Chapter 1

Phase One: Complete (Sort Of)

NICO

It all started when, for the third night in a row, I was woken up in the middle of the night by a panicked knocking on the Hades cabin door. Now, take this with a grain of salt because of course I've been known to sleep for a week straight after a particularly grueling shadow travel, but when I'm not on the brink of death, I'm actually a really light sleeper. So I jump out of bed, not bothering to put on a shirt, and go greet my guest in only my boxers. You know, as you do.

I don't bother to check the peephole; there's really only one person who ever visits me at this hour. I mean, there are a few others I'd like to visit me, but this being the third night in a row, I can pretty much count on no surprises. I pull the door open and sigh. "You know, if this is going to become a regular thing, you might as well just go to sleep here in the first pla-"

I stop abruptly, absolutely mortified because my eyes are just starting to adjust to the dark, and I'm realizing that the messy blond hair I see in front of me is not in fact attached to Jason. It belongs to Will Solace.

The fact that this is an undeniably strange situation wherein he woke me up at two in the morning and then I came to greet him in only my boxers does not deter Will from walking into my cabin like he owns the place. "I've said it before, Nico, and I'll say it again: this decor is bad for your health. Can't we turn on a light or something?" Without so much as waiting for my permission, he finds the light switch and flicks it on.

I cross my arms across my chest and try to glare and squint at the same time as my eyes adjust. "What do you want, Will?"

He grins. "What makes you think I want something?"

"…Because it's two in the morning and you've got a bag packed."

He rolls his eyes at me. "Yeah well obser- … hey." Something has apparently just occurred to him. He narrows his eyes.

"What?"

"Who were you expecting to show up at your door at 2 in the morning?"

Shit. "No one."

Unfortunately, Will isn't always as slow on the uptake as he looks. "You were expecting Jason." He frowns. "How come?" He doesn't look too happy. Actually, he looks positively crestfallen and I'm not sure why.

"Um." I say intelligently. The truth is that like all demigods, Jason has nightmares. Unlike most demigods, Jason lives in a cabin all by himself (like yours truly) so if he can't fall back asleep he's gotten into the habit of coming over and sleeping in Hazel's bed. Even more embarrassingly, I've been known to do the same thing to him. So it wasn't exactly something I wanted to get into with Will. But he's still waiting for an answer. "Oh, you know…" I flounder for a couple more seconds. "It's the ADHD." I shrug to convey that this is a supremely uninteresting topic that we should drop sooner rather than later. "We're both light sleepers. He comes over sometimes to hang out."

This is so close to the truth that Will has no business questioning it, but he raises his eyebrows in disbelief. "I'm sure."

"So what are you doing here?" I change the subject.

The obnoxious grin returns. "Glad you asked. I'm sneaking out."

"And you need a ride, don't you?"

"Well, yeah," he admits. "But I also have a proposition to make."

I roll my eyes. "Lay it on me."

"Do you want to come with me?" He asks.

I think about it. I don't know where he's planning on going or what he's planning on doing there, but I so desperately need a change from day to day activities at camp that I hesitate for less than a second. Plus there's this nervous hope in his eyes that might be my imagination, but either way… "Absolutely I do!"

Will's whole face lights up. "Really!?"

"Hell yeah!"

He does a little jump up and down in excitement thing. "That's fantastic! I'll help you pack! I've got all the demigod stuff- nectar, ambrosia- the works. Just get your sword and some extra clothes. We have to leave soon before someone realizes I'm missing."

"Ok." I get a backpack and begin filling it with the essentials. "I do have one condition, though."

"Oh, great," he complains. "What is it?"

"Nothing too terrible," I assure him. "It's just that there's someone else who I'm guessing needs a break from life, and…well. I happen to owe her a favor."

It's kind of funny to watch Will's face as he goes down his mental list of all females I might owe a favor before he comes to the correct conclusion. "You want to bring Annabeth as your plus one?" he grumps in disbelief.

"If that's a deal breaker, good luck finding another ride."

He snorts. "Even your shadow travel prowess isn't strong enough to carry you, me, Annabeth, and your ego."

Just for that I cut the lights (no light switch necessary when you're the son of Hades), grab his wrist and shadow travel us to a back alley on the Upper East Side. I guess if I'd stopped to think about it I wouldn't have elected to take us basically to Percy's door step, but I'd look crazy for trying to backtrack now. So I drag a disoriented Will out onto the main street and give him a few seconds to adjust.

"Remind me never to shadow travel in the middle of the night again," Will whines. "I need sunlight to recover from that."

"Oh please, you're fine."

"Where are we, anyway?"

I say a quick, silent thank you to whoever is responsible for him not knowing we're within approximately 10 feet of the Jackson residence. "I don't know. Manhattan."

He narrows his eyes. "Doesn't Annabeth live in Brooklyn?"

