Nico: Finding Gabriel at the edge of Tartarus and his metamorphosis
Taking Thalia to the Underworld, even I was not expecting what I would see next. First, I found her and that was the only expected part of this whole thing considering the rest of what happened. At my father's request, I had brought her and now we were going to Tartarus to find Gabriel where he was still crawling for life. "I feel him slipping away from life and closing in on residence in the Underworld," my Dad said to him.
"Take the chariot, you'll reach him faster," replied Persephone. Hades nodded and we boarded the chariot that was driven by a few hellhounds that though not as big as Mrs. O'Leary were not to be trifled with. He whipped them until they were going top speed and we skipped over Elysium in the snap of a finger, flew over the entire Asphodel Fields, and concluded our little trip at the mouth of Tartarus. From there, the Furies guided us to where they saw (and I'm quoting here) "a man slowly turning into gold crawling along the burning coals on the floor".
They took us to where he was after that and Thalia was the first to run up to him and see if he was all right. I followed and saw that if anything, Gabriel was far from all right considering that what remained of his mortal essence was mostly wounded or at least slightly cooked. "Gabriel, what the hell did you do to yourself down there to come back looking like this and carrying the head of Prometheus and the Sky Sword with you?" Thalia asked. "Call… me… Uncle Gabe… would you… please?" Gabriel answered.
I chuckled to myself since Gabriel had previously rejected the title of 'uncle' so to think that he would be telling us to call him that was amusing. The situation wasn't I admit but the fact he was telling us to call him Uncle Gabe was. "Uncle Gabe, please come back to us? I know you can do it if you just try, please try!" Thalia begged.
"It's… over," Gabriel said to her. "No, it isn't over because we still need you!" Thalia yelled at him. "Is… the Camp… safe? Are… Annabeth and… Percy… reunited?" Gabriel asked. Thalia nodded and told her that the Camp was safe and that Annabeth and Percy had been reunited once again before we were stunned by his answer.
"Then… it's over," he said. "No Uncle Gabe, you don't know what you're saying," Thalia replied. "Oh… but I… do. All my life… the gods trained me… for one… thing: protecting… others," he began, coughing up some blood as he said it. "He speaks the truth for when he was with Helios and Selene, they taught him his skills but it was Hestia who told him he should use it for humble purposes he's used it for," my Dad said to us. "Don't speak Gabriel, we'll get you to a medic who can make you feel better and a little less deluded," Thalia said.
"No… there is… no… point… in that. Soon, my… mortal… essence will… burn… out… and… my… mortal… heart will… give out… completely," he said to her. "Husband, I think you should tell them that no place in the Underworld will be housing this one anytime soon," Persephone said to Hades in a whispery tone. "Nico, Thalia, perhaps you two should know that when Gabriel's mortal essence burn out and his heart gives way, he'll resurrect as a god," Hades explained to us.
We then noticed that not much remained except a chunk of Uncle Gabriel's forehead and though Hades called Thalia away from him, she would not leave him to rot as she thought he would be doing. It was at that point that I decided to just simply wrench her off him although I was the son of a god that was inferior to her father. She put up a struggle but not quite the struggle I was anticipating since she came with me after which my dad and my stepmother covered our eyes before covering their own. "Let's put it this way, you might not want to be looking directly at the light of his transformation as it happens," my dad said to me.
Our hearts began to increase in speed in anticipation of this fateful event of Gabriel's transformation. "We gods have never experienced this sort of thing, even with Heracles' metamorphosis into the constellation," Hades said. I guess that was meant to explain why he and Persephone covered their eyes as well and turned us so that their backs faced Gabriel as the last of his mortal essence burned out and he drew his last breath. But before that happened, we heard him say that he was so glad to see us one last time as well as kiss Eos again before this happened.
For a few seconds, there was nothing but pure darkness since Hades and Persephone cloaked us in a shroud of darkness. Then suddenly, we started seeing forks of light that pierced slightly through the cloak and burned their way into the ground beside our feet. I asked Thalia if she was seeing this too and she said she was but what none of us were seeing was that Gabriel's color began to return to him. Not only that but we also missed out on the fact that he became more muscular and masculine looking than any bodybuilder we had seen on TV with a dick to match (I don't know why I mentioned that besides the fact I thought maybe some girls might read this entry and wonder what it'd be like to share Gabriel's bed if I did mention it).
When the light passed over us, we were surprised to find bits of burnt flesh floating all around us. I recognized it for the flesh of the souls of the dead and I asked my dad what had happened. "You would not believe me if I explained it," he said to me. I told him that I was willing to hear and believe anything about that bit of light that passed over us.
However, I was dumbfounded to find out that Gabriel's light had destroyed all of the souls in the Asphodel except a few as well as all but a few in Tartarus. None in Elysium had looked at the light and thus remained safe from the power of the new god. "If only the transformation of a mortal in a god was a little less glamorous," said a voice we were not expecting to hear again: Gabriel's. Thalia ran up to him until she saw that he was naked but Hades assured him he would fix that instantly by handing him his cloak.
Gabriel gathered a couple things off the ground and I realized these were the treasures of his past. One was the ring he wore when he married Nadine, another was the ring he gave her when he proposed, and the last was the Sky Sword as well as the helmet of his suit of armor. "Oh we'll have to recreate your armor but that won't be a problem," Persephone said before snapping her fingers. Sure enough, plates of gold faded into existence with black underclothes and gloves underneath them.
After that my dad took us back to Camp Half-Blood and told Gabriel that someone wanted to see him when he arrived. At first, I thought he meant Percy but then I realized that having become a god, Zeus would want to see Gabriel. I asked if I could join along and he told me that I would have to for what was going to transpire next. "Gabriel's departure from Earth and ascent to Olympus should not be missed by anyone of his choice, especially if that is a son of Hades," he said before returning to the Underworld with Persephone.
I ran as fast as I could to where the Zeus' Fist was (that was where Persephone teleported Thalia so she could rendezvous with Annabeth and Percy for this) and was out of breath by the time I arrived. Gabriel remained at the base of the mound and Zeus began to ascend to its top. When it arrived, I stood as erect as I could in case he called upon me for anything special. I never had a clue as to something good that would happen next nor had it ever happened to me before in any sort of way from anybody else I've had in my life.