Chapter Five

Bonjour, mes amis! Despite what you guys might think, I'm not that evil. I hate cliffhangers just as much as you do! But I love doing them. I'm still bubbly and I wanted to give you an extra chappie to read. The next dedication is going to one of the three people who commented and the other two have already been dedicated in a couple. blackjackxx and --Moonlight-- to be exact. you know who you are if you've read the comments. I'm glad you wanted me to update again. It warms my heart. But I am evil. Just not when it comes to reading. It's my escape from reality, as well as writing and my friends always push me to let them read it. They always make me read their school essays for grammar because I am a grammar freak. Perks of having two teachers as parents and geeky sisters just like moi! So they can read this little story if they want now. To the chapter, my lovely readers!

Chapter Five: At the Hunt's campsite, morning in the forest.

Point of view: Perseus Jackson

"W-what?" Phoebe splutters out.

"Phoebe, I was captured and I went to Tartarus. Again." I say softly.

"Prove it." Atalanta tells me.

"Thals, I need you to get off." I remove her from my torso and hand her to Artemis.

I take off my cloak. "What are you doing?" Phoebe asks, eyeing my cloak.

"I'm proving to you that I have been down in Tartarus. Just like Atalanta wants." I say and pull off my shirt and let it fall to the ground, on top of my cloak.

A couple hunters let out horrified screams, some gag, some faint or throw up, and the rest just stare at my chest, their eyes frozen at it in terror.

"By the gods of Olympus." One of the older hunters breathes, Lucy I think her name is.

"What does that say?" Atalanta points at my midsection.

"Read it. I don't know what it says. They carved it into my flesh and I blacked out from the lack of blood in my body. I'm dyslexic, but it's in Greek. Problem is, it's in small writing and it's upside down. The gods didn't even see it." I shrug.

Atalanta comes up to me reluctantly. My form is rigid, so I don't startle her. She leans in front of me and squints to make out the words. She puts her finger on the words and follows them, all the while touching my skin. I involuntarily shudder. She reads them as she traces with her index finger. "You will...always re...return to us, you are our...our. Phoebe, this last word is too small. Can you read it?" Atalanta turns to Phoebe, who, after a moments hesitation, comes up and looks at the word.

"Pawn. The last word is pawn. You will always return to us, you are our pawn. What's the 'O' below it?" Phoebe looks up at me. She studies the words again.

"Oceanus. You haven't even seen my back yet." I turn around. "They all branded me, but you can barely see them with everything else. But I know where each one is." I bend down and put my shirt back on and drape my cloak over my arm. I look up at the stars at my favorite constellation, the Huntress. My back to them.

"Percy, you were there for seven months. Are you okay?" Thalia asks.

I chuckle without humor. "I was there for longer, Thalia. I'll never be okay. Not after everything that has come to pass. The person who dragged me down there in the first place is what ruined me the most. The reason I swore off the company of women." I say, still looking at the sky. The last of the moonlight shines upon my silver skin, just like the hunters.

"Oh gods. Please tell me..." Thalia begins, but stops. She can't say it.

"Did you guess who it was?" I ask without looking at her. I put my hands in my pockets and look at the ground.

"Annabeth? You can't be serious, Perce." Thalia says, disgusted.

"As serious as the 'A' she burned into my lower back." I answer. I finally turn to look at her. Her hands cover her mouth, tears are spilling down her face, and she's got a hurtful look in her eyes. I open my arms and sigh. Thalia runs into them and cries her heart out into my shirt.

"I'm sorry...I ever doubted...you, Perce. I really..." She starts hyperventilating while she weeps.

I stroke her hair in a comforting motion. "Come now, Thals. When have you known me to hold a grudge against you? You're forgiven, Pinecone face. The only grudges I have at the moment are at Annabeth and the camp. Even now, I'm fighting against forgiving the camp." I tell her.

"You idiot! Why didn't you tell me about your brother sooner?! I could've helped you!" Thalia pounds on my chest.

Bad move. I have to pull away and cover my mouth before I cough blood on her. I turn and try to hide it, but it takes a few minutes to stop coughing. By that time, Thalia is hovering over me protectively. And looking at the pool of blood that has gathered between my hands. I am on my hands and knees, trying to stop my coughing fit. After a few minutes, I am able to keep from hacking out my lungs.

"That really hurts coming out." I say and blood splutters on the ground.

Thalia kneels beside me. "Percy, please come to the infirmary tent." Thalia begs me.

I shake my head. "No. This is a side effect. It will go away eventually."

"Perce?" Thalia puts her hand on my back and rubs it soothingly.

"Yeah, Thals?" I reply.

"How long have you been back?" Thalia asks.

"Two weeks." I tell her.

"How many times has this happened now?" She gestures to the blood.

"Seven. Seven times." I answer.

"I have one more question." Thalia says.

"What do you wish to know?" I implore.

She inhales deeply. "If you weren't down there for seven months, how long were you down there?"

There is a long moment of silence, until I look over into her soul-piercing, electric blue eyes and answer her question. "Near three centuries."

All the hunters come over to me and hug me or kiss me on the cheek individually. They all apologize, every single last one of them, including Artemis. Which I didn't understand until she whispered into my ear, "I should've kept them from being so rude." I whispered back in answer, "Not to worry. It is fine."

I had to stand up and prove I was alright until they came near me and did anything physical.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be there in the morning for you guys when you wake up. For now, I need to rest or lay down to get over this stupid breathing problem." I say and try, key word again being try, to get back to my tent. Artemis stops me with a hand on my shoulder. "What is it, my lady?"

