Memories

Happiness or Heroism

"Nice try demigod," Tartarus rumbled. "But your fight is not yet upon you. You couldn't pierce me with that blade if you tried."

"Watch me!" I moved to leap forward, preparing to send Riptide sailing through the darkness, a torch of destruction. But something gripped me and held me back. Frustrated, I glanced down to find Annabeth's hand clamped around my forearm, her fingers pressing harshly into my arms.

"Don't, Percy," Annabeth warned me. "He's telling the truth. He's not really here, I think he's just distorted the reality or something. We can't hurt him, but I'm sure he'll find a way to hurt us." She turned to Tartarus, the steely goddess against the depths of hell itself. "What do you want?"

Tartarus prowled closer, moving with the graceful ease gained only from aeons of stalking the world and, well, Tartarus itself. He was uncaring and indifferent, as if he didn't really care if he were there or not.

"Oh, Annabeth, how I've missed your spunk!" Tartarus actually grinned. I had to stop myself from stepping forward and blocking Annabeth from his view- I didn't think she'd appreciate the protective gesture. It went against every instinct that shivered through me like bolts of lightning to not reach out to her. "But I'm glad you're finally asking the right questions. I want you to ask me it again."

"Excuse me?" Annabeth looked at him sceptically.

Tartarus frowned for a second contemplatively. "You're excused." With an absentminded flick of his hand, Annabeth collapsed to the floor, blonde curls spilling around her. Hoarsely, I screamed her name and moved to launch towards her only to be faced with an invisible barrier. My fists pounded and my blood thrummed.

"Oh, calm down," Tartarus trilled. "She's completely unharmed. Look, it's like she's sleeping. Better for her, really, if you think about it."

Indeed, it appeared that Annabeth was merely asleep. Though I couldn't see her face, her chest was slowly rising and falling with the ease of someone undisturbed by the fact that our greatest enemy stood before us.

"How is being unconscious better?" Nico retorted recklessly. I almost wanted to scream at him to shut up, but as I turned around to speak to him, he too crumpled to the floor. I called his name, but there was no response.

"Why are you doing this?" My heart thrummed with anger, tapping like a sparrow against its bone cage.

"I wanted to speak to you." Tartarus raised an eyebrow as if it were obvious.

I said, "Couldn't you just do that with them here?"

"No, I wanted you to feel free to make your decision."

"What decision?"

"See," Tartarus smiled again, yellowed teeth glinting in the darkness like a grotesque torch. "You're learning something from that girlfriend of yours; finally, you've learned to ask the right questions."

I watched him steadily, eyes following his movements as he paced around the space as if he owned every corner of my mind.

"I do currently own every corner of your mind, actually." He stopped pacing, watching me with those beady eyes that haunted my dreams. "All of this," he swept a finger around the blank space that enveloped us, "is mine. Every nightmare, any sadness, all anger... it's all mine."

"I knew it!" I jabbed Riptide towards him as I spoke, the obvious threat entrenched in the blade's sharp edge. "All these thoughts I've been having, all these things I've been feeling... that's all your doing!"

Tartarus tutted. "No, no, no, young demigod. Everything you're feeling is all you- that's out of my control. No, that's not my doing. But every ounce of self-hatred and anger feeds me and strengthens me- I revel in it."