Hi, here I am, just like I promised! It's just past midnight in my timezone, and I'm running on pure adrenaline, water and chocolate-infused sticks, but it was worth it - the chapter is done! It fought me in the beginning, but with the CoVID-19 threat forcing my country to close down all schools, unis and even in one county all cafes and like for the next two weeks minimum, I suddenly had a lot of free time since I don't have so many RL duties and I wrestled it into submission. Sorry for any inconsistencies with the characterization that may have crept up: I've given my best to keep things in line with my previous works, but I've grown up both as a person and as writer, so some things might've changed.

Thank you for the well wishes for the original work (special thanks to Cloud Dreamer 313, Petra Arcadia, Eyir-Allmight and RandomBlondeChick), to 30+ reviews asking for the update (fudgefight's, BlueIvy's and ChocolateLife's first come to mind, but don't worry, I read all of them), and I'm insanely happy you guys are still paying so much attention and checking HoSA! I won't be talking a lot about my original work here - I'll be updating my profile as things get more clear to not bog down this story with unrelated material, but at this point I can reveal that the book is centering around the modern re-imagination of Andromeda and Perseus myth, but Andromeda and her sacrifice are far more important that the romance/quest part... and there's a lot of cameos from gods. And constellations play a big role.

Okay, that's enough about non-PJO related stuff: Lord Hades is being rather impatient right now to tell his own part of the story, and I'd rather not incur his wrath...


"My lord."

Hades lifted his head up from the pile of paper he was currently wrestling with – the budget for the drinks the newly established task force wanted to stay happy while not being drunk out of their minds when they were needed – and saw Luke Castellan hovering at the doors, sword out but with no perspiration that would indicate he had come from a training session. Putting down his fountain pen and pushing away the stack of files, he motioned for the half-blood to come in and sit, feeling exhaustion in every pore of his being; Thanatos being chained really heaped up the pressure on him, and he had to grab every chance he had to get a little break.

"Come in."

"Oh no, I have to go back to training the grunts," Luke shook his head, and Hades spotted a small smile on his face that quickly vanished after the god looked at him. "I was just escorting your guest."

"Guest?" Hades narrowed his eye at the demigod. He had learned to tolerate certain levels of insolence from demigods thanks to Sephie's foot-in-the-mouth syndrome, but Luke's caginess was starting to approach the territory where Hades would have to… react to get him to spit it out.

"My lord, I'm back."

"Oh thank Mother Rhea," Hades stood up with a speed that surprised even him, and tears threatened to surface in his eyes as he laid his eyes on his right hand for the first time in the past six months. "I hope you're ready to get to work right away – you've been slacking."

"Only if a good bottle of Dionysus' is waiting for me after we finish the primary cleanup," Thanatos answered with a bow of the head and a tiny smile as he whipped out his smartphone, black wings fluttering and chilling the room to the morgue temperature. "I suppose you're already aware of Persephone Jackson's whereabouts?"

"I am, her lover took it on himself to inform me," Hades said, spying Castellan not leaving just yet – probably trying to catch up on Sephie news, he thought to himself with no small amount of amusement.

The whole mess around her disappearance (and from what he last heard via Poseidon and Hestia's letters and Hermes' stories, Hera was still recovering in the infirmary from the explosive argument that took place the day Poseidon went to issue the quest to Camp Jupiter) had unearthed all their soft spots; however, instead of dividing them, it managed to unite them in a way only war used to, before. In fact, it went way past just uniting them – it gave them something to yearn for apart for victory, and it showed.

Argo II had been constructed in record time, partly because Camp Half-Blood worked around the clock and partly because Zeus gave into the pressure of his family begging for giving their children help to get Sephie back quicker. Those who fell during Battle for Olympus galvanized other fighters into joining Hades' task force that had been helping him contain the mess with the souls and S-class threats from Tartarus, as one of the fighters named Titans, Cetus and other nasty things Hades kept contained – sadly he couldn't do anything about the lower level monsters, but those demigods usually could deal with on their own or in pairs, so he didn't feel too guilty.

"What shall I do about those who died while I was out of commission?" Thanatos said with a drawl, scrolling through the list, and Hades winced when he spied the number. This was going to take a while.

