One reptilian eye shone through the darkness, nearly making my heart stop as its gaze locked on me. Then, the head of a giant snake whipped out from the abyss, and its body followed. As large as the apartment building I lived in and impossibly long, even as it closed the distance towards me, there was always more emerging from nowhere.
"I know why Mother brought you here, demigod." The snake's colossal body encircled me; its slotted amber eye locked on me as it slowly closed in. "Her arrogance will be the death of your kind. No one has ever dared to mess with my tapestry before."
Crisscrossed down the scales of this giant beast were countless lines of varying colors, making it look like this creature's last fight was with an army of toddlers armed with permanent markers. It was disorienting to track the beast's head as it circled around and around, closer and closer. A claustrophobia-induced panic urged me to run, to jump, to do anything, but my legs were locked in place.
"I've spun the threads of fate long before this universe came into existence, and I will continue to weave long after everything ceases to exist. My work cannot simply be rescinded." The distinctly feminine voice coming from the snake now grew in intensity as the deep rumble of scales on the ground got louder. Colored scales blurred as its speed seemed to increase by the second, and what little room I previously had to move disappeared in no time at all. The pressure of its body pressed on all sides of me, constricting, suffocating. "No one will alter my work, not Mother, not Gaia, and especially not an insect like you."
My limbs started to go numb. Even as I gasped for air, my lungs couldn't expand under the pressure. Black spots formed in my vision, growing and spreading like a cancer as I felt my consciousness slipping from my grasp. Through the cloud of mental panic and the roar of the blood rushing to my head, I managed to make out a second voice.
"Enough with this childishness Ananke."
In an instant, all the pressure was released, and I tumbled to the ground, gasping for air. My heart was beating out of my chest, and as circulation and feeling slowly returned, pain-filled the void of numbness. I found myself finally able to move.
Rising slowly to my feet, I took in my surroundings. Rough, cold stone lined the ground, and the air was as putrid as it had been in Tartarus, but instead of the red haze, a smoke-like dark fog seemed to hang in the air. Making only the nearby nothingness visible and slowly fading to black the further you looked.
"Hello?" I called out into the darkness, only to receive no response.
Where am I?
Rising slowly to my feet, I took a hesitant step forward, nearly falling to the ground as my foot slipped on the steep decline of a groove carved into the ground. It was about ten feet deep, with a slight ripple pattern running all of the length I could see in both directions.
Did the giant snake do this?
"Yes, she did." The voice from before came from right behind me. I whipped around, reaching into my pocket as I did. A small hand hit me in the chest as I uncapped Riptide, sending me tumbling backward into the groove. I tumbled for a second, and a groan escaped my lips as my poor body screamed in protest of its recent abuse.
Scrambling for my sword, I looked back up at my attacker, only to meet the eyes of a girl no older than twelve grinning down at me. She had skin black as ink and wore a spotless white toga that only seemed to accentuate the shocking contrast. Her straight, long brown hair swirled and swished above her to a non-existent wind, defying gravity.
"You'd pull your blade on a child?" She mocked me. "Some hero you are."
"No normal child looks like an Exorcist sequel waiting to happen." I could feel a splitting headache forming. But I didn't dare take my eyes off this girl. "Where am I? Who are you? And where's Annabeth?"
"Exorcist?"
That's what she focuses on?
"It's a movie," I said, humoring the strange little girl who managed to vanquish a colossal snake with just her words.
"Movie?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"It doesn't matter." I brought my arm up to my head, hopefully, to alleviate some of the pressure, but stopped when I noticed a wrangled hand mark burned into my skin over my SPQR tattoo. Black veins sprouted from the mark and ran up my arm. "What did you do to me?"
"Nothing." I turned to glare at her, but she seemed just as surprised as I was. "And neither did Ananke."
"I wouldn't call nearly squeezing me to death and pushing me backward into a hole in the ground; nothing." I rebutted.
"Water under the bridge." She waved her hand dismissively.
"I don't think the aggressor is the one that gets to decide that."
"You did pull a sword on me." She brushed me off, jumping up and sliding down into the groove like it was a slide at a park. I stepped backward wearily, but she made finger guns at me, and after one pull of the trigger and a childish "Pew," my body was frozen in place. Grabbing my arm and inspecting it, she frowned. "Clever girl. I thought I grabbed you in time."
Did she just quote Jurassic Park? I thought she didn't know what movies were. Like she could read my thoughts, her look of concentration melted into a cheeky smile as she continued to examine me.
