Me: Hey guys! What's up? Okay, this time, I am determined not be interrupted by one of my...*eye twitch* little friends so we can keep this short as I have another special announcement at the bottom and I want to let you guys get to the story though I'm not even sure how much of you read this anyways.
Huge thank you to all of you who reviewed the last chapter and answered the question! Huge shout-out to: (The answer was... well, Percy has to many siblings to name so never mind.)
Ivy000, WildChildOnFire, Velocity Drew Warren, Percabeth'sOwlette, Won'tforgetcanregret, Silver Ride, macaronii, CelestrialSpade, MatildaSue, Apollo's Child, jarlcarriers, Midnight6819, Anna C. Poseidon, dragon fier 20, BadeJaliceLove2511314, and Sweet Cynthia. Again, huge thank you you guys! You are incredible, awesome, and creative authors whose story rock like Hades! You guys are awesome!
*Glances around* Amazing! I haven't been interrupted once! It's a new record!
Percy: YAY! Good job!
Me: *Looks at Percy* *Facepalm* You... have... got...to... be... kidding! Noooooooo!
Percy: Since the author is too busy wailing about how this could've been a new record and all that Minotaur dung, I'll do the usual announcement. Enjoy the story, don't forget to review and read the announcement below and- Whoa. What's the author doing running towards me with that blade? It looks really sharp and- AGH! RUN! AUTHOR GONE MAD! AUTHOR GONE MAD!
Me: *Evil grin* Have fun reading guys! Now don't mind me, I'm just going to... ;)
Percy: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Hades's POV
When my brother and I checked in to our hotel room and first opened the door, I saw to my dismay sagging armchairs, peeling paint, and a strange, musty smell like the old oracle was taking a shower in there.
Not a great first impression.
Zeus, of course, being the cheap sake god that he was had rented one hotel room for all of us. One. With three bed rooms for the gods, the male demigods, and Thalia all splitting off from the living room. Sure, it was pretty big but it looked as if there were cockroaches in the closets and dust bunny colonies just waiting to be discovered.
Perfect.
I didn't bother asking if we could just get a better room or (I liked this one a lot more) just abandon this hopeless trip but Zeus would probably start rambling about 'family togetherness' and all that rubbish and I've already had enough for the day.
Setting down my bags in the 'gods' room and choosing the farthest bed from the door to in the shadows, I sat down on the creaking mattress and heard a deep groan as Zeus flopped down on the bed two to the left of mine and just lay there, staring at the ceiling. his expression impossible to read.
Determined not to follow in my little brothers example and bore holes in the ceiling, I pulled out a book -yes, gods have those- and aimlessly began to scan the words, seeing but not bothering to decipher the jumble of thoughts and words just making it look like I had something to do. We sat in silence, me staring at the book, Zeus staring at the peeling plaster ceiling until-
"Hey, Hades?"
He was still staring at the ceiling and for a bizarre moment, I thought he had gone mad and named the ceiling after me but as he turned to look at me, I was surprised to see that the teen-aged Lord of the Sky looked... scared, timid, as if he had done something very, very wrong and was just building up his nerves to tell me. His tone of voice is also off, sounding not like the King of the heavens should but was laced with guilt and what sounded like regret.
Deciding to keep up my charades of reading, I quickly looked back down at my book and just mumbled "Hmmm?"
He sounded like he was having trouble getting the words out. His lips moved, as if practicing and editing what he was trying to say but finally-
"I-I'm sorry about w-what I did th-that day. A-about Maria"
Maria... Her face, so beautifully clear flashed in front of my eyes and a wave of anger, subdued for so long roared to life inside me, turning my vision read and my heart to ice.
"She's been dead for over seventy years" I spat, throwing down my book and resisting the urge to light my hand with fire and blast the cowering Sky God. "Seventy years, Zeus, and you apologize now?!"
The blue eyed god flinched slightly at my torrent of words but he didn't say anything back. No smart rebuke, no I-am-your-lord and all that rubbish.
Just nothing.
It's funny actually, one of the reasons that we choose the form we choose. One of the reasons is to reflect the state of out realm but the other, more peculiar reason is that the form we choose, the age that we pick often makes us think and act that age. We gods, of course, can change form at will (Unless we get formlocked, a difficult task which at normal circumstances like these would be impossible to do but could make a god be stuck at a certain age or appearance) but there's a reason you don't see teen-aged gods waltzing across Olympus. It makes you act rather foolish and well, I exactly think that anyone could take your seriously when you look like a teenager, even if you were the King of the Gods.
"I'm sorry, Hades, I really am"
Looking at the regret on his face, the remorse in his eyes, and hearing the truth and discomfort it was taking him to say this, my anger receded a little. It looked like the little Sky brat actually meant it.
'Holding a grudge our fatal flaw' Nico had said once, and I realized that I've held this grudge of as long as seventy years, as long as Maria's soul had joined me in the underworld. I had to let go, and forgive, that was the proper thing to do. Taking a deep breath, I concentrated on Maria's beautiful face in my mind and sighed.
"It-it's fine, Zeus." then as an after thought as another feeling not, rage but regret, my regret, washed over me- "And erm... I'm sorry about what I did to Thalia, with the monsters..."
