Chapter 6

If you need a second chance, you lost. I'd know. I've had about a million second chances.

-Quote attributed to Percy Jackson

Percy chose to wait for Tiamat to return instead of involving Heaven.

While he didn't like the thought of giving the scythe-wielding god a chance to recover from losing an arm, he figured one or two days wouldn't make much of a difference. Either the god would get a new arm somehow, or he wouldn't. It really did boil down to something so simple as gods pretending to be human, without actually having to be human.

Not that Percy was complaining about being human. He wasn't complaining about being half-god, either. All said, he wouldn't want to be anything else besides a demigod, even if his life was harder because of it. He didn't know how to be anything else. Not after he'd spent so long living the life of a demigod.

Not after the war. Not after Kronos.

So, even though he chose to wait, Percy also chose to live a little cautiously. During the night, he'd gone and filled most of his cups with water from the tap, setting them around his apartment in places where he would have otherwise had to cause severe damage getting water from the pipes.

Did it look stupid, having a bunch of topped-off glasses sitting around, either on furniture or on the floor? Obviously, it did. Any normal person walking into his apartment might think he had a few screws loose.

In this case, though, he couldn't just consider his own safety. Fighting a god fair-and-square was great and everything, but it was also a casualty report just begging to be filed. Percy lived in an apartment building for crying out loud. A battle inside would probably bring the whole thing toppling down.

There was no way he'd let that happen. His city had already suffered enough because he hadn't been able to defend it.

Never again.

Percy was sitting in his chair, facing Ingvild. The sun was about to rise. He'd spent most of the night in the bedroom with her, keeping an eye out just on the off-chance Goat Head came back.

If that was the case, Percy figured he would be ready. That moment of hesitation when the god had created his patterned circle may have been what allowed him to escape. It had been a bad call on Percy's part to hesitate. A mistake that he could live with—he was still alive, right?—but a mistake all the same. Next time, that kind of hesitation might be dangerous for him and the people around him.

Sobering. Percy had learned his lesson, though. Goat Head wouldn't get away next time.

Whether next time was in his apartment or not, that god wasn't getting away.

Percy got up and went to the window, peeking through the blinds. It was brighter than he remembered. He'd spent the entire night thinking, riling himself up, slowly becoming angrier and angrier at the scythe-wielding god… and at himself.

He should have known better than to risk a "Round 2" when he still held all his cards close to his chest.

Actually, he did know better. Kronos never would have lost to him in a contest of endurance, strength, or speed. Even with Kronos stuck in Luke's body, the best Percy could do in a fair fight was to create a stalemate. Beyond everything else, the power to control time was just ridiculously broken.

And that's what he'd dealt with. It was a battle against time, with time still on his side. It sounded weird in hindsight, but there wasn't a better way to describe how the past years had panned out.

For a long time, the game had been rigged from the start. He'd only won by sneaking an ace up his sleeve and not giving Kronos a chance to counter his hand. It had been the only way.

He didn't even remember how many times he'd died getting to that point. More than ten. More than a thousand. Maybe close to a million?

Less or more, it didn't matter. Not anymore.

Percy took a deep breath. Every day that passed felt like another betrayal to the people who couldn't have these days.

Was it luck, or was it fate?

In the end, who even cared? Percy had wanted one thing above all else for who-knew-how-many years, and he'd gotten that single thing two weeks ago.

Now… Now, he didn't know what he wanted. More than anything else—and more than Percy ever want to admit—Kronos' war had given him purpose. It had given him a better sense of purpose than all of his high school career counseling combined. For years, all he'd wanted was to see Kronos die.

And that's what he had gotten.

So… what now? What else could he do?

What did he want to do?

It was a hard question to answer. Thanks to Heaven, he probably had a ton of opportunities. Michael seemed weirdly gung-ho about helping him with just about anything and everything. In that regard, Percy figured he could get back into college, thanks to the stuff Michael had already done for him.

If he did go back, at least he wouldn't have to worry about looking the part. Thanks to Kronos' warped sense of entertainment, Percy still looked like he was nineteen, though he felt geriatric.

