Percy awoke with a start, rising to sit. The world was dark, but...not? It was like someone had taken the world and distorted it, changed it ever so slightly to create a surreal experience. Everything he could see was dark and shadowy but, strangely, with an ethereal, ghostly golden hue. Not enough to illuminate the area, but enough to make out rough shapes. He blinked and rubbed at his eyes, but when he opened them again the shadowy realm remain with its golden hues. He tried to remember how he got there. He...was in Tartarus. But even Tartarus wasn't this gloomy. "Am I dead?" he asked so no one in particular.

"You are banished from death," a voice spoke to him. Percy's eyes narrowed as he recognized it. He could never mistake that voice, like knives scraping against stone.

Percy stood quickly, his sandaled feet striking something. He looked down to find his sword laying before him, a gleaming light in the darkness. He picked it up and was consumed by golden light. Images flashed through his mind. His fight with the manticore, the trip to the Dark Lands, Artemis, Hyperion, his throat being slit. Percy reached up and rubbed his neck. He felt no cuts. "What-what's going on? Where am I?" he asked, trying to keep the growing concern from his voice.

The voice chuckled in the dark. "You are in between life and death." Golden light flashed in front of Percy who shielded his eyes. Once the light dimmed, Percy looked. Before him stood a...a ghost, a translucent specter of gold. With curly hair and a long, pointed beard, the being stood roughly Percy's height. His cruel and brutal golden eyes stared at Percy in contempt. "This was not how it was meant to be." Before Percy could ask, his world was consumed in golden light.

Percy jerked awake again. This time everything appeared normal. Well, as normal as Tartarus can look. He was laying down on something...soft. That didn't sound right, nothing was soft in Tartarus. He propped himself up to find he was laying on hellhound fur. What? He looked around, he was in a cave. Not the one he had remembered. This one was smaller, the entrance being a few feet away from him. A small fire burned a few feet away from him, illuminating the otherwise dark cave. How did he get here? Where was Hyperion? Then it hit him. Where was Artemis? There was a crunch of boots on rocks. Percy quickly rose, checking his waistband and found Riptide nestled there. He uncapped the pen and held his sword before him. He faced the opening of the cave as the sound came closer and closer. Finally, a figure crossed the mouth of the cave, silver eyes boring into him.

Percy lowered his sword. "Lady Artemis," he nodded in respect to the goddess.

"Perseus," Artemis returned the nod. Her silver hunters' garb was still filthy and small blisters had begun to form on her skin. She held one of the wicked knives used to slit his throat in hand. He wasn't sure how to feel about that. His spear strapped across her back. "I see you're awake finally."

Percy looked around. Judging from the darkness outside, they were still in the Dark Lands. He wondered how far Artemis must have carried him in her condition. "What happened?"

Artemis walked into the cave, revealing her holding a chunk of meat in her spare hand. She placed it down on a large, flat rock by the fire. "After Hyperion slit your throat, I managed to stop the ritual which seemed to backfire. The blast killed Hyperion and Prometheus ran scared like a coward," she explained as she kneeled down in the rough ground, slicing the meat into thin pieces. There was a collection of bones piled next to the flames. How long had he been out? "It took me some time, but after confirming you were...alive, I dragged you here and have been waiting for you to wake."

"How long was I out?" he asked as he sat down next to her, making sure to stay out of immediate reach of her knife. He didn't think she would hurt him, but he also didn't know how she was dealing with being in Tartarus. Better safe than sorry.

If Artemis noticed his attempts to keep his distance, she made no note of it. "Not sure, time, as I'm sure you know, is difficult to track here," she told him as she continued slicing the meat.

"Three days, fourteen hours and thirty-two minutes," that same grating voice echoed in the cave. "I can give you seconds too if you'd like?" Percy and Artemis shared looks of confusion before a golden form appeared in front of the fire before them. Like he was stepping out from behind an invisible wall, the figure watched them with such great disdain like they were the source of all his problems. Which, to be fair, they had caused many problems for him in the past.

Percy and Artemis drew their weapons and faced the specter. "What fowl devilry is this?" demanded Artemis, looking between the golden figure and Percy.

The golden figure smiled darkly at them. "Well, we have you to thank for this, my dear granddaughter."

Percy and Artemis looked to each other in concern. "What are you talking about...Kronos," Artemis asked with a raised eyebrow.

Kronos began pacing back and forth. "Oh, do lower the weapons will you children?" he attempted to disarm them. "I am no threat to you."

"Yeah, somehow I doubt that," Percy responded, keeping his blade up.

Kronos rolled his eyes. He disappeared and reappeared directly in front of Percy, his hand gripping the demigod's throat. Or, at least, he tried to. His golden spectral fingers were wrapped around Percy's neck, but Percy felt nothing. The titan clasped his hand and the fingers phased through Percy's neck, unharmed. "If I could have harmed you young Perseus, I would have already. Alas, because of your cousin here, I am unable too." He, again, disappeared and reappeared several feet away.

Percy and Artemis lowered their weapons but did not sheath them. "Explain," Artemis demanded.

"The spell was one that was supposed to consume Perseus' soul in order to resurrect my spirit," Kronos began to explain. He sneered at the goddess. "But because of your interference, goddess, the spell was only partially successful."

"So why are you here?" Percy asked. "Why not go join your other titan buddies?"

