Liberty Or Death Chapter One

Halfway Gone

They'd made it halfway up the elevator.

Halfway up.

Halfway down.

In between.

Partly alive.

Partly dead.

They were shoving the doors closed as tightly as they possibly could, it was taking hours and years and centuries to reach the top. His arms were shaking as if he'd brought an earthquake down on himself. Across from him, Annabeth's face was gray and grim, the only speck of life swirling angrily in her eyes.

Percy knew his eyes matched hers. He couldn't fail, couldn't leave her to do it by herself. Not that she isn't capable, he thought absently. Probably a lot better than me. If he could have forced a laugh past his raw throat, he would have. But the memories were setting in and even though they were leaving all he could see was the endless night. The parts where they burned and parts where they froze. Where he almost killed Akhyls.

That was killing him. He was out of control, destroyed, unstable. He wouldn't be there for Annabeth, he was insane. It was seeping into every part of him, each breath he took reminding him. His throat burned from the fire that they had been drinking. The raw skin on his hands pressed against the door felt like they were still in the river. Percy felt like he was drowning in the river of fire.

His fear of water had returned. If he couldn't control his powers around firewater or poison, then what would he do around actual, clean water? It was torturing him. At that moment, he wanted water more than anything else in the world but he also didn't want it, didn't want it all if he couldn't be safe, if he was too insane, too far gone.

Annabeth's face had told him everything in that one instant he turned back to her after pushing the poison aside. She was scared of him. They'd done everything together and he'd ruined it, destroyed everything, broken them both.

"A bit farther," Annabeth choked out. Their eyes met and his pain multiplied with no ending just seeing her. It was his fault, he'd let her fall, he hadn't been fast enough.

All logic told him otherwise, of course, but logic wasn't exactly something you had coming out of the evil pit of nasty flaming deaths. Or to be brief, hell.

"Yeah," Percy murmured, forcing out the word. It felt like his lips had been glued shut. "Just- just a bit further." Then I'll be really insane.

The elevator reeked of monster. He probably reeked of monster too, he realized. The doors were shaking uncontrollably, his arms felt like jelly, his legs were collapsing, but he had to stand. He couldn't let Annabeth down. He couldn't ignore the sacrifice they'd been given. The lives lost for their escape. Annabeth stood silently, her eyes wide open like someone had shocked her. He knew exactly why. The exhaustion and emptiness and pain was nothing compared to the terror of sleep, of seeing it all again, of watching the other die as so many of the nightmares had been. Something clicked in the elevator. They had to be almost there. Almost. It was like running a marathon, Percy thought. Make it to that marker and keep going. Make it to that one and keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

Suddenly the air seemed to clear slightly, like they'd crossed some invisible threshold. Breathing didn't hurt quite so much. Percy almost collapsed in the slight absence of pain. He'd become used to it and it was almost more painful. Annabeth took a deep breath too, lip quivering. The elevator clicked again. The doors started to push open against their exhausted arms. A tiny crack appeared and a sulfur stench swept in, surrounding and suffocating them. The elevator bounced slightly, like it was broken, like it was going to drop right back into Tartarus with them inside.

"Hold on," Percy managed to say. It was a mark of their desperation that no sarcastic quip came in response. The floor swayed beneath him and the elevator jolted downwards as the crack opened. He couldn't muster the energy to scream or yell or shout.

They threw all their weight against the door and the gap slimmed. The torch on the back wall flickered, lending an even eerier air to the small space. He shoved the door closed with enough force that his shoulder put a dent in the metal. Ever so slowly, he could feel them creep upwards.

Please, please, please, he thought. He couldn't gather the energy to actually pray to any god. Annabeth's lips were moving silently, the white of her drakon-bone sword looking even more menacing in the flickering, unfriendly light.

A little more.

The floor rumbled and he could hear roaring that seemed to surround the elevator. His eyes shut, as if he could block out what was coming, surely, next-

Annabeth slammed on the door, forcing it closed. There was no way it had been less than ten minutes, no conceivable chance they hadn't been there for at least a millennium. The floor shook again. They lurched upwards and Percy wanted to cry in relief. The air cleared again and he could breathe a little better, but his entire body was screaming and so he could only sip the air. One step at a time.

He choked down a hoarse laugh. If they ever recovered from this, they'd have to go through a ten-thousand step program. But the elevator was going up, they were getting closer, slightly closer, and he could feel the temperature decrease by fractions but it was changing, they were going home-

A loud bang shook the side. Screaming and shouts sounded from above them and it felt like all his memories and happiness were being sucked away as their single torch flickered and went out. It sounded like someone was tunneling through stone and Percy opened his mouth to ask Annabeth, to reassure, to do something but he couldn't make a sound-

The elevator banged upwards and slammed to a stop. Black mist swirled around the doors, choking him. He was freezing and he couldn't breathe, the air was thick and poisonous and he couldn't make a sound but he knew Annabeth felt the same thing the way her fingers just barely touched his but tightened and it felt like they were each holding on to the other for dear life.

Then her hand slipped from his as the doors opened and more dark mist filled the elevator, as if it could possibly fit more of anything, more fear, more pain, more exhaustion, more death-

With the loss of his only support, Percy stumbled forwards, reaching wildly for Annabeth's hand before they both fell back to Tartarus. They had failed. It was over. But her hand met his and they somehow hit solid, mercifully solid ground that didn't shake or beat or rumble. Percy shoved himself up with the last bit of his strength, desperately trying to pull them both away from the elevator, away from the pit and the monsters. Annabeth stood too and they both managed to take a few steps away, then a little further, then a little further.

But they both stumbled on an unseen fissure and in his last moments of consciousness he pulled his best friend, his light closer, trying to protect her from one tiny thing before he couldn't anymore. He heard a scream and the sound of metal against metal, the same sound that had been made when Annabeth broke the pit's chains. A cacophony of roars echoed through the now-empty hole behind them as Percy watched the doors disappear and faded into the darkness.