The real question was if he wanted to go back. Percy was better at fighting than taking tests. By now, Riptide had spent more time as a sword than a pen in his hands. Even when it was in his pocket, he could still feel the weight of it, and he could still feel the leather already warmed in his palm, and he could still smell blood and smoke clinging to his clothes, and he could still hear the cracking of concrete, the groaning of metal, and the swelling of thunder in the distance.

Memories, he reminded himself. Those were just memories of a time when he had a purpose. They were just…

They were just terrible memories of a war he couldn't stop fighting.

Every day was the same battle.

Percy wanted to know why he was still fighting, even though Kronos was dead.

Was this what winning was supposed to feel like? Was it really?

How had Chiron done it, Percy wondered. Living for thousands of years, training demigods so they could become heroes, watching them grow and watching them die. How was something like that even possible?

Percy didn't think it was possible for humans. Chiron was immortal, and immortals typically had a weird way of looking at the world.

Devils weren't technically immortal, but they lived for an extremely long time. Did that mean Ingvild would have to adopt an immortal's mindset?

Watching as she slept, Percy found it hard to believe that she might end up becoming like Hera or Zeus or Tiamat. He had only decided to help Ingvild on a stupid whim, out of pity because of how he'd found her, all bloody and drenched by the rain, curled up and miserable-looking on the rotted steps of a broken lighthouse. She hadn't even had any shoes on, and her dress had been torn and muddied and stained by soot.

Seeing her like that, of course he would pity her.

But she was a lot stronger than he gave her credit for. Maybe she didn't need his pity.

Maybe she needed it for a little while longer.

Life had dealt her a bad hand.

Percy knew what that was like.

Essentially, they were two peas in a very rotten pod.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Ingvild didn't wake up. She wasn't dead, but no matter what he tried, Percy couldn't break her out of her deep sleep.

He was relieved when Tiamat came back, as promised, the next day. Percy had been lounging on the sofa when she appeared, staring holes into the goat mask as it sat on the coffee table for most of the morning.

"You look terrible," Tiamat said, stepping out of a patterned circle. "What happened to you?"

Percy frowned at her. "Is that really the first thing you want to say to me?"

Tiamat threw herself down on the nearest sofa and crossed her legs. "What's the problem? It's not like we haven't seen each other for a long time. Did you want me to bring flowers and chocolate?"

"I wouldn't say no to chocolate and flowers even on my worst day."

"Which it looks like you're going through…" Tiamat let her eyes linger on him for a few seconds. "What happened? I mean, honestly, you look like you haven't slept in a week. That's impressive, considering I've only been gone for two nights."

"Well, it definitely feels like it's been a week. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Sun Tzu said that."

"Are you going to tell me what happened, or are you just going to keep annoying me with your inanities? Mark my words, one of these days, I'm going to fondly remember burying my fist in your stomach."

Percy let out a small huff from his nose, smiling. The amusement died quickly. From his position opposite of Tiamat, he motioned to the bedroom. "Ingvild's been asleep for a day. Literally. It's been… thirty-six hours or something like that. I've tried waking her up but…" He shook his head. "I don't know what's wrong. Must be that stupid disease."

"The suspension."

"The who-now?"

"Colloquially, the devils call that illness 'suspension'. Of course, humans just call it being comatose. For all intents and purposes, suspension functions as an inexplicable coma."

"Awesome." Percy sighed and ran a hand across his eyes. "Is she gonna wake up?"

Shrugging, she said, "We'll have to wait and see, I suppose. The illness is rare, so I don't know much about it."

"Is there someone who does?" he asked.

"I'd have to ask Ajuka," Tiamat said.

"Beetlejuice?"

"Beelzebub… Don't pretend you forgot how to pronounce his name…" Her expression was less than impressed. "I'll see what Ajuka knows about the disease. Don't hold your breath for a cure, though. Last I heard there was none."

Percy should have figured. The devils taking care of Ingvild would have wanted to get their hands on a cure no matter what if that was the case. In the end, there was nothing he could do for her regarding the illness. He said, "Good thing I've learned to keep my expectations as low as possible. Can't be disappointed if I never expect anything good in the first place, right?"

