"Done with your talk?" Hades raised an eyebrow as I walked back to the table.
"Yeah, I think so, anyway," I sent a glance at my mom, who was still watching the cars pass with a small smile on her face. I turned back to the Olympians, who were looking at me expectantly. Figures. "What's up?"
"Well, we thought it would be prudent to update you on the Luke situation," Hades said, slurping some spaghetti. He pointed his fork at me. "You know, since you outed him and all."
"Yeah, I was kind of wondering about that," I admitted, settling back into my seat next to Aphrodite. I graciously accepted some more of the delicious garlic bread. Aphrodite passed me the chili flakes. "Did you find him?"
"Oh, yeah, finding him was easy as pie. We're gods, nephew. I'm pretty sure most of us knew where he was halfway through that council meeting on the solstice. Well, besides Dionysus, I think—the fat lard just lazes around, drunk. I don't even know what my little brother was thinking," Hades admonished, and we both laughed lightly.
Hestia nudged him, shooting him a stern look. "Right, right. Back on track. What I mean is, we've always known his location. It's just a matter of what we wanted to do with that information."
"Which is…"
"Nothing," Hestia answered as my jaw dropped.
"Huh? How—why—"
My incoherent rambling was cut off by Hades. "Kid, let me give you a little history lesson. This isn't the first time my dear, chopped-up father has started stirring from the other side," Hades said seriously. It was kind of hard to focus on what he was saying with the meatball on his moving fork, but I managed.
"He does this every couple of centuries. My father is the type of guy to whisper in the ears of mortals, driving them to him at risk of going mad, getting them to do a thing or two, and voila! He kills them off. We're sort of used to it at this point. Now, in the past, we'd intercept these hosts and stop them, but it's becoming clear that doing this sort of thing is only helping my father get stronger. He feeds on their life force and whatnot. The poor mortals kick the bucket after, and he's that much closer to reforming as a result. The faster we kill them, the faster we help him heal, in a weird way."
"So…"
"So," Hestia added, sipping from a glass of wine. Her lips were tinged dark red, like the petals of a rose in full bloom. "We aren't going to stop Luke from doing what he wants. In fact, we're going to turn a completely blind eye to it."
"Are you serious?" I said, a nervous laugh bubbling in my throat. "You want him to bring your dead dad back? Like, the crazy, killer one? The one that would instantly declare war on us? Am I missing something?"
"Yes. That way, we can put him away for good," Hades explained grimly. "This time, we'll scatter his remains in a way that he'll be dormant for centuries before even thinking about coming back. If we take out Luke, we lose all leads to him. It's a tactical move. If we keep going like this, he'll just prolong his return even more and cause destruction in the meantime. We agreed, as a council, that we need to let him rise so we can take him out."
"What about all of the problems this is going to cause?" I pointed out. Rightly so, I think. I can kind of concede about the tactical advantage, but there are too many variables here that we just can't always monitor. "You're turning a blind eye to someone who literally wants all of the Olympians dead! Uncle, you're underestimating him! We have absolutely no idea what he's capable of. Realistically speaking, he could do more damage than good! And let's say all of this works out, how confident are you guys? Do you really think you could take him out without suffering some pretty heavy hits on our side?"
"I understand that you're worried about us, so I won't take that as an insult," Hades warned. "But we know what we're doing. We wouldn't bring him back if we didn't. This is the best way to ensure peace later."
"What about now!" I snapped, slapping a hand on the table. "Luke is going to take the fight to everyone. Demigods and humans alike are going to get caught up in the crossfire of this! Can't you see? To potentially save lives later, you're risking hundreds, thousands, maybe millions right now!"
"Don't speak out of line," Hades said calmly, but I felt the release of mana into the air. His dark eyes darkened even more, and shadows started forming on the table. "Kid, I like you, but you can't be doubting your superiors like this. You don't get to call the shots on this kind of shit. We do. Our word is absolute."
I groaned, rubbing my temples. I could feel the early signs of a tension headache make themselves known in my body. "You claim not to be as dramatic as my other uncle, but here you are, trying to convince me to let my friends walk to their deaths. This is bullshit."
"What friends?" Hades snarked, his voice dripping with disdain. "The ones waiting at camp while you prance around with seahorses and starfishes? If you're worried about us using demigods, maybe you should take a long, hard look in the mirror first, nephew. You started it."
The words hit harder than I wanted to admit, but before I could respond, a heavy weight pressed down on the room. It wasn't just his tone—it was him. Hades had a way of making his presence known, and right now, it felt like the air had turned thick and oppressive like we were sitting in the eye of a storm.
Even Hestia, ever gentle and calm, went quiet, her attempt to mediate cut off mid-sentence. Hades leaned forward, his dark eyes blazing as he snarled, "And don't compare me to him ever again."
The venom in his voice was enough to make me stiffen in my seat. The disdain he felt for my uncle wasn't just surface-level. It was deep and bitter, and it practically radiated off him like heat from a forge.
"So, this is it, then?" I said, still angry. How dare he compare me to the gods? They want us to march to their deaths! All I fucking did was read books and train! "You're going to risk our lives for a hunch. Everyone at camp, is what, just expendable to you?"
