The Reaping [malexmale]

Chapter Seventeen

"I'm on Ambrosius's side in this one. Hades is a coward. He's going to hide behind the rest of us while the Titans lay waste to all the realms in existence. He's dropping his baggage on the rest of the universe." He ranted, making Ambrosius nod in agreement. Raven shook his head.

"Either way, that's not our problem. Our problem is keeping the Titans at bay. Hades drugged them up big time on grigoria and even ordered their bones to be smashed. So I think he bought us a bit more time to start planning. Are we still in contact with the Sons of Hades?" He asked, turning to Ambrosius, who nodded.

"Charon and Blaine are on standby if we need anything." He informed. Raven nodded.

"Good. We'll need it in case something comes up. As of right now, we need to make plans. And back up plans. And back ups for our back ups." He explained. Jaques agreed.

"He's right. As of right now, we're on red alert. The Titans could break out at any time, grigoria or no grigoria. Have we heard anything from Zelios in the past few hours?" He asked Ambrosius, who nodded.

"He told Charon that the Titans are currently out of submission. He checked on Cronus and Rhea himself. Cronus has been sleeping the past few days. He can't stay conscious. Rhea has been vomiting, then passing out. Right now, they're weaker than infants." He explained. Jaques appeared reassured by that.

"They don't sound like much a threat to me," Bali admitted with a shrug, making Wednesday frown in disapproval, "What? It's true. If they can't even stay conscious, what makes you think they can just go charging around taking over entire realms?" Ambrosius frowned.

"You obviously don't know the Titans. They're masters of deception. Prometheus managed to move around without being detected for the longest time. It wasn't until he was talked into kidnapping all of Hades's sons by his stupid brother, Epimetheus, that someone picked up on his presence. He'd been hiding in the Labyrinth all that time. Who knows? Maybe those aren't even the Titans in the cells. Maybe they're just dummies and the real Titans are hiding back in the Labyrinth." He said, making me look at him in confusion.

"Labyrinth?" I asked. Ambrosius nodded.

"The Labyrinth is just that. A Labyrinth made for the sole purpose of trapping people inside for eternity or until they go insane. It was built by a man named Daedalus. He was ordered by King Minos to build the Labyrinth to trap his wife's ugly son, the Minotaur. Once he was finished, Daedalus was forced to live in the Labyrinth with his son, Icarus. At some point, Daedalus wanted to make it so that they could escape the Labyrinth, so he created wings from wax and feathers. Daddy tells Icarus not to fly toward the sun, Icarus has a learning disorder and flies toward the sun, falls to his death, Daedalus forced back into the Labyrinth where he probably died."

"Probably?" Raven echoed. Ambrosius shrugged.

"Nobody went in there looking for him. They went in there looking for what he left behind." He replied. Raven shrugged, admitting defeat on that conversation topic.

"Anyway," Jaques said slowly, shooting me a warning glare to pay more attention to the subject at hand, "Ambrosius could be right. Isn't there a way to tell if those are the real Titans?" Ambrosius nodded.

"We need to toss Hades's ass down there to indentify him," He said, then paused and snorted as if the idea was ludicrous, "Except Hades hasn't actually gone to Tartarus since he tossed Zelios down there as an infant."

"He tossed his own son into Tartarus?" I asked in surprise. That didn't sound like the Hades I had met. But apparently it surprised no one else as Ambrosius nodded.

"He was a coward and didn't want to be a real father, so when he found out his mistress was pregnant, after she gave birth, he tossed the infant into Tartarus. The only reason Zelios is alive is because his mother ran in after him and was killed protecting him. Hades was forced to take Zelios under his wing because he was guilty for what he'd done. Since then, Hades has steered clear of Tartarus because he's terrified of his own parents." He explained. I frowned.