Hades looked over at her for the first time, raising an eyebrow. "Oh?" He was clearly curious to see what she wanted.

"I'm sure you've realized by now that this kind of situation just doesn't sit well with my family," Dawn said. She had wanted to choose her words carefully, but it wasn't quite working. "The name Orpheus comes to mind. I know there was another one of my brothers, too, but I don't remember his name off the top of my head. My mythology teacher would be scandalized, but he doesn't have to know."

Hades merely nodded. "Yes, I have noticed this by now. Her soul is not mine to give in this case. You will have to wrestle her away from my wife."

Dawn paused for a moment.

"I'm not entirely sure whether or not I should consider myself lucky or not," she said carefully. "I guess I should try my luck, then."

Hades raised an eyebrow at her. "Very well." He stood, motioning for her to as well. He led the way down a corridor and knocked twice before entering a room all in light colors. "Seph, we have guests."

Persephone looked up from a game of chess with Nika and beamed. Nika looked over at them and blinked before she groaned.

"You're doing something stupid! I told you not to!"

"It wasn't necessarily stupid," Dawn protested immediately. "Just... marginally reckless." She paused when she heard the chorus of the JaneDear Girls' Wildflower from Persephone. For a moment, she wondered why she didn't expect that one. "Anyways, I blackmailed my brothers, bullied them a bit, and then escaped before they realized that Aaron is, in fact, older than me and can counter my orders, and now I'm here."

"Oh, yeah, that was real intelligent," Nika snarked right back. "I don't care if you are Apollo's daughter, I don't care if you think you can get me and get out, I don't want you taking that risk."

"I don't think you really have a choice at this point," Seth pointed out.

"Shut up, Seth."

"To be perfectly honest, Nika, you're not my mother," Dawn replied. "I would hate myself forever if I didn't at least try. Besides, I would only be risking my own neck if Seth hadn't insisted on tagging along."

Seth grinned cheekily, and Nika full-on glared at him.

"Okay, you came, you saw, you tried, now scoot. Your brothers need you alive, Dawn." Nika's glare lessened a little as she looked at her friend. "Seriously. I'm okay."

"I'm not leaving without you," Dawn replied stubbornly. "So you can either come back with me, or I stick around." She paused for a moment. "Though I wouldn't mind tracking down the original Cassandra and smacking her. The bitch."

"Well, that's not up to me," Nika said with a shrug. "You have to talk to those two." She pointed to Persephone and Hades.

"I tried," Dawn replied dryly. "All I got was a disappointingly vague answer and the reminder that I need to put Wildflower on my iPod."

"That wasn't talking," Persephone pointed out. "That was just you listening in."

"Point," Dawn admitted. "I can't help that, though." And there was no way she was going to ask her father if the ability could be turned off, she'd missed it far too much when she didn't have it.

Persephone just shrugged and moved a piece. "Check."

Nika looked at the board for a moment before knocking over Persephone's piece with one of her own. "Uncheck."

Persephone pouted and tried to figure out how to get out of that so she could win, while Nika merely sat back with a smirk.

"You really want her back?" Persephone glanced over at Dawn.

Dawn watched the chess game with a vaguely blank look. She didn't really get chess, and had never played it before. A small vision flashed in front of her of a captured black queen. That, at least, she could recognize. She blinked when she was spoken to.

"Sorry, zoned for a minute," she said. She nodded. "If I didn't want her back, I wouldn't really be here." She glanced at the board, trying to figure out what was going on. "Who's playing white, by the way?"

"Me," Nika said. "Aunt Seph said I could take white this time. I don't suspect she's going to give me that next time."

Persephone glared weakly at Nika as Nika made a few moves forward. She had more pieces on the board than Persephone did.

"Okay," Dawn replied. "Because I think I know who wins. I think. I'm not all that good at chess." She grinned a bit. "I never thought I would miss being able to see the future, but it's so nice to have it back."

Persephone shrugged. "That's how things always work."

Nika smirked and, a few moments later, captured Persephone's queen. Then knocked over her king. "Checkmate."

Persephone narrowed her eyes at Nika. "You play better than Ares."

Dawn just watched to see what would happen.

"You know she'll end up back here eventually," Persephone said, setting up the board again. "You can't cheat death forever."

"So will I," Dawn pointed out. "It doesn't need to be forever, it just needs to be long enough." She also god the distinct feeling that Jason would never forgive her if she came back empty-handed.

Persephone looked at her for several long moments before she nodded. "Alright. You have any repair her body?"

"Still in the room," Nika pointed out mildly.

"Of course you are, dear." Persephone patted her hand.

"Course I do," Dawn replied. "Remember when I mentioned I blackmailed and bullied two of my brothers? I may not be a healer, but they are."

"I guessed that they might be," Persephone said. "If you can get her out of here, you can have her. But it's harder to pull a soul out of here than a soul in a body."