AN: This Story Is Far From Finished, I'm Only Posting To Know Whether The Story's Good Or Not, All Comments And PM's Welcome, BTW: I'll Change The Story's Format Into One More Comfortable To Read And Split It Into The Chapters You're Accustomed To After I Know If I Should Keep Writing Or Modify It

Home Sweet Home! Now, Off To Hell!

Carter and I practiced some magic but we barely had time for him to show me the spells. Either way, when we left the boat, I had learned nothing and had three spells to practice for camp. Cathy's words rang in my mind from the day we first started practicing together, before we were even friends. "The more spells you use with the ring, the more likely it is for your sword to reach its limits and be destroyed, taking you along with it. We can't risk more than 10 spells, but even that's risky." So far, I knew six spells. I could crack the ground, make shadows thicker, shadow travel, summon beasts from the Underworld (though it's easier if they have some relation to storms or lightning of something in my father's domain), send some monsters back to Tartarus (I can't do it that well so it helps if they're weak), and my famous black flames that I just loved so much. With these three spells, I've got nine. Even if it's not Underworld magic, I draw power from my ring because Carter said he and his sister, who were some of the most powerful Egyptians born in centuries, needed to be merged with gods and draw their power to use spells from within them. Even Cathy used a stick, which was reveled to be an Egyptian wand, apparently she was fated to be part of this quest. Either way, I didn't want my sword to be destroyed, and much less take me with it. Cathy was still limp, she could walk, but barely. Angel helped me take her to camp and as Carter was getting ready to leave when I said ""Wait!" He turned around, just as he was about to take off. "What?" he asked, handing me a still unconscious Nico.

"Why're you leaving? Don't you wanna see camp?"

"You think I'm supposed to?"

"Yeah, I do. Besides, we've seen yours and we really need you to talk to our camp director. If Apophis is rising, and on account of us Greeks, an alliance needs to be made. All this, it's bigger than Hades' key going missing, this is someone trying to set us up against each other, we can't let that happen." Carter looked like he agreed and said. "I need to call my uncle, Amos."

"Pardon?"

"He's the chief lector, the most powerful magician of all, I'm the pharaoh I still need him, he's my right-hand-man."

"Tomorrow," I said. "You and Amos come down here and we can talk." As Carter left, I dragged Nico back to camp only to realize that there was still work to be done, we had to get my parents back and give Hades his key. When I walked into camp, even though it was about three in the morning, everybody was wide awake and surrounding me, asking al sorts of questions. Now, I'm not proud of what I did but if it ever happened again I would, zero doubt, do it again. As soon as people started gathering, I realized that this was going to be a problem so I dropped Nico in the middle of the crowd and used the reversed polarity to blast myself into the air, and fly away from the crowd, which of course brought more people around me when I finally landed. I glanced over only to find that they hap paid the dead looking boy no attention. Chiron came up to me, making everybody in the crowd to shut up and back the fuck up. He lead me to the big house, which led me to explain the entire journey, all up to the encounter with the Egyptians who were coming here tomorrow. "How could you make such appointment without consulting with me first?" he had asked, all the warmth that he had displayed from the very beginning of my stay at camp Half-Blood gone, instead, he sounded worried and grief-struck. "If this goes wrong," he said. "We'll all be killed."

"It won't go wrong, we agreed to a meeting to form an alliance."

"What need do we have for an alliance?"

"Apophis, the Egyptian equivalent of Kronos, is more powerful than Gaea, and he's rising thanks to Nico."

"That's who he was using the key on?"

"No."

