Note - I'll try to make the next chapter longer because this feels like it's gonna be a long story
Chapter 2
Hades was strolling around the Hades cabin until Nico returns, hopefully with Percy. He had given Nico thirty minutes to complete the task. Twenty minutes had already gone and Hades was getting restless.
Campers were waking up and the peacefulness of the camp was diminishing. Since it wasn't usual for a god to be walking around the camp in broad daylight, Hades was getting a lot of stares. He didn't mind of course, but he knew that those stares were either full of fear, hatred or curiosity.
Yesterday morning, Zeus ordered every god and goddess to not to interfere or give hints to the demigods about what was going to happen. But Hades was feeling guilty. That's why he decided to include Percy Jackson into this. Poseidon is going to get mad when he hears about this. But this is for the greater good. Hades purposely excluded Nico out of his scheme because he knew that it would be too risky to send his own son into the battle. Maybe what others say is true. Hades is a selfish brat.
If this goes according to his plan, he could save the world. It would be Hades's time at the spotlight. He was the only one everyone seems to forget when the times are good. But, he couldn't do anything about it. Hades felt like it was high time he did something to help out the world.
'Hades!'
'Oh damn,' Hades muttered to himself.
It was Chiron. He was trotting towards him with a confused expression on his face. 'So I presume that work is going easy for you and you decided to take a break.'
This was an understatement. People are dying at a rate no one has ever seen before. All the gates are blocked and he has to pay for extra workers to do the never ending jobs. It was a total mess back at the underworld and Chiron was making jokes about it.
'No actually, I wanted to see my son,' Hades said quite politely. He knew what it was like if Chiron got mad. 'I didn't have a proper conversation with him in a while.'
'But, I sense that it's not the entire reason you are here today, what else?' asked Chiron. They were facing each other now.
Hades sighed. He knew it was useless to lie to Chiron. He had more than enough experience to differentiate truth and lies. Few thousand years with fibbing and witty heroes, who wouldn't be able to do so? Hades decided to tell Chiron the truth since he knew that Chiron is going to find out somehow.
.xx.
'So you are saying that Hades comes to the camp suddenly and asks Nico to get help from us?' Grover was saying as he put on a t-shirt and a cap to hide his horns just in case. 'Why can't he come and talk to us personally?'
'Well, obviously he knows that Percy is too stubborn to listen to him, so he's using Nico to get to us,' Annabeth said.
Percy knew that this was true. He and Hades had a bad past and they never got along. They never had a good relationship with each other. To be honest, Percy didn't have a good relationship with any of the gods except for his father and a few others.
Percy, Annabeth and Grover went to meet Nico at the Apollo cabin. He was talking with Will when they got there.
'Nico, we are ready,' Grover called.
He quickly pecked Will on the lips and came running towards them. 'Hades said that he'll be near my cabin, let's go.'
When they got near the cabin Percy heard someone shouting. No, it was an argument. 'Who is that?' Percy asked from the others.
'Sounds like Chiron.'
'And Hades,' said Nico.
Yes it was them. They were having a heated argument that they didn't even notice that the four of them were looking.
'You thought you could sneak three of my campers without my permission out of the camp? And not even giving them a quest,' Chiron asked furiously.
'Well, now you know about it. I'm going to send them no matter what, if it goes as planned it could save the whole world and you know it perfectly as well,' said Hades in the same tone.
Chiron glared at him for a few seconds. 'Don't say that I didn't warn you, Zeus will be furious about this and I don't know what will happen,' he said and galloped away angrily.
'F*** Zeus,' Hades spat.
'Hey dad,' Nico said totally unfazed by the scene which happened before them.
'Oh hey, so did you tell your friends about what's happening?'
'No, you didn't ask me to do that. I just told them that you wanted to meet them, I did what you wanted, so give me more information.' Nico blatantly said.
At this point Percy really admired Nico's straight forwardness.
'I didn't promise you anything of any kind,' Hades said.
'He did what you asked him to do, and actually you owe all of us an explanation,' Percy said already starting to doubt his decision about this meeting.
'Its fine Percy,' Nico said and walked off leaving the three of them alone with Hades.
Percy wanted to leave with Nico but he saw something like disappointment flashing through Hades's eyes. Curiosity got the better of him. What could be so important to him to defy Zeus and have a row against Chiron? He needed to know.
'Okay, it's simple. Don't ask questions. All you have to do is step on this,' he said and took out three pearls from his jean pocket.
They were Persephone's pearls. The ones she uses to transport visitors through the underworld.
'Nooo, not underworld again,' Grover wailed.
'Nope, not there,' Hades said.
'Then where?' Percy asked.
'Surprise,' he said and gave the pearls to each of us. 'Step on them when I count to three.'
Percy wanted to run from there, but it wasn't an option anymore. He knew that Hades was going to force them into doing it somehow. He carefully placed the pearl in front of him. Others did the same as well.
'One.'
Percy was doubting again. Was he not going to say anything just because Hades asked them not to?
'Two.'
And he knew that there was no turning back now. Hades had got them on a leash. He regretted not speaking up earlier when he could have. It was all too late now.
'Three.'
The three of them stepped on the pearls together. Percy felt like he was airborne, which really worried him. But, within seconds they were safely on the ground again. The sun was shining brightly over them. By this, Percy figured that they we not in american soil anymore.
'Why didn't anyone protest?' it was the first words out of Percy's mouth.
'I've had the same question for a while,' Grover said while he tried to find his bearings.
'Annabeth?' Percy asked. He noticed that she didn't speak a word since they heard Chiron's and Hades's argument.
'Umm, I don't know, I was confused,' Annabeth said.
This didn't seem right to Percy. 'Are you okay?'
'Yeah,' she said.
But Percy knew that she was lying. Annabeth is someone who never gets confused. Something was wrong. She was hiding something.
'We have clothes and food,' said Grover opening the three backpacks which appeared with them. 'Hades isn't very bad after all.'
'Where are we anyway?' Percy asked looking around.
In front of them was a house. A very extraordinary one. The base looked like a barn and more floors and rooms have been added on top. In unrealistic ways. The house was towering over everything since there wasn't anything around the house except a vast plain.
'Shall we ask them if we could stay the night?' asked Annabeth.
The three of them walked towards the house carrying their new backpacks. Percy knocked on the door and waited.
A woman with red hair opened the door. 'What can I do for you dear?' she asked with a kind voice.
Note - I got the idea of the pearls from the movie. Not from the book version. thank you for reading and comment please (constructive criticism is appreciated)
