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! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend, and that you have been staying safe with all that is going on currently!

On the subject of me taking a break, I decided that I'm going to go through with taking a break from June 22nd to July 3rd (meaning the next update after this week's round will be on July 6th), 'cause I honestly just need a break from my two stories right now so that I can..."recharge", if you will. However, that being said, I will be working on a one-shot story or two during that time! ;) I've had an ABO Luke/Ethan/Percy story swirling around in my brain for the past month or so, but I haven't really had the time to write it, so I think I'm going to take the opportunity to do that over the course of the next two weeks. :)

Next chapter will be on Wednesday, as always, and it's like...3.9k, I think? So, basically, quite a bit longer than the chapters you have been getting as of late. Hope you all are happy about that! ;)

And, of course, I hope that you all enjoy this chapter! :)

Sincerely,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 19: I Have A Talk With The Lady Styx~

It was Katie and Silena's idea.

While I was busy having an existential crisis and Nico's sister Bianca was busy having an "oh my gods I'm technically eighty-three-years-old" crisis, the two of them loaded all five of us into the back of a Vegas taxi-minivan-thingy, as if we actually had money, and Silena, with a voice of persuasion that wasn't quite charmspeak, told the driver, "Los Angeles, please."

Immediately, the cabbie took his cigar out of his mouth and laughed. "That's three hundred miles, kid," he said. "Or around four and a half hours, in case you can't do math. That's a lot of miles for gas. And a meal, too. What makes you think you can convince me to drive you there?"

Silena smiled wickedly, but she still didn't use her charmspeak. Instead, she asked him, "Do you accept casino debit cards?"

The cabbie shrugged in response. "Some of 'em. Same as credit cards. I gotta swipe 'em through first."

Silena handed him her LotusCash card/room key.

He looked at it skeptically.

"Swipe it," she purred.

He did.

As soon as his meter machine registered the card, it started to rattle. The lights flashed. Finally, an infinity symbol came up next to the dollar sign.

The cigar, which the driver had just stuffed back inside his mouth, promptly fell out of it. He looked back at us, eyes wide. "Where to in Los Angeles...uh, Your Highness?"

Silena's grin widened. "Well, do you know of a place called DOA Records?"

Three hours later, the five of us were standing outside of DOA Records, looking at the building with pale faces and wide eyes. Bianca's face was probably the palest out of all of us – something which I felt more than a little guilty for, because Katie, Silena, and I had basically given her and her brother a crash-course into being a demigod after the three of us quickly realized that that was what she and her brother were. I mean, why else would someone willingly shove their kids into a place like the Lotus Hotel & Casino, with a promise that they would one day come back for them, with that day being more than sixty years later? Why else would Nico be able to see the monsters for what they were, and why else would he have ADHD so bad that he made even me a little tired with his antics?

So, yeah. Basically the answer was obvious. And it was something that Nico took with no small amount of joy, while his sister, Bianca, looked like it was the worst thing she could ever possibly be told...but I guess, in a way, it was.

But while figuring out that they were demigods and all was great, it presented the three of us with a new problem: we were going to have to bring them to the Underworld with us. Because while the Underworld was no place for anyone – let alone two new demigods – to go to while they were still alive, we couldn't exactly send them back to camp or tell them to wait outside, because camp was too far away and their scents just got ten times stronger due to them being told about their semi-godly existence.

At least they didn't have to face the Minotaur as a bunch of newbie demigods. Although, that was assuming that Hades and his minions weren't going to be a million times worse in terms of terror and not-so-idle threats...

...But enough about that. I had places to go, people to see, and river goddesses to talk to.

"Alright," I said as I continued to look at the DOA building, which had black marble-framed glass doors with golden lettering on them that said: NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING. "Does everyone remember the plan?"

"Yeah!" Nico exclaimed with a grin.

Katie and Silena echoed him, while Bianca muttered out, "Is it still too late to go back to the hotel?"

We all ignored her.

"Great," I said. "Then let's go find whichever Underworld deity did this."

With that, the five of us walked inside the DOA lobby.

