Where the Shadows Meet the Sea

Chapter 1

A Super Awkward Elevator Ride and A Less Than Welcoming Back Party

Percy

He had never seen anything like it. A wall of shadows threw him back against the wall of the elevator and the more he struggled against them, the more deeply they wound around his arms and legs and chest, holding him in place. They didn't frighten him. They wouldn't hurt him, not really. Because they were part of Nico and the teenager stood outside the door, cobalt eyes fixed on him as the sea prince spat and clawed with all his might to his restraints. He knew that look.

It was the look he'd seen in Luke's eyes.

The one as he'd taken the dagger.

It was the last look.

"Don't you dare, Nico. Don't you fucking dare! I promised. I promised I wouldn't leave you behind. You can't— you can't do this!"

Percy couldn't say what else he shouted. He couldn't remember the words but later he would remember that his throat was raw and his voice was hoarse. He'd shouted long beyond Nico's ability to hear him. But he was desperate as he clawed against the shadows, tugged and pulled at them, but they wouldn't move. The second that Nico broke eye contact and turned away that was it. There was no going back and just as the son of Hades had taken a moment to memorize everything about him as he held up a pale hand and closed his fingers in a silent goodbye, Percy refused to blink. He refused to look away.

Small Bob came skidding into the elevator between the slats in the wrought iron doors and took to licking the back of his boned claw. They were stained with ichor but that was something he'd noticed later. At that moment he watched as Nico and Bob swapped places.

"Bob— Bob you have to let me out. You can't do this. You can't do this. You don't have to die for me… Nico doesn't have to die for me. We can save him."

The Titan looked at him for a moment and for a second he thought that he had gotten through to him. That he had convinced him. "Let me do this for him." Percy wasn't above begging. "Please, Bob."

"Tell the stars Bob says hello. I miss the stars." The Titan gave a small smile and from the way his silver eyes rolled upwards, Percy was sure that the other was trying to recall them. To remember what they looked like. How they hung in the sky, twinkling above them. When Bob glanced back down, his hand lifted to hover above the button.

"I didn't give you a second thought! All those things Nico told you — I never asked about you. I never thought to because I forget people. Just like I forgot Nico." The words rushed from Percy; the truth. "I'm not a good person but he is. Bob, he's your best friend. He's done everything for both of us. We have to save him."

"Bob has done much bad as Iapetus. Be better, friend." Bob's eyes shone with unshed tears.

"Take care of him." His thumb slammed the up button and the elevator launched at impossible speeds with the son of the sea screaming and he wasn't sure whether he was supposed to take care of Small Bob or if Small Bob was supposed to take care of him.

They hurtled upwards but the sides of the elevator were glass and he could see Nico di Angelo as he ran towards Tartarus. The specter versions of himself were nearly indistinguishable as they attacked and taunted the god's physical form. The ground swelled up to meet their feet, the specter and real Nico alike, as they ducked and dodged and brought their swords to bare on him. Percy knew which one was the real Nico. He radiated a dark energy, drew the shadows to him and they pooled around him like reluctant subjects, and for a second he could have sworn that the son of Hades had majestic black wings like an Angel of Death (or maybe he was hallucinating between the blood loss and injury and sheer exhaustion).

The scream resonated up the elevator shaft, echoing as the world below began to tear apart.

And that was it. They were too far. There was nothing more to see.

Percy knew the moment that Nico died.

The shadows lost their grip, slipped away into the ether and became translucent, more like murky air than shadows, until they dissolved. Small Bob let out a wretched meowl like he was being tortured as Percy fell to the floor on his hands and his knees. The thud reverberated through the whole of his body. His weak arm gave way and Percy smacked his face off the floor, cursing. Percy didn't get up. He stayed crouched on the floor with his hands on either side of his head as he screamed and punched the floor until his knuckles bled. There was already blood in his mouth, he could taste the sharp metal, washing away the clove and spearmint flavor of Nico. Small Bob continued to wail at his side. He brushed his thumb across the skull ring on his finger, wiping blood from it as he stared at it, whole body heavy.

"Such a shame. The strong ones are the most delicious." The mosquito faced goddess piped up from the corner.

Until that moment, Percy forgot that she was there. His fingers curled into themselves until his nails embedded into the palm of his good hand, the other barely closed. There wasn't enough air to fill his lungs. Percy struggled to take a breath. There wasn't enough oxygen. They were hurtling upwards too quickly. Inside of his chest, his heart sputtered. He clawed at his throat but there was nothing there, nothing at his chest, nothing restricting his breathing. Still, he floundered like a fish out of water as he gasped for air. A hand came down swiftly against his back, close to his injured shoulder, and pain blossomed throughout his form. His lungs soon filled, a massive inhale, like his head had finally broken above water.

"I'd rip your wings off and stuff them down your throat before I'd let you near him," Percy growled in warning.

"You better get up, demigod. I'm sure it won't be just your friends that are waiting for us."

What does being alive matter? You failed him. You didn't protect him. You left him. Again. And this time you won't get a chance to fix it.

"I don't care."

"Well you should."

