ΉӨЦƧΣ ӨF ΉΛDΣƧ

THEY FOLLOWED BOB THE TITAN THROUGH THE wasteland, tracing the route of the Phlegethon as they approached the storm front of darkness.

Every so often they stopped to drink firewater, which kept them alive, but Lucia wasn't happy about it. Her throat felt like she was constantly gargling battery acid. But it was the only way she was able to keep going.

Her only comfort was Percy. Every so often he would glance over and smile, or squeeze her hand. He had to be just as scared and miserable as she was, and she loved him for trying to make her feel better. So she did her best to do the same, sending him smiles, kissing his knuckles, and simply showing him that, she was there for him as much as he was there for her.

"Bob knows what he's doing," Percy promised.

"Bob...He's interesting..." Lucia murmured.

"Bob is interesting!" The Titan turned and grinned. "Yes, thank you, Lucia!"

This guy had good ears, Lucia needed to remember that.

She nodded, "So, Bob..." She tried to sound kind and friendly, which wasn't easy when her throat ached from the scorching firewater. "How did you get to Tartarus?"

"I jumped," he said, like it was obvious.

"You jumped into Tartarus," Lucia tried, "Only because Percy said your name?"

"He needed me." Those silver eyes gleamed in the darkness. "It is okay. I was tired of sweeping the palace. Come along! We are almost at a rest stop."

A rest stop. Lucia couldn't imagine what those words meant in Tartarus.

Wherever Bob was taking them, she only hoped it had clean restrooms and sunchips.

Oh, who am I kidding, they don't even have a sun down here let alone some chips named after the sun.

Boo, I'm gonna have to eat tartarus chips.

I hope they have a garden salsa flavor...

She repressed the giggles. Yeah, she was definitely losing it.

Lucia hobbled along, trying to ignore the rumble in her stomach. She stared at Bob's back as he led them toward the wall of darkness, now only a few hundred yards away.

His blue janitor's coveralls were ripped between the shoulder blades, as if someone had tried to stab him. Cleaning rags stuck out of his pocket. A squirt bottle swung from his belt, the blue liquid inside sloshing hypnotically.

Lucia learned more of Percy's story about meeting the Titan.

After wiping his memory, they didn't have the heart to kill him. They left him at the palace of Hades, where Persephone promised he would be looked after.

Apparently, they thought that meant giving him a broom and having him sweep up their messes.

Lucia frowned, she couldn't believe how Hades could be so callous. She'd never felt sorry for a Titan before, but it seemed wrong to take a brainwashed immortal and force him to be an unpaid janitor.

They were taking advantage of the situation and simultaneously taking advantage of Bob...

Oh.

Guess, Bob and her weren't too different.

He's not your friend, she reminded herself. Stop it. Do not get attached to a Titan, are you crazy??

She was terrified that Bob would suddenly remember himself. Tartarus was where monsters came to regenerate before they returned to the surface. What if this place healed his memory?

If he became Iapetus, the piercer, again..well, Lucia had seen the way he had dealt with those empousai. Lucia and Percy were in no condition to fight a Titan. And Lucia, didn't know any special memory powers to keep him from remembering.

Clio, You couldn't have passed down a little something something?

You know, Besides memorizing every single detail of my life.

She glanced nervously at Bob's broom handle, wondering how long it would be before that hidden spearhead would make its appearance and get aimed at her.

Following Bob through Tartarus was a crazy risk for them to take. Unfortunately, there were no better plans or options at hand.

So Lucia had to suck it up, and hope for the best. But could you blame her for not fully believing in her chances?

They picked their way across the ashen wasteland as red lightning flashed overhead in the poisonous clouds. Just another lovely day in the dungeon of creation. Lucia couldn't see far in the hazy air, but the longer they walked, the more certain she became that the entire landscape was a downward curve.

She'd heard conflicting descriptions of Tartarus. It was a bottomless pit. It was a fortress surrounded by brass walls. It was nothing but an endless void.

One story described it as the inverse of the sky—a huge, hollow, upside-down dome of rock. That seemed the most accurate, though if Tartarus was a dome, Lucia guessed it was like the sky—with no real bottom but made of multiple layers, each one darker and less hospitable than the last...

And even that wasn't the full, horrible truth...

They passed a blister in the ground—a writhing, translucent bubble the size of a minivan. Curled inside was the half-formed body of a drakon. Bob speared the blister without a second thought. It burst into a geyser of steaming yellow slime, and the drakon dissolved into nothing.

