A/N- FZ-Frank Zhang

"We're so close to being done with this book, man." Thalia groaned but happily.

"Fun. So fun." Nico commented "That's exactly what I'm thinking about 24/7." He said, looking up from petting a dog. He, Hades and Persephone had been missing Cerberus so they and Nico's cousins had gone to a short trip to the petting center.

"Same." Percy said with a raised eyebrow and a sigh.

"Honestly, I'm in no hurry." Hades said, as a dog climbed onto him.

"That's interesting." Jason chuckled, petting the one dog everybody said was his spirit animal. A golden retriever.

"I like knowing more about Hazel's life." Hades shrugged.

"Fair. Its not like I'm going to get a break from the reading being from my POV anyways." Percy chuckled.

"Nor are we." Thalia snorted. Percy flipped her off.

"Whoa now. They're too young to see all this." Persephone chuckled as she gestured to the dogs. Hades barked out a laugh and smiled at Persephone.

"I think even they would have understood the emotion in that comment without the flattering and beautiful gesturers." Hades said and then smirked at Thalia and Percy, both of whom who grinned sheepishly.

The entire gang returned back to the dining hall but Percy wanted to go and hang out with the sea gang and left for the one place that his dad had shown him and he knew that that's where he would be. The sea gang returned an hour later, soaking wet. Even with their powers, they all had decided that what they wanted to do was get drenched.

"Well, while the temptation to electrocute you is irresistible, we have to read." Thalia smirked at Percy. Percy grinned as a wave of water slammed into Thalia.

"The temptation to drench you was something irresistible as well. I decided not the resist it." Percy told her. Nico looked at them and then burst out laughing.

Thalia tried to send small waves of electricity to hit Percy but the younger god blocked them with a wall of water and threw that water back at Thalia and she shivered when the water which contained her own electricity hit her. Had it been only electricity, it wouldn't have bothered her but the water made matters complicated.

"I'm going to hurt you." Thalia threatened Percy.

"Well, you couldn't." Percy winked at her.

"You really have a death wish." Nico snickered.

"Enjoy the show." Percy grinned at him. Thalia glared daggers at him.

"Run." Nico told him, pointing at her. Percy took one look at Thalia and his eyes widened and he held his hands out as he stepped backwards and then took off at full speed with Thalia chasing behind him and Nico cheering on both of them.

The two younger gods returned after they ran into Athena and she took them for the reading.

"Who won?" Triton snickered.

"Me." Percy and Thalia said in unison. They both looked at each other.

"I won!" they both said at the same time.

"No, I did." Came in unison again. Everybody chuckled at them.

"I'll declare the winner." Nico announced. Everybody turned to look at him. He got a smirk very identical to Hades'.

"I win." He declared "For not being so stupid." He told them with that same smirk. Hades burst out laughing at just how that was something he would say and so did Persephone. Even Zeus and Poseidon gave small smiles at the memories. Percy and Thalia jumped on Nico and they could hear the younger god screaming while the other two chuckled. When they finally got off, Nico took a deep breath.

"I hate you guys." He grumbled

"Lets read now." Demeter chuckled and picked up the book.

"FRANK WAS RELIEVED WHEN THE WHEELS FELL OFF" -FZ

Everybody snorted.

"You'd be the first to ever say that." Clarisse chuckled at her brother who grinned.

"He'd already thrown up...his lactose-intolerance medicine."-FZ

Ares groaned before he managed to conjure a bucket and throw up two times as the curse went into him.

"Fuck." He shook his head. "I feel bad for you." He said to Frank who gave a small sheepish smile at that.

"I feel bad for both of you." Hermes snorted in amusement at seeing his brother so flustered due to the curse. Ares responded with a gesture that made Hermes laugh even harder.

"Ella didn't help…"We're breaking up!"-FZ

Leo snickered. When the others understood just what he was laughing about, they all joined in.

"Honestly, if somebody would have randomly said that to me, I would have been worried as to how we were breaking up without actually being in a relationship in the first place." Piper laughed.

"Well, point to be noted. If the wheels of my chariot are falling off, never say we're breaking up." Jason grinned as his girlfriend who winked at him.

"Keep making notes, superman." She told him, making Jason chuckled.

"Well, at that point, that was all that went into my head." Hazel grinned sheepishly.

"She got the message…That's how we run, fools." -FZ

Percy chortled. "That was accurate enough, except the 'fools' part. He said something much less innocent." He snickered.

"Do I want to know?" Frank asked dryly.

"I want to know!" Leo grinned.

"Well, lets see. He said something that translates to 'la puta madre' in Spanish." Percy answered with a smirk. Chris and Leo snorted and laughed.

"I love that horse. Introduce me." Leo told Percy.

"Will do."

"I genuinely do not think that any of you know Spanish except all the swear words." Apollo told them amusedly.

"Well, do we even need to learn it now? Don't we have like automatic translators?" Thalia asked.

