The only thing Jeongguk has taken out of his experience with Taehyung is that he's hiding something. At first, Taehyung seemed to be a fountain of knowledge, telling Jeongguk all about the furies, and where they come from, but when Jeongguk had asked as to why demons of the Underworld were chasing him, Taehyung fell mute.

Another instance was after Taehyung told him that they'd have to trek across the country, back to New York, Jeongguk casually suggested just taking a plane, to which Taehyung had gasped — nearly choking himself on his own spit — and proceeded to tell Jeongguk that flying was a terrible idea, yet declined to explain why.

Which is why Jeongguk is completely confused when Taehyung takes them to an airport, and pays for two tickets for the next flight to Australia.

"What are you doing?" Jeongguk asks, grabbing Taehyung's arm and tugging him away from the baggage line. Taehyung looks at him, confused, and Jeongguk sighs. "I thought you said we couldn't fly? And why did you get tickets to Australia? I thought we had to go to New York."

Taehyung laughs, and Jeongguk can't help but think that Taehyung is mocking him a little bit. "We're not flying, dummy, especially not to Australia, that's a death wish; we're going down under — which I guess is also kind of a death wish, but we should be fine."

"Should be?" Jeongguk asks, and Taehyung nods his head happily, as if he hadn't just told Jeongguk that they could possible not be fine. "What do you mean 'down under?'"

"The Underworld, Jeongguk, get with the program." Taehyung says, rolling his eyes. Jeongguk stares at him, because even though he's been with Taehyung for three days, the boy has yet to drop the whole, 'you're probably a demigod and that's why you've never met your dad lol' schtick. Jeongguk, frankly, is tired. He's not sure what happened that night in alleyway, but he refuses to believe that demons from the Underworld tried to kill him, and that some plant-wielding wizard boy rescued him. "Now come on, we'll miss the boat and I have business to do."

"Boat? We're in an aipor—" Jeongguk is cut off when Taehyung sighs and grabs his ear before dragging him along, past bag check and all of the boarding gates. Taehyung only stops when they reach the end of the airport, no more gates in sight and only a door in front of them. On it there's a sign that reads: JANITORS CLOSET. "Taehyung, that's a janitors closet not some portal to the Underworld stop fucking arou—"

"Shut up, Jeongguk, don't piss off the ferryman." Taehyung whispers from the side of his mouth. Jeongguk rolls his eyes and Taehyung leads him into the cramped closet, walls lined with rolls of toilet paper and cleaning supplies. "Watch out." Taehyung says, and then he shoves the supplies off the shelves, leaving Jeongguk to have to try and duck out of the way. He steps backwards to avoid a falling bottle of bleach, and jams his foot into a mop bucket — still full of sudsy water.

"Ah, gross." He mutters pulling his foot out of the bucket. He looks up to see Taehyung tapping away on a screen, much like on of those 'self check-in' stations in the main airport, except on the screen there's only two options: dead and death wish. Taehyung taps the side that says dead and shoves their tickets into the reader. Just then the wall pulls back to reveal a lobby, full of people as they all wait for... something; Jeongguk isn't sure what, but they're all facing in the same direction.

"Keep your head down, don't look at them. If they try to talk to you, ignore it." Taehyung whispers, then he moves through the crowd like a football player, head down as he stampedes through the crowd, uncaring if he bumps into anyone or not. Jeongguk tries to do the same, but a little boy stops dead in front of him as he tries to get through, and Jeongguk can't help but frown at him as he takes in the boy's tear stained cheeks, and his tattered teddy bear.

"Have you see my mom?" The boy asks, and Jeongguk shakes his head sadly. The boy nods solemnly, as if he used to getting that kind of answer, no matter who he asks. Jeongguk opens his mouth to apologize, but then the boy walks straight through him and disappears. Jeongguk's body convulses with shivers, his blood turning ice cold from where the boy passed through it.

"Jeongguk!" Taehyung yells lifting up an arm and waving him on. Jeongguk nods at him and drops his head before running through the crowd like Taehyung did, trying to ignore the stinging coldness that creeps into his body each time he bumps into someone. As soon as he's safely standing next to Taehyung at the lobby counter, Taehyung slides a few of the drachmas onto the counter and gives a look to the man behind it. "This is Jeongguk. That should be enough to grant him access, just this once."

