Chapter 18 The Underworld

'Old Betsy' reached the shore line and dropped off her passengers. Luckily Dave did not see anything out of the ordinary and didn't ask any questions. We went back to the pier and returned the scuba equipment, then went back to the car.

Grover basically ran to the drivers seat, most likely to keep Lucian from driving. In the car they all looked at the map and looked at their final location. "Hollywood? The underworld is in Hollywood?" Percy asked. "It kinda makes sense." Said Grover as he started driving toward Hollywood.

We drove for about 30 minuets, finally reaching the entrance for the underwold. We followed the map that told us to run along side the Hollywood sign. Percy came to a sudden stop at greek letters that was tagged on one of the big letters. "Woe to all depraved souls." Percy translated the text, and once gmhe did a hole started to open up in the dirt hill that was in front of us. The hole slowly crumbled apart, making it big enough for us to enter.

We step through and find ourselves in a dark and eerie room. There was hardly any light, and only a few candles. On the walls there was human skulls, and in front of us a small pier and a man in a gondala. The man was wearing a long robe that reached the floor, and a hood that covered most of his face. The most you can see of his face was his lower half, which was deadly pale. We started to hear rumbling behind us and see the entrance we came from was no longer there, since it sealed itself back up.

"Guess there is no going back now." Said Grover sounding somewhat nervous. We walk up to the man in the gondola, and look down at the river. The river was crimson red, a river of blood. Seeing this made me shudder, as it reminded me of the nightmare that I had. I felt someone grasp my hand, making me turn around. It was Annabeth, she had a worried face which means that she saw my hand shaking. I smile and gesture that I'm fine, and free my hand from her grasp.

"Who are you?" The gondala man asked with his raspy voice, devoid of any emotion. "We need to see Hades." Percy said. "The living are not permitted here, Die and come back." Haha for some reason I found that funny. "Okay, we're not going to DIE AND COME BACK. Oh, I got it." Grover pulled out some money from his pocket. "We gotta pay the ferry man." Grover handed the man 3 Bills. The Gondala man grabbed the paper money and burned it, then threw it on the ground like it was worthless. "That was $170!" Grover wanted to cry. Percy realized something and pulled out the gold drachmas. He handed it to the Gondala man , who received it and gestured for them to hop on.

"Thanks for telling me before you burned my money!" Grover complained as he sat down. The Gondala man pushed us through the river and through a dark tunnel, and once we passed the tunnel I was stunned at what was before us. We came out through a sign resembling the Hollywood sign, but it spelled out HELL and was dark and burnt up. I looked down to where the water was supposed to be, but there wasn't any. We were floating in the sky allowing us to have a full view of the underworld. It was hot, depressing, and loud, since all you could hear was the wails and screams of the tortured souls. Lucian noticed floating items that would pass by them, things like watches, toys, and car keys.

"What is all this stuff?" I asked the Gondala man. "These are dreams that were never fulfilled, wishes that were never granted. It is the scrap of human misery." It is sad looking at all of these things, there was even a family photo floating amongst the failed wishes. The Gondala slowly made it's way to a giant castle in the middle of all the fiery chaos, and soon we were at its door steps. "This is as far as I go." The Gondala man said, not even taking a glance at us as we got off.

We stood there at the giant doors of Hades castle. The doors that stood up to at least 20 feat, opened on their own with a loud wooden boom. We step inside and see a big water fountain, but instead of water it was spewing fire.  "Woah, talk about hot. I should have just stayed in my wet suit and not changed back." I said as I fanned myself. "Well, we did have to give the wet suits back...wait did you hear that?" Annabeth said as she looked toward the source of the noise. We could here growling in the hallways on our right and left, it sounded like the growling of a tiger.

Just as soon as the sounds came, two beasts came out and circled around us. The four of us huddled together as Percy clicked his pen, releasing his sword and shield. I seriously need a weapon, I cant just go around punching things. Pretty soon a woman came up shouting. "Back! Begge, Matsiatu!" She dispelled the beast as they retreated to her side, and sat like obediant dogs.

"What were those things?" Percy asked, still on guard. "Hellhounds." She says. "Are you Persephone?" I ask the woman who was dressed in an all black sexy dress. She had black hair and light brown skin that fit her curvaceous body perfectly. She was a very sexy woman, and any man would give anything to spend a night with her. Luckily Lucian was immune to her passive charm.

"Indeed I am. Who are you? I have never seen such a beautiful man." She says while she licked her lips, making me shudder. This woman is dangerous. "Persephone! What can possibly be taking so long?! Dont ignore me!" We heard a man call from further on the castle. "OR WHAT?! WHAT WILL YOU DO? I'm already in hell." Persephone yells back at the voice. She gestures us to follow her as she leads us to her husband Hades. We were brought to a big room with a throne chair facing toward the giant fireplace. A man was sitting on the chair and gave a sidelong glance toward us.

"Nephew..." Hades said as he gracefully stood up from his throne. Hades is what one would imagine a god to look like. He stood to around 10 feet tall, and was wearing black silk robes  with a braided golden crown on his head. His skin was albino white, almost sickly, and had shoulder length jet black hair. His body was not bulky like one would imagine Hercules to be, but his body radiated power through every pore, lack there of. He gave off an aura of pure submission, like making someone happy just to serve him.

"Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon. It is very brave of you to come here, after what you have done. Although I did tell you to come, I never thought you actually would. Now that your here. Do you have what I asked for?" Hades started off, looking down at us with his towering figure. "Where is my mother?" Percy asked. Hades narrowed his eyes at Percy, and gave a condescending smirk. "Oh yes, your mortal mother. She's still alive, barely. Once you give me the lightning bolt and my helm, I will think about releasing her." Hades said as he extended his hand waiting. Persephone watched all this in the side lines, sneaking glances at me every once in a while.

