Normal P.O.V

Deep in the darkest pits of Tartarus, the sounds of armies echoed across the plains of broken glass. On the very edge of death, armies gathered, bearing weapons of Stygian Iron and celestial bronze. One army was completely composed of monsters of all shape and size. From cyclopes to gorgons, everything was bearing its teeth in anticipation. Amongst the monster army were a couple titans, mostly those too scared to fight against the Pit so they chose to fight Night instead. The monsters stood in orderly chaos as they waited for the enemy.

It didn't take long before the enemy arrived. At the edge of the cliff and beyond, shadows gathered. At first it was just a mass of pitch black fog but it slowly condensed to form soldiers in greek style armor. The armor was basic except for the pinpricks of light that represented the stars scattered over the armor. The soldiers were featureless, completely smooth everywhere except for fingers. They carried shadows in the vague shape of weapons. Then the personification of Night herself showed. She stood tall above her army, arms held out wide as if to show off her army. Then she spoke, voice full of ancient power, "Tartarus! Show yourself, you know you can't win against me! I've always won when we sparred as godlings. Why side with the losing team when you and I can rule this puny world in darkness together?"

A deep laugh responded. From the pulsing ground rose an equally as tall being, with his purple skin and vortex of a face. He put his hands on his waist and shook his head. "Nyx, if you always win, then why did father give you the realm below me?" Tartarus taunted with his hand on his chest in a mocking manor. Nyx growled at the insult. She flung her hand forward and her shadows marched in response. The monsters and shadows clashed where the abyss met the cliff. Monsters died in droves but came back almost instantly as they were in their birthplace. The shadows met the same fate but seeing as they were shadows, they could just mend themselves back together with little effort.

That's where Hyperion came in, the titan of light solved this issue by making it almost impossible for the shadows to come back by casting an intense light on the whole battle field. But the shadow army met this problem by reappearing from the shadows of the monsters themselves. The battle was a complete and total stalemate. Neither army moved from their initial starting spots.

This infuriated Nyx as she has been at this for several weeks now, she knew if she didn't do anything to alter the flow of this battle she would get nowhere in her conquest seeing as where they currently were was the only way for her to exit the Pit. Her father, Chaos, had made it so. He placed similar restrictions on every primordial as a sort of checks and balances system to try and keep them from gaining ultimate power and it was driving her mad. She either had to convince Tartarus to join her side, which she doubted she could, or defeat him in battle, which was also easier said than done.

"Well, come on! You want to fight me don't you?" Tartarus taunted, summoning duel battle axes. Both had ornate obsidian handles with stone axe heads. But they were not normal stone, the blade of each head was made of white hot magma that dripped from the blade flowing from cracks in the stone. Basically a volcano in the shape of an axe. He didn't have facial features but he radiated an air of smugness.

Nyx hesitated, this was not an enemy she wanted to tangle with at the moment. But she eventually summoned her own weapons. Two hunting knives, each a foot and a half long from her perspective. The blades were pure shadow that flowed from curved, pure white crystal handles. She got in a stance, ready for the upcoming fight. Tartarus rolled his shoulders and spun his axes and launched himself at Nyx, axes high over his head.

..-×x LINE BREAK x×-..

The whole clearing was covered in golden dust. Thalia, Luke, Percy, Jason, and Nico stood in the middle, also covered in a thin layer of dust. Their weapons were drawn and they were breathing heavily. The hellhounds had proved a better fight than they had originally anticipated. Their leader was intelligent, for a monster, and knew when was most appropriate to strike, letting the smaller ones distract while it stalked the outside, waiting. A cowardly strategy but an effective one.

Eventually they were able to whittle the beta hounds down. After the last one fell the big one lunged. It didn't get far, however. It launched itself at Percy but all he had to do was stick his trident into its snarling snout. It instantly burst into dust, covering the whole group in the stuff.

After catching their breaths, Thalia swung around, he spear pointing at the back of Percy's neck. Within half a second 2 swords were pointed at her own neck, one of blue steel and one of pure shadow. She didn't back down though, "What are you?"