"Actually, that's not how they work. You can only understand and speak that language when you're engaged in conversation. It won't work if you're listening to somebody else speak it or you can't even start a random conversation in that language if the person you're talking to doesn't know it. If you start a conversation with a native or somebody who doesn't know English or Greek or Latin, only then you can start a conversation in their native language without having learnt it." Artemis explained to Thalia with a small smile.

"Oh." Thalia said.

"Huh. Interesting." Beckendorf nodded.

"The smoking chariot…swallowed back his nausea." -FZ

So did Ares.

"So much fun...pretty sure the horse knew it."-FZ

"He loves it." Percy informed Frank who groaned.

"Brilliant."

"Hazel and Percy started…done anything that heroic"-FZ

"Firstly, in that situation, you could find your mom. I mean yes, its near impossible in Asphodel but you can see your mother if that's what you've dreamed of whenever you've thought about death. Secondly, Elysium is not just for people who are heroes or sacrifice themselves, its for all those who do good in their lives. It can be any kind of good. Thirdly, Hazel would have been in Elysium but she chose to sacrifice that in order to save somebody she cared about from eternal punishment." Hades explained to Frank who nodded in understanding.

"That's certainly very interesting. Thank you." Frank told him. Hades nodded. A few others gods also listened with keen interest. They hadn't ever heard or known about the judgement of the underworld so well and it caught their interest to know about what seemed like another world to them.

"I had to save her, you know. I may not have ties to her but I couldn't let her face eternal torture, knowing that she would have the worst kind because they would focus only on the part she got wrong." Hazel sighed. "I just never wanted to regret anything later on. I wouldn't have been able to sit in Elysium and think about how I did nothing to save her."

"Hey, I get what you're talking about." Percy said quietly. Poseidon looked at Percy in concern, not knowing what his son was talking about. He knew Percy cared deeply about his family but he had not known that there were regrets linked to that as well.

"There was once a person…" Percy started, not mentioning the name but subconsciously looking for a brief second at Nico and Hades and shaking his head and focused on Hazel again but the two of them were observant. "I could have…I should have saved. I couldn't. I failed her and her brother. I regret that till now and I always will. Nothing's going to change that. The only thing me or anybody else can do is try to let it make you stronger. That person's sacrifice made me realize more strongly than before that there was nothing I wouldn't do protect anybody I care about from any sort of pain." He told Hazel.

Percy knew that the others were listening and Thalia, Grover and Annabeth were looking at him intently, knowing exactly who he was talking about. He could also feel Nico and Hades looking at him but he couldn't bring himself to look at them. He had accepted Bianca's death but that didn't mean that he had accepted that there was nothing he did while it happened.

"That wasn't your fault, Percy. We were all there." Grover told him gently. Thalia nodded in agreement.

"I'm not saying that it was my fault. I said that it was my decision, my innocence and my fleeting moment of panic and shock that I didn't do anything when I could have. I could have." Percy sighed, his voice cracking at the end. Poseidon squeezed Percy's shoulder reassuringly and gave him a side hug.

"Percy, Bianca's death was not your fault. It was given in the prophecy." Apollo told him.

"No, it wasn't. It said 'one shall be lost' not who should be lost." Percy told him. He sighed and shook his head. He had stopped blaming himself for her death but he would never stop blaming himself for letting her go. He knew she wouldn't have listened but it him harder because he had made a promise but he wasn't able to keep it.

"Percy, Apollo's right. You couldn't have done anything then. Even you were a kid. I didn't realize that before but I do now. It was not something you could control." Nico told him quietly. Hades looked at Nico and nodded in agreement. He knew how it felt like to blame yourself for something you couldn't control.

"Its not about that, Nick. Even if I can admit to the fact that I couldn't do anything then…I broke a promise and it was my goddamn idea. She saved us when she had just turned immortal and she died. We didn't even find her body." Percy said, his voice hoarse. Annabeth held his hand tightly and Percy gave her a small smile.

"Don't beat yourself over somebody who didn't blame you in the first place. Nico's right. You were a kid too. You did try to stop her but she didn't listen. You wouldn't have either. Don't blame yourself over Bianca's death. I'm not going to lie, I was mad about it at first but like Nico said…once it passed, I understood. So, if she never blamed you then why are you blaming yourself? Survivor's guilt is one thing, Percy but to regret something for your entire life is beyond painful. Don't do that. Don't hurt yourself over something you couldn't control. The prophecy may not have mentioned her name but prophecies never mention the name of the person who would…who would die." Hades told Percy, looking him directly in the eye.

Percy looked at his uncle, sighed and closed his eyes. He replayed that scene in his head and his face contorted in pain but then he replayed the time when Bianca's ghost had told them that she didn't blame Percy for anything that had happened and he relaxed again. He opened his eyes and looked at Nico.

"Even if I somehow manage to let go of that regret, I can't get over how I let you leave a place that you did and should be able to call home." Percy told him.

"I was too angry, Percy. I left on my own." Nico looked at him.

