Falling, that's all Percy could do.

For the last couple of hours? Days? Weeks? He doesn't know how much time he had spent falling into the literal hell of Greek mythology.

The son of Poseidon had fallen into hell after saving the girl who cheated on him. He should have let her fall down into Tartarus, but his flaw did not let him. He had to be the hero and cut the string of web attached to her foot and fell because of it.

All Percy could do while falling was think of where he had gone wrong with his ex-girlfriend. His thoughts made him forget about the defining winds on his ears and the rise in temperature the more he fell into hell. The son of Poseidon thought about when he discovered that Annabeth had cheated on him.

It was a rather calm afternoon in the Argo II, they were just over the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on their way to Rome when he accidentally walked in on a conversation between Piper, Leo, and Jason. He was about to leave when he heard his and Annabeth's names being pronounced by Piper.

"But we need to tell him," He heard the instinctive voice of the Latino boy.

"Yes, but not now while we are in the middle of a war," Piper countered and he heard Leo trying to say something back but Jason spoke first.

"Do you have any idea how he would react when he learns about Annabeth cheating on him? I know that I would react with a thunderstorm and Percy had much more power than I do. His powers will react to his emotions and the entire mission will be jeopardized," Jason pointed out and he didn't hear any of the other two argue back.

"I know, but I just can't keep going on like this especially when I saw it myself! Do you know how hard it was to see Percy's face so full of happiness when I found out that Annabeth was cheating on him with a girl from camp? At first sight, I thought that the girl was just making advances on Annabeth, but then I saw them starting to take their clothes off and I went away. Then I saw them a couple of times later doing the same thing at the same place every two days like clockwork. I have been holding back to tell him anything about it and it hurts to see him oblivious to it," Leo argued and by that time Percy knew that it wasn't just a lie.

The son of Poseidon had known about the other three questers for just a few days, but he knew that between the three of them were no secrets. Their group reminded him of his own group with Annabeth and Grover when he first started. When his mind went to those times his heart panged at the thought of it. Even if he didn't know it back then, he now knows that those were simpler times and it was just them preventing wars instead of dealing with heartbreak and fighting a war.

After Leo's words, Percy decided that he had heard enough and left for his own room. He had a hard time keeping his emotions separate from his powers in order to not cause a hurricane in the middle of the ocean while they were sailing through it.

Percy lay on his bed while his heart broke as he remembered Jason, Piper, and Leo's conversation. His tears ran out of his eyes while he quietly sobbed into his pillow to muffle them even more. He couldn't bear the thought of Annabeth cheating on him while desperately looking for him. He tried to think that maybe she was trying to find someone to tear her mind off of his situation, but when he looked back to when he kissed her after so many months, he knew that it wasn't the same. Percy had felt how Annabeth wasn't acting as lovestruck as when they first started out as a couple while he still was in the same phase. He felt how Annabeth didn't hold his hand with such determination and affection as before. He finally knew that Annabeth didn't love him anymore.

The son of Poseidon was brought out of his thoughts when he felt a burning sensation in his lungs. He looked around and noticed that he was falling into a cavern that had red clouds that seemed to be raining blood. Percy heard screams of pain and suffering from all across the cavern more than the fields of punishment in the underworld. He saw how the terrain was a deep dark red and somehow he could see around him even without the light of the sun.

Percy looked around trying to find a way to slow his descend until he spotted what looked to be a river. He concentrated on his powers to command the river to come out and grab him, but for some reason, it wasn't responding. He started panicking when he saw that the ground was getting closer and the river didn't obey his command, so in one final attempt, he pushed all of his powers to make the river oblige to his will.

The sound of exploding water took him by surprise before he felt the water's cold and agonizing feeling on his body. He made the water take him to the banks of the river before setting himself down by it while he was completely soaked in it.

Percy felt abnormally cold when he was previously sweating from the harsh hotness of the place. But before he could put more thought into that, he heard a soft voice whisper in his ear.

"Give up, Perseus, you have already suffered enough,"

As quickly as the voice came, it went away and was replaced by other voices.

"Nobody will miss you. Your girlfriend betrayed you and now you are here... alone... just like in every other moment of your life..."

"Abandoned as your father abandoned you when you were first born..."

"There is no escaping this place... this will be your eternal suffering as long as you are alive... why not let life end?"

