Author's Notes: Yikes! Sorry for not updating in a while. But I'm back, so lets go.

By the way, did anybody watch the movie "Pulp Fiction"? I just finished watching it recently, and I have to say, it was fantastic.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO or HOO


Nico

"-out for a few days."

"Hmm. Do we still not know where he traveled from, or why?"

"I have no clue. But don't you think it's convenient that right at the moment I said, 'The person who doesn't belong on the Argo ll is Nico', the guy pops up out of nowhere? A coincidence?"

"Rachel, my dear, the universe works in mysterious ways. I don't pretend to understand it, and you should accept that fact, too."

Nico sighed and cracked his eyes open. "Hey, guys."

Chiron and Rachel snapped to attention. "He's awake," she breathed.

"No," said Nico, "I'm dead. What you're seeing now are just the involuntary spasms that occur just prior to my physical death." He sat up in bed and stretched out his tired arms. Some of his bones cracked deliciously.

Chiron, in centaur form, plodded over to his bedside table. "Welcome back, my boy!"

Nico rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "So. What did I miss?"

Rachel and Chiron exchanged glances. "Nothing," said the centaur. "I'm assuming you heard what Miss Dare and I were saying earlier?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. I can answer all your questions." He looked to Chiron for approval to continue.

The old centaur nodded. "Go on."

Nico told them about the two separate groups of demigods, one on the Argo ll, and the other in Tartarus. He stressed the importance of everyone at camp being completely isolated from those seven demigods, because that was what the prophecy stated and that was what had to happen, using all of the monster attacks as examples of what could happen if the prophecy wasn't followed, word for word.

He also told them about Jason's dream, how he saw into the future and realized what had to happen.

"Which is why I'm here," Nico finished. "They kinda kicked me out, but I saw what I had to do. Did I make a fashionable entrance?"

"Yeah," Rachel replied sarcastically, leaning against the door frame, "right on top of me."

"Elegant as usual," said Nico, hiding the embarrassment.

He swung his legs out of bed and firmly planted them on the ground. It would take a while before all his normal bearings and senses returned. "Do you think you guys could show me around camp so I can see what you're doing to prepare for the Romans?"

"But of course," said Chiron. He beckoned for Rachel to follow him, and an Oracle, a child of Death, and a centaur stepped out onto the porch of the Big House, squinting into the afternoon sun.

They first walked towards the recreational area- the volleyball and basketball courts, the climbing wall, the strawberry fields, and everything else in camp that wasn't directly related to training. "This has become our main supplier and storehouse for weapons," Chiron was saying. "In addition to the main forges-" he pointed to them "-the Hephaestus campers have fashioned another one where the volleyball courts were, along with a warehouse on the basketball courts. This way, we get twice as many weapons than we originally could, and they're all custom-made, to give us the upper hand over the Romans' standardized swords."

Nico nodded and they walked over to the climbing wall. "This remains true to it's original function. We use it for strength and agility training- that may not seem like its best use, but molten lava rushing one has a large effect on that person's performance."

Nico smiled as they walked over to the mess hall. "By the way," said Rachel, "were you able to get in touch with Percy and Annabeth at all?"

Nico's smile faded. "Not yet," he said gruffly, "but I'm pretty sure they're alive, and if they are, we'll find a way."

"Pretty sure?"

"That's what I said."

"How sure is pretty sure?"

"I'm pretty sure, okay? They'll make it." Nico was too used to Jason and Piper's "small talk" questions about Percy and Annabeth, questions that showed how they weren't too concerned about the fates of the two young demigods, but were just making, hence the name, small talk. He had to remind himself that there were other people who cared about them as much as he did.

Rachel sighed. "The mess hall is the same, except you can sit wherever you want. I guess we're spending too much time training for the Romans to care about where we sit. The gods are still silent, but some sporadically pop up in schizophrenic states. The pantheons of the gods were never supposed to find each other, never supposed to mix, but now that they have, I guess they're having a tough time dealing with it."

Nico nodded as they walked past the mess hall and down towards the beach, where the arena was and where most of the training was being done. "I mean," he said, "Ares seemed fine when he came to the Roman camp, but that was when he was Mars and it was a while ago. I doubt most of them are like that."

