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Camp Half-blood was swarming with monsters- slowly, but surely, losing the last fight against Gaia.
Where was everyone?
Her dagger slashes through the hordes of monsters which encroach upon the pavilion; blood and dust forming a thick mist which wove through the battle. Vesper danced between the dark figures around her, her vision blurry and heart racing in fear. She had escaped Tartarus just to be thrust into another war.
Out of the frying pan, and into the fire.
Distantly, the gaunt girl heard voices she recognised as other children of the gods, though they sounded far away and distorted.
Why haven't they come to help?
Vesper surely couldn't hold all the monsters off for much longer. She had the undead army she had summoned earlier, though most of the skeletons had crumbled under the pressure of battle by now. The cacophony of blades crashing and monstrous shrieks drowned out any further thoughts within Vespers twisted mind."My sacrifice... bring me my sacrifice..." an ancient voice rumbles beneath Vesper, sounding both old and young, evil and pure. Gaia.Vesper pulls the shadows around her into a tall wall of pure night, shoving it outwards and into the monsters circling her. Most went down immediately.
Why were they bleeding though? Why did the monsters not dissolve into dust, like normal?
She gasps in pain as a bronze sword slices at her side, her narrowed eyes darting up to a figure standing tall above her. Her own blade jerks outwards, jabbing sharply at the attacker, who dodges her attack.The slice in Vesper's side begins to knit shut rather quickly -the skin feeling itchy and raw for a moment- but not before a single drop of sanguine blood could drop to the earth.Everything seems to pause then, the world freezing around her. Vesper looked between the oddly still monsters around her, to the small speck of crimson on the pavilion stones.No."Yes... My sacrifice!"
that horrid voice of Gaia echoes, the earth rumbling under Vespers feet, wicked laughter filling her ears.And then all hell broke loose.
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Arachne's lair was a mess of crumbling stone, dust, and blankets of spider silk. Based on the catastrophe that surrounded Vesper and the other demigods, Annabeth had fought one hell of a fight against the spider. Vesper gingerly steps over a chunk of a fallen pillar, her beat up sneakers covered in chalky grit, crunching against the floor.“So the mortal side is in Epirus,” Annabeth said, pausing before continuing, “At least that’s somewhere we can reach.” Vesper looked over her shoulder to see Nico grimace. She -Annabeth- was talking about the Doors of Death, which were the difference between the gods and their children winning, or losing this war. They had to be closed -on both sides- or hordes of monsters would be able to escape the underworld, and reenter the mortal realm.And
that
would be a bit inconvienent.“But the other side is the problem. Tartarus,” Annabeth continues, a tone of finality in her voice. The word echoed around the chamber, and an uncanny exhale of cold air released from the pit in the centre.Vesper was drawn towards this pit, which was dark and cold, a steady sense of unease seeping into the lair from it.The floors marble and stones had cracked, crumbled, and fallen– revealing the large hole that seemed to endlessly go down. Tartarus. The pit, without a doubt, led straight to the underworld.Vesper shuddered, backing away from the pit as quickly as she had walked towards it. A few strides ahead of her, Percy was leading Annabeth away as well, who had trails of spider webs and silk trailing from her limbs, almost like a bridal train.Vesper tuned out the rest of the conversation, prodding the cut along her cheekbone, her face vaguely reflected in an overtly smooth piece of marble. She had been healthy and clean looking before this quest, but now her face was pale and haggard; smeared with dust, and blood from her cut.Her eyes were still their usual bright green, though an aching purple was beginning to bloom below her left eye.The racket of shouting and the rumbling of the cavern around her snapped Vesper out of her own thoughts. The Athena Parthenos had fallen to its side, its head caught on one of Arachne’s support cables of spider silk.It was secured for now, though the marble floor below its pedestal was slowly crumbling.“Vesper! Hurry up!” Hazel shouted at the wide eyed demigod, who had -until then- been staring at the crumbling floor and pit.What had gotten into her lately? She never just stood around. This quest was taking a toll on the child of Hades.She looked once more at Percy and Annabeth, who were standing a bit too close for comfort to the pit, before turning towards the rope ladder which hung from the Argo II.It seemed like the Parthenos would be fine -Jason, Frank, and Leo had it under control- and so would those two if they hurried up. Vesper’s hand was on the bottom rung of the ladder when Hazel shouted in a panic above her, “Cut it! Cut it!”
