Percy

Percy sat down slowly after hanging up the receiver, Annabeth's words still echoing in his head. His entire body was trembling, whether from past memories or fear for the future, he didn't know. Strangely, however, his breath had finally calmed down to the rhythmic in and out. Fear filled ever crevice of his body, but still, he felt lighter somehow. Finally, he realized it was because he was now without the guilt. He had made the right decision, regardless of what happened to him.

The sound of a door creaking came from the end of the hall followed by footsteps. His mother entered the room, leaning on the door frame as she studied his face. Exhaustion was etched in every line, but her face reflected concern.

"Hey, Percy." She whispered. "What are you doing up?" Memories flooded Percy's brain of being a kid and staying up well past his bed time. He would sneak into the kitchen, past Gabe, and steal whatever treats his mother had stashed away. He was caught more often than not.

"It's fine. You can go back to bed." Percy tried to act like he was tired, laying back down on the couch, tucking the blanket under himself. His mother was not convinced.

"Where you talking to someone?" Sally entered the room more, no longer hugging the doorframe.

Unable to think of a quick lie, Percy just told the truth. "Yeah. Annabeth. On the phone." Percy looked at the phone, then back at his mother. She walked slowly across the room and sat down on the other side of the couch from him. He stared into her eyes and knew that he wasn't convincing her of anything.

"Next time, wake me up. Please. I can help you. You're my son. I'm supposed to help you." Her voice cracked on the word 'son'. It had been long since she had been able to use that towards him. Tears filled her eyes and Percy felt a pang of guilt as he remembered all that she had to go through because of him. He wouldn't tell her what he was about to do. He wanted to, but he couldn't add onto that burden. He would be back before she noticed he was gone. He was going to make sure of that. He couldn't hurt her again.

"You can't have both your kids waking you up." Percy tried to force his face into a smile. Sally rolled her watery eyes and gave him a half smile.

"I give you complete permission to wake me up whenever you need to. Estelle doesn't need permission, she just does it anyway." His mom smiled at him. This rose a real smile at Percy's lips. In Tartarus, it was easy to forget moments like this. When everything was quiet and it was just him and his mom. It was easy to forget how to feel safe and loved. Percy started to tear up. He wished so desperately he could talk to himself a few months ago and just how his past self this moment right here. This was everything he had worked towards. Every moment of pain was worth it if he could sit here with his mom.

"I love you, mom." He managed. Those words sent Sally over and she hugged him as tears slipped down her face.

"Oh Percy." She breathed. She took in a calm, deep breath. Percy had to survive. He could not do this to his mother again.

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Nearly an hour later, after Sally had gone to bed, Percy heard a soft knocking at the door. It was loud enough that he could hear it, but soft enough that it wouldn't wake his mom and Paul. Percy carefully turned the knob and Annabeth and Nico were standing silently on the other side, both looking grim. Percy nodded wordlessly, glancing back at his apartment. Before the door closed, he vowed that this would not be the last time he was standing on this doorway.

They walked slowly down the hall and into the elevator. Although they could talk now without fear of waking people up, none of them had anything to say. Percy felt tears burn in his eyes and nose again and looked down, hoping the others wouldn't notice. Trying desperately to get back in control of his emotions he looked up, as if fascinated by the ceiling. He had to be strong if he was going to come back here. Strong and emotionless, like he was in Tartarus. Annabeth laced her fingers through his which made it a lot harder for the tears to go away.

They walked out of the apartment building and Grover was standing on the sidewalk. Percy immediately turned to Annabeth in protest.

"I don't want him here. I don't want him to see it. If he sees it he can't unsee it and I can't do that to him it's-" Percy started blabbering, panic creating words that left his mouth after bypassing his brain.

"I know. He's going to wait in the Underworld. He needs to play the music to open the stones. We need him." She placed a hand on the side of his face, as if trying to steady his thoughts. Percy opened his mouth again, but remained silent.

"Yeah, good to see you too, buddy." Grover said casually. Everyone turned to stare at him. He shifted uncomfortably. "Not a joking situation? Sorry."

