silent weapons
chapter two

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     DARKNESS soon became the only thing she could see. Fiona didn't know how long they had been falling. It could have been minutes or an entire day, but it felt like an eternity of feeling the chills of her spine knowing there should be wind brushing past her as she hurtled to the end, but instead was nothing. Her knee throbbed, her head ached, she was tired and still felt the aftereffects of the electricity in the shock from the Eidolons. 

     The only thing that was tangible in the darkness around her was the feel of Percy holding her tight against his frame. He hugged her with strong arms despite his trembling breath. Fiona clutched his shirt on his back, keeping her head nuzzled into his neck. She wanted to smell the familiarity of him near her. It was what kept her as calm as she could be. 

     The air was growing hotter and damper, as if they were plummeting into the throat of a massive dragon. Fiona closed her eyes, trying to hide her whimpers, but Percy heard them. He hugged her even tighter. She wondered, was this it? Percy had made Nico promised to meet them on the other side, but what happened once they hit rock bottom? They would be flattened on impact, lost before they even began.

     She wanted them to win, but when was it time to give up? Time to realise that this was it, there was no way they could continue. She knew it was her fatal flaw; she didn't know when to accept defeat. A girl who wanted to be a praetor, wouldn't know when to retreat her army. She would send them to their deaths.

    Had she just sent her and Percy to their deaths?

    He had fallen with her. She had begged him to let her go, but he refused. That was his fatal flaw, too. Loyalty; he could never let someone fall alone, and now, he refused to let Fiona lose alone. Still, she felt like whatever would happen next, was on her. 

     Fiona didn't deserve him, she knew that. He helped her so much. In such a short time, he had become such an important monument in her life. Fiona found herself wanting to win for him, wanting to help him win even if it meant her losing━her entire ambition switched to not just thinking of herself. Percy made her selfless. He wanted her to make her selfless. He saw a side to her that she didn't even see, and now, it was the only side she wanted to see.

     And now, their story was coming to an end, barely before it could even begin.

     Fiona tried not to sob, and instead, turned her head and pressed her lips to Percy's ear. Emotions flowed out of her like a river; a waterfall of her heart that Percy had started the moment he arrived in her life, and never stopped since. 

     "I love you," she whispered.

     She didn't know whether he could hear her, or if she wanted him to. All she knew, in this moment, was that if they were going to die, she wanted those to be her last words. 

     When, around them, the surroundings started to change. The darkness took on a grey-red tinge, and Fiona realised she could see Percy's hair. The whistling in her ears turned into more of a roar. The air became intolerably hot, permeated with a smell like rotten eggs.

     The chute they were tumbling through opened into a vast cavern. Maybe half a mile below them, Fiona could see the bottom. Her eyes widened━at least four New Rome's could fit inside the cavern, that she could see, because she couldn't see its full extent. Red clouds hung in the air like vaporised blood. The landscape was rocky black plains, jagged mountains and fire chasms. To her left, the ground dropped away in a series of cliffs, like colossal steps leading deeper into the abyss. 

      The stench of the sulphur made it hard to concentrate, but Fiona managed to focus on the ground directly below them and she saw it. Her heart rose━a river.

    "Percy!" she gasped, squeezing him. "Water!"

     She gestured downwards. Percy's face was hard to read in the dim red light. He looked shell-shocked and terrified, but he nodded as if he understood. 

    Fiona could only hope that the river wasn't one that would kill them, or burn them, or take away their memories. She couldn't think about that. This was their only hope; their only chance. 

    The river hurtled towards them, and at the last second, Percy yelled defiantly. Fiona clung on as the water erupted in a massive geyser and swallowed them whole. 

     She didn't feel the pain at first, just freezing cold. It shock the air right out of her, and she was flung from Percy in the dephts. Fiona couldn't move, she was far too much in shock by the hit to kick to the surface. She sunk into the dark, murky river, hearing millions of voices wail and whisper around her. They were worse than the cold; miserable, heartbreaking, echoes of dismay and grief that weighed her down and made her numb.

     What's the point of struggling? they told her. You're dead anyway. You'll never leave this place. You've lost.

    Bubbles floated in front of her, and she watched them cascade up, wondering whether she should just sink to the bottom and drown. You've lost, the voices reminded her, and she started to agree with them. Yeah, she told herself, I have lost. What's the point? Just accept defeat for once, Fiona ... it's the only thing you have left━

    Percy gripped her hand and the voices jolted away. Fiona was awake. She couldn't see him, but the feel of his hand made her realise━no, I will not accept defeat. Together, they kicked upward and broke the surface.

