Previously:
The 'room' they prepared for Percy was far too similar to a certain room in Tartarus to be a coincidence. He had to close his eyes in dread as they locked his hands in the chuckles hanging from the ceiling. When he opened them again, it was to Annabeth's grey eyes looking at him expressionlessly. She ignored his pleading look at left without a word, the door shutting with a foreboding thud.

He closed his eyes again. This was going to be terrible, he just knew it. Especially if Kampe was the next one to visit him like he suspected.

Percy wasn't sure how long he'd been hanging there, his wrists had started bleeding a while ago from his weight pulling on them. Despite the cell being underwater, the shackles were too tight for his floating form to make much of a difference.

He'd dozed off a couple times. It was so quiet and dark in there and he had nothing to do. He was tempted to start singing 'Under the Sea' at the top of his lungs or start asking for room service.

How long does it take to send Kampê his way? Did she get lost?

Just as he thought this, he heard a key rattle in the door. His heart immediately dropped to his gut. He remembered her from years ago—the year before the war against Kronos came to a head.

He and Annabeth struggled fighting her and would have fallen to her if it weren't for Briares, the Hundred-Handed-One they had freed. She still haunted a few of his nightmares.

"Percy Jackson." Kampê greeted him in her rumpling voice. Percy couldn't tell if she said it with malicious excitement or hatred. Either way, it caused chills to run down his back.

"Kampê." Percy returned, trying to ignore the urge to whimper. As the jailer of the cyclopes and Hundred-Handed-Ones, she also spent a lot of time torturing them. He never experienced it himself, as during the time he and Annabeth were trapped in Tartarus' dungeons, she was still reforming. "I see you've made it back to the mortal plane."

"No thanks to you." She said. Her form was too big for his little jail cell but she didn't let that bother her. She forced as much of her very large form as she could around him and in his cell as possible. Her aura was unchanged from the acid fog; it turned the water in his cell poisonous, which already made it hard to breathe.

"Don't you think the room is too small for you to be doing this?" Percy asked as one of the mutated animal heads around her waist brushed against his back.

"You implying that I am fat?" Kampê brought her head close to his face rapidly. Percy jerked his head away, only to hit it on the hard, black scales of her dragon lower half.

"Ow," he grunted. "Of course not. Just that I could try fitting into a clam shell but I would have more success than you are now."

Kampê paused, trying to find the insult. When she gave up, she narrowed her eyes. "Son of the sea...how you will pay for your wrongs in your time here....I am not the only one who wants to...break you."

"You're not?" Percy didn't want to admit it but his voice cracked and his heart beat a little faster.

"Oh, no." She said in her rumbling voice. Kampê smiled in a way that made Percy's skin crawl. "I am told Polybotes is very...eager to spend some time with you."

"You sure he's not just wanting to get to know me as friends?" Percy said half-heartedly.

Kampê cackled. "Before I hand you off to the next in line, I wonder if you could answer a few questions for me?"

"Sure, my favorite color is blue, my favorite movie is 'Finding Dory,'" Percy started. "It used be be 'Finding Nemo' but that was before 'Finding Dory' came out and it really—"

"No!" Kampê's voice took on an otherworldly tone that startled Percy quiet. "I haven't asked the questions yet!"

"You didn't want to know my favorite cookie?" Percy asked, dubious.

"No." She growled so low, Percy could feel it through the water.

"...Okay."

"Now, I believe you are familiar with these?" She pulled out a set of scimitars that Percy was indeed all too familiar with. He nodded so she continued, "They have a beautiful ability to painfully, slowly dissolve you before you die." She showed a fanged smile. "Do not fear, we have ways to reverse the effects and if not...I've heard your powers from your father allow you to heal...as long as you cooperate. Is that clear?"

"What kind of questions will you be asking?" Percy asked suspiciously.

Kampê grinned again, this time letting a prolonged growl through. "I think you know."

"Then I'm sorry but not sorry; you won't be getting anything out of me." Percy said in a tone that was significantly braver than he felt.

"There are ways to get you to talk that even you could never dream of." Kampê began crawling around the cell, lingering behind Percy in his blind spots. "Now let's get started, shall we?"

In the hours that followed, Percy doubted his conviction for only a split second. When she let the scimitar stay in his left thigh, imbeded in his femur. The salt water around him wasn't healing as fast as he was used to. The atmosphere Kampê created just by being in the cell with him was acidic.

Kampê was a meticulous creature. She did not do anything without knowing his reaction. As unpredictable as Percy was as a person, there was a millennia of experience under Kampê's belt he could just not compete with.

"You know your people well enough." She snarled. "Tell me what they will plan to do next!"

"And I know you well enough," Percy said, breathing heavily. "You could figure that out yourself. Without even Annabeth to help you. Stop wasting your time on the stupid questions and get to the good stuff. Not that I'll answer but you can try anyway."

Kampê angrily slashed her scimitar down the length of his arm.

Percy could not hold back a shout of pain. He had tried at the start, but with how long they've been going at it, he found it easier to cope by letting it out.

"Very well," Kampê said, still angrily. "Who is set to take your spot as the leader of the demigod army?"

Percy looked at her uncertainly. "I guess you don't know how we work," he said. "There is never just one leader."

"Lies!" She slashed at his ankles now. "Who is making the final decisions?"

"It all comes to a vote!" Percy yelled through the pain. "It's pretty common knowledge. There are leaders from each cabin but they form a council which votes on what to do!"

"He's right." The new voice made the both of them turn to the door. There stood Annabeth, half covered in shadow with how dark his cell was. She wore Celestial Bronze armor in a style that could only have been thought up by her. It had more coverage and at the same time, allowed for more movement. "And if you'd bother to look at the list of things we need to know from him, you wouldn't have wasted a whole day on pointless questions."

"A whole day, really?" Percy asked, still breathing hard to get through the pain. He was covered in slashes that was slowly dissolving around the edges. It was really disconcerting to see pieces of himself floating away. "Goodness, time flies, doesn't it?" His laugh turned into a cough. The water around him was getting more acidic the longer Kampê stayed there. His healing had all but slowed to a stop.

"Get out." Annabeth said calmly. She and Kampê had a long stare down before Kampê finally crawled out around Annabeth. "And stop by Pontus to report. You don't want me to be the one to tell him of your failure."

Kampê's answering growl was the last thing Percy heard from her. He and Annabeth were now the ones staring at each other. He was vaguely aware of a nymph floating around him, poking at his wounds.

Finally Annabeth turned to leave. "Make sure he starts healing. His next guest will want a fresh start."