Chapter 23: Harshness Overload: Suspense and Pain
Hazel had never known true joy without Frank, until she heard the news.
That did sound incredibly cheesy. But seriously. She wasn't even too happy when they won the war. She thought she'd lost both Percy and Leo. But right now, she couldn't even think of Leo as extreme happiness overcame her, and she may have squished her husband's not-so-teddy-bear-y physique in a powerful hug that put Cyclopes to shame.
They'd been visiting Camp Half-Blood with their first child, a little girl named Marie who looked just like her mother, but had her father's eyes and complexion. They were fairly happy greeting everyone, introducing them to Marie and her second child whom they were expecting in a couple of months. She'd been dismayed that Nico was out on a quest, but figured that she would see him soon, anyway.
So, skipping to the best part: she and Frank and Marie had been eating lunch at the Hades table, when Minerva and Apollo in their Greek form appeared at the front of the pavilion.
They'd bowed. Well, she couldn't bow that much, so she'd only inclined her head.
"Rise, half-bloods," Athena had said. "We have important news, so listen carefully."
"We'll skip the theatrics, why don't we?" Apollo had cut in. The goddess glanced at him pointedly. "Hey, we have a job to do. I want to find him as soon as possible."
"Find who, may I ask, Lord Apollo?"
"Why, Peter Johnson, of course," Dionysus had replied for them, standing up from the head table. There was a collective gasp afterward. "The selfish little brat managed to hide himself from the gods, faking his death."
The campers had started murmuring to themselves, unable to believe that the legend was alive. Hazel had only been mildly surprised, since knowing Percy, he just had to outsmart even death like the lucky guy he was. But that doesn't mean that she wasn't bursting with happiness.
That's when the hug happened.
Then someone from the crowd piped up, "What of Arc Jackson?"
The three gods shared a look. "We don't know," Apollo shrugged.
A hush fell over the campers. "You don't know?"
"Nope," the god of the sun said, while Athena shook her head, confirming it.
It was silent for a while, with the campers turning this new information over in their heads. Hazel assumed that they thought this Arc Jackson was Percy's child or whatever. Well, having the same surname didn't automatically mean that two people were related. Or maybe she was only saying that because she hadn't met this 'Arc Jackson' yet.
"Any more questions?" Apollo asked them.
A girl from the Athena table raised a tentative hand. "Is there anything else that we need to know?"
The girl's mother responded to her question, "Perhaps something about that son and heir of Chaos."
Excitement brewed. "He's here?"
"We aren't sure," she replied. "Mortals have recently reported that there was a UFO sighting above America."
"Yeah, I heard that," a boy from Hecate's said, his hand raised for permission to speak although he did so simultaneously. "This alien jumped from, like, over five thousand meters above ground off his weird jet and the police are looking for him."
"Precisely," the goddess of wisdom agreed. "We think that is either Perseus, or Chaos' son and heir."
"Percy is a son of Poseidon," Hazel chimed in. "He wouldn't ride aircrafts."
"Wait, okay, if this 'alien' is from Chaos the creator, what made you think that Percy is alive? Since, you know, Miss Hazel said that he won't be the one who'll ride that. Besides, it's too high up for him to jump," a boy from Demeter pointed out.
"Maybe he's also Chaos' heir," a boy from Ares suggested, looking around for their reactions. "Hey, it could happen."
The campers started to murmur again. Dionysus sat back down, sipping his cola, while the two other Olympians frowned at each other. Hazel's eyes narrowed, her hands picking at her food.
"Haze," her husband called her attention, looking over her with a concerned face. "You okay?"
The daughter of Pluto shrugged, finally letting go of her fork. "I don't know," she admitted.
The son of Mars smiled. "Worried about Percy?"
"Yeah," she said. "I mean, somebody just has to worry about him, okay? Does Annabeth even know that he's alive?"
His face darkened. "I'm not really sure. I mean, being in the enemy keeps you updated, right? Because not like the good guys, ironically, the bad ones don't keep their minions in the dark to show that they completely trust them, just so they could use them."
"I think so." Her four-year old fell face-first into her food, and Frank stood to help his daughter clean up.
She looked back to the front. The campers' murmurs ceased. Athena had called for silence. "As I said, we are not certain. Perhaps if we find the person will we only be sure."
Someone shouted from the goddess's table, "We want to help!"
Hands rose from different parts of the crowd, volunteering themselves to help in the search of this boy. Hazel just hoped that the guy wasn't some sort of trap.
"Hey, hey," Apollo called out, spreading his arms. "It's nice that you're willing to help and all, but you have your own responsibility here. Remember, Order's planning to wipe you out first. And not that we don't plan on helping, but you're going to have to fight for your own skin."
O-okay. Maybe now's a good time to grab his sword.
Arc hadn't prepared for that scan. What if the sensor suddenly won't accept it? What could be inside? Where was the exit? It might've been a camera all along and they would be trapped in there like sitting ducks, waiting to get ambushed.
