Hellfire

03: The New Prophecy

THREE

                Jason hadn’t known Chiron for as long as Percy and Annabeth. He didn’t share the same connection as they did with the ancient centaur. The three of them had the kind of connection with which you could simply look at one another, and have an entire conversation in silence with just one look. It was at times like those – like this – that Jason wished he had the same connection with Chiron as Percy and Annabeth did. He was getting tired of sitting at the ping pong table in the Big House with Chiron, Hazel, Frank, Leo, Piper, Percy, and Annabeth in complete silence while Chiron decided whether or not to let them go on the quest the gods had assigned them.

                “If you don’t go,” Chiron said at last, breaking eye contact with Percy and Annabeth. “We all perish and the world ends. Correct?”

                “Basically,” Leo agreed, dipping his chocolate chip cookie into the glass of milk in front of him. He had a milk mustache and cookie crumbs on his face, but Jason didn’t bother pointing it out to him. “Hades is already gone, but we have no idea when that’ll start affecting Nico and Hazel.”

                “Or the Underworld,” Frank put in. “If we don’t hurry, I have a feeling the dead won’t be staying dead for very long.”

                “Think of everything locked away in Tartarus,” Piper said slowly. Percy’s hand twitched on the table at the mention of Tartarus. Jason had noticed that ever since he and Annabeth had come out of the hellhole of the gods, Percy always had some sort of impulsive reaction at the mention of Tartarus.  “If Hades is gone, wouldn’t they all escape?”

                “You know, every word that’s said at this table only makes me dread this quest more,” Leo remarked. “I mean, I don’t know about you guys, but I really don’t want to think about every bad guy we’ve ever brutally killed coming back to seek vengeance.”

                “Nico would take over, wouldn’t he?” Percy said slowly. He frowned at the dark stain on the ping pong table. Jason had heard the story behind it not long ago, along with Silena Beauregard’s story. He’d be a liar if he claimed it hadn’t kept him up two nights later. “Nico spends a lot of time there these days, anyway,” Percy went on. “I'm sure he knows what to do.”

                “It’s not as easy as you make it seem, Percy,” Chiron sighed. “Hades spent three millennia in the Underworld as its ruler, and even recently, he’s had trouble keeping monsters in Tartarus. Now that he’s gone, and a fifteen-year-old boy is about to take his place… I wouldn’t hold onto very much hope that Nico can do it, even with Persephone’s help.”

                “That makes it all the more important for us to go,” Hazel pointed out. “We can put an end to whatever’s happening before it gets too out of hand!”

                “If what you told me is true,” Chiron said slowly. “And Hades really is gone... I fear it already is too out of hand.”

                “We still have to go,” Annabeth pressed. “If we don’t, every single quest you’ve ever sent any demigod on will have been for nothing. The world will end anyway, starting from the first demigod who saved it.”

                “Who?” Jason asked.

                She glanced at him, and then looked at Piper. Her expression was hesitant, wary almost. “Hercules.”

It only took one hour for the camp to gather everything Jason and his friends would need for their quest. They had a large arsenal of weapons (plenty of arrows for Frank, multiple daggers for Piper and Annabeth, an extra sword each for Jason, Percy, and Hazel, and a large hammer for Leo). The Argo II was waiting for them beside the dock, and Leo was busy running around. He kept complaining about all the work he had to do, but Jason knew that Leo was more than happy to be back on his ship.