Hey guys, well this is going to be the second to last chapter of the story. I just want to thank everyone who has read this story and given me the confidence to start writing more. I love you all:) here you go!

(Part nineteen: Nico)

Nico landed on his bad shoulder with a jolt. Pain arched through his body as he felt his slightly healed shoulder blade shatter again from the impact. First all he could hear was the roar of his blood in his ears, but as the burning pain began to subside he realized that he was hearing laughter. It was deep and evil coming from all around them.

Percy jumped up off the ground and unsheathed his celestial bronze sword casting a dim glow on the horrific scene around them. Ghost surrounded them on all sides; the sight their faces, distorted and grotesque, almost made Nico want to hurl.

The wave of nausea combined with the pain from his injury was too much for his mind to take and he passed out for a few moments. When he came back Rose and Percy were standing over him, swords drawn and ready for a fight. He pushed himself up with his good arm and drew his sword out as well, even though he could barely stand. He would fight no matter how much pain he was in.

Only problem with that was that the ghosts mad no moves towards them. They just stood there continuing to laugh at them.

"Why aren't they attacking?" Percy asked

Rose and Nico didn't reply; but someone else did. A voice rang out from behind the mob of ghosts "Because I ordered them not to." The ghosts parted in front of Rose to reveal a tall boy about 17 years old with black hair and purple eyes. Rose's body started to tremble with rage.

"Good to see you little sis." Zack said opening his arm wide as if he expected Rose to give him a bear hug.

Rose swung her sword in a deadly arc that should have decapitated him but he moved with incredible speed and dodged the attack. The three spirits that were unlucky enough to be in the front row dissipated with blood chilling wails of agony. Rose slashed at him over and over again but no one of her attacks came even close to hitting Zack.

She growled in frustration and swung on last time at Zack's darting figure. Mid strike she somehow changed he direction of her blow and the tip of her sword nicked Zack's cheek drawing a thin line of crimson blood.

"You've gotten better since we fought when we were kids…." He said wiping the blood off of his face. He drew his own sword that was an exact match of Rose's own. "But you're still not good enough." He raised his sword above his head and the ghosts that surrounded them surged forward to attack.

0-0-0-0-0-0

Despite being totally outnumbered, the three demigods held their ground longer than Nico expected. Nico and Percy fought off the army of ghosts while Rose was fighting her brother in a deadly sibling rivalry. Zack was delivering some of the most powerful attacks that Nico had ever seen and Rose could barely defend against the barrage of sword strikes. He pushed her farther and farther away from Nico and Percy until the two of them were completely alone while Percy and Nico were left to defend themselves.

Nico had been paying so much attention to Rose that he had been standing in the middle of the battle like an idiot. Percy blocked a strike before it could amputate Nico's left leg.

"What are you doing?!" Percy yelled as he blocked yet another strike.

Nico shook out of his daze. He let his ADHD take control of his body and he fought like a madman. He hacked away at the ghost army killing and wounding so many that the agonizing screams as the ghosts dissipated made him nearly go deaf. But more kept coming, as soon as one fell, two more took his place and Nico was getting tired. One ghost managed to slice open his right calf and let out a grunt of pain before killing the spirit.

With his body losing blood fast and his strong center of gravity gone Nico began to lose his momentum. The ghost army began to close in around Nico and Percy and they soon found themselves back to back.

A scream from Rose caused Nico to lose his focus for a split second and a spirit slammed the hilt of his sword into his bad shoulder. Pain surged through Nico's body and he fell to the ground in agony.

I lifted my face and saw Percy standing over me defending against the entire army by himself. He tried to push up off the ground but he almost passed out from the pain. Another scream of pain from Rose drew Nico's eyes toward her. She was on the ground with a deep gash in her arm, another deep cut in her thigh, and a thin line of blood running from the corner of her mouth.

Zack was grinning like the Cheshire cat. "You never were the best sword fighter were you?"

His grin disappeared as Rose slammed her fist in his nose causing blood to splatter all over her face. "Yeah but you never could take a punch." She said hoarsely as she noticed the angle of Zack's nose. Zack spat on the ground and pulled his foot back, slamming it as hard as he could into her side.

She crumpled into a ball and began coughing up blood. Nico's body surged with anger but another spirit kicked his bad shoulder and his vision became black at the edges.

Zack yanked Rose up from the ground by her hair and forced her to look directly at Nico. Percy fell to the ground unconscious after a Spirit bashed his head with hilt o his sword. He was hurt badly, cuts littered arms, his head was bleeding from where the spirit had bashed his skull, and a gash ran across his chest.

"I still can't believe that you three demigods actually came, even after Artemis told you my little secret."

Nico was pulled up from the ground by group of spirits sending another pulse of pain through his body.

"How did you know about that?" Rose growled at him.

Zack began laughing as if the answer was obvious. "I've been watching you three since you entered that pitiful little camp together. Who did you think sent the empousa after you and told the water nymphs to try and drown you that night?" He asked.

"That was you?!" Rose yelled.

"Of course little sis. I've always know where you were. I even sent Echidna after you all those years ago. That poor boy traveling with you never stood a chance."

Rose's eyes turned to venom. "You're the one who killed Cole." She growled.

