Chapter 36 - The Underworld
published: Wednesday, 25 September 2019

Percy couldn't help but shiver as they descended into the realm of Hades. This was his third time in the Underworld, and yet, they never failed to give him the creeps. Both times before this, Percy had either nearly died, been imprisoned, or both.

He really hoped this wasn't three for three. His gaze sidled to one of the cave walls, and an image of the wall he stared at while in captivity wreaked havoc on his mind. Percy squeezes his eyes shut, urging it out of his mind.

His flashbacks were worsening ever since he'd returned from Tartarus. Percy didn't understand it; he'd pushed it down immensely after being rescued, why was it coming back up now?

Percy risked a look at his friends. Jason and Piper were missing from the lot; they'd remained on the Argo II to safeguard Jasper and the ship. Jason had confided about his nightmares about the Massacre, which Percy still couldn't really believe had happened. A lot of his friends had died by the sword over the years, and Percy didn't even have a chance to say goodbye.

He truly wondered what had happened those five years he'd been gone. Percy recalled how distraught his mother and Paul had been the first timed he'd disappeared. That had been eight months, and this was five years.

"Stop," a strong voice rang out.

Percy turned around on the slope to see Athena halted in her tracks. Hephaestus was in a similar position, staring expectantly at her.

"Hades and Demeter," Athena said again. "They're here. Somewhere in the Underworld."

Percy blinked multiple times in stunned silence. Four gods within 24 hours?

"You have to rescue them," Annabeth demanded. "They won't get out otherwise."

Athena gave her a wary look. "We are the only reason that Tartarus hasn't already attacked."

"So we split up," Hazel suggested. "Lord Hephaestus comes with us and Lady Athena goes to find Hades and Demeter."

Leo snorted. "Assuming they haven't killed each other already." Everyone knew Hades and Demeter never ceased their arguing.

Percy snickered. That was usually his job; disrespecting the jobs. He was glad to know that someone else had taken up the mantle in his absence. Surprisingly, Athena shrugged and smiled faintly at the comment. "Would do us all a favour, really," she muttered as she swept her long dress behind her and stalked off in the direction of the forked tunnel.

Percy watched as her silhouette disappeared and their surroundings visibly darkened. The only sources of light were Hephaestus' aura and their weapons.

After what felt like an eternity, they reached the point where the Cocyctus and the other rivers merged. Percy eyed them with a certain hesitation until he spotted the one he wanted.

The Styx water was black, and this was instilling such a strong sense of deja vu in Percy that he could practically feel his old Achilles spot pulling at him. Last time, Nico had convinced him that this was the only way. Now, Percy knew it was.

Percy stepped up to the banks of the river tentatively, capping Riptide and setting it back in his pocket. His ears pricked up as hurried footsteps sounded.

Annabeth had come to stand beside him, surveying the scene with the same worry.

"You don't have to do this," she said in a low voice. "We'll find another way."

There isn't one, Percy wanted to say. He knew she'd never let it rest if she did, so instead, he amended, "It's okay."

There was a soft whoosh in the air as a ghostly apparition formed over the river. Percy recognised him as Achilles, here to deliver his same warning.

Achilles pulled a face once he saw who it was. "You again?" he said with a depressing sigh. "Did the Curse not hurt you enough the last time?"

Percy swallowed down an impertinent remark.

Achilles sighed. "Well, you know the drill." He promptly disappeared again, probably till the next person came to decide their fate.

Annabeth frowned. "What's he talking about?" she demanded. "What dangers?"

Percy shrugged. "Nothing," he protested.

"If you aren't strong enough, you'll dissolve in it," Hephaestus corrected. "He could die. A painful death, I hear."

Percy gave him a bewildered stare. "Thank you for that helpful addition."

Annabeth glared at him. "This is a curse, Percy. If you're going to die—"

"I won't," he interrupted. They were speaking too quietly for the others to hear, but Percy threw a furtive glance over his shoulder just to make sure. "Look," he murmured. "We both know it's a curse because it endangers your loved ones. In the second Titan War, I had my mum and Paul." And you.