Now, if you've never been inside DOA records – which I'm sure you haven't, provided that you aren't dead – then allow me to describe it to you. The place is packed with people – people sitting on couches, people standing up, and people staring out the windows or waiting for the elevator. At first glance, they all seem normal, even if they don't talk, move, or do much of anything. But if you try to focus on them for more than a minute, they become transparent, to the point where you can see right through their bodies no problem.

And as if this wasn't dreary enough, the entire place is colored steel grey, from the walls, to the carpet, to even the pencil cactuses that grew in the corners of the lobby like skeleton hands. Depressing muzak – if that's possible – played softly over hidden speakers, and there were posters on the walls depicting the various parts of the afterlife, from the Fields of Punishment (HOW GOOD WERE YOU REALLY? THINK ABOUT IT.) to the Isles of the Blessed (THE FOURTH TIME'S THE CHARM!). For some reason, the latter poster seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't dwell on it long, because we had to walk up to the security guard's desk, which was sitting on a raised podium – meaning that, despite him sitting down, we still had to look up to him.

Speaking of the security guard, he was a tall and elegant dude, with chocolate-colored skin and bleached-blond hair that was shaved into a military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel underneath a silver name tag, which I was pretty sure read CHARON. And even if it didn't, I knew better than to ask.

Without looking up from the paper that he was writing on – it looked to be official paperwork or something like that – Charon asked in a distinct, Cockney-esque accent, "Now, what can I do for you little dead ones today?"

Silena and I shared a look.

"We want to go to the Underworld," I said after a few moments, while I desperately tried to keep my voice as level and clear as possible.

Charon snorted. "Well, that's a first," he said. "Straightforward and honest. No screaming. No 'Please, there must be some sort of mistake!'" He looked up then, with cool, dark brown eyes, which he narrowed at us. "But you aren't really looking to go there for your semi-final destination, are you?"

I froze.

He grinned. "That's what I thought. Unfortunately, the Lord of the Dead doesn't allow multiple trips to the Underworld, unless you're either a dead rebirth or have a special reason for coming. So, what's your reason, son? Come on, I don't got all day."

Nervously, I wet my lips. This hadn't gone like I thought it was going to go. I'd planned on us all saying that we were dead, bribing the guy (which shouldn't have been hard to do, considering how expensive the suit that he was wearing was), and then getting down to the Underworld, no problem. But now...

...Now I didn't know what to do, except maybe tell him the truth.

But before I could do that, Nico suddenly exclaimed from behind me, "Wow, are you really Charon, the ferryman of the dead?"

Silena winced.

Charon blinked. Then, his eyes widened, and he turned to look at Katie, Silena, and me with something akin to astonishment and pity in his eyes. "You went to the Lotus Hotel & Casino," he said.

I snorted. "More like got dropped off there by Ares."

But he didn't hear me – at least, he didn't seem to. Instead, the guy ran a hand through his hair and said, "This is bad. Very bad. You don't realize how much shit the three of you just got yourselves into, do you?"

The three of us shared a look.

"Uh...no?" I said. "Care to enlighten us about how we've gotten ourselves into so much 'shit'?"

"I – " Charon began, before he shook his head. "I better not. I'll let the boss explain it to you downstairs – right before he kills you, anyways."

He then stood up, stretched, and walked towards the elevator and gestured for us to follow him. We did, causing us to push through the crowd of waiting spirits, who started grabbing our clothes like the wind, their voices whispering things I couldn't make out. Charon shoved them all out of the way with a grimace and snarled, "Freeloaders."

He escorted us into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each one holding a green boarding pass. Charon grabbed two spirits who were trying to get on with us and pushed them back into the lobby.

"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone," he announced to the waiting room, his tone forcibly upbeat – I could tell that he was really nervous, for whatever reason. "And if anyone moves the dial off of my easy-listening station again, I'll make sure you're here for another thousand years! Understand?"

He shut the doors. Then, he put a key card into a slot in the elevator panel and we started to descend.

