When they got out of here, Cressida promised to never complain about summer again. She usually hated it because of how much they'd sweat and how hot it was, and she probably still would, but she'd never take the sunlight for granted again. Because walking down in the darkness of Tartarus made it near impossible to see even with Bob and Castor who glowed faintly, her thyrsus that Castor offered to hold that glowed as well, and Riptide.
And in said darkness, she fell off another cliff.
"Whoa! Cress!" Percy yelled as he grabbed for her arm, but she was already falling.
Fortunately, it was only a shallow depression. Most of it was filled with a monster blister. She had a soft landing on a warm bouncy surface and was feeling lucky—until she opened her eyes and found herself staring through a glowing gold membrane at another, much larger face. She screamed and flailed, toppling sideways off the mound. Her heart did a hundred jumping jacks.
Percy and Castor helped her to her feet as she clutched Percy like a lifeline, her whole body trembling as Castor stood next to them, rubbing her back.
"You alright Cress?" he asked as Percy pressed kisses to her hair.
"So far from it," she whispered before they made out what was inside the monster bubble.
Curled in the membrane bubble in front of her was a fully formed Titan in golden armour, his skin the colour of polished pennies. His eyes were closed, but he scowled so deeply that he appeared to be on the verge of a bloodcurdling war cry. And even through the blister, you could feel the heat radiating from his body.
"Hyperion," Percy said. "I hate that guy."
Castor prodded at the bubble with the end of the thyrsus, a stupid thing to do as they all flinched back, but Hyperion stayed asleep. "I thought I watched Grover turn this asshat into a maple tree?" Castor said.
"He did," Percy said. "Maybe the maple tree died, and he wound up back here?"
Cressida was so done being scared of every step she took inside this literal hellhole. She was about to suggest that they burst Hyperion's bubble before he woke up. He looked ready to pop out at any moment and start charbroiling everything in his path. Then she glanced at Bob.
The silvery Titan was studying Hyperion with a frown of concentration—maybe recognition. Their faces looked so much alike....
"You alright, Big Guy?" Castor asked softly, well aware that while Hyperion was lord of the east, Iapetus was lord of the west. Take away Bob's broom and his janitor's clothes, put him in armour and cut his hair, and change his colour scheme from silver to gold, and Iapetus would have been almost indistinguishable from Hyperion.
"Gold, not silver," Bob murmured. "But he looks like me."
"Bob," Percy said. "Hey, buddy, over here."
The Titan reluctantly turned.
"Are we your friends?" Percy asked.
"Yes." Bob sounded dangerously uncertain. "We are friends."
"Well, Big Guy, remember how we said that some monsters are good and some are bad?" Castor asked and he nodded.
"Like...the pretty ghost ladies who serve Persephone are good. Exploding zombies are bad," he said, and Percy and Castor nodded.
"Exactly right," Castor confirmed before Percy continued on.
"And some mortals are good, and some are bad. Well, the same thing is true for Titans."
"Titans..." Bob loomed over them, glowering and Cressida really prayed that they didn't make a mistake by telling him that.
"That's what you are, Big Guy," Castor said. "You're Bob the Titan. A kickass card player and janitor. And you're a good person."
"You're awesome in fact," Percy added. "But some Titans are not. This guy here, Hyperion, is full-on bad. He tried to kill me and Cress...he tried to kill a lot of people."
Bob blinked his silver eyes. "But he looks...his face is so—"
Cressida finally found her voice. She wasn't Piper by any means, but she could be persuasive. At least she hoped so.
"He does look like you," she agreed. "And he is a Titan like you, but, he is not good like you."
"Bob is good." His fingers tightened on his broom handle. "Yes. There is always at least one good one—monsters, Titans, giants."
"Uh..." Percy grimaced. "Well, I'm not sure about the giants."
"Oh, yes." Bob nodded earnestly.
"Cas, we need to go. I think we've been here too long," Cressida whispered to him and he nodded.
"But what about...?"
"Bob," Percy said, "it's your call. Hyperion is your kind. We could leave him alone, but if he wakes up—"
Bob's broom-spear swept into motion.
If he'd been aiming at Cressida or Percy, they would've been cut in half. Instead, Bob slashed through the monstrous blister, which burst in a geyser of hot golden mud.
And Cressida loved Percy a little more as he tried to shield her from most of it as she wiped some of it from her eyes.
Where Hyperion had been, there was nothing but a smoking crater. "Hyperion is a bad Titan," Bob announced, his expression grim. "Now he can't hurt my friends. He will have to re-form somewhere else in Tartarus. Hopefully, it will take a long time." The Titan's eyes seemed brighter than usual as if he were about to cry quicksilver.
"Thank you, Bob," Percy said.
"Thank you," Cressida added as she surged forward and tugged on his arm, pulling his cheek down to kiss it. As he straightened up, he broke into a smile as he held a hand to his cheek.
"Bob is a good Titan," he said as if he was confirming that he made the right decision.
"Hey, I haven't gotten one of those in a while," Castor said and she couldn't help but smile as she came over to kiss his cheek as well, despite having kissed his cheek a few minutes ago – if it was a few minutes ago.
"Me too," Percy added and she rolled her eyes as she moved over to her boyfriend who held out his cheek to her. But at the last moment, he turned his head, their lips meeting for a quick second before he pulled away and for a single second everything was ok.
"Hate to interrupt the moment," Castor said as he leaned on Cressida's thyrsus. "But we better keep going."
And together they followed Bob, the golden mud flecks from Hyperion's burst bubble glowing on his janitor's uniform.
******************************************************************
Cressida loved her brother. Really, she did. There was no one she loved more in the world, not even Percy, when Castor offered to carry her on his back for a little while.