"You're not wrong." Tiamat tapped her chin thoughtfully. "But just because you aren't wrong, that doesn't mean you're right."

"Sure. Anyway, we have other problems—I have other problems," Percy said, standing up. "And I need your help to figure out my next move."

Tiamat leaned back into the sofa and used her foot to point at the coffee table. "Does that problem have anything to do with this mask?"

The muscles around his jaw tightened. "Yeah. It has everything to do with the mask. Someone attacked me two nights ago, here, in the apartment. Had a robe, a scythe, and that mask. Fast. Probably a god." He looked at Tiamat. "Do you know anything about someone like that?"

Her tongue ran over a sharp canine tooth. She examined the mask silently, bouncing her foot up and down. "To me, it sounds like you were attacked by a grim reaper."

"A grim reaper? Not the Grim Reaper? There's more than one?"

"Thousands more."

"I don't think this guy was your run-of-the-mill grim reaper, then."

"Show me how fast he was," Tiamat said curiously.

Percy's face scrunched, but he took Riptide out of his pocket and uncapped it. He moved away from her, took a loose stance, then swung.

Tiamat blinked as her hair fluttered from the puff of wind following his swing. "That fast?"

"Maybe a little faster."

"How are you still alive?"

"I eat my vegetables." Percy took the liberty to put Riptide's cap on again. "And gods can be really easy to surprise if you've got the right trick up your sleeve."

"I... I can't believe I missed it..." she said sullenly, covering her face with both hands. "This is the exact opposite of what I wanted to happen."

"Do you know anything about the guy who attacked me?"

Tiamat quickly stopped her sulking and took a few seconds to think. "There are only a handful of grim reapers able to move so fast. Only the highest-ranking would wear a mask like that, setting themselves apart from the masses."

"So, hypothetically, where would someone go if they wanted to lodge a complaint? Or, again hypothetically, if they wanted payback?"

"They would, hypothetically, go to the Netherworld and speak with Hades."

Hades. Why was it always Hades?

"Good to know. Thanks."

"Don't even think about it," Tiamat said, crossing her arms. "Hades commands the grim reapers, and he governs the Netherworld, and because of his position he holds sway over more than you could imagine. He's an ancient, powerful, and often vindictive god. Moving against him usually results in… catastrophe. Few mortals go to the Netherworld and leave with their life."

"I know," Percy said. "I've been to the Underworld before. I've also put Hades in his place before, and I'll do it again if I have to."

"Not exactly a smart idea."

"Never said it was smart, did I?"

"Then why bother?"

Percy grabbed the mask by one of its horns. He lifted it until it was eye-level. "Gods think they can do whatever they want just because they're gods. I mean, who'd want to argue with someone powerful enough to turn them into a dolphin?" He scowled at the line his sword had left on the mask. "It's gross. If you use your power to hurt other people just because you can, then you never deserved that power in the first place."

"So, you want to teach this mysterious grim reaper a lesson?"

"Your words, not mine."

"That's suicide. If you want to die so badly, I would prefer you to allow me to do the honors." Tiamat stood up quickly and pounded a fist against her chest. "Let me kill you. I can make it as painless or painful as you want. You won't find a more professional god than me."

Percy dropped the mask back onto the table, giving Tiamat an odd look. "I'm gonna pass on that."

Tiamat chuckled. "If you choose to go down there with the intention of quenching your thirst for vengeance, it'll be the last thing you do. Hades is a god even I wouldn't want to come into conflict with."

"Good thing I'm not asking you to fight him," Percy said. He walked around the table. "All I need is a way to get down there. Where I'm from, the best way to get to the Underworld is through a recording studio or a pile of rocks in Central Park."

"You really need to tell me more stories about your reality. Every time you open your mouth, I seem to learn something strange about your experiences there."

"I'll clear my schedule for you."

"Much appreciated."

"Of course, that'll have to be after I find the grim reaper who attacked me."

