Once everybody woke up and Percy was on his third cup of coffee and felt that he was ready to get through the day without passing out, he shook his head vigorously and stretched.

"Now, I'm awake." He grinned.

"Finally." Thalia snorted.

"Yeah, so you gonna give me shit now, aren't you?" Percy asked weakly.

"You got that right, li'l bro." Thalia grinned.

"You call me that again and I'll show you just how little I am." Percy said, pointing a breadstick at her threateningly. Nico snorted in amusement.

"He's the li'l bro." Percy told Thalia with a wink.

"I'm elder than you two morons." Nico said to them with raised eyebrows.

"Now, that's hilarious, you know. I can still recall somebody talking about Mythomagic at a speed of 1000 miles per hour." Thalia told him, looking like she was trying to remember dramatically. Nico groaned.

"You guys are not going to let that go." He said. Percy and Thalia shook their heads.

"Okay, lets stop ganging up on my son and maybe continue reading?" Hades asked them. Everybody shrugged or nodded. Chiron announced it to everybody and they all went back to the hall where they had started in the first place.

"I'll read. Its not my chapter." Percy said and picked up the book and flipped to the right page. He took a deep breath as he thought about last night and the reading and started.

EVEN BEFORE SHE…Hazel felt queasy.

Hades took a deep breath as the queasiness travelled into him from the book.

She kept thinking about…Alcyoneus wouldn't be alive!

"You did the right thing by getting him done with, Percy." Leo said, his voice steely, not liking how Phineas had affected Hazel. Hazel looked at him in surprise but smiled warmly.

"No doubt about that." Connor nodded in agreement.

It was surprising for a lot of people there to see the normally light hearted people act serious and talk about Phineas' death but I guess, you mess with one of them, you mess with all of them.

As the boat sped down…Teach Your Dog.

Everybody chuckled at that.

"I think you guys have a taste for people who love knowing and planning things." Clarisse told Percy and Tyson. Annabeth, Percy and Tyson grinned at her. Poseidon looked at Amphitrite and nodded in agreement, causing her to snort in amusement, making Poseidon grin just like Percy.

Percy knelt in the bow…freaky mind-over-water powers

Percy laughed as he read Hazel's description of him.

"Thanks, Haze. I like that description of my powers." He said. Hazel grinned at him sheepishly.

Hazel sat next to Frank…feel as jittery as a harpy.

Frank turned red and gave a shy smile.

She remembered how Frank…who denied it.

"I would take on anything or anybody who said that you were not a good person." Frank told Hazel determinedly. Hazel smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek and Frank blushed a deep shade of red.

She remembered the way…change was kind of nice.

"I guess that I always felt like a son of Mars but I was too afraid to admit that to myself because of the story built around him. The god of war and all, you know?" Frank said. Clarisse looked at him and nodded and so did Ares. He understood why Frank felt like that. To know that the god of war was your dad would come as a shock and would terrify a few people especially Frank whose mom had died in war. He sighed, knowing that there was nothing that he was not able to do anything for Frank's mom but then again he knew that she wouldn't have liked it.

The river widened into the ocean…try to carry a problem alone

"Wise mum." Jason said to Frank with a small smile.

"Yeah." He nodded and returned the smile.

Percy stared at the book for a few seconds before he cleared his throat and continued reading.

But if you don't want…I shouldn't be alive."

"That's not true." Hades told her "There's a difference between could and should. And there's a similar difference between difficult and impossible. It is difficult to be come back and you normally couldn't and souls shouldn't escape but you didn't escape. You were given a chance and you should have taken it which you did." He explained with a small smile which Hazel returned.

"Thanks, dad." She said

She felt like a dam had broken.

"Trigger points do that at times." Percy nodded at her "Well, most of the times." He amended.

The story flooded out…sinking the island into Resurrection Bay.