"Will you lay down for a second on the ground? Please?" Artemis puts a hand on my chest to keep me from getting by.

"Very well." I say and move to lay down where I am. The sun is starting to take over the sky and the stars are being overshined as it rises. I watch as the sky becomes bright.

"Apollo!" Artemis shouts all of a sudden.

Then a bright flash appears at her side. "What ya need sis?" Apollo asks.

"Will you check Percy?" Artemis pleads.

"Of course." He nods and comes to kneel beside me. "How are you feeling today, Perce?"

"Same as two weeks ago. Better than three weeks ago. Still somewhat suicidal. Feelings overiding my system and I can't keep down any food or liquid. Not to mention the headaches and the bloody coughing fits. The nightmares don't help either." I tell him casually, still looking at the sky.

"You my friend need to brighten up and become more optimistic." Apollo says seriously, for once.

"Doubt it will happen. I am here to serve as Guardian, not to feel sorry for myself." I shrug.

Apollo places one hand on my chest and another on my forehead. I close my eyes as I feel things starting to heal slowly, when Apollo's light flashes over my body. Then it fades and I open my eyes back at the sky and wait for him to speak.

"Right, well your right lung was working hard to force breath into you and push the blood out. Almost all of your ribs were broken and your left ankle was almost completely shattered. Why in HADES were you out and about?!" He yells at me.

"Because pain doesn't bother me at that level. I don't feel it like the rest of you would." I tell him, I watch as clouds drift in and out of view.

"What all did they do to you?" Apollo asks.

"You want me to water it down or do you want to see it for yourself through my memories? I guarnatee you that you'll be scarred for life, Apollo." I glance at him and look back up.

"Why are you so obsessed with the sky, Percy?" Lucy asks me.

"Because. The only thing I've really seen for a long time now is either red mist or darkness as a ceiling. I'm taking in the sky, Lucy. In all of its beautiful glory." I answer.

"Oh." Lucy looks down.

"So, sun god. Bright and cheery or painfully excruciating?" I ask Apollo.

"I'lll settle for bright and cheery." Apollo says.

"You got a drachma?" I ask him.

He places one in my hand and I create a mist. As the rainbow appears I chant, "O' Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering and show us Percy Jackson's memories of his second time in Tartarus." I flip the coin into the rainbow.

We got to see everything! Isn't that wonderful? Note my sarcasm.

We got to see all the bones in my body ripped out and forced back in, same with the organs, the pool scene several times, my bones broken and healed painfully until I was a bloody sack of a person, poisons of all kinds shoved into my system whether through cuts or shoved down my throat, whipping, cutting, hitting, kicking, beating in general, drowning, electrocuting, and so much more. Every day, Christmas music played in the background, mocking me the entire time, when I had no happy thoughts left in my mind. Then we got to see the mental torture. The hunters and the gods just watch, their eyes glued to the IM in horror. They take notice and comment about how I don't cry out in pain until Polybotes gets involved. Every single Titan, Giant, and monster ever known to the mythical world came to visit me. They all came for me.

After the Iris message ends, I still lay there on the cold, hard ground. Just like that table they strapped me to and the shackles.

"I said the bright and cheery version!" Apollo screams frustrated.

"That was the bright and cheery version. The other version means watering it down and leaving out how damaged I truly am, doctor Apollo. I thought you wanted to know the extent of my little situation. Now you all know everything. Beautiful holiday vacation, right? I bet you're all just dying to go." I say sarcastically.

"Percy?" Phoebe asks hesitantly, unsure of if she should voice her question.

"Yes, Lady Phoebe?" I watch her as she comes to kneel beside me. I look into her eyes and hold her gaze.

"Why didn't you die? How did you survive?" Phoebe takes my hand. I don't jerk it away, I just let her hold it.

I sigh. "The spell, Kronos, Tartarus. Anything they did to keep me alive. It could have been any one of them or anything they did to me to keep me alive for my torment, so I would break and join them. They desperately wanted me and enjoyed watching my pain. Even if I did die, they would have either resurrected me or caught my soul and shoved it right back into my body. So they could keep going. Maybe I did die, just came back because of their little magic tricks and healing sessions, so they could start all over again. You'd have to ask them if you truly want to know." I tell her.

"You lasted a month before they finally got you to make any noise." Phoebe pints out again.

"An Earth month, yes. It's longer down there. That's why they brought Polybotes in. Styx that hurt. I'll kill him next time I see him, first chance I get. That stupid bastard is dead the moment he is within my range." I say.

"How are you so...?" Joslyn finally speaks.

"Blunt?" I ask. She nods. "Because I'm not down there anymore and I've resolved to eradicate them if they are ever in my sights. Plus, there's really no use complaining. What's done is done. Not like I feel much more anyways. I was never scared, jus tired, sore, lonely, and angry as Hades, but never terrified. It just hurt. A lot." I tell them.

"What do you mean by feel?" Thalia asks.

"My emotions, Thals. They aren't there. I can't feel anything other than tired." I say.

"You just got to learn how to use them again." Phoebe says.

"Great. A hunt for my condemned feelings. This should be fun." I roll my eyes.

End of chappie! Lol, did you like it? Like before, I added a little more. So, if you guys want more descriptions or dreams, tell me and I might put some in. Next chapter, next few chapters are already written, as mentioned before, so I just got to type them in this here box and post 'em for ya. Right, I shall go to the little deication box as soon as this starts working and posts! Still learning how to use this to its full potential. I do not own PJO/HOO, Rick Riordan does. Until we meet again, my lovely readers!Edited July 29th-2015