So, um, I'm sorry if getting to Hades's palace took too long, but Annabeth and Percy made it! So, um, yeah... I'll just, get on with the story.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Percy Jackson and the Olympians, OR Heroes of Olympus.

Hades

Percy's POV:

"Annabeth? Annabeth!" Percy was getting desperate. For ten minutes he'd been lying at his girlfriend's side, trying to wake her. For ten minutes he had been enduring the pain of seeing no warm, gray eyes. No 'Seaweed brain' comments. No, nothing. Only his own voice, echoing eerily in the infirmary of Hades's Palace.

Percy thought the infirmary was supposed to make you feel safe, so that people who were hurt would heal faster, but Hades obviously didn't put 'comfort' into account when he designed this place.

Percy had been seeing strange visions as he made his way through Persephone's Orchards. He had seen his mom, and his dad, happy. He had seen Paul. He had seen Camp Half-blood, completely safe, and Chiron, smiling. He had known he was losing himself through those visions, but was helpless to stop them. Only when he had seen a vision of Annabeth, and he had looked hard at her face...the real Annabeth's face, he had snapped out of his visions.

But then, Annabeth had suddenly disappeared. Gone. She had drifted away into an orchard of trees. He was still touching her, holding hands, but her mind had, literally drifted away. Percy had tried to go after her misty shape, but Cynthia had held him back, telling him that touching a pomegranate branch would be fatal. There was no way to go after Annabeth without scraping his body on one of those millions of delicate, thing branches. But then how will ANNABETH survive!?, he had wanted to ask her, but Cynthia had already run to Hades's palace for help. Percy had resisted all the misty souls that had tried to take over his mind, but only just. By thinking of Annabeth.

"Will she be okay?", he croaked. His voice came out wobbly, and broken.

His sister nodded. "I think...She'll be alright. I've done all I could, but, I'm not exactly at full-power, either."

"But we're running out of time!" Annabeth would only be able to stay here for one night before they would have to set out again. But for what?

"I've talked to...Hades about the Doors. He refused, but I was going to try to convince him again after visiting Annabeth. Will you come?" Cynthia turned pleadingly at Percy. Her green eyes shone brilliantly despite her gritty face and dirty hair. "Please? I don't know why, but...I have a feeling Hades would be more convinced to come if you asked him."

Percy nodded, trying to ignore the three golden streaks on his sister's left cheek. He felt a pang of guilt. He shook it off. "Do you think we should give her more ambrosia?"

Cynthia shook her head. "That will numb her pain too much, or burn her up." She talked slowly, as if she were talking to a five-year-old. Percy realized how stupid his question actually was.

Percy nodded slowly, and turned back once more to touch Annabeth's cheek, softly. She was pale, and her blond hair looked dully gray, but Percy didn't care. She would always be beautiful to him. "Please be okay, Wise Girl," he whispered into her ear. She didn't answer. Percy swallowed a lump in his throat, and turned back to Cynthia.

She gave him a sad look, and motioned him to follow as she swept out of the dark infirmary.

The doors to the throne room creaked open, and a cold draft hit Percy, right in the face. Cynthia stepped in, and he did the same. He looked around. The last time he'd been here was when he was 12, retrieving the Lightning Bolt for Zeus. It hadn't changed much.

Skeleton guards stood by Hades's throne, which looked like it was made of white marble. Next to him was a pale-but-beautiful woman with chocolaty ringlet hair. He recognized her; Persephone.

"Bow!," came Cynthia's whisper, breaking into his stop-and-stare trance. Percy immediately ducked down and looked at the floor.

"RISE, AND STEP FORWARDS." His uncle's voice came booming from across the hall. Strong, and cold. It thrummed Percy's body, all the way to his fingertips.

Cynthia walked a few feet, and Percy followed. She stopped 3 meters from Hades, who was human-sized, luckily. Percy looked up. Hades's cold, empty face glared back at him. He looked just like his skeleton guards, only with some flimsy strings of hair on his head.

"SPEAK."

Percy wet his lips, and was about to ask what kind of shampoo made Hades's hair so greasy, when Cynthia cut in. She shot him a look that obviously said, just shut up, and spoke.

"Lord Hades, I have come back."

Hades snorted, but Cynthia went on.

