Disclaimer:

We (I hope by now that by our pen name and differentiating writing styles you've figured that we are a dynamic duo, co-writers in crime, blah-blah-blah) do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or Heroes of Olympus. All settings and characters from those fantastical series belong to Rick Riordan (who is amazing.)

But, all new characters were created by us; many with extreme likeness to real life friends (love you guys! Not you, Louis. Just kidding. Not really, though.) Oh and if you never made the connection, the amazingly amazing Lizzie and Lindsey are based off of yours truly.

This chapter took forever to publish, and we're both so sorry! Things like school and our editor (known in the fic as Lynn Stacey) taking forever got in the way, and although I, Lizzie, wanted it to be finished three weeks ago…sadly didn't work out that way.

Sorry this is long and boring. Thanks for reading! Thanks for commenting (comment more, please!) Now whatcha waiting for? Chapter 7 awaits! (No, this is not the last chapter. We've got twists and cliffhangers awaiting you…)


Chapter 7

NICO

Nico was desperate. He'd been searching for hours, and he still hadn't found Lynn. His powers that he normally had, the consequence of being a son of Hades, were useless in Tartarus. And Lynn had all their food and other provisions. As far as he knew, the only way to get back to her was through the huge pile of rock and debris that had fallen and cut them off from each other in the first place.

And then there were the monsters to think about. Sure, Nico had his sword, but the last time he'd been on his own facing monsters down here he'd almost been killed, and would've died if Lynn hadn't found him. How would he survive without her?

Nico stopped in his tracks. How would, how could, he survive without her? It was the first time that the thought had crossed his mind. He thought back to the past two and a half years he'd been with her. Everything that they'd been through together. She'd kept him alive, in both body and spirit. And now, here he was, in the depths of Tartarus, without her. He suddenly realized that he never wanted to be without her again. When, and if, he found her, he would never let her go. He shuddered as the horrible thought crossed his mind. And even he was in the depths of Tartarus forever, as long as he had Lynn, everything would be all right.

After a few very long hours, Nico realized that he'd just been going in circles. He'd searched for a way to Lynn for what had seemed like forever and hadn't gotten anywhere. He could barely see, and in the past half hour it had gotten even darker, if that was possible. He decided that he should probably find a safe place, as if there were any safe places in the depths of Tartarus, to sleep for the night. At least, it was as close to night as he could tell; ever since he'd entered Tartarus, his body clock had been way off.

He poked around for a while and finally found a little cleft over a rock overhang that would serve as a sufficient place to sleep for a while. He took off his jacket, folded it up to use as a pillow, and leaned back for some long-awaited sleep.

It took him awhile to fall asleep. He just couldn't get comfortable. No matter which way he turned, there was always a rock sticking into his back. When he finally drifted off into a restless sleep, things just got worse.

The dream started off with Lynn. Nico could see her desperately trying to get through the wall of solid rock that had blocked them from each other. He wondered why she was in such a hurry to get out. She had all the provisions, and if she was trying to get to him, then she would have been smart enough to know by now that there was no way through that wall. As he wondered all this, something behind her caught his eye. Now he knew why Lynn was trying to get out of the cavern: there was a huge monster behind her! Nico wanted to cry out, to try and save her, but he was helpless; there was nothing he could do.

Much to Nico's despair the dream suddenly switched to what looked like the edge of a huge hole. All at once, he realized where this was. It was in the Underworld, at the entrance to Tartarus. He sighed. Even if the Underworld was damp, dark, and a little creepy with all the dead spirits gliding around, it was kind of like home to Nico. After all, his dad was there, and it was a lot better than the depths of Tartarus.

Nico wondered why his dream had brought him here, of all places. He would much rather have seen one of the Demigod camps, or some old friends. But the entrance to Tartarus? Really? He'd been stuck in here for so long, it made him sick just to look at it. It might be better to just wake up. But he shivered in his sleep as the thought crossed his mind. Then he'd really be in Tartarus. At least in his dreams he could get out of here.

Something moved in the corner of his vision. He tried to look closer. It was a young man; tall, with black hair, and a bronze sword in his hand. He threw a rope into the pit, and started to descend. As his face turned towards Nico, the son of Hades suddenly knew who it was. It was Percy Jackson.

