Percy felt homesick for the swamp.

He never thought he'd miss sleeping in a Giant's leather bed in a drakon-bone hut in a festering cesspool, but right now that sounded like Elysium.

He and Zoe and Bob stumbled along in the near-darkness (Riptide was really starting to cut through the blackness, which along with Bob turned them into the world's strongest flashlight), the ground alternating patches of pointy rocks and pools of muck.

Percy would definitely need new shoes by the end of this. The terrain seemed to be designed so that he could never let his guard down, not that he would. Even walking ten feet was exhausting.

He had started out from Damasen's hut feeling strong again, his head clear, his belly full of drakon jerky from their packs of their provisions and grapes from Dionysus' personal trellis. Now his legs were sore. Every muscle ached. He pulled a makeshift tunic of drakon leather over the remains of his t-shirt, but it did nothing to keep out the chill.

His focus narrowed to the ground in front of them. Nothing existed except for that, Zoe by his side, and Bob leading the charge. Whenever he felt like giving up, plopping himself down, and dying (which was, like, every thirty seconds), he just thought about how Bob wanted to see the sky again.

How Zoe wanted to see the stars once more. She had never gotten to see her constellation.

Nothing would stop him while that was his goal.

He was a bit put-off by his conversation with Damasen. The Giant telling them that his father wouldn't let him leave and refusing to aid them stung. The fact that his friends were in mortal danger because of him stung worse.

Percy wondered what happened after they left Damasen's hut. He hadn't heard their pursuers in hours, but in some inexplicable way, he could sense Polybotes. He didn't know how, but he knew somewhere behind them the Giant was following them, somewhere, pushing them deeper into Tartarus.

Good thing that was where they were headed anyways. If he was lucky, they'd be out of this horrible place long before Polybotes reached the Doors of Death.

Percy tried to think of good things to keep his spirits up - the lake at Camp Half-Blood (but that just reminded him of Annabeth, and that made everything feel so much worse), his mother (but she was just worried sick, wasn't she? What if she got tired of worrying about whether he was alive or not - what if she gave up hope, or worse, simply didn't care anymore?), his friends (they all hated him, why would he think they didn't? All he did was get their loved ones killed) - but everything he imagined felt like a dream down here. He felt as if only Tartarus existed. This was the real world - darkness, death, cold, pain. He'd been imagining all the rest.

He shivered. No. That was the pit speaking to him, sapping his resolve. But was it? Wasn't everything that he had thought true? All his birth had brought was death and pain to the peaceful world that the Olympians had sustained. He was Perseus, the Destroyer, and he'd certainly lived up to those expectations. All he could do is destroy, and destroy he certainly did.

Maybe they should've killed him during that Winter Solstice. Or maybe Zeus should have blasted him the moment he'd returned the god's Master Bolt.

Or maybe Ares really should have turned him into an earthworm.

He almost snorted at the thought.

Percy wondered how Nico had survived down here alone without going insane. He was pretty sure that he wasn't even sane anymore, even with people to talk to. That kid had more strength than Percy had given him credit for. The deeper they traveled, the harder it was to stay focused.

Maybe Nico was even stronger than him.

"This place is worse than the Cocytus," he muttered, ignoring the concerned look Zoe shot him at that little nugget of information.

"Yes!" Bob called back happily. "Much worse! It means we are close."

Close to what? Percy wondered. But he didn't have the strength to ask. He noticed Small Bob had hidden himself in Bob's coveralls again, which reinforced his opinion that the kitten was the smartest one in their group.

Well, maybe that wasn't entirely true. Zoe had her wits about her, which was more than Percy could say. Maybe she knew they were all about to die but felt a twisted sense of loyalty to him after everything that had happened down here. He would have told her to just leave him to his foolish fate if he could muster the willpower for it.

Zoe seemed to sense his unease. "We're in this together," she reminded him, "We'll get through this."

Maybe not then. Or maybe she knew he was marching to his death, and wanted to offer him some brief form of reassurance before there was truly no hope left.

Zoe was nice.

"Yeah," he agreed, "Piece of cake."

