The House of Night, Tartarus

The halls were quiet for a time. The air was hung with the poison Tartarus naturally gave out but also with a tense and unruly feeling. The horrors that would drive any mortal insane should they see them were quiet for once in millennia.

The House of Night was completely empty, not a monster bothering to stay at the normal safe haven, except for the throne room that was brimming with suppressed power.

The shadows reacted to their masters' feelings, writhing in discomfort as many more domains were affected. Inside the throne room, two figures sat on thrones looking intently at the floor.

The thrones were beautiful, standing tall and having intricate designs etched into the black marble. One of the thrones had the moon carved into it, with stars and planets decorating around it. The other was darker than the other and its design was more of a swirling mixed with straight lines that interconnected, making it seem as though it was living and breathing.

The thrones, however, were nothing compared to the couple who sat on them. One was a woman who looked twenty or so, with black hair that sheaned under the light appearing from nowhere, sparkling black eyes, and a body to make Aphrodite jealous. She was small, only five-eleven, but with a good sized bust and teasing creamy legs that poked out of her chiton. Her skin wasn't flawless but rather sprinkled with freckles like stardust.

Her companion was surprisingly different, yet similar. He had black hair that was pulled into a short ponytail, eyes that were swallowed by black ink to leave nothing but blackness, and pale skin that had a tint of something to it. He would have had women drooling over him as the woman would have had men doing the same. He was tall and reached six-six. He was ripped as well, having muscles easily shown by his bare arms that weren't covered by his chiton.

These two were the siblings Nyx, the Primordial Goddess of Night, and Erebus, the Primordial of Darkness and Shadows. And they were worried. They knew that without their interference, everything their mother had created and entrusted to them would be destroyed.

Yet even though they knew about the consequences, they still sat in silence, not wanting to speak as that would make their situation even more real. Despite that, they were also waiting for their brother. Besides them, he was the only one that cared enough to do anything. After all, they were the eldest.

It was a few minutes of tense and undisturbed silence before it was interrupted by a bright purple swirl of smoke appearing in the middle of the room. They didn't bother looking away, though the smell of the smoke irritated their nostrils for a few seconds.

When the smoke dissipated completely and their sense of smell returned to normal, they saw their brother standing there. He was large and bulky, seven feet tall, and overly muscled with only shorts and a tattered cloak with a hood to cover himself. From behind the cover of his hood, his eyes glowed a dark and seemly malicious red. He wore no shirt, revealing scars of all kinds.

"Nyx, Erebus," the new arrival greeted with a gravelly voice. It had been a long time since the oldest had been called together. The last time having been the meeting to discuss if any action should be taken when Kronos, the Titan of Time, became King of the Earth.

"Tartarus," Nyx greeted warmly while her brother gave him a sharp nod. He was too into his thoughts of what lied before them to answer with words. If everything went easy, then well done. If not... it wouldn't be pretty.

"Do you know why we asked you here, brother?" Nyx asked carefully. She did not want her brother to go away as she only gets glimpses of him over the millennia. To actually talk to him was refreshing. And if he agreed, they would talk to each other a lot more.

Tartarus nodded solemnly, already knowing why his siblings had called him. "They are escaping," he said. "I can feel then trying to claw their way out of their prisons. If they do this... Everything we worked hard to build, to correct, will be for nothing."

Erebus stood from his throne and walked over to Tartarus, significantly smaller but somehow just as imposing. "Then you understand the importance of this. If we do nothing... everything will die. No one cares enough to do anything but Nyx and I. Though, I ask you, the one to imprison them, will you fight with us to keep those... Frikádes in their cages or put them back?"

"You must not remember who showed you our errors," Tartarus snapped. "I was the one who showed you and my sister why those 'Horrors', as you so eloquently called them, needed to die. Why they needed a prison. I was the one who got you to care."

"Brothers, peace," Nyx called as she stood from her throne. "No one is denying what you have done Tartarus. That is yours and yours alone. But what we're asking of you now, is to lead us against the Horrors again. To help us before everything we have come to care for is destroyed. And before we fade and go into the Void."

Tartarus, who had been glaring at Erebus, snapped his head up to look at Nyx. "What are you talking about?" He demanded.

"We are fading," Erebus repeated. "And with how old our old bodies and minds are... we don't have long. Perhaps if we were younger, we could survive with what we have..."

"The mortals do not worship us," Nyx supplied, "but instead harm our domains. The lights of the world cloud my night and no one fears the dark anymore. Erebus can only live off of the darkness of man before it starts to effect him, as it has done me."

"The incident with the demigods," Tartarus realized. Nyx nodded in shame.

"Erebus gave me enough power to live off of but it was too much for a sliver of my consciousness. The darkness of man is a broken one." A tear ran down her cheek and she hurriedly brushed it off.

"I don't believe it," Tartarus cried indignantly. "There must be some way to keep you here."

"There isn't!" Nyx yelled, near tears. "Night has just become the absence of day! And Shadows and Darkness are only the absence of light!" She broke into sobs, the tears making her cheeks burn but she kept talking. "We're FADING! And there's nothing we can do about it!"

"Then why am I not fading?" Tartarus demanded. "I may be the youngest of us three but should I not be fading as well?"

"The monsters worship you," Erebus said as he wrapped Nyx's shoulders in a blanket of darkness. "The Horrors acknowledge you, as do the demigods and gods. Now more than ever since Perseus Jackson and the Athenian spawn escaped the Pit."

Nyx recovered from her outburst and turned to her brother. "Please, Tartarus. Help us do this before it's too late. We only have so much time."

"How much?" Tartarus asked quietly.

"Fifteen years," Erebus answered. "That's our estimate. We have at least fifteen years. Thirty at the most."

"That isn't a lot of time," Tartarus whispered.

"Which is why we need to act quickly before it's too late," Nyx said. Her face was cleared up and she had a determined look in her eyes. "We don't know where they will break from first but we can contain it to outside of the gods' powers."

"Alaska?" Tartarus had been there once. It was pretty. "I agree. It most likely isn't good for the gods to know of the Frikádes and know where they are. Zeus would probably try to use them for his own means."

"Exactly," Erebus agreed. "Which is why we need to keep this quiet. Our brothers and sisters have denied us any help from them." His voice turned sad as he thought of his siblings. They refused to help, too mad at this world or too busy wallowing in guilt.

"How many have escaped so far?" Nyx asked. They couldn't keep track as they put a stop to the main rampage in Cell Block A. But there were also a lot of little breakouts from some of the more intelligent Frikádes.

"Too many," Tartarus said. "About a hundred or so. And the others you stopped are howling and clawing their way out. It won't be long before we have another breakout on our hands."

"What do you suggest we do?" Nyx asked him.

"We hunt them down."