I'm back! MudSkipper001 here with a new story! The House of Hades: Resurrection of the Dead.
WARNING! THERE ARE INDEED SPOILERS IN THIS STORY! And this chapter contains chapter 1 of the House of Hades! (fan girl squeals) I've edited Hannah Grace into it, so please don't freak out if it's not the same as the one on King Rick's website.
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters except for Hannah Grace, Toby, and Lily, and any others you may see that don't look familiar.
Please read on, my minions!
Nico
I'm looking at Hannah Grace and my heart starts to race.
"Can I help you?" I ask, trying to look angry, but knowing that I'm failing epically.
"Have you seen Lily anywhere?" she asks, looking at anything but me. "I can't find her."
"No," I say. We're silent for a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity to me. I study her with concern and fear. If I don't leave, she'll be dead in the next hour. Or so I think. "Why?"
"No one has seen her since she went to find Toby. And I found him. He's with Tyson. But I can't find Lily."
"Have you tried Beast's stable?" Throughout the time we found him and built his stable, no one knows about it except the three of us.
"No," she says. "Thanks." She starts to run away, but I catch her wrist. I still have enough time to leave, so it's okay if I go with her to the stable, right? Apparently not.
"You can't go out there alone," I say. "I don't want your death on my conscience." She twists out of my grasp and takes off towards the woods at full sprint. "Hey, wait up!" I shout as I follow her. I decide that I won't catch her, so I shadow travel to her instead.
"Do you not understand the meaning of 'wait up'?" I ask her. She jumps two feet away, giving me the angriest glare I've ever seen.
"Curse you and your shadow travel!" she yells. I won't look at her, but ouch, that hurt. "Why don't you just go away?" Scratch that, what she just said hurt more. "I'm sorry," she says. "I didn't mean-"
"I get it," I say. "You hate me now. I'm leaving camp, anyways, so it's better this way." I let the shadows swallow me before she can see the tears on my cheeks. I appear in my cabin and break down on the floor. How could I be so stupid? She tried to apologize! Idiot!
I sit like that for what feels like hours when Lily explodes through the door. "Have you seen Hannah Grace?" she shouts.
"No, she went looking for you at Beast's stable!" I say, hurrying to wipe away the trails of liquid on my face.
"She's missing."
The dream shifts to another scene.
The pit shook. Percy was the only thing keeping her from falling. He was barely holding on to a ledge the size of a bookshelf.
I leaned over the edge of the chasm, thrusting out my hand, but I was too far away to help. Hazel was yelling for the others, but even if they heard her over the chaos, they'd never make it in time.
"Percy, let me go," Annabeth croaked. "You can't pull me up."
Percy's face was white with effort.
"Never," he said. He looked at me, fifteen feet above. "The other side, Nico! We'll see you there. Understand?"
My eyes widened. "But-"
"Lead them there!" Percy shouted. "Promise me!"
"I- I will."
Below them a voice laughed through the darkness. Sacrifices. Beautiful sacrifices to wake the goddess.
Percy tightened his wrist on Annabeth's.
"We're staying together," he promised. "You're not getting away from me. Never again."
"As long as we're together," Annabeth said. Hazel and I yelled for help, but no one came.
Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and he and Annabeth fell into endless darkness.
I woke up, still screaming for help as the scenes ran through my mind. Calm down, I told myself. It was just a dream. But neither of them were just dreams. They were memories. I looked around, trying to remember where I was and why I felt so fatigued. Oh, yeah. I was trapped in a jar. How could I forget that? I shuddered at the thought of the endless meditation and darkness. I was on the Argo II and we were on our way to save Percy and Annabeth and oh, did I mention the entire world?
How long has it been since Hannah Grace went missing? About a year, right? She's about a month older than me, so she's still fourteen. So am I. Just in case you couldn't tell, I'm trying my best to think of her in present tense, and not past tense.
It was my turn to guard, so I decided I'd better get on deck.
Hazel- 3rd POV- Past Tense
(That is very weird for me!)
During the third attack,Hazel almost ate a boulder. She was peering into the fog, wondering how it could be so difficult to fly across one stupid mountain range, when the ship's alarm bells sounded.
