That's right, guys. I've updated every other day so far. Reviews as thank-yous are appreciated.

KatterWriter: I update at least once a week.

Nico

Nico woke up in his cabin on the Argo II feeling absolutely crappy, and his mood didn't get any better when he recalled the previous day's events.

The afternoon before, after Lyssa announced herself, he'd almost collapsed trying to shadow travel out of the Argo II. He'd moved all of three inches. Woot. Frank attempted to turn into an eagle and fly away, but somehow ended up as a giant turtle. Jason tried to control the winds to move the ship, but just knocked Annabeth over. Piper had tried to charmspeak Lyssa into letting the demigods go, but Lyssa simply magicked an entire roll of duct tape over Piper's mouth, a clear warning. Though what kind of goddess gave warnings through purple rubber-duck duct tape, Nico didn't know. (Nico also suspected that Lyssa's sick sense of humor had enjoyed watching the demigods struggle to peel the tape off Piper mouth, a very painful process.) And later, when trying to manipulate the Mist, Hazel was knocked out by a mysteriously swinging boom, though there was no wind. And every time Annabeth tried to communicate a plan, Lyssa would spark random thoughts of pink fluffy unicorns in Annabeth's mind, making it impossible for Annabeth to concentrate. Needless to say, Annabeth had not been pleased. All in all, a typical demigod day, except made even worse by the fact that they were basically being held captive by a deranged goddess who was—oh yeah—a freaking spirit of fury and madness, with a personal army of Furores, as if Lyssa being a powerful goddess wasn't bad enough.

Nico was jolted out of his negative thoughts (there was a reason people called him "death boy", after all) by a loud rapping on the half-open door.

"Uh, Nico? Are you decent? Everyone's up and in the dining room." Came a female voice. Nico sat up and saw a furiously blushing Hazel with a hand over her eyes, but he could tell she was peeking. Nico laughed outright, surprising even himself. Must be Solace rubbing off on me, thought Nico.

"I'm glad I was decent, considering how big those gaps between your fingers are," Nico smirked. "Gimme a minute, and I'll be up," But suddenly, just as quickly as his cheerful mood came upon Nico, it disappeared, like the sun taking refuge from the world by ducking behind a cloud. "Are Percy and Leo up? I mean, are they-?" Hazel cut Nico off, a strange look appearing in her normally warm hazel eyes. Nico tried to read her. Anger? Confusion? Guilt? Little did he know that Hazel was thinking of Lyssa's words to her in Hazel's dream: "You'll be the one hurting him [Nico]…"

"They're—well, you'll see, when you come to breakfast." With that, she left. Nico mentally cursed himself for bringing that up, but couldn't help thinking that, Well, that sounds ominous…

A strange sight greeted Nico as he walked in to the dining room. Everyone else was there already, including Leo and Percy. But the only one talking was Percy, who was saying sorry to Leo in various ways. Scanning the room, Nico saw that everyone was just watching Percy, which was a surprise in itself, considering that they were in a room with eight very-ADHD demigods.

"Look, man, I'm so sorry!" No response.

"Dude! I'm apologizing!" Nothing.

"I'm SORRY!" Percy waited for Leo to say something. Anything.

Meanwhile, Leo just sat there with a neutral, closed-off expression and messy bed-head covering his eyes, though with a closer glance, Nico saw that Leo's hands were fidgeting with bits of wire underneath the table. Finally, after a moment of awkward silence, just as Nico noticed Leo's red-rimmed eyes, Leo looked up, a familiar, mischievous twitch in his lip.

"Seriously? I forgave you already, but I guess you couldn't hear me over the sound of your own apologizing. At least now I know why Annabeth calls you Seaweed Brain!" he grinned brazenly. A relieved sigh from Percy broke the remaining tension, and the atmosphere seemed to be back to normal, or at least as normal as it could be when an insane psychopath goddess haunted the thoughts of every single demigod.

Nico had just grabbed an enchanted plate from Camp Half-Blood and started eating his breakfast of Italian gelato (What? It was good!) when a clattering sound interrupted. Nico glanced up reluctantly from his ice cream to see Leo smiling ruefully. "Not to worry, ladies and gents, just Clumsy Repair Boy, at your service!" The demigods—except for Nico—nodded and went back to eating and carrying on their own conversations. But Nico saw that as Leo bent down to pick up the wires he dropped, Leo's face changed. Instead of the happy and cheerful face Leo projected, it became sad and depressed. Nico knew—his own face had often been the mirror of that before. In fact, sometimes it still did. Nico didn't particularly like the Latino, but he resolved to talk with Leo after the day's duel—oh gods. The duel! Nico cleared his throat urgently, and everyone looked up. (Nico couldn't help but notice that once again, Leo's mask of exuberance came back on.)

