The Demi-God of Vengeance(Discontinued)

Chapter 28

Percy POV

Pandora, Annabeth and I had just walked into Hades castle. Surprisingly it's very well, empty. I know, I know. 'He's the god of the dead and the only beings in the underworld are ghosts and skeletons.' Well I at least suspected some maids and guards or something. Not just empty halls and statues and paintings. Anyway we neared the end of the hall and came up to two giant black doors. I could only assume this would be his throne room. I looked back at the girls and the nodded confirming my silent question. I turned back and pushed open the doors. Behind the doors was exactly what I expected. Two huge thrones.

One was a made of human bones as seemed to be melded together with either dark souls or shadows. Either way it was nice. The other was definitely Persephone's throne. It was made of flowers, grass and other various plants. The flower throne was empty, which makes sense as it's summer. The bone throne however had the man himself. Wrapped up in black robes with the souls of the damned pushing against the fabric trying to escape was Hades. The god of the dead and king of the underworld. He was pale with pitch black eyes and black shoulder length hair.

"Lord Hades." I said with a smile. "Vengeance. I hoped to meet with you at some point." I raised an eyebrow, but he waved it off. "Matters not at the moment." He then looked to Pandora. "So. Have you come to return what you stole thief?" He asked with a sneer. She went to speak, but I cut her off. "What do you mean?" I asked. "You do not know?" I shook my head. "She has stolen my helm and I want it returned." Pandora's eyes widened. I sighed and shook my head. "Lord Hades. Pandora did no steal your helm." I said.

"Oh? Is there proof of this?" He asked. "Well for one why would she come here after she stole it? If she did steal it why would she come here? To your domain. The deeds been done. Poseidon has it and you can't get to her on the surface since it's against ancient laws. What logical reason would she have to come here? Also she didn't know who she was when the helm was stolen as I'm assuming it was stolen the same night as the bolt. Her mother hid her heritage from her." I said. Hades thought about this. "Mmm, you are correct. While the second reason is nearly as loose as Aphrodite, the first is sound. But if she did not steal my helm who did?" I smiled.

"The same person who stole the bolt. Luke Castellan." The girls gasped. "Why are you blaming him!? He's done nothing wrong!" Annabeth screamed in rage. "Think about it. Who else would be willing or would have the opportunity? He hates the gods and that is not a hidden fact. He blatantly shows his bitterness for his father and has even stated that they need to change or leave. He also suspiciously started to use a sword that was half celestial bronze and half mortal steel. Now why would he need that? If he's just killing monsters then why would he need a blade with the ability to kill monsters, demigods and humans?"

Annabeth opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. Trying to find a reason Luke would need a blade like that. After a few minutes she smiled smugly. Like she had just won the noble peace prize and couldn't wait to rub it in her rivals face. Hades and Pandora, just sat back and watched the two.

"If He is the actual thief then why was he at camp? Why would he return to camp?" She asked. "Well that's obvious. He needs to be inconspicuous. He can't attract attention or act out of character and if he just upped and left he'd become number one suspect." At this point Hades decided to make an iris-message to Olympus and summon a meeting. He believed that what I was about to say would be very important. Zeus was going to say something, but Hades stopped him with a hand.

"That doesn't mean Luke did it! Pandora could've stole the weapons and came here to be inconspicuous." Annabeth yelled. Zeus turned his attention and spotted the three demigods. "Yes, but there are major holes in your claim. Let me point them out. Pandora, as we all know didn't know who she was. Her mother kept it a secret. Not only does that mean she didn't know of the weapons existence, but also it means she wouldn't have motive. Luke on the other hand knew of the gods from a young age and has motive. He hates the gods because they ignore their children. So many unclaimed children. So many bitter, angry, neglected and hurt children who don't even know who they are. Also when Thalia nearly died, Zeus did nothing, but turn her into a tree. That is what set him off. That's his motive. To make the gods realize what they're doing to the demigods." I let that sink in then continued.

"Now to pick up an earlier point Pandora didn't know of the gods or weapons existence. How could she steal the bolt and helm if she didn't even know where they were or that they existed? Luke, however did. He knew where they were and he was there on the winter solstice and Pandora was not. He had opportunity and she didn't." Ares, seeing where this was going tried to flash out only for Zeus to give his son a glare that promised pain if he so much as blinked out of turn. "Lastly, inconspicuousness. As I asked and explained earlier, why would Pandora need to come down here? Hades didn't know about her at the time. Neither did Zeus. She could've stayed in her apartment while the they just thought Poseidon used a random demigod. She doesn't have a reason to be inconspicuous, because no one suspected her. How could they? She didn't exist until Alecto found her in the school." I paused and took in the look on Annabeth's face. So many emotions in such a small amount of time.

"Luke in the other hand needed to be inconspicuous. He couldn't let the gods or campers suspect him. He had to return to camp." I finished explaining. "That's all very understandable, but what about the weapons? The boy couldn't hide them at camp." Athena stated. "Obviously. No, he was caught. One of the gods caught him." I said. "Which one and why wasn't he brought to Olympus?" Apollo asked. "Easy answer. Another god was sent to look. The only god dumb enough to be tricked into betraying his father. The only one with such a small amount of brain cells they would think the plan would obviously work." I said. Everyone was on the edge of their seats in anticipation and suspense. Who could it be?

"The only one who would actually benefit and get strong enough to overthrow the king from a war among the gods." Everyone's heads turned to Ares who was sweating more than a predator trying to lie to Chris Hansen. "You." Zeus growled like a monster. "I sent you personally and this is what happens?" The king of the gods rose to his full height and Ares coward into his throne like he was trying to Kitty Pryde through it. "Where is my bolt?" Zeus asked. "I. I don't have it." Ares stammered. "Then where is it?" He pointed to the mist screen. "One moment." I said then disappeared in a flash of flames. I then reappeared in the Olympian throne room holding a blue book bag. I unzipped it and brought out a cylinder of bronze the crackled with electricity.

"How did you come into possession of it?" Zeus asked taking it from the boy. I looked to Ares. "Should I explain or would you like to?" After a minute Ares explained how he left it with the demigod and the plan Luke and himself had cooked up. "Then that means you have my helm." Hades said with anger. Ares brought a black skull cap from his back pocket and it shifted into the Helm of Darkness. He tossed it to me. I caught it and teleported to the underworld and gave it to Hades. The god of the underworld placed the helm on his throne's armrest.

"You have done me a service demigods. I thank you." He said. "Um, excuse me. Can I have my mom back?" Pandora asked with sass. Hades glared, but snapped his fingers and a woman appeared. Shock, anger and so much more coursed through me. She looked nearly identical to her. The only differences were that this woman was taller and looked older. She had a streak of blonde in her hair and her eyes were hazel. I composed myself and cleared my throat. Pandora looked at me from her crying mother hug and nodded.

"Mom, It's time for us to go. We're leaving." She brought the woman over to me and I grabbed Pandora and Annabeth's shoulders. "You need to play with Cerberus." I told Hades before we disappeared. We reappeared in camp. "Go warn Chiron of Luke. I would like a word with your mom." I said. Pandora was going to argue, but with a quick flash of my aura she was running. Annabeth has already left. I turned to the woman and waited for her to dry her eyes.

"What did you want to talk about?" She asked once she stabilized herself. "I need to know where a woman is." I said. "How do you know I know this woman?" That's where Pandora got her sass. "You might know her quite well or you might not. You do know her nevertheless though." I stated. "Who is she?"

"Sally Jackson."