Runt of Ares

by njeha

In One Universe we all know, two different worlds coexist in harmony yet kept a secret from each other. And one child was born in the middle, a child that belonged to both worlds, a demigod rumored to be featuring in a Great Prophecy that has been kept hidden. By the Fates, the gods were tasked with unraveling these secrets, and the future has been brought back to impart insight.

4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended

A/N: Olivia Winchester – Victoria Justice.

Chapter 4:

With bated breaths and attentive eyes, every individual in the throne room stared at the screen as the darkness morphed into the bright interior of an airport. Percy and Thalia in particular, sported dangerously pale expressions, the color rapidly leaving their complexion as a vibrating, roaring sound echoed from within the screen and resonated against the walls, the unmistakable sound of an airplane taking off.

Nico and Hazel's complexions were considerably healthier in comparison to the daughter of Zeus and the son of Poseidon, yet they too donned wide-eyed expressions, their knuckles whitening in fear.

"Great. I already know I'm not gonna like this one," Thalia murmured darkly under her breath as she subtly slumped in her seat, her shoulders hunched as though to avoid detection. Her barely audible declaration received wholehearted nods of agreement from Nico and Hazel, and a commiserating tight-lipped smile from Percy.

Zeus cocked his head to the side, confusion at his daughter's sudden disposition skyrocketing.

The shot focused on a man in a suit, nervously fidgeting as he checked his ticket and promptly entered the bathroom.

"Thank you for flying United Britannia Airlines," a pleasant feminine voice boomed from the intercom.

The man leaned over the sink, frantically splashing water on his face as another man exited a stall and dried his hands. He then looked at the nervous man and smiled, "Nervous flyer?"

"What tipped him off," Leo murmured, the 'duh!' heavily implied.

"It's that obvious, huh?"

"No!" Travis and Connor sarcastically retorted, grinning from ear to ear.

Hera scowled at the sons of Hermes, both of whom simply blinked at her and nonchalantly looked away. She bristled at the constant disrespect aimed at her. 'And they wonder why I despise demigods,' she inwardly fumed, petulantly crossing her arms.

"You know, what are the odds of dying in a plane crash? I mean, what? Twenty thousand to one?" the man attempted to soothe his nerves before leaving the bathroom.

Percy glowered at Zeus, "Depends on a certain Drama King's mood, really."

"What was that, boy?!" Zeus boomed warningly, eyes sharp and narrowed.

The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes and continued, undeterred by Annabeth's promptings to stay silent and Poseidon's subtle shaking of his head. "Just saying, most plane crashes occur because you can't keep your temper in check. So thousands and millions of people lose their lives because of your anger management problems," he snapped.

Ares straightened up in his throne, eyes flickering eagerly between his father and the son of Poseidon, on tenterhooks for the imminent fight.

"You dare speak to me with such blatant disrespect!" Zeus hissed, fingering his Master Bolt threateningly. "Know this Perseus Jackson, the only reason I have yet to blow you into smithereens is solely because it goes against the will of the Fates. For now."

Before Poseidon could get a word in and declare his rage at Zeus for daring to threaten his son, the demigods all burst into uproarious laughter, confusing the gods and infuriating the King of Gods.

Hera narrowed her eyes at them, distaste clear on her gorgeous features, "This is no laughing matter!"

Thalia bit back her laughter and solemnly stared at her father, "Trust me when I say this, Father, but killing Percy would be the biggest mistake of your life and you would come to regret it."

Zeus arched a brow, and while he looked the epitome of calm, his electric blue irises were crackling with electricity, "Are you, daughter of mine, threatening me?"

She firmly shook her head. "No. Take it as a friendly warning from the future," Thalia retorted, not the least bit intimidated by her father.

Apollo on the other hand, immediately caught on to the demigods' reaction and leaned forward until he basically reached the edge of his seat, dangerously close to toppling off, "This has something to do with the Great Prophecy, isn't it?"

The tension was suffocating, almost like all the oxygen had been drained in the room the split-second the Great Prophecy was mentioned. And the tension further escalated once Apollo's curious inquiry hung in the air, unanswered.

"Spoilers?" Will weakly supplied, not particularly liking to refuse his father of anything.

Athena gritted her teeth. "The Fates did proclaim the divulgence of information is allowed," she pointed out with a snarl.

"They told us to be wary of how much," Piper shot back, daggers in her kaleidoscopic eyes. "We never said we wouldn't tell you anything, all we're asking is that you be patient and give us time to come up with the best possible way to reveal future events."

Katie nodded in vehement agreement, "It's our future that's on the line here. If we treat this rashly, then the future could become even worse."

"Worse?" Poseidon, Hades, Hestia, Apollo, Artemis and Hermes echoed in shock, instantly catching on to the unmistakable and unconscious slip up.

The daughter of Demeter slapped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide and expression sheepish. "Forget I said anything," she squeaked, hurriedly hiding her face in Travis' chest before they could demand her for more answers… answers they were not ready to receive yet.

Sighing, Hestia rubbed her forehead and wearily addressed the room, "Let us resume watching for now."

Grudgingly, the gods acquiesced, grumbling in irritation as they turned their attention to the screen. Contrasting the gods, the demigods let out barely audible sighs of relief, happily returning to the episode.

Percy shook his head, thinking that one disrespectful, yet totally honest, remark made by him and all hell gets loose…

Eyes still on the door, the nervous man sarcastically spoke to the empty bathroom, "Wow. That's really reassuring. Thank you."

"First sign of madness…" Dionysus trailed off, humming an offbeat tune under his breath as he flipped over a page.

Hermes rolled his eyes, "You'd know."

The wine god leveled Hermes with a smug smirk, not the least bit offended, "Well, of course I would know. I am the God of Madness, after all."

Ariadne giggled.

Hermes blinked, torn between pride at his little brother for winning the argument or shame that he got beat.

Apollo chuckled at Hermes, clapping him on the back. "He sure one-upped you," he cheerfully remarked.

"Imbeciles," Dionysus murmured, returning to his magazine.

Suddenly, a long, slender cloud of smoke seeped out from the vent overhead. It swirled around the man's head like a dark halo and then promptly entered his eyes.

Grover gulped, "Oh, Pan!"

"What in Tartarus' name is that?!" Chris asked, alarmed.

Thalia cocked her head, eyes squinting, "Is that an eidolon?"

During her time as the Lieutenant of Artemis, Thalia had seen and learned a lot about monsters and an assortment of entities harmful to demigods that made up for her seven year stint as a Pine Tree.

But before any of the gods could refute her inquiry, much to nearly everyone's surprise, Percy, Annabeth, Jason, Piper, Frank, Hazel, and Leo vehemently intoned in abrupt unison, "No." Percy, Jason and Leo the most worked up about it, practically snarling the two-letter word out viciously.

"I take it you've encountered an eidolon before?" Hecate asked just for the sake of asking as their expressions made it abundantly clear that they did indeed come across an eidolon before and that by the looks on their faces, it wasn't a particular fond encounter.

"Three," Jason bitterly divulged.

Athena made a humming sound before saying, "I take it must be quite an interesting story."

"You've got no idea," Annabeth murmured, gripping Percy's hand tight.

"Anyways," Percy attempted a smile in order to alleviate the sudden dreary mood that shrouded the Seven. He turned to address Thalia, "While they do look similar, eidolons resemble a wisp of smoke. That thing is darker and way bigger."

"To the practiced eye, you could easily distinguish between an eidolon and that unknown entity," Hades stated matter-of-factly.

The screen then showed the interior of a plane; in the cockpit, the pilot turned around and addressed a flight attendant with strawberry blonde hair and glittering black eyes, "Amanda, how are you today?"

Amanda smiled, "I'm doing just fine, Chuck."

Rachel groaned, her expression sad, "Great. I'm betting one of them will die."

Leo's eyes bulged from their sockets as he whipped around to face the Oracle, "Spoilers, Rach!"

That earned him a smack to the head.

"What was that for? I'm just saying, the last time you made a similar prediction, an entire family drowned."

He received another wallop to the head.

"Woman stop hitting me," Leo moaned, rubbing his poor abused head. Rachel, her eyes narrowed into slits, raised her hand threateningly for the third time, and the son of Hephaestus warily scooted away from her line of fire, hiding behind Piper as a protection barrier.

Artemis smirked and shot Apollo an approving stare, "I like your Oracle, brother."

Percy, who had been lost in thought the entire time, suddenly voiced out, "I think the plane's gonna crash actually."

That shut everyone up.

The demigods all gaped at Percy while the gods stared accusingly at Zeus who was determinedly avoiding the heated stares, instead, choosing to glower over at the son of Poseidon.

"Wow," Connor snorted. "You sure do know how to suck the life right out of a room, Perce."

Percy sheepishly smiled and shrugged.

Amanda greeted an incoming passenger as he showed her his ticket. "Welcome aboard. 15C, towards the back of the plane, on the right," she directed him, gesturing with her hand. The passenger thanked her and moved on. She then turned to greet the next passenger, who happened to be the nervous man from the bathroom, "Have a nice flight, sir."

He turned to face her; his eyes were completely black, even the sclerae. He grinned, "Oh, I'm counting on it."

"What the hell!" Rachel shrieked, gaping in shock at the abnormality.

Persephone grimaced, "Most definitely not an eidolon. When they take control of a body, they possess golden eyes."

"It's creepy," Hazel shuddered. Despite the unsettling sight, she found herself unable to detach her eyes from the screen.

Amanda blinked several times, her eyes following the man's movement as he walked down the aisle before she shook her head and fixated her attention to the incoming passengers.

"Typical," Aphrodite sighed as she studied her fingernails intently. "She'll simply shrug it off as a hallucination on her part."

Annabeth frowned and turned to address Hecate, "Shouldn't the Mist have distorted her vision?"

Heads swiveled around, intently focused on Hecate, whose frown mirrored Annabeth's. "It should…" she trailed off, unable to locate an appropriate answer to the befuddling anomaly.

The scene advanced and the copilot's voice came over the intercom, "In just a few minutes our flight crew will begin room service in the cabin—"

The suited man turned to his neighbor, his eyes no longer entirely black but his irises a soft brown, "Excuse me. Do you know how long we've been up?"

Clarisse scowled, confusion sweeping over her features, "He seems almost…normal?"

"He does, doesn't he?" Katie rhetorically murmured, staring at the screen as though it were an excruciatingly difficult puzzle that needed to be solved.

Annabeth, Piper, Frank and Hazel grimaced as their eyes immediately sought out and fixated on Percy, Jason and Leo, all three of whom looked incredibly disturbed. Leo appeared perfectly normal until he randomly started firing on Camp Jupiter. For that matter, so did Percy and Jason for a brief moment before they initiated a fight to the death.

'Was it possible that man was being possessed?' reverberated in the Seven's head.

The woman checked her watch, "About forty minutes."

"Wow. Time really does fly, huh?" he chuckled straightening up and getting onto his feet, "Excuse me. I've got to stretch my legs." He squeezed past the woman and headed over to the back of the plane.

"Please tell me he's going to use the bathroom," Rachel whined, her words slightly obscure due to her hands that were tightly clamped over her mouth.

"He's going to use the bathroom," Connor weakly supplied.

Upon reaching the rear exit, he gripped the emergency release handle.

"Okay. He's not going to use the bathroom," Connor corrected his previous statement.

Thalia glared at him, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "Really? We couldn't tell."

The shot showed a young man sitting close by in an aisle seat look up, noticing the suited man. "Hey, what the hell are you doing?!" he shouted in alarm.

He turned to look at the younger man, his eyes were once again completely black, and promptly ripped the door open in response.

"IS HE CRAZY?!" Rachel screeched, voice borderline hysterical. The redhead didn't care about her audience or the eardrums she shattered in the process.

"Rach!" Percy jumped up to his feet, having had previous experience with the Oracle's explosive temper and impressive rants, and being the only person at the current moment brave enough to restrain her from making a bigger scene.

Calming down at the immediate tactile contact, she sheepishly averted everyone's wide-eyed stares, ashamed at herself. She sniffled and said in a meek voice, "But he-he just sentenced them all to death, what-what kind of a monster does that?"

Apollo smiled softly at his Oracle, "We'll just have to wait and see."

As Percy and Rachel returned to their seats, Athena brought a new puzzling issue to their attention, "What confounds me is the ineffable strength exerted to pull open that handle in the first place."

Zeus frowned, "Yes…that is most confounding."

He then went plummeting down and the door flied off, impacting with the plane's tail and tearing a wing in half as the plane started to descend rapidly. The shot showed Amanda the flight attendant, struggling to find a vacant seat and, after the oxygen masks deployed, she grabbed one and put it over her face. The shot rotated, revealing that both, the young man that had yelled before and the copilot, already having a mask on.

Panicked screams and cries from the passengers could be heard as the plane continued to fall and the screen turned black.

"Di immortales!" Ariadne gasped, her warm chocolate eyes brimming with horror.

Thalia and Nico gripped each other's hands tightly, and while Thalia's complexion had paled, Nico looked even unhealthier than before, his already much too pale complexion turning a sickening white.

Percy's eyes slammed shut, his breathing heavy, as he struggled with himself not to hyperventilate. In fact, it was only when Annabeth wounded both arms around him did he become considerably calmer, her touch anchoring him to the present.

Poseidon looked over at his son, visibly concerned, "Percy, are you alright?"

He merely made a choked sound of acknowledgment, not daring to open his eyes or mouth just yet, which prompted Apollo to get off his throne, worried.

Annabeth stopped him before he could take a step closer. "He doesn't need healing. It's just…" her face morphed into uncertainty as she scanned her boyfriend's clammy face. Turning her attention back to the concerned and few indifferent gods, she sighed, "His grandparents died in a plane crash when his mother was just five-years-old…"

Comprehension dawned on Apollo and he swiftly deposited himself back on his throne, "And watching this painted a pretty gruesome picture of their last moments. Say no more." His voice was filled with compassion and sorrow.

Poseidon chose to glower at Zeus, as it was a 50/50 chance he was responsible.

"Plus… Percy and flying, well…" Annabeth pointedly looked over at Zeus for further clarification.

'Aahhs!' and 'Oohhs!' echoed in the throne room as the drachma dropped. The King of Gods had long ago made it abundantly clear that, if a Child of Poseidon were to ever travel through his domain, it must be a suicide attempt.

Zeus shifted uncomfortably and Poseidon's glare intensified.

"What about those three?" Demeter inquired, referring to Thalia, Nico and Hazel.

Nico spoke up for himself and Hazel, his voice weak and face a ghostly white that alarmed both Hades and Persephone. "Children of the Underworld," he simply stated, as though those four words explained everything.

It did.

Hades joined his brother in leveling an intensely frightening glare at Zeus, who was starting to become extremely uncomfortable and slightly nervous, though he stubbornly held his head high, unwilling to admit to his faults.

Thalia on the other hand, leaned into Jason's embrace, not particularly looking forward to enlightening the gods about her fear of heights. Her demigod friends accepted her rational fear without question, albeit with a few jokes of irony from the Stolls – but that was to be expected, as it was Travis and Connor being… well, Travis and Connor. However, she didn't want to face the gods' disbelief and her father's disapproval, for how could the daughter of the Sky be terrified of heights? It was a laughable matter.

The shot focused on the interior of a motel room, zooming in on one of the twin beds in the room. Dean laid on his stomach, fast asleep. Liv slept beside him in a fetus position, her back flushed against his side; her hair covered her face and would flutter in tempo with her soft breathing.

Aphrodite gushed at the endearing sight, "Oh! Aren't they adorable-"

"UNACCEPTABLE!" Artemis shrieked, her disposition was stern and there was a steely glint in her silver orbs that spoke volumes of her disapprobation. "A girl should have lodging of her own, not sharing a small bed with a boy," she hissed.

"Oh shut up you old maid!" Aphrodite sneered, incensed orbs burning daggers at the insufferably uptight goddess.

Artemis rushed to her feet, dagger in hand, but Apollo swiftly held her back.

"They are cousins you prude," Aphrodite was on a roll, unwilling to back down and allow the Queen of Virgins to defame Olivia and the Winchester brothers. "And even so, hypothetically, if they were of no familial relation to each other, it is none of your concern what she does or does not do! Not everyone staunchly believes or approves of your ridiculous vow of chastity!" she sneered.

The Goddess of the Hunt was foaming at the mouth, bubbling with rage at the love goddess, "Of course it is a concern of mine! She is a maiden and-"

"Says who?" Ariadne politely, yet firmly interjected, a skeptical brow raised at her.

Artemis frowned, flummoxed, "I beg your pardon?"

"What Aria means," Aphrodite hissed, looking more like a graceful feline about to pounce and evoking a sense of pride and respect in Piper, for she too, was no fan of Artemis and her Hunters – with the exception of Thalia – like all children of Aphrodite. "Where is the proof of Olivia's maidenhood? Who said she is a virgin?"

The tip of a particularly sharp dagger impaled the wall.

Artemis blanched, fury and disgust palpable on her face, but before she could part her lips to spout out a disparaging remark toward the demigod they were all growing fond of, Persephone intruded, her expression mirroring the goddess of love's, "Don't you dare, Artemis! Don't dare slander the poor girl and judge her cruelly for her life choices. Tis none of your business."

Furious at the three goddesses ganging up on her, Artemis roughly deposited herself back on her throne.

All eyes left Artemis' form just in time to see a dagger soar backwards through the air and into Ares' open hand. Aphrodite raised an inquiring brow at her lover, who gruffly responded and skillfully deflected with a deft lie, "I got bored. Now that you're all done yammering, can we get a move on!?"

"I thought you enjoyed observing us quarrel amongst ourselves?" Dionysus drawled, a mocking smirk on his face that looked too knowing for Ares' liking.

"Not about inconsequential matters you old drunk!" Ares sneered.

Dionysus stared back, unbothered as he knew that he had hit the mark.

Hermes and Apollo grinned wickedly at each other as they sang, "Denial, denial, denial."

Aphrodite placed a calming hand on Ares' forearm, effectively silencing him and preventing him from getting up to argue with his fists.

The door opened, barely making a sound. Dean's eyes abruptly snapped open and his hand slowly slipped under his pillow.

The demigods shared knowing looks, the reaction all too familiar.

"Weapon under the pillow. Classic," Travis commented.

He turned to look at the intruder, only to see Sam closing the door behind him, coffee and a box of donuts in hand.

"Donuts!" Percy, Thalia, Jason, the Stolls, Chris, Clarisse, and Leo moaned, staring longingly at the screen.

Annabeth, Katie, Rachel and Piper gaped at them, and in perfect unison, cried out in disbelief, "You just ate!"

"Like two hours ago!" Percy, Thalia and Jason retorted at the same time.

The Stolls, Leo, and Chris intoned, "We're growing boys!"

Thalia and Clarisse glared at them, their eyes narrowed, "And girls!"

The gods simply stared, blinking in shock and sporting slackened jaws.

"Did you guys rehearse that beforehand or something?" Apollo tentatively inquired.

Percy, Thalia, Jason, the Stolls, Chris, Clarisse, Leo, Annabeth, Katie, Rachel and Piper stared back for a full five seconds, before, in creepy unison, chanted, "No."

The twelve demigods paused, turned to look at each other, frowned, and then simultaneously snapped, "Stop that!"

They blinked, and again, snapped, "Stop!"

"No, you stop!"

"You stop!"

"Would you stop that?!"

Every sentence was spoken at the same time, freaking the gods, the remaining demigods and the lone satyr even more at their uncanny timing and their precision with their wordings.

The twelve demigods paused once more, simultaneously cocked their heads to the side, blinked, and then paled. "Wow… that is so creepy- stop that!" they spoke at the same time.

"SHUT UP! ALL OF YOU!" Nico bellowed, unable to handle the twelve demigods a second longer.

Silence descended upon the throne room as the twelve demigods blinked over at Nico with their mouths slightly agape in shock.

The gods were all stumped, not knowing whether they should laugh at the comical display, or avert their eyes at how disturbingly eerie it was.

Apollo warily examined them. "You sure you didn't rehearse this beforehand?" he hesitantly parroted his previous inquiry.

"Yes," the twelve demigods simultaneously responded before groaning, all of them clapping their foreheads in irritation at the same time.

Hazel, her eyes wide, shook her head and addressed the room, "Let's just uh… continue watching." The twelve demigods unconsciously opened their mouths to agree with her, but the daughter of Pluto hastened to raise a hand up, efficiently silencing them, "Without any comments."

Dionysus, who had been – surprisingly – enjoying the entertainment the demigods were providing him with, scowled at Hazel and, grumbling cantankerously to himself, re-opened his magazine. "Buzzkill," he murmured.

"Morning, sunshine," Sam announced.

Dean blinked groggily at him and slowly moved to sit upright, careful not to disturb Liv. "What time is it?"

"Uh, it's about five forty-five."

Eyes widening in horror, the twelve aforementioned demigods yelled, "IN THE MORNING?"

"Okay! That's it. You twelve are on a time-out!" Nico snapped, glaring daggers at them.

Annabeth arched an eyebrow and folded her arms together. "And what exactly does 'time-out'-" her, Piper and Rachel made quotation marks with their fingers, and Annabeth continued, "entail?"

Nico and Hazel looked at each and then back at the twelve demigods, and simultaneously said, "No talking for at least five minutes."

Frank groaned, "Not you too!"

The siblings smiled sheepishly and kept their mouths shut.

"Our children are so weird," Hermes commented, grinning wildly at the amusing scene.

"In the morning?" Dean shot back in disbelief.

The twelve demigods opened their mouths, but were promptly silenced by the twin looks of promised death Nico and Hazel fixated them with.

Liv groaned into the pillow when Sam affirmed Dean's inquiry. "Samuel Winchester, I'm gonna kill you," Liv snapped, her voice still hoarse with sleep. She propped herself on her elbows and glared at him through hooded lids. "Who gets up at this ungodly hour?" she demanded angrily.

"Hey, I take offense to that," Apollo pouted.

Cue a few eye rolls.

Dean and Sam grimaced. Then, a winsome smile materialized on Sam's face, and he said, "I got donuts. Extraglaze…"

Liv perked up at that and Dean smiled widely as he distributed the coffee. "Oh and look here, Sammy got you coffee, black," he tempted her, putting the coffee under her nose.

Percy's nose wrinkled in distaste. "I don't know what's so appealing about black coffee. It's so bitter and-" he shuddered in emphasis.

"Yeah," Will rapidly bobbed his head. "I need at least three spoonfuls of sugar with my morning coffee."

Nico and Annabeth shrugged, them being avid black coffee drinkers themselves, "It's not so bad."

Hecate smiled softly at the demigods, "It's an acquired taste."

The Queen of Gods aggressively rolled her eyes at the banal topic, unable to believe they were discussing such an inane topic, wasting her precious time in the process. Hestia noticed her younger sister's reaction and sighed desolately to herself, at a huge loss of what to do in regards to her embittered sister.

She sighed, a blissful smile on her face. Liv extended both hands out and almost immediately, Dean placed the coffee in her hand and Sam handed her a big, fat, sugary donut. "You guys are totally abusing my weaknesses. No fair," she jokingly pouted, taking a large bite out of her donut and smearing the lower half of her face with the glaze.

Aphrodite smiled fondly and cooed at the adorable sight, and she wasn't the only one. Ariadne, Persephone, Hestia, Hermes, Poseidon and Amphitrite stared affectionately at the screen, avidly observing as Olivia absentmindedly wiped the glaze from the lower half of her face with the back of her hand.

On the other hand, unseen to all but Apollo, since he had been keeping an alert eye on him, awaiting his subsequent reaction, Ares stubbornly clenched his eyelids shut and tilted his head away from the screen, as though he were desperately clinging to his mask of indifference, and only when Dean's voice permeated the air, did his flaming orbs snap open, having won whatever battle that had been waging in his head.

With a sigh of defeat, the sun god fixated his intense eyes back onto the screen.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" Dean asked as Liv leaned against the headrest of the bed, absorbed in her coffee and donut.