"You have suffered enough, you have no one left to go back to. Your mother is pregnant and you are a danger to her and her new family,"

"You are a menace to everyone. Your powers scare the gods, they will kill you after the war when they know that you escaped Tartarus,"

This and many more depressing statements were whispered into his ear as he lay at the bank of the river. As the more seconds passed, the harder it got to ignore them. The voices were true, he had nobody to go back to. Annabeth had cheated on him and he could tell that she didn't love him anymore. He got the news that his mother was pregnant and having a baby, but he knew that he couldn't be there because he was a risk to them. Then the last whisper came to him. If he got out of there the gods would surely kill him for it. He was in the place where Titans and gods take millennia to get out of, if he did it on his own then they would fear him more and would surely kill him even if his father opposed them.

Just as he was about to give up hope, he felt a pair of callous hands grab his face making him turn. The first thing he noticed of the person holding his head was their chocolate-brown eyes and slight up-turn nose. Then he focused on the rest of her face and saw her brown and really messed up brown hair along with her Persian features. He recognized who this person was, but it was impossible for her to be here since she was up in the stars.

"Perseus? What are you doing here?" Her voice came out raspy and slightly familiar to the one he could remember from over 2 and a half years ago.

"Zo-zoe, is it you?" He let out no louder than a whisper.

"Yes, it's me Perseus, what are you doing here?" She repeated the question and he took notice that her voice sounded slightly worried for him.

"Fell into Tartarus," Those three words were enough to bring them back to reality.

They had momentarily forgotten that both of them were in a literal hell. Seeing each other had made them forget that they were in the one place where no divine being dared go.

Percy then started to get his senses back from all the whispering but he could still hear them very faintly in the background, but Zoe's appearance was more than enough to keep the voices away. He looked around and when he tried to move he felt a bunch of sharp and painful sensations on his back.

"Shit!" He hissed as Zoe helped him up once she noticed his movements.

"Careful, the ground is covered in what seems like broken glass," Zoe pointed out and Percy gave her a nod.

Percy finally got to his feet but Zoe was holding him up to prevent him from falling since he was exhausted from using too much power to command the river. "What are you doing here, Zoe? Shouldn't you be up there in the stars?"

The question had taken Zoe by surprise but she couldn't blame him. "I was, but about two days ago Zeus came to the stars to look for some "relief" and tried to have his way with me," Zoe stated bitterly with hatred in her words and Percy was shocked at hearing her. "After I denied and defended myself, he said that no type of Titan should be in the stars and he cast me down to Tartarus. I've been here for just over a day and was roaming around when I found you," Zoe finished and Percy was fuming from rage.

Percy had had enough of the gods by that point. He had spent four years with a prophecy on his back while most of the gods were trying to kill him. Then, he was abducted by Hera, wiped off his memory, and sent to the other side of the country to a Roman demigod camp. Then he finds out that he must go on a quest to save Thanatos and then on another quest against mother Earth. Then, he learns that Annabeth had been cheating on him while he had the opportunity with Reyna and denied her because he could still remember Annabeth. Finally, he fell into Tartarus saving Annabeth only to find out that Zoe was cast down to Tartarus by Zeus because of his horniness.

"But how did you feel?"

Zoe's question shook him out of his thoughts and focused on the huntress. "How about I tell you while we find a way out of here?" Percy suggested and the demi-Titaness nodded.

"Yeah, but we gotta first get you to The Phlegethon so that you can survive Tartarus' toxic air. I was walking along it when I saw you falling down and calling on the river. It is actually good that we are near because your skin is starting to combust and I am pretty sure your lungs are burning right now," Zoe's words made him finally notice the fiery sensation on his lungs and the rash along his body.

"Alright, but why that river?"

"It helps the souls survive the eternal suffering in the underworld. I theorized that it could also save the living and it did. It tastes like you are having a smoothie made out of the hottest peppers in existence but the air becomes breathable and the skin goes back to normal along with minor healing," Zoe explained and Percy understood her line of reasoning.

"Okay, let's go and I'll tell you what has been happening,"

Line break

Percy and Zoe walked through the burned hills of Tartarus as the son of Poseidon explained what had been happening in his journey. He ended up just telling her about his time in Rome since she had seen everything from the heavens with permission from Lord Ouranos, which came as a shocker for the son of Poseidon. Zoe explained to him how Ouranos was almost reformed and his consciousness talked to every soul in the stars since they are part of his domain. The primordial of the skies would let the souls look down and see what was going down on Earth as long as they let him know that they were watching.

Percy then told her about how he learned about Annabeth cheating on him and her attitude, which gained an unexpected reaction from the daughter of Atlas.

