Chapter 11 Banquet

It was around 9:00 PM and was completely dark, but the camp was being illuminated by the giant bonfire. Everyone in the camp were celebrating the Red Teams victory, as much to the blue teams dissatisfaction.

Lucian being the one who captured the flag single handedly was the person who had all of the attention. There were many guys offering their Congratulations and many girls asking him to come to party's that they were going to throw. There were even some girls daring enough to grab onto Lucians arms.

Lucian being the center of all this felt exhausted. He just wanted to go to sleep, even though he was still sleeping in the medical bay. He really needs to talk to Chiron about his sleeping arrangement.

"Beat it nymphs!" Annabeth dispelled the girls around Lucian like if they were some mosquitoes. She walked up to Lucian and stood next to him watching the fire burn away slowly at the logs. "You did good today, especially for someone who just woke up from passing out." Annabeth complimented. "Thanks. You did good too with defending our flag." Annabeth bitterly shook her head. "I was doing good, I even stopped Percy from stealing the flag the first time. But than he stood back up after being healed by the water and beat me easily, almost like he got a power boost." Lucian was a little shocked to hear this. I guess this is Percy's form of natural instinct, just like him with the minotaur.

Lucian patted Annabeths head to try and cheer her up. "What are you doing?" Annabeth eyed Lucian. "Patting your head to cheer you up." Annabeth narrowed her eyes like she was offended. "Dont treat me like I'm some sort of child." Lucian was a little scared she might chop his hand off so he quickly took it off her head. "Sorry. This is what my mother used to do to cheer me up." Annabeth was quiet after this. We stood there in silence as we continued to watch the fire.

"I'm sorry, im really sensitive when people think of me as weak." Lucian looked at Annabeth who broke their silence. "I never thought of you as weak." Annabeth nodded. "So tell me about your mother. What's she like?" Annabeth asked with genuine curiosity. "Shes very kind, even though she hates to admit it. She likes to come off as cold and emotionless, mostly because that's how other people perceive her. But I know she is not like that, after all she raised me. Even though she is cold to me, she was not able to hide the warm feeling I got when she read me story's in the night." Annabeth smiled.

"She sounds like she really loves you. What's her name?" Annabeth asked. "Her names Med-" Lucian was not able to finish his sentence as a huge explosion sound was heard from the Bonfire. The fire was distorting and a huge fire like demon emerged. It had horns on its head, wings on it's back, and sharp claws. Its skin looked to be made from lava itself. I grab Annabeths hand and pull her behind me unconsciously. I was not able to see her reaction to this as I was to focused on the fire monster.

"Percy Jackson show yourself!" The demon demanded. The men in the camp all unsheathed their swords prepared for a battle. The demon was getting impatient and started to hurl fireballs randomly at the camp. I looked around and saw Percy with Grover. Chiron was next to Percy and had two swords in his hand. "Hades!" Chiron shouted. So this is one of the big three? Guess he is my great uncle or something?

"Percy Jackson, bring me the bolt! Be a good boy...hand it to me and I will exchange it for your mother!" I could see Percy's eyes widen at his mother's mention. He ran up to Hades much to Chirons shouts of warning. "My mother is gone!" Percy shouted. Hades looked down at Percy. "No, I sent the minotaur to abduct her. She is here with me in the underworld." Hades then showed her through the fire in his hand, but it only lasted for a second as he dispelled it. "What did you do with my mother?!" Percy was really holding back his rage. "If you ever want to see your mother again you will bring me the bolt!" Hades then quickly disappeared in a burst of flames.

I run up to where Percy, Chiron, and Grover are and Annabeth follows. "You ok Percy?!" I grab Percy's shoulders and ask, Percy nods in response. "I'm fine, but my mother is not! I need to go after her and tell Hades that I dont have the Lightning bolt. Maybe once he knows I'm not the lightning thief, he'll release her!" Chiron immediately disproves of Percy's plan. "No, once he finds out your not the lightning thief he'll kill you AND your mother. No, we must go to Olympus. Convince Zeus of your innocence, then we can figure out how to get your mother back."