Percy's mind wandered, and he looked around without moving his head as much as he could. He realized that hades was sitting on a throne of human skulls. He gulped. Some of them still had green rotting flesh and mold on them. I hope I don't end up like that. Percy grimaced. He would be lucky if he did, considering what he was going to go through on the rest of his quest.

"Uncle, I have said this many times, but we need your help. I will not repeat what I have already said about the journey, as you already know, but one of our team is dying."

That struck Percy. Dying!? That's not what Cynthia had told him! She had said that Annabeth was just in a state of shock, and that she would recover. You LIED!?, he wanted to scream.

I had to. I'm sorry. I had to let you keep your faith. Cynthia's voice reached his mind, as clear as if she were talking to him with her voice. Percy was too depressed to wonder. It was all he could to keep his mind on what Cynthia was saying.

"Lord Hades, the Doors of Death must be closed. You of all the Olympians must know that. Olympus's enemy is your enemy, is that not so?"

Cynthia was pleading, looking up to Hades's thin, pale face for a reaction. Hades growled, and spoke. Softly, this time.

"My fellow gods do not wonder about me. They do not think I would ever feel any emotion, staying down here after so long. But they are wrong. I do feel things. I feel anger. My brothers have never done anything for me before. Why should I do so for them now?"

Uh-oh...

"Because, Hades!" Percy heard his own voice ringing through the throne chamber, loud enough to equal Hades's. Cynthia looked pale. I won't mess this up, he promised himself. "Because," he continued. "The whole of Olympus is your family. They are your fellow gods that you've ruled over mankind for over thousands of years. Olympus won't live-YOU won't live, if you let Gaea take over the world. Even if she let you remain, you would be known as the traitor god, uncle. Your name will ring through the legends as the most despicable ever. 'Olympus fell because of Hades'. Do you really want that?"

Percy took a breath. This was for Annabeth. He spoke in a soft voice now. "You said before that other gods felt that you didn't have any feelings. They thought that you were this...wall of stone that wouldn't show any emotion." Percy kept his own thoughts to himself-the fact that he thought Hades was exactly what he had just said...a stone...unemotional wall. Of white.

"You said that they were wrong. You said that you did feel things. You said you felt anger." he paused, and continued, seeing out of the corner of his eye that Cynthia staring at him hard. No emotion. "But I don't think so. Every living thing has emotions, no matter how deeply hidden they are. I believe that you will fight for Olympus, Uncle. Please. My friend-who means everything to me-is dying. Can you just heal her and take us to the Doors of Death? That's all I'm asking. If we-I mean, when we succeed, I'll be sure to inform the council of your...um, heroic actions."

Hades was scratching his broad white expanse of a chin. Pride meant everything to the gods. Percy knew he had struck a nerve.

"Are you...sure?Of informing the council, I mean." Hades stared at him questioningly, with hunger in his eyes.

"Yes. I'm sure. I'll do it, I swear," Percy answered, trying to ignore the mad light flickering in his uncle's eyes.

"I don't know..." Hades's was declining. Percy felt desperation filling up inside him like water in a bucket. He caught his sister's eye. Your turn.

Cynthia nodded. "Please, Uncle. You won't have anything to lose." Percy felt himself nodding, even though she wasn't talking to him directly. Then it exploded in his mind. Charmspeak! Cynthia was using CHARMSPEAK on a god. So that's why her voice sounded so familiar just now! It was the same tone Piper used when she was trying to convince someone to do something for her!

Are you crazy!? Using charmspeak on a god!? He tried to catch Cynthia's eye, but it seemed she was deliberately looking away. She doesn't like using her powers to trick people, Percy realized.

Silence took over the throne room. The skeletons stopped clattering their teeth; for that, Percy was glad. It unnerved him. But this eerie silence would decide his fate. It was either die, or suffer. As long as if he suffered, he would live...Maybe being dead wouldn't be so bad. He would try his best to go to Elysium, and stay with Annabeth. There would be parties everyday, and no more quests, and-

"ALRIGHT!" Hades broke into his thoughts once more, crushing his dreams of Elysium. "I WILL GO WITH YOU. BUT ONLY IF-" Hades looked pointedly at Percy. "IF YOU KEEP YOUR SIDE OF THE PROMISE." Hades stepped off his throne. "We will leave later today. My wife will go fetch you."

I know this chapter wasn't so good, but please review. I haven't got much recently... :/