"He wouldn't've lasted long anyways." Zack said waving away the comment as if it were no big deal. Rose slammed the back of her head into Zack's face causing him to lose his grip on her arms. She jumped up on top of him and began slamming her fist into his face. She got five or six good blows in before a group of spirits pried her off. She still continued to scream at him.

"You heartless monster! I'm going to kill you! You're going to rot in the pits of Tartarus for what you've done you spineless snake!" She clawed at the ghostly hands that held her back.

Zack wiped most of the blood off of his face but his nose was completely busted and he was coughing up even more of the crimson liquid.

"Take them away…I will deal with them later." He said as he began coughing again.

The ghosts followed their orders without question. They dragged the three of them away from Zack, who began cursing in Latin, walked in the opposite direction trying to keep the blood from running out of his nose.

Percy's head lulled to the side as the ghosts dragged them through a series of passageways that twisted and turned every which way.

Rose was completely silent as the dragged them. Tears were streaming down her face but her eyebrows were furrowed together and her mouth was pinched into a thin line.

After what seemed like forever the spirits brought them to a large holding cell. They threw the three demigods inside and slammed the door shut behind them.

Rose began slamming her fists on the door over and over again. She continued to do this for another five minutes while Nico tried to bandage the gash in his leg. He began tearing the long sleeves off of his shirt trying to create a makeshift bandage.

Rose slid to the ground and leaned her back against the door. "It's no use. I can't use any of my powers in here."

She sighed and looked at Nico and Percy. "I'm so sorry I dragged you into this."

Nico smiled. "Don't worry about it, I enjoy fighting for my life on a regular basis." He said in a teasing manner. Rose smiled at him tiredly.

"How's Percy doing?" she asked.

Percy groaned on the ground. "I'll be fine, I just need a little rest and I'll be good as new." He said as happily as he could.

Nico looked from Rose to gash across Percy's chest. "I think you're going to need more than rest to get you back on your feet."

"Here let me see if I can do anything." Rose said examining Percy's injuries. She pulled off her black sweatshirt to reveal her purple tank top and small figure. "You're going to half to keep pressure on the that cut." She said as she began to transform her sweatshirt into strips of cloth to tie around Percy's chest.

She worked with incredible speed and precision making the process as painless as possible for Percy. Once she was done she sighed. "It's not the most comfortable thing and I don't have anything for the pain but it should do the job until we get out of here."

"Where did you learn to do that?" Nico asked.

"Some of it my mom taught to me but most of it came from Cole."

She said as she kneeled beside Nico. "You said that Cole was a demigod right?" Rose nodded in reply. "Was he a son of Apollo?" Nico asked.

"Yeah; I only saw him once…" she didn't finish her sentence only hung her head. "Let me take a look at your shoulder Nico." She said.

Nico raised an eyebrow and curled his lips into a mischievous smile. "Are you asking me to undress?"

Percy laughed, "If you two are going to do something, at least let me pass out first."

Rose rolled her eyes but blushed slightly. "Yes I need you to take off your shirt." She said as seriously as she could.

Nico grinned at her and painfully took of his tattered T-shirt so she could assess the damage done to his shoulder. It was red and swollen but there were bruises starting to form along the outer edges.

"How bad is it?" he asked

She skimmed her fingers over the injury and as soon as their skin made contact Nico flinched from the pain.

"Bad. Your arm's out of its socket." She said as she removed her hand. "I'm going to have to push it back into place otherwise your shoulder blade won't heal correctly; but it's going to be painful."

Nico put the fabric of his shirt in between his teeth. "Go for it."

Rose let out a deep breath. "On three, one…" she pushed the bone back into place.

Nico let out a muffled scream but the pain was gone as soon as it came. "Trust me you'll thank me for this later." He said as she tied another piece of cloth into makeshift sling. Her fingers lingered on his good arm and he smiled.

"You do realize that it's the other arm that hurts right."

Nico could tell that she was blushing as she jerked her hand away. He turned around to face her. "Now it's your turn."

"Nico I'm fine; I just need to rest." Rose replied.

"Just sit down okay."

Rose reluctantly followed his instructions and sat down on the floor. He grabbed two more pieces of cloth from the ground. He tried as best he could to tie the cloth around her thigh but he kept fumbling with his hands.

Rose laughed a little. "Here how about you do the one on my arm and I'll do my leg, okay."

Nico nodded in agreement. He tried again to bandage her arm but Rose wound up having to redo it.

After a few minutes of total silence Nico yawned. "I think we should at least try and get some sleep."

Percy nodded. "Yeah; it's about the only thing we can do at this point other than wait for Zack to come and get us."

They grew silent as the severity of the situation finally began to sink in. There wasn't a good chance that all of them would make it out of here alive and even if someone did what sacrifices would the others have to make in order for that to happen?

With those thoughts on their minds the three of them drifted off into a fitful sleep filled with loss and excruciatingly painful images.

Yep that's almost it, the final chapter will be posted on Thursday (not sure what time though). Anyways I will be continuing this story line in the sequel which I will give the title for at the end of the last chapter; but don't expect the first chapter of the for a couple of weeks. I've decided to take a small break and focus on my school work and my sports for a while. Read and review please. :P