, like I'd never left. The sight actually kind of made me…happy, in a way. I hadn't been down in Tartarus for long, at least I didn't think so, but it sure felt like an eternity. Seeing my old home was rather comforting to be honest. I wasn't sure if that was the intention.
Apparently, it wasn't. "Watch," he ordered.
Right after he said that, gray clouds gathered in the sky, at the epicenter, a growing white light was building. When it got to it's peak, it left the clouds and struck the city, causing an immediate explosion.
My eyes widened, and I could only watch on in shock. All of the buildings were shattered in the fire and combustion, smoke billowed from the entire blast and covered the already darkened sky in a mushroom cloud. The explosion shook the ground and rattled my eardrums with it's powerful shout.
It was pure chaos, everything was engulfed in the explosion, and there was little left to give evidence that the city had even existed in the first place.
Following the strike, several figures came soaring out of the clouds, all of them having a small, bright blue outline around them, a bit like an angel, or something. But they weren't angels, I recognized them as Ouranos's storm spirits.
They hounded the ruins and formed a giant line, thousands of them all standing at attention, a massive army.
And there was Ouranos's face in the clouds, smiling with satisfaction. He looked the same as when I first saw him.
"This is what's going to happen if you give it all up." Other Matt said, his hair blowing back with the hot wind, "You want to let all of those people die? Your mother?"
I was still glued to the horror. Just like that, all of those people dead, the city that had taken decades to develop was gone in seconds. It was a cakewalk.
"No…no, I don't. But I can't stop that."
"Not alone, no. That's why you have your friends. That's why you have allies."
"They'll die too." I argued, averting my gaze to the ground, "Harper's already gone. It's no use, we're just in over our head here."
"Yeah, yeah." He said quickly, "You've said that so many times, so many damn times, it's starting to annoy the hell out of me."
Annoyance crept up in my tone, I felt tears building up in the corners of my eyes. "Well, it's true! They're too powerful!"
Without a second to waste, he struck me. Other Matt's fist connected hard with my face, and I fell back on the grass, nearly rolling over. It didn't hurt, but I still held my nose in disbelief.
"Idiot, every other time you've bounced back. You've lost people, and what has that done? Only added to the fire inside you. This is no different."
"Yes, it is." I said, sitting up. I didn't even feel angry at the action, which only seemed to annoy him more. "It is different, because it's her."
"Exactly!" He shouted, and leaned down to my level, "It's her, so use that! That should make the flame so much bigger! Gather up that anger and use it against Tartarus! Don't wallow in your sorrows!"
"I'm never going to get her back," I croaked, "I'm just not supposed to let that bother me?"
"There's a time to grieve, and there's a time to fight." He shook my shoulders, "The time to fight is now. Avenge her."
I glared up at him, ready to direct some of that anger towards him for a change. "I want to, dude. Don't you get it? But I'm just not strong enough! I never have been!"
In a flash, he stood straight and kicked me in the shoulder, hard this time. Hard enough to where I could feel pain. I skidded back several feet in the grass on my elbows.
"I. It's always I and me with you, it's never we or them. This was never your fight alone. You have support. You just have to hold out and buy time until they come to your aid."
"My aid? How are they gonna do that? I'm in Tartarus!"
"They'll find a way. Believe me." He came up and grabbed my chin with his fingers, forcing me to look at him. It was making me mad, him tossing me around and playing with me like I was some kind of toy. I wasn't letting that go.
"Then hit me!" He yelled, "Dig down and find that anger! Use it!"
I started shaking with rage, that familiar feeling boiling up inside of me. Suddenly I thought about nothing else but throttling this asshole. I wanted to destroy him and Tartarus both, I wanted to bring it to the ground and escape that river.
He removed his fingers just enough to slap me across the face, then he grabbed my chin again and shook my head violently, just making me angrier and angrier.
"Come on! What's it gonna take for you to lose it?! Erupt! Get mad! DO SOMETHING!"
His taunts kept adding fuel to the fire. I wanted to beat him to a pulp. Every time he said something or squeezed tighter, I kept picturing him as Tartarus, I kept remembering Harper's dead body on the ground.