He was still in a squat, trying to collect the next few seconds to think of his last words, when out of nowhere, there came a ding! of an elevator. The wall outlined by the indention slid downwards until it was only the floor of the doorway, like the doors of sci-fi cartoons.
He jerked to attention, his hand on his sword, and stumbled in.
He now stood in a small room, bigger than an elevator for a change but still small, with an empty reception desk. At least that was what he thought it was. But thankfully, it didn't have any guards on post. Maybe because they didn't think any outsider could come in with that security.
Across him was a hallway with iron bars for walls. It was a prison block. The dungeon, he thought.
"Thalia," Artemis said, stepping forward and looking back at them. "She is in here. Are you coming?"
They walked down the hallway. The cells weren't the dull ones like in a mortal's police jail. There were different things that kept the lonesome captives inside the cell, out of reach of the iron bars and anyone outside of them. Each had a different prison inside their prison. Some were in pairs and others in threes. Most were alone.
And all of them looked dead scared.
Arc just followed the goddess around as her head swiveled back and forth, peering through the bars. He never really knew this Thalia. He didn't think they've met before, not that he and Angel met a ton of people while going to and in Camp Half-Blood. He didn't know what she looked like.
"Wait, is that...?"
He perked up and looked to where Artemis was looking. It was a large cell, probably one of the largest ones. There was a single person in the middle of a floating island, napping on the ground. He looked around. The space between the island and the bars was vast, so maybe this was some kind of ultimate prison to the detained who couldn't fly, who, he had to admit, he reckoned made up most of the dungeon.
The person was a blonde female, and she wore a tattered orange shirt and denim shorts. He couldn't see her face from that far away. She wore a silver bracelet in her left hand.
"Annabeth Chase," Nico whispered, his eyes wide. The grandson of Chaos squinted at the girl. So this was his dad's ex-girlfriend before he kind of died.
"I thought she was in liege with Order," Artemis wondered aloud, but not so that the girl could hear her.
Arc frowned. It didn't seem quite right. He knew that the bad guy was somewhat manipulative, and he assumed that he didn't throw people into disuse before they could exert their best. He stepped up to the cell door.
The goddess saw him and called out frantically, "Arc, what are you doing—!"
He kicked the door, hard, and expectedly, it resonated like a dull and spread out sound of a gong. If that didn't wake the girl up then he didn't know what would.
The girl shot up from her sleep, if ever she really was sleeping, and spun her head around to the cell door. He was aware that the other people in the other cells were doing the same, but he ignored them and focused on the girl. He could even hear Artemis muttering about stupid, reckless boys in the background, but he ignored her too.
The blonde-haired girl had stood up, and was now squinting at them, seemingly content on staying in the middle even though there was plenty of space in front of her. "Lady Artemis," she realized, her tone giving away her surprise. "Nico di Angelo. And... and you. I've met you before, with that Angel person."
"Arc, what is she saying?" Nico demanded calmly, albeit his eyes were darker with suspicion, glaring at him.
But Arc shook his head, his dark grey hair flying. He felt the cell door for a lock somewhere. "She has to be that.. There should be a lock around here.."
"Arc." The goddess of the moon grabbed his arm. "Let's go. I'm sure you haven't met her before, but she betrayed the gods to Order."
"She didn't!" The boy shook her hand off violently. "I'm pretty sure she was with that Hunter girl who shot me. She is a Hunter."
Artemis looked annoyed. "She was," she spat venomously, rounding on the girl beyond the bars. She seemed to forget the previous things he said. "She isn't my hunter anymore."
"What the heck are you talking about?!" Annabeth finally exploded, having enough of being talked about as if she wasn't there. "I'm your lieutenant! I got captured! Look, I know you're angry about my carelessness or whatever, and I'm sorry about that. Now could you please get me out of here?!"
The grandson of Chaos looked around nervously despite himself. Fortunately, they were still alone with the prisoners.
The goddess blinked and recoiled, as if she'd been slapped. "Thalia."
The blonde threw her hands up. "Yes! What, you three got your eyes in mud or something?"
"But why'd you look like that?" Nico spoke quietly, like he realized what he'd been worrying about too. "You look like Annabeth."
The anger seemed to evaporate from her. "Huh?" She looked and patted herself down. "Nope. Spiky hair—" It was curly, "—Hunter windbreaker—" none, "—Green Day shirt." A tattered orange one. "Sorry about this, but your eyes need to get checked."
Artemis frowned doubtfully. "Are you sure you're Thalia?"
"Yep. Feeling faint and daughter of Zeus-y."
"Where's your weapons?" She was eyeing the bracelet.
"They took it," 'Thalia' deadpanned, sounding a tad irritated. "Of course they would."
"Then what's that?" She pointed to the bracelet accusingly.
