A/N: Hello! Probably going to be the last update for a while, I might be able to squeeze in one or two between now and June, but I have exams soon... so there might be a bit of a gap between updates, but then its the summer! Yay!

On with the story:

Alarm bells rang throughout the ship.

The captain's gravelly voice called out: "All hands-on deck! Find Lady Clarisse! Where is that girl?"

"Get up, Yankee. Your friends are already above. We are approaching the entrance." He said, looming over Percy's bunk.

"The entrance to what?"

He gave a skeletal smile. "The Sea of Monsters, of course."

Percy looked in his lap, wondering where the hot-water bottle he had grown used to had gone. He wasn't happy with what he saw.

In his lap, were once the fox would wake him up by licking his face and barking happily to play, now Anchor was shivering, whining pitifully. The fox looked up at him, and the normally bright, happy blue eyes were gone, replaced with dead blue orbs, too tired to stay open. His normally silver fur looked grey and didn't shine like normal. He was smaller too, normally, he was about the size of a colie, even when they found out he could change size, he just seemed more comfortable like that. Now though, Percy could nearly hold him in one hand.

"Hey buddy." Percy said, gently lifting up the poor fox, he whined at the movement. Percy grimaced. "Fine, you stay here for now, we'll sort you out… don't worry." He stood up and put the fox on his bunk, wrapping him up in a blanket and tucking him in. "I'll be back in a minute. Don't worry." He whispered to the fox, gently petting him.

He grabbed all his stuff and started packing it into a sailor's canvas knapsack. He looked to Anchor, who had dozed off now, then to the bag. He had a sneaking suspicion that one way or another they would not be spending another night aboard the CSS Birmingham. He winced as he lifted the fox as gently as he could. Trying not to rouse him, he placed the wrapped-up fox in the top of his knapsack so that his head was sticking out, giving him plenty of room to breathe.

Then, he slung the bag over his front, so Anchor's head was just below his chin. He absentmindedly scratched him under the chin, and the fox moved in to his hand, seeming to enjoy it.

On the way upstairs Percy froze. Anchor growled in his sleep, only to groan in pain right after.

Instead of going up, he crept to the edge of the ventilation grate and peered down into the boiler deck. Clarisse was standing right below them, her fox, Bandit was in her arms, looking just as bad as Anchor. She was talking to an image that shimmered in the steam from the boilers, a muscular man in black leather biker clothes, with a military haircut, red-tinted sunglasses, and a knife strapped to his side.

Ares, the god of war.

Percy clenched his fist in anger.

"I don't want excuses, little girl!" he growled.

"Y-yes, father," Clarisse mumbled.

"You don't want to see me mad, do you?"

"No, father."

"No, father," Ares mimicked. "You're pathetic. I should've let one of my sons take this quest."

"I'll succeed!" Clarisse promised, her voice trembling. "I'll make you proud."

"You'd better," he warned. "You asked me for this quest, girl. If you let that slime ball Jackson kid steal it from you-"

"But the Oracle said-"

"I DON'T CARE WHAT IT SAID!" Ares bellowed with such force that his image shimmered. "You will succeed. And if you don't..."

He raised his fist. Clarisse flinched.

"Do we understand each other?" Ares growled.

The alarm bells rang again. Voices were coming toward Percy, officers yelling orders to ready the cannons.

He crept back from the ventilation grate and made my way upstairs to join Annabeth, Hana and Tyson on the spar deck.

Annabeth was sitting down next to Whiskers, who somehow looked worse than Anchor and Bandit, he was hunched over and breathing deeply, his breaths coming in wheezes. He was coughing every few breaths, when he did, Annabeth would gently rub his back, and softly speak to him, inaudible to Percy.

Hana's hat covered her eyes, giving nothing away.

They were all silent.

Clarisse came up the stairs a few minutes later. She was holding Bandit close to her chest like she was afraid someone to take him off her, her fingers were white. The fox whined, and her grip loosened, she whispered something before moving him into one arm to grab a pair of binoculars and glared at the horizon.

"Captain, full steam ahead!" She roared.

The sky was overcast, seeming to fit the mood just right. The air was hazy and humid, like steam from an iron. A couple of dark fuzzy splotches in the distance could be made out if you squinted.

The engine groaned as they increased speed.

Tyson muttered nervously, "too much strain on the pistons. Not meant for deep water."