Sam nodded, "Yeah, I grabbed a couple of hours."

Dean scoffed, lifting a skeptical eyebrow at his brother, "Liar. 'Cause I was up at three, and you were watching a George Foreman infomercial."

Rachel let out a soft chuckle, "That infomercial is so overused."

Piper's brow furrowed in concentration. "Wasn't he a famous heavyweight boxer?" she asked uncertainly.

Upon hearing the word 'boxer', Ares straightened his posture and smirked, his expression a mixture of fierce pride and unmistakable glee.

"He's not just a 'famous heavyweight boxer'," Clarisse scoffed, and the demigods that knew her intimately easily detected her pride regarding the subject and the tad hint of affront aimed at the daughter of Aphrodite for downplaying Foreman's many accomplishments. "Big George is a two-time world heavyweight champion AND an Olympic gold medalist, among other things. Out of a total of eighty-one fights, he only lost five. Five! He was also inducted into the World Boxing Hall of Fame AND the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Guy's a legend!" she proclaimed, slightly out of breath.

Percy frowned, "How'd you know all that?"

Simultaneously, Thalia blinked in confusion, "I didn't know you were a boxing fan."

"George Foreman's a son of Ares, idiots," Clarisse smirked, her declaration prompting every demigod, but Annabeth, to swivel their heads, gawking at Ares in a mixture of shock and astonishment.

Ares puffed up, his handsomely scarred face bright with pride and he shot a quick wink at Clarisse, silently acknowledging his daughter for being well-informed of her half-siblings.

Athena bit her lip in an effort to prevent a vicious retort that would go along the lines of having a boxing champion for a son nothing to be proud of.

Zeus on the other hand, sniffed in slight envy, obviously not liking the fact that he no longer had demigod children of his own to take pride in their accomplishments like his sisters and children, due to the accursed vow he forced himself and his two brothers to partake in. He then eyed Thalia and Jason, wondering if they made him proud in the future.

"Foreman's the boss!" Liv absently commented with her mouth slightly full, her dark eyes searching for another donut. She picked another glazed donut and ignored her cousins amused eyes as she bit into it, a dreamy moan emanating from her plump lips.

A half-smirk erupted on Ares's features upon hearing Olivia's assertion and he adamantly disregarded Aphrodite's knowing grin.

The interaction however, went ignored by Apollo, for the moment that innocent yet seductive moan burst through Olivia's succulent and rosy lips, arousal smacked him in the face and his member reacted alarmingly, swiftly stiffening and giving him a sense of yearning that would, unfortunately, remain unsatisfied. Apollo squeezed his thighs together and hastily conjured Pasiphaë's son in his head, the grotesque image successfully obliterating all sexual thoughts of Olivia in the blink of an eye. Subtly and casually looking around the room, he breathed a sigh of relief, for he realized he was not the only one to react so strongly – Poseidon, Zeus and Hermes sat stiff in their respective thrones, uncomfortable and flushed expressions adorning their faces.

Artemis, Athena and Hera gritted their teeth and glowered ferociously at the four gods, their obvious and instantaneous arousal not going unnoticed by either one of them, not in the slightest.

Dean smiled fondly at her. Sam raised his hand defensively, "Hey, what can I say? It's riveting TV."

"When was the last time you got a good night's sleep?" Dean inquired, green eyes alight with concern. But Sam brushed him off, "I don't know, a little while, I guess it's not a big deal."

The eldest Winchester sent him a mild glare, "Yeah, it is"

"A good night's sleep is very important," Hestia softly interjected, her childish features tight with concern.

Percy nodded in agreement, "Yeah, especially in their line of work. Fighting monsters without a decent night's sleep is detrimental."

"You'd know, Seaweed Brain," Thalia ribbed him.

The son of Poseidon rolled his eyes in exasperation, "One time! You gotta let that one go."

Annabeth smirked, "Lucky I was there to watch your back."

All exasperation and slight irritation melted away at Annabeth's comment as he offered her a dopey smile, chastely kissing the crown of her head in response, much to Athena's aggravation and Poseidon's amusement.

Sam threw him an ugly look, "Look, I appreciate your concern –"

"Oh, I'm not concerned about you," Dean instantly shot him down, his lips tugging into a mischievous half-smirk. "It's your job to keep my ass alive, so I need you sharp."

"Burn!" the Stolls exclaimed, eyes shining with mirth.

Leo giddily bounced in his seat in front of Jason and Piper, "I think I'm developing a man-crush on that guy! He's so sarcastic and witty, and never backs down from a battle of wits."

Piper chuckled while Jason good-naturedly rolled his eyes at his best friend.

Nico surreptitiously stiffened. He was still unaccustomed to the twenty-first century's acceptance regarding homosexuality, having grown up during a time where such tendencies of sexual desire or attraction toward another of the same sex were not only taboo, but a crime. Yet currently, Leo widely and unabashedly professed a romantic inclination toward Dean Winchester – albeit a statement made with apparent humor – and nobody batted an eyelash or sported looks of revulsion. In fact, every occupant in the throne room seemed unfazed by Leo's comment and, upon closer inspection, Nico recognized a few gods – including his father?! – displaying obvious signs of lust.

'What the Hades?!' he mentally gaped.

Having noticed Nico's subtle reaction, Will sighed in commiseration, running a hand down his face in exasperation. He was a patient guy, but he didn't know how long it would take for Nico, the boy he had developed a huge, irrevocable crush on, to accept that the times had changed. Heck, even the gods, his own father included, had affairs with many from the same gender that went back through the millenniums, and those dalliances were proudly advertised as well if their history books had anything to say about it.

Sam shrugged. "Okay, you want to go there? What were you doing up at three?" he suddenly retorted in afterthought. Unconsciously, Dean's eyes flickered toward Olivia's direction, who was more absorbed in inhaling her coffee than the bickering brothers before her. Recognition dawned on Sam and, not heeding Dean's warning glare, he addressed his cousin, "Liv, you've been having nightmares?"

Dean groaned loudly and Liv froze halfway through sucking off the glaze from her fingertips.

"The poor dear," Aphrodite cooed.

Ares rolled his eyes at the runt's weakness. "She should toughen up. Nightmares are a regular occurrence for children, especially demigods," he growled, expression dark.

"She didn't say anything," Rachel heatedly retorted, feeling the sudden urge to come to Liv's defense. "Sam's the one that brought it up! You're just looking for any reason to pick on and demean Liv!" she snapped.

Artemis smirked and leaned into her twin's personal space to whisper in his ear, "Like I said, I like your Oracle."

Clenching his fists at the Oracle's audacity, Ares sneered, "I'm simply stating facts-"

"You're beginning to sound more and more like me, brother," Dionysus smirked, having eagerly put his magazine away when the events started to unfold moments ago.

A dangerous growl rumbled in the room as Ares glared daggers at the drunken loon.

Poseidon bit back an amused chuckle and decided to help Hestia out. Placating, he spread his arms wide as though he were embracing the room and gently announced, "Enough bickering. Ares, you are allowing your anger to take over your common sense, and therefore giving Dionysus leeway to feed your anger. Be calm. And Dionysus, stop trying to provoke your brother when he's in a certain mood." Benign sea-green eyes that held a perpetual sense of merriment swiftly flickered to the sheepish yet indignant redhead, "As for our charming Oracle, Ms. Dare is entitled to an opinion Ares. On the contrary, you should be pleased that your daughter seems to be gathering admirers of her own." He then winked at her.

Rachel blushed profusely but smiled all the same and hastened to look away.

Ares simply grumbled like a petulant child would and kept his silence, purposely overlooking Aphrodite's disappointed stare that seemed to be burning a hole in the side of his head.

While Hestia sent Poseidon a smile that reeked of admiration and appreciation, Zeus and Hera glared enviously, twin huffs of irritation escaping their lips. For some perplexing reason, Poseidon seemed to have a knack for calming nearly anybody down, and the most infuriating fact of all, was that Zeus's children were more inclined to listen to Poseidon more than he, their father!

Scowling, Liv didn't miss a beat with her retort, her tone almost daring, "You still having nightmares about Jess?"

The atmosphere in the room grew tense at the reminder of Jessica's cruel demise and it took much effort on Aphrodite's part to blink back tears at the mention of her latest favorite couple's expiration date.

"Okay, that was cold," Hazel admitted.

Ares couldn't help but feel slightly impressed.

Sam gripped his coffee tighter and crossed the room, depositing himself on the other bed, opposite to Dean and Liv. "Yeah, I am. But it's not just her," he spoke in a voice of forced calm, locking eyes with her. "I just forgot, you know? This job," he sighed, looking down at the carpeted floor almost desolately. "Man, it gets to you."

Liv's expression softened and she fumbled with her coffee, nervously taking a large sip. Dean placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as he addressed Sam, "You can't let it. You can't bring it home like that."

"So, what? All this it… never keeps you up at night?" Sam said in a mixture of disbelief and curiosity, eyes flickering between his brother and cousin. In unison, Dean and Liv shook their heads, although Liv didn't share Dean's confidence. "Never?" Sam cynically pressed. "You're never afraid?"

Dean smirked, "No, not really."

"They're both lying," Apollo drawled, almost lazily, his intense blue eyes flickering intently between Dean and Olivia's defiant visages, a knowing smirk materializing on his devastatingly handsome face.

A gentle smile materialized on Persephone's face. "Of course they are lying. For everyone falls victim to fear," she stated.

"I don't," Ares growled, glaring at the Queen of the Underworld at the mere insinuation that he, Ares, the God of War, could fall prey to pesky mortal sentimentalities, such as fear. All eyes were fixated on the war god, and Aphrodite even went as far as to arch an eyebrow at him in regards to his fervent state of denial – a feat that appeared to be a constant ever since the Fates intruded into their lives and uncovered the existence of a secret demigod. "What are you all staring at me for? I have no fears!" he angrily exclaimed.

Even the sanctimonious and prideful Zeus found himself disagreeing with his impetuous, arrogant son.

The demigods smartly kept their mouths firmly shut, unwilling to butt heads with the gods, especially with Ares in his current state. None of them failed to notice the war god's dangerous spike in temper from the moment he abruptly fled to his temple before the congregation for lunch.

"Darling, even we are not immune to having fears," Hera softly imparted, deciding for a gentler approach.

"You forget who my sons are? I bred the embodiment of fear and terror. By all means, I am immune to it!" Ares snarled, his gait leaning more and more towards arrogance.

Once again, Aphrodite arched an eyebrow at her lover, "You forget that I carried Phobos and Deimos to term, Ares. And yet, I too succumb to what they represent." Just as Ares opened his mouth to retort, she raised a hand, halting his incoming speech and said, "Even Fear itself suffers from fear. I would know. I am his mother."

The moment the topic revolved around her half-brothers, the ones whom she feared alongside her own father, Clarisse stiffened and clutched onto Chris's hand in a vice grip. However, as the conversation ensued, she slowly started to relax and her jaw comically dropped once Aphrodite had her say, unable to wrap her head around the fact that Phobos himself, suffered from his own jurisdiction – the very emotion he embodied, warped, abused and twisted to feed his cruelty and his ego, malefic eyes watching with disturbing amount of glee as others suffered his wrath. And yet, he wasn't immune to the very emotion he epitomized. It was a huge eye opener and a balm for the previous unhealed wounds, wounds she suffered from the twins that took immense pleasure in torturing her and watching her suffer when they stole Ares's chariot from right under her nose.

Ares didn't want to admit, but he knew Aphrodite was right. He may come off as a neglectful, uncaring and abusive father, but he knew his children. He knew their fears, their hopes, their wishes and their dreams. He intimately knew everything there was to know about his children; all his children – including his demigod offspring. But he despised admitting to any sort or form of attachment or weakness and so, he profusely denied, raged and exuded utmost arrogance, displaying many masks of indifference, cruelty and apathy that only Aphrodite had the gift to see past. In fact, Ares weakness was tantamount to his fear, and only Aphrodite knew of them: he feared losing her and for harm to befall his children, therefore, showcasing his weaknesses – Aphrodite and his offspring. Two fears, two weaknesses, that none would be able to guess, for none believed the God of War held on to any emotion but lust, both of the body and battle. Ares holding on to such sentimentality, or caring for anything other than warfare was simply unheard of, and his behavior encouraged them to continue onwards with their beliefs, for it was advantageous to him.

"Wise words, Aphrodite," Poseidon grinned, sending her a respectful nod.

Fuming, Athena sneered at Ares, Aphrodite and Poseidon, the three Olympians she had a rivalry and a sense of distaste with. The aggravating God of the Sea daring to call the vapid whore that represented love, wise! drove her insane with rage and prompted the last vestiges of her patience to crumble.

"You forget, Ares," she sneered, her tone smug and reeking with venom, "that thanks to your little skirmish with the Aloadae Giants, we all know of what you fear intensely!"

The already tensed atmosphere in the throne room skyrocketed and many sharp intakes of breath could be heard reverberating against the walls from but the moment Athena's callous and venomous words sprung forth from her acidic lips. Aphrodite clutched Ares' hand, providing tactile contact as an anchor and even Hephaestus ceased tinkering in favor of leveling a harsh glare at the goddess he had always respected, for crossing the line. While nearly every god in the room had a strained relationship with the war god, none of them hesitated in coming to Ares' defense, who was paling rapidly, his expression warring between fury and shock.

However, the room at large was rendered speechless when, just as the screaming was about to begin and weapons were halfway drawn, the most unexpected person pierced Athena with a glare of utmost malice and harshly addressed her in defense of Ares.

"You think that's funny? An incident you wield like a weapon to win an argument, or just for the sake of salvaging your ego?! Sealed and imprisoned in a Jar by those twin bastards that were created for the sole purpose of usurping each of your domains! Days, weeks, months in a death trance, all the air sucked out, suffocating-"

Will, Percy, Jason, Thalia, Hazel and Annabeth quickly surrounded Nico as he croaked, sagging weakly in their protective arms, though his dark orbs never strayed from Athena's bewildered gaze.

"Nico, you're shaking, calm down," Hazel fussed, clucking her tongue like a mother hen and carding a hand through his silky black hair, her unique gold eyes swarming with worry.

But Nico wasn't done, and he sneered at the goddess of wisdom, "Until you've suffered under the torture of the Bronze Jar, keep your toxic mouth shut."

"YOU DARE SPEAK TO ME WITH SUCH BLATANT DISRESPECT, HALF-BLOOD!" Athena screeched, anger and affront overcoming her state of bemusement. "I HAVE THE RIGHT TO SMITE YOU WHERE YOU STAND-"

Hades' animalistic growl echoed in the room, his black eyes flaring with purple fire at Athena's words and the threat towards his son. "Try it. And you'll find a permanent residence in the depths of Tartarus. Go ahead. I dare you," he sneered, defending his son without hesitation.

"Father!" Athena, though pale and shaking at Hades' threat, bravely whirled around to confront her father, expectantly awaiting his resolute defense of her person. But to her shock, he remained silent, staring back at his favorite daughter in unadulterated disappointment. It was no secret that Zeus favored Athena the most, and that Ares was his least favored child. Therefore, abandoning Athena deeply portrayed that she had, in fact, stepped out of line.

A clearing of the throat snapped the gods out of their shocked stupor, and they turned to Percy Jackson, who still had a firm grasp on Nico along with the other demigods that came to his aid.

"Yes, Percy?" Poseidon inquired, worried eyes flickering between Ares and Percy.

But it was Annabeth that spoke up, adamantly avoiding her mother's gaze. "Can we be excused for a minute?" and without waiting for their permission, she, alongside Will, Percy, Jason, Thalia and Hazel dragged a trembling Nico out of the throne room, slamming the doors shut behind them, and engulfing them in a suffocating silence.

"I'm fine, Affie," Ares patted his lover, brushing aside her inquiries regarding his wellbeing, his flaming sockets never straying from the closed double-doors as he pondered the perplexing behavior the son of Hades displayed. If he didn't know any better, his familiar reaction heavily implied that perhaps he wasn't the only soul that had been trapped in the accursed Bronze Jar, and he was curious as to how the boy found himself in such a perilous situation in the future. 'Is it possible the Giants rose again?' he thought.

Zeus glowered at his suddenly meek daughter, who was upset over the fact that not only did her father not come to her aid, but her daughter as well. "We will be discussing this afterwards, Daughter. And you shall never bring up such a topic again, you hear me?" he demanded in a growl, shocking Ares even more, for it had been eons since his father sided with him in anything.

"Understood," she responded in a quiver, head bowed submissively.

The doors suddenly opened, and the seven demigods silently entered, depositing themselves in their respective seats. Nico, while looking much better, still held a pale sheen to his visage and when the other demigods eyed him apprehensively, he offered them a tight-lipped smile, prompting small sighs of relief.

"Nico?" Hades firmly called out. Posture tensed, he looked up and met his father's worried gaze and in afterthought, Hades sighed, his tone softening, "Would you care to enlighten us the reason behind your upsetting reaction?"

Jason cleared his throat, "Spoilers. It's not the time, but… later."

Displeased, yet grudgingly comprehending the demigods' wariness, Hades reluctantly nodded in defeat, and as the screen resumed, he couldn't help but shoot looks of worriment at his son every few seconds as though ensuring with his own two eyes that his son was indeed amongst him and relatively healthy.

In response, a skeptical Sam reached under the pillows Dean and Liv shared and pulled out a large hunting knife and a silver dagger, holding them up as evidence.

Travis and Connor couldn't help but snicker at the comical sight.

Dean took his knife back, "That's not fear. That is precaution."

"Better to be always prepared than caught off-guard," Annabeth wisely imparted, her expression grim.

Liv snatched her dagger and glared at Sam, "Wow, Sammy-Boy. Out of practice, much? I'm seriously beginning to wonder how you managed to survive four years at Stanford without us."

"Girl's got a point," Ares grumbled to himself, reluctantly impressed by her sense of self-preservation and her sharp tongue.

Sam threw her a bitch face just as Dean's phone rang, halting any further argument between the two.

"Hello?" Dean answered.

The scene then alternated between the motel room and an office where a bald man who looked to be in his mid-thirties, sat behind his desk and on the phone with Dean.

"Dean, it's, uh, it's Jerry Panowski," he nervously prefaced. "You, your cousin and your dad helped me out a couple years back."

Hera desperately wished to make a snide comment over the fact that Olivia had been incessantly placed in danger from a young age, but she bit her tongue as she knew it would be extremely hypocritical of her and that she would only be initiating a recurring argument with the demigods, as they had more than once reminded her that they had been trained to fight and kill monsters from a fragile age.

In contrast to the Queen of Olympus, Artemis was proud of the girl, and secretly, she found herself undeniably impressed with John and Dean for not excluding her from hunts due to her gender, therefore proving that not all men were chauvinistic jackalopes.

Dean paused briefly before his eyes lit up in recognition. "Oh, right, yeah. Up in Kittanning, Pennsylvania, the poltergeist thing." He then met Liv's gaze, who mouthed 'Jerry' and he nodded before addressing him once again, "It's not back, is it?"

Hades and Nico sighed in sync, deciding to forgo voicing their disbelief at the mention of the existence of poltergeists.

"No. No. Thank god, no," Jerry chuckled nervously, dragging a hand over his bald head. "But it's something else, and…uh, I think it could be a lot worse."

"I believe we are about to be enlightened over the identity of that mystical entity," Artemis proclaimed, leaning forward in her seat and unable to deftly conceal the interest from her youthful visage. In fact, nearly every occupant in the room stared intently at the screen with poorly veiled curiosity.

Worried, Dean asked, "What is it?"

The scene shifted to Jerry's office, "Can we talk in person?"

Dean eyed Sam and Liv, both of whom were staring back at him before the scene abruptly changed, consecutively portraying the Impala driving along a road, followed by an extensive hangar.

Smiling, Jerry approached the three hunters. "Thanks for making the trip so quick. I ought to be doing you guys a favor, not the other way around. Dean, Olivia and your dad really helped me," he addressed Sam.

"What an endearing mortal. Manners that one, he must be on a healthy diet of cereals," Demeter smiled fondly, prompting many eyes to roll aggressively in their sockets and for Katie's face to redden in mortification at her mother's statement.

Hades let out a suffering sigh. "If that's the case, Demeter, then where are your manners?" he retorted, unable to let it go.

Demeter scowled at him and made to get up from her throne, "Why you-"

"Enough," Hestia sighed in resignation. "Hades, don't provoke our sister."

Grumbling at being treated like a naughty child, Hades looked away, a petulant scowl on his pale visage as Demeter smirked haughtily.

Liv smiled fondly, "What did I tell you, Jerry. You've earned the right to call me Liv."

Jerry simply grinned in reply and beckoned for the Winchesters to walk with him.

"Yeah, they told me. It was a poltergeist?" Sam spoke up.

A random man overheard, and smirked at them, "Poltergeist? Man I loved that movie."

Piper instantly nodded in agreement, "As far as scary movies go, that one wasn't so bad. I wouldn't mind watching it again."

Leo wearily shook his head, "Our lives are scary enough, thank you very much."

"Hey, I watched it before I knew about my demigod status," Piper defended good-naturedly.

Jason chuckled and pressed his girlfriend closer to him, placing a kiss on her forehead as she snuggled into him.

Aphrodite squealed at the adorable sight and waggled her brows at Zeus, who simply stared, a blank expression adorning his features.

"Hey, nobody's talking to you. Keep walking," Jerry scowled at the man. Once the man was out of hearing range, he turned back to Sam, "Damn right it was a poltergeist, practically tore our house apart. Tell you something, if it wasn't for Liv, Dean and your dad, I probably wouldn't be alive. Your dad said you were off at college. Is that right?"

Sam nodded, looking slightly uncomfortable as he avoided Dean and Liv's gaze, "Yeah, I was. I'm… taking some time off." He then glared upon hearing Liv snort.

"So… poltergeist… that's like a ghost right?" Chris inquired.

Sounding as though she had swallowed a dictionary whole, Annabeth recapitulated, "It's supposedly a ghost or other supernatural being responsible for physical disturbances. They make loud noises and enjoy throwing objects about."

"Yeah, but to go by Rowling's definition-" Rachel, ever the avid Harry Potter fan, enthusiastically added her input, "-they're ghosts that relish in causing chaos and mayhem and they love creating disturbances. But unlike ghosts, they were never human but an indestructible spirit of chaos with no physical form."

Hades surprised the room at large when his dark orbs settled on Piper, his gaze intense, "The term 'poltergeist' is an anomaly to me. I am afraid I am only aware of its universal meaning. Enlighten me of this movie you previously spoke of."

Electrified at the sudden attention fixated upon her and at being addressed directly by the intimidating god, Piper sat ramrod straight and met the Lord of the Underworld's gaze with respect shining in her kaleidoscopic eyes. "Short version, a family of five move into a house built on an Indian burial ground and start becoming plagued by strange and creepy happenings. Ghosts commune with them through the television, violent earthquakes occur in the house, a glass of milk breaks, silverware bends and furniture moves around, among other bizarre events. Initially friendly, the spirits become malevolent and abduct the family's youngest daughter. And then it gets messy when the family starts looking into an exorcism. Bottom line, the title of the movie was meant to describe the dictionary definition of a poltergeist," she shrugged, pink dots materializing on her porcelain cheek when she concluded her rambling and found that everyone's attention was fixated solely on her, many pairs of eyes staring at her with utmost concentration.

Apollo decided to break the solemn ambience, "Well, that's definitely a movie I'm gonna look into. Seems very interesting."

Smirking mischievously, Hermes grinned, "Count me in."

Hades stroked his lower lip, pondering the daughter of Aphrodite as well as the Oracle's words, "Yes, interesting indeed. Definitely interesting."

"Let us proceed," Persephone smiled, linking her hand with Hades'. She knew that the overabundant information would plague him for a while. Her husband was just learning to get used to the fact that ghosts exist and could in fact, roam around mortal ground without the need of a summoner, and now, with the notion that ghosts were split into multiple categories such as, Woman in White and violent spirits, and now adding poltergeist into the mix, it was simply too much to handle for the god responsible for the Dead and the Underworld, and he needed time to process and compartmentalize the astronomical change in his beliefs, beliefs he thought were set in stone for many millennia.