    Fiona gasped, coughing for air, even if it stung at her lungs and made her eyes water. It was like she was breathing fire, but it was air. The water swirled around them, and she realised Percy was creating a whirlpool to buoy them up. 

     She couldn't make out their surroundings, but she knew there was land. This was a river, and river's had shores. 

    "Land," she croaked through the sand in her throat. "Go sideways."

    Percy looked near dead with exhaustion, and she wished she could just let him rest. Lie him down, kiss his head and be back in the cabin on the Argo. But they weren't. They had to keep going. Usually water reinvigorated him, but not this water. Controlling it made him absorb all the misery, and it sunk him down far worse than it had Fiona. She pushed through the water to hold onto him, hooking one arm around his waist to keep him up. The whirlpool began to dissipate, and Fiona kicked her legs. She struggled across the current. The river worked against her, thousands of weeping voices dragging her back.

     Life is despair, they mourned. Everything is pointless, and then you die.

    "Pointless," murmured Percy. He shivered from the cold, deathly pale. He stopped swimming and started to sink.

    "No!" Fiona cried, distressed. She tugged him back up with all of her strength, kicking and kicking. Wrapping her arms around him, she refused to let him disappear under the dephts. "Percy, no, the river's messing with your mind. Its the Cocytus━the River of Lamentation. It's made of pure misery."

    "Misery," he agreed.

    "No!" she grunted as she struggled to keep the both of them afloat. "Agh, you big barnacle oaf! Fight it!"

    She wouldn't let them drown. She wasn't going to let the son of Poseidon drown. It would be a sick irony for Gaea to laugh at. To use his powers, and his fear against him.

    Fiona was desperate. She cupped one of her hands against his cheek, her other arm still wrapped around his waist to keep them up. Leaning in, she kissed him. As she pulled back, she searched his eyes; they watched her, dazed. "New Rome," she demanded, looking for anything to keep him up. "You want to stay in New Rome. Tell me. Tell me everything. You had plans. For us?"

    "New Rome ..." his eye lids flickered, "... For us ..."

    "Yeah, yeah," she nodded. "Come on, Barnacle Blue, I want to hear all about it." She peppered his cheeks with more kisses, hoping to keep him awake. 

     "College," he murmured. The fog started to clear from his eyes. "I want to go to College. We━we could go together. We could ... we could ..."

    Fiona started to make progress against the current. Her limbs might feel like bags of wet sand, but she refused to let that stop her, and Percy was helping her now. She could see the dark line of the shore about a stone's throw away. 

     "College," she prompted, gasping. "What would you study, Percy?"

     "Dunno," he admitted. 

     "What about Marine science? You'd be really good at that. You're one of the smartest people I know."

     "Surfing?" he asked.

     Fiona found herself letting out a chuckle. The sound sent a shock wave through the water. The wailing faded to background nose. Fiona wondered whether anyone had ever laughed in Tartarus before━just a pure, simple chuckle of pleasure. She definitely doubted it. 

     "As long as you take me surfing with you," she told him. "I'd beat you, definitely."

     "I'd use a wave to push you off the board," Percy murmured.

    "That's cheating, Seashell Sally."

    Fiona used last of her strength to reach the riverbank. Her feet dug into the sandy bottom. She and Percy hauled themselves ashore, shivering and gasping, and collapsed on the dark sand. Fiona turned her head to the side, and reached out a hand to grasp his on his chest. She squeezed it with all of her might. 

    She wished she could just curl up next to him and fall asleep, but she couldn't do that. They were in Tartarus, and she was still trying to comprehend it all. But it got easier when she saw the rashes forming on her arm. The air was suffocating, making her lungs scream like she was back in water. Her breaths were raspy gasps, and her skin prickled from the sulphurous air. 

    Keep going, she told herself and pushed to sit up━she gasped in pain.

   The beach wasn't sand. They were sitting on a field of jagged black-glass chips, some of which were now embedded in Fiona's palms. 

    The air was acid, the waters were misery, and the shores were glass. This place was trying to kill them. They were going to be dead within the hour━Fiona could already feel Percy's life-force start to leave. She gripped his hand tighter. No.

