I sung of chaos and Eternal Night, taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down the dark descent, and up to reascend.

A/N: Sorry for the delay. Know it's been a few months. Life just has a habit of getting in the way. I'm still here. I'm still writing. I cannot promise weekly updates. Though, I will promise that this story will be finished.

Unable to follow the son of Hephaestus, Nico watched with growing dismay as Leo left the children and darted around the paramedics, plunging into the flame-riddled building of Dayspring. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree, feeling the air rattle through his chest as he drew breath. Nico forced his eyes open at the sound of approaching footsteps, watching with vision beginning to blur as Brittany and Sonny made their way toward him.

The pair of children halted in front of Nico, eyeing him quizzically. Finally, Sonny licked his lips and asked, "What happened to you? You look like crap."

Nico shrugged half-heartedly.

"Long day," he said. Even to him, his voice sounded dry and scratchy. "Where's everyone else?"

Brittany said nothing but continued to stare at the son of Hades. He wasn't sure if she had even heard the question.

"Dunno," Sonny answered while wiping a hand underneath his nose. His red-rimmed eyes flicked to the building and back. "Leo said he'd find them."

Nico nodded again. "Are you both...are you okay?"

Neither kid answered, and the demigod sighed. "Dumb question."

He took a deep breath and moved to his knees from his seated position. Pausing, Nico tried to quell the wave of nausea and exhaustion threatening to pull him under. He jerked as a gentle hand worked its way under his arm.

When he opened his eyes, Brittany crouched by him. Her free arm steadied him from falling sideways. Her eyes raked over his face and she said to Sonny, "Help me get him on his feet."

Supported by the two children, Nico stood upright, swaying dangerously. Once the world stopped spinning, he made to step forward. The children moved with him.

"Where do you need to go?" Nico glanced sharply at Brittany as the question fell into the air flatly. Her face was a stony mask.

"Over there," Nico croaked and jerked his chin toward Dayspring. "What– what happened?"

Brittany said simply, "We were attacked."

"The wind," Sonny started. His throat seemed to close, and he coughed before starting again. "There were faces in the wind."

A cry went up from the front of the holding line. Nico whipped his head around quickly, groaning as his knees threatened to buckle. The scene swam in front of him. Brittany staggered slightly before shoring the son of Hades with her shoulder. "What's...happening?" The words came gasped between gulped breaths.

Brittany watched the son of Hades, but Sonny stretched onto his tiptoes, trying to make out the commotion. His eyes sparked with joy and a grin split his face. "It's Miles! Viktor has Miles!"

Nico began to tell the kids to help him, but there was no need: the pair spotted Nico, Sonny, and Brittany. They made a beeline to the trio, a babbling paramedic trailing after, talking about checking over Miles.

"It's procedure! He has to be checked out!"

Viktor snapped over his shoulder, "You can attend to him over here." The ex-stuntman halted three paces before the kids, gently setting down Miles. Sonny wavered for one moment before he abandoned Nico and rushed toward Miles. The young boy flung his arms around his friend and began to cry in earnest.

"I thought you were dead! I thought you burned up!"

Miles' only response was to tighten his hold on his friend.

Nico licked his lips. "Celia? And the...others?"

Viktor glanced at the other kids. The paramedic worked around the pair of boys, working his stethoscope under Sonny's arm to listen to Miles' chest through the back of his shirt. Brittany remained impassive and silent beside Nico, her arm still linked around him for support.

Viktor shook his head and said under his breath, "Mostly everyone who can come out is out. The others..."

Nico closed his eyes, his heart rising to beat loudly in his throat. "Did you see Leo? Is he okay?"

"Yes." Nico opened his eyes and stared at the man, waiting for more.

But, another tumultuous cry went up from the front again. Viktor glanced toward the front, eyes narrowed and squinting before a look of incredulity and wonder spread across his face. Without a word, he darted forward through the crowd of people: more and more neighbors and on-lookers gathered to watch the blaze as it continued to eat through the Dayspring building.

Minutes passed before Viktor made his way back to the group, a young girl grasped in his arms. He set her down next to Miles. Sonny relinquished his hold on the boy and Miles sank to the ground, wrapping his arms around his sister and crying. Celia crumpled to the ground beside him, her hands coming up to hug her brother.

A flood of relief washed over Nico, and something small in him shuddered, his shoulders losing some of the tense rigidity that had plagued him since his dream in the bunker.

The paramedic stooped next to the two children. "Hey, buddy. I need to check out your sister, okay? She is your sister, right?"

Miles nodded, and the paramedic continued. "Let me take care of her, alright? Can you hold her hand for me while I check her over?"

The young boy did as he was asked and grasped Celia's hand. She leaned against him, exhaustion written in the soft lines of her face. Her eyes fluttered closed and she said into the air, "Leo found me. And then Mrs. Gugaitis and Grace's daddy helped me get out."

Miles said nothing but rested his head against the top of Celia's dirty hair.

Nico stared at the two children, still rocked by the relief at seeing the siblings relatively safe. He moved toward the children, Brittany keeping a steadying hand on his arm. Even so, his knees threatened to give out from underneath him.

"Celia, Miles– did Leo–" But Nico's question never left his lips. The edges of his vision tinged gray. Whispers filled the air. Instinctively, Nico knew they did not come from the small group of people around them. He pulled his arm from Brittany and yanked the rosary from around his neck. Immediately, the beaded necklace lengthened into the staff Zagreus had only given him days previous.

Has it really only been days?

