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! I don't have much to say today – I'm really tired and don't feel that great (has chronic illness day), so that's probably why lol. I do have an Ending Notes section for today, though, because my version of Hades is not Rick's version of him, to say the least. ;)

Next chapter will be posted on Friday, as promised. So, until then,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis

~The Finding Home Saga~

~Finding Home~

~Chapter 20: We Meet The Lord Of The Dead~

"I can't believe you just did that," Katie said as we walked down the well-worn path that the spirits had walked down earlier.

"You know I had to," I replied with the best grin that I could manage – which probably came out more like a grimace, but still. "I mean, I had to know. And not just because Kronos told me to."

Nervously, Katie bit her lip, before she finally nodded in agreement. "I suppose you're right," she said. "But Percy...are you sure you really wanted to know that the gods are probably debating right now about whether to kill you or not, even if you are innocent?"

I shrugged, because I didn't really have an answer to that. I mean, I already knew that the Big Three had made an oath to not have anymore mortal children, and that my entire existence was in spite of that oath...but knowing that they thought, that they expected me to go against them was something else...disappointing, maybe? I didn't quite know.

What I did know, though, was that it wasn't fair of them to expect me to keel over before my eighteenth birthday just because of some stu – prophecy. Some prophecy. After all, at fourteen, almost fifteen years old, I still had a lot of stuff to do yet. I wanted to meet my dad, graduate, and kiss Luke...although not necessarily in that order. And the thought of being unable to do any of those things because the gods decided to kill me was more than just a little infuriating – it was enraging.

As we walked down the path, I tried not to focus on these thoughts, which wasn't hard to do once we caught sight of the entrance to the underworld. I mean, I'm not sure what I was expecting – Pearly Gates, maybe, or a big black portcullis, or something – but it definitely wasn't for the entrance to look like a cross between airport security and the Jersey Turnpike.

There were three separate entrances under one big, black archway that said YOU ARE NOW ENTERING EREBUS that I could read without difficulty for some reason. Each entrance had a pass-through metal detector with security cameras mounted on top. Beyond that there were tollbooths manned by black-robed ghouls and literal skeletons.

The howling of the hungry animal was really loud now, but I couldn't see where it was coming from. But I did know that it had to be Cerberus, the three-headed dog that was supposed to guard Hades's door, because what else could it be? After all, Cerberus was the only animal said to live in the Underworld – besides the Furies, of course, but they don't really count.

The dead queued up into three lines, two marked ATTENDANT ON DUTY, and one marked EZ DEATH. The latter one was moving right along, while the other two were barely even crawling.

Nervously, I turned to look at Katie and Silena. "Well, what do you think?" I asked.

Katie bit her lip again. "The fast line must go straight to the Fields of Asphodel," she said after a few moments. "No contest. They don't want to risk judgment from the court, because it might go against them."

"Wait, you're telling me that there's a court for dead people?" Nico suddenly asked excitedly, from his place only a few feet away from her.

Katie nodded. "Yeah. They switch around who sits on the bench – right now I think it's King Minos, Thomas Jefferson, and Shakespeare. Something like that. Sometimes they look at a life and decide that person needs a special award, so they go to Elysium. Sometimes they decide on punishment, so they go to the Fields of Punishment...or worse, Tartarus. But most of the time, people...well, they just lived. Nothing special, good or bad. So they go to the Fields of Asphodel."

Nico blinked. "And do what?"

Katie snorted. "Stand in a wheat field forever, basically," she said.

Nico flinched. "Oh."

We got closer to the gates. The howling was so loud now, to the point where it shook the ground beneath my feet, but I still couldn't figure out where it was coming from.

Then, about fifty feet in front of us, the green mist that was hanging all over the place shimmered. Standing just where the path split into three lanes was an enormous, shadowy monster that was basically half-transparent, save for its solid, yellow eyes and gleaming white teeth. And it was staring straight at us.

"That's Cerberus, isn't it?" I asked no one in particular, then almost slapped myself for being an idiot, because I had already gone over all of that with myself mentally. "I didn't know that he was a Rottweiler."

Silena shrugged. "Personally, I'd always imagined him as a mastiff," she said, and I nodded in agreement, because I'd thought the same. "But I guess this makes sense as well."

"Wh – why am I starting to see him better?" Bianca asked nervously.

Instantly, the rest of us turned to get a better look at Cerberus – who was twice the size of a woolly mammoth – and found that we were all starting to see him a little bit better as well. I felt myself pale at the realization, and I saw that Katie and Silena did, as well. Nico mostly looked cool with it, although there was a twinge of fear to his eyes, as if he knew what that meant but didn't yet fully comprehend the meaning.

