The room was almost painful to be in. The fireplace was too warm. The chairs and couch were too cozy. The Big House still had that comfy summer night vibe despite pretty much all the counselors being in a somber mood. Mr. D's leopard head Seymour sat on the mantle, glaring at them all with equal hatred. They hated to admit it but they would've given anything to have their old godly director back, snapping randomly and forgetting names. Classic.

"I told him! I told him something was up. Ever since you guys put Gaea to sleep, I warned him the monsters weren't going down with her. They were growing stronger. Smarter. I don't know why he didn't listen. He never took me seriously." Clarisse rubbed her eyes furiously, voice cracking.

"Stop it." Katie whispered. "He loved you. He loved all of us."

She cautiously wrapped her arm around Clarisse and when she didn't protest fully embraced her.

Austin, the young new counselor of Hephaestus cabin, bit his lip. "Honestly guys, I don't know if this is normal for you but its scaring me. I've been here for 3 months and in that time we've almost been invaded by Roman legionaries, got invaded by the actual Earth itself and her army, and now half our numbers are in the hospital wing."

Lou Ellen spoke for everyone, shrugging, "Just another summer, kid."

"Like this? No. Something's changing, that's for sure." Travis said. "I would even go as far as to say Gaea never actually went down. She's just gathering strength for another go."

"Well, you know what? Lucky for us, we have an oracle who can give us some clues. Guide us in the right direction. Isn't that right, Rachel?" Butch Walker of Nemesis cabin turned to her.

She looked up with unfocused eyes. Beside her, Percy and Annabeth tried not to appear defeated. A few weeks ago, right after Gaea fell and the Emergence began, Rachel confided to Chiron and them about her faltering connection to Delphi. That's why when the monsters started growing their power, homing in on demigods like missiles, and wreaking havoc like never before Camp Half-Blood was blindsided. Because Rachel's vision was cut off, Percy and Annabeth agreed to stay and help train the next generation. The satyrs took to the field on a massive rescue operation. And fast forward a month to this moment where people wanted answers and there literally were none.

She took a moment to compose her answer, glancing at Percy. Finally, she could find no other way to put it. "I don't know."

There were a few moments of silence.

Lou Ellen sat up for once. "What?"

She clenched her jaw. "I lost my sight a while back. We've been in the dark for a month now."

Clarisse looked ready to pummel something. "And you tell us now? This could have been avoided if you opened your mouth!"

The heat rose to her face, matching her fiery hair. "Hey, this isn't my fault. Chiron called the shots around here, didn't he?"

"Oh, so it's his fault?" She made a move to stand.

Percy beat her to it. "Enough!"

Surprisingly, the daughter of Ares backed off.

"We don't know what in Hades is happening and we all want answers. But we should know by now that handing out blame helps nothing and no one. So we should start by what we do know. Nico."

The son of Hades suddenly found himself at the center of two dozen spotlights. Even Seymour the leopard shifted his slit-eyes over to him. "Uh, right. So I think I might have an idea...well, it's a fraction of an idea. It's more of a theory, really. The guy who killed Chiron? Well, I don't think he actually killed him."

Even Percy's ADHD stopped acting up to finally hear this.

"Stygian Iron is different from Celestial Bronze or Imperial Gold. More powerful. It's got necromantic enchantments that allows it to suck up monsters and sometimes gods with a single cut. Doesn't have to be fatal. And Chiron...I'm not trying to call him a monster but he technically checks all the boxes. I'm guessing - I know his essence is held within that blade that killed him. So all we would have to do-"

"Is find the blade." Annabeth finished. A bright light had ignited in her eyes. Already Percy could imagine the blueprints running through her mind.

Nico nodded. "Find it and destroy it I think. Honestly, I'm not sure if his essence would be released or go on to the Underworld. For that we would need a necromancer."

All eyes turned to Lou Ellen.

She laughed. "Honestly, I'm flattered guys but I don't know the first thing about that."

"But you've got books on that kind of stuff, right?" Percy asked, almost rudely. Now that there was a way, he could feel the fire burn inside. "You've got plenty of scrolls in that cabin. There has to be something on necromancy."

Lou Ellen swallowed. "Sure, I'll see what I can find. But I can't promise anything. Magic like that takes weeks of study and practice to learn. Maybe months."

Percy waved her off. "We can worry about that later. Nico, can you find the blade? Maybe you can track its energy or something?"

