Hade's palace was even more intimidating up close and after a little stroll through the Garden of Persephone, where they were very careful not to touch anything, much less eat the fruit, lest they stay in the Underworld forever. Grover had to be forced out though.
And when they finally entered the throne room that looked every bit like the one from Percy's dream except the throne was occupied.
Hades was at least three metres tall, dressed in black silk robes with a crown of braided gold on his jet-black hair. He wasn't as bulked or as strong looking as Ares but he radiated power and he was certainly intimidating, especially as he sat atop a throne fused of human bones.
"You are brave to come here, Son of Poseidon," he said by way of greeting. "After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish."
Cressida had to remind herself that this was not the time nor the place to agree that it was probably the foolish option.
Percy stepped forward and bowed. "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests."
Hades raised a brow as he sat forward in his throne. "Only two requests? Arrogant child. As if you have not already taken enough. Speak, then. It amuses me to not strike you dead yet."
Cressida could sense his nerves from where she stood and she was very grateful when Annabeth took her hand, equally as nervous for her friend. The daughter of wine was also the one to reach forward and squeeze Percy's arm, a gesture of encouragement and a reminder to keep going.
"Lord Hades, look, sir, there can't be a war among the gods. It would be...bad."
Forget reassurance. Oh, how she had never wanted to smack him more.
"Really bad," Grover added helpfully....it wasn't that helpful.
"Return Zeus's master bolt to me," Percy asked. "Please, sir. Let me carry it to Olympus."
Hades' eyes grew dangerously bright. "You dare keep up this pretence, after what you have done?"
Percy glanced back at them, all of them confused, but Cressida just looked as if she was putting something together.
"Um...Uncle, you keep saying 'after what I've done.' what exactly have I done?" Percy asked but that seemed to be the wrong question as the throne room shook with a tremor so strong that the people upstairs in L.A. could feel it.
Debris fell from the ceiling, doors bursting open along the walls as skeletal warriors marched in, hundreds of them, blocking all the exits.
"Do you think I want war, godling?!" Hades bellowed.
"You are Lord of the Dead," Percy said slowly. "A war would expand your kingdom, right?"
"A typical thing for my brothers to say!" Hades snapped back. "Do you think I need more subjects? Did you not see the sprawl of Asphodel?"
"Well..." Percy stuttered.
"Have you any idea how much my kingdom had swollen in this past century alone, how many subdivisions I've had to open?!" he shouted as Cressida rushed to stand in front of Percy, blocking him from Hades. "More security ghouls. Traffic problems at the judgement pavilion. Double overtime for the staff. I used to be a rich god, Percy Jackson. I control all the precious metals under the earth. But my expenses!"
"Charon wants a pay raise!" Percy blurted and this time she did smack him on the back of the head.
"Don't get me started on Charon!" Hades yelled. "He's been impossible ever since he discovered Italian suits! Problems everywhere, and I've got to handle all of them personally. The commute time alone from the palace to the gates is enough to drive me insane! And the dead just keep arriving. No, godling. I need no help getting subjects! I did not ask for this war."
"Forgive him, Lord Hades," Cressida spoke. "He is new to this world. He was at Camp Half-blood for barely a week. He doesn't know your history as he should. I do, My Lord. I am Cressida Lynn, daughter of Dionysus."
The Lord of the Dead ran her up and down as if evaluating her words.
"I am aware of who you are, Miss Lynn," he announced, and she swallowed nervously because it felt as if he was about to make a verdict. "Dionysus is one of the more.... agreeable Olympians, I suppose. I will hear you speak."
Cressida didn't hesitate to bow, taking a step towards the throne. "Thank you, Lord Hades," she said as she stood tall, no evidence of her earlier exhaustion in her posture or her voice. She really was the daughter of the god of theatre. "My Lord, I don't know who took the master bolt or your helm, but I know it wasn't Percy Jackson. My father is the god of theatre, I know when someone is being ingenuine. And Percy is not being ingenuine when he says he has no knowledge of their locations. And, I believe that through my father, you would know that it would take a lot, and I mean a lot, for me to defend someone the way I have."
Hades nodded, a gesture that he understood and for her to keep going.
"Lord Hades, I swear to you on the River Styx, that we are not colluding with Poseidon to get you to support him."
