A.N:

Thank you to those of you who reviewed! Someone told me that the last bit of chapter 4 was a bit confusing, so hopefully this chapter should clear things up a bit.

AN UNPLEASANT FAMILY REUNION

"Papa? What- Oh Hades, what have you done?"

Hades gaped at his brother, "What have I done? I saved my son's life!"

"You broke the Ancient Laws." Explained Poseidon. Oddly enough, Poseidon didn't look angry, or horrified. Just weary.

"Hades," he started, "You know what this means, don't you? You have a child below 16, who might very well be the child of the prophecy. As much as I hate to admit it ,you have to let Zeus know!"

"No!" Hades yelled frantically, "You know what Zeus is like! He'd kill Nico on the spot!"

"Would you rather have Olympus be destroyed? What if he makes the wrong choice?"

Hades surprised himself with what he said next.

"I don't care! Olympus can burn to the ground for all I care! I am not going to let Zeus destroy my family! Not again! Isn't it bad enough that I have to ignore Hazel? Can't you at least let me protect the little family that I can actually interact with without being hit with a bunch of gems?"

"Brother, mind what you say." Warned Poseidon.

Hades tried to think of a way to convince Poseidon to let Nico live, but before he could, the little boy in question entered the conversation.

"Wow! I know you!" he exclaimed, grinning at Poseidon, "You're Uncle Barnacle Beard!"

"Uncle Barnacle Beard?" the God of the Seas stuttered indignantly.

"Yeah! At least, that's what Papa called you when we were looking through family photo albums." Nico continued enthusiastically.

"Family Photo Albums?" Poseidon asked, still in a state of shock.

Hades stifled a laugh at his brother's expression. Poseidon looked completely baffled, although who could blame him? It wasn't everyday that an almighty deity got called Uncle Barnacle Beard by an eight year-old. Speaking of that, he probably shouldn't have taught Nico all his other creative nicknames for the gods...

Nico nodded, literally bouncing on his feet, probably because of all the sugary cake he had eaten, "Yeah! I'll get them! They've got really nice pictures!" he said, racing off to find a photo album.

"That- that adorable, hyperactive little boy is your son?" Poseidon asked, looking like his world had come crashing down.

Hades smirked, it would be nice to lord it over his brothers that he was obviously the best parent out of all of them. Oh no, Hades was becoming a soccer mom!

"Now will you promise not to tell Zeus?" he pleaded, wiping his smirk off his face in an attempt to look humble.

Poseidon sighed, "Fine! But you owe me, big time. I promise I won't tell Zeus."

"Tell Zeus what?" asked a new voice. Zeus was glaring at them in all his kingly glory. The iris message had been split into 2 different screens, one with Poseidon and the other one with Zeus. Since when did that happen?

"Zeus!" Hades yelped, "What are you doing here?"

"I heard my name being used, multiple times. You grabbed my attention and when I checked it out, looks like you two are having a private conversation about me! You're plotting to overthrow me again, aren't you?" Zeus asked accusingly.

"Us?" asked Poseidon nervously, "Why would we do that?"

Zeus threw his hands up in the air, "I don't know! Who knows why you two do anything? All I know is that you're keeping something from the King of the Gods, and it's not going to end well if you don't tell me what I want to know."

"Ah well... uh, you see," Hades fumbled, trying desperately to think of an answer that would satisfy Zeus' paranoia.

Just then, with terrible timing as usual, Nico burst into the room carrying a heavy photo album.

"I got the photo album!" he called out cheerfully, unaware of the ringing silence and the extreme levels of tension rising in the throne room.

*********Line Break*********

"HADES!" Zeus thundered.

"Uh, surprise?" Hades said weakly. He was doomed. Curse the fates!

"YOU HAVE A LIVING CHILD UNDER THE AGE OF 16, LIVING IN THE UNDERWORLD, WHICH GOES AGAINST THE ANCIENT LAWS BY THE WAY, AND YOU DIDN'T THINK ABOUT TELLING ME? WHAT IN FATHER'S NAME WERE YOU THINKING?"

Hades felt rage bubble up inside him. He was the older sibling, not Zeus, and he was not going to let his bratty little brother get his way, not this time.

"You are just as much to blame as I am brother." He said quietly, his voice icy cold, "If you hadn't killed Maria and Bianca, he would still have a family on the surface. You left me with no choice but to bring him down here by trying to kill him and his whole family, and now you dare to ask why I didn't tell you?"

