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𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐁𝐘 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐔𝐒 𝐃𝐈𝐃𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐌 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄 𝐀𝐍 𝐇𝐎𝐍𝐎𝐔𝐑.

as i stared up at his dark whirlpool face, i decided that i'd rather die in some less memorable way — maybe falling down the stairs, or going peacefully in my sleep at age eighty, after a nice quiet life with percy. yeah, that sounded good.

i was dimly aware of the army of monsters swirling around us, but after their initial roar of triumph, the horde had fallen silent. the three of us should have been ripped to pieces by now. instead, the monsters kept their distance, waiting for tartarus to act.

the god of the pit flexed his fingers, examining his own polished black talons. he had no expression, but he straightened his shoulders as if he were pleased.

it is good to have form, he intoned. with these hands, i can eviscerate you.

his voice sounded like a backward recording — as if the words were being sucked into the vortex of his face rather than projected. in fact, everything seemed to be drawn toward the face of this god — the dim light, the poisonous clouds, the essence of the monsters, even my own fragile life force. i looked around and realized that every object on this vast plain had grown a vaporous comet's tail — all pointing toward tartarus.

i knew i should say something, but my instincts told me to hide, to avoid doing anything that would draw the god's attention.

besides, what could i even say? you won't get away with this! that wasn't true. percy, annabeth and i had only survived this long because tartarus was savoring his new form. he wanted the pleasure of physically ripping us to pieces. if tartarus wished, i had no doubt he could devour my existence with a single thought, as easily as he'd vaporized hyperion and krios.

dad would not be happy if that happened.

next to me, percy did something i'd never seen him do. he dropped his sword. it just fell out of his hand and hit the ground with a thud. death mist no longer shrouded his face, but he still had the complexion of a corpse.

tartarus hissed again — possibly laughing.

your fear smells wonderful, said the god. i see the appeal of having a physical body with so many senses. perhaps my beloved gaea is right, wishing to wake from her slumber.

he stretched out his massive purple hand and might have plucked up percy like a weed, but bob interrupted.

"begone!" the titan leveled his spear at the god. "you have no right to meddle!"

meddle? tartarus turned. i am the lord of all creatures of the darkness, puny Iapetus. i can do as i please.

his black cyclone face spun faster. the howling sound was so horrible, i doubled over, clutching my ears. bob stumbled, the wispy comet tail of his life force growing longer as it was sucked toward the face of the god.

bob roared in defiance. he charged and thrust his spear at tartarus's chest.

before it could connect, tartarus swatted bob aside like he was a pesky insect.

the titan went sprawling.

why do you not disintegrate? tartarus mused. you are nothing. you are even weaker than krios and hyperion.

"i am bob," said bob.

tartarus hissed. what is that? what is bob?

"i choose to be more than iapetus," said the titan. "you do not control me. i am not like my brothers."

the collar of his coveralls bulged. small bob leaped out. the kitten landed on the ground in front of his master, then arched his back and hissed at the lord of the abyss.

as i watched, small bob began to grow, his form flickering until the little kitten had become a full-sized, translucent skeletal saber-toothed tiger.

"also," bob announced, "i have a good cat."

no-longer-small bob sprang at tartarus, sinking his claws into tartarus's thigh. the tiger scrambled up his leg, straight under the god's chain-link skirt.

tartarus stomped and howled, apparently no longer enamored with having a physical form. meanwhile, bob thrust his spear into the god's side, right below his breastplate.

tartarus roared. he swatted at bob, but the titan backed out of reach. bob thrust out his fingers. his spear yanked itself free of the god's flesh and flew back to bob's hand, which made me stare at it in awe. i'd never imagined a broom could have so many useful features. small bob dropped out of tartarus's skirt. he ran to his master's side, his saber-toothed fangs dripping with golden ichor.

you will die first, iapetus, tartarus decided. afterward, i will add your soul to my armor, where it will slowly dissolve, over and over, in eternal agony.

tartarus pounded his fist against his breastplate. milky faces swirled in the metal, silently screaming to get out.

bob turned towards the three of us. the titan grinned, which probably would not have been my reaction to a threat of eternal agony.