Silena moistened her lips. "I think..." she began, but trailed off for a moment, before continuing with: "I think it's because we're getting closer to death – to – to being dead."

The dog's middle head craned towards us, completely oblivious to the spirits of the dead who were walking right between his front paws and underneath his belly, which they could do without even crouching. It – that being the middle head still – sniffed the air and growled for a moment, as if it could tell that we were living and breathing humans, before it huffed haughtily and returned back to its guarding position.

"...Okay," I said as I stared at it, fully expecting Cerberus to suddenly go into full-attack mode and destroy us at any second. "That was weird."

"It was," Katie agreed. "But I wouldn't worry about it. Hades probably let him know we're coming – he's smart like that."

I wanted to ask her how smart a god could really be if they had their symbol of power was stolen from right under their nose, but I didn't. I knew that I would be instantly killed if I did.

True to Katie's words, though, we were able to walk underneath Cerebus – and barely escape his drool – and slip through the metal detectors – which were "magical item detectors" – without a problem, although the guards were watching us with soulless eyes the entire time. We were also able to get through the Fields of Asphodel – which was unimaginably big and full with sad, whispering masses of people who looked lost and wistful – without a problem too, which kind of made me a little concerned, but not really. Or, at least, it didn't make me that concerned when I saw the Furies watching us from the distance, and could feel Mrs. Dodd's beady eyes staring at a spot right in the center of my forehead.

On our way through the Fields of Asphodel, I couldn't help but look to my right. Part of it was because to my left were the Fields of Punishment, and I really didn't want to look at what was going on there, but part of it was because my eyes were simply drawn there, too, for some unfathomable reason. Although I couldn't make out much of what lied after Asphodel, I was able to make out what looked to be a small valley in the distance – a gated community with neighborhoods consisting of beautiful houses and grass that rippled in beautiful colors. And in the middle of the valley was a glittering blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. Instinctively, I realized that that had to be the Isles of the Blessed, while the valley surrounded it was Elysium.

At the thought, something whispered in my mind – a faint, vaguely familiar voice that said, "Remember, try for the Isles of the Blest, Penny."

I shook my head and moved on.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of walking, we reached Hades's palace. It was made of a glittering, black obsidian, with beautiful parapets and a two-story-tall bronze gate that stood wide open. Up close, I realized that the gate was engraved with scenes of death, both modern and ancient, but all looking as if they'd been etched into the bronze thousands of years ago.

A shiver went down my spine at the thought.

Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden that I'd ever seen. There were multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. Precious jewels made up for the lack of flowers, and standing here and there were statues that I easily recognized were victims of Medusa, as they were all smiling grotesquely and looked as if they had once been alive. And standing in the center of the garden, of course, was a single pomegranate tree – no, the pomegranate tree – which I stared at for a moment before not-so-subtly pushing Silena and Katie, who had been eyeballing it with wide eyes, forward.

I wasn't going to let them become Hades's newest brides, after all.

We walked up the steps of the palace, between black columns, through a black marble portico, and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected torchlight, and there was no ceiling, leaving the cavern roof visible from far above – which seemed odd at first, until I figured that they probably never had to worry about rain down here.

Every side door was guarded by a skeleton in military gear. Some word Greek armor, some British redcoat uniforms, and some camouflage with tattered American flags on their shoulders. They carried spears, or muskets, or M-16s. None of them bothered us, but their hollow eye-sockets followed us as we walked down the hall, toward the big set of doors at the opposite end.

"So cool," Nico whispered.

I silently disagreed with him.

Two U.S. Marine skeletons guarded the big set of doors. They grinned down at us, rocket-propelled grenade launchers held across their chests. I opened my mouth to ask them shakily whether or not we could enter, but before I could even get my voice out of my throat, a hot wind blew down the corridor and the doors swung open. The guards stepped aside.

"I guess that means entrez-vous," Silena said uncomfortably.

The room inside was dark and cavernous, with a raised platform of the sorts clear on the other side of the room, which was about forty feet away. Centered on the platform were two black marble thrones, one of which was lined with gold, while the other was lined with an emerald green color. The one lined with gold was larger than the other, and off to the side of it sat three unlined, smaller black thrones, but I couldn't focus on those – at least, not when Hades himself was sitting on the gold throne, looking at us with a carefully neutral expression on his face.

Hades was at least ten feet tall, with short black hair that kind of reminded me of Moses from The Prince of Egypt, a short black beard, dark brown eyes, and faded olive skin. He was dressed in a black silk chiton with a golden girdle and wore a crown of braided gold, both of which helped him seem like the god that he was supposed to be. He lounged on his marble throne, looking intimidating and dangerous, but also lithe and graceful, too. For some reason, this made me think of my own father, although I wasn't sure why.