"Hard to port!" Nico yelled from the foremast of the fly ing ship.
Back at the helm, Leo yanked the wheel. The Argo II veered left, its aerial oars slashing through the clouds like rows of knives.
Hazel made the mistake of looking over the rail. A dark spherical shape hurtled toward her. She thought: Why is the moon coming at us? Then she yelped and hit the deck. The huge rock passed so close overhead it blew her hair out of her face.
CRACK!
The foremast collapsed—sail, spars, and Nico all crash ing to the deck. The boulder, roughly the size of a pickup truck, tumbled off into the fog like it had important business elsewhere.
"Nico!" Hazel scrambled over to him as Leo brought the ship level.
"I'm fine," Nico muttered, kicking folds of canvas off his legs.
She helped him up, and they stumbled to the bow. Hazel peeked over more carefully this time. The clouds parted just long enough to reveal the top of the mountain below them: a spearhead of black rock jutting from mossy green slopes. Standing at the summit was a mountain god—one of the numina montanum, Jason had called them. Or ourae, in Greek. Whatever you called them, they were nasty.
Like the others they had faced, this one wore a simple white tunic over skin as rough and dark as basalt. He was about twenty feet tall and extremely muscular, with a flowing white beard, scraggly hair, and a wild look in his eyes, like a crazy hermit. He bellowed something Hazel didn't under stand, but it obviously wasn't welcoming. With his bare hands, he pried another chunk of rock from his mountain and began shaping it into a ball.
The scene disappeared in the fog, but when the mountain god bellowed again, other numina answered in the distance, their voices echoing through the valleys.
"Stupid rock gods!" Leo yelled from the helm. "That's the third time I've had to replace that mast! You think they grow on trees?"
Nico frowned. "Masts are from trees."
"That's not the point!" Leo snatched up one of his controls, rigged from a Nintendo Wii stick, and spun it in a circle. A few feet away, a trapdoor opened in the deck. A Celestial bronze cannon rose. Hazel just had time to cover her ears before it discharged into the sky, spraying a dozen metal spheres that trailed green fire. The spheres grew spikes in midair, like helicopter blades, and hurtled away into the fog.
A moment later, a series of explosions crackled across the mountains, followed by the outraged roars of mountain gods.
"Ha!" Leo yelled.
Unfortunately, Hazel guessed, judging from their last two encounters, Leo's newest weapon had only annoyed the numina.
Another boulder whistled through the air off to their star board side.
Nico yelled, "Get us out of here!"
Leo muttered some unflattering comments about numina, but he turned the wheel. The engines hummed. Magical rigging lashed itself tight, and the ship tacked to port. The Argo II picked up speed, retreating northwest, as they'd been doing for the past two days.
Hazel didn't relax until they were out of the mountains. The fog cleared. Below them, morning sunlight illuminated the Italian countryside—rolling green hills and golden fields not too different from those in Northern California. Hazel could almost imagine she was sailing home to Camp Jupiter.
The thought weighed on her chest. Camp Jupiter had only been her home for nine months, since Nico had brought her back from the Underworld. But she missed it more than her birthplace of New Orleans, and definitely more than Alaska, where she'd died back in 1942.
She missed her bunk in the Fifth Cohort barracks. She missed dinners in the mess hall, with wind spirits whisking platters through the air and legionnaires joking about the war games. She wanted to wander the streets of New Rome, holding hands with Frank Zhang. She wanted to experience just being a regular girl for once, with an actual sweet, caring boyfriend.
Most of all, she wanted to feel safe. She was tired of being scared and worried all the time.
She stood on the quarterdeck as Nico picked mast splin ters out of his arms and Leo punched buttons on the ship's console.
"Well, that was sucktastic," Leo said. "Should I wake the others?"
Hazel was tempted to say yes, but the other crew members had taken the night shift and had earned their rest. They were exhausted from defending the ship. Every few hours, it seemed, some Roman monster had decided the Argo II looked like a tasty treat.
A few weeks ago, Hazel wouldn't have believed that anyone could sleep through a numina attack, but now she imagined her friends were still snoring away belowdecks. Whenever she got a chance to crash, she slept like a coma patient.
"They need rest," she said. "We'll have to figure out another way on our own."
