House of Hades

II-- Percy

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II-- Percy

Percy found himself on the Argo II.

The atmosphere was gloomy. It was so depressing that it almost beat how sad Tartarus made Percy feel. Emphasis on almost.

Everyone seemed to be mourning. They were in the lounge room and pictures of Camp Half-Blood flashed by on the walls. Percy stared wistfully at a picture of the Camp at the evening bonfire. The flames were ten feet high, and glowing yellow.

The demigods sat around the table. Jason was hugging Piper, who was crying into Jason's chest, as he ran his hand through her chocolate brown hair. Frank held hands with Hazel, who had silent tears  streaming down her face. Nico just stared blankly, his stringy black hair framing his pale face, looking like he was in shock. Leo and Coach Hedge were nowhere to be seen.

Leo was probably up in the control room, flying the ship, and Coach Hedge was probably in his room watching re-runs of some kung-fu show.

"I could have saved them," Hazel said monotonously. "I saw the spider's silk tied around Annabeth's ankle. I could have cut it," she sobbed. "I could have saved them," she repeated. Frank pulled her into a hug.

"Don't blame yourself, Hazel," Jason spoke up. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't any of our faults. It was Arachne's. Besides, from what I've heard, Annabeth and Percy have been to the Underworld tons of times. And they're the strongest demigods I've ever met. They'll make it through. Don't worry. Nico, you can still feel their life auras, can't you?"

Nico's eyes focused on Jason and he snapped out of his trance. "I-- I'm not sure if they're still alive. I-- I can't tell. They've fallen into Tartarus. It probably has some sort of power that stops my powers from detecting their lifelines."

The room fell into silence.

Percy wanted so much to break the awkward moment. Yell out, Hey, we're alive! Falling into Tartarus? Pfft. That's nothing, or something like that. He just couldn't stand seeing his fiends so depressed.

But he was just in a dream; he wasn't really there. In his dreams, he didn't have a voice.

Leo walked/skipped into the room. He seemed to be the only one on the entire ship that still had some happiness in him.

"Yo, peeps!" he yelled. He looked around and saw everyone staring at him sadly. "Yo, dudes and, um, dudettes. Why all the long faces?"

"Leo, Annabeth and Percy just fell into Tartarus," Frank hissed at him spitefully.

Leo chose to ignore that comment.

"Well, little peeps. Just talked to Festus. Said that nothing's damaged and we're ready for our flight to... Where did you guys say we were going to, again?"

"The House of Hades in Epirus, Greece," Nico replied.

"Right," Leo said. "I knew that."

Suddenly, everything went silent.

It was as if he had gone deaf.

Then the voice of the person, er, goddess, he hated the most whispered, yet it was as bad as if she was yelling, "Percy Jackson. My darling little pawn. Enjoy seeing your friends. While you still can..." Gaea's voice trailed off into nothingness, but the silence she left him with chilled him to the bone.