Marcus and Chastity sprinted through the hallways of Hades' Palace. For the first time since they arrived, Marcus was grateful for the constant pull of the air currents towards Tartarus, as there was only one place for the air in these dead hallways to lead them. Either the main exit, or Nico's Tunnel, and at this point Marcus would take either.

The alarm didn't seem to extend past the treasure room they had just been in, but Marcus wasn't willing to take the chance. Marcus slid to a stop at the first corner they reached and peaked around, Hunter's words once again sticking in his mind. They could be anywhere down here.

"Coast is clear." Marcus glanced over his shoulder and saw Chastity nod.

"Might as well see if this was worth the hassle of putting up with your mixed signals." Chastity said with a wink at him, and she strummed Orpheus' Lyre experimentally.

Marcus was shocked when, even after centuries of being stuck on a pedestal in the Underworld, the sound that came from the Lyre was pure and clear, and it seemed Chastity was just as enraptured as she continued playing without pause, the pink aura around her that had seemed to fade in and out becoming the clearest Marcus had seen it yet, radiating power so much like Aphrodite's, a feeling so tender and heart wrenchingly beautiful to Marcus that he couldn't tear himself away.

But there was something else there. Marcus couldn't put his finger on it, but now that her Aura was stronger Marcus could feel an undercurrent there. A chaos, a danger that wasn't present in Aphrodite's aura. Aphrodite's, while not being "pure" by any sense, was still a tempered aura. The aura that Chastity had at that moment was the unbridled chaos of emotion that love can cause.

Marcus was entranced, the power of Chastity's aura overwhelming his senses to the point he didn't know whether to flee or pull her into his arms right then and there, his emotions starting to overflow, one after the other through his mind.

Chastity glanced up from the lyre, meeting his eye for a moment and in that moment Marcus' world was in that gaze. Nothing else mattered but her. He felt himself starting to reach for her, his caution forgotten. Chastity's lips parted slightly, their eyes locked, almost as if she were about to reciprocate Marcus' "mistake"…

Chastity stopped playing, her aura diminishing as she did so. "Well, at least we know it works as intended. Now let's get the hell out of here."

Chastity stepped around Marcus, leading the way out of Hades' Palace at a hurried jog. Marcus shook his head to clear his thoughts, taking deep breaths and using the techniques he had learned from Athena to close his mind off from the world around him. He felt a sudden clarity that he hadn't felt since he'd been reunited with Chastity, the walls around his mind becoming thick as steel. Wow… guess that torture was worth something after all. Looks like I'll have to offer up a prayer or something to Athena when we get out of here.

He hurriedly caught up to Chastity, relieved that now that he was using Athena's techniques, he could think clearly, even around her.

"So, have an escape plan?" Marcus asked, keeping his tone light, though his mind was racing. That aura… why did it seem so… familiar? They had reached Nico's Tunnel, and while that got them out of the palace, they were still in the Underworld, and while Marcus' chew toy trick might have worked to get them in, something told him getting past Cerberus on the way out would be a bit more difficult.

"Well, before you oh so heroically came to my rescue, the plan was to simply end the spell, poofing out of here once I'd snatched what was mine." Chastity huffed.

Marcus glanced at her. "So… how would the lyre have come with you?"

Chastity froze for a second, but that second was long enough for Marcus to guess at the truth. Chastity either hadn't considered that, or had assumed it would go with her when she ended her spell.

"The lyre is a physical object, right?" Marcus continued. "How would it have followed your spirit back to your body?"

Chastity opened her mouth, probably for some witty retort, when they both froze. The entire time they had moved through the upper levels of Hades' Palace, it had been silent except for the Artifact Room alarm, and even once that had gone off the palace halls themselves had been silent as the grave. Now, they heard the tell tale sound of boots thumping on the obsidian floors, getting louder with each passing moment.

