A.N. Man, I used to be so boring! How did you put up with me?

Disclaimer: Sooo...has anyone figured it out yet? Guesses?...Corrrrrrect! I don't own Percy Jackson!

Edelweiss

When you think mythological creatures, you think bigger than normal, crossed species animals, correct? Well, that's basically what they are. A griffin just so happens to be a lion with wings of a hawk (as if those two animals would hit it off). A griffin also just so happens to be big. Not too big, but big. Like what a basket ball player is to a regular person a griffin is to a lion.

But these two (count em' two) griffins were most certainly not basket ball players. They were more like Uncle Sam to a midget.

Nico drew his pitch black sword. Annabeth ripped out her knife. Percy uncapped his pen. Viscaria…panicked.

"Nico!" she cried. The griffins hadn't landed yet, but they were pretty darn close. Viscaria was freaking out, gasping for air.

"What? Don't you have anything to fight them with?"

Her eyes widened. "No! Oh, man. Clarisse was right! I can't do anything! My killer daisies do nothing to griffins! And I'm no good with a sword!"

Nico looked frantically at Annabeth and Percy. They both looked worried. Nico looked back at Viscaria. Tears were forming in her eyes. Nico felt a stab, but didn't know why. He passed it off as nothing, but he had a feeling he didn't like to see Viscaria cry.

"Well-"

"Nico!" The griffins had landed. Annabeth and Percy charged at them. Nico stole one more glance at Viscaria who was taking cover. Well, at least she was smart.

Nico turned to the lion-hawks. He charged. Anytime he got near them, though, they would swipe at him like a cat with a mouse. While he was trying to get a hit in, Nico thought that maybe they were mice to these behemoth animals.

"We can't take them!" Annabeth yelled. She had a major cut on her face, and Nico had a feeling no one looked good right now. "Maybe if we snuck up from behind -"

"Already tried!"

"Well, let's try again!"

And Percy and Annabeth went off on their own. Nico didn't know what to do. He'd gotten a few hits in the face, somewhat blinding the lions, but it wasn't really helping the ultimate goal of getting a rid of them.

"Nico! Raise some help!" Percy called to him.

Nico nodded grimly. He didn't think it would come to this, especially so earlier in the mission.

He concentrated on raising some really good fighters. He felt the hum in his ears when he knew something was dying or was dead. His stomach started to churn. Suddenly the hum got really loud, to where he could pass out if he didn't concentrate hard enough, and then…

It was gone. He opened his eyes. Three skeletons stood before him dressed in gray and blue civil war uniforms. Judging by how angry they seemed, he figured they'd kill themselves (again) before they killed the lions. Nico suddenly felt his knees almost buckle on him. He barely kept himself up. Then he heard something.

"Nico!" Viscaria screamed. Really loud. Then he felt fangs dig into his shoulder and arm, and he fell to the ground. He felt himself go unconscious, but hearing Viscaria scream like the world just ended got his eyes to open. He slowly stood up.

"Get them," he said to his soldiers. They didn't move. Nico was starting to get aggravated. Why was nothing working?

"I said get them!" He put more power into his words. Maybe he was too tired to get them to do things.

Still the skeletons stood there, staring at him with their more than empty eyes. Nico felt the blood slowly moving down his body, and the more it grew down, the more tired he got. Stay awake Nico. Stay awake. Stay awake. For Viscaria. Stay awake for Viscaria.

"Get the griffins!" Maybe if he made his commands more specific, they would listen, although they usually knew what he meant right away.

Nico heard Percy and Annabeth struggling. They were keeping the lions at bay for now, but not for long if Nico didn't get his men to listen to him.

Nico stood as straight as he could with his injured self. He closed his eyes and concentrated really hard. Don't pass out. Stay awake. You can do this. Stay conscious. He heard Annabeth scream.

"Kill the griffins." Nico's voice changed. The power he put into his words leaked out, and he sounded as if he were possessed. For a terrible second, nothing moved. Not even the griffins. Percy was helping Annabeth up, Viscaria was, well, wasn't in Nico's line of vision, so he didn't know. All he knew was that he was drained. He collapsed to his knees first. He slowly pulled his heavy-as-lead head up, and sighed in relief. The soldiers were going towards the griffins.

Then Nico fell asleep.

"Marive isn't here. We can finally talk about her." Orpheus said, but Nico didn't see anyone else. Just him. Nico wondered just how crazy he was.

"It's growing weaker, you know," he said to no one. Nico wanted to ask, 'What grows weaker?' but he couldn't.

