Zane Williams and The Gods of Olympus

by thesuperone342

Ever felt like Jason Grace is a complete disappointment and a failure to what a son of Zeus should be? Ever feel like Thalia was a waste and was thrown away too quickly? Well, this is the fanfiction for you. Join Zane Williams on his quest to be the strongest. Current Arc: The Last Olympian. Yaoi. (Anime Elements/AU) [Bad First Chapter, Needs Rewrite]

6. I Fight A Giant Shadow Man

Alright, boys! Chapter six. Lets get some reviews sorted out.

Born In The Second Generation: "Great Chapter, but a shame you don't plan to utilize Bianca in this chapter. For ships now, I just hope Nico x Zane would be endgame (Goth Femboy BF .) and no harems please, I find most of harems in fanfiction feel very unrealistic and self inserting. Well I'll be wondering how Hades will react to Zanecompany coming with Nico together with them to the Underworld."

Response: Yeah, that'll be fine to write lmao. I honestly don't really know what to do with Bianca. She kinda existed just to die. I might change that, but don't expect for hr to be well written if that happens. Don't worry about harems, those are honestly retarded and I hate them. What you have to worry about are love triangles and other relationships Zane will be in. Anyway, hope you like this chapter.

The-Gamer-6818: "hey, when time goes on can you make the norse grow in power, perhaps scale their power more jn line with media nad modern day representation. for example, avengers thor comes out, and according to the book, god become more or less powerful determined by how much or how little they are believed in. The MCU movies would definitely boost the rankings of some gods. As well as when comic books become even pipular. i mean the youtube comic books definitely help people look at DC or mavel without buying a comic.

Although it's never specified if the belief is simply thinking about them, like what the disney movie Hercules did, or actual pure worship. Christianity and the other things you said would still be at the top. however the new release of content featuring pantheons might make it so the list isn't static.

The Shinto gods should be pretty high due to i wanna say 'japanese superstition' and shrine and what not. they have festivals ffs. people celebrate original greek and other holidays like christmas easter and Valentine's day. You could say that smaller less powerful pantheons have not faded due to wikipedia and other sourced of knowledge, even if they aren't the popular. It would be increadible hard to fade due to people forgetting you, but you could weaken to where mortals willing enough can kill you.

just a thought."

Response: The norse would probably grow a bit in power when Thor comes out, but that won't be for a looong time. Thor came out in 2011 and it's currently 2006. You're right about the gods being strengthened by belief, however, they are also strengthened by being worshiped as concepts. Conceptual worship and actual worship differ, as actual worship gives you much more power. That's why the Christians and The Hindus have the most power. I put the Shinto almost on par with the Greeks, but the Greeks are stronger as they are more immortalized in culture and remembered more. Other religions like the Mayans and The Sumerians are far weaker due to barely being remembered. The Greeks are just so strong due to basically everyone kinda knowing them and how they have influenced culture almost everywhere.

Echoxenvy: "Dude. This is the best chapter so far, I enjoyed every minute of it. I really liked how you wrote Ares. I also loved the Lotus Hotel scene, I really liked how you handled Nico in this chapter, can't wait to see how you portray him in the future. Also, I'm just gonna say it now, I don't think I'll be spoiling it because it'll probably be in my next chapter but, Talon is the son of Nikandreos. I'm gonna change a couple of things but I'll stay true to the main story of Apotheon. All in all great chapter, can't wait to see how you write the Underworld scenes.

P.S. I also love God Of War. Kratos vs Zane make it happen."

Response: Thanks, man. For a while, Nico will probably be similar to his pre-Bianca death version, but he'll grow more once he trains at camp. Can't wait to see your next chapter and what will be done about Malachi. I wasn't expecting him so early lol. Also, if this come out before your chapter does, is Nikandreos still alive or was he killed or something. Will he appear? Sorry for all the spoliery questions, I just love Apotheon so much. Also, don't worry. Zane vs. Kratos will happen, just in a long, long time.

Born In The Second Generation 2: "Also about your Pantheon power rankings. I believe their power should have a basis on t"

Response: Can you post that one again? I don't think it came out right lol.

GoodVibezzz: "no complaints here, anything less than a badass mc is no Bueno for me. I love the blood visuals and the deaths, they build character while removing potential weaknesses. I'm in to this33"

Response: Thanks. Zane is quite the motherfucking badass. He will stay quite the motherfucking badass. I don't like fanfics that make the mc a pussy ass bitch, so that's not going to happen here.

Shadowhunter2077: "How powerful you would make the Gods of the riordanverse not only the greek/roman, but also the norse, the egyptians, and other pantheons to come because I think Rick downgraded the Gods to much for the sake of the heroes in the books like to make them beatable to demigods and for my that take away all that feeling of extremly powerful beings, and will we have that problem in your story (i.e: a God being weakened enough for a demigod or poweful mortal to kill him)Also how powerful would you make the olympians and others gods if you needed to put them in another verse like: Marvel, DC, Spawn, Warhammer, DMC, And DBZ and DBS"

Response: Gods can be weakened enough to where powerful demigods and mortals can kill them, but only if they are nearly forgotten. Zane is a special case, however, since he'll be fighting gods that are full power in the later parts of the story. I don't think Rick intentionally tried to downgrade other pantheons, but still did it on accident. Either way, even scaling from comics and myths, The Greeks are still stronger than the Norse and Egyptians.

So Marvel Olympians are way stronger than Riordan Olympians, due to Zeus being equal to Odin in that verse. Odin in Marvel comics is extremely broken and powerful. Olympians in DC are even more broken due to actually being Fifth Dimensional beings that exist beyond our normal Fourth Dimensional Universe. I think Olympians in Spawn are at around the same strength as Riordan Olympians, but I'm not too sure. Warhammer is ridiculous in terms of power, with The God Emperor of Mankind being scaled at Outerverse level at some points, so yeah. DBS and DBZ gods are stronger than Riordan Gods but weaker than GOW gods. No cap, Kratos can kill Goku. Only Zeno could compare to GOW gods.

Anyway, enough with my bitching. Lets blow this pop stand.

(Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson or any related medias, but if you couldn't figure that out from the fact of this being on a fanfiction site, you're fucking retarded.)

(000)

I'm really starting to regret crashing that bus.

We had tried to ride the bus to get to DOA Recording Studios, but the driver had never even heard of the address. He also almost recognized Percy, which would have been all kinds of bad. I would hate to have to destroy another bus full of mortals. I really wish I would have just killed Alecto with my Labrys and finished off the other Furies the same way. We probably could have gotten the bolt by now and skipped both Medusa and The Chimera.

After getting off the bus and wandering around trying to find anything that had even anything to do with DOA Recording Studios, we had to hide from cop cars. Seriously, the police were actually actively looking for Percy. The government blames him for the destruction of the Arch, which is something I did, not him. That might as well have been the biggest act of 'terrorism' since 9/11.

At some point before the sunset over the horizon of this gods-forsaken desert land, Percy caught view of a row of TVs that was current tuned to a news channel that was talking about him. His stepfather, Gabe Ugilano, was appearing on the news channel, talking to the anchor. I didn't really bother to listen to what the fat fuck was saying, but from Percy's murderous expression and the way he looked like he was going to punch the TV in, it probably wasn't good.

After that, I hauled Percy away before he could accidentally destroy the LA sewer system. After the whole debacle with the TVs, the sun set and darkness clouded the city. Annabeth looked like she was hyper-focused, scanning the environment for nearby threats. Percy looked disturbed, seeing the fucked up people start to fill the street corners and alleys. Nico looked downright terrified, as he clutched my arm in fear. I took on Annabeth's approach, making sure I kept an eye out for any threats or monsters.

We walked past the entrance of an alley, trying to avoid the gangbangers and drug addicts that wondered the street, as a voice called out from the alley to us. "Hey." I didn't pay the voice any attention, but like the seaweed brain he was, Percy stopped and turned around. I nearly facepalmed. Dammit, Perce!

As I groaned, I turned around to back Percy up, unfortunately drawing Nico back with me, who was still hanging on to my arm. We were surrounded by around six people, ages ranging from around twelve to sixteen, all of them wearing expensive school uniforms. I sighed, we don't have time for this. Percy, no doubt spooked, uncapped his sword Riptide. Immediately, the kids backed off, except for the leader, who was the oldest and tallest of them. Again, like a seaweed brain, Percy swung Riptide through him when the leader charged him with a switchblade.

The blade passed through him like it was an illusion, as the kid was completely mortal. Before he could recover from the shock and attack Percy once more, I appeared in his face and landed a shot to his ribs, shattering them all on that side. The leader coughed, the pain too much for him to scream, and he fell to the ground. The other kids charged like a pack of wolves, trying to overwhelmed us. I turned back to Percy, who looked unsure of the previous events that just happened. "You're strong enough and skilled enough to easily beat them with your bare hands, seaweed brain! Do it!"