    He coughed. "This place smells like my ex-stepfather."

    She had no idea who his ex-stepfather was, only that he smelled, and was called Gabe, and was a terrible person. But she appreciated him trying to lift her spirits. She didn't know how he could do it, stuck in this terrible place, just nearly died, and still wanted to make sure she was okay. 

    That fuelled her to force herself to take in their states. She looked down at her knee; it was swollen from dislocating up above. Fiona knew that would slow them down. They had no ambrosia to speed up the healing process this time. She just had to push through it. Her shirt was already ripped, and so she just continued to rip the bottom until it came off. The air stuck at her stomach, but she ignored it and reached for her knee. Wrapping the fabric around it, she whimpered as she tugged it back into place. If she hadn't swam with it still dislocated, it might not have hurt as much this time around, but because she had, it hurt like Hell. 

    Blinking back her tears, she tied the fabric as a makeshift strap to keep it in place. 

    One thing down. 

    Fiona didn't have her pugio, and she felt a sudden wave of grief. Had she lost it forever? Had it fallen in the collapsing cavern? That was her mothers. She held onto it for hope, for stability, and now it was gone.

    She couldn't focus on that. She had to focus on the more worringsome things, like how they had no food, or water, or any supplies at all. If the air didn't kill them, starvation and dehydration most definitely will. 

    She glanced at Percy. He looked pretty bad. His hair was wet, plastered across his forehead. His shirt was ripped to shreds, and there were scrapes, red with blood on his torso and chest. His fingers were scraped raw from holding onto the ledge before they fell. But the worst; his shivering and his lips were blue.

    "We need to keep moving," Fiona said, "or we'll get hypothermia. Can you stand?"

    He nodded. They struggled to their feet. 

    Fiona put her arm around his waist, though, she wasn't particularly sure who was supporing who. She scanned their surroundings, trying to see through the burn of her eyes. Above, she saw no sign of the tunnel they'd fallen down. She couldn't even see the cavern roof━just blood-coloured clouds floating in the hazy grey air. 

    The black-glass beach stretched inland about fifty yards, then dropped off the edge of a cliff. From where she stood, Fiona couldn't see what was below, but the edge flickered with red light as if illuminated by huge fires.

    A distant memory tugged at her━something about Tartarus and fire. But before she could dwelve in and try to remember, Percy pinched her waist gently and pointed with a sharp inhale━

    "Look."

    She followed his gaze downstream. A hundred feet away, a baby-blue Italian car had crashed headfirst into the sand. Fiona frowned, feeling her stomach crawl. 

    "Is that what I think it is?"

    Percy nodded grimly. 

    Fiona gritted her teeth and started to limp towards it. Percy caught up with her, gripping her waist and they helped each other cross the shore. One of the car's tyers had come off and was floating in a back-water eddy of the Cocytus. The Fiat's windows had shattered, sending brighter glass like frosting across the dark beach. Under the crushed hood lied tattered remains of a giant silk cocoon━the trap Annabeth had used to trick Arachne. It was empty. Slash marks in the sand made a trail downriver ... as if something heavy, with multiple legs, had scuttled into the darkness.

    "How did she not die?" Fiona rasped. 

    "It's Tartarus," said Percy. "Monster home court. Down here, maybe they can't be killed."

    He gave her an embarassed look, realising he wasn't helping team morale. "Or maybe she's badly wounded, and she crawled away to die."

    "Hopefully we don't get to find out," grumbled Fiona in reply. 

    She could feel Percy still shiver next to her. She wasn't feeling any warmer either, despite the hot, sticky air. The glass cuts on her hands were still bleeding, and her knee throbbed painfully. Her breathing was getting more and more laboured.

    "This place is killing us," she said. "We're going to die, unless ..." it hit her. Tartarus. Fire. Her eyes flickered back towards the cliff, illuminated by flames from below.

    This was most definitely her craziest idea to yet, but it could be the only chance to keep themselves alive long enough to reach the Doors. 

    "Unless what?" Percy prompted. "You've got a brillant plan, haven't you?"

    "Not brilliant," she replied. "Really crazy, but it's a plan ... we need to find the River of Fire."

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    a/n: tartarus is here ... oh gods, here we come. pain. more pain. and MORE pain. 

    but. FIONA SAID THE THREE WORDS I--

    (screams).

    i'm ready to cry this entire book y'all ...