Hades closed his eyes, remembering when he found out what happened and how it felt when he couldn't do anything about it. That was one of the moments when the lord of the dead felt… helpless because there was nothing he could do. It was an area out of his control.

She knew Percy and Ella…But if Nico brought you back—"

"That means you didn't make it to Elysium." Chris said in surprise as he looked at Hazel who shook her head.

"But-" Chris started "I guess we'll find out." He sighed after that.

"I didn't go to Elysium…this time Frank was at her side.

"That'll stop the flashbacks once and for all." Dionysus stated and looked long and hard at Hazel and Frank and then nodded. "Ella was right to ask you to go with her." He said to Frank.

"Hold up, you have expertise in flashbacks as well?" Thalia asked him. Dionysus snorted and nodded.

"Trauma. Flashbacks. Insanity. Sometimes they're linked. Not most of the times but quite a few times. I have to know about all of this especially if you want to cure somebody or cause madness in the first place." He said. "It's a very wide field. Not as simple as you may think." He told her.

They stood in Charon's boat…masks stared down at Hazel.

"Why do the clothes remind me of the death eaters-" Travis commented.

"Their masks were a different color." Hades told him.

"Ah. Of course." Travis said with a raised eyebrows.

"You have to make them ominous." Hades shrugged "And like judges in their own way." He added.

Frank whimpered…"Guilty of cowardice, weakness."

Hades clenched his teeth. He knew the judges had to be unbiased but that didn't mean that he liked hearing just what all was contemplated as Hazel's fate was decided.

"She is young,"… abetting an enemy of the gods."

"She was influenced. That has to be counted." Zeus pointed out fairly. Hades and Nico nodded.

"They would count that." Nico answered.

The mother influenced her,"… That's not fair."

Everybody turned to look at Hazel in surprise except the ones who knew what had happened.

"You said that to the judges?" Persephone asked her in awe.

"It wasn't fair. If I was influenced, so was she." Hazel said

"Yeah but she had a choice and she fell for it." Persephone shook her head. "It's different." She said. Hazel just sighed.

"I may not share much of my relationship with her now but with anybody, I'd think that it wouldn't be fair that somebody who was manipulated by a primordial go to punishment because its not that easy to resist a primordial." She said. Hades looked proud that his daughter had a good knowledge about justice however he also understood why the judges made the decision that they did.

The judges tilted their heads…her eyes sadder

Hades winced at that.

She saw herself on her…if Gaea hadn't twisted her.

"That's…sad." Lee said.

You lost this life,"… she tried to protect me."

"From a mistake she made." Thalia hissed.

"Everybody makes mistakes, Thals." Percy said to her. "But yes, in this case…I don't think that it was too late to fix it. You're about to die. Your child is also about to die because of that and there's not really a way that you can protect her and apologizing isn't really going to do much here. Its not a dream that you can wake up from." He said

"That was dark." Michael said "But then again, what's not dark about this." He shrugged.

"Tell me, Percy and Thalia. Wouldn't you do the same?" Hazel asked

"My mother wouldn't do something like that in the first place." Percy answered simply. "We don't talk about what could've been or what could've happened because it makes no sense so I'm not going to even imagine myself in that situation and I sure as hell will not imagine my mom in that situation." He said

"I wouldn't do the same." Thalia answered directly, without any sort of remorse in her eyes.

"Hazel," Frank whispered…You could have been a hero."

"I pity the judges who couldn't see that apart from what Hazel did on the surface, what she did in front of them made her a hero anyways." Castor said with a sigh. Hades and Hazel looked at him in surprise. Castor shrugged.

"Everything should be considered and seen." Is all he said.

She passed through the…I can't leave the Fields of Asphodel."

Hazel winced again at that.

"Sorry, Hazel. I probably should have removed that restriction for you. The restriction is important because otherwise many souls would come to the palace to change the verdict of the judges." He said. And maybe, he admitted to himself, that he didn't want to see Hazel as a soul.

"Did you ever see your…Hazel swallowed back a sob.

