Narrator / January 10th

They had walked in with three, and came out with two. Chloe and Nico descended the steps of the pyramid miserably. They didn't know what country there were in, but they were in the middle of a forest deep into the night. It must've been close to the end of the day. Though there was a lot to talk about, they said nothing until they reached the bottom of the steps.

"Where in Hades are we?" Chloe asked

"No clue, but it shouldn't be long until I have enough energy to shadow-travel us to camp" Nico said

The two decided on making a campfire and sitting on a log across from each other while they waited. They stared deep into the burning fire and reflected what had happened. Nico stared at the soul stone in his hand, wondering if it could help them somehow.

"We have the stone. If he does die, can't we just use it?" Nico pointed out. "While we're at it, we can try and bring back Jason"

"I don't think so Nico" Chloe tapped her wristband and her Vibranium armor retreated into it. "Like Layton said, we don't know what were messing with"

"I guess you're right" Nico sighed

Silence returned, and though they were both exhausted, sleep seemed almost impossible right now. If a monster decided on attacking them right now, it was likely they would die.

"How are things with Will?" Chloe asked, attempting to make conversation

Nico blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "Good, but it's been about two days since I last talked to him. I've been caught up with this entire situation"

"You know, when Annabeth told me your story, I couldn't help but think it was kind of similar to mine" Chloe said

"Brother? Or a sister?" Nico replied

"First one. Unlike most demigods, I had a caring mortal parent. When I was about seven, something attacked us, and he died... me and my brother had nowhere to go, and when I was about ten, that same thing returned and took him too. It spared me both times, and I still don't know what it was to this day. I just can't help but wonder: why?" Chloe explained

"Yeah, I know that feeling. When my sister Bianca died, I wondered why I was still here. But I think I understand now..." Nico said. "How'd you meet Hera though?"

"I lived on my own for a couple of days, until I met this lady who treated me to a nice lunch and even gave me a new set of clothes and your basic living essentials. Then, she revealed herself and told me that she could give me a purpose. Of course I accepted, and that was how I met Ryan and Victor. We trained for about four years before we got our armor and set out to deal with monsters.

I always thought it was strange that the monsters we killed, no one else knew about. Now I know they're from The Hidden Archives"

Nico gazed around the vicinity, as if to check nothing was about to get the jump on them. "Did you know that Layton was Samael?"

"Hold on, you know?" Chloe responded

"I was surprised when I saw him earlier because I thought he had died again. Being a son of Hades, I was able to contact him, and he explained everything to me. He wasn't able to say much - his time was always limited with the Shadow-Dragons keeping watch over him" Nico said

"When'd you find out?"

"It was after our trap failed. I didn't say anything because I knew it would only make things worse"

Before Chloe could reply, the soul stone became to glow brightly and jitter around in Nico's hands. Something in the distance growled, and the two demigods got up and readied their weapons.

Elsewhere

"I wish I had any idea what was going on" Percy said

"New York seems to be the only place in the world not being affected by the disasters. Maybe whatever is causing them lives here" Annabeth replied

The two were currently in Central Park, though the odd part was that there was no one around. Currently, they were sitting on a bench, each enjoying a snow cone they had bought earlier.

"Has Syn been talking to you?" Percy asked

"Not recently. Not ever since..." Annabeth's eyes widened a bit. "You think the Shadow-Dragons are behind this?"

"That's probably our best bet" Percy muttered. "Come on, let's go"

The couple threw away their empty cones and walked hand-in-hand through the park. Once they walked past the closet lake, fast approaching footsteps came from behind them. Before they could turn around, they froze in their tracks and stiffened at a familiar voice.

"Annabeth! Percy!"

It took a few moments for them to process if it was real or not as they turned around and were met with a Luke Castellan, in the flesh. He panted, catching his breath and holding onto Backbiter.

"Glad I found you guys" He said

"L-Luke?" Annabeth stammered

"I can explain everything later. There's this wacko chasing me" He replied

Percy focused into the distance behind Luke, and the first visible thing was that silver dual-sided blade. Instantly, he uncapped Riptide and Annabeth unsheathed her dagger. Luke stood next to them and readied Backbiter.

"So much for hoping he was on our side" Annabeth said

"He's been chasing me ever since I woke up" Luke informed. "I don't know why he's after me, but he's persistent"

"Yeah, we know" Percy nodded. He wasn't sure how to feel about Luke being alive again. Sure, they had been friends in his final moments, but with Annabeth and all...

Layton stood about fifteen feet away from the trio, his dual-sided blade limp at his side. He was lucky to be wearing his silver armor at the moment, or else he would have been recognized. This had to have been the perfect example of dramatic irony.

Each one of them is more skilled than I am, and now I have to face all three at the same time Layton thought as he stared the trio down.

"Still haven't given up on killing us?" Percy finally spoke

"Still haven't unwhipped yourself?" Layton replied, his helmet masking his voice to make it sound deep and sinister

Percy scowled. "Thats low dude"

"Move out of my way" Layton said, though the confidence was fake

"Not a chance" Annabeth replied

"Fine, have it your way, but don't say I didn't warn you" Layton pointed his free right-hand at Annabeth who was in the middle of the trio. Gods this is just my luck...

Neither parties knew which attacked first. Percy was on his left, Luke on his right, and Annabeth towards the middle, though Layton's dual-sided blade was long enough to block the incoming slashes. If there was one thing that he was better than the three of them at, it was hand-to-hand combat, and he planned to use that to his advantage.