"Look uncle...I dont have the lightning bolt. Wait...did you say your Helm? I don't have that either!" We could feel the palace rumble, as Hades lips started to twitch. "LIAR! You stole Zeus' lightning bolt with the help of your father! Then you took advantage of the chaotic situation to take my Helm of stealth and misery! Return it to me!" Hades yelled out, but this only confused us more. Hades Helm has also been stolen. "I don't have it! I have never even met my father!" Percy still tried to plead his case, but he knew he was being played from the beginning.

"You. You have Persephone's Pearl's, hand them to me." Hades seemed to notice what was in our pockets, and glared at Persephone who returned it without fear. Persephone herself was already pissed at her husband for not allowing her to return to her mother this summer, and the mortals can only count themselves lucky that she did not freeze the world. One thing is for certain, the coming winter will be bitterly cold.

"Oh? It seems you only have 4 Pearl's. What will you do Percy? Give me the lightning bolt and my Helm, or leave one of your friends behind to save your mother?" Hades waves his hand and a fire ball manifests showing Ms. Jackson looking at her son. She couldn't speak, but you can see what she wanted to say just by her eyes. 'I love you' is what she was shouting out through her look. Percy did not know what to do as he looked at the pearl in his hand.

"I'll stay, Percy you need to leave with your mother." Grover suddenly said making us turn to him. "No! I'm not leaving you here." Percy immediately denied. "Its okay Percy, I'm a satyr. Which means he wont be able to have my soul even when I die. I'll probably just be reincarnated as a flower or something, it's for the best." Annabeth also spoke up. "I'll stay. Grover, you are Percy's protector. This way, I'll be able to at least put up a fight." They all argued with each other as to who will stay. "Stop it." I didn't speak loudly but they all heard me. "I'm staying." Annabeth quickly spoke up. "NO! I already said that I will stay, I will not let you stay here Lucian!" I smile bitterly and shake my head. "I'm staying Annabeth. This was never my quest to begin with. Grover you must protect Percy, and Annabeth you must guide him. You need to get him to safety. Now there is nothing more to discuss." I open Percy's hand and hand him my Pearl. "Get your mother out of here, please." Percy clenches his fist, grasping the pearl tightly. As Percy was gripping the pearl, he ended up dropping his shield. It clung on the floor and rolled like how a coin would. As soon as it came to a still, the noise of a light buzzing could be heard. Sticking out of the shields grip, was a blue lightning bolt.

The weapon we have been searching for, the weapon that has almost brought the world to war, was with us the entire time. We have been set up from the beginning. Hades looked at the bolt and smiled a sadistic smile. "Liar." he said. "Give me the lightning bolt, it will be a good bargaining chip. While your at it, toss me my helm." You could see Percy's face pale, as he tried to figure out what to do. "Percy you cant give him the bolt!" I reminded Percy, who nodded. He seemed to have steeled himself in his sudden decision. "I'm sorry mom." I heard him mutter as he suddenly tossed me the pearl. "Percy? What are you doing?!" I asked, confused at his decision. "I'm sorry uncle, I will find your Helm and return it to you." Percy said as he crushed his pearl. The three of us also quickly crush our pearls following Percy. "To the Santa Monica Pier you guys!" Percy said getting us to think of the location.

"Kill them!" Hades shouted but we were already gone before he could do anything. Guess we have an angry Hades after us now. What we saw was nothing but colored smoke, then we found ourselves standing on the Pier. It was dark already, and there was no one around surprisingly. Percy was standing there with the lightning bolt in hand, having left the shield behind. "It was Luke! He set us up!" Annabeth said, with hurt in her eyes. The person she used to admire and had a crush on when she was little had betrayed them. Lucian noticed the look on her eyes and wondered what brought it up.

"Why didn't we think of Olympus? We could have returned the bolt by now." I said to Percy, who had a look of realization on his face. "Oh...yeah I should have thought of that. For some reason this was the first place I could think of while in the dire situation we were in. It's okay, all we have to do is get this to Olympus." Before we could say anything, we heard haughty and arragant laughter from behind us. There stood a tall man with muscles that seemed to want to pop out of his clothing. He was wearing a black leather biker jacket, black cargo pants and boots. He carried a metal baseball bat that he supported on his shoulder. He also had dark shades on, and I was able to see that behind those shades were no eyes. Just empty sockets with fire replaced for his eyes.

"You were supposed to die in the underworld, you brat." The man said. "Who the hell are you? Some poor excuse for a biker? It's not Halloween. " I asked the wannabe biker. "L-Lucian t-thats Ares. The God Of War." Annabeth said, trying not to be scared at the way I just rudely talked to a God.  "Who the hell are you? Do you not believe I would turn you into a cockroach here and now?" Aries threatened. For some reason I was not scared of this guy at all. "What do you mean I was suppose to die in the underworld? Wait...could it be you?-" Ares cut off Percy. "Yes, I am the Thief. I had stolen the Bolt from Zeus and blamed it on the son of Poseidon, then stole Hades Helm. They both believe it was Poseidon, causing a war. I had stashed the bolt in my shield, but Hermes brat stole it. But who would have known he would give you the shield? Hahaha it worked so perfectly with my plan." Percy was going to say something, but I beat him to it.

"Hey fake god, can you stop talking? Your voice is giving me a migraine." My three friends paled in fright after hearing what I said. Ares shades melted from the amount of heat the fire was radiating. "What did you call me? Kiss your life good bye boy."