Chapter 18: We make a delivery to the Underworld

POV: Annabeth

The moment Jason disappeared, so did the tension in the room.

Yeah sure, there were the knocked-out Bryce and the still sobbing Octavian bound to their beds, getting first aid treatment from Grover, but even if we were to unbind them, they wouldn't pose any kind of risk to us anymore.

I knew that we should probably start moving soon again, but I wanted the others to at least have a small break. Today had really been a rollercoaster ride after all. We had fought monsters, some of us had almost died and worst of all we had the displeasure to meet that menace Hera. Twice. But not all had been bad, after all, we had also freed trapped demigods, learned that Thalia had seemingly two younger siblings, and prevented one of them from getting killed.

And in spite of everything that had happened today, I couldn't help but smile. Ever since she had saved me, Thalia had always been like an older sister to me. Knowing her for only a couple of weeks before she had sacrificed herself might seem like too short a time, but she was and always would be important to me. Having a hand in saving her little sister felt in a way like repaying her.

And it might prevent her from leaving again, a small part of me couldn't help but think.

My eyes fell on the still crying form of Bianca holding Nico, then at Allapsar who was sniffling against my chest while I was gently stroking through her hair.

Not that I would ever openly admit in having these feelings, Thalia had the right to make her own decisions after all, but her leaving me had really hurt. I could understand how it had made Nico feel and why he had been so angry back then.

And now that there was no longer a prophecy – not that anybody else knew that yet – and things were changing, I secretly hoped this was one of them.

Well, no point thinking about it now, I thought sighing, looking down at the sword laying on the ground next to me.

Such a shame that it was clearly of Roman origin and it would be a bad idea to take it with us. Especially since our group was short on weapons and add in the fact that I really didn't want their original owners to have them back, I was wondering what to do with them. It wasn't as if we could just destroy them…

A thought crossed my mind and I started smirking. Sure, we couldn't destroy them, but we could do something else.

"Percy, can you pile up all their weapons over there?" I asked, pointing with my head in the direction of the Hermes Delivery Service advertisement. "I still have to make a sacrifice."

The weapons of our defeated enemies would be perfect to gift to my mother for her help earlier today.

"No! You have no right to- Arghhh!"

"Totally sorry," Grover said, looking down on Octavian giving him a big smile, sounding not sorry at all.

A few minutes later Bianca and Allapsar had calmed somewhat, and we regrouped at the sales desk. After sending a delivery to Athena, Percy had decided to do the same thing to Hermes as well.

The flying shoes – we had found out from Grover – didn't quite survive their encounter with the Caucasian Eagle it seemed.

Percy in an act of totally being himself had decided we might as well return them to Hermes. But not without a note reading "damaged goods, return to manufacturer".

He was clearly pointing out the curse on them and not speaking about the ripped wings though. Sending them to him would either make him annoyed at us or it could possibly make him feel guilty.

"You go ahead," Percy told us, giving me a meaningful look. "I just cut them loose and then follow."

We had decided to release them before we left so that no monsters would kill them until Jason returned from his dip in the ocean and could keep them safe again. I wasn't sure if I should feel sorry for forcing Jason to take care of two invalids, especially the crybaby Octavian who was really getting on my nerves. You could have thought he was dying and not just having a broken leg.

We could have simply killed them wasn't there the minor fact of us not wanting to anger the Romans or the fact that we really didn't want to kill other demigods if we could help it.

There was also the major reason of having to go to the Underworld. With our luck, we would be forced to share their company all the way to the Fields of Asphodel. So, Jason would just have to live with his fate of further sharing their pleasant company.

When Percy rejoined us, he gave me a quick nod, indicating that he had found out where the Roman Camp could be found. Which left us with one problem less at least. And from what I learned about Octavian - that he was a coward - there was little risk of him ever admitting he revealed the location to potential enemies.

