Chapter 1

A scarred and bloody hand scrabbled around at the ragged stony edge of Tartarus. It hooked into the dirt and, painfully, another hand dripping in crimson liquid came into view. It too found grip on the rocky brink. Soon the owner of the hands began pulling himself out of the darkness that is the bottomless pit.

The man was as scarred and bloody as his pale hands. His skin was so white, he was almost transparent. He muscles were ripped, no fat or softness in his features. He wore a black tattered shirt and ripped jeans, which contrasted his insipid sunless skin making him look almost ghostly. He had black messy hair that almost reached his shoulders. His face was marred with a reddish scar that curled from his left eye down his cheek and to the left edge of his mouth.

He began to drag himself away from the pit by sheer will power alone, his physical strength giving out many hours ago. He slowly pushed himself to a large rock and pulled his body onto it, anchoring himself away from the desperate pull that the pit excluded. He sat there for many hours, patiently regaining his strength. He stood up and walked out of the cave-like structure that surrounded Tartarus towards the Fields of Apostle. In the far distance a black castle stood on a hill, The Palace of Hades, the God of the Underworld. He stared out across the fields knowing that was the one way out of this realm if he hoped for an unnoticed exit. He sighed and began to draw shadows around him. Willing them to take him elsewhere.

"Hey." A voice shouted from behind him. The scarred man turned and saw a man, only a few years younger than himself, calling out at him.

"Who are you? What is your business in the underworld? Do not lie, you are not dead. You should not be here." The man wore dark clothes and had a pure black sword in his hand that seemed to suck out the meagre light that filtered down into the Underworld.

"Nico, do you not recognize me I have not changed that much." The scarred man said with a chuckle, "At least not in appearance."

"Percy you made it out." Nico ran up to him, sheathing his stygian sword and clasped his older cousin on the shoulder, "You have changed more than you know, and you're a man now not an eighteen year old boy. I wouldn't have recognized you if you had not spoken.'"

"You're right, I am a boy no longer. Tell me, what has happen in my absence."

"Much, but this is no place to talk come to my father's palace, he will not turn you in to the rest of the Olympians."

"I will come but you must swear on the River Styx that I will not be harmed by Hades or anyone or anything of the underworld."

"I swear upon the River Styx that you will not be harmed by Hades or anyone or anything of the underworld." The distant boom of thunder sealed the oath. "Come on, time is short. It will not be long before the Olympians realize you have been released, Percy."

Nico offered his hand to Percy and they allowed the shadows to claim them.