Chapter 9
20th June 2006
Clarisse sighed with contentment, and looked out of the van window at the approaching Mansion. Pollux was asleep next to her, his head on her lap. Castor was chewing gum, trying to blow the biggest bubbles he could. She'd finally done a quest! Okay, they'd had help - between the fucking gameboy that summoned Pokemon and the Satyrs commando (which had been a huge surprise. They were so cool!) - but she'd done a quest. Maybe her father would reward her? Or even talk to him?
The van pulled up, followed by five others - probably containing the loot they'd found. She wasn't sure - she hadn't been allowed to look inside. A thirty-something demigod - and it had been weird, she rarely saw grown-ups - with two pistols in his pockets and a bloody face had quietly forbidden her to do so while lighting up a fag.
"My friends!" greeted Dionysus. He was tall, muscular, dressed in his crimson toga. Clarisse resisted the habit of kneeling. The Olympian had forbidden all campers to kneel before him - a decision that had probably caused a scandal at the top of Mount Olympus. But the god of freedom had simply justified it by saying that one "doesn't kneel North of the Wall". No matter.
"Come in, come in, heroes!".
Silenus got out of the second van. The older demigod had probably stayed at the Hotel to deal with the aftermath of the "agressive acquisition".
Clarisse entered the Playboy Mansion, finding herself in a realm of luxury and indulgence. The grand foyer exuded opulence with elaborate chandeliers casting a warm glow on the marble floors. As she explored further, decadent lounges with plush furnishings and provocative art unfolded around her. The sprawling pool area, surrounded by lush greenery, added to the mansion's allure.
What truly heightened Clarisse's experience was the attention she garnered. A god - like her father, even if she was sad he wasn't him - was paying attention to her ! He even offered them grape juice!
Dionysus listened to his sons and Pollux's girlfriend recount their quest over lemon juice. After ten minutes, he slipped away, congratulating them and giving them three great rewards (for them, trinkets for him) - a hairpin that could detect poisons for Clarisse, a retractable baseball bat that could fit in a pocket for Pollux, and a nunchaku for Castor. He sighed when he saw how happy the blonde girl was from such little attention. Gods were really shitty parents.
But he could not stay for long. He had two kids to see, and an uncle to visit. But before that, he had to hide better the item he stole from the Lotus Casino. Ehe. Ares may have trapped Percy's bag by hiding the stolen Master Bolt and Helm of Darkness inside, so Poseidon would be accused…but he had better ideas.
20th June 2006
*edgy music because Underworld is Sasukesque*
In the depths of the Underworld, Hades, Elder Olympian and god of the Underworld, ruled from his imposing obsidian throne. The throne room, a surreal space defying reality, stretched with caverns of eternal twilight. Flickering torches cast an eerie blue glow, offering feeble illumination in the suffocating stillness. The air, thick with the cold breath of the afterlife, clung to the dank atmosphere. hades obscured face bore an eternal frown, and his eyes glowed with an otherworldly luminescence, reflecting the dread and suffering that defined his dominion in the Underworld's ominous depths.
Despite the dread that clung to him like an ethereal cloak, Hades was perturbed. An unsettling unease tainted the usual tranquility of his throne room. Hades, in all his infernal might, felt the disturbance. Something had transpired at the Lotus Casino, a place he often disregarded as insignificant in the grand scheme of divine matters. The god of the Underworld grappled with an uncharacteristic anxiety. He had felt demigods near the Lotus Casino, where he had hidden his children. And then, the mist had enveloped the casino, and his children had disappeared. Most troubling was the presence of Silenus. A disconcerting question plagued the lord of the dead – what had transpired at the Lotus Casino, and where had his progeny ventured? He knew that Dionsyos was not one to kill children. But the prospect of the unpredictable god of revelry, learning of his offspring's existence worried him. What if he told Zeus about them ? What if he brought them to Zeus ? It was complicated enough with his Brother thinking he was the one to steal the Master Blot - even though he was secretly himself deprived of his item of Power, the Helm of Darkness. He had not told anybody about that theft - he was already weakened, and if it was known…
Hades sensed the arrival of Dionysos at the border of the Underworld, unsurprised. Swiftly, the god of the dead dispatched a message to Thanatos, commanding his subordinate to escort the unpredictable Olympian to his throne room. As Dionysos made his entrance into the somber realms of the Underworld, Hades directed his scrutiny toward the youngest Olympian, beholding his transformed state for the first time. Cloaked in a majestic purple toga, Dionysos now exuded an overpowering presence – a bearded and virile figure radiating an unmistakable aura of transformative madness and unrestrained might.
