A/N: Hello! Here we have yet another post-Tartarus fic. Couldn't resist, sorry. I'm not too sure about the flow and quality of this story, it was cobbled together in bits and pieces at varying times. First chapter mostly in Hazel's POV, by the way. This picks up at the end of House of Hades. Assume all events past the escape/rescue have not happened.

Please do leave feedback, good or bad - I appreciate it all! Here we go - I'll see you at the end.

Percy and Annabeth come out of the doors like a couple of skeletons in skin.

That's her first impression, anyway, but she's quickly distracted by the arrival of the others, and the blazing fight against Clytius that follows. The House of Hades crumbles around them like a toppling card house, and there's no time to think.

They link hands like kindergarteners and she and Nico shadow-travel them out. She wonders for a second what it must have been like for Nico to be so close again to Tartarus.

And then Percy and Annabeth collapse like sock puppets onto the green grass. It looks like the colour has been leached from their skin. They are like - well, it's absurd, but she thinks of vegetables used to cook soup and then fished out.

She swears she heard their bones rattle.

Nico is still standing, eyes alight, and there is a glow to his alabaster skin that wasn't there before. He's holding his hands out in front of him, turning them over, like he cannot believe they are real. They do not shake.

"I've never felt more vital," he says, looking at her. There is life leaping in his eyes, such as she had never seen, and a tremulous almost-smile at the corner of his lips.

And then he sees Percy.

There is a silence- and then she sees as if in slow motion his knees crumple and thud to the ground, and his mouth open in a terrible agonized cry.

"No-!" cries Percy, and sucking in a breath, "not - your - fault - don't -" His mouth keeps moving, but there is no sound. There is a desperate and pleading look in his green eyes, straining in their sockets to meet Nico's. Her brother is himself strangely suspended, his knees on the ground but his body stretched out as if pulled to Percy.

Something passes between them, and Percy lets out a rattling sigh before his body loosens and relaxes against the hillside.

Nico slumps on his knees, hands clutching at the grass. His face is sharply cut, and the light falls and streaks down it like tears.

Still silence. Jason breaks it like a thunderclap, breaking from his still pose to run to the couple. They follow, dragged along like flotsam in his wake.

Piper falls to her knees beside Annabeth, a hand flying to her mouth.

"Oh, Annabeth," she whispers, horrified and terrified despite herself, her eyes tracing the tangled blonde hair and too-sharp cheekbones in her face.

Frank kneels and gently slides his arms under Annabeth, straightening up and looking to where Jason has lifted Percy. "Don't-!" she cries out suddenly, and then screams at the bright sunlight, grey eyes rolling in their sockets. She squeezes her eyes shut again and tries to curl up in on herself, shaking.

In any other scenario the scene would be funny; but now, as she looks at the faces of her fellow demigods, it is anything but. Percy and Annabeth are carried back to the ship, limbs sprawling every which way like twigs, escaping the confines of the arms that cradle them, heads lolling back on fragile necks. Their heartbeats pump and flicker under the delicate skin.

Nico watches them go with wounded eyes, but makes no move to follow. Go, the flicker of his hand says. Follow.

So she follows. Coach Hedge, for once, is silent as the heroes are borne on board with as much solemnity as a - don't think funeral, don't think - funeral.

Down to sickbay, and dark red dirt falls onto white sheets. Percy's eyes - green, so green, and so indescribably tired - flicker open and then shut again.

His finger insistently scratches out something against the sheets. Again, and again.

8 - no, B - O - his finger swirls a lazy last letter and then stills. A low, soft groan with a last breath - Jason leans in close - "Da - ma - sen." His breath comes out in a soft puff before he falls asleep.

A name. Two names, maybe.

Nico will know.

xxx

Only Nico doesn't speak to anyone when he comes back. He goes straight to the sickbay with an intent look on his face and sits on a chair in the corner, daring anyone to come close. The rest of the Seven gathered in the mess hall, discussing what to do with the injured heroes.

It was decided, quickly, that they should not wake up alone, so she and Frank volunteer to take first watch, claiming that they, besides Annabeth and Nico, are the ones on the ship who have known Percy the longest. Jason and Piper head up to the deck, hands entwined, to help Leo get the ship airborne and keep it that way.

So she finds herself in sickbay, sitting next to Annabeth's limp body. Nico's face in the corner is draped in darkness, and she can only see the glint of the skull ring sitting on his finger. Frank sits across from her, next to Percy, large hands grasping one another.

