At this point, I wasn't sure if I should start with the fists or the cussing.

I glared up at Hades, who sat on that throne of his - a black seat with bones and skulls infused into the stone. Hades wore an elegant black robe that trailed to his feet; his face was so pale that it looked as if he spent his free time living in a goddamn freezer; his hands were still and his eyes were the deepest black I have ever seen. It looked as if he had just gotten more grumpier than the last time I saw him, and that was when he visited Olympus last week.

As soon as we reached his throne, Annabeth and Grover instantly knelt while I continued to stand in defiance. This caused Hades to raise one of his eyebrows.

"You've got a lot of balls to not bow to me, nephew," he sneered slightly.

"And you've got a lot of balls to accuse me of something that I would never commit," I retorted.

Hades chuckled, a sound that didn't go well with the surroundings of the throne room. Annabeth gave me a worried glance, and Grover gave me the wide eyes, like he was silently trying to tell me something. He was probably giving the 'Don't tick him off' glare,' though I pushed the thought to the back of my mind.

"You still stick to this story of yours?" Hades demanded after finishing his laughter. "When everyone knows that it's not even true?"

"The gods back up in Olympus believe me," I countered. "And that's all I need. They know well enough to know that I wouldn't do anything against them, not even you. So, why don't you do me a favour and let me speak, before I come over there and rip your blasted pale head off for accusing me of this crime?"

Hades's face reddened with anger, but I knew he knew better than to challenge me. He knew that if he killed me (which is not gonna happen), he would risk himself a lot of trouble from all the other gods, who would literally make my uncles live even more than a living hell. My father would be the first to beat the stuffing out of Hades for killing me, I knew that straight away.

Before Hades even spoke, a bright flash of light appeared on his right side, and a beautiful throne of spring and summer flowers stood by his side. I knew straight away that this could help, because that said throne was occupied by an all too familiar goddess of springtime occupied it. Sitting there was Persephone, daughter of Demeter and wife of Hades.

She wore a meadow green dress, which had yellow patterns on it that symbolise crops in the fields. Her hair was a lustrous dark brown and black and her eyes were a dark blue, like the depths of the ocean. I got the privilege to know this goddess on one of the missions she gave me, and that was to help her retrieve a lost item of hers. Ever since then, we had been on good terms. However, I didn't know how this was gonna be, because now I was talking to two immortals instead of one.

"Percy," Persephone greeted, giving me a respectful nod.

"Lady Persephone," I greeted back, bowing slightly.

Hades didn't like that at all. He threw his arms up in disgust (which looked pretty pathetic to be fair). "So he gives you the respect you deserve, but not me? I am so close to blasting this demigod all the way to Tartarus for his arrogance!"

"The difference is that Persephone has never done anything wrong to me, whereas you have," I retorted. "So, shut up."

Hades fumed and snapped his fingers. Suddenly, the throne room doors burst open and several guards came running in, carrying various types of weapons such as swords, spears, machine guns and rocket launchers. Annabeth and Grover stood close behind me, like I was some sort of safety line in the middle of a raging storm. I turned my head slightly to the side and saw Annabeth's scared face.

"Call your guards off," I demanded.

Hades shook his head. "I will not, until you return my Helmet of Darkness. That is my most prized possession and I will not allow you to hold such a weapon. You may have the blessing of Olympus, but you and your worthless friends are down here in the Underworld, and you have dared to enter my kingdom without permission. If you return my helmet however, then maybe I will let you all out. If you don't return my helmet, then things get bloody real quick."

I stared at him. "You're giving me an ultimatum? Are you !!!!!!! kidding me?"

Hades now had a smug look on his face. "I told you that you don't stand a chance against me. Now give. Me. The. Helmet."

I thought for a moment, my mind racing at the speed of light on how we were going to get out of here. I had to find the Master Bolt, but how on earth was I supposed to find it when Hades had us cornered? I knew I shouldn't have come back here, and now I was paying for it.

"I'm not here to talk about your damn helmet. I came here for my uncles Master Bolt, which now I'm starting to believe you actually took," I growled.

Hades gave me a confused look. "You think I stole the Master Bolt?"

"Not you," I snapped. "The thief that you sent to take it as well as your helmet. You're working with the thief."

"I didn't send a thief to-"

"You sent that thief to steal Zeus's lightning bolt," I fought back, raising my voice to a slight shout. "In doing so, you caused Olympus to go into a complete panic. Without the Bolt, the world goes into an Ice Age which would cause a lot of death around the world at an accelerated global rate. This expands your kingdom and gives you more power than you could possibly imagine, thus giving you the chance to strike at Olympus when it is weakened enough to be attacked by your powerful undead army. You were planning on betraying Olympus for a while, and now you're at the final stage of your plans. Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

Hades looked stunned. "With that kind of thinking, you could give Athena a run for her money."