Cut it?
Vesper looked up to see her half-sister above her on the ladder, staring down at Annabeth and Percy in horror.
She -Vesper- then looked over her shoulder, feeling as if she’d catch whiplash from how much she’d been turning in the past few minutes. Her eyes widened at the scene a few feet from her: spider silk tangled around Annabeth' s limbs, dragging her -and Percy along with her- towards the pit.
They were going to fall into Tartarus.
Percy and Annabeth were about to fall into Tartarus.
Nico seemed to have the same idea as her, and both children of Hades dashed as quickly as possible towards Annabeth. By the time they got there, the two had fallen over the edge, Percy holding onto a ledge with one hand, and Annabeth with the other.
An endless void sat below them, appearing as the gruesome maw of some gargantuan creature, trying to feast on two of Vespers friends.
No.
“Hold on!” she shouted, voice shaking in her panic.
No, she couldn't lose two more of her friends to this war. She wouldn't.
“Nico, grab Percy!” she shouted.
Nico dropped to the ground, leaning over the pit to reach for Percy’s hand, which he just barely reached.
Vesper dropped down beside him, shuffling forwards till her shoulders were over the edge of the pit, and her hands could reach Nico’s and Percy’s.
Her shoulders and arms screamed in pain as she pulled with all her might alongside Nico, slowly pulling their friends up from a sure death.
A sharp, sickening pop echoes from down below, a guttural cry of pain escaping Annabeth.
After a few moments of sheer panic and hauling, the two were freed from the void of a pit, Nico’s blade quickly slicing through the spider silk connected to Annabeths leg.
Annabeth had passed out, presumably from the sheer pain of her bad leg, a seemingly out-of-socket shoulder, or the fear.Percy’s eyes were wide, hands still tightly clasped around Annabeth’s wrist.
"Annabeth?" He asks, voice panicked, shaking her for a moment and checking she was still breathing. After confirming she was fine he lets out a low, relieved sigh.
“Riptide. Where’s Riptide?” he asked, voice breathless as he patted his pockets with his free hand.
Vesper frowned, leaning back over the pit despite her mind telling her not to.
There, on a ledge a few feet below, sat Percy’s sword.“It’s down there. Shouldn't it come back on its own?” she questions, looking from Percy -still sprawled on the ground beside Annabeth- to the sword below.
“It would have by now,” he replies with a confused frown.
Vesper doesn't think before focusing her energy on the shadows around her, pulling them towards herself.
Nico’s voice cracked through the air, sharp with panic, “No, don’t-!”
He lunged forwards, but it was too late and the familiar sense of shadow travel gripped her body.
The shouting was drowned out as the shadows momentarily swallowed her, plunging her down into the darkness within the chasm, directly beside the sword.
She stumbles, leaning her back flat against the wall of the pit, her eyes wide and breaths shallow.
Shadow travel always left a toll on her, but combined with the stress of falling she felt lightheaded and weak.
Even being this close to the pit seemed to leech her soul of ever feeling normal again.
“Ves!” A voice she recognised as Nico’s shouted above her, and sure enough, his head of messy hair and olive skin was staring down at her.
"I'm fine!" she replies, her shout a bit shaky.
But after a moment, Vesper realized she was in fact
not fine.
The pit was slowly pulling her away from the wall, like it had its own centre of gravity. Her feet were slowly sliding over the reddish stone, inching towards the edge.
“There’s nowhere for me to step!” She cries, unable to shadow travel without that motion.
The ledge seemed to be crumbling, brownish-red pebbles and chunks of rock bouncing off the walls of the pit as they fell.
Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods...
Her chest was heaving in panic and quick breaths, her heart hammering against her ribs, and her thoughts racing.
What was she supposed to do? There was nowhere to go but down. Down to death or something very close to it.
Vesper realised then that she would not make it out of the chasm.
She would not board the Argo II with her friends.
She would likely cease to live in a few moments.
“The other side!” she shouted after a moment, ignoring the tears tracking through the dust and dirt on her cheeks, or the crack in her voice.
“Meet me there!” The ledge only had a few inches of space left, the scuffed toes of her shoes hanging over the edge of the pit.