"Akhlys' was always a little ill-tempered…" She muttered to herself, "No matter. It shouldn't kill you, but I doubt it'll be fun to live with," Her brilliant smile contrasted with her dark words. "Luckily, like all curses, it can be broken."
Great, just great.
"The answers you are looking for can be found in the stars." She started to float off the ground, rising up and out of the pit I was still stuck motionless in. Before she disappeared over the lip, she looked back and spoke one final time. "Tell them hello for me."
The name Akhlys sent off alarm bells ringing in my head. That's right. Annabeth and I were betrayed by Akhlys. The world around me swirled, and darkness swallowed me whole. The ground disappeared beneath me, and I felt the sensation of falling. Tumbling to nothing, from nothing. Annabeth didn't make it. Images of her downed form marred with chemical burns surrounded me as I fell. No matter where I looked, I saw her face. A scream ripped through the void, ringing my ears and making the delusions cease, but whether it was hers or mine, I didn't know.
How could I have forgotten?
"Percy!" Annabeth screamed. I stood frozen as a stream of poison ichor snaked up her leg, bringing her to her knees. I tried to move, but my entire form felt like tissue paper. I threw my backpack in desperation, its smoky form only flew half the distance it should've and landed on the russet earth with a soft thud before dissolving into goo.
"Hey, Happy, over here!" I yelled.
It didn't work.
I stumbled forward, trying to reach her in time, but one of my shoes snagged on the uneven ground, sending me to the floor. I could only stare hopelessly as Annabeth's screams of pain turned to gurgling, then finally to silence. She collapsed lifelessly like a marionette with its strings cut and landed with a small thud. Her gray eyes, unfocused and hollow, stared past me.
Satisfied with her work, the goddess' shriveled form turned to face me, focusing her sunken-beady eyes on me. The lake of poison snaked its way towards me, encircling me. Soon, I was on an island no larger than the shield Tyson had made me, and I was getting smaller by the second.
I glanced at Annabeth, her smoking corpse sizzling as it liquefied just a few feet away, and a primal anger filled me. I knew we shouldn't have come here. I told Bob that this didn't feel right, and now Annabeth is dead. It can't end like this.
A sadistic smile lit up Misery's face while my mind raced a million miles a second. Then it hit me. Lake of poison. Lake. I was able to deflect the poisoned water that Polybotes threw at me. Maybe I can control this, too.
I focused so hard on the advancing liquid that the pull in my gut extended to a strain across my entire body. Then, something inside me snapped, a warmth traveled through my veins, and the poison reversed its course.
"What is this!?"
Akhlys' shrill shriek tickled me. A hysterical laugh escaped me as each step I took toward her was filled with renewed strength. I was faintly aware of the metallic taste in my mouth as a stream of blood trickled down from my nose.
"What's the matter, Joy? Isn't this your specialty?"
I'd never felt so alive. Fury roared in my ears, drowning out her pitiful cries. The fumes worked their way into her face as she choked and sobbed, cornered on the edge of Chaos.
Then, she raised her eyes up to meet mine, and I froze in my tracks, the exhillerating heat that flowed through my body stopped fizzled out. The poison under my command ceased its onslaught, splashing unceremoniously to the ground.
Akhlys wasn't crying.
She was laughing.
"You feel it too. The power that comes when there's nothing left but misery." My blood ran cold when she gestured one raggedly decrepit hand towards Annabeth. "And all it took was for that pathetic girl to meet her demise."
My eyes tracked the distance between us, and I went into autopilot.
I'm sorry Annabeth, I couldn't save you.
"Now go on, free the Doors. Complete the prophecy."
I'm sorry, Mom. I'm not coming home.
Misery shrieked in surprise as I lunged forward, and by the time I realized what I'd just done, both of our feet were off the ground, and we were flying right over the edge of Tartarus.
And right into the abyss.
AN: I finished reading Wait For Me Yesterday In Spring by Mai Hachimoku the other day (amazing story, I wholeheartedly recommend that and The Tunnel To Summer The Exit of Goodbyes by the same author if you're looking for something to read), and it gave me an idea. Cannon went the way it did for a reason. Percy was still clinging onto the hope of living a real life, finishing school, getting a job, having a family, y'know, the works, so he was a part-time hero in a war being fought year round. When a character as strong as Percy becomes in the HOO series is sent back with absolutely nothing to lose, he has the power to tip the balance of power in favor of the demigods. But, at the same time, there's no way he'll allow the same events to unfold, potentially dealing with some of Kronos' allies but also maybe accidentally pushing some former allies into enemy hands…