After a few more minutes, the dark splotches ahead came into focus. To the north, a huge mass of rock rose out of the sea, an island with cliffs at least a hundred feet tall. About half a mile south of that, the other patch of darkness was a storm brewing. The sky and sea boiled together in a roaring mass.

Annabeth looked up from Whiskers and stared at the mass of clouds in confusion.

"Hurricane?" She asked.

"No," Clarisse said. "Charybdis."

Annabeth looked away and stared at the daughter of Ares. "Are you crazy?"

"Only way into the Sea of Monsters. Straight between Charybdis and her sister Scylla."

Clarisse pointed to the top of the cliffs.

"What do you mean the only way?" Percy asked. "The sea is wide open! Just sail around them."

Clarisse rolled her eyes and growled lightly. "Don't you know anything? If I tried to sail around them, they would just appear in my path again. If you want to get into the Sea of Monsters, you have to sail through them."

"What about the Clashing Rocks?" Annabeth said. "That's another gateway. Jason used it."

"I can't blow apart rocks with my cannons," Clarisse said. "Monsters, on the other hand..."

"You are crazy!" Annabeth yelled.

"Watch and learn, Wise Girl." Clarisse turned to the captain. "Set course for Charybdis!"

"Aye, m'lady."

Hana stood up and stood in front of Clarisse. "We haven't heard back from Yagura yet." She said, "we need to wait, for all we know, this isn't necessary."

"No!" Clarisse roared, "we aren't waiting any longer," she shot a quick, almost unnoticeable look to Bandit, before turning back to the daughter of Hephaestus, "if you can't contact her then tough, but we're going in now."

"Wait, what happened to-"

Percy was drowned out by the sound of the engine groaning, the iron plating rattled, and the ship began to pick up speed. His previous thought disappeared as they oved closer to the storm.

"Clarisse," Percy said, "Charybdis sucks up the sea. Isn't that the story?"

"And spits it back out again, yeah."

"What about Scylla?"

"She lives in a cave, up on those cliffs. If we get too close, her snaky heads will come down and start plucking sailors off the ship."

"Choose Scylla then," He suggested. "Everybody goes below deck and we chug right past."

"No!" Clarisse insisted. "If Scylla doesn't get her easy meat, she might pick up the whole ship. Besides, she's too high to make a good target. My cannons can't shoot straight up. Charybdis just sits there at the centre of her whirlwind. We're going to steam straight toward her, train our guns on her, and blow her to Tartarus!"

She almost sounded excited, but her gaze strayed to Bandit, her eyes hardened.

The engine hummed. The boilers were heating up so much the deck started getting warm beneath their feet. The smokestacks billowed. The red Ares flag whipped in the wind.

As they got closer to the monsters, the sound of Charybdis got louder and louder, a horrible wet roar like the galaxy's biggest toilet being flushed. Every time Charybdis inhaled, the ships shuddered and lurched forward. Every time she exhaled, their ships rose in the water and were buffeted by ten-foot waves.

It took Charybdis about three minutes to suck up and destroy everything within a half-mile radius. To avoid her, they would have to skirt right next to Scylla's cliffs.

Annabeth stood next to Percy, holding onto both Whiskers and the rail in front of them. "You still have your thermos full of wind?"

He nodded. "But it's too dangerous to use with a whirl-pool like that. More wind might just make things worse."

"What about controlling the water?" she asked. "You're Poseidon's son. You've done it before."

She was right. He closed his eyes and tried to calm the sea but couldn't concentrate. The waves wouldn't respond.

"I—I can't," he said miserably.

"Maybe your sister can."

"She can't" Hana spoke up, "she tried, couldn't get a good grip, it's like trying to fight off Charybdis bare handed."

"How do you… Never mind." Annabeth said. "We need a backup plan. This isn't going to work."

"Annabeth is right," Tyson said. "Engine's no good."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"Pressure. Pistons need fixing."

Before he could explain, the cosmic toilet flushed with a mighty roar! The ship lurched forward, and they were thrown to the deck. Anchor woke with a whine, Percy pet him gently as he tried to re-gain his footing.

Now, they were in the whirlpool.

"Full reverse!" Clarisse screamed above the noise. The sea churned around them, waves crashing over the deck. The iron plating was now so hot it steamed. "Get us within firing range! Make ready starboard cannons!"

