Chapter 44: Lotus Hotel & Casino

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

The more things change...

-x-X-x-

He’ll tell Hestia, Percy decides. While part of him is worried about rocking the boat anymore than he already has, the far greater part of him feels like Hestia is his best bet of a peaceful resolution, even after what happened to Zeus. If anyone can talk some sense into Hera before the deposed Queen of the Gods can put whatever her plan is into action, then surely it’ll be Hestia right?

Of course, he also wasn’t just going to reach out to her all willy nilly. Trying to tell her in any form but in person was liable to be a truly terrible idea. Especially with the sheer number of divine eyeballs currently on him at what felt like almost all times.

He had to assume that if he could just get some one on one time with Hestia, she would be able to make their conversation truly private, and then he could let her know about Aphrodite’s warning and maybe she would be able to take it from there without any further interference on his part.

… Yeah, it was a long shot, but a guy could dream, right? With a light sigh, hoping he doesn’t in fact dream anymore, Percy resolutely shuts his eyes and begins forcing himself to go back to sleep. Hestia might still be tied up with things in Mount Olympus, but surely she’d be back at Camp Half-Blood soon enough, right?

-x-X-x-

As it turned out, no. No, Hestia was not back at Camp Half-Blood ‘soon enough’. Instead, days went by, and then those days turned into weeks, and Chiron was a perfectly fine stand-in for the Goddess, but he also couldn’t tell Percy when she’d be back in her position as Camp Half-Blood’s director… or IF she would even come back.

For the time being, Chiron was to be Acting Director, and as it so happened, Percy and everyone else weren’t expected to stay at Camp Half-Blood all year around. Nor were they advised to group up either, considering that the more demigods got together outside of the Camp’s borders, the more concentrated the monster attacks would become on their location.

And so Percy found himself saying farewell to Annabeth and Clarisse for the time being, and also Grover too. As it turned out, the part that his Satyr friend had played in their Quest allowed Grover to qualify for his searcher’s license, which meant he was now going on a quest of his own… or rather, more of a hunt.

Specifically, he’d taken on a task that no Satyr had ever come back from, the task of locating Pan, God of the Wild and Satyrs himself. Apparently, Pan was a lost god, something Percy sort of knew was possible. However, he’d assumed ‘lost god’ was sort of a euphemism for ‘dead and forgotten’ gods… he didn’t think it was a moniker that someone could come back from.

According to Grover, he was incorrect about that, and Percy had ultimately given his best friend his fondest wishes. He would have gone with Grover, but apparently this was something the Satyr had to do on his own, unfortunately.

The one upside to being effectively kicked out of Camp Half-Blood was that Percy got to spend the ensuing months with his mother, at least. As well, the fact that Zeus was no longer breathing down Poseidon’s neck meant that his father was being far less of a deadbeat.

In fact, Poseidon had even invited him and Sally down to his realm for a bit of a vacation… an invitation that the pair had ultimately chosen together to decline, on account of Percy’s father having a Queen down in said realm who probably wouldn’t appreciate their presence at all.

That said, the God of the Sea had taken their decision with good grace, and still provided them with more than enough resources to do what they liked. That ultimately meant they’d traveled all over the United States rather than returning to that fucker Gabe. It had been quite the fun time, with Sally no longer having to work quite so hard to make ends meet, and finally able to just relax and enjoy life after spending eighteen years raising and protecting Percy to the best of her ability.

In the end, Poseidon had only one request for them… one that neither Sally nor Percy had much trouble with. Put simply, he’d asked them to look after one of Percy’s half-brothers for him, a young Cyclops by the name Tyson. As it turned out, despite the bad reputation given to the species by the Cyclops of Greek Myth, they weren’t all bad.

Tyson in particular was a good egg in Percy’s opinion, despite being a strange mixture of naivety, innocence, and a tragic background. The poor guy had literally lived out of a cardboard box for most of his life, and despite being a monster in his own right, he apparently got attacked by other types all the time. His back was riddled with scars, and he had clearly been through a lot.