The red aura started flashing back and forth around my body, the aura inside me was doing a rollercoaster, in and out, in and out.
Other Matt loved this, but hated it at the same time. A mix of excitement and hate crossed his face in a confusing pattern.
He slapped me again, "Transform! Do it! Do it, now!"
Another flash of red.
"DO IT!"
That was the nail in the coffin. When he said that, I smacked his hand away and roared. Each muscle was tense, every fiber inside of me was in flames. The red glow ignited around me and it was brighter than it had ever been. The shockwave was so great that the entire scenery changed completely, and I was snapped back to my very real situation.
I was back at the bottom of the river, my mouth open and my voice shooting up to the surface of the water. It was so loud and powerful that it blew all of the water out of the river, completely. I wasn't even sure what was going on until I stood on solid sand, with nothing surrounding me.
I kept roaring and roaring, each sound like that of a lion. The red aura was blinding, and every time I would give my aura a flex, it would deepen the crater at my feet.
When my voice could no longer go on, it stopped, and everything came crashing down.
The water from the river was high in the cavern, all of it in a blanket hurdling back towards the ground. I closed my eyes and braced for it's impact. Shortly after, it crashed, and I felt my hair get even more wet, the force of it shaking my body and nearly making me fall, like a powerful wave at the beach when it knocks the wind out of you.
CRASH!
The water steamed and flew everywhere, dousing the jungle Yuri and I had been in, dousing the lakes of fire in the distance, dampening every single thing in sight. I was left in a mere puddle compared to what was before, but I could tell this river had magical properties, because as soon as I emptied it, it started to refill on it's own again, forming water from thin air.
I took this chance to jump out. Casually, I flexed my leg and practically flew up towards the roof of the massive landscape, coming down hard on the river's sandy shore.
I had let loose, and it felt good. It actually felt empowering, like a had somewhat of a chance.
Just hold out. That's all I had to do. I had to do that, and have faith that the others would come.
I had landed with one knee and fist on the ground, with full control of my aura. No blocks, no clots like before. I was clear and free, able to control it at will.
I exhaled, and stood up slowly, the red glow dimmed to nothing and that was that. It was over.
"Okay." I said, "Okay, fine. I'll keep going, if that's what it takes."
I felt a ping on my aura radar, behind me. I already knew who it was before I said anything.
"Yuri."
I turned around, and there she was. It looked like I hadn't drifted far in the river. That, or she just followed me the entire way.
Her blue eyes were like dinner plates, "Matt, what did you- I mean, how did you-"
"I had a little help from myself," I said. "I just needed a push, that's all."
She looked around at the abundance of water that had come out of the river, which was sort of the entire supply. "Well, that was some push."
I noticed that behind her, lay Harper's body, not ten feet away. Had she carried it with her?
She caught my gaze, and nodded, a bit guiltily. "I followed you down the river, but…I didn't want to leave her, so…"
"It's okay. Thank you." I made my way over to her, walking past Yuri, Harper's skin had gotten a little paler, her lips were a bit bluer. All signs of the stages of post-death.
I stared down at her for who knows how long, it might've been several minutes. But I figured this could be the last time I would see her, and I wanted to let it sink in, to look at the real thing one more time. I knew I would dream about her, and probably have nightmares too. Those…were going to be tough to deal with.
But that was later. Not now.
Nodding to myself, I pointed my palm towards the sand to my right and concentrated the aura to a condensed point. When I felt it was enough, I released it, and a red blast shot into the ground, opening up a deep hole.
I picked Harper up and kissed her on the forehead, once again. Earlier it was to hold on, but this was to let go. I was ready.
I carried her over to the hole, and set her down gently. As I covered her with sand, it painfully reminded me of when we buried Levi. The two shared similar fates, at different hands. It was tragic, and I had to push the thought away immediately, or I'd end up back in that river, crying to no end.
When the sand was over her completely, I flattened it out, and the process was done. I was satisfied.