"Noted." Will Solace said, strolling up with both hands on a back pack. Percy turned towards Annabeth again, but before he even got a word out, Annabeth and Nico started talking over each other.

"He's a medic it would be pretty beneficial to have him-"

"I promised him that I wouldn't run off on dangerous missions without telling him first and when I did tell him he wanted to come-"

"Fine." Percy rubbed his hands over his face, stopping all other talking. "Anyone else here I should know about?"

Grover clicked his tongue. "Nope I think that's it."

"Well Jason." Nico added.

"What? Jason? Why is Jason going?" Percy demanded.

"Someone needs to fly you guys down and back up into the pit." Will shrugged. "He's going to meet us there though."

"Percy, it's only going to be the two of us there, okay? Nico is just navigated us to the gate. Jason is just going to fly us down, then head back up. When Nico senses that the gate is closed, Jason will come back down to get us. He wont be down there with us though, we need him to be with Nico. It'll only be a few minutes. The less people down there the better." Annabeth grabbed Percy's hand again. Percy, feeling claustrophobic just shrugged his shoulders and nodded.

"Okay. Everyone grab my arm." Nico moved closer to the group. Annabeth and Percy grabbed his left arm, Will and Grover his right. Nico closed his eyes, a second passed. Then, suffocating darkness and the feeling of falling. Percy was reminded vaguely of coming from Tartarus, but then they were in the open air, looking at the open skies again. Grover immediately let go and shuttered. Will stabilized Nico.

"Here we are." Nico said, voice unsteady from his usage of power. All five of them turned towards a pile of boulders.

"Remember when you found me sleeping here?" Grover turned towards Percy.

"Yeah, through the empathy link." Percy nodded, trying to ignore his rapid heartbeat.

"Who knew we'd be back here." Grover grabbed his reed pipes from his belt.

Jason walked up from behind a tree. "Hey man." He said to Percy. Percy only nodded, unsure he'd be able to keep up this conversation.

He tried to only focus on Annabeth's hand pressed against his palm, but it was proving difficult. Grover played a sad but hopeful tune and Percy remembered when he used to be terrible. The boulders opened up and a long passage descended into darkness.

Percy's throat seized up and he immediately took several steps backwards. It wasn't Tartarus. it was only the Underworld. He'd been the the Underworld several times. Heck, he was twelve once going down there. It was only the Underworld, not Tartarus. Not yet anyway. He could walk down this passage way, that was possible. With shaking steps, he followed the others down the passage, the narrowness forcing them into single file.

Since they were one after the other, Annabeth had been forced to let go of his hand. Percy had let his hands trace the wall as he went down, giving them something to do. The further they walked, the more the musty dark smell entered his nose. Wishing the walls were bigger, he forced himself forward. It was only a couple of minutes.

They finally reached the end, right out on the River Styx. Percy had once bathed there and been granted invincibility. Wouldn't life had been a lot easier if he didn't loose invincibility?

"Okay," Nico knelt on the ground and picked up a stick to draw a map. "Here we are, and the exit. Here's a trail that leads us through Elysium and towards the pit towards Tartarus. Me, Will, and Grover will stay here, next to the pit. Jason will fly you guys down and then come back and wait with us. When I sense that the crack has closed, I'll send Jason back down to get you guys. It would be easier if I was down there with you guys, but I can't. In Tartarus my senses get... muddy. I wont be able to tell when the crack has sealed. And if I'm up here, Jason needs to be too. That means it's only the two of you down there. Are you okay with that?" Nico looked at Annabeth and Percy.

"Sure." Percy wasn't looking anyone in the eyes. A plan scared him more than anything. They had thought this out. This wasn't just a thing to do, just a quick trip down then back up, this was something that needed to be planned. Something that couldn't just be a spur of the moment occasion.

"Okay then." Nico brushed over his map. "Let's go to Elysium."

Please review!

I'm sorry I know this feels like a filler chapter but there is so many thoughts I want to convey and I don't want my chapters to be too long so I'm breaking them up. Please don't be mad! I promise all this build up will be worth it :)