𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐍° ! percy jackson

𝐢.𝐱𝐢𝐱 - 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐧 𝐚𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐬 (𝐚)

Annabeth's ideas were either the best thing to ever happen, or total flops that Aurora was terrified to identify as nothing less than perfection.

But as she loaded the four into the back of a Vegas taxi and demanded they travel 300 miles to Los Angeles, paying with an infinite amount of money from their casino cards, Aurora decided that she should never doubt Annabeth's plans.

"Where to in Los Angeles... uh, Your Highness?"

Aurora had to stifle her laugh as Annabeth straightened, clearly liking the title. "Get us there fast, and you can keep the change."

She probably shouldn't have told him that, because the cab's speedometer never dipped below ninety five the whole way through the Mojave Desert.

On the road, they had plenty of time to talk. Aurora withheld specific details about her encounter with the cute little kid at the casino (aka, when Nico called Percy cute and she secretly agreed. Aurora would not be allowing the son of Poseidon to know, his ego would inflate higher than the Arch she got pushed out of), but told them how much of a blast Nico from 1945 had been. Percy told them about his latest dream.

"The servant called the dude in the pit something other than 'my lord,'" Percy tried to remember, the details seemingly getting sketchier the more he fought to remember. "Some special name or title..."

"The Silent One?" Annabeth suggested. "The Rich One? Both of those are nicknames for Hades."

"Maybe..." Percy trailed off, neither seeming like they necessarily rung a bell.

Aurora snorted. "If he heard something as stupid as 'the Silent One,' I'm sure Percy would've remembered."

Annabeth gave her friend a look, reminding her that they were going to see Hades in just a few days. "Rory..."

Aurora opened her mouth, but unexpectedly, Percy was the one to defend her. "She's not wrong." His comment was offhanded and Aurora drew back with surprise. She did nothing to defend or protect Percy, who she didn't even consider a friend. Why did he think he had to save her, like usual? Something flared in Aurora.

"That throne room sounds like Hades's," Grover said, eager to change the subject back to the problem at hand. "That's the way it's usually described."

Percy shook his head. "Something's wrong. The throne room wasn't the main part of the dream. And that voice from the pit... I don't know. It just didn't feel like a god's voice."

Aurora practically choked on her own thoughts, throwing away her annoyance with Percy for the quest. The pit... she'd been to the Underworld with her mom—and dragged there by the Furies—enough times to know what the pit was. Fucking Tartarus. And there was only one coherent being in Tartarus that could be manipulative like that... but he was also chopped up in a million pieces. There was no way.

Annabeth seemed to be having the same revelation. "It can't be." Aurora told her blond friend firmly, her hazel eyes sharp and livid. "It's Hades."

"What?" Percy asked cluelessly.

"Nothing." Aurora didn't mean to snap, but she did. "It's Hades. This is something he would do. He's evil, you know that."

Annabeth nodded, although she didn't look as convinced as Aurora. "Maybe he sent this thief, this invisible person, to get the master bolt, and something went wrong—"

"Like what?" Percy inquired further.

"Can you stop asking questions!" Aurora groaned, her fist curling. As much as she loved to please people, there was one person that she didn't care to appease at all, and he was sitting right in front of her with his pretty little idiotic sea green eyes big and confused and helpless.