"Oy vey. You're really going to drag me into this, aren't you?" Tiamat said with a self-deprecating smile. "Then again, this is the kind of thing I've been waiting for."

Shrugging, Percy said, "I'm not asking you to come with me. I just need you to teleport me down there."

She frowned. "No, no, that won't work. This is the whole reason I bothered to create our team: to see what the anomaly—you—does. I already missed your scuffle with a grim reaper. That's just unacceptable."

"Except, someone needs to watch Ingvild. She's still being hunted by Old Satan cronies. And your protections didn't exactly keep that grim reaper from waltzing right on in."

"It's meant to keep people from sensing Ingvild's power. Nobody knows she's here. Layering more magic on top of what's already there would only make people suspicious of what's being protected here," Tiamat explained. "It's better to take a minimalist approach in this situation. We wouldn't want to draw too much attention."

"Then that grim reaper—"

"You said it yourself, right? He wasn't here because of Ingvild. He was here for you."

"We can't leave her alone… can we?"

"Sure we can," Tiamat countered quickly. "Either we leave her here, or we bring her with us once she wakes up."

"If she wakes up."

"She most likely will wake up. As I said, I'm not an expert on the subject, but the chances of her falling comatose for another century must be low."

That didn't reassure him. He switched arguments: "She doesn't belong in the Underworld."

Tiamat snorted. "She's a devil. The Underworld is where she belongs the most."

That was a good point, he realized. Or, it would have been, if Ingvild wasn't also part human. Just because his dad was Poseidon, that didn't mean he belonged on Olympus. He didn't belong in his father's underwater realm, either, for that matter.

"We aren't taking her with us," Percy said firmly.

"Then she'll stay. Your options are limited for getting to the Netherworld. You can come with me, or you can try to find another person who knows how to translocate to such an out-of-the-way place. Another god, for example. Or someone like Michael."

In other words, he didn't actually have any options. Especially not if he wanted to make his move sooner rather than later. He'd already wasted a day waiting.

He couldn't waste any more.

"All right, we'll play it your way," he said.

Tiamat smirked. "I knew you were smarter than you looked."

"Was that necessary?"

"Absolutely. You don't have anybody else to keep your…" She cocked her head, still smirking, and wagged her fingers at his body in a vague gesture. "To keep you at these levels of arrogance. Any more and I wouldn't be able to work with you, or ever be around you for that matter; you'd be truly insufferable."

"Right," Percy drawled. "As if you can talk to me about arrogance." He shook his head when she opened her mouth to speak. "No. You know what? Let's not even talk about this. We've got bigger fish to fry right now."

"True enough. Hades won't take kindly to a flagrant trespass against him."

"Tough. He should keep better tabs on his reapers."

"At least tell me you have a plan that involves more than just going down there and killing his subordinates."

"I don't want collateral. I just want Goat Head." Percy twisted his head down in a nod. "And I do have a plan. It's not a great plan… but it's a plan."

Tiamat scoffed, crossing her arms and taking slow, deliberate steps around the table to reach him. She squinted at him, still smirking. "Revenge, huh? What good will that do you? What do you gain?"

Percy squinted right back at her. "Don't patronize me. You're a god. Revenge is something you guys perfected."

"Don't lump us all together. I don't know what kind of plan you have, but it won't work. Hades is one of the most powerful gods currently active in this reality. You will die."

"Wanna bet?"

Tiamat's mouth slowly dipped down. She gazed at him pensively. Her eyes—as intense and domineering as ever—scanned his face, lingering on a few spots before she frowned and backed away. "You have nothing to give me when I win. What's the point in betting if I have nothing to gain?"

Percy shrugged, slipping his hands into his pockets. He gave Tiamat a small smile. "Good question. You always talk about your treasures, so I guess there's nothing I could give you that's worth the risk."

"Exactly."

"Yeah. Exactly." Percy stopped smiling. "Tell me about the Underworld—or Netherworld or whatever you want to call it."

"Do you have the time for that? You seem to be in a hurry."

He looked toward his bedroom, where Ingvild was still sleeping. If he did what he needed to do in the Underworld quickly, there would be less of a chance that she got hurt when he was gone.

