They entered the tunnels, letting the light of the crystals guide them. As they did, Percy saw more skeletons, mainly the humanoid figures but an occasional monstrous one as well to show whoever these people were they still put up a fight.

"Why would someone bring us to this place?" Toph asked quietly.

"Perhaps so this world is not forgotten," Calvin suggested. "Perhaps to try and save it. Or to learn something from it. Or maybe to just trap us here. It's hard to tell right now."

"We should hurry. I don't like the feel of this place. Or this world for that matter. It feels…cut off somehow," Ahsoka said, speaking softly.

Percy didn't know what that meant and he didn't want to. But he did sort-of get what she was saying. There was something off about this place. Something that felt…wrong. As they kept walking, Percy couldn't help but wondering about what this place was. Who were these people? And what were these monsters and why had they attacked like this? They passed some other caves and caverns but they all showed the same thing. More carnage. More death. This was a graveyard with the only living things only appearing after what seemed like thousands of years.

Percy remembered Nico talking about stuff like this and wondered if they were going to get attacked by restless spirits. Gods, he hoped not. That was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now, angry spirits seeking vengeance on the living. All he wanted to do was find out how he had gotten here in the first place so he could just zip on right back and pretend this little adventure never happened in the first place.

Ahsoka stopped ahead of him, studying some skeletons on the ground and Percy couldn't help but notice that they seemed a little smaller than some of the other ones. "Too young," she muttered and then sighed deeply. "This never gets easier."

"You've seen battlegrounds before," Percy said.

Ahsoka slowly stood up and turned to face him. "Yes," she said wryly. "I was trained for peace, to bring peace, and was sent to war as that was the way to bring it about back then. I saw…too many battlegrounds and the cost of each one." She looked back at all the skeletons they had passed. "These people were forced to fight for their very survival against an enemy they clearly had no chance against."

Percy looked at them as well and could easily imagine them as the bones of demigods against the number of monster armies they had faced in the last few years. "Yeah, I know the feeling."

Ahsoka looked questioningly at him but didn't ask him anything else.

"Let's keep going," Calvin said softly.

As they walked, Percy studied the people around him a little more and he began to realize something. They all had that same posture. The way they walked, the way they held themselves. There was also this slight weariness in their movements, like each step was an effort. As Percy watched Ahsoka carefully, he could see the fatigue in her, like she was tired from fighting. She had said she was sent out to war and Percy wondered how old she was then. With Calvin, he seemed ageless but Percy could still see it. The look that he had fought countless battles and was just waiting for the next one. And though Toph didn't have the same exact look, what was more prominent was her stance, like she was always ready for a fight, always ready for the next challenge to her. They were all warriors who had never stopped fighting.

And as much as Percy wished his battles had ended, he knew he was the same.

He thought about sharing this but again decided it against it. He didn't truly know what it meant yet, though he knew it had to be relevant. He needed to know more first. Hopefully he was about to get some.

"So how do we do this?" Toph asked as they approached the doors to the apparent records room, its doors broken and splintered, practically fallen off. Percy, however, noticed that they were made of a tough metal that the other doors didn't seem to have, like the people here wanted this room protected more than any other. "Do we announce our presence loudly here or just sneak up on him or do we…"

Ahsoka ignored her and just barged ahead, pushing past the broken doors which was apparently the final straw, both of them finally collapsing to the ground with a loud clatter. Percy and Calvin both winced at the sound while Toph just shrugged. "First one it is. Cool."

"Who's there! Wha-" They then heard the sliding sound of a sword being removed from a scabbard. "What are you?"

"Stop," came Ashoka's voice from inside. "I don't mean you any harm. I'm just here looking for answers as well."

"Same here," Calvin said, walking in with Percy and Toph following. Inside stood a man in a long, black cloak with a large sword in both hands, eyeing them warily. He had short curly black hair and a trimmed beard and Percy instantly saw that he too had the same wariness about him. Someone tired of fighting but knew it all too well. And from the way he was holding that sword, he was very familiar with it. "That's all we're after. We were each dropped in this place with no warning and want to know why."

Slowly, the man lowered his sword. "Same," he said. "Haven't seen anyone yet. Least of all someone who looks like her," he gestured to Ahsoka. "Are you…one of the Children of the Forest."

"I do not know what that means," she replied. "But no. My name is Ahsoka Tano."

He nodded at her. "Jon Snow."

They all gave the rest of their names. Percy took a look around the room. Like the rest of the place, it was trashed and destroyed for the most part. There were still papers and books here and there but the number of ones that weren't damaged either by the battle or just by age seemed to be zero as far as he looked. All the shelves were torn down, now just dry stacks. There seemed to be other strange items, like a cylindrical object at the end of the room on a plinth with weird markings around it or a large, bronze rectangular item that looked like it was made of thin bars of metal.

"Have you found anything?" Calvin asked.

"Not really," Jon Snow replied. He was still looking at Ahsoka a little strangely, but now turned to face Calvin. "Anything I could find is written in a strange language I couldn't understand. There's nothing here."

