Disclaimer: I do not own the Percy Jackson and the Heroes of Olympus series
A/N: When reading the book, the "..." are there to show where word are in the book that I haven't written in this. I'm just writing down the gist of the House of Hades, I'm not re-typing the entire book. I'm just writing down enough for it to make sense of what is in the House of Hades.
Ever since their friends Percy and Annabeth...
Everyone sat up, listening attentively.
"... had fallen into Tartarus-
"What!?" Everyone exclaimed, Athena even interrupting herself.
"You fell in-!?" Michael said.
"How are you-!?" exclaimed Grover.
"Alive!?" Everyone asked.
Annabeth and I looked at each other.
"Honestly," Annabeth started.
"We have no idea." I finished.
There was a silence before Apollo spoke up.
"You were in there still," he said, "but Chaos pulled you out, right? And brought you here"
"One second we were fighting some arai, the next I see this flash of light, and then I wake up in your infirmary." I said. "Why Chaos chose to do it, we have no idea. Maybe Chaos decided to have mercy on us?"
"Arai, are curse spirits, and Apollo and Asclepius said that you were poised with gorgons blood, but that it was a miracle how fast you recovered. That's because you weren't poisoned with gorgons blood. You poisoned someone else with gorgons blood and they cursed you with the same fate, so when you killed the arai..." Athena reasoned.
I nodded. "What we don't know is why Chaos chose to do it, we have no idea. Maybe Chaos decided to have mercy on us?"
"What else happened down there?" Frank said, speaking for the first time since he had introduced himself.
Annabeth and I looked at each other, before looking down.
"We would rather not talk about it." she said.
We looked at Athena, silently asking her to continue the book.
"Ever since there friends, Percy and Annabeth had fallen into Tartarus, Leo had been working almost nonstop. He'd been angrier and even more driven than usual.
Hazel worried about him. But a part of her was relieved by the change. When ever Leo smiled and joked, he looked too much like Sammy, his great-grandfather... Hazel's first boyfriend, back in 1942."
Everyone turned to look at Hazel. She was looking utterly shocked. She turned to Leo and said,
"Sammy was you great-grandfather?"
"I...," Leo started, "I have no idea. I mean I don't know who my great-grandfather was. I think my grandfathers name was Sammy Jr., which would mean that there had to be a Sammy Sr., which who was probably a kid around 1942, and who would probably be my great-grandfather..." he trailed off. "Wait a second," he shot out of his seat, looking directly at Hazel for the first time, "you dated my great-grandfather?!"
Hazel shrunk back, "I guess?" She laughed nervously.
"Lets just get back to the book." I said.
Hazel shot me a grateful look.
"...'It's our fault,' Hazel said. 'Nico's and mine. The numina can sense us.'
She glanced at her half-brother. Since they'd rescued him from the giants-"
"I was kidnapped by giants!' Nico shouted.
"Long story." Annabeth and I chorused.
"Since they'd rescued him from the giants, he'd started to regain his strength, but he was still painfully thin. His black shirt and jeans hung off his skeletal frame, Long dark hair framed his sunken eyes. His olive complexion had turned a sickly greenish white, like the color of tree sap"
Nico winced.
"In human years, he was barely fourteen, just a year older than Hazel, but that didn't tell the whole story. Like Hazel, Nico di Angelo was from another era. He radiated the same kind of old energy -a melancholy that came from knowing that he didn't belong in the modern world...
Nico gripped the hilt of his Stygian iron sword. "Earth spirits don't like children of theUnderworld. That's true. We get under their skin— literally But I think the numina could sense this ship anyway. We're carrying the Athena Parthenos. That thing is like a magical beacon."
"The Athena Parthenos?" Everyone asked.
Athena looked shocked.
Annabeth looked at her before saying, "I followed the Mark of Athena," she paused, and her mother looked like she was about to bow down to apologizing, but Annabeth continued before she could, "And I succeeded. The cavern where Archane was living had collapsed. The rest of the Seven were securing the Athena Parthenos when I realized that my leg was caught in a cobweb that pulled me down to Tartarus. Percy didn't let me fall alone."
She glared at everyone, daring them to say something. They were all to busy sitting in shocked silence to notice.
"Hazel shivered, thinking of the massive statue that took up most of the hold. They'd sacrificed so much saving it from the cavern under Rome; but they had no idea what to do with it. So far the only thing it seemed to be good for was alerting more monsters to their presence.
Leo traced his finger down the map of Italy. "So crossing the mountains is out. Thing is, they go along way in either direction."
"We could go by sea," Hazel suggested. "Sail around the southern tip of Italy."
"That's a long way," Nico said. "Plus, we don't have..." His voice cracked. "You know...oursea expert, Percy."
The name hung in the air like an impending storm.
Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon...probably the demigod Hazel admired most. "
I blushed
He'd saved her life so many times on their quest to Alaska; but when he had needed Hazel's help in Rome, she'd failed him. She'd watched, powerless, as he and Annabeth had plunged into that pit.
I started to shake my head wanting to tell her that it wasn't her fault, but Hazel wasn't here.
Hazel took a deep breath. Percy and Annabeth were still alive. She knew that in her heart. She could still help them if she could get to the House of Hades, if she could survive the challenge Nico had warned her about...
"What about continuing north?" she asked. "There has to be a break in the mountains, or something."
Leo fiddled with the bronze Archimedes sphere that he'd installed on the console—his newest and most dangerous toy..."
Beckendorf nearly fell out of his chair when he heard that.
"..."I dunno." Leo examined the hologram. "I don't see any good passes to the north. But I like that idea better than backtracking south. I'm done with Rome."
No one argued with that. Rome had not been a good experience.
"Whatever we do," Nico said, "we have to hurry. Every day that Annabeth and Percy are in Tartarus..."
Everyone winced. Nobody noticed the look in Annabeth's eyes, which most likely mirrored my own. Absolute terror.
"He didn't need to finish. They had to hope Percy and Annabeth could survive long enough to find the Tartarus side of the Doors of Death. Then, assuming the Argo II could reach the House of Hades, they might be able to open the Doors on the mortal side, save their friends, and seal the entrance, stopping Gaea's forces from being reincarnated in the mortal world over and over."
I think everyone was just starting to realize how bad it really was.
"Yes...nothing could go wrong with that plan.
Nico scowled at the Italian countryside below them. "Maybe we should wake the others. This decision affects us all."
"No," Hazel said. "We can find a solution."
She wasn't sure why she felt so strongly about it, but since leaving Rome, the crew had started to lose its cohesion. They'd been learning to work as a team. Then bam ...their two most important members fell into Tartarus. Percy had been their backbone. He'd given them confidence as they sailed across the Atlantic and into the Mediterranean. As for Annabeth—she'd been the de facto leader of the quest. She'd recovered the Athena Parthenos single-handedly. She was the smartest of the seven, the one with the answers."
This time Annabeth blushed along with me.
"If Hazel woke up the rest of the crew every time they had a problem, they'd just start arguing again, feeling more and more hopeless. She had to make Percy and Annabeth proud of her. She had to take the initiative-"
Athena was interrupted by a knock at the door.
We all looked at each other. Everyone that Chaos had asked for was here, and no one comes onto Olympus and knocks on the Throne Room door, especially because Zeus had announced that the Olympians were in a meeting and were to not be disturbed. After a few seconds we all pulled out our weapons aiming them at the door.
Zeus gestured to Hermes, who was the closet Olympian to the door, to open it.
A girl, around 14, with chocolate colored skin, frizzy brown hair, and who was definitely not transparent walked in.
"Hazel?!"