Yeah. The sooner he could put this whole grim reaper business behind him, the better.

"I guess the only thing I really need to know would be…" Percy met her inquisitive gaze. "Is there any water down there?"

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

They arrived in the Netherworld, which Percy figured wasn't the same as the Netherlands, though since he'd never been to either in this timeline, he couldn't be sure. If the Netherlands was a perpetually misty land with ash-colored earth that seemed to have suffered one too many nuclear explosions, it might come close to looking like the Netherworld.

"You weren't kidding," Percy said. "This place sucks."

"Never let it be said that I didn't warn you," she replied easily.

Percy looked around. Nothing but mist for as far as the eye could see. "So, Hades lives down here?" He glanced up, but couldn't find a ceiling. Just more mist. "Seems about right. You said you could find him, right?"

Tiamat cocked her head as if she was trying to listen in on something. It didn't take long until she pointed directly to their right. "Hades' temple is that way. I can smell the rot from here."

"Great. Let's get going." He didn't want to stay in the Netherworld any longer than absolutely necessary. The color of the ground was tricking him into thinking that he could smell ash and smoke. That trick was making it just a little harder to breathe. "How far away are we from Hades?"

"I did my best to get as close as I could, but it's been almost two thousand years since I was last here. My memory is a bit fuzzy…"

"How far?" Percy asked, exasperated.

"About a mile."

"That's not too bad, I guess."

"It should have been closer…" Tiamat clicked her tongue in annoyance and frowned at the whitish-gray fog above her. "This place is too alive for my liking."

The hair on his arms and back of his neck straightened. "This place is alive?"

She kicked at the cracked ground, which looked more like old cement than it did dirt. "Hades likes to make people think it is. Admittedly, in some ways, his claims make sense. He doesn't choose who lives and who dies. Nor do his grim reapers. This place was always a single station in the grand scheme of death… Either way, the Netherworld is unpleasant, whether it is sentient or has any form of consciousness is beside the point."

"Creepy."

"That's something we can agree on."

Percy looked in the direction which Tiamat had pointed toward. Of course, because of the fog, he couldn't see a thing. Even so, with just a little bit of concentration, as he tuned out the chill and dampness that tried to grab his attention, something became obviously clear to him through the otherwise vast emptiness of the Netherworld: five grand masses of moving water called to him in the distance, swirling with ancient power and mystery as deep as the ocean.

Each river had its own flavor. The Styx was easiest for him to pinpoint—why wouldn't it be, after all? The other four rivers were distinct, but he didn't know which names went with what sensation. One made him relive the last battle, one filled him with pity, one didn't do anything, and one gave him a bad case of acid reflux.

Naturally, the Styx only made him want to find Goat Head even faster.

"All right, let's get going," he said.

"Let's," Tiamat agreed.

They moved onward, pressing through the fog together. Now that he knew the Netherworld could possibly be some kind of conscious landscape, the idea of walking across it didn't hold the same appeal.

He wouldn't turn back and call the whole quest a lost cause—of course not—but his nerves sent a pulse of anxious energy with every step he took.

The temperature dropped the further they went along. Each yard cost them one degree.

It wasn't long until the ground beneath them changed to become slick with the sheerest layer of ice possible. Their feet splintered the thin ice no matter how lightly they stepped, and the resulting noise was an ungodly cracking that carried itself into the gloom.

"We're almost there," Tiamat said.

Percy nodded. He could feel the rivers. Before they appeared, though, the fog started to clear until it became little more than an ambient mist.

"Or maybe we're already here," Percy muttered.

In front of them was a huge Greek temple made of black stone. Percy had never seen the Parthenon in person, but Annabeth had shown him enough pictures for him to know that this temple was about three times as big.

Not to mention, this temple was also in mint condition, which only added to its overall grandeur.

From what Percy could tell, the rivers flowed out from the temple, first through the ground before surfacing somewhere behind the massive structure and running further off into the Netherworld.

"Think Hades has an open-door policy?"

"What else are you going to do? It's a bit late to schedule an appointment."