"Huh." Leo scowled at his monitor. In his tattered work shirt and grease-splattered jeans, he looked like he'd just lost a wrestling match with a locomotive.
Ever since their friends Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, Leo had been working almost nonstop. He'd been acting angrier and even more driven than usual.
Hazel worried about him. But part of her was relieved by the change. Whenever Leo smiled and joked, he looked too much like Sammy, his great-grandfather . . . Hazel's first boyfriend, back in 1942.
Ugh, why did her life have to be so complicated?
"Another way," Leo muttered. "Do you see one?"
On his monitor glowed a map of Italy. The Apennine Mountains ran down the middle of the boot-shaped country. A green dot for the Argo II blinked on the western side of the range, a few hundred miles north of Rome. Their path should have been simple. They needed to get to a place called Epirus in Greece and find an old temple called the House of Hades (or Pluto, as the Romans called him; or as Hazel liked to think of him: the World's Worst Absent Father).
To reach Epirus, all they had to do was go straight east—over the Apennines and across the Adriatic Sea. But it hadn't worked out that way. Each time they tried to cross the spine of Italy, the mountain gods attacked.
For the past two days they'd skirted north, hoping to find a safe pass, with no luck. The numina montanum were sons of Gaea, Hazel's least favorite goddess. That made them very determined enemies. The Argo II couldn't fly high enough to avoid their attacks; and even with all its defenses, the ship couldn't make it across the range without being smashed to pieces.
"It's our fault," Hazel said. "Nico's and mine. The numina can sense us."
She glanced at her half brother. Since they'd rescued him from the giants, he'd started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame. Long dark hair framed his sunken eyes. His olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap.
In human years, he was fourteen, just a year older than Hazel, but that didn't tell the whole story. Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was a demigod from another era. He radiated a kind of old energy—a melancholy that came from knowing he didn't belong in the modern world.
And there was the matter of Hannah Grace Fredrickson. Nico's ex-girlfriend. She had gone missing around the time Percy did. And Nico blamed himself. Everyone thought the fourteen year old daughter of Poseidon was dead. But Nico refused to believe it. He looked for her any chance he got. But at the moment, he didn't have time, and it was driving him crazy. Hannah Grace was a forbidden subject when speaking to Nico.
Hazel hadn't known him very long, but she understood, even shared, his sadness. The children of Hades (Pluto—whichever) rarely had happy lives. And judging from what Nico had told her the night before, their biggest challenge was yet to come when they reached the House of Hades—a challenge he'd implored her to keep secret from the others.
Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian iron sword. "Earth spirits don't like children of the Underworld. That's true. We get under their skin—literally. But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We're carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon."
Hazel shivered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. They'd sacrificed so much saving it from the cavern under Rome; but they had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good for was alerting more monsters to their presence.
Leo traced his finger down the map of Italy. "So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go a long way in either direction."
"We could go by sea," Hazel suggested. "Sail around the southern tip of Italy."
"That's a long way," Nico said. "Plus, we don't have . . ." His voice cracked. "You know . . . our sea expert, Percy."
The name hung in the air like an impending storm.
Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon . . . probably the demigod Hazel admired most. He'd saved her life so many times on their quest to Alaska; but when he had needed Hazel's help in Rome, she'd failed him. She'd watched, powerless, as he and Annabeth had plunged into that pit.
Hazel took a deep breath. Percy and Annabeth were still alive. She knew that in her heart. She could still help them if she could get to the House of Hades, if she could survive the challenge Nico had warned her about. . . .
"What about continuing north?" she asked. "There has to be a break in the mountains, or something."
Leo fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that he'd installed on the console—his newest and most dangerous toy. Every time Hazel looked at the thing, her mouth went dry. She worried that Leo would turn the wrong combina tion on the sphere and accidentally eject them all from the deck, or blow up the ship, or turn the Argo II into a giant toaster. Fortunately, they got lucky. The sphere grew a camera lens and projected a 3-D image of the Apennine Mountains above the console.
"I dunno." Leo examined the hologram. "I don't see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I'm done with Rome."
No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.
"Whatever we do," Nico said, "we have to hurry. Every day that Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus . . ."