"take the doors," bob said. "i will deal with tartarus."

tartarus threw back his head and bellowed — creating a vacuum so strong that the nearest flying demons were pulled into his vortex face and shredded.

deal with me? the god mocked. you are only a titan, a lesser child of gaea! i will make you suffer for your arrogance. and as for your tiny mortal friends... tartarus swept his hand toward the monster army, beckoning them forward.

destroy them!

thankfully, i'd heard those words often enough to be snapped out of my paralysis. i raised my dagger and yelled, "percy! annabeth!"

percy snatched up riptide, while annabeth gripped her drakon-bone sword.

percy and i stepped forward to fight back the first wave of monsters, while annabeth dove towards the chains that were holding the doors of death in place. her sword sliced through the ones on the left side too easily.

i slashed and stabbed, killing two monsters before they could even react. i activated my powers to work below my feet, creating steps for me jump on and use to get around to the monsters.

percy stabbed an arai and yelped, "gah! stupid curses!" then he scythed down a half dozen telkhines.

annabeth lunged behind us and sliced through the chains on the other side.

the doors shuddered, then opened with a pleasant ding!

bob and his saber-toothed sidekick continued to weave around tartarus's legs, attacking, and dodging to stay out of his clutches. they didn't seem to be doing much damage, but tartarus lurched around, obviously not used to fighting in a humanoid body. he swiped and missed, swiped and missed.

more monsters surged toward the doors. a spear flew past my head. i turned and stabbed an empousa through the gut, then dove for the doors as they started to close.

i kept them open with my foot as i fought. at least with my back to the elevator car, i didn't have to worry about attacks from behind.

"percy! annabeth! over here!" i yelled.

annabeth stabbed a draconae, running over. percy joined us in the doorway a second later, his face dripping with sweat, and blood from

"you okay?" i asked.

he nodded. "got some kind of pain curse from that arai." he hacked a gryphon out of the air. "hurts, but it won't kill me. you two get in the elevator. i'll hold the button."

"yeah, right!" i smacked a carnivorous horse in the snout with the butt of my dagger and sent the monster stampeding through the crowd. "if you think there's any way i'm leaving you here, you're delusional."

"sorry to butt in — not really, though — but riles is right," annabeth said, hacking at a telkhine. "there's absolutely no way we're leaving you behind."

"you promised, seaweed brain," i told him. "we would not get separated! ever again!"

"you guys are impossible!"

"love you too!"

"i don't," annabeth muttered, rolling her eyes.

an entire phalanx of cyclopes charged forward, knocking smaller monsters out of the way. i figured we were all about to die. 

"it had to be cyclopes," annabeth grumbled.

percy gave a battle cry. at the cyclopes' feet, a red vein in the ground burst open, spraying the monsters with liquid fire from the phlegethon. the fire water might have healed mortals, but it didn't do the cyclopes any favors. they combusted in a tidal wave of heat. the burst vein sealed itself, but nothing remained of the monsters except a row of scorch marks.

"riley, annabeth, you guys have to go!" percy said. "we can't all stay!"

"no way!" i shook my head. "duck!"

he didn't ask why. percy crouched, and i vaulted over him, bringing my dagger down on the head of a heavily tattooed ogre.

percy, annabeth and i stood shoulder to shoulder in the doorway, like we had so many times before, waiting for the next wave. the exploding vein had given the monsters pause, but it wouldn't belong before they remembered: hey, wait, there's seventy-five gazillion of us, and only three of them.

"well, then," percy said, "you have a better idea?"

"i'll stay," i shrugged.

"like hell you will," percy's eyes widened. he stabbed a gryphon without looking. "you're not staying behind. i'm not letting you."

"and you think i'm gonna let you stay behind?" i asked. "that's double standards, asshole!"

percy's eyes softened, "tink, please. there's no other way. you have to let me go."

i shook my head adamantly, the adrenaline in my veins the only thing keeping me from bawling my eyes out. 

"i'll stay."

the two of us whipped our heads towards annabeth, who was standing with her foot between the doors, keeping the elevator open. she had a defiant expression on her face, and i didn't like it... not right now.