Dead Confederates rushed back and forth. The propeller grinded into reverse, trying to slow the ship, but it kept sliding toward the centre of the vortex.

A zombie sailor burst out of the hold and ran to Clarisse. His grey uniform was smoking. His beard was on fire. "Boiler room overheating, ma'am! She's going to blow!"

"Well, get down there and fix it!"

"Can't!" the sailor yelled. "We're vaporizing in the heat."

Clarisse pounded the side of the casemate. "All I need is a few more minutes! Just enough to get in range!"

"We're going in too fast," the captain said grimly. "Prepare yourself for death."

"No!" Tyson bellowed. "I can fix it."

Clarisse looked at him incredulously. "You?"

"Me to." Hana said, moving forward, standing near the same height as the cyclops.

"Go!" yelled Clarisse.

"No!" Percy grabbed his arm. "It's too dangerous!"

Tyson patted him on the hand. "Only way, brother." His expression was determined, confident, even. "I will fix it. Be right back."

Hana paused and looked Percy in the eye, they were blotchy, like she'd been crying, but her voice gave nothing away, "I'll make sure he's okay." She said and turned to follow the cyclops.

They both followed the soldering sailor down the hatch Percy wanted to go after them, but the ship lurched again, and Charybdis came into view.

She appeared only a few hundred yards away, through a swirl of mist and smoke and water.

The first thing you noticed was the reef: a black crag of coral with a fig tree clinging to the top, an oddly peaceful thing in the middle of a maelstrom. All around it, water curved into a funnel, like light around a black hole. Then you saw the horrible thing anchored to the reef just below the waterline—an enormous mouth with slimy lips and mossy teeth the size of rowboats. And worse, the teeth had braces, bands of corroded scummy metal with pieces of fish and driftwood and floating garbage stuck between them.

Charybdis was an orthodontist's nightmare. She was nothing but a huge black maw with bad teeth alignment and a serious overbite, and she'd done nothing for centuries but eat without brushing after meals.

The entire sea around her was sucked into the void. Sharks, schools of fish, a giant squid, and in a few seconds, the CSS Birmingham would be next.

"Lady Clarisse," the captain shouted. "Starboard and forward guns are in range!"

"Fire!" Clarisse ordered.

Three rounds were blasted into the monster's maw. One blew off the edge of an incisor. Another disappeared into her gullet. The third hit one of Charybdis' retaining bands and shot back at the ship, snapping the Ares flag off its pole.

"Again!" Clarisse ordered. The gunners reloaded, but it was hopeless.

Then the vibrations in the deck changed. The hum of the engine got stronger and steadier. The ship shuddered, and they started pulling away from the mouth.

"They did it!" Annabeth said.

"Wait!" Clarisse said. "We need to stay close!"

"We'll die!" Percy yelled. "We have to move away."

They all tried to hold onto the railing and their various foxes as the ship fought against the suction. The broken Ares flag raced past and lodged in Charybdis' braces. There wasn't much progress being made, but they were holding their own. Their new engineers had somehow given them just enough juice to keep the ship from being sucked in.

Suddenly, the mouth snapped shut. The sea died to absolute calm. Water washed over Charybdis.

Then, just as quickly as it had closed, the mouth exploded open, spitting out a wall of water, ejecting every-thing inedible, including the cannonballs, one of which slammed into the side of the CSS Birmingham with a ding like the bell on a carnival game.

They were thrown backward on a wave at least forty feet high. They were spinning out of control, hurtling toward the cliffs on the opposite side of the strait.

Another soldering sailor burst out of the hold. He stumbled into Clarisse, almost knocking them both over-board. "The engine is about to blow!"

"Where's Tyson?" Percy demanded, almost forgetting about Hana.

"Still down there, with the giant." the sailor said. "Their holding it together somehow, though I don't know for how much longer."

"We have to abandon ship." The captain said.

"No!" Clarisse yelled.

"We have no choice, m'lady. The hull is already crack-ing apart! She can't-"

He never finished his sentence. Quick as lightning, something brown and green shot from the sky, snatched up the captain, and lifted him away. All that was left were his leather boots.

"Scylla!" a sailor yelled, as another column of reptilian flesh shot from the cliffs and snapped him up. It happened so fast it was like watching a laser beam rather than a monster. Just a flash of teeth and scales.

Percy uncapped Riptide and tried to swipe at the monster as it carried off another deckhand but was way too slow.