"Guys—what time is it? Lyssa said the next duel would be at ten, and she means business." Annabeth checked her silver watch, and cursed.

"Gods, it's three to ten! We need to go!"

As soon as the last person stepped through the door, (Percy walked in reluctantly; Leo was almost trembling, though he tried to hide it) the room sealed itself shut (apparently Lyssa created a new doorknob to replace the one Leo burned off) with white light.

"Welcome, demigods! This is the second round of the duels! You will be sealed in here until you're not. Anyway, today's victims shall be… drumroll please!" Nobody did a drumroll. "Hazel Levesque, aaaaaaand… Nico di Angelo!" Lyssa's voice echoed.

Nico was frozen. Why were he and Hazel in a duel together? Hazel had no reason to be angry at him… right? He opened his mouth—perhaps to ask that very question, perhaps to yell at Lyssa, perhaps to do something he didn't really know, but he never found out. Hazel was already enclosed in a circle of Furores flitting around her.

Out of the corner of his eye, Nico saw that everyone else had been pinned against the wall again. He could only assume that they weren't able to speak, like last time. He and Hazel were on their own. But strangely enough, Nico didn't feel the Furores surrounding himself. He looked down. By his feet, the spirits were floating around, but they couldn't seem to get any closer. It was like an invisible force was simply preventing them from influencing Nico like they had with Hazel. Was it Lyssa? No, Nico dismissed that thought instantly. But then, what was it?

Lyssa's amplified voice sighed deeply. "Ugh, you've still got that Tartarus immunity protection on you. Well then, Hazel is perfectly capable of doing this one-sided. But Mr. di Angelo—next time it's your turn to duel again, that protected will have faded, so don't think you're off the hook just yet! Anyway… Hazel versus Nico shall begin!"

"Wait! What Tartarus immunity protection?" Nico couldn't stop himself from asking.

"You curious demigods…" complained Lyssa. "Well, if you must know, your experiences in the Underworld and Tartarus, especially as a child of Hades—I loathe him, by the way—have created a temporary immunity to my Furores. But like I said, that'll be gone soon. I can sense those things. I'M ALL-POWERFUL! Why don't any of the Olympians acknowledge me as a powerful being? In fact, why don't they even acknowledge my EXISTENCE anymore?! Ever since Hera used me for her own purposes in driving Hercules mad, what have I gotten? NOTHING! Not even a thank-you card! Even Dionysus, who used to consult me, IGNORES me now!"

"I think I heard of you before…" Nico tried to stall. "Weren't you a footnote in that book about Nyx?"

"A FOOTNOTE? A footnote? I am the most important daughter of Nyx, sprung from the blood of Ouranos himself! I am the child of Night and Sky! I drove Hercules and Actaeon mad! I am the spirit of frenzy and mad rage! I created rabies! That was a much better invention than Hermes' silly Internet!"

Suddenly, Annabeth spoke up. She'd managed to break the silence spell while Lyssa's concentration was on Nico. "But in the myths, you were calm and temperate! You didn't want to infect man with madness! What happ—?"

Lyssa sighed, irritated, and Annabeth fell silent again. "Gaea showed me how wrong I was. I supported her from the shadows… but enough stalling!" The sound of a pair of clapping hands rang out. "Let the duel commence!"

Hazel advanced upon Nico. She wasn't in her right mind, Nico knew. That didn't make it any easier when she hissed angrily, so only he could hear, "You're not my brother. You're a shame to Hades—Pluto—everyone—ME. No one likes you or wants you around. I know for that that I don't. Why couldn't you have just left me in the Underworld? I was happy there, before I met you. You're just a creepy death kid that's a danger to everyone. Even Will Solace only tolerates you because Chiron asked him to. Personally, I don't see why he even bothered. I wish you would just curl up and die."

She continued, but Nico stopped listening. Nico knew it wasn't real. It couldn't be. Hazel wouldn't say those things. It's not real, he repeated to himself. Not real. Yet… it was.

Nico feels.