Hades swallowed thickly as the curse made the emotional aspect travel into him.

It hadn't been this hard in Asphodel…doesn't make it easier to carry."

"Maybe not then. But it does." Hermes smiled at Hazel.

"But it does"… "This is my lifeline, literally."

"That's just…" Connor started.

"Weird?" Frank guessed

"Complicated." Connor completed. Frank couldn't help but chuckle.

He told her how the goddess…watching it burn."

Apollo chuckled at Frank. "True but not true." He said. Frank grinned.

"Indeed." He said

Frank turned the piece…"you know who I am"

"Exactly. That's why I trust you." Frank told her. Hazel gave him a grateful smile.

Percy read the next lines and looked around the room. His eyes lingered on Nico and Hades for a few extra seconds and he thought about what happened the last night and he knew that he couldn't read the next few lines. Things would get much worse than they already were. He didn't know if it could be done but he tried to do it anyway because you're not gonna unless you try and he did not want to read the next two lines.

"You're my best…

Percy started to read but suddenly, his head spun and he held on to the wall for support as he tried to stand up.

"Percy-" Poseidon started but Percy vaguely registered that. He felt nausea creeping up into his stomach and throat and he tried to swallow it back but he just couldn't. His head was still spinning and everything around him was slightly blurry. He turned around and couldn't do anything but throw up.

"Shit." Poseidon said. He got up and went to Percy and put a hand on his shoulder. He looked at Apollo who looked just as confused. Annabeth went and stood next to Percy squeezed his hand. Percy held onto the wall for support and held Annabeth's hand weakly with another. He, like the others had no idea what just happened. Poseidon snapped his fingers and cleaned up the floor.

Percy leaned against the wall and took a deep breath and exhaled. He noticed everybody looking at him in concern.

"What just happened?" Triton demanded from somebody and he got his answer directly from the fates.

"Dear gods,

I believe that we forgot to mention this at the start but if you choose not to read a few sentences then you will feel extreme nausea and it will not be good. Skipping sentences willingly will not be allowed at all because it would eventually defeat the purpose of why we are here in the first place.

The Fates"

"Perce, are you okay?" Will asked in concern. Percy showed him a weak thumbs up.

"All good, doctor." He said.

"Drink." Poseidon ordered as he gave Percy a water bottle which he finished in a few seconds.

"So, you skipped a few lines?" Nico asked.

"I guess." Percy said. "Probably didn't see them." He said

"I'll continue reading. Sit down and drink some more water." Amphitrite told her stepson. Percy nodded and sat down, resting his head against the wall. Hades looked at Percy, not missing the way he had looked at him and Nico before. He tried preparing himself for whatever was going to come next but nothing could have really prepared him for it.

I'm Pluto's daughter. Everything I touch goes wrong.

Silence enveloped the room. Hades flinched and his mind raced with thoughts that made everything much worse.

"Oh, those are definitely related." Triton said quietly but due to the silence in the room, everybody heard him.

"Unnecessary, Tri." Percy said to him, tilting his head to look him. Triton looked apologetic.

"Sorry."

But that didn't really help Hades and just then it felt like he had partially gone back to how it felt the night before. Like Percy had said before, it was dream that he couldn't seem to wake up from.

"Dad." Nico said quietly to him. Hades looked at him with his dark gaze. "You good?" he asked. Hades nodded and just then Nico knew that he didn't believe him. Poseidon looked at his elder brother in concern as well, knowing that this would somehow impact him.

Amphitrite decided to continue reading, owing to the tension in the room.

Why would you trust me?"… he was making a mistake.

"Never." Frank swore.

She wanted to give it back…Come with me."

Nico gave his sister a side hug which Hazel readily accepted.

"He was right, Hazel." Percy smiled weakly at her. The skipping on the lines still had a bit of its effect on him but he could feel the nausea trickling away.

"Chapter's done." Amphitrite said.

"I'll read." Aphrodite said.