A/N: A fair warning people, this chapter might be a little similar to the one by HadesPlutoNico and I have got their permission to use it so... this is just to give you a heads up before you start accusing me of copying.

It was somewhere in the start of February that everything became complicated than it was. Sadie and Carter were recruiting in Mexico while Percy was trying to find some off in Brazil. And as usual, Sadie and Carter had no luck and were chased by the House of Life magicians again.

Sadie quickly opened a portal in New York and since it was opened in a hurry, Sadie had miscalculated and opened it in Manhattan, right on top of a unsuspecting midnight stroller.

"Ouch! Can't you watch where you are jumping?" a high pitched voice asked as they all got up. "Nico, is that you? Are you alright?" Carter asked as Nico rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, it is me. What is the problem?" he asked as he saw the siblings looking back often as if something was wrong.

"We need to get out of here quickly before they spot us." Sadie said as she started running along with Carter, completely forgetting to close the portal.

"Not so fast sweethearts" a sickly sweet voice said from the portal as a girl dressed in what looked like bedsheets came out along with a man who was dressed up in a similar fashion. Nico stepped in front of them unconsciously, trying to shield them from whatever it was.

"Got yourself help from a godling I see? Surrender yourself to the House of Life and let us handle these two" she said and Nico had to fight the urge to throw up at the tone of the voice.

"Say, you said you are from the House of Life right? Then why do you have the creature of the death as a familiar? Insulting. And unfortunately for you, I won't surrender to you else my dad will kill me." he said calmly.

The man in the meanwhile had been silently directed the jackal at Nico, who immediately deflected it with his Stygian iron sword, and sent it to Europe. "Just leave him alone you two. Your quarrel is with us and let us not bring in some random mortal into it." Carter said as he stepped up in front of Nico.

"And let the godling escape? Never going to happen." the man said as he cast a spell that sent fire balls at Nico, whose sword just absorbed it like the darkness swallowing the night while summoning a skeleton to trap the two of them, thankful for the dead bodies buried there.

The woman, sensing this, immediately sent a spell that caused a forest of reeds to grow quickly around it, causing Carter and Nico to slice a path around it while Sadie turned to face the magician.

"Watch out Nico!" Sadie warned as she jumped out of the way, trying to deflect the streamers out of the way unsuccessfully, causing it to hit Nico head on and he let out a brutal scream as the effects started to take place and since the Ribbons of Hathor bound the god inside a body... you know what would've happened to Nico.

Blood started pouring out from everywhere Nico was paling quickly and was at the verge of fading and Sadie snapped. She blasted the ribbons off, mummified the two magicians after knocking them out and somehow erasing the events that happened today off their memories and joined Carter to help him carry Nico to the nearby river so that he can summon a boat.

Suddenly, everything went quiet and the two of them saw that Nico was dying, his breathing was becoming almost non existent, all the colour had gone from his body and he was still bleeding out, except in black colour, though no one was calm enough to notice that till they reached their place in Brooklyn.

"Shit Carter, he is bleeding in black!" Jasmine exclaimed as she frantically brought over the necessary first aid items they needed. "Any luck at contacting Percy?" Carter asked Sadie, who responded in negative. And those were four long days before Percy burst into the house with a new magician named Cleo, who seemed to be following the path of Thoth.

In the meanwhile, Nico wasn't faring any good either. He woke up with his body on fire in the halls of judgement, face to face with Anubis, touched him and Bam, he woke up to Percy looming over him and some random voice in his head, causing him to panic a lot before calming down.

Then Percy sat him down to explain all about the Egyptians and stayed with Nico while he nearly had a panic attack on how everyone are going to act towards his changes and how he is going to hide it from his dad and so on and slightly calmed down when he showed Nico how similar their problems were.

The next problem that came now was how overprotective Percy had gotten over Nico due to the Nephthys and Anubis relationship. Percy was often mothering Nico much to his annoyance but he tolerated it as he was one of the closest family member he had and he didn't complain.

They had even considered going to Thoth to find a solution and did that but it only lead to more troubles. It seemed that Cassandra, the mad Oracle had told a prophecy about how two people with scarabs having the fate of the whole world on their shoulders and it honestly scared both of them as even though they knew it often had double meanings, this was pretty straightforward.

They prophecy went something like this:

The ones with a heart of stone beware

For it is a dangerous journey they must fare

And make a choice between 3 gates

In order to seal everyone's fates

One to destruction, one in between

One where peace is to be seen

They decision is tied hard with a secret

The decision can be one to joy or regret.

"A prophecy about is bringing doomsday Percy. Isn't it great!" exclaimed Nico when they were alone, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I know Neeks. But I guess there might be a long time before it comes to action I guess. And there are always loopholes in prophecies, we will find a way out. We can't worry about this while we are breaking our heads over Kronos and Apophis right now you know. We will face it as it comes." Percy pacified Nico but he could feel Percy's worry over their bond.

"Don't try to calm me down on this right now Percy. Even if we have other things to worry about right now, this is also important and we need to be prepared." Nico argued.

"I know we need to be prepared Nico but first things first. We need to prepare to defeat of Kronos and Apophis and with that, we will be half way through. So just be calm about it and don't discuss it right now." Percy said.

"I know Percy. But it is nearing the Spring equinox and I am afraid that we need to double our recruiting as there are chances for him to attack then." Nico said. "I know that Neeks and we are halfway done with it. We will be prepared when he strikes this time." Percy said with full confidence.

Oh boy, how wrong it turned out to be.

A/N: And that will be chapter 7 fellas. The prophecy might suck a bit and please forgive me for that as I had written that a year ago, before I even started to write Hero of Two Worlds to be completely honest. Hope you all liked it and all comments and criticisms accepted and appreciated.

Just one doubt though. How do you want me to bring Zoe in this story?

A) When the Doors of Death opens

B) Sometime during the end of the second book of KC

C) Sometime during the battle of Manhattan/BOTL

D) Any other suggestions

Comment what you want me to do and until next time!

Thank you all for reading!

Rasi10 signing off

Published on 14 January 2019