Percy laughed and turned around, Thalia's spear now pointed at his chin. He wore a very smug smirk as he reached up and grabbed the spear. The moment his hand touched the weapon a large bolt of lightning arched from the cloudless sky and struck Percy. The area exploded. As soon as the bolt struck, Nico and Jason lowered their weapons and stepped back, knowing what was about to happen. Thalia was the one smirking now but that instantly went away when the smoke cleared to reveal a perfectly unharmed Percy, well…. Unharmed except for the rags of clothes he was now wearing.

He sighed and looked down at his tattered out fit and shook his head. "That was my favorite shirt." He looked back at Thalia. She looked into his eyes and saw nothing but destruction. Her knees buckled and she fell to her knees. She feebly held onto her spear, still pointed at him. Luke stepped back in shock, nothing could scare the daughter of Zeus in such a way. These people were not ones you wanted to cross.

Percy kneeled down in front of Thalia, his face softer, more friendly. Thalia still sat there, absolutely terrified. "Now, if I were you, I would not try to cross us again. We are not the enemy, and we would like to be your friends but we cannot do that if you constantly doubt us. If you give us a moment we can explain who we are and why we are here. Is that acceptable?" Thalia slowly nodded and composed herself. Percy stood up from kneeling and found a spot to sit down in the shade and explain.

\|/|\| LINE BREAK |/|\|/

(Normal P.O.V)

By the time Percy, Nico, and Jason had finished explaining their story to the only 2 campers they would trust, it was dinner time. The horn sounded and they made their way to the dining pavilion. The air was active, with the sound of laughter and conversations and the nymphs zipping between tables with carrying both empty and full plates. As soon as they entered, however, that all stopped. All eyes were on the three brothers, making them sweat a little at the immediate attention. They walked to the Hermes table and sat down. A few tense moments went by as they sat there in silence before Chiron stomped his hoof to gain everyone's attention.

"Excuse me, campers. I'd like to introduce you all to our newest campers, Percy Jackson, Jason Grace, and Nico Di Angelo." The three of them stood up as their name was called. "And before you ask, no, Thalia and Jason are not siblings." at that, 50% of the campers deflated. Percy chuckled quietly to himself as he and his brothers sat back down.

"They are not claimed yet so they will be staying in the Hermes cabin until then. Also, I would like to remind you that Lady Artemis and her Hunters are to be coming tomorrow, so we will be partaking in out traditional game of capture the flag." at this, the remaining 50% of the campers just seemed down right depressed.

Percy leaned over to the camper next to him, "Why is everyone so down? It's just capture the flag, right? How bad can it be?" Percy whispered.

The kid picked his head up off the table and looked at Percy, "Since you're new I wouldn't expect you to know this but every time the Hunters come we play a game of capture the flag and every time we're completely destroyed. There's no maiming allowed but they stretch that restriction to its outermost limits." at that the kid laid his head back down the table with a solid thud.

After the announcements, dinner went smoothly, the three of us scraping off food into the fire for ourselves, but made it look like it was to the gods so we avoided suspicion. 'Man, I forgot what it was like to receive an offering, even if it's from myself.' Percy thought as the small surge of power and delectable aroma hit him.

After dinner was lights out. Me and my brothers found a chest and lock in the attic of the Big House to put the little amount of things we had on ourselves into. We enchanted it so only we could open it so the Hermes kids couldn't get into it, no matter how hard they tried. We got settled into our bunks and fell asleep quickly. To be honest, despite what the campers said about the capture the flag game, we were restless with anticipation.

**THIS IS A BREAKING LINE**

(PERCY'S P.O.V)

That night I had a dream. A demigod dream. Which was weird by itself considering I was Titan. I found myself in a familiar landscape, the edge of the Pit. The cliff at the edge of the abyss that went down farther below Tartarus into Nyx's domain. I looked around me, I was completely alone. Even the forest of the Arai was quiet, the whispers promising pain and misery were absent.

