A/N. Review time!

"Just upload the next chapter instead of slacking off. Poor Hippolytoast." -KryptonWrites

Bro, what?

"this is such an interesting premise to develop off of I can't believe I've not seen a single other fan-fic that runs off of the premise of each god having their own "guardian" to be the mortal second during the gigantomachy. Temporary assignments to fight alongside each other yes, but not permanent avowal to a respective god that lasts for as long as they live. Their lives/existence as collateral for the oath seems rather extreme and slightly limiting for the plot but I trust you know what you're planning with all this :)" -XXIVA

Thank you. I've always wanted to write a Guardian fic that wasn't like the rest. I do know what I'm planning, don't worry :)

Onto the chapter!

Chapter Eleven

Percy yawned and put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to him.

The sound of crickets filled the air as they sat in silence.

They would soon fall asleep to the ambience of the night.

Percy stared down the doors of the building in front of them as they got out of the car. His backpack hung off of his shoulders, feeling heavy with all the bear meat.

Artemis's eyes scanned the building in front of them. It was a tall silver building that was a blank canvas. Just a straight silver skyscraper that wasn't taller than the buildings next to them. The only sign that they were in the right place was the small logo above the opaque glass doors.

DOA Recording Studios.

A sign on the doors read 'NO SOLICITORS. NO LOITERING. NO LIVING'.

"I remember when Erebus used to be a cave. Definitely an upgrade." Percy muttered.

Artemis looked at him suspiciously. Since when did he know about Erebus? And the way he said it, it was like he had been there before, but when? He had spent the last four thousand years at her temple. Three offerings every day, not once did he miss one. And before that, he was with her all of the time.

She shook it off as they opened the doors and walked inside.

They stepped into the lobby. Muzak plated softly on hidden speakers. The carpet and walls were steel gray. Pencil cactuses grew in the corners like skeleton hands. The furniture was black leather, and every seat was taken. There were people sitting on couches, people standing up, people staring out of the windows, or waiting for the elevator. None of the people moved. Artemis noticed that if she looked out of the corner of her eye, she could see the people just fine, but if she looked right at them, they seemed to be transparent. Like she could see right through them.

The security guard's desk was a raised podium. Even Percy, standing at six feet even, had to look up at him.

He was tall and elegant, with chocolate colored skin, and bleached-blond hair shaved military style. He wore tortoiseshell shades and a silk Italian suit that matched his hair. A black rose was pinned to his lapel under a silver name tag.

Percy took the lead and walked up to him. Artemis walked behind him. Their footsteps seemed to be a million times louder than the Muzak that filled the room.

"Excuse me, Charon, I need passage for two to the Underworld."

The man looked down at the Guardian. He pulled down his shade a little bit to look over them. His eyes were empty, full of despair.

"You don't look dead." Charon said. His accent was strange. It was British, maybe, but the way he spoke English seemed like he learned it as a second language.

"I'm not."

Charon stood up straight. "Then you can't have passage." He crossed his arms. "Not dead, no Underworld."

"I have money." Percy said, pulling out the roll of Benjamins.

Charon froze. His eyes drifted to the roll of hundreds. He moistened his lips. "I… haven't… I haven't seen money like that in eons…" He muttered softly.

He looked at Percy again. He leaned across the podium and sniffed the air. "Godling." He muttered. "Should've known."

He stood up straight again. "Why do you want to go to the Underworld?" He asked.

"We seek council with Lord Hades." Percy said.

"And what do you want with him?"

"Passage to Tartarus."

Charon belted out laughing. "I have to say kid, you're funny. What do you actually want?"

Percy reached up and placed his hands on the edge of the podium. He pulled himself up, facing Charon. He sat his butt on the edge of the podium.

"Does it look like I'm playing?" Percy asked quietly, his face dead serious. His eyes seemed to glow slightly. He pointed down at Artemis. "Do you see her? That is Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt and Moon. We're on a quest that requires Hades' attention. If you're not willing to give us passage, I'll just take your oar and sail my own boat down the Styx."

For the first time, Charon's eyes seemed to land on Artemis. She hadn't spoken a single word. In all honesty, she was scared. A God wasn't allowed into another God's domain uninvited, and she wasn't a Goddess anymore. If Hades decided she wasn't allowed…

"If that's Artemis, then you must be…"

Percy nodded.

"Hades will want to see you then." Charon said, swallowing nervously. "He's been wanting to repay his debt to you for a while."

Percy hopped off the podium, landing back down on the ground. He offered the money to Charon who took it. "The boat's almost full anyways. I might as well add you two and head off. Come along."

They pushed through the crowd of spirits, who started to pull at their clothes, whispering things they could hear. Charon just pushed them out of the way, grumbling, "Freeloaders".

