The Broken and the Hunted (Percy Jackson Fanfic)

Chapter 13

Tartarus
15 years after Percy's death
Third person P.O.V.

Percy hung from the wall, bound by chains that cut into his flesh. The blood slowly oozed from under the jagged edges of the chains digging into his skin. He tried to rest during one of the brief breaks in his endless torture. He couldn't tell how long it has been since Kronos captured him just endless hours of pain with minimal sleep barely any food just enough to keep him alive. Kronos was careful to not let him die lest he appear somewhere else in Tartarus.

Percy heard the clang of the key in the door to his little blood splattered cell. He whimpered and pressed against the wall behind him trying to get far away as possible from whoever came to hurt him this time. Kronos poked his head around the door smiling at the view he saw. He came in the rest of the way and walked the short distance to his captive. As he knelt down in front of Percy, he couldn't hold back an evil grin as Percy whimpered. "I have a surprise for you, after pulling in many favours and countless hours of work. Someone is here to see you." He said gently to Percy.

As the door creaked open again signaling someone else entered the room Percy glanced up. There in front of him stood a little girl no older than 6 years old holding onto a teddy bear. Just as Percy looked into her eyes his body jolted in pain. He looked down to see a sword in his stomach. Not just any sword either, it was his sword. He slowly followed riptide up to see a small hand wrapped around the handle. He looked up and saw the little girl grin as she yanked riptide out of him, blood gushed out of the wound made by the sharp blade. A light spray of blood covered the girls face. "Hello Percy." She said.

That voice. He panicked, that voice no that can't be possible. It was too soon she couldn't be back already no we just fought a war with her how could she be back already. "Gaia!" The whisper was barely audible.

"Yes I'm here. But because of you this is all I can do. Because of you I cannot be here in my true form. My dear Kronos here managed to find me a host. With the combined power of the titans and a couple primordials they were able to get what was left of my consciousness and place it in this vessel." She said "but I cannot leave Tartarus yet I don't have enough power yet. But it will be fine I have you here to pass the centuries until I can rise again." She said gleefully as she slashed his chest.

"Careful mother if he dies he will reappear somewhere else in Tartarus and we will have to capture in again." Kronos warned her.

She smirked as she nodded and placed riptide away in pen form. "I have something else for you now anyway." She said softly "I am going to show you your friends so you can see how they are suffering because of you."

She waved her hand over the floor in front of Percy. The floor shimmered until it showed an image of Thalia's tree.

Annabeth and the rest of the seven sat under Thalia's tree with Nico and Thalia. They were chatting about normal things, all but Annabeth who just sat there looking at nothing her eyes glazed over. It was clear that even though there were trying to act normal they were all broken in some way. "Percy I'm going to make monsters attack them now." Gaia whispered in his ear.

Before he could say no he saw a large group of monsters appear from the woods. Hellhounds, Cyclops, empousa, even a large drakon. The horn sounded in the distance signaling the attack but Percy knew it would take to long, every one at the tree quickly jumped up to engage the enemy. Percy was worried about them all but he couldn't take his eyes off of Annabeth. She was so beautiful, so graceful as she moved through the monsters leaving behind piles of monster dust. Almost all of the hell hounds were gone, only half of the empousa and one Cyclops was left when she charged the drakon. While the other were occupied with their own fights she jumped on the drakon's back climbing up to its neck.

It managed to throw her off and swatted her to the side. She slowly stumbled to her feet blood leaking from a cut on her forehead. She held out her arms as if inviting it to strike her " come on then end it. Damn it take my life so I can be free of this pain." She yelled at the monster.

It stalked towards her quickly taking her invitation and went to bite her in half. Thalia quickly tackled Annabeth to the side however while Jason and the others quickly distracted it until the rest of the camp came to help. "What are you doing!?" Thalia yell at her.

"I can't take it anymore. He is gone my Percy. My love. My world. My life. He was taken from me and I'm never going to be able to see him again I can't take anymore Thalia." She cried bawling her eyes out.

Thalia smacked her. "You think we don't miss him to?! You think we aren't hurt like you? He was like a brother to me. He was a hero. He would be so disappointed to see you like this trying to get yourself killed instead of going to your friends and family for support. We are all sad Annie. But he would want us to move on and be happy." She pleaded with her friend.

"I can't. Thalia I just can't do it anymore." She said sadly to her as she walked back to her cabin.

The image shimmered again until it went back to the plain dirt floor still covered in his blood. Percy was weeping, his tears mixing with the blood on the floor. He couldn't help but feel guilty for causing his friends pain for causing Annabeth that much pain.

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