The girl was unaffected. "Oh, this?" She slipped it off, holding it up for them, and her form shimmered for a second into someone... familiar. "Order gave it to me, whatever it does. I like to think it gives me powers, you know? Like, so I could turn into anything I want." She slipped it back on, and she shimmered into the blonde girl again.
Arc was gob smacked. "Hey, take it off again." She did, and the girl turned into what she was describing herself earlier. "See! It's her!" He told the moon goddess triumphantly, as if figuring out who was right was some sort of game.
His dad's goddess girlfriend was looking over at her island. "Nico," she said. The guy turned to look at her. "Can you try shadow-traveling there?"
Thalia chirped up, "Hey, great idea! I have a shadow, see." There was.
The son of Hades looked uncertain, but he tried. He tried. He ran straight into a shadow and bumped his face into the wall. He sat up, rubbing his nose.
Arc frowned and looked to the daughter of Zeus. "Is there anything there that could maybe get you out? Could you try flying to here, maybe?"
She blanched. "Um. There's a green tile here that's supposed to teleport Order and his underlings in and out." She frowned. "Or maybe in only, but he also used that to get out."
"I'm guessing you couldn't use it?"
"Duh." His frown deepened, until she spoke again. "But he said that the programming could be reversed or redone or something. But it isn't going to work. I doubt you could do that."
He lit up. "Where is the other tile? There has to be one."
"I don't know if there's another tile, but he said that it, uh, comes from his security room."
Arc's mind was made up. He found the padlock for the door. He told Nico to look into the reception desk for the keys to her cell, but Artemis came forward with the keys from the mortal, trying out each one until it finally opened. How a mortal had the keys for a dungeon like this, he had no idea. Unless he wasn't really a mortal.
"Looks like we don't have to go to that security room after all," the son of Hades muttered gratefully. Since Thalia obviously didn't want to fly, Artemis tried to teleport to her, thinking it would be possible without a barrier whatsoever, but just like Nico, she was blocked out by something. They discovered that they couldn't even stick their hand out.
"Which means we really have to get to that room," the son of Hades muttered to himself again, sounding upset.
"But how will you do the mechanic thingy on this?" the daughter of Zeus inquired, pointing vaguely to the tile. "Or maybe you could destroy this 'barrier' or something."
"No," Arc disagreed, his multi-colored eyes shining determinedly. He closed the door and hung the padlock in a way that most passersby would think it's locked, but didn't actually lock it. "We could do it. Put your bracelet back on; they can't know that you know its effect."
"Where are we going?" Nico asked while Artemis looked on and around warily.
"Up," the other boy replied. "Or down, since the traitor said it's inverted. But we're looking for that security room."
It took more than three wrong turns, six almost encounters with Ordians, and a few hours before they finally found the security room after ascending (or descending) into the palace, just because an indention in the wall said SECURITY.
There was yet another sensor. Though Arc was confident that he could pass it again, all of them knew that there was something waiting for them inside this time. They had to see how much of them were inside, somehow.
"Is there a window? Ventilation?" he asked.
The other two shook their heads. "Maybe there's a peephole," he insisted, standing on his toes and looking closely at the engraved word on the door.
The son of Hades shook his head in exasperation. "There isn't. We might have to come in legitimately."
The other boy gave up and crouched at the sensor. It scanned his eye like earlier, and the gleaming white wall slid open. Nico poked his head in surreptitiously, almost sighing in relief as he found that none of the Ordians inside had even spared a glance. The boy looked back to his companions and put a finger to his lips, gesturing with his head towards the room.
They entered silently, and then hid behind a colossal metal trash bin. Why they needed to have a trash bin when they could incinerate their perishables, he wasn't sure.
The monsters—mostly Ordian telekhines—were absorbed into their computers, doing who-knows-what. He didn't even know they could do that, but it didn't convince him that they were smarter than the norm. If they were really operating the security room, then they should have at least expected them. If there were cameras. Or recording bugs. Or eye prints (if there was such a thing) of the eyes that had passed through the sensors that could somehow tell which was Ordian and which wasn't.
"Where's the tile?" Arc asked in a low voice.
"Later. Perhaps we should take care of these mutts first," Artemis whispered, glaring at the monsters. Nico responded with a soft 'aye.'
They made quick work of the oblivious monsters, mostly the goddess who was firing many arrows at once, catching a lot of them. After that, the moon goddess looked into the computers, while the two boys searched for the object that connects to the teleportation tile in the daughter of Zeus's prison.
It had to be a similar tile, Arc thought as he looked. Sure enough, he saw distinct tiles from the ones he was standing on. The problem was, there were many of them.
Nico swore softly upon seeing it. There were labels, though instead of what he hoped as names, it was different kinds of fears. –phobia here, –phobia there. Arc felt like smacking himself upside the head. He didn't know what most of them meant. Just, why didn't Chaos include this in his mortal lessons?
Artemis joined them at some point, but she didn't say anything, oddly enough. He glanced at her. She was frowning before she saw him staring at her. She beckoned them to follow.