Nico woke up sweating. What did his dream mean? Percy was coming to Tartarus? Why? And, oh gosh! Lynn was in trouble! He had to find her. He got up, pulled on his jacket, and started off into the darkness.

PIPER

"Leo!" Piper called, trotting down towards the armory. The calm spring air was refreshing. She tried in vain to forget everything that had happened in the last two days, wanting to have a fresh, less emotional start.

"Hola, Piper!" he said, an impish grin on his face. "What can I do for you on this lovely morning?"

"I had some, ah, issues with Katoptris a couple days ago, and I'd like you to take a look."

"What, has it gotten dull? I'm sure you don't need someone as skilled as me for that."

She laughed. "That's...not quite the trouble I've been having."

He raised an eyebrow, then followed her towards the lake.

"Over here," she said.

"Shoo, you stupid naiads!" Leo snapped.

"Thank you," Piper called as they swam away. She lifted her now-dirty sweatshirt off the ground that had been covering Katoptris.

"Pick it up," she told Leo.

He snatched it off the ground, and it burst into flames.

"Holy smokes!" exclaimed Leo, and then sheepishly looked around. "Wow, that sounded cheesy, didn't it?"

Piper smiled and motioned for him to get back to Katoptris.

"Oh, right! The dagger. So, when did it start to, um, turn into a blazing inferno?"

Katoptris was still on fire, but Leo, being fireproof, didn't seem bothered by it. He just looked at it, turned it upside down, examined the bottom of the hilt, and flipped it over to look at the blade again.

"Well," Piper replied. "It was right after I saw…saw Jason kissing Savannah. Right before...she m-murdered him."

Leo looked up. He could tell that Piper was trying to keep it together. "It's okay to cry, Pipes. I know how you feel. Your boyfriend, my best friend, just got murdered. But that was all two days ago, and there's nothing we can do about it. So, let's just figure out what's wrong with Katoptris, and then we'll move on from there."

Leo placed his hand on his friend's shoulder, forgetting, for the moment, that it had caught fire from Katoptris. Piper's shirt burst into flames.

"Leo!"

"Whoops! My bad, Pipes," Leo apologized as he quickly patted out the flames. "I didn't know my hand was on fire."

Piper laughed, and then glanced at the dagger, which had returned to normal.

"That's weird," she said. "Katoptris isn't burning anymore. Maybe you turned it off or something…" She shrugged.

Looking down at the knife, Piper gasped. She'd seen movement across the surface of the blade. She picked it up, and gazed into Katoptris. She saw the back of a man's head, a long blue cloak billowing behind him and a hood obscuring his face. He held a staff or spear of some sort, swinging it around and over his head, reminding Piper of a wizard or something. Gandalf! His movements reminded her of Gandalf, the wizard from The Lord of the Rings movies.

She couldn't tell much from his surroundings where he was. It was dark and rather mucky, but that was all she could see.

She heard a whisper filling the air around her. It sounded like ancient Greek, but it was too faint to make out what was being said. That was weird. She normally couldn't hear what was being said when she looked into Katoptris; it was just like a window, to see things through it. She looked up. Suddenly, it was like she was there with the man and his staff. It was almost like a demigod dream, but in the middle of the day, and she was still holding her dagger. She seemed invisible to the man. At least, he didn't seem to notice her.

As she watched, the ground seemed to move, being sucked towards the man's staff, swirling towards him. Bodies were formed, limbs and torsos coming together and creating repulsive creatures. Monsters—a whole lot of monsters.

The cloaked man spoke, lifting his staff into the air. "Creatures of Tartarus! Rise from your prison and join me! The gods sent you to that abyss, to eternal agony, while they sit in comfort in the heavens. They are your enemies!"

The monsters grunted and shouted in agreement. The man continued. "I despise the truth of who I am, being related to them. They are selfish, rotten scum unworthy of Olympus' thrones. We will bring them down, have the gods begging for mercy at our feet! First, we have to destroy their greatest ally—their children. We killed their perfect little mascot, that son of Zeu—Jupiter. But that is nothing! We will—" He turned sharply, and his eyes met Piper's for a moment. And then the blade burst into flames.

Piper stumbled backwards, tripped, and fell onto soft green grass. She looked up into Leo's worried face.

"Are you okay, Pipes?" Leo asked, helping her up. "You were staring into Katoptris, and then you just stumbled backwards as if someone had pushed you, and fell down. Did you see something in the knife?"

