Disclaimer: I only own the plot and my OCs. Anything you recognize as not mine belongs to Rick Riordan, Greco-Roman mythology, and/or their otherwise respective owners.

Author's Notes: Hello, everyone! Here is the conclusion to this little subplot that you have all been waiting for! All of your answers concerning the di Angelos (for the most part...) will finally be answered, so I hope you like it! :P

Also, for those of you who are not aware (I told my other fanfiction's readers this, but I know the stories are very different and not many people probably enjoy both), I am thinking about taking another break that would take place from June 22nd to July 3rd. Those two weeks are always very busy for me, and even if some of that will be taken away cause of the coronavirus, it'd also be nice to have another break again, 'cause I've been writing like crazy. Like, around 5-7 chapters for both stories combined a week crazy. So I think I deserve a little break ha ha!

Next chapter will be posted on Monday, like always. So, until then,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 18: The Lotus Hotel & Casino Pt. 2~

"Shit," I cursed. "Shit, shit, shit..."

Nico stared at me uncomfortably. "That's not a nice word," he said.

"It doesn't matter," I replied, before I grabbed him by the wrist and started to walk towards where I had last seen Katie. "At least, not when we need to find your sister."

Nico wasn't listening to me, though, because as soon as I had grabbed his wrist he started to struggle and said, "Hey! Let me go! I want to go back to the Mythomagic game!"

I ignored his protests, though, because inside I was internally screaming. Because if Nico and his sister had been here since 1938, how long had I been here? I mean, it only seemed like a couple of hours since Silena, Katie, and I had checked in, but was it really? And why had we come here in the first place? I tried to remember why, but it was hard to, as if a fog had settled in my brain. I knew that we were going to Los Angeles, and that we were supposed to find the entrance to the Underworld. I also knew that my mother was there...but, for a second, I had trouble remembering her name, until it came to me, clear as day. Sally. Sally Jackson. That was her name. I had to find her, and I had to stop the gods from causing World War III in the process.

Katie wasn't that far from where I had last saw her, playing what looked to be some sort of farm simulator. "Katie," I said as soon as I walked over to her, Nico still struggling against me all the while. "Come on. We've got to get out of here."

There was no response.

I shook her shoulder. "Katie?"

She looked up, annoyed. "What?"

"We need to leave," I said.

She frowned. "Leave? What are you talking about? I've just got the barn set up!"

"Look, this place is a trap," I said as I gestured for her to look at Nico. "Nico here says he's been here with his sister since 1938, and I've seen kids look like they're from the '70's, '80's, and '90's. Whatever this place is, it's manipulating us in some way into wanting to stay here so that we never leave. And we aren't aging, either. It's creepy and we need to leave and finish our quest before any more time passes than what already has."

At first, Katie just glared at me with slightly glassy eyes, before she blinked and shook her head. "Are you serious?" she asked me.

"As serious as I can be," I replied.

Her face paled. She took a quick glance at Nico and his clothes, before she said, "How long have we – "

"I don't know," I said. "But we've got to find Silena and his sister and get out of here."

To be honest, I didn't really know why I wanted to bring Nico with us so bad – I just knew that, for some reason, he had to come with us. I mean, there was something about him that was different from all of the other kids, something about his wide eyes and black hair that made me think he was familiar, somehow. Like I was supposed to know him.

Idly, I thought about why that could be, but I didn't spare the idea much thought, because Katie and I were too busy trying to find Silena.

As we searched, Nico slowly became less and less resistant to me tugging him along everywhere that we went. At first, I thought it was just because he realized that I wasn't going to let go of him anytime soon, but then he looked up at me with those wide eyes of his and asked me in a defeated voice, "It...it isn't 1938 anymore, is it?"

I grimaced. I hadn't really wanted to break the fact that it had been almost seventy years since he had first come to this place until after we had all escaped (assuming that we could, anyways...but I was cautiously optimistic about that, considering the fact that all of the workers seemed to be high and there were no buff security guards in sight), but I knew that this kid wasn't going to let such a fact go. No way in hell. So, with a sigh, I said, "No. No, it's not."

"Th – then what year is it?" he asked.

"2006," Katie supplied helpfully. When I turned to glare at her, she scrunched up her face and said, "What? You were about to coddle him just like how Luke coddles all of the new campers in his cabin, but we don't have time for that. Not when gods know how much time has passed and we need to find not just Silena, but apparently this kid's sister, too."

"I'm not a kid!" Nico protested.

Katie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure," she said, before her face lightened up and she pointed. "There she is!"

Both Nico and I turned to look at where she was pointing. Sure enough, there was Silena, standing in front of a makeover game and looking as if she was having the time of her life. It almost made me feel a little bad about taking her away from the game, but I knew we had places to go, people to see, and monsters to defeat still, and because of it we couldn't spend any more time here than necessary.

"Oh, she's pretty," Nico whispered to me.

I ignored him.

