Surprisingly, the fact that he was now in a completely different setting was not overly alarming for Will Solace. As far as demigods went, nothing much could really surprise him anymore.

But what did surprise him was the seven demigods staring at him.

"Will?" Percy Jackson finally managed to ask.

Annabeth Chase's eyes narrowed into slits. Will shrunk back. He'd never say it out loud, but the daughter of Athena scared him. So did her boyfriend. Both of which were right in front of him along with Jason Grace (he was as scary as Percy), Piper McLean, Leo Valdez, and two other demigods he didn't recognize.

"Wait," the girl he didn't recognize asked. "Will? As in Will Solace? They guy Nico was talking about earlier?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said through gritted teeth. "The guy who was supposed to watch Nico, not get himself shadow traveled to the Argo II by Nico."

"He said to tell you sorry," Will blurted. He cringed, remembering exactly what had landed him here. "Uh… we got attacked."

Piper was alert now. She glanced at Percy, then back to Will. "What happened? Who attacked?"

"Two giants," Will said with a frown. "I don't know which ones. They definitely knew Nico. They singled him out as the son of Hades."

Percy growled. He flopped back into his chair. "Gods, I thought he was safe at Camp."

"Nico mentioned a fall," Will added. "Before he shadow traveled me away, he said 'Tell them I'm sorry and it's the fall.' Do you know what he means?"

Annabeth's face went from glaring daggers at him to pale as a ghost in top speed.

"What fall?" the guy Will didn't recognize asked.

Percy sighed. "Will, you might want to sit down. Frank… I guess Annabeth and I have to explain some things." He wrung his hands nervously. "Okay, uh, Will. That's Frank Zhang and Hazel Levesque. From Camp Jupiter." He was silent.

"What's going on?" Jason asked flatly.

Annabeth took Percy's hand. "We haven't been truthful with you guys. Percy and I… we know exactly what's going to happen on this quest. Um, the day we got back to Camp, the day Kronos was defeated, three of us kind of… time traveled."

"Time traveled?" Leo repeated. "You're saying you time traveled? Wait. Three of you?" He pointed to Percy, Annabeth, and Will.

Percy shook his head. "Annabeth and I, yeah, but it wasn't Will. It was Nico."

Nico time traveled. That surprised Will. In the world of Greek Myths, hardly anything could be considered impossible anymore. Time travel was one of those things Will always thought of as science-fiction. It just wasn't possible Greek gods or no Greek gods. But now…

Now that he thought about it, it made sense. Nico di Angelo was quiet and reserved. He didn't talk to anyone. He had become so different than the young boy who blabbered about Mythomagic upon his arrival to Camp. During the Titan War, Nico was cold and isolated. He did not get excited over games anymore. Then, suddenly, the son of Hades was speaking to Will and helping out in the infirmary. He would smile and laugh when he was with Will to the rest of the Camp's utter shock.

And Will had wondered why the all powerful son of one of the Big Three chose him as a friend. Whenever he asked Nico, he shrugged and said that Will was super nice to him and didn't care that his father was the King of the Underworld. But if Nico was from the future, and in that future was friends with Will, naturally Nico would seek out Will's friendship early on.

Percy's goodbyes suddenly made much more sense too. When he had left at the end of summer, he made it seem like he wouldn't be seeing any of them for a long time. But if he knew he was going to be part of Hera's exchange program, it made sense for him to say his goodbyes that way.

And the nightmares. Gods, the nightmares Percy and Annabeth had. What had they gone through in the future that was so terrible that they couldn't sleep without the other in their arms?

"So what happens now?" Frank asked quietly. "You two know what to do and where to go, right?"

"I have to follow the Mark of Athena," Annabeth explained shakily. "By… by myself. The rest of you have to rescue Nico. Those giants took him last time too. He was there much longer the first time though. Then, Percy will know where to go so you can get the Athena Parthenos."