Only a few more seconds of life.
Vesper was terrified.
“But–” Nico’s eyes were wide and horrified, and Percy was leaning over the overhang, trying to reach her. But there was too much space between them. Too much space between her salvation. At least fifteen feet. At most, five inches between her and ultimate demise.
“Promise me. Promise me you’ll be there,” she sobs, steadying herself as she reaches for Anaklusmos, which had disappeared.
Percy stares blankly down at her, his sea colored eyes void of hope for once. The coppery glint of the sword leered down at her from beside him, taunting her.No.</h3p
She had come down here for nothing.Panic and horror grips Vespers heart, which races at speeds that should not be humanly impossible.
“I- I promise,”
Voices and laughter echoes below Vesper as she closes her eyes, feeling the last of the stone falling from beneath her feet, bracing herself for the fall.She plummets down then, her eyes flying open again.Wind races past her, her hair whipping up above her, her stomach falling into her feet.The sky disappears, the dark walls of the chasm swallowing her vision entirely.A scream rips from her throat, disappearing in the thick air rushing past her.Her heart slams into her ribs, the terrifying realisation that there was nothing to hold onto anymore hitting her.Nothing to save her from the sure death that falling into Tartarus would bring.Tartarus… She was falling into Tartarus.Vesper was going to die.She screamed once more, limbs flailing around her, her hand smacking harshly against the stony wall of the chasm. Sharp pain rips across her skin, rattling her bones as she scrabbled at the rock, finding no purchase.Sacrifice… Oh, beautiful sacrifice to wake the goddess, A voice laughs in the darkness below her.What the fuck?
Panic and doom eventually blurred into anger, which faded into boredom and a sense of desolation over time. At some point, Vesper even fell asleep, suspended in a stupor.After what felt like years -and maybe it was, for she certainly felt ages older- Vesper began to see something other than rock.It seemed like a filter of red was slowly being applied over her vision, thickening into a crimson fog.Her eyes jerked fully open then, staring wildly at what appeared to be the surface of Tartarus rushing towards her.But really, she was the one flying towards a very gruesome death.“Oh gods, oh gods,” she murmurs, her voice and breath stolen away by the air whipping past her.She couldn't clearly see anything yet, which meant she must have been fairly far above the ground still.An icy coloured string of white wove through the brown and red terrain, along with a fiery orange ribbon. Or perhaps a river.Maybe it was the phlegm river or whatever Annabeth had said it was called.Annabeth. Vesper would never see Annabeth or any of her friends again.Vesper closes her eyes, trying as hard as she can to drag the shadows around her to her body.The shadows down here were odd, thick and heavy, drifting out of her hold as if they had a mind of their own.She wrenched her eyes back open, ensuring she wasn't about to splat all over the floor of Tartarus.Tartarus… she really had fallen straight into hell.But her father could help couldn't he? Wouldn't he?..She’s managed to pull a thin shield of shadows to her presence by the time she could see the details of pointed mountains and volcanoes, which rushed closer with every passing second.Panic and anxiety that her plan wouldn’t work wracked Vesper’s body, and it took everything in her sense of self to keep focus and hold the shadows.Just as she could feel the rocky ground a few feet below her, she rotates her body as well as she can- tumbling through the air and her shadows. It doesn't work at first, and her heart rate reaches dangerously high levels in panic.Why wasn't it working?Finally her body wrenches through the small rip in reality, sharply impelling her onto the rough ground with slightly less force than she would have without shadow travelling.Sharp pain stabs through her chest, a scream ripping from her lungs as she curls onto her side.Her arms wrap around her ribs, each shallow and difficult breath jolting pain through her very being.Sharp rocks dig into her side and head as the pain fades into a dull throbbing sensation, Vesper eyes screwed shut in agony.Her back feels oddly cold then, like it had been drenched in icy water. She ignores the sensation for a few moments, trying to get past the pain radiating through her body.She groans in pain, turning onto her back and tilting her head to see the colourless bank of an icy looking river.“The gods have abandoned you,” a miserable voice moans, echoing quietly through either Vesper’s mind or the space around her.She blinks in confusion, sitting up as best she can. She’d definitely broken a rib.Was she going crazy?..Was she dead?