Chapter One

Note: Another story inspired by works of another with my own major changes in the plot. When I focus for too long and too hard on one story I begin to burn out and slow down. This story will be developing along side Creatures Of Myth, as such I hope to have regular update for both stories with greater quality for both. It is my hope that you all enjoy this story as much as you have my other work.

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and if I did I doubt I would be writing this story.

'Thoughts'

"Other Language"

"Speech"

~Line Break~

Thunder, rumbling in the backdrop of the great Olympian sky. Lightning flashed in the depths of the dark clouds, lighting them as if swords clashed and sparks within their depths. A boy stood chained in the center of twelve thrones, the seats of power for the mighty Olympian Gods of ancient Greece. Short ebony hair frayed out into sharp tips, unruly even without the wind that blew through the enormous room. His arms extended either side of him, held outstretched and taut by the thick chains of celestial bronze that wrapped around them. Toned legs were bound below him as he was forced into a kneel, two thick shackles binding him in place.

Two sea-green eyes, like two precious round stones of malachite, scanned over the thrones, each carved with the domains of those who owned them. Two stood empty, one of platinum, carved with the likeness over countless hunts and a crescent moon in the center of the back. Across from it the next empty throne, solid gold with images of Delphi, the great Python being slain, and those wounded and being healed, on the back was a large sun like the ancient Macedonian flag. In the remainder of the thrones resided ten of the immortal Olympian council members.

Behind him the two grand doors that marked the throne room's only entrance. Muffled shouting could be heard behind these doors, heavy pounding accompanying it, causing the door to shutter with ever hit. The young boy tugged at the chains that bound him, the resulting rattle echoing around him and throughout the room. Power crackled in the air around him, bound by the very metallic links the secured him before the hearth.

Celestial bronze was a metal of divinity, mined from the very depths of the mighty mount Olympus, occasionally able to be summoned by Hephaestus, God of the Forges. This powerful metal, matched only by imperial gold in ability, not only bound the body, but the soul and magic within as well. God, demigod, mortal sorcerer, it mattered little, their power would slowly drain the longer they remained bound.

Now he, Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon, Prince of the seas, bane of the Minotaur, defeater of Titans, conqueror of Kronos, was wrapped so tight in these very chains that every movement ached as his power rapidly left him. Moments before he had been capable of pulling the chains nearly to the point of break, but the effort had drained him far beyond the point of freeing himself. The rattle continued as he once more tried his hand at escape, looking to his father with pleading eyes.

"D-dad?"

The sea God turned his head, his eyes closed as he refused to meet the identical orbs of his son. The boy called out once more, from his place he could see the hands of his father as they tightly held the arms of his throne, the joint stark white as they wound themselves tight. Poseidon shook lightly, his form wracked with choked back sobs. A sneer formed on the face of the chained boy.

"Fine then, now I know how much you really care about me, Luke was right."

"ENOUGH!" Lightning raced from the clouds above, striking the floor just before the demigod with a loud crack, leaving a small black mark in its place. Zeus, King of Olympus stood from is throne, earths most powerful weapon, the master bolt, held in his hand with its point directed toward the teen. "Perseus Orion Jackson, what you say is high treason!"

Hate filled the eyes of the son of Poseidon, "Treason? Treason? You drag me here, chain me to the floor, talk of killing me, and what I say is treason? The only treachery here is my own father refusing to help me as his brother shoots lightning at me."

"Big words for an idiotic boy such as yourself, maybe my daughter actually rubbed off on you. I can only hope the same can not be said for her." Athena insulted him as she had always done, something to do with an idiotic feud with her father. Leave to all powerful deities to hold a grudge for thousands of years and then go so far as to take out their anger on each other's children.

The doors shuddered one hard time, a soft yell of his name from a man was heard on the opposite side. The Gods looked anxiously to them, their eyes flickering between one another. Hera cleared her throat and looked to her husband, a warning he took quickly. His bolt raised high into the air bringing down another arc of lightning from the sky, this one much thicker than the first. A fissure formed in the marble floor, a crack leading to the depths of the deepest and darkest hell known to the world; Tartarus.

"Any last words before you are exiled to the pit for all eternity?" Olympus's queen, Hera, hated demigods more than anything else. She could see them only as symbols of infidelity, signs that her precious family was not as perfect as she wanted it to be. Demigods born to a married deity, especially her own husband, she hated them the most. So it was safe to say she was not his biggest fan.

This was it, the very end of the line. He had heard that most demigods hardly lived into their twenties. He had assumed that most were killed on some quest, ripped to shreds by some ancient monster that managed to best them. As it turns out that is not always the case. Here he stood, or rather was forced to kneel, as the ruling council of the Gods personally planned to banish him to Tartarus. His crime? Not playing into the hubris of these just and benevolent immortals, denying Godhood and a place among them in favor of helping those who needed it more.

He had spurned them that day, in their eyes he had declared mortality a step above. A rare gift, one offered to only the greatest heroes and he had refused so that the forgotten and mistreated demigods would be more than just tools to be used and thrown away, and the peaceful Titans that had been locked away due to fear would be allowed to once more roam the earth. Officially his crime was aiding the Titans, by releasing the ones who were locked away for not but being Titans he had added to the ranks of Olympus's enemies.