Bob kept walking.

Monsters are zits on the skin of Tartarus, Lucia thought. She shuddered. Ugh! Why'd you think that Lucia?

Sometimes she wished she didn't have such a good intuition, because now she was certain they were walking across a living thing.

This whole twisted landscape the dome, pit, or whatever you called it—was the body of the god Tartarus—the most ancient incarnation of evil. Just as Gaea inhabited the surface of the earth, Tartarus inhabited the pit.

If the primordial God noticed them walking across his skin...

Enough. No more thinking.

"Here," Bob said.

They stopped at the top of a ridge. Below them, in a sheltered depression like a moon crater, stood a ring of broken black marble columns surrounding a dark stone altar.

"Hermes's shrine," Bob explained.

Percy frowned. "A Hermes shrine in Tartarus?"

Bob laughed in delight. "Yes. It fell from somewhere long ago. Maybe the mortal world. Maybe Olympus. Anyway, monsters steer clear. Mostly."

"How did you know it was here?" Lucia questioned.

Bob's smile faded, he got a vacant look in his eyes, "Can't remember..."

"That's okay," Percy said quickly.

Lucia felt like slapping herself silly. Before Bob became Bob, he had been Iapetus the Titan. Like all his brethren, he'd been imprisoned in Tartarus for eons.

Of course, he knew his way around. If he remembered this shrine, he might start recalling other details of his old prison and his old life. That would be terrible.

"Don't worry Bob." Lucia tried, "Thank you for bringing us here."

He smiled wide, "Of course friend!"

They climbed into the crater and entered the circle of columns. Lucia collapsed on a broken slab of marble, too exhausted to take another step. Percy stood over her protectively, scanning their surroundings. The inky storm front was less than a hundred feet away now, obscuring everything ahead of them.

The crater's rim blocked their view of the wasteland behind.

They'd be well hidden here, but if monsters did stumble across them, they would have no warning.

"You said someone was chasing us," Lucia reminded. "Who?"

Bob swept his broom around the base of the altar, occasionally crouching to study the ground as if looking for something. "They are following, yes. They know you are here. Giants and Titans. The defeated ones. They know."

The defeated ones...

Lucia tried to control her fear. How many Titans and giants had she and Percy encountered over the years? Each one had seemed like an impossible challenge.

If all of them were down here in Tartarus, and if they were actively hunting Percy and Lucia...

"Why are we stopping, then?" Lucia stood up, she gripped Percy's bicep. "We need to keep moving."

"Soon," Bob said. "But mortals need rest. Good place here. Best place for...oh, long, long way. I will guard you."

Lucia was hesitant, she glanced at Percy, sending him the silent message: Hell. the. fuck. no.

Hanging out with a Titan was bad enough. That Titan being a brother of Kronos was worse.

She wasn't going to sleep easily in this place, but with a Titan guarding her seemed impossible...she didn't need to be a daughter of Athena to know that this decision was one hundred percent unwise.

In her mind, Lucia imagined a mini Annabeth currently screaming at her to grab her seaweed brain and get the fuck outta there!

"You sleep," Percy told her. "I'll keep the first watch with Bob."

Bob rumbled in agreement. "Yes, good. When you wake, food should be here!"

Lucia's stomach clenched at the mention of food.

She didn't see how Bob could summon food in the midst of Tartarus. Was he a caterer as well as a janitor? Could he maybe get her some chicken Quesadillas? Fettuccine? She would really love anything, especially something with lots of carbs and cheese.

She didn't want to go to sleep but her body betrayed her, "No—Y-You sleep, I'll watch." In the darkness, her eyelids turned to lead. She blinked and yawned, "I don't need to sleep s'okay."

Percy watched her fight tirelessly with sleep. "Luz, I'm going to be right here when you wake up...I promise."

"Swear it," She begged.

"On the River Styx." He swore.

Lucia's eyes were cloudy, "Perseus, you better wake me up for second watch. Do not be a hero."

He gave her that smirk she'd come to love. "Who, me?"

He kneeled in front of her and kissed her, his lips parched and feverishly warm. Lucia hummed against them. "Sleep."

That was all she needed to be overcome with drowsiness. She curled up on the hard ground and closed her eyes.

༄

LUCIA MADE THE DECISION THAT SHE WOULD DO HER BEST TO NEVER SLEEP IN TARTARUS AGAIN.