"I have no idea." I shrug. "I mean, yeah I think she does, I just came here out of reflex." As I say this, though, I realize I have absolutely no idea where she lives. I thought she had been in boarding school with Thalia when she was living here a few years ago but now I assume she goes to Percy's high school so I don't know. Something about Will knowing more about the Percy/Annabeth situation than I do makes me irrationally angry, but I try to shake it off. I toss him a drachma. "Wanna I.M. her?"

He doesn't ask me why I can't do it myself, and he doesn't say anything as he pulls out a flashlight and spray bottle and hands them to me. I hold the flashlight in one hand and the spray bottle in the other and get a pitiful rainbow going. Will tosses the coin and says the appropriate prayer quickly because it's clear this is going to be a short conversation.

If I'm being honest, the reason I can't be the one to IM Annabeth is that I'm worried she'll be with Percy. And yeah, it's after two a.m. so even if they are together they're almost definitely not engaged in any… activities, but that doesn't mean I want to be the guy to accidentally intrude on them via Iris Message.

It becomes clear that Will hasn't thought any of this through the way a weirdly obsessed sort of maybe still in the closet son of Hades would when the image comes into focus: a sleeping Percy Jackson. He's drooling, too. Will whips his head around and glares at me like this is somehow my fault. Then we both see Annabeth on the other side of the bed. Her reaction time is impressive and sort of reminds me of Reyna during our time together with the Athena Parthenos. She opens her eyes (I don't even know what woke her up because I swear we're being silent), puts a finger to her lips and then motions for us to wait a second. Then she waves her hand through the mist and cuts the connection.

"Congrats on this colossal waste of time." I'm pretty sure Will's only pretending to be pissed. "What next?"

I don't bother answering because it's obvious Annabeth is coming to meet us now and like I said, we're pretty much a five second walk from Percy's apartment or a one second jump if you use the fire escape, which Annabeth does.

She turns her land into a roll with practiced skill and comes up standing in front of us with fire in her eyes and her sword arm ready for action. "What?"

"Nothing!" I jump back and trip over Will (he catches and steadies me) and I start again. "I mean, not nothing. Something, but like, nothing bad." I wish Will would take over but he doesn't, probably because he enjoys watching me suffer, and also because I'm the jackass who wanted to invite a hostile Annabeth on our sneak out mission. "We're going on a quest- I mean, we're taking a short break from camp to… do something-" I remember I still don't know what our mission is- "and I was wondering if you wanted to come."

"Oh." I can't tell what Annabeth's thinking at first because she is literally the champion of the poker face when she wants to be, but she lowers her sword, which I take as a good sign, and then a grin spreads across her face and her eyes sparkle with excitement. "Okay!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Let me just leave a note for Percy."

This strikes me as weird- that she's not even going to wake him up to tell him she's leaving and even more that she didn't just assume Percy was part of the invitation. 'Percy can come too if he wants,' I want to say, but the words stick in my throat. Ever since I told the two of them about liking Percy (COMPLETELY in the past now), there of course has been some lingering awkwardness. I don't want to tell Annabeth to bring Percy because I don't want her to think that I'm trying to use this to get closer to him. But on the other hand, I don't want to not invite him because then Annabeth (and Will) will think that I can't handle being around him because I still like him (I don't).

So I stand there between a rock and a hard place until Will pipes up with the ol' "Percy can come too if he wants," but it's funny because he sounds like he wanted to say those words even less than I did. Maybe because bringing Percy along brings up some logistical problem that I don't know about. I mean, I don't even know what the quest is for, so maybe a son of Poseidon would somehow be a burden to it. Hey, it's possible. Or maybe having Percy with Annabeth around would make this situation just a little too close for comfort to a double date vibe- obviously something both Will and I want to avoid. Or maybe he's thinking the same stuff as I am about me liking Percy and- SHUT UP, I eventually have to yell at myself.

Annabeth shakes her head. "He can't, it's his stepdad's birthday today. I'll be right back." She puts on her Yankee's cap and disappears, but true to her word she's back less than a minute later. "I do have one condition, though," she continues, a wicked glint in her eye.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Will grumbles under his breath. This is obviously a familiar conversation.

"I'm inviting Piper."

Will throws his hands up. "Fine. Gods. But if she asks for a plus one, you're all going home." He glares at us.

"Except me," I venture after a second. "Because I'm your ride."

"And me," Annabeth chimes in. "Because I'm Nico's plus one. And Piper, since she's my plus one."

"Alright enough!" Will grabs me by the wrist with one hand and Annabeth with the other like we're kids. "Everybody shut up and we'll go get Piper." So instead of asserting my dominance as a son of Hades who does not like to be touched- much less restrained- I channel my fight or flight instinct into shadow traveling the three of us back to the Hades cabin, officially bringing us full circle before the quest has even begun.

Author's Note: Ok so Nico's confusion about Annabeth's living situation is actually my own and the Brooklyn thing is totally random but I figure she can't afford an apartment in Manhattan. Does anyone know where Annabeth actually lives during Trials of Apollo?

Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed this! Let me know what you think! There will be more coming soon-ish with Piper and eventually Jason and Percy.