Chapter Text
Chapter One
Reach For The Stars
For a second, Percy felt himself relax.
Annabeth at his side as they sat on their festive picnic blanket, the taste of Frank’s latest culinary creation resting in his mouth, listening to Hazel’s story… he really, truly, felt at peace. He’d just scraped through his winter finals at New Rome University. He and Annabeth had stayed up practically every night testing each other with flashcards. The two praetors of New Rome had greeted them afterwards with a congratulatory picnic and they’d walked up Temple Hill to bask in the remaining sunlight they’d get that year. They hadn’t been attacked by monsters in nearly two months. Peace.
Then he saw Nico.
Now, even though Nico had maybe perhaps tried to lead him to his death in the past once or twice, perchance, that wouldn’t normally be such cause for alarm. However, the taller, older, deathlier version of him walking behind him made them all sit up. Frank inhaled sharply.
“Is that-?”
Percy sighed and nodded. His next bite of ginger beef tasted slightly sour this time around.
“Uh, hey, guys…” Nico said as he reached them. His expression was firmly apologetic.
“Hey Nico,” Annabeth said.
A beat of silence.
Hades sighed.
“Your assistance is necessary,” the god of the dead droned. Percy swore he could see beads of sparkling grey sweat on his forehead. “There’s been a… situation.”
“Isn’t there always?” Percy said, getting a strong feeling that their picnic was about to be rapidly derailed. “I’m sure someone at camp can help.”
“This is a fairly local problem.”
“Then one of the legionnaires?”
Hazel sighed.
“No,” she said, “Percy, we’re praetors. It’s our responsibility if it’s this side of the Mississippi.”
Annabeth nodded.
“Yeah, Percy,” she said, “You’re a former praetor, you should know that.”
They all grinned, remembering Percy’s brief twenty-four hour stint as praetor. Percy ran a hand through his hair.
“Must have missed that part of induction,” he said.
“So,” Hazel took charge, Hades’ Greek form blurring into Pluto as she spoke, “What’s gone wrong?”
“Nothing world-ending,” Nico interjected somewhat-reassuringly before his father could speak, though Hades glared down at the back of his head.
“Nothing has gone wrong,” Hades stressed, blatantly lying.
Frank sipped his apple juice with a loud slurp. Percy bit his lips together to stop grinning so much. Nico seemed to take pity on his father and sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he started to explain.
“There’s been a breakout in the Underworld,” he said. “The Fields of Punishment, specifically.”
They all raised their eyebrows.
“How?” asked Annabeth, narrowing her eyes. “It was a lot harder to break out of that place than it was to break in.”
Hades’ dark eyes pulsed with a brief rage.
“I will remind you,” he said in a controlled tone, “That I allowed you in most of those times.”
“Didn’t let us out though,” Percy added.
As the shadows around them blackened, they all stopped smiling so widely. A chill flowed through the air. Annabeth sighed.
“Okay, so what happened?” she asked.
Hades visibly cooled off, though Percy still felt a little cold in his chest.
“It was Daedalus,” he said firmly. “He’s been renovating the lines of the dead for maximum efficiency. Really, he’s been quite useful to put to work for all eternity. And there are no unions in the Underworld. He says he enjoys it but I think he knows that it’s this or the boiling wax. Either way. I digress. To maximise his own efficiency, I granted him the use of this gateway device he created. Since the Underworld is on the larger side, he uses it for getting around.”
“Cool,” Annabeth said, her grey eyes sparkling with a glee that told Percy that their corkboard at home would be quickly deluged with more plans.
“Mm,” Hades continued. “Well, like he does with everything he loves in his life, he dropped it. Next thing I’m told, several of my maximum security prisoners have managed to teleport themselves to the surface.”
Percy whistled.
“Yikes,” he said. “That sounds sucky. Have fun with that over Christmas.”
Hades just looked at him, deadpan in every way. Percy sighed. It was worth a try.
“I am issuing you all this quest. Three praetors, either present or former, one architect of Olympus and two of my very own children- you should have no problems. Some of you may even be familiar with several prisoners, which is why I’m assigning this to you specifically.”
“Familiar?” Annabeth screwed her nose up. “Oh gods, it’s not Tantalus, is it?”
