Disclaimer: I do not- You know what, screw disclaimers. I'm neither authors Clare or Riordan I don't think it needs mentioning.

Chapter 10

Nico POV

From behind the pile of rocks in the forest, inappropriately deemed the Fist of Zeus, shadows rippled and distorted, settling only after Nico came running out. He stopped running and stood there in a patch of sunlight, letting the warmth soak into his bones, breathing heavy. Another child.

Standing there in the light he could feel the time passing, maybe ten minutes as his thoughts swirled around inside his head, each begging to get his full attention. He knew that some his thoughts were completely irrational, but he couldn't avoid them. Am I such a disappointing son that father would try to have another. He knew that that one made no sense. If what Percy and Annabeth had said was accurate, then the new son of Hades, Nico's physically older brother, would be in fact an adult. The other boy would've had to have been conceived sometime when he and Bianca had been living in the Lotus Hotel. His father hadn't known him then and probably hadn't dreamed that he would be disappointing.

While Nico wasn't quite sure why the discovery of another child bothered him so much, he was quite sure, however, that he wanted some questions answered. Knowing that his father had been the only god of the Big Three to have not broken the oath regarding halfblood children had filled Nico with an odd sense of pride of his father. But now, finding out that Hades actually had broken the oath, it was kind of numbing. Nico had found an aspect off his father that had made him happy to be his son. The self-righteous Zues and his brother Poseidon had both broken an oath at least once, while Nico's father had not. His father had been the only one to keep his word. It was as simple as that. But now, he was the oathbreaker that everyone, though it was never said in front of Nico, believed.

His thoughts drifted to the newly discovered half-blood himself. Annabeth and Percy had been attacked, and although Nico didn't show it much, he thought of them as his friends, plus they had saved his life more times than he'd like to admit. He didn't have that many friends, even now that he was living at camp, and it was because of how very small the list of people he cared about was, that he wouldn't let his friends be hurt or killed by anyone, no matter what ties they had to him.

Newly determined by this fact, he turned to go back, and froze. Someone was there in the woods with him.

"So, we finally meet... Little brother."

He stood before Nico, leaning against the boulders of Zeus's fist. His skin was naturally pale like Nico's, with the same near-black hair and eyes that came from their shared father. But that's where the similarities seemed to end. He towered over Nico and made Nico look like he was made from toothpicks, and his facial expression looked to be drawn in a semi-permanent sneer. He looked down his nose to Nico and his eyes held both malice and a certain arrogance to them.

"Who are you?" Nico asked.

"I have a feeling that you know exactly who I am."

Nico considered this for a second. "What's your name, then?"

The older demigod just laughed. A low throaty chuckle. "You know as well as I do that names hold power. For now, how 'bout you call me big brother."

Nico just ground his teeth together, not trusting himself to answer with anything even remotely nice.

The young man raised an eyebrow. "Nothing to say? That's a pity."

He was really starting to get on Nico's nerves. "I will not or ever, call you that. Is there anything else I can call you."

The other boy thought about it for a second. "Just call me Dolos."

"Alright… Dolos. Why did you attack Percy and Annabeth?" Nico shifted so his hand rested on the hilt of his sword.

Dolos straightened up and dismissed Nico's question with a wave of his hand. "I'm hurt, little brother. You didn't even tell me your name. But don't worry Nico, I already know it."

Gritting his teeth, Nico fought down a rise of annoyance. He needed to find out as much about… Dolos, as possible. "How long have you been stalking me?"

Dolos cocked his head. "What makes you think I've been stalking you?" he seemed genuinely curious. "And it was nothing personal."

Nico gave an exasperated sigh. "How is stalking me not personal." He emphasised the last two words. But Dolos just rolled his eyes.

"I wasn't talking about the stalking, jeez. I was talking about the son of Poseidon and the daughter of Athena. That wasn't personal. I needed someone with powerful blood and he seems to be the strongest of all of you down here at this pathetic camp. The girl, his girl," Dolos corrected himself, "was just an incentive to behave." The look of contempt on his face deepened as he said that last bit. "Anyways, I didn't come here to discuss them. I came here to offer you something."

"And that would be…"

"A partnership. A family member who will actually care about you," Dolos said simply. "I've been visiting this camp for a while now. Snooped here and there. Listened to people's conversations." He paused for a bit. "I'm sorry about your sister. It's quite unfair that she had to die so young, leaving an eleven year old brother behind." He fixed his black eyes on Nico and once again he felt a rush of anger, along with that shard of grief that came whenever Bianca was mentioned. He tried to keep his face as blank as possible and his voice steady before he said anything.

His voice trembling very slightly, Nico asked, "What do you want? Why are you here now?"

Dolos once again rolled his eyes and looked condescendingly down at Nico. "I've already told you what I want. I want you to help me. I want to give you the chance to team up with me. To change the world for the better. I know that your sister chose rebirth and that there's no way now to get her back or see her again, but if you team up with me, I'll make sure that no one else you love will ever die again."

