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Disclaimer: If I were Mr. Riordan, I probably wouldn't be on this site.

Thalia's POV

"Hey, Nico," Percy said.

"I'm sorry. Do you hear something?" Nico asked playfully to Annabeth. She just laughed.

"Real mature, Nico," Percy, said rolling his eyes.

"There it is again. Can someone please kill the thing making that awful noise?"

"Just come here."

"Oh, hey, Percy, didn't see you there." He said, going over to give him a manly hug.

"I was wondering why I couldn't just shadow travel here?" He asked Annabeth.

"We will be traveling to some places you haven't been, so you need a vehicle to get there."Annabeth clarified.

"Okay, but, Thals, we all know I'm good looking. Close your mouth. Flies can get caught in there. We wouldn't want that now would we?" Nico said, pushing my jaw close with his hand. His hands were rough and callused from all the battling he did. You could see small white scars dotted all over his arms and hands.

Then he took of his sunglasses and I could see his eyes. Looking into them was like looking into the deepest and darkest part of his soul. The warm brown color melted my insides, though; it didn't make shiver in the least.

"You just look so different." I choked out with a weak glare.

"A person changes over the years."

"Well, why did you interrupt me from my wonderful battle with my skeleton warriors?" He asked Percy.

When he said these sarcastic jokes, it looked like it almost pained him to smile. I wondered what was going on under that thick skull.

"Ask Annabeth. She's better at explaining things."

"I'll say the same thing to you guys that I said to Percy. The gods want to kill Percy, Nico, Thalia, and me. I heard them talking in the throne room today. Athena, Poseidon, and Hades stood up for all of us, but Zeus and the other gods wouldn't listen. Athena and Poseidon are trapped in cages because they refused to listen. Hades returned to the underworld to watch over the dead, but he swore he would help his son though." She said, explaining quickly.

"Damn, why do they want us dead?" I asked.

"They mentioned something about a prophecy and the overthrow of power, even though the prophecy didn't say we were the ones doing the over-throwing. They just want to kill us because we were mentioned."

"That's wonderful." Nico joked. You could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"What do we do from here?" I asked.

"Well, I heard there is an elixir that can keep you undetected from the gods— at least for a while. If we retrieve it, the gods won't be able to find us. This will stop them from killing us, for the time being."

"How are we supposed to find this elixir?" I questioned.

"I think Hades will be able to give us a clue about where to find it."

"Won't the gods be able to tell that he is giving us information?" Percy inquired

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." I explained.

"If we quickly went back to camp, and gathered our things undetected it could work." Annabeth said.

"Well, let's go then." Percy said moving towards the driver's side of the car.

"Oh, no, I drive." Annabeth commanded.

"Fine," Percy said, pouting as he walked around to the passenger's side.

"Um, am I supposed to go in the trunk?" I asked.

"You can ride with me; it's a two passenger motorcycle." Nice offered.

"How long have you had your license?" I inquired.

"What license?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "It looks like you're my only option, so I'll take your offer."

"Hop on."

The motorcycle didn't have a backrest, so I was forced to wrap my arms around Nico's muscular torso. This boy was built; I could feel the outline of a six pack through the thin fabric of his t-shirt. The engine shuddered as I put my chin on Nico's shoulder, he smelled of pine and leather.

"Hold on tight."

The engine shuddered as we shot forward into the New York traffic. It wasn't rush hour, but it was still as crowded as the fields of Asphodel. With Percy and Annabeth behind us we entered the Queens-Midtown tunnel. Barley any cars were in front of us so he picked up the speed. My hair whipped around behind me and the warm wind blew all over my face. With my body pressed up against his, I let out a laugh. In response, I could feel a low chuckle, but couldn't hear it over the roar of the engine.

Soon we were parked in the parking garage at Camp Half-Blood. I swung my leg over the side of the motorcycle, and Nico followed suit. Percy and Annabeth climbed out of the little convertible and turned toward us.

"You two looked like you were having fun." Percy said as I blushed.

"I saw you gawking at Annabeth through my rearview mirror almost the whole ride here." Nico retorted.

Annabeth blushed and said, "Everyone needs to gather their things, and meet back here within the hour. Try to go unnoticed, especially you, Thalia, not many people know you are here and we don't need more knowing. Nico's disappearance won't be unusual because he disappears from time to time. Percy and I will think of an excuse to tell Chiron."

"Okay, see you guys later." I said and walked towards the cabins.