"I don't know, Taehyung, my Lord won't be very happy—"

"You mean Lord Hades?" Jeongguk asks, and the ground underneath them rumbles and Jeongguk nearly topples over by the force. Taehyung looks exasperated, and the man behind the counter looks terrified, but Jeongguk isn't sure what he did wrong.

"Names are very powerful, Jeongguk. Shut up, okay?" Taehyung says, falsely sweet. Jeongguk nods, pretends to zip his lips and throw away the key, and Taehyung turns back towards the man behind the counter, sighing. "I can't leave him up here — unless you want to deal with his disrespectful ass. He's unclaimed, he doesn't know anything."

The man behind the counter hurriedly scoops the drachmas into his pocket and guides them towards the boat. Taehyung grins at Jeongguk and motions for him to follow. Jeongguk looks down as he pushes past all the spirits and onto the boat, some of the spirits trying to grab onto his shirt, begging him to take them with him.

When Jeongguk gets on the boat he immediately sits down and hugs his knees, and Taehyung smiles at him, a little sadly, as he reaches down and runs his fingers through Jeongguk's hair. Jeongguk can't imagine how greasy and nasty his hair feels, but he leans into Taehyung's touch all the same; he hasn't had his hair pet since he was little — when everything was normal. "It gets easier," Taehyung whispers, and Jeongguk doesn't want to ask how he knows.

When the boat stops, Taehyung helps Jeongguk to his feet and leads him down a dark path, lined with rocks and torches. Jeongguk gets a cheesy haunted house vibe from the whole set up, but doesn't say it aloud for fear of another earthquake that could send him tumbling off the narrow path and into the dark abyss below them. Eventually they come across three lines — two for a place called 'Asphodel Fields' and one more for a place called 'Iudicium.'

"Asphodel Fields..." Jeongguk mutters to himself; he remembers this from school. "That's where the dead go, right? So what's the other line for?"

"The other line is for Judgement. You stand in front of three judges; Rhadamanthus, Minos, and Aiakos, and they decide if you did enough good in your life to deserve reward — kind of like a test. If you pass, you go to Elysium Fields, and if you don't, well... you end up like Sisyphus — eternal punishment." Taehyung explains, then he moves into the Asphodel Fields line and digs his toes into the coal black dirt underneath them.

"Sisyphus is that guy who has to roll the rock up the hill for all eternity, right?" Jeongguk asks, and Taehyung nods. He looks up the line, which is moving pretty fast for being made up entirely of dead people.

"Yeah, my aunt says that sometimes, you can hear his cries of frustration all the way from Elysium." Taehyung says. Jeongguk stays silent, watching as the spirits around him interact with each other. In front of them are a mother and daughter, holding hands as they wait to get into Asphodel Fields. Jeongguk can see the burns on both of their faces and he shudders. Across from them, in the judgment line, spirits are nervously wringing their hands together as they listen to the person in the room screaming, I'm a good person! You can't do this to me!

"Jeongguk." Taehyung says softly, pulling at his elbow. Jeongguk nods and follows him along, mostly in a daze. If this is what the afterlife is like, Jeongguk wants nothing to do with it.

As they get closer to the front of the line, Jeongguk thinks about the 'death wish' button on the kiosk that brought him here. When he asks Taehyung about it, he gets very quite for a second before saying softly, "it's for the suicide cases. People who need to go, but don't know how. The button sends you straight to judgement, where they kill you and judge you. Most everyone goes to Asphodel Fields or Tartarus."

"Oh," Jeongguk says quietly. He doesn't have much time to dwell on the fact before the kids in front of him is yelling 'puppy!' and Jeongguk looks up to see a giant, three headed dog staring down at him, three tongues licking three sets of lips simultaneously as six eyes focus on Jeongguk. "Holy Hades."

"Hey!" Taehyung says, grinning as he slaps Jeongguk's back. "You're getting the hang of it!" Taehyung then turns to the dog and whistles, and Jeongguk wants to ask him if he's fucking crazy, but the dog doesn't lunge for him, instead it sits and starts to wag it's tail, sending spirits flying across the cavern. The dog's three giant tongues loll out of all of its mouths and lick Taehyung, covering him in dog spit. "Hey, buddy!"

