ALERT: I WILL NOT BE ABLE TO WORK ON A NEW CHAPTER UNTIL THE LAST WEEK OF AUGUST BECAUSE SCHOOL BEGINS IN 3 WEEKS. I HAVE A SUMMER ASSIGNMENT TO COMPLETE AND I WILL BE BUSY FOR THE MAJORITY OF THIS MONTH. I APOLOGIZE IN ADVANCE, BUT EDUCATION COMES FIRST. I HOPE YOU ALL UNDERSTAND.

Sorry for the really long wait. This chapter is dedicated to Darth LeGioN II for being a supportive reader and a wonderful friend! Thank you so much for everything! This goes for everyone else as well. You're all amazing people! :)

Chapter 9: Complicated Confession

Percy/Lysias's POV

The shadows dissolved before my vision returned to normal. My arms were still tightly wrapped around Poseidon, making sure he didn't try to attack me or escape if he saw an opportunity.

We both landed in the middle of the throne room within Tartarus. Before Poseidon even had a chance to blink, a pair of celestial bronze handcuffs suddenly appeared on his wrists. His legs weren't a problem since I had recently chopped off one of them.

Two blinding flashes erupted directly in front of us, causing me to shield my eyes with my arms to avoid immediate death.

I slowly removed my arms from my face, making sure Tartarus and Erebus weren't in their divine forms. (They've done that before. Let's just say I nearly died. Gosh that was annoying).

After making sure I wouldn't be reduced to ashes, I relaxed and kicked Poseidon forward. Since he was missing a leg, Poseidon immediately lost his balance and toppled to the ground at the feet of Tartarus and Erebus.

You know what the funny part was? He fell on his face. Simple as that.

"My lords, I have brought Poseidon down here into Tartarus as my second prisoner. Mostly because I hate his guts and I beat him in a duel. The mission was successful," I reported to my masters.

Was it just my imagination, or did Erebus turn pale? And by pale, I mean paler than usual.

Before I could contemplate it too much, I simply decided to push aside the silly thought. Besides, Erebus is an ancient Primordial god. What could he possibly be afraid of?

I returned my attention to my lords, just in time to catch a glimpse of them sharing a quick look of worry.

"Do you know what you have done?! You shouldn't have brought him here!" Tartarus roared with disapproval.

"Why not Lord Tartarus?! Why can't I have the right to take anyone hostage? What's so dangerous about Poseidon?" I questioned with barely controlled rage.

Normally I did my best not to talk back to my masters (to avoid being thrown into the Acheron River), but I craved to torture the god who took the life of my dear father.

"You know it's risky to bring an Olympian into the Pit. He might manage to escape and share any information he overhears with the other Olympians. Return him to the surface immediately!" Erebus urgently commanded me.

"No."

"Excuse me?! Did you just say no?!" Erebus bellowed as his body literally shook from the power in his possession that yearned to obliterate me.

"You heard me. I'm not taking him back. He's going to stay down here where I can torture him as I please! And none of you can stop me. Besides, both of you love the idea of inflicting harm upon the infuriating Olympians. Isn't that the reason why we're preparing for war? Why are you suddenly against the opportunity to torture one of them?" I asked with determination, hoping they wouldn't wipe me off the face of the Earth.

Tartarus's beady eyes were giving me a cold glare, staring straight into my own eyes, as if he wanted to suck my soul from my body and tear it to shreds.

"If Poseidon's captivity didn't involve torture, keep in mind that you wouldn't be existing right now boy! The next time you disobey our orders, you will never again see the light of day. Escort Poseidon to a cell!" Erebus hissed before he flashed out of the throne room along with Tartarus.

As soon as they were gone, I spun around and noticed with satisfaction that Poseidon still couldn't get up from the ground. Being a god, his missing leg was beginning to regenerate, but the process would take a while.

Without a word, I simply grabbed Poseidon by the ear and yanked him out of the throne room while he yelled curses at me. When his constant cursing got on my nerves, I punched him directly in the jaw and warned him to keep his mouth shut.

