I decided to slip this little sneak peek of my new idea, Back in Black, starring Nico di Angelo of Percy Jackson and the Olympians. The sneak peek and the full story itself takes place right before the Son of Neptune, the full six months exactly. Also, the excerpt itself is from the first chapter, and don't worry, I'm not going to give it entirely away.

This has been beta-read and approved by n00dl3gal! Thanks for the great work!

Here we go, be sure to enjoy it!

Back in Black Preview

Nico frowned; he didn't know why he was near Las Vegas of all places, near the one city his father forbade him from going near. He didn't know why but he didn't ask in order to avoid having him compared to Bianca again. The very sister he had been trying to find in the Underworld when he sensed something strange. Something that he couldn't quite explain, even as the Son of Hades. It felt like a demigod was near death, but at the same time, wasn't exactly dead.

He had gone straight to his father to ask about the feeling, and when he informed him where the demigod had been sensed, it happened. Hades, his father, had actually froze up right then and there, already knowing about Nico's search for clues about his sister's soul. Then he gave him instructions to also go look in Nevada, but avoid Las Vegas. It was strange that his father, the man who had often times compared him to Bianca had actually been nice. Then again, things had changed rapidly for the pair after the battle of Olympus.

Nico shook his head, keeping his mind back on the task at hand. He was trying to actually locate the demigod he was sure was close by. And hopefully, they would be grateful for getting some ambrosia and nectar.

"Where are they?" Nico asked himself aloud, frowning. All he could see around himself for now, was a strange garden of statues, Greek statues he hoped.

Each one he passed by looked disturbingly lifelike, covered in black stone that made it hard to see their features if it wasn't for the sunlight. Not only that, but he actually could make out the exact features of a Drakaina, a Drakon, and even a group of giants as well. There were enough monster statues around that Nico had to grip the handle of his sword, Nightmare, just for reassurance that they were just statues. At least he hoped so, and that if something was holding them back from attacking that it stayed strong.

As he made his way through the maze, he felt something pulling on his chest and the feeling grew stronger as he walked. In fact, the life that he could feel was struggling to stave off death was drawing closer. No, that wasn't right; he was getting closer to the demigod and he paused for a moment when he swore the demigod was right next to him. But as far as Nico could see, there was nothing but cold lifeless statues. No demigod begging for help, just statues.

"This better not be some kind of joke," Nico growled, frowning as he turned around and then froze in place. "How did I miss this?"

Right before him was a statue of a young man, completely encased in black stone to his eyes, and yet was radiating life to his senses, a gift of his as the son of Hades. Even more surprising was the look in the cold eyes of complete determination and anger, and just staring at the statue gave him a chill. As if he was looking at what might be what a younger version of his own father would look like if he were made out of stone. Nico paused to look down at the young man's arms and promptly backed up. For right over each sleeve and covering his arm was an enormous fist of pure metal that covered even his fingers in big metal casings. They looked out of place on the statue's body, given that the boy actually looked like he might be a child of Aphrodite, just because he looked so handsome.

Not that Nico didn't like girls, he merely could tell the statue obviously reflected the youth's features rather well. He quietly looked over the statue once more, trying to spot anything that might give him away as a demigod, but couldn't.

"Are you even alive?" Nico asked, not really expecting a reply as he placed his hand on the chest.

"Get out of here!" The young son of Hades jumped back, surprised to hear a voice enter his mind and he looked from his hand that back to the statue. The voice was no longer in his mind, but Nico wanted to make sure he wasn't just imagining things. Slowly, Nico placed his hand on the chest of the statue, not even seeing the shadows twisting around his body. "I have to get out of here and reach them!"

"Wait, who are you trying to reach?" Nico asked, only to pause as the reply immediately came.

"Damn it, who sent all these monsters here?" The statue replied, causing Nico to shake his head.

"He's probably stuck in his last moments," Nico reasoned, frowning and looking over the statue. It was strange, there was some kind of dim connection to the stone that was covering up the body.

He paused and then peered at the stone itself and lightly flicked it with his finger. Thwap. Nico shook his slightly abused digit, noting how thick the stone felt but also how it radiated essence of the Underworld. In fact, he recognized the stone now, it was the same kind that only his father and himself could call forth, which meant that it could possibly be removed from the person. He had never tried doing it before, but if the demigod was important to his father, enough to be kept alive in Underworld stone then he wouldn't be punished for freeing him.

Nico took a deep breath and then placed his hand on the statue's chest, and concentrated. He just need to crack the stone itself, not the person inside of it and his mind willed the stone to obey his commands. There was some resistance at first, but then the rock underneath his palm finally cracked and he smiled. Pushing himself, he managed to will the cracks to grow and expand over the statue, and much to his relief the stone obeyed. He was just starting to pull back when he was forced to quickly jump back as there was a wave of power, all too familiar power.

"I'll send you all to Tartarus!" A voice roared, and the stone layer covering the young man was blown off.

But that wasn't the impressive part. It was the wave of shadows that shot out from the youth, forming long of tendrils that went out in all directions. Namely through the various statues around them both with shocking speed and accuracy. They moved so quickly that Nico could barely keep up and managed to duck underneath one as it turned into a spear head and pierced through the head of a Drakon behind him. As soon as each statue's skin was pierced, the rest of it exploded in a mixture of black stone and gold dust, along with flames for the giants and so on. Each and every single one was destroyed, and much to Nico's shock, he monsters that had also been trapped within them.

The youth dropped to his knees when the last statue was destroyed with the monster inside, the shadowy weapons pulling right back into the shadows. It surprised Nico to see such a power, and for no other reason than the sole Olympian who had such a power; his own father Hades.

"Hey, you're still near death!" Nico warned, fishing out the ambrosia square from his pocket within the plastic bag.

He only got within a foot when the youth snapped his head up, revealing a pair of blood red eyes that were already boring into Nico's skull. There was no demigod alive that he knew of with such eyes, and that included all the Gods and Goddesses. Except for one, but there was no way Aphrodite had a child who then had this youth with his father, as that was the only way he could think of for the youth in front of him to have such eyes. It was kind of hypnotic to stare into those eyes, to notice just how the entire iris was red just like a dark rose in fact. They held so much allure to them that Nico had a hard time trying to fight against the strange force affecting him.

He knew something was wrong as the youth slowly spoke. "You will not move until you answer my questions," He ordered, and Nico struggled to open his mouth, wanting to tell the youth he was going to get him for trying to give out an order to his savior.

Ain't I a stinker? *smacked for the overdone reference* Okay okay, I guess I should calm down a little. Anyway, there's part of the first chapter, and it should be obvious just who's demigod child this newcomer is. But as to who he is and how he came to be and why he was there, that's for the story itself.

Please, be kind to everyone's work and try to review as many times as possible; we authors can't simply work on story hits alone, we need some input of course.

Until next time!