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Chapter Text

He watches with silent intrigue as the dark haired demigod drowns Akhlys in a combination of poison and her own tears. Her agonized cries reverberate through the cave startling the blonde girl who pleads for her companion to stop. He isn't all that sure of why she hopes to stop her companion considering Akhlys had tried to kill them both. His domain has no place for the weak and faint of heart, he's sure that on her own she would have perished long ago.

Mercy is a death sentence here.

The boy doesn't seem to hear her as he stares at the dying goddess, lips curled back in a snarl as he focuses all of his strength on surviving. It is shame that the girl seems to be the main source of his ruthlessness, his concern for her triggering a determination to be feared. He wonders what would happen if she was out of the picture.

He had been watching the intruders since he'd first sensed their presence in his domain. He had expected the impact caused by the fall to kill them instantly, however he'd been contradicted when the male demigod had taken control of the river cocytus. It had been a peculiar sensation, as though a vein had twitched, this demigod was the first to manipulate anything in his domain to such a degree.

Other monsters and the rare unfortunate demigods scarcely had any noticeable impact in his domain aside from the squabbles among themselves. The only other mortal to survive for any substantial time had been the son of Hades that the twins had captured and even that had been close.

Misery shrieks and wails, clawing pathetically at her eyes and nose as poison is forced through her body, her garbled pleas and curses are nearly inaudible and entirely disregarded by everything except for the blonde demigod. The boy only tightens his fist and her screams increase tenfold as more and more poison is forced into her body, eating away at her insides slowly and painfully.

The girl stares at her companion with unconcealed terror in her eyes. She's so scared of her companion he can almost taste it on the air. He watches impassionately as she turns tail and runs, abandoning the male demigod the only thing really keeping her alive during her journey. Watches her tell Iapetus that the boy had died and that they had to get to the doors. Disgust coats his mouth like bile and he sneers after the coward and the Titan as they begin their journey to his heart.

Inside the cave Akhlys releases one final agonized scream and falls silent. The demigod gasps raggedly, looking as though he'd run a marathon through hell. His dark hair is plastered across his forehead, his clothes look as though they'd been run through a shredder, and to top it off the boy is coated in blood and grime.

Akhlys's body is a puddle of steaming goo on the floor of the cave, seems the goddess of misery couldn't take all that much misery after all he muses.

It's disappointing he thinks, she was a Protogenos for Styx' sake and a daughter of Nyx and yet she had died by the hands of a mere mortal wielding her own poison. The damage the demigod had done means it would take centuries before Akhlys could reform.

The boy turns calling for his companion relieved that the threat has been neutralized and the pure unadulterated pain and betrayal radiating from the boy when he realizes he'd been abandoned tastes sour on his tongue. He watches as the demigod staggers from Akhlys' cave. His body is weak and shaky but he forces himself forward on pure determination and spite. (and if he assists the boy's journey to the doors that's no one's business but his own.) It isn't as if it matters in the slightest, he can feel the girl and Iapetus struggling to free the doors and fend off the army of monsters stationed there.

The boy arrives as the doors of death disappear no longer tethered. Iapetus lays dead where the doors once stood coerced into staying by the girl and slaughtered by Krios and Hyperion.

He shields the boys presence from the throng of monsters bellowing their fury, curious to see what his reaction will be. Something about this mortal fascinates him. He's sure it stems from the whispers Gaea and her army spread of the boy and most definitely from the events in Akhlys's cave.

The boy seems to wilt under some unseen weight as he collapses with a scream filled to the brim with betrayal and dispare, the ground erupts around him water from the rivers of his domain spraying like geysers, responding to his distress and anger. It is then that Tartarus allows himself to materialize. He takes a form he hadn't even considered touching for millennia, a mortal form. Onyx hair, pale ashen skin, and eyes the color of ichor it's odd how easily he can feel the intricacies of this new body in addition to those of his domain.

He crouches down before the despondent demigod, one hand coming up to cup his face. It's a strange sensation to touch such a fragile yet dangerous creature. " Oh, little Godkiller, what have they done?"

