AN: I wrote half this whilst listening to epic quest music "Heart of Courage" so... fight scene! Nothing much to say, other than I do not own the awfulness that Nicole is reading. That GLADLY can belong to Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight". Ps, let's see how many people unfollow! I bet a lot.

"He leaned in slowly," she continued to read, "the beeping noise accelerated wildly before his lips even touched me. But when they did, though with the most gentle of pressure, the beeping stopped altogether." She stopped, looked up at the audience of the dammed, and reread it to herself. "Wait, what? Hang on, she died, died, because he kissed her? How the fuck does that even work?! Did he drink poison or something? If you're going to write a book this awful, at least make it believable. And really, dad? This is suitable punishment?! This is just cruel!" She sighed and got on with reading. She'd nearly gone through the whole bloody book.

She doubted anyone would so much as shrug when she didn't come back for about a week. This time it was kind of her fault, shouting at the god of the Underworld and all, but did he really need to make her read this rubbish? At least she could play the dyslexia card and read very slowly, there were three more books she didn't want to get onto.

It was almost true bliss when she got the Iris message. Rachel Dare stood on the other side, surprisingly, not looking at all shocked about the Underworld. "I need to see you," she suddenly said.

"Is it urgent?" Nicole asked hopefully.

"Yes," Rachel nodded. She looked worried, and expression Nicole didn't see very often. "Please come quickly."

Nicole rejoiced. After all, if it was the fight against Gaia even her father was reasonable enough to let her go. She shadow travelled straight to the oracle's cave, which she'd briefly recognised in the image. "Are you okay, Rachel?" She masked the joy in her voice with concern.

"Other than the fact that I went to sleep at my school and woke up here, I'm just peachy."

Nicole looked around. The walls looked as if they'd been painted, and then covered in black. "Perhaps the spirit of the oracle is more powerful than you thought. Like, it's drawing you back here."

"Do do what? Paint doomsday?"

She ran her finger along one of the blacked out areas. The paint was fresh. "You covered them? Pictures?"

"I had to," Rachel said. "I know it's my job to freak people out, but I don't want anyone else to see. If they did, you'd be chased away with pitchforks."

"What were they of?" She could barely ask it. There were areas that Rachel must have missed in her desperation. Nothing large, just dribbles of red and green and orange.

"Dead bodies," she admitted. "All mutilated in different ways. Each about a finger length tall."

"All around the cave?" That must have been hundreds, maybe thousands.

"Pretty much, apart from some areas."

"So why are you telling me?"

She swallowed. "There was one alive figure, more prominent than the rest. I'm pretty sure it was you. It looked like it, at least. You were dressed like a queen, and it looked like you were laughing at the dead."

"And this is going to happen...?"

"It gets worse," she interrupted. "You were holding a scythe."

She took a step back, leaning against the wall for support. "Are you sure-"

"I know," she said suddenly. Then, she reached out and exposed Nicole's shoulder. "The figure had the same marking."

Nicole shrugged her hand off, wishing the wall could go further back. "Look, I'm not going to kill everyone. Certainly not with a scythe-"

"Turn around."

She didn't want to, but curiosity got the better of her. How had she not noticed it? It was a large, creepily accurate, painting of herself. But her mouth was twisted into an inhumane smirk, and her eyes were black voids. She realised then what it depicted. It was the same image she'd seen in Katropis, Piper's knife, that time she'd been stupid enough to look in it almost a year ago.

"I don't understand-"

"Neither do I, but if you got possessed or something... Just try to stay out of danger."

It was then that Nicole felt the earth move violently beneath her feet. "Yeah, that's never going to happen."

~0o0~

She couldn't figure out how she knew, but every inch of her being told her that she needed to go to Half Blood Hill. So she ran, sword at the ready, towards where the ground told her. Every foot step the adrenaline built more and more. Somehow it was as if she was racing toward Gaia herself.

Instead, she saw a group of campers standing in a circle like fashion. It was like they were marking out a massive ring. But the strangest part? It was just outside camp border. Weirder yet, the Athena statue was gone. Somebody grabbed her by the shoulders, stopping her from entering.

"It's too dangerous," Travis Stoll said. "Chiron's coming."

"Don't tell me there's risk involved if you want me to stay away." She shrugged him off and sprinted into the ring. Immediately, the demigods on the outside had disappeared. There were new sounds, new feelings. Just a step away from where the group had been, there was a lining of salt. It had been invisible from the outside.

She heard a roar of laughter and the sound of metal against flesh. "Your mother could barely beat me, daughter of Athena. Where is she now?"

Nicole saw it then. Annabeth and a gigante engaged in battle. She wanted to know how he'd gotten all the way to Camp Half Blood and set up a trap, but there wasn't time. There was a definite lack of godliness, either. She was almost sad she didn't host Tartarus (a part of him, anyway) anymore, because that would certainly be useful. The Athena Parthenos stood in the circle as well. Whichever giant it was, he was probably trying to steal it. Giants' bane stands tall and pale.