Lie.

All of a sudden, the darkness around them disappeared with a massive sigh, like the last breath of a dying god. In front of them was a clearing - a barren field of dust and stones. The pressure that the darkness had placed on him felt impossibly stronger now. In the center, about twenty yards away, knelt the gruesome figure of a woman, her clothes tattered, her clothes tattered, her limbs emaciated, her skin leathery green. Her head was bent as she sobbed quietly, and the sound shattered all Percy's hopes.

He realized life was pointless. His struggles were for nothing. This woman cried as if mourning the death of the entire world.

"We're here," Bob announced, "Akhlys can help."

If the sobbing ghoul was Bob's idea of help, Percy wasn't sure he wanted it.

Nevertheless, Bob trudged forward. Percy felt obliged to follow. If nothing else, this area was less dark - not exactly light, but more of a soupy white fog.

"Akhlys!" Bob called.

The creature raised her head, and Percy's stomach screamed, Help me!

Her body was bad enough. She looked like the victim of a famine - limbs like sticks, swollen knees and knobby elbows, rags for clothes, broken fingernails and toenails. Dust was caked on her skin and piled on her shoulders as if she'd taken a shower at the bottom of an hourglass.

All in all, she reminded Percy of himself a little too much. If it weren't for her green skin, if he'd let himself starve for a few days they might be mistaken for siblings.

Her face was utter desolation. Her eyes were sunken and rheumy, pouring out tears. Her nose dripped like a waterfall. Her stringy gray hair was matted to her skull in greasy tufts, and her cheeks were raked and bleeding as if she'd been clawing herself.

Percy couldn't stand to meet her eyes, so he lowered his gaze. Across her knees lay an ancient shield - a battered circle of wood and bronze, painted with the likeness of Akhlys herself holding a shield, so the image seemed to go on and on forever, smaller and smaller. It made his head spin.

Zoe froze at his side, mortified.

"That shield," she whispered, horrifyingly quiet, "That's his."

"Oh, yes," the old hag wailed, "The shield of Hercules. He painted me on its surface, so his enemies would see me in their final moments - the goddess of misery." She coughed so hard, it made Percy's chest hurt. "As if Hercules knew true misery. It's not even a good likeness!"

Zoe was practically catatonic as her gaze became transfixed on the shield. Percy grabbed her shoulder and she tensed like he was going to hit her, before she blinked and seemed to regain control of herself.

She moved closer to Percy, practically melting into his side as she tried not to stare at the shield of the man who had ruined her life. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, clenching her eyes shut and wrapping her one free hand - the one that didn't carry her remaining knife - tightly around Percy. She looked like she was going to fling her knife at Akhlys at any given moment.

Percy didn't have fond memories of the god either. When he and the rest of the Seven had encountered Hercules at the Straights of Gibraltar, it hadn't gone well. The exchange had involved a lot of yelling, death threats, and high-velocity pineapples.

Still, he knew Zoe had it infinitely worse than him. He would have to be strong at this point forward for both of them.

The goddess stared at them with her wet milky eyes. Her cheeks dripped blood, making red polka dots on her tattered dress. "He doesn't need it anymore, does he? It came here when his mortal body was burned. A reminder, I suppose, that no shield is sufficient. In the end, misery overtakes all of you. Even Hercules."

Percy wondered why all gods under the Earth's crust felt the need to claim that they won all human souls over in the end. These people reminded him too much of Hades, and that wasn't somebody he had been the biggest fan of.

He pulled Zoe closer to him, who made no protest. He tried to remember why they were here, but the sense of despair made it difficult to think. Hearing Akhlys speak, he no longer found it strange that she had clawed her own cheeks. The goddess radiated pure pain.

"Bob," he gasped, "We shouldn't have come here."

From somewhere inside Bob's uniform, the skeleton kitten mewled in agreement.

The Titan shifted and winced as if Small Bob was clawing his armpit. "Akhlys controls the Death Mist," he insisted, "She can hide you."

"Hide them?" Akhlys made a gurgling sound. She was either laughing or choking to death. "Why would I do that?"