He blinked. "Well, I'm not a blood hound but yeah. The trail is definitely still there."

"How soon can you leave?"

"Woah, woah, timeout. Pause." Will gestured. "Percy, that thing has an army behind him. He killed Chiron. Even you barely fought it off."

His brows furrowed. "Barely?"

"Drop the ego, this is serious. He's just gonna go up to his castle and grab the sword? Who's gonna go with him?"

"Hell, I'll go with him, if it makes you happy."

Will shook his head. "I'm coming, too."

Percy resisted the urge to groan. "You know we need you here, Will."

Rachel cleared her throat. "I may not be an oracle at the moment but if I can offer some input, a quest would call for three demigods."

Percy threw up his hands. "Okay, even better. Nico, me, Annabeth. We'll waltz in, snatch the sword, escape easy peezy."

Travis coughed. "Even I'm not that dense. Who's gonna lead the camp? Annabeth's the de-facto leader."

Clarisse snorted. "How in the world did Chiron make you a counselor if you don't even know what a counselor does? We're supposed to run the camp, dumbass."

Travis turned beet red. "At least I didn't bully my way up. People actually like me, Clarisse."

Annabeth slammed her fist on the table. "As far as I'm concerned, I am the leader and both of you shouldn't be counselors if you're going to behave like this. Percy isn't going with Nico. Their stench would attract an army of monsters hours after stepping foot outside camp. Will, I'm sorry but you have an infirmary full of patients. We need victory and luck. Holly and Laurel, I need your luckiest brother or sister to go with him. Hector, I need you to ask Chiara if she's up for a quest. Tomorrow morning, we're seeing them off."

Everyone was stunned into silence by the sheer authority she commanded. She left absolutely no room for discussion or argument.

"Clarisse, good job with the patrol and guard installments. We need that going 24/7. Austin, we're gonna need weapons and armor double time. Lou Ellen, you know what you're doing. Everyone else, after Nico leaves we're meeting to write up a new training schedule. Be prepared to become full-time trainers. Leaving camp by yourself is suicide but if you feel like you need to leave, I won't blame you. For now, get some sleep. Tomorrow we have some shrouds to burn."

She stood and left the room, Percy following closely. Behind him everyone sluggishly stood and left, somehow feeling ashamed and assured at the same time. It was a crazy tragic day but Annabeth's confidence convinced them that everything would turn out fine despite everything. And with Percy here what else could go wrong, right?

The morning was cold and dewy without Zeus' protection. The sun was about an hour off and only a few early risers were in the dining pavilion. It was exactly the same as yesterday. Only this time they were ready for them. The patrols were up in the hills, down by the forests, sitting by the lake and ocean. If the warrior in black decided to come back like he promised, the fury of Camp Half-Blood would rain upon them.

"You know," Nico turned to Percy. "I've only been in this crazy other world for a few years. And I've never complained about the amount of shit that's been thrown at me but man. This is some streak of luck the Greek pantheon is having."

Percy ran his hand along the pine tree that was once Thalia. The Golden Fleece was still hanging on the lowest branch. Maybe they should consider moving it. If the monsters got hold of it, boom, no more barrier.

He turned to Nico. "Since when did you mature to curse words?"

He glared at him. "Okay, got it. You don't want to talk about how fucked up our life is."

Percy scoffed. "What's the point, man? This is the demigod life. We're both used to it by now. And yeah there's a whole slew of shit, as you put it, we've had to go through. Makes me wonder if there really is a way out of this."

"There's always New Rome."

"Yeah. Yeah, there's that. But what happens when Ouranos' dad decides to wake up a week from now and his grand dad a month from now and his uncle and mom and cousins a year later? Are we gonna cozy up and let other people rescue us and the world? How would we live with ourselves?"

Nico considered. "I don't know. I mean, is it really worse than staying? If you really hate it that much."

"Hmm. You know, Annabeth always said how weird it was just how many big prophecies were coming into play. You ever hear about the Great Stirring?"

The son of Hades rolled his eyes. "No, Percy, I'm an idiot who doesn't know how the mythological world works."

"Thanks, sarcasm is always appreciated."

"I learned from you, Master of Sass."

"I actually appreciate that. Not enough people realize the effort I put in. Anyways, Annabeth figures it's no longer a stirring but an awakening. An Emergence. Everything Greek mythology has to show us, it will. Every time it got worse. And now Chiron and Argus is dead. The Gods are pulling their usual crap and apparently feel like they don't need to protect us anymore. Rachel doesn't have her Sight anymore. Am I missing anything?"