First, she found herself in the morgue of the Princess Andromeda. The air was heavy with the stench of despair, and the ship groaned with malevolence. Shackled and vulnerable, Lucia relived haunting moments of her past. Hecate's eerie laughter and painful voice echoed through her dream as scenes of her torture unfolded. Kronos loomed over her, a dark figure reveling in her suffering. Each step felt like a journey through a nightmare, the ship itself a witness to her enduring torment.

Lucia willed herself to try to dream of literally anything else.

The dreamscape morphed into the somber scene of Quinn Davis' funeral. Mourners clad in black surrounded Lucia, their grief a palpable force. Aurora was standing at the podium, giving her eulogy. When Eunice, eyes ablaze with resentment, emerged from the crowd.

Accusations and insults hurled at her like arrows, she blamed Lucia for Ethan's demise. She cut her down to size. The air became charged with anger and vengeance. Each word from Eunice's lips etched itself into Lucia's soul, burdening it with a guilt that wasn't hers to feel.

Corpses erupted from the ground.

Every demigod, mortal, and immortal life she ever took or defeated rose from the earth. Agatha and Davis looked the most beaten, the most scary..

Stop.

A transition brought Lucia to the tranquil strawberry fields of Camp Half-Blood, but the serenity was shattered. Eunice furiously dug into the earth. The tunnel vision intensified, focusing solely on Eunice's relentless determination. Lucia couldn't see what she was burying, she couldn't see anything besides the grin on her lips and the hands that were searching for something in the earth.

Could it be the bracelet?

Then, Eunice faded. Lucia was still at Camp, but climbing to the summit of Half-Blood Hill. Where Thalia had made her last stand, a tall pine tree now stood. Overhead a storm was raging.

Thunder shook the valley. A blast of lightning split the tree down to its roots, opening a smoking crevice. In the darkness below stood Reyna, the praetor of New Rome. Her cloak was the color of blood fresh from a vein. Her gold armor glinted. She stared up, her face regal and distant, and spoke directly into Lucia's mind.

My daughter Annabeth has done well. The voice was Athena's. The rest of my journey must be on the wings of Rome.

The praetor's dark eyes turned as gray as storm clouds.

I must stand here, Reyna told her. The Roman must bring me. You must send the message now, Child of Apollo. Do not be foolish and be driven by your flaws. Be driven by wisdom. Now, Hurry—"

Oh, screw off! She wanted to say to the last part, but Reyna—Athena disappeared.

The hill shook.

The ground rippled as the grass became folds of silk—the dress of a massive goddess.

Gaea rose over Camp Half-Blood—her sleeping face as large as a mountain.

Then catastrophe struck. The earth quivered beneath her divine presence, manifesting as sinkholes, mudslides, and raging monsoons.

As the natural disasters wreaked havoc, a legion of monstrous creatures joined the assault.

Hellhounds poured over the hills. Giants, six-armed Earthborn, and wild Cyclopes charged from the beach, tearing down the dining pavilion, setting fire to the cabins and the Big House.

Tearing her home apart.

She screamed, "No!" Her rage made her face twist in defiance. "You will not tear my home apart Gaea—!"

They tore apart mine, The mortals, with their insatiable hunger for power. They mined into my flesh, tore away my mountains, and ravaged my sacred lands. They poisoned my rivers, polluted my air, and decimated my once-thriving ecosystems. Their heedless actions, driven by greed and ignorance, carved wounds into the very essence of my being.

Gaea's voice echoed in her head.

The gods, who let them, they too, with their wars and disregard for fairness. They only care for power. They tore me open. Trapped my children inside me. The injustice against my Titan-sons, who fought alongside your precious Olympians, fuels my wrath. The Earth, my very flesh, suffers under their rule. I am here to find balance, here to take back the world and detox the poison within me. This is a battle against Zeus, a cry against his arrogance. I will continue to meet his acts of violence with my own. And You demigod...You will fall, Because you are both mortal and god. The very creatures that threaten me most... I can not wake up to be the fruitful mother I once was...because they've turned me, into their monster.

Lucia woke up with a start. Her eyes flew open. She cried out, grasping Percy's arms. She was still in Tartarus, at the shrine of Hermes.

"It's okay," Percy promised. "Nightmares?"

Her body tingled with dread. "Is it—Is it my turn to watch Mi Amor?"

"No, no. We're good. I let you sleep."

"Percy!" She growled, Poking his stomach harshly.

He laughed, "Hey, it's fine. Besides, I was too excited to sleep. Look."

Bob the Titan sat cross-legged by the altar, happily munching a piece of pizza.