It seemed a great possibility that Annabeth wouldn't be able to kill him, whether she helped or not. The ugly giant was still laughing at her blows. And yes, ugly was a great word. From the waist up he appeared almost normal, wearing fancy armour and all. Though, his face was repulsive. His hair was in dreadlocks, with bones tangled up in it. And she could tell, they were real. Instead of legs, however, he bore the usual trait of serpents.

She tried taking a step back out of the way of the salt, to raise the alarm of what was going on. However, it was like a force field. Gods, it was a clever trap. You wouldn't even know you were walking into it. That must be what happened to Annabeth, when she couldn't see the statue. She figured the gigante was Enceladus, the clever and bane of Athena.

If they couldn't kill him... "Annabeth!" Nicole shouted, and then put all her energy into the ground below. She estimated his size, and had one thought. Down. Everything spun like crazy, but she kept holding on. Sweat began to form and roll down her face. Her balance was thrown off. At one point, she stabbed the free area of earth with her sword, just so she could stay upright. But then her control ran out. She literally couldn't push further down. She was almost surprised she'd actually done it.

It was all she could do to stay standing long enough to shout again. "Portal to Tartarus!" She fell down after Annabeth briefly met her eyes. An understanding. Her legs gave way but she remained conscious enough to watch the fighting. Enceladus was clever, definitely. He wouldn't fall straight into it. From what Nicole could tell, Annabeth was taunting him. And it was working. Sometimes, she didn't give her enough personal credit.

Despite her best efforts, Annabeth wasn't getting him close enough to fall. Not unless she went with him. Then the ridiculous happened. The statue began to shake. In a not quite human way Athena began to walk. If Nicole had enough energy, she would have laughed. All it took was one kick from the side and the giant was pulled into the abyss. Without a word, giant Athena returned to where she's been standing before, completely motionless.

With a last thought of preventing danger, Nicole's fingertips touched the earth. She somehow pulled herself to the never ending tunnel to hell. With one hand she clawed the ground beside her hip, desperately trying to not be sucked in. The other she touched the air, commanding new ground to form there. It slid over the ring in the ground, covering the passage way like it was never there. That, then, was enough to make her see darkness.

~0o0~

She was sick of the damn infirmary. It seemed like she was waking up there all the time. It was empty, apart from a wounded Annabeth beside her. Enceladus had gotten some good hits in. It was a wonder that Annabeth had been on her feet still when Nicole had run in.

How had she felt the disturbance? That was one of her biggest questions, surprisingly. Every fibre in her being had screamed at her to go there. Like, the ground was tainted. Her head was groggy and the past events were confusing, but she stood. She probably wasn't in the best condition to use any power, but forced the medicine cabinet open.

She drank so much Nectar she was sweating all over again, but she could deal with that. She doubted anyone actually knew what had happened, and there was undoubtedly a meeting going on at that moment. The main section of the Big House it was, then.

As she predicted, there was a discussion going on. Not only between all the Greek cabins, but also with the Romans in the form of an IM. Iris must be feeling generous. "Did I miss anything?"

"di Angelo," Clarisse said, slightly annoyed. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"Rules state that the counsellor of each cabin should attend any council, unless impossible. I'm fit enough to get here, so I'm staying. That, and considering Annabeth's still out cold I'm the only one who knows what actually happened. Speaking of cabins, where's Percy?"

Malcolm from the Athena cabin, most likely Annabeth's stand in, said, "we looked..."

"It doesn't matter," Clarisse muttered (well, a Clarisse level mutter that is, it was more like normal speech). "We can tell him later."

"Are you done, Greeks?" Reyna's voice came from the rainbow that Butch had probably created. "What did you see, Nicole?"

"Right." She straightened. Gods, she was good at this with the dead... but the living? "Enceladus, the giant made to oppose Athena, was the one who attacked. At least, that's my assumption considering he would have the most motive to attempt to steal the Athena Parthenos. Again, that's a speculation based on the prophecy: giants' bane stands tall and pale. But his description matches the one Jason, Leo and Piper gave us when they defeated him initially, before the Doors of Death were opened for the giants to get back through.

"His plan was for someone to notice the statue was missing and investigate the sight closer. His idea, I guess, was to trap any demigods that came close so nobody would notice the missing statue. Unfortunately for him, Annabeth was the one who saw it first and managed to fend him off. However, the area was invisible, cut off from the rest of the world. When I ran in, the ring was marked with salt, which was invisible from the outside. Some kind of magic, maybe?"

"Salt is a popular barrier method," Lou Ellen from the Hecate cabin answered. "But to cut you off in the way you describe would be some kind of ancient force. If we were to research it, then maybe we could find out what it was."