The goddess led them to the computers. The grandson of Chaos stared, fascinated. There weren't any computers, or any cool technology, for that matter, anywhere in Khaos. There only were boring war machines that he got to tinker, but maybe those war machines were advanced technology more than anything.
The first one that the goddess used showed the word 'Google' in its monitor, in white letters, whereas there was blood and gore in the background. He didn't know what a Google was. It sounded like a disgusting adjective. The background just complemented it.
Artemis clicked a white rectangle and typed in, 'phobias'. Then there were blue and underlined words, The Phobia List and Lists of phobia blah blah etcetera. She clicked the first one, and the page reloaded into a page more unattractive. But it scrolled down, and conveniently, terms for irrational fears were there, written alphabetically.
Arc narrowed his eyes. At least he could understand a bit now. One fear equals one tile. One tile equals one cell. Apply the reflexive property of equality: one fear equals one cell. Now he just had to know Thalia's fear, look for its label in the line of teleport tiles, reprogram it, and send someone in to get her, three of which were easier said than done.
"We need to know what Thalia fears," he told them, although he was sure they've had figured it out at the same time he did.
The two looked at him blankly, which led him to the conclusion that they thought the girl had none, or that they simply weren't told. As the two moved around the various computers, trying to find something of importance, he thought back to her cell. It was wide. It was a floating island. It could be anything from the atmosphere to small foot room.
He sighed and sat at a random computer, even though he had no idea how to use one. Gathering his thoughts, he looked up at the monitor. White screen. He tapped a random key in the keyboard. Nothing. He looked at the rest of the computer. There was a cylinder double the fat of his finger, connected to the computer box (that's what he'd call it... for now) by a wire. There was a hole that looked like it could snug his forefinger.
Stupidly, he poked it inside.
There was a small electric shock sent into his body, not one that necessarily caused pain. A platinum square appeared in the middle of the screen, with a rectangular bar filling up green. A window popped up, and his personal details stared him in the face.
Full name... birth father, birth mother, granddads, grandmas... He read to himself, stunned and unable to speak. His eyes widened at the last detail. Past life..?
"Arc!" He jumped and plucked his finger out of that cylinder, fumbling the mouse for the x button. The screen was white again just as Nico approached him.
The boy raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you okay?"
Arc was sweaty and clammy all over. He'd bet that he was also pale. He managed to nod and stood up from the seat. "What'd you need me for? You find the fears?"
Nico nodded, but he was glancing him up and down uncertainly. "You sure you're okay?"
The boy took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. I'm up to reprogramming chic junk." He didn't mention that he was sure that he could, surer than he had been before.
The acrophobia tile had been successfully reprogrammed, albeit it took some time; now they just had to wait for the goddess to come back.
Nico didn't mind waiting. As long as waiting could mean interrogation, he could wait any time.
He knew that Arc saw something in that computer that left him thoroughly shaken. Although he knew it would be better to look at it himself, he didn't want to get that thing in the computer—whatever it was—to startle him just as it startled the guy. They needed to keep alert, and right now, without Artemis, he was the oldest, so he had to take responsibility.
"Arc," he started. To his dismay, the demigod didn't jump in surprise like last time.
"Yeah?"
"What did you see there? In the computer?"
"Horrible things," Arc replied without missing a beat.
That was about it. "Oh." He had no reason to think he was lying.
Silence settled upon them, before Nico started again, "Not to pry, but I'm curious. What happened to you and Angel before you arrived at Camp? How did you get weapons and monster training?"
The boy didn't reply for a minute. "Our caretaker was the one who taught us how to defend ourselves. How to fight."
"Who is this caretaker, if I may ask?"
He pursed his lips briefly. "My adoptive dad. We didn't know our parents."
The Prince of Hades smiled slightly. "So you have an adoptive family?"
The other one shook his head. "Not really, no," he denied. "My dad's young, single. So Angel and I pretty much only have each other when he leaves to his own parents, which he does most of the time. He never takes us with."
"You're related?" the immortal boy asked, referring to the girl.
"Oh, no. Runaway childhood friends, you know."
The son of Hades paused for a second. He still had tons of questions to throw at the guy, but he didn't want to seem like he was prying. After a while, he said, "Okay, so everyone was wondering about this, and I know you've probably been asked this before but still: do you know Percy Jackson personally?"
Arc looked like he didn't hear him, but he turned his head to look up at him, before turning back to staring at his hands. He appeared like he wasn't going to talk anytime soon, but as he was sighing, he opened his mouth.
What came out never really made it to his ears as the wall door slid, and that was the only thing he heard through the silence.
Nico stood up, pivoting as he did so. His sword was out and pointed to the intruder by the time he faced the door.
It was someone he didn't expect. A pale man, his skin almost as pale as his white suit. Sparkling and polished white shoes. Long, silvery blonde hair topping his head, which has no facial features whatsoever. Somehow, he knew who the man was.
