HAZEL HATED BOATS…take the train or a boat.

"Ooh." Triton winced

"We could try figure something out to make it better?" Will suggested

"Sure." Apollo said "We'll get it done." He smiled at Hazel.

She hoped her condition might…she thought she was hallucinating

Hades had turned a worrisome green color by now. Oh, sea sickness was bad. He gave Hazel a sympathetic glance.

"Yeah, I got how bad it is." He choked out.

"Should we get a bucket or something?" Persephone asked in concern

"Maybe." Nico said

"Stop smirking." Hades said to Poseidon

"I am not!" his younger brother said but now he was grinning "I'm worried but you're making me laugh." He said

"That makes no sense." Thalia said

"I mean I don't know-" Percy said "If you try to make sense of it, it does."

"Everything makes sense that way." Annabeth said.

"Fair enough"

Nico summoned a bucket and passed it to Hades who was just trying to get Athena to read. She had mercy on her uncle and obliged.

They sped by a pack of sea lions…Don't even think about it.

Everybody laughed.

"You definitely made quite the impression." Poseidon said in amusement.

Percy's face was red…Bridge and turned north.

"I swear to all of us mall of us mall of us man, you sound as mysterious as Will Byers." Will groaned to Percy.

"Now that I think of it, I scarily do." Percy said in surprise.

Hazel tried to settle her stomach…pin the centurion's badge to his shirt.

Hades was slowly starting to look less sick now. Hestia passed him a bottle of cold water.

Then her thoughts turned to Nico…Doors of Death from the other side."

And as he took a gulp, he spat it right back out just as that line was read. He looked at Nico who seemed to be averting his gaze.

"Okay, so I seem to know this part that you'd gone but the fact that we didn't discuss this before you went is what makes it worse, you know?" Hades sighed

"Love, I know that I should probably not talk right now but I feel like I have to say this. We didn't really make things easy for Nico back then. As in, we didn't make it easy for him to be comfortable with us so its not really surprising that he didn't tell us because maybe…maybe he felt like he didn't feel like we would care." Persephone said a little uncertainly and at the same time disappointed in herself for treating Nico that way.

Hades looked at her, his eyes reflecting the same guilt that her eyes reflected and then he looked at Nico was determined on looking anywhere but at him or her and that was enough for Hades. He knew that Nico didn't feel that way anymore or at least he felt like he didn't. Even after these many books, he wasn't sure if Nico had truly forgiven him because he always had that sinking sensation that the mistakes made over the past years couldn't simply be erased by reading these books.

They had had conversations but that sinking feeling still haunted him. People often said that the god of the underworld, no, the ruler of the underworld was never afraid of anything but people and at the moment, he scoffed at that thought. Who ever said that people were ever right about him? Hades was scared. He was scared for his family. He was scared of how he was to Nico.

He wanted to fix things with Nico. Nico always said that it was all okay but every time Hades read something like that, it was as if he was stabbed again and what made it worse was that Nico wouldn't look at him and that was salt to the wound but he just couldn't blame Nico. He felt that the only person he could blame was himself. The only person he should blame was himself. The only person he did blame was himself.

"DAD!"

"UNCLE!"

"HADES!"

And suddenly, Hades was brought out of his thoughts to find concerned eyes looking at him. He'd apparently zoned out so bad that the others got were worried.

"Should we take a break or something?" Michael asked in concern.

"N-no." Hades choked out "We'll take a short one after this chapter." He said, trying to keep his voice steadier.

Ares nodded, getting a glimpse of his uncle's thoughts as he felt some of them himself. He gestured for Athena to continue reading.

"Be careful," Hazel said…send me back to the Underworld."

"Well, rules are meant to be broken." Percy shrugged

"Preach." The Stolls and Leo said in unison

"Not really." Amphitrite pointed out and then she chuckled. "But I have to say, you really do take after your father in certain ways-" she said "-but still, rules are not meant to be broken, young man." She chided, causing Percy to grin sheepishly.

"I mean, I agree with the kids." Hermes grinned

"Nephew, you're the god of mischief. You're just like them." Demeter said with a small smile.

"Fair enough"

Nico took her hand…She didn't want to die a second time.

"Don't worry, you won't be alone." Frank said, pressing a kiss to Hazel's knuckles as Hazel gave him a smile.

"Good luck, Hazel," he said…"Guess you don't want that one."

Everybody chuckled fondly, glad as they all felt the intense mood that had occurred disappear thanks to Frank and the other mischievous kids.

"It's probably gonna be hard to eat." Chris chuckled lightly.

Percy wasn't paying much attention…"I can imagine," Percy muttered.

