A/N: So…I must say, THANK YOU for all those lovely, lovely reviews for the last chapter. We're almost at 300! I am sooo excited! And I have to thank all of you for it. You are beautiful people. Here's the next chapter, it's not much but I hope you like it!

Chapter 10

Isabelle stared at Connor, tapping her foot. He stared at the ground, trying to ignore her tapping foot. It wasn't working too well.

"Come on, Isabelle," he said finally, rolling his eyes at her. "It's not as it I took much, just –"

"Son of Hermes you may be, but you can't run around 'borrowing' people's motorcycles whenever you want to!" Isabelle advanced on him, smirking when she noticed a flash of fear in his eyes. Oh yes, even if he was a good deal taller than her, she could be damn scary when she wanted to.

"But it'll be helpful for us! You should be thanking me!"

Ignoring his protests, Isabelle fisted his collar in her hand and pulled him slightly towards her. "Why would we need it? We can take a taxi to get us close to camp if we need to, and we can walk a little to actually get there. Why on earth would we ever, ever need that?"

They both looked at it, a silver BMW motorcycle sitting innocently near them, the keys hanging off one handle.

"Put it back where you found it, okay Connor? The last thing we need is a bunch of cops looking for us."

"They won't find it, and damn it, can't you see you can barely walk?" Connor pointed to her leg, which was still in its cast. "We need to get you back to camp so Chiron can fix this – we can come back later if we have to, but honestly this stakeout deal is stupid. We're all injured, Nico's practically dying down there, and no one is going to get the help they need if we don't go back!"

Isabelle frowned. "Nico's dying? I thought Jessie said he's fine, just a bit banged up."

"She was trying not to worry you while you were so badly hurt," Connor sighed. "But it's hard to fool a son of Hermes – especially with such a stupid lie. You could see it in her face. He's hurt, badly enough that she's worried."

Wincing a little as she moved her leg, the pain returning now that her irritation was subsiding, Isabelle finally let Connor lift her and sit her down on a large rock that doubled as a roughly made chair.

"I'm going to IM Chiron," Connor told her, his obstinate expression telling her not to argue. "I'm telling him we're coming back, and everyone else too, if they have any sense."

"Fine," Isabelle said, trying not to groan as her leg spasmed with pain. Connor shot her a concerned glance an proceeded to send Chiron a message, informing him they were returning and ending the connection before the centaur could protest.

Two minutes later another Iris-message shimmered in the rainbow, this one showing Annabeth's tired face, a bandage wrapped tightly around her forehead. It took Connor ten minutes to finally convince her, but she agreed to return to camp and promised she would do whatever she had to – including threatening to unleash Percy's wrath – onto anyone who refused to comply. Probably just Nico.

"So now what?" Isabelle said crabbily, glaring at her stupid broken leg.

"Now we leave," Connor answered. "Give me a minute to pack the tent and whatever else and we'll get out of here. It's not as if anything much happened anyway – other than us almost dying."

To his credit, although Isabelle wasn't paying much attention half the time, Connor took about five minutes to stuff everything haphazardly into the backpack, tearing the tent and breaking a few of the poles in the process – but really, how much did it matter when you could "borrow" another in minutes? – and had seated Isabelle carefully behind him on the motorcycle.

"Do you even know how to drive this thing?" Isabelle asked, staring at the back of his head.

"Nope," he replied cheerfully, fiddling with the keys. "Does it matter?"

"Up," Isabelle ordered, prodding him with her finger. "Get up. I'll drive."

"No way, not with that leg." He stared at her, refusing to move.

"Fine, but at least listen for the next few minutes, okay?" And Isabelle proceeded to give him a crash course in motorcycle driving – which didn't take too long. After making sure he knew how to start it, Connor turned the key and drove off, leaving her to wrap her arms around his waist and hope his demigod reflexes would be enough to keep them both alive by the end of the ride.

The ride itself, Isabelle discovered, involved her holding on tight, squeezing her eyes shut, and not daring to even wonder what speed they were going at. Neither wore a helmet and she had been drawing up a will inside her head when they pulled to a stop.

"Think I can make it up the hill on this thing?" Connor asked her, looking up at the pine tree atop Half-Blood Hill.

"Make it fast," she mumbled, making a mental note to slap him for speeding later.

They rode to the top of the hill but Connor jerked to a stop, and Isabelle cried out as her leg flared with agony, the world going dark around her.

A few hours later, the Big House was the scene of a huge commotion, the likes of which Chiron hadn't seen in years. Nico di Angelo was on the couch, being held down forcefully by Lily and Jessie. He was shouting at them that he as perfectly fine, goddamn it, and there was no need to keep babying him, and Lily was screaming back that he was not going to move until Jessie said he was fit to. Jessie was trying to keep from laughing as she and her best friend wrestled the son of Hades, who was surprisingly strong even in his weakened state.

Whenever Chiron tried to intervene, all three teenagers turned and yelled at him – Nico because he was angry that Chiron thought he needed to rest, and the girls because they couldn't afford any distractions while Nico was still fighting to get up.