I turned back into a fist from one of the kids, which didn't even make me move a nanometer. I grabbed the kids arm and put a little pressure on his forearm. The kid's arm snapped like a toothpick as he cried in pain, slumping to his knees and clutching his broken arm. He started crying like a toddler, but I held no sympathy as I kicked him in the jaw. His jaw pretty much turned to dust from my foot, which wasn't very pretty. The third kid who was ready to fight charged me, as I scoffed at him. I instantly blitzed him before he could even reach and landed a powerful jab in his sternum, shattering it and immediately incapacitating him.

I finished up with my little crowd of losers, and saw Percy to my left, currently breaking the arm of one of the idiots who had tried to fight him. I saw the final would-be mugger on the ground, his jaw hanging off to the side at an odd angle. Percy finally had enough and slammed the kid's face into the the concrete of the sidewalk, shattering his upper row of teeth.

I walked over to the leader of the idiot rich kids, who was still clutching his ribs while lying on the ground. A sadistic smirk appeared on my face as I saw him look up at me in fear. I grabbed his

right leg, before breaking it like a Kit-Kat Bar. The leader screamed and cried in pain, while I just left him there and returned to my fellow demigods.

Annabeth looked at me in disapproval. "You didn't have to be so brutal about it, Zane." Bitch, what? You cannot be serious. These sadistic kids probably would have beaten and killed us for our tiny amount of money, yet you feel sympathy for them?

I frowned. "Annabeth, these idiots would have beaten us within an inch of our life and probably would have raped you. I'm not going to hold back justice for those bastards." Annabeth, shook by my revelation, didn't say anything after that. I turned to Percy. "What were you thinking, idiot?!" Percy flinched at my tone. "You know celestial bronze doesn't work on regular mortals! Why did you even bother to try?"

Percy capped his weapon and held up his hand in defense. "I'm sorry, okay. I just...kinda forget in the heat of the moment." He looked like a kid who had been caught stealing candy. "Sorry, it won't happen again." Damn, I can't be mad if he's going to do those fucking puppy eyes.

I sighed, and waved off his look. "Alright. Just make sure you don't do shit like that again, okay?" The son of Poseidon nodded at my words. I turned away from Percy to check on Nico. He was probably shaken up from all that brutality he had just seen, from me of all people. And he was, as he was looking at the pile of broken bones and bruises that was those asshole rich kids. He looked at me, a little bit of fear on his face. Fuck. I cringed a little. Maybe Annabeth was right, maybe should be less brutal when I fight. "Sorry you had to see all that Nico. They probably would have done the same and possibly even worse to us if given the chance."

Nico didn't really look much better. I sighed. "You'll have to get used to violence and brutality, Nico. The life of a demigod is not easy, especially for one with an aura like yours." He looked confused at that, but I didn't give him a chance to answer. "Now, come on guys. We really need to get on it with finding the Underworld."

It took a little while, as it was now almost midnight outside, but we found the DOA Recording Studio. It was at this place called Valencia Boulevard, or that's at least what Annabeth told us. The building's lights were on, no off unlike most of the surrounding buildings this late at night. Our little group walked up to the glass door to enter, however we stopped to read the inscription on the door. It read: NO SOLICITING, NO LOITERERS, NO LIVING. Yeah, this place was the underworld alright.

I steeled myself before turning to the others. "Remember, if shit hits the fan, we just stick to the plan we made. Got it?" The others nodded, with Nico looking rather unsure. The plan we had made was basically if we tipped off an alarm or something, just go all out and destroy basically everything in our path. Nico was basically to stay behind us and keep out of danger, as he had no training and was not ready for combat. Knowing the others had a grasp on what to do, I opened the door to The DOA Recording Studio.

The inside didn't really look like a recording studio by any means. It looked more like a mansion, but the owner had an obsession with death, skulls, and dark colors. It actually looked kinda like the Big House. I noticed the people who were in the building just looked...empty. They were even kinda transparent. They didn't say anything, look at anything or do anything. They simply just sat there and waited. Odd.

In the middle of what I assumed was the lobby of the DOA Recording Studio, stood a security guard's desk in the design of a raised podium. The security guard sitting there was a tall and elegant man. He was good looking, but not exactly handsome. He kinda reminded me of Ichabod Crane or something, if Ichabod Crane was a black man. His hair was also blonde and cut military style, making him look even more weird. His suit that he was wearing was the same color of his hair, which made him look like a goon in my opinion.

He looked down from his desk as we approached. He didn't get a word in as Percy, in all of his seaweed brain glory, asked him, "Your name is Chiron?" I looked where Percy was looking and found the security guard's name tag, which read 'CHARON.' Shit, this was definitely the entrance of the underworld.

Charon closed his eyes and breathed in and out after Percy asked him the question. Damn, he was mad. "What a precious young lad." He had an english accent, which made him all the more weird in my mind. Why does a Greek immortal have an english accent. Then again, why did Echidna have a southern accent? "Tell me, mate, do I look like a centaur?" His tone sounded falsely cheerful, like he was hiding anger. Yeah, makes sense.

Percy paled at the man's tone, not stupid enough to not read Charon's emotions. "N-no." Percy stuttered, which struck me as odd.

"Sir." Charon added, a sickly sweet smile plastered on his face. Oh, this man was an arrogant fucker.

"No, sir." Percy said, sufficiently cowed. Come on, Perce. Why are you being such a bitch right now? You literally told Ares to go fuck himself a few days ago, why are you so scared now?

Charon pinched his name tag and ran his finger across the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me, CARE-ON." My left eye twitched in annoyance. Okay, he fucked your name up. He's dyslexic you sack of shit. Stop being a condescending prick about it and move on already.

I interrupted Percy's response. "We need to get into the underworld, Lord Charon." I was going to try sucking up to the motherfucker. He obviously takes pride in who he is, so buttering him up could get me somewhere.

Charon took his attention off Percy. He sat up a little straighter after I said 'Lord Charon.' "Well that's refreshing. Straight forward and honest. No screaming. No 'There must be a mistake Lord Charon.' No bullshit." Charon seemed to forget all about Percy's butchering of his name once he heard my words. "So how did you four die?"

Annabeth answered for me this time, saying in an unsure voice, "Uh...we died...by drowning in a bathtub." I tried to not look at the daughter of Athena weirdly. What the fuck was that kind of death? We have a son of Poseidon with us, who literally cannot drown.

Charon, however, did look at her weirdly. "All four of you?" He asked, as he motioned to me, Percy and Nico. Annabeth nodded, trying her best to look confident. Charon look nonplussed, but he didn't push it. "Big bathtub then." He looked at some papers on his desk. "I don't suppose you have any coins for passage. Normally with adult, I could charge your American Express or credit card, or add the ferry price to your last cable bill. But children..." Charon trailed off, a look of false sympathy adorned his features. "...alas, you never die prepared. Suppose you'll have to take a seat for a few centuries." Yeah, fuck this dude.

Percy set four drachmae on the counter of Charon's desk. "Oh, but we have coins." Those were probably our last few drachmae we had, so if this doesn't work, I'm just going to fry Charon and we were fighting our way into the underworld.

Charon looked surprised. "Real drachmae. Real golden drachmae. I haven't seen these in..." Charon seemed to realize something. His cold stare pierced Percy in the chest, as his fingers danced greedily around the drachmae. "You couldn't read my name correctly from my name tag. Are you dyslexic?" Shit.

Percy paled, but tried to shrug it off. "No, I'm dead." I thought about suggesting that Percy was just an idiot, but Charon continued before I could.

Charon glared at the son of Poseidon and took a sniff. "Demigod." He growled, which sounded suspiciously like a dog. The souls in the building all got up from their seats and started doing random things, which ranged from smoking cigerates to running around crazily and trying to tear their hair out. "Leave while you still can. I'll just take these and pretend I didn't see you." Not on my watch you greedy, arrogant, fuckface.

I drew my Labrys and leveled it against his chin, the spiked head of the weapon poking him in the neck. "I wouldn't move if I were you." He turned his glare to me. I saw visions of death, ranging from disease, to brutal gory deaths. I didn't let it bother me. "I've never fought a minor god before, maybe I should start with you."

Charon stood up, power radiating off of him. "I'll give you one chance to turn around, demigod, before I send you straight to Tartarus myself." Yeah, he sounded angry. Guess the time for diplomacy was over.

I shrugged. "Whatever." I then transformed into my Thunder Form, blowing Charon's desk to pieces and knocking Charon away. The minor god stood up, bewilderment on his face. He knows he's done fucked up now. I pretty much zoomed in front of him before he could even react and planted my Labrys into his skull.

