All Heroes Fall

"Are you sure about this?" Jason asked as we boarded the boat into hell.

"About 90% sure." she said. That was a change. Annabeth was usually sure about everything she said.

"Well what about the other ten percent?!" Leo asked as he warily took his seat. Annabeth just rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"It's for you and Grace." Everyone took their seats and the decent into hell began. Watches, teddy bears, hair pins, jewelry, blankets, glasses, pictures. They all floated by our heads in steady streams heading only the gods know where. It was really creepy down here. And hot. Real hot. It brought sweat beading along my forehead. Sweat and memories. Bad memories. I was happy to get out of here. Now I was heading back in, straight to the host's palace. Hermes' shoes couldn't get me out of here fast enough.

"Percy, are you alright?" Hazel asked. I nodded briskly. Sure I was alright. Fine and dandy. The real question was whether my mental stability was going to survive this without turning and making a beeline for the exit.

Below I could hear the screams of the damned. Some shrill and piercing, others low and rumbling. It was a chorus of agony that should be halted, but can't. This is the punishment for evil. And Gods forbid you try to escape your punishment.

We floated to the steps of the palace and were greeted by hell hounds. They circled us and looked as if they were ready to pounce. But they were stopped, as they always are upon us returning to hell. But this time, it wasn't by Persephone, or even Hades himself. It was by Nico. He yelled something that I couldn't quite make out, but apparently the dogs could. They immediately ceased growling and turned to each other and started to play. The chased after each other and played with their tails like any other dog would. Nico smiled, well, "smiled", at us and gave Hazel a hug. Yep, still the same old Nico. 20% Dark and Gloom, 20% Mystery 10% Teenage Boy and 50% Awkward. The awkward scale had gone down since the last time we saw him. But it seemed like the Mystery bar had gone up with Dark and Gloom. I guess that's what becomes of you when you spend all your time with the Lord of the Dead.

"Hey guys," he said. "It's nice to see you." He sounded completely genuine. His posture was sagged when we had first arrived, it seemed that us being here had brought back some life to the poor kid. I realized that being in the Underworld all the time, he probably didn't have many friends down here. I felt a pang in my heart when I realized just how much he must miss his old life. Power radiated from him. But he didn't seem, happy.

"It's nice to see you too, Nico." Annabeth said with a soft smile. Judging by the way she looked at him, she had come to the same conclusion I had. "We have something we need to ask you," she said. Nico perked up yet a little bit more.

"Sure, anything." he said. I still remembered the little kid who had crushed on Annabeth real hard when he had first met her. I had to wonder now if there was still anything remaining of that crush by the way he looked as if he was fighting to keep his tongue from hanging out of his mouth. Annabeth didn't seem to notice, so she just continued.

"As you probably know, the Doors of Death have been opened again." Nico nodded his head sadly. "Well, you see. It's. It's kind of our fault." Nico's eyes widened but he made no accusations. Which I was grateful for. "No, that's wrong. It's actually my fault. And we have to close them, or else we'll all end up as bone rings on Zeus's pinky fingers.

"And we had an idea about how to close them, but we need your help for that."

"Well what do you want me to do? I'll help you any way I can." Annabeth bit her lip.

"I was thinking, if the door needs to be closed on both sides, and we don't want to use one of our own again, you can see how well that worked out, we could maybe use somebody already on the inside. Would you happen to know anybody already in Tartarus that would be willing to help you?" The hope in her eyes would hardly make you hesitate to shove a knife up your gut. I could see Nico mulling over the idea in his head.

"I could do that." he said. We all let out a sigh of relief. "But," he said. Leo groaned. "I'd have to talk to Hades. And it's in Tartarus, not just anywhere. I'd have to get somebody either so scared they'd ruin their pants if they even thought about disobeying, or a gracious loser. Which, I might add, are almost impossible to find. Most of the monsters are neither and have escaped through the doors already. Any of the ones left are too afraid to do anything that would go against Hades." I noticed how he never called him his father. His voice went cold when he said his name. Looks like someone was having Daddy problems.

"But we talked to Medusa and she let Percy go so that he could close the doors." Nico nodded. The monsters all want you to fail. They have ranks guarding the entrance to make sure you seven can't go in and close it. They were directed to not kill you, but to let you continue on your quest so they could kill you inches shy of your goal."

"Those damn clotpoles!" Leo shouted. All seven of our heads turned to look at him. We all stared in silence as he breathed in an angry breath.

"What?" He asked.

"Clotpole?" Jason asked.

"Yea. It's like an oaf or a fool from the days of Shakespeare. Don't look at me like that, I was trying to be poetic." We all rolled our eyes as Nico burst into uncontrollable laughter. We all exchanged surprised looks. We hadn't seem Nico laugh like that for ages. Soon it became contagious and we all couldn't stop laughing. Wiping the tears from my eyes I cleared my throat.

"Uhm, I think we're getting a little distracted here." Regaining his breath, Nico wiped his eyes as well and became serious once again.

"I think I should take you to see my father."

Notes

Oh goodness I haven't written in a while. Distractions are everywhere, so it's not technically my fault.

And yes.

Clotpole

I learned it from Merlin

You're welcome