Well…this is another story. I hope you enjoy it and I'll like to let you know that I have a lot planned for this one, so please read!

I skirted around the edges of the woods, taking mental notes of the slaughterhouse. There was a clear entrance, an open, unguarded window. It seemed too easy…but I dismissed it for cruelty.

What better way to torture them, than to show your slaves freedom? So close… yet so far.

I gritted my teeth and made my way to the window.

It was the time after the war. We had all survived. It was supposed to be good right? Good and happy, and peaceful…and all the action we would get was in video games and Capture the Flag. It should have been that way…but it wasn't. No. The gods went ahead and turned aggressive with each other and began claiming demigods left and right. One second you were Hermes's child, the next you belonged to Aphrodite. Unless your parent was too important to mess with, or they thought they could get away with it. No other god had claimed me yet. Which was surprising, Dad was probably making some pretty mean threats up there.

I threw my hands on the ledge and pulled myself up to peek. Good, the butchers weren't there.

Oh yeah, you're probably wondering what the heck I'm doing. To put it simply, I'm sneaking into slaughterhouses to try to find my friends. What are slaughter houses? Some time ago people began "collecting" demigods. Some mortal's eyes were opened against the mist after the war… some crazy side-effect I guess. Mortals respond differently depending on the situation. Well, these mortals realized that we weren't human. So they began collecting us for our powers. Child of Hermes! Deliver my mail! Son of Poseidon clean my toilet and make me a pool! Some of these mortals decided to take out their sadistic urges on us. Some were afraid and set out to extinguish us.

My name is Percy Jackson and I've been going through slaughter houses for almost a year now, and even then, I've only covered about 300 out of about…300,000,000.

I jumped in, landing lightly on my feet and immediately gagged. The smell in there was horrible.

And then I saw the cause of the stink, and my disgust was replaced with anger. There was a pile of dead kids in the corner.

I forced myself to look away from them and concentrated on the girl's side. I always started with the girls. There were 10 hung up on each wall. None of them had enough energy to look at me. They were strung up by their wrists in thick metal chains.

I found myself chanting in my head over and over, "Blond hair…grey eyes. Blond hair…grey eyes. Blond hair…" as I gently tipped their head up to meet my eyes.

No match. There was no girl I knew. I fought back the biting disappointment that I always got after each visit.

I took out Riptide and slashed their chains. They weren't expecting that. They fell, wide eyed, and quickly scrambled out the window. I watched them go. Then I turned to the pile in the corner. I shuffled over and kneeled.

Meticulously, I began searching them. Annabeth…Annabeth…Annabeth…Blond hair! I slowly reached over and tipped her head towards me. My heart stopped. She looked exactly like her…she was covered in grime and blood and she had a bruise on her pale, dead, skin. Trembling, I reached over and gently, oh so gently, I raised her upper lid…

Brown eyes.

Oh gods…I wept helplessly, clutching her limp body to mine. They were tears of relief, sorrow, and pain. I couldn't do this anymore. I couldn't come so close…then realize I was wrong. I couldn't go through anymore bodies. I would not open another dead girl's eye. But even as I thought this, I knew I was wrong. I knew that as long as I was alive I would never stop searching for her. No matter how many violated, beaten, dead girls I had to go through. No matter how much blood I kneeled in. I would never stop looking.

This…love was like a dagger buried deep in my heart. And every time I dared to hope, and was disappointed…it burrowed in deeper. And every time it did…it took some life away from me. Some desire to live that runs through every living thing.

"Who are you looking for?"

The voice came behind me and I froze. Irrational hope bloomed within me…maybe he had seen her? Maybe he knew?

"Annabeth Chase. Blond hair grey eyes…daughter of Athena." I responded, not looking at him. I was met with silence. And even as my heart fell, I was filled with some sort of burning desperation.

"Piper Mclean… daughter of Aphrodite."

Silence. And I kept going.

"Hazel Levesque, Daughter of Hades… Jason Grace…Son of Zeus. Leo Valdez, Son of Hephaestus. Frank Zhang, son of Ares."

I forced myself to say it.

"Nico Di Angelo…Son of Hades." Somehow, his name hurt the most.

I waited in silence.

Just when I decided that he had either fallen asleep or didn't know any of them he said,

"…Percy?" His voice was hesitant and full of disbelief and hope.

I turned quickly, and…blinked. My eyes filled with tears again…this time, of joy.

"Hera."

I couldn't say anything more than that. I rushed over to where he was, stumbling over my feet in my haste, my clothes stained with blood. But I didn't care.

"Nico?" I asked incredulously.

His brown eyes searched mine, and he licked his chapped lips before speaking.

"Percy."

I smiled and raised my sword to free him…but he shook his head. I stopped… confused. He didn't want me to free him?

"No…"he croaked. "Kill me."

Oh.

I swallowed. "No…Nico. We'll find the others. C'mon. Things will get better."

"No." He stared back at me, his gaze cold and dead. But in his voice was a pleading tone. He was wearing black ragged jeans along with a black T-shirt. But I realized he was fairly cleaner than the rest. Then I saw the bruises along his mouth and neck along with more bruises on the exposed skin of his hips.

Blie rose in my throat and my gaze hardened.

I raised my sword…and cut his chains.

That was two years ago.

So…tell me what you think!