Hades's palace was the anti-Olympus and he wasn't subtle about it. The place was nearly identical; large, black marble stairs led up to an enormous glittering obsidian mansion. The portico extending off the mansion was made to match the marble black stairsInstead of fluffy cotton candy colored clouds surrounding the palace, there were only thick clouds of ash. On either sides of the building were breathtaking arrangements of flowers, bushes and small trees, even more exotic and wonderful than the ones surrounding Hera's cabin at Camp Half-Blood. Even from a good ten feet away I could smell their fruity and alluring perfume; the flowers were practically begging for me to come closer. 

   "Don't touch or eat anything. If you do you'll be trapped here forever," Percy grabbed my arm and dragged me towards the entrance of the castle.

   Strangely enough, the doors to the devil's palace were open. His guards were skeletons wearing, what looked to be, confederate soldier uniforms from the Civil War. The skeletons remained frozen in place even as we walked right past them. They didn't say a word and I wondered if the god of death was already anticipating our arrival.

    The entrance to the interior of his home was not a modest one. Imagine the nicest house you've ever seen in your entire life, like, one from MTV Cribs. Except the house of Hades was ten times larger and decorated with the finest jewels, art and furniture in the world. 

The entire room surrounding us was bronze and copper, even the floors. They were so polished you could see every detail of your reflection staring in awe right back at you. 

There were works of art covering nearly every wall, each complimenting the next perfectly. There was one in particular that caught my eye. The familiar painting hung comfortably over the crackling fireplace in the center of the room right in front of us. It was a woman reaching out for her husband as a demon dragged her away. The woman's face was contorted in pain and raw agony as she cried out for her lover. Emotion seemed to pour out of the masterpiece itself as it came alive before my very eyes. I knew immediately it was a symbol of emotion and heartbreak; the vivid colors and precise technique were too eerily familiar to be mistaken or mixed up with any other artist. 

It was my mother's painting.

"And to what do I owe the absolute pleasure of having three godlings in my home?"A venomous voice snapped me out of my trance, 

    I met the eyes of the man who had disrupted and ruined my life. They were tar black and glistened with pure hatred. Being in Hades' presence was soothing. I felt calm, sleepy almost. 

 Oddly enough, the man's evil eyes didn't match his appearance whatsoever. Truly, I don't know what I expected of Hades, but it wasn't this. The guy looked like Mick Jagger and Steven Tyler had a love child. I didn't know gods could rock ripped skinny jeans, leather vests and band tees.

 Then again, I'd seen Poseidon in flip flops and a pink Hawaiian shirt. Anything was possible.

    Hades's hair was dark with a few stray grey hairs here and there, curly and spun off in all directions, making him look like a cross between a rocker and a mad scientist. His coal black eyes studied me with caution as he stroked his goatee.

    "Surely you did not come all the way down to the underworld to rudely stare, did you?" Hades chuckled darkly, beaconing us to come closer with his heavily adorned finger.

    "Come, we have much to discuss."

    Discuss? This was coming from the same guy who sent his fifteen year old son and a blood thirsty monster to kill me in the span of one week. Now he wanted to sit in front of his fireplace, sing Kumbayah and have a civil conversation. 

I half expected the guy to barbecue me on sight. This couldn't be the same Hades from the myths. Wasn't he supposed to have blue flames for hair or two horns on his head and a tail?

    I cautiously took a seat on a plush scarlet colored couch facing directly opposite of his elaborate gothic style reading chair.

    The god stared at me once more before turning to face the entrance hall where we had come from. Hades snapped his fingers and two confederate soldiers rushed to his side.

     "I'll have a drink. Whiskey. Neat. And for the...children," Hades stared at us blankly, waiting for a response.

     "Uh," Paris cleared her throat, "we're minors, Lord Hades."

     Hades rolled his eyes in response and waved off the soldier. "Children these days are no fun. Three thousand years ago everything was incredibly different. You see-"

    "You think I stole your spear," I wasted no time on trivial questions or small talk. In fact, I had absolutely zero interest in having the "back when I was a boy" talk with my least favorite uncle.

    Hades's eyes lit up with interest. "Ah, yes. You're here about that little issue. Well, as it just so happens, daughter of Zeus, my spear did happen to go missing the day before your seventeenth birthday. I couldn't ignore that minor detail, could I?"

     "That's a coincidence," I rolled my eyes.

      "Gods don't believe in coincidences, child."

     "That doesn't make any sense," Percy intervened. "Orion hadn't even been claimed. She didn't even know you existed so why would she want your spear?"

