A little unsteady
Hold, hold on, hold onto me
'Cause I'm a little unsteady
A little unsteady
He held out his hands to the house of Heroes and Nico did the same. Together the two brothers looked at each other and nodded, a mental understanding passing through them. They closed their eyes and imagined the dark, cruel and horrid pit of Tartarus and imagined the team transporting there.
His and the team's eyes fluttered open as they found themselves free falling into the pit of Evil. Percy knew just what to do and he winced at the thought.
"Brace yourselves people." He said and grimaced, remembering what words were given to him after his second quest. He shook the thought off and turned his focus to getting them down safely. Apparently, even gods needed to be careful about their landing because though they wouldn't die but they could get injured if they hit the floor of Tartarus hard. Luckily the speed of falling had increased much more and they could easily reach there in minutes.
"I'm going to divert us into the river of Cocytus. Remember, it makes your misery much more vivid. Focus on positive memories." Percy instructed
"He's right. Do not in any way think of what is going on down here." Nico called out.
Percy, himself, focused on some of the happiest moments of his life with Annabeth and with his family and cousins and pranks as he directed them all towards the river Cocytus and they landed with a splash which echoed in his ears. As he anticipated, all the souls started feeding miserable thoughts into him. He felt his resolve falter a little but he focused all he could. He turned to look at everybody and their faces were scrunched in concentration but a few of them looked at the verge of breaking.
Nico came up to Percy.
"We need to hurry. I'm feeling horrible but the others are worse." He said. Percy nodded and changed the tide and directed them all to the shore with as much as speed the tide was able to muster. The waters threw them all onto the shore but nobody spoke for some time. Percy knew that the thoughts that the river had put into their minds was still poking at them.
"Guys. Do not listen to the river. It exists to make you feel miserable." Nico said, being the only other person who knew about what the Cocytus could do to you. Percy nodded in agreement.
"He's right." He said. Percy saw Nico go and sit down next to Will. He knew that the Hermes kids and Apollo kids would be facing more of the effects of the Cocytus because they were generally the brightest and the ones who tended to lift everybody else's spirits. Percy and Nico knew how it would feel but the others didn't and feeling the effects of the Cocytus for the first time was truly horrid.
"How do you all feel?" Percy asked them
"Not so good but probably better than how we would've felt had you and Nico not given the warning." Lee said and he shivered and shook his head. Percy nodded.
"We can't just sit here too long. We have to get going." Clarisse said. Everybody agreed on that and stood up. They took a deep breath and nodded. Percy gave them a small smile.
"Lets go ahead." he stated.