“They let you fall.”“You're going to die like us.”“Give in. Give up.”Vesper mutters for the voice to shut up, although a sudden feeling of hopelessness and misery washes over her, her skin feeling cool and wet.Like she'd never be warm or happy again.She swipes a finger over her calf and the burning sensation along it, droplets of an icy liquid collecting on her fingertip.The river.It must have been the river speaking to her.Making her feel like this.The rivers in Tartarus- no, down here- were different than the mortal realm, right?But it -the river- was right, wasn’t it?She was alone in hell, and would surely die soon. Her friends were safe at least. Right?They had to be, for Vesper's sake.Her body and mind were weak from both the river and shadow travelling- which seemed to take a much greater toll on her down here.Scrapes and gashes littered her bare arms and legs, and her side throbbed in pain with each breath.If a monster found her, she would be minced demigod-meat before she could say ‘Tartarus rocks’.Vesper struggles to her feet after a moment, her legs almost collapsing under her for a moment. It feels odd being on stable ground again, after falling for what had seemed like years.A whole lifetime.Vesper felt like an entirely new person then she’d been before falling. Before going on this quest with her half brother and the seven demigods. But she needed to stop thinking about everything and move.She had told Nico to meet her at the Doors of Death, and so she had to be there when they were.Vesper puts one foot in front of the other, eyes wide and wary as she scans the terrain around her: Gray-ish red rocks, veins of crimson ore, and gouges in the stone floor.She swallows, the gulp covered by the sound of screeching and crying, and monstrous howls.She shudders, not sure where exactly she was going. Surely if she walked in the same direction for long enough she’d reach the place she needed to be. She had never necessarily been good with directions.Her head was spinning once more, and felt very light. Vesper pursed her lips, focusing on keeping her steps straight and her body upright.Her lungs felt heavy and burnt from the air, her throat dry.Her chest had an unsettling sensation seeping through it that was thick and warm, a tickle or itch in her lungs. A cough wracks her body, the sound escaping her lips rough and raspy.She doubles over then, hands on her knees, and a fit of coughing consuming her.She brings a hand to her mouth to muffle the sound, afraid that something or someone might hear and come looking.Her hand suddenly feels wet then, and -Vesper realises then- so do her lips. She sucks in a breath between coughs, shock reverberating through her when she notices the dark crimson splatters on her hand.She was coughing up blood.Everything about Tartarus, even the air, seemed to be killing her.Or was it the cracked rib? What if it impaled her lungs? Her skin was burning now, an itchy and warm sensation covering her exposed legs and arms. Blisters and burns began to appear over her skin as well, an agonising and horrible pain ripping through her.Not only was Vesper seemingly dying slowly from the toxic air, but she was also burning alive.“A child of Hades… facing death in her own domain?” A distant, monotonous voice whispers.Vesper looked up, her eyes heavily lidded in agony -blood staining her lips and limbs- though her gaze was sharp and focused.She reached into her jean shorts waistband, fishing out the sheathed dagger she kept there.The shaking girl held it up, pale hands trembling slightly. “Who are you? Reveal yourself, monster!” She replies sharply, still kneeling on the harsh rocks, head swivelling around as she looks for the body surely attached to the voice.“Monster? I am no monster!” the voice replies indignantly, a vague undertone of sadness in the voice.A figure seemingly steps through a stony wall, non-corporeal for a brief second. Vespers eyes widened, immediately recognising the goddess of ghosts.The goddess was pure black and appeared to be mummified on the left side, whilst her right seemed to be entirely drained of blood. Her eyes were pitch black voids, just as dark and horrifying as the pit Vesper had fallen in.“Melinoe,” she spits, sneering at the goddess.She points the dagger towards her, her hand steady now. The effect is ruined by another fit of coughs and blood, which now dribbles down her chin, joining the other smears of blood and raw scrapes.Vesper hadn’t been with Percy or Nico during their quest to retrieve Hades sword, but she’d heard stories about the goddess.And of course she knew that Melinoe had been on Kronos’ side of the war.“I am here to help. Do not test me, child,” the ghostly goddess replies in a scratchy voice, holding an intricately carved stone chalice in hand.