Guess who's back, back, back again. Sorry I'll stop singing. Anyway, I fell off the face of the earth for a while then – I haven't written anything in ages. I just really was not inspired to write this bit and I found it a bit difficult. So please bear with me while I try to work through it.

StyxxsOmega: I know he's in a bad place right now. Maybe they will reach him, maybe they won't. Who knows? (I do.)

Tori Chase: Thank you for your words of wisdom I love to hear what you all think after all this is for you lot, so I have tried to incorporate some of your ideas into this chapter. And for the others they're planned, maybe for the next few chapters. (Maybe not though.)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own anything all rights go to Rick.

Nico POV

I blinked and squinted through the light. 'Ugh why?' I thought, I really couldn't be bothered to move but I had to. I yawned and slowly swung my legs out from under the covers. Then it hit me. Yesterday in the throne room, the meeting and the war and Kronos and… Percy. Oh Gods no no no I had to hurry. I quickly jumped out of bed and ran to the closet to put on some clothes before dashing to my weapons room to collect my armour and weapons, before hurrying out across the pavilion to meet the others.

At this point I should explain that we immortal demigods don't live with the rest of camp. We're still in the boarders but we have our own circle of private houses and a pavilion where we live. You see most of the seven are married now so they live together, no children yet though thank Hera. Each of the houses was designed by us so they are basically our dream homes. Leo and Calypso have a regular house but it has a gigantic smiths workshop on the side where they can often be found fixing or making weapons. Hazel and Frank have a small cottage nothing too fancy just a cosy home with a vegetable patch. Piper and Jason have, well, it's a mansion basically. There's nothing more to say apart from it has everything; a games room, a pool, what more could they want? Annabeth has some kind of greek/roman architecture mix of a house I'm not really sure what it is. All I can say is that there are pillars and its white. Before you say it I do not live in some kind of goth temple, it's simple a little darker than the others but it is just a simple greek style home. Nothing fancy.

Anyway, I ran as quickly as I could to the small building in the centre where we held our meetings. As I went in I looked around a little sheepishly when I noticed they were all waiting for me. Silently I took my seat and waited for them to start. We didn't waste any more time immediately Jason stood up and started the meeting. "Right, so, Annabeth left at sunrise with Hades to go talk to Lady Styx about releasing Percy." He began, running a hand through his blonde hair nervously. "We need to get ready and in position to get Percy as soon as she IM's us. The gods have already sent us our packs they are by the door." He gestured to the line of camouflage rucksacks by the door that the gods had prepared for us, each had a name on it and held items specifically to help that demigod.

"They also sent a map." Piper announced while flattening it out on the table. "This is where we are going it looks like the camps only a few miles away so we have the advantage of knowing the terrain. However, the gods can't see into the camp so once we're in we'll have to locate Percy on our own." She looked up at us her eyes changing though darker colours as if showing her worry. For the first time, I spoke up. "We need to split into groups then, we'll cover more ground and we can Iris Message each other when we find him." Everyone nodded in ascent, a steely determination passing through us all. Some of these demigods may not have known Percy very long but the crew of the Argo II were family, they knew him long enough to realise how much we needed him. And that he deserved to be saved, after all they only won the war because of his sacrifice.

"These teams need to have even skills." Thalia called, taking charge. I'd almost forgotten she was here. "Nico and Hazel you both have underworld powers so you're in separate groups. I'll go with Neeks, Jason you're with Hazel. Frank you're with Hazel so that they have long range weapons, I'll be fine as our archer." He nodded and moved closer to Hazel. "Calypso you can charm speak, right?" Thalia asked, I looked at her for the first time. She had her caramel coloured hair tied up and was wearing camouflage gear, she looked terrified as she wasn't as used to these missions as us. But she was a Titaness so she carried on regardless, doing all she could to help. "Yes I can." She nodded trying to look brave, then going back to fiddling with the charm Leo made her that turns into a sword. "Ok, good. You're with Jason Piper you're with us." Jason opened his mouth to argue but his sister shot him a glare and he quickly closed it again. "That just leaves Leo with us." She concluded. "Great you really know how to make a man feel welcome." The son of Hephaestus whined. "Is everyone clear on that?" Thalia called ignoring him. We all nodded, no one could find a fault in the plan it was obvious why she had been Artemis' lieutenant for over a hundred years.