With his arms outstretched in an inviting gesture, Dionysos advanced towards Hades as if preparing for an embrace.
"Uncle, what a pleasure!" he exclaimed, seemingly unaffected by the imposing atmosphere of the Underworld.
Annoyance flickered across Hades' countenance. In response, he unleashed a potent wave of power and dread, hoping to subdue his unyielding nephew. However, Dionysos remained utterly unfazed, standing resolute in the face of the lord of the dead's attempt to instill fear. Huh. The alcoholic had become a bit stronger.
"Let's not beat about the bush. I felt Silenus at the Lotus Casino".
Dionysus snapped his fingers, and vines sprouted out of the marble floor, before mingling together in the shape of a throne. To do this in the middle of the Underworld? Where he controlled everything? Bloody impressive.
"Yep, Uncle. I got you kids. And dear dad is not aware of their existence. Not yet".
Hades was both relieved and more worried.
"…What do you want, Dionysos ?".
The god of wine flashed a smile at Hades.
"I've got even better suggestions than simply putting them in your hands. You know, with Percy alive... all that would be missing is Zeus having a kid, and then no one could blame you for having Nico and Bianca."
Intrigued, Hades gestured for him to continue.
"I have a deal. In a year or so, I predict that Thalia will wake from her tree. Until then, I'll keep your children asleep, quiet, out of harm's way. Without telling anyone. And I guarantee that, as soon as Thalia wakes up, I'll take them to the Camp, making sure nothing happens to them on the way. All I ask in return is that you free two people from the underworld. Just two people; two lives against two lives, after all. What do you say? And I'll even throw in a bonus : I'll "inadvertently" liberate Hazel, your - well, Pluto's - daughter, and bring her to the Wolf House. Three lives for two ?"
What could he do but agree ?
20th June 2006
Zeus appeared in the central square of Olympus, causing all the minor gods and nymphs to bow as he passed. It wasn't his custom, but Dionysus had...invited him here. Curious, the King of Olympus decided to find his son.
"Father? Were you invited by Dionysos too?"
Ah, Hermes was here too. Zeus frowned as Athena appeared too. How many gods had Dionysos called ? He could not see Hera - not surprising.
Artemis appeared in a flash, followed by Apollo. Strangely, Triton appeared too. Maybe Poseidon was invited but decided not to come, and so he sent his son in his stead?"
Finally, Dionysos appeared.
"Ho, everyone is here?"
"Why have you invited Us to come, Son ?"
Dionysos smiled.
"All this tension, the risk of a war between you and your brothers...it all makes for a pretty bad atmosphere. And I hate a bad atmosphere. So I decided to look for Master Bolt! And I found him!".
The air crackled, and the sound of Ozone was heard.
"Where is It, Son? You'll be rewarded for your deeds if you tell the truth. But if you lie..."
Dionysus snapped his fingers, and an image appeared in the air. Everyone sensed it was a window onto a strange scene unfolding in the United States. The projection, ten meters by ten meters, was visible to all the gods and spirits of Olympus. Dionysus snapped his fingers a second time, and the sound was made.
Zeus frowned as he recognized Ares. And anger filled him as he heard the words coming from his son's mouth. He dared !
The King of gods was fuming, and he was going to personally punish his son. But as he was going to teleport to Ares, Dionysos stopped him.
"Can I go?! It's been a long time since I fought…"
A few minutes earlier - some lines here directly come from PJO 1
After making it to dry land from the Underworld, Percy trudged down the beach, witnessing the city ablaze against the beautiful sunrise. It felt like a return from the dead — which, in a way, it was. Zeus's master bolt weighed heavily in Percy's backpack.
"I don't believe it," Annabeth protested. "We went all that way—"
"It was a trick," Percy explained. "A strategy worthy of Athena."
"Hey," she warned.
"You get it, don't you?" Percy asked.
She dropped her eyes, anger fading. "Yeah. I get it."
"Well, I don't!" Grover interjected. "It is unyouthful ! Would somebody—"
"The prophecy was right," Percy said. "'You shall go west and face the god who has turned.' But it wasn't Hades. Hades didn't want war among the Big Three. Someone else pulled off the theft. Someone stole Zeus's master bolt, and Hades's helm, and framed Percy because he's Poseidon's kid. Poseidon will get blamed by both sides. By sundown today, there will be a three-way war. And I will have caused it."
Grover shook his head, mystified. "But who would be that sneaky? Who would want war that bad?"
Percy halted, looking down the beach. "Gee, let me think."