Lucia rubbed her eyes, wondering if she was still dreaming. "Is that...pepperoni?"

"Burnt offerings," Percy said. "Sacrifices to Hermes from the mortal world, 1 guess. They appeared in a cloud of smoke. We've got half a hot dog, some grapes. a plate of roast beef. and a package of peanut M&M's."

"M&M's for Bob!" Bob said happily. "Uh, that okay?"

Lucia smiled at him, she couldn't help but be friendly despite not trusting him completely. "All yours Bob."

"Yay!"

Percy brought her the plate of roast beef, and she wolfed it down. She'd never tasted anything so good. The brisket was still hot, with exactly the same spicy sweet glaze as the barbecue at Camp Half-Blood. She hummed in delight,

"I know," said Percy, reading her expression. "I think it is from Camp Half-Blood."

The idea made her giddy with homesickness. At every meal, the campers would burn a portion of their food to honor their godly parents. The smoke supposedly pleased the gods, but Lucia had never thought about where the food went when it was burned.

"Peanut M&M's," Lucia said. "Connor Stoll always burned a pack for his dad at dinner."

She thought about sitting in the dining pavilion, watching the sunset over Long Island Sound. That was when she and Percy started dating.

Percy put his hand on her shoulder. "Hey, this is good. Actual food from home, right?"

She nodded. They finished eating in silence.

Bob chomped down the last of his M&M's. "Should go now. They will be here in a few minutes."

"A few minutes?" Lucia flicked out her bow, she notched an arrow almost at the speed of light.

"Yes...well, I think minutes..." Bob scratched his silvery hair. "Time is hard in Tartarus. Not the same."

Percy crept to the edge of the crater. He peered back the way they'd come.

"I don't see anything, but that doesn't mean much. Bob, which giants are we talking about? Which Titans?"

Bob grunted. "Not sure of names. Six, maybe seven. I can sense them."

"Six or seven?" Lucia wasn't sure her barbecue would stay down. She thought of what Gaea said to her, This is a battle against Zeus, a cry against his arrogance. I will continue to meet his violence with my own. And You demigod...You will fall.

But that wasn't the only thing.

The Earth, my very flesh, suffers under their rule. I am here to find balance, here to take back the world and detox the poison within me.

"And can they sense you?"

"Don't know." Bob smiled. "Bob is different! But they can smell demigods, yes. You two smell very strong. Good strong. Like...hmm. Like buttery bread!"

"Buttery bread," Lucia grumbled, "Well, that's great, We're like the starters at an Italian restaurant"

Percy climbed back to the altar. "You think it's possible to kill a giant in Tartarus? I mean, since we don't have a god to help us?"

He looked at Lucia as if she actually had an answer.

"Percy, I don't know. Maybe Bob could help us kill a giant? Maybe a Titan would count as a god? I just don't know."

"Yeah," Percy said. "Okay."

She could see the worry in his eyes. Now, when he needed her most, she couldn't help. She hated not being able to make it all better with a snap of her fingers. She hated feeling lost and afraid. She hated the whole damn situation. That nothing could have prepared them for Tartarus.

There was only one thing she was sure of: they had to keep moving. They couldn't be caught by six or seven hostile immortals.

She stood, still disoriented from her nightmares. Bob started cleaning up, collecting their trash in a little pile, using his squirt bottle to wipe off the altar.

"Where are we going now?" Lucia asked.

Percy pointed at the stormy wall of darkness. "Bob says that way.
Apparently the Doors of Death—"

"You told him?" Lucia didn't mean it to come out so harsh, but Percy winced.

"While you were asleep," he admitted. "Princess, Bob can help. We need a guide."

"Bob helps!" Bob agreed. "Into the Dark Lands. The Doors of Death...hmm, walking straight to them would be bad. Too many monsters gathered there. Even Bob could not sweep that many. They would kill Percy and Lucia in about two seconds." The Titan frowned. "I think seconds. Time is hard in Tartarus."

"Right," Lucia deadpanned. "So is there another way?"

"Hiding," said Bob. "The Death Mist could hide you."

"Oh..." Lucia nodded, "Yeah, of course, Death Mist, Um, so, what exactly is Death Mist—?"

"It is dangerous," Bob said. "But if the lady will give you Death Mist, it might hide you. If we can avoid Night. The lady is very close to Night. That is bad."

"The lady," Percy repeated.

"Yes." Bob pointed ahead of them into the inky blackness. "We should go."

"Okay, then," Percy said. "I guess we'll see a lady about some Death Mist."