"Oh yeah, he can definitely imagine." Beckendorf said with a nod.

"Yeah, no shit." Katie said with a slight chuckle.

"Language." Demeter chided.

"Mother." Katie groaned causing everybody to laugh well naturedly.

Hazel wasn't sure what he meant…met a monster they couldn't beat.

"Maybe because the worst monsters are inside us, that's why." Jason sighed as Thalia nodded in agreement.

"The real monsters are always inside us." Nico said

"Once you know those, nothing scares you anymore." Percy sighed.

Everybody was already concerned but what got them much more concerned was the fact that all the other members of the house of heroes were quiet and they didn't look like the disagreed but then the elder gods just sighed because they realized that every single one of them present here had wounds that may never be healed completely and the scars would always be left as marks. All they did was wrap their arms around their children and as the house of heroes members had the same realization, they did the same with their parents because they were able to feel the pain radiate off some of the gods except a few who tried to keep their faces as free of their own emotions as possible.

Hazel understood the feeling…she slipped back in time.

"Shit." Demeter swore

"Language." Katie chided weakly, at an attempt to lighten the mood which worked slightly.

Their rental house was a clapboard…would never be warm again.

"Sometimes, its also because of the voice and the darkness makes it worse." Rachel said

"That's true." Hazel admitted.

When summer came…knew eventually she'd have to go home.

"That's always the worst feeling, isn't it? When you know that nothing but misery and pain await you back at home." Thalia said bitterly.

"It hurts a lot indeed." Hazel sighed but then shook her head. "I don't like looking back at all of these feelings though." She said

"Same." Thalia said with a weak smile.

Sometimes she thought about…he should be able to do that.

And that was another stab right in the said god's heart. He felt frozen and as if he just couldn't say anything. He hadn't felt that pain, that sheer amount of paint in forever and it was much more painful than he could remember.

"Sometimes…sometimes even my powers are useless." He said with a sigh and that wasn't just talking about saving Hazel from her mother but also in general and Hazel's simple nod just made the knife in him go in deeper.

Ares noticed his uncle's shift in mood and he just knew the inner battles that he felt his uncle was fighting but he just didn't understand the intensity of it. Poseidon exchanged a look with Ares, also noticing Hades' shift but Ares gave him a shake of his head, sending the message that he'd talk to him later after he talked to Frank and Clarisse and after Hades talked to Nico and Hazel.

She looked up at the ravens…always appeared in her wake.

"Ah, this kid." Triton said with a slight chuckle.

"Who?" Katie asked

"Our horse brother." Triton said. Katie choked on her own saliva as she looked at Percy.

"The horse that we read about earlier?" she asked

"Yeah. Arion." Percy said. "I've just got used to it, mate." He said with a shrug to Katie's incredulous look. Poseidon turned red and Amphitrite just shook her head as well. They had to stop thinking about all this as they had renewed their vows and decided to have a fresh start.

Hey, fella," she called…A wisp of steam curled from the ground.

The Hermes and Apollo kids whistled in amazement.

The train whistle echoed…but she didn't see any other option

"You should have ignored them." Lee said

"I couldn't." Hazel sighed

"You're a nice person." Clarisse drawled

"Why, thank you."

She took the rowboat…run into it a thousand times."

"Welcome to demigod life." Nico said in a sage voice.

"Pleasure to be here." Hazel snorted

Hazel was about fifty yards…felt herself losing her grip on reality.

Hades was already feeling as if he was losing his grip on reality and the curse of the books just made it much much worse. Apart from this, the feeling that he failed his children, the feeling that he failed every single person that he knew and cared about was haunting him and was eating him alive. He felt as if a thousand needles like the ones they'd used against doctor strange in Infinity war were going through him.

"Shit. The curse is acting up." Rachel said, gesturing to Hades.

"Oh no." Nico said as he saw Hades.

"What do we do?" Hazel asked in worry. She already was not liking reading about this but now realizing that the curse was acting up for even this was what was annoying.

"I don't think we can do anything but continue reading." Apollo said with his eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Ares kept his gaze fixated on Hades, not knowing what to do till the two conversations took place because he knew that he couldn't talk to his uncle till the chapter was over and till after they both had talked to their kids.

Gaea wanted to consume her identity…. "Oh, Hazel, what did I do to you?"

"Exactly what you were told not to." Nico snarled. Persephone kept her hand on his shoulder and Nico took a deep breath as Athena continued to read.

She stared in horror…He was almost ready to wake.