"absolute not—"

"there's no other way," annabeth cut off mine and percy's complaints. "someone needs to stay here, and you two are so hideously in love that if one of you stay behind, i'll be stuck dealing with the other's moping for the rest of my life."

"this isn't funny," i whispered, ignoring her attempts at humour.

"it's not," annabeth agreed, her eyes glossy.  "but it's true. and besides, you both have people waiting for you back home. percy, your mom and paul have been losing their minds, worrying that you're okay. if riley and i have to go back and tell them you stayed behind in tartarus... imagine how they'd feel. they're strong, i know that. but i don't think even they could handle this news."

"i'll stay," i repeated. "dad's always trying to play hero, make dumb sacrifices. it's why he flew into a blackhole. he can't say anything to me for doing the same."

annabeth shook her head, "he won't. but he'll fly down here all by himself to get you out, you know that. he won't care that he's just a mortal, that his mind will probably break itself apart when he gets down here. but he will come after you, and he'll save you too... but he'll lose his own mind in the process."

"and your dad?" percy asked. "you say that like your dad won't give a shit."

"he'll care," annabeth said, "but not as much as your parents. he has other kids, he'll keep himself strong for them. and he's not crazy enough to come down to tartarus and try to save me. it's the only way guys. don't make this harder than it is."

i shook my head, refusing to accept that there was no other answer.

the doors of death stood right behind us — our exit from this nightmarish world. but we couldn't use the doors without someone manning the controls for twelve long minutes. if we stepped inside and let the doors close without someone holding the button, i didn't think the results would be healthy. and if we stepped away from the doors for any reason, i imagined the elevator would close and disappear without us.

the situation was so pathetically sad, it was almost funny.

the crowd of monsters inched forward, snarling and gathering their courage.

meanwhile, bob's attacks were getting slower. tartarus was learning to control his new body. saber-toothed small bob lunged at the god, but tartarus smacked the cat sideways. bob charged, bellowing with rage, but tartarus grabbed his spear and yanked it out of his hands. he kicked bob downhill, knocking over a row of telkhines like sea mammal bowling pins.

yield! tartarus thundered.

"i will not," bob said. "you are not my master."

die in defiance, then, said the god of the pit. you titans are nothing to me. my children the giants were always better, stronger, and more vicious. they will make the upper world as dark as my realm!

tartarus snapped the spear in half. bob wailed in agony. saber-toothed small bob leaped to his aid, snarling at tartarus and baring his fangs. the titan struggled to rise, but i knew it was over. even the monsters turned to watch, as if sensing that their master tartarus was about to take the spotlight.

the death of a titan was worth seeing.

percy gripped my hand. "you two, stay here. i've got to help him."

"percy, you can't," annabeth shook her head. "tartarus can't be fought. not by us."

i knew she was right. tartarus was in a class by himself. he was more powerful than the gods or titans. demigods were nothing to him. if percy charged to help bob, he would get squashed like an ant.

but i also knew that percy wouldn't listen. he couldn't leave bob to die alone. that just wasn't him — and that was one of the many reasons i loved him, even if he was an olympian-sized pain in the podex.

i squeezed percy's hand again, hoping to send a silent message across.

when he would step to help bob, i'd send annabeth back to the mortal world. it would be our final battle, but at least annabeth would be safe. at least we would die fighting, side by side, like so many times before.

percy squeezed my hand back, taking a deep breath as if he understood, and was steeling himself for the final outcome.

i  was about to say: now, when a ripple of alarm passed through the army. 

in the distance, i heard shrieks, screams, and a persistent boom, boom, boom that was too fast to be the heartbeat in the ground — more like something large and heavy, running at full speed. an earthborn spun into the air as if he'd been tossed. a plume of bright green gas billowed across the top of the monstrous horde like the spray from a poison riot hose. everything in its path dissolved.

across the swath of sizzling, newly empty ground, i saw the cause of the commotion. i started to grin.

the maeonian drakon spread its frilled collar and hissed, its poison breath filling the battlefield with the smell of pine and ginger. it shifted its hundred foot-long body, flicking its dappled green tail and wiping out a battalion of ogres.

riding on its back was a red-skinned giant with flowers in his rust-colored braids, a jerkin of green leather, and a drakon-rib lance in his hand.

