Isabella, Tartarus survivor

Am I as happy as I should be to leave?

There were monsters everywhere. I'd been in Tartarus for over 70 years apparently, and I'd never seen this many monsters in one place. I wondered, not for the first time, why Damasen hadn't told me about this. Annabeth, at the front of the group, held up a hand to stop us. "Ok," she started "plan of attack. Bob, we're going to need you to use your broom. Keep back as many monsters as you can. Percy, if you can still use your powers when the death mist is affecting us this much, then do what you can. You said there was water under the ground. See if you can use it." Percy nodded. "Isabella, can you do anything? Like, anything ordinary people can't do?" My first instinct was to say no, shake my head hard and just get out of here, but it was like I wasn't in charge of my voice.

"I.. I can do this thing..." my eyes widened, and Annabeth must have noticed.

"Everything alright? She asked. I went to shake my head, but yet again, I didn't seem to be in control anymore.

"Yeah," I replied, "I can do this thing, like, if I concentrate. I don't know how to describe it. It's like, this huge blanket of..." I struggled to think of a good word to describe it, "this huge blanket of dark. I can make it to what I say." Annabeth's jaw dropped slightly, and I noticed Percy's had done the same.

"You don't think..." Annabeth asked him.

"No." Percy answered, quickly. "He would have told us. No one could keep this a secret." I was about to ask who he was, when something spotted us. Or rather, something spotted Bob. And it made a beeline for him. Not in the same way as Koios. In a much more threatening way, with a blade drawn. And others began to follow him. Oh, this was bad. This was very bad.

"RIGHT." Annabeth yelled, "Bob, time to put the plan of attack into action." Bob nodded, and lifted his broom. Small Bob arched his back, hissing, and transformed from a little black kitten into a skeletal tiger sized cat. Percy closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. Two jets of water shot out of the ground. He formed them into spheres which hung just above the palms of his hands. I placed my feet hip width apart, took a deep breath, and felt a tug in my gut. Maybe I could do it again today. Who knew?

Annabeth wove in and out of the beasts. We must have become visible again or something, because they didn't just run at Bob, they ran at all of us. She slashed st them with the drakon bone dagger, and Bob was jabbing at the monsters with his broom. But Percy, what Percy was doing was mesmerising, and terrifying. He was surrounded by water, drowning things, suffocating them, making them feel the misery he must have felt when he fell into the river Cocytus. Monsters turned to dust at his feet. I was in awe. But I didn't really have the time to be. Things were coming at me left, right, and centre, and while I was killing some by stabbing them with my dagger, I knew it wasn't enough.

"PERCY!" I called to him, hoping desperately that he could hear me over the roar of all the other monsters. He turned to look at me, and I let out a sigh of relief. "COVER ME? I HAVE AN IDEA."

"WHAT IS IT?" Percy asked.

"JUST- PLEASE?" I begged. He nodded and began running towards me. I closed my eyes and concentrated. Come on. I thought to myself. You've done this before, in life threatening situations. You can do it now. Come on. Come ON. COME ON. Suddenly, it felt as though someone had reached into my body, grabbed my guts, and tried to yank them out. I let out a roar, of anger, of pain, of anguish at everything I'd lost since being down here. I threw my head back and opened my eyes. Shadows were pouring out of my fingertips, rising from the ground, engulfing anything that tried to attack me. I noticed that Annabeth had stopped fighting. She was just staring at me, her eyes wide. I saw something, an empousai I thought, coming up behind her. I moved my hand to point at it, and it disintegrated as the shadows touched it. This seemed to bring her back to reality, and she returned to fighting. I heard a roar, a roar that sounded familiar, and saw someone on the horizon. Despite everything, a grin arrived on my face. Damasen has decided to choose his own destiny after all.