"Well, he was real proud of you. I could tell. He talked about you all the time," Jerry divulged, and this time, it was Liv and Dean's turn to shift uncomfortably.

"He was?" Percy, the Stolls and Chris gaped, baffled.

"He did?" Sam's face looked the epitome of surprised, his chocolate orbs flickering from Dean, to Liv and lastly, settled on Jerry, who smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, you bet he did.

Athena nodded haughtily, "Good. He should be. Getting accepted into Stanford is no simple feat."

Aphrodite sneered at the goddess of wisdom for speaking, for she had yet to forgive her for the callous words she directed towards Ares.

"He didn't want his son to stray far from his watchful eye, especially with his never-ending paranoia. He allowed his anger to get the best of him and verbally disowned Samuel, but that does not mean he was not secretly proud of his son's accomplishment and his bravery to make a stand and set out in the world," Amphitrite hypothesized, a soft smile on her face.

Poseidon nodded, his sea-green eyes glowing with warmth and love as his gaze roamed between Triton and Percy, "As a father, I can relate. He couldn't admit that his son was old enough to set out on his own, especially in a vast world where he knew of its many dangers and the deadly beings that lurked in the dark. His cruel words spoken to Sam were merely the desperation of an overprotective father, unwilling to let his child leave his safety."

Nearly every goddess in the room cooed at Poseidon as the sons of the sea-god shifted in their respective seats, slightly embarrassed yet definitely touched upon distinguishing the meaning behind Poseidon's words and the obvious care he unabashedly portrayed towards them.

All the demigods however, barring Percy, couldn't help but feel envious over the fact that unlike Poseidon, their respective godly parent were incapable of showing them a smidgeon of affection or even bother to reveal to them in simple words how much they cared for them and their wellbeing – if they even cared about them in the first place.

Hestia noticed, for she stared sadly at the demigods and subsequently shot Zeus, Hades, Apollo, Hermes, Ares, Hephaestus, Athena, Demeter and Aphrodite harsh glares of disapproval.

Oh, hey, you know I tried to get a hold of him, but I couldn't. How's he doing, anyway?" Jerry inquired, changing the topic.

"He's, um, wrapped up in a job right now," Dean vaguely offered.

Jerry nodded, his smile never wavering, "Well, we're missing the old man, but we get Sam. Even trade, huh?"

"Such a well-mannered and kind-hearted man," Hera commented, her lips tugging upwards into a small smile.

Zeus glared, jealousy rearing its ugly head as he misunderstood the compliment his wife bestowed upon the mortal man.

Dean and Liv laughed while Sam murmured, "No, not by a long shot."

"I got something I want you guys to hear," Jerry added, leading them into his office. He held a CD in his hand and placed it in a drive, "I listened to this. And, well, it sounded like it was up your alley. Normally I wouldn't have access to this. It's the cockpit voice recorder for United Britannia flight 2485. It was one of ours."

Curiosity heightened, and the throne room was engulfed in complete silence as the recording played.

"Mayday! Mayday! Repeat! This is United Britannia 2485 – immediate instruction help! United Britannia 2485, I copy your message – May be experiencing some mechanical failure…"

A loud whooshing sound could be heard from the recording.

"Took off from here, crashed about two hundred miles south," Jerry explained, staring solemnly between the Winchesters as the recording ended. "Now, they're saying mechanical failure.

Cue multiple snorts of disbelief.

"The simplicity of mortal minds," Dionysus drawled in nonchalance as he began perusing a different wine magazine.

Rachel glowered at him, having taken deep offense to his derogatory and bigoted comment.

Cabin depressurized somehow. Nobody knows why. Over a hundred people on board. Only seven got out alive.

Every female gasped at the severe amount of fatalities.

"This justifies my fear of flying," Percy mumbled, prompting vehement nods of agreement from Nico, Hazel and Thalia, the latter's agreement eliciting a frown of bemused disapproval from Zeus, who couldn't comprehend his daughter's perplexing reaction with his domain.

Pilot was one. His name is Chuck Lambert. He's a good friend of mine. Chuck is, uh…well, he's pretty broken up about it. Like it was his fault," Jerry concluded, his expression reflecting sorrow.

Liv arched an eyebrow, and in a non-judgmental tone, inquired, "You don't think it was?"

"No, I don't," Jerry adamantly refuted, his voice strong with conviction.

"Honestly… if I hadn't seen how exactly the plane crashed, I would've probably brushed it off as a simple plane crash," Rachel admitted, looking guilty.

Clarisse offered the Oracle a rare smile, "Don't feel bad, Crazy Town. I'd've probably thought the same thing. You hear things like plane crashes, and you don't really think about something supernatural being responsible for such a large-scale accident in the first place."

"She's right," Percy declared, smiling at the redhead and providing her with comfort. Seeing Clarisse's smug smile, the son of Poseidon shot her a mock-scowl. "Don't get used to it, though. You're rarely ever right," he teased.

"Hell just froze over," Connor stated in a stage whisper.

Hades scoffed inwardly; 'there's no such thing as Hell,' he mentally grumbled.

Clarisse leaned forward and smacked him across the head.

"Ouch! Chris, control your girl," Connor whined, rubbing his abused head.

His comment had him on the receiving end of another smack.

Chris chuckled, wounding an arm around his girlfriend, "Sorry, Con. Can't help you there."

"Travis?" Connor whined, a pout forming on his face as he beseeched his big brother.

Grinning, Travis shrugged, "Sorry, bro. Like Chris said, you're on your own."

Hermes eyes shone with mirth as he observed the interaction between his sons.

"Wow, I feel so lucky to have you two as brothers," Connor sarcastically quipped, though it was obvious to everyone that his words held no heat and he was merely teasing, playing along.

Before Hera could chastise them for wasting her precious time with their inane chattering, the sons of Hermes settled down and the screen resumed.

Sam nodded, "Jerry, we're gonna need passenger manifests, um, a list of survivors."

Once Jerry agreed without hesitation, Dean added, "And, uh, any way we can take a look at the wreckage?"

Jerry looked conflicted, "The other stuff is no problem. But the wreckage…fellas, the NTSB has it locked down in an evidence warehouse. No way I've got that kind of clearance."

Dean's frown quickly morphed into a smirk that reflected Liv's as she said, "No problemo."

Hermes whooped, having caught the underlying meaning behind Olivia's words.

"They're gonna break in?" Apollo grinned, looking much like the cat that caught the canary.

"They're gonna break in," Hermes excitedly echoed.

The Stolls, Chris, Leo, Percy, Jason and Nico breathed out, "Awesome!"

And even Dionysus subtly looked away from his magazine, keeping an attentive eye on the screen.

Athena scowled, "Tis no matter to take pride in."

"Oh do us all a favor and keep your poisonous tongue behind your teeth, Athena," Poseidon snapped, in no mood for her irate rambling.

Her scowl became even more pronounced.

The scene changed; Sam stood by the Impala which was parked outside a Copy Jack while Liv lounged in the backseat, her brow furrowed with concentration as she sharpened her dagger, smoothly moving the edge of the blade along the length of the whetstone.

Ares was nodding in approval at her actions before he caught himself and abruptly halted.

Aphrodite and Apollo smirked at him but kept their silence regarding the matter; they could tell that whether he wanted to or not, Ares was slowly becoming attached to the special demigod.

"You've been in there forever," Sam complained the moment Dean strolled out.

The eldest Winchester held up three IDs. "You can't rush perfection," he cockily announced.

Rachel facepalmed, having a good idea where this was going, and she knew that she wasn't going to be onboard with whatever plan the Winchesters concocted.

…Not at all!

Leo bit back his laughter upon recognizing the annoyance that was slowly beginning to materialize on the redhead's visage.

Leaning forward, Liv stretched her hand out and took the ID Dean offered. "Homeland Security?" she arched an amused brow at him.

Sam however, didn't share her amusement, "That's pretty illegal, even for us."

"I love that he felt the need to add the 'even for us' part," Percy chuckled into Annabeth's hair, prompting a giggle to emanate from her lips.

Nobody else heard the couple as their interaction was drowned out by the incensed Oracle as she kicked off her predictable rant.

"Damn right it's illegal! Impersonating ANYONE is illegal," Rachel huffed, unable to contain her anger any further.

Dionysus rolled his eyes at the insufferable brat. "One would think, after repeating the same tirade for the nth time, one would finally give up and cease their irritating ramblings. You are proving to be the most bothersome mortal I have ever had the misfortune to meet, Raquel."

"It's Rachel!" she retorted heatedly.

The wine god simply waved a hand absentmindedly, "Whatever."

"Rach, they carry out illegal acts to save lives. Can't you just… let it go?" Katie appeared to be the only demigod brave enough to confront the incensed Oracle.

When Rachel paused, her anger slowly receding, Frank quickly took over, "Would you prefer they investigate the incident legally, which could end up time-consuming and therefore, giving leeway for another plane to crash, adding another hundred to the fatalities? Or, they speed up the process by carrying things out illegally and ultimately saving hundreds of lives?"

Grumbling, Rachel folded her arms against her chest and sighed in resignation, though her pretty face was clouded with mild guilt and a touch of stubbornness. "You're right. I guess I'm such a stickler for rules that I let myself get blinded for a moment there. I'll try and keep my complaining to a minimum."

"Or simply keep your opinions to yourself at all times. I'm not picky, really," Dionysus drawled, adding in his two cents.

Rachel merely glowered at him.

"Hey, stop picking on my Oracle, D," Apollo defended, throwing the redhead a cheeky wink.

Dean shrugged and went to open the passenger door, "Yeah, well it's something new. You know? People haven't seen it a thousand times." As he and Sam got in the car, Dean started driving and addressed Liv, "All right, Liv, what do you got?"

Putting away her dagger and whetstone, Liv grabbed the tape recorder and leaned forward, "Definitely EVP on the cockpit voice recorder. I edited the tape. Listen."

"EVP?" Hazel warily asked the room in general.

"Ghosts," Rachel and the Stolls replied in unison.

Nico rolled his eyes. "Wonderful. Just how many ghosts are out there wandering in the mortal world?!" he asked rhetorically.

"Two and counting," Percy smirked, referring to the Woman in White and the Sweeney kid that haunted the lake.

"I was being rhetorical, Percy," Nico groaned, his lips twitching slightly.

Hades snapped out of his deep musings and concentrated on the screen, his hand unconsciously tightening on Persephone's who had yet to release him from her soothing grip.

She played the tape and a scratchy voice reverberated in the Impala, "No survivors!"

"Shit just got creepy," Rachel murmured, scooting over to be closer to Connor, his warmth offering her comfort.

Artemis cocked her head in confusion, "I thought the mortal man, Jerry, was it… didn't he state there were seven survivors?"

"I believe he did, sis," Apollo concurred, his expression mirroring Artemis's confusion.

Dean frowned, ""No survivors"? What's that supposed to mean? There were seven survivors."

"Exactly," Artemis exclaimed.

Hermes couldn't help but comment, "You're agreeing with a man, Artemis."

The Goddess of the Hunt didn't share his amusement, whatsoever.

"Got me," Sam shrugged.

"Stuff's mindboggling," Liv added, tossing the tape recorder aside and reclaiming her dagger as she went back to sharpening it.

"At least the runt takes good care of her weapons," Ares growled lowly, uncaring if anyone heard the compliment he masked as a snide comment.

Aphrodite glared, unhappy with the degrading slur he adamantly referred to her as.

"So what are you thinking? A haunted flight?" Dean guessed.

Sam frowned, "There's a long history of spirits and death omens on planes and ships, like phantom travelers."

"Death omens?" Hecate scowled, the term severely confusing her. Her eyes met Hades, both of them flummoxed at Sam's recounting.

Simultaneously, Ariadne tilted her head and inquired, "Phantom travelers?"

Confusion was the main emotion on nearly every occupant's faces, all but Zeus and Poseidon, both of whom turned rigid in their thrones at the remark regarding 'planes' and 'ships' respectively, their curiosity heightening. For contrary to popular belief, a belief mostly hypothesized and spread around by godlings, but not all air and sea disasters that have ever occurred were precipitated by them.

Dean let out a noncommittal hum before Liv gasped sharply from the backseat and exclaimed, "Maybe we've got a rendition of flight 401 on our hands!"

Sam craned his neck to shoot Liv a surprised look from over his shoulder, obviously impressed at her deduction.

"Always the look of surprise," Artemis grumbled under her breath, despising the fact that Sam continued to underestimate Olivia.

"Ahh, yes. Eastern Air Lines. Flight 401. Tristar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades at 11:42 pm on December 29, 1971," Apollo easily summarized, the event seared into his brain and committed to memory. "Tragic disaster. If my memory serves correctly, and I do believe it does, there were 101 fatalities," he sorrowfully concluded.

Nearly all eyes were on the Lord of the Sky, taking him aback.

"What? Why on Heavens are you all looking at me for?" he demanded in a gravelly voice.

Many pairs of eyes that belonged to the demigods flickered over to Jason and Thalia, silently conveying that it was safer for them to question their less than tolerant father.

"Well," Thalia scratched the nape of her neck. "The crash occurred in your domain…" she trailed off awkwardly.

Zeus harrumphed, torn between affront and anger. "Not all plane crashes were triggered by my rage, Thalia."

"I saw a documentary about that flight," Rachel suddenly announced, prompting all eyes on her. "The incident was a huge hit with Spiritists-"

She was interrupted by a confused Hazel, "Spiritists?"

Not missing a beat, Annabeth offhandedly explained, "People obsessed with spirits."

Nico and Hades comically sported twin expressions of incredulity.

"Right, so… as far as the legend of Flight 401 goes, parts of the airline were salvaged from the wreck, and then passengers swore that they were seeing the ghost of the pilot and co-pilot. The airline denied the planes were being haunted but in the end they eventually removed the salvaged parts," Rachel finished explaining in one breath.

Silence ensued until Leo, who sat on tenterhooks, probed, "And then?"

Rachel blinked, confused for a moment before she ohh'ed, embarrassed. "Then the hauntings suddenly stopped."

Pleased that the demigods were thirsting for knowledge, Athena added, "If you want to learn more, the incident was made into a book."

"And a movie," Annabeth enthusiastically piped up, sharing a conspiratorial smile with her mother. "They're both under the same name: The Ghost of Flight 401."

Hades snorted, "Utter claptrap. Nonsensical rubbish."

Surprisingly, Zeus was in complete agreement. "There are no 'ghosts'-" the word was viciously spat as though it was a huge offense to his person, "-in my realm!"

"Right," Dean nodded, keeping his eyes peeled on the road. "The one that crashed, the airline salvaged some of its parts, put it in other planes, then the spirit of the pilot and copilot haunted those flights."

Sam nodded, "Right."

"It sounds less interesting when he says it," Leo smirked.

"Because all of you wore the subject out," Hera sniped.

Annabeth and Thalia retaliated by throwing the goddess lethal glares.

"Like I said. Maybe we've got a similar deal. Or some freaknut's a copycat," Liv commented, crinkling her nose in disdain.

"That would be disturbing," Triton mumbled.

"Liv's not far off," Frank spoke up. "There are a lot of crazy people out there."

Rachel nodded, recalling a previous statement she once made, "I said it before and I'll say it again, there are some mortals out there that are worse than monsters."

The gods looked equally disturbed.

"All right, so, survivors, which one do we talk to first?" Dean asked.

Sam skimmed through the list Jerry gave him, "Third on the list: Max Jaffrey."

"Why him?" Dean inquired.

"Well, for one, he's from around here. And two, if anyone saw anything weird, he did," he replied.

"Ooh, I think I know who Sam's talking about," Katie piped up all of a sudden.

Travis frowned down at his girlfriend, "Who?"

Making herself comfortable in his embrace, she matter-of-factly explained, "There's only one person that saw that guy rip open the door. Remember?"

'Ohhss' reverberated in the throne room and Demeter smiled at her daughter, proud at her quick deduction.

Once again, Athena scowled for, once again, having missed a crucial piece of information when a demigod didn't.

Dean briefly looked over at Sam before turning his attention back to the road, "What makes you say that?"

"Well I spoke to his mother," Sam informed them. The screen then showed the Impala parked in front of the gate that led to a building with a sign out front that read: RIVERFRONT PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL, and Sam's voice echoed in the background, "And she told me where to find him."

Dionysus tossed his magazine aside, his disposition brightening with excitement at the Winchesters current destination.

"Poor guy," Hermes grimaced.

"This is why it's equally dangerous for clear sighted mortals to speak the truth," Hecate empathized. "If they so choose to recount their observations, they get labeled as delusional and are sent to psychiatric hospitals."

Dionysus batted a hand in the air. "Yes. Such a pity," he commented, the tone of his voice and his expression clearly stating that he thought otherwise, which prompted many glares to be aimed at his person.

The boy from earlier had a cane in hand as he strolled down the garden, flanked on both sides by Sam and Dean. Liv stood on Dean's other side as she glanced over at their surroundings with distaste on her gorgeous features.

"I don't understand," Max was saying. "I already spoke with Homeland Security."

Dean cleared his throat. "Right. Some new information has come up. So if you could just answer a couple questions…" he trailed off suggestively.

"He's very good at thinking on his feet," Travis said in palpable admiration.

Connor grinned, bouncing in his seat, a huge grin on his face. It was obvious that he was currently fan-boying over Dean Winchester.

Sam took over, "Just before the plane went down, did you notice anything…unusual?"

Sharp as a whip, Max asked, "Like what?"

"Dead giveaway," Chris mumbled.

Liv snorted, the sound not sounding particularly mean, but leaning more towards condescending. "Like, something that would get people placed in this crazy house in the first place-ouch!" she hissed, glaring at Dean who had elbowed her, a warning on his face, despite the twitching of his lips.

Laughter echoed in the room.

"Blunt and concise. I love her!" Leo chuckled, wiping tears of laughter from his face.

Clarisse shrugged, her lips slowly curving into a smirk, "She does make an excellent point. No need to sugarcoat it. Besides, he's playing dumb on purpose."

"The Hermes cabin would welcome her with open arms," Chris smirked.

Hermes sighed wistfully, "If only she were my kid."

Ares surreptitiously flinched, his orbs glaring at the screen, unwavering.

"Technically speaking, the girl is of relation to you. You are her uncle," Persephone softly pointed out, her expression fond.

The trickster's eyes lit up and he grinned at the Queen of the Underworld.

Only Aphrodite seemed concerned with Ares' disturbing lack of reaction, his posture resembling a stone sculpture.

Rolling her eyes, Liv rubbed her side as Dean spoke up, trying to distract Max from his cousin as he had been staring at her intently, "Strange lights, weird noises, maybe. Voices."

Finally tearing his intense gaze from a still scowling Liv, Max shook his head, "No, nothing."

Dean let out a long-suffering sigh, "Mr. Joffey –"

"Jaffey!" Annabeth instantly corrected Dean.

"Jaffey," Max and Liv sharply corrected, their gaze connecting before Liv ripped her gaze from his.

Ares' narrowed his eyes, a foreign sensation, one he hadn't felt in decades, maybe even centuries, surging in his belly.

"Is this an innocent crush I sense?" Aphrodite tittered, hungrily gazing at the scene.

'Of course. Of course Affie would be the first to interpret the punk's reaction to the runt's presence,' Ares inwardly growled.

"I think he's just suspicious of her," Rachel provided, a contemplative frown on her face. "I mean, out of the three hunters, Liv's the only one acting unprofessional."

Poseidon cocked his head to the side, "Perhaps she finds herself uncomfortable around such an institution."

"A true shame," Dionysus muttered, having taken great offense.

"Jaffey," Dean emphasized, his green orbs darkening when Max continued to stare at Liv. "You checked yourself in here, right?"

Max nodded, prompting Liv to splutter in shock, "Why would you do that?!"

"Yes, why would he do that?" Grover exclaimed.

Dionysus glowered at the satyr's direction, prompting Grover to flinch and cower, hiding behind Percy.

"Probably for safety reasons," Athena deduced. "Perchance he feels his own mind is betraying him…"

Hestia inclined her head, "Possibly."

Max smiled at her reaction, amused, but in an instant, he looked solemn. "I was a little stressed. I survived a plane crash."

"If I survived a plane crash, I'd be out celebrating," Connor pointed out, the 'duh' heard loud and clear in his tone.

Katie, Rachel and Piper nodded, "Ditto."

"Uh huh," Dean appeared skeptical. "And that's what terrified you? That's what you were afraid of?"

Shifting uncomfortably, Max looked away, avoiding the Winchesters' stares. "I…I don't want to talk about this anymore."

"See, I think maybe you did see something up there. We need to know what," Dean continued, his tone serious and persuading.

"No," Max firmly countered. "No, I was…delusional. Seeing things."

Liv decided to speak up, "Well, look at the bright side. You're already in a mental institute. Might as well throw caution to the wind and give in to your delusions, aye?"

"Priceless," Percy chuckled.

"She sure knows how to provide a motivating speech," Jason laughed, eyes sparkling with mirth.

Apollo smirked and threw Ares a mischievous look, "You sure she's your daughter? I mean, she definitely didn't inherit her sense of humor from you."

The God of War growled warningly, his knuckles whitening as he clenched his fists.

"Apollo, stop teasing," Aphrodite chastised him.

It was Hermes turn to smirk mischievously as he inclined his head in Aphrodite's direction, "Yeah, Apollo. Ares doesn't have a sense of humor."

"HERMES!" Ares roared.

Zeus sighed into the palm of his hands, his sons' constant bickering truly wearing him out, "Enough you three. You are acting like children!"

"Sorry," Apollo and Hermes intoned, not sounding apologetic.

"Olivia!" Sam hissed.

Liv glared at him, "It's Liv!"

"I don't see why she finds the need to shorten her name. Olivia is a lovely name," Aphrodite sighed. She then narrowed her eyes on Ares, "Don't you think so, Ares?"

Ares grunted. "Sure," he pacified her, his tone indifferent.

The love goddess sighed in resignation and shared a commiserating look with Apollo.

Sam ignored her. He turned to Max who was looking at them in confusion, "What my colleague is trying to say, Mr. Jaffey, is to tell us what you thought you saw. Please."

Max's countenance shifted from indignant to defeat. "There was…this – man. And, uh, he had these…eyes – these, uh…black eyes. And I saw him – or I thought I saw him…" he paused and licked his lips, uncertainty clouding his features.

"What?" Liv urged, all distaste and boredom gone, replaced by professional curiosity.

"He opened the emergency exit," he admitted. "But that's… that's impossible, right? I mean, I looked it up. There's something like two tons of pressure on that door."

Athena nodded in recognition. "Yes, we mentioned this before. The strength required to open that door is uncanny."

"Even someone on steroids wouldn't be able to do that," Jason mused.

"This man, uh, did he seem to appear and disappear rapidly?" Sam hesitantly inquired. "It would look something like a mirage?"

Max stared at him, bewildered, "What are you, nuts?" But when Sam merely tilted his head, Max revealed, "He was a passenger. He was sitting right in front of me."

"A possessed passenger," Ariadne corrected.

Hecate nodded, "The question is, what sort of entity was it?"

"At least we crossed out eidolon," Leo muttered to his fellow Seven, all six of whom nodded grimly.

The scene changed, showing the Impala pulling up in front of a house.

"So here we are. George Phelps, seat 20C," Sam announced.

Dean shook his head. "Hmm. Man, I don't care how strong you are," the three Winchesters clambered out of the car. "Even yoked up on PCP or something, no way you can open up an emergency door during a flight," he continued.

"PCP?" Nico and Hazel inquired, their heads tilted in confusion at the unfamiliar acronym.

Apollo kept his mouth shut, waiting to see if anyone, preferably his son, comprehended the gist of the drug. In a way, he felt like a true father, for the first time given the ability to parent his child, and he wasn't disappointed.