Percy squeezed her hand. "Our voyage is much harder," he said tightly. "The last line of the prophecy, the Great Prophecy, the whole Foes bear arms to the Doors of Death thing? The mortal side is in Espirus in the House of Hades. The other side is somewhere else. Annabeth and I did it last time. We can do it this time. We… we know what to expect and… and it'll be fine."

"Where are they?" Will asked flatly. "And what did Nico mean? Possibly his last… last words," Will hated how his voice cracked. "I want to know what they meant."

Percy ran his hands through his hair. Annabeth blew a piece of hair out of her face.

"Twins snuff out the angel's light / Who holds the key to saviors' plight," Annabeth recited. "Nico figured it out. The angel's light, he thought that was you, Will, although it could mean Nico's life. The saviors' plight is what he probably figured out when he sent you here. When he said 'it's about the fall,' he meant this plight. I should have realized this sooner. Plight has two meanings. One, a dangerous, difficult, or unfortunate situation. Two, to pledge or promise solemnly."

"Annabeth and I fell last time," Percy explained. "We did pledge or promise solemnly." He looked at his girlfriend. "We're staying together. You're not getting away from me. Never again."

"As long as we're together," Annabeth finished. She took a deep breath. "The fall was to Tartarus. That's the other side of the Doors."

Piper gasped. "Tartarus?"

The room in the Argo II grew cold. Will shivered. From what he read in the myths about Greek Mythology, Tartarus was not a pleasant place. He had asked Nico about it once, but the son of Hades had tensed up and ignored him. Eventually, he stopped asking.

"Nico's been there. Hasn't he?" Will asked.

"That's where he was captured the first time," Percy confirmed. He bit his lip. "So, according to the prophecy, either you or Nico know how to solve this problem. Any ideas?"

Will frowned. "Not presently. How did you close the Doors anyway?"

"Bob and Damasen," Annabeth answered. "Bob, sorry, Iapetus the Titan, and Damasen the Giant helped us. Percy and I cut the chains and Bob held the button for twelve minutes to send us through the Doors. Damasen fought the monsters off." She swallowed. "We… we were hoping to save Bob and Damasen this time."

"Hold on," Jason said, holding up a hand. "You're telling me that you two are actually volunteering to go back to Tartarus? Why wouldn't you just… I mean, one of us could do it!"

"No," Will said shaking his head. "No one else could." He studied the two time travelers before him. "The nightmares. This is why you have them. No way are either of you going to wish that on anyone. You're both too noble. Your knowledge. You already did it once, so the second time should be easy, right? You said it yourself, you know what to expect."

"Bob's my friend," Percy said helpfully. "I erased his memories in the Lethe and told him I was his friend. Nico took me to visit him a lot before I went missing. Well, this time anyway. Last time, I never visited. I was a bad friend." He fell silent.

"Okay, enough of this," Leo said, crossing his arms. "I want to know how heroic we all are in the future. Like, who do we marry and stuff. Do any of us get married? Which camp do we live at? What's the gossip?"

Percy and Annabeth shared a look.

"Better questions," Will heard himself ask. He squeezed his eyes shut. "Who died? Why did you come back? How bad did we lose?"

A/N: I couldn't keep the secret any longer! So now they all know.

Bringing Will aboard the Argo II was not planned. I was going to have Nico do some ninja escaping moves and get captured by the giants, but then I was like 'nah! just have him sacrifice his life and send Will to the seven' so yeah. We went that route.

Although I was hoping to keep the time travel thing a secret from the rest of the crew for a while longer, I think this will actually work out.

And don't ya know, writing this is having me copy and paste the chapters from PDFs and then I'm writing the new stuff and deleting the book stuff and I'm learning/remembering things. It's been a while since I read HOO. I'm thinking about going back and rereading PJO and HOO and TOA because I don't remember a lot.

Also, hit me over the head with a nice Gibbs Slap because I totally thought Nico was Spanish even though I KNOW he lived in Italy before he did his lil time skip in the Casino. I'm so disappointed in myself. Like, how did I mess that up?

Anyway, of course Will has to ask the hard question, but that means you guys get a little more insight into what happened in the future!