Annabeth and Grover's eyes widened in shock. Making that oath was dangerous in more than one way, but Cressida had been careful about her wording, since Poseidon had colluded with them to get them here, saving them in the Mississippi River, giving them the pearls in Santa Monica through the Nereid.
Hades stood after a time when Cressida did not drop dead.
"I believe your words to be true enough, Cressida Lynn," he proclaimed. "Perhaps it was wrong of me to set my Furies on the Son of Poseidon at his Yancy Academy-"
"That was you?!" Percy exclaimed, Annabeth elbowing him to stay silent.
"Seeing as he didn't steal my helm, however, you have lied to me about one thing," he finished, and Cressida was anxious, very anxious.
"I'm afraid I don't follow, Lord Hades," she replied, and the room resumed its shaking.
"You claim to come here for the master bolt, you came to accuse me of theft when you already possess it! You bring it here to mock me? To threaten me?!" he thundered.
"But we didn't!" Percy insisted.
"Open your pack then!" Hades dared and they all turned to Percy, the backpack on his shoulder suddenly seeming a million pounds heavier. He slung it off his shoulder and unzipped it.
It was about double the length of a ruler, a long metal cylinder that was spiked on both ends and humming with energy.
Zeus' master bolt.
And there was only one person who could've put that there.
"Percy, how -" Annabeth began.
"I-I don't know. I don't understand," he said. Cressida did.
"You heroes are always the same," Hades said. "Your pride makes you foolish, thinking you could bring such a weapon before me. I did not ask for Zeus's master bolt, but since it is here, you will yield it to me. I am sure it will make an excellent bargaining tool."
"Lord Hades-"
"This is all a mistake," Percy interjected, cutting off Cressida.
"A mistake?!" Hades roared and the skeletons armed their weapons. From high above, there was a fluttering of leathery wings, and the three Furies swooped down to perch on the back of their master's throne. "There is no mistake," Hades said. "I know why you have come – I know the real reason you brought the bolt. You came to bargain for her."
Hades loosed a ball of gold fire from his palm and it exploded on the steps in front of Percy where a woman was frozen in a shower of gold. Cressida could only assume that it was Percy's mother, they looked a lot alike actually. The same hair, same face shape. Perhaps, and quite possibly the only difference between Percy and his mother would be their eyes if hers were open. And even though she was frozen in a state of metamorphosis, the stories and general feeling she got from Percy's mother were warm.
"Yes," Hades said with satisfaction. "I took her. I knew, Percy Jackson, that you would come to bargain with me eventually. Give me the bolt, and perhaps I will let her go. She is not dead, you know. Not yet. But if you displease me, that will change."
They were silent, letting Percy have the time to make the decision. But whatever plan he'd seemed to form in his head, Hades already knew.
"Ah, the pearls," Hades said, his voice making their blood run cold. "What a shame. You do realize each only protects a single person. Try to take your mother, then, little godling. And which of your friends will you leave behind to spend eternity with me? Go on. Choose. Or give me the backpack and accept my terms."
Percy turned to look at his three companions, all their faces grim.
"Percy we were tricked," Cressida said. "Set up by the same person who gave us that bag and started this whole godly squabble in the first place."
"Yes, but why?" Annabeth asked. "And the voice in the pit -"
"I don't know yet," Percy said. "But I intend to ask."
"Decide, boy!" Hades yelled.
"Percy," Grover said as he put his hand on Percy's shoulder. "You can't give him the bolt."
"I know that," Percy said, but before Grover could offer himself, Cressida bit her lips hard.
"I'll stay," she blurted.
"No, I will!" Grover insisted.
"No, I will!" Annabeth protested.
"No, you won't," Cressida said softly, tears in her eyes as she left no room for argument. "Grover has to search for Pan, Annabeth has her monuments to build, and Percy has to save his mother. Go. I'll stay."
She couldn't bring herself to say the words, leave me behind, it would completely break her if she did. Her first friends leaving her behind the way everyone else inevitably did.
Percy had been awed by the way all three of them had been willing to sacrifice themselves to save his mother. But his eyes locked with Cressida's the longest before he announced, "I know what to do."
And he pulled the four pearls out of his pocket. "Take these."