Without thinking, Marcus swept Chastity into his arms and sped down Nico's Tunnel, putting his father's gifts to the test. Yet, even though he was faster than he would have been before, fast enough that Chastity's protests were lost in the air behind them, Marcus knew he was slower than he could be. There were no currents for him to manipulate here except the one, and he refused to even think about using that one. Who knows what would happen if I used the one leading to Tartarus… For all I know it could pull me right into it. As they sped down the tunnel and into Persephone's Garden, Marcus ran through their options in his mind, Athena's training paying off yet again as he weighed the paths left open to them, scant though they were. Just as he had done with the Goddess of Wisdom, he quickly scanned over every outcome that he could envision. But no matter which angle he thought about it, all his options funneled into one factor being more important than any other. Luck. He had to hope their luck held out, and that they were able to escape before-

"Hello lover."

Shit.

Marcus was forced to slide to a stop, taking cover behind one of the pomegranate trees scattered throughout the garden as an arc of lightning struck where he would have been if he had continued his straight path.

Double shit.

"Come on, Marcus. Aren't you a bit old for hide and seek?" Hunter's voice rang out.

Chastity and Marcus exchanged a glance, Chastity cradling Orpheus' Lyre in her arms as Marcus tightened his grip around her. There goes that plan…

"Marcus, Marcus, Marcus…" Alicia's voice came to them. "I didn't teach you one of my favorite tricks just for you to turn around and use it with other girls. If Iris messages can be used to keep an eye on people above ground, didn't you ever think Nyx Messages could do the same down here?"

"Loyalty was never his strong suit." Hunter's voice added, coming closer. "And neither was thinking clearly when a cute girl's involved."

"Wow, Hunt." Marcus shot back from their hiding place. "Didn't realize you felt that way about Chastity. What will her boyfriend think? You know, the one with the bow blessed by Artemis and the wicked aim."

Marcus set Chastity down quietly, and though her look became questioning, his glance was enough to clue her in to his plan.

I distract them, you get the drop on them. His eyes told her.

You're an idiot. Hers responded.

He shrugged in response.

He was about to turn and step out from behind the pomegranate tree when something in the leaves next to him caught his eye. For a moment, it didn't register just what he was looking at, for in this place of death, who would expect to see a pair of serpentine eyes looking back at them through the leaves of a pomegranate tree? No sooner had he registered the serpent than it lunged at him, its fangs coming directly for his face. It was only thanks to his demigod training that he was able to avoid the serpent's lunge and, ignoring Chastity's cry of alarm, whip his pocket watch into sword form as he fell to the ground. He saw the serpent's momentum take it entirely out of the foliage of the tree, and was fully expecting it to fall to the ground mere inches from him, but was surprised to see the serpent practically fly a full foot from him, its momentum more than he could have possibly imagined.

His surprise turned to shock as, midair, the snake started changing, its form growing, elongating and widening, until it landed a few feet from him, not as a serpent, but as a full grown black bear.

"Ah, looks like you've decided to come out and play after all." Alicia's voice taunted.

Rolling to his feet, Marcus saw Alicia drop to the ground next to the bear, with Hunter using Annabeth's Wings to fly just above it.

"How in the hell did you manage to break out? I was sure those cells would hold even your stubborn ass." Hunter asked, his voice almost casual. If it wasn't for the electricity crackling along the wings on his back, Marcus could have almost believed he could buy some time with conversation.

"Well you see, first I wrote a strongly worded letter to the warden," Marcus began, shifting himself slowly to stand between them and Chastity. His path was cut off by Alicia's whip cracking through the air and striking right next to his foot.

"Don't even think about it, Marcus." Alicia said. "We're going to turn right back around, and walk you back into the cells. Though, this time we'll keep you separate from the skank. Aaron is already on his way to… speak with you. Wouldn't want to abandon him again, would you?"

"Skank?" Marcus flinched at the venom in Chastity's words as she stood beside him. "Big words coming from the psycho ex, Leash. Don't you have some other demigod who doesn't want you that you can stalk?"

Alicia smiled in response, her eyes cold as ice. "Hey Hunter, sounds to me like little miss Olympian just decided to 'die in her escape'. What do you think?"

Hunter laughed, the lightning starting to arc between the wings themselves, which Marcus could only assume was a precursor to another attack. "What a shame. We could've used that power for our side. Sorry sweetheart, looks like you're just another casualty of Marcus' love life."

