Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson nor any of its characters, I just own my own character Antheia/Alyssa.

Alyssa felt like someone had taken a metal bat and beat her head till it caved in. Her body was sore and tight from laying in a cold hard ground for who knows how long. Her eyes fluttered open, wondering were she was. As she sat up and her vision cleared, she saw the she was in yet another dark cave, similar to the one she was in with Echidna.

Panic flashed through mind as she tried to remember as to why she was there. Her mind was spinning too much to fully comprehend anything.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the high and mighty Antheia." Came a cruel voice from the back of the cave.

Alyssa craned her neck to see who it was.

The dark figure started walking towards her, stepping into the small string if light entering the cave.

Alyssa gasped when she saw who it was.

"Miss me." Luke said, his face cold and menacing.

Memories filled Alyssa's mind as she remembered what happened. "Luke...you..you ambushed me. Why?"

Luke gave a cruel laugh. He pulled out a wicked long sword which had two different types of metal- one edge bronze, the other steel.

"Antheia, meet Backbiter. One side is celestial bronze. The other is tempered steel. Works on immortals and mortals both."

Alyssa shivered as she thought of all the damage that could do.

"Luke, why are you doing this?"

"Simple," he said, twirling the blade around. "I hate the gods and you are the key to their destruction."

Her eyes widened. "Me? Why me?"

He gave her a wicked smile. "You really don't know," he said walking towards her.

He crouched down right in front of her face, his sword just inches from her throat.

"You are, lets say, someone important to the gods and you were taken ten years ok where you were suppose to be turned into a mortal and killed, but I guess people make mistakes."

Alyssa felt fear grip her heart. "Why... Would I need to be turned mortal?"

"Can't you guess?"

Alyssa thought back to the powers, how she can teleport and do things normally demigods can't.

"I'm... I'm a goddess?" She said, not believing herself.

"Yup, you finally guessed it." Luke said, glaring at her with cruel eyes. "The gods think they can rule everyone, control everyone and what better way to bring them down than to kill their little pride and joy."

Alyssa was too stunned to speak.

After a pause, she said, "Thats impossible. If the gods cared about me, then they would have found me and brought me back, but they me. I even met a god, Ares-"

Her eyes widened as she remembered how he smiled at her and said 'please remember' before leaving. Her mouth hung open.

Luke sneered at her. "I knew the night that you created the rain storm at camp that you were the lost goddess, and I couldn't allow that, so let just say I made you like me, gaining your trust and getting the privilege to kill you myself."

Alyssa felt tears in her eyes, realizing how stupid she had been.

"I still don't understand, how would my death cause the destruction to the gods?"

"Well, who do you think was the reason behind Poseidon and Zeus's fighting?"

"Someone stealing the lightning bolt."

"Before the lightning bolt.."

"Me?"

He nodded standing up again and turned around.

"I still don't remember anything about my past." She called after him.

He turned and grinned, "well I guess that's good. It would be a shame to remember such things right before you die.. I'll be back soon, pathetic Antheia. Hopefully some isolation will help with your final thoughts." He disappeared out of a dark doorway before the stone door bolted shut and locked, sealing her in the dark, lonely cave.

-:-

Percy, Annabeth, and Grover stood in the shadow of Valencia Boulevard, looking up at gold letters etched in black marble: DOA Recording Studios.

It was almost midnight, but the lobby was brightly lit and full of people. Behind the security desk sat a tough looking guard with sunglasses and a earpiece.

Percy turned to Annabeth and Grover. "Guys, remember the plan."

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Ya, the plan is SO wonderful."

Percy gave her a glare before patting his pocket, making sure the pearls where still in there.

Annabeth put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Percy. You're right. The plan is a good idea and well be fine."

She nudged Grover.

"Oh, right!" He chimed in. "We got this far. We'll find the master bolt and save your mom. No problem."

Percy nodded, feeling encouraged. They walked into the lobby. There was furniture and people everywhere, sitting or standing still, looking out windows and waiting for the elevator. Nobody moved or talked, or did anything else for that matter.

They walked over to the security guard's desk which had a tall, elegant almost, man with chocolate colored skin and bleached blond hair that had a military cut.

He looked down at then as they approached.

"What can I do for you?"

Percy looked back at Annabeth before replying, "Sir, we would like to go to the Underworld."

He snorted as he busied himself with paperwork.

"Funny story, kids. In order to go to the Underworld, you have to be dead, which you guys are obviously not. Please die and come back later."

Percy gave the other two a worried look, not exactly sure what to do. Annabeth stepped forward and placed three gold drachmas on his desk. He looked down greedily at them.

