Even the mortals of the world, with their comfortable ignorance to the existence of higher powers such as the gods, find themselves fearing or being uneasy in the darkness—most sane creatures share this fear or discomfort, in fact, and for good reason.

The old mythos, as the mortals like to believe, describe the Helm of Darkness as a source of great power for the God of the Dead himself; legends say that the Helm would allow Hades to pass through shadows and walls without being seen, touched, or heard—but more importantly, the legends claim that the Helm allows Hades to put fear so intense into his enemies that they might go insane or fall over dead from a heart attack.

In truth, those old mythos and legends could not be truer.

With the Helm of Darkness, the wearer is incredibly powerful; after all, rumor has it that Hades has caused intensive fear in even Zeus and Poseidon before.

So, imagine the distress Hades finds himself in when his Helm goes missing. But rather than accuse, he waits—because it would be foolish for anyone to know his Helm had disappeared.

Zeus' bolt goes missing a few days later, followed by Poseidon claiming a son, and the blame falls on the boy; of course, Hades assumes this boy, this Percy Jackson, had taken his Helm. So, he "saves" Sally Jackson from death to lure Percy down to the Underworld for a trade—his Helm for the boy's mother.

Simple.

Though, in typical quest fashion, nothing ever works out the way it is meant to work out.

Percy, Grover, Annabeth, and {{user}}—the half-bloods and satyr on their little quest to prove Percy innocent—arrive in the Underworld as planned, but the Fields of Asphodel cause problems for the four friends, and three are forced to use their pearls to flee, leaving behind {{user}} to continue.

So, {{user}}, a child of Apollo that has a fear of the dark, finds themselves face-to-face with Hades himself.

"You—are not who I was expecting, at least not alone, sun child," hums the god as his dark eyes narrow, his demeanor surprisingly calm.