"PCP, short for Phencyclidine, also known as 'angel dust'," Will gently explained, smiling softly at the children of Hades/Pluto. "It's a recreational drug. Effects are euphoria, loss of ego boundaries, aggressive behavior and also, it can induce feelings of strength and power. I can see why Dean first thought of PCP as an explanation."

"Wow!" Nico was getting used to the twenty-first century, him more than Hazel as he was out longer, but even so, he still found himself discovering new things every day, growing even more amazed at the evolution of the human race.

Apollo beamed at his son.

"You wouldn't have heard of it as it was brought to market in the 1950s," Annabeth gently imparted.

"Then it was subsequently taken off the market in 1965," Apollo added in a chirpy tone. "PCP's got a long history of abuse as mortals started using it for recreational purposes and it was listed as America's number one problem in 1978-"

Hera had had enough!

"Yes, yes. If you are interested in pesky mortal drugs then go research it in your own time," she sneered.

Hades glowered at his cantankerous sister for daring to address his children so callously.

Apollo rolled his eyes at his stepmother. He winked at Nico and Hazel, "If you're still interested, I'll explain when we stop for dinner."

"Not if you're human," Sam stated. "But maybe this guy George was something else. Some kind of creature, maybe, in human form."

"Like Mr. Thorn," Nico gasped in realization.

Hades frowned at his son, "Mr. Thorn?"

"I can't believe you're still calling him that, Death Breath," Thalia rolled her eyes.

Annabeth stiffened at the memory and Percy held her tighter to his side, pressing a chaste kiss on the crown of her head.

Chris grimaced and sent the daughter of Athena a look filled with sorrow, silently apologizing for his part in the whole Luke/Atlas fiasco.

Athena glowered at them while Poseidon smiled fondly at the sight.

"Who's Mr. Thorn?" the Stolls, Katie, Piper, Jason, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Will and Rachel asked, simultaneously.

Nico shrugged, "Force of habit. I first knew him as Mr. Thorn."

"Would you mind sharing with the class who this, Mr. Thorn, happens to be?" Dionysus asked, wryly.

Percy grimaced, "The Manticore."

The gods blanched at the thought of any of their children being in close proximity of such a monster.

Frantically, Hades whipped around to confront his son, dark orbs piercing him intently, "And why in Tartarus would you know him as 'Mr. Thorn', Nico?!"

He nervously wringed his wrist and played with the collar of his shirt. "Well… uh when we-" a pained expression took over Nico's visage. Thalia interlaced her fingers with his, snapping him out of his morbid reverie. "When I got out of the Lotus Casino-" purposely leaving out Bianca's inclusion which Hades noticed if his narrowed eyes had anything to say about it, but he decided to tackle the subject later on, in privacy, "-you had us-me placed in a military school in Maine and, well… the Manticore disguised himself as the Vice Principle to get to us-me. Nearly succeeded too," he mumbled the last part to himself, which of course, with the gods amplified hearing, they all heard him loud and clear.

Hades looked to be suffering from a conniption fit, prompting Persephone to clutch his hand in a comforting grip. "Explain," he boomed.

"The Manticore tried kidnapping me," Nico simply offered, purposely sounding vague.

"But luckily, Grover was sent to scout out for half-bloods at the time, and he called and enlisted me, Annabeth and Thalia for help. We uh, got them, uh him, uh, I mean everyone out safely," Percy summarized, wincing at his slip up.

"Almost everyone," Thalia muttered, staring sadly at Annabeth.

It was Athena's turn to nearly suffer from a conniption fit. "Annabeth?" she inquired.

"Spoilers?" Percy croaked weakly; he still hated himself for his failure to protect Annabeth. The sight of her falling down the cliff and then suffering under the weight of Atlas' curse still gave him nightmares.

Before any of the gods could argue and demand for answers, Zeus' voice rumbled, "Impossible!"

"Brother-" Poseidon attempted to speak up.

"No!" Zeus harshly interjected, eying the four demigods and the satyr with heavy skepticism. "We banished the Manticore to Persia long ago! It's impossible!"

Thalia sighed, looking worn out. "You can't keep denying whenever you hear something you don't like, Father. Monsters don't remain banished for long as you well know."

"Your interaction with the Manticore sounds like quite the tail," Hecate spoke up, her expression shrewd.

Hades growled. "Forget that! Why did the Manticore try to kidnap you, Nico!?"

"Hah!" Demeter viciously retorted. "Doesn't feel good, does it? Knowing your beloved child was nearly kidnapped! Try being me! My precious Kore was kidnapped by the likes of you!"

Persephone groaned, "Mother!"

"I believe, Sister Dearest, that you lost our previous wager," Poseidon grinned, eyes dancing with mirth.

Demeter looked torn for a brief moment before she shrugged. "It was worth it," she hissed, staring daggers at Hades.

Seeing that Hades and Athena were worrying over their respective child's interaction with the Manticore, Hestia decided to speak up, "Hades, Athena, your children are safe and whole. Do not fret over such matters for now. When they are ready to reveal events that took place in the future, they will. For now, take solace in their presence."

Grudgingly, the aforementioned two nodded, though their eyes loudly screamed that they would be discussing this later, prompting Nico and Annabeth to gulp nervously and look away.

Dean seemed to disagree as he pointed to the ordinary house, "Does that look like a creature's lair to you?"

Liv scoffed. "You're judging a book by its cover, Dean. Remember that guy, around two years ago," she snapped her fingers in an effort to remember, "Edward Trenton? Family man; living the Stepford life in a cookie-cutter house, and he turned out to be a monster in the end. Granted, some freaky monster we've never heard of before, but a monster nonetheless."

Dean scratched his head and smiled sheepishly, "Oh… right."

"Who?" Sam frowned, confused, only to be ignored.

"Two years ago. Sam was in university when it happened," Leo mumbled.

Rolling her eyes fondly, Piper quipped, "Stellar observation, Captain Obvious."

"I prefer McShizzle, thank you very much," Leo retorted, teasingly.

Hephaestus smiled at the fond interaction as he continued tinkering.

The scene changed.

The Winchesters were inside the house, in what looked to be the living room, sitting across a woman on a three-seater. Sam pointed at a picture frame, "This is your late husband?"

Sniffing, Mrs. Phelps nodded, "Yes, that was my George."

"They're not questioning another survivor," Apollo remarked, realization dawning on him.

Artemis shook her head, "No. Tis the possessed man's wife."

"And you said he was a… dentist?" Dean sounded disbelieving.

"Dentists are monsters," Connor shrugged.

His comment was responded with a wallop to the head, courtesy of Katie.

"Damn woman," he whined, rubbing the back of his head. "At this rate, if you girls keep it up, I'll be suffering from a concussion."

Unamused, Katie crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at her boyfriend's brother, "I'm trying to smack some sense into you, Connor, but it appears that you're a lost cause."

Clarisse, Rachel, Annabeth and Piper burst into laughter and even Chris and Travis had a hard time suppressing their amusement.

"Besides, if the worst were to happen and you need healing, Apollo and Will are here," Rachel cheekily added.

Connor still looked displeased.

Apollo chuckled. "Even so girls, I don't think Hermes would appreciate it if you end up severely hurting his son. Maybe next time, slap him lighter. Or aim lower."

The youngest son of Hermes bashfully looked down, feeling sufficiently lighter at Apollo's words. Looking up a moment later, he noted Hermes had a tender smile on his face and a few of his doubts on whether his father loved him, started chipping away.

Percy then stage whispered, "Con did make a decent point though… dentists are monsters."

"I know, right," Leo mumbled back.

Connor pouted.

A second later, Annabeth and Piper smacked them across the head.

"Ouch!" they whined in sync.

Connor grinned, mollified.

"Mm-hm. He was headed to a convention in Denver," Mrs. Phelps tore her sad gaze from the picture frame to look at the three hunters in turn. "Do you know that he was petrified to fly? For him to go like that…" she trailed off and let out a choked sob.

The observers nodded as they recalled his behavior at the beginning of the episode.

Liv straightened her posture and softly asked, "How long were you married?"

"Thirteen years," was the forlorn response.

"A dedicated couple," Hera proudly stated, unable to help but flash Zeus a look of contempt that had him shifting uncomfortably.

"In all that time, did you ever notice anything…strange about him, anything out of the ordinary?" Sam questioned next.

Mrs. Phelps' brows furrowed in thought, "Well…uh, he had acid reflux, if that's what you mean."

Despite the solemn situation, Leo, Jason and Percy couldn't help but snort in response.

"That's not what they meant," Hermes stated, his expression lighter.

Dean, Sam and Liv looked at each other, unsatisfied before the screen went black.

"They are no closer to discovering the entity's identity," Artemis huffed, irritated at the lack of information.

The Winchesters were descending the staircase, departing the Phelps home.

"I mean it goes without saying. It just doesn't make sense," a frustrated Sam spoke up.

"A middle-aged dentist with an ulcer is not exactly evil personified," Dean agreed, his expression mirroring Sam's.

Liv dragged a hand through her hair as they stopped by the Impala, "I say it's time we do things my way. We should have just went with my plan and skipped to the last page. I still say we break into that NTSB warehouse to check out the wreckage. We're wasting time here."

"Why am I not surprised. Of course Olivia wanted to start off big," Poseidon chuckled lightly.

Aphrodite sported an expression of fond adoration, "Just like her father."

"Aphrodite…" Ares trailed off warningly, not wanting to initiate a dispute with his lover.

"I am simply stating the facts, Ares. Deny all you want, but you surely are not blind!" she harrumphed, stubbornly meeting his gaze, just like he stubbornly looked away.

Hestia sighed sadly, "Shall we proceed?"

Like Apollo, Hestia was beginning to connect the puzzle pieces together, comprehending the reason behind her nephew's strong dislike toward his demigod daughter. Her sympathy went out to Ares, and she empathized with him, but that did not mean in any certain way that he had the right to treat his daughter, an innocent child that did no wrong, like a disease and a stain on his flesh.

Defeated, Sam nodded, a grimace on his face. "Okay, you're right, Liv. But if we're gonna go that route, we'd better look the part."

In unison, the demigods and Grover turned to gauge Rachel's expression, but her expression remained blank and she adamantly kept her emerald gaze on the screen, lips pressed into a thin line.

Dionysus muttered a barely audible, "Hallelujah."

The scene shifted; the camera homed in on the outside of a rental shop just as the Winchesters were walking out. Dean and Sam both wore crisp black suits with a white shirt underneath and polished black leather shoes, while Liv was decked out in a charcoal gray knee-length skirt suit, with a silk black shirt underneath and matching heels.

"Very stylish," Aphrodite complimented, her eyes glittering at Olivia's ensemble.

Piper smirked, "Sexy and smart, a killer combo."

Proud, Aphrodite winked at her daughter.

Persephone nodded, "She does have fantastic taste. I must admit, I had my doubts in regards to her sense of style."

"I, as well," Ariadne confessed.

Apollo scoffed, a brow arched in the direction of the three goddesses, "Why, because she was raised around men?"

"Yes," they deadpanned, staring at Apollo as though he were purposely acting foolish.

It was Hermes turn to scoff, "And you accuse us of being sexists. I'll have you know. I'll have you know, that I have great taste in clothes."

"You've also been around for many millennia," Amphitrite pointed out in amusement.

"And you're a god, Hermes," Aphrodite huffed a laugh.

Amusement was the main expression on Poseidon's visage, "What, pray tell, has that got to do with anything?"

"Olivia was raised around hunters, practically skipping from motel to motel, always on the road and lacking a female's touch," Ariadne listed off in an obvious tone.

Gritting his teeth, Ares snapped, "Can we get on with the damn episode already!" The last thing he wanted to hear about, was the runt's fashion sense, thank you very much!

"Finally," Athena grumbled, actually thankful to Ares for speaking up.

"Man, I look like one of the Blues Brothers," Dean grumbled, adjusting his collar, prompting Liv to smack his hand away and smooth out the crinkles he created.

Sam smirked, "No, you don't. You look more like a…seventh-grader at his first dance."

Cue amused laughter.

Dean looked down at himself. "I hate this thing," he muttered in disdain.

"Well, thank God I had the forethought to shave my legs last night," Liv piped up, admiring her tanned and toned legs.

Ares groaned into his palm.

The love goddess smirked, looking entirely too smug at the moment.

Dean and Sam blanched.

"I don't want to hear that, Liv," Dean groaned.

Sam however, did a double take as though he were seeing her for the first time, his eyes widening as he scanned Liv's outfit. "Since when do you wear heels?" he spluttered.

Liv rolled her eyes and turned her attention to her jacket, straightening the lapels. "I know it's hard for you to comprehend this, Sammy, but when you left for Stanford four years ago, I didn't stop aging. I'm not that twelve-year-old kid anymore, I'm sixteen, I've been doing teenager stuff-"

"AAA! La-La-La-Laa! I don't wanna hear," Dean yelled, clamping his hands over his ears and shaking his head, eyes snapped shut.

"Boys!" Annabeth, Piper, Katie, Clarisse and Rachel huffed, almost fondly.

Percy stared in confusion at the five girls, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Nobody bothered to offer him a response as they were all distracted by the son of Hephaestus' shameless slobbering.

"Chica's in possession of the definition of sexy legs," Leo salivated. "You know the ones I'm talking about? The ones that look so nice and long and everlasting, especially in those heels," he went all dreamy-eyed.

Piper interrupted his ogling by tossing a napkin at his face. "Wipe your drool, McShizzle," she smirked.

Ares' fists were clenched so tightly, ichor started too ooze out from the crescent-shaped marks he inflicted, only to heal a split-second later once Aphrodite forcibly unclenched his fists. Thankfully, his lover decided to skip on the commentary.

Artemis shared Ares' rage. "She is no piece of meat held on display, son of Hephaestus. Have some respect!"

For the first time in…ever, Ares found himself grateful for his sister and her prudish ways.

"Hey, there's nothing wrong with admiring a pretty woman, Artie. It's not like women are above ogling men," Apollo pointed out.

Artemis venomously spat out, "Do not call me Artie!"

"And women do not ogle men like they are a piece of meat!" she added as an afterthought.

"Actually…" a sheepish Katie hedged, prompting Artemis to whirl around and gape at her in disbelief while Aphrodite, Persephone and Ariadne donned smug expressions.

"You cannot be serious, young daughter of Demeter," Artemis gaped unattractively.

Katie looked at the other girls in silent plea.

"Girls are just as guilty as boys when it comes to intentionally checking out the attributes of the other sex," Annabeth shrugged, unbothered at the prospect of shattering the virgin goddess' ideals when it came to the female gender.

Offended, Artemis gasped, "Well, I never."

"I don't mind women checking me out," Hermes blurted out, puffing his chest out.

A winsome smile graced Poseidon's visage, "I concur with Hermes."

"And we're glad to check you both out," Rachel dreamily exclaimed.

A sudden silence struck the throne room.

Gasping loudly, a furiously blushing Rachel clapped a hand over her mouth, her eyes threatening to pop out of their socket, shocked at her own audacity. "Oh fuck! I-I didn't mean it-, I-I mean, uh, you gods are goddamn sexy, but no, no, wait, ugh-that came out wrong! I didn't mean to blurt it out. It was so disrespectful of me, not that I am lying or anything… and someone please shut me up before I shove my entire foot in my mouth!"

Ares smirked at her, his irate mood mellowing out.

Poseidon's hearty laughter echoed in the room, reverberating against the walls , the sound succeeding to quell her nerves, and he was quickly followed by every other occupant in the room, all but Hera.

Flustered, Rachel continued, "I'm so sorry! Please don't smite me."

"Oh my dear Oracle, we have no intention of punishing you. At ease," Poseidon crooned softly, calming her down.

Hermes snickered, "I wouldn't be so sure of that." He tilted his head in Hera's direction, who was currently fuming, her poisonous glare never wavering from the redhead's form.

"Hera!" Zeus warned.

"Oh, of course you would excuse such impudence. Why ever would I be surprised!" she snarled.

Thalia rolled her eyes and defended her artsy friend. "It was an innocent comment. Don't blame Rachel 'cause you're bitter."

Hera went to stand, "I beg your pardo-"

"Enough!" Hestia softly ordered, eliciting utmost silence. "Hera, just… just enough."

Dean then opened his eyes and mimicked Sam's former reaction. "You know what? Maybe we should go back and get you some pants-"

"I am so not listening to this," Liv snappishly interjected, storming over to the car. "Heading in the car right now, 'cause, you know, we've got a warehouse to break into, a case to solve, people to save."

Glumly, Dean and Sam hopped in and the Impala drove off.

"She should put on some pants," Ares grumbled to himself.

The location changed; the Winchesters walked into the warehouse and flashed their badges to the security guard, who, after appreciatively raking Liv's form, eyes lingering on her bare legs, that provoked two overprotective glares from Dean and Sam, let them in.

Aphrodite repressed a satisfied smile at the telltale sound of Ares gritting his teeth in annoyance.

Artemis on the other hand, didn't bother masking her fury at the chauvinistic behavior. "He'd make a good jackalope," she muttered abrasively.

"That's why I wanted you to wear pants," Dean grumbled.

"Shut up!" Liv hissed, keeping her chin up and expression blank. Once they halted in their tracks, in perfect unison, Dean and Liv both pulled out a device and put earbuds in their ears.

Confused, Sam stared at the identical devices in their possession, "What are those?"

"Are they-, are those walkmans?" Will asked, perplexed.

"Looks like it. But I don't think they're actual walkmans," Rachel offered, sharing his confusion.

Dean looked up, "EMF meters. Reads electromagnetic frequencies."

"Yeah, I know what an EMF meter is," Sam huffed, rolling his eyes. "But why do those two look like busted-up walkmans?"

"Thought I was losing it for a moment," Will sighed in relief.

Liv chuckled at Sam's confusion.

"'Cause that's what I made it out of. It's homemade," Dean explained.

"And taught me how to make one, too," Liv proudly stated, showing Sam her EMF meter.

Hecate smiled fondly, "Their relationship is very endearing. So refreshing."

"It's evident from their interactions that Olivia was mostly raised by Dean," Amphitrite smiled, though it held a sad tinge to it as her eyes flickered towards Ares' indifferent countenance.

"That's so awesome, though. I'd love to learn how to make my own EMF meter, especially now that I know ghosts actually exist without the need of a summoner," Rachel commented in awe.

Sam grinned at Liv's enthusiasm and watched as his brother and cousin started to run their respective EMF meters over random pieces of wreckage. Dean suddenly stopped after scanning a piece coated in yellow dust, as an audible spike emanated from the meter in his hand. Liv paused and ran over to Dean's side.

"Check out the emergency door handle," Dean murmured, scratching at the yellow dust and getting some on his hand.

"What is that?" Hazel grimaced, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

Frank stroked her back in a soothing motion in case she got squeamish again.

"What is this stuff?" Liv frowned.

"That's what we'd like to know," Percy mumbled.

Sam held an expected hand out to Liv, who rooted through her purse for a Ziploc bag and handed it over. "One way to find out," he murmured, scraping some of the yellow dust off and into the bag.

The scene suddenly shifted, portraying two agents in black suits approaching the security desk and showing off their badges.

"Oh Styx!" Percy, Jason, Leo, the Stolls, Chris, Clarisse and Nico yelped.

Frank gulped, "They're doomed."

Rachel shook her head but obediently stayed silent.

"What is it you teenagers say these days… is it busted?" Dionysus grinned, once again banishing his magazine in favor of watching the fireworks occur.

"Homeland Security?" the security guard lifted both brows at them. "What, one team of you guys isn't enough?"

"Oh yes, definitely busted," Dionysus drawled out, a smug smile pulling at his lips.

Ariadne rolled her eyes fondly and lightly swatted him on the chest, "Oh, Dionysus. Behave."

One of the agents frowned, "What are you talking about?"

"Three of your buddies went inside not five minutes ago, and lemme tell you, I don't know how you can work alongside the smoking hot babe without getting distracted," the security guard winked lewdly.

"A jackalope is too good for this swine!" Artemis shrieked, enraged at the disgrace of mortal flesh's audacity.

A positively frightening growl rumbled from Ares' chest as he glowered at the bastard.

"Ares-"

"I'm fine!" he snapped, batting off Aphrodite's concern and trying to recover his mask of nonchalance.

Apollo shook his head in disapproval, his sapphire orbs blazing with fury, "Checking her out is one thing, but demeaning her due to her looks is another."

Arching a brow, the second agent looked at his partner.

Alternating to the interior of the warehouse, the two agents burst in, along with several security guards, all of them with their guns drawn as they started searching for the Winchesters.

"That's kind of an overreaction, isn't it?" Percy gulped.

Rachel sighed and shook her head, "Impersonating officials is a felony for a reason, Percy. The Winchesters do it out of necessity, to save lives, but others do it to carry out unlawful and immoral acts."

The Winchesters shared wide-eyed looks and as the screen shifted to show the two agents and the guards approaching their hideout, they vanished.

"Oh, thank the heavens," Aphrodite sighed in relief, loosening her grip from Ares'.

Outside the warehouse, Dean, Sam and Liv could be seen peering around a corner and, after straightening up, they walked out, attempting to look casual. An alarm blared overhead, prompting them to run to the gated exit. Dean pulled off his jacket and threw it over the barbed wire at the top of the fence, and they climbed over. Before disappearing from sight, Dean grabbed his jacket.

"Well, these monkey suits do come in handy," Dean chuckled in an effort to alleviate the tension as the Winchesters run off before the screen turned black.

"Punk's good at thinking on his feet," Ares grunted in appreciation. "That there is an admirable ability to have: improvising. Helps keep his ass alive."

Hades hummed, "At least they managed to take off with evidence, therefore it was not a complete waste of their time."

Back in the airport, the pilot, Chuck, nervously sat in a chair as his copilot gave him a pep talk.

"My bad feeling has made a sudden comeback," Rachel murmured. She suddenly snapped her head around to face Leo, who's mouth was parted, "And no, Leo, it's not an Oracle thing."

Nodding, Leo sheepishly snapped his mouth shut.

Jason and Piper chuckled fondly at their best friend.

"Listen, Chuck. It's like getting back on a horse. Only in this case, a little twin engine. Not even a horse, more like a pony.

"He calls that a pep talk?" Apollo gaped in shock. "He's terrible at it!"

Artemis scoffed, "Like you're any better, brother."

I'll be right there with you too. Anytime you feel like you don't want the wheel, I'll take over. Look, Chuck, we don't have to do this today. I'm not trying to rush you," the copilot concluded.

"He should've started off with that, and ixnay all the pony talk," Hermes muttered in amusement.

Ariadne smiled however, "I think it's admirable that Chuck is trying to get back to normalcy."

"Yeah, but if I were him, I'd quit my job," Percy shuddered, garnering a vehement nod of agreement from Thalia who looked too pale for Zeus's liking.

Chuck adamantly shook his head, "No, the…the waiting is worse."

"Eh, dude's got a point," Apollo agreed.

Hera grimaced in distaste; she utterly abhorred the slang her stepsons picked up from the twenty-first century.

The copilot looked over his shoulder, "Okay, they're filling up the tank. Then we go." and he left.

Chuck sighed and took a long sip of coffee. Behind him, a long cloud of dark black smoke exited from the vent and collided into Chuck, seeping into his eyes.

The scene turned black.

"NO!"

"Not again!"

"Di immortales!"

"Fuck!" Thalia gasped.

"Language!" Hera shrieked.

Thalia glowered at her. "Bite me," she murmured.

"Wow, my instincts are spot on," Rachel spoke in a hush, blinking rapidly at the screen.

Leo shrugged, "Kind of freaky and cool at the same time if you ask me."

"I didn't," the redhead murmured offhandedly.

A sheen of sweat appeared on Percy's face as his nausea returned tenfold. "The plane's gonna crash again, isn't it?" he rhetorically inquired.

Poseidon stared at his son with sad eyes.