There he stood, awaiting them, in his black leather duster and sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.
"Hey, kid," Ares greeted, genuinely pleased to see Percy. "You were supposed to die."
"You tricked me," Percy accused. "You stole the helm and the master bolt."
Ares grinned. "Well, now, I didn't steal them personally. Gods taking each other's symbols of power—that's a big no-no. But you're not the only hero in the world who can run errands."
"Who did you use? Clarisse? She was there at the winter solstice."
The idea seemed to amuse him. "Doesn't matter. The point is, kid, you're impeding the war effort. See, you've got to die in the Underworld. Then Old Seaweed will be mad at Hades for killing you. Corpse Breath will have Zeus's master bolt, so Zeus'll be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this…"
He made a gesture, and Percy's backpack flew from his back to Ares' hand. The god took something out of it.
"The helm of darkness," Grover gasped.
"Exactly," Ares said, not noticing right now that it was a copy. The ominous energy had been hard to fake for Dionysos, but it would at least take a day before dissipating, and Ares was tricked, just like that. "Now where was I? Oh yeah, Hades will be mad at both Zeus and Poseidon, because he doesn't know who took this. Pretty soon, we got a nice little three-way slugfest going."
"But they're your family!" Annabeth protested.
Ares shrugged. "Best kind of war. Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."
"You gave me the backpack in Denver," Percy said. "The master bolt was in there the whole time."
"Yes and no," Ares said. "It's probably too complicated for your little mortal brain to follow, but the backpack is the master bolt's sheath, just morphed a bit. Without a god's touch, it would be impossible to activate. And I used the Helm Darkness to hide both to their energy - Ah, amazing, isn't it ? Using it's invisible properties so even Hades don't detect it. I'm brilliant".
Percy wasn't sure how Ares knew about that, but he guessed a god of war had to make it his business to know about weapons.
"Anyway," Ares continued, "I tinkered with the magic a bit, so the bolt would only return to the sheath once you reached the Underworld. You get close to Hades... Bingo, you got mail. If you died along the way—no loss. I still had the weapon."
"But why not just keep the master bolt for yourself?" Percy questioned. "Why send it to Hades?"
Ares got a twitch in his jaw, and for a moment, it seemed as if he were listening to another voice inside his head. "Why didn't I... yeah... with that kind of firepower…"
He held the trance for a couple of seconds.
Percy exchanged nervous looks with Annabeth.
Ares's face cleared. "I didn't want the trouble. Better to have you caught redhanded, holding the thing."
"You're lying," Percy said. "Sending the bolt to the Underworld wasn't your idea, was it?"
"Of course". It angered the god.
"Have you bid your farewells?" Ares advanced, his black leather duster trailing behind him, the sword gleaming like fire in the sunrise. "I've been in this fight for eternity, kid. My strength is limitless, and I'm impervious to death. What have you got?"
Percy thought of a smaller ego, but he remained silent. He kept his feet in the surf, backing into the water up to his ankles. Memories of Annabeth's words at the Denver diner echoed — Ares has strength. That's his only asset. Even strength has to yield to wisdom sometimes.
Ares swung his blade downward at Percy's head, but Percy evaded the strike. His body moved instinctively. The water seemed to propel him into the air, and he catapulted over Ares, slashing as he descended. However, Ares was just as agile, twisting, and the strike that should have landed on his spine was deflected off the end of his sword hilt.
"Not bad, not bad," Ares grinned.
He struck again, compelling Percy to jump onto dry land. Attempting to sidestep and return to the water, Percy found Ares anticipating his every move, pressing so relentlessly that Percy had to focus entirely to avoid being sliced apart. He kept retreating from the surf, unable to find openings to counterattack. Ares's sword had a reach several feet longer than Anaklusmos.
Luke's advice echoed in Percy's mind — get in close when you have the shorter blade. Percy stepped inside with a thrust, but Ares was prepared. He knocked Percy's blade out of his hands and delivered a kick to his chest, sending him airborne, twenty, maybe thirty feet. He would have suffered a back-breaking fall if not for crashing into the soft sand of a dune.
Seeing double, Percy's chest felt like it had been struck by a battering ram, but he managed to rise to his feet. He dared not look away from Ares, fearing a fatal strike.
"Admit it, kid," Ares taunted. "You've got no hope. I'm just toying with you."
Then, the air crackled and something changed.
"It's Me, Dio! And I have come to kick your ass"
And Percy found himself teleported to the Camp, with Annabeth and Grover.
Huh.
A bit anticlimactic.