"Real drachmas. Real gold drachmas. I haven't seen those in..."

His fingers hovered greedily over the coins, but he still was hesitant.

"We need to get to the Underworld," Percy insisted.

The security guard made a deep growling sound in his throat.

Suddenly the room seemed to come to life. People got up, started walking around and lighting cigarettes, checking their hair, or started pacing.

"Leave while you can," he told them. "I'll just keep these."

Percy took them back before he could snatch them.

"Look, sir. We need to get to the Underworld and we have more," he held up a whole pouch of drachmas that he had snatched earlier.

The guard looked almost like a puppy seeing a new toy.

He sighed. "The boats almost full, anyway. I might as well add you three and be off."

He grabbed the coins greedily and led them over to the elevator, pushing people off of them, before pulling out a security card and pushing them in along with several other dead spirits.

Once everyone was inside, the elevator doors slide shut and they started going down.

Percy looked around too see all of the spirits changing, their regular clothes transforming into dark gray robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying.

Soon, the elevator wasn't an elevator anymore. They were standing in a wooded barge.

The security guard was poling them across a dark, oily river, swirling with stranger things, like plastic dolls, crushed diplomas, and soggy carnations.

"The River Styx," Annabeth murmured.

Ahead of them, a far shore glimmered with greenish light, the color of poison.

Annabeth leaned over and grabbed Percy's hand, which he normally would have been embarrassed about, but under these circumstances, it was ok.

The shoreline of the Underworld came into view. Craggy rocks and black volcanic sand stretched inland.

The bottom of their boat slid onto the black sand, and the dead began to disembark and they followed to dead spirits up a well-worn path.

There were three lines, two of them barely crawling and the last one was moving right along.

"What do you figure?" Annabeth asked.

"I don't know." Percy muttered.

As they got closer to the gates, a loud howling filled the air. Sitting in front of the gates stood a huge dog. It was towering way over their heads and it was three heads with large, pointed teeth.

The dog's middle head craned towards them. It sniffed the air and growled.

"It can smell the living." Percy whispered.

"That's ok," Grover mumbled, "we have a plan."

Annabeth nodded.

They moved towards the monster.

The middle head snarled at them as the grew.

Percy reached into his backpack and pulled out a large tree branch they found at the park.

"Hey, boy." He said waving the stick back and forth like a flag. "Whose a good doggie and wants the stick? Do you, boy? Do you?" He said in a babyish voice.

Annabeth smacked her forehead with her hand, thinking of how much of an idiot he was.

"Ugg, Percy. Could you be any more stupider than you already are? He's a full grow dog for crying out loud!"

Percy dropped the stick and turned around.

"Well I'm sorry, Miss Prissy-pants. Do you have a better idea?" He said sarcastically.

"No, but it would have been a thousand times better than your baby act."

"Well, I never!" He scoffed. "I worked hard on this plan and it would have worked if it weren't for your interruption!"

"Please!" She rolled her eyes. "I've seen satyrs do better acting than you, and they're terrible at acting!"

"Hey!" Grover called from his spot ten feet away. "Don't bring satyrs in this or I'll trample you with my hooves!"

Percy turned to him, "Please, you couldn't trample a flower without crying."

"I could too!"

Annabeth threw her hands up in the air. "Of all the stupid people I had to be stuck with on this stupid quest, it had to be you two idiots."

They both turned to her and shouted, "Hey! That's not true!"

Meanwhile, Cerberus the dog had been looking back and forth between the two arguing humans and starting making a weird sound which almost sounded like a chuckle.

Grover stopped yelling and turned to Cerberus. "Really?" The dog nodded.

Grover turned back to Annabeth and Percy who were still going at it and he shouted, "hey!" Which made then stop and look at him.

He pointed at Cerberus. "The dog said we can go through. He was amused by our arguing and he will let us pass."

Percy and Annabeth both looked stunned, not expecting this.

"Can we go before he changes his mind?" Grover said impatiently.

They quickly exchanged glances before grabbing their stuff and headed off towards the EZ Death gate which was the fastest.

When they pushed through the metal detector, which immediately screamed and set off flashing red lights.

""Unauthorized possessions! Magic detected!"

Cerberus start to bark behind them.

They burst through the EZ Death gate, which caused even more alarms to go off, and raced into the Underworld.

A few minutes later they were hiding in an old, rotten tree trunk, out of breath as security ghouls raced past, calling the Furies for backup.

Grover turned to Percy. "Well, Percy. What did we learn today?"

"That a giant man-eating dog thinks that we are funny?"

"No, that your plans really bite!"

"They do not!" Percy defended.

"Oh, yes they do!" Annabeth started.

And their banter continued...

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