"Why isn't it eating you?" Jeongguk asks, reaching up to pet the dog on one of it's noses. The dogs growls at him and Jeongguk jumps back, holding his hands to his chest. Taehyung laughs and nuzzles his nose against the dog's, while the dog continues to lick him happily.

"I have a way with Cerberus here, he loves me." Taehyung says. The dogs pants in agreement, tail wagging wildly as Taehyung scratches behind its ears. "Such a good boy, such a good boy!"

Jeongguk stands awkwardly to the side as Taehyung has a reunion with Cerberus, letting souls past him as they drift dismally into Asphodel Fields. Eventually, Taehyung smacks a wet kiss onto each of Cerberus' heads and waves goodbye, covered in dog slobber. When he rejoins Jeongguk in the line, he's grinning happily, as if he's just won the lottery instead of being licked and accosted by a monster dog.

"Well, lets get to it, we haven't got all day." Taehyung says, as if Jeongguk had been the one holding them up. Jeongguk follows Taehyung into Asphodel Fields, and Jeongguk immediately feels a sense of loneliness and sadness fill him, holding him down like an elephant on his chest. "Think happy thoughts, Jeongguk, don't let it take hold of you."

Jeongguk doesn't know how Taehyung stays happy in situations like this, so he keeps his eyes and mind trained on Taehyung as the boy leads him past groups of spirits. Taehyung chats the whole time, about how the fields wouldn't be so bad if Hades offered the spirits something to do for all eternity, or if the spirits took more incentive to talk to each other and make friends. Jeongguk focuses on Taehyung's skin and hair most of the time, wondering how he still looks so bright and lively, even in the Land of the Dead. Jeongguk can't help but think that Taehyung is really pretty, and that he shouldn't be down here among death and sadness, but rather, up on earth surrounded by sunshine and singing birds.

"We're here!" Taehyung says as they reach an obsidian staircase. Jeongguk follows the stairs up and up and up, until his eyes land on a black castle, so dark he could hardly see it against the dreary background of the Underworld. "I have to do something really quick, then we'll go talk to Lord Hades and be on our way."

"You make it sound so easy — 'oh, just gonna take a jaunt up to a palace of a god, no big fucking deal.'" Jeongguk mocks, rolling his eyes as Taehyung giggles. Jeongguk follows Taehyung to the garden of Persephone, and Jeongguk is surprised to see some of the plants and fruit wilting.

"During the summer, no one is down here to take care of the garden. Not even a god made life form can survive in the Underworld without proper care, and we all know that Hades couldn't give two shits about some flowers and pomegranates." Taehyung explains as he drags his hand across the leaves of a sunflower. The color immediately returns to the plant, much more vibrant than before. "Hades asked me to come down here once and a while during the summer months and make sure that Persephone's flowers don't die. In return, he does me a favor."

"A favor?" Jeongguk asks, watching as Taehyung slowly restores life to the garden. Taehyung nods and shoves a finger deep into the dirt next to a particularly dead-looking butterfly bush.

"Sometimes, you have to get to the roots if they're too far gone." Taehyung says softly, and Jeongguk watches as the plant regains color, slowly life flows from the bottom of the bush, all the way to the top. Flowers bloom and buds appear, and when Taehyung takes his hand out of the dirt, he smiles happily. "But yeah, a favor. Usually I ask to see my parents. They're in Elysium, thankfully, but this time around I'm going ask for help to get you to camp. Come with me, Hades is waiting."

The inside of the palace is... something else. Jeongguk can see beasts lurking in the shadows, probably hell hounds for if someone steps out of line. Jeongguk follows quietly behind Taehyung, who isn't paying the monster any mind as he confidently strides up to Hades' thrown. The Lord of the Underworld is lounging in his throne, one leg tossed over the arm rest of the gigantic chair as he swirls blood red wine in his glass.

"You know," says Hades, "I don't particularly care for wine, but it irks Dionysus, which brings me joy. I see you've brought a friend with you, godling." Hades seems to purr, voice a low rumble that makes Jeongguk's stomach flip. Taehyung, however, nods confidently and moves closer to the throne.

