A One Way Trip (Dancing With Death part 2)

A Walk through the Shadows

Eliza stood with her sword pointed at Bob's neck. "You know the titan?"

Percy rushed over and lowered her arm. "Yes. He's a friend."

She faced Percy in utter disbelief. "He's a titan."

"I know," Percy assured. "but he's different. He lost his memory and now... he's Bob."

"And how exactly did he lose his memory?" Eliza still clutched her blade threateningly.

"He uh... took a dip in the river Lethe." He explained in a whisper.

Eliza didn't look convinced. "And you convinced him that he was what? A gentle giant or something?"

Percy drew a long breath. "Basically."

Eliza sighed, squeezing her swords until thorns branched from the blades and they finally crumbled to dust.

"You are powerful." Bob noted in his deep innocent voice.

"Yeah." Eliza faced. "Powerful enough to kill you if you take one step back." She got as close to his face as she could manage, pulling him to eye level by the coveralls. "So walk carefully." She turned and stalked out into the wide-open field littered with soon to be reborn monsters.

Percy turned to Bob. "Don't take it personally. She's had bad experiences with titans. You could say hating them is in her blood."
* * *
They managed to cross the minefield of monsters without incident, but the next part would be much harder. A huge black expanse stretched out before them.

Bob paused. "We should stop here for a while." He led them to a temple of Hermes. Of all the places for that guy to have a shrine, Eliza did not expect to find one in the pits of Tartarus.

Annabeth and Percy tried sending a message topside by burning a letter as an offering to the gods. Hopefully it worked.

"I'll take first watch. You two get some rest." Eliza offered.

"No," Percy protested. "I can do it. You need rest too. It's not like your immortal..."

Eliza gave him a stern look.

"Right... forget I said anything." He lowered himself onto the rocky ground by Annabeth and closed his eyes.
* * *
"So..." Annabeth broke the silence as they wandered through the darkness. "Are you going to explain what happened with the horde of monsters or do I have to guess?"

Eliza kept her gaze straight ahead, unable to meet Annabeth's gaze. "It'd be interesting to hear you guess."

"Eliza."

"Okay, fine." Eliza dropped her voice to almost a whisper. "But this is between me and you guys, not... him." She looked at the titan leading them along. She could barely see him in the shadows.

Annabeth and Percy both nodded.

Eliza took a deep breath. "When we were fighting the twins." She eyed Percy. "Jason and I sort of found something out."

"Which was..." Percy urged.

"I'm not a half-blood." She finally looked at her companions. Both of them were staring at her in disbelief. "My dad's Thanatos. I have golden blood."

Before either of them could say anything, something moved in the darkness.

Eliza followed the noise as it scurried around them. "Something's here."

The noise compounded.

"Lots of somethings." Annabeth corrected.

A figure lunged out of the darkness and Percy slashed through it with his sword. Immediately, he keeled over.

Annabeth knelt beside him, checking him over for wounds. "He's bleeding." She turned her gaze to Eliza. "But that thing never touched him."

Eliza thought back to her lessons on mythology, every creature she had ever studied. "Arai." She turned back towards the shadows. "They're curses." She summoned long thorns in her hands. "When you kill them, you get whatever curse they represent."

Annabeth stood. "So we don't want to kill them."

"Ideally, no, but in this case," something lurched out of the darkness and Eliza ran it through. They both screamed in unison as Eliza dropped to one knee. "we don't really have a choice." She forced herself to stand. "We need to move."

Annabeth pulled Percy to his feet and they all ran after Bob deeper into the darkness.

An Arai dove out of the shadows at Eliza. She sliced in in half and stumbled forward, collapsing to her knees. Blood dripped down her arms, face, legs, and back. It felt like someone had dragged a cheese grater across her body or like she'd been mauled by a pack of hellhounds.

"Eliza!" Annabeth helped her to her feet, her fingers slipping on the blood. "Come on."

Eliza winced as she took the first step. "I think that one was from Jamie's girlfriend."

Annabeth steadied her. "Let's go."

Eliza felt her body slowly healing as they pressed on, but every curse she killed reopened the wounds or formed new ones.

The first Arai Annabeth killed was the curse of Polyphemus, which left her blind. Percy was cutting down Arai with reckless abandon, claiming dozens of curses until he could barely stand.

As another Arai made for Percy, Eliza jumped in the way and cut it down. This one didn't open a wound, not a physical one anyway. It was pure heartbreak, a curse made in a fit of anger, one that was never meant to be spoken. It felt like her heart had been ripped in two, half of it torn out of her chest.

There was only one person Eliza knew of who would make a curse like that, one girl who Percy had left completely heartbroken. Ali.

Behind her, Bob began smashing Arai aside with his broom, cutting down the curses with little effort. When the last curse fell, he grabbed Annabeth and guided her over to where Percy lay on the ground, breathing weakly. He placed a hand on Eliza's shoulder and a warmth blossomed in her chest.

She faced him.

He stared intently into her eyes. "It's not real."

She blinked back the tears she hadn't realized her rolling down her cheeks and nodded. She had to focus, Percy was hurt, badly. They needed help.

Bob cradled the son of Poseidon in his arms and started off into the darkness with Annabeth and Eliza close behind.

A/N
Yay! Another chapter!
Hope you enjoyed it. I had way too much fun cursing Eliza. 😅
Anyway, thank you all for the support.
-Cheshire