"They must reach the Doors of Death," Bob said, "To return to the mortal world."

"Impossible!" The goddess shouted, "The armies of Tartarus will find you. They will kill you."

"I've been told I was going to die a lot, lady," Percy found himself saying, "I don't really think a few more monsters is what's going to stop me."

"Hah!" She gasped for breath as though she was being choked. "Tartarus will eat you alive, boy - I can sense your fear, your despair, your misery! You will never see the light of day again!"

Percy tried not to flinch. "So I guess your Death Mist is pretty useless then, huh?"

That got the reaction he was looking for. "Useless?" The goddess bared her broken yellow teeth. "How are you, who dares speak to me that way?"

"Just a lowly mortal," he shrugged, "I should be just fine underneath your Death Mist, shouldn't I? Or is a minor goddess like you just too weak down here?"

"Minor goddess?" Akhlys's gnarled fingernails dug into Hercules's shield, leaving deep gouges in the metal. "I was old before the Titans were born, boy. I was old when Gaea first woke. Misery is eternal. Existence is misery. I was born of the eldest ones - of Chaos and Night. I was–"

"Yeah, yeah," Percy said, continuing to mouth off at the really angry grandma, "Life sucks, we all die, uh-huh. But you don't have the strength to hide two measly people with your Death Mist. Like I said: useless."

Zoe stirred by his side, but seemed to realize what he was doing. "Weak," she whispered, "A frail, weak, puny goddess, unable to show us her true power because she knows it doesn't exist."

Akhlys wailed and glared at Bob. "Why did you inflict these annoying children on me?"

Bob made a sound somewhere between a rumble and a whimper. "I thought– I thought–"

"The Death Mist is not for helping!" Akhlys shrieked. "It shrouds mortals in misery as their souls pass into the Underworld. It is the very breath of Tartarus, of death, of despair!"

"Sounds good," Percy said happily, "Should be pretty easy for you to conjure up then, right?"

Akhlys sneered. "You cannot trick me, demigod. Ask for a more sensible gift. I am also the goddess of poisons. I could give you death - thousands of ways to die less painful than the one you have chosen by marching into the heart of the pit."

Around the goddess, flowers bloomed in the dust - dark purple, orange, and red blossoms that smelled sickly sweet. Percy's head swam. For a brief moment, he considered taking her up on her offer - he was going to die down here anyways in a little bit, why not go out on his own terms?

Zoe inched in tighter to him, and the thought disappeared.

"Nightshade," Akhlys offered, "Hemlock. Belladonna, henbane, or strychnine. I can dissolve your innards, boil your blood."

"That's very nice of you," he agreed, "And the nightshade looks lovely this time of year, but I'm afraid that I've had enough poison for one trip. Now, can you hide us in your Death Mist or not? It'll be fun!"

The goddess's eyes narrowed. "Fun?"

"Yep!" Percy nodded. "If we fail, think about how miserable and sad and unhappy and miserable we'll be when we die! Wouldn't you enjoy that? You'd get to gloat over us for eternity, killing us when even the elder Titans couldn't!"

"Besides," Zoe added, "Imagine if we do succeed! The monsters down here will be so miserable for so long, and we'll bring such sadness to the mortal world! It will be delightful!"

Akhlys paused. "I enjoy suffering and misery and unhappiness. Sadness and misery are also good."

"Then it's settled," Percy said cheerily, "Make us invisible."

Akhlys struggled to get to her feet. The shield of Hercules rolled away and wobbled to a stop in a patch of poison flowers, thankfully hiding the goddess's likeness. "It is not so simple," she said, "The Death Mist comes at the moment you are closest to your end. Your eyes will be clouded only then. The world will fade."

Percy's mouth felt dry, and he briefly wondered if he'd ever had any experience with the Death Mist before. "Okay. But… we'll be shrouded from the monsters?"

"Oh, yes," Akhlys agreed eagerly, "If you survive the process, you will be able to pass unnoticed among the armies of Tartarus. It is hopeless, of course, but if you are determined, then come. I will show you the way."