Percy went to walk ahead with Allapsar and Grover, who was carrying the daughter of Zeus, which left me in the back with Bianca who was carrying Nico after she had insisted on doing it herself.

She was sending me glances from the side, so I slowed down a little, letting us fall back behind the others. I figured she wanted to talk away from the prying ears of other people.

"I remember now," she finally mumbled looking deep in thought. "My dream, I mean."

"Because of what Nico did."

It was a statement, not a question, and Bianca nodded, walking for a moment in silence next to me.

"You had the same one, right? That's why you knew where to find us," she finally asked, hesitating for a moment before going on, "but it wasn't a dream, was it? I mean it was a dream for me, but it wasn't a dream, right? I'm not making much sense, do I?"

She wouldn't for most people, but it did for me. She certainly was perceptive, but it did pose the question for me now, about how much I should tell her.

"There are different types of dreams a demigod can have," I said carefully. "Some are just weird symbolism. Some are events of the past … or future. In most you are but a watcher without being able to interfere… but sometimes it feels less of a dream and more like it actually happens to you."

Bianca seemed to think over what I had just told her. "I dreamt," she decided. "It was like watching a film. But it was different for you, wasn't it? You and Percy, I mean. How bad was what happened after?"

"It doesn't matter," I told her gently, elaborating when she was looking confused. "Even the fact of remembering this dream means that the future is already different from what we saw. As long as we do not make the same mistakes, the ones we were shown, there is no point in worrying over what could have happened. But keep your dream quiet, alright? It wouldn't be good if enemies learned of it."

Bianca took a deep breath but nodded.

Ahead of us, the others had suddenly stopped. For a moment I feared something happened again, but quickly realized they had only stopped in front of a television.

I remembered the interview Percy's ex-stepfather gave last time, but it was unlikely to be airing right now. For one, it wasn't even the same day or time, and neither was Percy a national searched delinquent. No, it had to be something else.

I was right of course.

"-Las Vegas." – We seemed to have caught just the end of the situation in Las Vegas. Most likely the many missing children that reappeared thanks to us. – "And now on to other news. Many fans' expectations rose ever since star actor Tristan McLean's announcement of his newest role. Now that shooting will start in Rome in July, and-"

Realizing it wasn't anything important I turned the women out and we left. Right now I wasn't interested in any kind of film, not even one that was based on myths. Living this stuff was more than enough for me.

PJ&AC

A few minutes later we finally approached DOA Recording Studios again. Ignoring the still wet street and the stenciled letters on the glass doors forbidding entrance for the living, we entered the DOA lobby.

As far as I could tell it was the same as it had been the last time, and I really had no problem remembering our first visit to the Underworld.

The soft sound of Muzak in the background, black leather furniture overfilled with spirits, and the steel gray carpet and walls. After meeting the skeletons earlier, the others at least didn't seem too disturbed upon seeing the spirits around us.

Ignoring everything around him and acting as if he knew what he was doing, Percy approached the raised podium of the security guard's desk.

"Hello Mr. CARE-ON, Sir," he chirped, seemingly having the time of his life. "Seven to the Underworld, please."

Charon leaned across the desk, his eyes hidden behind the tortoiseshell shades, wearing an Italian silk suit with a pinned black rose, matching his bleached-blond hair shaved in military-style.

"Well, it's not like it isn't refreshing hearing someone straightforward ask without screaming, "NO! There must be a mistake, Mr. Charon.'," Charon said, his mouth twitching in humor, "but aren't you a little too happy to go to the Underworld, little dead ones?"

Percy just shook his head. "Nah, definitely not after the day we just had," he said pulling a grimace. "I would take going to the Underworld over being forced to meet Hera even once. And we met her twice today."

"Hera?" Charon asked, then leaned forward and took a sniff. "You're not dead. I should've known. You're a godling."

"Yes?" Percy asked, pretending to be confused. "Didn't I just say that? Anyway, when do we leave?"

