003: Done yet?

1136: Let me go you jerk! I swear as soon as you let go of me I will destroy you! DESTROY YOU!

003: Bad little sidekick. Bad. *sprays with squirt bottle*

1136: ACK! What was that *gets hit with more spray* WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT!

003:…*sprays again*

"Well Thal," Helen laughed as Alex struggled in her grip, "it was nice chatting but I really must be going. Tell Nico I said hi."

She teleported off, leaving me up to my shoulders in the quicksand-like roof. I struggled and groaned, but I think that just made me sink even faster. To make matters worse, the snake that was once my spear was slithering toward me with its tongue darting out.

I continued to sink, now down to my chin. I only had one chance left. I focused on the clouds above me, controlling the weather and re-shaping them. I looked up to see that yes, the clouds were now shaped to look like the sentence: Nico help!

I added lightning that struck the building I was on repeatedly. Please let him see it. I sank to my top lip, forced to breathe through my nose only. Nico hadn't shown up yet, and my nostrils were a centimeter from going under. I was done for.

Nico's POV

I walked out of the Underworld and saw it. The clouds slowly rearranging themselves into letters. Nico help! Lightning struck the US Bank Tower, and I knew Thalia was up there. I stepped into my own shadow and shadow traveled to the top of the building. At first I didn't see anything, but then I saw the dark hair, and realized that Thalia had sunk almost to her eyes.

"Thalia hand on!" I shouted.

I ran to her, but was stopped by a snake. "Whoa! When did that get there?"

As Thalia continued to sink, I grabbed the snake by the head and cracked it like a whip. It went rigid and turned into Thalia's spear. Cool. I ran over to Thalia, and suddenly my leg sank into the ground to the knee. I struggled to pull myself out, but I only started sinking faster.

In desperation I reached down into the quicksand-like roof and pulled Thalia out as I continued to sink. I pulled her out up to midway on her thigh before she summoned her strength and pulled one of her legs out. From there she got all the way out and then pulled me.

"Where's Alex?" I panted.

Thalia looked like she was going to puke. "I was trying to draw out anyone following us. Helen showed up and…"

"Oh gods…" I breathed.

My whole world turned upside down and inside out. I felt like I was about to faint, and at the same time I was furious as demigodly possible.

"She'd after something," I mused. "Alex would be dead by now if she didn't." Thalia nodded. "If it's a beating and a one-way ticket to Tartarus she wants, I'm happy to oblige."

"This is crazy," I told myself. "If you were Helen, where would you have taken Alex?"

"I would kill myself if I was Helen," Thalia spat.

"Good point," I admitted. "Wait. Isn't teleporting a form of air travel?"

"Yeah," Thalia said. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Can you trace her path through the air?" I asked hopefully.

"I've never tried," Thalia admitted, "but…"

She closed her eyes. "Got her. She's in…the Alps? Why would she go there?"

"She's looking for the Hades ring," I realized. "How would she know where it is? How would she even know we were looking for it?"

"I don't know, but if we're going to follow them we need to catch up. Lightning travel time."

A lightning strike later and we were freezing our asses off on an icy mountain. I shivered, but did my best to ignore the cold for now.

"How close is she?" I asked.

"Right here," a voice said.

"Do you always do that?" I asked.

Helen shrugged. "Maybe. It's good to see you again too Nico."

"Will you stop flirting with him and tell us where Alex is?" Thalia spat.

Helen rolled her eyes. "Oh her?"

She snapped her fingers and a bird cage holding Alex appeared. Thalia threw her spear at Helen, who dodged and teleported to who knows where. Thalia ran to the cage and got Alex out. Alex was pale and her lips were blue. She was shivering like crazy. I suddenly found myself kicked into the snow bank. I turned around to see Helen. I drew my sword, but it was ripped from my hands by an unseen force.

My sword landed next to Thalia's spear, leaving me unarmed. I tried to kick Helen in the stomach, but she dodged and judo-threw me to the floor. Again I hit the snow face first. Thalia kicked Helen away from me and followed up by dislocating Helen's shoulder.

Helen in turn kneed Thalia in the stomach and then pulled her fist back like she was going to punch Thalia. Instead Thalia clutched her throat as the air was ripped from her lungs. I desperately crawled to my sword as the cold set in and my muscles went rigid. I reached it, and threw it at Helen. She saw it coming and teleported away, but at least now Thalia could breathe. The cold was getting to her now too, and she barely had the strength to crawl to Alex, who had fallen in the snow.

We all huddled together shivering, too weak with cold to move or save ourselves. Helen came back and smiled smugly when she saw us.

"It would seem as though you're all going to die," she said. "Any last words?"

Alex spoke up. "B-b-b****!"

"Alex!" Thalia scolded.

"I'll be going now," Helen told us, and walked off.

"We need to h-heat up," I stammered.

"H-h-hang on," Thalia said. "This is g-gonna hurt."

A lightning bolt struck us, but instead of transporting us it just sort of struck us at temperatures hotter than the sun's surface. True it was warm, but it hurt. A lot. I stood up before the cold could freeze me in place again, as did Thalia and Alex.

"Do you think Helen found the ring?" I asked.

Thalia shook her head as she picked up Alex. "No. She wasn't here long enough to find it. But she knows where to look."

"We have to find that ring," I emphasized. "But first we need to find a way to stay warm."

Alex pointed over to our left. We looked and saw the cave that had caught her attention. Inside it was cold but bearable. We all huddled together to keep warm. Alex soon fell asleep on my lap, and it was just me and Thalia.

"How are we gonna find one little ring in these mountains?" Thalia asked.

"We could go back in time to when the rings were scattered," I suggested. "But that would require talking with what's left of a certain lord of time. And I'm not sure I can cross that line."

"No, we can't," Thalia said. "And if any of the gods found out about this and told Zeus about the bolt sliver or Hades about the ring, we'd be dead."

"We're on our own," I sighed.

Thalia snuggled deeper into me. "We can do this on our own."

I smiled. "Yeah. We probably can."

Okay. That's that. This was almost a very different chapter but I changed my mind and redid the whole thing so anyway…

Will they find the Hades ring? What's Evan got planned? And how long until The Pit tries something else? Tune in next time to find out!