Ares was a shithead.

Unfortunately, he had his sword at Percy's throat, so there wasn't much the demigod could do about it. So here Percy was, chilling outside the limo, waiting for Thalia to get done talking to whoever she was talking to about whatever the hell they were talking about. He could hear muffled snippets of the conversation inside.

"You know, I really enjoyed kicking the shit out of you that time. We should do it again. How's Saturday? I should have saved the world again by then, so I can make the time," Percy offered.

That got Ares angry for real. "As if, punk. You're gonna be chopped liver by Wednesday. You know what, I take that back. By tomorrow."

Percy snorted. "Don't have the balls to do it yourself, though, huh? Figures."

Before Ares could retort, however, Thalia slammed the limo door behind her. "Your turn, Percy."

Reluctantly, Percy stepped into the vehicle, to find himself face to face with a petite blonde in a denim jacket and a miniskirt. Already uncomfortable, he looked aside. Something about this woman just didn't sit right in his mind - perhaps it was the way her eyes changed color, or the way her hair changed length and style pretty much as quickly as Percy could identify each one. Probably it was the way she looked a little too familiar, like she was all the women he'd ever met pushed into one package that just didn't fit.

He looked back up to meet her gaze once more, and she smiled at him in an entirely unpleasantly seductive way. "Oh, Percy, Percy… What am I going to do with you?"

"Leave me alone?" Percy guessed hopefully.

Wrong answer.

Aphrodite's smile twisted slightly. "I'll let that one slide, Percy, but you don't want to say no to the goddess of love. I can make your life terrible. Leave you lovesick and heartbroken, lost and aimless in a hole of despair."

Percy paused. Maybe this wasn't the fight he wanted to be picking.

"That's better," said Aphrodite. "Now, Percy… I think that you, just like Thalia, are here for one reason - true love. You've been dreaming about her, you've been chasing after her."

He blinked. Who was he supposed to be in love with? Maybe she meant Annabeth. That would explain the hair's insistence on being blonde, and the denim jacket. Hell, he even had a bit of a crush on Annabeth - you didn't really go tearing off across the nation twice with a cute girl without feeling a little of something or other towards them. But he wasn't in love with her. First and foremost, they were friends - and neither of them really ever tried or wanted anything more out of it.

So, then, who? Couldn't be Bianca or Zoe, that wouldn't make any sense, and he could hardly stand Thalia half the time. Artemis? That would be a hell of a story, he supposed, and a hell of a victory for Aphrodite over the maiden goddess. But at the same time, it still wouldn't work - he barely knew the goddess, and while she was attractive Percy didn't feel any sort of romantic inclination towards her.

Clearly, then, Aphrodite had her own plans for Percy's love life, and they involved Annabeth.

"Annabeth? She's just a friend."

"So you say, Percy. But you two are going to become Olympus's power couple. With your power, and her brains, the two of you will be unstoppable." Aphrodite tossed her hair back - and it shifted to black and straight for a second, before it returned to silky golden tresses. "Besides, she's more than a friend. Remember how she kissed you, after the fleece quest?"

Percy remembered. It was a friendly kiss, on the cheek, like a good friend might give in a moment of elation. Nothing more. "Annabeth wanted to join the Hunters," Percy pointed out. "Not exactly what you do when you're in love with someone."

Aphrodite glared. "That's why you're going to save her from this situation, and then from making that terrible mistake. But, uh, before you get there, try not to pick anything up in this junkyard. It's my husband's place, and he's rather protective of what's his. Usually."

Percy opened the door, and a manicured hand reached out to grab his bicep.

"Remember, Percy. Love is a terrible thing to make an enemy of."

Percy got out of the limousine. He barely registered the exchange of insults with Ares, or the subsequent taco dinner. His mind was whirling all the way across the junkyard. Why was he so upset by the insinuation of being in love with Annabeth? She was cute, fun, a good friend, they had great chemistry. In another life he could easily have seem himself dating her. But he simply didn't think he would in this life.

Regardless - not a decision he wanted to make when he was barely sixteen.

When Thalia pointed out the statue in front of the group, mostly buried beneath trash, Percy knew they were in trouble, and when Thanatos appeared at the edge of the junkyard, he knew it was bad. He didn't quite realize how bad until after he'd fought his way into the giant Talos prototype and crawled up to the control panel in the head. Why the hell did an automaton have a manual control panel? Percy didn't know or care. He focused on bringing the damn thing down.