Nico winced. For a second, Hades mirrored his expression.
“Tantalus is among the escaped, yes,” admitted the god. “Since you know him, I imagine you will know where to start looking for him. They should all still be within Los Angeles, near the Underworld entrance.”
Percy frowned.
“LA is like a six hour drive,” he pointed out. “And it’s nearly dinner time. We can’t all fit on Arion and I’m not driving past midnight.”
“What are you, Cinderella?” commented Nico.
“Worse,” Percy replied, “A student.”
Hades waved his hand through the air.
“No matter,” he said. “I will get you there. This must be done quickly and covertly before anyone finds out or Demeter will never let me hear the end of it. There are five escaped prisoners. To get them back to the Underworld, deal with them as you would a monster and send me their souls. Nico, you should be drawn to them. Good luck.”
He raised his fingers, about to click. They all started protesting, food going everywhere as they scrambled to sit up straight, shaking their heads and-
Click!
“Oof!”
The air was knocked out of Percy’s lungs as he landed on the sidewalk, headbutting Frank with his leg propped up on Annabeth’s stomach as they fell in a pile. He groaned and blinked bleary eyes up at the building now suddenly in front of them. DOA Recording Studios. Despite the fact it was winter, a few palm trees leaned into his vision and he heard someone ruining the Mariah Carey Christmas song somewhere. Great. Hades had definitely sent them to LA.
A fate worse than death.
Under Hazel’s foot, he caught a glimpse of people with flyers in their hands heading their way. He pulled himself quickly to his feet, yanking the others up and bustling them away down an alleyway. Not the best place to go in LA.
“Nico,” Frank groaned, “I am going to file a complaint against your father.”
“To who?” Nico wrinkled his nose.
“Uh…” Frank frowned. Then he straightened his shoulders. “To you,” he said forcefully.
Nico threw his hands up in the air in exasperation and bodily turned his back on him.
“Okay,” the son of Hades said, “Where are we?”
Annabeth peeked her head around the corner of their alley.
“I think we’re in east LA,” she said, “A couple things here look familiar. I’m doing a module on street architecture,” she added, unable to fully hide how smug she was. Percy smiled fondly at her.
“My GeoGuessr genius,” he said.
“Shut up.”
“Okay,” Hazel said, clapping her hands, “Nico, what are we meant to be feeling about this tantalise guy?”
“Nothing tantalising about him,” Annabeth grumbled.
Nico shrugged.
“I’m sure I’d be able to feel him if we got close,” he said, “But I don’t even know where to start.”
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. The others turned to them.
“You know this guy?” Frank asked.
They nodded.
“Chiron got framed for a crime when we were thirteen,” Annabeth explained, “So they sent Tantalus to replace him for a little while.”
Nico frowned. His hair was getting longer and it flopped in his eyes. Percy resisted the urge to find a pair of scissors and a bowl.
“They sent a criminal to replace the alleged criminal?” Nico asked.
“We never said it was a good idea,” Percy pointed out.
“So if you know this guy, where do you think the first place he’d go would be?” Frank interrupted.
A crease appeared cutely between Annabeth’s eyebrows as she seemed to sink deep in thought. Percy wondered if monsters knew how lucky they were to see that before they died.
“His eternal punishment was to be stood in a pool with food out of reach,” Annabeth stated. “Knowing him, he’d probably go right to the nearest food place.”
“Waffle House?” Percy offered. “iHop? Denny’s?”
“He’s starving,” Nico said with a raised eyebrow, “Not desperate.”
“Bigger question,” Hazel interjected. “How are we going to get there?”
Annabeth looked at Percy. He shook his head.
“I can’t steal another car,” he said, “I think I’m still being looked for in this state for that police cruiser I crashed.”
“You did what now?” asked Hazel.
“You’re going to college in a state where you’re a wanted man?” Frank looked aghast.
“Wanted,” Percy said gently, “Not found. It’s fine.”
Nico sighed. It was a loud, drawn out sigh that captured their attention. They stared at the short teenager as he rubbed the back of his neck, looking like he was waiting for someone to announce his execution.