"Yes, goddamnit," Hades snapped. He stood up abruptly, his voice deepening. I started to hear whispers coming out of the ground. "They're fucking demigods. Demigods. Your parents poop you guys out like there's a conveyor belt in the bedroom. You're heroes in training—what else do you train for? Battles like this! Chances like this! You may think it's callous, but it's how the world works! Kronos is going to use demigods as fodder. We, as gods, can't just go in and massacre them. Other demigods, though? Free fucking range, Percy, free range. You can go fight and challenge whoever you want. Kill who you want! It's simple—the gods need demigods to fight for them!"
"So, we can die in return?" I roared, standing up as well. [Pyrokinetic] activated itself, and my body lit up in another pillar of green fire. "No! We aren't anyone's toy soldiers! If the Olympians want our help, they'll need to shape up! Why would the camp fight for people they haven't even seen or met before!"
"BECAUSE IT"S YOUR JOB!" Hades lost it, the table snapping and exploding as if it had been caught in a gigantic hydraulic press. "YOU DEMIGODS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE ONES TO DO IT!"
My aura roared even louder, pressing back against Hades' building power. I shook my head, "No. I refuse to let innocent lives get caught in the crossfire! You all have easily enough power to monitor him without putting everyone else in danger. This is selfish and you know it."
"Forget selfishness. This isn't about the gods," Hades groaned from his spot. "Percy, that isn't the point. You aren't understanding. Demigods have to be the ones to fight in this war. You're the only ones that can move so freely."
"Why can't it be like the Trojan War or something?" I fired back. "Why can't gods and humans fight side by side? You can't seriously expect me to sit back and watch you use us like puppets when half of those kids don't even know what they're fighting for!"
"You like chess, right? Think about it like chess! Demigods are all the pawns here," Hades urged, shadows pooling in his hands. "Even though I like you, even though you're strong, you're a rook at best. At the end of the day, though, we have to protect the top dog—the king. The gods. If the gods fall, Percy, forget just humans, the entire world will collapse into itself. It's a small price to pay to prevent the destruction of life as we know it."
I sighed, "How can you say that? How can you honestly say that? What if it were your children on the line?"
"They aren't," Hades said calmly. "I made sure of that."
"How selfish is that?" I reiterated, some fire dripping onto the ground. The green flame slowly sizzled a hole into the wooden floor. "How unfair is that?"
"Both of you," Hestia said, taking a deep breath. "SIT DOWN!"
FWOOOOOOM!
I gasped out as the flames left my body. It felt like my whole soul had been yanked out—the feeling of ice-cold water being dunked on me filled my entire being as my teeth chattered together. The flames were yanked towards Hestia, twirling and churning like a fluorescent dragon in the middle of Chinatown.
They swirled around Hestia as she clapped her hands loudly. The fire exploded outward in a monstrous cloud, rushing towards Hades.
Smoothly, Hades twirled his hand, and a pure black staff melted out of the shadows. "Ha!"
He spun his staff, and Hestia's flames bounced off of him, barreling towards me with even more speed than before. I raised a hand to block it, but before I could even react, my body was shielded by a pink screen.
A warm feeling of adoration bloomed inside of my body—not my emotions, mind you—and the fire sizzled out around me, the pink shield not even budging.
Hades growled out from across the table, his torso dotted with tiny pink shards. They glinted in the sunlight like glass shards.
"Don't touch him," Aphrodite said, deadly serious. Her outstretched hand was twitching, and her fingertips were covered by glowing balls of pink mana. "If you hurt him, I'll kill you."
"Let's all take a deep breath," Now it was my turn to try to play the peacemaker. It was all fun and games when just Hades and I were throwing our weight around, but an all-out brawl between three gods and a superpowered teen?
"We don't agree on this, uncle, but you'd have to be out of your mind to push this," I warned. "These innocent kids don't know what's going on. They don't understand. It isn't fair to them."
"Then, what do you propose, nephew?" Hades said tiredly, some ichor poking out of his shirt. The glass shards whirred and more liquid splurged out. "You don't like it, but it's true. One way or another, the fight will come to demigods. You know this."
I sighed, my mind racing through the possible solutions. "I won't let little kids fight until they have to. Their lives have already been turned upside down. They haven't even had time to learn and grow—we know they'd die instantly. What you're talking about, it's the equivalent of using us as cannon fodder."
"They may not have a choice, my champion," Hestia called out from her seat, her hands still raised. "Not if the fight comes to them. If a war truly erupts, there's no guarantee that anyone will be safe."
"That's different. Uncle is talking about forcing quests upon them, making them fight without reason—I won't let it happen," I repeated. I screwed my eyes shut. All I could think about was Malcolm being forced to fight a monster twice his size just because the gods wanted some intel. He'd get crushed. "No. Let me handle it."
"You?" All three Olympians said at once.
"Me. The Child of Prophecy," I said bitingly. "I'll carry out all of your dirty work, as long as you keep the camp out of this."
"Percy, we can't guarantee that the fight won't come to camp," Hestia warned me. Her fiery eyes looked at me pleadingly. "This sort of stress could ruin you."
"Then I'll tell Chiron to train them harder. If I let children die for me, I'm no hero," I said slowly. The finishing ideas started to connect in my head. "It'll be like I'm on call. The gods can give me quests related to my grandfather and I'll carry them out. That way, we both win."
— - —
Quest Complete! [HIDDEN QUEST] {Mr. Worldwide!}
[Quest Prompt]: You just couldn't help yourself, huh? In a lastditch attempt to save your friends from the tide of war, you've offered yourself as an 'on-call' hero for the gods!
[Total Rewards Earned]:
[+][15][AP]!
[+][100,000][EXP]!
[+][Title][Divine Consultant]
— - —