Thankfully, the rest of the journey was nothing but golden silence. By the time I reached the prison cells, I was already exhausted from dragging Poseidon. Who knew a god could be so heavy?

I slammed open his cell and roughly hauled him into it before locking the metal gate.

"Lysias, is that you?" Leo's voice echoed throughout the empty hall.

Before responding, I shadow traveled into his cell and appeared directly behind him.

"Boo!" I yelled in his ear, causing Leo to jump into the air while shrieking: "¡Mama mía!"

His reaction had me cracking up on the floor for the next two minutes. It was comedy gold.

Leo wasn't too happy about it though. In fact, he was complaining about it while I was laughing.

"Come on! You can't just do that! Especially in a place where I can barely see anything! You're lucky I didn't have a heart attack," Leo grumbled as he embraced me in a bro hug.

"Sorry, I just want to have fun once in a while. As you know, the Pit is always so dark and lonely," I explained apologetically as I patted him on the back.

"So, before you came in here, what were you doing? What was that noise down the hall?" Leo asked curiously.

"I was locking up Poseidon in one of the other cells," I answered halfheartedly, noticing that Leo's eyebrows shot up dramatically.

"You mean, the god of the sea is down here in Tartarus?!" Leo questioned with obvious disbelief.

"Yep. I beat him in a duel and brought him down here as my captive to torture him," I explained nonchalantly.

"What?! Why dude?!"

"'Cause he murdered my mortal father and he must pay the price!" I seethed at the memory.

Leo backed away from me due to my mini explosion of anger before imploring, "Calm down Lysias. Relax."

I took his advice and slowly inhaled and exhaled, repressing my ire and entering a tranquil state.

"Much better. Thanks Leo," I told him gratefully, flashing a smile that he probably couldn't see in the dark.

"No problem Lysias. And I wanted to talk to you about-" Leo began to say before he was cut off by the pulsing of the ground beneath our feet.

We both looked at each other uneasily. Tartarus and Erebus wanted to talk to me. After what happened between us, that probably wasn't a good thing.

"I hope you come back alive," Leo told me anxiously.

"Me too buddy, me too," I replied before shadow traveling into the throne room.

My masters were impatiently waiting for me on their thrones, looking cranky and grumpy as usual, which wasn't a surprise.

I wisely bowed to them and asked, "My lords, why have you requested my presence?"

Tartarus was the first one to speak.

"What you did during your mission to Mount Olympus is completely unacceptable!"

"What did I do?" I questioned with utter confusion.

"You gave the enemy information about yourself! You granted Mnemosyne permission to snoop through your memories!" Tartarus boomed as his beady eyes glowed with raw energy.

Uh oh.

I gulped nervously and hoped that I wouldn't be erased from existence right then and there. I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting to get the punishment over with, but nothing occurred. With caution, I slowly reopened one eye and then the other.

Tartarus still looked like he was seething with rage, but he seemed to have calmed down a bit.

Deeming it safe to speak, I asked with suspicion, "And what's so dangerous about my memories besides revealing secret information about the war? Are you hiding something from me? Do you both know something that I don't?"

A knowing look passed between them, which didn't go unnoticed by me.

"What do you know, fathers?" I spat with disgust and betrayal at the thought of having been lied to for who knows how long by my so-called "fathers."

"Lysias, if you want us to be honest with you, then we will. Your real father, the mortal who was murdered by Poseidon, actually betrayed you like the rest of your family. After he had betrayed you, he couldn't live with the guilt of knowing that he had caused you pain. He didn't want you to remember him as a loving father who turned his back on his son. So he summoned Erebus and I, begging us to erase your recent memories of him, and to replace them with cheerful ones instead. And we granted his request on one condition," Tartarus explained without hesitation.

"And what was that condition?" I asked uncertainly.

"We demanded your father to hand over his only son in exchange for his wish," Erebus answered in response to my question.