"The good news is," Rachel continued, "that no god help for us means no god help for the Romans. It's a level playing field."

Nico looked at Chiron. "But at the same time, don't you think that there shouldn't even be a playing field? I mean, don't you think that all of this-" he gestured out at the tons of demigods hacking swords at each other and throwing spears and firing arrows at targets "-should be in preparation for the Giants and Gaea? Not for the Romans, who are supposed to be our friends, our allies in the war?"

Chiron sighed heavily. "This has happened before, my boy, this has all happened before. If there is one thing I have learned, it is that what is done is done, and you cannot change the past. The Romans are attacking us, so we defend ourselves, that is just how it is. If that is what we have to do to get them to cooperate with us, then so be it. I do not like it. But it is the only option we have."

Chiron and Rachel showed Nico the rest of camp, which was basically just a large training area for the various campers. The beach was left untouched, the one oasis in the desert of war preparation.

None of the campers seemed the least bit surprised to see him. A few even nodded or smiled or said hello. He supposed Chiron and Rachel had already informed them of his sudden appearance, and they'd gotten over their initial shock.

After the tour of the new Camp Half-Blood, the three of them stood on top of Half-Blood Hill, watching the training unfold. "I have a few ideas," said Nico. "I still don't want to fight the Romans. Is there any way we can get up some sort of magical barrier around the camp? Sort of like the one that stops monsters from getting in, except this one would prevent anything from getting in?"

Chiron thought for a second. "It would be difficult," he mused, "but possible. A barrier from the outside world, that is an interesting concept. But I doubt it could be kept up for long, maybe only a few days. Why?"

"If we can get the Romans in a non-hostile position, where they are not able to kill us, then we can talk to them. I know for a fact that Annabeth can convince them to stand down. We just need the opportunity."

Rachel sucked in a breath. "It will be a tight window. Remember, Annabeth is currently in Tartarus. They've got to close the Doors of Death and then immediately come back here for another potential war, quick enough that we have enough time to set up the barrier and prepare, for at least a few days, for the Romans. It might be too difficult."

Nico shook his head. "Not for Annabeth and Percy. I can navigate them through Tartarus, help them through it. It's not that bad unless you get to the monster reformation area, which I'm pretty sure they'll have to do."

"There you go with being pretty sure again."

"But they'll have help from five other demigods. They can do it. I'm just worried that we're focusing all our resources and energy on fighting against the Romans instead of Gaea, which is why we need the barrier idea to work. If we can do it, we'll fight one less war and be that much stronger when we have to face the Giants."

It was one of the longest speeches Nico had ever said, and he was quite surprised when he finished and neither centaur nor Oracle looked at him funnily. It crossed his mind that he'd been pretty quiet for the past few years, and most people probably talked like that.

Rachel shrugged after a moment of contemplation. "It's the best idea we have up until now. I don't really see many other options, and all of the other ones I do see involve us fighting the Romans, which I don't want to have to do." She looked at Chiron. "What do you think?"

Chiron stared at Nico. "I think," he said slowly, after a while, "that it is a risky plan with terrible odds, but all we have had to go on in the past were risky plans with terrible odds, and those came out well enough." He looked out at camp. "We don't have any other choices, at least not as far as I'm concerned. Nico, go down to the Hecate cabin and see if they can help us. If they can't, and worst comes to worst, the Hephaestus cabin can fashion a glass dome, similar to the one in The Simpson's Movie." He cracked a smile.

Rachel looked at him like he had six heads. "How do you know about The Simpsons?"

Chiron laughed. "I've been alive for three thousand years, Rachel. And everybody knows about The Simpsons."


Nico tentatively knocked on the door of the Hecate cabin. He didn't really know that much about what kinds of magic the Hecate campers were capable of, but the cabin itself was made of highly explosive and fatal materials, so he wasn't going to take any chances with its inhabitants.

The door was opened by a girl about his height, maybe a little shorter, with messy black hair tied back into a messy ponytail. The cabin itself was messy, too, but other than that, it looked like a regular cabin. "Hi," she said, "what's up?"