Unfortunately, he was a little too successful. As the metal head plummeted to earth, electricity jumping through his body, Percy grunted uncomfortably.

Dying wasn't terribly unpleasant, though. Sure, seven thousand volts at several thousand amps burnt like a bitch, and he was pretty confident he wouldn't get that crick out of his neck anytime soon, but overall… maybe like a three out of ten? He'd had worse.

It was pretty intensely lame, though, being dead. He was waiting to show up to DOA records in LA, to tell Charon that he really was dead this time. No, not a bathtub, but a giant celestial bronze coffin. But the moment never came. There was no soft muzak playing, no soft-pressed Italian suit, nobody to bribe. Just murky gray, like the bottom of the Mississippi. He looked around. Riptide was still in his pocket, Tyson's watch still on his wrist, though now it was back in watch form. He even still had the Nemean Lion's pelt, though it was just a pelt, no longer a Coast Guard jacket.

He heard a cough.

"Pretty boring, huh?" Percy jumped. A form had appeared out of the mire. It was a woman, probably; . She was attractive, but in the sort of everyday attractive way most people are. "Don't worry, you won't be here for too long."

"Uh, who are you?"

The woman smiled. "Ah, so distrusting, Perseus." She waved her hand, and an armchair and chaise lounge appeared, sparkling white against the silt gray. "Take a seat, please."

He didn't have much choice. He sat.

"Where are we? I'm dead, right? Shouldn't I be going to Hades?"

The woman had the good sense to look guilty. "I'm afraid that one's my fault, Percy. You see, you're not supposed to be here. You're right about that. But you're not supposed to be dead at all, Perseus. The Fates are looking for you. But Thanatos and I, well… we're not going to let them find you. And then, eventually, we're going to send you back to the land of the living."

Percy stammered awkwardly. "The Fates? What do they want with me? I mean, the prophecy said there would be death in the desert, right?"

The woman sighed. "No, Percy, it said 'find Death in the land without rain.' That meant Thanatos. Nobody was supposed to die there."

Percy felt a little bit like an idiot.

Then again, prophecies were funny things. Maybe this chick was just interpreting it wrong. Percy sure hadn't tried to die, it just worked out that way.

"Your loyalty to your friends is your… well, your fatal flaw. Aptly named. So you, being the loyal and protective dumbass you are, didn't look for the best way out. You looked for the best way to protect them."

Rather than respond to the implications of that, Percy coughed. "So, uh… Who are you, anyways? Like, you don't look like Persephone, and I can't think of any other goddesses of the underworld. So who are you?"

The woman sat down in the chair. "I'm not terribly surprised you've forgotten about me. Most mortals do. Nobody really believes in magic, anymore."

Percy blinked. "Hecate? But, is this magic saving me from death?"

Hecate nodded. "I'm glad you recognize me after that. But no, I am also the goddess of doorways, of crossroads, of realms beyond. That's how I got you here. Thanatos neglected to collect you, and I brought you here. We'd hoped you wouldn't die, but knew that you might - and so we set up this little plan of ours."

Percy's head hurt. Then it hurt even more when the woman waved her hand and he went to sleep. Could the dead sleep? Percy could.

When he awoke, it was to his bed floating in an endless ocean of dark green water under a flat gray sky.

"Uh, Hecate?"

Nothing. Just the soft rocking of waves as his mattress bobbed along over top of them. It was unnerving to be in such a place, in a bed that he didn't recognize, knowing that he was both dead and not dead.

He didn't really know what to do with himself, but his mattress sank into the sea and he didn't have much choice anymore. Treading water felt weird to do as a son of Poseidon - usually the sea just carried him on its own, happy to support and protect him. Here, though… he was as subject to the laws of buoyancy as anybody else.

A playful laugh reverberated in his ears. "Not enjoying this ocean quite so much, Perseus?"

He began to sink downwards, the voice turning cruel. "I used to be the goddess of the sea, too, you know. I had kingdoms everywhere, on earth, at sea, in the sky. I was the one who ruled realms, who controlled boundaries and passage between them. Mortals prayed to me as the soul of the world, as a protector of homes. I was goddess of night, of light, of magic and sorcery and all things in between."

