Hi. Again. This really will probably be the last chapter for a while. Sorry.

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Oh, wait. Nobody's reviewed for a month.

(way to be passive aggressive there)

StormSunfire and AHermioneH

Nico POV

Damn. Damn. Damn.

Frick.

I started to hyperventilate.

I could not deal with this, not after the summer. The shadows were closing in on me.

I swallowed and did what I did best. I let them engulf me.

I found myself in the cafeteria of a high school. Standing on a table. In front of Annabeth.

With my foot in her pudding.

Damn.

I smiled at her. "Hi?"

She practically growled at me. "What the Hades are you doing here?"

Annabeth grabbed my neck and wrenched me off the table with a crash. "You can't just appear out of flippin' shadows in the middle of the school cafeteria! People will have questions!"

"Gees, Annabeth, tad violent." I lowered my voice. "No one should be bothered, they're all too busy eating." I pulled myself onto the bench, squeezing into the gap between Percy and her. "Anyway, I have news from Camp. There's large shadows that are kinda consuming Camp."

Percy leaned forward. "Consuming? As in eating?"

I nodded. "Yeah, half the stables are gone. That's kinda why I rushed here."

An alarmed expression briefly flashed across Percy's face. "What about everyone at Camp? Are they OK?"

I grimaced. "Cecil's lost half a leg. Laurel is unconcious in the infirmary but not dead yet. We think the old mummy might have been eaten." I stood up and brushed the crumbs that I'd fallen into off of my trousers. "Anyway, we need to get to Camp. I'll take three, Hazel can take three. Percy, can Mrs O'Leary take two of you?"

Percy nodded. "She can probably take three or four. When do we leave?"

"Now."

o0O0o

Honestly, this school was a maze of corridors. I swear that neither Percy or Annabeth had a clue where they were going.

I could've sworn that we saw the same goddamn potted plant about nine times. Who designed the damn place?

If I saw that same potted plant again, I was going to smash it, even if only to give us a way of finding our way around.

Eventually, we found where I presumed we were supposed to be going. The room we arrived at was bland from the outside, but splayed with colour on the inside. The four beds all had varying bed spreads, one of which was Hazel's (purple with gold spots).

It was fairly obvious which bed was Annabeth's.

The piles of books and random blueprints probably did it.

There was a bed with varying photos of Piper, Jason and the rest of us pinned up, amongst others (but mainly Piper and Jason), that presumably belonged to… yes, Piper.

There was a bed at the end with an orange duvet and various personal items that I assumed belonged to Ellie. I didn't see the relevance.

"Annabeth?"

"Yes?"

"Please hurry up."

"Well, we can do it from here. We just needed to get out of the way of all of the mortals," Annabeth said, turning on the spot to grab a small rucksack from under her bed and a long, thin package, which she pulled the tissue paper off of to reveal her trusty drakon-bone sword.

"No time for armour," I snapped.

Annabeth snagged her cap from where it was hanging on her lamp and stuffed it into her bag. "Ready."

"Excellent, who am I taking?"

Annabeth bit her lip.

"Fine!" I said. "I'm taking Will, and I guess I'll take Ellie and Flic? Hazel, can you manage three?"

Hazel glanced down nervously. "I-I- think so."

I sighed. "I'll take another then. Leo? You're small."

Leo yelped indignantly, but I ignored him. "Right, so, Hazel. You can take Frank and Piper?"

Hazel nodded. "OK."

"So, Percy, that leaves you with Annabeth, Danny and Peter. Can Mrs O'Leary manage all four of you?"

Percy nodded. "I think so. Is there enough space in here?"

I shrugged. "Go on."

Percy let out a classic New York taxi whistle and stepped back, pulling Flic and Ellie backwards too to avoid being flattened/suffocated by the enormous hellhound that was sure to appear. "Do you know what? Go on ahead of us. We'll catch up soon."

I needed no further warning.

I grabbed Flic and Ellie's joined hands before grabbing Will's with my other hand. Leo grabbed Will's hand.

I nodded briefly, before fading back into the shadows.

You can really tell that we had writer's block. Wow. Especially that first section. I think we took our break of about three months halfway through this chapter and came back again to invent some random new problem for the poor demigods to face.

This is pretty much certain to be the last updater you get until September, and even then the updates will probably start slower, due to a larger pile of homework appearing from all of our lovely new teachers.

So, we're not that sorry about that lovely little cliffie that you'll have to wait months to see the next part of…

Sorry about the delay thing. This story will NOT be abandoned, though. (And we might somehow appear on the computer at the same time during the summer, so you might get a couple of totally random updates.)

StormSunfire and AHermioneH