"Okay… I'll give you that one."

"You'll give me a lot more than one." Tiamat rolled her eyes, gesturing for him to take the steps before she did. "Go on. This is your mission, isn't it? Harebrained as it is, I have a feeling you'll see it through."

"You know me so well," Percy said, shaking his head and starting toward the temple.

"If only."

Slipping between the massive columns was easy enough. The doorway leading into the temple's main body was wide open, and he couldn't see anything beyond it.

Percy let his thumb brush against Riptide's form through his jeans. "Guess he doesn't mind visitors."

Tiamat nodded. "So it would seem. All the better to see if your plan will work."

They entered the temple.

Inside was perfectly lit, the walls being lined with blazing lanterns. The room they found themselves in was—as the outside suggested—absolutely huge. Two lines of columns stretched for almost as far as the eye could see on either side of them. Lanterns hung from the columns too. It must have taken hundreds to light the entire temple.

"Hades is waiting for us," Tiamat said, gesturing to the far end of the room.

If he squinted, Percy could just make out the outline of something in that direction. "Great."

As they walked, Percy got the feeling they were being watched. From the corner of his eyes, he could see shadows moving behind the large pillars which enclosed them, never staying in one place long enough for him to see what was sneaking around.

Due to the size of the building, it took too long for them to reach the far end.

On the back wall—the same which Hades hadn't turned away from—was a colossal carving. There were three prominent people in that carving, who Percy assumed where the Big Three themselves: Zeus pointed a jagged bolt of lightning from stone clouds, Poseidon raised his trident from crashing waves, and Hades commanded an army of skeletons.

Percy and Tiamat came to a stop just behind Hades, who stood beside a flaming brazier.

The god turned to face them. He was at least seven feet tall and wore ornate robes fit for the pope. More striking, though, was that he was a skeleton. Two shining dots of blue were the only things in his shadowed eye sockets. His unmoving, toothy grin was unnerving.

With how close they were, Hades had to bend his head to meet Percy's gaze. The blue dots brightened in his sockets. For a second, neither of them blinked—not that Hades could. Then, a crackling chuckle split the very air around them.

"How bold," Hades declared. His voice was less spoken than it was echoed by the edges of darkness throughout the Netherworld. In fact, his jaw didn't even so much as twitch. "It's been a long time since I last hosted a demigod in my realm. Rather, it's been a long time since a demigod dared enter the Netherworld without my permission." His blue dots drifted over to Tiamat. "And despite bringing the likes of this dragon, you don't cower behind her. You certainly are foolish. Or maybe… brave?"

Where have I heard that before? Percy wondered.

The whole situation reeked of vertigo waiting to happen. Percy had never expected to meet Hades again. The last time they saw each other had been a few weeks before Percy's eighteenth birthday when he'd gone down to bathe in the Styx. That, in itself, had been years ago.

Standing in front of this skeletal version of Hades…

All of the old animosity started to swell up in his stomach. Everything from his mom's abduction to the way Hades had hidden himself in his palace while the Titan army threw themselves at New York. That wasn't even mentioning how he had treated Nico.

The kid had deserved better than someone like Hades to be his father.

"And if it was up to him," Tiamat said, "I wouldn't be here right now. He wanted to come alone. Much more of a fool than you imagined, right?"

Hades chuckled merrily. The noise made Percy grind his teeth. "Indeed. That's quite novel… Who are you, boy? What business do you have in this place?"

"I won't beat around the bush," Percy said, glaring up at the god. "I'm Percy. One of your goons tried to kill me a couple of nights ago. Attacked me in my own living room. You know anything about that?"

"My grim reapers are dispatched en masse to guide souls out of the mortal world in a timely fashion," Hades said. "I afford them a good deal of autonomy because I trust them to do their job. Unfortunately for you, that means I wouldn't know about the actions of a single subordinate."

"Not even if that subordinate was one of your top brass?" Percy asked.

Almost as if they had practiced it, Tiamat summoned the goat mask from where she had stored it and tossed it at Hades' feet. "Maybe this will jog your memory?" She smirked at him. "Quite the souvenir, wouldn't you agree? One of your lieutenants has been overstepping his bounds."