"Yes, yes. Much weaker. Soon, my Eurydice will be delivered to me. Hades will not get in the way, no matter how hard he tries. Just like the other times…" He got too quiet for Nico to hear. Nico wondered how his dad had gotten in the way last time. He didn't even have a say in the last time Orpheus was there! How could he have possibly gotten in the way? Unless, of course, it was Hades who put the curse on Orpheus. But at that time, he was too much in love with his new wife, Persephone. So it couldn't have been him.

"Love?" someone purred off in the distance.

"Yes?" Orpheus flinched.

"How are you today?" Nico could actually see the shadow this time. She had that frightening face, just as last time. Her face was even stained with a little blood, kinda like a vampire. Nico shivered. The rest of her body, well, was actually kinda normal. She had a tail, yes, and long, terrible claws for hands, and patches of fur here or there, showing her cat features, but other than that, she had a normal body of a woman. Weird. Nico just hoped that he wouldn't be noticed.

"I'm good, my dear Marive."

She sighed. "Would you mind playing me a song?" she asked innocently, like she was a small child. Nico wondered how she could look so terrible, yet be so…normal.

"Of course." and Orpheus brought the lyre up to his mouth and began to play.

Nico suddenly didn't know what to think. It was the most beautiful thing he had ever heard. No joke. It was like all the song birds of every species in every part of the world suddenly decided, 'Hey! Let's sing for all the world!' Nico suddenly realized how easily he got through the Underworld.

Then, suddenly he stopped. Nico was really sad. Why did the birds stop singing? Why did Viscaria stop laughing?

"Wait. Let's show our little guest something first." Then Marive turned to Nico, grinned, and suddenly Nico wasn't there anymore.

He was in a white room. Like a crazy persons room. There was a boy huddled in the corner, mumbling to himself. Nico had a feeling he was a half blood. He even went to camp, because he had the beaded bracelet thingy.

Nico got close enough to where he could hear his mutterings, and he felt his body drain of color.

"I'll get my Eurydice. You'll see. I'll get her!"

Nico snapped his eyes open. He noticed the griffins were gone, along with his soldiers. His head felt like Viscaria spilled all her killer daisies into his brain, and his shoulder was on Greek fire. That dream really freaked him out, but he didn't have time to think about that. Viscaria was leaning over him.

"Oh, thank the gods!" Viscaria cried. Then he was being hugged. Tightly.

"How long was I out?" Nico's head and shoulders hurt really bad, and her hug made them worse. But Viscaria was hugging him! How could he just say stop?

"Just for a few minutes, but you really had me scared!"

"We can tell," Percy muttered. Everyone was beaten and battered. Except for Viscaria, of course. Viscaria noticed it the same time as Nico. And she burst into tears.

Like whale sized tears. Nico grabbed her arms from around him, placed them to her side, than hugged her instead. She placed her head on his shoulder. She put her arms around him again. Nico ignored the pain that ensued. He just wanted her to stop crying.

"Hey. Calm down. What's wrong?"

"You-you-you-you g-g-g-guys, f-f-f-f-f-ought tho-o-o-o-se guys wh-wh-wh-while I j-j-ju-just sat there!" And she cried even harder.

"Hey, it's ok." Annabeth started to rub her back. "You did fine, it's ok."

Viscaria tried to get something out, but failed. She just held on to Nico, and Nico held on to her. He was very very tired still, but he wasn't giving this up for the world.

Once she had herself calmed down, Nico figured she wanted to be alone, cuz he knew he would want to be after just breaking down like that. He started to pull away. She held him tighter, her head still buried in his neck. Percy and Annabeth sat beside them.

Suddenly, Viscaria's head snapped up. A bush of flowers that had petals that looked like they were made of cotton grew. She picked three, handing one to Annabeth, Nico, and Percy.

"Here. At least take this. An edelweiss. It means 'Daring and Noble courage.'" Each took their flower and stared at it. Nico tried, but he was so tired. His flower bent to a U. It was dead. Viscaria looked at it sadly. She knew it would happen.

They all looked at his dead flower. Than Nico got uncomfortable and embarrassed. Everyone else gets to have flowers. They get to put them in a vase and keep them for a long time and admire their beauty till they die. Nico gets to keep them till they die. He just skips the part where you get them for a long time and admire their beauty. He gets them for about five seconds, then the beauty is gone.

"Why don't you get a flower?" he asked Viscaria. He picked one for her and gave it to her quickly. Better get it to her before he kills his gift to her.

Viscaria had some more tears slide down her face. "I don't deserve one." Then she threw the flower. Nico couldn't help but think, Yes you do. You did more than you know.

Then Nico felt really sad. Viscaria killed a flower. Viscaria, the Flower Girl, killed a flower.

She killed her flower faster than Nico did.