Indigo Eyes

Chapter 11

L.A. had been shaken by the earthquake, to say the least. Part of the city was on fire, buildings had partially crumbled and there were various sirens from emergency vehicles ringing through the air.

After reaching dry land, they stumbled onto the beach, the sun rising as the events of last night weighed down on them. And Cressida couldn't imagine what Percy was going through after failing to save his mother who he'd journeyed across the country to try and rescue.

"I don't believe it," Annabeth said. "We went all that way -"

"It was a trick," Percy said. "A strategy worthy of Athena.

"Hey!" Annabeth protested.

"You get it, don't you?" Percy said and the anger faded from her expression as she nodded.

"Well, I don't!" Grover complained. Would somebody-"

Annabeth interrupted Grover as she tried to console Percy about his mother, Percy not able to be receptive to it because then he would start crying.

"Basically, Ares is a lying jackass," Cressida whispered to the satyr who still only partially understood the situation.

"You were right," Percy said to Cressida. "The prophecy was right. 'You shall go west and face the god who had turned.'"

"But would Ares really-"

"Gee, let me think," Percy said sarcastically as they followed his gaze down the beach where said god was waiting for them in a black leather duster, sunglasses with an aluminium baseball bat propped on his shoulder as he leaned on his motorcycle, the headlight turning the sand red.

"Hey, kid," Ares said smugly, almost as if he was glad to see them. "You were supposed to die."

"You tricked us. You stole the helmet and the master bolt," Percy spat and the god 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 the winter solstice," Percy said but it only seemed to amuse Ares as Cressida tried to put the pieces together, but it was like something was missing. She'd been there too, but who? Clarisse hadn't tried to insert herself into the quest to slow them down. It wasn't her. But whoever it was, Cressida knew it had something to do with that pit down in the Underworld - with Tartarus.

"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 will be mad at him. And Hades is still looking for this..."

From his pocket Ares took out a ski cap – the kind bank robbers wear – and placed it between the handlebars of his bike. Immediately, the cap transformed into an elaborate bronze war helmet.

"The helmet of darkness," Grover gasped.

"Exactly," Ares said. "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.

"Best kind of war," Ares shrugged. "Always the bloodiest. Nothing like watching your relatives fight, I always say."

"Well then I look forward to squashing you and your cowardly ass like a grape," Cressida snarled before Percy held an arm in front of her.

"You gave me the backpack in Denver. The master bolt was in there the whole time," he said.