Chapter Text

Percy doesn't fight it when the immortal, he has to be an immortal he has an aura stronger than any Percy had ever encountered before, cradles the side of his face in one hand. He has no reason to react he might as well be dead already. Annabeth had made sure of that. Doesn't react until he hears what the immortal calls him, 'little Godkiller'.

He'd killed Akhlys.

He'd killed a goddess to keep them safe and Annabeth had left him to die alone in Tartarus, a place the gods feared to enter. She'd left him and taken with her any hope of escape.

His gaze darts up and Percy flinches, finally registering the being before him. Ichor golden eyes bore into his face as the immortal seems to pull him apart with his eyes.

It isn't until he attempts to pull away that he recognizes the nearly non-existent pull at the very core of his being that seems to draw him towards the deity before him. He had felt that same pull when he'd nearly been dragged into Tartarus by Luke's flying shoes and again when he'd struggled to prevent Annabeth's fall. Panic surges through his veins, this was Tartarus. He may have killed Kronos, and Typhon and Akhlys but this is the primordial god of the abyss.

" At ease little Godkiller, I have no desire to bring you harm." Tartarus soothes. Percy wants to throw up, cry maybe. He's fought more monsters than he can count. He'd fought Ares as a twelve year old, hell he'd basically told the Olympians to go fuck themselves after the second titan war but none of that comes anywhere close to the weight of Tartarus's gaze. His entire being is screaming danger and begging him to get as far away from Tartarus as humanly possible.

" You're like me," Tartarus murmurs running pale fingers through his hair, it's shaky and slow like the pit was struggling to acclimate to the unfamiliar form. "Abandoned. First by your gods, forcing you to fight for them time and time again before they waste their time considering killing you. Then by your companion, frightened away by the powers you had only ever used to protect her." Percy flinches away from the painful truth of the deity's words. Why hadn't she understood, he was only trying to keep them both alive like he'd promised.

"I have been alive for eons, little Godkiller. You've lived not even two decades but your pain is far beyond your years. They may have left you here to rot but I see no reason why you should." The hand in his hair tightens forcing him to meet the eyes of the Pit dead on.

If he'd thought Thanatos had been beautiful, Tartarus is striking in a timeless, haunting way.

" You are strong, you adapt. I respect this. You are a formidable warrior, little Godkiller but there is still much to learn, things I am able and willing to teach you." Percy stares uncomprehendingly at the immortal trying to make sense of the situation he'd found himself in. The Pit himself was offering to basically take Percy under his wing, Annabeth had abandoned him, Bob is dead.

Honestly is there any other viable options besides agreeing to Tartarus's offer?

Generous is a serious understatement. Percy has killed many of the Pit's spawn and his opposition of Gaea's waking should definitely be the final signature on his own death warrant.

His response is shaky and his hands tremble with a mixture of fear and exhaustion.

" Lord Tartarus, I accept your offer."

It's been nearly two years since he'd first fallen and Percy had never felt more alive. He stalks through the Arai's forests, Small Bob slinking along beside him. He sharpens his focus and focuses on the distant pumping of blood from every monster inhabiting the forest. His Lord had sent him to track down a colony of wyvern hybrids that had recently reformed after, what was reportedly, a fight with Camp Jupiter. Tartarus wished to hear their accounts of the fight and the camp itself, and what his Lord wanted he got.

It's almost laughably easy to locate the colony. Their thick sluggish black blood is easily distinguishable from the other creatures nearby. He follows the lethargic beating.

Leathery black wings and scaled clawed feet are a dead give away that he'd found the right creatures. Greying skin and pinched weather worn features and ebony hair streaked with silver and narrow pointed ears.

Milky white eyes latch onto his figure as he makes his approach. the comes to a step a few meters from the bulk of the colony and the largest of the hybrids steps forward to meet him.

"Vα είναι ελαφρύ το βάσανό σου, Θεοκτόνος." The hybrid greets, it's voice a disconcerting combination of airy and rasping, and touches two taloned fingers to it's forehead as it bows it's head.