"Silena!" I said as the three of us approached her rather cautiously, knowing that it may not be easy to get her to come with us, considering how hard it was for me to get Katie and Nico to listen to me in the first place. "Silena, it's time to go!"

"What?" she asked as she briefly turned to look at us, a frown on her face. "What do you mean? We've only been here for a few hours!"

"I know it seems like that," I said. "But I have a feeling that we've been here much longer. Take Nico here for example."

I then hurriedly explained to her what I had explained to Katie. At first, she didn't look like she wanted to believe me, but by the end of it her face was pale and her kaleidoscope eyes were wide. "Oh, no," she moaned, looking as if she was going to be sick. "I can't believe it! We're going to be in so much trouble if we missed the deadline! Like, we're facing instant death-type trouble!"

I grimaced. "We know, Silena."

"Oh gods, we have to leave right now!" she cried, acting as if she hadn't heard me – but then again, given the near-panic attack that she was having, she probably didn't.

"No, we can't. We have to find Nico's sister first," I interjected, before she could say anything else.

Silena blinked. Then, she frowned, and turned to look at Nico, giving him a once-over that told me she didn't quite know what to make of him. "His sister?" she asked. "What, are we breaking them out of here, too? Why?"

"I don't know," I admitted, because like I said before, I truthfully didn't know why I felt the need for them to come with us – I just felt it. "But I know that they have to come with us, because they're important. Like, majorly important."

Silena bit her lip. "Okay," she said after a few moments. "I mean, if there's one thing this quest has proven, Percy, it's that I can't trust you. So I will." Then, she turned to look at Nico again, except this time her face was expectant and her voice was a lot more sympathetic. "Hey, Nico? Can you tell me about your sister? What her name is? What she looks like?"

Nico wrinkles his nose. "Don't talk to me like that," he said. "I'm not a baby!"

Nevertheless, though, he spent the next few moments quickly telling us about his sister. Apparently, Bianca was only three years older than him (meaning she was thirteen, as Nico said that he was eleven) and she looked a lot like him. She had the same inky black hair – except hers was curled like Katie's and Silena's, and not messy like mine – along with the same dark brown eyes and the same olive skin tone, except where Nico's face was clear, she had a smattering or freckles across her nose and cheeks. She was also wearing clothing that was similar to his, except where his clothing was a suit, hers was a dress, complete with a floppy green hat.

"Oh, I think I saw her at the rock-climbing wall a little while ago," Katie said. "Didn't really talk to her, though. Just saw her."

Nico smiled. "Well, Bianca does like to do stuff like that," he said.

With that being said, the four of us started to walk towards the other side of the lobby, where the rock-climbing wall was. Even from the distance that we were at – which was pretty far away, because again, the lobby was huge – I could see a black-haired girl in a '30's dress climbing her way up the wall with relative ease, as if she had been born to climb or something like that. It made me kind of jealous, actually, because I knew that if she were to climb the climbing wall at camp, she would make it up to the top no problem like Katie had.

Unfortunately for us, though, about halfway through our trek across the lobby, one of the bellhops noticed us. It wasn't the same one from before, but he was wearing the same getup and had the same goofy smile on his face. "Hey, kids!" he greeted us. "Are you ready for your platinum cards?"

Despite having just been told he had been stuck in this place for almost seventy years, Nico perked up. "Platinum cards?" he asked the bellhop.

The bellhop nodded. "We just added an entire new floor full of games for platinum-card members!" he exclaimed. "So come on, take one! You deserve it!"

He held out the cards, and I wanted one. Badly. But I knew that if I took one, I'd never leave. I'd stay here, like Nico and all of the other kids, happy forever, playing games forever, and soon I'd forget my mom, my quest, Luke, and maybe even my own name. And I didn't want that. No way in hell. So, with as much force as I could manage, I said, "Thanks, but no thanks. The four of us will be leaving just after we find Nico's sister here."

Nico still looked like he wanted to accept the card, but at my words he nodded defiantly. "Yeah," he said. "We're just staying long enough to find my sister."

The bellhop's smile suddenly became strained. "Are you sure?" he asked. "Such a shame, really...especially when we have so many things to do here..."

Silena, Katie, and I all shared a look – we had had enough experience with monsters and asshole gods by now to know to suspect that something was up with this guy. Nervously, I reached into my pocket and grabbed Riptide, and fiddled with it as I watched the bellhop's smile only become more and more strained.

"I'm sorry," the bellhop said, as if his voice had never trailed off. "I'm afraid that, while you three may go, Nico and his sister must stay with us."

I frowned, before I shifted my feet to get ready for a fight. "Why?" I asked.

"'Why' what?" the bellhop retorted pleasantly.

"Why do Nico and Bianca have to stay?"

"I'm afraid that matter doesn't concern you," the bellhop said. "Now, if you will please go...I have platinum cards to give out to everyone..."

I gritted my teeth, before I pulled out Riptide and uncapped it, causing the sword to appear. Silena did much of the same with her dagger, while Katie started to grow her vines.