"Our communications are down, the black warrior said he'd be back today, we lost our only dragon, Leo is still missing, and our demigod Avengers are split three ways. Oh, and not to brag but you're about to lose one of your most powerful members on a hunch where he could possibly be killed a few miles outside this place."

Percy grinned. "Nice. You know I'd come with you if I could, right?"

Nico sighed. "I know. But the camp needs you. I'll bring that sword back. I promise."

"I trust you. If you can survive Tartarus by yourself, you can get through this. What I'm worried about is how we'll move forward if we can't bring Chiron back even after we get the sword."

"We can trust Lou Ellen. I can probably be of help, too. Son of Hades and all."

Below them, they saw Annabeth coming up the hill with Nico's companions. Percy rubbed his chin where the first hints of a beard were coming in. "Let's hope we can get this back to normal. Or as close to it as we can. After that, we're leaving. We just gotta see this through."

Annabeth and co made it. She sized Nico up. "How you feeling?"

"I'm fine."

"Where's Will? I thought he might be here."

"We said our goodbyes earlier. He's still pretty mad."

"I'm sorry."

"Not at me." He glanced at Percy.

Percy groaned. "What other option do we have? Does he not want Chiron back?"

Nico shrugged. "If someone told Annabeth to leave on a quest to go chase down an immortal right when a another war is brewing on the horizon and you couldn't go with her, would you take kindly to it?"

Percy said nothing.

"Really puts our odds of survival into perspective. Very reassuring." Chiara said.

A wave of guilt passed over Annabeth's face. "I can find someone else, Chiara."

"Are you kidding? I've been dying to see the real world again. Besides, I want a shot at cracking Nico."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm an open book."

Percy genuinely laughed for the first time in days. "I didn't think you had a sense of humor, bro."

"Whatever."

The son of Nike tapped his foot impatiently. "Can we get a move on? I want to get this over with."

Annabeth sighed. "I can get someone else to go in your place, too, Nick."

"Oh no, you misunderstand me. The record for the fastest quest ever completed is three days and fifteen hours. I'm gonna find a way to whittle it down to 2 and a half."

Nico narrowed his eyes. "Just so we're clear, I'm in charge of this thing. I'm not letting a trigger-happy newbie screw this up."

Nick's spine straightened and they got a taste of just how competitive children of Nike were. "So you think you're better than me?"

"I know I'm better than you. By a mile. You got a problem with me taking the lead, you take a seat, let somebody smarter come along."

Annabeth moaned. "This is a bad idea."

"It's a great idea. You've got the children of victory and luck and a certified angsty badass. What could go wrong?" Chiara was downright chipper.

"Sure." Nico said darkly, already scowling.

"Right then. Let's get to it!" The daughter of Tyche set off down the other side of the hill.

Nick followed muttering under his breath. Nico shook his head. "I think I'm gonna end up putting holes in 'em."

Percy smiled. "Hey, that's what I said about you! Good luck, man."

Nico grunted and ran after them.

Annabeth leaned against Percy. "I hope they make it back quick. We're the last three from the Argo II. If we lose him, I don't know what'll happen. And gods know Will would flay us both."

He stared after the trio until they got lost in the trees. "That kinda reminds me of us back in the day. I hope Grover's alright."

"He's fine. You would know if he wasn't. As much as I love Grover, we've got bigger things to worry about. He'll be back soon. We've got that meeting in an hour. Supposing we don't get interrupted again."

Percy grimaced. "We're prepared this time. Did you figure out the schedule? You were up all night."

Annabeth resisted a yawn. "Yeah, I think I cracked it. The trouble was working around the patrol rotation. You ready to start teaching again?"

He shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. I have to be."

"You'll do fine, Seaweed Brain. The kids love you. The older ones respect you. And you've got plenty of patience."

"Two out of three." He smiled down at her. "I'll be wanting to hang myself after a couple weeks of it. Gods, I hated my teachers growing up. Now I'll finally see what it's like to babysit a bunch of prepubescents. Like Chiron."

Hercules hefted his massive club over his shoulder. "So what do the omens say, Titan? Am I moving in on the camp? I'm sick of this place. The stench is giving me migraines."

The Titan stirred in his chair. "It's too soon. You stroll into that camp now, you won't be coming back."