Charon must have been a really weak minor god, as he didn't even move as I zoomed over to him. My Labrys remained firmly planted him his skull as the minor god fell to the ground. Golden ichor gushed from his head as his facial expression twitched with pain and terror. I sighed as I exited my Thunder Form. That was disappointing. I just instantly one shotted him. Was Charon even a god. I racked my brain trying to remember the minor gods in Greek mythology as I removed my Labrys from Charon's skull.

Charon tried to move, his movement uncoordinated and sluggish, no doubt thanks to my Labrys that had slammed into his head. Before Charon could recover and try to retaliate, I walked over to his spazing form and removed his head with one stroke of my weapon. Golden ichor gushed everywhere from his neck wound and his body stopped moving entirely. I turned back to my demigod friends, only to see their stunned expressions. "What?"

Percy shook his head in disbelief. "Dude! You just killed him like it was nothing!"

Annabeth shook her head. "He's not dead." She pointed to the severed head of Charon, which was still twitching. "He's a god, which means he cannot be killed." She looked at me, awe and a bit of fear clear on her face. "You did, however, just defeat Charon with ease. How strong are you?"

I shrugged. "I don't know." I walked over to Charon's decapitated head. "You or Percy probably could have beaten him in a one versus one battle if you played it smart. He wasn't very strong. He probably wasn't too much more powerful than Luke. Just not a lot of combat skill thanks to probably being stuck at this desk for thousands of years." I picked up the severed head of Charon, and tied it to my waist.

Annabeth looked at me with a expression of disgust as she walked over to Charon's body. "Are you kidding me?" She bent down and picked up a card that was in his pocket, which I noted looked a lot like it could fit into a slot that was by an elevator carrying a bunch of souls that were banging on the windows.

"What? It's a trophy. I killed a minor god and I'm taking his head for proof. Plus, it'll stop him from reforming and trying to come after us." Annabeth rolled her eyes as she walked over to the elevator, motioning to follow her. Following her, I walked beside Nico, who stared at Charon's head on my belt in shock. Not like confused shock, like scared shock. I tried to reassured the black haired Myth-O-Magic overlord. "Sorry you have to see this, Nico. But you should get used to having to deal with this kind of stuff. It's your life now." He didn't verbally answer me, just nodding with a uncomfortable look as we follow Annabeth.

Annabeth opened the elevator door, which allowed all of the souls trapped inside to come rushing out. They couldn't actually touch us, but it still felt creepy as fuck watching a bunch of transparent people run through you screaming their head off. I was kinda confused, though. Shouldn't they want to stay in the elevator, since that's where the underworld was currently at? Maybe killing Charon fried their brains or something. Whatever.

We stepped into the elevator and closed the door. Annabeth put Charon's card into the slot on the inside of the elevator and we felt the elevator start to move. We stayed silent as the elevator descended, preparing ourselves for the terrors of the underworld. Eventually, I could feel a shift in the elevator's movement. It kinda felt like the Arch's elevator. We were no long moving down, but forwards. As this happened, Charon's head on my waist became transparent, allowing me to see his skull. Whatever, he was pretty much dead at the moment, despite not being dead.

Eventually, the elevator faded into a old wooden barge, which stood still. We looked back the the captain's helm of the little barge, to see no one rowing the oar that laid on the deck. Makes sense, because Charon was sitting on my waist, currently a severed head. I walked up to the oar and started rowing, hopefully not rowing us to somewhere all kinds of fucked, like Tartarus or something.

Annabeth looked out of the boat at the black, oily river, which was filled with bones, dead fish, and a bunch of things like dolls, papers and random shit. "The River Styx...it's so...polluted." Yeah, that seemed to be a staple in today's world. Everything polluted nowadays. Annabeth didn't get an answer to why it was polluted, probably because the only person who probably knew the answer was hanging from my waist.

The ceiling of the cavern we rowed across was covered in stalagmites, which was covered in mist. Far off in the distance was a green glowing light. Shit, this place was creepy. I saw Annabeth grab Percy's hand, which made him stiffen up. I nearly laughed. Wow, Percy was dense as a rock, huh? To my left, Nico look entirely enraptured with the entire place, like everything was familiar to him. What?

When the shoreline of the Underworld came into view, we could hear the roar of a monster echo off in the distance. Considering we were nearing the entrance to the Underworld, and there's only one monster that guards the entrance, you can only guess what the roar came from. The others stiffened at the noise, however I grinned. Hopefully Cerberus is more of a challenge that Charon. I won't even fight in my Thunder Form this time, so I could at least have a fight.

When we arrived on the black sandy shore of the Underworld, we could see figures seemingly materialize out of the darkness. I could see people of all kinds of backgrounds walk among the dark sands to a grey, old path which laid ahead of us. Old, young, middle aged, there wasn't any single type of person that was left out from the seemingly endless sands of the shore of the Underworld. We stepped out of the barge, and prepared to follow the dead souls to the path. Annabeth and Percy led us, while I walked in the back with Nico. He looked like he knew everything about this place and that's why he looked like he was terrified. I grabbed Nico's hand and gave him a reassuring smile. He looked a little better after that and we followed Percy and Annabeth on the well worn grey path.

(000)

You know, I have never had the underworld actually described to me in detail before, but I honestly thought it would be something different. It reminded me of airport security, but the walls were made out of black stone and all cavern-like rather than made from the fresh gains of capitalism. Also, the green mist that seemed to constantly emit from something painted a different picture, so maybe not airport security.

There were three lines going into three separate entrances under a giant, dark archway. There was a sign that sprouted up from the ground and said. 'YOU ARE NOW LEAVING EREBUS.' Each entrance of the Underworld had metal detectors, which I didn't really see the point of. I mean, you're dead and a spirit. What exactly are you going to do? And how are you going to smuggle anything into the Underworld?

The lines had signs marking them, which two read: 'ATTENDANT ON DUTY.' The other sign read: 'EZ DEATH'. The EZ DEATH line was moving very fast, almost McDonald's drive through speed. The fuck was that supposed to mean? Annabeth saw the confusion on my face, and answered my unasked question. "The fast one must go straight to Asphodel Fields." She shook her head. "No Contest. They don't want to risk judgement from the court, knowing it probably won't go in their favor." Court?

"There's a court for dead people?" Percy asked my question that I was about to ask. Okay, maybe him and I are more alike than I care to admit. Does that mean I am actually kind of dumb?

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah. Three judges. They switch around who sits on the bench. King Minos, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Shakespeare. People like that. Sometimes they look at life and decide that some people deserve a special reward. Sometimes they just decide on punishment. Most people however, just lived. Simple as that. Nothing special, not good or bad. They are sent to Asphodel Fields." Ah, the infamous Asphodel Fields. Probably even worse than Tartarus in my opinion. At least in Tartarus you aren't bored.

Percy must not have heard of Asphodel Fields. Neither has Nico, considering he looks confused. "What's Asphodel Fields like?" The black haired kid asked.

I responded for Annabeth. "It's like Limbo, but instead of standing in a dark void, you stand in a field like Kansas. For eternity." Percy and Nico's face scrunched up at that thought, finding the prospect as boring and plain as I did. We didn't say anything more about the lines as we continued to follow them.

We began to get closer to the gates of The Underworld, which meant that Cerberus was getting closer as well. The hungry howling of the guardian of the underworld was very loud, almost making me want to cover my ears. But that would make me look like a pussy, and we can't have that. When we approached the area where the lines started to get even farther away from each other, the green mist shimmered, and a massive shadowy creature came into view.

Cerberus' features slowly came into view. The monstrous beast was twice the size of an african elephant, at the very least. It's fur was a dark grey color, almost a blade shade. Although that could be from the shadow's that seemed to emit of the three headed dog. He looked a lot like a Rottweiler, with three head. I smirked. This was going to be fun. To my left, Percy said, "Woah. He's a Rottweiler." I, along with Annabeth and Nico slowly turned to the son of Poseidon with a deadpan look on our faces. Percy noticed our looks and was confused. "What?"

Rolling my eyes, I walked away from my group. "Stay back, guys. I got this. Annabeth, Percy. You two protect Nico, okay?" I drew my Labrys and walked up to the massive three headed dog. The three headed monster's heads all looked at me, it's six red eyes narrowing in anger. "You ready to dance, ugly?" Cerberus took this as an invitation and it's middle head tried to bite down right where I was standing. I let the wind carry me to the left and I grabbed on to it's left head.

Cerbus lifted it's middle head up, which carried the rest of it's body with it, which meant me as well. I lifted my Labrys high in the air and slammed my weapon directly down on the monster's head. Cerberus' left head shifted a bit from the force of slam, but seemed mostly fine. What?