Charon made a growling sound deep in his throat and immediately all the people in the waiting room got up and started pacing, agitated, lighting cigarettes, running hands through their hair, or checking their wristwatches.

I swear Percy was riling him up on purpose. Not that it wouldn't be a good plan to gain entrance. And well, it also was amusing to watch.

"You better leave while you can," Charon told us.

"Well, that's too bad," I said, deciding not to let Percy have all the fun, "and after we came all the way to deliver Hades his Helm of Darkness. Should we just send him an Iris Message instead, asking him to come up to fetch it himself? Or just leave and keep it?"

Charon as well as all the spirits in the lobby froze upon hearing the Lord of the Underworld's name.

"Helm of Darkness?" he asked nervously, his eyes frantically jumping between us. "No, no. That won't be necessary. I'll take you, of course. I assume you have the payment?"

So, we're telling him that we were here on making a delivery to Hades, and he asks for payment? Really?

"Payment?" Percy asked frowning.

"Normally, with adults, you see, I could charge your American Express, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But with children … alas, you never die prepared. But since you're not dead, and you're on your way to the Underworld, I assume you have the payment necessary?" he said giving us a look that I assume was supposed to be nonchalant.

Him moistening his lips with a greedy glint in his eyes didn't really make it look very sincere though. "I will even be generous and only take everything you have on you at the moment."

I raised my brows at him. Did he seriously just try to scam somebody on the way to help his master? That's pretty bold of him.

"We have," I answered, meeting Percy's gaze, sharing his cheeky grin, "but are you really going to make his own children pay just to visit him?"

"His children?" Charon asked suspiciously, then his eyes landed on Nico and Bianca again and he blanched. "Ah, yes, of course. The boat's almost full, anyway. I might as well add you lot and be off."

He jumped up, pushing through the crowd of waiting spirits. "Come along, please."

We followed him, and the waiting spirits started moving again, grabbing at our clothes, only to be suddenly pushed back. An invisible wall was forcing them to part in front of us. My eyes fell on the two children of Hades. Bianca was looking around the room and wherever her gaze fell, the spirits pulled away from us.

Was she doing it on purpose or was this just a subconscious reaction?

We followed Charon into the elevator, which was already crowded with souls of the dead, each of them holding a green boarding pass. Charon seemed to be quite out of it because he even forgot to warn the spirits waiting in the lobby like he had done the last time. He shut the doors, put his key card into the slot panel and we started to descend.

"Would it be possible not to mention that to Lord Hades and just simply forget what just happened?" he asked, chuckling nervously.

I wanted to answer but somebody beat me to it.

"What happens to the spirits waiting in the lobby?" Bianca asked, ignoring his question.

"Nothing," Charon said frowning at her.

"For how long?"

"Forever, or until I'm feeling generous."

"Even the children among them?" she tried to dig deeper. "That wouldn't be really fair if they have no way of paying."

Charon raised an eyebrow. "Whoever said death was fair, young Lady? As a child of the Underworld, it is better you learn that soon."

I got a sudden dizzy feeling when we weren't going down anymore, but forward instead. The air turned misty and the Spirits around us started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.

"That's good advice," Bianca answered, nodding her head in understanding, but there was a glint in her eyes. "Then to answer your previous question, I guess I will tell my father. Unless there is something making me feel particularly generous at that moment, that is."

When I could refocus again, Charon's now glassless dark and empty eye sockets, full of night and death and despair, were directed at Bianca. Through his now transparent skin, I could see his mouth hang open, only to close sharply with an audible click.

Percy turned away from him, took my hand, and moved himself and Allapsar closer to me. He was preparing for the aura the Underworld would have, but more than that, he was trying to hide his grinning face from Charon. He wasn't quite able to suppress the sound of his snickering though.

For a moment nobody said anything. Not even as the elevator turned into a boat and the polluted water of the Styx – filled with not only swirling bones, dead fish, and oily river water, but also plastic dolls, crushed carnations, soggy diplomas with gilt edges – and the ceiling of stalactites came into view.

