Chapter 1
Nico's P.O.V
Nico was sleeping soundly in Cabin 13 and, for once no nightmares were plaguing him. It was perfect; he was finally getting a well-deserved rest. Or at least he was until a certain Son of Apollo walked in. "Death Boy...Wake up. Nico?" Will whispered cheerfully. "I swear Sunshine. If you don't get out of my Cabin in the next three seconds, I will murder you." Nico threatened, still half asleep. "No Underworld magic though" Will retorted playfully. "One..." "Nico you're joking right?" Will said worryingly. "Two..." "Hilarious." "THREE!" Nico lunged at Will but in his state of drowsiness missed and landed headfirst on the Obsidian floor. Will burst into laughter as he saw the Son of Hades sprawled on the ground. "Will, help. I'm damaged." Nico whined. "Oh you will be if you don't get to the Big House in five minutes," Will chuckled. "Mr. D will make sure of that." Nico shot up. "Why do I have to go to the Big House?" he asked. "How am I supposed to know, I was sent to get you," Will shrugged. "It's not about the Hellhounds I summoned is it, the ones that almost ate the Demeter Cabin?" Nico asked. "Or that time I..." "Whoa Death Boy. Were not in trouble." Will said. "But I swear if you use Underworld magic one more time, will be the one damaging you." "Ha I'll believe that when I see it." Nico smiled as he pushed Will outside. "Now get out so I can get dressed." Nico laughed, something he'd been doing a lot recently.
He swiftly changed in to his favourite t-shirt, the one with dancing skulls on the front, black jeans and his trademark aviator jacket. He quickly brushed the shaggy mop of black on his head and pulled on some shoes.
Camp Half-Blood was awake and buzzing. The Ares kids were sword fighting with Will's siblings, the Iris Cabin were going round changing the colours of everything. Nico internally groaned. He was not going to be happy if his Cabin was turned bright pink again. That took days of threatening them (plus a couple of armed skeletons, but that's another story) to fix. The forges were randomly catching fire, courtesy of Leo, Nico presumed. A torrent of French was coming from the Aphrodite Cabin; two voices that sounded suspiciously like Piper and Drew were screaming profanities at each other in the language of love. Nico was glad he didn't understand French as he was sure that what was being said was not pretty. Jason was Iris messaging Percy in the Dining Pavilion who had recently moved to New Rome with Annabeth.
He made his way to the Big House where Will was waiting for him along with Chiron and Mr. D. "Ah Nico. Come in, we have much to discuss." Chiron welcomed him in. Nico walked in and sat down at the table with the other three following. "Why am I here and when can I go?" Nico asked rudely, he was not the mood to be lectured about summoning creatures of the Underworld by a man that was half horse again. "Oh he's such a delight" Mr. D muttered sarcastically. Nico shot him his famous death glare. "So Chiron, why are we here?" Will interrupted the staring contest that was going on between Mr. D and the Son of Hades. "Well we've been alerted by a group of Nymphs that a small group of unclaimed demigods are on the run" Chiron explained. "What's this got to do with us?" Nico asked moodily. "You've been elected to go and retrieve them" Mr. D smirked. "But that's what Satyrs are for." Will said. "Yeah, send Grover or Hedge." Nico agreed. "Well Reyna has confirmed that she won't send any of her campers as they are not the best at welcoming new demigods who don't know what they are and Percy said that he thinks you two would be the best choice." Chiron explained. "Why I don't know." Mr. D contributed. "Oh I know, I'm going to kill Percy and Jason. This is their fault, why are they so obsessed with me and Will." Nico grumbled. "When do we leave" Will asked, his usual happy self. Nico turned the death glare to him. "What did you say...?" "Right now. I'll be glad to get troublesome demigods out of my camp, even if it's only two." Mr. D smirked. Nico was fuming at this point but Chiron continued speaking, either oblivious to Nico or he simply didn't care about what he had to say. This made Nico even madder, Chiron knew he didn't like recruitment missions, something always goes wrong. Whether it being the Hunters of Artemis show up or something else. "Pack your things, I'll provide nectar and ambrosia for you but you should probably supply weapons for the young half-bloods as well as yourselves." Chiron instructed. "You may go now". Both boys left the Big House and before Will could say anything Nico stomped back to his cabin in a huff.