The Winchesters were back in Jerry's office; Liv had made herself comfortable perched on his desk, while Sam and Dean stood over the desk with their arms crossed, all three of them staring intently at Jerry as he examined the yellow dust through a microscope.

Heads were cocked as the microscope's view was replicated on the screen, confusion the main emotion on nearly every occupant's visage.

"Too bad there aren't any scientists in the room," Leo grumbled, rubbing his eyes fiercely.

"Huh. This stuff is covered in sulfur," Jerry remarked to the room at large.

Liv and Dean visibly stiffened. Sam shook his head and leaned forward, "You're sure?"

"Take a look yourself," Jerry said as he stepped back.

"Sulfur? I don't get it. What's so bad about sulfur?" Jason inquired, brows furrowed in confusion.

Annabeth gasped, eyes alight with recognition, "Of course! It's widely known that sulfur is distinguished by its pale greenish-yellow color."

"Now we're discussing chemistry?" Connor groaned, his disposition mirrored by nearly every demigod.

The daughter of Athena shrugged, "Malcolm's a whizz at chemistry and taught me everything I need to know."

"Sulfur must be an indication to some monster they came across before," Ares grunted, surprising everyone but Aphrodite, not just over the fact that he willingly participated, but that he actually said something smart, prompting him to inwardly roll his eyes at their gullibility.

Aphrodite simply nodded and, after pressing a sensual kiss on Ares's cheek, said, "So this entity that takes the shape of a dark cloud of smoke, the Winchesters must have an inkling as to what it is just by the presence of sulfur."

Unable to withhold her comment, Athena gaped at the couple, "Since when are you two…smart?"

"Athena!" Zeus, Poseidon and Hestia snapped, each of them sporting a warning glare.

Suddenly, banging sounds erupted from outside the office and a man could be heard yelling, "You effin' piece of crap!"

Sighing, Jerry strode toward the door, "If you three will excuse me, I have an idiot to fire."

Travis, Connor, Apollo and Hermes snorted.

Dean and Liv rushed over, each taking turns to look into the microscope as Jerry yelled in the background from outside. "Hmm. You know, there's not too many things that leave behind a sulfuric residue," Dean pondered aloud.

"Don't say it," Liv muttered, almost pleadingly, as she stepped away from the microscope.

Sam sighed and grimaced at his cousin, "Demonic possession?"

"You had to say it," Liv hissed to herself, massaging her temples.

Spluttering, Nico lost all composure, "Demonic?"

"Figure of speech," Hades, quick as a whip, retorted, unwilling to have his world flip on an axis once more.

Not wishing to deal with his brother's state of denial, Zeus eyed Hecate, "Hecate?"

Hecate swallowed and weakly concurred with Hades. "Demonic could be lingo for monster possession. There is no such thing as demons," she laughed, almost hysterically.

"That's what you said about ghosts without a summoner," Katie politely pointed out.

Travis nodded, looping an arm around his girlfriend's waist. "And you didn't even believe wendigos existed, and yet they do," he pointed out.

Weakly, Rachel said, "It's not so farfetched that demons also exist-"

"Ms. Dare, while I am at a loss regarding our ghost dilemma, I assure you, demons do NOT exist. It is impossible," Hades strongly refuted.

Leo blinked and cocked his head, "But why? What makes you so sure?"

"Other than the fact that I have lived many millennia," Hades dryly stated, brushing imaginary lint from the cuffs of his sleeves. "I am the King of the Underworld, Lord of the Dead, and I promise you, no demons reside in my domain because there is no such thing as demons," he hissed once more.

"Oh," Leo mumbled.

Hades snorted, "Yes, 'oh'."

"Children," Persephone softly addressed the demigods in the room. "Demons are corrupted souls said to dwell in Hell. Hell is the human representation of the Underworld when they are sentenced to the Fields of Punishment," she gently explained.

"Exactly. Which is why Hades, Persephone, and I are certain demons are simply a myth. Because if demons do in fact, exist, then where are they? Because they are definitely not residing in the Underworld."

While the demigods and Grover all nodded, taking their word for it, Rachel frowned, doubtful of their confidence regarding the matter, despite the fact that there is no proof otherwise.

"It would explain how a mortal man would have the strength to open up an emergency hatch," Dean added.

Sam shrugged, "If the guy was possessed, it's possible."

"This goes way beyond floating over a bed or barfing pea soup. I mean it's one thing to possess a person, but to use them to take down an entire airplane?" Dean ranted in disbelief.

Liv snorted, lifting a skeptical eyebrow at them, "Since when are demons benevolent?"

"There's no such thing as demons!" Hades hissed, an impressive sneer materializing on his aristocratic face.

Everyone smartly kept their mouths shut.

Dean let out a hysterical laugh, "Never."

The screen shifted to the airport tarmac. The copilot stood waiting by a small plane when a cheerful Chuck who looked relaxed, approached. "I'm ready. Let's do this," he grinned.

The copilot blinked, confused, before he laughed and followed Chuck to the plane.

"Is that still Chuck?" Piper hesitantly inquired. "If he's being possessed… I mean, when possessed by an eidolon, the person its possessing, while unable to do anything about it, are still able to observe everything it does in their body… is it the same for Chuck?"

The throne room was engulfed in silence as everyone pondered the appropriate inquiry made by the daughter of Aphrodite.

"Quite an accurate description of eidolon-possession, Popeye," Dionysus drawled out.

Piper simply stared, astounded. "Popeye. Really? Now I know you do that on purpose."

Ariadne stifled her laughter as she leaned into her husband's side.

"No, but really, you weren't possessed by one, were you, darling?" Aphrodite inquired, expression frantic.

"No, no. It wasn't me. It was, uh," Piper glanced unsurely at the three boys. In sync, Percy, Jason, and Leo raised their hands. "It was them," she concluded.

"WHAT?" Poseidon and Zeus yelled, while Hephaestus entire beard engulfed in flames, orbs focused intently on his son.

"We're fine," Jason tried assuring them, to no avail.

Hephaestus surprised everyone when he addressed his son, as he rarely ever spoke. "I want a full disclosure later, you hear me?" he said, voice hoarse and gravelly with disuse.

Gulping, Leo rapidly bobbed his head.

"To answer your initial inquiry, Piper: Yes; I do believe Chuck is aware," Hecate forlornly divulged.

In the cockpit, the copilot turned to Chuck, "How you feeling?"

"I feel great!" Chuck exclaimed.

"You'll be back flying jumbos before you know it."

Chuck grinned, "I hope so. How long we been up?"

"Is it just me, or is this a total déjà vu moment?" Rachel squeaked, pressing her palms to her mouth and seeking comfort by scooching closer to Connor's side till she almost landed on his lap.

Hazel feebly said, "It's not just you."

The copilot checked the time, "Uh…almost forty minutes."

"Wow. Time really does fly."

Apollo frowned in contemplation. "That's the code. Something about forty minutes is related to all this."

"Yes! Exactly, brother," Artemis gushed, excited at the prospect of solving the puzzling anomaly. "In the first flight, this…entity inquired after the time and once the passenger revealed it to be forty minutes past, he caused the plane to crash."

"So more unfortunate fatalities," Persephone sadly concluded, eyes welling with unshed tears.

Chuck suddenly had the plane diving towards the ground. The copilot bewilderly turned to confront him, "What are you doing?!" But Chuck elbowed him in the face as his entire eye turned pure black.

The scene alternated to show a truck trundling by as the plane appeared abruptly, crashing into a telephone pole and then the ground.

The screen turned black.

A solemn silence ensued as they all grieved the passengers' demise.

"Can these incidents be altered?" Amphitrite inquired.

Zeus sighed dismally, "If the Fates allow it."

"The Winchesters will stop this, I'm sure of it," Thalia announced, confident in their abilities.

"Yes, but two planes have already crashed," Triton gently uttered.

The scene shifted to the interior of a motel room; a plethora of articles and images were taped to the walls and strewn across both beds. Sam sat on a chair by the table, staring intently at the computer screen while Dean read an article on the bed. Liv was lying on the carpeted floor on her stomach with her legs dangling in the air, two empty cans of Red Bull were littered on the ground while a third was firmly held in her hand, and there were five articles spread around her.

"Kudos if she can actually read them without needing to take a Tylenol," Leo piped up, rubbing the middle of his forehead.

"Just because we're dyslexic, doesn't mean we can't read at all," Annabeth chastised him.

Sam suddenly spoke up, "So, every religion in every world culture has the concept of demons and demonic possession, right? I mean Christian, Native American, Hindu, you name it."

The ambience in the room turned chilly, reflected by Hades' mood.

"Concept of. It's not a fact, it's a theory. A ludicrous one," he hissed, teeth bared.

"Yeah, but none of them describe anything like this," Dean commented from the bed. Liv hummed in agreement as she took a hearty sip of her energy drink.

"Red Bull," the Stolls echoed in a wistful tone.

Katie smirked at them, "At least she knows how to handle her Red Bull. She's on her third and she isn't itching to demolish the motel room."

Travis and Connor scowled at her. "Shut up," they murmured.

Sam disagreed. "Well, that's not exactly true. You see according to Japanese beliefs, certain demons are behind certain disasters, both natural and man-made. One causes earthquakes, another causes disease."

In comical unison, every single demigod turned to stare between Poseidon and Hades with questioning glances.

Chuckling, his eyes brimming with mirth, Poseidon smiled benignly at them, "While I am dubbed 'Earthshaker' and while my brother and I have the ability to generate earthquakes, we are not the cause of them all. Some are simply generated by nature itself, a result from the sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere, thus creating seismic waves."

"My, what big words Poseidon," Athena acidly spat out, and to her frustration, he didn't rise to the bait, but simply threw her an amused look.

"I am much older than you, my dear Athena," was all the Sea God offered.

Lifting herself up from the ground, Liv walked over to Sam, Red Bull still in hand, "And this one causes plane crashes? Seriously."

Dean got up as well and joined them by the table, "All right, so, what? We have a demon that's evolved with the times and found a way to ratchet up the body count?"

"That's a morbid way to put it," Grover brayed.

Hades pinched the bridge of his nose with a thumb and forefinger and exhaled harshly, "There is no demon!"

Persephone placed a hand on his shoulder in an effort to calm him down, trading a worried look with Hecate from over his head.

"Yeah. You know, who knows how many planes it's brought down before this one?" Sam suddenly brought up.

The demigods stared warily at one another, and some – Percy – sent a surreptitious glance at Zeus who looked incensed at the mere thought.

"Apparently brother, you need to make a full sweep of your domain. A plane crashing unnaturally is bad for business," Hades sneered, unable to pass the opportunity to finally beat Zeus at his own game.

Zeus glowered in response. "Oh, I see how it is. I blame you for the ghosts, I blame Poseidon for the lake haunting, and now it's my turn to take the blame?"

In sync, Poseidon and Hades exclaimed, "Yes!"

Hera cleared her throat loudly before the bickering brothers had a chance to proceed with their dispute. "Enough, brothers of mine. Zeus, once we are done here, you shall look into this. It is one thing for your temperament to generate plane crashes and air disasters, but a demon or whatever entity this is have no business producing calamities in a place of your jurisdiction. Deal with it."

"Yes, Dear," Zeus sighed, resigned, adamantly ignoring the smug smirks that were currently adorning his brothers' visages.

Liv chugged her energy drink. "I need something stronger," she pouted, mournfully staring at the empty can.

"Welcome to my world," Dionysus grumbled, shooting his father a glare that, as usual, went ignored.

Dean let out a bark of laughter while Sam glared at her in disapproval, "You're underage, Liv!"

"Oh, shut UP, Sammy!" Liv retorted heatedly. Suddenly, without warning, she let out a rage-filled yell and hurled the empty can against the wall, hard. "This isn't our normal gig, you guys! I mean, demons? Freaking demons! They don't want anything but death and destruction for shits and giggles. This is huge. I… I want Uncle John. I want him so bad. He always knows what to do," she sniffled as tears sprung from her lids and trailed down her face.

Seeing Olivia cry sent a pang in his chest, and so, Ares covered it up with a scathing remark, "See, the runt's nothing but a crybaby. And you wonder why I don't acknowledge her."

"I'm gonna take a leaf out of Olivia's book and tell you to shut up, Ares," Apollo snarled, eyes burning with anger. "Your daughter's terrified. She's sixteen and scared and facing something she's probably never fought before that attacks airborne! Come on! Where's your compassion?!"

Ares grunted and looked away, burning a hole through the screen with his flaming sockets.

"It's not a demon," Hades snapped half-heartedly.

"Be as it may, Hades. No point fussing over it. Whatever it is, we'll find out soon enough," Hestia softly consoled him.

"I have a question. Shits and giggles, what does it mean?" Dionysus solemnly inquired, his curiosity peaked.

Percy rolled her eyes, "It's kinda an idiom for fun. Like… doing something for your own amusement."

"Ahh. Ingenious, really," he muttered, returning to his magazine which immediately combusted into flames. "Hephaestus!" he groaned.

Dean was immediately by her side, wrapping both arms around her. He stroked a hand through her hair and crooned, "It's okay, Liv. I wish he were here, too."

"John better have a good reason for his absence," Aphrodite snapped, empathizing with Dean and Liv, yet not wanting to think badly of John.

Sam looked lost as he stared sadly at his cousin until Dean's phone rang, interrupting the moment. Still keeping an arm around her, he dragged her over to the bedside table and answered his phone, "Hello?"

The scene alternated once again, showing Jerry in his office on the phone. "Dean, it's Jerry. My pilot friend…Chuck Lambert is dead."

"Wha- Jerry, I'm sorry. What happened?" Dean frowned.

"He and his buddy went up in a small twin about an hour ago. The plane went down," Jerry revealed.

Dean's gaze met Sam's, "Where'd this happen?"

"About sixty miles west of here, near Nazareth."

"I'll try to ignore the irony in that," Dean sighed. "Listen, Jerry, hang in there, all right? We'll catch up with you soon."

Once Dean hung up, Sam asked, "Another crash?"

Sighing, he nodded and after kissing the top of Liv's head, said, "Yeah. Let's go to Nazareth."

"How exactly are they going to stop this thing?" Frank asked.

Will shrugged. "Thinking off the top of my head, I'd say the only way to solve this case is by actually getting onboard the pl…ane," he drifted off at the realization of what he had said out loud, horrified.

There was a sudden hush in the room as everyone processed Will's words, noting that he was spot-on with his theory.

"Di immortales," Aphrodite gasped, wide eyes pausing to gauge her lover's reaction.

Ares remained ramrod straight, posture tense, fists clenched, and eyes stubbornly staring ahead, only the whitening of his knuckles and the harsh exhalation from his nostrils gave evidence that he heard and understood the perilous situation the Winchesters were most probably about to get themselves into.

"There's nothing I can do about it," Zeus defended almost instantly, hands raised, when he saw the myriad of gazes concentrating on his person. "If I knew of this accursed entity, I would have smited him from where he stood during the first flight."

While he too was tense, Poseidon, ever the peacemaker, spoke up, his baritone voice soothing their nerves, "Let us not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe they'll discover a way to end this threat on ground."

The Impala could be seen driving past a road sign that read: NAZARETH 3. Black smoke was visible in the near distance.

The scene shifted to show the Winchesters congregated, once again in Jerry's office, with Jerry looking through a microscope.

"Sulfur?" Dean inquired. Jerry nodded in affirmative. "Well, that's great. All right, that's two plane crashes involving Chuck Lambert. This demon sounds like it was after him."

"Not a demon!" Hades gritted out through clenched teeth.

"With all due respect to Chuck, if that's the case, that would be good news," Sam announced, grimly.

Leo shook his head. "That guy's just a bright ray of sunshine, ain't he?" he scoffed.

"Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside," Connor sarcastically added.

"What's the bad news?" Dean asked, his eyes flickering over to Liv, who was pacing around and muttering inaudibly to herself with her face buried in her palms.

"I realized that that's Liv's thinking pose," Percy randomly pointed out.

Ares stared intently at the sea spawn. "Explain," he gruffly demanded.

Shrugging noncommittally, Percy said, "During the Woman in White case, Liv had her face buried in her palms and was muttering to herself before she cracked the case."

"Nicely deduced, Seaweed Brain," Thalia grinned, a devious glint in her eyes. "Must be Annabeth's influence, huh?"

Percy playfully shoved her, "Green doesn't suit you, Pinecone Face."

"Chuck's plane went down exactly forty minutes into flight. And get this, so did flight 2485," Sam explained in one breath.

Apollo clapped his hands together victoriously, "I said it! Didn't I say it? I knew 'forty minutes' was crucial to the thing's devious plot!"

"Yes, yes, good for you, now hush," Artemis snapped.

"Forty minutes? What does that mean?" Jerry looked confused while Liv continued to mumble in the background.

"It's biblical numerology," Dean revealed, turning to Jerry. "You know Noah's ark, it rained for forty days. The number means death."

Rachel looked amazed, "It's in the littlest details."

"How the hell…" Percy trailed off, incredulous at the discovery.

Apollo shook his head, "God of Knowledge and all, and I did not see that coming."

"None of us did," Athena reluctantly admitted, furious with herself.

"One piece of the puzzle solved," Katie breathed out, curiously scrutinizing the screen.

"I went back, and there have been six plane crashes over the last decade that all went down exactly forty minutes in," Sam illuminated.

"Zeus," Poseidon sighed, his tone lacked any censure, merely a combination of inquisitive and sympathetic.

For his part, the Lord of the Sky was at a loss for words, furious with himself for allowing some abominable cretin to invade his domain and wreak havoc, polluting the sky with its poison.

"Ten years. Ten bloody years, and I remained blind to this abomination's destruction! HOW?" Zeus boomed, the potent scent of ozone pervading the air.

"The Fates have done us a favor, my Lord," Hecate courteously interjected the preliminary to his ranter. "Perhaps this is one of the reasons why they demanded us to witness these future events. To change them. To learn from our mistakes. To right wrongs."

Hera nodded, "Hecate's right, my love. With this knowledge, you have the chance to smite this simpleton before it generates even more chaos and death."

Sufficiently calmer, Zeus clasped her hand in his and brushed his lips against her knuckles before fixating his attention onto the screen, never once releasing his wife's hand from his own, prompting a bright smile to materialize on her gorgeous visage.

Thalia wrinkled her nose, staring at their linked hands with palpable distaste.

The smile that appeared on Hestia's face threatened to split it in half, hope once again coursing through her veins; hope for her family and hope for their future happiness, filled only with peaceful gatherings and laughter. All Hera required was Zeus's love and attention, a desperate yearning he had been denying her for centuries, embittering her in the process.

"Oh my G.O.D!" Liv gasped loudly.

"She solved the case," Percy confidently stated.

Curious, everyone leaned forward, not wanting to miss a word of the following conversation.

Dean, Sam and Jerry whirled around to face her, confused. Liv darted over to Sam's side, "Where there any survivors, Sam?"

Sam rapidly shook his head, "No-"

"It makes sense now!" she gasped, eyes sparkling with life. "There weren't any survivors until flight 2485, for only God knows what reason." Turning to face Dean, she said, "Remember, the cockpit voice recorder, the EVP said "No survivors" but that's not true, 'cause there were seven." Her dark gaze flickered between the three men as she rushed out in one breath, "It's going after the remaining survivors. Trying to finish the job."

Dean's eyes widened. "Son of a bitch!" he swore.

"She's a genius!" Annabeth gasped.

Leo fluttered his eyelashes, "Beauty, Brave, Body and Brains. She got the full package."

"I'm so telling on you to Cally when we get back to the future," Thalia mumbled without any real heat.

Ares shoved down the bubble of pride and breathed through his nostrils, willing himself to remain detached.

It was nighttime, and the Impala was driving down the road. The camera homed in on the interior of the Impala.

Sam had the phone to his ear, "Really? Well, thank you for taking our survey. And if you do plan to fly, please don't forget your friends at United Britannia Airlines. Thanks." He then hung up and tossed the phone aside. "All right. That takes care of Blaine Sanderson and Dennis Holloway. They're not flying anytime soon."

"I frankly don't blame them," Nico grimaced.

A rapidly paling Thalia spoke up, "I don't get it. If I, gods forbid, was in a plane crash and survived, I would never ever stand within four feet of a freaking airport ever again. I'd rather not play with Fate thank you very much."

Zeus frowned at his daughter, genuinely perplexed, "As my daughter, Thalia, you would never need to worry about perishing to such a fate. You are exempt."

Percy and Nico couldn't help but roll their eyes at the blatant favoritism, never mind the bazillion wrong implications Zeus disclosed in just that one seemingly innocuous statement. Poseidon and Hades seemed to be thinking amongst the same lines as their sons, for a pronounced frown made an appearance on their faces as they glared at their little brother.

"So our only wildcard is the flight attendant Amanda Walker," Dean concluded.

"Oh, I remember the mortal girl. I'm glad she at least survived," Ariadne sighed in relief.

Rachel snapped her fingers, "She's the one that saw his eyes go black. Right. I remember."

"Right. Her sister Karen said her flight leaves Indianapolis at eight pm. It's her first night back on the job," Sam grimaced.

Dean snarkily said, "That sounds just like our luck."

Liv scowled, "Why the hell would she do that? She's tempting fate for crying out loud. If I were her, I'd quit."

"Took the words right out of my mind," Percy chuckled, the sound lacking humor.

"Yeah but statistically, the odds of a plane crash without outside influences are like…. one in a million, Percy," Annabeth hesitantly divulged. "If it weren't for this supernatural influence then none of these planes would have crashed."

Thalia shuddered, "Still. She must have heard of the plane crashing again, she shouldn't be too quick to gamble with her life."

"Dean, this is a five-hour drive, man, even with you behind the wheel," Sam grimaced.

Travis shook his head, "That guy really knows how to kill the mood."

Rolling her eyes, Katie lightly slapped his chest, "Trav, he's simply stating the facts."

"I hope they make it," Hazel murmured, worried for the poor girl's life.

"Call Amanda's cellphone again, see if we can't head her off at the pass," Dean demanded, pressing his foot on the gas.

Sam sighed, "I already left her three voice messages. She must have turned her cellphone off."

Rachel nodded knowingly, "It's the most important regulation. The number one rule. The use of mobile phones is prohibited, especially during takeoff because of potential interference with ground networks." Due to her father's profession, Rachel was no stranger to airplanes, always traveling from one country to another.

"Meaning they're already too late, right? If her phone's off then she's already onboard…" Piper trailed off inquiringly.

Rachel pursed her lips, "No, not necessarily. She probably just shut it off early and stored it away."

"God, we're never gonna make it," he muttered, putting his phone away.

Liv rolled her eyes and teasingly said, "Not with that attitude we won't. You know… maybe with my driving, we'll get there in record ti-"

"No!" Dean and Sam yelled, prompting her to jump in her seat.

Irregardless of the serious situation, sounds of laughter met the Winchesters' comical interaction.

Apollo and Hermes studied Ares from their peripheral vision, the same thoughts reverberating in their heads, 'Fond of speed just like her father…'

Dean continued, his expression set in determination, "We'll make it."

"At least that one's optimistic," Clarisse grumbled under her breath. Sam's constant negativity was dampening her already awful mood.

The scene shifted: the Winchesters were rushing into the airport, not stopping until they reached the Departure board. Liv's eyes were narrowed into slits as she tried to make out the tiny script when Sam abruptly pointed at the plane Amanda was on.

"Right there! They're boarding in thirty minutes," Sam exclaimed.

"Well I'll be damned. They actually beat the five hour drive and reached a full thirty minutes before takeoff," Apollo whistled, impressed.

Hera clucked her tongue, "They're lucky they didn't cause an accident with the reckless driving."

"Okay. We still have some cards to play. We need to find a phone," Dean mused.

Liv wasted no time in darting over to the courtesy phone and after a cool female voice announced "Airport Services" she calmly spoke, "Hi. Gate thirteen. I'm trying to contact Amanda Walker. She's a flight attendant on flight-" Sam quickly whispered the number, "-flight 424."