"Good," Nicole said. "At least that's a start." She went on to describe how she made the hole to Tartarus, and Athena coming in to help. "-And then I closed the gateway, so nobody would be sucked in by accident. So anyway, after months of nothing Gaia's finally making her final push."

It took a moment for that to sink in. Finally, it was Jason that stood. "I think you should be on alert at Camp Jupiter. Just because you don't have the Athena Parthenos doesn't mean they won't attack you. We have no idea where their base is, either of us, so I suggest we should both send out search parties-"

"Actually," Nicole interrupted. "I do." All eyes turned on her. "I went to their base once. They'd somehow hollowed a section on Mount Olympus, the original one. Of course, by the time I went there was only one left, and I killed him after the Doors of Death shut. I don't think it will still be their base, though, considering we were attacked here. Gaia has her, I guess you'd call it jump leads? She doesn't need to power of the ancients anymore. It makes logical sense that she'd move the battle sight here. But the giants still need to get around. After all, what would be the point in attacking one camp when the other would receive the distress call? With that in mind, there's one option to where they could be-"

"the labyrinth," Malcolm realised. "It's the only way they'd get around quickly, where distance is meaningless."

"Exactly," Nicole said, kind of proud she'd figured it out. "Pasiphae recreated it to her own liking. She was working for Gaia, so most likely it's a direct tunnel between the two and Greece, probably with a headquarters in the middle."

"And I thought we were done with bloody labyrinths," somebody said.

"So we send teams into the labyrinth?" Reyna asked.

"No," Clarisse said quickly. "Can't believe I'm going to say this, but much too dangerous."

"I agree," Nicole said. "Out of everyone here only Clarisse and I have ever been inside, and if Pasiphae recreated the tunnels they're probably much, much worse than before."

"So we do nothing?" Will Solace asked.

"For the time being, yes." She took a deep breath. "If they need the Athena Parthenos for something, then let them get it. Leave it out in the open, make yourself undetectable. If a giant comes for it, you ambush. Even if the gods don't feel like helping you can still drive it away. And Romans: anything could happen. The best all of us can do is stay alert."

The council went on after that, discussing strategies and whatever else. Nicole was surprised at her own public speaking. At least now they had a good idea. What she didn't mention, though, was her plan to explore the tunnels herself. If Gaia was truly down there... she shuddered. Nothing could stand in her way. If she had the chance, she'd tear her limb by limb.

She stayed behind after the talking finished. Just to breathe for a few minutes. All through her she could tell that something bad was going to happen. Very bad. Jason, too, had stayed. "You should do that more often, you know."

"Do what?"

"Leadership. Intelligence. You know, general brilliance."

"Don't flatter me, Gracie."

He rolled his eyes in a non serious Roman way. "Won't that be the day."

"Right," she smirked, "so about my brilliance?"

"Conditional, apparently," he said.

She shrugged. "The world seems to implode when you give a child of Hades power. Don't say you weren't warned."

"Noted." They walked round The Big House. "I know you're planning something Nicole."

"What?" The pitch of her voice raised considerably. "That's ridiculous! Where did you get that idea?" She laughed nervously. Then she stopped, outside the infirmary windows. Well that explained where Percy had been for the past hour, after she burst into the council. Sitting with freaking Annabeth Chase.

She was sat up in her bed, and both were laughing at something. Nicole felt her chest burn with something. Gods, she couldn't be jealous. They're just friends, she told herself. If the situation was reversed, he'd do the same for you.

But then Annabeth leaned. And then Percy did too. And then... Gods, everything started to hurt.

"I'll punch him," Jason said after ten unbearable seconds.

"If anyone's going to make his face unrecognisable, it's me," Nicole managed. But instead, she turned and began to walk the other way.

"You can't be okay with this?"

"Did I say I was?" She faced him briefly. "But I deserve it. Everything the fates chuck at me, I can guarantee is karma." And she did deserve it, no matter what he was going to say. She'd been the world's shittiest girlfriend for the last few months, knife attacks ignored.

"How can you say that?"

She took a deep breath, trying not to make the ground explode. "There may have been something I didn't tell you, about the other world-" a droplet of rain landed on her hand. "Great," she muttered.

"How is it raining?" He looked up. "The barrier-"

She began to shake all over as it fell. She could barely stand it without remembering. She tried closing her eyes, counting to five, everything. "I'm doing it," she somehow got out.

"What didn't you tell me?"

She was angry, inconsolable. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him in-between two cabins. She didn't even bother to look which, only that no-one could see them. In a fit of bad judgement, she lifted the bottom of her shirt, revealing most of her stomach. Most of the scars she had were on her arms, save for the now faint line across her neck. In fact, her skin was so pale you could barely see any of them.