Cerberus shook it's entire body, like a regular dog trying to shake the water from it's fur. I grabbed on to part of it's ear to hang on, but the part I grabbed onto just ripped off and Cerberus shook it's head. The massive dog yowled in pain as part of it's ear was removed. It looked down at me, ten times the anger that it had looked at me before. A grin made it's way onto my face. This is where the fun beings.

I drew my Labrys back faster than most demigods could even see and threw my weapon full speed at the giant three headed dog's middle head. The monster was too big and slow to even try dodging, which let my weapon pierce it's forehead. Cerberus was knocked back a couple steps, still looked fine. The beast roared and charged me, faster than I expected. It tried to bite down on where I was, however, I slid under it before it could reach me. I lifted the creature my it's torso, stopping it's momentum. I slammed it down back into the direction it came from, cracking the dark stone ground.

Trying something new, I summoned lightning into both of my hands. My hands glowed white with power, lightning dancing off my forearms. I recalled back to a move I had used against the Nemean Lion a year and a half prior to this day, I released my power onto Cerberus, lightning covered it's form as it tried to stand from the ground. The beast howled in pain as lightning seeped into it's very pores. I held this assault up for several seconds, the smell of burning flesh coursing through my nose.

I released my lightning, surprisingly not winded in the slightest. That was weird, normally something like that would tire me out. Whatever. I outstretched my hand, calling my weapon back to me. The Labrys was yanked out of Cerberus' head, however, it was too stunned to even move to react. I charged the beast while it was still stunned. I shoulder bashed it, knocking it back, causing it to roar in pain. It's body slightly caved in where I had charged into it.

I jumped up onto the middle head on Cerberus. I lifted my Labrys in the air, much like I had done previously, however, this time I would pack much more oomph. I channeled power into my axe head, the weapon becoming white with raw power. I slammed my Labrys down on top of Cerberus' middle head, this time the beast slammed to the floor for the force of my attack. My weapon was an axe, but the impact of the hit looked like a hammer strike. The top half of Cerberus' middle head had been turned into mush from my attack, blood and brains flowing out of it's ears.

I jumped almost twenty feet into the air, allowing the wind to let me linger there. I charged my Labrys once more, hoping to finish the beast off. While I had killed it's middle head, the other two were still alive. They were currently screaming and yelping in pain, but I didn't care. Once I had charged a similar amount of strength into my weapon, something that had outstripped the power I had used against the Chimera on the Arch, I threw my weapon into the back of the downed three headed dog. Once my weapon hit, the beast exploded into a shower of gore and lightning, a massive crater being produced under where I had struck. The cavern shook with my might, with rocks falling from the ceiling. I slowly descended from the air, calling my Labrys back to me.

I sheathed my weapon, disappointed. The poor beast hadn't really even fought back all that much. I attacked as viciously as I could, basically not allowing for any retaliation. Yeah, I kinda didn't give it much of a chance, but come on, it's Cerberus, like the most legendary Greek monster ever. I was expecting more of a challenge. The Chimera was harder to beat than that thing. I looked at my hands, in thought. By all rights, Cerberus should be much more powerful than the Chimera. Why did it feel so much weaker?

A thought occurred to me. Was I more powerful now? Really? The only monster I had fought that had challenged me so far on this entire quest was the Chimera. Was that the turning point of my strength. I mean, I destroyed the Arch in an adrenaline burst in my base form when I fought it. I thought that was just a temporary increase in power while I was desperate and angry at nearly dying. What was with my strength?

Annabeth walked over, dragging Percy and Nico along with her. "Is violence always the answer with you, Zane?" Maybe in the past, that question would have been more hostile, but now, there was no real heat in the question. She was even smirking a little. Holy shit, was Annabeth becoming my friend?

I gave her a smirk in return. "Oh yeah, Annabeth? What was your plan going to be?" Seriously, did she actually have a plan to fight Cerberus, because I'm fairly certain that monster would have eaten them like a bunch of cookies.

Annabeth's smirk faltered. "Uh...I was going to get him to fetch this...?' She said lamely, which sounded like more of a question than a statement. She pulled a little red bouncy ball from her backpack. I stared at the ball for a couple of seconds, not sure if she was serious. Then I started laughing. Hard. Annabeth's cheeks turned red. "Shut up! It's not my greatest plan, I know!" I kept laughing for a solid twenty seconds, with her hitting my shoulder and chest for the time. Once I was done, I saw Percy slightly glaring at me. Huh?

I walked up to the son of the sea god. "You good, dude? Should I give you a turn on the next monster than comes up?" Was Percy jealous? I mean, I did kinda kill all the monster we came across for the whole quest, and Percy had only fought Echidna and he even lost.

Percy small glare immediately faded. "Oh. Uh...no, man. I'm good. To be honest, you've made this quest so much easier. We would probably be dead if you weren't here. Ares probably would have turned me into a ladybug and smashed me." If it wasn't because he was jealous because of my badassery, why was he glaring at me. I looked over at Annabeth, who earlier had playfully hit me on the shoulder and chest when I had laughed at her hilarious plan. Oh.

Percy liked Annabeth. HAHAHAHAHA! Oh, man! He probably didn't even realize that he did, considering the glare was only small and it went away very quick. But I had seen it, and the way that Percy had stiffened when Annabeth grabbed his hand early. Daughter of Athena and Son of Poseidon, the perfect forbidden love. Oh, that was amazing.

I shook my head from these thoughts. "Come on, guys. Time is ticking." I walked by Nico as Percy and Annabeth took the lead. The son of...somebody walked by me, giddy from my last fight.

"Holy shit, Zane! You looked so cool!" I nearly flinched from Nico swearing. Maybe I'm a bad influence on this kid. "You threw your axe like, 'Whabam!' Then you hit Cerberus in the head like, 'Whapow!' You're so cool!" I saw admiration in his onyx eyes. Not the whole 'pedestal' admiration that I could see in the eyes of the campers back at Camp-Half Blood, but real genuine admiration.

I blushed a bit from the praise, even though Nico made it sound kinda goofy. "Thanks, Nico." Ahead of us, I saw Percy and Annabeth walk through the metal detectors together, only for it to predictably go off and alarms to start blaring. Security in the form of souls or some kind of people ran up, ordering Percy and Annabeth to put their hands behind their heads. I see I must have rubbed off on the two, as they drew their weapons and immediately killed the two guards. Or, like, dispelled them or something. I don't know what happens when souls die.

I saw the alarms of the metal detector were still blaring, so I raised a hand and let out a burst of powerful lightning. The metal detector exploded, stopping the alarm and making sure no more idiotic security ran over. Did they not just see me take Cerberus to pound town? Percy and Annabeth looked back at me. "The alarm is what signaled them. I just too it out, unless you wanted Hades to be down here early?" They didn't say anything as Nico and I took the lead, making our way to Asphodel Fields.

(000)

The scale of The Underworld was so much bigger than you could possibly even imagine. Think of the biggest social event you have ever been to, and think of a giant massive field that spanned as far as you could see in every direction and then multiply that entire vision by one million. Asphodel Field was not how you thought it looked either. When they told me it looked like Kansas at Camp Half-Blood, they were either lying or just taking a guess. It was a field, sure, but it was pitch black, filled to the brim with people from all walks of life, or in this case, death. The black grass was course and cracked whenever you stepped on it.

The wind of the Fields felt artificial, like that of an air conditioner. It was warm and felt polluted and humid, like that of a swamp. Black, ugly trees grew in clumps from here to there, making the fields seem rather crowded, not from the people, mind you. The ceiling was incredibly high up, stalagmites curling down from it. It seemed as if it towered thousands of feet in the air.

A large tented pavilion was erect at the end of the path to the Fields. I could only assume the judges judged the souls inside there. At the back of the Pavilion, two lines broke out and split off in two seperate directions. One line was flanked by security, being forced down the rocky, brimstone like path they walked upon. Their destination: somewhere I could only describe as hell. The Fields of Punishment, Tartarus. The landscape of the demented land was cracked. Fire, brimstone and lava could be seen in every direction. Screams of pain and terror could be heard from where we stood, sounding faint but easily recognizable.

The other line had a much better destination in store for them. Elysium. Golden security gates could be seen guarding the entrance, a massive neighborhood of large, exquisite houses from every time period could be seen. The streets were made of gold and shined even from here, miles away. In the middle of the valley that was the land of the good hearted was a shining blue lake. An island stood there, looking like it was plucked straight from the Bahamas or any other luxury resort like that. The Isle of The Blessed. People who were reborn thrice, and thrice had achieved Elysium. Or for great and legendary heroes. That's where I knew where I was going once I died.