They are an hour or two into their watch when Percy jerks in his bed like a hooked fish, thrashing and straining against invisible restraints. His eyes are rolling wildly in their sockets.

Nico dashes to his side faster than Hazel has ever seen him move, and she wonders at this boy she calls her brother, his pale fingers that tap surely on Percy's wrist, the confidence and quiet assurance that radiates from the last person she would expect it from, Nico of Hades who is fidgety and lean and angry.

But, she remembers, he has known Percy a very long time now.

Nico waves Frank off and moves his hands to Percy's shoulders, fingers digging in between the bones and lost muscle. He holds the boy firmly, rattles him, and says forcefully, "Wake up!"

Percy jolts awake startlingly and intimidatingly quickly, a hand leaping to Nico's arm and digging crescent marks into it. The other one seeks out the thin column of Nico's throat and finds it, holding there as a threat.

Nico swallows. His throat bobs under Percy's grimy fingers. "It's me," he says quietly. "Nico." He pauses, closes his eyes. "Nico di-"

"Angelo."

Percy speaks as if rushed, the word falling off his tongue like water and relief. His hands loosen their murderous holds, but remain on the skin, pressing lightly, as if to make sure Nico is really there.

"Nico di Angelo," he gasps. "I know you. Nico di Angelo, brother to Bianca, king of ghosts, blood and brother of Olympus I know you."

"Hello, Percy," says Nico, and despite the easy words there are a thousand emotions jagged and turbulent in his voice. She hears them, and she knows Frank hears them, too.

"It's too bright," says Percy very softly, as though he must say it even though he does not want to trouble them. His hand drops from Nico's throat and curls on the bedsheets.

Percy closes his eyes but is clearly very much awake, and it seems he is struggling with something he wants - needs - to say. Finally he draws in a deep breath and begins-

"Nico, they're dead."

There is very much raw pain in his voice. This is a burden from Tartarus he will carry till the end of his days and he will never escape the yoke of its guilt. Nico is standing very still as if he dreads what is coming.

Percy continues, relentless, confessing. Something so important he would cling to consciousness to tell Nico, a few hours only out of Tartarus.

"Bob and Damasen - to get us out - they're dead, Nico, and it's my fault."

Her brother does not know what to say, she thinks, watching his still figure. She feels as if she and Frank are latecomers to a play that has been years ongoing and they do not know the characters.

Leave, screams Nico's stiff shoulders, the uncomfortably craned line of his neck.

She paces out the door quietly, collecting Frank along the way, and they shut the door to sickbay and just look at each other for a long time.

The last thing she hears from inside the room is "Tell me how they died," from Nico, and Percy's voice lifting as he begins to tell the tale of those who must be the heroes of Tartarus.

xxx

Piper and Jason are talking in the hallway, heads close, and Hazel wishes she could feel guilty about interrupting them.

Jason looks up first, blond hair shadowed in the dim light. He speaks before she can.

"Are they alright?"

She is not sure whether to laugh or cry at that, after what she has just seen.

"Percy woke up," she says. And before Jason can turn for the sickbay, she continues, "and he named Nico and he said - he said, 'It's too bright.'"

Those are the only words that will fall from her mouth. They seem very important, somehow, and she just stares at Jason and Piper, willing them to understand. And they do.

"Gods," says Jason softly, running a hand through his hair. "What did they have to go through in Tartarus?"

None of them have an answer for that.

xxx

It's Piper on watch later that night. She turns the lights off so that they can sleep. None of them knows what fully transpired between Nico and Percy, save that Percy was sleeping once more and Nico had gone back to his room, looking weary and haunted and horribly, horribly sad.

Jason has gone to the toilet. It is quiet and dark and almost peaceful in the room.

And Annabeth screams.

It is as bright and loud as a shattering of glass, and as jagged. It rips and tears its way through the ship and on his own bed Percy sits up, dim light spilling down the bony lines of his face. He is vaulting out of bed but becomes tangled in the blanket and bedsheets, his mouth open in a soundless scream as he scrabbles desperately towards Annabeth.

Piper throws herself on Annabeth, tears gathering in her eyes.

"Wake up," she pleads. "Annabeth, it's just a dream, wake up."

Annabeth screams and screams, pure terror, and the tears drip unceasing from Piper's eyes. Annabeth is twisting in her grip, her grey eyes wide in madness and fright. She does not know Piper.

