While on a trip around the Mediterranean, Ellie and 2 of her friends, Anja and Jessie (both demigods) were staying near Mount Etna visiting some of the places Ellie had always wanted to go to, when she and her friends accidentally stumbled upon/fell into a hole that lead straight into Tartarus made accidentally by the struggle of Typhon.
Being a daughter of Notus, Ellie could slow her groups fall into Tartarus enough to only have minor injuries. Hearing stories from camp about two demigods survieing Tartarus, the group started to retrace the way the heard in the story. After a while of walking towards the heart of Tartarus, a massive cyclops had appeared out of the darkness and started to attack Ellie and her friends.
They successfully killed the cyclops but not without Jessie dying. Anja and Ellie dug a rushed grave for their fallen friend just before they heard what seemed like something or someone was walking towards them. Ellie and Anja quickly ran towards the nearest rock and hid behind it. As they hid behind a rock, they saw a man that looked the same age as Ellie that also happen to be Tartarus disguised as a human. Tartarus was disguised as a human because he had started to take a liking to Ellie and didn't want to scare her in his normal form. Ellie was instantly attracted to him and came out behind the rock to introduce herself.
“How did you survive the fall to here” Tartarus said as he saw Ellie and Anja.
“I slowed us down with my powers” Ellie said.
“Oh so you're a demigod then” Tartarus said “Who is your parent then”.
“Mine is Notus and Anja over here is Ares” Ellie said “How about you”.
“My father is Demios” he said.
“Why don’t you come with us to get out” Ellie asked. “Anything to get out of this pit” Tartarus said. So Anja, Ellie and Tartarus disguised as a human set off to the heart of Tartarus. When they came close to where Akhlys is, the titan Koios burst from out of the ground. He had just finished reforming after he was killed in the mortal world and the group just happened to stumble upon him by accident.
“Ah demigods” Koios said “I haven’t had a good fight in a while”. As soon as Krios said that, he attacked the group, striking straight at Ellie. Anja jumped right in front of Ellie to block Koios’ strike to make sure Ellie didn’t get hurt. Anja was hit so hard so disappeared into the darkness. Anja died on impact with Kioios’s sword. After Anja was hit by Krios, Ellie tried to keep herself safe underneath a dome of air. It kept her safe for a while until Krios started to blast with energy on Ellie’s dome.
“That is enough” Tartarus said as he madde Krios reform somewhere else.
“How did you do that” Ellie said in a small voice. “Because I am Tartarus” he said as he turned into a human sized version of his normal form.
“I can get you out of here but with a price” Tartarus said.
“Just get me out of her” Ellie said “I can’t stand another minute in here. No offence”. Just as Ellie finished her sentence, Tartarus transported her back to her home in Miami. Ellie found out she was in Tartarus for over a week and had a visit from Tartarus’s essence in a human body a week later. Tartarus’s price of getting out of Tartarus was the Ellie had to have a child with him and on the 15th of July, 2001 she did. Ellie named her child Anja in memory of how Ellie’s life was saved by her best friend in the pit.
When Anja was one, Tartarus returned to make sure his daughter will be safe. He didn’t show himself to either Anja or Ellie but left a arm band and a 1m long Stygian Iron sword. Once Tartarus had left, Ellie found his gift for Anja and hid the sword in the crawl space of the roof and decide to give the armband to Anja for her 12th birthday. Ellie had always tried to train Anja from an early age with some weapons she had kept from her early years as a demigod. The weapon Anja mostly used was a khopesh. Even though with all of the training Ellie was putting through her daughter, Anja had always went to a normal school. On her 12th birthday, Anja got the armband that was from her father and was told by Ellie that is she should have that with her at all times.
On the way back from one of her friends when she was 12, Anja saw a pure black horse with red glowing eyes staring right at her. She didn’t like the look of the horse so she started to back away but the horse ran at her. Anja closed her eyes and put out her hand and when she opened her eyes, she was extremely tried and the horse was gone. Without knowing Anja used her powers to vanquish the monster. Strange animals disappearing in strange ways kept happening to Anja two more times over the next two years like a two headed dog falling down a hole that wasn’t there before, a dog/seal hybrid disappearing without a trace then a massive black dog also disappearing. Again by accident Anja used her powers, first making a hole deep enough for the dog to not get her and second vanquish two monster again. Anja never told her mother about any of this stuff until her mother talked to her about camp.
“Anja, we are going to need to talk about something” Ellie said one day when Anja was around the age of 15.
“What is it mom” Anja said back to her mother.
“Has there been anything weird happening lately to you” Ellie said.
“Now you mention it there has been a few times” Anja said.
“There is this place you can go to that will keep you safe from monster that might have attacked you” Ellie said “You can go whenever you want”.
“I’ll think about it mom” Anja said. And that was it about camp for a while.
Being in Tartarus and seeing Tartarus himself had massive effects on Ellie later in her life and was slowly dying. Mortal medicine or even demigod magic could not cure Ellie, only the power of a god could cure her. Anja prayed all she could to summon a god to help her mother. The only one that listened and was Hestia. Hestia had always respected Ellie and her daughter.
After a few days of praying, Anja started to give up hope when Hestia appeared in front of her and said “I can help your mother but we have to make a deal, when you go to camp and you must at sometime, become my priestess”.
“I will do anything if you help my mom” Anja said in tears.
“She will be cured in the morning and i will have a gift waiting for you at camp” Hestia said before she disappeared to Hephaestus’ current forge with the sword Anja’s father had giving her and Ellie’s old khopesh. The next morning, Ellie was all cured and full of energy.
“Mom I think it is time for me to go to camp” Anja said when she found her mother. The next day, Ellie took her daughter to camp where Anja told Alexander she was a child of Tartarus and was also appointed by Hestia herself the priestess of Hestia.
“So this must be for you then” Alexander said as he handed Anja a sword that looked like her mother’s khopesh but with a black blade instead.
