Athena's POV

I navigate through the varying lost souls, some species I can't even name and others feeling a bit too familiar. Trying my best to make my way towards my group, pausing before I bump into someone. Their unmaterialized body giving off a transparent look as I stare through them, looking up to be met with his eyes. Each socket filled with a golden coin engraved with a small cloaked figure, the depiction making sense to me as the bell to the approaching boat rings once more. Souls having the coins continued to move forward in a single line forward, each taking their time to have the coins peeled out their eyes by the figure on the boat.

"Athena here!" Percy's voice blares amongst the dead, pulling me into the line with them all so that we could enter at once. I continue to remain quiet, the silent air of the environment feeling like an unspoken rule to not communicate with each other. Each step we take in synchronization like a marching band and sending chills through me.

"Greetings Charon, for all of us" Persephone extends her hand out to the cloaked figure. His shadowy hood revealing nothing but darkness as it flows through the wind. An audible sound taps against the wood as if something dropped, drawing my attention towards it. "Um" Percy speaks out but I cover his mouth knowing what he was about to say. The elongated arm that flopped out from his cloak now raised towards Persephone's offering, covering her entire hand with his large one and taking the coins from her. He hums silently in contentment and slightly moves to allow us access to the boat.

As we walk past him his hood continues to face us, even without recognisable facial features I can tell he was staring at Percy. Before sitting down somewhere to the side I notice Anubis waving at him with a look of happiness. The boat slightly tilting once Aeon sits down beside me and scaring me a little bit from his sudden presence.

"Do you just do that on purpose or what?" I ask him

"Do what?"

"One moment you walk with the weight of a boulder and another moment you walk as if you're on your tip toes."

"I don't notice" He shrugs it off nonchalantly

"It's incredibly alarming that I don't even notice you half the time"

"Is it now?" His deep voice sounding like he isn't content with something

"You were talking so much before, what's with the sudden monotone answers?" I ask in curiosity

"I...don't like boats"

"You. The one who goes around killing a primal species. Is scared of boats?"

"Have you not seen the size of me, I'm tilting it and I hate the thought of being the reason you all fall in and possibly perish to the living waters" His response confusing me, is he actually that selfless or can he just...not swim? The thought making me smile a bit at the latter so I keep it to myself.

"You mentioned your human name and wolf name...can't you just shift back?"

"I do not wish to, I haven't done so for quite some time" He shakes a little from the answer, clearly out of his comfort zone so I dismiss my curiosity for once

"Athena look" Percy looks to me to point out the waves approaching the still boat, showing off his golden eyes that I failed to notice before, looking back between his and Aeon's yellow eye I see the similarity. "Why are your eyes that colour?" he looks away from me, startled from a realisation of something.

"I-the dream he put me in...ever since I left it I haven't seen my blue ones again." He quickly responds, catching Aeon's interest as he tilts his head down to look at us. The chiming of a bell ringing throughout my ears with the boat beginning to part from the shore. Charon's long arm being placed back into his cloak as his other normal sized arm grabs hold of a large blackened oar paddle that's attached to the similarity coloured boat. Each scoop of his arm moving it across the water effortlessly in motion and away from the shore that still has some people left on it. "The ones who couldn't pay the fare" Aeon notices my gaze and comments, making me feel a little bit bad for them"

"It's been a while hasn't it?" Anubis gazes down at the water as if in nostalgia of his home.

"Not that I miss this place, but yes. It has been" Persephone hums to herself with each stroke of the paddle hitting the water

"So Charon, how long have you been doing this for?" Percy spins around to ask the ghastly figure who stands on an elevated part of the boat. His stature standing still with all our eyes now watching him. After a moment of silence he surprisingly responds, a light hearted soft spoken voice coming from the darkened cloak. "Long"

"You can speak!?" Anubis and Persephone blurt out with a small voice crack

"Yes"

"You never spoke to us before!" Persephone questions, almost in a moment of betrayal

"You never asked" He continues rowing, leaving us in a gasped silence.

-

The peaceful waves going under the boat as we come up to the...end? "Hey, this is where we get off right?" I question Charon but he doesn't respond this time

"Why are you asking that Athena?" - Percy

"It's okay Percy, just keep looking at the water" I try to convince him but only gain more of his interest

"Charon, it was all fine before but seriously. This isn't where we stop?" I point towards the clear ending of the water that's tightened in by the enclosed walls. I turn back to face him and get the see something shining under his hood.