My father's only son…

Me.

I mean, who else could it be? I didn't have any siblings.

I was shell-shocked and speechless. The words were caught in my throat. They couldn't properly spill from my lips.

In other words, I was stuttering like an idiot.

Noticing my inability to speak, Tartarus decided to continue explaining the truth they had hidden from me.

"Your father agreed and promised that he would bring you to us in exactly one month. The deal seemed quite fair, so we granted his request and implanted false memories in your mind. But much to your father's disappointment, the Olympians were aware that he was in communication with us. They held a trial on Olympus and declared that your father was guilty without a doubt. The punishment for his crime was death, so the Olympians sent Poseidon to carry out the execution, which happened before your eyes. The gods cast you down into the Pit as punishment for being the son of your father. But what they didn't know was that you were going to be in Tartarus either way. They did what your father wasn't alive to fulfill," Tartarus finished explaining before the throne room was once again engulfed in silence.

"So, what you're saying is that my father actually stabbed me in the back like everyone else. I should've known! I mean, why would anyone even love me? You two don't love me! I'm not your son! I'm more like a pet slave. You only wanted me so you could use me to your advantage, didn't you?! You DON'T own me. Why should I obey you in the first place?" I cried out as a single tear rolled down my cheek.

"THAT'S ENOUGH! You have spoken out against us more than once! As punishment for defying us, you will receive something far more worse than physical torture! I'm going to warn you in advance. By tomorrow, your punishment will have been fulfilled in a way that you will not understand!" Tartarus declared before dismissing me from the throne room.

As I rushed out of the throne room, all I had in mind was how I had screwed up pretty badly.

What have I done?

Thalia's POV (In Elysium)

Death. Freaking. Sucks.

Well, except for the fact that I get to eat blue food everyday, which I have to admit is pretty awesome, yet sad at the same time.

I know I probably shouldn't be complaining because I'm in Elysium, but it's so boring down here. Every day is the exact same routine. Nothing new.

The souls in Elysium live in luxury, but luxury's not really my style. I'm more of an adventure-seeking kind of soul. I live for danger. Which is ironic, 'cause I'm not even alive.

I just had to die, didn't I?

During the time I've resided in the Underworld, I've hoped for some kind of miracle, like being summoned by Death Breath. I've only actually been summoned twice by two different people, but that's not really important.

What my so-called father did was unforgivable. I remember being alone one day in my mansion here in Elysium, completely bored out of my mind until the doorbell rang, which was unexpected because I had never received any visitors. The people who were behind the door caught me by surprise.

Sally Jackson and Paul Blofis.

The wonderful mother and step-father of Percy Jackson were actually standing at my door. At the time, I had no idea if I was hallucinating or going insane as a side-effect of being dead, but I wasn't. They were actually in front of me wearing pure white robes and shimmering with a transparent, bluish light like every other ghost.

And the first thing that came to my mind was why they were in the Underworld in the first place.

Even though I was shocked to find out that they had died, I had welcomed them into my home and fired questions at them like crazy. Eventually they told me how my disgusting father had murdered them without demonstrating a hint of mercy.

Although I felt guilty about their premature deaths, Mrs. Jackson urged me not to blame myself for something my father did, not me.

But that didn't stop me from believing that it was kind of my fault. After all, this entire disaster technically only began because I was murdered. Zeus blamed Percy for my death and executed his parents out of revenge.

Even though the guilt weighed me down, Mrs. Jackson had embraced me in a bone-crushing hug on that particular day and even offered to bake me a batch of blue cookies.

Of course I obviously said yes. I mean, who wouldn't say yes to blue cookies prepared by the amazing Sally Jackson?

You might be wondering why the ghosts of dead people need to eat, but we actually don't. It's not a necessity, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy a blue cookie once in a while.

Spending the afterlife with Sally and Paul was probably the best thing that had happened to me down here, but they didn't deserve to have their lives taken from them.