"I'm not the thief of the Bolt and Helmet," I bellowed. "I've been saying that ever since this quest started! It was that thief of yours that you sent, the same thief that MURDERED MY FRIEND!"

"I DIDN'T SEND A THIEF!" Hades roared, standing up from his throne.

Persephone placed a hand on her husbands arm. Hades looked at her, before taking a deep breath and calming down.

"I didn't send a thief," he said. "And I didn't know about Omega until he reached the Underworld. I told him not to try and contact you, since I knew he was always rebellious, even in death. But then he went right ahead and tried sending a dream message to your friend."

I frowned. What was he thinking? "What are you talking about?" I growled.

Hades suddenly looked confused. "You mean...you don't know?"

Annabeth then gave a small gasp. I looked at her, her hands covering her mouth. "You knew he was contacting me?"

"Annabeth what-" I asked, thoroughly bewildered.

"Yeah, then I decided to keep tabs on Omega and you ever since," Hades answered.

"Will someone just tell me what the hell is going on?" I demanded, giving each of them a harsh glare.

Annabeth's shoulders slumped, as if she had finally given up. "I had a dream message...from your friend Omega."

My eyes widened, and I felt like I had been punched in the stomach. "You what?"

Annabeth gave me a sad look. "Omega visited me in my dreams, when I was in the middle of a nightmare. He...uh...showed me the time when you and he were in Mexico at the Day of the Dead parade. He...told me to...look after you and Calliope from now on, since he thinks that I'm the only one who can get through to either of you now."

I was now shocked beyond belief. "Omega...my friend - my brother in all but blood - told you to look after me and my twin sister?"

The daughter of Athena nodded honestly. "Then came the dream I had of you and Serenity and the...well, I was visited by another person."

I frowned warily. "Who?"

"A woman, dressed in white robes," Annabeth answered. "She told me to make sure your anger doesn't cloud your judgment. I didn't know it was going to be that particular woman."

"Who?" I repeated.

Hades interrupted at that point. "That isn't really relevant at the moment. Look, the real question: you honestly don't have my helment? You're not the thief?"

I noticed that he hurriedly gave Annabeth a quick glare, which I knew to be his 'shut up' look. I looked between the both of them, and I knew that something was up.

"I am not the thief," I told Hades. "I swear it on the River Styx. And you know for a fact that I keep my oaths."

Thunder impossibly rumbled in the distance, which made Hades sink in his throne in defeat.

"So I was wrong," he muttered. "But who on Earth would...oh."

"You have an idea of who the thief is, don't you?" I asked him, crossing my arms over my chest.

Hades nodded grimly. "I have a idea, but it won't be a good one. I'm starting to think that it was the half-blood son of Hermes that did this. The one that is currently missing from Camp Half-Blood."

Annabeth gasped, and finally everything made absolute sense to me.

"Luke," I breathed.
======
My mind spun out of control, trying to adjust to the information that I had just been given. No way could this be true. For a moment, I wondered if Hades was pulling a cruel joke, but somehow I found myself believing everything he said.

Luke was the thief. He was the one that stole the lightning bolt and the helmet. That explains the similar eyes I saw when I battled the lightning thief back on Olympus; that also explains the somehow distant attitude he always had whenever I was around him and why he would always give me worried looks from a distance. He knew that I would somehow find out that he was the thief. That's why he fled Camp Half-Blood - to avoid him getting captured, and punished for his actions against Olympus.

Then, I remembered the sneer he gave me when we first met on Olympus, before he sent me and Calliope falling from Olympus. The words that still rattled my brain and state of mind.

For Lord Kronos, ruler of the Titans and Lord of Time.

"He's working for Kronos," I exclaimed.

Everyone stared at me in shock. "That's impossible! How could he be? Kronos is still in Tartarus!" Annabeth shrieked in dismay.

"That's not true, daughter of Athena," Hades replied. "My father, Kronos, can still invade the minds of men today, giving them nightmares and influencing them to the point where he can tell them what to do. Even though he is in a thousand pieces, he's still very manipulative towards the world of men today and he still yearns for power over the gods and the world. That's why me and my brothers sliced him into pieces and sent him to the deepest pit of Tartarus, so that he could never escape."

"However, with the Master Bolt and the Helmet of Darkness, he could use their combine powers to give him enough strength to escape," I summed up. "So that's why he got Luke to steal the bolt and helmet - while he gets the world into an Ice Aged state, he could strike at Olympus while its weakened. It's not Hades that's causing the trouble, it's Kronos! But who is this god we've got to face? We're in the west, but who's the god if it's not Hades?!" I started walking back and forth in a straight line. "Come on, think Percy! THINK!"