Zoe shifted uneasily. "The way to where, exactly?"

The goddess was already shuffling into the gloom.

Percy turned to look at Bob, but the Titan was gone. How does a ten-foot-tall silver dude with a very loud kitten disappear?

"Hey!" Percy yelled to Akhlys, "Where's our friend?"

"He cannot take this path," Akhlys called back, "He is not mortal. Come, little fools. Come experience the Death Mist."

Zoe exhaled, finally pulling away from Percy. "It is time."

"Yeah, great," Percy mumbled, "How bad could this be?"

It was such a ridiculous statement that Zoe laughed. It sounded alien in this dark and gloomy place.

They followed the goddess's dusty footprints through the poison flowers, deeper into the fog.

–

Percy missed Bob.

He'd gotten used to having the Titan on his side, lighting their way with his silver hair and his fearsome war broom.

Now their only guide was an emaciated corpse lady with serious self-esteem issues.

Something felt wrong about Bob not being there, but at the same time he felt weirdly at peace with just Zoe by his side, as though it was meant for them to be here together in this moment.

As they struggled across the dusty plain, the fog became so thick that Percy had to resist the urge to swat it away with his hands. The only reason he was able to follow Akhlys's path was because poisonous plants sprang up wherever she walked.

If they were still on the body of Tartarus, Percy figured they must be on the bottom of his foot - a rough, calloused expanse where only the most disgusting plant life grew.

Finally they arrived at the end of the big toe. At least that's what it looked like to Percy. The fog dissipated, and they found themselves on a peninsula that jutted out over a pitch-black void.

He knew he shouldn't be here.

"Here we are." Akhlys turned and leered at them. Blood from her cheeks dripped on her dress, Her sickly eyes looked moist and swollen but somehow excited. Can Misery look excited?

"Uh… great," Percy asked, "Where is here?"

"The verge of final death," Akhlys explained, "Where Night meets the void below Tartarus."

He and Zoe inched forward and peered over the cliff. It felt like something was staring back.

"I thought there was nothing below Tartarus." Percy muttered.

"Oh, there certainly is…" Akhlys coughed. "Even Tartarus had to rise from somewhere. This is the edge of the earliest darkness, which was my mother. Below lies the realm of Chaos, my father. Here, you are closer to nothingness than any mortal has ever been. Can you not feel it?"

Percy knew what she meant. The void seemed to be pulling at him, leaching the breath from his lungs and the oxygen from his blood. He looked at Zoe and saw that her lips were blue.

This place… it was ancient. Older than him, older than Poseidon, older than Zoe. Older than Bob, older than Gaea, older than even Tartarus and Akhlys.

It was where everything had spawned from.

And maybe one day, where everything would return. It was already yearning to reclaim their matter for itself.

It felt surreal to stand above the beginning of the universe.

"We can't stay here," He decided after a moment.

"No, indeed!" Akhlys agreed. "Don't you feel the Death Mist, however? Even now, you pass between. Look!"

White smoke gathered around Percy's feet. As it coiled up his legs, he realized the smoke wasn't surrounding him. It was coming from him. His whole body was dissolving. He held up his hands and found they were fuzzy and indistinct. He couldn't even tell how many fingers he had. Hopefully still ten.

He turned to Zoe and stifled a yelp. "You're– uh–"

He couldn't say it. She looked dead.

Her skin was yellow, her eye sockets dark and sunken. Her gorgeous black hair dried into a skein of cobwebs. She looked like she'd been stuck in a cool, dark mausoleum for decades, slowly withering into a desiccated husk. When she turned to look at him, her features momentarily blurred into mist.

Percy's blood moved like sap in his veins.

"Oh, gods," Zoe wept, "Percy, the way thou looks…"

Percy studied his arms. All he saw were blobs of white mist, but he guessed that to Zoe he looked like a corpse. He took a few steps, though it was difficult. His body felt insubstantial, like he was made of helium and cotton candy.

"I've looked better," he decided, even though he felt right at home with this new body, "I can't move very well. But I'm all right."

Akhlys chuckled. "Oh, you're definitely not all right."