Nico's heart thumped painfully in his chest as he took this all in. "What are you talking about? Change the world! What are you planning to do?"

Dolos just stared him straight in the eyes. "I'm planning on overthrowing some deities."

Jace POV

"Come on, Magnus! It's just a shirt," Jace was saying as the coffee was being made. He sighed. "Don't' make me be annoying, cause you know I can do that."

"That is the truest thing you've said all morning," Magnus grumbled over the coffee machine. He stared at it longingly. "Gah, this is taking too long. Remind me why I didn't just magic some coffee up."

"Because stealing is bad, Magnus," Clary weighed in.

"It's only..." He does a quick head count. "six coffees. I don't think anyone's going to notice, not to mention trace it back to here." He rubbed his temples. "after last night's fiasco, I just want a cup of hot coffee. Is that really too much to ask."

"Apparently," Isabelle muttered at the same time that Jace said, "about last night."

Magnus sighed. "Let it go, Jace, let it go."

But Jace kept on persisting, like a dog with a bone. "Come on, I swear I won't actually go to them, I'd just like to know where they are. Why won't you just give me the shirt?"

After Percy and Annabeth had left via a portal, Magnus had magicked the shirt away to a safe with layers of charms and spells preventing Jace from using a unlock rune.

"I'm not giving you the shirt," Magnus answered. "Because some things are best left unknown."

"Why are you siding with them," Jace asked, genuinely curious. "Do you know something about them?"

"I know enough about them to understand that their lives probably aren't that easy to begin with, but then going ahead and throwing shadowhunters in the mix would probably be a short recipe for hell."
Jace spoke slowly, measuring each word before speaking it. "So, what you're saying, is that you know a bit about them."

Magnus seemed to hesitate. "Yes, a bit," he answered truthfully.

"Are they mundanes?" Jace asked.

The look on Magnus's face said that he didn't want to answer the question but nonetheless, he turned to Alec. "I promised that I wouldn't lie to you and I don't want to be keeping anything away from you. But I'll tell you a bit of what I know, only if you all promise not to tell the clave, however. I don't want to be held liable for starting a war."
"Starting a war," Isabelle murmured, her brow creased. Everyone in the room made eye contact with each other. Alec was the first to do it. "I swear on the Angel." The others followed suite except for Jace. "What do you mean start a war? If there's going to be a war it's our duty to inform the clave of any dangers present, so we can be prepared."
Magnus just stared at him before slowly shaking his head. "This is exactly why I don't want to and haven't said anything to the clave about this. You Nephilim always go straight to violence and war instead of peaceful negotiations."

Jace propped his elbow on the counter and raised a finger. "Okay, one, we don't always go to war and violence. The Accords and our newfound alliances are proof of that-"

"After hundreds of years of prejudice, violence and abuse towards downworlders, newfound is the right word," Magnus interrupted. He waved his hand. "Carry on."

"And two, what the hell," Jace conceded. "I swear by the Angel."

The others just stared at him. "What was that about?" Isabelle asked.

Jace elegantly shrugged his shoulders. ""Curiosity's getting the better of me," he said simply.

Magnus rolled his eyes. "This would have gone along easier if you had just said that in the first place." He paused. "To answer your question, no they aren't mundanes, at least not fully. They're half. Half mundane, half something else."

"Half what," Simon asked.

Magnus pondered on that for a bit before saying, "No, I'm not going to tell you that. Sorry."

"Really, Magnus," Simon said. "You're just going to leave us hanging like that? This is suspense, you know, like when your watching a show and the characters get so close to a secret then the directors are all like 'nope, we're going to end this episode now and have them reveal the secret next episode', meanwhile we're all dying inside-" He stops his little rant when he sees all the raised eyebrows in the room.

"He's got a point," Clary said, standing up for her parabatai. "You just said that you would tell us about them."

"I said that I would tell you a bit of what I know," Magnus corrected her. "I plan on telling you what you need to know. Because as far as I know, they know as much about you as you know of them."

Jace pondered that. "How do you know of them?"

"And are they dangerous?" Clary put in. "Do you see them as a threat?"

"Not really." Magnus said slowly. "I mean, yes, they can definitely be quite dangerous, as you saw with the boy here earlier. Quite a good swordsman to be able to keep up with you, Jace. They have been known to be good at fighting. And as I said before, no, I don't really think that they would be a threat to shadowhunters or mundanes. Actually, they might be like you guys, in the sense that they protect the mundanes as well."

"How do you know of them," Jace repeated.

Magnus once again looked reluctant to answer. "Because I helped one of them before. And in doing so, I discovered a whole other world revolving right here in New York."

Silence fell across the room . "I take it we aren't going to get an answer if we ask what this whole other world is, right?" Isabelle asked with an eye roll.