"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," Hades said with a low voice, which instantly told me that I was in deep ass shit, regardless of what I wanted to happen next. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed...or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

Nervously, I stepped forward. "Lord Hades," I said. "Uncle. I am sorry for the intrusion, but when I took this quest, Chiron said that it would be best for me to venture here, into the Underworld, because he thought that whoever stole your helm of darkness and Zeus's master lightning bolt would be here, or at the very least connected to your realm."

Hades snorted. "I'm not surprised my half-brother would think suck a thing," he said. "Chiron has spent so many millennia training young heroes, that he forgets that not everyone has such a weak hold on those that are beneath them as he does."

"R – right," I said, before I continued on with the little impromptu speech that I had made. "Uncle, when I came down here, I had every intention on finding the culprit, who I thought might have been Eris or one of her siblings due to Chiron's words, and bringing them to you so that they could face justice...but I learned that this wasn't the case after I had a talk with the Lady Styx."

Here, Hades leaned forward, and his eyebrows knit together in a way that told me he was intrigued. "Oh?" he said curiously, which only confirmed my thoughts. "And what did 'the Lady Styx', as you call her, have to say?"

I swallowed. "She – she said that the culprit behind your and Zeus' symbols of power being taken was not a god," I replied, "but a titan. Kronos, to be precise. She said that he would have the most to gain from you, my father, and Zeus fighting, because your fighting would weaken Olympus and make it easier for him to rise to power once more. And..." I trailed off.

Hades looked at me sharply. "And what, demigod?" he asked.

"And she told me that you like a solemn oath," I said, before I straightened my posture and looked him dead in the eyes. "So, Lord Hades, I swear to you on the River Styx that everything that you just heard was true. I also swear to you on the River Styx that I did not steal your helm of darkness or Zeus's master lightning bolt, or intentionally feed into Kronos's plans, because as the Lady Styx told me, I might have done so unintentionally."

Despite us being underground, thunder boomed loudly in the distance both times that I mentioned the River Styx.

Hades raised an eyebrow before he leaned back into his chair, looking both impressed and disturbed. "Styx told you well, Son of Poseidon," he said. "Now I will tell you even better. Take off your backpack."

I blinked, but did as I was told and slung Ares's backpack off of my shoulder and put it on the ground.

Hades gave me a grim smile. "Open it," he said.

I did.

Inside the backpack, which I had previously thought was pretty much empty, were two things. One was a thick, two-foot long celestial bronze cylinder that was spiked on both ends, humming with energy. The other was a black, Ancient Greek war helmet, with a black metal plume that, much like the gates guarding Hades's palace, had scenes of death carved into it.

They were Zeus and Hades' symbols of power.

I had the sudden urge to puke. "Lord Hades – " I began.

But he cut me off. "It is all right, nephew," he said with a wave of his hand. "You just swore to me with the most powerful oath that there is that you did not steal these things. But still...I must know who did. Who gave you this backpack?"

"Ares, Uncle," I answered honestly. "It was Ares."

He snorted again. "Why am I not surprised? Ares has always been more rash than is becoming of a god, especially a god of war. Enyo would've been a better fit for an Olympian...but, of course, my opinion doesn't matter when it comes to such things." He paused to peer down at me. "I suppose that, besides setting you up, Ares also told you that I was the one to take your mother as a hostage?"

"Y – yes, Uncle."

Hades nodded. "Well, he wasn't wrong, I'll give him that. I did take your mother, nephew, because I thought that you were the one to take my helm of darkness and Zeus's master lightning bolt. But, since you did not..."

He waved his hand, causing a small, glittering ball of golden light to form. The light slowly stretched and got bigger and bigger, until it formed into a shape of a human – and not just the shape of any human, but the shape of my mom. I watched with wide eyes as she slowly, but surely formed inside the golden light, looking like she had the day that we went off to Montauk – perfectly healthy, as if she hadn't gotten into a car crash or had her throat squeezed by the Minotaur.

"Mom," I couldn't help but whisper as I looked at her, even though I knew that she couldn't hear me. She probably wasn't even conscious.

"Since my realm isn't...suitable for the living to live in, much less wake up in," Hades said with a wry smile, "I will transport your mother to your house, where she will wake up in her bed, unharmed. Is that acceptable to you, nephew?"

"I – " I began, but then stopped myself. Was I really okay with my mom going back to our apartment in Manhattan, where the first thing that Smelly Gabe would do when he saw her there is order her around? Where he might slap her or hit her, because I wasn't there for him to take his anger out on me? Could I really let her go there, knowing that? Where else could she go?