"damasen!" annabeth cried.

the giant inclined his head. "annabeth chase, i took your advice. i chose myself a new fate."

what is this? the god of the pit hissed. why have you come, my disgraced son?

damasen glanced at the three of us, a clear message in his eyes: go. now.

he turned toward tartarus. the maeonian drakon stamped its feet and snarled.

"father, you wished for a more worthy opponent?" damasen asked calmly."i am one of the giants you are so proud of. you wished me to be more warlike? perhaps i will start by destroying you!"

damasen leveled his lance and charged.

the monstrous army swarmed him, but the maeonian drakon flattened everything in its path, sweeping its tail and spraying poison while damasen jabbed at tartarus, forcing the god to retreat like a cornered lion.

bob stumbled away from the battle, his saber-toothed cat at his side. percy gave them as much cover as he could — causing blood vessels in the ground to burst one after the other. some monsters were vaporized in styx water. others got a cocytus shower and collapsed, weeping hopelessly. others were doused with liquid lethe and stared blankly around them, no longer sure where they were or even who they were.

my pocket began to feel heavy, almost as if someone had placed a dumbbell in it. i reached in it with my free hand, pulling out the drakon-skin gloves damasen had made for me.

i remembered his advice, telling me it would be good for my powers.

i slipped them on, allowing my eyes to glow as i shot two energy crescents towards a wave of monsters. they vaporized instantly. 

i stared at my hands, unable to comprehend how much the gloves had enhanced my powers. after extremis, there was something constantly weird about them... but these gloves, they had fixed and strengthened my powers.

"that's crazy," annabeth muttered, looking at the wave of monsters i'd just killed. "i swear you couldn't do that before."

"it's the gloves," i answered. "they're... they're filtering out the bad parts of my powers... the part of my powers that's still tainted by extremis."

they were absolutely amazing.

bob limped to the doors. golden ichor flowed from the wounds on his arms and chest. his janitor's outfit hung in tatters. his posture was twisted and hunched, as if tartarus's breaking the spear had broken something inside him.

despite all that, he was grinning, his silver eyes bright with satisfaction.

"go," he ordered. "i will hold the button."

percy gawked at him. "bob, you're in no condition—"

"percy." annabeth's voice was thick, like she was trying too hard not to cry. "we have to." 

i hated this, i hated everything about it. bob was supposed to be able to see the sun and the stars and the sky, he was supposed to be able to be free.

but there was no other way.

"we can't just leave them!"

"you must, friend." bob clapped percy on the arm, nearly knocking him over. "i can still press a button. and i have a good cat to guard me."

small bob the saber-toothed tiger growled in agreement.

"besides," bob said, "it is your destiny to return to the world. put an end to this madness of gaea."

a screaming cyclops, sizzling from poison spray, sailed over our heads.

fifty yards away, the maeonian drakon trampled through monsters, its feet making sickening squish squish noises as if stomping grapes. on its back, damasen yelled insults and jabbed at the god of the pit, taunting tartarus farther away from the doors.

tartarus lumbered after him, his iron boots making craters in the ground.

you cannot kill me! he bellowed. i am the pit itself. you might as well try to kill the earth. gaea and i — we are eternal. we own you, flesh and spirit!

he brought down his massive fist, but damasen sidestepped, impaling his javelin in the side of tartarus's neck.

tartarus growled, apparently more annoyed than hurt. he turned his swirling vacuum face toward the giant, but damasen got out of the way in time.

a dozen monsters were sucked into the vortex and disintegrated.

"bob, don't!" percy said, his eyes pleading. "he'll destroy you permanently. no coming back. no regeneration."

bob shrugged. "who knows what will be? you must go now. tartarus is right about one thing. we cannot defeat him. we can only buy you time."

the doors tried to close on annabeth's foot.

