The Unusual Half-Blood

Chapter 16: A Duel

A strong sea breeze greeted me at the Santa Monica pier when I stepped out of the shadow portal. From the looks of it, I'd say it was around 5 or 6 in the evening. The place was mostly deserted, with a few vendors here and there. 

Thunder clouds covered the entire sky, rumbling and flashing long streaks of lightning.

Grover and Annabeth stood in silence, as they saw me approach.

"Did you........Shadow travel?" she asked.

"Kind of. More importantly, take a look here," I said, unzipping my backpack. Inside, the master bolt glowed with a faint bluish hue.

"That's............"

I explained to them about Ares's scheme and the incident at Tartarus. Kronos's conspiracy and my visit to Hades's palace. I intentionally left out parts of my conversation with Hades, for obvious reasons.

"See, I told you. It was Tartarus. It tried to pull us down" Grover explained Annabeth.

It seems they were both convinced that Tartarus was solely responsible for that incident. The possibility that Hermes's shoes were a trap, didn't even cross their minds- not even Annabeth's.

Or maybe it did and she was just in denial.

Honestly, I don't blame them. Their interpersonal relationships resulted in their biased thinking. That must be why they were unable to pick up other subtle hints related to this, throughout our quest.

Either way, I didn't plan on correcting them. It would be better for this information to stay under wraps, for now at least.

"Wait, so you're telling me Hades negotiated with you?" Annabeth asked, incredulously.

I shrugged. "I requested that I could retrieve his helm if he did something for me in return and he agreed. He seemed to be in a good mood. Must've been my lucky day, I suppose."

"In return?"

"It was a simple request. I asked him to make contact with Zeus- directly or indirectly- and give him an ultimatum. Assuming what Ares told us was correct, Zeus wanted this war more than anyone else. So, I asked Hades to threaten Zeus that the former would side with Poseidon in the coming war." I explained. "With the other Olympians equally divided between the two brothers, the involvement of Hades would tip the balance in the Sea God's favor."

I doubt Zeus would be able to see this coming. After all, Hades never took an interest in the Olympians and their issues. He was an unaccounted piece- which made him all the more useful to me.

Regardless, in such a scenario, Zeus's victory was impossible, by any means. Despite his mighty ego, I was confident that he would never fight a pointless battle like this- especially if it meant losing his throne. It was a simple but effective solution, given that the conflict was political. 

Not to mention, I successfully pinned everything on Hades, protecting myself from the limelight.

"That's......... freaking BRILLIANT!" Annabeth broke into a huge grin. "That means it's all over, right? We retrieved the bolt and stopped the war. The quest is complete. All that's left now is finding the Helm and-"

"Not so fast, you damn brats." a hoarse voice interrupted.

Standing about 40 meters ahead of us, was Ares, in his black leather duster and sunglasses, an aluminum baseball bat propped on his shoulder. His motorcycle rumbled beside him, its headlight turning the sand red.