"You are telling me that that blonde airhead cheated on you? Out of all people she cheated on the best man in history! That stupid daughter of Athena. Shouldn't the Athenian spawns be wise and intelligent?!" Zoe started raging and Percy was slightly afraid that she was going to direct her anger toward him.

"Yeah, I just gotta forget her and move on. I just wish she would've told me instead of finding out myself. That way we could have broken up and I wouldn't be as heartbroken as I am now," Percy said barely above a whisper.

Zoe couldn't exactly understand his pain but she could feel the pain of betrayal from what she experienced with Heracles two thousand years ago. She also couldn't believe that Percy was cheated on by the daughter of Athena. She knew that women also tend to cheat on men, but she never would've imagined a woman cheating on the most perfect man.

Zoe quickly shook her head to get rid of the thought of Peryc being the most perfect man. She knew that it was true, but she didn't want to think about him that way. Before she died back in Mount Otrys, she knew that Percy had healed that wound that Heracles had left millennia ago, but she didn't have the time to think of what it had evolved to. She admired Percy's determination to save Annabeth even when they were just friends and he was barely aware of his feelings for the girl. She recalled all the times when Percy showed her to be distinct from every other male out there that she had seen, interacted with, and heard of.

The daughter of Atlas had spent a good amount of time up in the stars watching over the son of Poseidon. She did look over the hunt and her mistress, but her mistress' behavior lately has been changing her perspective of her. Zoe had seen her mistress become colder and more aggressive against any male that they encountered. During all her years as her huntress, she had never seen Artemis kill any male without a reason, but she had seen her ex-mistress kill an innocent man who got lost during his hike for no reason other than his gender.

Seeing Artemis become a cold murderer was one of the reasons she had started watching over Percy. She saw how Percy had fought during the war at Manhattan and defeated Hyperion with the aid of the nature spirits and satyrs with him weakening the Titan enough for the nature spirits and satyrs to imprison him in a maple tree. Then she saw how he fought the Titan Lord to a standstill, giving the son of Hermes enough time to get a hold of Kronos to kill himself along with the Titan. She also saw the hesitation in Percy's eyes at that time, just when she thought that he wasn't going to do it as the prophecy had said and take all the credit by doing it himself. Percy shut her thoughts when he gave the Athena spawn's dagger to Luke finishing the prophecy. Then she saw how he turned down the gods' gift of godhood in order for some wishes to help demigods, minor gods, and Titans alike. She saw how he enjoyed his time with the daughter of Athena for a few months to just be kidnap by someone she didn't know until now. She saw how he woke up in the wolf house to just leave Lupa speechless with his skills and powers. How he went to New Rome and to Alaska to free Thanatos and get the eagle back. She saw how they sailed from the U.S. to the Atlantic and then Zeus came to her.

During the months that she had spent watching him, she started to think of what would have happened if it had been Percy who walked into the garden instead of Heracles. She knew that it was wrong to think that way with her past of being a huntress of Artemis, even worse after being the lieutenant, but she couldn't help herself. She couldn't help but think of Percy taking her with him on adventures across ancient Greece. Zoe knew that Percy's values would never let him leave her behind and would have taken her with him, she knew that she would fall in love with him, even more, after she would see how other males treat women and Percy being different. She knew that if Percy had been the one walking into the garden that day, she would have lived a life full of happiness alongside his side and even have the family that she had always wanted. Even after millennia in the hunt, she had never had the type of family and happiness she always wanted. The moment she made the oath she knew that she would never have it and would have to suffice herself with another type of family and happiness.

But now that she was once again alive and with Percy by her side in this barren wasteland, she couldn't help but think that things were on her side. If there was anyone that she would be glad to be with her in hell, it would be Percy over anybody else. If it were when she just had died then Artemis or anybody in the hung would be her first picks, but after watching her attitude change, her decision changed.

Even in this wasteland she couldn't help but feel happy that Percy was there with her. She had spent only over a day alone there but it was more than enough almost to make her kill herself. She had no hope of ever getting out of there and she wouldn't dare to think of the things the titans would do to her if she got captured. But for some miracle or misfortunate event, it really was your pick, Percy fell into Tartarus right in front of her quite literally. Now she once again had hope of escaping Tartarus alongside the greatest demigod and man to ever exist and she would precious it. She could finally rely on someone to watch her back and be there with her for what they would have to go through in order to get out of there. And even maybe do something about her feelings that she was trying to ignore.

But before anything else, they needed to get out of there. First comes escape and then self-thinking.

"There it is," Percy's voice shook Zoe out of her thoughts and she looked up to see the Phlegethon a couple of dozen meters away from them.