"Our current priority is returning those that escaped," Hades ordered, slipping back into the proper mindset of the ruler. He couldn't do much, but lack of the formerly dead enemies to Olympus was something he could ensure to make Sephie's new journey smoother. "Doors of Death are the secondary until we manage to stabilize things completely here – besides, demigods are equipped to deal with monsters."

Not so much with the undead and dead, was the silent follow-up, and Thanatos sketched a little bow in the recognition of his orders and disappeared in a shower of black feathers and shadows that for a moment threatened to overwhelm all sources of light in the room. Hades sighed and shook his head at the theatrics, but decided against scolding Thanatos – the man had been chained for the last six months, he may as well let him have his fun now that he was free and ready to do his job again. Turning back to his pile of paperwork, he spotted Castellan still hovering at the doors, and frowned.

"Do you not have drills to return to, Castellan?"

"I have," the boy shifted in the place, twirled the sword he was holding and rubbed the back of his head before squaring his shoulders and lifting up head. Interesting – he was very, very nervous, and now Hades wanted to know exactly what was going on in his head. "I know this is an outrageous request, but… could I visit Sephie?"

Hades paused, crossed his arms and took a good look of the demigod. He was right; the request was outrageous, and if the circumstances were even near approximately normal he would've refused. Dead and living were separated for a good reason, and as the god presiding over the departed he was not allowed to bend the rules (not that he would, he knew the price of breaking that rule).

However, the circumstances were not normal in the slightest, and Hades needed time to think it over. Saying yes would create a dangerous precedent, but he would also like a more hands-on report about Sephie's condition.

"Come visit me after the night council is done," Hades told the demigod, referring to the daily council sessions that Niccolo had suggested his father implement for the crises such as these. "I'll have your answer by then."

"Thank you, Lord Hades," Luke nodded and walked off, leaving Hades to wrestle with the reports and prepare for the said council – 'preparing' being an euphemism for drinking enough to make it through without blasting any of his helpers to stardust, yet still not enough to let them kill each other off.

It was a delicate balance, that one, and Hades was proud he managed to fit the optimal range in only three tries. He didn't regret making the council, not at all, but some level of inebriation when dealing with people like Achilles, Hector, Castellan, Mellinoe, Hecate and Hypnos was just necessary.


The night time snuck up on the Lord of the Dead before long; between the endless reading, signing, calculations and goblets of diluted wine and plates of snacks his maids brought in the regular intervals, hours had disappeared, and the night council was about to start. Sighing, Hades took up the neat manila folder and walked to the throne room, where the last of the workers were bringing in refreshments and food and removing all breakable and delicate objects – he had learned the easy way never to keep anything breakable in the room filled with easily-angered people. Hera still gave Poseidon and Athena a stink eye for breaking Thetis and Oceanus' wedding gift, a delicately spun glass amphora decorated with pearls, in the middle of one of their arguments just after Athena won the patronship, even after Hephaestus fixed it with liquid gold and made it even more beautiful.

"My lord," Hector, the only one to always arrive on time, disengaged himself from a staring contest he was having with Castellan – over what, Hades would not ask, he'd have to sit through the retelling anyways once the council started – and fell on the knee. Castellan followed with a shallow bow.

"Hector, Castellan," Hades nodded and flicked his wrist to let them know they should stand up. "Where is everyone else?"

"Melinoe and Zagreus sent messengers earlier – the entrance of the Pit again showed signs of activity, so they said they might be a little late," Castellan reported shortly, a frown etched on his face, no doubt reminded of what happened last time when the Pit's entrance acted up.

"Lord Hypnos joined Lord Thanatos," Hector folded his arms behind his back and straightened his back. "Lord Morpheus, the Furies and Lord Orcus are still busy with containing the borders, so they'll only be coming in briefly to report, and Lady Hecate is still on Olympus."

"Nico hasn't reported in, though," Castellan's frown deepened, and Hades' heart gained a lead weight. "He had informed us of the Camp Jupiter sending a quest to Alaska, and they must've returned safely because Bob spotted both Polybotes and Alcyoneus in the Pit, but he hadn't sent a message since the start of the quest."

"Nothing at all?" Achilles walked into the room, sweat clinging to his brow and sand and dirt plastered over his biceps and thighs. His sword was mercifully put into the sheath at the hip, but from his looks and heavy breathing Hades knew he had rushed off the training grounds once he noticed how late it was and didn't bother to even jump in one of the nearby pools to wash off. "That's indeed strange – the boy does not seem to be the type to miss the check-ins."