Percy frowned. "But we'll pass unseen now? We can get to the Doors of Death?"

"Well, perhaps you could," Akhlys laughed, "If you lived that long, which you won't."

Akhlys spread her gnarled fingers. More plants bloomed along the edge of the pit - hemlock, nightshade, oleander, and a dozen or so other plants Percy didn't know the name of spread towards Percy's feet like a deadly carpet. "The Death Mist is not simply a disguise, you see. It is a state of being. I could not bring you this gift unless death followed - true death."

"It's a trap." Zoe concluded. "You planned this from the moment we inquired about the Death Mist."

The goddess cackled. "Didn't you expect me to betray you?"

"Yes," Zoe and Percy said together.

"Well, then, it was hardly a trap! More of an inevitability. Misery is inevitable. Pain is–"

"Yeah, yeah," Percy growled, itching to run the goddess through with Riptide, "Let's get to the fighting."

He drew his blade, but it was just made of smoke. When he slashed at Akhlys, the sword just floated across her like a gentle breeze.

The goddess's mouth split into a grin. "Did I forget to mention? You are only mist now - a shadow before death. Perhaps if you had time, you could learn to control your new form. But you do not have time. Since you cannot touch me, I fear any fight with Misery will be quite one-sided."

Her fingernails grew into talons. Her jaw unhinged, and her yellow teeth elongated into fangs.

Akhlys lunged at Percy, and for a split second he thought: Well, hey, I'm just smoke. She can't touch me, right?

He imagined the Fates up in Olympus, laughing at his wishful thinking and flipping him off.

The goddess's claws raked across his chest and stung like boiling water. If it weren't for the leather tunic he'd been gifted by Damasen, she likely would have cut him in half.

Percy stumbled backward, but he wasn't used to being smoky. His legs moved too slowly. His arms felt like tissue paper. In desperation, he threw his backpack at her, thinking maybe it would turn solid when it left his hand, but no such luck. It fell with a soft thud.

Akhlys snarled, crouching to spring. She would have bitten his face off if it weren't for Zoe charging her and screaming right into her ear.

Akhlys flinched, turning towards the sound, already swinging.

But Zoe was quick - quicker than Percy, at any rate - now that he had time to breathe, it looked as though Zoe wasn't as, well, dead as he was. Maybe it was the fact that she was slowly turning back into a Titan, maybe she was so old that she'd been turned into smoke before and had previous experience with this kind of thing.

She dove straight through Akhlys's legs, somersaulting to her feet as she tried the same trick she had used against Hyperion. Her knife went to Akhlys's heel, but even as it cut open where her Achilles Tendon would have been it did nothing to impede the goddess. Akhlys turned to strike her from behind with the reprieve, but Zoe was able to dodge again like some kind of zombie-gymnast.

But Akhlys was close. Far too close for Percy's liking.

He staggered to his feet, but was well behind Zoe's pace. He wracked his brain, desperately trying to figure out a way to fight someone while he couldn't touch his opponent.

Zoe was quick, but Akhlys grew quicker as the fight grew on. After what must have been her dozenth time avoided Misery's blows, Akhlys finally caught her by her wrist and pulled hard, sending the Titaness sprawling.

Before she could pounce, Percy advanced, yelling and waving Riptide's smoky form. It briefly glowed silver again, regaining some semblance of solid mass, and he nearly took Akhlys's head off with the blow. If he himself wasn't still smoky and slow, he would have succeeded. As it was, she had to drop Zoe and leap back towards the ledge, so he still considered it a victory.

"Hey, Happy!" He yelled, pressing his advance.

Akhlys reacted immediately, screeching as though she was wounded by the word. "Happy?" She demanded.

"Yeah!" He ducked as she swiped at his head, nimbly avoiding his retaliatory strike with Riptide. "You're downright cheerful!"

"Arggh!" She lunged again, but she was off balance. Percy sidestepped and backed away, leading the goddess further and further from Zoe.

"Pleasant!" He shouted, "Delightful!"

Akhlys snarled and winced. She stumbled after Percy. Each compliment seemed to hit her like sand in the face.