Now he understood why these idiots had so much opposition. Those they looked down upon they treated as common filth, no more than insects beneath their boots. Those that had less power than them, such as the demigods or minor gods were pawns in their little game. Annabeth had once used the word toy-maker, a term describing a god who created something just to toy with it and throw it away. The Titans had always seemed the ones to fit the bill, but perhaps he had been wrong in this regard. Kronos was evil, of that their was no doubt, and he would never have joined the dark King, but were all Titans as truly abhorrent as their King and his children?

He met the eyes of Hestia, the flaming eyed Goddess who tended the hearth in silence. Always watching, always silent, forever at the backdrop of the greater scheme of things. Why? Because the Gods were fools, paying little mind to the eldest of Kronos and Rhea. Every veiled conversation, each secret meeting, the backhanded deals made in this very room when they thought themselves alone, she had heard it all. How incautious and witless for them to overlook one of their own. A deep love for the Goddess was in his heart, she was the gentile giant so to speak, the kindest of them all. It saddened him to see her weep so openly as she watched what was to be his death in this farce of a trial.

Vibrant eyes returned to the Queen, defiance shining withing their depths. "You will regret this." The ancient tongue of Greece found its way to his lips as his anger took hold, bringing out his instincts as a Greek warrior. The Goddess merely smirked in response.

"I think not."

With a clap of her hands he was released from his bindings. Before he could so much as bat an eye the crack expanded to just below him and he fell, racing down towards the deepest depths of the Earth. He could hear the doors finally give way to their attackers, a flash of platinum and golden light reaching the corners of his eyes. His saviors had come too late and now he was doomed. A sad smile found its way to his face.

'At least they tried...at least I have someone.'

~Line Break~

Falling, that is all he had done for eight days now. According to myth it would take nine full days to reach Tartarus from the earth, meaning he would soon reach what was to become his new home for all eternity, well if you can call a giant prison older than time and more dangerous than any other place a home. You would think the the Olympians, being the rulers of the Gods and all, would have an express elevator to the place or some form of quick transportation. Perhaps it was part of the torture, nine days to contemplate what had happened to your life, nine days of knowing you were going to hell and there was no turning back.

As it turns out when you are hardly afraid of what could lie below, and thus you do not spend the time dreading your future, one gets very bored very quickly when falling into the pit. The first day he had spent cursing the Gods in every way he could imagine, English, Greek, the little bits of Latin and French that he had known, the latter being a class offered by the Aphrodite cabin back at camp and he had said why not. When he had ran out of curses on what he could only assume to be the second day he had begun playing with his sword, riptide.

This casual tossing of the honed blade quickly turned into training, seeing as the place he was soon to be was brimming with monsters he knew and ones he had never seen before he figured why not be prepared? After six days of constant self swordplay, and not the fun kind, boredom had ensnared him once more. Now his thoughts moved to those who had tried to save him, the two Olympians barred from entry until it was all but too late.

Artemis and Apollo had been enraged when they had discovered the plans of their fellow council members. Both had tried their hardest to help him, the power of their furious blows enough to shake even the mighty doors of the Olympian council with their sheer strength. Those twin archers had been the ones he had grown closest too for a long time now. When Zoe Nightshade, the second in command of the Hunters of Artemis and the Goddess's best fried had died said Goddess had nearly crumbled. When all others had either held little care or were to afeared to approach the man hating deity he had taken it upon himself to support her in her hour of need, a gesture that had forever earned him her friendship.

Apollo was thought to be the polar opposite of his sister, this was something anyone that really knew the two found entirely false. They both held a light heart and were easy to get along with, Artemis's hate of men had earned her a cold demeanor and as such many saw the two as light and dark, hot and cold. With his growing friendship with the Goddess her bother had taken it upon himself to watch him, the spying of the God quickly fading and being replaced by a rapidly growing friendship. He would gladly fight to the ends of this earth for them and they had shown they would do the very same, pounding on the doors of heaven itself to come to his aid.

What little good it did him now, not that he was not grateful, he was extremely grateful. However now he was plummeting into Tartarus with no idea of what lie before him and his only two friends among the Gods could lose their position as Olympians for helping someone branded as a traitor, which in a sense makes them traitors. Not that he was really a traitor.

His head shifted quickly, sea-green eyes looking into the blackness below him, the sound of wind and hair flying around his ears changing slightly as the walls around him began to widen. Below he could see the ground rapidly approaching, a large glade of brown and silver grass and dead trees bordered by black sand, the white waters of the Lethe below. His powers would hold no use here, these waters were beyond him. Part of him was curious as what would happen to him memory lacking self. His eyes slid closed, arms outstretched before coming together, if he was gonna lose it all it might as well be part of the greatest swan dive ever conceived. Something hard slammed against him and blackness overtook him.

~Line Break~

The sound of rattling chains drew his attention, he could feel something hard against wrapped around his wrist and something equally as hard against his shoulders. Slowly his eyes cracked open, through the blur he could make out a large black figure, lines of crimson running along his body like lava flowing along the ash covered sides of a great volcano. The form shifted, clapping its hands together, sending a few sparks flying from them as a dark chuckle echoed around him, the sound like stones clashing against one another.