"Everyone get below!" He yelled.

"We can't!" Clarisse drew her own sword. "Below deck is in flames."

"Lifeboats!" Annabeth said. "Quick!"

"They'll never get clear of the cliffs," Clarisse said. "We'll all be eaten."

"We have to try. Percy, the thermos."

"I can't leave Tyson!" He roared.

"We have to get the boats ready!"

Clarisse took Annabeth's command. She and a few of her undead sailors uncovered one of the two emergency rowboats while Scylla's heads rained from the sky like a meteor shower with teeth, picking off Confederate sailors one after another.

"Get the other boat." Percy threw Annabeth the thermos. "I'll get Tyson."

"You can't!" she said. "The heat will kill you!"

He ran for the boiler room hatch, when suddenly pain tore through him and his feet weren't touching the deck anymore. He vaguely heard someone yell, and the weight off the front of him fell off, but mostly he just felt the pain in his side. He barely even cared that he was flying straight up the side of the cliff. He nearly bounced off it, only inches away from the nearest cliff wall. He coughed out blood, splattering the cliff with the red ichor.

Scylla had caught him in her jaws and was lifting him up toward her lair. Percy struggled to move, his sword felt heavy, he twisted around, despite his body's protests and swung Riptide, just about managing to jab the thing in her beady yellow eye. She grunted and dropped him.

As he fell the CSS Birmingham exploded below, chunks of ironclad went flying in either direction like a fiery set of wings.

He slowly started to fall out of consciousness, just managing to see the lifeboats drift away from the ship, but not very far. Flaming wreckage was raining down. Clarisse and Annabeth would either be smashed or burned or pulled to the bottom by the force of the sinking hull, and that was thinking optimistically, assuming they got away from Scylla.

Then the sound of Hermes's magic thermos being opened a little too far rang through the sky. White sheets of wind blasted in every direction, scattering the lifeboats, lifting Percy out of his free fall and propelling him across the ocean.

At this point, his body decided to give up on his conscious mind, figuring that keeping him awake would just do more harm. As he hit the water, the world drifted away into nothingness.

(Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea)

Yagura gasped awake. She sat up and looked around, she was on her boat, in the middle of nowhere. All around her, the ocean went on forever, where was she?

As if answering her own question, the answer came to her, the Mediterranean Sea, her exact location showed up in the form of co-ordinates, but they meant nothing to her. She blinked in shock, partially at the fact that she knew that somehow, and partially at the fact that she had somehow gone from America to Greece without noticing.

"What the Hades happened?" She asked herself.

No response, well, at least she wasn't going mad.

She glanced around, her ship seemed a bit beat up, a few dent and scratches marred the deck, the paint looked chipped nearly everywhere. It was still floating though, so that was good.

She wiped the sweat from her head, the sun was beating down on her, it looked about mid-day.

She tried to remember what happened, the last thing she could think of was talking to Hana about cheating the sea of monsters and using her magic boat to get in. She had told Hana to stay with Clarisse, not wanting to risk her getting injured again from her boat, Hana wasn't happy, but relented anyway. Then, she went in, plugged in the co-ordinates and hit the button.

After that… it was normal… until her ship started to rise into the sea of monsters. She felt… something… go wrong but had no time to react. The water seemed to turn against her, then… it was strange. Normally, when she was on her ship she felt in control, the ocean was hers to command, nothing could go wrong.

But in that moment, it was like someone else kicked her from the steering wheel.

Then… blank.

She made her way back to the wheel, simply staring at it.

What had happened?

She gingerly grabbed the wheel, it felt normal, like it always did, the power, the control, all at the tips of her fingers.

She moved away from the wheel and took a seat. She closed her eyes and entered the mindscape, no one was there.

No help from anyone else then.

With a sigh she stood up and went to her navigation console. It was a mess, instead of the normal map, it was all static.

So, she wouldn't be able to just go the way she normally did. She went back to the wheel, already knowing which way to go, the ship followed her commands and jolted forward, heading back to America.

She stared on the horizon, by her calculations, at top speed, it would be about a week to get back.

Panic struck her, how would she make it in time for the tree to be saved, could the others make it without her?

She scolded herself, of course they could, she wasn't even supposed to be on this quest, she was mostly there as a distraction for anyone on the Titans side of things, well that didn't go to plan by the looks of it.