This one, deep across her abdomen, was impossible to miss. She had, of course, nearly bled to death from the wound. For a moment the anger faded, and she felt nothing but exposed. His eyes traced the length of the scar multiple times.

"I never explained why I went back to Camp Half Blood," she said finally, "here's why. I nearly died."

"Who-"

"Who do you think?" She pulled the garment back down harshly. "There's more." She traced the rough positions, concealed by her jeans. "It was like drowning," the words fell out of her mouth, but she didn't say anything else. That was shown in her face. "I didn't know what to do. I panicked."

He swallowed. "Did he-"

"No," she took a deep breath. "He tried, but-"

Before she could say anything else, he had enough nerve to hug her. Immediately she wanted to push him off, but since he was holding her up... She didn't know why, but for some crazy reason she found herself hugging him back. Briefly. Before she realised what exactly they were doing. Then she let go. There was a select few people who Nicole allowed to touch her, and Jason didn't quite qualify for the list.

"I'm going to go," she managed.

"Don't do anything stupid," he warned, but she was already gone.

She was so not in the right frame of mind to make decisions. But the anger overruled any sense she had. She could kid herself it wasn't jealousy, but truly she could feel it run through her bones. Envy was a dangerous emotion, everyone knew that. It leads to stupid, reckless ideas that mostly constituted of 'an eye for an eye'.

Reckless mistake number one was stepping into the shadows. Reckless mistake number two was ending up in Bunker Nine (no fault of her own). Reckless mistake number three was, well...

She grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, pinning him hard against the wall and kissing his hard. Really, her lips were probably bruised by the time they broke apart. He didn't stop her, though. That was a good sign. Though doing nothing may have been worse.

"I'm sorry about storming out the other day," she said eventually. "I just freaked out a little."

"A little?" Leo woke up out of his daze.

"A lot," she said. "And that's the best apology you're gonna get."

"And kissing me... Are you okay? I mean, about what you saw?"

She smiled weakly. "How are you not terrified by me, Leo? Me telling you is one thing, seeing it is another. I didn't even blink! He just dropped! And I know it's not a fluke, I've done it again. And gods, what's worse is that it was perhaps the most powerful I've ever felt! And it was good, so intoxicatingly good to just end his life like that."

He swallowed. "Can you still do it?"

"No," she shook her head. "I tried when I got back." He flashed her a look. "On a plant, okay, not a human."

"Why won't you tell anyone where you went?"

"Because you don't want to know! Honestly, if I were to show you... Look, I've seen you when you're angry. That's enough reason to keep my mouth shut."

"Why would I be angry?"

"Doesn't matter," she said. Gods, she should just turn away. Leave before she did something incredibly irreversible and stupid. But she couldn't. There was something more. Like an excuse she was looking for.

"If you were being hypocritical or whatever, I guess I should say sorry too."

"Huh? What for?"

"I got shipped off to delinquent school remember? Because I was 'a bad kid'," he quoted with his fingers, "who ran away six times."

"Of course," she remembered, "that's how I first met you. You know, I told you to come here. "

"East," he said, "that's what you told me."

"You remember?"

"No," he admitted, "but the thought popped into my brilliant head."

She rolled her eyes. "I saved your life that day. Don't you dare forget it."

"You wouldn't let me." Long pause. "Have you ever thought about really running away? Like, just leaving for the hell of it?"

"All the time. Going nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I kinda used my get away allowance already though."

"I would just go if not for my stellar conscience."

"Good thing mine's not so amazing," she murmured.

"Huh?" But then she was kissing him again. She was going to regret this colossally, she knew, but that feeling wasn't enough. It just felt so much better than before. More satisfying, less angry. And it wasn't like she hadn't kissed him before, far from it, but it felt like their first. All anxious and messy but just so damn perfect. But she was also scared. Partly because she couldn't stop, but mostly because she didn't want to. For a different reason than why she'd come, she realised.

Yep. She was most definitely going to hell. That is, of course, if she managed to survive this. Somehow, the harsh floor of Bunker Nine became like silk beneath her mostly preoccupied finger tips. It was almost as if they were both drunk. On what, though? Fear? Lust? Something else? And then he stopped kissing her. Every muscle told her to pull him back, but she couldn't . And so they locked eyes. For a moment, she did remember this was an angry mistake. But that was a memory. Now she had a whole other motivation. Need. Perhaps he was thinking the same thing, as he looked at her way too intensely.

She was petrified about two things. One, how this was no longer about Percy. Two, the most terrifying realisation, was that she had the biggest problem to exist ever. She was in love with Leo Valdez, despite everything. And when he kissed her this time, neither of them could or wanted to stop.

~
'No, it's too much
Burn my soul
Up in flames we go you fire breather
Ash and dust on my door
Smoke rise
Trying to survive inside your arms'
- "Fire Breather" by Laurel