I just stood there, looking down into the darkness when I felt a presence to my left. I turned and looked and there stood Tartarus looking down into the abyss with me. He was in his human form. His ever present, over confident smirk was gone. His eyes had lost their mirth, now a dull reddish gray. His skin looked like the waters of the Styx, gray and depressing. His hair was greasy and stringy, framing his face like a mourning shroud. He wore his normal black suit and red undershirt with black tie but the attire looked like he had been sleeping in an alley for two weeks without changing out of them.

I was about to grab his shoulder but his hand shot up and caught mine. I tried to pull back but his grip held firm. "Tartarus, what happened to you?" I asked turning to face him completely, his hand still around my wrist.

"She happened. I thought I was so ready to hold her back, but she caught me off guard. For a hundred years my time I kept her in a stalemate." His voice was rough and ragged, like an instrument that needed a new reed. He kept his gaze focused on the blackness below.

I didn't know what to say. Why did he come to me and not Nico? How can I help? "She's found her only way out of Tartarus and is quickly approaching the surface. If Pontus and Ouranos can slow her down enough at the exit, I say you have two years left until she arrives, get your armies ready."

I really didn't know what to say now, my mouth was dry, unable to form words. I began to feel the dream slip, I was waking up. As I the last few parts of the dream fell apart a deep feminine laugh echoed from the chasm.

I practically jumped from my bed, sweating through my covers. I looked around to find I was still the Hermes cabin. I was about to climb back into my top bunk when Jason shot from the bed next to mine, just a sweaty as I was. He looked at me with confusion all over his face. He was about to speak when Nico lunged from the bed below me and tackled me to the ground, his shadow weapon in knife form pointed at my neck. When he got his bearings he stood up quickly and helped me up, apologizing.

"Did you two have dreams too?" Jason whispered as to not wake anyone else up.

Nico and I nodded. Jason smiled a crazy smile, one of those sarcastic "you're nuts" smiles. "That's fantastic, um, we really need to talk." He said frantically. He obviously had an exciting dream. I agreed, we needed to go somewhere where there wasn't any possible eavesdroppers. So we got our shoes on and walked to the beach. We got to the end of the pier just in time for Jason to freak out.

"What the hell was that!? We don't get Demigod dreams! We're TITANS! and why the fuck would Pontus come to me?" He was 'whispering' but barely. He was pacing up and down the pier, freaking out, rubbing his hands through his hair and breathing deeply.

Nico perked up at the last thing Jason said, "Wait, Pontus went to you? I had Ouranos, he was out of breath and frantic, sort of like Jason now. He kept going on about how "she" escaped. I couldn't get a clear message."

I walked to the end of the pier and looked up at the night sky, the sun's rays just beginning to breach the horizon. "Nyx has escaped Tartarus." I said looking off into the distance.

I couldn't see their faces but I knew they were looking at me like I just told them I was mortal.

"Wait, are you serious?! No wonder Pontus looked like he was in the middle of a battle. He was on his highest guard and wouldn't put his weapon down. He wouldn't give me anything more than yes or no answers and now you tell us Nyx has escaped?!" Jason actually yelled this time. I turned around to find Jason on the ground Indian style rubbing his temples. Nico appeared to be deep in thought, his left arm crossed under his right with his right hand on his chin.

After about a minute Nico looked at me and asked, "So how long do we have? I mean if she's gotten past Tartarus I'm sure she can get past Ouranos and Pontus."

I nodded solemnly, "You are right, Tartarus estimated two years."

"Two years! We're done for." Jason flopped on his back, defeated, head hanging over the side of the pier. 'He's always like this when he's sleepy.' I thought to myself, annoyed.

"We are not done for." Nico corrected firmly. "We just have to move faster. We will spend 1 year with each camp. Get them ready as fast as possible. The Greeks are going to be more work though." He looked at me, "What do we do?"

I thought about it. "First, we are going to beat Artemis and her Hunters at capture the flag, then with Artemis acting as the goddess she is we will get this camp ready." I walked past the two of them back onto the beach. I stopped and looked at Nico. "Nico, around the end of this year we're going to need you to act as ambassador to the Romans. They get along with the Greeks now but I need you to get them ready beforehand while Jason and I stay here to finish up. Now, back to bed, we have a big day ahead of us." I finished as I walked back to the cabin.