They reached the elevator, which was crowded with spirits, all of whom were holding green boarding passes. Charon pulled back two ghosts that were trying to get on without passes.

"Right. Now, no one get any ideas while I'm gone." he announced to the room. "And if anyone moves the dial off of my easy listening station, I'll personally see to it that you wait another thousand years. Understand?"

He shut the doors. He put a keycard into a slot in the elevator panel and they started to descend.

The ride down was silent. After a few minutes, it didn't feel like they were going down anymore. More like forwards. Mist started to fill the air. Spirits started to change shape. Their modern clothes shifted into long black robes. The floor of the elevator began to sway.

Artemis closed her eyes. When she opened them again, everything was different. Charon was now dressed like the rest of the shades, in a black robe. His skin was transparent, as she was able to see his skull. The elevator wasn't an elevator anymore, but a wooden barge. They were sailing on a dark, oily river, swirling with bones, dead fish, and other… stranger things. Things like plastic dolls, crushed carnations, and soggy diplomas. There was even an engagement ring.

Artemis saw a woman lurking in the water, watching her. Her eyes were the color of obsidian and were filled with hate. Her face was delicate and sublime. Her lipstick, eyeshadow, and mascara were all done in the perfect midnight shades. Her hair matched her makeup as it waved in the river's current. She stared at Artemis with a stoic look on her face.

Unnerved, she grabbed Percy's hand. He looked at her briefly before looking forward again. She didn't know how he wasn't freaking out. He was calm, collected, and maybe even bored. He kept his eyes focused on something in the distance. She noticed how his hair seemed to move on its own in the small breeze. How the dreary atmosphere seemed to darken his face. She couldn't see his eyes, but she could imagine how they glowed in the darkness that enveloped them.

In the distance, the howling of a dog echoed off of the chamber walls. The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland about a hundred yards to the base of a high stone wall, which marched off in either direction, farther than their eyes could see.

The boat reached the shore. The spirits started to climb over the boat and onto the sand. Percy and Artemis followed. Charon started to sail away. "Whatever you two are here for, I would wish you luck, but there isn't any down here."

They followed the spirits down the beaten path.

Artemis wasn't sure what she was expecting. A cross between black hellish gates, or the portcullis of a castle, maybe? That was not what was there. What was there instead was some mix of a toll booth and airport security.

There was a sign that flashed above the three lines saying, "Welcome to Erebus!" Two lines were moving at a crawling pace, while the third, labeled "EZ DEATH", was moving rapidly. Above the three lines, the outline of a ghostlike dog with three heads growled at the shades.

A scent seemed to catch his attention as his middle head's attention. His left head was sleeping, resting on the toll booth below it. His right head was watching the shades pass underneath him. But when the middle head began to notice the smell, the other two heads stopped what they were doing. At once, all three heads turned, staring directly at Percy and Artemis.

All Artemis could think was, "He's a Rottweiler."

"Yeah. He's friendly, don't worry." Percy said.

As Artemis realized she had spoken out loud, she looked over Cerberus. Percy said he was friendly, but he did not look it. He was terrifying and huge, standing at the same height as the gigantes she had fought millennia ago. As she observed, he was a black and mahogany Rottweiler with three heads. He wore a chain collar with three holes around his necks. He had blood red eyes, razor sharp teeth and nails, and, as told in stories, a snake for a tail. Despite all of this, Cerberus was still semi-transparent. But with every step she took closer, the more he solidified. She didn't know why, but she hated the implications. Every time he growled, the cavern seemed to shake.

Percy took the lead, walking up with his arms spread wide. "Hi, Cerberus!" He yelled out.

Cerberus looked at Percy and instantly stopped growling. Instead, the dog equivalent of a smile spread across his face as he barked happily.

Percy smiled too. "I know, boy. It's been a long time. But I promised I'd be back, right?"

With a start, Artemis realized that Percy was talking to Cerberus. Not a one-sided conversation, like most people have with dogs, but an actual conversation. Percy understood Cerberus and vice versa. She knew that he could talk to animals, hell, she could too, it was part of her domain of the Wilderness. But she didn't know that it extended to the monstrous guardian of the Underworld.

Cerberus barked again, shaking the cave walls. Dust fell from the ceiling.

Percy laughed. "C'mere boy."

In an instant, Cerberus disappeared. Just gone, no trace that he was ever there. Suddenly, appearing out of the shadow of a nearby rock, a small Rottweiler with three heads rushed towards him. Now the size of a normal puppy, Percy was able to scoop him up in his arms. He stood up, cradling Ceberus in his arms. He ticked a spot under the hound's middle neck, causing the hound to shake and bark softly.