Order himself had come to kill them.
The god stepped into the room. Arc stood turning as well, doing so more gracefully than Nico would have done, and narrowed his eyes into a glare at the god. The said god merely smirked at the boy—or at least, that's what the form of his skin suggested. Something told Nico that this interaction—it had more to do than just good sides and evil things.
Nico glanced at the tile behind them. He knew that its only job now was making the two appear successfully. He didn't even understand why it was taking them so long. Maybe they messed with the wrong tile?
No. Too late for regrets now.
"Arc Jackson. What a pleasure having you here."
"What do you want?" the boy snapped.
"Not your place to be snappy, I'm afraid. Do not forget, this is my palace," Order warned, "I might just make it crumble down on you while you're inside."
Arc closed his eyes. "Nico, when the girls appear, get them out. I'll hold him back."
"Surely you know your arrogance will cost you your life," the god stated, and then leaned his torso in as if he was trying to take a closer look. "Ah, I understand. You must have known the truth. Quite admirable, I must say, your reaction to it."
"The truth?" the immortal boy asked the god, glaring at him. "Maybe you're just making up something. I've seen how it works."
"I said get back, Nico. Wait for them."
"Oh, no, son of Hades. I mean it with quite the same meaning," Order said, his face deforming into what he assumed was a derisive one. "The first time he was asked about his parents, why, it was true! He was so clueless, it was pitiful. But right here, before I arrived," he paused, gesturing to the computers, "if it hadn't been for one of my honest contrivances—"
"Shut up!" Arc roared, finally drawing his dark silver blade and threatening the god with it just as he had before—if only he hadn't been interested in the god's last statements and been subconsciously lowering it. He'd seen the guy's sword before; in fact, it was the one he attempted to use on his hellhound. He'd never known what kind of metal it was, but knew it wise not to ask since the world had many things left undiscovered, anyway.
"Ah, afraid he'll find the truth, son of broken vows?"
Nico glanced at his companion, who gritted his teeth and locked eyes with him, before looking away, anxiety in his eyes. What did he mean by broken vows? Obviously, the poor guy wasn't supposed to be alive right now. But what kind of vow?
"No, just—" The boy worried on his bottom lip, closing his eyes. "Nico. Back up to the tile. Now. I'll try to get him contained and out of your way."
"No, you moron!" The son of Hades grabbed his arm and looked at him, his eyes wide with concern and fear for the first time since the Giant war. He remembered a similar event two decades ago, one that he'd since regretted letting slip.
He could hear it, despite the sounds of battle going on, and the pounding in his ears. He could hear it, alright, loud and clear. He could believe it, but he won't let it happen.
"You go out. I'll be fine."
He watched as he ran. No, he won't let him do what he thought he'll be doing. He won't allow it. He'd already lost him twice. One, when he disappeared to the Romans, and two, when he fell into Tartarus. No, he won't lose him for good this time.
"Percy.." Too late. He could hear the loud thump it made, and the mechanism within it locking it as its entrance from inside prepared to teleport to another place in the ancient pit named after an ancient god. The knocker.. Annabeth wasn't pulling it. Why?
"No," he said now, firmly. "You aren't staying here. I'm not letting it happen."
"Thinking about Perseus, now, are you?"
Nico's eyes widened, while Arc glared at the god. "What? How don't you know?" the immortal boy asked.
Order paused. It was difficult to tell what he was thinking without a face to look at or eyes to see through. He was literally faceless. "How... don't I know?"
He nodded.
"What kind of question is that?" the god demanded, suddenly angry. "I know, so why do you ask how I don't?"
Nico blinked at him, before smirking. Looks like he wasn't that smart after all. "Yeah. How don't you?"
"Nico," Arc ground his teeth. "Don't make him start. You need to get out of here alive."
Order snorted. Through where, he wondered, but deemed it best not to try to find out. "Anyway, I'll have you know that Perseus isn't dead, not by a long shot."
"Tell me something I don't know," the immortal demigod challenged.
Order swallowed and cleared his throat. "He has a son."
"What..?" The Prince of the Underworld whirled on his companion, not that all surprised, but still. The boy was looking away from him, glaring at the god harder than ever. Why did he have to hide it?
"Not all, not all." The god waved those away, as if it wasn't the most shocking part, which was somewhat true. "That Perseus, well, he is here. In this planet. And he's hunted by everyone."
Arc wasn't glaring. "M-my dad?" For a second there, he looked like a lost child.
"Yes. Haven't you heard, Arc? It's in the news," Order said, and this time Nico was sure that he was smirking at them, if only he had a mouth. "He was an 'alien'. An 'alien' who is to be found and contained by the police and all its silly branches, as if experimenting on a putrid specimen in a science project." He said that with complete air quotes.
Nico watched as the other boy's dropped mouth formed into an o before closing and tightening. "You did this, didn't you? You monster."
"Oh, no. Just a master of happenstance and its perks."