The god of strength did a double-take. "What? I've faced worse as a half-blood."

The Soul Eater smiled. "So has Percy Jackson. As long as he's in that camp, we will never take it. Not without a considerable number of allies."

Hercules chuckled merrily. "The son of Poseidon? What's he gonna do, splash water at me? Please."

"I've half a mind to send you in just to collect a vaultful of drachmae on how long you would last. Do not forget who here holds the power of foresight."

The son of Zeus almost popped a blood vessel. He stormed off without another word.

Phoebe, wife of the Titan, materialized by his side. "I'm sure you're aware but they've just sent the son of Hades."

"Yes. And I see you've set the trap. Excellent work, wife."

She brushed her hair behind her ear. "Is the path clear now?"

He nodded. "Zeus and Hecate are heading down here as we speak. That road has been paved. And you've passed along the message to our friends in Tartarus."

"No problems there. They're more than eager. Though I foresee they have no intentions of being loyal to you."

The Titan shook his head. "Those reptilian fools haven't the slightest clue. We'll make them see the futility of their resistance. We control the future now. How Kronos could allow our marriage to happen, I will never understand. His stupidity is marvelous. And Zeus ... for the most paranoid god to ever walk the earth, he can be so narrow-minded. Then again, he stopped caring for this world the second he caught wind of the others out in the vast cosmos. The bastard has been waiting for the perfect opportunity. This is it. He'll snap the bait. That has been inevitable for centuries now."

She stood behind him, massaging his shoulders. "Just a bit more, darling. Even I can see it so clearly. We will rise once more. And it will be glorious."

The Soul Eater couldn't help but smile.

After 3 hours of Chiara trying to wrench Nico's life story out of his mouth and Nick badgering them to pick up the pace, he was ready to explode.

The trail was easy enough to decipher. The warrior in black wasn't exactly shy about leaving his scent and blood everywhere. The immortal shadow-travelled about a mile outside the camp borders then a couple hundred yards after, he repeated. Nico managed to make the same jump but almost immediately after passed out. When he came to, he saw Chiara hovering above him making sure he was okay and the son of Nike snickering beside him.

They had turned up in New York City in a narrow alley not far from the Empire State Building.

"The steel balls on this guy to camp out right under Zeus' noise." Nico said, after recovering.

"You would know," Nick snickered.

The son of Hades glared at him. "You're very funny."

Nick shrugged, smirking.

Chiara paced. "Well we know they're not in Olympus. You think they're camped in one of these scrapers?"

Nico shook his head. "Unlikely. I can't imagine the Minotaur riding up an elevator a hundred floors, let alone some of the nastier ones."

Nick clapped his hands. "That leaves the sewers, then. There's a pothole literally two feet from where you're sitting."

Nico sighed. "How about we follow the trail? Make sure we know that's where they're going before blindly jumping into shit water like idiots."

And after two hours of sniffing them down, they did indeed end up at an entrance to the sewage tunnels.

Nick growled. "Told you. Now we burned three of our 60 hours."

"This quest is gonna take as long as it has to, buddy."

"Led by you, it is."

The daughter of Tyche. "Is complaining your super power? I'm genuinely curious."

"You'll be lucky if I don't drown you down here."

"You know, I bet your mom is also the goddess of clowns. Explains why you share so many of the same qualities. Or maybe she just fucked one."

Nick threw a punch but Chiara was expecting it. Through sheer bad luck Nico happened to walk between them and caught it full on.

"Enough!" He raged. "You two of you can go back to camp if you're gonna keep up this bullshit! I didn't want you guys to come in the first place!"

"Hey, I was defending you!" Chiara said with indignation.

"I didn't ask for that either. I'm already gonna swim through sewage, least you two could do is try and not make that more miserable."

Amazingly, neither had a thing to say. He turned on them and walked into the sewer. He heard them follow.

The trail became stronger. That either meant they were getting very close or other monsters regularly travelled through here. One thing was for sure. This was where their hideout was.

With an exhale of heavy reluctance, Nico stepped into the sewage, wincing at how high the water came to. He started, going as fast as he could without the water splashing. His dark mood sent a terrifying aura promising death to any rat that came close to him. Needless to say, his body remained bite-free. He followed the scent, never doubting himself at any forks or crossroads. After an hour of walking, he slowly began to lower his guard. And that was precisely when Chiara started her interrogation.

