I love the relationships between Percy and Nico and Thalia too- the teasing and banter. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and please do review. Also, I'll update again in a few hours as tomorrow's gonna be a busy day for me and I may not be able to update.
Percy should probably be more nervous about the look Persephone was giving her, but she really couldn't bring herself to care. She was too angry for that, though Nico, Bianca and Thalia were nervous enough for all of them based on the looks they were shooting between her and the goddess as they stared each other down.
After several long moments Persephone looked away.
"The search for the blade cannot be common knowledge," said the goddess eventually. "We have locked the realm, but we have not announced why, nor can Hades's servants be used for the search. They must not know the blade exists until it is finished. Certainly they can't know it is missing."
"If they thought Hades was in trouble, they might desert him," Nico's voice was grim. "And join the Titans."
Persephone didn't answer, but if a goddess could look nervous, she did. "The thief must be a demigod. No immortal can steal another immortal's weapon directly. Even Kronos must abide by that Ancient Law. He has a champion down here somewhere. And to catch a demigod… we shall use four."
"And why us?" Percy asked tightly, raising an eyebrow, "Or do you think that we have lots of time to spare- it's not like we're in the middle of a war or anything now is it?"
"You are the children of the three major gods," Persephone said. "Who could withstand your combined power? Besides, when you restore the sword to Hades, you will send a message to Olympus. Zeus and Poseidon will not protest against Hades's new weapon if it is given to him by their own children. It will show that you trust Hades."
"Yes, because I trust the god who decided to kill me for existing." Thalia's voice was annoyed, "Or did you forget that part of my history with him-"
"He did what?" Bianca looked startled, "I don't think you mentioned that-"
"Yeah. He did." Thalia scowled, "Percy might not mind Hades but I'm not hid biggest fan and I don't trust him-"
"And right now I'm kinda questioning his judgement too." Percy admitted, "No matter how much I like him."
"I-" Bianca hesitated, "I haven't even met my father yet." she admitted, "Not in person anyway. I don't know him, but I know my friends and if they won't do it then I won't either."
"I do trust my dad." Nico said after a moment, "But this isn't right it doesn't feel right." his gaze was glued to Persephone. "And I get why Percy's pissed off right now and I stand by my sister no matter what. But on saying that we will find the sword for you." he decided, "As long as the others are okay with that."
"Why don't we just leave them to find it?" Thalia asked, "Why should we bother?"
"Because time is wasting. The thief may already have accomplices in the Underworld, and he will be looking for a way out."
"Wait?" Bianca frowned, "But you just said that the Underworld was locked down."
"No prison is airtight, not even the Underworld. Souls are always finding new ways out faster than Hades can close them. You must retrieve the sword before it leaves our realm, or all is lost."
"Even if we wanted to," Thalia said, "how would we find this thief?"
A potted plant appeared on the table: a sickly yellow carnation with a few green leaves. The flower listed sideways, as if it were trying to find the sun. "This will guide you," the goddess told them.
"A magic flower?" Percy raised an eyebrow, "How is that meant to help us?"
"The flower always faces the thief. As your prey gets closer to escaping, the petals will fall off."
Right on cue, a yellow petal turned grey and fluttered to the ground.
"If all the petals fall off,' Persephone said, "the flower dies. This means the thief has reached an exit and you have failed."
"Which is probably what'll happen to us if Kronos gets the sword." Percy grumbled, "You gods sure know how to screw up a girls day." she glanced between the others- Thalia looked beyond pissed off, Bianca looked nervous- this was big after all, huge. And it involved her dad.
And Nico- he gave her a wry smile. "We don't have much choice." he said calmly, "Do we?"
"Not really."
"It's up to you." Thalia sighed, "If you want to do this then we'll do it but I don't like it Kelp for brains."
"I'll do what you guys want." Bianca decided, "Though Lady Artemis and Zoe will be annoyed at me disappearing like this."
"Okay then." Percy turned to Persephone, "We'll find the sword. But I want to speak with my uncle before just handing it over. It's not that I don't trust him but this screams of terrible judgement and I want to talk to him before we do anything."
"I'm sure he'll agree to that." Persephone didn't look entirely happy, but she knew she didn't have much of a choice. "It is just a talk I suppose. A reasonable request in return for your help."
Another petal fell off the carnation and Percy turned to Bianca.
"Bia, you're on flower duty."
"Seriously?" Bianca almost looked like she wanted to complain, "Why?"
"Because, Nico, Thalia and I have more control over our powers and experience-"
"I-" Bianca paused, "I hate that you're right."
And so together they headed down the palace road into the Fields of Asphodel- which were depressing in Percy's opinion- yellow grass and stunted black poplar trees rolled on in the distance, and shades drifted aimlessly across the hills, coming from nowhere and going nowhere, chattering to each other and trying to remember who they were in life as high above them the cavern ceiling glistened darkly.
They moved together, Nico using his sword to drive back the mobs of ghosts- they hated the Stygian Iron while Thalia complained about the fact that their phones didn't have any signal in the Underworld.
"You think Luke will be annoyed at you not showing for the date, think about how Annabeth and Rachel will react when they can't find me- they'll tell everyone and form a freaking search party-"
"Yeah well, they have good reason." Nico snorted, "Gods this sucks so bad."
