Hi guys and girls! So most of you voted to have me keep this chapter, so I will put it in. If you don't want to read this chapter, I put up the next one too.

Nico

So after I split up with Mac, I headed directly south as soon as I could, and I struck up a conversation with Scott. I'm not really a talkative person, but neither is Scott, and it was weird to walk in silence.

"So…" I began awkwardly, "how did you end up finding Scotty after the battle ended?" I was kind of curious; it's kind of weird that two satyrs show up together in a park. It looked like they had been wandering the streets together like Mac and I.

He grunted. "Why does it matter?"

"I think it is better to talk than walk around Manhattan in silence. I have ADHD, silence is not good for me," I replied. I was slightly taken aback at how grumpy he was. It's just a friendly question.

"You genuinely care about what happens to me, huh?" he asked. I wondered how he knew that, then I remembered that satyrs could read emotions. "Fine, I'll tell you what happened. So I was kind of running around Central Park after the fight with Hyperion, you know, trying not to get killed by monsters. Then, I found Scotty, and he was hiding from something, I just couldn't tell what. I was about to call his name when I saw a hellhound and realized that's what he was hiding from. I blew on my reed pipes and the branches tied the hellhound up. Then we ran." He paused for a minute, almost like showing the passing time. "Then we noticed that all the monsters and Kronos' demigods were heading south towards the Empire State Building, so we slowly followed. We saw the end of the battle. Poor Percy, he was a good guy, and he cared about the satyrs and nature and Pan." I had to try and not break down thinking about Percy at this point. "After that, we just wandered, not knowing what to do until we smelled enchiladas, and found you guys," he concluded. "What about you guys?"

So I proceeded to tell him what happened after I saw Percy fall and Annabeth roll dead out of the elevator, I didn't relive that moment. I also skipped how I lost the will to fight another day, how will that encourage your companions? I got to the part where Mac was planning to borrow from the deli guy when Scott interrupted me.

"I smell demigod. Near Union Square. C'mon, we have to hurry before monsters find it," he exclaimed very fast. So I followed him as we sprinted down Fifth Avenue towards Union Square.

When we got there, we walked. Scott still claimed that he could smell demigod, but I couldn't see anyone. We walked around and around for what seemed like forever to me. Maybe Scott is wrong, I thought. There is nobody in the area, and it silent. We should just go now, there is nobody here.

"Nope, someone's here, I just can't find them," Scott said. Did I say that last part out loud?

Anyways, by the time we got to the statue of George Washington (Annabeth made me memorize every last fact about him) I think we were both ready to give up. Then we were ambushed.

Whoever attacked us knew what they were doing. They must have hidden in the shadows or behind the statue, and somehow neither of us saw them coming. There were two of them, one came for me and one came for Scott. The guy who came for Scott knocked him out instantly. They were both really tall, maybe over 6 feet, and muscular, and looked around 16 or 17 years old. They both wore orange t-shirts, one of them had the sleeves cut off. The one with the sleeves cut off wore basketball shorts, the other wore jeans. They were both muscular and had honey brown eyes. The sleeveless one had brown hair in a buzz cut, the guy with jeans had long curly brown hair. They looked familiar, but I couldn't tell from where.

Two against one was not going very well for me, especially because I was tired from fighting and they were both bigger and older than me. There was no way I could hold them off forever. Just as I was thinking this, one of them disarmed me, which was a shame because I really liked my Stygian Iron sword. Then, as I was about to get killed, I looked at their t-shirts closer. Both of them read Camp Half-Blood.

"Wait!" I called. The buzz cut dude was going to slice me in half anyways, but the curly haired guy held him back.

"C'mon Arden, we don't know who he is. He could be on our side for all we know," the curly haired dude said in an attempt to get the buzz cut guy, Arden apparently, to not kill me.

"Garret," Arden said, "we can't spare everybody. Remember what happened when we were being followed by that old lady and you asked her if she needed help-"

"Shut up," Garret said. He sounded annoyed.

I coughed to get their attention. "Do either of you recognize me? I went to camp too." By this point, I had figured out where I had seen them at camp before. They were both sons of Ares, and I think they were twins.

After a moment's hesitation, Garret answered. "Are you Nico? Nico di Angelo, son of Hades?"

"You might be right, they look almost exactly the same," Arden said.

"Yes, I am Nico. You guys are sons of Ares, right?"

"That's us, the Rider brothers," Garret said.

"Yeah," Arden continued with an air of confidence, "you don't want to mess with us. We'd beat anyone, and now we're angry. There is nothing that can stop us from killing tons of monsters. We want revenge, and we're going to get it."

"Good, because you may be just who I need," I said. "Do you want to join forces with other demigods?" I saw them considering. "I already met someone else, he is looking in other parts of the city for other demigods now. We're meeting tonight for pizza to discuss our course of action. You want to join us?"

"Who's the other demigod?" Arden challenged.

I thought a minute. "If you decide to join us, you'll find out who the mystery demigod is tonight. Besides, if you don't join, what else will you do?"

They looked at each other, seeming to have a silent conversation. Then Scott woke up.

"You fools!" he screamed. "You're gonna die today!" and he charged at Arden. I gave them an apologetic look and then held him back.

"Hold up, Scott," I said. "These guys are on our side."

"You have no proof," he yelled back.

"Look at their shirts." Sure enough, after looking at their shirts, he calmed down. "Sorry," I said. "This is a satyr, Scott, who is helping me locate demigods. It's how we knew you were in Union Square. Scott," I said, gesturing to Garret and Arden, "this is Garret and Arden Rider, sons of Ares." Then I addressed Garret and Arden. "Are you two coming?"

They both nodded. I breathed a sigh of relief.

It seemed that Scott had calmed down, but he seemed a little grumpy. However, a coffee, an interesting conversation, and a half hour later, Scott knew the Rider brothers as well as most, and was making good conversation and friendly again as we continued our search for any surviving allies.

So... was it good? Was it bad? Please tell me, I would really appreciate it.