Thankfully, Percy knew Annabeth heard the unspoken words because she averted her gaze. "I don't have them now," he said, his voice cracking slightly. He couldn't call them and tell them he was alive when he very well might die within the next few weeks.

And I don't have you. Not anymore.

"There's no one this curse can hurt," Percy finished. "That's why I'm the only one who can do it."

"I could take it," Annabeth challenged. "I don't have anyone else either."

Their gazes met. Percy couldn't tell her that, yes, she still had him. She would always have him. 

"I've fought with it before," he said. "It's the better option."

Annabeth gritted her teeth but sighed in defeat. "Fine," she relented. "But if you're in danger at all, you're coming right out of there, mister. I can't have you dying right now."

With the mood lightened, Percy tried for a grin. "What, can't live without me?"

"The party would disrupt the quest, Seaweed Brain," she retorted. 

Percy feigned tilting a top hat and he stepped up to the very edge. He handed Riptide over to Annabeth, who held it tightly as she watched him warily.

Taking a deep breath, Percy dipped one leg inside and entered the River Styx.

Almost instantly, it was like Percy had fallen into an acid bath. His skin bubbled and his flesh screamed in agony, his mouth open in a silent cry. Percy's hands clenched and unclenches repeatedly, fingers desperately grasping at nothing.

His knees buckled down under him and Percy crumpled into the Styx. The last thing he heard was Annabeth crying out his name.

This was what it was like to drown. Or be burned alive. He wasn't sure which was which.

What was his name again? Why was he here? What was going on?

A deafening slashing sound broke through his mind as a whip lashed down on his back. It only added onto the pain he could feel lanced along his skin.

There was a man with gleaming red eyes and a dreadful sneer. He smirked horribly as he stared him down. Tartarus. He knew it was Tartarus. In his stricken mind, in his hammering heart, he knew this was Tartarus.

This was a personal demon who would torment him forever. With his whips and his horribly twisted smile of cruelty.

Everything about Tartarus struck chords of fear in his heart. It sent ripples and shivers down his spine, and made his chest feel like an elephant was crushing it.

He felt absolutely helpless. Like this was his terrifying fate. What had he done to deserve this?

The whip lashed again and he flinched, stumbling backwards in a desperate attempt to get away. But he was trapped. Tartarus was here, and there was no way out. 

Tartarus chuckled lowly and pulled out his sword. "Imagine an ant thinking it can quarrel with a boot." He angled his gaze up and stared him in the eye. "That's you. You never stood a chance. Did you really think you did, sea scum?"

Alarm bells went off in his mind. The sea. He was a son of Poseidon. He couldn't be held back; not unlike the sea. He remembered blowing up volcanoes. Conjuring hurricanes against Titans. Flooding the Labyrinth back in Tartarus.

He remembered being Percy Jackson.

"I don't want to be afraid of you," Percy said determinedly. Instead of his voice coming out, there was a bubbling noise. Remembering that he was in the River Styx hit Percy like a frying pan over the head.

The mirage of Tartarus dissolved with a scowl, and a new scene formed around him.

His limbs were still like acid, but Percy forced himself to focus through the agony.

And all of a sudden Percy was sliding through whatever this was. He couldn't. control it and it was like going down a water slide without being able to stop.

A dark void expanded before his eyes and Percy gulped in horror, scrabbling for anything to stop it. This isn't real, he reminded himself shakily.

Before he could slip into the void, Percy felt something grab his right hand and he jerked back, dangling over the pit.

As the rest of the image formed, Percy realised that he was hanging over the entrance to Tartarus.

"I'm not letting you go!"

Her blonde curls hung over her back as one hand held on to Percy and the other was keeping them from falling in. It was Annabeth.

"Hold on!" she cried again.

Percy was frozen speechless. Annabeth was still...

After all this time?

Let me go, he tried to say.

Obviously, she didn't hear him, but she didn't let go either. This was the same dilemma they'd been stuck in five years ago, when Percy had chosen to fall into Tartarus with Annabeth instead of letting her go.

It had been a split second decision without hesitation. Percy would have never willingly let her go, knowing she would die when she fell. Even his own life wasn't worth that.