Fifteen minutes later they were both packed, ready and waiting by Thalia's pine tree for Chiron. "Nico talk to me, I know how you feel about recruitment missions but you can't ignore me for the whole of it." Will pleaded. Nico rolled his eyes. As annoyed as he was he was holding back a smile Will. He managed to keep the facade and turn his nose up at the Son of Apollo. His eyes found an approaching Chiron and Iris camper. "So you were able to persuade the Ares camper to lend you some weapons." Chiron noted. Will nodded his head. "Yeah, Clarisse owed me a favour. We've got some daggers and a couple of swords, did the Nymphs say how many demigods there were?" "They saw at least three but there was voices coming from the place they were running to from monsters." Chiron replied. "Now Nico, because of...ahem recent events I've brought Miss Dessa here to alter your appearence, just so no complications arise." Nico groaned, he knew exactly what Chiron was talking about. "But Chiron it's not a big deal, it wasn't even a big explosion and like the Empire State Building could actually get damaged by it!" Nico protested as he saw an evil glint in the Daughter of Iris's eyes which he saw were changing colour every second. If he looked at them for too long he was going to get a headache. "Mr Di Angelo you summoned flaming skeletons in to the lobby which then all proceeded to explode and took out at least a mile of houses. I'd hardly say that wasn't a big deal." Chiron lectured sternly. "You're all over the news. If they mortal police see you they would arrest you for terrorism or some other crime." "So, just do that thing with the Mist you do whenever Percy screws up."Nico retorted back. "The Mist has weakened since the battle with Gaea. I've explained this to you Nico" Chiron sighed. Nico was getting annoyed now. Well maybe the stupid man at the desk should have let him up. He was having a bad enough day anyway. "I swear it won't be that bad" Dessa said, struggling to hold back a laugh as she saw the fear in Nico's eyes. "I won't make your skin blue or anything." "I wouldn't put it past you" Nico grumbled. Dessa came closer and put a hand on his shaggy hair. She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath. Will and Chiron looked at her in awe as Nico felt a tingle down his spine. He realised he probably didn't look like a Son of Hades anymore. Out of the corner of his now probably purple or some other stupid colour eye he could see Will laughing at his new appearance. "Let me see...Come on this is NOT fair!" Nico complained. Will pulled a mirror out of his bag (why did he have one of those?) and passed it to him. He was still laughing and Chiron was holding back a smile, surely he didn't look that different. He studied himself in the mirror. His pitch black mop was now a couple of shades lighter though still a mess. The dark brown colour of his eyes had been replaced with a glassy blue; like Will's and his ghostly pale skin was now extremely tanned, like he'd spent the last week on the beach with no protection. He couldn't describe how much he hated his new 'look'. "What did you do to me? I look like Percy crossed with Will!" Nico yelled at a giggling Dessa. "So basically...You love it" Dessa teased, not attempting to stifle her laughter. "THAT'S IT, YOU'RE DEAD!" Nico yelled as he pounced at Dessa but hit the ground where she had been standing just a second ago, an evaporating rainbow in her place. "I hate it when they do that" Nico whined. "Nico, what did I tell you?" Chiron said, exasperated. "Don't summon creatures of the Underworld into Camp, don't blow up the Empire State Building, don't scare the campers, don't shadow-travel. To be honest Chiron I don't remember everything you've ever told us." Nico said; sarcastically listing them of on his fingers. "So where's Argus?" Will asked. Everyone turned to him and it seemed they had forgotten he was there. "I mean we'll need him to drive us...wherever were going?" "Well like I said the Mist has grown quite weak, it is slowly rebuilding its self. We have Hecate campers using their magic to protect the Camp but if Argus leaves...let's just say some mortals won't react well to him." Chiron explained. "Nico's fourteen and I'm only fifteen, we can't drive yet." Will pointed out. I could shadow-travel us there" Nico suggested, mainly to annoy Will. "No. If you do that you'll fade completely" Will grimaced. "That's not exactly true" Chiron said quietly. "We could call your zombie chauff...What did you say?" Will turned to Chiron. "While you both were in the Infirmary. Hades stopped by and..." Chiron was cut off by Nico. "Hades! He was here, I thought he hated this place" he exclaimed. "Oh he does, but he wanted to congratulate you on your victory. I said you were injured and resting in the Infirmary, he...well he left you a gift. At least I think it's intended to be a gift." At that point Chiron pulled a circular object out of his bag, it was wrapped in a jet black cloth with multi-coloured flowers embroidered on it. Nico felt sick, he started to get an idea of what was wrapped in the cloth. Gods, he hoped he was wrong. Chiron unwrapped the 'gift' and Nico was filled with dread as he realised he was right. There, in the cloth was a neon orange pomegranate from his step-mother, Persephone's garden. Will let out gasp which Nico thought sounded a bit too dramatic. "You're father said Hecate had put a bit of magic on it and the seeds should now restore your power. This means that you can shadow-travel again." Chiron began. "I'm sick of these." Nico sighed as he took the fruit from Chiron. "Hold on, did you check this is safe." Will turned to Chiron. "I mean were talking about Hades here and we all know he's not the most trustworthy Olympian." "He's my dad" Nico stared at Will who put his hands up in surrender. "Ok, if you're sure we can trust him. Chiron where were these half-bloods last spotted?" Will asked. "Somewhere near Cleveland." Chiron replied. "So that's what, seven hours away. That's not far" Nico calculated. "Come on then" Will said, tugging his arm. "Remember. IM us when you get there and you've found them, they won't believe you at first they'll need some proof. Who knows, maybe they'll even get claimed when they're with you." Chiron reminded them as he waved goodbye. Nico and Will stepped through the border, out of the safety of Camp Half-Blood. Nico took a look at the pomegranate in his hand and fished a seed out of it. He popped it in his mouth and felt the power of the Underworld flood into him. He realised his grip on Will had gotteen tighter. Nico pulled back, blushing. Gods, how embarrassing. He shook his head to regain concentration, took a deep breath and they disappeared into cloud of black, into the shadows.