4/11/20

Next chapter whooooo! I honestly don't know what to put here so :P

All characters belong to Rick Riordan. I own nothing.

Word count: 1192

A Long Way Down.

3rd person POV:

The Throne room was dead silent as the news sunk in. Percy Jackson, the hero of Olympus, the man who stood against Kronos himself and lived to tell the tale, had fallen into the pit, where not even Hades would venture. Horror crept over the Olympians like a fog. The hearth in the center of the room sputtered and nearly went out as the gods realized that Percy was as good as dead. There was no possible escape for the son of Poseidon. The proud sea god slumped forward and buried his head in his hands with a muffled sob. Tears streaked down Aphrodite's face, ruining her perfect makeup. Apollo's playboy grin faded as he realized his favorite demigods is in the pit of punishment. Even the lord of the skies looked glum as he heard of his nephew's imminent demise. No-one escaped Tartarus, not even gods would live to tell the tale.

"We're doomed!" Apollo cried.

"Maybe he can escape, he did have always have a knack for doing the impossible after all," Hermes reasoned.

"There's nothing we can do but hope he makes it out. But the chances he makes it out are slim to none." Athena stated.

"There has to be something we can do, right?" Apollo asked, "Surely we can help somehow!"

"Summon Hades, if anyone would know, it would be him," Poseidon commanded. Zeus grumbled but did as asked.

Hades appeared out of the shadows of Zeus throne and summoned his temporary thone for the solstice meeting. Making himself comfortable, he scanned the faces of the Olympians, noting the almost universal looks of sorrow and hopelessness. (Ares was indifferent)

" Why have you summoned me, brother?" He questioned, as it has very rare he was allowed on Olympus, even more so requested.

Zeus shifted in his throne, obviously uncomfortable with asking his eldest brother for anything, "Perseus has fallen into Tartarus, and we need to know if we can help him in any way." If it was even possible, hades skin grew even paler. He had hated the little upstart at first, but the brat had earned his respect for getting him and his children the respect they deserved.

Hades swallowed the lump in his throat before answering, "Yes, I can assist him. I have a few temples in Tartarus that were built in the early days. I can send supplies and food to those, but that is the most I can do."

"Very well, we shall gather supplies and we will notify you when we are ready. Council dismissed." Zeus stated before swiping through the Iris message and flashing out.

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Percy POV:

Percy was going crazy. He had been counting how long he had been falling, but lost count after 3 hours. Voices swam through his head, some sounding like Gaia, you would have done well as my pawn, while others sounded like his friends, begging him to not give, Seaweed brain, please stay with us, you promised! That one made him feel especially bad. Percy was not an idiot, he knew he would die down here, an oath to keep with a final breath was one of the lines of the prophecy, and Percy had just broken his promise to Annabeth. He would not go down without a fight, however, he would take out as many monsters as he could before he went down.

Gradually, almost so slowly that Percy didn't notice, the pit got lighter, and soon enough the shaft opened up. Rust red clouds hung around mile-long stalagmites in a cavern large enough the entire city of New York could fit comfortably. The ground was colored a shade of ebony, but two rivers snaked through the dark landscape, one a little ways away, maybe a few miles if Percy had to guess, burning bright orange, like a river of liquid fire, and one almost right below him, a dark crimson, like drying blood. He reached out with his senses and realized with a start that he could feel the power rolling off them, eerily similar to a pulse. He aimed for the dark red one, and with a guttural scream, pulled the river to catch his fall.

As soon as Percy touched the crimson waters, he realized his mistake. Pain burned his very being, every wound he had suffered coming back to bite him. He could feel the water of the Styx burning away at him, the weight of the sky on his shoulders, Backbiter severing his soul from his body. He made a sound between a whimper and a scream as he curled into a ball at the bottom of the river. He sat there for a moment, in too much pain to even make a sound. He thought is this it? Is this where I die? Had he come so far, killed so many monsters end up dead in a river, something his father ruled over? No. He would not die to some damn river. He controlled water, not the other way around. He stood up on the bottom of the river, pushed the pain to the very back of his head and strode to the riverbank.

As soon as Percy made it out of the water, he took a deep breath. He instantly regretted it as he brought a hand up to his mouth and started coughing and hacking. His eyes widened as he spotted blood in his hand. Probably, he mused, from the air. First, pain rivers, now poisonous air, what next, broken glass floors? He then looked to the ground and promptly cursed himself. He was correct, the ground was indeed made up of broken glass. First things first, he thought, take inventory of what I have. He was wearing a faded camp half-blood shirt, blue jeans, sneakers, and had riptide sitting in his pocket. So, nothing he thought. As he started coughing again, a memory tugged at the back of his mind, something about a river of fire, the phlegm something. He remembered seeing souls in the fields of punishment drinking from it on one of his quests, when he met the titan Iapetus and threw into the Lethe. What had he told him his new name was?

"Bob," he thought aloud, "Bob was his new name." Percy had never checked back up on Bob and left him to do Hades bidding. The guilt started to eat away at him as he realized Bob was probably waiting to see his best friend, but never saw him again. Now where was he before he got sidetracked? Oh yes, the phlegm river. He would see souls drink from it and appear to get energized, but if it worked on half-bloods, he had no idea. Only one way to find out he mused as he made his way to the river he had seen from his unplanned descent.

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Expect an update tomorrow.