Despite all of that though, Tyson had still come out the other side with a strong moral backbone and a surprisingly cheerful mindset, one that led him to jumping in the way of monster attacks meant for Percy, even as the three of them had hopped from place to place to avoid giving anyone, monsters or otherwise, long to lock in on their position.

Now, Percy found himself in Nevada with Tyson at his side, having left Sally behind at the Resort and Spa they were staying at on the edge of the Vegas Trip. He and his half-brother weren’t looking to gamble or anything like that, but contrary to popular belief, Las Vegas wasn’t ALL gambling. There were also a ton of arcades dotting the strip, and that was where he and Tyson were going for a couple hours of fun.

“Hey, brat.”

Or at least, it was their original destination. Percy blinks at hearing someone call out to them, and glances over… before doing a double take when he sees who it is. Normally, he’d be the last person to be lured into an alley… but in this case, he grabs Tyson’s arm and redirects them both over, seeing as he recognizes the man peeking out of the shadows at them.

“Charon. Uh… what are you doing in Las Vegas of all places?”

The Underworld’s ferryman doesn’t necessarily look out of place here, to be fair. Tall with dark skin, white hair, gold-rimmed sunglasses and a white suit over a black shirt complete with a red tie, he actually looked pretty much like he belonged in Las Vegas. Still, given what Percy knows about him, there’s no denying Charon is fairly far from home.

“Looking for you brat, why else would I be here? Ugh… do you know how much trouble you got me into with the Big Man downstairs?”

Percy’s eyes widen at that, and he flushes a little bit. In all fairness, Charon had been the one to take the payment. Percy had literally handed over their entire bag of drachmas, but he hadn’t regretted it because one, it got them where they needed to go, and two, they were from Ares anyways, so he hadn’t wanted to hang onto them any longer than he absolutely needed to.

Still, was Charon here to exact revenge or something. Shifting so that he’s slightly in front of Tyson, Percy’s jaw clenches as he stuffs his hands into his pockets… a seemingly nonthreatening action, if one doesn’t know he’s closing one of those hands around the pen form of Riptide, his Celestial Bronze Sword.

“… I’m sorry to hear that, Charon. Given your actions ultimately resulted in Lord Hades getting his Helm back and the discovery of the Crooked One’s manipulation of another Olympian God besides, I feel like your boss should have cut you some slack.”

Charon stares at him blankly for a long moment before letting out a bark of laughter.

“Hah! Damn straight… but honestly brat, relax. I’m not here to extract my pound of flesh or anything like that. No, this is part of my punishment for letting living demigods down into the Underworld. Big Man has me on courier duty.”

With that, Charon reaches into his jacket and pulls out a letter with a flourish.

“All the way from the top, brat. Here you go.”

Percy hesitantly takes the letter, opening his mouth to ask a number of questions more. But before he can do that, Charon does a flourishing bow, twirling his hand as he steps back into the shadows at the same time and… disappears. Tyson makes a noise of surprise in the back of his throat at the disappearance, while Percy just sighs and shakes his head, carefully opening the letter as far from his body as his arms possibly can.

Fortunately, no black magic or undead spirits come rushing out at him or anything like that. Instead… it’s a letter. A very well made letter, with all of the trappings, and all of the bells and whistles, but its just a letter in the end.

Of course, it’s also not just a letter… because any letter from the Lord of the Dead and the God of the Underworld isn’t ‘just a letter’ by any means. Bringing it closer, Percy huffs as he reads Hades’ missive. And then he reads it a couple more times, both to make sure his Dyslexia isn’t fucking with him and to fully process the contents.

There’s a lot of grandiose wording of course, a lot of flowery language Percy has to spend minutes painstakingly deciphering… but in the end, he’s pretty sure he has the gist of it. In simple terms, Hades… is having Percy retrieve his kids from where he stashed them. The Lotus Hotel and Casino.

He’s never heard of it, not even in Greek Mythology. No, wait. Wasn’t there something about ‘Lotus Eaters’ in the Odyssey? Percy narrows his eyes, not quite able to remember the specifics. Either way, this wasn’t the kind of thing that Percy could ignore. Even if Hades was phrasing it as a request, it was still more than that, wasn’t it?