We descended in silence – partially because Charon was freaked out, and whatever freaked out a god freaked me out, and partially because Nico seemed to be too excited for words at this point. Gods, was that kid weird...although, not in a bad way. More in a way that I suspected older brothers felt about their younger siblings, but since I was an only child for all intents and purposes, I couldn't say for sure.

At some point during our elevator ride, I got a dizzy feeling. I quickly realized that we weren't going down anymore, but forward. The air turned misty. The floor of the elevator began swaying, causing me to stumble and blink hard.

When I opened my eyes, all of us were still looking the same – Charon and the spirits included, thank the gods, because I doubted I could deal with them otherwise – but the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. Instead, it was a small, Viking-esque wooden boat, sitting in a river comprised of dark, oily water and swirling with bones, dead fish, and other strange things – like plastic dolls, crushed carnations, and soggy diplomas with gilt edges.

"The River Styx," I muttered, remembering what the voice in my dream told me to do when I got to its banks.

Charon must have thought that I was awed by it instead of apprehensive of it, because he said, "You should have seen it four thousand years ago, kid. It wasn't as polluted then. But then again, the people back then didn't have hopes, dreams, and wishes that never came true like the people now do."

Mist curled off of the filthy water. Above us, almost lost in the gloom, was a ceiling of stalactites. Ahead, the far shore glimmered with greenish light – the color of poison.

A few minutes later, the shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction as far as we could see. A sound came from somewhere nearby in the green gloom, echoing off of the stones – the howl of a large animal.

"Old Three-Face is hungry," Charon said with a wicked grin. "That's double bad luck for you, godlings."

The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand. The dead began to disembark – a woman holding a little girl's hand, an old man and an old woman hobbling along arm-in-arm, and even a boy around Nico's age, shuffling along with wide eyes and a look of fear.

Charon said, "I'd wish you luck, mate, but there isn't any down here. 'Specially not for you."

And with that, he took up his pole, the pole that he had used to steer the boat along the river, before he warbled something that sounded like a Barry Manilow song as he ferried the empty boat across the river.

Katie, Silena, Nico, and Bianca all moved to follow the spirits that we had been in the boat with, who were all moving down a well-worn path. But, before they could actually follow them, I said, "Wait."

They all turned to look at me, visibly confused. "What?" Katie asked with a frown on her face. "What's wrong?"

"I – I have to do something," I replied nervously. "I had a dream before we went into the hotel. I – I have to talk with the Lady Styx."

Katie's frown deepened. "Percy, I don't think that that's a good idea," she said.

Silena nodded in agreement.

I shook my head. "Look, I have to do this," I said as firmly as I could. "There's just – I gotta ask her something, okay? I gotta – "

But before I could say anything else, a voice from behind me said, "Ask me what, demigod?"

Despite having faced Medusa and the weird monsters from the Lotus Hotel & Casino, I couldn't help but shriek as I spun around to look at the owner of the voice behind me.

The owner of the voice was, of course, none other than Styx – or, at least, that was what I presumed her to be. She was a beautiful woman, with long, flowing black hair, olive skin, and volcanic black eyes. She was wearing a black chiton with a silver girdle, along with black sandals that were literally sitting on the water...although, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, given the fact that she was a goddess of water and could probably do whatever she wanted to do with it.

"L – Lady Styx," I greeted her as best as I could, while behind me Katie, Silena, Bianca, and Nico did the same.

"...Demigod," Styx replied after a moment, before she frowned and narrowed her eyes at me. "Why did you call me, young one? It's been many years since anyone has called me from my river – sixty-eight years, to be precise. And the last people that called me were gods, not mere mortals like you."

I sucked in a deep breath. "I – I know, milady...that's actually why I called you today. I...I want to know about why my father and uncles made the oath that they did, sixty-eight years ago. I want to know why they stopped having mortal children."

"Percy!" Katie whispered from just behind me, and I didn't need to see her to know that her face had paled to the color of bone.

Styx raised a hand to silence her. "Be still, demigod," she said. "The boy is not wrong for wanting to know, even if he has been manipulated into wanting to."

I frowned. "But I haven't been manipulated!" I protested.