Magnus nodded firmly.

"Do you know where they are by any chance, like do they have a secret hideout or meeting place like the Institute." It was Simon who spoke up this time.

"I'm not sure about that. Sorry." Though his face was quite unapologetic.

"Alright." Jace crossed his arms. "Why can they fight so good? What was with the swordplay?"

"Well, they get so good because I'd imagine they train," Magnus said dryly. "But from what I heard, they have their own demons to contend with. Listen, before you ask more, that's the end of my knowledge about them. I don't think I can tell you anymore about them."

"Except for what you're deliberately holding back," Jace put in.

"Yes," Magnus said simply.

Jace got a look on his face. "When was the last time you saw one of them?"

Magnus looked slightly confused but answered anyways. "Over fifteen years ago. Why?"

"So fifteen years ago, you didn't think they were a threat. What do you think now, fifteen years later? Could they have become a threat in the last fifteen years."

"No." Though he didn't sound one hundred percent sure.

"Let us check on them, make sure that they aren't a threat now." At Magnus's accusatory look, Jace added, "I swear by the Angel that I won' t do anything or tell anyone else if they don't appear to be threats. I'll even drop it. Just let us use the shirt to track him. You can come with us and make sure I keep my promise."

Magnus looked Jace hard in the eye. Jace stared back. "Fine." He snapped his fingers, blue sparks flying. The cut up and bloodstained orange shirt appeared in his hand. He passed Jace the shirt, which Jace turned over in his hands.

"Perfect," he said.

Nico POV

He couldn't help it. After all of Nico's anger had finally calmed down, his... brother dropped that bomb and he just couldn't hold it in. He was shaking and had to use one of his hands to cover his mouth, to keep himself from laughing out loud.

Dolos stared at him as if he'd just lost his mind, with an increasingly menacing expression, cocking his head. Nico sobered up quickly at his glare. "So, you're serious?" He asked and then quickly went on, not waiting for an answer. "You realise that there have been plenty of people who were determined to do just that, and failed. Kronos, the king of the Titans, failed. As well as Gaia, who is essentially the earth. How do you expect to defeat the Olympians?"

Dolos took another step forward, incredibly graceful for a guy of his size, and just looked at Nico as if disappointed. "I'm not going to tell you any of my plans, until I can know for sure you are on my side. And before you think to deceive me, what I need from you is your word on the River Styx."

By now, Nico realised how bad this situation was. He was all alone against a guy who was much better trained than him, who could probably kill him with his bare hands. And something told him that their shared blood wouldn't keep Dolos from killing Nico. Nico saw he had a big choice to make, but it was the easiest choice of his life. The only problem was getting to the others and back here in time.

Trying to appear normal, Nico strode forward a few steps closer to Dolos, who stood a little off to the side of the shadow of Zeus's fist. Nico's heart thumped painfully, he imagined he was within range of attack from Dolos. Try as he might to stay calm and appear neutral on the outside, he couldn't help his hand from straying to the hilt of his sword.

Seeing the movement, Dolos must have been expecting this because he lunged forward without warning right for Nico. Nico threw himself in the dirt and grass to avoid being grabbed and scrambled towards the shadow. He felt his skin cool as his hand entered the shadow's grasp and immediately thought of the Big House. He felt himself melt into the shadow, his heart going wild. He stood up, though he had entered what he called a Shadow-path. He closed his eyes hard and didn't open them until he felt himself materialize but when he did he realised that he had just materialized right back into the shadow he had departed from, facing the fiend he had just tried to run away from.

Dolos just stood there, grinning. "How cowardly, running away from an opponent. I'd so hoped that you would have agreed to my deal. But I've got to admit, what comes next is going to be so much more fun."

With that said, he unsheathed a broadsword from behind his back. The metal wasn't celestial bronze, if anything it could have been an ordinary metal. Dolos would understand that demigods could be hurt by mortal weapons.

Nico's brain was working double-time now but the only coherent thought that reached through to his body was to unsheathe his own sword. He was still standing in the pool of the shadow but he had come out of. He desperately thought of the Big House, but he felt something… different. With the big house in mind, he tried to open the path but the shadow wouldn't… budge. By then he was starting to panic as Dolos kept coming, advancing slowly as if savoring the moment. There was something predatory about his strides that chilled Nico and when Dolos smiled it made the hair on the back of his neck raise.

"Having trouble?" Dolos asked. He smiled wickedly. "You're stuck. I've been honing my skills to control the shadows ever since I was a kid. You're not going anywhere, at least, using the shadows." He stopped his casual advance. He was now close enough that Nico could make out smooth, silvery scars on his bare arms. Dolos, waving his arm, grinned down at Nico and said, "It would be more fun if you ran."

Knowing there was nothing else to do, Nico turned and sprinted off into the trees. A minute later he half turned his head to see Dolos rapidly catching up to him.