Percy Jackson: Sacrifice of the Legend

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(Percy)

I was sure I was dead. Pushed further than I'd ever been before. Failing to win, and dying. That's how it went in Tartarus. One defeat in combat and you were gone forever. So why am I in so much pain. Why's my whole body on fire and why's my head throbbing like it's been hit over and over again with a hammer. Is this what the void's like?

Nico told me that the dead don't feel pain. So this doesn't make sense. Even the souls in the void are dead. This can't be how it ends. It just doesn't make sense. I must be dead. I felt myself die. But I feel pain so that only means one thing, I must be alive. And if I'm alive then I have a job to do.

It took me a while, but I finally came to my sense and I realized the figure that finished off Python and the gorgons must have been on my side, because I wasn't dead and from what I could tell I wasn't a prisoner. I was actually pretty comfortable. I was laying down on a huge, fur bed that enveloped me in its folds. I tried to open my eyes, and at first they refused while screaming at me to go back to sleep, but I forced them open anyway. I looked around and I was shocked at what I saw. I sat up quickly, but as I moved the pain coursing through my body became so incredibly unbearable that I was forced back down.

"Rest easy Perseus. You will need to recover your strength for the journey ahead. You barely made it here alive as it is, but the path ahead is infinitely more dangerous and treacherous."

I was comforted by the voice, but I was shocked at who spoke it. When I spoke my voice was hoarse and barely a squeak, but I was able to convey the shock I was experiencing quite well.

"Call me Percy, Damasen. And how are you still alive? I thought Tartarus sent you to the void with Bob."

"Hello to you too Percy."

"Oh... Sorry Damasen. I'm just so surprised that either of us are alive. I didn't think it was possible that you could still be here. You fought Tartarus and helped me get out the doors. I thought he would kill you for that."

"It's okay Perseus. I thought the same thing. That's one of the reasons I helped you. I knew I would probably die, but you and Annabeth were special. You were worthy of my help, and you had a world to save. Speaking of which. Why the hell are you back here? Were you and your friends defeated in the war?"

"No, don't worry about my friends. We won, but I was sent down here on a mission from the gods. I wanted to refuse, but it needed to be done."

"What do they want?"

"They want me to defeat all the monsters and evil beings in here and send them to the void where they can never threaten the gods again."

"Huh. An interesting task. If anyone could do it you could. Perhaps I can provide you with valuable information to help. Unfortunately that is all I can do for you though."

"Why can't you help me more like last time? We were an amazing team."

"I can't help you because I'm stuck in my eternal punishment Gaea bestowed on me. I was able to rescue you because you came within the borders of my punishment, but where you must go I cannot accompany you."

"You're back in your punishment of killing the drakon every day?"

"Unfortunately yes. In truth, one of the reasons I followed you two on your first journey is because this punishment is worse than death. I would've rather been relieved of this torture and sent to the void to end it all, but Tartarus knew that when he caught me. He killed Bob and sent him to the void forever, but I was not so lucky. He put me back here and used his power to make sure I can't leave this time. Gaea couldn't put that much power into my punishment, but actually being in Tartarus allows him to torture me with it for eternity."