"I got you something, boy." He muttered softly. He squatted down and put the dog down, who immediately started yapping. "Calm down, boy."

Percy slung the backpack off of his shoulder and pulled out a piece of bear meat. He ripped it into thirds and laid them next to each other. Cerberus barked once and all three heads started to tear at the meat.

Percy chuckled. "You're welcome." He said, starting to pet him. His smile left his face as he realized he didn't have enough hands to pet all three heads. He made do with the two hands he had and switched the heads he was petting every so often.

Artemis walked up to them carefully while Cerberus ate. She looked at Percy suspiciously. He caught her look and sighed.

"I've been here before." He said, as if it explained everything.

Artemis raised an eyebrow. She had even more questions than before.

Cerberus finished eating and barked at Percy, who smiled again. He picked up the dog. The hound started to bark and growl rapidly, and Percy seemed to be listening intently. He turned to Artemis. "He says that the EZ Death line is fastest because it goes straight to Asphodel. We should go through that line and then deviate from the path to get to Lord Hades' palace."

Artemis nodded. They got in the EZ Death line and were quickly able to get to the booth. A skeleton wearing a military uniform looked at Percy, who was still holding Cerberus. The three headed dog barked an order at the skeleton, who pushed a button. The skeleton raised an arm, motioning them to go on.

The trio walked through the metal detector without it going off. Cerberus barked.

"He says that my bow and backpack would have set off the detector. It detects magic." Percy explained to Artemis.

"Not my bow?" She asked.

"I made yours two days ago, out of a branch, no magic involved. Unless you count the magic of me not breaking it."

Artemis rolled her eyes fondly.

They followed instructions from Cerberus's barks and growls, and other various noises the Rottweiler made.

They reached a path that led straight to Hades's palace. From where they were, they could see the Plains of Asphodel, the Fields of Punishment, and the Meadows of Elysium.

The Plains of Asphodel were large. Take a sold-out super bowl stadium and multiply it by a million. Now, imagine the lights had gone out, and there was no noise except for the whispering asking when the show was gonna start. That was how many people were there. The black grass had been trampled by eons of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. Black trees, which Artemis recognized as Poplars, grew in clumps here and there. The cavern ceiling was so high it might as well have been storm clouds, if it wasn't for the stalactites, which glowed gray and looked like they had a wicked point.

The worst part was the dead themselves. Their faces shimmered, and they all looked angry or confused. They would come up to Artemis and talk, but their voices were like chatter, aimless noise. When they realized that she couldn't understand them, they would frown and walk away. That was when Artemis made a huge discovery.

The dead weren't scary, they were just sad.

The fields of Punishment were a lot different. Miles of barbed wire separated each person and their punishment. Artemis could make out people being burned at the stake, some running through cacti while they were naked, some being chased by hellhounds, and the worst of all, being forced to listen to opera music. She could even see Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the hill.

Elysium, on the other hand, was much nicer. As it was reserved for not the good people, but the great people. It looked like a gated community, but all the houses beyond the gate were all from different time periods. Silver and gold flowers blossomed on the lawns. The grass rippled in rainbow colors. She could smell barbeque and hear people's laughter coming from that direction.

In the middle was a lake with three small islands in the middle. They looked like they came straight from the Bahamas. Artemis instantly recognized them as the Isles of the Blest, reserved for the people who achieved Elysium three times, should they choose to be reborn.

Artemis saw that Percy was looking sadly at Elysium and instantly knew what he was thinking. She reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"They have to be there. They can't be anywhere else." She told him reassuringly.

Percy shook his head. "They shouldn't be here regardless. Slaughtered. Like cows." he grit the words out of his teeth. "And now I'm here, still alive, like I'm spitting on their deaths."

"Percy, you can't blame yourself for what Zeus did. You are only alive because I intervened. Not because of anything you did. So, you have no reason to feel guilty."

He was silent as he mulled over her words. Was she right? Did he have no reason to be guilty? Nothing he did had directly caused their deaths, but still… he could have done something, anything.

Percy sighed. "We have somewhere to go." He said, expertly changing the subject.

They walked up the path, and soon enough, they were facing Hades' palace. Three bat winged ladies–The Furies–flew up in the parapets. The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two-story tall bronze gates stood wide open.

Engraved on the doors were scenes of mass death. The atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a scene of the Holocaust, a line of African famine victims with empty bowls. But they looked really old, like they were prophecies that had come true. Artemis was horrified.

Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden. Multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird luminous plants grew without sunlight. There were no flowers, but instead rare jewels like diamonds, emeralds, and rubies taking their place. A bunch of statues littered the garden. They were so lifelike; it was a shame that all of their faces were set as expressions of fear and disgust. In the center of the garden sat a cluster of pomegranate seeds.