"So you ever done this before? You don't seem too bothered by it." Her voice echoed down the tunnels.

Nico smiled humorlessly. "Neither do you."

"I mean it isn't my first time. I suspect a lot more demigods than humans have done this. Funny world."

"So how old are you?"

Nico scowled. "Why are you so interested in my personal life?"

"And why are you so stubbornly refusing to answer any of my questions?"

"If some random girl you've only seen a handful of times wanted to know if my mom was still alive or if I was bisexual or if I hit puberty yet, how the heck would you respond?"

"Half of those were jokes, jeez. I don't know Di'Angelo, I guess I just like the brooding types."

Nico glanced at her. "I'm not sure if this is some weird flirting or what but I don't like it."

Her cackle made a few rats flee in alarm. "If you think this is flirting you are definitely a sad little guy. So anti-social you don't know a complement from an insult."

"Okay, I'll tell you anything you want, then you gotta zip it for 6 hours."

"That's outrageous! Done. Why did you and Will agree to go out? From what I heard, you barely spent any time at camp before you two met. And the differences between you are literally day and night."

"I'll take a pass on that one."

"Thank the gods," Nick muttered.

"No!" Chiara cried. "If you don't answer you gotta answer two questions."

Nico grimaced. "Fine. I don't know, we met after I'd nearly turned into a ghost-"

"Awesome!" She squealed.

"And he took care of me. Not just healed my wounds but he put effort into getting to know who I was and what I'd been through."

"Sound like someone we know?" The son of Nike said.

"Not like this. He was there. Not to judge or to pity. Just...to be there. And we connected. After Cupid forced me to come out, I was sure I would leave all this behind. I never belonged at Camp Half-Blood or Jupiter. But Will changed that. Now nothing will stop me from preserving that."

Chiara feigned wiping away a tear. Pointless as Nico was more than happy to focus his attention into the darkness. "See? Was that so bad?"

Nico shrugged and looked back at her. "Now you hold your end of the deal and no more questions."

She wiggled her eyebrows. "For 6 hours."

He couldn't help but laugh. "You're something else."

"Yes! See that, we just formed a connection."

"I don't know about connection. But maybe I dislike you a little bit less."

"That's good enough for me."

Nick just had to chime in. "For the record, I couldn't care less if you don't like me."

"For the record, I didn't ask." He growled. "Just because you're the son of victory doesn't mean you get to be an ass."

"Maybe not. But I can't deny how good it feels to know I have an advantage over overs. An advantage they'll never have."

Chiara gave him some side-eye. "I'm starting to think you inherited some of the gods' nastier traits."

"I'm half-god. What's so wrong with me basking in that knowledge? Not everyone is a phony 'I hate the way my life is turning out' quack."

Nico shook his head. "Then you haven't lived kid."

"I'm two years older than you boy. Don't call me kid."

"Sure."

They kept walking through the dark, smelly, wet oasis. If Nico judged his internal body clock correctly, they had been at it for almost an hour. The vapors were starting to make his head ring. More and more often they were losing their footing, almost taking a plunge. There were traces of shadow particles wafting his way. Someone had shadow-travelled up ahead. Nico almost wanted to turn back. There was no way he could make another jump with two sacks of weight. But they had to at least see what was up ahead. Why had the immortal chosen this place to teleport?

In no time at all, they reached the spot.

"Stop," Nico said. "This is where he jumped."

"Where's here?" Chiara said. "It sounds like the tunnels opened up."

"Right you are. Maybe this was a camp?"

"What are we waiting for then?" Nick stepped closer. "Get us out of here."

Nico glared at the pitch black the voice came from. "I can't make another jump so soon. We could end up fused under a thousand tons of concrete."

"Incredible. So you led us in here anyway."

"Clearly, I thought this would be their camp jackass."

"Clearly you thought wrong. We're gonna end up getting the record for longest quest ever taken."

"Forget the goddamn record! We're standing in a river of shit and piss!" Chiara blurted.

"Oh, in that case, forgive me for trying to get us out of here quicker!"

"You can't ever be happy, why'd you come if you were complain about everything?"

Nico frowned. "Wait."

They argued over him and it sounded like they were trading blows.

"Something's wrong, you idiots, wait!" He shouted.

Abruptly, they stopped. Complete silence. The darkness was growing fast, almost tangible. Something was watching them. A familiar presence...