“I don’t-” she coughs again, sharp and raspy, “need your help.”“You really do. And besides, I want to see you suffer here. I can’t if you die now,” Melinoe rasps, her ghostly mouth opening too wide with each word.“Drink,” she offers the stone chalice, which holds a burning, lava-like liquid.“You want me to willingly drink… fire?” Vesper asks sceptically, voice ragged and rough, her side throbbing sharply every few minutes.Did she think Vesper was stupid?“You will die if you don’t.”“I’ll die if I do…?”“Will you? The fire will help you survive. Will you leave your fate to an agonised death, or will you endure, Vesper Grant? Time is ticking.”Vesper scowls sharply, her vision going black and blurry at the edges, her head light and spinning. If she didn’t drink she would likely die anyway. If she did, she might live.She holds a hand out, her other hand still holding the dagger, though it’s lowered to her side now.Melinoe smiles eerily at her, placing the oddly cool chalice in Vespers hands.She braces herself, sucking in a long and shaky breath, holding it, then bringing the cup to her lips.The fiery liquid singes her face with the proximity, and then she’s tipping her head back.The odd liquid slides down her esophagus, sharp and burning. It jolts her out of her brain fog, the heat of molten lava snuffing her breath out.She doubles over, chalice and dagger spilling from her grip as the feeling of being burnt from the inside out grips her.Fire rages through her veins and muscle, each ligament and bone turning to ash and melted liquid before reforming.Her body feels as if it’s being purged or remade, her side and blisters scorching, the cut along her cheekbone aflame.This is it, she thinks it herself, this is why you don’t trust goddesses–especially not in Tartarus.She screams out in pain, a disgruntled “hush,” coming from Melinoe. Vesper feels the liquid rising back up her throat, and she swallows again, wanting it gone.After a few moments the pain disappears, leaving her feeling strengthened and uncomfortably warm.Her rib doesn't feel cracked now, and the blisters all over her skin are gone, replaced with pink and raw skin. She darts back up to her feet then, steadying herself from the spinning sensation before glaring at Melinoe.“What the fuck was that?” she bites, lips still burning from a few leftover drops of the fire water, ignoring that the water had helped.“Water from the Phlegathon. Drink it often enough and you will outlast your sure death by a few more seconds,” The goddess hisses, smiling sharply with all her teeth.“I wont die,” Vesper responds surely.She would get back to her friends one way or another.“Visiting Kronos, or just here for the views?” She tacks on, raising a dark brow as she asks the goddess the question.Melinoe scowls at Vesper, a horrid expression twisting her features.“I was banished here after your kind killed Kronos!”“Serves both of you right,” she mutters in reply, aware the goddess could -no, would- probably kill her if she didn't shut up. “Kronos would have saved you all from those gods you call parents,” the goddess snarls, phasing away through the wall of rocks and crumbling slate, her eyes lingering for a moment.It reminded Vesper a lot of the Cheshire Cat from her favourite childhood novel.That world, with books, and normal things seemed so far away now.Vesper stares somewhat blankly at the gray and red stone, shaking her head in confusion and annoyance. She kneels down and plucks up her dagger, turning 'round in a circle to ensure no monster had sneaked up on her whilst convening with the goddess.She doesn’t even have a minute of peace before a loud hiss rattles through the area, echoing lightly.“Oh my gods! You guys are like, totally annoying! I said it was three days away,” a high pitch voice complains, sounding like a typical California high-school girl.Vesper frowns in confusion, darting behind a large boulder and peering around it every now and then.“I wonder if, perhaps, you do not know the way, young one,” another voice replies, sounding ancient and scratchy.“Oh, shut your fang hole, Serephone,” the first voice snaps, “Whens the last time you escaped to the mortal world?”After a few moments an odd group comes into Vesper’s vision.About five or six monsters with flaming hair, white skin, glowing red eyes, and an assortment of mixed limbs.Celestial bronze legs clank against the stone beside donkey hooves and furry legs, wings flapping behind their backs.Empousai by the looks of it. Percy and Annabeth had told a story about some Empousai they fought a few times, but Vesper had never actually seen one. Until now.“Anyway, you guys will get to devour some enemies and feast on hero blood, but you all must save me one little morsel..." the annoying one continues, an audible smirk in her pause.
"Perseus Jackson.”