"I'm…I'm fine, Leo. Thanks."

Leo raised his eyebrows. She didn't look fine to him.

"Really, Leo," she assured him, "I really am fine. I just need some time to think things over."

She sheathed Katoptris, of which the flames had dissipated and wasn't even warm, and started back towards the cabins, but changed her mind and headed towards the woods. She couldn't tell anybody about her vision, or whatever that had been, not yet. She quietly slipped into the woods with Leo watching her anxiously.

She sat down by the stream that ran through the woods, and thought about her vision. The man with the staff was obviously the head honcho of the gig, this plan to murder the Seven. At first, it had seemed that that was the only thing he was up to, whoever he was, but now it seemed that he was planning something much bigger. She would talk to Annabeth and the others about this soon, but they all had enough on their minds, especially Annabeth, who had been going ballistic trying to find Percy. She would just have to wait.

Lunch began and Piper headed towards the Aphrodite table. She ruffled her hair. She did not want to look like a model Aphrodite child, not ever, and especially never around Drew Tanaka, her half-sister who hated Piper's very existence. Lucy and Mitchell, some of her other siblings, smiled at her, then glanced at Drew timidly.

Louis seemed to claim center stage, accentuating every word with fluid hand motions.

"Now, my girlfriend, Aimee, and I are taking it slow, but our relationship is just gliding smoothly on the path of love."

Piper plopped down next to Kristen and Lizzie. The two girls seemed to click nicely, especially when Lizzie told her that she had kicked Louis in the shin. Now they both rolled their eyes at his tale. Piper glanced around for Lizzie's sister, and spotted her at the Hermes table, flirting with Conner and Travis Stoll.

"As of now," Louis continued, "We are at the side hug, arm-around-shoulder stage. In a couple days, I'm going to try to ease my way into the handholding stage. Soon, we'll be at pet name stage, I can't decide between babe, or Pooky Kins. I don't want to rush things. And perhaps, in a couple weeks we'll have our first kiss, if she doesn't kiss me sooner."

At this, most of the Aphrodite children sighed, except Kristen, who feigned vomiting, and Lizzie, who laughed hysterically. Drew just glared, hating Louis for adoring Piper.

"And here comes my princess now!" Louis ran to greet Aimee, who was bubbling with excitement as she ran into his open arms.

"Louis!" she exclaimed smiling widely. "You won't believe it, the most wonderful thing happened to me!"

"What?" Louis said, imitating her excitement with his curiosity. He stared at her outfit quizzically—a short red sweater-dress and black leggings and heels. "Why are you dressed so fancy?"

"This amazing guy, David Smith, asked me out! At first I was like, I dunno, I'm a freshman and he's a junior, but he said he couldn't imagine being with anyone else but me! And he's so hot and my gosh, his hair, and he wants to go into medical school and become a doctor! I'm in love with this guy!"

Louis stared at her, mouth hanging open idiotically. "Wh-what about us?"

"Oh, Looey, you've been such a great friend these past few days! Thank you for getting me through the death of Jason and all this demigod drama. I can't discuss much with David, since he's a mortal."

"Fr-friend? Not, boyfriend?" The desperation in Louis's voice even made Piper pity him.

"What? Yeah, friend! You're my best friend at camp! Thank you so much for everything! I've gotta finish getting ready!" She threw her arms around his neck, then let go and ran back towards the Apollo Cabin, shouting, "Tell Chiron I can't stay for dinner, that I'm going out with the hottest guy ever!"

"Hottest guy ever?" Louis mouthed, staring after her sadly. He turned dejectedly to the Aphrodite table.

"Better luck next time, hon," Drew snickered.

Louis looked so downcast that Piper went over and sat next to him. She was about to speak when alarms sounded. She jumped up and unsheathed Katoptris.

"Intruder!" Hazel said. She and Frank had been taking shifts guarding the entrance to camp.

Piper spun towards Half-Blood Hill. A woman sauntered in, not fazed by the charms protecting camp. Two other guards, it looked like Clarisse and Chris Rodriguez, grabbed her on either side. With a mocking smile, the woman flung them ten meters away with a single flick of her hand.

"I demand to speak with Chiron!" She shouted, her voice amplified throughout the camp.