He didn't need to finish. They had to hope Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to find the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, they might be able to open the Doors on the mortal side, save their friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea's forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world over and over.
Yes . . . nothing could go wrong with that plan.
Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below them. "Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all."
"No," Hazel said. "We can find a solution."
She wasn't sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohe sion. They'd been learning to work as a team. Then bam . . . their two most important members fell into Tartarus. Percy had been their backbone. He'd given them confidence as they sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth—she'd been the de facto leader of the quest. She'd recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly. She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers.
If Hazel woke up the rest of the crew every time they had a problem, they'd just start arguing again, feeling more and more hopeless.
She had to make Percy and Annabeth proud of her. She had to take the initiative. She couldn't believe her only role in this quest would be what Nico had warned her of—removing the obstacle waiting for them in the House of Hades. She pushed the thought aside.
"We need some creative thinking," she said. "Another way to cross those mountains, or a way to hide ourselves from the numina."
Nico sighed. "If I was on my own, I could shadow-travel. But that won't work for an entire ship. And honestly, I'm not sure I have the strength to even transport myself anymore."
"I could maybe rig some kind of camouflage," Leo said, "like a smoke screen to hide us in the clouds." He didn't sound very enthusiastic.
Hazel stared down at the rolling farmland, thinking about what lay beneath it—the realm of her father, lord of the Underworld. She'd only met Pluto once, and she hadn't even realized who he was. She certainly had never expected help from him—not when she was alive the first time, not during her time as a spirit in the Underworld, not since Nico had brought her back to the world of the living.
Her dad's servant Thanatos, god of death, had suggested that Pluto might be doing Hazel a favor by ignoring her. After all, she wasn't supposed to be alive. If Pluto took notice of her, he might have to return her to the land of the dead.
Which meant calling on Pluto would be a very bad idea. And yet . . .
Please, Dad, she found herself praying. I have to find a way to your temple in Greece—the House of Hades. If you're down there, show me what to do.
At the edge of the horizon, a flicker of movement caught her eye—something small and beige racing across the fields at incredible speed, leaving a vapor trail like a plane's.
Hazel couldn't believe it. She didn't dare hope, but it had to be . . . "Arion."
"What?" Nico asked.
Leo let out a happy whoop as the dust cloud got closer. "It's her horse, man! You missed that whole part. We haven't seen him since Kansas!"
Hazel laughed—the first time she'd laughed in days. It felt so good to see her old friend.
About a mile to the north, the small beige dot circled a hill and stopped at the summit. He was difficult to make out, but when the horse reared and whinnied, the sound carried all the way to the Argo II. Hazel had no doubt—it was Arion.
"We have to meet him," she said. "He's here to help."
"Yeah, okay." Leo scratched his head. "But, uh, we talked about not landing the ship on the ground anymore, remem ber? You know, with Gaea wanting to destroy us and all."
"Just get me close, and I'll use the rope ladder." Hazel's heart was pounding. "I think Arion wants to tell me something." She lowered herself down carefully as they sped toward the horse.
"Hey, Arion," she said as she stepped beside him. "What's up?"
He whinnied and kneeled, as if he wanted her to get on his back. She happily obliged. She loved horses- especially Arion.
"Hey!" Leo called down. "Where can we find you when you're done with your little chat?"
"Here!" she shouted back. "Stay here!" Arion took off at full throttle. Hazel let out a scream of delight as her ears popped. Arion ran for what felt like a distance of only a few feet. But they appeared to be miles away from where they started. "Where are we?" she asked Arion. He only whinnied in reply. They were at a break in the mountains! "How far from the Argo II are we?" she thought aloud. Arion took off and they were back at the Argo II.
"We found it! Our pass through the mountains!" she yelled as she reluctantly climbed off Arion. "Thank you, Arion." She summoned some gold from the ground and gave it to Arion. He happily munched on it as Hazel grabbed the ladder and climbed. Thanks, Dad, she thought, smiling to herself.
"What did you find?" Nico asked as she reached the top.
"A pass through the mountains!" She pointed in the direction Arion took her. "There is a break in the mountains somewhere in that direction."
"All right, then," Leo said, turning the humongous ship in that direction. "Through the mountains we go!"