He joined me as I fought. I felt as though I was almost floating, twisting my body this way and that, finally beginning to get used to the tugging feeling in my gut. I'd never done something of this magnitude before, and it made me feel like laughing. Like saying take that Tartarus, you stuffy old fart. I'm finally getting out of here. Damasenseemed overwhelmed at what I was doing. He kept sneaking glances at me as we fought. As we slashed and destroyed, I realised. With Damasen, I felt like I was home. He was like a dad to me, and there was no one I'd rather be fighting along side. "Nice of you to show up!" I called, in a mocking tone. "But what time do you call this?" He flashed me a quick grin as he stabbed a giant in the stomach.

"Sorry." He said, "But I'm here now." Our little conversation was interrupted by Annabeth yelling.

"NOW!" She shouted. "THE DOORS ARE FREE!" Only a couple of monsters seemed to have heard her and they made a beeline for them. I pointed the shadows at them, and they disintegrated. I reached forward, grabbed Percy, and we stared running.

As we ran, trying to keep the monsters off of us, Annabeth was trying to explain the plan to us. There was a look of guilt on her face. "Not all of us can go." That statement felt like a punch to the gut. What if it was me that couldn't go? I was so close to escaping. What if this was all a trick. We were getting closer and closer to the Doors. "Someone needs to hold the button to control the Doors." She explained. At that moment, Bob slowed down running. He stood straight. Percy slowed.

"Bob, what are you doing?" He asked, in a worried tone.

"I will do it." Bob said. "I will hold the button." My heart skipped a beat.

"But Bob, you'll die!" Annabeth argued.

"No, he won't." Damasen interrupted. "I'll hold them off. Give you three enough time to get a trip back upstairs." Tears sprang to my eyes.

"But... But you're supposed to come with me. I promised I'd get you out of here!" I said, the tears falling down my cheeks now. Damasen knelt down, wiped my tears away with the tip of his index finger, and placed a kiss on the top of my head.

"I knew when you said it that you couldn't keep that promise. And that's ok. I'm meant to be here, Isabella. You, you're not. You have a life to live. Now go and live it." Damasen ran towards the oncoming swarm of monsters, and Bob said one thing to us before he raced off towards the button.

"Say hello to the stars for me."

"We will." Annabeth promised, firmly. She took a deep breath. Her bottom lip was quivering. I could tell she was trying not to cry. Me, on the other hand, I was an emotional wreck. Percy had grabbed both my arms to stop me from running after Damasen. He was suprisingly strong. He kept me in his arms as I screamed "NO!" over and over, sobbing. Annabeth ran over and grabbed one of my arms. Percy took the other. They pulled me towards, and into the Doors. I was still screaming. Percy and Annabeth took one last look at Bob. He nodded, and they grabbed the doors, pushing them shut. I took one last look at the brave, brave idiot who called himself Damasen. I hiccuped, and wiped the tears off my cheeks.

"Damasen," I called, hoping that he could hear me "Thank you. I swear that I will do my best to get you out of here." The of here was cut off. Percy and Annabeth has managed to shut the Doors. I stood in the middle, pushing both of them together, trying my best to help. "Sorry. Thank you." I said, to both of them. Percy grunted.

"Let's save this for later. Right now, just focus on keeping the doors shut." I nodded, and tried to push the doors closer together as I felt us going up.

A/N~ Sup guys! Been a while. Sorry if this chapter is crappy, or disappointing, or anything. I'm right in the middle of GCSE's (these annoying tests that you have to do in England) and it's pretty stressful, but I really enjoy updating this, so I wanted to try and get a chapter up during the half term. It was a bit rushed, but I hope it was still enjoyable . I'm going borderline freestyle now, which means not going exactly by the books. I'm quite excited to have that creative freedom, and I can't wait to write some of Isabella's escapades when she gets back to earth! Btw, this is also up on fanfiction.net, which is a platform that I currently use more often than this. If you fancy checking it out on there, go ahead. If you have the time, please leave a review! I find them so helpful, to improve the story, and my writing skills in general. Thanks for reading, I'll see you in the next update!

Disclaimer: All rights go to Rick Riordan. The only original character in this is Isabella. She's my creation, but the PJO/HOO universe belongs to good old Mr. Riordan.