For one, Hades had backed Hestia and Poseidon’s coup, and assisted Poseidon in saving Percy’s life when he relieved Zeus’ head from his shoulders. For two, Percy HAD technically invaded the Underworld, and while he hadn’t been the thief Hades thought him to be, he’d also then gone on to deny the Lord of the Dead’s commands, and flee the Underworld.

But the most important reason Percy wanted to do this for Hades was Persephone. For all that Aphrodite had only told him about Hera during their little dream tryst together, Percy wasn’t an idiot. Now that the truth of his reincarnation was out there and everyone knew he had once been Adonis in another life, Percy definitely didn’t think Persephone would simply stay away.

Whatever form HER interference in his life ultimately took, Percy wanted to have as many brownie points with Hades stored up ahead of time, just so he could temper what was almost surely going to one day be the Lord of the Dead’s wrath.

So yes, he would retrieve Hades’ children from this Lotus place. And maybe he’d befriend them while he was at it. However… he wasn’t an idiot. This seemed like something of a trap, so Percy wasn’t going to drag his half-brother into it with him. Instead, folding up the letter and tucking it away, Percy turns to Tyson with a smile… and a wad of cash held out in his hand.

“Tyson, take this money and go on to the arcade without me, okay? I’ll be there soon enough, but I have to take care of something on my own first.”

Tyson blinks, the Cyclops looking down at the large sum of cash in a somewhat befuddled state.

“But… so much… that’s too much, Percy…”

Funnily enough, when he and Sally had first met Tyson, the poor young Cyclops hadn’t even known what human money was. It had been months since then though, and given they constantly paid for things throughout their travels, Tyson had gotten pretty good with how money worked, and understanding what a lot of it looked like. Too good, in Percy’s opinion.

With a sigh, Percy grabs his half-brother by the hand and shoves the money into Tyson’s palm, forcing the Cyclops to close his fist around it out of fear of dropping any of it a moment later.

“Take it, Tyson. I should be back soon, but stay at the arcade until I am, got it. Or, if I’m not back before it gets dark out, go find Sally, okay? Have fun, and I might just wind up bringing you some new friends if all goes according to plan.”

Tyson lights up at that last bit, though with a cautious sort of optimism as he slowly nods. They split ways there, with Tyson heading on to the hopefully harmless and safe arcade… while Percy makes his way to the Lotus Hotel and Casino, finding himself standing outside of the place in no time at all.

Taking a deep breath, he steps in and makes his way to the manned front desk. Caution in every fiber of his being, he’s on high alert, even as the woman behind the desk smiles brightly at him.

“Hello there! Welcome to the Lotus Hotel and Casino. Here’s your complimentary card.”

Percy blinks as he’s handed a credit card of all things, staring down at it in mild befuddlement.

“Um, thank you… but I’m not here to stay, sorry. I’m here for a pickup, actually.”

The woman blinks at that, tilting her head to the side in mild confusion.

“… Pickup.”

Percy just nods, plowing along as he takes Hades’ letter out and hands it over to her.

“Yeah. Orders from down below. I’m here to pick up a Bianca and Nico di Angelo, to be exact.”

Staring down at the letter, the woman behind the counter pauses for a second, long enough for Percy to wonder if maybe he’d read the situation all wrong and she wasn’t actually informed about the supernatural. But then… she looks up at him, her smile far too wooden for her to not know what was going on here.

“I… see. I’ll send someone to retrieve them for you, but it might take a little bit. They’ve been here quite a while. In the meantime…”

Her smile becomes less wooden, but still has that distinct ‘service industry’ plasticity to it as she bats her lashes at him.

“We have all sorts of free entertainment for you while you wait, sir. You can play some of the slot machines or join our roulette tables. We cover all the costs, but anything you win is yours to keep! We also have a fully stocked bar, as well as a restaurant prepared to serve you any food your heart desires. Or, if none of that interests you… you could have me.”

Percy isn’t sure if he’s heard her right, until she leans forward and pushes her chest together, showing off her very enticing cleavage in a way that draws Percy’s eyes inexorably downward.

Well now. This place was full of surprises…

[X] No, put his foot down - 58%

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