I role my eyes at Chiron. "Yeah right. Look Chiron, no offence but how can we be sure that Hades wont lose his patience and immediately kill Ms. J? Also how do we know that Zeus is able to be convinced? I can tell that Zeus already does not like Percy since he accused him of stealing his lightning bolt. As to why he does not like Percy, I dont know. Zeus already firmly believes it is Percy, so unless we tell him who the real lightning thief is he will continue believing it was Percy."

Chiron did not know how to respond to Lucian since what he said was true. "Let me figure something out. In the morning I will tell you what we will do. For now get some rest, the party is over." Chiron walked off and checked on the other kids. I looked toward Percy and saw conviction in his eyes, seems like he knows what he is going to do already. "Percy I'm sleeping at your house tonight, I'm tired of sleeping with all of the injured kids." Percy nodded and started walking toward his house. I quickly say bye to Annabeth and Grover and follow Percy.

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|12:00 PM|

Lucian was pretending to be asleep in the sleeping bag. He saw Percy quietly get up from his bed and grab his back pack. He was about to walk out untill I stopped him. "Where are you going in the middle of the night? *gasp* Dont tell me you have a lover but its forbidden?!"

"What are you talking about Idiot! Go back to sleep!" Lucian stretched and grabbed his backpack that he has still yet to unpack. "I dont want to. I'll just go on a walk with you, it should be more fun." Lucian said walking ahead of Percy. "No, why are you following me?!" Percy caught up to me and tried to dissuade me. "Because I want to, beside what will you do if another minotaur shows up?" Percy was silent then sighed. "Fine."

We leave Percy's house when suddenly Grover jumps down from one of the rails on Percy's house. "Where are you guys going?" Grover asks us. "A walk." Percy says. I didn't say anything and just walk. "A walk? Cool I'm coming with you." Percy cringes. "No! Your not!" Grover laughs. "Haha I'm coming with you." Percy and Grover keep fighting as we pass some of the Cabins.

Out of nowhere Annabeth comes up from my right side. "Are you seriously going to go and confront Hadies?" Percy looks to the new member all the way on the right. "Really? You too?" Annabeth looks at me. "One small victory and your ready to fight Hadies? I expected more out of you Lucian." I shrug my shoulders and look at her backpack that was packed with arrows. "And what are you planning to do with those? Some late night shooting in the dark?" Annabeth looks down, embarrassed that she got caught. "I want to go too, I've only been outside the camp a couple of times. Besides, do you really think your better than me just because you won one battle? I've won hundreds, you'll need my experience." Annabeth defended herself. "Hey I never said you cant go. On the contrary a pretty girl following me is encouraged." I smile wryly. "I'm not following you! I'm going for the quest!" Annabeth was red be it from anger or embarrassment.

Percy looked at his three friends. "You three REALLY want to come?" We all shouted at the same time. """YES!""" Percy sighed and accepted the group journey. "Alright, guess we're all going then."

"Now that that's all settled, how do we actually get there?" I ask the group. They all look at each other hoping they might have the answer. "Did not think of that one." Says Percy. Annabeth seems to have a light bulb pop up on her head. "I think I know someone who might." She says and leads the way.

A short walk later we enter an open house that had white sheets hanging down from the ceiling. There were candles to light the place and 3 TV's next to one another that had 3 different video games running. The one who was playing them was Luke, the camp Leader.

"Luke?" Annabeth calls out getting the blonde kids attention. He turns around and sees us, then continues playing his game. "Hey guys! Percy, figured you'd stop by sooner or later. Everybody does. To get away from all that renaissance fair stuff out there you know?" He pauses his game and stands up giving us his full attention. "Welcome to the modern world " he says gesturing to his whole house.

"Cool, new stuff." Grover muttered as he eyes all of the technology. "What are you guys up to?" Luke asked seeing our backpacks. "We're going to get my mom back." Percy says. Luke raises his eyebrows and holds back a smile. For some reason this guy doesn't really give me a good feeling. "Your dad is the messenger of the gods. One of the only ones who has gotten in and out of the underworld, do you have any idea how?" Annabeth asks.