"Well, better get sailing." She muttered to herself.

She looked to the horizon again, it looked clear… wait, what was that?

In the distance, there was a huge cloud, it was directly in front of her.

"What is that?" She asked.

It was too far away to see clearly, it soon dawned on her, it was a storm cloud.

And it was getting closer.

(The Underworld)

Hazel took his hand and he pulled her to her feet, the shade of the daughter of Pluto shimmered with happiness. She would get another chance. She would get to live!

She followed the man as he led her through the fields. The other spirits scrambled out of his way, not daring to face his wrath. She stuck behind him, trying not to be seen, but it seemed that the eyes of all the dead were focused on her.

The walked for ages, passing thousands of dead. For a moment, she thought she saw a familiar spirit.

Her mother.

She briefly stopped and stared back into the crowd, but she was gone. Maybe she was just seeing things.

In front of her, he turned around, giving her a questioning look. She ran to catch up, not even realising that he had gotten so far ahead of her.

She made it to his side and tried to keep pace with him, he slowed down when he noticed her begin to struggle. She tried to gather up the courage to ask him something, the soft whispers of her fellow dead were even worse now that there was someone else who could talk with her.

"How long?" He asked, not looking away.

"I… I'm sorry?"

"How long have you been dead for?"

"I'm not sure." She looked at the other spirits, "this place… I don't know how long it's been."

"Do you remember when you died?"

She nodded.

"When?"

"1941."

He paused, turning to face her with an unreadable expression, she tried to match his gaze, but his dark eyes unnerved her.

"Things… things have changed a lot." He said.

He started walking again, Hazel beside him, finally she managed to muster up the courage to ask her question, "who are you?"

He paused and seemed to look startled. "Sorry, I guess I never really introduced myself." He turned to face her properly, "hello, my name is Utakata, I'm your brother, a son of Pluto."

Her eyes widened.

"You…" She couldn't even finish the sentence.

"Yeah."

They were in silence again for a short while before Hazel spoke again.

"How… how are you going to bring me back?"

Utakata was silent for a moment, "we're going to walk out the front door, ask Charon for a lift and come out in L.A."

"But… won't someone stop us."

Utakata didn't answer.

They came to the end of the field, this was the only movement going against them, streams of the dead entered, security keeping an eye on them. Utakata just walked through them, they spread in fear, the security looked confused. Hazel stayed close, all too aware that the eyes of the dead never strayed from her.

Finally, they came to the exit, they passed the metal detectors, which didn't go off, no one stopped them. Soon, they made their way out of the Asphodel fields, for the first time in decades, Hazel saw something new.

They continued walking, until they reached the end of the ques, the line for judgement was long, and it wasn't moving at all. Utakata frowned at the sight but kept walking.

Finally, they reached the end of the line and found three figures standing in front of them.

All shimmered oddly, their features hard to tell, but Hazel remembered them, or at least, what they were.

"Stop, son of Hades." The judge on the right said.

Utakata stopped, Hazel behind him. He stared down the three judges of the underworld without any fear. "Why?"

"You are breaking rules no mortal has any right breaking." The one in the middle said.

"You're in my way." Utakata snarled, his eyes glimmering darkly.

"Your father will not allow this." The judge on the left said.

"Then why doesn't he tell me as much?"

"He has… other matters to deal with." The right judge said.

"What matters?"

"He is preparing, getting-" The middle judge started.

"Be silent, Minos, he does not need to know." Right growled.

The middle sneered, or maybe he didn't, you couldn't make out much of his facial expression. "If the boy wishes to know, Aiakos, he should be allowed."

"The business of our lord is none of our concerns." The left judge said.

Utakata moved to leave while they descended in to bickering, but the one on the right, Aiakos, caught his movement, "you may not leave with her, son of Hades."

"She deserves life."

"No one escapes the Underworld. It is the job of all denizens of the Underworld to ensure that no one escapes."

"You want to talk of jobs?" Utakata sounded angry, "it is your job to judge heroes," he gestured to Hazel, "you let her, a daughter of Pluto, who sacrificed herself in a heroic act, to go to the fields of Asphodel."

"She chose that?"

Utakata turned to Hazel, she nodded softly, "I couldn't let mother be punished." She hiccupped a little and tried to hold back tears, he had given her hope. And now it was being dashed away, she would go back to the fields of Asphodel to spend eternity wandering aimlessly.