"I'm starting to like these odds" Layton chuckled, the confidence still as fake as ever

Layton ducked out of the way of Backbiter and spun towards his right, extending out his leg to trip Annabeth and make her fall to her back. He switched his sword to his right hand and hit Luke square in the face, making him stumble back. He jolted around and blocked Riptide before placing his dominant hand back onto his hilt and pushing him back.

Annabeth recovered and slashed at his side but Layton caught her wrist and twisted it so that she dropped her dagger. Luke attempted an attack from behind but he sensed it coming and slashed. Clang. His dual-sided sword went flying through the air and landed a few feet away, stabbing into the ground.

Luke slashed Backbiter downwards but Layton grabbed ahold of the blade and resisted the force. He kicked the son of Hermes back and held Backbiter upside down. Sensing another attack from behind, he turned on his heel and hit Percy in the face with Backbiter's hilt.

Sorry Percy Layton thought as he dropped Backbiter. "This isn't your business. Leave the son of Hermes to me"

Instead of listening, Percy summoned up a huge wave from the lake that came crashing down on Layton, slamming him against his tree. He would be lying if he said that it didn't hurt as he struggled back to his feet.

The trio of demigods recovered their weapons and stood together, awaiting his next move. He extended out his hand and his dual-sided blade returned to him. Not wasting another second, he lunged at Luke and tried to disarm him, but his strike was parried. Percy and Annabeth's blades both came in contact with his back and he staggered as a shower of sparks flew off his armor.

Before long, the trio were pushing Layton back, and he was struggling to keep up with all three of them at once. Desperately, a thousand ideas raced his mind, but he didn't seem to be able to find one that would best help his situation. As he was distracted thinking, Percy swung riptide upwards and disarmed him of his sword. Luke slashed Backbiter against his chest and he stumbled back until his back was flush against a tree.

"You're not as good as you use to be" Percy said

Against his will, Layton got annoyed at his comment. He was only pretending to still be evil, just so that he could take out Luke, who was also pretending to be on the other side, away from Percy Annabeth.

"Nothing to say?" Annabeth said

"You have no idea what's going on" Layton replied

Regardless, Luke slashed his sword with all of his strength against Layton's armor which released another shower of sparks. He summoned his sword and tried to retaliate, but he was quickly receiving slash after slash. By now, his armor must have begging to show signs of damage from the combined might of the three demigods.

His armor flickered in between silver and black, which confused Percy and Annabeth. An aura of fire surrounded Layton and the sun faded into the clouds. The bright sky suddenly turned black and the moon came out, granting a faint illumination onto the battlefield. Suddenly, the aura exploded out of control and the demigods shielded themselves with their free hand from the strong winds.

"It's powerful, isn't is Perseus?" Syn whispered into his ear. "If you took my offer, you could produce so much more than this"

Nearby trees caught fire and instantly burnt to a crisp, leaving nothing more than a pile of ashes. The lakes around them quickly evaporated into smoke that was carried away by the wind, and cracks were beginning to shattered the ground beneath them.

"What in Hades is going on?" Luke asked, shouting over the winds

"Not sure!" Percy shouted back

The winds stopped blowing against them and Layton's armor was now pure black, with a dark red glow around it. Even his sword had the red outline, and inside his visor was fire.

"The real fight begins now" Layton said, making a fist with his free right-hand. Once again, he was stuck watching from inside his body as something else fought for and against him.

Any passing civilian must have been confused as to what was going on. Even the mist couldn't shield there eyes from what had just happened. In seconds, Central Park was nothing more than a flat chunk of land, and it looked like time had skipped twelve hours and gone straight for night.

Now, the trio of demigods were having a hard time keeping up. Layton was instantaneously adapting to their swordplay and parrying strikes without having to move much. Annabeth especially was having trouble doing anything, with her dagger being to small to get close enough to do anything. Even Luke's four foot Backbiter and Percy's three foot Riptide couldn't defend against his five foot dual-sided blade that had no trouble moving around, even with its weight.

Layton flicked his wrist and sent Annabeth's dagger flying to her side. Luke went to protect her, but was kicked back. Percy thrusted Riptide from behind Layton, but he missed as Layton sidestepped and turned around.

"Game over"

By now, Layton's consciousness was gone - just like when he used to assassinate people. He watched from inside his body as he picked Percy up using his free hand by the mouth. Without a second thought, he stabbed his dual-sided blade through his stomach and let it stay there for a couple of seconds before pulling it out and dropping him.

Annabeth dropped her dagger and a sickness, greater than she had ever felt, washed over her. Her head spun and her stomach did summersaults at the sight in front of her. On the other hand, Luke watched nonchalantly.

"If only you two had taken my offer" Syn whispered into Annabeth's ear

The daughter of Athena remained sitting on the ground, too shocked to move a single muscle. One moment, she had been having a nice and relaxing day with Percy, and the next, Luke was alive, they were being attacked, and Percy was bleeding out in front of her. In fact, he was probably already dead due to the size of the cut in his stomach, and the amount of blood.

"No fight left? I told you, Annabeth. Didn't I warn you that if you didn't kill me, this would happen?" 'Layton' said. "Now allow me to do you a favor - helping you join him in the dead"

She regained enough composure to try her best and block any incoming slashes. She glanced over, hoping Luke would at least help her, but he just stood there with no emotion in his eyes.

So this is how it ends She thought.

And she knew it as her dagger once again went flying away. Layton thrust his sword forward, and everything went black.