"Mnmm. My dads a jerk, I've never met him." Luke says shaking his head. "You too?" Percy asks. "Guess we all got daddy issues huh? That's because all gods are the same, selfish, they only care about themselves...but I once broke into my dads house, got some cool stuff!" Luke says and goes to get something. I couldn't help but nod when Luke was talking about how selfish the gods are. I guess this guy ain't so bad after all.

Luke comes back with a shoe box and blows away the dust on the surface. He hands it to Percy. "For you." Percy opens the box and a shoe flys out. It had wings on the side of them allowing them to fly. "Flying shoes?" This was the first time Percy has seen something like this. "Yup, they're my dads. He has hundreds of these little guys. Wont even miss them. Look underneath the other one." Luke says this while he grabs the flying shoe and puts it back in the box after Percy grabs the sheet of paper. Percy hurries to close the box then opens the folded paper.

"You see people have gone to the underworld before without having to be dead. Hercules did it, Orpheus did it, my dad does it all the time. Getting in is the easy part, getting out, that's where it gets tricky. Although it's hard, it's not impossible. Did you know that you can even get out if your dead?" Luke asks the group catching us by surprise. "But that's impossible!" Annabeth says with her eyes wide open in disbelief. "No, it's true. Have you ever heard of Kratos?" Annabeth was shocked once again. In fact everyone was shocked, except for Percy who was just confused and Lucian who was sweating buckets. Why are we talking about my dad?!

"Who's Kratos?" Asks Percy. We all look at Percy. "You don't know who Kratos is?!" Annabeth asks. Percy just shook his head. "He's like the boogeyman for the gods." Says Grover. "Why?" Percy was more confused. "Because he almost killed all of them. He even killed my old man once, pretty gruesome too. He cut off both his legs. He's my Idol because of that actually." Luke jumps in. I dont say anything and just listen. "He killed the gods?! How?!" Percy was in disbelief.

"Legend says that he was the son of Zeus. Apparently there was a prophecy that scared Zeus, so he tried to kill his son that was mentioned in the prophecy to protect himself. No one knows the full story, but we do know that he killed more than half of the gods including your father Percy." Luke explains. Percy was absorbing all of the new information. "How? My father is dead?" Luke shakes his head. "For a time yes. But all gods that have people that Pray to them are able to be reborn, although they lose a lot of their power and it takes a long time to get reborn. Kratos killed many of the gods bringing the world into chaos, almost ending it. This guy is the real deal, Kratos the God Of War."

"What happened to him?" Percy asks. "No one knows, they say that he stabbed himself to let hope go to the humans instead of the gods. Apparantly he found it when he opened pandoras box." Luke could not explain more since that was all he knows about that matter. "So he's dead?" Annabeth asks. Luke shook his head and laughed. "HAHAHA no! Apparantly he has died many times, but he always climbs his way out of hell. He's like Jason Voorhees. You just cant seem to kill the guy."

Luke had a good laugh then went back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, that map leads you to Persephone's Pearls." Luke points at the map. "Persephone? Like in Hades wife?"

"Yeah he forced her to marry him. Keeps her prisoner." Annabeth informs. "Needless to say she hates it there. It's hot, hes a weirdo. So she has uh, secret visitors. She keeps Pearl's hidden for them all over the world. Now these Pearl's provide a quick escape from the underworld. You can use them to get out."

"So how do the Pearl's work?" Grover asks. "Easy. You take a pearl, step on it and crush it. Visualize where you want to be taken. Right now there are four Pearl's in the United states, this map will guide you there. Right here is your first location. Once you find the first pearl, the map will show you to the next one, and the next one, and the next one, then your off to Hades!" Percy looks at the map and shows us the first location. Auntie Em's Garden Of Emporium? That's my house! Percy folds the map and puts it away.

"That reminds me, you guys might need some extra protection, so uh, here. My favorite shield. You might want to take a step back." Luke gives Percy a shield that was folded up and warns us to step back. Percy clicks the button and it unfolds quickly. Cool, wish I had one.

"Gee, thanks Luke." Percy pat's Luke's shoulder. "Ahh it's nothing. But you do have to promise me one thing. You see my dad on the highway to hell, kick his ass for me." Luke says smiling.