"I might be in a generous mood right now," Charon said finally, his voice filled with annoyance, hardly sounding sincere.

The shoreline of craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretching inland about a hundred yards, and the high stone walls of Erebus, stretching endlessly in either direction, came into view.

"Might as well throw them out of the lobby, they probably played around on my easy-listening station again anyway," he added grumbling under his breath.

The bottom of our boat slid onto the black sand and the dead began to disembark.

"That's great!" Bianca said brightly accompanied by snicking in the background. "Me too actually, now that I think about it."

We disembarked as well and Charon started to ferry the empty barge back across the river, muttering Ancient Greek curses.

"That was fun," Bianca stated smiling, making everyone look at her. "What?"

"You're already corrupting her," Grover moaned in despair and I wouldn't have been surprised if he had started pulling out his hair. "I'm sure searching for Pan is safer than being any of your Keeper, much less being responsible for all of you. And that's saying something, considering nobody has ever returned from that!"

Amongst the others snickering and teasing Grover, we started following the spirits up a well-worn path.

Giving the spirits a more thorough look made me frown. I remembered exactly what happened last time, and those were without doubt the exact same spirits. That was … strange? But that wasn't even what took my attention. Of all the spirits last time, I remembered a woman holding a young girl's hand.

This time they weren't among them.

Had we been so close to Thalia's mother and sister the last time? Had we accompanied them to the Underworld without even realizing it?

My thinking got interrupted by something poking me against the chest.

I blinked and found myself looking in the questioning gaze of Allapsar. Being deep in thought, I hadn't realized we had already reached the security gate of Erebus, and that now everybody was looking at me.

"Sorry," I said shaking my head clearing my thoughts. "Just thinking. What did you say?"

"We just talked about how we most likely can just walk through after we talked to one of the security ghouls," Percy answered, grinning at me as if I had just missed a joke. "Then I proposed that since we have a lot of time left, we might as well make a stop to play with Cerberus a bit."

My eyes widened. Now, most people would call me stupid for this, but I hadn't seen Cerberus in years and I really wanted to meet and play with him again.

"Then Grover told him he is crazy," Bianca added smiling, seeming to actually have a good time notwithstanding everything that happened since we met. "And finally, they agreed that you as a daughter of Athena are the most levelheaded, and we do what you decide upon."

I smirked. "Did they now?"

Much to Grover's despair, I did decide we should play with Cerberus. Grover was the only one who didn't want to join in and was trying to persuade us not to do it.

"You're all crazy," he whined as we approached the gates. "I can understand what he says, and it's everything but nice, you know? Why is never any of you listening to me?"

"Just watch," I answered as I approached the giant purebred Rottweiler twice the size of a wooly mammoth, possessing three heads that were growling at me.

I started shouting, "Hello Cerberus. We're here to play with you. See the ball? You want the ball Cerberus? Sit!"

Cerberus looked as stunned as he had last time.

All three of his heads cocked sideways. Six nostrils dilated.

"Sit!" I called again.

Cerberus reacted exactly like I wanted to, licking his three sets of lips, shifting on his haunches, and sat down, crushing dozens of spirits passing underneath him in the EZ DEATH line.

"Good boy!" I said.

After that, the others joined me while Grover was looking out for Nico and the daughter of Zeus.

There was a moment of fright when Cerberus suddenly bent down to sniff Bianca, but it was over quickly when he started nuzzling her. He clearly had recognized her as a child of the Underworld, and after that, he seemed to have completely accepted us. He started wagging his tail and even allowed us to pet him.

Cerberus seemed overjoyed at having so many people to play with him, and for a while, we had fun with him, even when all the balls had been broken by his teeth.