"He's not," Hades agreed with him, all the possible scenarios replaying in his head. What could've happened to his son? Watching Hazel, his Roman daughter, was a relatively low-risk mission, even with the historical hostilities between Greeks and Romans factored in, so what had gone wrong?

Sending out Castellan to visit Sephie was looking more and more tantalizing by the minute – this lack of information was leaving him in a state of mind that he did not like and from which he could not rule properly, and that absolutely couldn't happen. Olympus relied on Underworld to keep its affairs in order right now.

A shimmer of dreamy silver light and inky darkness alerted the god of Melinoe and Zagreus' arrival, which was enough to complete quorum for the council and signal its start.

The goddess of ghosts and the god of rebirths looked terrible, Hades thought as he pushed his own nectar jug towards the pair: Melinoe's hair was in total disarray which she never normally allowed, Zagreus' armor was scratched and was splattered with both golden dust and ichor, and they both had hunted looks in their eyes. The dead heroes settled on the other side of the table, also looking quite unnerved by the immortals' appearance – Hector's jaw shook from how hard he fought to keep his mouth shut, Achilles' motions were much slower than usual, and Castellan's eyes had the similar quality Zagreus' and Melinoe's had.

"Son, daughter, what is it?" Hades prompted them after they took a good swing out of the jug and leaned back in their seats, their normal glow returning in slow and tiny increments. "What happened at the pit?"

"Horrible things, Father," Zagreus was the first one to open his mouth, sounding tired and worn out. "For some reason, Pit had acted out for a short time, and every single monster and immortal that was in the vicinity had their powers strengthened. Perses even managed to nearly escape Athena's seal – if Iapetus and Meli weren't there to distract him..."

"Don't call me Meli, it sounds juvenile," Melinoe complained half-heartedly as she took a doughnut-sized piece of ambrosia and scarfed it down without any apology. Hades felt his eyes go wide as he processed Zagreus' information and the sight of Melinoe's strange behavior. What had happened? "But yes, what brother had said is essentially true. Something happened that got everyone going for a hot second, but then it faded."

"After nearly half an hour," Zagreus muttered with a cross expression.

"That is bad," Hades worried his lower lip before leaning forward to the dead heroes. "Did anything happen at your end – this might take a while, so we should clear everything up beforehand."

"Nothing too much," Hector said with a pinched expression. "Lucas and I had a disagreement over some of the training exercises, but everything else ran smoothly."

Oh, so that was what the two were glaring daggers at each other over – nothing major, and Hades would usually hear it out for the sake of posterity and fairness, but right now they had much, much bigger fish to fry.

"Very well," Hades nodded, and after Achilles didn't pitch in, he returned the conversation back to the unexplained power surge in the Pit.


"Have you decided, my Lord?" Castellan asked after everyone cleared out, not raising from his seat, which was only one seat away from being directly opposite Hades (the one reserved for Nico).

"Yes, I have," Hades nodded, twisting the obsidian ring on his ring as he mentally put together all he wanted to say into a coherent structure. "You will be allowed out, but with a condition."

"Condition?" Castellan leaned forward, eyes glinting. "Should I be worried?"

"No, unless you plan to, as Sephie so charmingly puts it, ditch the Underworld," Hades put the air-quotes around the words, and was rewarded with Castellan's bright laughter for his effort. "I only want you to bring her here."

"Like, here, here? How would that work?" Castellan leaned back, placing the hand under his chin and leaning on it. "She's still of the living, so she'd have to cross through either Orpheus' Door or go through Charon, which is a bad idea right now."

"I'm still a god, Castellan," Hades said, feeling rather amused at the demigod's line of thought. "This is my domain – do you think I can't simply shadow-warp you and Sephie here if I truly wished it?"

"I – oh, I'm sorry," Castellan chuckled, cheeks flushing until they achieved a clear, dark rose tone to the sun-kissed tan. "I sometimes forget about it."

"Transitioning between mortal and immortal perceptions can be difficult," Hades said softly, taking out an envelope with a short letter for Sephie and sliding it over to son of Hermes. "This will be your way back – just tear up the note inside and you'll both be back here."

"Okay," Castellan stood up, and Hades whistled for the shadows to take him as close as they could to Sephie.