"Can I speak to the cabin leader?" Nico asked.

"You're looking right at her," she said, "can I help you?"

"I'll get right to the point," he said, "can you and your half-siblings construct a magical barrier around camp, like the one keeping monsters out, except it works for everything?"

She stared at him. "You're kidding, right?"

"No! Fighting the Romans is exactly the opposite of what we want to do, and if we have that barrier, no one gets hurt and we can talk it out peacefully."

She leaned against the door frame. "Uh-huh," she said, "and you think the Romans will just talk it out peacefully? Tell me, when has that strategy ever worked out for you in the past?"

Nico sighed. "Never. It'll work out now, but only if you can do it."

"Well..." the girl thought for a second. "I've been doing that kind of thing, to an extent, for my own personal security. Try to touch me."

Nico stared at her. "What?"

"Touch me," she said, as if, to a teenage boy, such a thing wasn't awkward at all.

After a short, internal debate over where exactly to touch her, Nico tentatively reached a finger towards her arm.

Immediately, a burst of electricity sparked and the current zapped his finger. The shock traveled all the way up his arm.

He quickly drew his hand back and winced, shaking his arm in pain. "Ow!"

She grinned. "You want us to make something of that sort?"

He nodded, nursing his hand. "Yeah. Is it impenetrable?"

"To all mortals. Since we can't expect any help from the gods, that shouldn't be a problem."

Nico remembered Hannibal the elephant and the terrifying eagles that the Romans housed.

"Does it work on animals, too?"

The girl nodded. "As long as they're mortal. Though Peleus will live long, he is still mortal, so he won't be a problem, either."

"But if someone is ultra-resistant to pain, won't they be able to pass through the border?"

The girl shook her head. "They'll be fried to a crisp by the electric surge. But I have to warn you that, even with our combined power, we can only keep it running for two or three days."

Nico nodded. "That should be long enough to at least talk it out. Thanks for your help, I'll update you when I get more information." He'd stopped paying attention at that point, saddened by the thought that if Percy, Annabeth, and the rest of the people in the Argo ll didn't arrive in time, they'd be blocked out of camp and left at the mercy of the Romans.

He ran into Rachel on the way back to his cabin. "What did they say?" she asked.

"They can do it," Nico confirmed, "for three days, max. That should be enough, don't you think?"

Rachel nodded. "It should be more than enough for Annabeth."

"No one should have to ever be where they are," he said, "ever."

Chiron clopped over to them. "I have some friends over in Europe. They disclosed the location of the Roman army. Seems like they're headed straight for our camp. Fifteen days was the estimate for how long it will take them to get to us from Rome."

"And from the Doors?"

"I spoke to Leo, also," said Chiron, he said that they were five days away from the Doors. If they headed for Camp right now, it would take them five days to get here. But ten days, to get to the Doors and back, assuming all goes well, and then another five days..." he trailed off.

"They'll get here at the same time as the Romans." Rachel sucked in a breath. "This could be bad."

Chiron sighed. "We will have to see. It is up to the Fates to decide, I suppose." He walked off to oversee some of the training.

Rachel looked over at Nico, who had fallen silent. "Nothing we can do about that," she said, "controlling the Fates. We'll try to Iris-Message them, but..." she trailed off.

Nico looked at her and inwardly groaned. He hated to see girls cry. He tentatively stretched out his arms. "Don't laugh at me, Dare."

Rachel's eyes watered and she stepped forwards, enveloping Nico in her embrace. It felt nice for him, to comfort someone who wasn't his sister.

A few tears slipped out of her eyes and onto Nico's shirt. He didn't complain. They didn't talk.


Author's Notes: Hope you enjoyed that. The main reason I sent Nico to camp was so that I'd have eyes in camp to see what was going on. Not because Rachel is in camp. Nothing from the PJO series implied that Nico had a romantic interest in anyone, after all. Rachel's just a good friend for Nico to have.

Edit: As of July 17th, 2013.

Reviews would be greatly appreciated!

-epicsilverbullet