Suddenly alarms started blaring, making Cerberus look around in surprise. If I had to take a guess, I would say one of the security ghouls had sounded it when Cerberus didn't seem to be doing his job properly but started halting any progress and clogging up the lines by sitting on them instead. On top of that, he seemed to refuse to kill the intruders, meaning us.

The security ghouls came running at us, police batons in hand, ready to apprehend us.

Cerberus didn't seem happy having his playtime interrupted, and much less by people attacking his new playmates. He turned around and swatted the closest of them away like toy soldiers. His snarling at the rest made all approach halt.

They froze for a moment before scuttling away, yelling for backup from the Furies. I couldn't help but sigh. It looked as if our playtime was over. This had been the first real opportunity to take off our mind of quest-related things in a while.

And sure enough, I could already see the Furies approaching from Hades' palace. They landed in front of us, their fangs bared, looking anything but pleased to see us. They clearly hadn't forgiven us for turning their ambush around them.

The middle one, Alecto, stepped forward, running her forked tongue over her green, leathery lips. "I would like nothing more than get my clutches on you-" she began but got interrupted by Cerberus' growling, standing protectively above us.

Alecto hesitated. "Lord Hades wishes to speak with you," she finally said, sounding unhappy. "He will not accept to be left waiting any further. If you do not go now, then…"

She cackled, savoring the idea. Then she and her sisters rose on their bats' wings, fluttering into the air, circling above us, watching.

Percy just rolled his eyes after them. "Sorry big guy," I said, looking up to Cerberus. "Looks like we have to talk to your master."

Cerberus whimpered. He lowered his heads, gently nuzzling us with them, looking at us with big sad puppy dog eyes.

"We'll come back, I promise," I told him. "And next time we will bring you balls that don't get destroyed so easily. Would you like that?"

He barked loudly, waggling with his tail. Then there were three big tongues bathing us in dog salvia.

PJ & AC

On our way to Hades' palace, Percy was moaning about how he didn't seem to be able to dry up dog salvia. As amusing as it was listening to him whine, I was trenched as well, and he didn't seem to see the obvious solution at all.

"Just summon water and wash it away, Percy," I finally complained. "You can easily dry us up afterward."

He just gave a sheepish look.

We found ourselves walking through the vast fields of Asphodel, seeing the stark contrast between the beauty of Elysium and the horrors of the Fields of Punishment.

I tried ignoring both, not keen on the memories it brought forth. None of the people I was thinking about were in either yet, but my mind didn't seem to care, preferring to show me how they died.

The worst was the crossroad leading to Tartarus though. While we had hardly been in there and had more important things to worry about than taking in our surroundings, it had still been an awful place. Now, being so close to it did send shivers up my back that only stopped when Percy grabbed my hand, looking as bad as I felt.

After a few blood-curdling moments we were finally past it, reaching Hades palace.

The Furies were still circling above us, as we stood in front of the outer walls of the black glittering fortress, in front of the two-story-tall wide open bronze gates.

Ignoring the engraved prophecies of mass death – one looking uncomfortable similar to the storm that had razed Olympus – we entered Persephone's garden.

The garden was as colorful and weird as ever, but I barely paid any attention to the flowers and jewels in it. Percy and I pulled Grover along, making sure that nobody else was touching or eating anything. With a hint of sadness I saw and remembered that here were even more statues of Medusa's collection, consisting mainly of Satyrs, Centaurs, and children.

When we walked up the steps of the palace, the Furies landed next to us again.

"Follow," Alecto commanded, leading us inside, past countless side-passages guarded by skeletons in military gear from different epoches throughout history, until we stood in front of a set of big doors I knew would lead to Hades' throne room.

A hot wind blew down the corridor, and the doors swung open.

Hades awaited us sitting on his throne made from fused human bones, looking just like I remembered him.

He was at least ten feet tall, dressed in black silk robes with a crown of braided gold. His albino-white skin offered a stark contrast to his shoulder-length jet-black hair. Like his brothers, Hades radiated power and danger, yet remained graceful.