Hades scooped the mask up, turning it over in his skeletal grasp for a few silent seconds. "I see…"

"Who was it, Hades?" Percy demanded.

The god didn't even flinch. "Thanatos."

Tiamat whistled. "You sent your second-in-command to kill a human demigod? What could have possessed you to do something so ridiculous?"

"A bizarre assumption," Hades said. "I would tread more carefully while you are here, Dragon King Tiamat. This temple is mine. This dirt is mine. This air is mine. Even your life can be mine, should I so choose."

Strangely enough, she didn't try to argue. Instead, she sneered and crossed her arms defensively, leaning away from Hades.

Percy took a step forward. "So, you didn't send him?"

Hades scoffed. The noise grated off the top layer of Percy's bones. "What would I gain from doing something so asinine? I don't know you."

"Why'd he attack me, then?"

From what Percy remembered, Thanatos was supposed to be the god of peaceful death. Their short scuffle had been anything but peaceful. Unless the word meant something else entirely in this timeline.

Then again, Percy had never met the guy in his own timeline, so maybe the job description had changed to fit the times.

"I don't know," Hades admitted. "More than being beholden to me, he acts to uphold the balance of the world through his job. He is a servant of the Netherworld."

"Which you control," Percy said.

"I govern the Netherworld. I don't control it."

"Very convenient."

"Are you calling me a liar? Are you presuming to know better than me?"

"If that's how you want to look at it, then yes." Percy leaned forward. "Where's Thanatos?"

Hades stared blankly. "Who are you? Do you even know the position you willingly put yourself in?" He looked down at the mask in his hand. "For that matter, how did you get this?"

"Where is he, Hades?"

"Was it your doing, Dragon King Tiamat?" Hades ignored him in favor of asking more questions. "Surely Thanatos put up quite the fight, regardless of the circumstances. I must say, I'm impressed."

Tiamat shook her head. "I wasn't there when it happened. From what Percy told me, he caught Thanatos by surprise at some point during their little battle."

The funny thing was, even though she described it as being really anti-climactic, she hadn't left out anything important. Hindsight always made things look simple.

"You? You alone?" Hades let the words linger between them.

Percy didn't give him the satisfaction of a response. He stared back at the god about as blankly as he could.

"I have a hard time believing a demigod would be able to battle Thanatos."

"And win said battle," Tiamat added with a smirk.

"Yes… and win…"

"Why don't you summon Thanatos here? You won't get an answer from Percy. He's secretive about the strangest things."

"Why would I bow to the whims of one mortal and his pet dragon? Or is it the other way around? A dragon and her pet mortal. You'll have to excuse me for my confusion with your relationship."

"Watch yourself," Tiamat warned. "You are powerful, but an angry dragon has brought many kingdoms to ruin; would you risk the safety of yours for something so petty?"

"That would be a fair argument if it had any weight. Would you risk your own life for—as you put it—something so petty?"

The two gods postured in tense silence. Despite the flaming brazier, the temperature dipped enough so that Percy could see his breath. In the darkness of his eye sockets, Hades' dots seemed to blaze brighter, never wavering, and never dimming.

Percy cleared his throat. "Look, I'm sure you're a busy guy, Hades. Why don't we just get this over with so we can go back to our regularly scheduled lives as painlessly as possible? I'm sure you want us out of your hair—not that you have any."

"Yes, I suppose I have to agree with you," Hades said glibly. "Before anything else, though, tell me something… What do you plan to do with Thanatos?"

"Use your imagination. If you have that sort of thing."

"Revenge is dangerous. It leads down dangerous paths—just take a look at yourself now. You stand dumbly and demand me to summon my subordinate so you can slake your desire for vengeance."

"I wouldn't call it standing dumbly," Percy said. "Besides, what do you have to lose?"

"Well, I suppose watching you die would be entertaining in its own right."

"Exactly. Fun for the whole family."

"I could have something nice to eat as well."

"Can't go wrong with popcorn."

