Nico di Angelo

After Percy and Annabeth had fallen to the pit, the others did what they could to get away themselves, helping the two was simply not possible and the Doors of Death had to be sealed from BOTH sides. They could not fathom how it would be possible to both seal the door inside Tartarus and get out of there; and that's not counting all the worst sort of monsters, the darkness and the fall inside –the classical nightmare even mortal children knew of. Except those nightmares usually only had one or two of those aspects; Tartarus had them all. They were upset and shocked, and Nico di Angelo was still recovering from his near death by suffocation, thirst and hunger. Yet, their journey simply had to continue.

They were over the Mediterranean Sea heading towards Greece with the statue of Athena on board, when Nico tried to stand up and fell onto the lever that opened their cargo hold. The Statue of Athena to fell into the sea. Losing the statue was a horror in and of itself, but more so when the angry Sea God appeared next to them in a huge, watery form.

"What is it with you?" his angry voice demanded. "Why did you drop a heavy statue like that onto the head of two dolphins?"

"I apologize, Lord Poseidon," Nico pleaded. The incident was his fault. "It was an accident, I swear. Please, I simply fell onto the lever opening the cargo hold. We intended to take the statue to Athena's Temple where it had been stolen from. Please, may we get it back?"

"Where's Percy?" Poseidon asked instead of answering.

"He's alive," Nico said quickly, the one positive thing about Percy's situation. "And he's not dying either."

"I sense a 'but' in that, and it does not answer my question." Poseidon said sternly.

The entire crew was uncomfortable, facing an already upset Sea God with the unfortunate whereabouts of his son. "We'd better tell you the whole story," Jason Grace said, and the crew told Poseidon about the second Great Prophecy and what they'd done so far.

"So Percy's in worse situation than death," Nico finished ruefully. "Honest, he'd be in Elysium if he'd just died."

"Better," Poseidon snapped. "It'd be Isle of the Blessed. This is Percy's ninth life as it is."

Jason, Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Nico and even coach Hedge were slightly shocked at that declaration. It was a rarity that one made it to Isle of the Blessed – you had to live three lives heroically enough to earn Elysium to earn it – going trough nine was bordering impossible. Then again, Percy beating the odds was nothing new.

"The statue is no longer your concern," the sea god declared. "You will all go straight to the House of Hades. You, clumsy boy, will enter trough those doors to make sure Percy and the girl find them." Poseidon took out three Black Pearls and handed them to Nico. "These will get the three of you out of there. Mind you, boy, they'll take you to the bottom of the ocean – deep enough to cause you trouble for getting to the surface too quickly, but not enough to outright crush you. Make sure Percy goes first if you don't wish to drown. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Nico said weakly.