Gaia's heir

Chapter 9

stepping into the recording studio that acted as the main entrance of the underworld aspen made sure that he kept a close eye on the demi gods as they made their way passed the souls of the dead who were waiting for their turn to enter the underworld.

"hey, where do you think your going?" someone growled out at them causing the demi gods to tense in alarm as if they thought they had been caught and would be punished for being somewhere that they shouldn't. aspen turned to see who was calling out to them when he notice that it was Charon, the ghoulish looking ferryman of the river Styx was glaring at them as he held his cup of coffee close looking like he was done with everything.

"is there a problem Charon?" aspen asked but the annoyance that strained his voice was undeniable, Charon blinked as if he was surprised that he knew his name but as the ferryman took a second look at him aspen nearly smiled as the older being paled at the sight of him.

"ah, young lord, sorry about that I was just surprised to see you here" Charon shrugged a little as he tried to laugh off how he had called out to them.

"I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that you showed up though, the boss has been pretty demanding and short tempered for the last few weeks so someone must have sent for you but what are you doing escorting three mortals into the underworld?" he asked looking over the three demi gods with a suspicious eye as if daring them to try anything while they were within deaths realm.

"there was a bit of a misunderstanding and uncle has someone that doesn't belong to him as she still has a long life a head of her, come and give us a lift Charon I'm sure that once we're done uncle will be much more relaxed and lenient on you and the others" aspen smirked as Charon seemed to perk up when he learned that hades might relax after their visit. the five of them quickly made their way around the lines and to the ferryboat that was one of the few ways into the underworld for those who didn't have wings of their own.

it took a few minutes for Charon to take them from the entrance to the front door of hades castle. the building itself was unique in the fact that the castle seemed to be made entirely out of stygian steel, a steel that was only found in the underworld, to compliment the black metallic material the entire castle was designed in a dark gothic theme with high spires with fires burning around them while the large windows showed the bright glowing lights that poured out from the castles interior. 

walking thru the front door aspen lead the still nervous demigods deeper into the lord of the underworlds castle, a deep growling suddenly sounded out causing the teens to tense in fright as three large hell hounds emerged from the shadows around the entrance of the castle.

"enough!" aspen called out getting the hounds to stop before they backed up leaving the teens to sigh in relief, as the son of death itself he was given a lot of control over the beings that called the underworld home and he didn't want to chance one of the hell hounds injuring one of the demi gods.

"asp there you are my good lad!" hades called out with a smile as he walked into the entrance with his hands spread wide, aspen shook his head in amusement when he noticed that hades was still preferring his rock star look. hades was quick to descend the stares and bring aspen into a hug before he let the younger god go and turned his attention to the three mortals that were standing behind aspen in tense silence as the only time they had interacted with the lord of the dead he was throwing fire balls around their camp and threatening the lives of their family and friends.

"it's good to see you as well uncle unfortunately I haven't come for a social visit, I heard that instead calmly sending out search parties to look for your helm you instead decided to hunt down a demi god who had no idea about our world until this summer and threatened his mother even though it wasn't possible for him to have you weapon, not to mention with the mood your brother was in could have been taken as an act of war and plunged the world into the next godly war" aspen said his tone becoming more bland and deadpan as he went on while keeping his attention focused only on hades.

the lord of the dead seemed to shrink back from the younger god as he tried to interrupt his nephew so he could placate the younger god who was now glaring at him with disappointment and annoyance.

"really asp it's nothing like that, I just wanted to jive him a bit of incentive to get here as quickly as possible" hades said trying to deflect his nephews ire, it didn't work as aspen continued to glare at him with annoyance. aspen had a decent reason to be annoyed with the rest of them though as the young god had spent a number of years working thru all of their troubles so the entire family would be able to get along and here they were nearly at war with each other after they had been left alone for less than a year.

"thankfully we've managed to figure out what's going on and have been able to find all of the missing items, before we give your helm back however you will need to send Percy's mother back to her home unharmed" aspen finished giving hades a pointed look as the god grumbled a bit about aspens lack of faith as he snapped his fingers.

"there mrs. Jackson has been returned to her home completely unharmed now my helm aspen" hades said as he held out his hand as if he was asking for a stubborn child to return something to him. aspen snorted before turning back to Annabeth who took off her back pack and pulled out the helm of darkness that they had taken from Ares.

"ah, thank you, now I'm sure there are a few other things that you will need to do so I will send you back to the surface, aspen will be there shortly to take you up to Olympus" without another word the three mortals were covered in darkness and whisked off to the surface as hades turned to look at aspen no doubt wanting to be let in on what was going on.

"there has been a malevolent presence hanging around camp half blood for a while now thou D and chiron weren't able to sense it until I asked them about the dark aura that had been floating around the camp. likely who ever it was that has been pulling the strings managed to build up enough power that they were able to enter the dream realm and have slowly been entering the demi gods dreams in order to influence them." hades nodded along as he paced in thought before adding his own opinions. 

"its possible that who ever is behind this might be using the demi gods prayers as well, that was one of the ways we gods managed to gain the power we needed to defeat the titans once zeus freed us from our fathers stomache. if that is the case than they must need a considerable amount of power for what ever it is their planning since the prayers of a demi god are at least four times as strong as a single human"

"i worried about that at least we can cut out most of the minor gods and goddesses since they would be hesitant to start a war that would enevitably drag them into the conflict. who ever it is they had the power and the ability to gain a subtle control over Ares as well and that's how we think your helm was stolen and why no one noticed a demi god sneeking around Olympus, the presence that i keep feeling is not only malicious but old too" hades stopped dead in his tracks as aspen voiced this suspicions.

"you don't really think it could be a titan do you?" hades asked as he turned to look at aspen with a deadly serious face. the mere thought that the titans might try and crawl out of their cages was a fear many of the gods held since it had taken everything they had just to beat them back the first time and that was with both the element of surprise and the titans not seriously considering them a threat, if the titans rose again the gods wouldn't have those advantages.

"it makes the most sense uncle, if any other god was using the prayers of the demi gods like this we would notice the spike in their powers but the titans would need all of that power to fight off fading while trying to regain the strength they've lost." hades nodded sadly as he stared off into the distance no doubt looking towards the pit of Tartarus where the titans prison lay.

"very well, I'll take a closer look and station more guards around Tartarus but if one of them is truly accessing the dream world than no one but Morpheus will be able to cut them off. head back up to the surface aspen and let my siblings know what's going on hopefully they can do something that might sway their children away from following the titans"

with that they split ways as hades went off to organise more guards to watch over tartarus while aspen let out his emerald wings and took flight towards the entrance of the underworld.