The lion's pelt dragged him down further, Percy's chin slipped beneath the waves and they grew - initially simple foot-high swells, they rose ever higher, until Percy was fighting his way to the top of great twenty-foot crests, plunging through the peaks when he was unable to reach the top. He could hardly breathe, struggling for air, and when he went under the waves, he didn't feel at home like he normally did. He couldn't breathe there, either. Beneath the waves, something lurked, just out of view. Percy couldn't help but wonder if this was how normal people felt when they had to swim in conditions like these, how he would have felt in all those Montauk storms if he hadn't been who he was.

There really was something utterly terrifying, all-encompassing, Lovecraftian about the ocean. This one in particular, devoid of any habitat which humans could survive in, a source only of fear and death.

"But now, Perseus, I am relegated only to doorways, to crossroads, to magic and night. Oh, I still have some powers - but make no mistake, I am not as I once was."

Percy couldn't really see how that was relevant to his current position. Now it was all he could do to keep his nose above water in the deepest troughs in the waves - just moments of breath, the water churning and sucking him under, waves beginning to break over his head.

"So, Perseus, I do not have altruistic motives here. You will become my champion - and in so doing your deeds will bring me power. Others like me, other so-called 'minor' gods, have been similarly forgotten by Olympus, have turned to Kronos. I refuse to bow to him - but I will not bow to Zeus, either."

The demigod slipped entirely beneath the waves. Beneath him green darkened to inky blackness, depths unimaginable, beyond his control, beyond any hope of comprehension.

"I simply ask that I be recognized for what I am - an ally, in some ways an equal. I simply wish to be known again. It may sound prideful, but was it not I who helped the Olympians recover from the Titanomachy? Now, Perseus, use your will. Pass over the boundary which is resisting you so greatly."

Percy focused. As he sunk ever-deeper below the waves, passing great fish made of stone, a shark in granite, a leviathan of the deep hewn from solid obsidian, he thought desperately of where he wished to be - back in the world of the living, standing along his friends. A doorway appeared, nearly as black as the sea beneath, writhing in and out of focus as though obscured by fog. Percy fought a little harder.

"Oh, and Perseus - The Great Prophecy? It's still about you. Thalia may have been born more than eighteen years ago, but you are the child of Fate."

Percy swung open the door just as the air faded from his lungs, and he plunged through.

He stepped out of the door, shivering and sputtering but alive, and into an attractive redhead. She yelped and toppled backwards, but by instinct Percy's hand lashed out and snatched her forearm. Pulling her back upright, he blinked. The girl blinked too.

"Whoa, do you just go around bowling people over all the time? And why are you wearing a lion pelt? Aren't they illegal?"

Percy just looked around him, flabbergasted. "I'm alive?"

The girl shrugged, Percy's hand still on her forearm and still pulling her tightly against him. She was beginning to blush heavily, but still looked incredibly confused. "Uhhh, as far as I can tell."

"You're mortal."

"You're not? And seriously, what's up with the lion coat? Are you a poacher or something?"

"What lion? It's just a normal coat. Nothing to see," Percy said, rather awkwardly hoping she'd buy it. The Nemean Lion's pelt wasn't shifting form like it had previously, but rather remained a simple pelt, wrapped around his shoulders.

"No, dude, you're definitely wearing a lion."

Well, this was awkward. Barely a minute back to life and he was already embarrassing himself in front of a rather beautiful girl with lovely red hair. He released her forearm awkwardly, and after a moment they both stepped back, faces burning.

"Who are you?"

She stomped her foot in frustration. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. Now are you going to answer my goddamn questions? Please?"

"Gods," Percy automatically corrected, then winced. "Uh, I mean. I'm Percy. It's not a real lion coat. I'm sorry for knocking you over."

Just then, though, Thalia and the rest came tearing down the hallway, weapons at the ready. Percy grinned - but the girl looked terrified, which was weird, because mortals should have just thought they were a rag-tag group of young folk playing around rather than a group of warriors running for their lives. They screeched to a halt as they saw Percy.

"Percy?" Thalia gasped. "You're alive?"

He shrugged, but Zoe seemed less happy than Thalia to see him back. "Come, Perseus! Hurry!"

Percy nodded and went to leave but the girl snatched his arm. "Wait, please… is this real? Am I crazy?" Thalia and Zoe exchanged glances.

"Is what real?" Asked Thalia.

"I mean, all the… swords and everything. The lion coat, you guys in general, those skeletons over there!"

