They appeared on a beach.

Gem hadn't known that hellhounds could teleport, but here they were. She wasn't about to complain that they were out of the Underworld.

Gem had had more trouble than the others tuning out the Nether side of it. She didn't really understand why it was there, but from what she had seen, half of the time they were standing on lava. They were surrounded by zombie piglins and ghasts instead of dead people and Furies.

Gem had never liked the Nether, and this made it worse.

She was more than glad to be back at the Overworld - er, surface.

But things weren't going well.

"There they are!" Grian yelled, pointing toward where Percy and... was that Ares? seemed to be facing off while Annabeth and Grover watched with worried expressions.

Percy and Ares had swords out. Percy looked like he was trying to get into the water, but Ares was blocking him.

The Hermits ran in to try and help, but Annabeth and Grover intercepted them. "It's a one-on one," Annabeth said. "If Percy wins, he gets the Helm of Darkness. If Ares wins, he gets the master bolt."

"So you got it?" Gem asked.

Annabeth glared at the ground. "We had it the whole time without knowing it," she said. "That stupid piec-" she took a breath. "Ares tricked us. It's a long story that we'll tell you later."

Gem looked toward the fight worriedly. Grian nodded. Ren refused to look at Annabeth.

"You can't stay mad at them forever," Grian muttered to Ren.

"Watch me," he replied.

"You weren't supposed to take it as a challenge!" Grian protested.

"He takes everything as a challenge," Gem said. "You've been a part of Hermitcraft for what, three seasons? You should know that by now."

And he's one to hold a grudge. For a while.

Gem was jerked out of her thoughts by Grover screaming. "Hellhound!"

"No, that's Cat!" Gem yelled, jumping in between her new pet and Annabeth's knife.

Gem was pretty sure that Annabeth's eyebrows were above her hairline.

"Cat?" Grover asked. "One, you have a pet hellhound. Two, you named it Cat?"

"Well, I have a cat named Goose and a horse named Moose and a ravager named Cow. He needs to fit in!"

"What's a- you know what? Never mind."

Annabeth walked over to Ren instead, which was probably a bad idea.

"Look, I'm sorry," she said. "I have a problem with wanting to know things..."

Ren didn't respond.

At least he wasn't yelling.

Percy seemed to be holding back the tide. He looked exhausted.

Ares, meanwhile, looked the opposite. He seemed to draw energy from the fight.

For the first time, Gem started to lose hope. Percy was going to lose. They were going to fail.

"Come on, Percy," Grover muttered. "Remember your mom."

Oh, right. We're not the only ones with loved ones in the Underworld.

Grian and Ren had their weapons out. Gem knew that if Percy lost, they would run in and take his place no matter the consequences.

And then Percy released the tide.

All traces of fear vanished as the son of Posideon rode a giant wave onto the beach, knocked Ares over, and stabbed the war god in the foot.

Ares stared at Percy with a burning hatred. His sunglasses had fallen off, revealing that his eyes looked like mini pits of death and fire.

Gem shuddered. She was glad Ren wore sunglasses for a different reason.

"You may have won this time," Ares said, maybe a little bit too dramatically. "But mark my words, punk. Every time you raise your sword in battle, you'll feel my curse."

Then he started to glow.

"Look away!" Annabeth screamed.

Annabeth, Percy, Grover, Gem, Ren, Grian, and Cat the hellhound all looked away as the war god transformed into his true form and disappeared, leaving only a bronze helmet behind.

Percy walked over to the helmet and picked it up. Then he looked over at a line of cars and frowned.

It was only then that Gem noticed the blaring sirens and flashing blue and red lights. And everything was on fire.

Annabeth ran and hugged Percy.

They'd make a cute couple, Gem thought absently.

"Hide," Grover said suddenly.

It was too late, though. One of the Furies swooped in, but instead of grabbing one of the Hermits like they expected, she just landed, shot the three Minecrafters a cold glare, and then took the helmet from Percy. "We saw the fight," she said.

Then she turned to the Hermits. "You've spared yourselves this time."

Gem couldn't stop the horrible feeling that grew inside of her. Hades still had Scar. If the Furies were sparing them, that meant that Hades had gotten what he wanted.

"Hermitcraft's in danger," she whispered.

Ren nodded stiffly. Grian went pale.

"Not again," Grian muttered.

:)

They didn't have time to talk, though. Those men in uniforms - police, Percy had called them - were coming. And they didn't look the happiest about the fact that their cars were on fire.

"Here we go," Percy said. "Time to make up a story."

They stood up straight and got ready to lie to the police.

~~~

Okayyy...

So I won't be updating for the next few days.  I'm going camping with my cousins, and it'll be utter chaos bc there's like 13 of them (all of whom are younger than me so that's gonna add to it) but whatever. I won't be able to be on my phone because we have activities planned to occupy the time and my parents will get mad at me, but I will try to get a chapter out as soon as I get home on Saturday.

-Indigo