"Are we ready now?" I asked exasperated, no one said anything so I took it as a yes. I marched to the door and shouldered my pack as everyone else followed my lead. "Grab hold of me, Hazel or Calypso." I ordered. Once they had followed my instructions I looked at the two girls. "Meeting on that ridge." I said pointing to the map. They nodded and within two seconds they had vanished from the room. I looked at Piper and Jason holding on to my arms before whispering "off we go" and pulling the shadows towards me. A bone-chilling cold wrapped around me as darkness consumed us, ghosts and spirits began tugging at our clothes trying to get us to go with them make me lose my focus so we'd get trapped. But it didn't work and we soon broke though into the light on the ridge.

"Took you long enough Death Breath, did you go on a tour?" Thalia teased. "Shut up Pinecone Face." I shot back weakly panting slightly, trying to regain my breath. "Oooh I'm terrified." She replied sarcastically holding her arms up in mock surrender. "Knock it off you two, we need to get nearer the camp." Piper commanded, I think she used charm speak but she would never admit it because we immediately stopped talking and silently crept to the edge of the ridge and laid down so we could only just see the camp. The others followed almost as quietly and laid down next to us. As we all peered over the edge I heard a sharp I take of breath – I didn't have to ask why. The camp was huge. It was surrounded by a stone wall with only one set of wooden gates as an entrance and they were guarded by two monsters. Behind the wall tens of thousands of monsters milled around aimlessly. Some were preparing for war; others just seemed to be walking around doing nothing. They were barely four miles from the camps extended borders and they could attack at any minute. Even with the Romans and Greeks living together, Camp Half-Blood wouldn't stand a surprise attack.

We had planned not to tell the campers until we got Percy back, but they needed to know now. Chiron had to mobilise the campers and the veterans from New Olympus, they had to get ready for war. And they had to start yesterday. Quickly I ran back down the hill a bit and opened my pack. Luckily a prism sat on top. "Thank Hades." I breathed before setting it on the floor and moving it until a rainbow formed. "Oh Iris goddess of the rainbow show me Chiron at Camp Half-Blood." I called quickly rushing through the words before tossing a drachma through the rainbow. It disappeared and mist started to spiral outwards.

I heard two sets of pounding feet on the hill behind me but I didn't turn to look who it was, as long as the others kept watching the camp it was fine. Suddenly the centaurs face appeared in the mist, his mouth was already set in a frown which was unusual for the trainer of heroes. Luckily for us though he was sat in his office away from the campers. "Chiron," I began. "I know we agreed with the gods that it was best to let the campers know about the war after we got Percy back, but this is urgent." Fortunately, I didn't have to explain what was happening because we had told the old centaur yesterday. "The titans have a massive camp barely four miles away from our boarders they could attack at any minute and they look like they are getting ready to. Tell the campers everything apart from the parts about Percy, they'll lose hope otherwise." I finally stopped for breath. "Aye, they need to know that army could attack. I'll get them ready, you just bring Percy back to us." He replied with a grim look.

"And Chiron tell the hunters their lieutenant says to help get the campers ready and patrol the boarders." Oh, so it was Thalia. "Get the veterans from the city mobilised as well we need as many people as we can, call in the amazons as well anyone you can." Piper. She'd basically taken the words from my mouth. Our mentor nodded again. "I'll see to it now, just come back in one piece we'll need you all for this war." I nodded back to him and the two girls moved back up the ridge, I was about to swipe through the message when he spoke again. "Nico. Please bring him back if you can, but don't get killed or captured trying, we need you. And you know I don't say that lightly, he's like a son to me." "Don't worry Chiron, I'll get him home safely." I reassured him. "Good luck my boy." He smiled before cutting through the message.