    Hades sighed. "Must I explain everything to you?"

    We stared at him blankly.

    "Fine," he dramatically groaned. "Correct me if I'm wrong but you've been having nightmares recently, yes?"

    I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "Yes, sir."

    "And when did they begin to intensify? When did you begin to see the patron animals of my brothers? And the souls of the damned?" Hades was virtually describing my nightmares word for word.

    "Three days before my birthday. I've been having them ever since." 

     "Demigod dreams are very powerful. They are warnings, serving as guides or signals."

     "What's your point," I said and Hades turned to face me with small red flames in his eyes. "...sir."

    "You are the thief responsible for your father's missing bolt, Poseidon's missing trident and my s'pear."

    I shook my head in a mixture of disbelief, anger and awe. "That's not possible."

    Hades rose to his feet, walking over to where I sat paralyzed in fear. I half expected him to strike me down right then and there.

    "Allow me," he opened his hands as if to show he would do me no harm. "I am able to show you what you've done, if you'd let me." He sounded impatient. 

I looked to Percy for help, not knowing if I was able to trust Hades. He silently nodded as if to say, 'Go for it.' I reluctantly gave Hades my silent blessing.

    The god placed a single thumb in the center of my forehead, sending me to the darkest depths of my subconscious mind.

    At first, everything was foggy. It seemed as though I was floating through a cloud on Olympus. Either that, or Hades had stuck me in a giant pile of cotton candy for eternity.

    Suddenly I could see myself standing in the center of Hades' palace. I was in a dreamlike state, watching myself from above, unable to speak. My body stood in the center of Hades' living room but it was empty. Even from where I was floating, I could clearly see the tension rising in my stressed body. My eyes were frantically scanning the room for something, but the look on my face was unsatisfied.

    What was I doing?

    I watched myself duck behind a black stone column, avoiding the gazes of the skeleton soldiers patrolling Hades's mansion. Then, I began to furiously sprint up a flight of spiraling stairs. 

There were multiple hallways branching out from the top of the staircase. Some looked bleak and empty while other corridors stretched out into an infinite black abyss. I was panting heavily, searching in every direction until something caught my eye. 

Robotically, I jolted up and began walking towards a charcoal grey corridor to the right. I looked like I knew exactly where to go.

I ended up in front of a set of two heavy wooden doors painted black. The doorknobs were heavy metal handles in the shape of two Greek omegas. Then I watched helplessly as my past self broke down the doors with one hard kick.

    Wait, I could do that? Since when? 

   Through the doors was a crimson painted room that resembled a fancy Greek art exhibit. Except, it wasn't art at all. Dozens of war spoils in glass cases lined the room, each paired with their individual names and dates etched onto bronze labels. Skin of Nemean Lion: Hercules 12 B.C, Wood of Argo: Jason 1000 B.C. 

 I wasn't too interested in the ancient souvenirs, though. There was a loaded book case in the center of the room that caught my attention. I watched as I pulled a random book on the shelf. The bookcase instantly began to glide to the left. Behind it was a secret passageway.

    Beyond the bookcase was a throne room similar to the one on Olympus, except it was just one single throne in the center of the dark room. As I got closer, I realized this one was made of bones. Thousands of human skulls and bones made up the throne, sending a freezing chill through my body even in my dreamlike state. 

There was a holster to the right of the throne, holding what looked to be a two pronged bronze fork. Hades's spear. I took the spear into my hands and aimed it at the blood colored wall.

    ZAP!

    Red light flared from the tips of the spear and left, what looked to be, an enormous hole in Hades's wall. However, as I inched closer and closer to my past self, I realized it wasn't a regular old hole, but a black hole. 

A portal.

The vortex emitted a cloud of violet and ash colored smoke as it churned violently. The inside of it crackled and hissed like a cable T.V without signal before it finally simmered and began to create a solid and clear image.

    A blonde girl stood at the opposite end of the portal. She was wearing jeans and an old white t-shirt and her blonde hair was pulled back into a navy blue Yankees baseball cap. She almost eerily resembled Paris.

    "Did you succeed?" Her voice was eerily mellow and steady.

    "Yes, Annabeth. What do I do now?" My voice was monotonous and faint.

    "You may return to your home. We have everything we need to begin."

     Then everything went black.

     All of a sudden I was back in hell, sitting on a red couch. I gasped helplessly for air as Hades slowly backed away from me. There was no anger in his eyes or surprise on his face. He knew what had happened but he wasn't upset.

    "I'm afraid your dear old friend Annabeth used your new friend here," Hades gestured towards my heaving body, "as a pawn."