Once left alone, Hades took out the stack of the envelopes he had preserved with a little spell he had innocently begged off Hecate – all the old letters he and Sephie had exchanged in the past five years since they'd first met. It felt almost unreal to see Sephie's twelve-year-old just-starting-to-learn Greek with far more elegant calligraphy of the later years, sometimes dotted with poetic phrases she had picked from other books or dry, sarcastic commentary on certain reads she had to swallow – he'll never forget her assessment of one of biggest classics, Anna Karenina.

That book would be way more interesting if any other female character was the lead, Anna was the worst, Sephie wrote in the letter titled 20th of November of the last year. Seriously, the guy wasted 800 pages and three weeks of my patience for her to just throw herself under the train after realizing what kind of mess she got herself into in the first place? Gimme Kitty-centric story any day, not this… Argh! Uncle Hades, I can't stand this unnecessary drama – I have it enough in our family, why do I have to read it too?

It's a classic, Hades remembered penning down the answer after reading the comment to Tolstoy, the original author and receiving a full ten-minute rant about youngsters not appreciating what he wanted to say before storming off to Elysium. Sometimes you have to read things you don't like to learn about things you'd otherwise never know anything about.

The letter had never gotten a reply, since Sephie had disappeared afterwards, but Hades had hung onto the letter like all others and re-read them in spare time, if only to reassure himself she was real in lieu of being able to reach her in person.

"- Luke!"

"Hey, don't shoot the messenger!"

The loud voices from the doors leading to the courtyard in front of his throne room alerted him to the incoming visitors; hastily shoving the letters into the folds of his chiton where Persephone had kindly sewn him a pocket centuries ago to store things he didn't want to lose, but wouldn't send away for the hassle of later retrieval. Seconds later the ornate obsidian doors flew inwards, undoubtedly kicked down by the enraged demigoddess – her temper wasn't normally explosive, but Hades had witnessed a few of her blow-ups, and kicked-down doors were nothing unusual.

"Welcome back, Sephie," Hades smiled at his niece, a small part of the lead weight disappearing from his heart as he took in the fact she seemed hale and healthy, apart from the steam he could all but see coming out of her ears.

"Hello, Uncle Hades," she spoke, still observing common courtesy to bow – so the anger wasn't too bad. "Sorry for kicking the door open, but in the past week I've met too many immortals and people who should've stayed dead," here she threw a nasty look at Castellan, who only raised his arms in an universal signal of surrender. "I needed an outlet."

"If you actually manage to damage obsidian, my dear, I'll toast you," Hades shook his head and strode over to daughter of Poseidon, scooping her into a hug. "You worried us greatly, Princess."

"Don't call me that," came the half-hearted response as the girl in question as she hugged Hades back with equal fervor and held, not willing to let go. "I just got my full memories back, but I still missed you too, Uncle. Weird – I didn't know we were close, but somehow, I still felt it."

"I know," Hades murmured into her shoulder, slow to release Sephie. "I understand. I heard Grace boy had his memories almost completely wiped: you?"

"I got a whole lot of jumbled nothing – Luke's and Grandpa's eyes, flashes of Olympus, yours and Dad's palaces, some memories of Hermes," Sephie recounted with a wry smile, and behind her Hades noticed Castellan look at the floor. "It was worse than not knowing anything, honestly."

Hades could imagine the feeling. Knowing there was something beyond what you could remember, seeing the flashes, and yet not being able to see the complete picture: not a bad torture, he had to admit. Mentally recording it for later usage when he fell into one of his moods (he never ran out of creative punishments for kidnappers, child-groomers and brain-washers with not so pure intentions, but they rarely managed to match up the crime, so this was a good new strategy to try out), he allowed himself to grin sadistically.

"You know, Hera was heavily punished after that little stint she pulled with you and Jason," he informed his niece, who froze for a moment before revealing her own set of teeth.

"Hey, Luke, do you have anything to do right now? I think Uncle has a story for us."

Castellan's head snapped right back up, eyes wide as he looked at Hades for permission. Hades opted to say nothing, only tilt his head and turn around to lead them to the living room, where they'd be more comfortable. All ill will he held for the boy had long since disappeared; between his sacrifice and the time the two spent working together in the past six months, Hades had let go of everything. Sephie had forgiven him by the looks of things, and he had shown himself to be valuable asset – why not let him listen to a story that would amuse him as much as it would Sephie?