For a second, his eyes flickered to life with blue fire as his own anger flared at the memory of the pre-death of his daughter but finally, after seeming to wrestle with his anger, he forced a smile. "It's fine, Hades, that... that was partly my fault, I guess, for choosing another mortal wife and siring another child. My fault." Then his expression changed to something like... thoughtfulness? "One thing that I find kind of strange though. While all this is happening, what was Poseidon doing?"
I shrugged, a small smile forming on my lips. "Oh, you know him, he's just planning a huge terrorist attack so he can become the dictator of the world. He's way to busy for something as backstabbing family"
Zeus managed a small laugh at that and that moment, I realized that maybe this bonding thing wasn't just for us and out children, but for embracing family in general.
Maria would've like that, I thought, for forgiving and family. She and Bianca would've been happy with this.
As I turned that thought over in my head, enjoying -for about the first time in a millenium- the company of my annoying little brother, the moment was shattered as a key jangled in the hall outside the hotel room and suddenly the door to the gods bedroom flew opened, four white powered figures tumbling in, stumbling dizzily. Zeus and I leapt to out feet.
"Look! It's the bed room for dogs! There's a black dog and oooh! and blue one too!" One of the figures exclaimed.
The other power covered figures nodded in agreement. "The bed's made of marshmallows! I like marshmallows... I ate like... whoa...skeletons and eagles are partying... I like horses better though..." another one of them said. It' wasn't until he started calling Zeus a llama that I noticed who it was.
"Oh my gods Poseidon, what have you done?"
Poseidon's POV
I was having the strangest dream. A skeleton was slapping me to wake up and an eagle was helping him, poking me to
"WAKE UP!"
I woke with a start, my face in some serious pain. As I looked around at the musty bed room, memories began flooding back to me. Raiding the candy store and manipulating the mist and telling the store lady that we were candy testers, breaking a bag of icing sugar and getting all four of us covered from head to toe...
Oh gods. I was in serious trouble.
"What were you thinking Poseidon?!" The skeleto- er, Hades growled. "How immature can you get? Taking the kids, raiding a candy store, manipulating the mist, getting covered in... something or other..." He continued rambling but I ignored him and sat up from where I had been laying on a bed, noticing that my brothers were in their normal form and strangely enough, my form had turned younger, 13 or so. Deciding that I might as well change forms to, I concentrated to but... but...
"Sorry to interrupt your highly educational and life lesson speech but um, why can't I change?"
Zeus smirked and I had the sudden urge to punch him in the face. "Sure you can change Poseidon, and you better too. You're all covered in icing sugar and you have something very, very sticky on the front of your shirt. Thinking of saving it for later perhaps?"
"You know what I mean" I snapped, still concentrating hard but to no avail. This was impossible. I couldn't be stuck like this right? Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough but it honestly felt like I'd been... "No way... you guys couldn't have! It's impossible!"
Hades, who had stopped rambling and had adopted a rather nasty grin chuckled. "Impossible huh? Not so. I do admit, it was pretty tough but all you needed were two of the big three willing to work together-"
"-Check" Zeus said, counting them off on his fingers "And god or goddess who has done something that wasn't very godly-"
"-Check" Hades continued, now smiling. I was both shocked and creeped out as, well, Hades smiling? Maybe the apocalypse was coming. "See Poseidon, it is possible. Now you, little bro, are formlocked at the appropriate age and will be treated as that for the rest of the day as punishment."
"The rest of the day?" I exclaimed, finally starting to understand why he had that creepy grin on his face. "What-what time is it?"
"'round nine in the morning kiddo" Zeus said, and undisguised grin on his face. "We let you kids sleep in today but we should really be starting to get ready. Come on little bro, "He said, standing up and stretching, still keeping one eye on me and laughing at the look on my face. "Let's get breakfast"
Me: Huh. I almost feel bad for Poseidon. The key word here is almost. MWHAHAHAHAHA! *coughs* If you haven't figured it out, I kind of made up the 'Formlocked' thing for the story as I needed some form of punishment for Poseidon. It's when they can't change forms because they have done something 'ungodly' and two of the big three work together to 'form lock' them. Sorry, I should've explained that better. Anyways, as I said before at the top-
Percy: -And I also said before you starting coming at me with Riptide-
Me: * Dismissive wave of hand* Whatever. Anyways, I have another special announcement! I was just wondering, do you guys think it's possible for us to get to 200? I know it's a lot to ask but remember how in Chapter 6 I said that I would read and review every single chapter of every single story for the 80th, 90th, and 100 reviewer? I'll do that again this time but instead, it'll be the 180th, 190th, and 200th reviewer who get all their stories reviewed and also the 185th and 195th reviewer too.
So, in other words, the 180th, 185th, 190th, 195th and 200th reviewer all get their stories read and reviewed and receive a huge shout-out in the next chapter. Huge shout-out and virtual cookies!
Nico: *Perks up* Virtual cookies?
Me: *Nods* Yep, the greatest reward of all. So are you guys up for it? If you guys are, I am.
So what do you say? ;)