Surprising them all, Dionysus drawled, "They're simply delaying the inevitable."

Ariadne cocked her head, "Why would you say that, Dear?"

"Because," he sighed, sounding wholly uninterested as he flipped over a page of his magazine. "Even if they do succeed in having this mortal miss her flight, this being would still come after her. Those hunters cannot delay all her flights, and this being will not cease its attempts on her life. It will keep pursuing her thus, instigating a never-ending game of Cat and Mouse."

Percy blinked in shock and murmured to Annabeth and Grover, "Wow, he was actually paying attention."

"Just because you murmur, Peter Johnson, does not mean I am incapable of hearing you," the wine god dryly stated with a roll of his eyes.

Apollo shrugged, looking terribly amused, "Kid's got a point, though. You mostly interact with us when you're about to make a commentary relating to gore and being eaten alive."

Dionysus simply snapped his fingers and, after throwing a glare of distaste at the can of Diet Coke, he opened it and took a reluctant sip.

"Dionysus is correct however," Hecate spoke up when the wine god made it clear that he was no longer a part of the conversation, turning his attention back to his magazine. "This will only end with Amanda's death, or the entity's. And I strongly believe the only way to end this abomination is aboard the plane."

A tension-filled silence engulfed the room as they all turned back to the screen.

The shot alternated between the Winchesters and Gate 13 as the PA announced, "Amanda Walker, Amanda Walker, you have a phone call. White courtesy phone, gate thirteen."

Hearing the announcement as she was approaching the gate, Amanda picked up the aforementioned phone, "This is Amanda Walker."

"Miss Walker. Hi, this is Nurse Ava from St. Francis Memorial Hospital. You are the emergency contact for a Miss Karen Walker," Liv spoke into the phone, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Karen?"

"Nothing serious, just a minor car accident, but she was injured, so –"

Amanda frowned, shaking her head, "Wa- wait, that's impossible. I just got off the phone with her five minutes ago. She's at her house, cramming for a final. Who is this?"

"Busted!" the Stolls intoned, no hint of amusement on their faces.

Chris grimaced, "Although, it was a good cover. Just bad luck."

"She survived a plane crash, her streak of luck had to end somewhere," Jason negatively pointed out.

Nico scoffed, "With that negativity, you and Sam would get along like a house on fire."

"Shut up, Neeks," Jason smirked.

The son of Hades scowled darkly at him but otherwise kept his mouth shut.

Liv paused, placing the phone against her check as she swore. Squaring her shoulders and ignoring Dean and Sam's inquiring looks, she said, "All right, you caught me. Listen Amanda, I'm just gonna go right ahead and say it, you cannot get aboard that plane."

"What?" Sam hissed, confused.

Amanda's face clouded with suspicion, her eyes narrowed, "Is this one of Vince's friends?"

"She just handed Liv an excuse on a silver platter," Percy pointed out.

With a tight-lipped smile, Liv said, "Guilty as charged. He's a mess, really. It's pathetic. He really needs to see you tonight-"

"Oh yeah?" Amanda scoffed. "Look, I've got to go. Um… tell him to call me when I land." and she hung up, greeting her coworkers as she made her way over to the plane.

"Fuck!" Liv swore, slamming the phone shut.

Excited, Dionysus banished his magazine and leisurely lounged on his throne, looking – unlike nearly every other occupant in the room – at ease, "Only one option left."

"Can you sound any more interested," Hermes sarcastically snapped.

The wine god simply hummed around the rim of his can, purple orbs flaring with interest.

Alternating back to Amanda, the camera fixated on a familiar cloud of black smoke as it seeped out a vent before retreating back in.

"Their theory was correct, then," Annabeth sighed in defeat.

Back to the Winchesters, the intercom announced, "Thank you for flying United Britannia Airlines."

"All right, it's time for Plan B. We're getting on that plane," Sam resolutely declared.

"No!" Aphrodite cried out. While she was 98% sure that it would inevitably end in this route, she enjoyed remaining in denial, not wanting to observe the family she was so invested in, being placed in grave danger.

Feebly, Percy addressed the room at large, "There must be another way."

"Afraid not, Pedro," Dionysus drawled out.

Ariadne smacked his chest, "Behave!"

The armrest groaned under Ares' deathly grip, his emotions conflicted.

Wide-eyed, Dean whirled around to gape at Sam. "Whoa, whoa, now just hold on a second!"

"That's a suicide mission, Sam!" Liv exclaimed, though her expression was torn and her tone was weak. She sidled closer to Dean and interlaced their hands together, flashing him a look of concern.

Sam grimaced and nodded his head. "I know. But… Dean, Liv, that plane is leaving with over a hundred passengers on board, and if we're right, that plane is gonna crash."

Resigned, Dean lowered his gaze to the ground, "I know."

"If only they were selfish individuals and simply decided to save themselves," Poseidon groused out. He like Aphrodite, Apollo, Hermes, Persephone and Ariadne had taken a great liking toward the admirable family, especially Olivia, and he couldn't bear to watch them place themselves in the middle of a precarious situation, one that screamed of hopelessness and reeked of death.

The fact that three mortals were more aware of foul play in his domain, and were actually selfless enough to end the abomination and protect the skies left a sour taste in his mouth, for Zeus despised showing gratitude to inconsequential beings such as mortals.

Frothing at the mouth, Zeus growled to himself, "A decade I remain oblivious."

"They'll live through it," Rachel abruptly announced.

Leo let out an audible sigh of relief and pumped a fist in the air, "YES!"

Piper rolled her eyes. "It's not a prediction, Leo," she said, exasperated.

Blinking in befuddlement, the twitchy demigod said, "It's not."

"No," Apollo smiled tightly. "Rachel's just trying to instill hope."

"Haplessly optimistic," Dionysus murmured, capturing Ariadne's hand just before it could once again, impact with his chest and chastely pecked her fingers.

Rachel firmly shook her head, "I just… I'm confident in the Winchesters' abilities. Besides, I don't think their story ends here, right? I mean, it can't. I cannot believe the Fates brought us all here to learn about Olivia's life, just to watch them die in a plane crash."

Unseen to all, Ares' posture, that had been subtly tensed, slumped in relief, realizing the Oracle's words had merit. Of course, he didn't care whether or not the runt died, he'd just prefer to not see it with his own eyes. 'That's all!' he firmly assured himself.

Rachel's comforting words instilled confidence in everyone and they flashed her tight-lipped smiles.

"Okay," Sam said, taking charge of the situation. "So we're getting on the plane, we need to find that demon and exorcise it.

"Impossible!" Hades hissed for only Persephone and Hecate to hear. The trio traded uncertain glances, starting to have doubt in their stubborn denials, but unable to admit it until the truth smacked them right in the face.

Hecate softly patted his hand, "They do not exist. There is no proof."

Persephone nodded in agreement.

I'll get the tickets. You two get whatever you can out of the trunk. Whatever that will make it through security. Meet me back here in five minutes."

"How the Had-, uh Tartarus are they going to sneak their weapons past security?" Chris asked the million dollar question.

Grimly, Rachel shook her head, "I don't think they can."

"But they'll be sitting ducks!" a wide-eyed Percy exclaimed.

"Well," Annabeth hedged, staring warily at Hades, Persephone and Hecate. "If this thing is in fact a demon, then… like Sam said, all they need to do is exorcise it. I don't think weapons are a requirement."

It took a lot of effort on Hades' part to swallow back his roar of 'There's no such thing as demons!'

Dean anxiously stared back at Sam. Liv sighed sadly and rubbed his forearm, "You okay, Dean?"

Swallowing harshly, he shook his head, "No. Not really."

"Oh? What's wrong with the poor dear?" Ariadne inquired, much to Dionysus's irritation.

A small grin materialized on Jason's face, "Oh I think I can wager a guess."

Percy frowned at his friend before his eyes lit up in recognition when he side-eyed Thalia – Dean's expression was a carbon copy of Artemis' Lieutenant.

Sam stopped and stared at them, "What? What's wrong?"

"Well I kind of have this problem with, uh…" Dean trailed off, prompting Liv to disclose, "Dean's terrified of flying."

Thalia chuckled bitterly, "Dean's officially my favorite Winchester."

Zeus huffed, slightly affronted. "I do not see what the hullabaloo is all about. Flying is not a terrifying experience," he grumbled.

"Please tell me you're joking?" Percy scoffed, staring at the King of Olympus in wide-eyed disbelief.

"I am not… as you put it 'joking', Perseus Jackson," he sneered.

Upon seeing Sam's look of disbelief, Dean defensively said, "It's never been an issue until now."

"You're joking, right?" Sam then looked over at Liv, "Tell me he's joking."

Liv puffed her cheeks, "Sam. Why do you think we drive everywhere?"

"What about you?" Sam asked.

"I mean, I'm not a fan of traveling by plane, but no… I'm not scared of flying," Liv responded, throwing Dean an apologetic glance.

"Two out of three," Connor commented.

Sam nodded. "How about you sit this one out, Dean? Liv and I'll –"

"What are you nuts?" Dean exclaimed, staring at Sam as though he were crazy. "You said it yourself, the plane's gonna crash. Liv's right, it is suicidal."

"Dean, we can do it together, or Liv and I can do this one without you. I'm not seeing a third option, here," Sam sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Dionysus scoffed, "Of course there is. They can choose to be selfish and let the plane crash."

"Wow, what a benevolent god," Percy snarked.

The wine god narrowed his eyes at the sea spawn, "Of course I am. Otherwise I'd have turned you into a dolphin for your disrespect."

Poseidon growled warningly.

Annabeth, Grover and Nico snorted, their expressions mirroring Percy's amusement.

"Not like I haven't heard that one before. You really need to be more creative with your threats, Mr. D," Percy smirked.

The room was pervaded with Poseidon's growl. "You threatened to turn my son into a dolphin?!"

Percy causally added, "An Atlantic bottlenose to be exact."

"Dionysus!" Poseidon hissed, glowering at the wine god who deftly concealed his nerves behind a nonchalant façade.

But Percy simply waved a hand, "Eh, among others. Seriously, they've gotten so repetitive I barely flinch anymore."

"Yeah," Thalia snarkily chipped in, her lips twitching. "After being threatened by so many gods, Percy's immune."

Groaning, Poseidon inhaled and exhaled roughly from his nose, staring at his son's amused expression in disbelief. "We'll discuss this later," he vowed, trying to keep his cool and failing, drastically.

"Oh, Dionysus," Ariadne sighed softly, patting her husband's hand.

Dean groaned, "Come on! Really? Man…"

The scene shifted, portraying the interior of a plane.

Hazel squeaked in fright, gold eyes warily taking in the inside of the airplane.

"Moment of truth," Katie tightened her grip on Travis' forearm, prompting a wince and a low hiss out of the son of Hermes.

"Flight attendants, please cross-check doors before departure," a woman on the intercom announced.

The camera then focused on the Winchesters. Sam sat on the window seat, Liv in the middle, and Dean, who sat in the aisle seat, was fidgeting, nervously reading the safety card.

Ares retrieved his shades from the inside of his leather jacket and slid them on, concealing his orbs as they nervously flickered between the three Winchesters.

Aphrodite stared at him knowingly, but didn't bring any attention to him. She knew her lover hated to openly show emotions when it came to anyone but her.

Sam leaned over Liv, who never released her hold on the eldest Winchester's hand, to address Dean, "Just try to relax."

Not missing a beat, Dean retorted, "Just try to shut up."

Cue a few chuckles of amusement.

The plane took off, with Dean jumping at every rumble and the smallest of sounds. Sam smirked and even Liv clapped a hand over her mouth to cover her smile, eyes shining with slight humor.

The screen turned black.

"Poor guy," Thalia grimaced. "I don't think I'd ever be brave enough to conquer my fears like Dean is, even if it is to save a hundred lives."

Percy leaned over Grover and Nico and clasped Thalia's hand. "I know what you're thinking, Thals. Don't even go there. Everyone has their limits. You and Dean are two completely different people. You're a hero in your own way, and honestly, I think you're brave just for admitting your fears. Besides," Percy let go of her hand, patted it twice and smiled. "I think you'd be surprised with the lengths you'd go through to save someone. I think if you were in Dean's position, you'd get on that plane. You just won't know until you're in the situation."

Zeus arched an eyebrow at the son of Poseidon, genuinely surprised and rendered speechless at his intense words and the palpable tenderness in his voice. Hestia grinned brightly, glad that at least her brothers' children got along swimmingly – she just hoped their close bond would inspire her bickering brothers to cease their constant nonsensical arguments once and for all.

"Thanks, Percy. Glad you have more confidence in me than I do in myself," Thalia smiled weakly, though she felt more at ease.

Jason playfully nudged her with his shoulder, "It's not just Percy, Thalia."

Grover, Rachel and the other demigods all nodded in unison, flustering Thalia in the process.

Dean was leaning back in his seat, eyes squeezed shut, humming to himself. Sam looked over at him, "You're humming Metallica?"

"Calms me down," was the prompt reply.

Annabeth leaned into Percy and whispered into his ear, "Hearing your voice calms me down."

Percy's eyes brightened and it took everything in him not to grab her and kiss her right there and then in front of everyone.

"Yo, lovebirds, shut up!" Thalia smirked over at them.

The couple blushed and ignored the many stares fixated upon them, one of which belonged to Athena, her eyes searing holes into the back of Percy's head.

Sam sighed apologetically, "Look, man, I get you're nervous, all right? But you got to stay focused."

"Sammy, just shut up will ya? We're all afraid of something, give it a rest and leave Dean be," Liv snapped, annoyed.

Percy, Thalia, Nico and the Stolls couldn't help but clap their hands, applauding Liv for standing up for Dean.

Amphitrite frowned, "Sam could at least show some compassion. The fact that Dean went on a plane, despite his phobia, is a remarkable feat."

"I wonder what Sam's afraid of," Apollo mused out loud.

Dean flashed Liv a small smile while Sam gave her a bitch face and defensively said, "Look, all I'm saying is we're wasting time. We got thirty-two minutes and counting to track this thing down, or whoever it's possessing, anyway, and perform a full-on exorcism."

"Hold on a tick," Hermes abruptly spoke up, prompting an annoyed scowl out of Hera for the constant interruptions. "The past two times, we saw who the black smoke possessed. This time we don't. It could be anyone."

Triton looked contemplative, "It's a feasible possibility the flight attendant's possessed. It possessed the last survivor."

"Possibly," Poseidon inclined his head.

"Well, whoever it possessed, we won't know if we keep nattering amongst ourselves, now, would we?" Hera snapped.

Cue many eye rolls and annoyed expressions.

Hestia simply sighed sadly.

"Yeah, on a crowded plane. That's gonna be easy," Dean scoffed.

Sam offered words of comfort, "Just take it one step at a time, all right? Now, who is it possessing?"

"It's usually gonna be somebody with some sort of weakness, you know, a chink in the armor that the demon can worm through," Dean postulated. "Somebody with an addiction or some sort of emotional distress."

'Not a demon!' Hades angrily thought, fingers cracking as he clenched his hands.

"Like Amanda," Liv commented. "I think she's our best bet. I mean, it's possible that the demon chose to possess the survivors to kill them off easily."

Sam hummed, "Maybe. It's possible."

Dean then turned to the nearest flight attendant, inquiring her name. Realizing she wasn't Amanda, the Winchesters focused on the flight attendant positioned at the back of the plane. "All right, well, that's got to be Amanda back there, so I'll go talk to her, and, uh, I'll get a read on her mental state."

Liv smirked, "You guys can bond over your fear of the plane crashing."

"Didn't she just reprimand Sam for teasing Dean on his phobia?" Thalia frowned in disapproval.

Clarisse snorted and went to her half-sister's defense, "She's just trying to lighten up the mood."

"It was an ill-timed joke," Percy huffed, crossing his arms over his chest.

Persephone clucked her tongue, "In my opinion, it's a distasteful attempt at humor. She should know better, seeing as the likelihood of the plane crashing is terribly high."

"Can we not discuss that?!" Aphrodite snapped, terrified for not only the Winchesters, but not wanting her lover to hear about the probability of his daughter dying.

Dean threw her a half-hearted glare for her efforts.

"What if she's already possessed?" Sam asked, forehead crinkling with worry lines.

"Knock her unconscious," Nico hazarded a guess.

"Ah, but what's to say that if the possessed body is rendered unconscious, the entity would be as well?" Hecate countered Nico's suggestion. "The entity would be forewarned and would simply possess another mortal, hiding in plain sight."

"There's ways to test that," Dean stated. He rooted through his duffle bag and pulled out a Virgin Mary-shaped bottle of water. "I brought holy water."

Many pairs of eyes flickered over and settled onto Hades, who sat frozen on his throne with an expression of disbelief etched onto his face.

"How does one make holy water?" Rachel chirped, attempting to assuage the tension in the room.

"It cannot be," Hades gasped, cutting anyone off from providing the Oracle with a response. "Holy water is meant to repel evil. It could simply be a malevolent spirit or…"

Poseidon stared at his older brother, his visage sad and grim. "Brother, I think you have bathed in the sea of denial for far too long. I believe it is time for you to accept that demons ostensibly exist."

Nico rapidly shook his head, "But-"

"We went through the same process upon discovering ghosts had the ability to roam around without the need of a summoner," Persephone sadly revealed, in silent agreement with her uncle, despite how far-fetched the theory proved to be.

Artemis grimly nodded, commiserating with her uncle, "How do you think I felt when the existence of wendigos came to light? Like a failure. I am the Goddess of the Hunt and the Wild. I dedicated my entire life to cleansing the world of monsters and protecting life, and yet, a monster I never believed existed outside of folklore, rampaged the nights and shed blood."

"Mull it over for now, brother. I'm sure an explanation will soon be provided," Hestia calmly uttered.

"No," Sam sharply negated, reaching over Liv to snatch the bottle from Dean, and tucking it inside his hoodie. "I think we can go more subtle. If she's possessed, she'll flinch at the name of God."

Percy arched his brows, "Is he for real?"

Liv pursed her lips, arching her body to better face Sam. "That doesn't always work, Sammy. I'm with Dean. All we have to do is accidentally trip, spill some holy water on the bitch, it sizzles and we exorcise its ass. Nice and quick."

"What about witnesses?" Sam asked, condescendingly.

Dionysus yawned, "What about the witnesses?"

Hecate rolled her eyes, "Obviously my Mist won't distort the mortals' sight. This…dem- abomination is not of Roman or Grecian origin."

"And?" Dionysus probed, not seeing the point.

Through gritted teeth, Hades hissed, "And you blithering drunk, pandemonium will occur with the exposure! You know that!"

The wine god produced a long-suffering sigh, "Personally, I do not see what the problem is. Simply kill them all. Win, win."

"For who?" Thalia sneered.

"Dionysus!" Ariadne hissed, shaking her head in disapproval. She then addressed the room at large, her words mostly aimed at the demigods as the gods were used to her husband's… oddities. "He's joking."

Dionysus frowned in affront, "No I'm no-"

"Yes, you ARE. Now hush!" she sharply rebuked him.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down you two," Dean silenced them. "Look, I say we do it Sam's way and keep the holy water aside in case we need to restrain the demon. Good?"

Sam and Liv glared at each other for a moment before nodding in sync.

Hermes leaned forward and whispered to Apollo, "Those two remind me of Dad and Uncle P when they start arguing."

Just as Apollo made an attempt to stifle his laughter, Zeus and Poseidon glowered at them, "We can hear you!"

Staring intently at his brother and cousin one last time, he nodded and turned to leave, only to be abruptly stopped by Sam. "What?"

"Say it in Latin," Sam reminded him.

Dean rolled his eyes, "I know." Just as he went to leave again, Sam stopped him for the second time, "Hey!"

"What?!" he groused out, annoyed.

Thinking quick, Sam said, "Uh, in Latin, it's 'Christo'."

"No it's not!" every single demigod and god intoned in amused exasperation.

Jason, Hazel and Frank tried to smother their laughter at Sam's error.

"The Latin word for God is Deus, not Christo," Apollo chuckled, shaking his head in amusement.

Rachel shrugged. "In Sam's defense, Latin isn't his first language. And it's not exactly an easy language to learn for those that aren't hardwired to Latin," she added the last part to Hazel, Frank and Jason.

"Yes, but apparently that's a mistake that can get not only them, but a hundred mortals, killed," Ares grunted.

Dean rolled his eyes, "Dude, I know! I'm not an idiot."

The Stolls snickered, "No comment."

"Apparently, both of you are idiots," Liv drawled, rolling her eyes at her cousins. "Christo is Greek for 'The Anointed One'," she remarked in a 'duh' tone.

"If she didn't know that, I'd have been really disappointed," Aphrodite commented with a fond smile.

Athena acerbically muttered, "I wouldn't be surprised."

"Athena!" Zeus snapped, electric blue eyes blazing with a warning.

Ares sneered at her but kept his mouth firmly shut, not seeing the need to defend the runt.

While Dean stared at Liv sheepishly, Sam arched an eyebrow, "And you'd know that because…"

"Because, Sammy. While you were away, Uncle John, Dean and I realized that for some ungodly reason, I'm actually fluent in both Ancient and Modern Greek," Liv disclosed, trying and failing to sound casual.

Sam frowned, staring at Dean for the truth, and when he nodded, his perplexed gaze slid back to Liv. "But, wh-how?" he spluttered.

"That's not important right now. What is important is getting the translation right," Liv snapped, her posture screaming disturbed and uncomfortable. "I think it's Deus."

"Oh thank Lord," Rachel sighed, all tension abandoning her body.

Percy frowned, "How did she know that? Latin's hard to comprehend when it comes to most Greek demigods."

Artemis cleared her throat, "If I were to hazard a guess. I'd say that with their profession, they are knowledgeable in an extensive amount of subjects. How did they know about Noah's ark? Researching is a crucial aspect in the hunting life."

Sam slapped his forehead, "Right. Deus. How'd I forget?" As Dean turned to leave for the third and last time, shuddering and bumping into a nearby seat after the plane shook, Sam leveled Liv with a solemn gaze, "Don't think I'm about to let this go."

"Whatever, Sam," Liv huffed, deliberately looking away from his intense stare.

Dean paused in front of Amanda, who was fussing with the drink cart and the napkins. She looked over at Dean and smiled politely once he greeted her. "Hi. Can I help you with something?" she inquired.

"Oh, no. I'm just a bit of an uneasy flier. It makes me feel better to walk around a little bit," Dean said, nervously studying his surroundings.

"See. Liv had a point. He's using his fear of flying as bonding material," Clarisse smirked.

Thalia simply glared, unamused.

"Oh, it happens to the best of us," Amanda smiled. Dean nodded, "Of course, you being a stewardess, I guess flying comes easy to you."

Amanda laughed, "You'd be surprised."

"Then quit," Nico rolled his eyes.

Jason snorted, "Ugh, just say Deus and move on. He's wasting time."

"Really? You're a nervous flier?"

"It's a recent phobia," Travis mockingly drawled.

Amanda bobbed her head, "Yeah, maybe, little bit."

Dean faked confusion, "How is it that, being a stewardess, you're scared to fly?"

"Oh, you know, being one of the seven survivors out of a hundred," Connor snorted without real humor.

"Kind of a long story," Amanda circumvented.

"Right. I'm sorry for asking," Dean apologized. Then, as an afterthought, he asked, "You ever consider other employment."

Katie scoffed, "A sane person would."

"I think we've established that Amanda apparently likes to live on the edge," Travis teased, swooping down to place a quick kiss on Katie's lips.

Demeter couldn't help but coo about how adorable they were, much to Athena and Artemis' irritation and Hera's envy.

"No," she shook her head. "Look, everybody's scared of something. I just, uh… I'm not gonna let it hold me back."

Poseidon inclined his head, "Very admirable."

"I still think she's insane," Thalia muttered under her breath.

A brow rose on Dean's face, "Huh." He stared at Amanda for a brief moment before he casually and quietly stated, "Deus."

Nothing happened.

"So… she's not the demon?" Annabeth rhetorically muttered.