Everybody was on the edge of their seats by now. At the same time, they felt terrible for Hazel that she had to go through that at such a young age but they also knew that the demigods went through a whole lot of trauma just at that age but at the same time what Hazel went through was absolutely horrifying.

However, they knew that she would not appreciate the pity especially as she had left her past behind and what she had gone through had now made her stronger.

Her mother fell to her knees…She should have despised her mother.

"It is too late for her to be sorry." Thalia spat out

But she couldn't make…she was trembling.

"She deserves it." Persephone growled in anger. She really did not appreciate the fact that any mother could be like that to a child and especially the fact that her step daughter was treated like that. Over the reading period, she had really got attached to Nico and Hazel. She didn't know if they'd ever truly treat her like a mother but she'd definitely treat them as her children.

The fact that Hazel was still showing mercy to her mother was ridiculous in her eyes. Hazel was a genuinely nice person but Marie did not deserve that. She did not deserve Hazel's mercy and she sure as heck did not deserve Hazel giving up Elysium for her. Persephone was going to have to pay a visit to Marie Levesque once they returned to the Underworld.

Chris was the one to say what everybody else was thinking.

"She deserved that, Hazel. I know that she was possessed and manipulated. I've been through it. Luke had been through it-" he said. Hermes winced. "-but she was a total bitch to you before the voice as well. She deserved this just for that. When I used to think of how I had defected, of how Luke had defected, I couldn't help think that we deserved punishment too. I couldn't help but think that I deserved the insanity that I went through but even I know that what your mother did was much much worse." Chris said quietly.

Hazel didn't know what to say so she just nodded weakly. She had begun to think that too. That her mother didn't deserve her sympathy. Hazel knew that she had to be better but the fact was that anything would have been better than what Marie did to her.

Hermes was now trying his best to hide that chasm of pain inside him. He tried hiding that steep drop in his life that he felt ever since he lost Luke again. The fact that Chris felt like he deserved the pain made that chasm drop much deeper. Hermes never wanted to fall down that chasm or that black hole, whatever one might call it, again but like Hades and Ares, he just couldn't stop blaming himself and maybe their guilt was what would always eat them whole.

The death of Luke again had changed Travis and Connor in a way that they observed others' emotions more. He was still that joking, mischievous kid that he always was but what people didn't know about the two of them was that before they used to joke around for the fun of it but the motivation had later changed into something else. They had always wanted to make people laugh, see them happy because whenever they saw somebody hurt, they'd feel pain prick them like a needle but when it came to somebody they cared about, it'd feel like a whole freaking sword stabbed them.

The two of them saw Hermes' usually mischief filled eyes filled with utter pain. They also saw that his best friend- Apollo had seen it too and the young god nodded to them and gestured towards Hermes with his neck. The Stolls kept their hands on Hermes' shoulders and gestured politely to Athena to read.

Percy on the other hand was looking at Hestia and Chiron who like him felt the pain radiating around the room. Percy rubbed his head as Hestia and Chiron looked upset about this too. Gods, this chapter was eating them all alive.

"What can we do?"… She felt a sob building in her chest.

Hades was already down a freaking black hole thanks to the curse and his own feelings that this made it much worse as the curse feelings mixed with his own.

"Pluto warned me…I was a fool."

"Bad woman." Tyson said sadly.

"Very bad woman." Percy said in agreement.

"There's got to be something…Gaea would rule forever.

Everybody shuddered.

All this, the goddess purred…Not for that."

"You would have caused absolutely nothing. It would have all been that woman's fault." Rachel said to Hazel who sighed and nodded.

She reached deep into her soul…Your mother will still die!

"At least, you'd die too then." Hazel said, the tone of anger noticeable in her voice

Hazel almost wavered…to think I needed anything else."

"Happy. Late. Realization." Leo said with a drawl. He knew what it felt like to be totally be screwed up by Gaea.

She kissed Hazel's forehead…island collapsed into the bay.

Hades screamed in pure agony.

"SHIT." Nico shouted.

"Do we continue reading?" Aphrodite asked in concern.

"The chapter's over!" Athena exclaimed

Nico and Hazel looked at each other and tried to join their fists to Hades but no matter how much pain Hades was feeling, he had had enough of putting Nico and Hazel in pain and kept his fist out of reach from them.

"Dad! Give us your fist!" Nico shouted but Hades didn't. Nico swore.

"Read the name of the next chapter!" Artemis said suddenly. "That signals the end of the chapter." She said.

"I'll read." Rachel said. Athena passed her the book and Rachel quickly read the title.

"Hazel XVIII."

Hades stopped screaming and everybody took breaths of relief.

"We're taking a break." Poseidon said weakly and nobody disagreed.