"Hmmm, I'm pretty good at language," Calvin said, picking up a semi-intact book and opening it up. He frowned at it, flipping through the pages. "But this is not a language that I understand. It doesn't even seem similar to any culture I know."

"Me either," Ahsoka muttered, having picked up her own book. "And I've traveled far across the galaxy."

They all began looking through the books there but all of them let off sighs of disappointment. Percy picked up a scrap of paper and saw only a bunch of scratches and swirls. He couldn't tell if they were numbers or letters or something else or maybe something in between. Even if it were somewhat decipherable, his dyslexia would have made it impossible anyway. The scratches and swirls only made it worse, scrambling the symbols all over the page. He grunted and dropped the page. There had to be something else, some other kind of record that could give them answers.

He walked over to the back wall, looking at some of the objects stacked there. There were a few more papers rolled up in scrolls but as soon as he unfurled one, he could see it had the same strange symbols on it, except much smaller which just made him get a headache. He found a stone tablet on a raised platform with the same script on it as well which told him this script had to be more important. Probably some prayer to the gods. Personally, if he was going to put a prayer on display, it would be one to pizza. Or at least the guy who invented pizza.

He found several small statues which he assumed had to be gods or something like gods to these people. He found a large, metal staff with a triangular symbol on the top that reminded him of the Eagle of Camp Jupiter. The more interesting thing he found was a large tapestry that, while was faded and worn and had a large tear down the middle, still showed an image of the desert landscape except with cities in the middle and people wandering between them. Percy couldn't tell much, on account of all the damage, but what he was pretty impressive. It also made him miss Annabeth. He bet she would have found the answer already. She was smarter than him in every way imaginable. She was probably smarter than everyone else in this room. She would have taken one look at the room and focused in on something like the weird cylindrical object that had the circular indentation at the base that kind of looked like…

Percy stopped. Then, he slowly took a closer look at the staff in his hands, the one he forgot he was carrying. The ball at the top was still glowing, a tiny bit brighter than before. And it was the right shape for the indentation.

"No way," he muttered.

"Found something?" Calvin asked across the room, now looking over at him. The others quickly followed suit.

"Maybe," he replied. "Just want to test it." He held out the staff and then pressed it gently into the indentation, the ball fitting perfectly with a soft click. He sucked in his breath, watching the cylinder thing at the top but nothing happened. Everything stayed quiet.

"Huh," he said, frowning a little. "Alright, guess it was nothing after a-" Just as he pulled the staff away from the plinth, the cylinder lit up with a bright, blue light, sending him stumbling back in surprise. The light gleamed out for a second and then coalesced above him, forming into a humanoid figure. Percy blinked for a second, the figure having dark, almost obsidian skin that seemed to shine on its own, its features like marble. It was dressed in a shabby cloak, more thread than fabric, and torn and worn down garments. The only thing that really stood out was the metal bracelet on the figure's wrist.

The figure then began talking in a mixture of screeches and clicks. Percy frowned, the sound coming a little strangely to him.

"Can any of you understand that?" Jon Snow asked, walking up.

"No," Calvin said sadly. "It is in a dialect unknown to me. I can recognize a sound every now and then but it is indecipherable."

"So all we've got is a stinking load of nothing?" Toph summed up. "Great. All that's telling me is we can finally leave this spooky cave."

But Percy paused, focusing on what the figure was saying. Amidst all the screeches and clicks, there was something else there, something very soft but slowly getting louder. Then, as he strained a little, he began to hear it. Words. Actual English words. Last, these, forced, survival, low, running, blame.

"I can hear it," he breathed out in disbelief.

"Yeah, we can all hear it, dunderhead," Toph said to him.

"No, I mean I can understand it," he said, shaking his head.

"You can?" Calvin questioned. "But, how…" he trailed off then, seeing the staff in Percy's hands for the first time. "Is that the staff from the entrance?"

"Uh…yeah," Percy nodded, unsure if he had done something wrong. "I just saw it and had a feeling so I picked it up and the end started glowing. Then, I placed it there," he pointed at the indent in the wall, "and the whole thing just started."

"You can understand them because of the staff," Calvin said slowly, nodding his head as he thought about it. "It's connecting you to their language somehow. Fascinating."

"What is he saying?" Ahsoka gestured to the holographic man.

"Uh, well I'm really only getting every other word right now, less really, so it's kind of hard, but…" Percy focused on what the guy was saying. "I don't know, he's in the middle of it now, I missed a lot." He thought about that for a second. "Hold on, let's see if this works." He held out the staff and pressed it into the depression again until he heard the click. The hologram instantly faded away. Percy then removed the staff and again, a second later the recording lit up and started back from the beginning. "Ha, who's bad with technology now, Paul?" He saw everyone's confused expressions. "Paul's my stepdad who always has to- never mind, it doesn't matter."

"So what is he saying?" Jon asked.

"Uh…well, he's introducing himself as one of the somethings of the holy something. Guess he's like their priest or whatever. Ok, so now he's saying he's the last of his…oh no, he's saying the people with him are the last of the people." Percy paused at that for a second before continuing. "They have tried to fight and hide but are out of time, forced down into the something, caves I guess. But the somethings always find them. They prayed to their somethings for something but there was no answer. Well if it's the gods, no shit, they're not really big on answering prayers for-"

"Percy, not the time," Ahsoka told him.

