Chapter 13 : I get betrayed by a friend but not Luke?

The ride to Santa Monica beach was the worst ride ever. Imagine riding for hours in a cab with Medusa staring at you and you awkwardly try to ignore the glares. Well in this case it was worse because I was on Medusa's good side and Annabeth was glaring at me with her stormy gray eyes. Ugh, she was probably mad that Luke quit and betrayed us. But why was she staring at me?

"I see that Luke left you." the Nereid asked.

I nodded, "Yes. It's sad but he warned me about his gifts."

The Nereid thought about it for a second, "well I guess there's still hope for him."

I nodded. "So how's my dad doing?"

"He's proud of you for releasing Medusa from her curse."

My eyes widened, 'I thought you hid us from the Gods!' I toldNyx angrily.

'How could I know your father would watch us using the water?'

'He can do that?'

Nyx shrugged, 'Just found out.'

"Yeah, I felt bad for her, it wasn't her fault."

She held out her hand. Three white pearls flashed in her palm. "These are pearls of the sea, if you crush them and they will help you."

"What do they do?" I asked already knowing the answer.

"I guess you can figure that out yourself when you can lift an ancient curse like Medusa's." She laughed.

I snickered and took the three pearls and put them in my backpack.

"Well thank you."

She nodded and disappeared.

"So what if we're not dead? We need an audience with Hades right now!

I demanded. Annabeth took out a few Drachma she got from Medusa's garden and put them on the desk. "We paid so we have every right to pass." Annabeth said, angrily.

Charon shrugged, "nope I only ferry the dead."

My patience cracked. My hands lit on fire, "If you don't let us through…"

"You're gonna threaten an immortal?" Charon laughed. "I can't die!"

Perc turned towards the door, "What happens if I burn down the door or this building?"

Charon paled, "No you can't do that. The reconstruction cost would be enormous!"

"Then let us through or Percy's gonna burn down this building."

Charon swallowed and nodded. "Well I was gonna take a ride anyway." he said and opened the elevator, "get in before I change my mind."

We entered the elevator, I got a sudden dizzy feeling. We weren't going down but forward. The air turned misty. Spirits around me started changing shape. Their modern clothes flickered, turning into gray hooded robes. The floor of the elevator began swaying and suddenly we were in the ferry over the river Styx.

I took out an empty vial and dipped it carefully in the Styx.

"What?" I asked the supscious looking Annabeth and Charon.

I closed the vial and put it in my backpack.

"This idea might actually work." Annabeth said and I resisted the urge to laugh, it was her plan actually.

Before us stood the biggest Rottweiler ever. Cerberus looked at us with hunger in his eyes. I was about to throw the red rubber ball when Chaos and Nyx interrupted me,

'Hey did you know I created Hellhounds?' Nyx said proudly.

'Why would you ever create such creatures?' I wondered.

'That's what she said about humans before betraying me.' Chaos laughed.

'I never betrayed you, I like humans, they are funny.' Nyx said casually.

'Wasn't talking about you.'

"Come on Cerberus, you don't want to fetch the ball?" I said throwing and catching the rubber ball.

I immediately had all his attention.

Cerebus' mouth opened in excitement and so did Annabeth's but her mouth was open from disbelief.

I threw the ball.

He caught it in his middle mouth. It was barely big enough for him to chew, and the other heads started snapping at the middle, trying to get the new toy destroyed.

"Drop it." I demanded.

Cerberus immediately dropped it.

"Can't believe that actually worked unless…" She began before glaring at me.

"Hey Cerberus, want a new play buddy?" I asked.

Cerberus happily nodded.

"If you give me and Annabeth a ride to Hade's castle I'll come to visit you from time to time."

Cerebus grabbed me with his mouth and threw me on his back. Another head grabbed Annabeth and threw her behind me.

"What are you doing?" She hissed.

I laughed, "seems like I got a new pet?"

Cerberus ran at high speed through the underworld crushing ghosts and a few monsters along the way. We ran past the entrance of Tartarus where Cerberus had to pee.

It lifted one of it's legs and peed right into the hole, screams of terror were heard.

I now know why Kronos wants to escape Tartarus.

We entered the castle with ease, Cerberus ate a few soldiers before we broke the doors of the throne room and had our awesome introduction.

I jumped off Cerberus' back followed by Annabeth. I ignored the flabbergasted Hades who sat on his throne.

"Good doggie!" I said petting the middle head. Than the other two. "You have to go now, I need to talk to your boss."

The dog pouted, "Hey don't look sad, I come visit soon. Maybe we can even kill some monsters!"