They ended up in an entry hall between two black columns. The hall had polished bronze floors, which reflected the torchlight menacingly. There was no ceiling above them. Guess you didn't really have to worry about rain when you were six feet under.

There were a bunch of side doors, each one guarded by a pair of skeletons in military clothing. They each held weapons, ranging from swords and spears to Ak-47's and Rocket Propelled Grenades.

They reached the double doors on the other end of the hall. They blew upon as they reached them, allowing them access inside.

Artemis's heart sank when she laid eyes on Hades' throne room. Not because it was gruesome, or terrifying. On the contrary, it was actually beautiful. No, it made her sad because she recognized it.

It was the exact same as Olympus.

Sure, the colors were flipped, black and gold instead of white and silver, but the designs were the same. Where Zeus and Hera's thrones would be on Olympus, say Hades and Persephone's thrones. The other thrones were missing of course, leaving a bunch of empty space. Next to Hades' throne was a massive dog bed.

Was this how her Uncle felt? Did he miss Olympus so much that he made his own home like it to make him feel better? The thought saddened her more than the shades out in Asphodel.

Hades stood up. He was a massive and bulky figure. His skin was gray, his eyes were red, with black sclera, and long, wavy, black hair. He had a waist length mustache that intersected across his upper chest forming his sigil, the Gigaros. He wore a red robe adorned with many pieces of valuable jews. The skull of some monster sat on his shoulder. A flame-colored laurel wreath sat on his head.

He patted his knees. "Come here, Cerberus!"

Cerberus leaped out of Percy's arms and ran to Hades. With every step the hound took, he grew in size. When he reached Hades he stood up on his hind legs and licked his master's face. Hades chucked and began to run Cerberus's stomach.

"Who's a good boy?" He asked his dog.

Cerberus's tail wagged excitedly.

"That's right, you are. Yes, you are."

Cerberus stepped down and walked around Hades, who turned and looked at the newcomers. He raised his arms. "Percy!"

Percy waved as he walked up. Artemis hesitantly followed behind him.

"And Artemis! What a surprise!" The God of the Dead added.

Cerberus stopped circling Hades and laid down on his dog bed. One of his heads started to chew on a red ball.

Percy kneeled before Hades. Artemis did the same a second later.

"Rise, children." Hades said, sitting down on his throne. Both of the mortals stood up. "So, Percy. What brings you back here?"

"We need passage to Tartarus." Percy said.

Hades raised an eyebrow. "Why on Earth would you want that?"

Percy sighed. "Artemis has been turned mortal by Zeus, and now we're trying to get her immortality back."

"Hmph." Hades leaned back in his throne. "My brother never should have gotten that power." He muttered. "I assume you're seeking the Creator?"

Percy nodded.

"You must understand, Percy, this is a huge ask. The amount of paperwork this is going to cause—"

"You told me, 'Whatever favor I ask of you that you can do'. That's what you said. You swore on the Styx."

Hades sighed. "You're right. This is what you want?"

Percy nodded.

"Very well." Hades stood up again. "Cerberus will take you to Tartarus. I will take care of the paperwork and fax it over to Tartarus. Hopefully he won't try to kill you too bad before that."

Percy sighed in relief.

Artemis spoke up for the first time. "Thank you, Uncle."

Hades nodded. "You're welcome. But I'm only doing it because Percy strongarmed me into it. That's one helluva Guardian you got there."

"Yeah, he's the best." She smiled slightly.

Percy unknowingly perked up at the praise.

Hades whistled and Cerberus stood up. He explained what was happening to his dog, who barked excitedly.

Cerberus walked over to them.

"Just grab onto his fur. He'll do the rest." Hades instructed them.

They did as they were told.

Instantly, Cerberus ran into the wall. But instead of smashing into it, they disappeared. They found themselves in pitch black darkness. Cerberus kept running. It felt like they were going so fast that Percy and Artemis's faces were going to peel off.

They came out of the darkness. Percy and Artemis looked around.

They were in another cavern. The air was acidic, and the ground was made of glass shards. The clouds in the air were blood red, and the smell of rotten eggs filled their noses.

Cerberus howled once.

"Goodbye, boy." Percy said, patting the dog's nose.

The Hound disappeared into a nearby shadow.

Percy looked at Artemis. An understanding passed between them.

They were in Tartarus.

A/N. We stan Cerberus in this household. The one and only good boy.

Also, yes, that Hades description is from the game Hades. He's a god, and can change his appearance, and that is what he was looking like at that point in time. Don't like it, fight me.

Thoughts?