Hades laughed. "I don't normally listen to requests. The balance of life and death is a delicate one, and it is actually quite precious. But you… I think the balance will be perfectly fine without you. One suicidal comedian does not a world end."

"Probably true."

Hades turned to the brazier and waved his hand over the flames. Smoke plumed upward, and cinders danced above the bronze tub, but nothing else happened.

The god tried again. When the same thing happened, he sighed.

"What's wrong?" Percy asked.

"I can't contact him."

"Seriously?"

"He has shrouded himself from me," Hades muttered. "Strange."

"So what does that mean for us?" Percy asked, though he already knew the answer.

"It means he wanted to keep this from me for his own reasons. I don't know where he is or why he did what he did. Apparently, I won't be learning anytime soon, either."

That was about what he had been expecting. When was anything handed to Percy on a silver platter and served fresh? Conveniences happened, but when it came to the important stuff, there had to be time where he spun wheels before getting what he wanted. It was one of the laws of the universe.

And the laws of the universe had to be followed…

For the most part.

Percy glared at the brazier. He almost couldn't believe Thanatos' audacity in attacking him at home and then going into hiding just to save his own skin.

Unless that wasn't the case at all.

"Sounds like we wasted a whole lot of time for no reason," Tiamat grumbled. "We're no closer to finding Thanatos than we were before coming here."

He nodded resentfully. "Pretty much."

"No, that isn't entirely true," Hades said, rubbing his chin. "There is one person you might still speak to in order to learn about Thanatos' whereabouts."

"What? Who?"

The dead god pointed through the massive carving. "At the edge of the Netherworld, where the rivers diverge and drop into the nine layers, you'll find Nyx, the primordial goddess of the night. If anybody is shrouding him from me, it would be her or her brother, Erebus. Follow the rivers and you will find their abode."

"And you want me to ask her? Why don't you do it? You're the boss around here."

"I'm a very busy god. While intriguing, Thanatos' reason for trying to kill you wouldn't be worth more of my valuable time. Your quarrel with him is of little concern to me."

Percy shook his head. "You're lying. I bet you're dying to know why one of your top goons went AWOL. You just want me to do your dirty work."

"Guilty as charged," Hades said, laughter tinting his echoey voice. "I have a decent working relationship with Nyx and Erebus. It would be a shame to taint it over one little case of insubordination. You, on the other hand, have no such worries, and you seem more than willing to risk your life for stupid reasons. This way, we both win. Ah, I am a genius, aren't I?"

"You're something, all right," Percy muttered. Genius wasn't exactly how he would describe Hades, though. "How far is it?"

"No more than fifteen minutes if you walk. Quite a short distance. It will be faster if you run, even. Just watch your step near the rivers. Falling into any of them would prove to be most... unfortunate."

Fifteen minutes. That wasn't too bad. He didn't know how long he had already been away for, but another fifteen minutes couldn't hurt.

"Fine." Percy narrowed his eyes at the god. "But if you're sending me on a wild goose chase, I'll be back. And you'll regret it," he promised.

"How scary." Hades laughed as they turned down the temple's main aisleway. "I hope you find all the answers you seek. Feel free to come back and share anything interesting you learn."

"Fat chance of that happening," Percy said while walking away. "If I have to come back, it won't be because I'm feeling friendly."

Tiamat snickered beside him, keeping up with his quick stride. "You two go together like oil and water."

And if that wasn't the most accurate way to compare them, Percy would eat his own socks. "I can't stand that guy."

She nodded. "The feeling must be mutual. His contempt for you was palpable. He'll be watching."

Yeah, that fit the bill just perfectly. It was almost like he never left home.

Almost.

As soon as he got back to Earth, though, it would be a whole different story. Still, he was looking forward to going back. The Netherworld was not his ideal honeymoon destination.

The sooner he finished his business, the sooner he could put this all behind him and never look back.

Author Note: Thanks for your continued support and patience.

I hope you all stay healthy and safe. Maybe that sounds insincere since I'm saying it during a time when everybody else is saying it, but please do take care of yourself, both during the current situation and the time following.

Thank you for reading.