Our groups morale was affected rather heavily by marching through miles of Asphodel Fields. Percy looked more and more anxious the farther we trekked. Annabeth looked like she was living a nightmare or thinking about spiders. I can only assume she will do her best to not go to Tartarus, only to avoid the spider monsters there. Nico was the only one unaffected, as if all of this was normal for him. That was peculiar. His aura was nearly as strong as Percy, if I remember correctly. There's no way that thought I just had could be correct. No way in hell, or er...Tartarus.

After what could only be described as hours of walking, a dark, crystal like fortress could be see in the distance. I couldn't really see much of the details of the castle, but I could see that it was a castle. Parapets broke out of the shadowing building at the top, with three shadowy figures with wings standing on the top. Three guesses who they were. I wasn't worried. The Furies were easy to kill last time while confined in a bus, and they'll be even easier to kill in an open space. Or, well, a more open space. Nico stared at the castle, for the first time his face looked fearful. "I suppose it's too late to turn back now, huh?" The master card player asked.

Percy did his best to sound encouraging. "We'll be okay, Nico." Percy tried to sound confident, but he failed. as this was his quest, Percy was the one to take the lead. The three of us, me, Annabeth and Nico followed behind him. We didn't make it two steps before my shoes' wings sprouted and tried to take off, with me along in them. "Zane, what the hell are you doing?" Percy asked, as I was starting to be carried off by the winged shoes.

I tried to stop the shoes. "Maia." It was the first time I had even tried to use the shoes, or should i say, not try to use them. The shoes didn't respond to me. "Maia!" I said, more sternly this time. The shoes continued to carry me off, not responding to my commands. I rolled my eyes. I commanded the wind around us to hold me in place. I stopped moving immediately, the shoes still flapping uselessly. The shoes tried to fly faster and faster, however, I continued to strengthen the wind around me. I wasn't going anywhere.

Annabeth looked at the shoes oddly. "What is going on?" She put a hand on her hip and looked at me for an answer. Before I could answer, Nico called out, "Dude! You have flying shoes!? Awesome!" Normally, I would have enjoyed that reaction, but the weirdness of the situation made me serious.

I didn't respond to Nico as I took the shoes off my feet, leaving me barefoot. Yeah, I currently did not have socks on. Hey, don't look at me weird. These things fill hella good when barefoot. "The shoes just...activated. I didn't commanded them to." I pointed in the direction the shoes were taking me, which was past Hades' palace. "They are trying to pull me in that direction." I kept the shoes firmly in my hand, the shoes uselessly trying to escape my grasp. I let the shoes go, which prompted them to fly off at high speeds. "Should we follow them?"

I could see the gears and cogs in Annabeth's mind shift on her face. "I'm not sure. I mean, why would Luke give you defunct winged shoes? This is the first time they activated, yes?" I nodded. "I don't think we have time. We've been here for hours and we arrived at midnight. It's already the solstice, so we may only have a few hours left. We need to carry on." I nodded at her logic. We had important things to do, more important than to go see where some defunct winged shoes were heading.

We approached the palace, forgetting about the shoes. We walked closer towards the castle, a twenty foot tall wall surrounding the palace. The bronze gates that normally guarded the entrance were completely open. When we came up close to the gates, we could see visions of war and death engraved exquisitely on the gates. Some of the engravings looked like they depicted modern times, with pictures of nuclear detonations and helicopters and more modern weaponry being depicted on the gates. A good portion of the gates were of other types of war, from earlier periods in history, ranging from the Civil War to The Trojan War. The eerie thing was, all the engravings looked the same age. Maybe the Underworld just had a really good engraver, but since we're literally in the Underworld, I could believe anything.

Inside the courtyard of the palace was an...interesting garden. That was putting it mildly. There were weird assortments of all kinds of plants. Weirdly colored and patterned mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, weird glowing plants, large piles of jewels and precious metals, even some statues that looked plucked straight from Medusa's garden. But in the middle, there stood an orchard of Pomegranate trees, their orange lights emitting a neon glow in the otherwise dark Underworld environment.

"The garden of Persephone. We need to keep moving." Annabeth's voice was urgent. I understand why she wanted to leave so quickly. The seeds of the Pomegranate would keep of trapped here forever if we ate any from the trees. We pressed on, walking up the massive black shining steps of Hades' palace, flanked by columns. We reached the door of The Lord of The Dead's palace, only to find it wide open. Okay, this was definitely a trap.

Inside Hades' palace, there was surprisingly no roof. It didn't look like that from the outside, but considering the outside was barely even visible, I wasn't too surprised. We walked past an untold amount of sidedoors that ran down the great hallway leading towards Hades' throne room. Each side door had two guards protecting it, with the guards attire being different depending on the era of the soldier. Some guards were from the Greek period, with Athenian and Spartan style armor donned. Others ranged from Medieval Knights, to Revolutionary War soldiers and even some modern American marines. The guards didn't try and stop us, cementing in my mind that this was a trap, but simply watched us approach the throne room.

The door opened as soon as we approached it, showing the throne room within. The throne looked the same as Percy had described it from his dreams, with the throne being made out of a sleek black metal, with gems and bones decorating it, making it look like a true throne for the Lord of The Dead. On the throne sat said Lord. He was easily ten feet tall, wearing a long, silky black robe that seemed to emit a green hue, much like the mist outside. Hades was handsome, his smooth shaven face looked down on us with contempt. He wore a crown that seemed to be a fusion between gold and bones, which slightly curled his long black hair. Hades wasn't exactly muscled like Ares had been, but he radiated the strength of a million Ares combined. He felt like he could destroy me with a flick.

Hades' intense, charismatic eyes scanned me and my friends. I could feel his aura of death and power surround me. I barely even noticed the auras of monsters Hades had hiding away somewhere in the throne room. This was someone I knew I could not beat. Not yet, at least. "You are brave to come here, son of Poseidon." Hades' voice was deep and rich, sounding like he was holding it's true power back. "After what you have done to me, very brave. Or perhaps very foolish."

Hade's piercing, onyx eyes came onto me. "Oh, my. The son of Zeus. Or at least, one of many." His eyes became hard and cold. "Your existence is a testament to my brother's failure to keep to the very oath he forced me to swear. You are the second child of his to surface within five years." Hades finally noticed Charon, who still twitched at my waist. The Lord of The Dead sighed at the sight. "Really? You had to take Charon's head? He already bitches constantly about being underpaid. After this, he will never shut up."

Hades looked at Nico who stood in the back, cowering at the sight of the king of The Underworld. His jaw dropped open, agape. He seemed like he couldn't find the words to speak for a few seconds. "N-Nico...?" Nico looked confused about Hades singing him out, especially by calling him by his name. I nearly sighed out loud. Of course that little though I had earlier turned out to be true. Three Big Three children in less than two years being discovered. You've gotta be kidding.

Hades' stood from his throne, all attention of his son. "Nico..." Hades walked up to Nico and placed a hand on his head. My eyes widened. He had moved so quickly I didn't even notice that he had moved in the first place. "My son." Nico flinched at the movement of his father, before his eyes widened as he touched his head. He looked as if he was remembering hundreds of things at once.

Nico hugged his father. "Dad!" Hades immediately returned the hug. I could hear Nico's sobs from the chest of the god of The Underworld. I felt both happiness and jealously at the sight. Nico had found his father and been reunited with him, no doubt after decades. The jealously I felt, however, pained my heart. Nico's father seemed to care about him, unlike mine. I gripped my right hand. I saw my fellow demigods stunned at the sight. I didn't want to interrupt this moment, but we had business to attend to.

"Uncle." I spoke, gaining the Lord of The Dead's attention. Nico didn't even bother to know I was there, too overjoyed in reuniting with his father. "We found him in the Lotus Hotel. He had been there since 1939. Your doing, I suppose?"

Hades nodded. "Nico was born before the oath I made to sire more children. Him and his sister, Bianca. I had them placed in the Lotus Hotel to shield them from your father and Poseidon." He glared at me when he said that. "Tell me, where is Nico's sister?"

I shrugged, which cause Hades' aura to spike a bit. "Likely still in the Lotus Hotel. I ran into Nico playing in a card tournament there and afterwards, we began to hang out. Some Laestrygonians forced us to flee the hotel once we figured out the effect of the hotel in general, so we were unable to find Bianca. The hotel disappeared right after. I assume she is still in there." I could now feel the power of Nico's aura, which felt a lot like Hades. Just a million times weaker.

Hades nodded at my explanation. "I suppose I should thank you for retrieving my son from the hotel. I will have to make a note to retrieve my daughter later." Hades sounded pained when he thanked me, which he probably swallowed a large chunk of his pride as he did so. He stood from his kneeling position of hugging his son, breaking the hug. "But, we still have business to attend to. Perseus Jackson." Hades nodded to the son of Poseidon, who had been holding his tongue for the entire exchange.