"twelve minutes," said the titan. "i can give you that."

i shook my head, throwing my arms around the titan's neck. i kissed him on the cheek, my eyes so full of tears, i couldn't see straight. bob's stubbly face smelled of cleaning supplies — fresh lemony furniture polish and murphy oil wood soap.

"monsters are eternal," i told him, my voice croaky. "we will remember you and damasen as heroes, as the best titan and the best giant. we'll tell our children. we'll keep the story alive. someday, you will regenerate."

bob ruffled my hair. smile lines crinkled around his eyes. "that is good. until then, my friends, tell the sun and the stars hello for me. and be strong. this may not be the last sacrifice you must make to stop gaea."

he pushed me away gently. "no more time. go."

annabeth took bob's hand, pressing her forehead against it as a sort of goodbye. the two of us grabbed percy's arm and dragged him into the elevator cart.

i had one last glimpse of the maeonian drakon shaking an ogre like a sock puppet, damasen jabbing at Tartarus's legs.

the god of the pit pointed at the doors of death and yelled: monsters, stop them!

small bob the saber-toothed crouched and snarled, ready for action.

bob winked at me. "hold the doors closed on your side," he said. "they will resist your passage. hold them—"

the panels slid shut.

"oh shit!" i yelled, immediately, throwing my body against the door, pressing it to the center. "percy!"

he still looked lost, but did the same to the right door.

there were no handles, or anything else to hold on to. as the elevator car ascended, the doors shook and tried to open, threatening to spill us into whatever was between life and death.

my shoulders ached. the elevator's easy-listening music didn't help. if all monsters had to hear that song about liking piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, no wonder they were in the mood for carnage when they reached the mortal world.

"we left bob and damasen," percy croaked. "they'll die for us, and we just—"

"i know," i murmured. "gods of olympus, percy, i know."

i was almost glad for the job of keeping the doors closed. the terror racing through my heart at least kept me from dissolving into misery.

abandoning damasen and bob had been one of the hardest things i'd ever done.

my entire life, i'd thought i had it easy. i was only a child of aphrodite, i was born to a billionaire, i was pretty much set for life. but then i began to go on quests, dad was lost, my entire world was thrown off balance.

my brother from a previous life was still alive, the avengers were formed, and everything seemed to be a weird kind of normal. even extremis, the worst pain i'd ever experienced.

after all of it, i thought i'd deserved a break, i thought i deserved to never lose anyone again.

but of course, the fates worked in weird ways.

"guys, the doors," annabeth warned.

the panels had started to slide apart, letting in a whiff of... ozone? sulfur?

percy pushed on his side furiously and the crack closed. his eyes blazed with anger. i hoped he wasn't mad at me, but if he was, i couldn't blame him.

if it keeps him going, i thought, then let him be angry.

"i will kill gaea," he muttered. "i will tear her apart with my bare hands."

i closed my eyes, trying to calm myself, to focus on the task of keeping the doors closed.

"annabeth, keep the doors steady," i told her, stepping back. the crack opened for a split second, but annabeth closed it again. 

i stepped between annabeth and percy, across from the crack of the elevator doors. i was angry and sad and feeling too many things to put into words. i needed to channel it all somewhere, and thanks to damasen, my powers were working again.

i allowed my eyes to glow, placing my hands out in front of me and weaving the doors closed with threads of energy. the ropes returned to me, and i yanked on them, tightening the doors a little bit more.

annabeth and percy still had to hold the doors closed on either side, but they nodded, the weight of the doors no longer as strong.

"twelve minutes," annabeth murmured. "just twelve minutes."

i closed my eyes, praying to my mom, to any god that would listen, hoping for once that things would go out way. that bob could press the button for twelve minutes, and that our friends would be on the other side, waiting for us.

"we can do this," percy said, as if reading my thought. "we have to."

"yeah," i agreed. "yeah, we do."

the three of us held the doors shut as the elevator shuddered and the music played, while somewhere below, a titan and a giant sacrificed their lives for our escape.

REY WRITES!

thanks for reading!!

this is one of the longer chapters in the book,
but i wanted to get it all down in here.

a/n we're almost does thoh, how does it feel??

thoughts?

comments?

headcanons?

theories?