Nico didn't really do anything except whimper, but that was all right, because I was pretty sure I didn't want an eleven-year-old fighting one of my battles, anyways.

"No," I said, with more force than before. "We're leaving. All of us. Now. And if you can't deal with that – "

I didn't get to finish my threat.

Because before I could say anything else, the bellhop stopped smiling, and his purple eyes began to glow. Nervously, all four of us took a step back as he began to grow taller and taller in height, until he was standing at around seven feet, and as purple talons, horns, and feathered wings sprouted from his hands, head, and back, respectively.

Suddenly, the itch in my brain that had been bothering me for most of the duration of our stay here stopped. Without even thinking, I knew what this guy was: a Lotus-Eater...although, the myths never said anything about them changing into hideous monsters like this.

Next to me, Nico screamed. Loudly. "BIANCA!" he shrieked, as if his life depended on her suddenly appearing – although for all that he knew, it might have.

Silena, Katie, and I weren't swayed, though. As the monster roared at us, trying to cow us into submission, Katie made her vines wrap around his legs, causing him to come crashing to the ground. Silena and I then stabbed at his head and chest, respectively, causing him to explode into a purplish dust.

But, of course, our escape wasn't just that easy. Because as soon as we killed the one monster, all of the other bellhops looked up at us, horrible smiles etched onto their faces as they began to shift and change form like the first one had. As they changed, they began to move towards us, circling us, so that the four of us were trapped and had nowhere else to go.

Although I knew that I would probably knock myself out again with any water that I summoned, I couldn't help but search for it, looking for something, anything that responded to the tug from behind my navel. At first, I didn't feel anything, but then, there was something, something big and deep and churning right from underneath our feet.

And it was coming from the pipes.

"Alright," I whispered to Silena and Katie as the three of us maneuvered ourselves so that we were all standing around Nico. "I got an idea."

"Does it involve you controlling water?" Katie whispered back in a disapproving tone.

"...Maybe."

"Percy!"

"Just wait for my signal, okay?" I said.

"What signal?" Silena asked a little snidely.

I ignored her in favor of focusing on controlling the water in the pipes as much as I could. It wasn't easy – in fact, it was the most difficult thing I had ever tried to do, because there was so much water and my control over it was so little. But, as we waited for the monster-bellhops to do something, I was able to get almost all of the water underneath my control...which was good, because almost all of it was all that I needed for my plan to work.

Just as the monsters were about to attack us, I made my move. "Okay, now!" I shouted as I lifted the water up through a combination of my hands and the tug.

The effect was instantaneous. As all of the monsters roared and moved to attack us, water burst up from the floor and sprayed them all in the face. The monsters let out vicious shrieks in response, while I quickly grabbed Silena, Katie, and Nico. "You all ready for a ride?" I shouted.

"No!" they all screamed.

I grinned. As much as I was able to, I moved the water so that it was tunneling us and all of the other kids – all of the way from the climbing wall to the front of the lobby – to the entrance of the hotel. I realize that this sounds like a lot of power, and if I wasn't as immersed in water as I was, I'm sure I would've passed out already. But, in the moment, all I could feel was the feeling of being alive, and it was the most exhilarating feeling that I had ever felt.

We all burst through the doors of the Lotus Hotel & Casino, riding on a wave of water that dispersed as soon as we got outdoors. All of the other kids – Silena, Katie, and Nico included – were shouting and screaming, but I could only laugh at their antics as the water healed the spot from behind my navel and stopped the power-exhaustion that I was beginning to feel in its place.

The monsters didn't even try to follow us.

"Oh my God!" Nico shouted once he had quickly gotten over his screaming. Idly, I couldn't help but think that the way he said God instead of gods was a little weird. "That was so cool! Percy, how did you do that? And why did those bellhops turn into monsters? And where's my – oh, there she is! Bianca, Bianca, you have to come over here and meet these guys! They saved us!"

A few yards away from us, Nico's sister Bianca was sitting in the water, her eyes wide. She looked at Nico like she couldn't believe what was happening, but then again, she probably didn't...and not just because she hadn't been with us when I flooded the hotel, either.

But I couldn't focus on that. Not right now, anyways. No, I had to focus on the fact that, while it felt like late morning, about the same time of day that we had gone into the hotel and casino, it was no longer sunny like it had been before. Instead, it was stormy, with dark clouds overhead and heat lightning flashing out in the desert. Ares's backpack was slung over my shoulder again, too, even though I had thrown it out in the trash can in room 4001.

Shakily, I got to my feet and ran to the nearest newspaper stand, willing some of the water to stay on me all the while so that I didn't pass out from exhaustion. First, I read the year on the newspaper and breathed out a sigh of relief, because thank the gods, it was still 2006. But then I noticed the date, June 20th, and my blood ran cold, because not only had we been in the Lotus Hotel & Casino for seven days, but we had only one day left until the summer solstice.

One day left to complete our quest.

Word Count: 3,135

Next Chapter Title: I Have A Talk With The Lady Styx