Percy shouldered his backpack full of the necessities, the usual nectar and ambrosia as well as the silver hunting knife Artemis gave him. Might be useful, he thought before taking a deep breath and stepping into the DOA recording studios after waving Mrs. O' Leary off. Charon looked up as soon as he walked in.
"Hello Percy, Hades is expecting you." Charon greeted more warmly than usual as he stepped out from behind the counter.
"I see that Hades actually did give you a pay raise," commented Percy with a slight chuckle, gesturing to his new Italian suit.
"Yes indeed- it's long been overdue, but finally, I did get it." As they walked into the elevator, they fell silent.
As they descended, Percy could feel the hopelessness and despair emanating from the river. Just like Percy's first trip to the Underworld, it was polluted, except this time, the air felt sickly.
Is it getting worse? Percy wondered to himself.
Try healing it with hope, Percy. A warm voice suggested to him. It's the product of depression, but the reverse is true as well. I shall help you.
The feeling of depression was palpable. Percy tried reaching out with his ability to sense emotion, and immediately withdrew. It was as though a continuous scream of despair, helplessness, and misery had touched his ears and filled him. He quietly thought of Annabeth, and her smiling face, their plans for the future, and those words she'd said before he left- "I love you, Seaweed Brain." Keeping that image firmly fixed within his mind, he knelt down and to Charon's shock, dipped his hand in the water. The sum of every spirit's negative emotion rushed him, but he was prepared this time. He let that tendril of thought- the love he felt for Annabeth, and every time she reciprocated his feelings flow towards the river. A warm flame surrounded and guided it through the river, and everywhere that tendril touched the surface, the pollution faded. For a few minutes he kneeled there, and at the end of it, all the pollution seemed to fade away. The Styx turned to a majestic teal, instead of the sullen black it had been. Percy stood up, exhaustion apparent in his eyes, but surprisingly, also very cheerful.
"Amazing," whispered Charon, "You humans have been polluting the river for millennia, and though the river has always been somewhat polluted, the recent battle has left far too much negativity, and it has become like this. I simply must wonder how much positivity you've generated in your life to be able to do that."
"Hestia helped me." replied Percy, still breathless from the novelty of it all.
"Well, this impulse saved me from fading." said a voice from behind him.
Percy and Charon both whirled around to face this voice to see a young girl standing there. The other sprits on the barge paid her no heed.
"Who are you?" inquired Percy.
"I am the river nymph of the Styx, and you have my thanks for cleansing my river." answered the spirit.
"You're…welcome." Replied Percy, but true to his words, admitted "It was largely due to Hestia helping me that I was able to do that."
"There's surely a reason for the Goddess of the Hearth to help you, isn't there? I am in your debt." She said somewhat impassively, but Percy could tell that she was feeling overwhelming grateful for saving her river.
They soon reached the dock, and while the spirits headed straight for the judging tables, Charon led Percy down a side path and pointed through two black gates. In the far distance, you could see a black palace, and even from here Percy could see tiny white figures bustling about the castle.
"Just continue through those gates. The guards shall not stop you this time, as they've been informed. Just go down the main hallway and you'll find the throne room."
Percy entered the gates without any problems, and upon entering Hades' throne room, which was still decorated in the same morbid fashion it was earlier, knelt.
"Rise, Perseus." said Hades.
"What have you brought me here for?" inquired Percy.
"It's not so much a quest as a job we really would like to have you perform. As you have already been informed, there are some problems at the entrance to Tartarus. It is a newly formed one, one I found only a few days before you were summoned to Olympus. It is heavily guarded and patrolled, of course, but…it seems different from the others, and I'd rather not lose too many men attempting to enter at once. I think in this case, subtlety will be the better course of action, as one lone demigod shouldn't attract too much attention when compared with some of my minions. In any case, the problem is as I ordered my men to seal it, something or someone is killing my workers. I could do it personally, but that wouldn't by any means be a long-term solution for these rather frequent entrances, and I want you to investigate the cause of it. Then, I'll seal up the entrance. By the way, I hear you cleansed the Styx. You have my thanks for that, as she has been growing sicklier by the day recently. I shall have you properly rewarded after your (hopeful) return." replied Hades.