On the opposite couch, Percy and Annabeth were having the same argument, with Annabeth insisting she was okay and her boyfriend arguing otherwise. Isabelle and Connor had left after Chiron had healed her leg as much as he was able – something about figuring out what to do with the motorcycle. Jessie had sniggered and muttered something about kissing behind every cabin they could find.

"Everybody just SHUT UP!" Lily screamed finally, after Jessie rent the air with an ear-splitting shriek as an errant foot nearly crushed her medical supplies. "You" – she pointed threateningly at Nico – "and you" – she pointed at Annabeth – "will not move until Jessie tells you you can. Understood? And if you do I promise I will knock you out for the remainder of the week."

Nico stared at her. He'd seen Percy lose his cool before – although he knew he was a lot scary than Poseidon's son – but Lily was a bit more terrifying, especially with her eyes flashing and her loose, wavy hair all messed up, and her sword pointed straight at him.

"Fine," Nico growled, suppressing a smirk as something else flashed in those aquamarine eyes at the sound of his voice, lowered by an octave.

After a moment's hesitation, Lily gave him what had to be the most beautiful smile he had ever seen, with her eyes lighting up and her cheeks flushing and – Nico shook his head, trying to stop himself. He sounded like a lovestruck child of Aphrodite!

Lily was watching him frown at himself, wondering what was going on in his head, when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

"Hey, Lily, come with me for a second. We need to talk." Jessie turned and headed for the hallway, and after a minute Lily followed her.

"Nico shadow-traveled you both here after Percy IM-ed you guys and shouted his head off for a while, right?"

"Yeah, he did," Lily said, not exactly seeing where the conversation was headed.

Jessie spotted the confusion on her friend's face. "The thing is…he really shouldn't have. He was in absolutely no shape to. That boyfriend of yours is an insanely good actor – from what I gathered in the ten seconds he allowed me to check him before throwing a fit, he's in a lot of pain. On the surface it looks the same, but I'm ninety-seven percent sure there's bleeding inside. The salve held him together on the outside, but it's torn up a bit within. I could kinda sense it, if that makes any sense."

"Yeah," Lily said, turning pale. "But what can we do?"

Jessie laughed, patting her friend on the head teasingly. "What do we do? He's a freaking son of Hades. Some stupid little cut isn't going to take him down. We stuff him with nectar or ambrosia, yell at him every five minutes because he hates being an invalid, and medicate him. Speaking of which, I need your help with that."

"You need my help with healing Nico? I'm completely useless with that kind of stuff – and you're Apollo's daughter, for the love of Hades. Why –"

Jessie shushed her. "Unless you want me running my hands all over your hot boyfriend's muscled body while I rub medicine into his wound, you're going to do it for him. And you did just fine from what I could tell."

Lily pretended to glare at Jessie for a few seconds, and then they both burst out laughing. "I'll do it, just give me whatever I need to give him. And thank you."

"No problem," Jessie said absently, looking around with a furrowed brow. "Oh! So the salve is my recently updated version of what I gave you guys earlier – it's in the little pink drawstring bag on the table. Just rub it in, and then push it in some more – that cut is still pretty deep and wide. It'll heal with time, but make sure it goes as far in as it can. We need to heal him from the inside out."

"Got it," Lily said, turning to look back into the room. "So shall we go back, then?"

"You go," Jessie said, her eyes flitting around as if searching for something. "I need to look for someone."

"Okay," Lily said, going back into the room. She snagged the little pink bag – why was everything pink with Jessie? – off the table and headed to Nico's couch. He was asleep, but his brow was furrowed and his mouth was moving like he was trying to speak.

"Nico," she whispered, prodding him lightly. "Nico, wake up. Wake up!"

"Ahh! What? I'm armed!" Nico pulled a knife out of practically nowhere, making Lily leap backwards and fall off the couch as he brandished it at her.

"It's me, you dolt," she laughed, picking herself up off the floor and sitting next to him again. The smile faded as she looked at him. "What were you dreaming about? You looked worried."

He gave her a serious look. "I'm not going to tell you. Not yet, anyway. I need to talk to someone else first – and we need to be alone – and then I'll tell you. Not here, in front of everyone."

"Is it that bad?"

Nico exhaled, muscles fluttering in his abdomen. "Yeah. It's bad."

Lily stared at him, eyeing the wound. Somehow every time things were looking up, something just had to happen to ruin everything. When would life leave them alone? "Fine. Tell me later. But right now you are going to stay still while I heal you some, okay?"

"Yes, mother," he mocked, laughing as she smacked him lightly on the side of the head.

"Nico," she growled, glaring at him before reaching into the bag. A little white container with gold flecks all over it was inside, and Lily spent a few minutes wondering where Jessie got her boxes and bags from – and the medicine, for that matter – before opening it.

"Yes, Princess?" he said sleepily, his eyes fluttering shut again. Lily gave him a worried look, remembering what Jessie had told her about him being in serious pain.

"Do you want some painkillers? I think there are some –"

"I don't need anything," he said, trying to look indignant while in the middle of a yawn. It just made her giggle. "I'm serious," Nico frowned. "I'm perfectly okay, I just need some sleep. Remember, with great power –"

"Comes great need to take a nap," Lily finished. "Percy told me. Get some sleep, okay?" She smiled at him as he mumbled something, his eyes closed and breathing even.