"Whoever wants this civil war to escalate even further," Annabeth guessed. "And I know just the god that wants war the most - the one guy that happens to be the god of war."

I gawked. "Ares? Oh, that prat? Why that stuck up son of a-"

"Now, now Perseus," Persephone chided, waving her index finger back and forth in a no-no expression. "No need for swearing. Now, the real task is where do you think Ares and Luke Castellan are right now?"

Grover snapped his fingers. "They were probably watching us, the whole time. Back at Omega's cousin's house, I thought I felt the presence of Ares around there. That guy could cause anyone that is already angry to get even more riled up. And that time back in New York when we fought the Furies there - you got so mad that you literally killed them in ten seconds flat. He and Luke must've been watching us since then."

I was impressed. "Good perception Grover. The Cloven Elder Councillors will make a searcher out of you yet."

Grover smiled at the compliment.

"So, that means that they are probably somewhere in L.A right now," Annabeth theorised, "just waiting for us to show up."

I nodded, feeling somewhat better now that the whole truth was out in the open. Now, my head felt clearer than it ever has done on this quest. Suddenly, I was more closer to finding Castellan - the true lightning thief - and getting my revenge on him for killing Omega. But then I looked at Annabeth and I knew that I couldn't kill him - if I killed him, then she would be crushed since she would be losing her second best friend since Thalia.

"Then what are waiting for?" I asked her. "I don't think we should keep Luke and Ares waiting, should we?"

Annabeth smiled at my sarcastic comment. "You're right. Now that I know what he's really like, I've got a score to settle with Luke for betraying us like this."

Grover nodded in agreement. "You're gonna have to get in line."

Hades gave us a genuine smile. "Then, you should go. I shall send you back to Santa Monica, where you shall battle these two traitors. But before we go, maybe I should also explain something else, son of Poseidon."

I gave him a pointed look. "What - another secret you kept from me?"

Hades nodded, before clicking his fingers. From behind the throne of the Underworld god, a tall white robes figure walked up to his side and stood there with her hands clasped together. I could tell that it was a female because of her slender frame and small figure. I couldn't see her face, as her hood hid it completely in shadow.

Annabeth stiffened. "It's her."

I looked at her, before I looked back at the woman. "Who is she?"

Hades gave me a pained look. "Someone that should've lived. Someone that you should've known."

I looked at the woman with narrowed eyes. For some strange reason, I felt connected to her somehow, like the connection I had with my father. I started walking up to her, before looking back at Annabeth.

"Annabeth, who is she?" I asked, feeling scared for the first time in years. "You know this woman, so tell me."

Annabeth shifted her feet, and she refused to look at me. That gave me reason to be worried. "I...I-I can't..."

Persephone looked at her husband in confusion. "Husband, what's going on? What aren't you telling me?"

Hades hesitated for a moment, before finally admitting. "I kept her here in case I needed something to use against Perseus as leverage. Now, I fear all I've done is just make things worse."

My mind raced with what I just heard. What was Hades talking about? What - did I know this unknown woman? I tried thinking back, thinking of all the people I have talked to in the course of my three hundred immortal years. Never before have I heard or seen this woman before.

Someone you should've known...

I looked back at the woman, and asked the question I knew would live with me forever. "Who are you?"

The woman's head tilted backwards, and I caught the colour of her eyes - deep ocean blue. The same colour as Calliope's.

"Percy," she said in a soft voice. "Don't be afraid. I have waited so long for this moment. My boy...you've grown so much."

My eyes widened. No way...

My boy...as if I were her son...

This was my...my...

"Mom," I whispered in a haunted voice, my legs almost buckling from the shock.

She nodded slightly, and removed her hood, where for the first time in my life I saw her face in person.

It was just like I saw her in those images. Her face was smooth and slightly tanned; her hair was a dark chocolate brown and it went down to just past her shoulder blades; she stood at a frame of six feet tall and her eyes - they were exactly like Calliope's.

"It's me," she said, with a small smile. "Sally Elizabeth Jackson, your mother."

I looked at her with a face that showed my shock and deep longing. I looked at Hades with a slight glare. "How?"

"I kept her soul from entering Elysium," Hades explained. "My brother was distraught after her death, and because of that he wouldn't socialise with other women. Your mother was the soul reason for that, because she had melted his heart more than any other and it left a lasting impression on him. I decided to keep her alive in case I had to use her as leverage against either you or your father."