"Lord Hades, usually I'd ask you to grant me access to see my parents, however, I need to get this boy to camp — I need your help." Taehyung says. Jeongguk half expects Taehyung to lay on the ground and bow, but he doesn't, instead Taehyung stands strongly in place, looking at Hades fiercely.

"I'm already so generous, godling. Allowing you to see your parents, making sure you end up back on earth alive, yet you dare ask me for more?" A fire lights behind Hades' eyes, and Jeongguk tugs on Taehyung's sleeves, silently begging him to come on, because he's too young to be incinerated by the god of death. Taehyung, however, doesn't budge, and Hades sighs. "Let me see him."

Taehyung reaches for Jeongguk's arm and pulls him to stand in between him and Hades. Jeongguk feels his temper flaring, and when Hades makes eye contact with him, Jeongguk feels the need to punch something.

"You're undetermined then, godling? Just another teenager with daddy issues, I take it." Hades says. Jeongguk bristles and Taehyung lays a comforting hand on his shoulder. Hades laughs mirthfully and Jeongguk shudders. "You're no son of mine, at least. If that helps you on your way. A child of mine would have been able to defend themselves against three of my weakest furies."

As if on cue, three furies drift into the throne room and land gently around the room, one sitting delicately on the back of Hades' chair, while the other two rest on the floor next to him. Hades reaches a hand down and pats one of them on the head; the fury grumbles, moans something about being the goddess of vengeance, dammit but Hades pays her no mind.

"I think you'll find that three against one isn't exactly a fair fight, dude." Jeongguk narrows his eyes at Hades stubbornly, but then a fire lights in Hades' eyes and Jeongguk cowers backwards. "I mean. uh— yeah totally. Totally not your kid, uh- Lord Hades... Sir."

Hades chuckles and leans forward on his throne, disrupting the fury that had been leaning against his shoulder. Hades reaches down and holds onto Jeongguk's chin, turning his head from side to side, as if examining him.

"I can help you," Hades says, then he snaps his fingers and a toy car and sword keychain fall into Jeongguk's hand. "Just add water. Now, get out of my face." Hades winks and then snaps his finger again, and Jeongguk thinks he's going to throw up at he rockets towards the ceiling — towards the ground, really — and he squeezes his eyes shut as he quickly approaches the ceiling.

When Jeongguk opens his eyes, he's standing in a cramped supply closet, his foot submerged in a mop bucket full of water and soap. Taehyung is on the ground next to him, toilet paper unraveled and cascading down his head like a hood. Jeongguk huffs out a great breath and slowly breathes in. His body feels numb, like he's submerged himself in ice for a dangerous amount of time. He doesn't feel fully alive.

"Well, it could have gone worse, really." Taehyung says as he picks himself up off the floor. Jeongguk pulls his foot out of the mop bucket and shakes his leg, trying to get the sloshy feeling out of his shoe. "Anyways, lets get out of here."

On the other side of the closet door, people are milling about like nothing strange has happened — like the two boys that just slipped out of the supply closet hadn't just visited the Underworld. Jeongguk treads carefully, unsure as to whether he should be looking over his shoulder, fearing for monster attacks, or if he should try to remain calm so he doesn't look like a nutcase to the general public. Taehyung must notice his skittishness, because he grabs Jeongguk by the arm, mutters a quiet, "c'mon, big baby," and pulls him through the airport.

When they make it outside (mishaps with monsters and mortals alike avoided), Taehyung holds out his hand and looks expectantly at Jeongguk's clenched fist, where he's holding tightly onto the toy car and keychain. Jeongguk drops the items into Taehyung's palm, happy to be rid of them. The fact that the gifts came from the Lord of death himself doesn't sit well with Jeongguk.

"Just add water..." Taehyung mumbles, turning the trinkets over in his hands. He looks up at Jeongguk, who shrugs noncommittally, and sighs. "Hades is a tricky man — nearly as bad as Hermes. I guess we'll just have to find a beach, there's probably one nearby and—"

Taehyung is cut off by the familiar sound of Jeongguk's ringtone. Jeongguk quickly fishes his phone out of his pocket, and looks at the caller ID. The screen flashes Jeongguk a picture of his mom, and Jeongguk is so relieved he feels like he could cry. The longest he's ever been away from his mom was a week, while he was staying with his aunt in Los Angeles, but even then he'd been able to call her every night. Although he's only been away from home for three days, with only Taehyung's incessant chatter to keep him company, he feels like he's going insane.