"Yeah but you're my brother, man. I'm supposed to be the one who asks you to stay, not the one who doesn't say anything when you do. Me letting you go is just as bad as being the one to tell you to leave. I treated you the same way like-" Percy started, ran a hand through his hair but stopped short. He looked briefly at Hades and then at Zeus and Poseidon with a slightly clenched jaw and then back at Nico who understood. "I was the one who should have fought for you." Percy sighed. Hades looked at Poseidon who closed his eyes, sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose and leaned his head against the wall, knowing that he did nothing when Zeus banished their elder brother when he should have done something to not allow it to happen.

"You didn't banish me, Percy. You didn't tell me to leave any of the times that I did. I always wanted to because I had to know more about my family. I had to know who I was and if you hadn't let me leave then I would have held that against you." Nico told him with a small smile at the end. Percy nodded to show that he understood.

"Thanks, Nico." Percy sighed.

"You have to stop breaking your own 'thank you' rule." Nico chuckled.

"Now that we've made that clear, I will continue reading." Demeter smiled

"He straightened and looked…Grandmother's house we go?"-FZ

Everybody couldn't help but snicker at that.

"That's what struck you?" Jason chuckled.

"Obviously." Percy said with raised eyebrows and a grin.

"Frank cleared his throat…"Excuse me?"-FZ

Everybody burst out laughing at that.

"What a name for monsters, isn't it? Seriously, man? Canadians?" Frank shook his head at Annabeth who gave him a small sheepish smile.

"Good ol' memories." Grover chuckled.

"Hmm, that reminds me of something that I had to ask. Percy, how'd you even get affected by the bullets and the knife if it was made of regular steel?" Apollo asked. Percy and Michael looked at each other, being the only ones who knew the truth.

"They weren't mortals." Percy said and cleared his throat.

"Demigods." Michael supplied.

"The knife was celestial bronze. The bullet was regular steel but it had some poison on it which made the impact worse." He informed.

"They are dead, right?" Poseidon asked, a dangerous edge to his voice which said that if they weren't then they he was definitely going to hurt them.

"I-I don't know. There wasn't a hospital nearby and a bandage wasn't going to do much of good. The other one is alive." Percy said.

"Well, they aren't going to be anymore." Poseidon as he got up angrily.

"Its all right, brother. Percy's alive and…mostly well." Demeter said.

"Its not just about Percy, Demeter. They don't mess with the two of the most important people in my life and get the fuck away with it." Poseidon told her "I don't know what I would have done if Percy would have been hurt more than he already is." He said. Hades looked at his brother but hid his surprise. Poseidon looked at him with a clenched jaw and then looked away, not wanting to remember just what all had done to his own brother.

"You can go after a while then. Nothing's going to change till the evening." Athena told him, making Poseidon sit back down but not without a glare in her direction.

"Glaring at me isn't going to help." Athena told him. "You know that I'm talking sense."

"The poison's probably what's delaying the healing, right?" Will asked Apollo who nodded.

"That's also the reason why salt will also not help that much. The poison on the bullet delays the healing and even the salt can't help. And anyways, with the wound that Percy's got, salt will cause more pain that it would heal. If he's all right dealing with the pain then he can jump in the beach. It will barely help but it will cause a lot of pain." Apollo explained.

"Well, I'm not willing to do that for barely any healing." Percy chuckled and shrugged.

"Hey, you've barely got any time left for healing." Michael smiled and Percy nodded.

"Uh, no offense…"Laistry—uh, whatever Ella said."-FZ

"Still can't get the name right, Seaweed Brain?" Annabeth chuckled fondly and Percy grinned and lay his head in her lap, making Poseidon and Amphitrite give a small chuckle. Even Athena didn't say anything and hid a small smile at how happy Annabeth and Percy looked.

"Frank scowled at the…Hazel was glaring at him"-FZ

Everybody laughed.

"Somebody's jealous." Aphrodite said in a sing song voice. Hazel turned bright red and Frank chuckled.

"You know my heart's all yours." Frank said and gave her a small kiss. Hades and Persephone looked at Frank approvingly.

"What?" he asked…"He's under control!"-FZ

"Make sure that you keep him like that as well." Nico warned.

"Gray crawled out of the…They're killers"-FZ

"But they do your bidding as long as you keep them under control which is necessary." Ares said

"I know," Frank said…they tried to re-form"-FZ

"That's clever. Displace the ashes so they can't reform." Hephaestus nodded, impressed.

"When he seemed satisfied…he had any father but Mars"-FZ

Ares grimaced and so did Clarisse and Frank.

"Okay, let me make this clear. I do not think that anymore. I used to be scared of war and all but I don't wish for any other father now." Frank declared. Ares gave him a small smile.

"And by the way, Frank, we don't judge anybody by what powers they have. We all have a dark side. We don't label anybody evil. We can get surprised but we never push the people away." Percy told him. Hazel nodded.

"And I would never be appalled by you. I was just surprised." Hazel said with a small smile towards him.

"Did you make that a law, Percy?" Zeus asked him. Percy shook his head.

"Yes but I haven't written them down anywhere and we all haven't decided on all of them yet." He said. Zeus nodded.

"Let's go," he said…might be in trouble."-FZ

"Chapter's done." Demeter said

"I'll read." Will said