Percy Jackson's New Side - Order: Reborn To Return

Chapter 14: The Five Rivers

A Day Later

Third POV

"EMERGENCY MEETING!" 

"What is it, Brother?" Zeus asked Hades.

The rest of the Council flashed in, directly on their forty-feet tall thrones. 

"I just, I just... I felt souls leave the Underworld. All of them weren't regular mortals, they were Greek."

Zeus looked alarmed. "Which one? Do you know?!"

"No! It's like they left me a note saying they are leaving, but I don't know who they are or where they went! Even Thanatos is confused! They vanished from his whole database thing on his tablet!" Hades waved his arms around frantically.

"Well are the Doors of Death open?" Athena questioned.

"No, we checked thrice."

"Well, then, what do we do?" Artemis asked what was on all of their minds.

"I..." Zeus faltered.

Percy POV

"So, who are you guys?" I asked the hooded people.

One of them was about to answer until the warship rumbled.

"What now?" I muttered.

All of a sudden it swerved right, then left. I flew across the ship, and some of the hooded people also got slammed against the walls. Another went to a big red button and pressed it. Sirens blared loudly, all I could hear was the sirens and the massive explosions on the ship.

Then, a bad thing happened. The tailgate of the ship opened. Wind started sucking me out. The other hooded people grabbed onto rails, and reached out for me. But I could reach them. From where I was standing, there were no rails. And so I was sucked. Going, going, and gone.

I didn't know where we were. But I did when I landed in a very similar river. I thought, What do I need to do to get some peace? Like, seriously? Tartarus again? That too, I wasn't even fully healed. They wrapped my wounds and gave me some ambrosia and nectar which made it all the more better, but I still had some pretty bad injuries.

The Styx made me feel so, so much pain. I heard voices in my head. Luke's, Zoe's, Bianca's, Annabeth's, everyone's. You failed us, you let us die. You raped them, you hurt me. You failed them. Your hurt us. You couldn't have done it on your own. Without us, you are nothing! I felt so guilty, I was submerged in my own emotions. The Styx burned away at my skin. It felt like I was slowly dying, dying, dying.

Come on Percy, three voices rung through my head, and snapped me back to reality. It was my three favorite goddesses' voices. I looked up, and I couldn't see much in the murky black water. The Styx continued to try and push me under, keep me that way, and burn away at my skin and force poison down my throat. It was as if it was eating at me, slowly making me dissolve. I screamed, but the waters were once again forced down my throat. It stung, a lot. I choked, and started coughing. The waters were tinted in red now.

I got out Riptide, and thrust it into the ground. I held onto it tightly, and pulled myself up.

I was out, I was out of the Styx. Speaking of Styx, here she was, right there. Her long, purple dress flowed behind her. She had long hair, a bit scraggly and thin. She looked very, very skinny, and her pale skin stuck out in the dark Tartarus. 

"Perseus Jackson. Why are you here? You lost your Achilles Heel when you bathed in the Little Tiber, and you come back for more?"

"I didn't, I just fell into your river."