“I… have a method of transportation,” he confessed, not looking them in the eye.
They waited a beat of silence.
“I don’t think you can piggyback us all, Nico,” Percy replied.
“Shut up, Jackson.” Nico crossed his arms. His chest slowly went up then down as he took a breath. “I have a chauffeur.”
Oh. Percy blinked. He hadn’t expected that. Well. It wasn’t like he could drive. Made sense-
“He’s a zombie,” Nico added. “Called Jules-Albert.”
Ah. Percy blinked again. Somehow, that made more and less sense at the same time.
Nico knelt and placed his hands on the ground, careful to avoid the broken glass and needles hidden behind the fake plants of the place they were next to. His eyes fluttered closed and they all watched in fascination as his head drooped slightly, like his life force wasn’t quite on the surface anymore.
“Jules-Albert,” Percy heard him say shortly, “Need a lift. Thanks.”
The ground split in a five-feet wide chasm. Percy wasn’t sure what he expected to happen and watched with an open mouth as a zombie in a ragged nineteenth-century motoring outfit clawed his way to the surface.
“You… weren’t kidding,” said Frank, his eyes flickering yellow the way they did sometimes when the guy was resisting the urge to turn into a bird and fly away.
That might have been Percy’s fault. He’d convinced Frank and Grover to watch 28 Days Later with him one night in his dorm. It had now been over twenty eight days since they’d watched it and Juniper said that Grover still climbed all the way to the top of her tree when sleeping over with her, his hooves audibly trembling like castanets.
Frank shot him a dirty look as they watched the zombie fully emerge. Percy put his teeth together in an awkward apology smile.
“An actual zombie,” he said. “He’s not going to, like, eat our brains, is he?”
“He’s not on a diet,” Nico replied with a dismissive wave of his hand before he addressed the zombie chauffer. “Jules-Albert, we’re trying to find some escaped convicts. Can you lap around this area? Please?”
The zombie gurgled and nodded, limping out of their alley and onto the street. The people of LA walked right past him with just an upturn of their noses and deft sidesteps, clutching their Christmas shopping bags closer to themselves. Percy wondered how the Mist was disguising him, though as he saw them repeat the same behaviour to a homeless man down the street, he found he didn’t have to think too hard. Typical.
They all watched as Jules-Albert walked up to a large black car. The zombie stared at it for a few seconds before punching the driver’s side window out.
“Oh no,” Percy heard Annabeth murmur.
He sighed and nodded as they watched the zombie unlock the car from the inside and start hotwiring it. The locks on the back doors went down after a few seconds. Luckily, passersby still were staring resolutely ahead or at their shoes. Pros and cons.
“Come on,” Nico sighed, walking towards the car. “Shotgun.”
“Wait, that’s not fair,” said Frank, “You’re- well…“
“If you want more space, shapeshift into a moth or something,” Nico cut him off without looking back.
Percy and Annabeth looked at each other. Her blonde curls were framing her face really nicely. Something in his stomach did a little flutter. He’d thought that after a few wars and years together, it would stop, but it didn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.
“I probably could’ve just stolen a car in the first place,” Percy said to her as they headed for the car.
“Yeah, but this way they can’t get you for it in a court of law,” Annabeth countered, sliding into the back. “Just keep your head down. Sit behind the driver’s seat so your face is mostly blocked.”
Percy grinned and kissed her on the lips. “Aiding and abetting?”
“Advising,” she replied innocently with a sparkle in her eye. She leaned forward to stick her head between the two front seats until she was level with the scented Christmas tree dangling from the rear view mirror, clearing her throat with a wary glance at the zombie. Though Percy knew that, unlike Frank, Annabeth would be more than happy to fight in a zombie apocalypse. She’d been planning for it since she was little. “Jules-Albert,” she said, “Can you take us to the nearest street of big restaurants?”
He grunted. Once they were all in, Jules-Albert started the car. True to Nico’s word, the dead guy knew his way around a car, indicating right before swinging them out into traffic and beginning their cruise around the block. The radio played Wham at a low volume in the background. They drove past rows of buildings and crowds upon crowds of people, though none of them seemed to look like the ‘fresh out of prison’ type.
Well. Not the Underworld prison, at least.
