Percy Jackson: Tides of Darkness

Chapter 8 ~ Fiery Sightseeing

Percy looked amused at Bianca and Annabeth. They had their eyes squeezed shut as tightly as they could. Percy laughed softly as he released her hands from his shoulders and Annabeth waved her hands in panic to feel something.

"Percy, get the hell back here!" cried Annabeth.

"Percy, that's not funny!" agreed Bianca with her. "Now you better make sure we can open our eyes."

Percy was still chuckling when he finally decided to put the two girls out of their misery.

"MOM? Where are you? Mom? Thanatos? Lyssa? Anybody home?" he called out into the hallway.

"Hehehe!" a chuckling voice rang out. "Those demigods look delicious. Maybe we'll roast them with potatoes. When was the last time you had demigod meat, Percy?" the female voice rang.

"Nah, I think we should just toss them out to Tartarus and watch them get chased by monsters. But the monsters won't kill them, no, haha, they'll chase them until they die of exhaustion. Hahaha, that's always fun to watch." said a male voice. "Remember when we did that last time, Percy? We took turn turns throwing knives at them..."

Bianca was shaking with fear and Annabeth had her knife out and was holding it so tightly that her knuckles were turning white, but also seemed very nervous. She didn't seem so eager to hold onto Percy's shoulder anymore. Percy just rolled his eyes.

"Children, stop scaring our poor guests!" called the voice of Nyx.

But this only seemed to make Annabeth more nervous. She spun around with her eyes tightly closed, searching for the source of the voice that had so far been the only one not to threaten her death.

Why was she still so nervous when she heard the voice of the Goddess of the Night? Oh, right, that was the incredibly powerful daughter of Chaos, a Primordial Goddess, who had beaten Athena to a pulp in front of Annabeth's eyes just over two weeks ago. And now, after such a short time, Annabeth had gotten the chance for a new quest to prove herself and would probably be eaten as dinner by the Goddess of the Night and her crazy children. Why on earth had she come here, to Tartarus, the worst place imaginable? Thalia's tree was poisoned, that was obvious, but there were other powerful healing artifacts in the world of Greek mythology.

Bianca had similar thoughts running through her head. What was she doing here? She risked her life for a tree? No, she was risking her life for a home. In that short time, Camp Half-Blood had become home for her and Nico. Nico. Her little brother was clearly happier when he found out their father's identity. But when it became partially clear to the campers that they were both children of Hades, they were shunned by most. He was still too young to understand.

But some had not, Bianca remembered. Annabeth was neutral to her, she hadn't really treated her any differently than other campers. Interestingly, some Apollo campers had gotten along well with Nico. And then there was Percy. He was the reason she was here in the first place.

He was the reason both girls were here. They were here because they had taken a leap of faith in him. He had gotten them into this hellhole and he would handle this too.

Annabeth, unlike Bianca, had less trust in Percy and was currently thinking about how to painfully kill hem without being killed by his mother.

"Yes cut the crap! I did not do this kind of stuff. Well except for this one time with Uncle T... never mind. Mom, could you please turn off the 'Turn-Every-Mortal's-Brain-into-Jell-O-Mode' so they can open their eyes?" asked Percy impatiently.

Bianca and Annabeth relaxed at hearing this and Annabeth stopped twirling around while holding her knife and had lowered it a little bit.

Lyssa and Thanatos came running into the room laughing while Nyx summoned some remotes from the shadows into her hand. She looked frantically at the various devices and then pressed a few buttons. Nothing happened for a while and Percy bobbed his feet up and down with a frown on his face. Nyx pressed a few other buttons, shaking her head. Suddenly the TV sounded in the next room.