Arc's fists clenched. "Nico. I told you to go. Now would be a good time."
The god chirped in, as though his audience was still silent. "Let me tell you about a certain grandson of mine—"
"We don't want to hear it!" Arc shouted, stepping forward to place the tip of his sword directly in front of the god's face. "You. Me. Fight. Leave them alone."
"Forgive me, gr—"
"Argh!" His companion and friend (and the legend's son now, it seems) slashed at the white-faced god with lightning speed, but perhaps expectedly, the god was faster. He reappeared outside his slash, but still quite in front of them. The god's movement was so fast that he seemed to disappear whilst the sword just looked like a fat blur in spite of its speed. He was losing hope that his companion would be able to fight him off.
"Now, that's no way to treat your grandfath—"
Before he could finish, Arc slashed and swung at him some more, but he already understood what he was saying.
"Grandfather..?" Nico muttered to himself, his legs feeling like heavy and immovable lead, but he managed to stay upright. He knew he should be helping him, but it was too much. Why did he hide so much from them? He felt betrayed, even though he sort of knew that he shouldn't be. They weren't friends. Nico had been cold at their arrival when he should be warm and welcoming. But children of Hades weren't really supposed to be warm and welcoming.
Children of Percy were.
Grandchildren of Order were.
Although, were all? Who was Angel, then? Was she Percy's kid too?
Did Artemis know? Did the Thalia impostor know? He remembered this morning, when he was woken up by a cruel poke to the neck from Angel. He remembered seeing all of them awake, waiting for him and eating breakfast bagels, except for the Thalia. Did Arc tell them? Was he the only one who was kept in the dark?
He remembered a time when he was ten, all of them leaving him to go to a quest to save Artemis and Annabeth. Bianca died. Zoë died. Annabeth turned traitor three years later. It wasn't any good, right? It didn't give him any win. Not any points.
And now, in the new generation, this time with Artemis and three people he didn't know, he was given the same treatment? What kind of bullshit would they give him now?
He realized that his name was being called. He looked up at his quest mate, his eyes hardening. "Nico! I said get... out of here! They're—ugh—coming!"
He stepped back and glanced at the acrophobia tile, just in time as the air above it shimmered and solidified. Thalia was out first. Then the same thing happened, and Artemis was out too. They stood there, looking alarmed. Thalia had gotten her bracelet and Mace canister back, and she stood there with her guise on. It looked so real that he'd had the urge to deck her.
"Nico, what's happening?" Thalia demanded, her hand on Aegis.
"Arc.. He—"
"Nico, I said go. I'll handle him."
"How flattering; you want me for yourself, now?"
"What?" Artemis exclaimed, her eyebrows shooting to meet each other. "No, Arc. We cannot let you face him alone."
"Yeah, whoever you are, kid; we don't want you dying in here. Alone is a bad word."
"No! I can do this!" Arc stepped back from his opponent to breathe and say what he wanted to say. "I'm the fated boy."
"None of that crap, Arc," Nico told him determinedly. Just because he was kept in the dark, he wasn't going to bear a grudge about it. However much his nature urged him to. He didn't want to make the same mistake again. "We don't care who's the fated boy, okay? We won't let you fight him alone."
"Yeah. Whoever said this fated boy Ordian poop anyway?" Thalia cut in. She stepped forward and drew her spear, pointing its electric-charged tip at Order, who stood there silently, his face twisted as if he was laughing at the drama in front of him. "You're going to pay for forcing Luke to be your pawn."
"And imprisoning her!" the son of Hades added. The girl nodded, as he just then realized what she'd said. "Wait, Luke?"
"You don't understand." Arc finally looked back at them, the helpless glint in his eyes suggesting that he also knew that he won't be able to hold the god back for long. "I've figured out two more lines of the prophecy. I'm the one who meets his last. His last choice." His eyes hardened, glistening for a second and prominently showing the silver stars in his eyes, before he turned away to use those eyes to glare at Order. "And that choice is to stay and help you get away."
The scene at the doors flashed in Nico's mind again. His shoulders slumped. Now that he knew that this guy was his (supposed to be) deceased (but apparently alive now and rampant) cousin's son, he knew that there was no room for convincing him. Percy was going to be angry at him. He was going to be crushed. Just as he had been when he told him that Bianca had died on his watch.
"Arc," Artemis sounded desperate, making the boy turn back to her. "You can't do this." Then, in a whisper so soft that he almost didn't hear, "I promised."
Arc appeared to hear, and he actually smiled at her. His eyes glistened again, but he blinked and it was gone. "I've known since earlier that you knew," he said, swallowing. "Thank you... for being there." He swept his eyes over the rest of them. "All of you." He looked at the goddess again. "Tell Angel... that I love her. Tell her I'm alive. But.. But please... please don't tell my dad... th-that I—"
"Time's up!" Order interrupted, his chin up and his arms spread, as if he was happy and felt like hugging the wind. It was anything but sincere. "I believe young Jackson here has an appointment with me."