"Who then?"
"A dead camper whom Nico claimed was going to help him, his name was, according to Nico and Cathy who both knew him, Luke Castellan, son of Hermes." Chiron looked like he'd aged 30 years in twelve seconds. "Tomorrow," he said. "When the Egyptians come, set up a meeting in the rec room with the cabin leaders, you're coming too. Now, go get Hades' his key back before your deadline runs out, you will find the entrance to the Underworld to be in Los Angeles." Without a single word, I set out to L.A., not waiting for Angel or even Cathy, this was something I had to do alone. I walked under a tree and closed my eyes, concentrating. The world started spinning, I felt nauseous, but nothing else happened, I stayed under the tree. Guess you can't shadow travel to the Underworld. I focused again. The world started spinning, I felt nauseous, and doubled over. When I looked up, I was still at camp and felt like throwing up. "I can't shadow travel." I said out loud, then I remembered, Cathy had the key in her pocket universe or wherever the hell she kept her shit when it disappeared into thin air. I walked over to the big house where I found Cathy laying down, looking sad. I walked over to her and she lit up, smiling. "Hey," she said. "I was starting to get worried."

"Sorry, I was talking to Chiron and Carter, then I..., so how you feeling?"

"Better, I used too much energy, Egyptian magic is dangerous. I seriously should have used my wand, or staff."

"Staff? And since when do you call it a wand? I remember days when you just called it a source of magic."

"It's Egyptian, maybe I was supposed to go on this quest, and that Sadie girl gave me a staff. It's better for attacks, the wand is used more for defense." I smiled, looking into her eyes. "Your parents are gonna freak when they see you got a tattoo."

"Actually I got two tattoos."

"Two?" I showed her my tongue, brandishing my blue hieroglyph tattoo.

"It'll help me speak better Egyptian magic." Her eyes widened.

"How many spells do you have with that ring?" she asked, slightly panicked.

"Only the six you taught me, don't worry. I haven't managed to produce any magic yet." Cathy seemed to calm down a little and asked. "What do those spells do anyway?"

"Well one of them, Ha-wi, it means strike, and basically you strike the target. Sa-mir induces pain on the victim and Khefa, which summons a fist that can break through almost anything. Almost."

"Forget about the Sammy one, inducing pain won't help you that much."

"Sa-mir, not Sammy and if I forget about it I have a total of eight spells."

"I know, I took first grade too you know?" she said jokingly. I chuckled, anxious to get to the reason that I actually came to visit Cathy. "Look I um–" I started to say but Cathy cut me off. "I'm really glad you came to visit me, I thought you'd forget or just keep on with the quest without me." She said, slightly kissing me. "Thank you." She said. I didn't know what to say to her so I said: "How exactly do I enter the Underworld? I know I'm changing the subject but I couldn't shadow travel there, or to L.A. where the entrance my magic isn't working anymore." Cathy's smile faltered then faded, making me feel like an asshole. "That's why you came? So you could finish the quest without Angel and I? Do you even care what happens to me?"

"Of course I care!" I snapped. "Trust me you do not know how much I care. That's why I need to go alone. That's why I can't take you to the under-fucking-world. It's dangerous. And I'll admit, I wouldn't have been able to get this far without you but I don't what to put you in any more danger. If something else happens to you on my account I'll–" My voice broke. "If you know a way to enter the Underworld, please Cathy, I need your help. This is something I have to by myself, and I have to leave now. Can you help me?" I looked down and noticed her arm was extended, handing me a thin rod-like object with small teeth along the sides that stopped at the handle. "Go to the DOA RecordingStudio in L.A., that's the secret entrance to Hades' palace. Stygian black iron has an effect on the dead as well as monsters. You remember the hydra you killed that turned into black ash instead of gold dust? That is the effect of Stygian; it absorbs the monsters essence instead of sending them to Tartarus, that's why even the dead fear it. We don't even know if they come back though. You should be able to get around easily enough if you have your blade drawn while in the Underworld but be careful with Cerberus because the blade might not have an effect on him. Show Charon Hade's key, he should let you pass." Cathy said all of this while she was handing me the key and I made a mental note never to underestimate Cathy's mental ability.

"How do you know all this?" I asked. Cathy just shrugged and said "Percy, Annabeth, and Grover went there a couple years back, that's how I know the location. The Stygian black thing is just something I learned looking for ways to teach you Underworld magic and everybody knows about Charon. Good luck!"