"I'm sorry. Did you say something?" she asked, head cocked in confusion.

Weakly chuckling, Dean repeated, "Deus?"

"That's actually not good," Apollo pulled a face. "Amanda was the Winchesters best bet. They can't exactly stop by each and every passenger and say 'Deus' all before the forty minutes run out."

Thalia shook her head, "Aren't you just a bright ray of sunshine."

"I am," Apollo winked.

The Stolls, Chris, Leo, Percy, Rachel, Piper and Nico chuckled.

"It was a figure of speech, Apollo," Thalia deadpanned.

Apollo shrugged, a sexy smirk on his lips, "I know that. But I'm serious. Realistically, I am the sun."

"Ugh, you're incorrigible!" Thalia groused out, no real heat behind her words.

He simply retorted with a wink, "I'll take that as a compliment, sissy."

Artemis shot Thalia a commiserating look, "Welcome to the club. I promise you, he's not even at his worst."

"We know," Thalia, Percy, Nico and Grover intoned, prompting a cheeky grin out of the sun god.

Amanda stuttered in confusion, prompting Dean to quickly return to his seat. Sitting down in his aisle seat next to Liv, he said, "All right, well, she's got to be the most well-adjusted person on the planet."

Sam leaned forward, "You said 'Deus'?"

"Yeah."

"And?" Liv urged. Dean dragged a hand down his face, "There's no demon in her. There's no demon getting in her."

"Or, the entity is in fact possessing her, but as it isn't a demon because there are no such thing as demons, nothing happened," Hades added his input, looking more relaxed ever since the Winchesters first mentioned demonic possessions.

Persephone patted his hand. "Possibly," she appeased her husband, shooting everyone a warning glare. Until the proof is glaring right at them, she'd allow her husband to keep a semblance of normalcy in his mind, not wanting his entire belief system to shatter into pieces unless he was left with no other choice.

"So, if it's on the plane, it can be anyone. Anywhere," Sam said.

Liv groaned, propping her chin on her hand, "That's comforting."

The plane shook, eliciting a yelp from Dean. He gripped the armrest and Liv's thigh with each hand, staring around anxiously, "Come on! That can't be normal!"

"It can't, can it?" Thalia squeaked, the mere thought of flying made her want to hurl.

Jason patted her back comfortingly.

Zeus stared at his daughter in worriment.

Sam suddenly looked guilty. Liv unwound his hand from her jeans-cladded thigh and replaced it with her hand. "Hey, hey, it's just turbulence, Dean," she softly crooned.

"This plane is going to crash, okay? So quit treating me like I'm friggin' four," he hissed, though he tightened his grip on Liv's hand. Sam and Liv traded a look.

"You need to calm down," Sam calmly stated.

"Calming down won't stop the plane from crashing!" Thalia shrieked, nearing hyperventilation.

Apollo leapt out of his throne and approached Thalia. "You want me to send you into a dreamless sleep?" he inquired.

"No, no, I'm- I'm good. I wanna know what happens," she stuttered.

When everyone continued to stare at her, unconvinced, she exclaimed, "I'm fine. Really."

Apollo nodded and stood up from his kneeling position, turning back to his throne. "All right. But if you change your mind, all you have to do is ask."

Thalia nodded, shooting him a grateful smile.

Dean frantically shook his head, "Well, I'm sorry I can't."

"Yes, you can," Sam assured him.

"Dude, stow the touchy-feely, self-help yoga crap; it's not helping," Dean snapped, leaning his head back on the headrest and pinching the bridge of his nose.

With a loud sigh, Liv turned to face Dean, "Fine. I'll then give you the tough love crap. If you're panicked, you're vulnerable to demonic possession, so you need to calm your ass down. Right now."

"Wow," Hermes blinked, genuine surprise written all over his face. "She sounded freakishly like Ares. That's something you'd say."

Ares growled, "I'm warning you-"

Hermes fervently shook his head, his expression solemn, "I'm not kidding right now, nor am I trying to goad you into a fight. She seriously sounded like you."

Lifting a skeptical brow, the war god grunted and looked away, his posture screaming defiance. "Frankly, I don't see it," he sneered, turning back to the screen.

Face pinched and eyes wide with alarm, Dean took long, slow breaths.

"Good," Sam smiled. "Now, while you were checking on Amanda, Liv and I found an exorcism in here that we think is gonna work. The Rituale Romanum," he said, pointing at the journal.

Apollo tilted his head, "Roman Ritual."

"Isn't that like, one of the official works of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church?" Rachel asked in confusion.

Athena hummed in affirmative.

The demigods traded baffled looks; as each of them had a parent who was an actual god, if any of them were religious during their childhood, before they made it to Camp Half-Blood or Camp Jupiter, they stopped believing and furthermore, stopped attending church.

"What do we have to do?" Dean asked.

"It's two parts," Liv whispered, eyes alert. "The first part expels the demon from the victim's body. It makes it manifest, which actually makes it more powerful."

"And that's a good thing?" Percy exclaimed in disbelief.

Dean did a double take, "More powerful? How?"

"Well, it doesn't need to possess someone anymore. It can just wreak havoc on its own," Sam explained, taking over from Liv.

"Oh. And why is that a good thing?" Dean asked.

"That's what I said," Percy huffed, his expression of disbelief becoming even more pronounced.

Annabeth lightly slapped him, "Kelp-Head, how about you let them explain and hush."

A devilish smirk materialized on Liv's face, "Well, because the second part sends the bastard straight back to hell once and for all and then its Hasta la Vista motherfucker."

"Back to hell?" Nico deadpanned, staring at the screen unblinkingly.

Percy frowned and scratched the side of his neck as he recalled a previous discussion he once had with Annabeth during his very first quest when they were passing through the Underworld – a conversation regarding a certain sinful preacher. "Don't they mean Punishment?" he hesitantly inquired.

A paler than usual Hades shook his head. "Humans see what they want to see. For example, a Good Samaritan would be granted Elysium. However, they would imagine their own conception of heaven. If it's white clouds and rainbows and pearly gates or if it's surrounded by their deceased loved ones, then that is what they would see. Same goes for punishment. It all depends on the saint or the sinner's personification of heaven and hell."

"So hell doesn't exist?" Rachel cocked her head, eyes bright with curiosity.

"Yes and no. In a way, hell does exist – in the minds of mortals. But, in reality, hell doesn't exist," Hades patiently explained, glad for the distraction. "It's either Punishment or Elysium, or the more neutral ground, which is Asphodel."

Taking over the inquisition, Frank asked, "And nobody enters or exits the Underworld without tipping you off?"

The Lord of the Underworld stared intently at the son of Mars, wondering what exactly was going through his mind. "Yes? What of it?"

"It's just…" Frank cleared his throat and took courage from Hazel's warmth. "Demons reside in hell. And according to what we've seen and what the Winchesters say, demons do exist. But according to you hell exists only in the imaginations of the mortal souls sent to the Fields of Punishment-"

"Young demigod, skip to the point," Hecate softly interjected.

Realizing what Frank was getting at, Jason took over, "Is it possible that demons reside in the Fields of Punishment and you're not aware of it."

There was a heavy silence in the Throne Room as all eyes were fixated on Hades. He didn't look angry at the demigods for questioning him or even underestimating him, but pensive and… terrified? Only Persephone and Hecate understood that Hades was terrified of the unknown.

"It's impossible," Hades finally breathed out. "For many millennia I have ruled the Underworld. And before me, my wretched father had. There are no demons in the Underworld, or in Punishment." He quickly lifted a hand, halting any further inquiries. "I am no longer dwelling in a state of bliss denial. From what we have seen and heard, there are apparently much that we gods have been unaware of, but one thing I am wholly certain of, is the residents of my home. The Underworld is my jurisdiction, under my rule. If demons dwelled in my domain, I would have known. No… If there are in fact demons out there in the vast universe, then make no mistake, their dwelling is not the Underworld."

Zeus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, "Perhaps Tartarus?"

"It's possible," Hera softly added. "That hellish component holds many secrets that even we may not have heard of."

But much to the gods' palpable shock and surmounting horror, Percy, Annabeth and Nico firmly and confidently intoned, "No."

"I beg your pardon?" Athena arched an eyebrow.

"There aren't any demons down there," Percy said, his voice cracking.

A look of horror dawned on Poseidon, "How would you know?"

"Instinct," Nico croaked.

Ares scoffed, and while the sound was harsh, his face was anything but. It was unusually soft and difficult to read. "You're lying. And not a good liar either," he gruffly remarked.

"Tell me you didn't," Hades stated in a low hush, onyx orbs dimming. "Tell me you three haven't encroached that place. Nico?!" he boomed, his tone desperate.

Percy raised both hands as a sign of peace, "Look, we're getting off-track here-"

"Perseus!" Poseidon beseeched while Athena simultaneously cried out her daughter's name.

Exhaling roughly from his nose, Percy met his father's devastated gaze, "A lot of things happen in the future."

"That's not an answer," Hades hissed.

"Percy," Poseidon softly pleaded.

The silence was suffocating as the gods waited with bated breaths for an answer, the demigods averting their stares.

"Yes. Nico, Annabeth and I, we, at a point in our lives, we were dragged into Tartarus," Percy finally confessed.

Pandemonium struck as the three godly parents began to rant and rave as the other gods voiced out their disbelief, shock and horror.

"How are you still alive?" Hecate whispered in morbid awe.

"Alive? How did the three of you manage to hold on to your sanity?!" Hades snarled, furious at what the future held for his son.

"Look, the important thing is that we got out, okay?" Annabeth yelled over the gods' uproar. "I promise you, we promise, we'll tell you everything, but not now. Later… Please."

In a bout of randomness, Rachel attempted once again to assuage the suffocating tension. "So… if there is a hell, does that mean there's a heaven?"

"No," Zeus gritted out while Hades snarled, "There is no hell."

Katie scoffed, "That's what you said about demons."

Percy, Annabeth and Nico sent their friends grateful smiles, realizing their attempt to evade the topic of Tartarus. They knew – oh, they knew – that sooner or later, the subject would have to be brought up so that they could, according to the Fates, change the future, but that didn't mean they enjoyed discussing their stint in the nightmare of all nightmares. Simply hearing the name brought shivers down their spines. During slumber they couldn't escape the nightmares, and for that reason, during the day, they preferred to avoid the topic and pretend Tartarus never happened.

"How about we return to the episode and discuss such matters later, hmm?" Hestia announced, putting an end to all disputes, though her eyes would constantly examine the three demigods that her heart went out to, pitying the poor souls.

"First things first, we got to find it," Dean pointed out.

The scene suddenly shifted: Dean and Liv had split up, each taking an aisle, with their EMF meters out. Some passengers stared at them oddly but said nothing.

"That would be a strange sight," Percy chuckled nervously, trying to avoid his Dad's glances. He kept looking at him as though he were in mourning – heck, even Amphitrite and Triton were staring at him as though he were about to vanish at any moment and they didn't even like him.

Receiving no results, Liv joined Sam and Dean. "Nothing," she grumbled.

"Same," Dean grimaced. "How much time we got?" he asked Sam.

"Fifteen minutes. Maybe we missed somebody."

Apollo winced, "They're cutting it close."

Silver eyes widened. "They didn't check the cockpit!" Artemis suddenly realized.

"Maybe the thing's not on the plane," Dean shrugged.

Sam threw Dean a skeptical look, "You believe that?"

"Since when have we ever been lucky, boys?" Liv bitterly remarked.

Aphrodite blinked back tears, Olivia's matter-of-fact yet horrendously depressing statement affecting her more than it should have.

The words barely left her mouth when the two EMF meters spiked. Three heads looked up to see the copilot leaving the bathroom and head towards the cockpit.

"Deus," a wide-eyed Liv abruptly whispered.

The copilot, in slow motion, turned to face them, his eyes completely black. As the Winchesters stared back at him in various states of horror, the copilot went into the cockpit and the screen turned black.

A brief pause filled the room.

"I don't know about you guys," Connor chuckled uneasily, eyes wide. "But I was really hoping they were joking about the whole Deus, demon thing."

Travis gulped, absently bobbing his head. "I know. I half-expected nothing to happen."

"So… I guess this cements it, huh. Demons do exist," Hermes bravely announced, his unease mirroring his sons.

Hades lifted both his clenched fists to his forehead, eyes tightly shut as he processed the earth-shattering discovery, feeling as though his entire universe was flipping upside down.

"If demons exist, then where the hell are they?" Triton surprised them all with his abrasive comment.

"We've been around for countless of millennia," Zeus groused out through gritted teeth. "Where were they? How did we remain utterly oblivious to their existence?"

Hades however, was concerned over one particularly troubling fact. "What alarms me most, is not of their sudden existence, but of where they dwell. The Winchesters speak of hell, yet the only hell I am aware of is Punishment, and that…that is most unsettling."

After a beat of silence, Rachel cleared her throat and hesitantly divulged, "Well… uh, it is a widely known fact that Hell is a realm underneath the Earth."

The Lord of the Dead politely inclined his head. "Yes, and that is exactly what alarms me, Ms. Dare. For you see, my domain is situated underneath the Earth. And underneath the Underworld is Tartarus. Lastly, underneath that infernal pit is the Void of Chaos. If there is a Hell, then… by all means, where is it?"

There was absolutely no comment.

Poseidon and Athena however, were more concerned with their respective child, both of whom perceptively shivered at the mention of the Void.

"Again, a concept to discuss at a later date…Hopefully, our questions will be answered in due time," Hestia calmly declared.

"She's going to think we're crazy," Liv hissed as the scene opened, showing the Winchesters making their way to the back of the plane where Amanda stood.

Dean huffed, "There's twelve minutes left, Liv. We're desperate."

"Twelve minutes!" Aphrodite shrieked, gripping Ares' wrist.

With a barely audible sigh, Ares extricated his hand from her firm grip and wound an arm around her waist, allowing her to burrow herself into his hard chest for much needed comfort.

"Oh, hi. Flight's not too bumpy for you, I hope," Amanda kindly addressed them.

Liv pushed him forward, her expression displeased. Smiling nervously, Dean said, "Actually, that's kind of what we need to talk to you about."

Sam abruptly closed the curtain.

"Yeah, and that doesn't look intimidating," Thalia scoffed. "The woman probably thinks they're axe-murderers or something."

Annabeth snorted, shaking her head at Thalia. "You're crazy, Thals."

"And you're just realizing that?" Percy teased.

"Um, okay. What can I do for you?" Amanda asked, unsurely.

"All right, this is gonna sound nuts, but we just don't have time for the whole "the truth is out there" speech right now," Dean rambled nervously.

Sam offered her a tight-lipped smile, "All right, look, we know you were on flight 2485."

In the blink of an eye, Amanda's smile disappeared and her posture turned tense. "Who are you guys?" she asked, eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Sam closes the curtain and she doesn't even blink, but when they mention that she gets suspicious? Come. On!" Thalia snapped.

Clarisse glowered at her. "Who's side are you on?" she sneered.

"I just want this stinking case to end already!" she hysterically retorted.

Jason sighed. He released Piper from his embrace and turned to Thalia with his arms wide open. "Come here, Thals. Just relax," he cooed as she nestled herself in his warm embrace. "And I thought I was supposed to be the young one," he teased good-naturedly.

"Shut up," Thalia grumbled, her words coming out slightly muffled. "I'll forever be your big sister, now it's your turn to pay me back," she grinned.

Zeus smiled at his children, eyes fond.

"Why can't you be like them?" Apollo turned to Artemis, a cheeky grin on his face.

Artemis rolled her eyes, "Because you're a nuisance."

"Love you too, little sis."

"I'm older than you... And don't call me sis!"

"Not looking like that you're not," Apollo smirked, referring to her twelve-year-old form.

She hissed venomously in response.

"That's not important. But you wanna know what is? The fact that we're all gonna die in oh... eleven minutes!" Liv snapped.

"Olivia!" Dean and Sam hissed in warning.

"Not very professional, is she?" Chris mumbled.

Connor cocked his head, "It's like… when she's out of uniform she cranky and unpredictable, but when she's imitating an official, she's all about being professional."

Katie and Rachel gaped at the immature Stoll brother.

"That's… that's actually really true. Wow, you hit it right on the nail, Con," Rachel breathed out, eyes wide with awe.

"What's with the tone of surprise?" Connor frowned, unsure whether he should be insulted or not. "I can be smart. I am smart actually. I just choose to hide it behind my dashing good looks and ineffable charm."

Travis smirked, patting his little brother on the head as Rachel and Katie rolled their eyes and looked away, fond smiles tugging on their lips.

"Yup, he's definitely your boy, Hermes," Apollo chuckled.

"Excuse me?" Amanda shrieked.

"Look, we've spoken to some of the other survivors. We know something brought down that plane and it wasn't a mechanical failure," Sam rushed out as Amanda warily glanced over their shoulders at the closed curtain.

Dean nodded, "We need your help because we need to stop it from happening again. Here. Now."

"I'm sorry. I- I'm very busy. I have to go back –" shaking her head, Amanda tried brushing past Dean and Liv, only to be stopped by them. Dean raised his hands, palms facing her as he tried to appear less threatening to her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a second. I'm not gonna hurt you, okay? But listen to me, uh… The pilot in 2485, Chuck Lambert. He's dead."

Surprised, she reeled back, "Wait. What, Chuck is dead?"

"How did she not know that? Does she live in a barn or something?" Nico scoffed. He was not in a good mood as, like his father, his entire world, for the third time, was flipped upside down.

Hazel leaned over to lightly smack Nico, "Attitude, Nico. Totally uncalled for."

"It's not like she can hear me," he grumbled, rubbing the back of his head.

"No, but Nico's got a point. How did she not know that? Wouldn't it have made the news?" Will inquired, confused.

Rachel hummed, "It probably didn't list off the fatalities, just mentioned that the plane crashed. The victims' loved ones and families were probably called individually and since Amanda's neither to Chuck, she never found out."

"Plus, it's her first day back," Piper pointed out.

"Not a nice welcome back, huh," Katie flippantly commented.

Liv nodded curtly, eyes warily taking Amanda in. "He died in a plane crash his first day back. That's two plane crashes in two months. Suspicious, no?"

Artemis blinked at the screen, "Does this mean two months have passed in this…episode?"

"Beats me," Apollo shrugged.

When Amanda remained speechless, Sam pushed on, "Look, there was something wrong with 2485. Now maybe you sensed it, maybe you didn't. But there's something wrong with this flight, too."

"They're wasting time trying to convince her," Clarisse snapped, concern for her half-sister at the forefront of her mind.

Aphrodite pursed her lips. "Yes, but Amanda did see something, remember? She noticed the eyes. If anyone were to aid the Winchesters in their plight, it would be her."

"Amanda, you have to believe us," Dean pleaded.

Wringing her wrists, Amanda let out a sharp intake of breath, "On… on 2485, there was this man. He…had these eyes."

At her confession, Liv's entire stance changed from indignation to relief. Sam let out a relieved sigh, "Yes. That's exactly what we're talking about."

"I still don't see how she can help. She's just a civilian," Clarisse adamantly uttered.

"I don't understand, what are you asking me to do?" she inquired as she regarded them with uncertainty.

Chris chuckled upon seeing the distasteful look grace his girlfriend's face.

"Okay. The copilot, we need you to bring him back here," Dean informed her. When Amanda attempted to argue, he interrupted her, "We don't have time to explain. We just need you to talk to him. Okay?"

Sensing Amanda's lack of confidence, Liv softly said, "Do whatever it takes. Tell him there's something broken back here, whatever gets him out of the cockpit, you do it."

"That's actually pretty smart," Ariadne smiled.

Dionysus rolled his eyes, losing interest at the lack of action. "Yes, well, the mortal is infuriatingly dim. She'll end up killing them all at this rate."

Ares sneered upon hearing the drunken lunatic's uncalled for remark, and he could feel fire boiling under his skin.

Amanda gaped at them in shock, "Do you know that I could lose my job if you –"

"Look, Lady. I promise you, you're about to lose a lot more if you don't get out there and do as we tell you!" Liv snapped, reaching her breaking point.

Nobody could argue that Olivia truly wasn't Ares' daughter. They were so alike, it was uncanny.

"Please, Amanda," Dean pleaded. Hesitating, she finally nodded and once she ducked behind the curtain, Dean stared at Liv, his brows raised, "We really have to do something about that temper of yours."

Liv rolled her eyes, "Zip it."

"That's what Ares always tells me when I mention his attractive personality," Hermes smirked.

Ares surprised everyone by not retaliating, orbs hidden behind his trademark shades never wavering from the screen.

Hermes pouted, "It's not fun when he ignores us."

"Children," an exasperated Zeus muttered under his breath.

The camera showed Amanda from afar as she approached the cockpit and knocked on the door, and as she spoke, her words were inaudible. A moment later, the copilot exited and followed Amanda down the aisle and towards the Winchesters. Concentrating on them, Sam pulled out the holy water from his hoodie and Dean pulled out John's Journal, handing it over to Sam, who wasted no time in opening it.

Rachel leaned forward, eyes unblinking and unwavering from the screen. "I've never seen a demon get exorcised before," she said, breathlessly.

"None of us have ever seen one been done before, Crazy Town," Clarisse rolled her eyes.

"As of half an hour ago, we didn't believe they even existed," Annabeth pointed out, sounding as exasperated as Clarisse.

Rachel batted the air with her hand, "Whatever."

The copilot stepped behind the curtain, "Yeah, what's the problem?"

Liv sprung. She bent her knees and stuck her right leg out into a straight line, using her left foot as momentum as she confidently spun around in a clockwise motion, hitting the back of the copilot's knees and tackling him to the ground. As he fell onto his back, Dean appeared and punched him in the face.

"That's… that's sexy alright," Jason whistled, unable to hold in the compliment.

Leo salivated at the scene, "Chica's got moves!"

"That is certainly impressive," Poseidon smiled, staring at Olivia in awe.

As Olivia was being rained with compliments, Aphrodite squeezed Ares' hand and whispered, ensuring her words remained only for his ears. "Admit it, my love. Somewhere, deep inside, right here," she jabbed her finger against the side of his chest where his heart was thrumming in a soothing beat. "You're proud. Aren't you?"

Keeping his tone level and exuding nothing but apathy, Ares critiqued, "I admit myself impressed, Aphrodite, but not to the extent you are hoping for. She could do better. Much better."

Sadly, the goddess of love looked away and choked back her tears, nodding weakly to her lover's words and concentrating her entire focus back onto the screen as the room slowly fell silent.

Dean then pinned him down and held his fist out for Liv. "Nice," he complimented with a proud grin. Liv winked, fist-bumping him before she proceeded to take out a roll of duct-tape, cutting a strip out and covering the copilot's mouth.

"At least Dean's capable of doling out the praise that Olivia deserves," Aphrodite hissed meanly, glaring daggers at her lover, who successfully suppressed his cringe.

"Such great teamwork," Percy grinned, eyeing Annabeth with a fond smile. "Reminds me of us."

Annabeth smirked.

During the altercation, Amanda made her way over, hands covering her mouth in shock. "Wait. What are you doing? You said you were just gonna talk to him."

"We are gonna talk to him," Dean assured her.

"We just chose to leave out the "after restraining him" part," Liv cheekily added, watching victoriously as Dean splashed holy water on him, prompting his skin to sizzle at the contact.

"So that's what happens," Hades mused to himself. Despite the world-changing discovery, he found himself starving for knowledge, sharply taking in every given detail on demons.

Leo grinned, "Sick!"

Dionysus cocked his head, "Sick as in malady or is it slang for teenagers these days?"

"Uh, like cool, ya know," Leo explained, his smile never wavering.

Hera massaged her temples. "Honestly!" she murmured.

Amanda gasped, "Oh, my God. What's wrong with him?"

"Look. We need you calm. We need you outside the curtain. Don't let anybody in, okay?" Sam said, cutting her off. "Can you do that? Can you do that? Amanda?"

Nodding frantically, she acquiesced, "Okay. Okay." and she left.

