Chapter 19:We Found Out The Truth, Sort Of

Imagine the largest concert crowd you have ever seen, for example, a football field packed with a million fans. Now imagine a stadium a million times bigger with the stadium filled with people, the all of a sudden the electricity has gone out, and there is no noise, no light, just complete darkness. Well if you can picture of that, now you know the Fields of Asphodel looked like. The black grass had been trampled on by a lot of dead feet. A warm, moist wind blew like the breath of a swamp. The cavern ceiling was so high above us it might have been a bank of storm clouds, except for this wickedly pointed needle all over the ceiling. I tried not to think they'd fall on us at any moment, but everywhere on the field were several that had fallen and penetrated themselves in the black grass. Anyways, We tried to blend in with the crowd, keeping a look out for security ghosts. I couldn't help looking for familiar faces that have came to the Underworld, but the ghosts were hard to look at. All of their faces shimmered, and they all looked slightly angry and confused. They will come up to you and speak, but their voices sounded like bats twittering. You might think that the dead is scary, but they actually aren't, they are just sad. We kept walking following the line of new arrivals that sneaked in from the main gates toward a black tented pavilion with a banner that read: JUDGEMENTS FOR ELYSIUM AND ETERNAL DAMNATION. Under the line it said, Welcome Newly Deceased!

One light coming from the right side of the judgement pavilion was much better, the line led down toward a small valley surrounded by walls, almost like a gated community, I think it was the happiest part of the Underworld. Beyond the security gate were neighborhoods of beautiful houses from every time period in history. In the middle of that valley was a blue lake, with three small islands like a vacation resort in the Bahamas. It looked like it was a place for heroes. We kind of did a tour around the Underworld and everything looked depressing except for the place for heroes.

While we were walking, we heard Grover yelp. His sneakers sprouted wings and his legs shot forward, pulling him away from Annabeth, then he landed flat on his back in the grass. Annabeth told Grover to stop fooling around, but the shoes were doing it by themselves. He was going down the hill so fast. I was sure Grover was going to go straight through the gates of Hades palace, but his shoes did a sharp right turn, then the slope got steeper, Grover picked up even more speed. Annabeth grabbed me and we went chasing after Grover. We told Grover to hold on to something so he could stop moving, well, while he was sliding down, his left shoe hit a rock, and went flying away, which left him with only the right shoe. Grover was able to stop himself by holding onto a rock and using it as an anchor. Me and Annabeth collapsed from exhaustion, Grover was scratched up pretty bad. His hands were bleeding. Then I heard something coming out from the darkness, the sound was getting louder, a muttering, evil voice from far below us. Annabeth started to hear the noise too, she said, "Tartarus. The entrance to Tartarus." I uncapped Riptide. The bronze sword expanded, gleaming in the darkness, but then the voice started to fade away, just for a moment, before resuming its words. The words sounded even older than Greek. As if it was magic. Annabeth said, "We have to get out of here!" Me and Annabeth had to pull Grover to his hooves and started to back up the tunnel. But my legs wouldn't move fast enough, because my backpack pulled me down. Then all of a sudden, the voice got louder and angrier behind us, I got so scared that I ran out of there. A cold blast of wind pulled at our backs, almost like something was trying to inhale us, and I think something was not too happy we had gotten away. Grover asked us, "What was that?" "Probably one of Hades pets." Annabeth said. Everything seemed to be fine, so I uncapped my sword, and put the pen back in my pocket. I asked Grover, "Can you walk?" He said, "Yeah I'm fine, I never liked those shoes anyway."

The outer walls of the fortress glittered black, and the two story-tall bronze gates stood wide open. Up close, I saw that the engravings on the gates were scenes of death. Some pictures were from modern times, an atomic bomb exploding over a city, a trench filled with soldiers wearing gas masks and many more. Inside the courtyard was the strangest garden I have ever seen. It had multicolored mushrooms, poisonous shrubs, and weird looking plants that grew without sunlight. Then we passed by the garden of Persephone, "Keep walking." Annabeth said. I knew why she wanted to keep walking. The tart smell from those pomegranates were really tempting, they smelled really good, but if we ate Underground food we would never get out of the Underworld. I spotted Grover trying to grab one, big juicy one, so I pulled him away. We walked up the steps of the palace and into the house of Hades. The entry hall had a polished bronze floor, which seemed to boil in the reflected light. When I looked up, there was no ceiling, just the cavern roof. Every side doorway was, at least one guard guarding the doorway. Anyways, we knocked at the front door. The room inside looked like the place in my dream, except this time the throne of Hades was actually occupied. He was the third God I met, he looked like he was ten feet tall, and he dressed in black silk robes and a crown of braided gold. Hades's Aura was affecting me, just as Ares's had. Finally, he spoke, "You are brave to come here, son of Poseidon. After what you have done to me, very brave indeed. Or perhaps you are simply very foolish." My fingers felt really numb, tempted to just lie down and take a little nap at Hades's feet. I could curl up and sleep here forever. I fought the feeling by moving forward. I said, "Lord and Uncle, I come with two requests, You give Zeus back his master bolt, and Charon wants a little raise." Then Hades rejected my requests, and said, "You, Percy, you have stolen the master bolt on the winter solstice, your precious father is keeping you a little secret, and you also stole my Helm of Darkness." "Wait, your Helm of Darkness is missing also?" Annabeth interrupted. "You and your satyr friend have been helping this hero, coming here and threatening me!" I said, "I had nothing to do with the Helm of Darkness!" I felt really offended by those words, Zeus and Hades think I stole the master bolt and the Helm of Darkness. I insisted Hades for the Master bolt, but he told me that I was the one that already possesses the master bolt. He told me it was in my backpack, I wondered why it was so heavy, so I opened it and there it was, the Master Bolt was actually there, I was shocked, I had the Master bolt the whole time. Wait, if the Master Bolt was in this Backpack, then Ares was probably the one that tricked me and the Gods. I tried to explain to Hades, but the Soldiers aimed their weapons right at us. Then Hades took out a ball of Gold fire from his palm. It exploded on the steps in front of me, and there was my mother frozen in the shower of gold. Hades would only let her go if I returned his Helm. There was only one choice to get out of here and bring the Master bolt back to Zeus at Olympus. I handed one pearl to Annabeth and Grover and I told them what to do with it. I said bye to my mother and told Hades that I was going to bring his Helm back. Then I screamed, "Now Guys!" We smashed the pearls at our feet, for a moment nothing happened. Hades yelled, "Destroy them!" We started running away, and we were in our bubbles. That was the power of the pearls, I was scared that the Sharp stalactites would pop the bubble. We screamed as the bubbles slammed into the ceiling and we were back on land. Well, now I have to go to Olympus, give Zeus the Master Bolt and tell him the Truth, oh, and I forgot one thing, The Helm of Darkness.