Beyond the door she hears the pounding of footsteps, no doubt the other demigods on their way. Percy on the floor is trapped in his blankets, but he grows more and more agitated with every scream until with a roar he -

- rips his way out of the cloths like a bull -

- and launches himself at Annabeth, pulling her to him in a hard embrace. Piper pulls out of the way just in time, and is left staring over their backs at the shredded linens on the floor.

Percy should not have strength enough to do that.

In Percy's arms Annabeth has stopped screaming but she is clasping tightly the clothes on Percy's back, and shaking and shaking like she will never stop.

The demigods of the ship burst in, and blindly Percy's head comes up, snarling. He looks very wild and very angry.

Slowly and as one they back away, Piper among them, until they are out of the sickbay and the door is firmly shut between the very feral Percy and the girl he will die to protect.

Jason, who must have come running from the toilet, puts a comforting arm around Piper's waist.

But he does not say anything. None of them do. None of them knows how.

xxx

It is the next morning. Leo spent the night making a little remote control robot which he sends into the sickbay with a tray of food.

He puts up the feed from the security camera onto one of the dining hall screens and the demigods watch the couple from there, none of them feeling quite brave enough to venture into the actual room.

Percy and Annabeth are together, crammed tightly onto one bed. None of them have woken up yet. The cloth from Percy's blankets lies in tatters on the floor. She's still sort of in awe of that.

Percy and Annabeth have forsaken the blankets and without the cloth covering them she can easily see the bones pressing against their skin. Their skin is still covered in dirt from Tartarus, and what is most likely dried blood. Monster dust has settled like glitter in their hair.

Jason, standing nearest the screen, says abruptly, "We're understaffed."

He looks around at them and continues, "I don't want to be the one to say it, but we all know it's true. Percy and Annabeth were our best fighters, and now they're, ah, indisposed. We need help."

Leo sits down hard on one of the chairs, his hands twisting and coiling a piece of metal wire.

"Who?" he asks, "The Olympians are ah, indisposed," - it takes her a moment to realize he's imitating Jason - "and nobody from Camp - either Camp - can get here."

Nico steps forward into the light. He looks like he has not slept at all, but - well - that is normal for Nico.

"I contacted some of Percy's old friends," he says. "Most of them can't get away from where they are now, but Thalia has asked for Lady Artemis' blessing to join us here. Regardless of duty, Percy and Annabeth are two of her oldest friends."

Jason's ice-blue eyes snap to Nico at the mention of Thalia. "She would not leave her Hunters."

Nico's eyes are far away, lost in memory. They refocus on the room when Jason speaks. "She would not, at first. The Hunters are needed where they are, killing monsters. But her lieutenant spoke to her. A small team, led by Thalia… the Seven are a small force, going to fight giants. Now you are five. Does that put it into perspective? Thalia will come, and she will bring help."

For the first time in too long, some of the worry leaves Jason's eyes. "Thank you," he says, and if relief is a little too evident in his voice, nobody comments on it.

Nico inclines his head. Leo steers the conversation towards junk food, rustling up another pack of - what were those, Fonzas? - Fonzies and throwing it at Jason, laughing when it falls to the floor.

Hazel steps back, hands upraised to ward off any incoming Fonzies, and retreats to the corner to dwell on what she has just heard.

Thalia Grace. Jason's sister, leader of the Hunters. She does not know much about Thalia. But she trusts Nico, and if he thinks Thalia can help Percy and Annabeth, she will follow his lead.

xxx

It's reminiscent of when they sat on the roof of Pluto's temple, back in Camp Jupiter. Nico has brought them up to the crow's nest, and they sit side by side, legs dangling over the wooden flooring. He taps his fingers on the handrail and speaks, looking straight ahead towards the horizon.

"Thalia was one of the first demigods I met." She jerks where she is sitting, surprised, and looks at him. Nico is still gazing forward. His dark eyes are seeing a past she is not part of.

"I don't know what to tell you about her," he says, unhappily, and hmms, hesitating. "It's not my story to tell, most of it. But you can know that she is brave, and strong, and a very capable leader. I hope she and Jason do not come to blows. She is one of Annabeth's oldest friends. She is protective of her, and loves her like a sister. Annabeth will need her, I think, in the days to come. And Percy, he will lean on her strength, and together she and I can pull them out of Tartarus and set them back on their feet."

Her brother stops, as if realizing he's said more than he meant to. But he just sighs, heavily, and she catches the words he lets fall into the wind.

He whispers, "I cannot do this alone."

xxx

They spend five days in a state of high excitement. Leo puts in at a port somewhere - honestly, she's lost track, but Nico said Thalia would meet them here - and the Argo II bobs up and down in the bay like an oversized yellow rubber duckie.