It felt like they should have Nico’s window rolled down like a sniffer dog. Instead, the boy just sat there frowning, his dark eyes fixed on the dash.
“Warm?” Annabeth asked him. “Cold?”
“Lukewarm,” Nico said, his head tilted. “I think we’re going the right way.”
After a minute or two, Jules-Albert turned right, leading them onto a wide road lined with Christmas decorations and stocked to the brim with restaurants, cafes and takeout places. Hazel groaned.
“Anyone else just seeing a haystack?” she said.
“He’s here, though,” said Nico, turning his head from side to side. “Definitely here. But…”
“There,” Annabeth said, her tone holding no question in her voice.
She pointed out the window as Jules-Albert pulled up on the left. Percy followed her line of sight out the car and onto the street and found himself staring up at a sign proudly blazing in full daytime neon: ‘All you can eat! Food from all around the world! LA’s only conveyer belt buffet that’s never been closed due to rats!’
Percy nodded instantly. “You got it. Let’s go.”
They piled out of the car, luckily all of them armed from either before or having been magically equipped with their weapons by Hades mid-transport. Percy took out Riptide and held it in pen form in his hand. He saw Annabeth’s drakon bone sword bulging suspiciously out of the back of her t-shirt and smirked. She was still working on adapting from her covert knife to her very large and scary-looking sword.
Nico’s holster for his sword swung at his waist, partially covered by his jacket, and he saw a glint of gold peeking out of Hazel’s sleeve. Frank had left his bow and arrow in the car, shrugging when Percy gave him a questioning look as they walked into the restaurant.
“I’m not wasting my arrows on just some guy,” he said, making Percy snort.
“You wouldn’t need to,” he replied. “This guy’s biggest feat was cooking. Not exactly a fighter.”
Inside, the restaurant was very modern and colourful. The floor was a shiny, squeaky silver and a long metal conveyer belt ran through the length of the room, laden with a mix of plates of sushi, turkey or pasta. Red pillars supported a ceiling covered in mirrors. Green Christmas trees drenched in sparkly gold baubles lurked in every corner, surrounded by circular tables full of munching customers.
With nothing more than a glance between them, they moved as a unit through the room, scanning for Tantalus.
It wasn’t hard; after less than a minute, they ground to a halt, staring at the closest table to the conveyer belt.
Percy’s lip curled. Tantalus sat there without noticing them, stomping his feet under his table as the food passing him by jumped out of his hands. He looked somehow worse than when Percy was thirteen, still dressed in the same ragged orange jumpsuit, looking pale with shadows beneath his eyes. With his pale skin and grey hair, he looked more like a ghost than a man.
“There he is,” sighed Nico. “Those gross jumpsuits really make this easier.”
Percy’s nose wrinkled in disgust as he watched as Tantalus snatched at some sushi with his overgrown, dirty fingernails. The sashimi did a little wiggle and jumped right over his hands, landing neatly back onto the conveyer belt. Tantalus howled in rage. The next table along from him inched their seats back and let the sashimi pass them by untouched.
“His Fields of Punishment curse still seems to be in effect,” he heard Annabeth ponder aloud next to him.
“Do we just grab him or what?” asked Frank. “This place is still full of people.”
People who were starting to give them suspicious looks. Percy could see a waitress hurrying over to them from the back bar. No time. He scanned the room quickly, trying to find the- there!
In two short strides, he reached the fire alarm on the wall and pulled it.
Immediately, the siren blared out like a wailing cat, red lights flashing above as everyone started to panic. Sprinklers above them burst into showers, drenching the food and immediately giving Percy a burst of energy that he really needed by that point in the year. It soothed the aching in his back from being hunched over a desk.
Gods, he was getting old.
Tantalus looked up, his mouth falling desperately open to try and catch any of the water in his mouth. The droplets, however, seemed to dodge his face, falling to the floor instead. Tantalus roared in anger and his eyes finally landed on their group.
Faintly in the background, Percy heard that Christmas song by one of the remaining Beatles start playing.
“You!” Tantalus shouted, pointing his finger at them.
Annabeth took out her drakon bone sword as the last few customers ran out the door. Her blonde hair was plastered to her head.