"Hurry up, Sam. I don't know how much longer I can hold him," Dean grunted, trying to pin him down. Liv grinned and punched the copilot on the jaw, "Why didn't you say so?"

Cue bouts of laughter.

Even Hephaestus was distracted from his tinkering, staring avidly at the screen as Sam started speaking Latin.

"Regna terrae, cantate Deo, psallite Domino-"

But the demon broke free and punched Dean and Liv on the face before reaching over and hitting Sam on the jaw.

Ares swallowed back his furious growl.

"Son of a-" Liv growled, the punch barely fazing her. She jumped and tackled the demon and a second later, Dean joined her, both of them subduing him as Sam picked up where he left off. Just as they pinned him down, the demon knocked them both off of him and pulled the tape off his mouth. He leaped forward and grabbed Sam by the collar. "I know what happened to your girlfriend! She must have died screaming! Even now, she's burning!" he cackled, voice dark and menacing.

"What!" Aphrodite, Persephone, Ariadne, Amphitrite, Hazel and Rachel shirked, having expected the demon to say anything but that.

"Does that-… does that mean a demon killed Jessica?" Percy's question startled everyone into silence.

Swallowing harshly, Hecate slowly spoke, each word weighing heavily on her tongue as they rolled off, "Jessica's death is related to Mary's and Victoria's. If that's the case then… then it means a demon murdered them as well."

The tension in the air was palpably thick that it could be cut with a knife as everyone processed the grave and morbid reality.

"But…but what did the Winchesters do, why would a demon be hounding them. It doesn't make sense," Piper cried out, her entire form shaking at the physical tension in the air.

"Di immortales!" Ares hissed, dragging a hand down his face.

Forgetting her previous anger with her lover, Aphrodite carefully addressed him, "Ares?"

"Nothing. Nothing. Let's, let us continue. Now!" he boomed when they hesitated. All Ares could think about was the first time he physically instigated conversation with Victoria Winchester, an odd interaction during their first introduction that had always plagued his mind to this very day, a sentence that had her standing out like a sore thumb in comparison to his other mortal lovers, finally making perfect sense to him.

Sam froze, stunned.

Dean recovered, pinning the demon to the wall as Liv stood up and repetitively punched him in the face. "Sam!" Liv screamed.

Snapping out of his daze, he proceeded to read the exorcism but he barely managed to finish two lines when the demon struggled out of their grip, punching Liv again in the process and kicking the book out of Sam's reach and up the aisle.

"They should memorize the exorcism," Apollo groaned.

Connor rubbed his head, "Latin's not easy to memorize."

"Well, the same could be said about the Greek language," Jason retorted.

"I got him," Sam yelled. Suddenly, the black cloud of smoke exited the copilot's body and disappeared into the vent above. "Where'd it go?"

Catching his breath and helping Liv up, Dean said, "It's in the plane. Hurry up. We got to finish it."

"They're not gonna die, they're not gonna die, they're not gonna die, they're not gonna die," Rachel repeated the mantra under her breath, emerald orbs widening on the screen.

Taking pity on the Oracle, Connor reached a hand out and dragged her over to his side, keeping a firm arm around her shoulders for comfort.

"If that abomination dares to enter my domain, I'll smite it!" Zeus growled, frustrated at the havoc it created in his realm.

Suddenly, the camera started to alternate between the interior and exterior of the plane. The plane dipped and heaved violently. A cacophony of screams and cries pervaded the air as the passengers struggled to hold onto their seats and not topple off. Sam struggled to retrieve the book as Dean splayed himself against the exit door, screaming frantically.

Loud, choked breaths emanated from Thalia's lips; her eyes were wide and unblinking, her complexion reached a sickly pallor, and a sheen of sweat could be seen accumulating on her forehead. When Apollo made a move toward her, both Jason and Percy shook their heads, knowing that Thalia wanted to see the episode through.

"I honestly don't know whether I should be worried or laugh at Dean's hilarious reaction," Leo mumbled, receiving nods of agreement from the Stolls, Chris, Clarisse and Will.

Liv on the other hand, was conflicted, wide eyes flickering from Dean to Sam, silent tears streaming down her face.

If Aphrodite sensed Ares' arms tighten around her, she didn't mention a word.

Squaring her shoulders, she stumbled her way over to Sam, tripping and falling in the process as she got closer and with one last herculean effort, she kicked John's Journal over to Sam. Grabbing it, he rapidly flipped through the pages and completed the exorcism.

A bright electrical charge surrounded the entire plane before leveling out.

"Reminds me of the Master Bolt," Poseidon mused out loud.

Zeus' eyes narrowed, "Hmm. It does, doesn't it…?"

The lights flicked back on and there were many sighs of relief. In the background, the passengers could be heard inquiring if everyone's okay and Amanda let out a relieved breath. Liv helped Sam onto his feet before she rushed over and barreled into Dean's arms.

The screen turned black.

"That was one hell of a case!" Connor breathed out.

Her complexion returning to normal, Thalia moaned, "It was horrible!"

"Very illuminating though," Poseidon commented, his eyes fixated on Zeus and Hades in particular. "We all learned something crucial from this."

Behind dark-tinted shades, Ares' eyes shuttered in relief and his arms relaxed from around Aphrodite. The love goddess herself hid her smile in Ares' chest, pretending she couldn't hear her lover's alarming heartbeat return to its regular pace.

The passengers from the plane could be seen disembarking toward an area milling with paramedics and uniformed agents.

Rachel gawked at the agents, "FBI and… FAA, Holy Moly!"

The copilot could be seen seated in a wheelchair with a blanket wrapped around him as an FAA agent questioned him. "Sir, can you tell me what happened?"

He shook his head, looking shaken, "I don't know. I was walking through the airport, then it all goes blank. I don't even remember getting on the plane."

"Really?" Annabeth stared at the copilot with ill-veiled curiosity.

Athena shared her daughter's enthusiasm. "So this is another difference in comparison to eidolons. The body being possessed is oblivious to the demon's actions."

"Seems so," Hestia hummed.

"Unless it's optional," Apollo couldn't help but add as an idea struck him. "We won't know for sure without substantial proof, but it's possible the demon has a choice whether to allow its host to see and hear everything."

Artemis nodded in wholehearted agreement, "I agree, brother."

Hades thirst for knowledge skyrocketed.

Amanda was being questioned by an FBI Agent. "Anything else?" he asked.

"No, that's all," she succinctly responded. As the Agent walked off, she spotted the Winchesters standing across the way and, sending them a genuine smile, she mouthed "Thank you". They sent her a nod in response.

"They truly are heroes," Artemis smiled fondly.

Cheekily, Hermes leaned forward to better gauge her reaction, "Even Dean and Sam."

Rolling her eyes and pursing her lips, Artemis responded with a curt nod. "Olivia most of all. But… yes, especially Dean and Sam. Happy? Not all men are mongrels," she concluded.

"I feel loved, dear niece," Poseidon chuckled, a winsome smile directed at her.

"Your charm doesn't work on me, uncle," Artemis smirked, letting out a bubble of laughter that resembled chirping birds.

Poseidon winked at her, "That's because you're special."

"There you go again," she teased, leaning back on her throne.

Throwing an arm over Liv's shoulder, Dean addressed her and Sam, "Let's get out of here."

"God yes, I need some Red Bull," Liv groaned, licking her lips. However, she barely took two steps forward before she abruptly paused, expression solemn as she turned to face Sam. "You okay, Sam?"

Sam looked down at his feet, shifting from one feet to another, "It knew about Jessica."

"Sam, these things, they, they read minds. They lie. All right? That's all it was," Dean postulated as he tried instilling cheer in his brother.

"The lying part, I fully agree, but mind reading? Without proof, that's not easily believable," Percy stated.

Jason nodded, inclining his head towards Percy. "Evil lies. That's the oldest tale in the book. Mind reading? Not so much."

"Hopefully, the answers will reveal themselves," Hecate announced.

Shivering, Katie meekly said, "I'm kind of hoping they don't. I mean… I don't want them to have to face off with any more demons. And… the fact that monsters exist was scary enough, we're demigods, we're trained to fight them, but demons? That's an entirely different ballgame. One we're not prepared for."

"Which is why you will learn all that you can for future reference," Demeter kindly advised her daughter.

Ares grunted, "Our kids have never faced them off before. Why would they now?"

"That we know of," Athena disagreed. "Besides, your daughter just faced one!"

"She doesn't count," he sneered. "She lives in a different world. She's more a hunter than a demigod."

Aphrodite threw Athena a warning glare, prompting her to put an end to the argument.

When Sam nodded, Dean smiled, "Come on." and the three Winchesters walked out before the screen turned black.

"I don't know how they can be so… so casual and laidback after everything they just experienced!" Rachel exclaimed.

It was daytime, and the Winchesters were huddled around Jerry outside the airport.

"Nobody knows what you guys did, but I do. A lot of people could have been killed," Jerry extended a hand, shaking Dean, Sam and Liv's hands in turn. "Your dad's gonna be real proud."

"Dude has a point," Connor suddenly declared. "They knowingly walk into a near-death experience, searching for a needle in a haystack, airborne I might add, and under crunch time to save a hundred people and they will never receive recognition."

Travis then picked up where Connor left off, ticking things off from his fingers as he spoke, "No decent pay, no home to come back to, not knowing if they're gonna live to see the next day, imitating high-ranking officials and breaking many laws in the process, all to save lives, and…nothing. They get chased by the cops and threatened to get tossed into jail."

"Bottom line. Their lives kinda suck," Connor concluded with an unhappy sigh.

Artemis absently nodded as Hermes' boys spoke and once they concluded their ranter, she calmly said, "While I am in agreement with you boys over the unfairness of their situation, I assure you, the opportunity of saving innocent lives and succeeding at the end of the day is gratifying enough."

"But hey," Piper randomly started to grin. "At least we know that the Winchesters can escape police custody, right? So even if they get caught, it'll never stick and they'll break out in no time."

Percy rolled his eyes halfheartedly, and sarcastically said, "Comforting, Piper."

"We'll see you around, Jerry," Sam smiled. Liv gave him a friendly wink, "You get another case for us, don't be a stranger, eh?"

Chuckling, Jerry said, "Wouldn't dream of it."

As the Winchesters turned to leave, Dean hesitated, turning back to address Jerry, his face drawn in confusion, "You know, Jerry. I meant to ask you, how did you get my cellphone number, anyway? I've only had it for like six months."

"Your dad gave it to me," was the prompt response.

Demeter gasped, "You mean John is ignoring his children yet answering strangers?"

"I'm sure it's not as bad as it sounds, Demeter," Aphrodite defended, not wanting to believe the worst about the poor man.

Liv and Sam's jaw dropped slightly in shock. Dean pressed his lips into a firm line, "When did you talk to him?"

Jerry however, shook his head. "I mean, I didn't exactly talk to him, but I called his number. His voice message said to give you a call. Thanks again, guys," he beamed before turning around and heading towards the airport's entrance.

"See," Aphrodite said in relief.

Persephone shook her head in disagreement, "Still. You would think John would spare a few minutes of his time to pick up the phone and call them, offer them some comfort or at least let them know he's safe."

The demigods seemed unbothered as they were used to being ignored by a parent, or even parents, by now.

"Seems familiar," Chris mumbled to his fellow demigods.

Percy and Nico snorted in dry humor while Travis and Connor simply looked away.

Poseidon, Hades, Hermes and Apollo stared inquiringly at the group of demigods, trying to get a read on their emotions, and comprehend the turmoil in the recess of their minds – the ugly truth: if the gods simply checked in on their children from time to time, then the entire Titan War would never have happened, lives wouldn't have been lost, and many of their fellow deceased demigods would've been around, and perhaps… just perhaps, the Giant War could've either been prevented, or ended early.

The camera focused on a plane with a red maple leaf on its tail fly overhead before concentrating on the Winchesters as they were congregated in front of the Impala. "This doesn't make sense, man. I've called Dad's number like fifty times. It's been out of service," Sam huffed, expression mildly hostile.

Dean whipped out his phone and dialed a number. As the voice message began, he pressed on loudspeaker so that Sam and Liv could listen in. A gruff and hoarse voice permeated the air, "This is John Winchester. I can't be reached. If this is an emergency, call my son, Dean. 785-555-0179. If he cannot be reached, then call my niece, Olivia. 785-555-5287. They can help."

"I don't understand. How can Liv have a cellphone? Technology and demigods is a deadly mix," Percy emphasized, confusion the main emotion on his visage.

Hecate cocked her head, equally astonished, "The moment Olivia speaks into a phone, she would be signaling all nearby monsters to her location. It makes absolutely no sense."

Ares grunted. "I've already told you. She's a runt; doesn't have enough ichor coursing through her veins to make her a daughter of mine. Monsters aren't interested in weaklings," he spat out.

"This I swear, Ares, one day you shall be eating your words," Poseidon warned his wayward nephew.

Apollo smirked, "And when you do, I'll be the first to tell you 'I told you so'."

A condescending snort emanated from the war god's lips. "You'll be waiting for an eternity then, Sunshine" he sneered.

Fuming, Sam clambered into the car, violently slamming the door shut behind him. Dean and Liv shared eye-contact for a brief moment before, with sad expressions, they dejectedly got in and the Impala drove off.

The scene turned black.

"So John is ignoring their calls, then," Demeter harrumphed, her opinion in regards to the Winchester patriarch dropping considerably.

"One hell of an episode," Jason whistled. "Glad that's over."

Aphrodite turned to Ares, fully intending on forcing him to talk about his true feelings when the screen blasted on, portraying the introduction of the next episode. With a forlorn sigh, the love goddess swiveled around and focused her sad eyes on the screen.

Through his peripheral vision, Ares observed his lover's hesitance and with a barely audible exhale, he removed his shades, tucked it back into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and snaked an arm around Aphrodite's waist, sensing her form stiffen before relaxing completely against the warmth of his chest.

A/N: Whew… I am pooped! This Chapter took me an entire week to write, so I hope I did it justice considering this episode is the introduction of demons… Da Da Dum… LOL!

Firstly, I'd like to apologize for the delay (and those reading my other stories, I promise I haven't abandoned any of them and I am currently getting my mojo back, XD). But in all seriousness, I lost my muse (I know, again?!) and that coupled with the fact that it's summer, I got real lazy and kept postponing, but hey I'm back and my muse is fully charged – hence, me spending a week to get this chapter up!

I will admit, I am extremely nervous regarding the many reactions my faithful readers will have while reading this chapter. Two important factors were incorporated: One: The existence of Demons, which, in turn, would bring about an entire discussion in regards to there being a Hell out there, which according to Rick Riordan, it doesn't && Two: Not only do we have a (OMG they exist!?) Demon on the loose, but one running amuck in Zeus's domain: The Sky.

So, yeah, I hope I did this chapter justice and didn't butcher it all up. Fingers crossed! =D

A/N: Also, I mentioned Olivia is fluent in both Ancient and Modern Greek. I didn't make a mistake, I changed it. Greek demigods are hardwired to both. The reason is because, frankly, I couldn't find any Ancient Greek translation online, so… yeah. Bear with me.

o

Celebrity Faces… I got some for you and I'm gonna start with the big guns! ;)

So with Ares & Poseidon out of the way (reference to Chapter 3), I got three for you Zeus, Hades & Hera:

One: For Zeus, I was torn between Gary Barlow and Colin O'Donoghue.

Why? Watching X Factor, I sense that Gary took over Simon's personality, ya know? The strict and snappy façade, which similarly reminds me of Zeus' no nonsense, can't take a joke, attitude. However, in the end, Colin O'Donoghue bears more of a resemblance to the King of Olympus with the dark hair and the oh-so-sexy electric blue eyes. (Captain Hook, anybody? *wink*wink*)

In conclusion, Zeus's celebrity face is Colin O'Donoghue.

Two: Hades… I got two words for you: LUKE EVANS!

I got no explanation. This sexy specimen of the male race with those sharp cheekbones that are to die for and those dark eyes and hair…. Sigh….

Three: Hera Angelina Jolie.

No comment.

o

Two more subjects I want to talk about: Ares & Olivia.

First, I'd like to say that Olivia's journey has barely begun.

While writing this chapter, I tried to make Olivia stand out as Dean and Sam are already badass enough and I didn't want my OC to steal their thunder. I have her entire future mapped out already (at least till Season 10), one that stands out from Dean and Sam. However, I'd like to inform you from now, that sometimes, Olivia will be stealing Dean and Sam's thunder because she too is a hero and has to have a few Big Bad murders of her own, if you catch my drift…

What I'm trying to say is, although Olivia didn't have a major part in this chapter, she will in the future ones. She is a demigod and that fact will be a huge plot-twister as the story goes on. We're still at the beginning where the Winchesters aren't famous yet and the demons, angels and monsters don't quake at the mere mention of their names.

Ares, on the other hand: he's gonna keep denying any emotional ties he has with Olivia. It's a slow-moving story. And I want to make it realistic. I did add subtle hints that show how deep in denial he is and all that jazz, and there is a reason why he wants nothing to do with her which will come to light in due time.

If anyone noticed the part I added regarding Victoria in Ares's thoughts I will give you a spoiler for the future: There will be flashbacks portraying Ares & Victoria's relationship, how they met, etcetera.

Ship-name: Vares? Hmm… XD

o

Lastly:

There are some errors I'd like to point out:

No offense to Eric Kripke, but…what the hell?

When Supernatural was created and introduced on-screen, I'm pretty sure the whole Azazel "The Yellow-Eyed Demon" plot had been cemented. I mean, he killed Mary, pushed Sam into hunting by fashioning Jessica's death, and staged the entire future that ended with Lucifer getting freed from the Cage, right? So… demons must've already been a hot topic, since Azazel is a demon.

And yet… this episode completely butchered the concept of demons.

For starters: "Christo"? Like I mentioned above, it's not even Latin for God, and this plot-idea was never used again. The Winchesters don't identify demons by saying 'God'.

Another mistake: the eyes. It's not only the irises that turn black, but the entire eye! So, I fixed that in this chapter, if anybody noticed. And the final mistake: the Demon Smoke. It's not supposed to be described as a swarm of insects, but a fluid black cloud.

Anyways, I caught those mistakes and fixed them in my story. Sorry for my ranting, I just wanted to clear the air.

o

To all my Lovely, Lovely Reviewers, thank you for all your wonderful and inspiring comments!

To suntan140: I'm the type of person that doesn't like ruining the end of a story. But, I will give you a half-answer to your question – "Sam and Dean are vessels. Is Olivia going to be in the prophecy too?" All I can say regarding this topic (and I will not be expounding my answer) is that Olivia's life is fashioned around a different prophecy, one that is exclusively about her.

To maevel: Wow! Your review seriously blew me away, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside! THANK YOU! Okay, so lemme see: yes, Dionysus and Crowley are too alike, it's hilarious. Honestly I just cannot wait until Crowley enters the picture because I adore him. What else can I address… Ares & Aphrodite are like endgame. I honestly adore them and I am glad you're beginning to warm up to Ares. I honestly hated Rick's representation of Ares, he made him sound weak and stupid and heartless and just a mean, old bully. I mean, the goddess of love wouldn't waste her time with Ares if he truly was a jackass with no redeeming qualities, right? The story of Ares & Victoria is an endearing yet sad one: think Titanic or The Notebook… maybe A Walk to Remember, LOL. To answer your theories: No, you're wrong on all parts, haha. Way, way off-track. Ares doesn't know anything about Victoria's death as you can see in Chapter Two he was shocked upon finding out that she's been dead for sixteen years, poor guy. He hasn't had a chance to truly mourn yet as he hates showing weakness, and I cannot wait to write that! XD Hmm, you're also wrong about your Olivia/Demon Blood theory as the reason why Ares hates her. Dead wrong, =D. In fact, I'll give you a tiny spoiler: Azazel's part in Olivia's life will be unexpected and a mindboggling twister ;) that's all I am willing to say. …Thank you for the compliment BTW, I do try to make it all realistic. I didn't want to make this story a simple copy-paste with the viewers watching like freaking statues, I tried to create a personality for each of them (even if I end up making them OOC) and as the story progresses, they'll all have a part to play. I think I accidentally pushed Grover to the background in this chapter though, so I'll be fixing that in the next one. LOL.

To bloody lilith: While I took longer than promised to update this story, thank you for your faith in me: I will never abandon this story, no matter how long it takes. =D! Good theory on Ares/Victoria but wrong, LOL. Like I mentioned in Chapter Two, Ares had absolutely no idea that Victoria died, sad I know. But it was a good guess. I don't know when I'll expose the reason, usually I just write and go with the flow and my muse gets carried away. Like in this chapter, I revealed Percy, Annabeth and Nico's little vacation to Tartarus when I wasn't planning on revealing that until at least after Season 2 (whoops!) so yeah. And to answer a question that really, it's quite a famous one: No, Olivia is not, I repeat, NOT, a vessel for anyone. I don't think it's possible what with Ares' ichor running through her veins, if you get what I mean, so I couldn't walk that path. Plus… I kinda feel like it's a very common plot, and I'm trying to make Olivia a unique OC. I appreciate your wonderful review, so THANK YOU and I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well, it's actually my longest one to date and took a lot out of me.

To TheMarphasChappers: Yes Ares is in deep, deep, deep, deep, deep denial. It's hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time, but he isn't Poseidon or even Hermes or Aphrodite, so I think it's more… well, Ares. He's not the type to openly show paternal love, but sooner or later, all my characters will become OOC as the episodes continue and their characters evolve. There is a genuine reason, I promise, and it's been a common question many readers posed to me, you'll just have to be patient =D. Regarding love interests I cannot wait! If you noticed, in this chapter I kinda showed a teeny weeny reaction Ares had in regards to the security guard, LOL. I had fun writing that.

To Guest: "Can you make a story where the Percy Jackson people read The Game of Thrones and Daenerys is the main character" – I apologize, I am not a Game of Thrones fan, I don't see the appeal, but no offense to anyone who does, it's just my opinion. To each their own. But I'm glad you like my stories, so thank you! =D

To MakeYourBodyaCanvas: Regarding Olivia and her future relationships… I've no solid answer. She will have many lovers, past and future, OCs and SPN characters, I think it's a Winchester Rite, I mean, they're just a gorgeous family! LOL. I don't see a Lucifer plot but that may change depending on my muse, nothing is written in stone yet.

To Guest: "In season 2 when they meet Gabriel as the trickster will he know she is a demigod and how will the angels react to her?" – I'm sorry but that's a major spoiler, so I'm gonna have to leave you unsatisfied. SORRY! =(

To Lululile: You are half-correct about Azazel. However, as I mentioned in an above review, Azazel's part in regards to Olivia will be a huge plot-twister as I am trying to make Olivia unique from the other female Winchesters I've read about. I too sympathized with Peter, but I felt bad for the Carlson kids, I mean… they had nothing to do with his death, so my sympathy ended there when he started creating unneeded death.

To LadyScatty: I still have mixed feelings about Athena and Hera. I don't know if I should make them change or keep them as the bitches I believe they are. But then again, this story is all about the evolving of the characters until they become OOCs. In this chapter, I included some Athena bashing as you can see, LOL. Zeus… I'm very neutral when it comes to him, but I feel like he has potential. I, too agree with your Percy comment. Honestly, I've never been a huge fan of Annabeth, which is why I left a poll open regarding anybody that wants me to pair the characters off with someone else. I hope you enjoyed this chapter as well… XD

To head reyes: Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying this story and sorry for the delay in updating this chapter! =D

To jliu1128: A few reviewers asked me the same thing. I won't leave anything out, so I'm sorry. I'm trying to make this story stand out and be unique and by shortening it and not giving the gods and demigods credit well… it'll just be a complete 360 of the direction I want this story to go.

To Silently Tearful: I am so psyched to read your compliment! Thank you so much, I hope this chapter exceeded your expectations! XD

To Guest: "Will any of the supernatural characters join the gods to watch what will happen?" – No.

R&R.