Perseus mirrors the gesture as he responds. " Και η εκδίκησή σου να είναι γρήγορη, Φτερωτό." With greetings out of the way Perseus straightens switching easily to English. He may be able to speak and understand Greek but English is engrained into him, his last tie to who he was before. " Lord Tartarus requires your colony's presence at το παλάτι των ατιμωμένων, he wishes to hear your accounts of the fight with Camp Jupiter." The wyvern hybrid's eyes widen, tail swishing nervously around it's scaled legs, it's ears pinned back against it's skull. Perseus can feel the way it's pulse picks up slightly at the mention of his Lord and he fights a grin.

" Όπως θέλει ο Κύριός μας, θα γίνει." It accedes. " We will set out posthaste." Perseus nods approvingly,

"Όπως το θέλει ο Κύριός μας, είθε η αποικία σας να είναι ασφαλής και το ταξίδι σας γρήγορο." He says, feeling his Lord's acceptance as his blessing seeps into the air around the colony. Their safe passage is all but guaranteed, not many creatures are willing to fuck around when his Lord is involved.

With a shallow nod Perseus turns making his way towards the Phlegethon. The river of fire had played a major role in his adaptation to the hellscape the is his Lord's domain alongside his partial ascension. Tartarus had explained that he had begun to ascend after he'd slaughtered Akhlys, the death of the Protogenos and the unfettering of his abilities had caused enough of a shift in control that he had nearly ascended to fill the void her death left behind.

Luckily, in his opinion at least, he had instinctively halted his ascension through sheer force of will. Rather than become a Protogenos himself or another god to be added to the pantheon, Perseus had maintained the majority of his mortality. During the years he had spent learning from and assisted his Lord Perseus had discovered that his stamina and endurance had nearly tripled and that his body healed far more rapidly than that of any mortal.

Perseus wades into the Phlegethon, allowing himself to merge with the river. Mere seconds later he gathers himself and makes his way to the shore taking in the sight of το παλάτι των ατιμωμένων. Sprawling sands of broken glass give way to ridges of bone the side of boulders. Erupting from the landscape stands the palace, massive bone white pillars support the the gold and crimson roof and statues carved from onyx and imbued with the souls of the damned stand guard at the double doors.

When he had first joined his Lord the Palace of the Disgraced hadn't even been an idea, what use was a palace for a primordial who had never taken a human form? After his stay was declared permanent Tartarus had decided that his champion (and isn't that a head trip) needed a place to stay while he learned. While a majority of his learning was in regards to his physical strength and controlling his abilities there were also lessons in protecting his mind from intrusion.

Entering the palace Perseus makes his way to his Lord's chambers to debrief him on his mission, albeit unnecessarily considering Tartarus had likely been watching the entire time. Before entering Perseus fishes the drachma he had found while wandering through the pit, tossing it into the fire of the shrine that he had constructed for his Lord during his second(?)(Time was difficult in the pit) month under Tartarus's guidance.

Upon reaching the entrance to Tartarus's chambers the door swings open seemingly in it's own and Perseus fights a grin.

" My Lord, the hybrid colony should be here in a day or two at most. They were most agreeable," he rounds a corner to find Tartarus pacing furiously.

" Perseus." He watches as some of the tension bleeds from the Primordials frame. Immediately he's set on edge scanning his Lord for any sign of injury despite the fact that next to nothing in his domain could do any lasting damage.

" What happened? Is everything alright?-"

" There are demigods wandering through my domain." Tartarus snarls cutting him off. " Four of them. At least two of them are like you, a child of one of the big three." Something disconcertingly close to anticipation writhes in Perseus's gut. Jason, Thalia, or Nico and two others.

"Would you like me to detain them?" He asks as excitement flares behind his ribs.

" No." Perseus frowns, " Tell me how well do I pass as a mortal? I think I'd like to pay Gaea's domain a visit." Perseus grins, barely more than an amused bearing of teeth.

" Well enough." This would be interesting.