His Dark Side

Chapter Six.

T.S. is very demanding. I updated yesterday and I have 54 other stories. Actually, I finished one, so 53. I should probably un-publish some of the one chapter ones until I get some more ideas for them huh?

Annabeth's POV

     Zeus hurriedly turned off the screen. "That... That can't be Percy..." he muttered.All of the god's faces were pale, a shocked expression etched upon their faces.

     "But... But it us..." Poseidon stuttered. "But... How? Percy's kind and doesn't like to kill even monsters! But this... This him is freaky..."

     "Tartarus must be messing with his h-head or something." I stammered weakly.

     Athena shook her head sadly. "He hasn't been gone long enough for Tartarus to do anything to him."

     "Then how else do you explain... That?!" I hissed, gesturing at the screen. "That is NOT Percy!"

     "I'm afraid," Dionysus said, cracking his knuckles. "That is him. His mind isn't altered the slightest. In fact, he's relieved he's in Tartarus."

      "But why? He hated it when we were down there!" I exclaimed.

      "Because, when you were there he couldn't be himself. With Akhlys? That's Percy. Percy hides himself up on the surface and around people. The real Percy is a shady, dark creep you would cross the street to avoid." Dionysus replied lazily, though I could tell he was in distress as well.

      "N-No, that's not true." I growled. "You're lying."

      "The Akhlys situation? What's that?" Poseidon asked.

      I gulped. "I'll show you." Zeus said, clicking a button on the remote. It showed Percy, Akhlys and I, me lunging around in corpse form

Percy was so stunned, he lost a few precious seconds. He stared at corpse Annabeth, shrouded in mist but moving as fast and confidently as ever. Then it occurred to him why she was doing this: to buy them time. Which meant Percy needed to help.

He thought furiously, trying to come up with a way to defeat Misery. How could he fight when he couldn't touch anything?

On Akhlys's third attack, Annabeth wasn't so lucky. She tried to veer aside, but the goddess grabbed Annabeth's wrist and pulled her hard, sending her sprawling.

Before the goddess could pounce, Percy advanced, yelling and waving his sword. He still felt about as solid as a Kleenex, but his anger seemed to help him move faster.

"Hey, Happy!" he yelled.

Akhlys spun, dropping Annabeth's arm. "Happy?" she demanded.

"Yeah!" He ducked as she swiped at his head. "You're downright cheerful!"

"Arggh!" She lunged again, but she was off balance. Percy sidestepped and backed away, leading the goddess farther from Annabeth.

"Pleasant!" he called. "Delightful!"

The goddess snarled and winced. She stumbled after Percy. Each compliment seemed to hit her like sand in the face.

"I will kill you slowly!" she growled, her eyes and nose watering, blood dripping from her cheeks. "I will cut you into pieces as a sacrifice to Night!"

Annabeth struggled to her feet. She started rifling through her pack, no doubt looking for something that might help.

Percy wanted to give her more time. She was the brains. Better for him to get attacked while she came up with a brilliant plan.

"Cuddly!" Percy yelled. "Fuzzy, warm, and huggable!"

Akhlys made a growling, choking noise, like a cat having a seizure.

"A slow death!" she screamed. "A death from a thousand poisons!"

All around her, poisonous plants grew and burst like overfilled balloons. Green-and-white sap trickled out, collecting into pools, and began flowing across the ground toward Percy. The sweet-smelling fumes made his head feel wobbly.

"Percy!" Annabeth's voice sounded far away. "Uh, hey, Miss Wonderful! Cheerful! Grins! Over here!"

But the goddess of misery was now fixated on Percy. He tried to retreat again. Unfortunately the poison ichor was flowing all around him now, making the ground steam and the air burn. Percy found himself stuck on an island of dust not much bigger than a shield. A few yards away, his backpack smoked and dissolved into a puddle of goo. Percy had nowhere to go.

He fell to one knee. He wanted to tell Annabeth to run, but he couldn't speak. His throat was as dry as dead leaves.

He wished there were water in Tartarus—some nice pool he could jump into to heal himself, or maybe a river he could control. He'd settle for a bottle of Evian.

"You will feed the eternal darkness," Akhlys said. "You will die in the arms of Night!"

He was dimly aware of Annabeth shouting, throwing random pieces of drakon jerky at the goddess. The white-green poison kept pooling, little streams trickling from the plants as the venomous lake around him got wider and wider.

Lake, he thought. Streams. Water.

Probably it was just his brain getting fried from poison fumes, but he croaked out a laugh. Poison was liquid. If it moved like water, it must be partially water.

He remembered some science lecture about the human body being mostly water. He remembered extracting water from Jason's lungs back in Rome.... If he could control that, then why not other liquids?

It was a crazy idea. Poseidon was the god of the sea, not of every liquid everywhere.

Then again, Tartarus had its own rules. Fire was drinkable. The ground was the body of a dark god. The air was acid, and demigods could be turned into smoky corpses.

So why not try? He had nothing left to lose.

He glared at the poison flood encroaching from all sides. He concentrated so hard that something inside him cracked—as if a crystal ball had shattered in his stomach.

Warmth flowed through him. The poison tide stopped.

The fumes blew away from him—back toward the goddess. The lake of poison rolled toward her in tiny waves and rivulets.

Akhlys shrieked. "What is this?"

"Poison," Percy said. "That's your specialty, right?"

He stood, his anger growing hotter in his gut. As the flood of venom rolled toward the goddess, the fumes began to make her cough. Her eyes watered even more.

Oh, good, Percy thought. More water.

Percy imagined her nose and throat filling with her own tears.

Akhlys gagged. "I—" The tide of venom reached her feet, sizzling like droplets on a hot iron. She wailed and stumbled back.

"Percy!" Annabeth called.

She'd retreated to the edge of the cliff, even though the poison wasn't after her. She sounded terrified. It took Percy a moment to realize she was terrified of him.

"Stop..." she pleaded, her voice hoarse.

He didn't want to stop. He wanted to choke this goddess. He wanted to watch her drown in her own poison. He wanted to see just how much misery Misery could take.

"Percy, please..." Annabeth's face was still pale and corpse-like, but her eyes were the same as always. The anguish in them made Percy's anger fade.

After the screen went black, everyone was dead silent. You could hear a pin drop from across Olympus. "That... That was... Was Percy?" Piper stuttered nervously.

      "H-He can... He can control... Poisons?" Poseidon asked, looking shell shocked. "W-Why didn't he tell a-anyone?"

       "He didn't want the real him to be revealed. Not to anyone. But now-" Dionysus spread his arms out wide. "We all know. And Percy is going to have one hell of a time when he gets back."