Luke was having a nightmare, again.
Every night, as soon as his head hit the pillow and he fell asleep, nightmares started. They were always the being grabbed, hard enough to hold him and make him uncomfortable, but soft enough not to choke him. Telling him what he already knows, that the gods (his father) they don't care about him, they didn't care to enough to take him away from his mother when she was having one of her "fits". That's not exactly the award-winning safety environment for a young child.
The voice seemed to preach on and on about how the gods didn't care about their kids, or their kids' mothers: they were going to live forever, their children and discarded lovers would not, so why should they care? Luke was amazed at this. Someone was offering him power, the kind that the gods would fear. They'd be begging him for help, they'd be serving him! How often do you get that offer? Honestly almost never. Luke frowned: this was a huge risk, if it didn't work, he could be killed. But hadn't everyone told him to go for what he thought right?
But something in the back of his head was telling him, he cares for you, he cares for you, over and over again. So that's how he found himself there, in the temple, asking his father, Hermes to save his friend Thalia from her tree-girl form. "Hermes - dad please, she's my best friend, please!" he prayed, watching Thalia's tree for what seemed like hours. Still nothing, her form stayed the same as a tree's. Stupid, Luke thought to himself, why did he get his hopes up? Why did he even consider his father would help? Shrugging his shoulders he went back to his daily activities, camp stuff. But that night when his head hit the pillow, and that voice asked him to join it, rather than his normal "I - I don't know!" Luke had a new answer: "Hades, yes!". Because Luke desired power, unlimited power, one that could even defeat the gods, the welders of unlimited power. He wanted to overthrow them. He was not a villain, just a victim, a victim of desire.
I don't own PJATO nor do I claim to. Thanks so much to my new beta The Obsessionist