"No! Arc!" Artemis tried to advance, but the son of Hades and his cousin held her back as Arc, somehow, threw a ball of white fire in front of them, and it spread into a wall of hot licking flames that separated them from the rest of the security room, where Arc was. He then gritted his teeth when they were thrown back towards the door by an invisible force, air maybe, which he assumed also came from the guy.
"Go! The door's open!" Arc sent them a final glance before lunging at Order.
Artemis struggled against their grip. "Arc!"
The palace was shaking because of the battle between the two insanely powerful beings. The ceiling was falling, bit by bit. He'd no doubt that it would crumble sooner, and they would be right under it if they don't hurry.
Thalia grimaced, her mistress harder to contain as she flailed. "Lady Artemis, we have to go! He'll be fine, if that's what he thinks."
"No, I.. I have to help him!"
Nico was dumbfounded as to why the goddess was acting like this over a guy, whom she treated just like the others at the beginning of the quest, but he tried his best to act composed. "Lady Artemis, I'm sorry but we really have to. They'll—oh my gods that almost flattened me—end up killing us!"
She stopped struggling, going completely still for a flat five seconds, before a beam of moonlight let loose from her palm and slammed into Order's devoid face, making the god stagger back and causing Arc to score a swing.
Nico and Thalia saw the whole thing, and when they turned back to the goddess, they found out that she'd ditched them for the open door.
They followed quickly.
There was a herd of monsters coming her way, their way, out to defend their master's palace, but the goddess didn't seem to notice them. She ran forward, not breaking stride as she plowed through them with her hunting knives brandished, the blade attracting the monsters instead of the other way around. It was less extra work.
It wasn't long before they were back into the dungeon, with monsters too few than he'd expected in pursuit. They passed by all the other cells, before Thalia stopped. "Is it right to just leave these guys in here?"
Nico paused for a second, not wanting the goddess to leave his sight, just to say, with a little guilt, "No time."
The same wall opened to the hallway they were in earlier. The building shook, and they stumbled. Artemis had stopped, while Thalia caught up. "What now?"
The Ghost King glanced at the way they came, and then at the way they nearly went to. "Here!"
Artemis led the way again. A few monsters were still chasing them, but since they were manageable, he and his cousin took care of them quickly, before continuing to focus on running.
The single pathway seemed endless. It felt like they were running there for forever, until there was a turn, which they made, and kept on running until a lit dead end.
Thalia cursed all things heavenly, not caring for the goddess who was mere inches away and watching and looking around everything. "Great. Now what do we do?"
"Maybe there's another door?" Nico stepped forward and touched the walls. They were trembling lightly. The quaking had been dispelling the farther they got from the palace, and he just hoped that this tunnel wasn't a part of it or it would have to be destroyed too.
No such luck, of course.
"No," the moon goddess spoke for the first time since they exited the security room of Order's palace. They looked at her guardedly, as if thinking that she was going to try coming back again after all they've run through. "We go up."
Two heads turned up to look skyward. Sure enough, the light was coming from the outside world, filtering into a circular manhole. But there was no ladder. No rope. They couldn't see anything but the sky. How were they going to come up there? They had no idea where they were. No chance of teleporting of any sort without knowing the destination. It probably wouldn't even work anyway because of the barriers in the palace and the dungeon. If ever this was still a part of either.
As though reading his mind, Artemis continued, "We'll fly up."
Thalia paled as the two of them looked at her. She'd taken off the bracelet at some point during the run. "I haven't really tried flying yet."
"Try and focus on lifting yourself from the ground. And then take one with you. I'm sure Nico would be more than happy to volunteer to be your first passenger."
Nico wasn't confident of flying over twenty feet up with someone inexperienced (he'd flown because of Jason before, and he wasn't exactly keen on trying it again, especially with her sister, who, for gods' sake, hadn't even tried it yet.) But he nodded.
It took a few good minutes, and by the time she could raise herself ten feet off, half her legs left out of the hole, the wild shake from the dungeon was reaching them. The tunnel was going to collapse with the palace.
"Quickly!" Nico staggered, by the goddess's prod, into the slightly obscured spotlight below the hole, where Thalia lowered herself a bit to catch his wrists, and began lifting him up, painstakingly but comfortingly slowly. He liked it better than how Jason did it, but there would be no time to get back to the goddess if she didn't hurry.
"Thalia, think 'up'—w-whoa!" The two of them skyrocketed; and in a second, they were out of the hole and at tree bush level. The son of Hades was shaking at the height they were at, not noticing that his cousin was too. But then the world tilted again and suddenly they were on the ground, sore from the landing. His legs took most of it though, and this time his legs did feel like heavy lead. He felt like just lying on there all day.
But since he knew they needed to move because of the monsters and regroup with Angel, again: no such luck.