"Good thing we didn't have to climb down a cliff. My first time to the Phlegethon I had to go down a cliff," Zoe commented and Percy was surprised to hear that.

"Wait, now that I think about it, what happened to your old English?" Percy pointed out and Zoe huffed before shaking her head.

"During my time in the stars, I decided to get to learn new English," Zoe responded as they approached the river of fire. "But also it was because Orion was there and talked ancient English and it motivated me," Zoe finished clear distaste in her voice.

"Wait, I've heard so many different stories about Orion, which one was the correct one?" Percy asked as Zoe set him right in front of it and took a sit next to him since that place didn't have any broken glass.

"As you said, there are many different stories about Orion. Some of them talk about Orion being a rapist and seducing Lady Artemis with his skills until Apollo tricked her into killing him and Lady Artemis placed him on the stars honoring him. Other stories say that Orion was killing all of the animals he could find in a way to court Lady Artemis and Gaea got mad about it since it was damaging her domain, so she sent out the famous scorpion to kill Orion and when he died Artemis placed him on the stars," Zoe said before taking a handful of the fiery water before drinking it. She coughed a few times trying to pass the horrendous taste on her mouth and throat, but soon it went away, and felt the air become before as well as her skin as she felt a bit more energized.

"But the real one was that Orion was trying to court Artemis by hunting all of the animals and Gaea sent the scorpion after him. But Orion was a rapist and Artemis didn't know about it until after she had placed him on the stars. Since at the time, it was the war against the Gigantes, Zeus ordered Artemis and the hunt to hunt and kill the scorpion that killed Orion so that no threats were free. While hunting the scorpion Artemis learned about Orion being a rapist. So after we and Artemis killed the scorpion, she decided to put the scorpion in the stars to always remind Orion about the only beast he couldn't kill," Zoe finished and Percy was really surprised at how wrong the stories were.

"So Lady Artemis never had feelings for Orion?" Percy asked before cautiously eyeing the fiery river in front of him.

Zoe shook her head. "No, she was just impressed by his skills since they rivaled my own, but she never had any feelings toward him. The only reason why she placed him in the stars was that at the time she held respect for Orion since she believed him to be a respectable and incredibly skilled male," She then signaled for Percy to do the same before continuing. "At the time it was the giant war, and so many things happened that were weird. One of them was Orion among the hunters and another was his resurrection as a giant after. But now that there are two Orions people can't distinguish them. One is a giant as an exact replica of Orion's soul, another is the actual soul of Orion in the stars where I was."

"Wow, if you never would've explained it to me I never would've known,"

Zoe nodded in agreement before giving Percy a stern look. "Now get on with it, we don't have all the time in the world and if you don't drink the water you will die in a painful and slow way," She signaled for him to do it.

Percy looked at her gaze and found out to be serious about it. He looked down and into the fiery river. The son of Poseidon reached out with both of his hands and was surprised when he felt the water being rather cold than burning hot like he would've thought. He reached the water in his hands to his mouth as he bent over to drink it. The moment the water was in his mouth he felt like he had burnt his tongue and then drank a mouthful of the hottest hot sauce on Earth. However, swallowing it wasn't any easier. He felt like the water was burning his throat like pure lava and coughed a few times after he passed it.

"Easy, it will pass," Zoe softly gave him a few slaps on his back to try and help him in cause he was choking.

After a few minutes of coughing and trying to gain his breath, Percy noticed that the air didn't smell like sulfur and wasn't burning his lungs anymore. He also felt how the wounds in his back were slowly closing and his skin didn't feel like it was on fire anymore.

"Please tell me that we don't have to do that too often because I will surely not become a fan of it quickly," Percy half-joke half-asked.

Zoe laughed, a real laugh, for the first time in months she laughed. It felt alien to her. Laughing wasn't something she was used to doing, even less a real laugh. She could count the number of times she had laughed during her time in the stars with her hands and almost all of them were from when she was watching Percy and saw him being an idiot. But now laughing in Tartarus, out of all places, because of him was incredibly weird but she couldn't deny it. She was starting to notice that only Percy was the only one able to get a laugh out of her even if he didn't know it.

"Come on, we got to get going if we need to get out of here," Percy stated after a moment of silence before getting to her feet.

"Yeah, but how are we getting out of here? The only way Titans and gods get out of here is because they climb their way up after they are reformed and in full power. The stories say that they take years to climb back their way to the top and that is with their infinite amount of strength from being divine beings. How are we supposed to get out of here?" Zoe disheartedly pointed out at the thought of having no plausible way out.

"Why we go to the doors of death,"