As Jeongguk slides his finger across the screen, Taehyung shrieks and grabs his phone — and chucks it down the road. The phone shatters into pieces and Jeongguk turns on Taehyung, eyes murderous. Taehyung seems unfazed, aside from the rapidly growing weeds sprouting out the ground and wrapping comfortingly around his ankles. Like hugs, just from plants instead of people.

"Monsters can track phones, Jeongguk. We can't risk you having your cell on you — especially now that we've been in the Underworld. It's just not safe." Jeongguk is about to reply, to tell Taehyung that his mom was calling him, but Taehyung speaks again before he can. "I know it was your mom, Jeongguk, but think about it. If the monsters can find you, they can find whomever called you, too. The difference being that your mom is defenseless against monsters; at least you have me."

"I don't need your protection, Taehyung. I'm not a kid." Jeongguk says, gritting his teeth together harshly. Taehyung seems unimpressed, resting a hand on his hip as he asks,

"I'm sorry, were we not in the same alleyway?" Jeongguk's ears tint red, and Taehyung sighs. He lays a comforting hand on Jeongguk's shoulder. "Look, I know what it's like to not be able to talk to your parents, I get what you're feeling, but to keep your mom safe, you can't have any contact. Well, at least until we get to camp. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is."

Jeongguk nods, and he's reminded of something that's been bothering him since he and Taehyung's little excursion through the literal pits of Hell. "Taehyung, you said that your parents... they're in Elysium. Why?"

Taehyung seems to freeze for a second, before he smiles halfheartedly and spins the sword keychain on his finger. "Let's go find a beach, yeah?" Then he walks off, leaving a confused Jeongguk to trail behind him.

They walk silently; Taehyung is staring out at the road, cars are speeding past, while Jeongguk is watching Taehyung closely, because the other boy looks as if he's about to walk into traffic — Jeongguk doesn't actually expect him to.

"What are you doing!?" Jeongguk yells as Taehyung steps into the street. Taehyung turns back and waves at him, a 'c'mon, bonehead,' kind of gesture, before continuing to cross the road in front of the cars. Miraculously, Taehyung makes it to the other side without behind smashed, and Jeongguk can only pray that he has the same luck as he walks onto the road. Cars swerve around him, honking as they graze the extra fabric of Jeongguk's sweatshirt, or the back of his pants. "Why didn't you wait until the road was clear?!"

"Because we don't have time, Jeongguk." Taehyung says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. Jeongguk sighs, trying to slow his heartbeat, as he follows Taehyung down a path divided from the sidewalk. The trail slowly turns from grass to sand, and before he knows it, Jeongguk is standing on a beach. He looks up, senses tingling, and he feels better than he has any other time in the past week and a half. "And also, because the beach was just on the other side of the road."

"I see that now, thanks." Jeongguk rolls his eyes and Taehyung winks at him before pulling the toy car out of his pocket. Jeongguk looks between Taehyung's palm and the sea, contemplating whether it'd be a better idea to bring the sea to the car, or carry the car to the sea. Taehyung makes that decision for him, however, when he lifts the toy car over his head and chucks it into the water.

Nothing happens for a minute, and Jeongguk silently curses Hades in his mind, but then the ground starts rumbling, and the waves began to get choppy. Jeongguk and Taehyung shared a look as the sea started to part, and both dove to the side just in time for a white jeep to come flying out of the water, a skeleton behind the wheel, cackling wildly.

"I should have known," Taehyung says as he wiped sand of his shirt. "Hades' gifts always include just a bit of trickery, and I can't help here, it's not my domain."

"What do you mean?" Jeongguk asks. He dives into the sand again to avoid being run over.

"I work with the earth; dirt and grass and stuff, not sand and water. That's more—" Taehyung cuts himself off as he stares at Jeongguk, a look of pure disbelief on his face. "Of course! Jeongguk, stay here, I'm going to go back up the path, where the grass stops. I can work from there — take this!"