Unlike last time, he seemed to have suppressed most of his aura, making him seem neither malicious nor benevolent.

It was Percy and I who were the ones to have his Helm of Darkness, yet from the moment we entered he had been ignoring us completely, his eyes not having left the form of Bianca who was again carrying Nico.

His face was neutral, but from the myriad of emotions, I could see flash through his eyes, the one standing out most was worry.

It did raise my opinion of him quite a bit and I wanted to help him and his children.

Percy seemed to share the sentiment because he stepped forward and spoke, "Lord Uncle before we talk, would it be possible for you to have a look at our friends? They have passed out after fighting off enemies on our way to reach here."

It was the right way to handle this. Percy had left the fact that Nico was a child of his unsaid and had included the daughter of Zeus as well. And instead of offering Hades to look after his son, he had phrased it as a request of something standing in correlation with our reason of being here.

Hades didn't answer. Instead, he silently motioned us to approach his throne and to put the two down in front of him.

After he had finished looking over Nico, I could see the slight relaxation of his body and knew that Nico would be fine.

"He has used an amount of power his body is not yet ready to handle," he told us in a calm voice, not revealing his real emotions in it. "As long as he does not try to use this ability again in the next few years, and lets his body recover the next few days, he should be fine."

He turned to look at Thalia's sister for a moment before shaking his head. "There is nothing wrong with the girl. She should wake up soon."

"My lord," I asked carefully, meeting his gaze when he turned to me. "Her mother is she…"

"I do not expect her arrival in my domain any time soon," he stated simply.

I nodded, grateful for the information.

Then I pulled down my backpack and offered him the Helm of Darkness from within.

I almost expected for it to unleash its power the moment he took hold of it, but Hades seemed to restrain himself for our sake. He stared at the Helm, its presence clearly calming him down even more.

After a moment his eyes fell on us again. "Speak about what happened," he ordered.

And so, we did.

We didn't just tell him about the thievery but described what happened to us on our quest as well. Mixing in the information we had only gained the last time, and only leaving out small details that would reveal just how much we knew. We had figured that we should give him as much information to allow him to prepare accordingly to the threat we were facing.

"While it is not yet confirmed which demigod he used, the perpetrator is the Titan Lord," I finished. "He tried to divide you and your brothers, to make you weaken each other while he gains your most powerful weapons. He will rise again, and it will not take him much longer. We will inform the council-"

A humorless chuckle interrupted me. Hades' face sneered in disgust.

"You can try if you want, but my brother will not do anything. No matter what you tell him, he will refuse to see reason until it is far too late. And he will forbid anyone else from doing anything productive as well."

"The Titan Lord will try again, Uncle," Percy spoke up. "He will try to separate the three of you, to prevent you and my father from supporting Olympus in times of need. You must be prepared accordingly."

Hades raised his brow. "And why ever should I care what happens to them?"

Frankly speaking, trying to make gods see reason and to take a break from millennial-old grudges so the world doesn't get destroyed was not really my favorite pastime.

"Because it will not only be them that suffer. And it will be the most vulnerable, that will suffer first," I answered quietly, my eyes flickering in direction of his children.

His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward. "If you believe I would let my children take part in such a fight, you are clearly mistaken. Your camp is for children of the Olympian council, yet I do not have a cabin, yet my children are not welcome in it," he growled. "Why should my children fight for people who do not accept them? Why should I fight for those who have exiled me from my home?"

His answer and the anger he showed about the fate his children fared startled Bianca. Until now she had been standing awkwardly next to Nico, not knowing how she should act after Hades had ignored her until now. I was sure that Bianca had felt hurt by it, but just now he had confirmed my guess. It was simply because he had planned to keep them here with him, and he obviously didn't want to have this his reunion with them in our presence.