Percy nodded and gulped. "Lord and Uncle. I have two requests from you."

Hades' face darkened as he heard those words. "Arrogant child. As if you have not taken enough already. Speak then. The only reason I do not strike you dead is because you have returned my son to me." Nico looked from his father, to Percy and then to me. He looked unsure of the entire situation.

"Lord Hades. There can't be a war among the gods. That would be...bad." Percy finished lamely. The master of under statement, ladies and gentlemen. Anyway, something didn't feel right here.

Hades' face twisted. His onyx eyes turned into a bright, misty green. "You dare kept up this pretense? After what you have done?" What has he done? I know most gods think Percy stole the lightning bolt, but what could Hades, the guy who probably has the bolt, be angry at Percy about? My eyes widened. Impossible.

Percy was confused, as was Annabeth and Nico. "Um...Uncle. You kept saying 'what you've done.' What exactly have I done?" The reaction from Hades was instantaneous. A massive tremor broke throughout the entire Underworld. Rubble fell from the palace's ceiling, doors broke out of the walls of the throne room, allowing hundreds of soldiers from all different eras to come pouring in.

Hades was angry now. Even Nico was afraid of his father at the moment. "Do you think I want war, demigod?!" I could feel the aura radiating with power off of Hades. His robes changing, screaming souls appearing in images across them. I realize that could be us in a few seconds if this went worse. "Let me guess. You think I want war to expand my kingdom? A typical thing my brothers would say. You are very much like your father in that regard, Perseus Jackson. Do you think I need more subjects? Do you not see the sprawl of Asphodel Fields?"

We were silent, absorbing Hades' logic. That did kinda make sense. Asphodel was a complete shitshow. Hades continued. "Do you have any idea how much my kingdom has swollen in this century alone? How many subdivisions I have had to open because of that fact?" Hades no longer looked murderous. He was downright whining now. "More security ghouls, traffic problems at the judgement pavilion and double overtime for all the staff." Hades looked almost insane for a second. "I used to be a rich god, Perseus Jackson! I control all the precious material on earth. But do you have any idea what my expenses are?" Damn, this was kinda pathetic. "Anyway, I did not ask for this war."

Percy was confused, but Annabeth looked like she kinda figured it out by now. "But you stole Zeus' master bolt!"

Hades' murderous expression returned. He grew in size, almost to twenty feet tall. "Lies!" His voice was imbued with power now, making all of us cower. The room rumbled with Hades' power once more. "Your father may fool Zeus with his plan, boy! But I am not so stupid!" He turned to me, a little less angry looking. "No offense." I shrugged at his jab. Yeah, my dad could be dumb sometimes.

Percy still didn't get it. "What do you mean?" I, however, was questioning this entire quest itself. If Hades didn't steal the master bolt, then who did? Why would they want war between the gods then? Annabeth looked like the same questions where running through her mind.

Hades bared down on his nephew. "You were the thief on the winter solstice. Your father though he could keep you his little secret. He directed you into the throne room on Olympus, you took the Master Bolt and my Helmet of Darkness. Had I not sent Alecto to discover you at Yancy Academy, Poseidon's little ruse to start to hide his plan to start a war would have gone unnoticed. But now you have been forced into the open. You will be exposed as Poseidon's pawn and I will have my Helm back!" The throne room trembled once more at Hades' declaration.

I shook my head. "That doesn't make any sense, Uncle." Hades' fury was now directed onto me. I had to will myself to not shrink from his gaze. "How the fuck did Percy, a barely trained demigod son of Poseidon, steal the Master Bolt and The Helmet of Darkness while under of the gods' noses. Have you seen Percy try to be sneaky? He's terrible at it."

Hades' aura spiked even more, making me suppress a shiver. "Do not insult me, son of Zeus. You have been helping this boy-no doubt in some sort of rebellious undertaking to stick it to your father- To bring me an ultimatum. Do you really think Poseidon can blackmail me into supporting him?!" Hades was even angrier now.

"No!" Percy yelled. "I didn't...Poseidon didn't...!" Percy couldn't even get the words out.

Hades interrupted the son of Poseidon. "You have no idea what your father is capable of, boy." Hades was amused. "I have said nothing about my Helms disappearance, because I know that no one on Olympus would offer me a shred of justice or help! I can ill-afford to let people know that my most powerful weapon of fear is missing. So I searched for you myself, so when it became clear you were coming to deliver your threat, I did not try to stop you."

Hades smirked and outstretched his arms, almost touching the walls of the room in his giant size. "Return my Helm now, or I will stop death." Hades felt as if he had the power now. "That is my counter-proposal. I will open the earth and have the dead pour into your world. I will make your lands a living hellscape. And the three of your skeletons will lead my army out of Hades." Well, shit. what are we going to do about that?

The skeletal soldiers behind the Lord of The Dead drew their weapons and pointed them at us, clearly leaving Nico out of it. Nico looked conflicted. On one side was his father, who he clearly didn't remember until just a few moments ago, but on the other side was us, his new friends who had saved him from the Lotus Hotel. I drew my Labrys while Annabeth drew her dagger. We weren't going down without a fight.

Percy looked offended, rather than terrified or ready to fight. "You are as bad as Zeus!" He turned to me, apologetic. "No offense." I shrugged, clearly not caring. Percy continued. "You think I really stole from you? You're an idiot! I didn't even know of the divine world a month ago, much less around the winter solstice! I didn't steal from you. I don't have your helm, I came for the master bolt!"

Hades didn't look very happy at Percy calling him an idiot. "Which you already possess!" Hades shouted right back of the son of the sea god. "You came here with it, you utter fool! You thought you could threaten me with it? Ha!"

Percy looked confused again, which was becoming a stereotype. "B-But I didn't!"

Hades smirked. "Open your backpack then." Immediately, I felt a massive surge of energy emit from Percy's backpack. What? How the hell did I not notice that before? Percy's face palled, as if he realized something terrible. Slowly, Percy removed his backpack and unzipped it, taking out a two foot long cylinder, bursting with electrical energy. My mouth dropped open. No. Fucking. Way. That was impossible, I've been through that pack myself. By Percy's expression, he was thinking the same thing I was.

The three of us, me, Percy and Annabeth were stunned. We didn't say anything, each of us realizing the situation. This entire thing was a set-up. Someone had set Zeus, Hades and Poseidon at each others throats. Question was, who? Wait, wasn't Ares the one who had given us this backpack...?

Hades smirked, as if he had just been proven right by a google search. "You heroes are all the same. Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon here against me. I did not ask for Zeus' master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool and if not, a weapon. Now...where is my Helm?"

We stood in silence for a solid few seconds, not sure on what to do or say. We definitely did not have Hades' Helm, or at least, I don't think we did. Finally, Percy decided for us. "Lord Hades, this is some kind of mistake." Bad choice of words, Perce.

"'Some kind of mistake.'" Hades repeated with disgust in his tone. Hades made a motion with his hand, which signaled for the soldiers to move closer and surround us. The Furies came out of now, flying down from the sky. Their flaming whips dancing in anticipation. Hades turned his head to Alecto. "Kill them. Bring me the bolt." The horde of skeletal soldiers advanced, with the Furies leading the charge. "Avert your eyes, son. This will not be pleasant." Hades said to Nico, who looked at us terrified at what we were about to face. Alright, that's my cue.

BOOM!

Lightning encased my form as I activated my patented Thunder Form. I did not hold back the power of the transformation this time. I made sure the wave of lightning and wind I just produced did not hit any of my fellow demigods, including Nico. Everything else was fair game. The soldiers were incinerated instantly. The Furies were electrocuted and blown away. I did not allow them to recover and try anything. I pointed my Labrys and the sprawling forms of Hades' servants and completely destroyed them with a simple bolt of lightning. They turned to ash before they could even move in the air a centimeter.

Only Hades was not affected by my transformation. He actually looked impressed. "You're no doubt powerful, nephew. Far stronger than any of Zeus' other children, including Heracles. But..." Hades' form became less of that, a form. His figure became more shadow-like, radiating with god-like power. "...You do not hold of candle to me, son of Zeus." Hades stood in front of me, a twenty foot tall shadow person, making my incredible strength look like nothing. Why did I think I could fight one of the big three? I know I easily killed Cerberus and Charon like they were nothing, but Hades was one of the stronger beings in the entire universe.

A thought occurred to me. "Percy!" I shouted out, trying to not sound piss-pants terrified of Hades. "The bolt! Give it to me, quickly! And a pearl!" Percy, luckily, understood what I was trying to do, and responded to my command in full. Percy tossed me both the powerful weapon of my father and my ticket out of the underworld. "Get out of here, now! I'll hold him off!"

