I'm finally back, so hope for weekly uploads. I've finally found a good plotline to follow and want to try it out. I thank you if you've come this far because I'm starting to hate my first chapters on the "Infirmary" part, since it's so annoyingly common. The thing I've realized is that Rick's taken literally all the antagonists possible (excluding Chaos, but that's also annoyingly common), so I might have to recycle one, and I'll try to make it unique. Thanks for reading. Enjoy.

Chapter 21:

"What the hell," I curse. I turn to Will's wide eyes. "Can you not make that much noise?"

Will takes another step and the dry leaves crinkle under his shoe. "Sorry," he whispers. I stifle a laugh whenever I look at him, his blonde hair dyed brown. His blue eyes twinkle, even with his mess dark hair. We had to dye his hair dark for this stealth mission; his blonde hair would stand out like a beacon.

I can feel the hoards of monsters just across the hill, which is still almost a mile away. Their presence is almost painful, it's so powerful. "This isn't good," I say as I lower myself to the ground, queasy.

Will Will moves his bow to cast some light on my face. "Nico? Are you okay?" His voice confirms that I look as bad as I feel. He kneels and plants a kiss on my cheek. "What's wrong? Are there too many?"

I take a few breaths, the cool night air calms me down. "No, I'm okay. There's just so many of them. Let's get out of here as soon as we can."

He nods and helps me up. We stand next to each other for a second, looking into each other's eyes. I lean up into his lips and we kiss, calming my nerves. "Let's do this."

I lead the way to the hilltop, following the trail. We pass a sign saying, "Up ahead: Great View of Washington DC." I divert from that path, wanting to look at the other side of the hill, where all the monsters lay.

The stench hits me before I actually see the camp. A huge cloud of sweat, death and monsters hang in the air. Will smells it too because he starts coughing, gagging on the smell.

But once I actually see the camp, it's worse than the smell. Much worse. Rows and rows of tents stretch for what seems like miles. Thousands of torches flicker like candles on a cake. From here, everything's the size of an ant, besides three huge tents in the middle.

The next thing that hits me is how organized they are. "Holy Hera, they're more organized than the Romans," Will apparently notices the same thing. "That's a lot of monsters."

"Yeah, I can tell," I respond and keep my sword up, just in case we're ambushed. Will rustles in his backpack for something and pulls out a pair of Ray Bans. "Dude, it's the middle of the night, that won't do anything."

"One of the Hephaestus campers gave it to me; it lets you see in the dark and zoom and stuff," he explains. He puts them on and starts playing with the dials on the side. I hear him gasp lightly a few times while I scour the hilltop for any signs of movement. It seems weird that such an organized army doesn't have guards. Then I reassure myself with the fact that they're monsters and can't really be organized.

Which takes me to the point that it's impossible for monsters to actually group up and be this organized.

"I took some photos to show Chiron. We need to get back as soon as we can, but you take a look first," Will hands me the sunglasses and I pot them on.

Instantly, the glasses adjust themselves to my eyes and instead of darkening the night, they illuminate it like it's daytime. I turn the dials on the glasses to zoom into the three main tents, hoping to see who's leading this army. If only we could figure out who's leading this army, then we would know what they're next plan is.

"We need to notify the Romans as soon as possible. They could easily run us over, and then they'll be next," I take off the sunglasses, returning to the dark night. "Can I Shadow Travel us back to camp?"

I brace myself for Will's ferocious no, but it never comes. "Yeah, this is very important. Every day counts," he takes my hand and leads me down the hill. "I'd say no, but Hades said he mended your soul, and I can feel it's whole again."

I think back to when my father laid his hands on my shoulders and fixed me up. It felt like a weight was lifted from me, and I could finally breathe properly.

I nod and we slip into darkness, hand in hand.