I love Sally as if she were my own mother. She treated me like her daughter and was always there for me when I needed her the most. Unlike my birth mother who only craved attention, fame, and power. I was basically the one who raised Jason before he disappeared. And the only reason why Jason was taken away from me in the first place was because of her.

Sally and Paul have been living with me in Elysium for a couple of years now. Ever since they both arrived, Elysium has truly started to feel like paradise. Speaking of which, they actually appeared at my doorstep a couple of years ago. And every single day has been blue food heaven.

Right now I was at the Elysian beach, dipping my feet in the water. The sad thing about the beach was that it painfully reminded me too much about Percy. I was entirely alone. Sally and Paul were back at the mansion, preparing a blue dinner in honor of Percy as usual.

I was contemplating the beauty of the beach, enjoying the soothing sensation of the ocean's currents. Before long, the sound of footsteps approaching me from behind could be heard.

I immediately assumed that the person moving towards me was either Sally or Paul, coming to tell me that dinner was ready.

I lifted myself from the ground, brushing off the sand that had clung to my robes. I turned around to greet whoever had come to fetch me. To my surprise, I found myself face to face with a mysterious cloaked figure instead. For some reason, he looked strangely familiar to me...

"Hello Thalia Grace," the unknown man sneered as he flashed a wicked grin.

His creepy voice sent shivers down my spine. He radiated a powerful, malevolent aura that clearly expressed the fact that he was up to no good.

"Who are you and what do you want with me?" i asked with a cautious suspicion.

"Oh, you don't remember me? That's a shame," the cloaked man replied with mock hurt.

Suddenly it hit me. I remembered previously seeing that exact same cloak and black sword at his waist in the past.

This man was my killer. He was the one who sent me into the Underworld and ruined Percy's life.

My body trembled with rage and my vision went red.

"YOU! You monster! My best friend was blamed for my death because of you! He was banished to Tartarus to suffer for eternity when it should've been you!" I snapped furiously while trying to incinerate him with my intense glare.

The unfortunate thing is that he sadly never burst into flames.

"Yes indeed, I caused all of those things. But guess what sweetheart? I'm down in Tartarus with your friend as well. Percy Jackson, right? Except the only difference between Percy and I is that I'm not the one suffering. In fact, Erebus, the Primordial god of shadows and darkness, instructed me to trespass into Camp Half-Blood and assassinate you so that everything could go according to plan. And so far, it has," my murderer explained as he cackled with evil delight.

"First of all, don't you ever dare call me sweetheart again or I swear I'll rip your throat out! And secondly, you're basically an assassin working for Erebus, aren't you?" I asked with obvious annoyance as I folded my arms across my chest.

"Actually, not exactly. I'm not an assassin. I'm not working for Erebus and he's not working for me. We're just... cooperating. As for the 'sweetheart' thing, I think I like that nickname for you, sweetheart," the man smirked before I flung myself at him and grabbed him in a choke hold.

The idiot still had a stupid smirk plastered on his face while I pummeled his chest with my fists.

"Is that supposed to hurt me sweetheart?" he taunted while flashing his bloody teeth.

My anger intensified at his comment and I gave him a kick to the stomach, causing a small groan to escape from his lips.

He obviously wasn't going to give me the satisfaction of hearing him scream in pain and beg for mercy, but I wanted to see him bleed.

My next kick made contact with his head, making him slightly wince.

I decided to stop when I realized that he actually wanted to infuriate me and make me attack him. He wanted the pleasure of seeing me in a bad temper. And I was doing exactly what he wanted to see.

"Why don't you shut up! Why are you actually here? What's the real reason? I don't suppose you came here just to visit me and rub your assassination story in my face, right?!" I yelled in his face, trying to make him leave Elysium for the rest of eternity so that I would never have to see him again.

"Yes, you're right about that, girl. As fun as it is to annoy you, I'm here for a fairly good reason. I made a promise to someone and I'm here to fulfill it," the man said ominously before moving his right hand into his cloak and removing a glowing crystal orb from it.

