This is sort of a filler chapter, but a long filler chapter. Hope you like it!
XVII FRANK
THEY FINALLY ARRIVED TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED… the House of Hades.
Ooh, this place? Mars started. You did some amazing things at this place… praetor Zhang. Frank could practically see his father grinning and elbowing him knowingly, as if they shared some sort of inside joke.
Please go away, he thought. Frank found that if he asked nicely enough the two gods would leave him alone for a few hours… at best. It worked most of the time.
The Argo II stopped above the River Acheron, hovering in the air. There weren't many fishers or tourists, and the weather seemed exceptionally stormy. Frank stood at the stern of the ship, watching the river wash out beneath them.
Hazel walked up and leaned against the railing beside him. "You okay?" she asked him.
"Yeah," he replied casually. "I just have really mixed feelings about this place." They turned and joined the others at the other side of the ship.
"So, basically we're going to meet the slayer of life somewhere down there," Leo started, running his fingers over his bronze sphere as an unconscious twitch. An awfully daunting twitch, since if he did something wrong the Argo II could explode into a larger-than-life-sized baking oven. "And we need volunteers. Or sacrifices."
Piper elbowed him hard.
"I can go," Percy offered. He glanced over at Hazel and Frank. "You guys haven't been on many mini-missions," he noted. Frank had an uncanny feeling that he was the one being spoken to. "Plus, this guy might…"
"Yeah," Hazel finished quickly. "We can go." She slipped her hand into Frank's, and he squeezed.
Oh, cool! We gonna go blow up some heads or something?
Frank groaned internally, but on the outside he tried for a grin. "Sure," he replied.
-o-O-o-
The rope ladder dropped them to the ground, and the three of them walked over to the temple of Necromanteion. Frank passed by familiar landmarks and felt a chill go down his spine. The wind was bitter and cold and not at all summer-like.
"Good memories at this place, eh?" Percy tried.
"Yeah," Hazel replied. "I just love fighting giants created to oppose magic and psychopathic mothers of bull-creatures."
"And using an army of dead soldiers to fight one of monsters," Frank added.
"And closing the Doors of Death," Percy finished, "that for some reason look like an Empire State Building elevator."
Their joking around subsided as they reached a larger cluster of stones. Frank bet that a few thousand years ago they had been set up to form something, but now they were fallen and crumbled and anything but building-like. A few of the farther away rocks were arranged in a new pattern to form a large throne monument nearly ten feet tall. The breeze seemed exceptionally chilling over there, like an evil presence was waiting for some stupid half-bloods to walk by in so that it could attack. The demigods stumbled over.
A man reclined sideways across the throne, playing Candy Crush on a black iPad. He wore a cool black leather jacket over a normal white T-shirt, and was also eight feet tall. It took him a few moments to realize he had company, but when he did he paused his game and flourished the tablet, and it disintegrated into the air.
"Welcome," Thanatos said, "friends and saviours of Olympus."
-o-O-o-
Frank remembered the last time he met Thanatos, the death god had promised they'd meet again under less pleasant circumstances. Well, the end of the world is basically as unpleasant as it gets.
"My, my, it is very good to see you all again," he started. "Not very happy times, but they'll get better. Hopefully."
"Uh, Thanatos," Percy acknowledged, looking unsure, maybe debating if he should kneel or bow or do some ancient death-god worship dance.
"I know why you're here," he said, getting straight to the point, slipping into an upright position.
"You do?" Hazel asked, although the reason why should have been obvious. He was supposed to be expecting them.
"Yes. You want to ask for my help. And I'm supposed to give it to you. Very well. If you insist, I'll help you. No need to thank me."
Frank wanted to note that they hadn't said anything, but decided it would be better for his health not to.
"This is what will aid you on your journeys," Thanatos explained, reaching into the folds of his leather jacket and pulling a small vial. Inside there was something steamy and black, but Frank couldn't make it out from the distance. "Do you have any idea what I hold in my hand now?" he asked them.
Percy and Frank turned to Hazel, naturally assuming she had the answer. Obviously she didn't. "Uh… black baking powder?" she guessed.
Thanatos grinned. "This is fire made of pure death," he told them, swishing around the flame in its container. "It will consume anything, because instead of relying on the body it eats at the soul."
Frank felt a pair of icicles do the itsy-bitsy-spider down his back. "The, uh, soul?" he clarified, hoping that what he said somehow had a deeper and not so aggressive meaning.
"Yes, Frank Zhang, or do you think I'm wrong?" Thanatos raised an eyebrow.
Frank wasn't about to argue with a guy who held a soul-eating, all-consuming vial of black fire. "No, no," he said hurriedly, holding his palms up. Please don't kill me, he wanted to add.
Wimp! Ares shouted.
Shut up, Frank snarled back.
Thanatos continued to admire his vial of black death. "If this were thrown at a monster, it wouldn't go to Tartarus," he told the demigods. "It'd be gone forever. And if this was thrown at a human, they'd feel immeasurable pain forever."
Frank glanced sideways at his friends. Percy looked slightly green, and Hazel was using her spatha for support. "What do we have to do to prove ourselves to you?" Percy asked first, taking a step forward.
Thanatos looked perplexed for a few moments. "Ah, yes," he said, finally remembering. "I'm supposed to give you an assignment to prove your worthiness. Now, let's see…"
He summoned his iPad again, and he clicked on an app labelled DANGEROUS QUESTS. Frank noticed as the page loaded that the full title was PERILOUS AND SUICIDAL QUESTS FOR DESPERATE/INSANE/STUPID DEMIGODS.
Frank wondered if he used that app a lot.
"Hmm… let's see," he started, scrolling through his list. "Number one: Find the fountain of youth. Now that looks interesting, but has a quest time of twelve years. So no. Number two… retrieve the Deathly Hallows? That would be good, but apparently completed. Hmm… recover Excalibur? Nah, too easy." He spent a few more moments like this, the three demigods standing there awkwardly and waiting.
"Oh, this will be fun," he decided. He turned the iPad over and showed them a photo of nine girls dressed up in identical green gowns. At the top of the page the word MUSES was written.
"These are the nine muses," he told them, as if the caption didn't already explain that. "This is Calliope, this one is Clio, this one Thalia, et cetera et cetera."
Percy blinked. "I have a friend named Thalia," he announced.
Thanatos shrugged. "It is a common Greek name. Now, this last one is the important one." His finger hovered above the picture of the last muse. "This is Terpsichore, the muse of dance. Her emblem is the lyre. And I want you to steal it."
"You want us to steal," Hazel clarified, looking uneasy, "…from a muse. Won't that get us incinerated?"
"Most likely," Thanatos decided. "She lives over the hills in that direction." The iPad disintegrated again as he pointed to their right.
"Alright. Is there anything else?" Percy asked with just the slightest hint of disdain, maybe wondering if Thanatos was going to throw in a deadline as well.
"Ah, yes," he said. "You have a deadline too."
Frank face-palmed.
"One hour," he continued as if Frank had not done this. "Also, be warned,"—the death god lowered his voice—"Terpsichore is a nice muse, but if she discovers you are her enemy and not her friend she will play a magic song of exactly fifty notes, and you will be forced to dance a dance until you die."
"Death by dance," Hazel muttered. "That one's new."
"Is it too late to search for the fountain of youth?" Frank pleaded.
Thanatos checked a watch. "Fifty-nine minutes, thirty seconds," he informed them. "You best be going."
...And you will see what happens next in the next chapter. So review! They're my motivation. ;)
