Chapter Text
- “How close are they?” Percy asked. Grover hadn’t said it aloud, but it was clear he could smell monsters.
- “Maybe not close. The wind on the dam, the desert all around us... the scent could probably carry on for miles. But it’s coming from several directions. I don’t like that.” Grover replied. He looked like he wanted to say something else.
- “What else?” Percy asked, because he knew his best friend and he also knew that he didn’t want any more surprises than absolutely necessary.
- “I’m not sure... they smell... off.”
- “What does that mean?” Thalia asked.
- Grover frowned, “Like... acidic. It’s not something I’ve smelled before.”
- “Is it bad?” Percy continued.
- Grover sniffed the air further, “I don’t know. Maybe not inherently? But with monsters, it can only be bad.”
- “Great,” Percy said, sighing. It was already Wednesday, only two days until the winter solstice, and they still had a long way to go. They didn’t need anymore monsters. And if something was different about these monsters...
- Part of him wondered if Tim would know what to do here.
- “There’s a snack bar in the visitors center,” Thalia told them.
- “You’ve been here before?”
- “Once, to see the guardians.” Thalia pointed to where tourists were clustered around two large bronze statues. “They were dedicated to Zeus when the dam was built. A gift from Athena.”
- Athena... if the goddess didn’t hate Percy enough for losing Annabeth, she certainly wouldn’t be happy about him letting Tim die.
- No, stop that. Focus.
- Thalia explained that the statues didn’t do anything at all, but mortals could tell there was something special about them. Percy couldn’t help but think about the last big metal statue they’d run into...
- “Let us find the dam snack bar.” Zoë said. “We should eat while we can.”
- Grover cracked a smile, “The dam snack bar?”
- Zoe blinked. "Yes. What is funny?"
- "Nothing," Grover said, trying to keep a straight face. "I could use some dam french fries."
- Even Thalia smiled at that. "And I need to use the dam restroom."
- Maybe it was because they were all exhausted— both physically and emotionally— but Percy couldn’t help it, he started cracking up, and Thalia and Grover joined in, while Zoe just looked at them. "I do not understand."
- "I want to use the dam water fountain," Grover said.
- "And..." Thalia tried to catch her breath. "I want to buy a dam t-shirt.”
- “Moooooo”
- Tim did not like Tartarus.
- For multiple reasons.
- But the monsters were certainly one of the biggest reasons.
- He didn’t even know what he was fighting currently. Only that it had claws and wings and was shrieking at him—
- “WILL YOU SHUT UP!” He yelled at it, slicing his bō through the air in a large arc. It cut straight through the monster and disintegrated it.
- Bianca was looking at him weird.
- “What?”
- “Nothing,” She replied.
- “What?” He insisted further.
- She shrugged, “It’s nothing, really. I’ve just never seen anyone yell at monsters the way you do.”
- He furrowed his eyebrows and brushed the monster dust off his tattered clothes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
- She shook her head, “It’s not a bad thing. It just seems like you don’t care. Like the monsters don’t scare you.”
- He stared for a moment, “Well, I mean they do scare me. But what better way to kill monsters than to confuse them?”
- She smiled at him, “I’ll keep that strategy in mind.”
- He returned the expression, “Well, since it seems we’re gonna be fighting a lot of monsters in here, you can take some lessons from a pro.”
- She looked around at the landscape, “Yeah... it’d be nice if I had a weapon though. Feels like you’re doing all the work.”
- Tim frowned, looking at the bō in his hands. “Well, I am doing all the work.”
- Bianca glared at him, “Not helping.”
- He smirked, “I wasn’t done. I’m doing all the work right now because without a weapon, you can’t really fight these things. But at some point, chances are I’m going to get hurt. That’s when I’ll need you more than anything. Down here, we have to have each other’s backs. And if that means I do all the work right now, then so be it. Who knows, maybe we’ll find you a weapon soon.”
- Bianca seemed to be considering it, which was more than he was expecting to be honest. “That... kinda makes sense. But where are we going to get a weapon down here?” She gestured around to the landscape.
- Well.
- That was a pretty good point actually.
- Tartarus was all jagged cliffs and rivers of death and sulfurous air. There was nothing here that would help them.
- But still, optimism. Or... such incredible pessimism than even the river of lamentation can’t out lament you.
- He shrugged, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. Or burn it. Either would work.”
- “What?” Bianca asked.
- “Oh,” Tim kicked at the dirt before continuing on the path he’d chosen earlier. “That’s called a malaphor. It’s where you mix two idioms together into a new one. Usually it doesn’t make sense. In this instance, burning the bridge when we get to it means we’ll deal with it when we get there, but we’ll probably mess it up at the same time.”
- “I think I’d rather we cross the bridge safely than burn it,” She replied.
- “Yeahhhhh, probably for the best.”
- They walked in silence for a bit longer before Tim started laughing a bit.
- “What are you laughing about?”
- “I just remembered a really bad malaphor my brother uses. There’s more than one way to swing a cat in here. I’ve never been able to figure out what it means, but he says it all the time.”
- Bianca smiled, “The bridge one makes sense at least, but why would anyone swing cats?”
- “Exactly!” Tim was about to go on a tangent about his many theories on what the malaphor could mean when Bianca pointed at something in the distance.
- “What is that?”
- He paused, squinting. The hazy atmosphere wasn’t helping at all, but... “Looks like a building.”
- “How... how would a building get down here?”
- “I dunno, maybe there’s some monster down here who decided to try his hand at architecture instead of killing demigods.” He replied.
