A/N Below. ENJOY!

BOOM!

Nico di Angelo was nearly thrown off his feet by yet another blast from the giants of Gaea's army, who were throwing boulders. Thankfully, they had terrible aim, and most of the seven (besides Annabeth and Percy) were able to maneuver quick enough as to get out of the way before it hit them.

Yes. What you are wondering? Probably true.

They were at the mortal side of the doors. They went through hell and a couple of very close brushes with death to get here, but they were all here, and they were alive, god damn it. If they all lived through this final stage (it felt so gratifying to think that), Nico would count that as a life victory. Then he'd probably put in his retirement from this whole demigod business.

Currently, they were all trying to get through a rather large wave of Gaea's army that surrounded the doors in order to actually get to them. Both Hazel and Nico could feel through the very dirt that there were two people on the other side, although their conditions were unknown. Nico was currently killing whatever monsters he could with his sword, shadow traveling behind them when they least expect it. Jason was also using his sword and a bit of wind and lightening. Frank had turned into a pterodactyl, which Nico didn't even think was possible. He assumed it was logical, though, as he could fly and dodge things while also clawing and killing a good amount of the monsters he attacked. He didn't know where Hazel and Leo were, but he could only assume they were using the best of their abilities.

After pulling his sword out of some ugly bird-like creature (which crumbled into a pile of golden dust), he was almost knocked to his feet again by a boulder crashing into the earth, a little too close to Piper for comfort. Responding in kind, Jason blasted it with the biggest lightning bolt Nico had seen by far, effectively turning that into dust as well. Thankfully, most of the movement kept the dust from other dead monsters from forming back together completely.

They kept working like this, and Nico was sure he saw Hazel at least once, but was too concerned with his own little group of devils to think anything of it. He was relieved no one was hurt yet.

Damn it, he thought. Don't jinx yourself.

He noticed people were becoming increasingly fatigued. Eventually, Jason didn't use his lighting anymore, going for the sword instead, and Nico himself was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. His muscles and pretty much everywhere burned like crazy, and he just swore he would pause for one second and get a breath. He wiped the sweat off his forehead, and was slightly shocked to find blood on his hand as well.

He shouldn't have done that.

Too late, he realized that some… creature, had crept up behind him and knocked him off his feet. He could feel the sting of where the whip had hit his legs and felt warm liquid dripping into his pants. The creature was humanoid, standing on two feet and with two arms, and it's long face was exposing bone, but no blood. It was wearing nothing but animal fur for clothing. He could tell it had no eyes, but the sockets still glowed a vivid neon green, and it smelled like something he'd never smelled and prayed to the gods he'd never smell it again.

Due to the hard blow his head received from being knocked over, he was delayed in moving, which he cursed his body for not reacting as quickly as he wanted to. For some reason, he couldn't seem to find the hilt of his sword… and he couldn't tear his eyes away from the thing. Suddenly, he was awash with complete and utter fear; his chest began to tighten and his heart seemed to literally stop, the fear bubbling up inside of him and drawing his blood cold, all while exposing all of his worst fears. Dreadful things that could hardly be spoken of, things any child that wasn't a child of Hades would probably pass out just thinking about them, and his vision grew hazy with them.

It's controlling me, he thought. He shut his eyes quickly, and if it wasn't for the current situation, he would've laughed, because he even felt fear for the darkness that came with closing his eyes. His breathing quickened as he kept thinking over and over, No need to be afraid, it's not me, it's controlling me, hold on, got to hold on… He could feel himself backed up against a wall, or more likely a rock, and when he opened his eyes, he wasn't even there anymore.

He was in the same position, backed up against a wall, but the monster wasn't crouching above him anymore. The place he was in seemed to be an underground cave, all grey stone and glowing from a beautiful blue pond in the very center. Nico was smart, though;he knew he wasn't really there. He had to get back… where in Hades was he?!

He began to get up, head and vision clearing, when his heart froze again. Across the room, unmistakably, were all of his friends. Annabeth, Percy, Hazel… Leo. In the past month or so Leo had pretty much become his closest friend, which people might even refer to as "best friend." That almost didn't seem fitting, he didn't know what. He just knew they were… close.

His friends (this is an illusion, he thought) were all slumped hastily against a wall, stacked on one another. They were injured horribly and Nico had to look away; he didn't want to see or know anything else. Something in his gut twisted, and the horror that wasn't his own took over his body, and he couldn't block it out anymore. Suddenly his vision was filled with images from his past, blurred together at a quick rate that he could barely grasp one memory before the next came along. He somehow knew that this beautiful pond could help him somehow; protect him. Just a step closer...

It's reading my mind.

As he fell in he suddenly felt as though he was being thrown back onto the ground, and the thing was now closer to his face.

And it had the same face as Bianca.

That was the final straw. His gut twisted horribly and he drew in a large breath, feeling his face give away every inch of horror he now undoubtedly felt. He let out a gut-wrenching scream that grew stronger by the second. He didn't even try to move.

This is it. I'm going to die.

Before he could even react, the thing was pulled from his lap, and its face changed back into the skull with green eyes he had seen before. He just watched in shock as a certain curly-haired boy knocked it to its knees, then delivered a flaming hammer to its head hard enough to send it flying, before turning into gold dust along with the decapitated body before them. Nico hardly had time to appreciate how elegant and strong he'd looked while doing so, as he was still hyperventilating.

Leo, who was now smoking, turned to Nico. The amount of emotion on the paler boy's face made him want to just hug him, but he couldn't now. This was too urgent for any delay. Instead, he helped him to his feet, squeezing his hand in the process. He nodded at Nico, as if asking if he were okay. Nico, who still looked pretty shaken (who could blame him), nodded back, and together, back to back, they continued Code Save Percy and Annabeth and get the Hell Out.

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