Nico

I brought my sword up, pointing it at my cousin as he smirked at us. Hades drew his sword, and Artemis and Apollo both aimed their bows at Percy. 

"Get out of our way." Hades said coldly, shadows appearing around his legs as he addressed the King of Olympus. "We have some prisoners to free." 

"Your plan was really easy to interpret." Percy said, acting as if my dad had never spoken. He stopped leaning on his scythe and causally ran a finger along the sharp end of the blade. "It was quite obvious to figure out that you would try and rescue the prisoners along the way." 

Artemis' silver eyes cut into Percy like daggers. "We're not going to say it again. Get out of our way." 

My cousin sighed and ran a hand through his messy black hair. "Do you really think you'll be able to get past me?" Apollo gave a dry laugh before responding. "No, not at all. But we'll certainly be able to distract you." 

Percy looked confused for a moment, giving Artemis and Apollo the chance to shoot their arrows. Percy raised his scythe to deflect the attack, and Artemis yelled "Hades, take Nico and go!" 

Hades grabbed me by the wrist, pulling me along as we ran past Percy. Before my cousin could stop us, an arrow pierced the exposed flesh on his hand, giving us enough time to sprint down the hall. 

"What about Artemis and Apollo?" I asked as Hades continued to pull me with him. "They'll hold off Perseus for as long as they can. They're giving us time to search for the prisoners!" 

We dashed through the corridor, and was about to turn when I collided with someone else. I stumbled back to see a guy with blonde hair and electric blue eyes staring at me with disbelief. 

"Nico?!" Jason Grace spluttered in shock. "What the-" "Come with us, son of Jupiter! We're going to free the other prisoners while Artemis and Apollo distract Perseus!" Hades yelled, rushing past Jason and not giving him a chance to respond. 

I glanced back to see Jason quickly run after us, dropping the broom he had been holding when I accidentally ran into him. "Wait! Frank, he's somewhere here as well!" 

"We'll get him along the way! We don't have much time!" Hades growled. "Where are the other prisoners being kept?" 

"Annabeth is in the dungeons, Reyna is in the training quarters along with Hestia and Ares!" Jason shouted as we continued to hurtle through the many hallways in Olympus. "And Poseidon is in Percy's personal room-" 

"I know where Zeus is, let's go!" I yelled. The three of us dashed into another room and I saw a familiar girl with long black hair wearing a set of tattered clothes sitting against the wall, her head in her hands. 

Jason stepped up next to me and said "Reyna!" The former Praetor of Camp Jupiter looked up when Jason called her name, and her eyes widened. She jumped to her feet and stared at Hades and I. 

"Are we getting out of here?" Reyna asked, a smile making it's way onto her bruised face. 

I couldn't help but grin back at her despite the situation we were in. "Yes, we are. We're getting everyone out of here." "About damn time." Reyna said, cracking her knuckles. She walked up to stand next to Jason with a determined expression.

We were almost going to leave when a rough voice called out "Are you really going to leave us here?" I turned to see Ares and Hestia standing at the back of the training room, huge grins on their faces. 

"Oh wow, we almost forgot about them." I said to no one in particular as Hades face-palmed. Hestia walked up to Hades, her gaze never leaving his face. "You've finally come to rescue us, brother?" 

Hades smiled and pulled Hestia in for a hug. "Yes we have. Sorry for taking so long, we just didn't have the skills or the manpower to launch an attack until now." 

The Goddess laughed and was about to say something when Ares interrupted. "Uh, we should really go. I think I hear someone." Everyone fell silent as I slowly was able to hear the quiet footsteps approaching the room.  

"Shit, it's probably Percy." I said just as my dad ran out of the room with his sword in hand. I quickly followed him to see Artemis limping towards us, looking as if she was about to collapse at any second. 

Her clothes were ripped, and multiple cuts were on her legs and arms. Her bow and quiver was gone as well. 

"Artemis! Where's Apollo?" Hades demanded. The silver-eyed Goddess stiffened at the question before her legs gave out and she fell forwards. Luckily, Ares was quick enough to catch his half-sister before she hit the ground.

"Apollo....." Artemis stopped, giving a short, dry cough, before whispering "Perseus killed him. I-He was going to kill me, but Apollo pushed me out of the way instead. I can't-" 

"Sh." Hestia's gently voice silenced the distraught Goddess. "It's okay. This is not your fault. It was Apollo's decision." 

Artemis' eyes narrowed as she got to her feet again, pushing Ares away. "No! This is the second time that Perseus killed him! I need to go back and finish that monster off myself!" 

"You aren't going to do that. That's reckless and would most likely result in your death as well. Apollo would't want that." Ares cut in. He sighed and gestured around at all of us. "Plus, we all can't fight Perseus. Jason, Reyna, Hestia and I are in no condition to do so. Neither are you, Artemis." 

"Wow. Since when did you think about not being reckless?" Hestia teased, earning a half-hearted glare from the God of War. 

"We should move. Percy would be here any minute now." Reyna said. She glanced down the hallway, worry evident on her face. 

"Artemis, can you run?" Ares asked the Goddess. She looked doubtful at the question, but nodded anyways. "I'll do my best. If I'm slowing you all down, just leave me." 

"We aren't going to leave you, no matter what. We're all a team." Jason said, and then flinched as Artemis turned her silver eyes on him. But to his relief, she gave him a brief smile. 

The seven of us left the training room and went in search of the dungeons to where Reyna said Annabeth was being held. But before we could turn another corner, a wall of fire appeared in front of us. 

I whirled around to see Percy walking towards us, carrying his giant scythe in his hand. To my horror, the entire blade of the scythe was covered in golden ichor. Artemis gave a choked sob once she saw that.

"And now you all honestly thought you could rescue every single prisoner without me stopping you? Wow, you all must be super confident." Percy's scythe suddenly disappeared from his hand, and now he held two black hunting knives.

Hades pushed Reyna and Jason back, glaring fiercely at the former son of Poseidon. "You have no right to hold them prisoner! Let us pass!" 

Percy responded by throwing his hunting knives at us. Shadow tendrils exploded from the ground to grab the knives before they could reach us. Hades thrust his hand down and the shadow tendrils threw the knives down onto the ground. 

Percy sighed before flicking his wrists. His hunting knives disappeared from the ground to appear in his hands once more. "That won't work. You guys should know this by now." 

"What do we do?" I asked my dad. He bit his lip as he glanced back at the wall of flames behind us. "We're trapped. We have to fight Perseus in order to get out of here." 

"Oh yeah, don't you remember the last time we fought him? With the whole Olympian council no less?" Ares demanded.

"As if you have a better idea!" Hades growled. Shadows swirled and thickened around his legs as he stared hatefully at Perseus. "We're doing this. We have to, for the sake of the world." 

Fear made it's way into my chest, but I raised my sword anyways. I locked eyes with my cousin before swallowing and charging forwards.

Word count: 1388

i would type like two paragraphs for this chapter, then leave and then type another two paragraphs later on. i'm so good at this ;-;