- “Should we go check it out?”
- Tim considered it for a moment. “Yeah. If there’s no monsters in it then we might as well crash there for a bit.”
- “And if there are monsters?”
- Tim inhaled slowly, the air burning in his lungs. “Then we run. Or fight. Whichever means we die less quickly.”
- “This seems like another bridge situation.”
- “...it kinda is.” Tim smiled and held out his fist to her.
- Bianca stared at it, “What am I supposed to do with that?”
- Tim raised an eyebrow, “It’s... a fist bump.”
- “Why would we bump fists?”
- Tim cocked his head to the side, “You sure you’re a teenager in the 21st century?”
- “That doesn’t explain why you want me to fist bump you,” Bianca pointed out.
- Tim sighed, exasperated. “It’s usually a greeting but I always fist bump my brother as a good luck, come on.” He grabbed her hand and bumped it against his. “See? Now we’re safe. Let’s go.”
- If confusion could be heard, then that’s exactly what he was hearing from Bianca behind him as he trekked towards the building. He readied his bō to attack any monsters that they may or may not run into.
- Tim stared at the building for a long time. Longer than strictly necessary. But in his defense, Bianca was staring too.
- “This definitely doesn’t belong in Tartarus.” She helpfully said.
- “Nope.” Tim replied, moving forward to run his fingers along the stone.
- “What is it exactly?”
- Tim hummed, “I think it’s a temple.”
- Bianca considered it, “To who?”
- “I’m not sure. Most of the detailing has been destroyed. Let’s go inside, there might be something else in there that can help us.”
- They walked inside, carefully checking for any monsters, but from what Tim could tell, monsters were avoiding this temple at all costs. Tim didn’t blame them... it was radiating power.
- The first thing Tim noticed inside the building was that while most of the interior decoration was either destroyed or damaged beyond repair, a large fire stood in the middle, blue flames flicking up towards the ceiling.
- “Woah,” he breathed. This temple felt like it was doing a lot more than warding off monsters. The air felt cleaner, it burned his lungs less, and it was cooler too. Less like a burning hell pit and more like a hot summer day with a cool breeze running through it. He felt more relaxed, kinda like he was free from his responsibilities.
- He could see that the temple, or maybe the fire, was affecting Bianca too. She approached the fire slowly, her dark eyes reflecting the blue flames. “It’s beautiful...”
- “Yeah.” Tim replied, forcing his gaze away from the fire. He needed to focus. What was so powerful about this temple? What did the blue flames symbolize? And more importantly, was there anything here that could help him?
- “Tim,” Bianca whispered and Tim turned to her in confusion. She was standing right in front of the fire, the blue flames casting her in an eerie blue light. “I... I feel connected to this. I don’t know how to explain it exactly, but I...”
- Tim noticed a large chest several meters behind Bianca, tucked away in the corner. He slowly approached it as Bianca continued.
- “It’s like I can hear it,” she whispered.
- “What like a tuning fork?” Tim asked, as he got closer to the chest.
- There wasn’t an answer for a minute. He glanced over his shoulder at her, to see that she was busy waving her hand through the blue flames.
- Okay......
- Well, whatever floats your boat.
- He turned back to the large chest, and studied it. It was made of black wood with white detailing, small images of wars and death and funerals telling stories across the wood. It had a giant lock in the center, with a symbol that Tim instantly recognized.
- A bident.
- The weapon of Hades.
- He looked back at the fire, where Bianca was still standing. No wonder she felt connected to it.
- This was a temple to Hades.
- Tim looked back down at the chest, and undid the latch.
- Look, Tim was a small guy, but he was by no means weak. Opening the chest should have been easy.
- Instead, he felt like he was trying to drag an elephant across the room.
- If Bianca heard his struggles, she didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if he should be annoyed by that, or grateful.
- With a grunt verging on a shout, Tim managed to push the lid of the chest all the way open.
- Inside, lay several items, all of which had Tim’s eyes widening once he recognized them.
- The first was a pouch, which peaking out of it, Tim could see fruit. Ripe, delicious looking, fruit. Food.
- The next was a bracelet, which wasn’t particularly interesting, aside from the fact that it was glowing a faint white color.
- The next was arguably more impressive than the other two, being a glittering diamond the size of Tim’s hand.
- And the last thing he saw was on the bottom of the chest, a weapon forced in dark, cold metal. It didn’t take him long to recognize it as a scythe. The tool of a Grim Reaper.
- Tim didn’t touch any of it
- Honestly, he was kinda scared to.
- The fruit was too ripe to not be sus, the bracelet was glowing, the diamond was... a diamond the size of his hand, OF COURSE that is gonna be sus, and the scythe just gave off a “don’t fuck with me” energy.
- So he left the lid to the chest open, and walked back to Bianca’s side.
- “So... figured out what’s happening yet?”
- She nodded. “I think so.”
- Tim waited. She didn’t say anything.
- “......and?”
- She grabbed his hand, and pulled him into the fire.
- Tim was only mildly annoyed by this.
- Everything swam with an eerie blue light. Tim was pretty sure that the only reason he wasn’t burning to death, was because of Bianca’s hold on him.
- And then things began to clear up, and Tim found himself in a massive throne room, lit by blue fire and decorated with skulls and flowers.
- His eyes landed on the King of the Underworld, and Tim momentarily wondered what Hades thought of his daughter dragging Tim into Hades’ throne room by the hand.
- “Good, you made it.” Hades’ voice boomed. “Bianca di Angelo... and Timothy Drake-Wayne.”