Hope started to recede as Percy's hand slowly slipped from her grasp.

"Don't you dare let go," she ordered, tears welled up in her eyes.

I have to.

"No, come on!" she yelled, her arm on the rock wall staining to pull them up.

When she looked down, Percy recognised the dullness of her grey eyes as an admission of defeat.

"There's only one way," she whispered. "Together, right?"

In what seemed like a slow-motion movie, her fingers released the crevice that was supporting their weight and they hurtled down towards the void, bundled in a ball of warmth.

Percy closed his eyes as he brought her into a tight embrace. Air somehow rushed up his body and rippled in his hair.

It didn't matter, because Percy was starting to understand what was going on.

He focused on the small of his back, opposite his navel. It was the same spot as during the second Titan War. Almost no one knew where it was and it had served useful back then.

Percy gritted his teeth, (whatever this was) fake-Annabeth still buried in his arms.

He could envision the spot, and a rope tying him to the riverbed, but he still needed to get back. Percy pried himself off of Annabeth; it made his heart squeeze painfully but he knew he had to do it.

The rope was pulling him back as Annabeth slipped out of his grasp and she disappeared into the darkness. Percy closed his eyes and let it reel him back to the land of the living.

^^^^^

The moment Percy crumpled into the Underworld river, Annabeth felt her stomach clench in horror. "Percy!" she yelled, sprinting forward with a hand outstretched.

He could die. He could be in pain. Annabeth could barely think straight as her vision tunnelled with panic.

Someone grabbed her from behind and they staggered backwards unstably.

"Stop kicking me," Frank said gruffly. Annabeth panted as she quickly came to a stop, whirling around and shoving herself off of her friend.

"Did you see that?" she demanded. "He fell in! He could die!"

"If you go in, you'll die," Frank corrected. "We have to trust that he's strong enough to do this."

Annabeth opened her mouth to argue — yes, she knew he was strong enough, but she couldn't risk it — when a low rumbling interrupted her.

Rocks rolled down the walls as the entire cavern shook, knocking Leo off his feet and onto the floor.

"You're kidding me," Annabeth muttered as she drew her dagger and held out a hand to keep her friends back.

As it turned out, no, the Fates weren't done playing cruel tricks on them.

Blocking the only exit, there was a whole legion of monsters. Some of them Annabeth couldn't even name. There were tentacles, spears, fangs, and all assortments of creatures.

At the very head, there was a massive monster, with two Brobdingnagian legs, wide shoulders, and most noticeably, two horns and a snout. Annabeth nearly snarled as she recognised it as the Minotaur. It had always appeared when Percy was weakest, first to kidnap his mother, and later to invade Manhattan. And now, while he was busy dissolving in a river.

The floor vibrated uncontrollably as the monsters ran towards them. Annabeth didn't know what to do. She hadn't planned for a fight.

Glancing left and right, Annabeth quickly shouted her orders, "Leo take right and Frank take left. Hazel, fall back; use your powers — bury them. Hephaestus, you zip around to wherever needs to the most help." She gripped her knife tighter. "We can't let them get to the river."

Surprisingly, Hephaestus didn't argue. He seemed to be okay taking orders from a demigod. Maybe those five years of captivity gave him time to think. Annabeth hoped the same went with the other Olympians.

Annabeth charged forward with Leo and Frank on either flank and Hephaestus backing her. She clashed with the Minotaur, slashing at his thigh before sliding between his legs base-ball style and emerging on the other side.

Before the lumbering monster could turn around, Annabeth cut him from the hips up in a vertical slice, but his chest plate stopped her dagger before she could go further.

The monster reared back and kicked her away like a rag doll. Annabeth's vision flickered as her head slammed against the ground so strongly that she nearly blacked out.

Scrambling dizzily to her feet, Annabeth staggered from side to side as she tried to regain her balance. The Minotaur gave her no such time.

It attacked her once again, and Annabeth had no choice but to parry his hits before she got hit. Her vision started to refocus, but it was too late — the Minotaur promptly disarmed her and prepared to head-butt her straight to Hades.

The strangest idea popped into Annabeth's head. She didn't have much of a choice.