Percy shook his head at that. "Hell no, man! I'm not leaving you again. And not without my mother!" Hades chuckled with amusement as Percy said that, making the son of Poseidon freeze.

"Your mother?" Hades' sounded like an eldritch demon in his massive shadow form. "She is dead, Perseus Jackson. I destroyed her once I found out the true purpose of your quest. As punishment for thinking you could threaten me." Percy went still as Hades said that. He didn't move for a few seconds. I thought he was going to have a cliche power up where he'd unlock a form similar to mine, but he simply starting to cry softly. Anger filled my veins.

"Hades!" I yelled, allowing the master bolt to charge in my hand. I instantly felt millions of times more powerful. My muscles strengthened as the lightning aura around me increased one hundred fold. "I am going to kill you!" I turned to Annabeth, the only other conscious ally I had left. "Snap him out of it and get him out of here!" I turned away and rushed towards Hades.

I charged my Labrys with the power of my father, the weapon becoming entirely white. I slashed for Hades' body, only to meet his arm. My weapon stopped flat, not cutting the shadowy form of The Lord of The Dead an inch. Hades chuckled at my attempt. "That blow wound have grievously wounded any other god besides me, Son of Zeus, but I am on an entirely different level of power." Hades drew back a shadowy fist and punched me across the room before I could even react. My entire body pulsated in pain and I slammed back to the ground.

I shakily stood up to see Hades slowing and casually approach me. I wasn't going to be beaten so easily. I charged the Master Bolt and fired a blast of pure lightning at my uncle. I half expected him to effortlessly deflect the blast and continue his walk towards me. However, the lightning struck him in the chest, and made him stop in place. He grunted a little in pain, before amping up his power several fold and blowing the lightning of off him. I actually did a bit of damage.

Hades was getting a bit more serious now. He warped the darkness itself around me. I felt myself being attacked at all angles by dark tendrils. I let my aura of lightning surround me completely, shielding me from the shadows. I could feel my aura being pierced, however, as pain in various places still existed. I charged the Master Bolt into my aura, blasting the tendrils of shadow away in a massive three hundred and sixty degree blast of power. Hades had stumbled back from the show of strength and growled. "Alright, you pathetic demigod. Time for me to get serious." I saw that Nico was being protected by a shadowy cage.

I knew I could go all out then. I let the Master Bolt make contact with my Labrys, charging the weapon to whiteness. I threw the axe at Hades, the weapon zooming faster than the speed of light at the Lord of The Dead. Hades, however, met his fist with the flying weapon. The two forces of power clashed, seemingly evenly matched. Hades then decided to use more strength, which cause my weapon to explode in a shower of light and lightning. I gaped. The weapon I had used since I joined the divine world was now shattered into thousands of charred celestial bronze pieces.

I knew I couldn't give up yet. I looked at the bolt of my father, willing it to turn into something I could use. The Master Bolt then shifted into a one sided curved axe, blazing with power. My eyes widened. I can't believe that had even worked. I levitated in the air, facing the God of The Underworld. He seemed shocked that the Master Bolt had molded to my will, probably not knowing the weapon could do that beforehand. I charged the weapon, putting everything I possibly could into the bolt, knowing it was all or nothing right here.

I flew towards my uncle, Master Bolt held high above my head. Lightning glowed off me like a super saiyan, shining through the darkness of the Underworld. Hades drew his arm back, coating the shadowy arm in more shadow than normal, and then he met my downward strike head on. The attacks met each other, with them both being equal. But luckily, as my strength was about to fade, the Bolt overcame Hades' attack, turning his shadowy arm into a bunch of left over tendrils and ichor. Hades roared in pain as his arm exploded and he stumbled back, clutching his severed limb.

I floated back to the ground, my form leaving me. I knew that was everything I had all at once. I was tapped out. I pulled out my pearl Percy had thrown me before. I looked around, noticing Percy and Annabeth hadn't stuck around. I was thankful. They probably wound have died just from being in proximity of the battle. The only reason Nico lived was thanks to Hades' protection. Speaking of Nico, I turned to him, his protective cage gone. He didn't know how to look at me, considering he had said nothing while his father attempted to kill us. I didn't hold it against him, it was his father for crying out loud. I gave him a reassuring smile, telling him I didn't blame him.

Speaking of Nico's father, I felt Hades' aura strengthen ten fold. I turned back to the now pissed off king of the underworld, whose arm had completely regenerated. His shadowy form now looked was less controlled, with tendrils and shadow spikes flaming off of him. He looked down on me, his burning green eyes widening with pure rage. "I will destroy you!" He yelled, before turning fully to me.

Yeah, nope. I dropped the pearl on the ground, giving Hades a shit eating grin and a salute with the Master Bolt. I smashed the pearl with my foot. Hades roared in indignation as I vanished, my mind thinking on about bringing me where Percy is. A blinding white light overcame me.

(000)

When the bright light of the pearl faded away, I found myself on a Pier. More specifically, The Santa Monica Pier, the one we had briefly used whenever Percy came to talk with that ocean spirit, whatever her name was. I nearly collapsed as soon as I saw the wooden Pier. I felt the vibrations of two pairs of feet run up to me. I rose my head, ignoring the pain of my joints. Percy and Annabeth. Percy didn't really look too good. Grief was clear and visible on his face, his eyes red and cheeks puffy, likely from crying. He was clearly putting up a strong facade, though.

"Are you okay?" Annabeth asked me as she knelt down to my collapsed form. I was still holding the Master Bolt, the immensely powerful weapon radiating power incarnate. I nodded to Annabeth's question, wiping the sweat from my brow. "What happened? Where's Nico?" The daughter of Athena asked me.

I briefly recounted what had happened while they were escaping. My battle with Hades, me leaving Nico in the Underworld and anything else of importance. I asked Annabeth why the city of Los Angeles looked practically in ruins, something I realized when telling my story to my friends. The city looked like a massive earthquake had devastated it, with several buildings haven collapsed and fires that looked like they were everywhere. "After we left, we discovered the city was like that. In the next few minutes, it got progressively worse. You should have seen it. I a couple of minutes ago, there were massive tornadoes and lightning bolts over the city..." Annabeth trailed off, looking at me. "That was you, wasn't it?" I nodded at the question.

I sat down on the ground, sitting Indian style. "What are we going to do now?" The sun was rising, which meant we had until sundown to return the bolt to Olympus. I could fly there under normal circumstances, easily when being enhanced by the Master Bolt, but I was completely exhausted now. I could barely even move, much less fly a couple thousand miles.

Percy, for the first time, spoke up. "What can we do?" His voice was bitter. "We got played. The prophecy was right. 'You shall go west and face the god who turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole The Master Bolt and The Helmet of Darkness and blamed me since I'm Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will be blamed be blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three way war. And I'll have caused it."

I'm not letting him talk like that. "Hey, we still have the Master Bolt, so we can at least mitigate some of the damage, right?" Neither Percy nor Annabeth looked convinced, which caused me to go to silence. Percy was right, this was a fine mess. I stood up shakily, leaning on the Pier's railing. "Who would want war that badly? To see the entire world, no, the universe crumble before them?"

Percy's response was deadpan. "Gee, let me think." Immediately after Percy said those words, the culprit made themselves known. It was Ares, but not the version we had met at the diner almost a week ago. Instead of looking like a biker, he now looked like a proper god. He stood at ten feet tall, donned in a battle armor I could only describe as a combination between a spartan and a medieval knight. His helmet covered his face, but not his now lava glowing red beard and the ends of his glowing long hair. His cuirass was covered in Mycenaean Greek inscriptions and designs, something the rest of his armor copied. His gauntlets were adorned on his hands, which were carry a massive greatsword that looked plucked right out of some kind of anime. He clearly radiated power, yet nowhere near to the level that Hades had.

Are's smirked, which I could barely see behind the helmet. "Hey there kids." Ares seemed actually happy, rather than just angry like he had back at the diner. "You three were supposed to die."

Percy glared at the god of war. His anger of the entire situation emerging. "You tricked us. You were the one who stole the boat." Normally, I chastise him on either pointing out the obvious or getting angry at a god, but right now, I was really angry too.

Ares grinned at the son of Poseidon. "Well, now. I didn't steal them personally. That's a big no-no, I'm not really allowed to do that. Stupid Ancient Rules." Ares spit on the ground. "Anyway, you're not the only hero who can run errands."

I wanted to get to the bottom of this. "Who did you use then, brother? Was it Clarisse? She was there at the solstice." I had actually seen her the entire time, but considering I just fought one of the strongest gods in the universe, I could believe anything.