"I will kill you slowly!" She growled, her eyes and nose watering, blood dripping from her cheeks, "I will cut you into pieces as a sacrifice to Night!"

Zoe struggled to her feet and immediately threw herself back into the fray, even if nothing she could do with her knife seemed to damage the goddess.

"Cuddly!" Percy continued to instigate. "Fuzzy, warm, and huggable!"

Akhlys made a growling, choking noise, like a cat having a seizure. "A slow death!" She screamed. "A death from a thousand poisons!"

All around her, poisonous plants grew and burst like overfilled balloons. Green-and-white sap trickled out, collecting into pools, and began flowing across the ground towards the duo. The sweet-smelling fumes made his head feel wobbly.

Zoe attempted to distract Akhlys again, but the goddess had learned from her previous mistakes. She let Zoe drive her knife into the top of her skull, piercing her brain, and laughed maniacally as she grabbed Zoe from behind and slammed her into the ground.

Hard.

Akhlys took her sweet time pulling the knife out, slick and slimy with green and white and gray juices, before tossing it haphazardly behind her into the darkness over the cliff. The poison ichor was flowing all around him now, making the ground steam and the air burn. Percy found himself stuck on an island of dust not much bigger than a shield. A few years away, his backpack smoked and dissolved into a puddle of goo. Percy had nowhere to go.

He fell to one knee. He wanted to tell Zoe to leave him, and to toss her Anaklusmos, but he couldn't speak. His throat was as dry as dead leaves.

Percy wished the Phlegethon was here. Then this wouldn't even be a contest. Or maybe even the Cocytus - anything was better than nothing at this point. He'd even settle for a bottle of Evian.

"You will feed the eternal darkness," Akhlys crowed, "You will die in the arms of Night!"

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Zoe struggling to her feet, but the poison was already well on its way to her as well. She stumbled as she inhaled the toxic fumes before collapsing once again. The white-green poison kept pooling, little streams trickling from the plants as the venomous lake around him got wider and wider. Some of it splashed against his arm, eating away at the flesh for a brief moment before it ran out.

Percy howled in agony. Akhlys laughed as she savored their misery.

He reached for his blood once more, but couldn't maintain the focus to speed up his heart again. His blood felt like the thickest maple syrup imaginable, and he could barely keep himself breathing at this point, much less giving himself a boost.

So he turned to the poison. It was a liquid, just like water, blood, and ichor, right? If it had any water in it, chances were he could control it.

Percy remembered some science lecture about the human body being mostly water. He remembered extracting water from Jason's lungs back in Rome… if he could control that, if he could control his own blood, if he could control the ichor in Hyperion's body, then why not other liquids?

It wasn't that crazy. He was known for having power beyond what should have been capable of a mere demigod son of Poseidon.

So why not try? He had nothing left to lose.

It was a lot easier than he thought. In a split second, the poison had gone from encroaching on his little island to roaring back towards Akhlys. The fumes were quick to follow, and the goddess had just about zero time to react before she was consumed by her own creation.

He was careful to avoid Zoe. He didn't know what he'd do to himself if he accidentally harmed her.

Akhlys screamed. "What is this?!" She wailed, "What is happening?!"

"Poison," he sneered, "It's your specialty, isn't it? It wasn't difficult for me to take it from you, I guess I was right when I called you weak.

Gods, this felt good. He breathed in deeply as Akhlys continued to screech and groan in pain, the sound of her suffering music to his ears.

He stood, anger building up in his gut as he regained control of his body. He could dimly see Akhlys beginning to cough as the fumes caught up with the acid, tears beginning to flow from her bloody eyes as well.

Good. More water.

Her own tears turned against her, choking her as the poison she had attempted to submerge them in began to work its magic on its creator.

"Percy!" Zoe called.

Percy ignored her. He opened a path for her to reach him, and willed the remaining pockets of poison to chase Akhlys. She had retreated to the edge of the cliff to the best of her ability, but she was dangerously close to falling in.

"Stop," she pleaded, her voice hoarse.