He handed Annabeth and Grover a pearl but when he reached Cressida, she took a step back as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
"No," she protested, "Percy, you have to save your mother."
Percy seemed equally as choked up as he took her hand and dropped a pearl into the middle of her palm. "You're part of this team," he said as he met her eyes again. "You're my friend and I have your back. I'm not leaving you behind."
Her jewelled eyes leaked more tears as she stared down at the pearl in her hand.
"Godling?" Hades called, the smug look on his face long gone.
"I'll find your helmet, Uncle," Percy promised. "I'll return it. Remember about Charon's pay raise."
"Do not defy me -"
"And it wouldn't hurt to play with Cerberus once in a while. He likes red rubber balls," Percy interrupted.
"Percy Jackson, you will not-"
"Now guys!" Percy yelled and they smashed the pearls at their feet just as Hades ordered,
"Destroy them!"
Nothing happened at first as the army of skeletons rushed forward, the Furies lunged and opened fire. But when the pearls finally exploded with a burst of green light and a gust of fresh sea wind, Percy, Annabeth and Grover were already starting to float off the ground, encased in a bubble, Cressida cried out a bullet hit her arm. Something that wouldn't have happened if she threw down her pearl at the same time as them because the spears and bullets sparked harmlessly off the bubbles as they floated up.
"Cressida, are you ok?" Annabeth called as she sat in her bubble rather than stood, holding her arm as blood seeped through her fingers.
"I'm fine," she insisted though her voice was laced with pain.
"Look up! We're going to crash!" Grover exclaimed as they looked at the stalactites on the ceiling of the Underworld that looked as if they would pop their bubbles and skewer them like kebabs. The sleeve of the jacket Cressida wore was beginning to become soaked with her blood as she leaned against the bubble, seemingly giving up.
"How do you control these things?" Annabeth shouted.
"I don't think you do!" Percy shouted back and the bubbles slammed into the ceiling as they screamed, except Cressida who simply just closed her eyes.
And when they opened them again, she was cold and her arm was screaming as the bubble popped and they ended up in the middle of Los Angeles Bay.
And after Percy scared away a shark and helped haul everyone onto a buoy, Annabeth and Grover took a breath before they began swimming for the shore as Percy turned to Cressida who was clutching her arm and the buoy.
"You hesitated to throw down that pearl. Why?" he asked as he watched her peel her jacket off and observe the deep gash left in her arm by a bullet grazing it.
"Because you should've saved your mother," she returned as Percy jumped into the water, seeming to be standing even though this water was too deep for anyone to stand. He was next to her as he knocked her hand out of the way, tying the dry sleeve of her jacket around the wound before wrapping the rest of it around her body in a makeshift sling.
"Why?" he pressed.
"Can you ever stop asking me questions?!"
"I wouldn't have to if you gave me the entire answer when I ask the first time."
"Firstly, you don't need to know everything. And second, if I promise to tell you everything later when we survive this, will you leave it alone so we can get out of this ocean that's making my arm hurt more."
He furrowed his brows for a second before digging into the same blue bag that held the lightning bolt, grateful that it stayed dry. And he dug out the last piece of ambrosia they had and he handed it to her as she ate it in two bites.
"Considering our deadline is today at midnight," Percy said as she swallowed. "I'll take you up on your promise, since you asked so nicely."
She glared at him. "Fish Face.
"Grape Girl."
But they both smiled at the sound of the insults.
"Just one question," Percy said, instantly wiping the smile off Cressida's face. "How did you know it was Ares? It just felt like you figured it out before we did."
"I started doubting him from the second I supposedly lost our little staring contest back at the diner," she explained, answering probably the only question she'd allow as she waited for the ambrosia to heal her arm.
"You were winning, weren't you?"
She nodded. "I wasn't even at half power, much less all of my strength. Ares put me to sleep because he didn't want to run the risk that I won and that I got into his head to see the fact that he was the one behind all of this. That he was the god who has turned. And then his backpack mysterious appeared with you after we left the Lotus Casino where you threw it out. The bolt hadn't appeared yet so I just thought it was me being paranoid and not Ares being a manipulative ass."
"Then let's go kick his manipulative ass."
And Cressida grinned as they began following their friends back to shore.