"ARE YOU SMILING!? ARE THOSE YOUR TEETH!? I'M NOT GONNA DIE FOR YOUR AMUSEMENT MOTHE-" I begin to climb up the elevated platform towards the smiling dark figure but Aeon holds me in place with his hand.

"Calm, he wouldn't kill us. I think" Aeon looks across the boat and notices the similarities between us and the passengers...there aren't any. We're alive, they're not.

"I don't remember this being the path, what about you Persephone?" Anubis asks with a bit of shock in his voice

"Oh I very much do, don't let the water touch you by the way!" She cheers out in a giggle as we come closer to the edge. Glancing out I see our destination, a grand palace coloured in a pitch black stone and surrounding blue flames, vines dripping off from the walls in contrast to it along with a sandy path leading up to the gates.

"Tha-" I get cut off by Charon, "Fall" followed by my stomach sinking into the depths of my body. The souls all groaning out in a synchronization with whatever energy they have left.

"I DON'T REMEMBER THIS SHIT!" Anubis screams out while holding onto the wooden bench he sits on, beside the overly joyed Persephone who's cheering with a high pitched tone and waving her arms in the air. Completely replacing her previous queen like air to presence.

"PERCY I'M BLAMING YOU!" I turn my head towards him but don't see him, looking towards Aeon I see his arm extended upwards and connecting to something as we fall. He's grabbing Percy's leg so he doesn't fly away with these light bodies, his smiling face as he gets carried like a kite making me happy he's not thinking about anything bad for once. Aeon's other hand already wrapped around me which I couldn't feel before, but his eyes looking away from me and instead focused in front of him, they gleam but show a faint look of sadness that I can't quite place.

The boat slamming into the water with a loud crash as it collides, luckily not capsizing itself. Recognising the water to be a different hue than the one before the waterfall. "Avoid it!" Persephone stands up and begins hopping around as if it's a game to her, raining down in droplets I try my best to avoid it but ultimately a piece of my clothing gets singed like acid.

The downpour shortly ending with the boat sliding into the shore, "Here" Charon announces. Chiming the bell three more times and letting the souls get off. "Good luck" He whispers to Percy when we hop off and Aeon places him down. The sand sinking around my feet like it'll pull me through it if I didn't walk carefully enough.

"Up ahead is the short grove then the gates we've all been waiting for" Persephone ecstatically explains but ultimately getting disappointed once we don't reflect the same joy to her, feeling drained from the earlier drop.

-

"Anyone want one?" She offers a pomegranate from an extending vine, placing it in front of Percy.

"You of all people should know not to offer that" Aeon puts her hand down, making her drop it onto the floor.

"But I wanted some this time!" Percy tries to pout but gets drowned out by Persephone laughing

"Listen, it was just a joke. You know if this plan doesn't work at least he'll just be here. With us." she twirls around and gives some life to the plantation that intertwines with the holes of the cove, some leaking holes spilling water onto the floor in their own miniature rivers.

"Eat from here, you stay here" Anubis answers a confused looking Percy, making his eyebrows shift up.

"I mean, would that be so bad?"

"Now who's the one happy to be in the underworld?" I remark his previous statement to me, his pettiness overwhelming him as he looks flustered now. All our footsteps echoing against the now stone floor as we reach the exit and away from the life absorbing sands.

-

"What. Is this" Anubis calls out in shock, hordes and hordes of souls that have passed through the ferry but left outside the gates. Standing around and unable to get in, "So this is what Cliodhna was referring to" I ponder out loud.

"Where the hell is Cerberus, the one job we give him and he isn't here!?" Persephone stomps through the crowd, slightly bumping them but continuing on anyway. Meanwhile Percy chants sorry to them all out of shyness. "Percy, they're dead" I announce to him

"Respect the dead, they'll be here longer than you" Aeon corrects me, shutting me up admittingly but I deserved that for the immorality. Rubbing my head a bit in embarrassment.

"Are you ready?" She places her hand on the gate alongside Anubis', lighting a green glow across the floor as a blue haze seeps out of it and welcomes the patient dead. "Welcome!" She happily spins in our direction but then continues to skip up the hill to the palace.

"More. Walking." Percy coughs out in an exaggerated exhaustion.

"You just came off a boat, you walked nowhere." Aeon taps him on the back and forces him to drag himself up the steep path. "So just asking for a friend, you won't carry me right?" I ask him already knowing the answer.

"No"