Did it matter? Did any of it really matter? The one person who he needed wasn't there with him. Had died for him. He couldn't picture anything else. For the first time since before they had fallen into the pit, Percy Jackson had a second. He had a whole handful of seconds. Just under 600 seconds remaining, to be specific. And in those seconds weariness seeped into his bones. Percy was exhausted. When was the last time he slept? A sleep that wasn't due to concussion or injury causing him to be unconscious? And when had he last eaten real food? No, nothing since the stew Damasen had offered them. Then there was the pain. The missing muscles of his arm, torn and tattered. The ankle still swollen and tender. Every arai that had stabbed him or clawed him. The empousa that tore into his flesh.

As the elevator rocketed skyward his lungs struggled. Percy's muscles began to shake even as he laid on the floor.

"He was a fool."

Green eyes lifted, hard and unblinking, they met Ker's compound ones. Her lips curled upwards in a smile. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

"He was a fool and you'd let his sacrifice be for nothing."

"Shut up." Percy warned as the fingers of his good arm dug into the floor.

"If I had known he was going to throw his life away, I would have killed him myself."

"I said shut up."

"I would have feasted on his flesh as I did the muscle of your wasted arm."

The son of the sea was up and on his feet in record time. The stygian blade was at the goddess' throat, or at least it would have been if she had not disappeared in a poof of smoke only to reappear behind him, pressing her fingernails deep into the wounded flesh of his bad arm, ripping a scream from his lungs. Spots swam in front of his eyes and Small Bob spat. Despite the nails ripping into the muscles, he turned and jabbed with the stygian blade but she was gone once more, appearing to his right instead.

"I could have waited, you know. I could have waited for Philotes to be finished with him. Do you know what she would have done? Because I have seen what she does to make unwilling men lovers. I have seen the look in their eyes after."

"Don't you fucking dare speak about him!" Pain flared in his ankle as he turned attempting to best the goddess but she flickered in and out, cackling all the while. Her laughter was like a thousand razorblades slicing into the already torn flesh of his arm and grating on his last nerve.

"Or you'll what? You couldn't protect him, what makes you think you can harm me?"

The words bit too deep, they burned like acid and white hot ash and Percy could see nothing but Nico pale and seizing. Nico collapsing after saving him yet again. Nico trying to hold Percy while Geras sucked the years from him. Nico and the way he'd torn apart hellhounds when Percy nearly had his face bitten off. Nico sleeping next to him, thumb in his mouth and sword in hand ready to fight the world if it meant protecting Percy Jackson. Nico in the river, blood dripping from his hands and his mouth as he took sip after sip unfazed by the gore they had to consume to keep Tartarus from burning them alive. Nico and the way he'd looked, lips damp and eyes lost as he pulled back from the kiss. The way that look had changed to determination as he used the shadows to throw Percy towards safety and kept him there. Nico and the last look on his face that he'd ever see. The final words that he didn't understand but squeezed his heart because he knew the tone.

The stygian blade felt like ice shooting from his hand straight to his heart but all the son of Poseidon could do was to fight. There was a tempest raging inside of him and it didn't matter who was there. He had to fight something. And a stupid insectoid goddess who not only took up space where Nico deserved to be beside him, but wanted to feast on the flesh of dying demigods as the war raged? No. He wouldn't lose anyone else. The thought had Percy practically frothing at the mouth.

"There was nothing I could do to stop him!"

"Wasn't there? Didn't you fail him? Fail to find a way to protect Nico? Just like you're going to fail your friends?"

That didn't matter. None of it did. The only thing that mattered, as Percy held firmly to the stygian blade in his good hand and swung at the goddess, was that he strike her head from her shoulders and stop her from every uttering another word about Nico. She disappeared again, and reappeared out of the arc of the blade just before the steel could destroy her essence. Percy tried again and again but the black metal clanked against the sides of the elevator always a fraction of a fraction too late. Small Bob hissed and howled until eventually he was using his long nails to climb up Percy's leg as if he were a scratching post. But Percy didn't notice, not when he was hellbent on killing the goddess of violent death in a fashion befitting her patronage.

At some point his vision began to swim, black dots in front of his eyes and yet he kept coming, surging like the ocean at high tide against a sea wall.

Percy didn't even notice as the elevator slowed to a stop and gave a final loud ding! before the doors opened into the belly of an ancient and forgotten temple. Ker hooked a clawed hand into the grate and pushed it up, ducked beneath and took flight and disappeared into the gloom of the cavern that opened up around them. Percy shouted after her, but the words didn't matter so much as the rage that boiled in his blood (and he wouldn't remember what he said later anyway because he was going on instinct only). As he surged from the elevator, his weaker ankle forgotten, the ground felt like it was still moving, like they were still traveling at ridiculous speeds upwards, but the son of Poseidon half tripped and kept going with Small Bob on his heels. The kitten morphed into a saber tooth tiger skeleton mid jump and landed beside Percy with a ferocious roar.