"That is what he wants you to think," she replied. "But nevertheless, I will tell you what you wish to know."

Styx waved her arms, causing black water to rise up next to her and form into a steamy circle. The circle then turned into a smoky white color and from it, a picture began to form – a picture of a girl around fourteen or so with wavy black hair, misty green eyes, and pale skin. She kind of looked familiar, but as to why she did, I couldn't quite figure out why.

"Sixty-nine years ago," Styx began. "This girl became the most current Oracle of Delphi. Upon receiving Apollo's gift, she immediately foretold a prophecy, a prophecy that went like this:

"A halfblood of the eldest gods shall reach eighteen against all odds, and see the world in endless sleep, hero's soul, cursed blade shall reap. A final choice shall end his days, Olympus to preserve or raze," she said. The Oracle of Delphi, whose eyes had started to glow misty green when she started to recite the prophecy, mimicked her with ease.

"Upon hearing this prophecy," Styx continued, "The Olympians declared an emergency meeting, to decide what the prophecy meant. Many arguments were had, many theories thrown out and discarded. Finally, after six months of deliberating, they had decided on their answer – just in time for what you mortals call the Second World War to start."

The image in the watery circle changed. Now, it showed the Big Three's godly symbols of power – Zeus's celestial lightning bolt, my dad's trident, and Hades's helm of darkness. Underneath them, various shadowy figures were shown – one was underneath Zeus, two were underneath Poseidon, and four were underneath Hades. Three of the ones underneath Hades looked smaller than the rest, while one of the ones underneath Poseidon looked as if it was standing with the help of a cane.

"The Olympians had decided that the prophecy referred to a child of either Zeus, Poseidon, or Hades," Styx said. "A child that would turn against them before its eighteenth birthday. So, while allowing their older children to live, they killed their younger children...or should I say, Hades, the only one to have children below the age of eighteen, made everyone think that he had killed his own children." Here, the three small figures below Hades's symbol of power vanished. "Then, they made their promise to me to not have anymore mortal children, although they would later tell Chiron to tell the demigods at your camp that the promise was only made after the War – after all of the chaos, senseless killing, and the suicide of Hades's last child." The last figure underneath Hades's symbol of power vanished as well.

"Wait – hold on," I said. "You said that the child would turn against them...and you also said that I was being manipulated by him. Who is this guy? Why does he want me to turn against the gods?"

Styx smiled grimly. "Think, young hero," she replied. "Who would gain the most from Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon to go to war with each other? Who would gain from the ensuing weakening and crippling of the Olympians' power? Who has a grudge against the gods that was borne out of no good reason?"

I thought about it, long and hard. Although Eris and one of the many other Underworld deities might want the Big Three to go to war with each other, they wouldn't really gain from the weakening of power that would follow. No, only someone older than the gods would, someone like –

"It's Kronos, isn't it?" I asked.

From behind me, both Silena and Katie gasped.

Styx nodded. "The Crooked One is indeed at the root of all of this," she stated.

"Well, how do I convince Hades of that?" I questioned her. "I – I mean, he's not going to believe me if I go to his palace, stating that Kronos took his and Zeus's symbols of power, and not my father. And even if he believes that, won't be just assume that I've been working for Kronos all along?"

"Hades likes a solemn oath," Styx replied as she waved her hand and made the milky water next to her go back into her river. "But solemn oaths are not meant to be taken lightly, demigod. They have to be worded carefully. Otherwise..." her grim smile turned into a wicked grin, and she added, "Otherwise I will take your soul into my river and you will spend all eternity with me."

With that, she submerged herself into her river and disappeared.

As soon as she was gone, I nervously turned around to look at my friends. All of them looked even more terrified than they had been before, which I couldn't blame them for, because I was terrified out of my mind, too. Still, I knew what we had to do, even if I didn't really know what to say or do outside of that, except for making a risky oath to Styx.

"So," I said hesitantly after a few moments. "Change of plans. Who's ready to go to Hades's palace now and not later?"

Word Count: 3,390

Next Chapter Title: We Meet The Lord Of The Dead