"Wait," Lucia said.

She remembered a vital part of her dreams. Her mind was buzzing.

Hermes—god of travelers, guide to the spirits of the dead, god of communication.

She stared at the black altar.

"Luz?" Percy sounded concerned.

She walked to the pile of trash and picked out a reasonably clean paper napkin.

She remembered her vision of Reyna, standing in the smoking crevice beneath the ruins of Thalia's pine tree, speaking with the voice of Athena:

I must stand here. The Roman must bring me.

Reyna.

"Bob," she said, "offerings burned in the mortal world appear on this altar, right?"

Bob frowned uncomfortably, like he wasn't ready for a pop quiz. "Yes?"

"So what happens if I burn something on the altar here?"

"Uh."

"That's all right," Lucia patted his silver leg. "You don't know. Nobody knows, because it's never been done."

There was a chance, she thought, just the slimmest chance that an offering burned on this altar might appear at Camp Half-Blood.
Doubtful, but if it did work...

"Lucia?" Percy said again. "You're plotting something. You've got your thinking face on."

"I don't have a thinking face."

"Yeah, you totally do. You get too quiet and your eyes get all foggy—"

"Do you have a pen?" she asked him.

"You're kidding, right?" He brought out Riptide.

"Yes, but can you actually write with that?"

"I-I don't know," he admitted. "Never tried."

Lucia frowned, "Well I didn't bring my backpack with my emergency pen, So, We're going to have to try."

"What kind of emergenc—"

"Literally right now, Kelphead." She defended,

He uncapped the pen. As usual, it sprang into a full-sized sword. Lucia had watched him do that hundreds of times. Normally when he fought, Percy simply discarded the cap. It always appeared in his pocket later, as needed.

When he touched the cap to the point of the sword, it would turn back into a ballpoint pen.

"Try...Hmm.." She thought of how the weapon worked, " Maybe touch the cap to the other end of the sword?" Lucia suggested. "Like where you'd put the cap if you were actually going to write with the pen."

"Uh..." Percy looked doubtful, but he touched the cap to the hilt of the sword. Riptide shrank back into a ballpoint pen, but now the writing point was exposed.

"Gimme it." Lucia plucked it from his hand.

"Yes, Your Majesty." He teased,

She rolled her eyes playfully, and flattened the napkin against the altar. Then she began to write, the ink glowed Celestial bronze.

"What are you doing?" Percy asked.

"Sending a message," Lucia said "I need Rachel to get it."

"Rachel?" Percy asked. "You mean our Rachel? Oracle of Delphi Rachel?"

"That's the one." Lucia suppressed a smile. She raised an eyebrow as she kept writing, she wanted to see the boy squirm a bit. "Also, what do you mean by Our?"

Percy stammered, "Er—No, Like Camp Rachel. Not mine. You're mine, I'm yours. Have I mentioned how much I love you and only you?"

Whenever she brought up Rachel's name, Percy got nervous. At one point, Rachel had been interested in Percy (And Lucia, but she was apparently real oblivious to when people had crushes on her).

That was ancient history. They were great friends with Rachel.

Still, Lucia didn't mind teasing and getting Percy a little flustered. He knew she wasn't really jealous or upset at all, but somehow he always made sure to set the record straight with her. That it was 'Only Luz'

But, also, it's always fun to keep your boyfriend on his toes sometimes. Just, sometimes!

Lucia finished her note and folded the napkin. On the outside, she wrote:

Connor,

Give this to Rachel. No one else. Not a prank. Don't be a complete and utter moron. I will fry your ass up like a s'more.

Again!

With Love,
Lucia.

She took a deep breath. She was asking Rachel Dare to do something ridiculously dangerous, but it was the only way she could think of to communicate with the Romans the only way that might avoid bloodshed.

"Now I just need to burn it," She hummed. She focused. Her hands emitted smoke. After a few moments, The paper sparked with light. The embers flickered as the paper burned up. Lucia watched the paper fully erupt into flames and swiftly placed it on the altar.

She watched it crumble to ash and wondered if she was crazy.

Could the smoke really make it out of Tartarus?

"We should go now," Bob advised. "Really, really go. Before we are killed."

Lucia stared at the dark path in front of them. Somewhere in there was a lady who dispensed a Death Mist that might hide them from monsters—a plan recommended by a Titan, someone who is supposed to be a demigod's bitterest enemy.

But yet, Bob, he didn't act like an enemy at all.

Her head started to hurt as she pondered on that. "Right," she nodded. "Let's go."