Marcus shoved Chastity aside just as Hunter's bolt of lightning shot out, just managing to avoid the attack himself. Marcus saw Chastity reach into her jacket as she fell, and to his surprise she pulled out what looked like an arrow. How the hell? Where the hell? Time seemed to slow for him, just as it did in his time training with Athena, as his mind ran a million miles a minute. The arrow in her hand was made of simple ebony, with a heart shaped arrowhead.

An arrow. A heart.

Chastity snapped the arrowhead off the arrow, immediately using the heart as a pick for her Lyre, and Marcus felt a strength he wouldn't have believed possible filling him, his body energized and his fatigue from their time in the Underworld up till now leaving him in an instant. Chastity became wreathed in pink, her aura returning in full force. To Marcus' sense for Godly Aura's, honed by his time with Aphrodite and even further with Athena's mental training, it shone bright as the sun, with a hidden and twisted luster just below the surface.

Marcus realized in that moment exactly where he knew that feeling from, the danger hidden in love.

Eros!

Marcus jumped back, narrowly avoiding the bear lunging past him, its paw slamming down where he had been before. He lashed out with his foot, aiming a kick directly at its head, but Alicia's whip wrapped around his ankle and he felt himself being pulled in midair, twisting and falling hard.

"Try again." Alicia laughed.

Chastity's song continued to fill him with strength, but now he could guess where that power was coming from… Marcus' mind flinched away from the thought. Later. Deal with it later. Save your friend first!

Marcus lashed out with his blade, satisfied to see the blade bite into the bear and causing it to jump back and away.

He tried to ignore the doubt forming in his mind. You've been acting off ever since you saw her again. Was that really you? Was it the aura? Was it Eros playing with your mind?

He didn't have long to consider the doubts as, trapped as he was by Alicia's whip around his ankle, he was unable to dodge the arc of lightning that Hunter aimed at him. He had thought the first time they had fought it had been painful, but only now did he realize what the wings could truly do. His back arched with pain, practically launching him off the ground with the force of his own movement, his voice catching in his throat and silencing his scream of agony.

"Stop!" Alicia's voice rang out, her whip changing direction to crack into Hunter's wings, tossing him through the air and causing the lightning to break off from Marcus.

Chastity was at Marcus' side in a flash, her magic flowing from her lyre into him, soothing the pain from the lightning strike.

"Protect her, Marcus."

It doesn't matter!

Coming back to himself, Marcus rolled again, shielding Chastity with his body as the bear lunged at them again, flying past them in a wild charge.

"What the fuck are you doing Alicia?!" Hunter called out.

"Stopping you from killing him, you idiot!"

"Give up on him already, Leash! This ends one way!"

"Aaron wants him alive!"

Marcus leapt to his feet, the pain from his injuries fading the longer Chastity played and leapt at the bear again, clambering up on its back, despite its attempt to claw him first. Marcus balanced himself, holding onto the bear's fur with one hand and raising his blade in the other, prepared to stab down into the bear and take it out of the battle, permanently.

"To hell with what Aaron wants!" Hunter's voice crackled with hatred as his lightning bolt shot out again, proving Marcus' gross miscalculation. He had thought Hunter wouldn't dare attack him when he was so close to one of his allies, but he realized now that Hunter's hatred for him outweighed his desire to not harm his allies, as the lightning bolt struck both him and the bear he was on. The pain, spread as it was between the two, was far more bearable than it was the first time, and Marcus was able to leap clear before Hunter could take aim again.

As he landed, Marcus turned, just in time to see the bear before him start to shrink, its form slowly becoming that of a young man, barely shorter than Marcus himself, with a flamboyant coat worn over his red shirt. The young man staggered to his feet, tossing back his dark hair as he turned to scream at his companion.

"Watch where you're aiming that thing, asshole!" The young man called out. "I can only go bear so much, you know!"

It was him… Marcus staggered to his feet, protecting Chastity being the only thought keeping him from being frozen in disbelief at this new development. How..

"No way…" Chastity's voice came out, barely more than a whisper.

The young man turned, a grin lighting up his face as he turned to them.

"Hey roomie!" Elliot called out. "Long time no see!"