Percy and Annabeth make it up to the main deck on their second day, their arms around each others' waists. It's not quite clear who is supporting the other. Annabeth is holding a dagger in her shaking hands. Percy has Riptide uncapped. Teeth gritted, they stagger and hobble their way to the railings and lean there, gazing at the seawater like they cannot believe their eyes.

Percy raises a hand and holds it parallel to the water. It mimics him, rising in a great imprint of a hand and upsetting the balance of the ship. Leo, lying in a hammock in front of his control panel, tumbles out and thumps against the floorboards.

"Hey!" he shouts, scrambling up. "What was-" he catches sight of the couple "-Percy!" And then Leo realizes that they're out of bed and calls, "Good to see you out and about!"

But remembering, perhaps, what Percy did to Nico, he stays his distance. His expression speaks clearly even from where he stands, though, with worry and doubt creating a combination that Percy reads as should you be out of the sickbay?

Percy flashes him a thumbs-up and turns back to the water, watching all manner of marine life come to the surface to see the son of Poseidon. Annabeth stands next to him, a smile playing on her lips as she watches her boyfriend.

But they don't stand there long, instead retreating back to the shade and quiet of the decks below. Annabeth lingers longest, her eyes fixated on the blue sky. Percy waits patiently, and finally she turns back to him and they go down the stairs hand in hand.

It was, Hazel reflects later, a good day for them.

The next day, Jason receives an Iris-message from Thalia, saying that the Hunters would be delayed. There were reports of a monster or two harassing a nearby town; they would take care of it and be on their way. She watches Jason nod, wish his sister good luck.

Jason grows more and more agitated, taking to striding across the deck and practicing by himself in the sparring rooms until Piper drags him back to his room to sleep.

Thalia arrives on the fifth day with four other Hunters, waving to them from the docks. They are picked up promptly, and Hazel watches as they board.

They look like teenage girls, these maidens of Artemis. They wear silver and grey and black, practical clothing, and they carry heavy packs with ease.

Hazel has seen photos of this legendary daughter of Zeus. Thalia is tall, and carries herself regally. On her brow is set a shining silver circlet. Her hair is black and spiky, her eyes brilliant and piercing blue. But most impressive is how she commands her Hunters, with ease and authority. They fan out behind her and let her approach first.

"Jason," she says, as if tasting his name on her lips. Jason rushes forward and embraces her, and she hugs him back fiercely. The Hunters behind her watch warily, skilled hands set on bows or daggers.

Thalia pulls back after a short moment, though, her expression grim. "Where are they?" she asks.

Jason shifts on his feet, looking uncomfortable, and says, "They're in the stables, I think. There's glass on the bottom, bay doors, and they spent a night there some time before they... fell."

Thalia raises an eyebrow, imperious, and it is a very short moment before Jason realizes he's meant to lead the way. He heads down the stairs. Thalia follows, and the Hunters fall into line behind her. Hazel and the others on deck bring up the rear, all drawn to the Hunters despite themselves in curiousity.

Nico is waiting outside the entrance to the stables. He looks up at their approach, and his mouth falls open at the sight of Thalia. It is not shock so much as seeing an old friend in the flesh again, and remembering all the things they have been through together.

She is reminded suddenly, again, of all that Nico has experienced that she is not privy to, all he has done before meeting her.

Thalia has frozen likewise, coming to a sudden stop. Her eyes run over Nico, and Hazel wonders what she is seeing and thinking. She comes forward, shaking her head as if to throw off memories that circle like flies, and grasps Nico's hand before pulling him into a hug.

"It's been a long time," she says, the words muffled against Nico's shoulder.

Nico does not reply, but Thalia does not seem to take offense. Instead she separates from him, and looks to the closed stable door.

"They're in there?" she asks, quiet. Her face cracks a little, worry seeping through. Nico nods.

Thalia looks at her Hunters before taking a deep breath and stripping off her weapons. Her bow and quiver of arrows are set gently against the wall, her pack beside it. She keeps a hunting knife and a Mace can - Hazel is a little confused by that one, she'll admit - and nods to them all.

"My lady," pleads one of the Hunters suddenly, "are you sure you will go in alone?"

Thalia's fierce expression softens somewhat, and she puts a reassuring hand on the Hunter's shoulder.

"They won't hurt me," she says gently. She turns, and sets her hand on the doorknob. Jason strains forward as if seeing her enter the room is physically painful for him. Then she slips inside, the door closing with a gentle click, and is gone.