"They are my cousins. That makes them family," Percy stated, meeting Hades' gaze head-on. "And I don't abandon my family. If they don't have a cabin themselves, they can use mine. I can't speak for anyone else, but I will do my best to help them be accepted."

"As will everyone else of us here," I added and the others agreed.

"Your cabin? Do you really think your father would allow that?" Hades sneered.

"Yes."

Percy's words and the firm conviction he had in them took Hades aback.

"And even in the case he doesn't," Percy added. "He still owes me a favor for clearing his name. If I have to, I will force him to accept it."

Hades stared down at Percy, clearly surprised by this development.

"Father," the hesitant voice of Bianca suddenly spoke up, gaining everyone's attention. "I cannot say I understand everything you are talking about, but I do wish to join Camp. I like them, and I trust them with my life. They saved Nico and me. I know that they would never abandon us."

Hades' gaze flickered between his daughter and us, his brows furrowed deep in thought.

"You were there to keep you safe," he murmured in quiet annoyance, then focused on Percy. "What proof do I have that you will not simply change your mind? That you will not turn your back on them as my so-called family has done to me."

Percy shared a glance with me and we both answered, "Because we give you our word on the river Styx."

There was no thunder booming, but I could feel the Styx outside the palace react to our words.

For a moment he simply stared at us in silence, intrigued and surprised with what we did.

"I will prepare my domain accordingly," he finally relented. "Even if only for the reason that I do not wish to be caught off-guard by the likes of my father. And I will hold you to your oath. My children will stay here for now, until you have proven your words speak true. After that, I will allow them to join your Camp if they wish to do so. But beware what I will do to you, should you break your oath."

"We thank you, Uncle, for your trust," Percy said. "But you are mistaken in one thing you said earlier. While I cannot speak for them, I believe you have at least one sister who would never abandon you and would have offered you help, had you simply asked. As would have my father, I believe."

He didn't include Hera and Zeus for the obvious reason that we wouldn't trust them ourselves, and Demeter, we never really had interacted with her but as she was still unhappy about her daughter, Hades most likely wasn't her favorite person.

Luckily, Hades didn't look insulted by Percy's words. He simply shook his head and sighed, not deign to give his opinion on the matter.

Then he looked at me. "Give me your cap."

"My cap?" I asked, confused about the change in subject.

He rolled his eyes at me, motioning with his hands to hand it over. "Yes, your cap. The cheap imitation of my own. The one your mother gave you."

His condescending voice irritated me. True, my cap was nowhere near as powerful as his own, but it had still been useful to us in many situations. And it had been a present from my mother.

Unsure I stepped forward.

He only took it for a moment, then there was a glow around it, and he handed it back to me. It looked the same as ever but felt different somehow.

"I took the liberty to strengthen it. It is now powerful enough to even hide you from the eyes of the dead. But do not make the mistake to even try to use it to hide from death itself. It will not work, and the attempt would have grave consequences," he warned.

"I- Thank you, Lord Hades, for your generous gift," I stammered, trying to regain my composure.

"It is hardly worth mentioning," he said turning to look at Percy. "So, what else do you seek from me in return for your help? Except for your mother I would presume, of course."

I shared a quick glance with Percy. It had been surprisingly difficult thinking about something to ask from Hades and Zeus for our help. Not because we didn't find anything we wanted to have, but because we weren't sure how much we could ask for, and what they would actually grant us.

"I do not want anything," Percy said, but seeing Hades starting to frown unhappy, he quickly went on before Hades could take insult. "Nothing for me personally I mean, but I have multiple requests I would ask of you to fulfill for us. If they are within our right to ask for, of course, Uncle."

Hades raised a brow. "Then humor me, would you."

"First of all, I would like to ask for two magical items. Bianca's and Nico's help has been a crucial factor in us reaching you, so I would like you to give them something they would find useful."

Bianca made a motion to protest but was stopped by Grover who whispered something to her. He seemed to be aware of what it was that Percy was going to ask. He must have been told, most likely on our way over from Crusty's, and was trying to prevent them from interrupting.