"Lady Artemis is going to be worried about me too." Bianca shook her head, "What was our father thinking. Nico do you know-"
"Not a clue, and I thought I was getting closer to him. This is just so out of the blue." his brows furrowed, "And dad likes you. I wouldn't have thought he'd do this without asking you in person." that was directed at Percy."
"It's weird. But- I mean I guess I don't know him that well really. Who knows with gods?"
"The fact that I'm the only one of us to have not met my dad is just really weird." Bianca muttered, "I'd have thought he'd want to talk to me too-"
"I didn't really meet him." Thalia piped up, "I mean, kind of because of the whole meeting on Olympus thing but he didn't even look at me really. And hey, you'll be meeting him soon." she clapped Bianca on the back.
"At least you're not meeting him after you nearly got yourself killed." Nico gave a wry grin, "The lecture he gave me was ridiculously long when I first met him."
"Do you think-" Bianca looked hesitant, "Do you think he'll be happy to meet me?"
"Of course he will." Nico nodded, "He's talked about you a few times- he keeps an eye on us from a distance."
"Right." Bianca nodded, a weak smile crossing her lips as they moved through the crowds of ghosts.
As they walked- Nico forging the way ahead as the spirits parted before him, Percy noticed the way Thalia was looking at the dead, her eyes flicking from face to face, as if she was looking for someone- and Percy remembered that Thalia had found out her mom was dead, and that wasn't even mentioning her two year old brother who she'd lost too.
She slowed down slightly, leaving Bianca and Nico a few steps ahead as she drew level with Thalia. "You okay Pincecone face?"
"Yeah." Thalia shook herself slightly, "I'm fine Kelp head. Don't worry about me."
"If you need to take a break or anything-" Percy's voice was hesitant, "I mean- one of us could stay behind with you-"
"This is too important. We shouldn't split up. It's fine Percy." Thalia gave her a tight smile, "It's just the first time I've been down here. It's hard not to look for them."
"Are you guys okay?" the call came from Nico, looking back over his shoulder at them, "We should probably be hurrying up, another petal's just fallen."
"Oh wonderful." Percy rolled her eyes, "That's just what we need, it's okay we're coming." the two girls sped up to catch up with Nico and Bianca.
Much to Percy's annoyance the flower soon turned towards the Fields of Punishment. "Seriously?" she grumbled the words, "This thief is just inconsiderate." she shook her head, "I mean, they could have headed towards Elysium and we'd get the chance to throw a party- but oh no, no whoever it is they've just had to decide to go to the most horrible evil part of the Underworld-"
"Yes, they're a very inconsiderate thief." Thalia snorted, shaking her head as they headed towards the Fields of Punishment.
"As opposed to what?" Bianca snorted, "What would a considerate thief do?"
"Clearly they'd take the sword to Elysium." Nico said perfectly evenly, a small grin playing across his lips. "And then they'd wait for us to arrive and hand it over and let us party with the old timers."
"Sarcasm does not become you little brother." Percy called as they jumped over a lava stream and picked their ways past scenes of horrible torture- Percy did her best not to look- but she couldn't block out the screaming, or the horrible music playing.
She did notice that Bianca had gone pale and was pressing closer to Nico- he'd been to the Underworld before, he'd at least had some idea what to expect. Bianca didn't.
And even Thalia looked like she felt slightly sick as they moved onwards and the carnation tilted its face towards a hill to their left.
"It's up that way." Bianca pointed, a determined look on her face. "What do we do?"
"Well, let's go take a look." they all stopped to look towards the hill- all covered in soot from their journey through the Fields of Punishment.
Before they could move a loud grinding noise came from the other side of the hill, like somebody was dragging a washing machine. Then the hill shook with a BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! And then a mans voice yelling curses.
"Is that who I think it is?" that came from Thalia, who was giving Nico a wide eyed look.
"Afraid so." Nico pulled a face, "The number one expert on cheating death."
"Is it bad that I have no clue who you're talking about?" Bianca asked hesitantly "I feel like as a daughter of Hades I should probably know this."
"I don't know either." Percy admitted as Nico started leading them toward the hill.
"And you call yourself an expert-"
"No." Percy snorted, "I just know more than the average person- now if we had Annabeth here, she's the expert."
"I'm ashamed." Thalia's voice was teasing, "Our great and wonderful leader doesn't even know her myths-"
"Thalia I know you're probably my future sister in law-" that made Nico burst out laughing as Thalia's face turned a bright shade of red, "But if you don't shut up I will stab
you-"
"Not everyone falls ridiculously in love within like, ten minutes of knowing someone-"
"Excuse you." Percy poked her tongue out, "I waited like, a year before realizing that I was crushing on Annabeth." and it had been six months with Rachel- and they'd been together for another six- and wasn't that a weird thought. They'd all agreed to count their anniversary as Percy's birthday- it was only a few days after they'd all gotten together and it did make thing simpler since it was already Percy and Annabeth's anniversary.
"Do you guys have to bicker like this?" Bianca asked, "I mean, is now the time-"
"They're Percy and Thalia- they always bicker." Nico remarked, "We should just ignore them. Now come on you two. Let's go and talk to Sisyphus."