To get to my cabin unnoticed I had to walk behind the Omega of cabins. I passed Connor and Travis, but they were too immersed in planning a prank to notice me. Quietly, I went through the back door to my cabin. It didn't look like it had been touched since I left, crumbs on the floor, clothes on the chair, and dishes in the sink. Being a child of Zeus, I got a small fully functional kitchen in my cabin.

I grabbed my black duffle bag and started filling it with necessary items. Two sets of spare clothes, my new iPod, mortal money, drachmas, toiletries, nectar, ambrosia, and an emergency inactivated cell-phone. If I needed anything else I could just buy what I needed as we went. I still didn't fully understand what our plan of action was for this little "outing".

Go with the flow, Thalia. You don't always need to be in control, I thought to myself.

I grabbed my jacket and walked out the back door. Then I scampered through the cabins towards the parking garage when I was stopped by yell.

"Hey, Thalia!" A well-known voice screamed.

I slowly turned toward the voice and saw Clarisse La Rue standing behind me with her arms across her chest. I ran behind a tree and motioned for her to come here. She raised an eyebrow but walked towards me no less.

"What will it take to tell no one you saw me here?" I practically growled at her. She narrowed her eyes as if to say "Watch it."

"How long will you be gone?"

"I honestly don't know, why?"

"The longer I have to keep quiet the more you have to repay me." She said, smugly.

"Gods, Clarisse, I'll guess about two weeks give or take a few."

"When you get back you take all of my punishments for a month and thirty dollars." She said sticking her hand out.

"One week." I said, negotiating.

"Three weeks and three days." She retorted.

"Two weeks."

"Two weeks and four days."

"Fine," I huffed as I shook her hand; they were sweaty from the summer heat. I quickly withdrew my hand and dug through my backpack for my cash. I handed her twenty dollars.

"I said thirty."

"And I say twenty." I said, smiling innocently.

"Fine," She muttered.

"Yes!" I yelled.

On that note I bounded away with a grin plastered across my face. I glanced at my watch and noticed an hour and five minutes had gone by since I left the garage. Shit! I thought as I sprinted through the path I walked through that morning. When I reached the garage I ran toward the voices I knew to be my friends. I skidded through the corner and ran straight into Nico.

"Gods, what's your hurry?" Nico asked.

"I'm late, if you haven't noticed."

"I haven't, but Annabeth has." He whispered in my ear. His perfect lips ran across my ear as his warm breath tickled my ear and made me shiver. No Thalia, his lips aren't perfect. Well they are, but I can't think they are perfect. I cannot fall for Nico Di Angelo, he would never return my feelings.

From where I stood I could see Annabeth's hard glare set into her stormy, gray eyes.

"Let's get this show on the road!" Percy shouted gleefully, trying to break the growing tension. As I walked towards Annabeth, I heard her muttering something incoherent.

"I'm sorry, Annabeth, I got held up by Clarisse coming here and had to bargain with her to make her act like she never saw me."

Annabeth shrugged and said, "It's okay, I just don't like late people, it's a pet peeve."

Nico chuckled and asked, "What did you bribe her with?"

"Two and half weeks of serving her punishments and twenty dollars," I said, frowning.

Percy laughed and stuffed all of our bags into the trunk of the convertible.

"Watch it there are valuables in there!" Nico shouted.

"Like what?" Percy asked.

"Maybe your brain is in there. Wait, that's not valuable." He said taping his chin as if he was thinking.

Percy gritted his teeth and decided to ignore that comment. He got in the passenger side of the convertible and said, "Come on, Annabeth, Central Park isn't going to come to us."

Nico climbed onto the motorcycle, and started the engine. It growled to life as he revved the engine.

"We aren't getting any younger, Pinecone Face." Nico stated.

Before I lost my temper, I smiled and climbed on.

Within twenty minutes we were parked near Central Park. We met up with Percy and Annabeth and walked into Central Park.

"Lead the way, Ghost King." I said, ushering him forward.

We walked for fifteen minutes and it seemed like we were getting nowhere.

"Are we close?" Percy questioned.

"We should be right ne-"

He stopped in the middle of his sentence gasped, grabbed his mid-section and doubled over towards the grass. He was coughing and gasping for air as if some invisible force was choking him.

"Nico!" I screeched and ran toward him.

I'm evil aren't I, don't hate me too much. Insert maniacal smile here. Thank you to all my readers, and reviewers, and my wonderful editor. Review, the more reviews I get the less time it will take for me to update. ;)