The cavern appeared too brightly lit for his eyes and caused him to squint though it was only a few lanterns of Grecian fire, there was fire. Fire everywhere. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling and anywhere he turned there was commotion. A twenty foot fall shadow of a giant was slashing with its massive blade, while Earthborn were piling into the chapel from tunnels, calling forth pointy rocks that they hurled at their prey. Black fog rolled off the giant in waves and while it didn't appear exactly the same as the death mist, he knew it to be as deadly. The stygian blade he held seemed to absorb it leaving Percy free from harm but the icy feeling creeped from the blade up his arm once more.

It reacted to the mist, pulled it in and devoured it the way it devoured the souls struck down by it.

Earthborn pressed in all around them, clamoring around the feet of the dusky giant and with each razor edged rock they called forth from the ground, Percy could see his friends dodging and fighting back. Jason flew overhead, Hazel and some blonde haired goddess along with Leo and Frank attacked the giant. Three girls were dispatched against the Earthborn, he ducked beneath one's legs and stabbed upwards with his black blade. As it melted into clay, its essence was sucked into the blade and it felt colder in his hand again.

Or maybe that was because the room temperature dropped around him and with each ragged exhale he could see his breath in increasingly tangible clouds before him. It was cold and damp so far below the ground and Percy might have shivered as the edges of the Necromenteion blossomed with frost. He might have, if his blood wasn't boiling. Ker had disappeared from his line of sight and as he turned one of the Earthborn's sharp rocks clipped his already damaged arm enough to send a trill of pain up his spine. Percy growled.

Everything was a blur. He was hardly seeing, as he slashed, kicked, tore, and all the while he could feel her hovering. Feel Ker like a breath on the back of his neck and if he could cut down everything in the room then he could find her and break her into pieces. Percy's lungs heaved and eventually he fell to his knees because all of him felt like lead and his heart was beating too hard. It was quiet around him but for the rushing of blood in his ears and the sound of his name from somewhere distant. It sounded foreign— it's not supposed to echo, is it?— and at first he didn't recognize it because it didn't come from Nico's mouth.

The sword slipped from his fingers because it was impossibly heavy in his hand all of a sudden and his fingers had gone numb. It clattered on the floor and echoed against the stone floor. Everything was heavy. His body slumped down, exhausted and shaking. His hands covered his ears as he tries to shut out the noise around him and focus on his breath (because it creaked through his throat like a door closing and that wasn't normal).

A minute. I just need a minute.

A hand rested gently on his shoulder and just as quickly, his good hand shot up, grabbed the wrist and twisted until he felt the snap of bones satisfying to his core as they broke. A cry of pain was followed by sobbing and the offending appendage was removed from his shoulder. When Percy lifted his green eyes there was a group surrounding him, looking down at him, and though their faces were familiar their expressions were not (fear, horror, disgust).

Percy saw strangers where he should have seen friends and he felt lost.

"Percy."

Annabeth.

She kneeled down before him, her hands palm out as if to show they were empty. She did not try to touch him and he watched her settle just out of his reach.

"Percy— it's us. You did it… you made it. You did it."

The only thing you did was leave Nico behind.

Couldn't they see it written on his face? How he had failed everyone and everything? Grey eyes watched him and he could tell that she was waiting for him to take one of her hands and stand back up but Percy didn't move. His stomach churned.

"Where's Nico?"

Another voice. That one was not soft as it demanded. And then it demanded again and again growing more and more shrill each time.

"Give him a minute," Annabeth tried to interject.

"He can have a minute in a second," Piper said but she may as well have been on the opposite end of a dark tunnel, her voice echoing through his ears.

"Where's Nico?"

"What happened?" Blonde waves spilled from her ponytail high on her head over pale shoulders until they met a deep purple dress. Deep purple… like the pit. Like his limbs. Like his vortex face. But her voice was soft and her green eyes glowed faintly demanding his attention. "Where is the other demigod?"

The words echoed across his consciousness. He needed them to be quiet.

Everyone.

Stop talking. Percy needed to get out of this dark, dank place back to the sunlight and the air, the kind that wasn't humid or freezing but fresh and real and not stale or hanging over him like it was about to drop down onto his shoulders with the weight of the world and bury him alive and suffocating. Maybe then his lungs would act the way the way they were always supposed to work, maybe then it wouldn't feel like his heart was trying to cut its way out of his chest. Stop talking and just give me a second. But they didn't stop talking. To him? Amongst themselves? He couldn't focus long enough to tell the difference (and all the while the one question kept echoing in the back of his head).

When he tried to stand Percy fell back onto his knees just as quickly as if Tartarus himself were reaching up from the pit to drag him back down. Using the one good arm he had left, he fell forward, forehead to the ground as if it were his second hand, and attempted to calm his breathing.

"Where's Nico?"

When he swallowed he tasted cloves and spearmint and shadows.

"Where's Nico?"

It was jarring. It was confusing.

"Percy?"

When he managed to push himself back up into a kneeling position his vision was darkening around the edges. Ker flitted around the apex of the cavern and she smiled at him, and raised a finger before her disturbing face, as if to say shhh.

His eyes rolled up into the back of his head and his muscles were no longer his own.

"I think he's having a fit."

And the darkness took him.