Pulling her fist back, Annabeth slammed it into the bull's jaw in an uppercut so strong she would've cracked the bone of a human. But instead of just a punch, Annabeth imagined concentrating her telekinesis on the strike.

The sheer force from her punch sent a ripple through the Minotaur's maw, and it was thrown back with the force of a truck.

Annabeth nearly laughed in disbelief in the middle of the battlefield. She wasn't as over-exhausted as she usually was after using her powers.

Before the Minotaur could regain its composure, Annabeth swept its legs out from under it and used her foot to flip the dagger into the air, which she promptly caught in her right hand.

Concentrating her powers again onto her knife, Annabeth drove the dagger in and it hit home through the Minotaur's chest.

The monster stared confoundedly at the gaping hole in its chest. The celestial bronze had pierced straight through its chest plate. Annabeth kept the knife in place as the Minotaur burst into bronze dust, leaving behind its damaged chest plate.

Annabeth looked around breathlessly as she caught her breath after that taxing fight. There were too few of them to stop so many monsters. Hazel looked ready to keel over from summoning so many precious metals from underground.

She threw a glance back at the river Styx. Where was Percy? She'd read stories about people whose souls had dissolved in the River Styx because they couldn't find a tether to the mortal world.

Riptide felt like a rock in her pocket. If Percy had died in the river, surely Riptide would've disappeared?

As if answering her queries, the River Styx suddenly began to swirl. Annabeth's eyes widened with a stunned sort of horror. She rushed up to the river bed, but there wasn't really anything she could do.

What was going on?

Then, like Charybdis, the black waters spat out Percy, who was thrown onto the riverbed and left groaning.

Annabeth was almost too shocked to do anything. His skin was a raw red and steaming rapidly. "Percy!" She knelt down next to him when she finally got ahold of herself.

Percy slowly rolled onto his knees, panting as he struggled to stand up. Annabeth didn't know whether she was supposed to touch him, but she grabbed his hand and pulled him up anyway.

When their hands interlocked, it was like Percy suddenly woke up. Annabeth steadied him as he stumbled forward. Something like recognition passed over the green in his eyes.

He blinked a couple of times as if to clear his vision. "Annabeth?"

She regarded him with concern. "Are you okay?" she demanded. "I thought you were dead!" Annabeth stopped the lecture bubbling up her throat. "You know, what? Forget it, we can do his later. We've got bigger problems right now."

Annabeth handed him Riptide and for the first time, Percy's gaze swept over the chaos that was the battle. His eyes widened for a fraction of a second before he grumbled, "Honestly, should I even be surprised anymore?"

She waited for him to leap into action. It'd been five years, but Annabeth could still remember the fighting whirlwind that he was with the Achilles curse. 

He glanced at her expectantly. "Aren't you gonna, give me orders?"

Annabeth flushed, but she felt something warm and pleasant in her chest. It was always nice knowing that he still needed her, even with invulnerability.

"Leo and Frank are flanking," she explained. "Avoid them when you start."

"Start what?"

She rolled her eyes at his feigning innocence. "Just go."

Sure enough, Percy leaped into action.

It was like watching a cheetah hunting gazelles. Percy was graceful and elegant as he whirled through their ranks like a demon. He wielded Riptide like it was an extension of his hand, and over a hundred monsters fell under his sword that day.

Their friends stopped their fighting to stare at him. Even Hephaestus let out a grin. They didn't even have to help.

Swords and spears struck Percy but never touched his skin.

Within a minute, the entire legion was obliterated. Dust was scattered across the floor and only the spoils of the battle remained.

Annabeth blushed as Percy held up the Minotaur's stabbed chest plate with a raised eyebrow. "Didn't even leave him for me?" he called.

"Impressive," a voice echoed around the cavern. Annabeth looked towards the sound to see three figures standing at the cavern's exit. It was her mother, a tall man with the darkest eyes she'd ever seen, and a woman with golden hair and green eyes.

"Lord Hades, Lady Demeter," Annabeth addressed hurriedly as she walked up to Percy's side. He had never been very good at talking to gods, and it would be pretty ironic for a god to smite him moments after attaining the Curse of Achilles.