"Sorry it's down here, but you deserve this, at least." I rubbed a soothing hand over the spot where I knew hers was. "I'll never forget you, Harper. Never. Every time I fight, you'll always be in my mind, and when I defeat him, it'll be for you." I took my hand off and clenched it, "I love you."
I wanted to stay longer, and say so much more to her. But I knew it would be enough to break me, and I would go back to that state. I couldn't do that. The vision of my other self was a jerk, but he was right.
Yuri was by my side, placing a cautious hand on my shoulder. I didn't shake her off this time.
"I'm sorry."
"It's okay," I assured. "Sorry for trying to push you away earlier. You were just trying to help."
I locked eyes with her. The blue circles of sympathy were sparkling back at me, she seemed to be wanting to say something more than what she had planned on, but I could tell she was on the fence about it.
"I…understand loss. It's the hardest thing to go through, that I know. Remaining strong is a very brave thing to do. I admire you for that."
"It hurts," I admitted. "It hurts so bad, knowing that that's it. There won't be another chance. She's gone, forever." I shook my head, not letting that darkness cloud me again. "But there's a time to grieve, and there's a time to fight. The time to fight is now." Despite everything, I managed to chuckle, "Besides, Harper wouldn't want me giving it all up because of her. She'd want me to keep fighting. Hell, she'd probably punch me in the arm for crying as much as I did."
Yuri was still surprised, she looked over at the now replenishing river. "I can't believe you overcame Acheron, so quickly too. You're resolve is…remarkable."
"It almost got me, I'll admit. It felt like I was being…sucked into an abyss of sorrow, of nothing but pain and misery. I would've died, like you said."
She smiled. It was genuine, but there was a certain guard in front of it that told me she really needed to get something off her chest. Did it have to do with why she attacked me earlier? I was definitely curious, but I wasn't about to press.
"I'm glad you're not dead."
I smirked, "Me too." It fell as quickly as it came, I walked forward and stared out at the hellish landscape, knowing there was more to come. But strangely, feeling more confident about it now.
"If what he said is true, then Percy and Annabeth are down here. We have to find them. The rest of my friends are on their way too. How they'll get here…I have no idea. But I have faith in them."
Yuri nodded, and matched my step, "If they are your friends, I have no doubts as well."
Together, we set off once again. I took another look at Harper's spot, and said another silent goodbye. I wasn't going to pretend that it wasn't the most painful thing I had dealt with, equal to that of losing dad, but right now…I had to push that away and keep it dormant, for the sake of everything. That's just what the situation calls for. I know when it's all over, I'm going to be heartbroken, and in so much pain…that I won't even know what to do anymore. I loved her. I'll always love her.
But right now, I'm angry. At Tartarus.
Yuri and I pressed forward, fully prepared for whatever came next.
Harper
I only have two things in my nightstand. An MP3 player and the Heavenly Diamond knife.
I stood alone, just staring at the items. They sat surrounded by old, dusty wood. The MP3 player was itself, dated. An old model that Levi had given me a long time ago. Olympus knows how many songs I have on there.
I don't know why I did it, but I reached down and pulled it out of the drawer, blowing dust off of the screen so I could turn it on.
I pressed the button, and the little light came on, showing the logo of the name brand. It was still charged.
A slew of songs came up, and I began to scroll through them, a smile on my face the entire time. I had hundreds of pieces to choose from, most of them alternate rock, and a product of my angry childhood. Green Day, Blink 182, My Chemical Romance, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Linkin Park, and pretty much any popular band from the early 2000's.
"I really need to update this," I said, shaking my head. I was about to put it down, when something stopped me. I don't know what it was, but my smile fell, and I slowly clutched it to my chest.
Another memory came flooding back, as vivid as the day it happened.
The door to the girl's room flew open and hit the wall with a loud bang, nearly putting a hole in the wood. At the doorway, her father stood there, enraged, with a near-empty bottle of whiskey.
"I called your name like ten times, bitch!" He yelled, "What the hell are ya doing?!"