"Well well, our guest is awake. How good it is to see you again Perseus."

Something about that voice, something so familiar yet so hard for him to remember. There was a twinge, a itch in the back of his mind he could not scratch. Who was it, not someone he was friends with, then it would be less of an itch and more of a tickle. Did that make sense? He thought so. The sharp pain of a palm against his face drew him back to the land of the living, or at the very least the land of the cursed-to-Tartarus.

"Wake up you insolent child! I have been waiting too long for this for you to sleep through it!"

The new split in his lip pulsed with pain, the blood pooled in his mouth until he spit it to the floor. "I've missed you too Gramps." He lazily looked up, defiantly meeting the handsome face of Kronos, the Titan King of Time and Harvest who as it turns out was his grandfather. Kinda sucks to have so many jerks in your family honestly.

The Titan laughed, a cold and dark sound filled with nothing but cold hate and malice. "I see your wit has not left you, too bad the same can no longer be said of your favor among my children."

Kronos placed a hand on the wooden beam that ran along his shoulders, binding his hands with metal chains at each end. Chains ran from from either end, binding him to the wall behind him. He was left with only slight movement, enough form him to kneel or move forward slightly. The room around him was barren, solid black walls on all four sides, just before him a large metal door. Two small braziers either side of the room providing plenty of light. Kronos followed his eye, smiling darkly.

"Your new home, Perseus, I do hope you enjoy it."

A shaky smile found its way to the demigod's face. "I don't suppose this is for some quality family time?"

"Do not worry," The sharp rasp sound of a blade being drawn reached his ears. A small dagger was waved before his face, a golden metal he did not recognize. "There will be plenty of time for us to get to know one another."

~Line Break~

The King of the Titans backed away from his grandson, now coughing from the liquid fire that had been forced down his throat. He sheathed his golden dagger, his amber eyes searching the form of the rapidly healing boy. The cruel smile he wore so often slowly finding its way back to his face, twisting the corners of his black skinned face. When the coughing subsided he spoke.

"Do you know what the best thing about Tartarus is? Here time changes its ebb and flow, one day above could be a year here, or it could be the exact opposite. Our time could be infinite." He spread his arms wide, gesturing to the primordial pit that surrounded the small cell.

Percy smiled, "Great... I would miss our talks." The demigod son of Poseidon chuckled to himself, drawing a frown from the Titan.

"Forty-three years and yet you persist with your insolence. I would offer you a place at my side once more but I suspect you would once more turn it down. Perhaps in another decade or two." The Titan left through the metallic door as he did every single day.

Chains rattled as the boy collapsed, forced to remain hanging as his bindings allowed him only to fall to his knees. The calm and borderline carefree look on his face faded away, replaced with one of a weary soul trapped in hell. As much as he would like to say the Titan was not breaking down his resolve, doing so was a broad faced lie. He closed his eyes, trying in vain to gain some form of rest, to sleep away the horrors around him. The door creaked on its hinges as it began to slowly open, his eyelids twisted tightly. Had it been another restless night already? Was he truly beginning to lose even his sense of time?

Dull sea-green eyes cracked open ever so slightly, expecting to see the sandaled feet of his torturer, instead he was met with the sight of black combat boots with silver lacing. His eyes traveled up slowly, following dull grey pants to a silver shirt. Auburn hair tied into a long ponytail, falling past the figures shoulder. Pale skin of a high boned, aristocratic face of untold beauty. The silver eyes he so longed to see were missing, in their place were black irises filled with twinkling stars and vast galaxies, universes were created and destroyed in an instant in those eyes. He knew it wasn't her but the tears still fell from his eyes.

"Please, please not her. Please Kronos, anyone but her." He gasped out, tears flowing heavily from his eyes as he pleaded. Thousands of years of torture he could probably take, but seeing something happen to her even once was beyond his ability to take. Just the thought of harm coming to her, of her being in the hands that evil Titan, it was almost enough to shatter him completely.

The replica stepped forward, her every step as quite as an gust of wind, exactly what one would expect of a great hunter. His eyes closed as he turned his head down, tears falling freely through the cracks. A soft hand lightly grasped his chin, drawing him back up. There was a moment of silence before he slowly opened his eyes, meeting the cosmic orbs of her doppelganger. There was a surprisingly kind smile on her face as she looked at him.

"Love is an amazing thing Perseus, it can empower the weak or topple the strong. You know this well, my Champion."

He jerked his head away from her hands. "I don't know what you're playing at Kronos, but I swear when I get out of these chains." He spat out, pulling heavily on his bindings and causing the metallic lengths to clink together loudly. From the corner of his eye he could see the smile falter slightly on her face.

"I am no Titan, Perseus, and this is no trick. This form was chosen for you, I knew it would ease your burdened heart to see her once more."

"Then who-" A finger was placed on his lips, stopping him from speaking.

"I am the creator and maker, mother and giver, the first and last, beginning and end. I am Chaos and you are my Champion."