Cerebus barked happily before storming off into the distance, again crushing ghosts and skeletons.

We turned around to see Hades sitting on his throne, paler than usual.

Annabeth And I slightly bowed before I grinned, "Hi uncle!"

Hades swallowed and recomposed himself before saying. "You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said in an oily voice. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."

I grinned, "No need to act so evil, we simply just want to help you like I helped a few nice Angels in Lotus Casino!"

Annabeth looked at me confused but Hades understood what I said. Angel, di Angelo.

"If you did anything to them!" He began but I interrupted him.

"No I just told them about the Gods and gave Nico some kind of card game called Mythomagic."

Hades scowled, "You didn't take them out of the casino?"

"I figured it's not the time for that right now. Especially with Zeus wanting to kill me. I guessed that it would be better to wait."

Hades nodded thoughtfully.

'You could've sacrificed them to me…' Nyx suggested.

Alecto flew up and hissed, "Master, they distract you from what really matters! The Lightning bolt and your helmet."

"Oh yeah totally forgot, just glad they are safe," he said and I smiled back. "Now give me the lightning bolt and I won't kill you!"

I decided to play along. "I don't have the Master Bolt!"

Hades shook his head, "You have it, I can sense it. Open that girl's backpack!" He demanded.

I faked a confused look before saying, "Annabeth give mw the backpack."

Annabeth handed me Ares' backpack and I unzipped was a two-foot-long metal cylinder, spiked on both ends, humming with energy.

Annabeth's eyes widened and Hades only grinned.

I looked surprised and spoke. "We are being framed!" But before I could react Annabeth lunged forward.

I saw the bronze of her dagger.

________

(Annabeth)

Finally, I had the evidence and the thief caught, the location was not ideal but it did the job.

All the evidence was there; Percy's weird behavior, his unexplained powers. All the suspicious things pointed to him being the main suspect. The only thing I lacked was conclusive evidence. But now I had him.

I caught the lightning thief.

I knew I had to act fast, Riptide was still in pen form and FrostSilver took at least one second to form. There was no water anywhere near us and pouring water from the air would be too slow. There was no way he wasn't the thief. He was proven guilty so if he got killed by me there was no guilt on my side.

I lunged forward.

________

(Percy)

'Owl head incoming!' Nyx yelled and my eyes widened as Annabeth lunged forward.

In a split second I considered all my abilities and weapons but they were all too slow except one.

I raised my free hand and opened my palm. A blast of fire appeared and blasted Annabeth in the face. Nothing Ambrosia wouldn't heal but it was painful nonetheless.

She hit the ground and grasped in pain as she felt the flames hit her face.

"What the heck Annabeth!" I called out.

"How?" Hades asked, astonished. "You're not one of Hephaestus's are you?"

I turned to look at Hades, "I did not steal the Master Bolt nor your helmet, Luke and Ares did."

"Liar, kill him Hades!" Annabeth cried out in pain. "He has been acting suspicious since I knew him."

I sighed and summoned a piece of Ambrosia with Hestia's power.

"I swear on the Styx what I just said was true, Luke stole it and Ares must have caught him and they probably made a deal."

Annabeth ate the Ambrosia and waited for me to be killed but when nothing happened she looked in horror.

"How? Why?" Annabeth asked. "Luke can't-he wouldn't."

"He hates the Gods and Ares wants a war." I simply explained.

"Well this is certainly something interesting." Hades spoke, "but how did you summon fire?"

A pillar flames appeared next to Hades and revealed an 8 year old girl wearing a hoodie. Her eyes were on fire and she was looking at Annabeth with a glare.

'Well the secret is out.' Chaos said.

"Sister what are you doing here?" Hades asked.

"Helping my Champion."

Hades eyes widened, "This boy is your Champion?"

When she didn't deny it he continued. "Why would you ever make a son of Poseidon your Champion?"

Hestia smiled, "Because he will not only save Olympus but all of us."

'Cliché.' Chaos complained.

"What about the master bolt?" Hades asked with puppy eyes.

"Let him give it back to your brother."

"But why? He never calls me or sends me birthday cards. He always ignores me and I'm never invited to game night."

Hestia pointed at me, "That's why he's my Champion, we are gonna shake things up on Olympus."

Hades grunted and tried to find an argument but when looking at Hestia it was rather hard not to melt from cuteness. With a reluctant grunt he spoke. "Fine but what about my helmet?"

"I can retrieve it." I offered.

Hades looked sceptical at me, "If Ares has it how would you even retrieve it? He is a god, not a demigod."

I smiled and lifted the Master bolt, "Hello? FireCracker here? The most powerful weapon on Olympus."