"What promise did you make? And what the Hades is that?!" I questioned while eyeing the strange orb warily and backing away slowly.

"The promise is none of your business. As for this-" he said as he held up the luminescent orb, "-this is your new home. Or prison. Whatever you prefer to call it."

The revelation struck me like an atomic bomb and my breathing hitched.

My killer only came here to capture me. This was all a trap. Murdering me was only the beginning. He wasn't done with me yet.

I tried to run, but my legs wouldn't move. I was either paralyzed with fear, which had never happened to me in the face of danger, or the man was keeping me in place with the power he radiated.

I'm going to assume it was the latter.

"Let me go! Why do you need me?" I cried out in frustration as I struggled to move.

The man merely continued to stalk closer and closer to me before he replied, "Like I said, that information is only for me to know. I'm afraid you belong to me now, sweetheart."

I couldn't run, but I sure could scream.

"SALLY! PAUL! Someone! Anyone! HELP!" I cried out desperately, hoping that a soul nearby would overhear.

I was surprised by the fact that my potential captor didn't clamp my mouth shut with his hands to keep me quiet.

The man had a smug grin when he noticed that not a single soul showed up to help after a minute had passed.

"I guess no one truly cares about you. You're coming with me," my murderer told me as he approached me with the orb.

I obviously didn't have a choice in this situation, which pretty much sucked.

My delicate soul formed a tail (kind of like a comet) that pointed in the direction of the orb. The orb was like a magnet, attracting me towards it. I didn't want to go down without a fight, but I was practically frozen in place.

As the man came closer to me, my tail continued to grow until I was no longer standing on the beach sand. As quickly as it had started, I was encased within the crystal orb.

I banged and kicked the surface of my new prison, but to no avail. Much to my disappointment, not a single crack appeared on the crystal orb. I slumped hopelessly before noticing my captor smiling triumphantly above me.

Freaking jerk.

Sudden movement to my right caught my attention.

I pressed my face against the surface of the orb, trying to get a better glimpse of the outside world. When the view cleared up, I noticed Paul running in my direction with Sally close behind him.

They were yelling something, but they were too far away for me to hear them.

But before they could get too close to cause any damage, my captor enveloped both of us in shadows and my last image of Elysium disappeared before my eyes.

My last thought was: Too late.

Challenge of The Day: Try to figure out the identity of Thalia's killer in the reviews. I know I didn't include any helpful clues about him, but just do your best to guess. Hints about his identity will be included in a future chapter.

Thanks for taking the time to read this chapter! All of you are really generous. If you ever have any questions, feel free to private message me. I'll make sure to respond as soon as possible.

Moving on to reviews from the previous chapter!

azhou1: Nice chapter! Don't kill Leo *reminder*.

Aww, thanks! And I'll do my best, but I can't promise anything.

Darth LeGioN II: Wow, it has been a while since I am following a fanfic. This fanfic is right up there with the best. I mean, just awesome. If Hades and Calliope had a child mentored by Uncle Rick, he/she would've written like this.

I private messaged you about this. Like I told you, thank you so much for the compliments. You have honestly made me feel more confident about my writing. :)

irene2005: I'm BACK! And thank you! Anyways, really love this chapter although, Do you think that Poseidon or Athena or any other god will conclude that he is Percy? What will Lysias do with Leo as well? Better yet... Hades.. LOVE this story and I hope you continue! :)

You already know I private messaged you about this. I'm still not sure who else is going to figure out that Lysias is Percy. I'll think about it. And thank you for the constant support! Don't worry, I promise I won't discontinue this book. I actually enjoy writing the new chapters. :)

Death Fury: Wow...

I hope you mean that in a good way. Just kidding. And thank you for taking the time to read my book. :)

Keep on being wonderful people! Can't wait to see if anyone correctly guesses the identity of Thalia's killer! Love you all. Until the next update my awesome readers! :)

-BlueFangirlStreak