Throughout this little rant, Hades' face remained blank, and his voice was quiet and cold, but somehow, that made it seem far scarier than it would have been if he had yelled.

Zeus remained aloof, "Be that as it may, that boy cannot be allowed to live! I refuse to let a child of Hades be the hero of the prophecy."

Poseidon looked troubled, apparently trying to decide who's side he should be on.

"Brother," he started, "If that is what the Fates have decreed, you cannot stop it. We can't delay the prophecy forever."

"Then I will delay it for as long as I can! This boy could have the power to destroy Olympus!" he said dramatically, pointing to Nico who was giggling as he sat on the floor looking through the photo album, completely ignoring the three arguing gods.

"Look at this! Papa looks so funny!" Nico giggled, pointing to a rather ridiculous blurry-looking picture of him dressed up as a Viking.(It was a very long story involving goats, peace treaties and Thor.)

Hades shook his head out of the clouds, this was no time to feel nostalgic! Hades was starting to get desperate. Oh who was he kidding? He was already as desperate as he was capable of feeling!

Poseidon sent him a reassuring smile, "Well then Zeus, if you're going to kill the boy, at least do it right! You should make him stand trial in front of all of the Olympians, instead of just blasting him to shreds! That way, they would feel included, and maybe they wouldn't try to overthrow you all the time!"

Hades wanted to throttle that little hypocrite, "I refuse to let my son attend a trial! Since when did we even have trials? You usually just blast people to pieces! Are you alright? You're acting very out of character!" He didn't add that if Zeus tried to blast him to pieces, he at least had a miniscule chance of getting Nico out of the way in time.

Zeus appeared to be thinking, "Hmm, I won't need to have Hestia ignore me for a century again because I 'acted to rashly' , it will make the other Olympians think that their opinions count, and Hades hates it! It's the perfect plan!"

"But-but you hate asking for other people's opinion! Why start being a good listener now?" Hades protested.

Zeus smirked, "Because I don't want to be overthrown again, especially after Hera and Poseidon's 13th attempt to overthrow me in the last decade."

Hades glared at Poseidon, "This is all your fault!"

"Hades! Bring your son to Olympus tomorrow at... noon! Yeah, I think everyone will be able to show up then. Then we can kill... I mean, decide his fate." Zeus continued dramatically, before slashing his hand through the mist, turning the iris message back to normal, and leaving an absolutely furious Hades with a sheepish Poseidon.

*******Line Break******

"What was that for?" Hades demanded angrily.

Poseidon gave him a leisurely grin, "I know, I know, you're welcome!"

"You're welcome?" Hades asked incredulously, "Why would I be thanking you? You've assured my son a terrible and painful death! Not to mention severe trauma!" He accused .

"Relax Hades", Poseidon said, rolling his eyes, "I have a plan."

"Oh joy." Hades muttered.

"This kid is just too adorable to kill! Zeus may be a stone-cold murderer, but the rest of the Olympians won't stand a chance against all of that cuteness!" He explained.

"And this will help, how exactly?" asked Hades, still feeling confused.

Poseidon rolled his eyes, " Obviously, most of them won't find it in themselves to kill such an innocent child, once they get a chance to meet him. Artemis is the protector of young children, so she'll want to let him live, which means Apollo will vote in Nico's favor too. Aphrodite will find the whole thing adorable, and Ares will want to please her, so you already have 4 votes! If Nico can up the charm factor a bit he could even sway Hermes, or maybe even Demeter! I mean, how old was he when you brought him here? Five, or six maybe?"

"Three." Hades corrected.

"My point precisely! He convinced me to help him after one conversation, and he even got Persephone to warm up to him, and lasted 5 whole years without being blasted, or turned into a dandelion! If he can do that, he can easily sway the council!" Poseidon finished triumphantly, gesturing towards Nico who was helping himself to some more cake. He looked up and apparently noticed that everyone was looking at him. He smiled sheepishly and hastily hid the cake behind his back.

"Sorry!" he said with a mouthful of cake, "But Papa seemed a bit busy! And I couldn't let perfectly good cake go to waste!"

Hades chuckled and picked his son up, trying to forget that the boy would almost certainly be dead within the next 24 hours.

"No more cake!" he scolded, "You're already hyperactive enough without all of that sugar."

Hades sighed wistfully, he could have been eating cake, playing pin the skull on the skeleton and having fun with his family right about now. How had this day gone so wrong?

A.N:

Well that was a lot longer than I expected. Sorry if the characters seemed even more OOC than usual.

Please Review!

-Keera( ‿ )