"Alright. Do I get any advice on where to go?" asked Percy, inwardly more than mildly annoyed upon divining the true purpose of his quest: to go investigate a problem so that Hades isn't bothered in the future. Do I look like an errand boy to you? Percy grumbled, but then managed to justify it as payment for his many blessings he received earlier from the gods.
"Just head south and you'll see it." Hades replied.
Percy did as he was told and after a fifteen-minute walk, arrived. he witnessed a huge wall being built. The entrance looked as if someone tore a hole in the Underworld, as the edges were all jagged, and just radiated unfriendliness and fear. Percy continued pass the patrols and found himself in a black forest. Percy shivered, and continued through. He heard a low growl and uncapped Riptide.
He saw a group of hellhounds behind him with their beady red eyes. He let out a sigh of relief. Percy charged forward and into the group, but even though they scratched him, they did no damage. He quickly dispatched them, leaving several small piles of golden dust. His shirt was torn up a bit, but that was all.
Percy soon exited the woods and saw a group of Cyclopes guarding a doorway into a mountain. Percy stealthily crept towards them, and slew 3 of them before they could do much more than have their eyes widen. Quickly killing the rest, he went through the doorway. The sight that greeted him was shocking. He saw Zoe Nightshade chained to the wall knocked unconscious. He sensed rather than saw the club that was hurtling swiftly through the air at his head. He ducked and threw his hunting knife in the direction that the club came from. He was rewarded by a low groan as he whirled around to see more Cyclopes armed with swords and clubs standing in the back of the room. Percy uncapped Riptide and waited for the Cyclopes to approach. The stupidest of them all, promptly charged at Percy, and Percy sidestepped and brought Riptide down onto his back, and he dissolved into golden dust, a look of agony on his face. The others now regarded him warily, and they all charged at once. He spun in a circle, and they too dissolved into dust. He ran towards Zoe, who hung limply, with her neck hanging downwards. Percy shook her shoulder a few times, and her eyes fluttered open.
"Percy?" she asked weakly, ashamed and thoroughly surprised that her mind's first instinct was to dream of Percy shaking her.
"Yeah, it's me." replied Percy, worried about her injuries, but also about the other monsters in Tartarus- it wouldn't do to get surprised at this moment, now would it?
"Give me a second to get these off you." He said after ascertaining there were no more enemies in the immediate vicinity. Percy drew Riptide and carefully cut the chains binding her to the wall.
She would've collapsed to the ground in an unseemly heap, but instead collapsed onto Percy's lap give his kneeling posture before her. Percy paused, then rifled through his backpack quickly to get out the Ambrosia and nectar he brought.
Zoe slowly lifted her head and greedily drank the nectar Percy slowly poured into her mouth, and the wounds on her body quickly began to close, and her condition looked much better than it had a few minutes before.
How'd she get here? Is this what Hades meant by the barrier being strange- as in there were some non-monsters roaming about in Tartarus? Percy's brain went on over drive as he tried thinking of explanations to no avail, eventually, he resolved himself to simply asking.
"How exactly did you get here, Zoe?"
"After Artemis put me in the constellations, Ouranos, who actually is conscious, let me roam the Earth as a spirit, but no one could see me except for that accursed Zeus. He saw me and was furious, and immediately assumed that I was spying on the Gods, relaying information to the Titans, despite the fact that Ouranos told him about me, and specifically made it so that only Zeus could sense me. His buffoonery truly knows no bounds! He turned me into my former form and threw me into Tartarus, but to make my life worse, he put me under a paralytic spell so I couldn't resist anything the monsters might do to me. I was fully conscious when they chained me, and was simply waiting to see their master, but in the meantime, they beat me until I was actually unconscious. Then you came in, and, well, you know the rest." she said bitterly.
He sat in stunned in silence for a few minutes before they were roused by a low growl from behind them. Percy quickly turned around, simultaneously drawing Riptide, his eyes widening in shock and recognition at the beast that stood in front of him as he stood protectively in front of a still-wounded Zoe.