"Next is that years ago you cursed an innocent girl for something that was out of her powers. Please see reason. She does not deserve this."

He clearly understood who Percy was talking about. This request was something we had to tread carefully lest we provoke his ire.

Or we could do it like Percy was doing right now and try to stare him down…

"The two demands you named that day are fulfilled now anyway, so this is more of informing you about it than a request really. And your treatment of her was the same as Zeus acted that day, so she really deserves better."

There was now shock and surprise in his face, his building-up anger deflated again.

He pulled a grimace, clearly not liking to have acted similar to his brother, but knowing himself it was true. "I have not heard anything about it being fulfilled," he said in suspicion.

We didn't really want to reveal this fact, but we needed him to know if we wanted to have a chance at him listening to us. At least there was little risk in having him reveal the information to any of the other Olympians.

"Given the events happening at the moment, it would be better it stayed that way," I said. "I'm sure your aunt would be able to confirm it, should you ask her."

There was no reason to specify which aunt I was talking about. There was only one that had a connection to the Oracle.

"And the statues of Medusa. The people within are still alive as far as we found out," Percy quickly added, most likely trying to just get it over with. "It would be great if you could heal them too? There shouldn't be living people in the Underworld anyway, right? But if you could make an exception and allow all of us to leave alive when we decide to visit the Underworld, that would be nice."

He gave us a deadpan look. "Anything else."

He clearly didn't mean for us to actually add anything, but Bianca spoke up timidly, "Ah, Charon said that most children can't cross over for long a time, as they usually don't have any money. Is it possible to allow them to cross for free? They shouldn't be left to suffer for something they had no power over."

That… was not something we had thought off, but Bianca was right in asking. I gave Hades a glance trying to figure out what he was thinking, without success.

"You do not demand much, do you?" he stated, though there was clear amusement in his voice.

He was right, we certainly did, but the way he reacted I thought we had a good chance he would grant all, or at least most of our requests. It did help that his children would gain quite a bit through it. Especially the fact that they would officially be allowed to visit him without any sort of repercussions for either him or them.

Hades was staring down at us, mostly Percy and me, milling over what he should do.

In the end, he relented. "Very well. Nobody should be able to say that I do not know how to be generous to those who deserve it," he announced in a regal voice.

Hades loosed a ball of golden fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of us, revealing the frozen form of Sally.

"You have my gratitude for what you did, nephew, as does the rest of you. Your mother will wake up the moment you touch her."

Since the beginning, Percy had called him uncle, but just now had been the first time he had recognized Percy as family as well. I wondered how much would change by having Hades respect Percy instead of hating him.

Percy moved and a moment later, Sally was awake again with Percy hugging her. I wanted to approach as well but knew that Sally didn't know me yet, and I didn't want to intrude on Percy's reunion with his mother. Not that Percy seemed to care if we heard him telling her that he loved her, or that he was crying tears of joy of being reunited with her.

"Percy?" Sally whispered, sounding strangely confused.

Well, it wasn't surprising that what happened to her had been disorientating, but I got the feeling something was off.

Then she looked up from Percy, taking in her surroundings.

"Annabeth, is that you? What's going on?"

AN:

So firstly, sorry for the delay. Didn't find any time yesterday and only just got home again. Next Friday should (hopefully) be on time.

Now we're finally coming close to the end of the first quest with only a few chapters missing. Like I already said I will not make a time-skip after that as I planned at the beginning but a couple of chapters about camp life and changes they start to make until the next quest begins. Since I decided to not split it into multiple works, I'm going to rename the fiction following the last chapter of the quest so don't be surprised about it. "The thieving demigod" will stay as the title of the first quest. Not sure yet if I will simply keep it as "Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase" or if I'm going to add something to it. I'll announce that the week before I change it though.

Next time: We take a vacation in the Underworld