"She is a child." Utakata growled, she sacrificed everything, and you took her mother away from her.

"You know nothing of their crimes." Minos sneered.

"Then enlighten me." Utakata said, moving closer to them, until he was right in front of them, glaring them down, "what crime would allow a hero to be separated from their mother?"

"She worked with Gaia." Terra? Hazel thought, but maybe Minos just misspoke, "attempting to rise one of her sons. Alcyoneus, bane of Pluto. She made his body anew."

Utakata looked at her and she bowed her head, shame running through her, it was all her fault.

"Yet she died a hero."

He sounded so sure that she looked up in shock.

"Yes, she destroyed his body, sacrificing herself in the process." The yet unnamed judge said.

"Her mother was under the influence of Gaia." Aiakos said, Gaia again, why aren't they saying Terra?

"And you punished her for that?"

"She tried to help-"

"I don't care what she did, she was wrongly judged." Utakata glared, "does our father know that you sent his daughter to Asphodel for no reason?" Did he? Had her father allowed her to spend so long there, alone, remembering everything? Did he not care?

"Yes, he knew." Minos said.

Hazel felt her heart sink, her dad didn't care about her, he left her to rot. For a wile she felt angry at him, but the feelings disappeared, the anger just didn't stick, instead, all she felt was sadness.

"That's not entirely true." The unnamed judge said.

"Be quiet, Rhadamanthus." Minos snarled.

"Quiet." Utakata snarled to the judge.

"Pluto put rules in place for his children, so that he can't judge them unfairly, he is not allowed to know about the trial, and cannot interfere in their judgement."

"Be silent." Minos yelled at the other judge, but he paid him no heed.

"He does keep an eye on the judgement, though, to make sure his children aren't being unfairly judged, and since he normally knows about their death, he can sit in, in a second trial to go over the evidence again if he feels they are receiving a harsh punishment."

"Normally?" Utakata asked, his voice stiff.

"Due to circumstances around her death, Lord Pluto knows nothing about how she died, only that she was involved in Gaia's child rising."

Utakata made a noise somewhere between a growl and teeth grinding, "so you punished her unfairly?"

"No!" Minos growled.

"I am taking her." Utakata snarled at them, "I am taking her back to the mortal realm, no matter what you say."

"You can't." Minos said, "no one gets out of the Underworld, the dead stay dead."

"Tough." Utakata grabbed Hazel by the hand and started walking again.

"She won't have a body." Rhadamanthus said, Utakata stopped, "you cannot properly resurrect her with no body to go to. She will stay a shade, and soon, your father will come for her, she will be sent to the fields of punishment, and her fate will be worse."

Utakata growled, and turned on them, "she will live again, I will make sure of it."

"We cannot allow this." Aiakos said.

"Think about her, she's better here, if she goes up there, she'll not live, only having a half-life, it isn't worth it. and eventually, your father will find out, and she will be hunted."

Her brother glared, but now there was something else in his eyes, a hint of fear?

"There has to be a way." He said, though he tried to sound angry, the fear was now clear in his voice.

The judges were silent for a moment, before Minos spoke, "well, there may be one way." You could hear the smirk in his voice.

"No." Aiakos said, "we cannot allow that."

"Come now." His voice was filled with so much sincerity it didn't sound natural, "he is a son of Ha-Pluto, she is his daughter, we can surely make an exception, so long as he pays the… price."

"No." Aiakos said, "it cannot be done."

"What is it? What are you talking about." Hazels brother stared between them, eyes narrow.

"It is not something that should be done, it goes against your fathers will."

"I don't care. Just tell me what to do."

"A life for a life." Minos said, his voice smug.

"What?" Hazel squeaked.

"You get to return to the mortal realm to live out your life," Minos said to Hazel, "and in exchange, your brother here will bring someone to Hades who has cheated death."

Hazel's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open, "you want him to… k-kill someone."

"I'll do it." Her brother said, he was looking at the ground, his hair overshadowing his eyes.

"No, this isn't-"

"I said I'll do it!" Utakata stared between the three sprits, but avoided his sisters gaze, "who?"

"Someone who has escaped punishment, so many times." Minos said, a cruel grin on his face.

"Enough Minos." Aiakos said, "we cannot allow him to kill a mortal, and your vendetta against him is not going to be what brings the wrath of Pluto on to us."