Jeongguk catches the sword keychain as Taehyung scurries away without explaining. Jeongguk stands there, in the middle of the beach holding a useless keychain, dumbly as he waits for Taehyung to do something. Jeongguk goes to follow after him, but before he can move, the skeleton hits him with the car, sending him flying backwards. He lands on the tideline, and Jeongguk groans as he rubs his hand gently along his tailbone. The tide rushes in and out, as if excited, and Jeongguk wishes it would just stop, because his jeans are getting soaked. Jeongguk stays sitting in the sand for a moment, watching the skeleton terrorize the terrain and waiting for Taehyung to do something about it, when he realizes that the air around him is quiet — all except for the skeleton's heinous cackling. Jeongguk turns around — and the sea had stopped moving. No movement at all, not even small ripples from fish.

"Weird..." Jeongguk mumbles, and he turns back around. He stands up and dusts the sand off his pants when suddenly two thick vines fly across the sky and weave themselves into the Jeep's wheels, effectively stopping its movement. The skeleton chauffeur yells angrily and begins to hack at the plants, when another vine crawls up the side of the car and ties the skeleton's hands together.

Jeongguk, because he hates feeling useless, rushes forward and pulls the monster out of the car. The skeleton starts flailing its legs wildly, its boney toes and sharp joints leaving cuts and scrapes all along Jeongguk's arms, and even leaves a big hole in Jeongguk's jeans. Jeongguk wraps his arms around the skeleton's neck and yanks upward, effectively dislocating the skull from the rest of the body. The body evaporates, just like the furies did, and Jeongguk is left alone on an eerily quite beach, holding a skull.

Jeongguk shouts and drops the head, expecting it to also turn to vapor, but the skull just plops into the sand and stares up at him mockingly. Jeongguk bends over and picks the head up carefully, as if he expects it to bite him, and throws it into the car. It rolls over a few times until it lands on the floor.

"You did it!" Taehyung yells as he runs back onto the beach. He looks wild, hair sticking up completely on one side, and one of his shirt sleeves is ripped clean off. He must notice Jeongguk's staring, because Taehyung laughs as he smooths his hair down. "Sometimes I have to really strain to get my power to work over long distances; it results in a bit of chaos most of the time."

Jeongguk nods and watches as Taehyung jumps into the passenger side of the Jeep. Jeongguk stays in the sand, and Taehyung leans out the window to yell at him: "you comin' or what? We've been on this journey for three days and are still in San Diego. If we don't get a move on, Chiron will kill me."

"Chi... who?" Jeongguk asks as he starts up the car. He drives off the beach and back onto the road, heading north towards Los Angeles. "You mean that unicorn from all the greek myths?"

"Unicorn!!" Taehyung yells, doubled over as he laughs. Jeongguk's ear tint red as he listens to Taehyung laugh at him. If it didn't sound so nice, maybe Jeongguk would have punched him, but Jeongguk hasn't laughed in a long time, and Taehyung's giggling is making him laugh, so he doesn't mind being on the losing end of a joke. "I can't believe—" Taehyung sucks in a huge gulp of breath, his face red and eyes shining. "I can't believe you called Chiron a unicorn! The kids back at camp are going to think that's just hysterical. No, Jeongguk, Chiron is a centaur; half man, half horse. A unicorn is just a regular old horse with a horn on its forehead — no magical value at all, despite what mainstream media thinks. Really, they're pretty lame."

"And why is he going to kill you?" Jeongguk asks. Taehyung shifts uncomfortably, like he's afraid of being on the losing end of the joke this time around.

"Uh, well... you see, Jeongguk, I was supposed to have you back to Camp a few months ago." Taehyung says. Jeongguk snaps his head towards Taehyung so quickly that he runs a red light. Completely ignoring the angry car horns being blared at him, he looks at Taehyung expectantly, waiting for him to explain. "There have been a few demigods sent out to find you, Jeongguk, but you move around too much. It's like someone knew we were trying to find you and every time we got close to finding you... you vanished."

"Anyways," Taehyung says, smiling at Jeongguk. "I've got you now, nothing else will go wrong, and we'll be at camp in no time. Turn left up here."

Jeongguk flips on the turn signal, but he can't help but doubt as to if nothing else will go wrong.