A/N: Hey everyone! Hope you are enjoying the story thus far. I'm working on an update schedule right and I'm hoping to have at least one chapter a week. If you have any suggestions or comments feel free to leave a review or pm me.
To vcghost: Sorry dude probably won't have any lemons in my story, and if I do they'll be pretty mild.
On to the story!
The walk back to the cell took about 15 minutes. Percy figured the underground cells must actually be decently far from the arena, and not right under it. The path did not diverge at any point. One path to the arena, one to the cells, and one leading to outside. Torches flickered about every 15 feet, allowing for decent visibility. This allowed Percy to admire Thalia as they walked, he hadn't seen her in a year and it was amazingly good to see a familiar face. Thalia glanced over noticing Percy staring at her and grinned.
"Like what you see?" Thalia put a little bounce in her step. Percy blushed and grinned along with her.
"Well despite being underground this is probably the best view I've had in the past year." Thalia mock shoved Percy and they both laughed. A sound that hadn't come from either of them in a while. The pair looked like a scene from a renaissance painting. Both covered in blood, dust, and sweat; walking along laughing with swords in their hands. Had anyone seen the two they probably would have thought the demigods were insane.
The rest of the walk back to the prison area was pleasantly silent. The two demigods just relished being in familiar company. As they turned the corner to the cells they saw 6 guards posted outside of their cell. One stepped forward and lowered his spear.
"Drop your weapons and enter the cell, or else…" the guard looked somewhat timid and did not speak with confidence. Percy glared at the man and raised his sword. The rest of the guards stepped forward with their weapons raised shakily. The sea spawn knew he could kill all these men easily, he could probably even escape and get out of the city. Something was up though, something with Ares. Ares was nothing like Percy remembered. Although no one really would be after all this… Percy decided to stay for a while longer and see what was going on. So he lowered his weapon and dropped it, Thalia followed suit. The guards all sighed in relief and quickly shuffled the two demigods into the cell, locking the door behind them.
"Looks like another night in huh" Percy said trying to lighten the mood in the dark cell.
"You can't see me, but I'm glaring at you". Percy chuckled at her comment. He then sat down on the slab with his back against the wall.
"Thals… you've been here longer. Have you noticed anything strange about Ares?" She sat next to him and breathed some air through her nose quickly.
"You mean besides his usual douche baggery?" Percy nodded and Thalia took a moment to think. "ya know… I do feel that Ares isn't really into all this. It almost feels like he's doing it because he has too, but Ares doesn't do anything he doesn't want to do." Percy nodded along with what Thalia said.
"Yeah I've observed that too… I have no idea why that may be though…" Percy scratched his chin for a moment. "Oh well though no point in dwelling on it, I guess we'll find out sooner or later right?" Thalia nodded.
"You couldn't see but I nodded." Thalia said cheekily.
"You don't have to narrate every action ya know."
"I know, but its fun." Percy chuckled and the pair sat in silence for a good long while. Both lost in their thoughts. They sat close to one another with their legs touching, like close friends.
"You kind of stink Perce." Thalia waved her hand in front of her nose. Percy looked down at himself.
"Well I am covered in blood and monster dust." He sighed "does Ares allow showers or is that off limits?"
"He lets me out randomly to do different stuff, like shower and I guess you could call it yard time. You start to lose all track of time down here though… so I don't know when it could be."
"Hmm… reminds me of back in the day when we were on quests." Percy laughed
"I'm pretty sure I never took a single shower during any of those." Thalia chuckled
"Oh I took plenty, somehow I was always getting doused in water! I even found some mold in my shoes at the end of a quest once." They both laughed once again and fell into another silence for a while. Thalia then suddenly hugged Percy.
"Thank you Percy, really."
"For what?"
"I haven't laughed this much since the bombs dropped. Probably even a while before that even…"
"Yeah same... so thank you too I guess." The pair smiled at each other. They continued to talk for the rest of the day. Doing some more catching up and some of their experiences since they saw each other last. A guard brought in food twice during their talk. Outside in the world the sun fell below the horizon and the moon came out. Ares sat on his "throne" tapping his fingers against the armrest.
"KRYOS!" Ares shouted and waited for his son to appear. He could not wait any longer, he had hoped to watch Jackson for a little longer. However the urge to see his family once again was too strong. They were all in the realm of the faded, and he had taken them all for granted when they were alive. He didn't realize how much he actually needed them, and he underestimate how poorly he would do without them. So he set up this arena, to test fighters and see if any of them were worthy of being the god of war. He couldn't do what most of his family had done. Just leave the world and their domains behind. War was too great a domain to be left unchecked, someone had to monitor it. Ares decided that person would be Jackson. He grit his teeth remembering the time that Jackson beat him when he was only 12 years old. Ares hated the son of the sea god, but he had to give it to him; he as good.
Kayos appeared before his father and bowed. "What do you need?" he asked
"Bring me Jackson, its time."
A/N sorry guys another filler. No action in this one but the next chapter will have plenty. You guys can probably see what's coming. Hope you enjoyed, and as usual don't forget to favorite and review. Thanks guys!