"Yes, it is real. You are a mortal who can see through the Mist. You are in danger here. Come with us," Zoe said, then took off. Everybody followed her, Grover bleating nervously.

"So, uh, what are we running from?" Percy asked Bianca, at the tail of the group. Ahead, Thalia and the girl looked at him like he was an idiot over their shoulders.

"The skeletons, Percy," Bianca said, gasping slightly for air. They'd clearly been running for a while already, and while being a Hunter had helped Bianca's physical and mental fitness, a few days of holy blessing couldn't really catch up to the years of fighting for survival that the others had behind them.

Percy nodded. "And what's with the kickass scythe, Thalia?"

She glared at him over her shoulder, but Bianca answered. "Long story… later. Now… fight skeletons?"

As a group, they stopped and formed a semicircle to close off the hallway, shoving Rachel behind them to defend her. Six skeletons rounded the corner and began to approach slowly, menacingly. They seemed far warier than they had been last time Percy had encountered them - especially when they saw the scythe that Thalia was brandishing.

Then again, Percy was a little scared of it too. She held it low by her hip, its wicked silver edge gleaming in the low light of the dam interior. Its shaft was hewn from mahogany and well-oiled, and despite Thalia's obvious unease and unfamiliarity with handling such a tool, it was intimidating nonetheless, prepared to sweep through the hesitant undead.

Then, as one, they rushed. Bianca leapt forward to slash through one, which promptly fell to pieces just as Thalia slashed the scythe and four skeletons leapt back to avoid its effects. Zoe loosed an arrow into a fourth skeleton and Grover kicked the head off of a fifth, but unfortunately lost his show in the process. If the redhead was stunned by the sight of a goat hoof on a human body, though, she didn't show it, instead watching in both awe and horror as the fight unfolded. Percy struck forwards with Riptide, hoping to do whatever Bianca had done last time to permanently destroy two.

He was stunned when purple flames gushed forth from the tip of Riptide and enveloped the skeleton. It made a strange chittering scream and rushed backwards, clawing at its own ephemeral flesh and bones as the fire grew and spread to cover every inch of it. The other skeletons still standing rushed backwards, hesitant - they had no clue what to make of the ashen corpse of their compatriot, nor of the scythe that Thalia held at the ready.

Thalia charged ahead, ducking the slash of one skeleton before dropping into a crouch and lashing out with Death's scythe to behead two more. Their corpses toppled to the ground and fell through it as though it were made of water, melting into the shadows flickering across the floor. Only three remained now, and Bianca took one of them out with another lucky strike - though it was weird that she was the only one who could do so. Percy didn't manage to summon any more purple fire, but did manage to knock one back far enough that Thalia could cleave it into two with her scythe. Then, with only one skeleton remaining, Rachel leapt forward suddenly and began to wrestle with it, pulling it into a headlock and pinning it against the wall. Unceremoniously, Thalia slashed it one final time and it disappeared into shadow.

Panting, the group exchanged glances. Percy leant against the wall. "So, guys, uh… what's the deal with the whole scythe thing?"

Thalia, out of breath, gestured for Zoe to explain.

"Thanatos, after your death, gave us a quest. We were to come to the Hoover Dam and retrieve the true symbol of his power. We were also instructed to slay the skeleton warriors with the scythe such that we might secure your return without intervention from the Fates."

Percy nodded.

"Wait, that's why you asked if you were alive?" Rachel butted in. Percy shrugged.

"Of course your first words after coming back to life would be 'I'm alive,' Kelp Head," Thalia sniggered. Then, she seemed to realize she hadn't introduced herself to the redhead. "By the way, I'm Thalia."

After the rest of the group had made the necessary introductions, and they had established that no, Rachel wasn't crazy, the Greek Gods were real, et cetera, they got back to business.

"Right, so we're going after this Akheron fella," Percy said. "Where is he?"

Thalia pointed straight down.

"Right."

Shortest chapter in a while, and took the longest. Sorry about that. Hope it was okay - just kind of wrote myself in a hole and got too busy to write my way out of it. Also, I'm finding Thalia more interesting to write than Percy (especially when Percy's dead, heh) so this chapter was difficult to write for me. I was going to keep going and push through the rest of the Thanatos quest but even though it's a very minor arc I felt like it would be more interesting to finish in a separate chapter from Thalia's perspective.

That's what I get for not having any plan for 33k words I guess.