The group of people– curious neighbors, paramedics, and residents of Dayspring alike– quieted and looked around uneasily. The crackling fire seemed to fade into the background as the whispers grew.

Nico licked his lips, a coppery tang sparking sharply against his tongue. He wiped a hand under his nose, staring at the dark crimson stain on his hand as he pulled it away from his face. Blood continued to trickle slowly from his nostrils. His breath was ragged as Nico reached for the shadows surrounding him, dancing in the relief of the light from the fire. And although he could sense them– there– just out of reach– they did little to answer his call. He was alone and powerless, his will and stubbornness powering his ability to stand and face whatever was coming– but only just.

Keeping his blurring eyes fixed on the air, Nico asked over his shoulder, "Was Leo with you? Is he coming out?"

I can't do this on my own– I can't protect them all on my own.

"He had to find Grace. He–" Celia's faint voice was drowned out by the sudden uptick of wind. Nico stepped in front of the children as a blast of frigid air blew over the group. Several people screamed, bringing their hands up to cover their faces as the wind hurled debris from the burning building through the night. The fire roared as new life was breathed into it by the swirling air.

"Give...us...the children. Let us...snuff out their life– steal the...air…from their lungs. Let us...end them."

Nico tried to peer into the wind, eyes streaming. Faces appeared and vanished quickly as the wind spun and heaved, swelling in the darkness of the night.

His voice hoarse, Nico shouted, desperate to be heard over the frenzied storm. "You can't have them!"

A face of burning ash appeared in the wind. "And who...who says we can't?"

"I do! You can't have them!" Nico tried to hold the staff in his hands and stand up straight– tried his hardest to strike an intimidating pose. But, instead, he leaned heavily on the bident, his breath coming in sharp gasps. The gray now streaked through his vision and he felt the trembling in his limbs.

"You?" The voices in the wind held a tone of derisive humor and disbelief. "And who are they to you that you have a claim to them?"

"They...they're kin. My kin."

A hissing sound like air being let out of tires filled the area. People began to flee as more debris began to fly through the air. Viktor held Sonny against him, and Brittany held her good arm over her head, shielding her face from the worst of the storm. The paramedic tried valiantly to hold his ground but was failing.

Nico tried to imbue his spine with a steely countenance, holding his staff diagonal across his body. But his heels began to slip and the wind began to tug and pull at him. The son of Hades stumbled forward, his staff going askance. He tried to steady himself but crashed to his knees, sharp jolts of pain flashing up his legs as bone connected with concrete.

Breezy laughter rang through the area. "We remember you. We remember…that night. How your mother lay…bleeding and…broken. Why not…join her?"

The wind grew in force, fully engulfing Nico. The bident fell from his hands as he was pressed to the ground, unable to catch his breath in the whirlwind. His fingers scrabbled weakly and his nails broke in jagged lines as he raked them across the hard ground, desperate for oxygen. And it was like he was back in the jar, the air becoming more and more toxic with each breath he exhaled until there was almost nothing left to breathe. He was suffocating.

In a small corner of his mind, he became aware of a high-pitched scream– a banshee wail. The temperature around him dropped and the choking wind abated briefly. Nico rolled onto his back and sucked in great mouthfuls of air, black spots dancing along the edge of his vision.

The shrieking scream continued seemingly without end. He squinted through the dark, trying to understand what was happening. Quicksilver flashes of ghostly facades– pale and savage– rippled through the air rebuffing the violent air spirits. Miles held Celia's hand as she screamed into the open air. Eventually, the little girl's voice finally ceased its crescendo. She fell to the ground, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Her skin held a gray tint.

Is this what I looked like to the others? When I didn't care?

Celia's voice was raw as she stared into the night and croaked quietly, "Miles? They're coming back. I can't do that again."

Miles' face was stony, set into a stubborn acceptance Nico had yet to see from the boy. He squared his small shoulders. He dropped Celia's hand briefly and tugged Sonny into a one-armed hug. "I have to go. They're after us."

"But–" Sonny began to protest, but Miles had already turned and grabbed up Celia's hand, pulling her to her feet as the wind began to pick up once more. The son of Melinoe pulled his sister forward until they crouched by Nico. The boy glanced nervously at the fallen bident before snatching it up and thrusting it into the son of Hades' hands. "You're like us, right?"

Nico nodded, his chest aching with every breath he drew.

"Then you should be okay." Miles reached out and folded his fingers around Nico's wrist.

The older demigod licked his lips and tried to form a question, but his body refused to cooperate. He watched as Miles took a deep breath and closed his eyes. Nico saw the young boy's skin wither and shrink against his skull. The hand wrapped around Nico turned black and charred while the other holding Celia became bone-white and skeletal. When Miles opened his eyes, one was wholly white and the other black.

Nico heard sharp gasps from the trio of mortals standing around them. Shadows undulated and rippled, pulling themselves across the ground in languid movements. Whispers surrounded the demigods sounding more like dried leaves against grass than the harsh and dissonant utterings of the air spirits.

The temperature dropped again as Nico felt the disquiet dead glide over them. Screams and moans sounded faintly in the son of Hades' ears. He vaguely heard Celia ask Miles, "Where are we going?"

Nico groaned and forced himself to speak. "Union Station. Take us to Union Station."

The ground fell away and Dayspring became a distant memory. Nico cast his thoughts back to Leo, praying to any god who listened that the son of Hephaestus would make it out of the burning building safely. And forgive Nico for leaving.

—-

"I sung of chaos and Eternal Night, taught by the heav'nly Muse to venture down the dark descent, and up to reascend." ~John Milton