The Arrow of Light | A Percy Jackson Fanfiction

Chapter Twenty Two - I Reach the Six Hundredth Floor

"So how am I supposed to feel when I see it?" I asked, "In awe? Fear? Fascination? The strong urge to bungee jump?"

Percy shook his head, "It's not best idea to jump in there. Believe me..." His voice faded out into fear as he shivered.

The onocentaur kneed him in the back, and Percy fell onto the ground, falling too close for comfort by Tartarus' edge. I rushed to help him, but Drew's arm blocked me.

"Not yet, darling," She said, "Lance, sweetie, please unlock the case for us. None of us know how to do it, and frankly, I don't want to damage these nails," She held up her pink manicured hands and I was tempted to snap each individual finger joint, "And also, Lord Kronos left it especially for you."

Lance gave a weird look, and held out his ropes for someone to cut off. Serena silently sliced them away, and he came up to me. "Sorry for pulling you in this mess..." He muttered under his breath, "But I seriously have no idea what's going on, I swear on my father's name, whoever he is."

"It's fine," I said with a steely look as I handed him the case. Lance looked at me apologetically as he fumbled with the numbers. But the surprising thing was: He didn't remove his eyes from me. You would think that at some point you're going to have to look down to get the job done. But he just stared at me as he unlocked the case within a couple seconds. I gaped at him in shock and he held it back up to me.

"There you go," He sighed wistfully, "One Arrow of Light ready."

Annabeth gasped as her blond hair tumbled over her face, "I was wondering why you looked so familiar! He's a son of-!"

"He's a very special one indeed," Drew nodded as one of her minions covered Annabeth's mouth with his hand, "Alright dear, bring back Kronos for us, okay?"

Annabeth ground her teeth into the onocentaur's hand as if she was eating a corn-on-the-cob, and the monster shrieked in pain.

"Really? Like right now?" I warily held the case as I ignored the monster's cry for help because Annabeth wouldn't release him, "I was expecting something though, like an explosion. Something that would stop us from freeing him-."

The shadows under our feet moved, and in the blink of an eye, Nico came out of nowhere. Before anyone could react, he had already slashed away Percy and Annabeth's bonds, and was angrily punching an onocentaur in the head. "Hey, welcome back Nico!" Percy grinned as he pulled out his pen. Uncapping it, it turned into a sword and he held it out in front of him confidentially, "We were waiting for you, but you never showed up."

"Sorry," He paused his punching, "I had some business to take care of." He looked at Lance with questioning eyes, and decided to shake it off as he turned around to help Piper.

"Ugh!" Drew shrieked as she stomped madly, "Just when we had everything under control. Stymphalians, get them!" Immediately, a swarm of birds flew out of the tunnel we just came out of and pecked at our heads.

"Not these again!" Jason complained as Annabeth helped him get free. He pulled off the helmet on his head, flipped his coin, and to my shock, it turned into a javelin. He started swiping the birds as if he was trying to hit a piñata full of candy.

No time to be amazed, I found myself pushed towards the brink of Tartarus and a knife close up at my chin. "Listen, hon," She stressed out the word, and I had a feeling there was malice behind those words, "If you don't hurry up and finish the job, I will personally take you out myself. I'm not worried to get my hands a little dirty if it means that Kronos won't kill me out of anger." She snapped her fingers, "Serena! Get the gold coffin ready!"

The little girl stopped in mid-fight, swiftly kicked Piper on the cheek, and ran back into the tunnel. "That girl really packs a punch," Piper carefully touched her cheek, "But she won't be when I give her one!" She ran as fast as she could after Serena, hopefully thwarting Drew's plan because the beauty queen grunted in frustration.