Nervously, I took in a deep breath. "Uncle," I said. "Can you do me a favor?"

Once again, Hades raised an eyebrow. "What kind of favor do you want, nephew?" he asked.

"It – it's nothing big, I promise," I replied. "It's just...I sent a package to Olympus, and I have a feeling that they're either going to kill me for it or send it back. Maybe both. If the latter's the case, can you make sure that the package is somewhere my mom can easily see it once she wakes up? I don't..." I don't want her to suffer under Gabe without me for gods knows how long. I want her to have an out. An easy way out.

"...I see," Hades said after a few moments, before he gave me another grim smile. "Very well, nephew. I will do what you ask. And I will make sure that, when your stepfather enters my realm, he will suffer greatly for the heinous crimes that he has committed against you and your mother."

He waved his hand again, and my mom vanished. I watched her disappear with mournful eyes, knowing that even if I somehow survived this mess, what with the prophecy that was hanging over my shoulders, it'd still be way too long before I saw her again.

Hades cleared his throat, before he turned to survey Katie, Silena, Nico, and Bianca. When his eyes landed on the latter two, a strange expression passed over his face, and he said, "Niccolò. Bianca."

My eyes widened. How could he possibly know their names? And why would he want to know their names?

The watery white circle that Styx had conjured appeared in my mind, specifically when all five of the figures underneath Hades's symbol of power had been standing there. So did the voice of Styx, specifically the point when she said, "...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."

Fuck. Fuck. No wonder why I had felt like I was in deep ass shit with the Lord of the Dead, even if I was almost completely innocent when it came to his stolen symbol of power.

Bianca shifted nervously, while next to her Nico stared up at Hades with wide eyes. "F – Father?" she asked.

Hades nodded, before he said, "I am sorry, my children, that your cousin and his friends took you out of the place of the Lotus-Eaters so soon...it wasn't my plan for them to. You two were supposed to stay in there, ideally, until the prophecy that I presume you heard had finished, so that Zeus would not kill you. But now...now that you have been discovered, sending you back will not be wise, because it will only be a matter of time until Zeus finds out and tries to kill you for it, just like he killed your mother so many years ago..."

"S – so, where do we go?" Bianca asked him, her face pale.

Nico looked like he was about ready to pass out from the excitement of it all.

"You can come with us to camp," Silena suddenly blurred out. Instantly, all of us looked at her, causing her to blush as she hurriedly added, "I – I mean no offense to you, Lord Hades, it's just that...if Nico and Bianca were to come back with us, and we told Chiron and Dionysus about them coming along with us on this quest, both of them might put a good word in to Zeus...right? And if that happens, Zeus probably wouldn't kill them, prophecy or otherwise, because he'd face the same dilemma that he will with Percy if he does."

"...And perhaps, milord," Katie added, sounding way too formal for my tastes, "you could also promise Zeus and Poseidon not to kill another mortal child of theirs, in return for them doing the same? That way, both your children and Percy would be protected, because Poseidon is very likely to agree with you due to Percy being his son."

Hades hummed thoughtfully as he idly stroked his beard. Finally, after several moments, he said, "That's not a bad idea, Daughter of Aphrodite, Daughter of Demeter. Very thoughtful...and cunning, too. Very well." He turned back to look at Nico and Bianca. "Do you wish to go to camp with these demigods, children? You'd be – "

"YES!" Nico shouted, before he quickly noticed his father's amused look, blushed, and added, "Uh...yes, Father, thank you."

Bianca nodded faintly in agreement.

Hades smiled at them, and this time his smile lacked the grimness that it had before. Then, he stood up, and held out his hand. The helm of darkness, which had still been in the backpack that Ares had given me, promptly flew into his hand. "I will send the four of you," he told Silena, Katie, Nico and Bianca, "to the edge of camp, out of good faith to Chiron and Dionysus. But as for you, nephew," he told me, "There is no time for us to waste. You and I will be going directly to Olympus."

Word Count: 3,917

Next Chapter Title: I Meet My Maker & His Siblings

Ending Notes: On Hades's throne room, appearance, and kind of OOC personality – this is how I always imagined him for some reason ha ha! I never really liked the imagery of him having long hair (I always thought of Severus Snape and Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter because of it), and I never really imagined him as having deathly pale skin, either. After all, with how much time he spends in the Underworld, his appearance is probably the least changed from how it was in ancient Greece, right? That's my excuse, anyways lol :P

Once again, the next chapter will be posted on Monday, like always. Sincerely,

~TGWSI/Selene Borealis