My hands were trembling from rage. "You kept my mother as leverage?! What in the name of Olympus were you thinking?! You don't use my mother as goddamn leverage! You even broke the Ancient Rules - no one who has died can come back! Did you ever consider what my own mother would've wanted?! No, of course you didn't!"

"Percy," my mother said, holding a placating hand up, her eyes pleading. "I told him to do that."

I stared wide eyed at her. "You what?"

Annabeth came over frowning. "You asked Hades to keep you alive? Ms Jackson, this goes against the rules. You were suppose to have died over three hundred years ago. Why did you ask Hades to defy the Rules?"

"Because technically speaking," Hades said, "she didn't die at all."

I turned my attention at Hades, completely intrigued about what he had to say next. "Of course she died. She died after giving birth to me and Calliope. My father said it was a mixture of stress, blood loss and extreme pain. He felt her die. How can she be alive after all of that? Tell me Hades, because I want to know just how much was being hidden from me and my sister."

Instead of Hades explaining, it was my mother.

"When you and your sister were born, its true I did die. But it was only for the briefest of moments, because my body only shut down for over an hour at most. When the doctors took my body away, moments after your father took you to Olympus, I couldn't stop thinking to myself. I had to see you and your sister, the only family I had left. I was desperate. And so I focused on returning to my body, and for some reason it worked. I woke up in the hospital, alive again. It wasn't until Hades showed up and told me that I was still connected to my body out of sheer will and stubbornness. He told me that I could stay in the Underworld, where I could watch you grow up, as long as I stayed in his palace where no one could sense my presence."

"It was hard for her," Hades told me calmly. "Watching you grow up along with your sister. I knew it was a hard thing to endure - a parent watching their children grow old without them ever knowing them. But she knew as well as I did that if the Council found out she was still alive, then they would enforce the Rules and send her back."

Annabeth nodded along with the story. "And that would mean that she wouldn't see either Percy or Calliope. Ever. Until they die."

Sally Jackson nodded, a sad look on her face. "This was the only way I could ensure that I could see my children."

I looked at her for a long time, without even saying anything. A think a full minute went by from all the time I was standing there, just absorbing the fact that my mother was alive and well. Then, I felt a tear escape my eye.

It had been so long since I last cried. Not since Serenity's funeral. Not since Omega's death. And not since...well, a long time ago.

Sally Jackson came over and bruised the tear away from my cheek. "It's okay. I'm here now."

I found myself leaning into her hand, never wanting her to let go. Then, in front of everyone and shocking them deeply, I hugged my mom tightly, and I instantly felt all the tension in my body leave me. Sally was stunned for a moment, surprised that I, Perseus Jackson the son of Poseidon and Champion of Olympus, would hug her. She finally relaxed and hugged me back just as tightly.

"I thought that I would never see you," I told her, all my sadness pouring into that single loving hug.

Sally pulled back and gripped my shoulders, her eyes slightly tears as she looked at me. "Same here."

Annabeth came up behind me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder. I looked at her and I saw that she was smiling at mine and my mothers reunion after so many long years. Her eyes told me that she was happy for us and that I was finally able to see my mother. Grover gave me a thumbs up, smiling as well.

"Jackson," Hades spoke.

I looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

"While I am happy for you that you are with your mother again, I am still sorry for having to do this."

I frowned at him. "What do you mean?"

My mother looked at me with a pained expression. "The prophecy. You will fail to save what matters most in the end."

I looked at her with wide eyes. This couldn't be happening. "What? No! I can't leave you here, not when I just got you back! I just can't!"

"Percy," she said, placing her hand on my face. "Listen to me. You haven't truly failed. You have to stop Castellan and retrieve the Master Bolt and Helmet of Darkness, otherwise all will be lost. When you complete this mission, I will be back and we will be together. I swear it on the River Styx that I will find you and Calliope again."

Thunder boomed in the distance, sealing the oath.

Annabeth looked at her watch. "Percy, we need to go. We only have twenty four hours before the Winter Solstice meeting on Olympus, and we need to hurry."

"She's right man," Grover agreed, placing a hand on my shoulder. "We have to see this mission out. We still have a chance at defeating Luke and Ares if we hurry."

I looked at my mother, wanting nothing more than to bring her back to the mortal world. After a moment of hesitating, I sighed before looking at Hades.

"You look after her until this is all over," I told him. "You hear me? You look after her, or I'll never forgive you."

Hades nodded. "You have my word."

I nodded, before looking at my mother, who was looking at me with prideful tears. I knew that she was feeling the same turmoil as me, but we both knew that this was the only way. At that moment, I knew that I was going to see her again and this time she was going to live her life in full.

"I'll be back," I promised her. "I promise."