𝐈. 𝐄𝐋𝐘𝐒𝐈𝐀𝐍 | 𝐏𝐉𝐎 𝐗 𝐇𝐏

five

It had been around a week and a half since Percy, Annabeth and Grover left for the quest, and since Hades had promised Lilith that her training sessions would be every weekend instead of every 2 weeks, it was once more, time to head back home. But last week, she couldn't head back home, much to her, Hades', Hecate's and Persephone's dismay. The storm was only getting worse, so she had to help the camp with all the tasks.

Her arrangement was kept quiet, with only Mr. D, Chiron, and the Olympians who knew. None of the campers knew that she had grown up with her father on the Underworld, that would be a shock to them, considering a bubbly little girl who was extremely kind and innocent, growing up in the Underworld? That was unexpected and unbelievable.

Lilith jumped excitedly on the Big House, she was waiting for the clock to strike 12 to take her portkey. Just as the clock strikes 12, she grabbed her portkey, her body pulled into another place.

She arrived back at her father's palace, rushing towards the palace with a big grin to greet her family.

-----

"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

"Lord and Uncle, I come with one request." Hades raised an eyebrow. When he sat forward in his throne, shadowy faces appeared in the folds of his black robes, faces of torment, as if the garment were stitched of trapped souls from the Fields of Punishment, trying to get out.

The ADHD part of him wondered, off-task, whether the rest of his clothes were made the same way. What horrible things would you have to do in your life to get woven into Hades's underwear?

"Only one request?" Hades said. "Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me not to strike you dead yet." Percy swallowed. This was going about as well as he'd feared.

Percy glanced at the empty, smaller throne next to Hades's. It was shaped like a black flower, gilded with gold. He wished Queen Persephone were here. He recalled something in the myths about how she could calm her husband's moods. But it was summer. Of course, Persephone would be above in the world of light with her mother, the goddess of agriculture, Demeter. Her visits, not the tilt of the planet, create the seasons.

Annabeth cleared her throat. Her finger prodded him in the back. "Lord Hades," he said.

"Look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be ... bad."

"Really bad," Grover added helpfully.

"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," Percy said. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."

Hades's eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretense, after what you have done?"

Percy glanced back at his friends. They looked as confused as he was."Um ... Uncle," He said.

"You keep saying 'after what you've done.' What exactly have I done?"

The throne room shook with a tremor so strong, they probably felt it upstairs in Los Angeles. Debris fell from the cavern ceiling. Doors burst open all along the walls, and skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, from every time period and nation in Western civilization. They lined the perimeter of the room, blocking the exits.

Hades bellowed, "Do you think I want war, godling?"

Before the three demigods could reply with anything, another tremor disrupted them, but this time, it wasn't as strong as the previous one, and from the other side of the room, they could hear things breaking, and a couple of people someone yelling in panic.