"Right, sorry. Uh," Percy frowned at this part. "Ok, so now he's saying that he can't blame them. His people are to blame. They are getting something deserve. What they deserve?" He frowned at that. Why would these people deserve to be wiped out? "He says that they are something their sins. This is their punishment. Now the darkness has come to something." Here the figure became more animated, rubbing his face with his hand. "Ok so he's not really talking to the recording anymore. He just says that he doesn't know something doing this. Something will ever see it. Oh, no one will ever see it. But he's something because he something something, that second something is actually him saying that, to be remembered of the last something. He hopes that something out there will learn from this and something the same mistakes but he doubts it something are no one else out there. He…" Percy trailed off there, gaping a little.

"What?" Jon asked. "What did he say?"

"Uh…he says he, or his people, killed them all," Percy translated. He heard a couple of soft gasps and releases of breath as he continued. "Now he's saying something about…" but he didn't need to translate anymore as there was a loud crashing noise and screaming filled the air. The man turned and an expression of acceptance and fear washed over him. Then something crashed into him and the recording stopped. Percy licked his lips, deciding not to translate that last bit since it was pretty obvious what happened next. He looked down at the ground and sure enough, there was a skeleton a few feet away in those same robes, though now even more worn down, and most of its ribs missing.

"So…" Toph began, "these people claim to have killed all the other people 'out there' and this guy now believes they're being punished for it? Sounds crazy but honestly this entire journey has been crazy so whatever."

"Hmmm," Calvin scratched his chin thoughtfully.

"You know something," Ahsoka noticed.

"I have a theory," he agreed. "Just a theory for now, but I don't know how plausible it is yet. I need more information."

"I think that's it," Percy said. "I mean, I could try the recording again, understand more words but I'm pretty sure we got the main gist of it."

"Have you tried reading anything while holding that?" Jon asked him.

"Uh…" Percy shrugged and reached down, picking up a piece of paper. But the words still looked like scribbles to him. He gripped the staff tighter, even tried touching the orb at the top, but nothing changed about the scribbles. "No, sorry. Still looks like my baby sister's artwork to me."

"Maybe there's something else here that can help," Ahsoka suggested, looking around.

"What, that bench that looks like it belongs in a modern art gallery?" Percy pointed at the weird metal bars rectangle thing. "Or the line of little statues over there? Face it, I think this is it. We want more info, it won't be here. This place is dead." He looked around sadly at the bodies, the last of their kind facing off against a horde of monsters. He could easily imagine it as what the world might have looked like with Kronos in charge. Or Gaea. Monsters hunting demigods down to extinction. What must have these people felt? Thought in their final moments? Percy closed his eyes, not wanting to think about it. He didn't know why he was here, learning this story, but he knew he didn't want to know more. What he knew already was bad enough. Anything else, he just knew would be worse than he could imagine.

Ahsoka started walking around the room, her hand held out as if she was reaching for something. Percy watched her carefully, her looking a lot like him and other demigods when reaching for their powers, summoning their abilities. So what was she doing? But after a moment, Ahsoka stopped, dropping her hand. "You're right," she said. "There is nothing here. Everything here feels dead. It's like the Force has closed itself off here."

Percy didn't know what the Force was, though it did sound vaguely familiar, but he didn't like the way Ahsoka described it being closed off. It sounded like something the Force shouldn't be doing. All the more reason to leave this place.

"So where to now?" Jon asked what they were all thinking.

Calvin sighed. "Well, I believe that-"

"Wait," Toph suddenly said, frowning. "Something…something's not right."

They all looked at her. "What is it…wait, I hear it now?" Calvin said, looking at the wall to their right.

"What?" Percy asked. "What is it?"

"Something fast. And very strong," Toph muttered. "It's tearing through the earth like it's nothing."

"Let me guess, it's coming right for us," Ahsoka said.

"Very fast. Seconds at most."

"What would at least be then?" Percy muttered, pulling out Riptide. He saw Jon draw his sword while Toph got into a fighting position. But then he saw Ahsoka draw out her strange handles and wondered what they could do.

"Any idea what it is?" she asked.

Calvin focused in on the area and Percy was surprised when he saw the man relax. "It's fine," he said. "I know this man. It's-"

The wall in front of them suddenly broke apart, rocks and dust spraying all around. Percy coughed up a bunch that flew into his mouth before waving his hand to clear the remaining dust in the air to see a man standing at the now broken wall. He had the same suit as Calvin, a blue body suit with an S emblem on the front and a red cape flowing behind him. The only differences were that his suit was a darker shade of blue and the emblem had a sharper point at the bottom, stretching down more than Calvin's.

"Superman," Calvin finished.

Yeah, that's not Superman.

The mystery thickens of this place but answers will still be on hold. I hope you liked Jon Snow's introduction here. It probably wasn't as cool as you were hoping but don't worry, he'll have his moments.

Thanks for reading, please leave a review if you can, and til next time.