The idea seemed funny to Ares, as he chuckled a bit. "Doesn't matter." You saying that means it does, Ares. "The point is, kids, that you're impeding the war effort. See, you have to die in the Underworld. Old Seaweed will get mad at Corpse Breath for killing you, same with Zeus, and Zeus will also be mad at Hades for having his lightning bolt. And Hades is still looking for this..." Ares pulled out a bronze looking hoplite helmet. Three guesses what that was.

"The Helmet of Darkness." Annabeth declared, grim expression on her face. Yep, the helmet of the big scary shadow man I just fought. Fun fact, he can actually turn into a big scary shadow man.

"Exactly." Ares said. A grin formed on his face. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, now Hades will be mad at Zeus because he doesn't know who took it. Pretty soon we'll be having a nice little three-way slug-fest going on." This whole thing did not reek of Ares. Ares was not Athena, he wasn't capable of strategic thought at the level, as he embodied brutal and chaotic war. Something wasn't right.

"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested. Uh, Annabeth? This is fucking ARES we're talking about here. He's pretty unpredictable when it comes to morality and alignment. No, not unpredictable went it comes to being predictable. Usually, he is kinda on the dumb side. His kids mostly represent that.

Ares shrugged, not caring. "So were the Titans, and look where they are." Yeah, he kinda had a point there. We literally just left the realm where most of the Titans reside in. "Anyway, the blood related fights are always the best ones, as they're usually the bloodiest. Best kind of war, I'd say."

Percy spoke to the god of war. "You gave me the backpack back in Denver. It was in there in entire time." That was impossible. I would have felt the raw power of the weapon. Said weapon also crackled in my right hand as I thought that thought, almost as if it was itching for action.

"Yes and no." Ares said, being a little too cryptic for my liking. Luckily, he cleared it up pretty quickly. "It's probably a little too complicated for your little mortal brains to comprehend, but back pack is just the master bolt's sheathe." When Ares said that, I almost felt a phantom pain of a lack of a certain Labrys in my empty sheathe on my back. Really do miss that axe. "The bolt is connected to it, sort of like that sword you got, kid. It always returns to your pocket, right?"

Percy's sword, Riptide. The one he was currently fiddling with in his hands. Percy was looking at Ares oddly, like he was thinking on asking a question. "Anyway, I tinkered with the magic of the backpack a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you returned to the Underworld. You get close to Hades, bingo. You get the mail." Ares shrugged. "If you had died along the way, no pressure, since I still had the weapon." That didn't make any sense, but whatever, neither did the Greek gods existing in the first place.

Annabeth didn't get it. "But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself? Why would you send it to Hades?" Annabeth was making a lot of sense with that question. Even if Ares wasn't quite on par with the Big Three by himself, the master bolt in his possession would undoubtedly make him on par with them. I mean, I literally just fought Hades toe to toe with it, and I'm just a demigod. A remarkably strong demigod, but a demigod nonetheless.

Ares' face twitched and scrunched up. "Yeah...why didn't I just...keep it? With that kind of firepower..." Ares trailed off as his face entered some kind of trance. He stayed like that for a few seconds without changing. The three of us demigods looked at each other with confused expressions. What the fuck? Ares' face returned to normal. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught red handed, holding the thing." Okay, something was not right here.

Percy called the war god out on it. "You're lying. Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?" Smoke seemed to pour out of the helmet Ares wore, his eyes blazing with flames, burning brightly.

"Of course it was!" Someone was really defense. I think I was starting to put the pieces together.

"You didn't order the theft." I said to the god of war. I was hoping my thoughts were similar to Percy's. "Someone else sent a hero to steal the two items. When my father sent you to go find them, you caught the thief." I crossed my arms, for dramatic effect. "But you didn't turn them over to my father. Something convinced you to let him go. You kept the items until some hero came along and could complete the delivery." I smirked at the war god. "Someone is ordering you around, and I have an idea of who it could be." I thought back to the pit of darkness that Percy described in his dreams.

Me and Percy's pressing seemed to anger the god of war even further. "I am the god of war! I don't take orders from anyone! I don't have dreams!" Ladies and gentlemen, we got him.

Percy seemed to think so as well. "Zane didn't say anything about having dreams." Me and Percy shared a smirk. Ares' face faulted as he tried to hide the slip up. He tried to put up a cocky smirk to hid his fault, but we knew he knew he wasn't fooling anyone.

"Lets get back to the problem at hand here, kids. You three are alive. I can't just have you three return the bolt to Olympus. You just might get those hardheaded idiots to listen to you. So I have to kill you. Nothing personal." Ares snapped his fingers, which caused the sand under the pier to explodes upwards. We looked over the railing to see a massive ugly boar that looked very similar to the one that hung over the Ares Cabin door. The same one I had seen when I said goodbye to Taylor before the start of the quest.

Percy seemed insulted. "Fight us yourself, Ares." I don't know about that one, Percy. Ares is an Olympian god, on a similar level that Hades was. Obviously nowhere near as strong, but still a god. It took everything I had, plus the master bolt amping me to even stand in the same breath as him. I'm currently exhausted, so even with the master bolt, I don't know about fighting Ares at the moment.

Ares laughed, almost as if he was insulted by the challenge. I detected something unrecognizable in the laughter, however. "Are you kidding me, punk? You've only got one talent kid: asking your stronger cousin to destroy everything for you. He killed that hellhound, the Furies, the Chimera, Charon and Cerberus. Hell, if it wasn't for him fighting Hades, you would have never escaped." Ares looked over at me. "And by the looks of him right now, he's in no condition to fight someone like me."

Ares was right. I was currently leaning on the railing just to stand up, as I was struggling to do so without any help. Percy was seething in anger from Ares' insults. "Scared?" First grader insults? That wasn't going to work, Perce.

I was right. Ares crossed his arms. "In your adolescent dreams, punk." However, I could tell he was incredibly angry. The flames in the slits of his helmet were starting to melt said slits. "No direct involvement. Sorry, kids. You're not on my level." I felt a spike of anger from that statement. I was not on this pathetic god's level? I just fought Hades and blew his arm off. Yeah, he wasn't at full power, but come on, that's more than Ares has ever done.

In my anger, despite my exhaustion, ripped the railing from the pier and jumped down into the sand to face the beast. The boar looked at me in rage before it began to charge at me. In response, I simply fired the bolt right into the monster's face, turning it into ash before it could even get within five feet of me. There wasn't even golden dust left after the blast from the master bolt.

I looked up at Ares, who still stood above on the pier. I was totally done with this shit. "Are you going to fight us now, or are you going to hide behind another fucking boar, you cowardly piece of shit?" Yeah, you could tell from my french that I was so tired of this bullshit.

Ares' face turned purple with rage. "Watch it, brother. Or I will turn you into a-" Ares could not finish, since I blasted him in the chest with the master bolt. Ares' screamed in rage and indignation as he was sent flying away by the force of the blast. I sighed in exhaustion, dreading the fight that was about to happen. I allowed the wind to carry me back on top of the pier.

I turned to Percy, who had uncapped Riptide after my blast. "Back me up here, dude." Percy nodded, as Annabeth handed him her necklace, saying something about reconciliation. Percy blushed at her offer and thanked her. The both of us jumped down on the other side of the sand from the pier. I chuckled. "You know, she probably likes you, Percy." Percy blushed at my musing but didn't say anything as well faced the god of war, who had recovered from being blasted.

Ares literally smoked in rage. "You just made your last mistake, brother." Ares brandished his massive two handed greatsword and slowly approached us, his form radiating power. "I have been fighting for millennia, kids." Ares' sword glimmered like flames in the rising sun. "My strength is unlimited and I cannot die. What have you two got?" I looked at the master bolt as Ares approached. I drew power from the bolt, entering my Thunder Form. I was around the strength of my original Thunder Form without the bolt. This should do.

I turned to the god of war, and glanced at the son of Poseidon. "I know it sounds cliche, brother. But me and Percy have each other. I'm pretty sure literally everyone except for Aphrodite hates you, and I'm pretty sure she only likes you for the sex. You don't have any idea what the power of friendship can do for you." I was mostly talking out of my ass, but I had to say something to Ares' boasting.

Ares scoffed. "Sure, brother. Lets see what the 'Power of Friendship' does for you." Ares approached us and the two of us demigods steeled ourselves for the most important fight of the quest.

(000)

There we go! Sorry for it being a couple of days late. I was in Georgia and wasn't able to write for a few days. Sorry about that. Anyway, about Zane being able to fight Hades, that was only because he was amped by the master bolt, making him millions of times stronger. Do not think he is that strong normally. Anyway, I gotta get the wifi password at the place I'm staying at so I can post this. See you for chapter seven!