I tried to form it temporarily into a pen and put it in my pocket. Surprisingly it worked.

"Okay fine." Hades looked at me with an almost intense stare. "You know what, I want to see if you can do it. Just this once I let you off the hook demigod."

I raised an eyebrow.

Hades slumped back in his throne. "Now, go and continue your stupid quest."

Hestia smiled as Hades snapped his fingers. A dark substance engulfed us.

Before I knew it Annabeth and I had shadow traveled to Santa Monica beach.

When we opened our eyes we stood at the beach there were no mortals around, just one big fat headed war god leaning against his motorcycle.

I got up and Annabeth soon followed, Annabeth looked shameful and said, "I'm sorry Percy I didn't realise…"

"Just don't talk about it, beside we have a war God to face."

Ares smiled at the mention of his name.

"Hey Ares! I know you and Luke stole the bolt, now let us pass it to your daddy and give us the helmet of darkness." I taunted the God.

"Or what?' Ares grinned.

'We turn his son into a hellhound and make it kill his other son, then we chain him up in a cave with the guts of his own son and let a snake drop poison in his eyes for eternity.' Nyx said casually.

I flinched visibly, 'Was that a reference to Loki?'

Hemera sighted, 'Mom stop Percy is just a 12 year old right now.'

'Well when he was 17 he apparently drowned Akhlys in her own poison and almost made her fade.' Nyx fired back.

'Yeah that was fun.' Chaos snickered.

"Punk I'm talking to you!" Ares yelled. Waving his arms.

I looked up and saw Ares annoyed waving his hand in front of me, damn Primordials always picking the best time to argue.

"Ares what about a duel? The winner gets it all." I challenged him knowing all the odds were in my favor.

Ares smiled confidently, "You are not worth my time boy, I am a God."

"More like a chicken." I coughed.

Ares narrowed his eyes. "Fine, you want it classic or modern?"

"Wait you have to swear to the Styx to give me the helmet of Darkness if I defeat you and you won't try anything after the duel." There was no way I was gonna take the curse of Ares ever again.

"Fine I swear on your terms." He walked away until he was 30 feet away from me and snapped his finger. Ahuge, two-handed sword appeared. The hilt was a large silver skull with a ruby in its mouth.

'Can you sacrifice at least Ares to me?' Nyx begged.

"Ready to be crushed?" Ares taunted.

"How do you want it? Fried or cooked?" I asked.

"Wha…?"

I took out the master bolt pen and uncapped it in one swift motion. It turned into a big 2 foot long sphere humming with electric energy.

Ares eyes widened in shock, (Get it Shock? Because the master bolt and so on. Well you get it.)

I threw it at Ares.

It was fast as...well lightning. It almost hit him immediately and I ran after it only to find a massive crater with a bleeding war god. His hair was like Einstein's and his clothes were on fire and had holes in them.

The air smelled like ozone.

Next to him lay the Master Bolt which I took along with a helmet that gave of darkness.

"For Hades." I whispered before summoning Greek Fire in my hand that burned the Helmet.

It disappeared within a second and I felt the ground under my feet shake in gratitude.

"Guess you got fried." I said.

Annabeth came closer to the hole and looked at Ares. Her grey eyes studying the God of war.

'But why? It doesn't make sense to give the bolt to Hades, you could keep it!" Annabeth thought out loud.

"I don't know, maybe because I want Hades to have it." Ares groaned, still looking out of it.

"You're being used, just like Luke. You both are puppets doing the bidding of someone else." I said.

"You're lying! I don't have dreams!" Ares spat at me.

"Nobody said something about dreams." I pointed out.

"Who's he working for?" Annabeth asked me.

"Think about it, if Luke hates the Gods who would help him?"

Annabeth thought about it.

"Gaia?"

'One war too soon.' Hemera said.

"One generation further."

"Kronos…" She whispered in shock and I nodded.

Then Ares began to laugh maniacally like the typical bad guy.

"What's up?" I asked when the war God got up.

"You are too late, tonight is the meeting!"

"We'll fly." I said but Ares snickered. "What? Zeus won't blast his own bolt out of the sky."

"You can't. All the flights are cancelled due to the storm Zeus's anger caused!"

'Well this is new.'

Annabeth realised what Ares meant, "But then war would break out!"

"Family wars are the best!" He yelled.

I rolled my eyes and Ares disappeared with a huge smile on his face.

I whistled and asked Nyx if she could ask Cerberus to pick us up. A giant three headed rottweiler appeared on the beach looking at Annabeth and I with excitement.

"Hey buddy, how about a nice trip to New York?"

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