    "A-Annabeth?" Percy stammered. "You saw Annabeth?"

    "What?" Paris looked at Percy with wide eyes. "That's...impossible. She was killed during The Battle of Manhattan. You...you saw her die!"

    Hades merely rolled his eyes at their disbelief. "Annabeth Chase never died. Her soul never once passed through my realm. Her life aura is heavy and very much intact."

    "How did she use me?" I asked. Anger consumed every single inch of my brain. Maybe it was just my imagination, or a side effect of Hades and I's trip down memory lane, but my vision became tainted with red. How was it possible for someone to control me without me knowing?

    Suddenly the vases besides Hades crashed onto the bronze floor, leaving a scattered mess of rusty red clay for the skeleton maids to clean up later.

Behind them stood a familiar awkward satyr shaking in fear.

     "Oops," Danny scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, Lord Hades. You can just PayPal me the bill to that sometime this week-"

    "You absolute moron!" Nico Di Angelo huffed and rushed to Danny's side. "I leave you alone for two seconds and you blow our cover."

    "Look, man it wasn't my fault! I really had to sneeze!"

    "I don't care if you-"

    "Quiet!" Hades boomed, silencing his son immediately. "Just what do you think you are doing here?"

     Hearing Hades scold his son like a traditional father almost made me want to double over in laughter. Maybe I actually would've laughed if his son hadn't tried to kill me a few days ago. Being in the presence of a potential murderer was a real turn-off.

    "I wanted to know what was happening. They locked me away at camp...I couldn't just stand by and not help you, father." Nico sounded completely opposite from the bloodthirsty killer I had met previously.

    "Now I see that I was wrong. I-I tried to kill her," he pointed at me sheepishly. "I'm... sorry, Orion." The boy apologized as if it pained him.

     "It's cool," I shifted in my seat uncomfortably. As much as I wanted to deck this kid in the face, he sounded pretty sincere. Maybe giving him one shot wouldn't hurt. 

It was annoying to try to do the right thing sometimes. 

"Look, I probably would've been pissed too if it was my dad getting messed with. But, I promise you I didn't steal your father's spear. Not intentionally. Whoever that girl was, wasn't me. I swear to you, Nico, I will get your father's spear back. Even if it costs me my life."

    Even from the underworld, I could hear the distant roll of thunder as the gods sealed my oath to Nico Di Angelo. This had been my second promise in less than twenty-four hours. 

I really had to start to lower people's expectations for me.

    "How...sweet," Hades rolled his eyes, "where were we...yes! It is possible for certain beings to control your actions as well as erase past memories. However, your friend would have to be working with a very powerful being for that to happen. What would be the motive for Annabeth Chase's acts of thievery, I do not know. "

    "But I do," Nico interrupted. "Look, I did some research and I figured out that the three symbols of power of the gods can be used to transfer one being into the body of another. Kind of like how Kronos moved into Luke Castellan's body during the war. She has to be planning something big."

    "So this means Annabeth is the daughter of Athena from my prophecy. The one the oracle warned me about," I looked over at my friends to confirm the dots connecting in my head. They nodded. 

Hades studied me with amusement in his eyes as he watched me try to make sense of the events unfolding right before my eyes.

    "Wait, hold up!" I spoke out. "If you knew I stole your spear and that Annabeth has it, why didn't you just go get it yourself? And why did you send the Minotaur to kill me?" I looked at Hades quizzically.

    "Do you really think I have the time to track down a demigod brat and take my spear back? I am needed in my own realm," Hades scoffed.  

    "So what now?" Danny asked.

    "We go and find this Annabeth girl and we kick her ass. I can't believe that girl is the reason I'm in this stupid mess in the first place," I said.

    "Slow down there, champ. We don't even have a plan yet." Paris said.

    "Fine," I huffed out a frustrated breath. "Where do we start? We don't even know where she is."

    Nico puffed his chest out ever so slightly. "I know where to find her. She's hiding somewhere inside of a mountain in northern California. Like I said, I did my research. All we have to do is get to San Fransisco first and go from there."

    "Off you go, then. I'll be expecting my spear in five days," Hades took a long sip of his drink as he rose from his chair.

    "Five days?" I nearly choked on my own words. "B-but Zeus gave us ten."

     Hades's eyes flared like hot coals at the mention of his brother's name. "Make it three. You cannot be foolish enough to believe I'm nearly as generous as my idiotic brothers, child."

    Hades opted for a more normal exit than his other two brothers, choosing to take the stairs instead of vanishing into flames.