Stop? Why should he stop? She had tried to kill them, had savored their seemingly final moments of life, and now had the audacity to try and beg for her life?

No, Percy would make her suffer. He'd take it nice and slow from here on out.

The poison receded slightly, but only enough for her to escape it. The moment she was free from its grasp it surged forward again, inching closer and closer with no signs of stopping.

Percy wanted to choke the goddess. He wondered if he could make chains out of the poison. He wanted to drown her in the poison, and wondered how much she could take before she died. She had taken a knife to the brain earlier, so maybe this would be a good way to pass the time.

He wanted to see how much misery Misery could take.

Zoe finally reached him, flinging herself into his arms and sobbing. He was honestly surprised that they were able to interact, considering how he was still ninety percent smoke.

"Percy, please," she whispered into his ear, "Stop. We need to leave. This place is killing us. We need to hurry to the Doors while we still can."

Percy frowned. Why did Zoe want to stop? Was she not enjoying this the same way he was? That goddess had thrown away Zoe's only weapon, something that she had likely held onto for centuries if not more. Shouldn't she be enjoying this as much as he was?

Reality hit him like a truck as he remembered who he was. Where he was.

What he was doing.

The poison disappeared from around Akhlys within seconds.

"Leave!" He shouted at her.

She squealed like a dying pig, and ran from the cliff quicker than he would have expected from an emaciated ghoul. She was gone in seconds, recovering from a fall onto her face remarkably quickly and fleeing into the darkness. Maybe she'd die from her wounds regardless of his mercy.

That thought didn't do much to soothe his shattered mind.

Percy collapsed to his knees. The poison disappeared without her support, and the plants withered away and turned to dust not long after.

He shook uncontrollably as the weight of his actions - of everything he'd done since he'd fallen into this place - finally caught up to him. The way even the monsters down here saw him as evil. The way even Hyperion had looked at him in fear and begged for his life. The way the arai and the empousai and Akhlys were likely scarred for life by how dangerous and violent and evil he was.

His mind shattered underneath the weight of his sins.

"Z–Z–Zoe," he gasped, shuddering, "I–I'm so–sorry."

Zoe held him close, hugging him tightly as he broke down in her arms once again. "It's okay," she soothed, "It's okay. Thou did what thou had to do to save us. It's okay. We're going to get out of here. Everything is going to be okay. Thou saved me again. We've got to leave, now, Percy. Let us hurry."

Lie. Nothing was okay. Everything was wrong down here. Everything was wrong with him. Why was she not running from him in fright? If she was smart she'd flee as quickly as she could, and abandon him to whatever other monstrosities lurked within Tartarus's depths. Bob would take care of her, he was sure. Why was she not running yet?

Zoe seemed to notice the troubled look in his eyes, as well as the fact that he wasn't making any attempt to move.

"Percy," she whispered, eyeing the cliff nervously, "We have to get out of here. Away from the cliff. If Akhlys– if she brought us here as some kind of sacrifice…"

Percy tried to think. He really did. He was getting used to moving with the Death Mist around him. He felt more solid, more like himself. But his mind still felt stuffed with cotton.

"Night," he murmured, "She was going to kill us for night. What was that about?"

The temperature dropped several dozen degrees. The abyss before them seemed to exhale.

Zoe gaped, dragging Percy's body away from the edge as a presence emerged from the void - a form so vast and shadowy, he felt like he truly understood the concept of dark for the first time in his life.

"I imagine," said the darkness, in a feminine voice as soft as coffin lining, "That she meant Night, with a capital N. After all, I am the only one."

–

A/N: Two chapters in seven hours! Do I have problems? Maybe? A bad sleep schedule? Definitely. But Chapter 11 is here, and I'm sure Chapter 12 won't be long either! The only question is if my hands will fall off sooner or later.

Percy finally had his big break! Unfortunately, not in a good way. How will our hero recover as he stares down certain death for *checks notes* like the eighth chapter so far? Will he recover? That's for me to know and you to find out!

Hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you thought! I write this stuff for you all, after all! I wanna know what you think of the chapter and the story!