The girl jumped in surprise at the sight and immediately took out her earbuds. She wasn't surprised that he was drinking, but she had rarely seen him get so angry. I mean, she'd heard the shouts, and even the sounds of glass shattering on the walls, but it usually wasn't directed at her. It was directed at Levi.
But now, her father looked like he wanted to strangle her. He blinked a few times and staggered, catching himself on the doorway. "Well?! Talk to me!"
She scooted back a few inches, her lip quivering. "I-I was just-"
His eyes flickered down to the MP3 player, still playing the song she had been listening to.
"What's this piece of junk?"
The girl tried to cover it up with the blanket of her bed, "It's nothing, daddy. J-Just some stupid thing I found at school."
He pointed at it with the hand holding the beer, "Let me see it."
"W-Why?"
"Because I said so, you stupid slut!"
He threw the glass bottle over her head faster than she could anticipate. If it would've hit her, she wouldn't have had time to move out of the way. Still, it shattered instantly on the wall behind her next to the window, some stray glass falling into her hair made her jump and whimper.
Her father stormed over and practically slapped her hands off of the device, yanking it up and looking at it with confusion.
He didn't know what it was, and didn't care to know. It made her ignore him, and he would not be ignored. Not again.
"So this is the thing keeping you away from me, huh? Huh, Nemesis?!"
The girl was crying silently now, looking up at him with pleading, watery eyes. "I-It's Harper, daddy. I-I'm not mama." She hadn't gotten used to the terms dad or mom; she was still so young.
"Whatever." He snorted, "You don't need this thing, you need to be with me." He started to throw it on the ground, when the girl cried louder and reached up to desperately grab his wrist.
"No! Please, don't!"
He couldn't believe his eyes. She would dare resist? After what she did? He wanted to kill her.
The girl was terrified, and immediately regretted her actions. He looked down on her with absolute hate, and suddenly his wrath towards the MP3 Player shifted.
His hand was across her cheek in a split second. He hit her hard with his backhand, knocking her to the side in recoil and offering the room a smacking sound.
She fell on the bed and put her hands to her cheek, more tears falling now from the pain. She cried and whimpered.
"Get up, you stupid bitch! Get up and look at me! You wanna leave me again? You wanna leave me with those two good for nothing kids?!"
He grabbed her collar and pulled her up to hit her again, this time slapping her with his palm, on the same cheek. It left a very noticeable red mark.
The girl cried audibly and begged him to stop, but it was no use. She couldn't match his strength, and their size difference was far too much for her to even think about fighting back. She was intimidated, and scared out of her mind.
"D-Daddy, please, please stop."
"Stop?!" He roared, hitting her again, "You want me to stop?!"
Her face was throbbing, and it stung so bad, she knew she probably wouldn't be able to talk the next day, or maybe even eat. Her father had hit her before, but never to this degree. Then, it was a slap here and there, and he was merely annoyed at those times, now…he looked like he really wanted to kill her.
She wasn't sure what was going to happen next. His breath and odor reeked of alcohol, so he was a complete loose cannon right now.
Suddenly though, she heard loud footsteps come bounding down the hallway and stopping at her door. There was a new figure.
"Let her go!" It shouted.
She looked over and wanted to cry tears of joy, but the pain was too great to do so. It was Levi.
The father turned on him, still holding her collar. "What are you doing, boy?"
Levi wasted no time, he was shaking in anger, his face was red, and what was more surprising…he held his sword in his hand. He had probably been training outside when this happened.
Quicker than both of them could register, he ran towards their father and swiped at his back, slicing a long, bloody gash along the skin, causing him to scream in pain and stagger backwards into the closet, letting the girl go.
Levi was in front of her in a flash, shielding her with his body.
Father was grabbing at his back, trying anything he could to somehow put pressure on the wound. "Agh, you little shit! You stupid bastard piece of shit! I'm gonna-"
"Get out of here!" Levi said, leveling the sword at him, "You get out of here right fucking now, or I'll kill you, you son of a bitch. You hear me?! Take another step and I'll kill you!"
The girl watched on, her heart racing in fear. She was grateful that he had come to save her, but now she was terrified for him. Levi was older than her, but their father still towered over both of them, and if Levi didn't have his sword as an equalizer…he would be in the same situation as her.
