This story takes place directly after the end of the book "The House of Hades"

CHAPTER ONE The Shadow Realm.

Nico opened his eyes. The first thing he realized was the smell. Burnt metal and rotting meat. It reminded him of Leo. Suddenly memories came flooding back. Gaia, the Argo II, the quest, Percy... Nico was suddenly angry with himself for remembering things.
His eyes started to work. When they did, he wished they would turn off again. He was looking at the black, starless sky. Hovering in it was a massive hourglass. One by one grains of sand fell from the top half, to the bottom. With each "thud" another person died. This was the hourglass counting down to the end of the world.

Nico sat up. He looked around. There were patches of black everywhere. They were the shadows. Were there were no shadows, there was a blinding light. Nico stood up. He hadn't moved from the entrance to the House of Hades in Greece where he had last seen Percy. But he was in shadow form. And he needed to move. Now. There was the sound of groaning behind him. Nico turned abruptly. There was a column of green glowing light, about half his size. Next to it was a purple column a little taller than him. Reyna and Hedge.

There are a few things you should know about the shadow realm. One, it always looks like the real world except everything in it looks dead. Trees have no leaves, the grass is black and stinks to Olympus, the sky is empty all except for the hourglass of Thanatos, and humans are nothing but their glowing life streams. Nico took in a deep breath, "you two, there will be time to snuggle latter, get up!" They stood up immediately.
Reyna slowly drifted sideways, trailing purple light. "Am I underwater or something? Why am I moving so slow!?"
Nico almost smirked. Almost. "I'm going to pull you along through this place, your job is to hold onto the Athena Parthenos."
The green gob of light stood upright. "Right, because we've been strong enough to drag a thousand pound statue around this whole time! Nope, nothing unusual about that!" Nico wasn't very good with his temper, but today he found his friend's stupidity amusing. "First, its actually about three thousand pounds, at least, second, yeah you can."

Nico looked up at the towering Athena Parthenos,
and willed it to be linked to Reyna and Hedge. A golden chain shot from the ground at the statue's feet, leaving a large crater in the ground. Suddenly, a hole appeared below the rim of the crater, the dirt that used to reside in it's place, crumpled to the bottom. Almost immediately another hole bored its way next to the first one. And another next to that, until the entire edge of the crater was ridged with the holes.

Almost as if the holes were the end of a pipe, a foul smelling black goo began to leak out of each of them, filling the crater. When the crater was filled, the goo hardened, and black grass peaked it's way to the surface. So basically, the shadow equivalent of the world, was a ball of goo growing mold spores. Nico hated being the son of Hades. Being close friends with Death, he often saw things the way they really were. Even if they were supposed to be too horrid for his human brain to handle. Nico lifted his gaze from the crater, resting it on the golden chain hovering in the air. One end wrapped tightly around the leg of the Athena Parthenos, the other around both of his brain-numb companions.

Nico drifted over to the two glowing columns of light. When he spoke, they both changed to colors of alarm momentarily. They hadn't seen him approach. "Listen, focus on the chain, focus on holding it, and whatever you see, WHATEVER happens, do, NOT, scream."

The next few seconds were a blur of motion. He had willed Reyna and Hedge to bind with the glowing light that he had become. They soon became one white column. He drifted, slowly at first, then quickly. In less than 4 seconds, they were in a green field, the Parthenos standing beside them. Nico looked at the mossy hills that separated him from the cobble laden world of Rome. He couldn't remember the last few minutes, all he remembered was taking one last look at Percy, closing his eyes, and opening them here. His friends laid in the softly swaying grass beside him. He looked up, the sky was bright blue, the sun peeping in and out of the clouds. His knees buckled, NO! He screamed inside, I can't fall asleep here! They were out in the open, but sleep was gnawing it's way into Nico. He had to do something, fast. With all his might, he managed to summon 3 week skeletons, with painfully degraded Ivory swords. It will have to do, he thought. Protect us, Nico willed, right before his eyes closed and he fell.

This is the first thing I've uploaded to fan fiction, so I don't expect it to be particularly good. If you found any issues with this please feel free to criticize, no need to hate. This is the first chapter of a long story, so stay tuned for later. Nico gets visited by a grumpy old lady, and Percy meets some new relatives...

Oh yeah, quick disclaimer, the only thing I own is the basic plot of THIS story. All themes, characters, and backgrounds belong to the genius behind them, Rick Riordan.