“You’ve eaten all you can, Tantalus,” she called. “Time to go home.”
“No!” Tantalus’ eyes went wide and Percy knew he would run for the door before he even moved.
He uncapped Riptide threateningly and darted in front of the door, crossing his arms and shaking his head. The other four split into two, going around both sides of the conveyer belt. Tantalus glanced between them with a rageful scowl.
“I won’t go back,” he growled. “This curse has to fade at some point.”
“It’s not going to fade,” said Nico. “You still haven’t learned your lesson.”
Tantalus’ head turned from side to side as they advanced.
“Oh, I’ve learned lots of lessons,” he said. “Like never trusting the gods. Or their brats! Oh, if only Chiron had taken the fall and taken my place!”
Percy winced; bad choice of words. Annabeth’s eyes narrowed as she took point in their offence.
“You were the worst Activities Director we’ve had in over a century,” she told him. “You were stupid and knew nothing about anything. But I’m glad you escaped.”
The others glanced at each other. Percy waited for the follow up as Tantalus’ eyebrows raised in surprise.
“Really?” he asked. “Well, I must say-“
“I’m glad,” Annabeth continued, cutting him off, “Because now I get to send you back to the Underworld myself. This is for Chiron.”
She raised her sword as Tantalus jumped onto the conveyor belt, his bare feet disgusting and grubby. Percy made a mental note to never come back there. Immediately, the prisoner’s arms wobbled like windmills as he rotated around the restaurant. Then he crouched, swinging his arm towards the plates around his feet. They jumped out of his way but the force of the swing sent them flying towards his friends.
Tantalus cackled as they ducked, sending more plates flying. It almost looked like he had telekinesis. Percy wanted to rush over and help but a look from Annabeth had him staying and standing sentry by the door. Since the giant war, he’d been trying to take a step back and let people fight their own battles. Besides, Annabeth was right; she had this.
As Tantalus sent more sadly delicious plates flying, shards of crockery and carbonara exploding on the tables his friends had taken refuge behind, he saw Annabeth ninja-roll out from behind one, her free hand coming up to grab the lever for the conveyor belt. She yanked it down. The belt froze for a second before starting to move the other way.
Tantalus wobbled at the change in direction, his hands flying up to protect his face as he toppled off. He landed in a pile of food, groaning, blood spilling from his hands as crockery pieces embedded themselves in his skin.
Annabeth wasted no time; she hopped the conveyor belt and pinned one of his injured hands to the ground with her foot. For a second, Percy almost felt jealous of the guy. Then she pressed the tip of her sword into Tantalus’ chin, staring him down with a victorious grin.
Yeah, now Percy definitely felt jealous of the guy.
“You lose again,” she told the prisoner. She reached to the side and picked up a chicken wing, holding it like a taunt above his head. He opened his mouth, staring pleadingly at her. “Hungry?” she asked.
“Yes,” he whined.
She dropped it and it landed on his forehead, leaving a greasy smear along his skin and down his hair as it rolled off and onto the floor. He screamed through his teeth in frustration.
“Get used to it,” she said and sank her sword through his head.
The image of him blurred like a 144p YouTube video before turning into a vaguely orange fog and drifting down through the floor. Percy walked forward, not quite capping Riptide yet and put his hand on Annabeth’s arm to let her know he was behind her. She glanced at him quickly but relaxed, just a part of their system post-war.
“Nice one,” he told her before turning to Nico. “Is he gone?”
He nodded.
“I can’t feel him anymore,” replied the son of Hades. “I think that’s one down.”
“Four to go,” said Hazel.
They all looked around the destroyed restaurant awkwardly. The sprinklers had started melting the paper chains into big clumps on the food-covered floor.
“So… we should leave,” Percy said, jerking his thumb towards the door, and the others hastily nodded.
They headed out, hopping over downed Christmas trees as the song finally ended, cramming themselves back into the car. Once inside, they turned to Nico, who was frowning out the window.
“South,” he said. “I’m feeling something down there. Something… warm?”
They looked at each other but everyone just shrugged.
“Okay,” said Percy, as Jules-Albert started the car, “Let’s go see what’s behind door number two.”