Her feet were like mush but mush where she could feel an ache in every single bone in her foot and there was a memory in the back of her mind about Annabeth telling her that there were 26 bones in a human foot. She was trying not to fall asleep as she hung on Castor's back and Percy used her thyrsus as a walking stick which was a much-needed relief for him.
At least until Cressida started talking to herself.
"Stop it!" she'd said as her head jerked up from Castor's shoulder.
"You good, Cressie?" Castor asked and she shook her head as she tried to wake herself up more.
"What?" Percy frowned at the same time, and she tried for a reassuring smile.
"No, not you guys. Talking to myself. This place...it's messing with my mind. Giving me dark thoughts. Apparently being the daughter of madness doesn't mean much down here. I'm fine though."
The worry lines deepened around Percy's sea-green eyes because 99% of the time, she lied when she said she was fine. "Hey, Bob, where exactly are we heading?"
"The lady," Bob said. "Death Mist."
"Which lady, Big Guy?" Castor asked. "And what is the Death Mist?"
"Naming her?" Bob glanced back. "Not a good idea."
Names had power and speaking them here in Tartarus was probably very dangerous.
"Hey, do you think if I curse Hera enough, she'll come down here and then we can force her to get us out?" Cressida wondered and Percy had to crack a grin as Castor laughed.
"Wishful thinking, probably, Wine Vine, but I will certainly help you try," Percy said.
"Hey, Bob, do you know how far we have left at least?" Castor asked.
"I do not know," Bob admitted. "I can only feel it. We wait for the darkness to get darker. Then we go sideways."
"Sideways," Cressida repeated. "Well let's hope that for once, the way we go is right."
It was such a terrible joke that they had to laugh at it.
"Wow, Cress, that was almost worse than Polly's jokes," Castor said.
"That was so bad, I'm tempted to give you a point on the board just so it doesn't happen again," Percy said and she grinned from Castor's back.
"No promises but I will gladly take that point."
Suddenly Bob stopped. He raised his hand: Wait.
"What?" Percy whispered as Castor lowered Cressida back onto her feet and Percy handed her back her thrysus.
"Shh," Bob warned. "Ahead. Something moves."
They tried straining their ears and from somewhere in the fog came a deep thrumming noise, like the idling engine of a large construction vehicle. She could feel the vibrations through her shoes.
"We will surround it," Bob whispered. "Each of you, take a flank."
Castor drew his sword as he and Cressida took the left, Percy took the right and Bob took the middle.
The humming got louder.
"Ready?" Bob murmured.
Cressida crouched down, preparing to spring. "On three?"
"One," Percy whispered. "Two—"
A figure appeared in the fog. Bob raised his spear.
"Wait!" Castor shouted.
Bob froze just in time, the point of his spear hovering an inch above the head of a tiny calico kitten. "Rrow?" said the kitten, clearly unimpressed by their attack plan. It butted its head against Bob's foot and purred loudly.
It seemed impossible, but the deep rumbling sound was coming from the kitten. As it purred, the ground vibrated and pebbles danced. The kitten fixed its yellow, lamp-like eyes on one particular rock, right by Cressida and Castor's feet, and pounced.
The cat could've been a demon or a horrible monster in disguise for all she knew, but both of them had a bit of an affinity for cats as Cressida picked it up and it snuggled into her.
The little thing was bony under its fur, but otherwise, it seemed perfectly normal.
"What in Hades is a kitten doing down here?" Castor asked as the cat jumped onto his shoulders.
"Your guess is as good as mine, big brother," Cressida said as the cat jumped back onto the ground and padded over to Bob, and started purring again as it rubbed against his boots.
Percy laughed. "Somebody likes you, Bob."
"It must be a good monster." Bob looked up nervously. "Isn't it?"
Cressida and Percy were a little nervous as they nodded and Bob knelt down and scooped up the cat.
It fit perfectly in Bob's palm, but it decided to explore. It climbed the Titan's arm, made itself at home on his shoulder, and closed its eyes, purring like an earthmover. Suddenly its fur shimmered. In a flash, the kitten became a ghostly skeleton, as if it had stepped behind an X-ray machine. Then it was a regular kitten again.
Cressida blinked before rubbing her eyes. "Was that me starving and being exhausted or did you see that too?"
"Nah, it wasn't just you, Cress," Castor said.
"Yeah. Oh, man...I know that kitten. It's one of the ones from the Smithsonian. Remember, Wine Vine?" Percy said and it clicked into place.
"Oh, my gods. Yeah. That was so long ago," she said almost nostalgically as she remembered the skeleton warriors that Atlas had risen using sabertoothed tiger teeth instead of dragon teeth. "How did it get here?"
Percy spread his hands helplessly. "Atlas told his servants to take the kittens away. Maybe they destroyed the cats and they were reborn in Tartarus? I don't know."
"It's cute," Bob said, as the kitten sniffed his ear.
"It's safe, right?" Castor asked, still a little concerned because he never remembered skeletal sabertoothed cats being part of her recount of that quest.
The Titan scratched the kitten's chin, clearly bonding with the cat.
"I will call him Small Bob," said Bob. "He is a good monster."
End of discussion. The Titan hefted his spear, and they continued marching into the gloom.
"Yes, he's safe," Cressida assured him. "Can I resume my piggyback ride now?"
Castor grinned as his sword vanished. "Hop on."
"Hey, I want a turn at some point," Percy complained.
"I may like you, Jackson, but not that much," Castor called back and Cressida just laughed as Percy stuck his tongue out at her and she blew him a kiss.
That was the last good moment they had before the Curses came.