As soon as the message ended I hurried up to the top of the ridge to re-join my friends. "Ok the camp is preparing for war. They'll survive until we get back with Percy." I informed them. They just nodded gravely and carried on surveying the camp. After a few minutes I heard a loud exasperated sigh as Leo slumped below the top of the ridge. "That camp is huge; Percy could be almost anywhere." He moaned. "And there's so many guarded buildings dotted about all over the place, he could be in any one of them." I had just begun to think that myself but I wasn't one for giving up so easily. "Come on fire boy don't give up, he needs us. Percy has spent his whole life being a hero. Saving others, saving us, when we needed it. He needs us now. Yes, it might seem impossible but would that stop Percy if you were in there? No. He's in there because he sacrificed himself not only for Annabeth, but for all of you. For the world. This is how we repay him. We bust him out of there."

Leo nodded his head once in determination and then turned back to looking at the camp. "You know," Hazel said in my ear "that was quite impressive we could do with you giving that kind of pep talk to the campers before battle." I chuckled quietly and turned to her. "That's Percy's job he is much better at it than me, you should've seen him in the second titan war." Several more minutes past as we all carried on looking over the camp; all of us silently thinking of when Percy had helped us, and then trying to plan how to get him out. The only issue was we had no idea which building he was in. After about ten minutes Frank spoke up. "Nothing is going to change with us all watching why don't we take 20 minute shifts so that the others can prepare?" We all nodded in ascent and we agreed to leave Frank and Hazel to watch, Leo and Calypso would go next.

That meant I had a while to wait, it could be any moment that Annabeth IM-ed us but otherwise, I had 40 minutes to wait at least. I decided to look through my pack to see what the gods had given me. Carefully I emptied out everything in front of me. There was the usual stuff greek fire, rope, ambrosia, nectar, the prism, drachmas and a torch. And then there was gifts specifically for me, a belt of throwing knives made of stygian iron probably enchanted to return, a retractable bronze shield (standard cyclops edition) and some of the seeds from Persephone's garden that turned you invisible for five minutes when eaten. 'Nice.' I thought to myself 'This could be useful.' I quickly strapped on the belt and settled down for a quick nap before it was time to go.

"NICO!" I woke up with a start and bolted up right. I immediately drew my sword and looked around for the attacking monsters. "Over here." A female voice said with a chuckle. I lowered my sword and turned around to see Annabeth looking at me from an Iris Message. Her blonde hair was dirty and she was covered in mud, she seemed to be ok though, I breathed a sigh of relief before quickly getting to the point. "Did she release him?" I questioned. "Styx drives a hard bargain but yes she has. She is now leader of the underworld rivers, has a place on your father's council and I owe her a favour." She informed me.

I felt the blood run from my face. "That's really not good Annabeth she could make you do anything." I was starting to panic a little. "I know, but she demanded it. She swore on chaos though that it wouldn't be against the wishes of Olympus or harm Olympus, the only thing is if I can't do it she can choose any demigod to complete the task or I spend eternity in her river." The daughter of wisdom looked worried but we both knew she had done it for Percy, and I would've done the same. "Ok," I breathed "I'll get the others and we'll save him." She nodded. "Nico, save my seaweed brain. Please." She begged. "I will."

Within a minute we were ready to go and we carefully set off towards the camp. We tried to stay in the shadows as much as possible but it was difficult as they weren't always there, and we couldn't just shadow travel to the walls because it would tire us out and might set off the alarms. As soon as they were within range Thalia and Frank let loose an arrow each to kill the two guards, we quickly hid the bodies in a hole Hazel created and carried on though the giant wooden gates. We easily slipped through the gate and hid behind the first building we saw. It seemed to be some kind of small weapons store but it worked for us. "Ok," I whispered "split into the two groups. Hazel take the east side we will take the west, IM us if you find him. Good luck." Quickly our two groups took off in opposite directions.

This was going to be difficult.

Duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhh. Sorry. Anyway, I am trying to write a lot this week and I'm feeling more into the story again now I've got this chapter done so fingers crossed I will return to some kind of updating schedule. *Hopefully*

What do you guys think? How will our heroes quest go, will they get Percy, will they all die horrible deaths? Who knows? Anyway, please review as it encourages me to write as I know people are reading my story. If you liked it, you can favourite or follow to get the updates as soon as they are released. For now though, see ya.