Opening the container in her hands, Lily scooped out a handful of some sort of gel – salve, she decided. Again, it smelled of roses and was pink and shimmery – what Jessie had changed about it she didn't know. Leaning over Nico, she began rubbing it into his chest, finding the task so much easier now that he was no longer bleeding at the slightest provocation.

"I get that you have to do that," Percy said from behind her a few minutes later, "But do you have to give him that sappy look while you do? It makes me want to either punch him or drag you away."

"Percy, shut up." Lily turned to glare at him.

"It's sickening! What have you even done to him? He used to scoff and sneer and be disgusted by all those Aphrodite tendencies before, but now he's all mushy and – yuck!" Percy's hands flew to his face as Lily lobbed a lump of salve at him.

"Go bother Annabeth," she said, turning back to Nico.

The couch creaked slightly as Percy sat down, protesting the additional weight. "Lily, come on. I feel like we haven't even seen each other's faces in ages, and you try to send me away as soon as I get here? You're my sister, we should…I dunno, just hang out sometimes or something."

Lily didn't look up from rubbing the gel into Nico's abdomen, but she rested her hands on his abs, letting them rise and fall with him as he breathed. "Percy, has Annabeth ever told you you're adorable?" She laughed.

"Yeah, a couple times," he blushed. "But –"

"But it hurts your manly pride to be told that?" she teased. "It's okay. Nico pretends to get upset whenever I tell him he's cute. Have you ever seen him pout?"

"No and I don't want to," Percy groaned, erasing the image of a pouting Nico from his mind. He did have a reasonably gifted imagination, but it was difficult to conjure a bearable image of his often-terrifying and super-powerful best friend pouting. Best not to try, he decided.

Lily looked around, and smiled when she saw Annabeth fast asleep on the other sofa, snoring softly. "So…what do you think?"

"Something's coming," he responded instantly. His sister raised her eyebrows and he sighed at her. "I just have this feeling, you know, like this" – he waved a hand around – "isn't it, isn't real, and there's something big we don't know about, that we're missing – Lily, are you okay? You just turned insanely pale."

She really was as white as a sheet, and Lily found that she couldn't breathe. Her eyes grew wide as she began to choke, gasping for air. Her vision began to swim as Percy began to shout. The last thing she remembered was Nico's dulcet tones piercing the air as strong arms wrapped around her.

Down in the Underworld, Persephone was staring at the diamond daisy in her hands, frowning. She'd just finished a conversation with Aphrodite, who had told her about Enyalius. But the goddess of love had refused to confront Ares about his servant, saying that he would probably just shout at her, deny everything, and then try to seduce her so she would forget about it.

Useless god, Persephone thought, shaking her head. How her friend could stand him she would never understand. Then again, no one understood how she could care for Hades, but she did.

She twirled the flower around her fingers delicately, running a tongue over her lips and wondering if she should tell Hades what she'd learned. Of course, it was entirely possible he already knew. That god had a tendency to know everything – especially because his ghosts kept him posted.

In that case, she decided, her husband probably knew quite a bit. Quite a bit more than she did, at any rate. And since they were married, it was time he learned to share.

Standing up, Persephone marched towards the gardens – for whatever strange reason her guards had told her he was there. "Husband!" she shouted, looking around.

"Yes?" A tall god had turned around barely six feet in front of her – and Persephone blinked, wondering how she had missed him. Oh well.

"We need to talk."

Hades sighed, obviously trying to keep his apparently frayed patience together. Then again, he was always out of patience. "Persephone, I don't think I have time to –"

"Yes you do. We need to discuss Eny–"

"Quiet!" Hades hissed the command, his long fingers latching around his wife's upper arm before melting them both into the shadows. They reappeared in one of the many rooms in the palace, and he released her. "Don't speak of that where we may be overheard."

Persephone rubbed her arm, scowling at him, but he didn't even seem to notice. He was too busy frowning at the ceiling. Great. "So…"

He didn't even turn to look at her. "Aphrodite needs to stop meddling."

"How is she meddling? She told me something you would have long ago if –"

Now he did turn to face her, and she found herself wishing he hadn't. The expression on his face was terrifying. "This has the potential to snowball into something massive," Hades snarled. "Enyalius is working with…someone. It isn't clear who, but Tartarus is involved in this whole mess."

"But how does that matter?" Persephone probed, hoping he wouldn't fly off the handle with her questions. "If Kronos isn't interfering this time, then we can surely defeat whatever he can throw at us."

"Cut the optimism," he growled. "Olympus defeated Typhon last time because we all managed to unite. This time…I don't know what it is, since I'm not very often on Olympus, but something is the matter. Their unity is crumbling, as it tends to do every few years. And we will all have to pay the price. And things at the camp are not as well as those demigods seem to believe."

"Why? What's wrong?"

"Do you know where that Oracle – Rachel Dare – is? Or that son of Hephaestus, the one with power over fire?"

A/N: Opinions, questions, comments? I love reviewwwwws! So please drop me one when you read this! :D