Kronos sneered at the demigod. "If I could have I would. But because of the failure of Prometheus, I am... bound to you Perseus. As much as it disgusts me."

Percy gawked at the remnants of the titan king. "What do you mean bound?" Percy shivered at the word. He did not feel comfortable being bound to the literal bane of his existence.

"As in I am now bound to your soul, and you are bound to my spirit," Kronos said in exasperation. "How I ever lost to you is beyond me." He rubbed at his nonexistent face. "My divinity is now a part of you and your mortality is a part of me."

"Are you saying he is now a titan?" Artemis asked incredulously.

The titan king actually thought about this for a moment. "I do not believe so. At least not yet. I am much to weak for him to gain much at this moment."

"You make this sound as if it is some kind of...symbiotic relationship," Percy accused the mad titan. "As if I want anything to do with the one who killed my friends."

"What you want means very little," Kronos again rolled his eyes in irritation. "We-"

Artemis began coughing, her hands grabbing her knees in support. Kronos glared irritably at the goddess for interrupting him. Percy approached the goddess. "Lady Artemis, we need to get you to the Phlegethon, she will help."

"Yes," Kronos agreed. "Would hate to be interrupted again because the goddess can't handle the air here." The titan disappeared, like a veil lowering.

Artemis glared at where Kronos was. "Screw...you," she wheezed between coughs. She cleared her throat before straightening out. "I'll be fine, for now. Us deities are hardier than mortals. We have time."

Percy looked like he wanted to argue but decided against it. He just wanted to avoid talking about how he was apparently stuck with his worst enemy for an unknown amount of time. "If you say so. The Phlegethon is days away anyways, so we should rest and by 'we' I mean you."

"I am fine Perseus," Artemis rebuked his efforts. She kneeled down before the meat again and continued slicing it into thin slices. "If we smoke this it should last us days and we can-"

"Percy," the demigod interrupted her.

Artemis eyed the half-blood. "Excuse me?"

Percy gave the goddess a hard stare. "Call me Percy. When someone calls me Perseus I'm expecting a fight."

"Fine," Artemis relented. "Seeing as how we are stuck together for now, I will accommodate you, Percy."

"Thank you, Lady Artemis," said Percy before sitting down next to her. "Where did you get that anyways?"

"Hellhound," was all she said as she finished. She then grabbed the bones next to the flames and handed on to Percy. He noticed the bone was sharpened at one end and carved with a groove on the other. "Stab it there," she pointed next to the fire pit. "We are making a spit to hold the strips."

"I know what a spit is, Lady Artemis," Percy commented as he stabbed the bone into the ground. "Being down here for so long teaches you a thing or two."

Artemis had the humility to look a little abashed by his comment. "Yes, we'll, I suppose that is true. That you've managed to survive for this long down here is a testament to your skills and drive to survive."

"Speaking of, how long has it been?" Percy asked the goddess as she finished placing the meat.

Artemis glanced at the demigod before watching the fire. "Since you've fallen?" she asked, knowing the answer. Percy nodded to which she sighed. "One hundred and ten years, give or take."

Percy let out a long whistle. "I knew it was long but..." He let out his own sigh. "Did they live happy lives?"

The goddess stared into fire as she thought about his question. "The Seven lived long and prosperous. They've all had multiple children. Annabeth, she..." she trailed off briefly. "She lived a long and fruitful life, Percy. She became a world-renowned architect. Her work on Olympus and other sites around the world will be remembered for millennium."

Percy fought back tears as he thought about Annabeth. He knew he would never see her again. He thought he had moved past it. Maybe not so much. "Do you...do you know what happened to my mom?"

Artemis glanced at him. "Yes, Thalia checked up on her every so often, along with Annabeth," she told him. "Her and her husband had a daughter, Estelle, I believe her name was. They lived their lives as well as could be. Estelle passed over a decade ago, but she had a large family of her own. Your family continues on Percy."

Tears began streaming down his face. He was happy that his mother got to live her life, even if he couldn't be there. The thought though that he had a sister that he never even met? That was too much. The man forced down a sob as he thought of how much time he had lost. How many people he wasn't able to say goodbye too. Artemis sat next to Percy, unsure of what to do in this instance. She felt words would be hollow. So, she simply placed her hand on his shoulder, as a sign of support. He was the first man she had touched that was not her brother, at least nonviolently, since maybe Orion. But in this instance? She could do it. They were stuck together for good or ill at this point. Percy wiped his tears away before taking a long, shaky breath. He looked to Artemis and nodded his appreciation. "After we get to the Phlegethon, we need to find the Doors of Death. It's the only way for you to get home."

"What about you?" Artemis asked in confusion.

Percy shook his head. "Someone has to hold down the button," he told her, trying to make his voice even. "You're needed up there more than I am."

"Why haven't you escaped any other way?" she asked him next. "Monsters escape all the time from other passages."

"Tried that. Found several different tunnels that monsters use to reach the surface. Just couldn't escape," he said dejectedly. "Tartarus seems bent on keeping me here to torment. It's also why I am still alive after all this time. It's like time moves differently here. It's okay though. I have accepted my fate a long time ago."

Artemis hummed in thought. "Have you really abandoned all hope of escaping?"

Percy shrugged. "I cannot escape, so is my burden. So, I will do what I can to limit the more dangerous monsters from reaching the surface."

"What about your new passenger?"

The demigod huffed. "I guess I will find Prometheus, see if there is a way to undo what he did."