"You feel that? I know him. He's..." Nico pulled out his sword. The blade gave off the barest of glows yet it seemed as bright as fire after an hour of utter blackness.

Suddenly, Nico realized he couldn't feel their presence. He turned, stretching out his arm. "Guys?"

The shadows hissed, as if laughing.

"Show yourself!" Nico snarled.

He felt something mystical closing in on him. It got hold of him and he slashed wildly. He hit nothing. Within moments he knew it pointless. He had to leave now.

He had no choice. He tried to melt away into the darkness but something contained his power. He wasn't going anywhere. He, the Titan, put a veil over his mind and Nico drifted off into the land of dreams.

...

Nico regained a sense of awareness, his mind spinning out of control, his body weightless. Within seconds, or perhaps it was hours, his mind came to a screeching stop. The feedback died down to acceptable levels. The first thing he saw was a heavily armored being towering over him. There was enough celestial bronze on his frame to make three full sets of armor for adult demigods. His sheathed sword was as thick as Nico's torso. His helmet shrouded his face in darkness, his glowing white-blue eyes cold as ice. Adorning his armor was a massive stone devoid of color except for a few flecks of bright blue droplets.

Mythomagic had a figurine for this guy. Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as cool. He had seen him before on his trip to Tartarus. This was the Titan of the North, the Titan of Intellect, the Titan of Foresight, the first-born child of Gaea...Coeus.

Standing by his side, dressed in simple brown robes, was the person whom he could only assume was his wife, Phoebe, the Titan goddess of Prophecy. They spoke to each other in low tones in Ancient Greek but an older tongue, only a few words were comprehensive and the ones he could understand he didn't like.

He tried to move, to turn his head at least but some invisible force held him in place. Even if he could move, he knew Chiara and Nick were not here. He could not feel their life force energies. That alone was enough to drive him into a panic attack. They were dead. In less than a blink, and without an ounce of possible resistance, they were dead. And now he was alone in some cave with possibly the Titan behind the attack on camp, unable to move a muscle.

He took several breaths. Calm down, calm down. Calm down.

If he found a way out of this he would have to pick up every detail he could. Starting with what they were saying.

Phoebe mentioned the word "time" and "future". Coeus responded lengthily, pacing as he did, and ended with "Hades." Nico's heart stumbled.

Coeus raised his hand and all the rustling and growling around him stopped. Everyone held their breaths. He started a speech that he assumed was meant to inspire them because they started yelling war cries and howling. Then he smiled and looked directly at Nico. He walked right up to him and stared down at him.

"All will be made clear now, child. The ritual shall purify you and you will take your place as my Head Portent, overseeing the entirety of your demigod brethren. It is not a bad fate considering the unfortunate end of your friends."

Nico tried to move his mouth but the only sound was his internal voice.

"Speak."

Nico gasped in air as if breaking surface of a vast ocean. "Why am I here?"

Coeus laughed. "I don't know. Why are you here? You were tracking us."

Something clicked in his head. "You planted the trail. You knew we would send someone."

The Titan smiled. "I knew they would send you. I am the Titan of Foresight and my wife helped create the Oracle of Delphi. Anything that will come to pass, we know of. In the same vein, anything we want to make happen, we can. In this case, we knew you would attempt to track us using your inherited abilities. And we know Perseus Jackson will be the one to come after you."

Nico knew he shouldn't poke the bear but he couldn't help himself. "Really? You claw yourself out of Tartarus and round up a groupie to what? Kidnap a couple of demigods?"

The unnerving smile would not leave his dark features. "This is bigger than your mortal mind can imagine, Nico DiAngelo. Do you think I long for conquest? Do you think I yearn for revenge on the Olympians? Neither are wrong, admittedly. But there are bigger things at stake here. Things larger than this world. The blindness Zeus has displayed for centuries...it disgusts me. The sheer amount of resources at that tyrant's disposal only to ignore the warnings and postpone action. Like humans and your "global warming."

Nico glared at him. "Whatever you're going to do, just do it. I'm sick of the villainous speeches."

Coeus narrowed his eyes. "The Greeks were famous for their drama. Why does it still surprise you?"

Nico shook his head.

The Titan straightened. "In simple, modern terms then: You will be made my servant and you will help me destroy your pesky camps. But first, we need to pay your father a visit."

Nico squared his jaw. "I will never fight for you."

Coeus chuckled. "You underestimate the power of magic, boy."