But he did, and that kept him at bay. He mumbled a few more curses, winced at the new wound on his back, and staggered out of the bedroom like a zombie, hitting the wall of the hallway as he went.
When he thought it was secure, Levi had placed his sword on her bed and scooped her up in a hug. Her tears fell again, and she busted out into a loud cry.
"It's okay, Harper." He soothed, "I'm here, I'm here."
"H-He…Levi, he-"
"I know what the bastard did." He growled, but never tightened his grip on her body. "I should finish him off."
She pulled away and looked into his eyes, "D-Did you?"
"No. It'll hurt him like hell, but it won't kill him." He paused, and looked over at the doorway, likely to see if their father was coming back with a weapon of his own. When a few seconds passed, Levi turned back and lowered his voice. "Do you want me to, Harper? I mean, I could you know."
She wiped a tear away with the back of her hand, "Could what?"
His mouth twitched, almost forming a smirk. "I could kill him. I could end this once and for all, Harper, and we'd be safe forever. We could live together, alone, and free of him. Hell, we could even go somewhere else if you wanted to."
She knew about death, and that it was a very serious thing. Killing someone? Even their father? She didn't know.
"B-But…he's still-"
"He's not our father." Levi snapped, "He's a monster that needs to be killed. A monster worse than the Minotaur, worse than all of them."
She sat there, now looking at her hands. She didn't reply, even after several seconds.
Levi could see that she was conflicted, and still far too young to even think about murder. He cursed himself.
"I'm sorry, kiddo. I-I shouldn't have said that." He rubbed her arm comfortingly, and offered a grin. "How about I stay in here tonight with you? Whaddya say? We can read some of the comic books my buddy gave me at school."
Her eyes immediately lit up, and she suddenly forgot about the pain in her cheek. "You got some more? What did you have to trade this time?"
Levi gave a sly smirk, "Nothing. Not a single thing. My team beat Brandon's team in dodgeball, and it just so happened that he bet five Marvel issues. Five whole issues, Harper! We got X-men, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and Spider-Man!"
She was bouncing up and down with excitement. She didn't really like superheroes all that much, but she loved it when Levi read to her. He would always animate himself and act out the scenes with such enthusiasm, that she couldn't help but have a great time.
"And…" He poked her in the side, she giggled. "…I can help you download some more songs on that MP3 player I gave you. Would you like that?"
She nodded so fast, her dark hair practically flew up and down, hitting her shoulders.
"Yeah!"
The memory ended there. Funnily enough, right before the fond part happened. We'd stayed up all night reading those stupid comics, listening to those stupid songs together.
I hadn't realized my eyes had been shut tight, and I was basically seeing the memory through my eyelids. When I opened them, I was more than surprised to find that I had set the MP3 player back in the nightstand drawer. Now I had my right hand gripped to a now snapped bedpost, and the other on the Heavenly Diamond knife.
I let go of the bedpost, letting the broken piece of wood fall to the floor and clank around. I had no idea I even did that; I was so caught up in that moment.
I hadn't thought of that in a long time. I thought I pushed it away far enough to not even remember it. But…of course I did. I remembered the pain on my cheek, and I could even still, still to this day smell that freaking whiskey.
Sometimes I wanted to forget my dad's face, and other times I didn't. He tried in the end, but that doesn't change what he did. The weirdest part was, I didn't hold any hatred towards him now, him or Levi. It's the craziest thing to me, because that was one of the worst few minutes of my life, and yet…nothing.
Am I just numb? Or have I actually grown that much? To where I can put the past behind me and recognize what those two were going through?
I shook my head and sighed. "Stop thinking about it, dumbass. You're wasting time. Matt needs you." He does. He needs me. Just like I needed Levi that night. I'm needed, for once.
Sheathing the knife, I heard a scratching noise behind me, and the low humming sound of an animal.
I looked over my shoulder to see Kyros, still in his small form, looking up at me expectantly.
"Oh, hey there." I said, and leaned down on his level, "You want to know what happened, right?"