"But he-"

"There is someone else." Rhadamanthus said, staring at Utakata, "we are aware you are not a normal demi-god, you should be able to do this task, and I don't think you will be as surprised by the revelations given from this… quest."

"No, he has to kill him, he had avoided punishment for-"

"I know who you are talking about, but there is someone else who needs punishment more. Someone who has escaped the wrath of our lord for far longer than he who orchestrated your death."

"You can't send him there!" Aiakos, "if lord Pluto finds out-"

"He can do it, he is strong enough, lord Pluto has bragged enough about his son's strength."

"No!" Minos roared, "he must kill Daedalus!"

"No. This man has avoided punishment for far too long, his current… jailers are inept, he has escaped and caused too much chaos under them, no soul has ever successfully escaped this Underworld without outsider help, and his friends cannot reach here."

"This means going against them."

"They are weak now, and their mortals won't be able to do anything if he captures him."

"Then we vote on it." Aiakos looked at Hazel, "those in favour of sending him after Daedalus?" Minos glared when he was alone in his vote, "those sending him after," he looked at Hazel once more, "him?" Both he and Rhadamanthus raised a hand, "its settled." Minos spirit somehow looked like it was pouting? Huffing?

"It is foolish to send him," Minos huffed, "he'll be dead as soon as he's found."

"No, he is strong, he'll-"

"Who is the target?" Utakata asked, interrupting their bickering.

"Brother…" Hazel whispered, "you don't have-"

"But I will." He didn't sound angry, or sad, or even regretful, he just sounded… empty.

"She cannot be here; your target is someone who… she can't know about."

"You are not taking her back to the fields of Asphodel." His voice hardened.

"Fine, we will keep her in the judgment pavilion, we will take care of her."

"How can I insure you keep your end of the deal?"

"I swear upon the Styx, so long as you do our task, we will bring your sister back, and until the task is done, we shall watch over her in the judgement pavilion, she will come to no harm under us."

The world shuddered at the oath.

"So, who is he?"

Rhadamanthus, nodded to Aiakos and then gestured he take Hazel, he moved to grab her arm, but Utakata grabbed his shoulder, "don't touch her, if there is anything wrong with her when I come back, it won't be the Styx who'll take the debt."

He then turned to Hazel, "please don't do this." She said, "you don't need to do anything for me, you don't know me."

"You're my sister." He said, laying a hand on her shoulder, "that's all I needed to know about you."

He then turned away and walked over to Rhadamanthus, Hazel didn't hear much about what he said, following the Aiakos, but she did hear what he said first.

"What do you know of the Egyptians?"

A/N: Hahahaha.

Yay! Kane Cronicles crossover... sort of... maybe... they probably won't be there, since they're like... two... three years off the red pyramid. But the Egyptian gods! Yay!

Also, Percy was bit instead of his bag. This was done simply because he had Anchor to look after, will he live... probably, he's a title character, no he's The title character.

Also Yagura's in Greece, yeah, so I sort of figured that having a magical boat was a bit OP for this quest, you know, since she could just sort of pop up right beside Polyphemus Island and break in, book over, see ya. So instead, someone (or something) basically kicked her out and she popped up in Greece, and now has a storm to deal with.

Also, Hana and Tyson were in the engine room.

Also, going back to my first point, Kane Chronicles (yay) but also, who do you think has been escaping punishment under the Egyptian guard, who could it be?

...Seriously, who could it be?

I've narrowed who it will probably be to like, three people, but I want your input, who should Utakata's target be? And Why? But mostly who?

You can probably guess who I'm hinting at here, but I could go for... someone else.

Also, this is just a little point here, this is far ahead I am thinking, I'm onto another series!

See I know what I'm going to do (generally) up to there, I have sort of a big picture, and know where I'll be taking the story, I just need to figure out the details, but a whole lot of it is subject to change. For instance, the whole 'Yagura going to Greece thing' was something I thought up about five chapters into this book, so I went for it.

I'm also trying to figure out the consequences of things happening soon, like Hazel, Nico and Bianca all being older than they were originally, and even emotionally and psychologically-wise (btw, not a psychologist) like all the characters having foxes, leading to things like Annabeth showing a bit more emotion because Whiskers is dying, Clarisse being angrier (somehow) etc.

Well, I just wasted a bit of time ranting here, so I'm going to stop now, for now, thanks for reading, see you next time!