Phoebe moved closer, chanting under her breath.

"With the right sorcerer, the proper spell, and enough power an individual can rewrite the laws of reality. They can transmute matter and bind the elements. Why do you think demigods are so powerful compared to mortals? Your blood has the potential to channel magic. You can manipulate the Mist to bind mortals to your will. Twist their minds, destroy their sanity, dominate them completely."

Phoebe placed her hands on his head and Nico screamed. It felt like hot needles were jammed into his skull, picking at tissue, rearranging his brain. Gods!

"My brothers never realized this. Zeus never realized this until Hecate opened his eyes. They're not worthy to rule. This moment has been coming for centuries, racing through the flow of time. Unavoidable, unstoppable, right on schedule."

Phoebe removed her hands. Nico's entire body seized up, gasping in one last breath before he lost his grip on free will. An image faded away of a sandy-haired boy holding him at gunpoint with a dangerous smile. A tear traced its way down his cheek. Will.

Coeus nodded. "Better. Follow me, boy. Today, history changes course."

Nico slipped his helmet on. A distant, distant part of himself wondered why he was wearing the same armor the Black Knight had worn on the day of the Invasion. The rest of him felt satisfaction. The right tools for the job. He walked right up to the stone wall, beyond which waited his destiny. Only he could open unauthorized doorways to the Underworld. That was why Coeus had chosen him personally.

Nico punched right through deep layers of rock, baring his teeth. His hand brushed against the barrier. Recognizing his lineage, the section of energy powered off, allowing access. He yanked his hand out and the rock crumbled away into dust revealing the new doorway, tall enough for a Giant to run through. Coeus swaggered into the chamber of Hades.

Once inside, the details of Coeus' master plan rushed back as if they were long lost memories. Everything the Master of Foresight had arranged had happened. Even under the control of the Titan, Nico felt an uncontrollable sense of dread of what was about to happen.

Total chaos reigned. Every single one of Hades' contingency plans had been activated, unleashing monsters everywhere. Cerberus wore his Doomsday armor. Demeter and Persephone attacked Hecate who struggled to fend them and the army off. Zeus was in mid-air trapped between the whips of the Three Furies. Hades wore the Helm of Darkness on his head, sending waves of dread and panic into the heart of the foolish King of the Gods.

As quickly as they took it all in, Zeus was grabbing Hecate and retreating. Hades stormed after them but in a second they were halfway out of the Underworld. Zeus unclasped his Master Bolt and rained judgment upon them. Hades did the only thing he could do. He removed the Helm of Darkness and launched it at the blast, hoping to contain it and save his kingdom.

That was when Coeus sprang.

The Bolt and the Helm collided, obliterating the symbol of power and showering the Underworld with light like never before. When Nico's eyes adjusted, he knew it was done. Coeus stood behind Hades, his sword jammed straight through his chest. With total synchrony, the Titan's army charged forward. In one leap, Nico cleared the throne room to stand before Demeter and Persephone.

"Leave," He growled. The power in his chest swelled. With the strength granted to him by his master, he could definitely stand by his unspoken threat.

Their eyes were as wide as saucers. Coeus yanked his sword out of Hades and marched forward, leaving the body to crumple to the floor. In one simultaneous crack they were gone. Just as quickly, the throne room had been cleared of enemy monsters. Phoebe and Coeus gathered around Hades' corpse. Small traces of power remained, quickly disappearing.

Phoebe began chanting and Coeus closed his eyes. His true form began breaking through and Nico turned away.

The time window was extremely narrow. Zeus had come here for one of two things: the Helm of Darkness or the Blood of Hades. Coeus had foreseen it centuries ago. Kronos was gifted with the most powerful abilities Time offered, but Coeus held its deepest secrets. His innate ability to see and shift the future meant he knew exactly which strings to pull to lead to an outcome of his preference.

Coeus knew of the incoming threat to Earth long before the Fates were even born. He knew of the wars that were to be fought. He knew of a special child that was to be born with limitless potential. All Coeus had to do was wait. Wait until the perfect moment in the midst of perfect chaos. That moment had come.

The rock in the center of the Titan's armor began to glow, soaking up power. In a mere 60 seconds, Phoebe had channeled the essence of Hades directly into Coeus. They had beaten Zeus to the catch. Just like that, the Underworld had a new Lord. And the last part that held on, the last of Nico's sanity faded away.