His cousin climbed to her feet and stumbled to the hole, not even stopping to catch her breath before letting herself fall in. He remembered that she had an ironic fear of heights. He imagined that she probably didn't want her mind to recover before it spooked her. A great decision for someone who was scared out of her mind.
A few moments later, they were sprawled beside him; mercifully they didn't land on him. He wouldn't have been able to carry the weight.
Feeling oddly comforted aside from the fact that they had gotten away, he looked around. They were in a cemetery. It explains the comfort. There was no earthquake here.
And then he remembered why they were running away. What they were running away from. He shook his head, frustrated with himself, and rolled over to his stomach, feeling like he deserved mouthing the death-tainted dirt.
He'd failed. Just what would Percy say? There was no telling that they'd still be on speaking terms once he found out. If ever they would be speaking again.
There was a soft fluttering sound, but he didn't bother to look. Probably just a crow or something.
"My, aren't we feeling cheery today," a voice remarked, sarcastically. It sounded too much like what Order would say and he nearly summoned the dead right then and there, but he regained his senses at the last second and comprehended that it was Arc's friend, Angel.
Oh gods... maybe she would be even worse than Percy.
"Hey, I brought the traitor over. I didn't want to, and I think she'll deserve getting crushed by those rocks, but I think that's what you'd like me to do, since, you know, we could still interrogate her or something." Cue muffled groan from the still gagged and disguised Thalia.
"Oh look, it's the real Thalia," she continued, generously giving them time to write their own eulogies. "Hiya, real Thalia. Someone's idolizing you." The 'someone' gave another muffled groan.
"Hey come on. Why the doom and gloom? You demolished that douche's palace. You should be—" She stopped abruptly. Here it comes. "Wait. Where 's Arc?"
Of all the times Nico could have looked, he did right then. The other two were, too.
"Hey," Angel said, her hand visibly tightening on the cloth that she had probably wrapped around the traitor's neck while they were inside. She glanced at their faces, rapidly going back and forth, a sign that she was frantic for a reply. "Where is he?"
He looked away, unable to meet her eyes. "I'm asking you guys. Where is he? Where's my cousin?" She was definitely worried now.
He tried looking around the cemetery, maybe even picking out a spot for his own, when out of the corner of his eye, Artemis sat up and shook her head.
It was all so fast that he needed a few seconds to see anything.
Angel had thrown the traitor to the ground violently, out of rage. She stepped on her windpipe, not giving away any other emotion from her eyes as the girl underneath struggled. Nico and Thalia scrambled to their feet in an attempt to get away from the murder that was likely about to happen.
"Your... fault.."
"Angel, please—"
"No!" The desperate girl howled in defiance, her dark eyes glittering. "She'll—she'll die for doing this to him!" Chains appeared around the traitor, wrapping her strongly. There were four ends and Angel held on to them tightly, yanking and squeezing in a way that the traitor was blue in seconds.
Nico watched, his face emotionless. This was nothing compared to what she'll face in the Fields of Punishment. There was a gleam that led his eye onto a familiar bracelet on her wrist. What he once thought was Aegis was really a similar one to the one Thalia had. He stomped down on it, breaking the band into two Cs.
The invisible screen in front of the traitor shimmered out of existence, and her spiky jet black hair turned golden blonde, curling, while her fading blue eyes paled even more to a grey. Those eyes, once daunting, once determined, widened in fear.
At the sight of her new and original form, Angel's eyes dimmed to a cold and terrifying black. She went as still as a statue, until one hand let go of the chains it was holding. And then as she held out her hand, a black bonfire larger than her hand appeared atop her palm. Saying it was hot was an understatement.
She muttered words under her breath, still with her black eyes and stone cold expression. The only words he caught were "hell after death," "despised in all hells," "gods' eternal punishment," and it was enough to make him shiver.
And then she forced open the traitor's mouth and threw the fireball in. The image was too gruesome, even for him, and all of them, with the exception of Angel herself (despite her name she was anything but that) turned away, pushed into suffering by listening to the tortured cries.
When it stopped, they looked back to see that what was left of the girl lay a charred patch of dirt, and some blood stains. Angel looked at them, appearing a bit slyly sheepish but never remorseful. "So. Secret's out."
"We... expected that," Artemis stammered a bit, still slightly stunned by the brutality. He almost snorted. "However you should know—"
"He's not dead, I know that." She gave them a small dry smile, looking at all the graves that just witnessed the murder. It was all so ironic. "Just needed to vent my anger for you unto someone else agreeable, that's all."
"But that was slightly... inhumane." Thalia winced. It looked like being punk didn't change her preferred level of graphic discomfort.
"Should be expected. I'm the goddess of dark angels, after all."
"Oh.. Wait what?"
"I believe a conversation is in order..." She glanced at them, as if telling them to get the message already that she didn't mean it the literal way. "Before we actually go and look for him, or maybe clear things up with the gods."
AN: I obviously do not own Google. Thank you for reading, have a nice day! ~SmartzyFan