He cawed a yes.
"Shit hit the fan, to make a long story short. Tartarus attacked Olympus and destroyed just about everything. He even got in a fight with Zeus." I felt goosebumps just thinking about it, "They're probably going at it as we speak."
Kyros ruffled his feathers, and poked his head into his wing, picking at something that was in there.
"Yeah, I know you don't care for Zeus. Just thought I'd tell you. We still didn't get any help, so we're back to square one."
He waddled up closer and pecked gently at my knee, then proceeded to stare up at me for several seconds. When I didn't respond, he opened his mouth and let out another noise.
"You want to go with us?" I guessed, and he made a louder noise.
I shook my head, "I'm sorry, Kyros. But you can't. I know you want to rescue Matt, but trust me, you're not gonna want to go where we're going. It's underground, first of all, and really, really hot."
He shook his head and sort of made a growling sound at that, but still puffed his feathery chest out, signaling that he didn't care.
I wanted to let him go. He was strong, and very fast in his own right. But even so, Malachi knew the way, and his teleportation was faster. Not to mention Matt would have a fit if anything happened to the eagle.
"Malachi's gonna teleport us there. He's been to the entrance in Hollywood before, so we'll be back before you know it." I placed a hand under his neck and scratched the feathers. "Don't worry about Matt, we'll be back with him, safe and good as new. And hey, we'll try to bring a few bird biscuits home as well. That'll be a nice Christmas present, won't it?"
He cawed and flapped his wings a little in delight. I smiled.
"Well, ho ho ho."
I knew that voice from anywhere, and I didn't even need to look up. My smile instantly disappeared, "Mr. D."
Dionysus stood in my doorway; his arms crossed. "So you'll tell the bird, but what will you tell the others?"
"We'll be back before they know it."
"You don't think they know their hero is missing?" He said, a bit mockingly. "They want to help."
I stood up, "They don't want to go with us, trust me. Besides, I'm not one for speeches, so you'll have to deliver it for us."
He studied me, a hint of purple flaring in his eyes. Then, he scoffed and turned his head, "Honestly, you lot and your quests. You go off whenever you please and expect me to defend this place."
I could see behind his front. He was worried. Worried about the situation on Olympus, with Tartarus and Ouranos, all of it. He tried to hide behind the same mask as Hades, but at the end of the day, they care about their family. As dysfunctional as it may be.
So that's why when I walked past him, I smirked and called over my shoulder. "But you'll do it, won't you?"
For a moment, I heard nothing. Then a reluctant sigh.
"Of course I will. I'm stuck here, so I'd prefer it to be intact."
Close enough, I thought.
I met Malachi, Talon, and Sera by half blood hill, out of the entire camp's sight. We all formed a circle, and just like before, put our fists together.
"You're sure about this?" I asked Malachi.
He nodded, "Positive. I know the way, and teleporting there will make everything easier."
"That's not what she means, Kai." Sera said, a bit annoyed, but mostly concerned. "Can your body handle it?"
"Guess we're gonna find out, ain't we?" Talon mumbled, and Sera hit his arm.
Malachi, to his credit, looked very sure that he could do it. Despite bleeding from the mouth earlier.
"Hey, if you think it's too risky, we can take Kyros." I shrugged, "I want to keep him here and safe, but if we have to…"
The Demi-Primordial shook his head, "No, I can do it. I know I can."
We all exchanged looks, and finally, nodded at him that we were ready.
Storm clouds gathered quickly in the sky, a flash of lightning shot down from them and engulfed us with warm, bright light. The camp disappeared from view, and we made our way to the Underworld's entrance.
(000)
Things are amping up, slowly but surely.
Yes, the river was affecting Matt, but he managed to get over it quickly. Almost too quickly, I know, but don't get me wrong, he is hurting, probably more than he ever has in this entire story. But he's also enraged at Tartarus, and for now, he's channeling that. Like he said, there's a time to grieve, and there's a time to fight.
But obviously, Harper's not dead. He'll find out soon enough.
Hope you all enjoyed!
Until Next Time.