Nico hated time travel. He closed his eyes this time in an attempt to lessen its effect on him. It didn't work. His stomach did flip flops and his head spun as his senses overloaded with everything that ever has, or will, happen.

They appeared in a dark hall, literally. The walls were made of obsidian and stygian iron. The only light came from bioluminescent crystals that hung from thing chains on the walls. Ever ripped one of said crystals off and hung it around her neck.

"Where are we?" Nico asked, keeping his voice low.

"Nowhere, or everywhere," she shook her head, "this place was created to exist outside of space and time, the perfect hiding place," Nico nodded, resolving to save his boyfriend first, ask questions later.

"You bargained for a clue and he just gave you the answer, why," Nico asked, figuring it was important.

"Believe me, this place will be hard enough to get out of as is, think of it like the underworld, everyone knows how to get in, hardly anyone knows how to get out," Nico nodded again and followed her as she made her way, silently, down the corridor. Neither said a word for a long time as Ever led him around twists and turns, which Nico soon gave up on trying to keep track of.

Eventually they started to hear voices and Ever slowed. She felt along the smooth wall and put shed in an invisible door, pulling Nico in after her and closing the door after her.

"I know what you're going to ask, and yes, I have been here before, no I will not tell you my whole life story, and this room has been a hiding place of mine for years. Now, to the important stuff," she started to pace the sizable room, which was furnished like a childs hideout with blankets and christmas lights everywhere, along with childhood drawings and books from every stage, from 'green eggs and ham' to 'Miss Peregrine's home for peculiar children'.

"My brother will have taken him to the great hall, no that was not named after the one at Hogwarts but vice versa, it was named after this place, no I will not explain," she took a deep breath and continued in rapid fire mode, making Nico wish he had notepad and pen to write some of this down, "This is the only place in existance, or out of existence, whatever, where I am mostly powerless. Because this place exists out of space and time, as I told you, I can't just time travel back to before we made a mess of things and do things better. We have one shot here, no do-overs,"

Nico nodded to show he understood, which he didn't, and she continued, "I know for a fact that you won't like what you see when you get there," her tone softened, "They probably hurt Will pretty bad, if he's not dead," Nico caught his breath. He tried to deny it. But he believed her. The monsters would have no reason to leave him unharmed, Hades, they hardly had any reason to keep him alive!

Nico fought back tears, an unfamiliar sensation, and noted for her to go on.

Ever closed her eyes, a single multi colored tear running down her cheek before she continued, he tone betraying no emotion. Did I teach her that too? Nico thought absently.

"When Damon said 'you-know-who' he meant an enemy of our fathers, we don't know her name. She claims to have been a part of the last couple of wars and I doubt she knows who Damion is,only that he is bound to her service through a poorly worded oath on the river styx," Nico was about to respond when he heard a voice from the hall. Both him and Ever held up a finger for silence at the same time.

"-kid was great," someone was saying outside, "I hope we get to see it again tonight, it's so boring here, at least that's something to do,"

Another voice chimed in, "Yeah, I hope we get to see him again, who did the lady say he was?"

"Don't matter, he's just some demigod,"

The second voice sounded nervous, "Well, yeah, but isn't he one of those Greeks? You know what happened to Atlas when he took one of them,"

The first voice sounded completely unconcerned, "Atlas was a fool! He took the girlfriend of the spawn of Poseidon, we just took some random healer," Nico's fists clenched, his sister had died on that quest, and the random healer they took was the boyfriend of the son of Hades. These monsters were in for a surprise. If Nico hadn't been in the mood to slaughter some monsters before, he definitely was now.

The voices faded down the hall. Ever turned to Nico, a hard look in her eyes, which had gone as black as the walls.

"We are going to kick their asses," She said, opening an invisible cupboard and pulling out an assortment of horrifying looking weapons. She had blades of every kind, vials of greek fire, about a dozen different kinds of guns, and what looked like grenades. She tossed him some of the weapons as she went, strapping a pair of swords to her back, putting two handguns into holsters, which were a part of her twin sword sheath, which strapped to her back. He put on a belt, which she loaded with all sorts of weapons. Nico followed suit, putting on the belt and sheaths she passed him, all of which were exactly his size, and loading himself with dozens of different kinds of weapons.

"Okay, do you know how to handle a guns?" She asked when she finished making herself into a walking armory. Nico shook his head. Ever proceed to give him the fastest crash course in history on gun safety. When she finished he repeats everything back to her while demonstrating everything she had shown him.

She nodded, "Alright, I know it's not ideal to go into battle without being a weapons master, but it'll do. Over this way," she pointed to a wall which was, of course, blank, "is a passage to the great hall. It will bring us out in a blind corner near the stage, if we manipulate the mist to make us into monsters, like your friends did during that one battle with the giants, we can blend in with the crowd and split up. If we launch two attacks, slightly spread out, we should be able to get the element of surprise. I'll attack first, you join the wave of monsters who will try to kill me, just don't use any of my weapons against me, they're enchanted against my godly parent's magic, long story. Anyway, you make your way to the stage, where I expect Will will be, you get him here then help me get out so I can get us all out of here,"

Nico nodded, loading the last set of throwing knives onto his belt, "Let's go then," Ever led him to the wall where she pushed open the invisible door and crawled into a tunnel. As Nico followed he saw the mist solidify around Ever in front of him, turning her into a cyclops. He expected the same was happening to him as he crawled along, the cramped space making it hard to move as Ever's crystal lit their way.

Finally they made it out at another invisible door and into the blind corner Ever had talked about. When Nico got out he became instantly homicidal. He was to the right of the stage from the audience's point of view, and he had a perfect view of the stage. He saw the pillar first, once white and pristein, now splattered with demigod blood. Will leaned against it, his breathing heavy and his back a mess of bloody slashes. Nico shook with rage, his hand tightening around the invisible hilt of his stygian iron sword.

He duly registered Ever making her way to the center of the crowd. But his eyes were glued to Will, bloody and broken and a stage while monsters cheered around him. He saw the robed figure behind him with the whip and his rage sharpened into a blade, something tangible to use against his enemies.

He bit back the scream that rose in his throat when she raised the whip. He held himself back when his muscles tried to lurch forward as it was lowered. He failed to restrain himself when he heard it tear through Will's skin. Will didn't scream. Nico screamed for him.

The son of Hades rushed forward, cutting through monsters like they were made of clay as he rushed onto the stage. Most of the monsters were focused of Ever, who was fighting like a demon freshly sprung from tartarus in the middle of the crowd, but whoever was left rushed at Nico, trying to stop him. They all met unsavory fates. The place, wherever they were, may have been outside of space and time, but nothing escaped the underworld. Fissures opened up under the monsters, swallowing them down into the pit. Nico didn't even notice his power drain, his energy was replenished by anger.

He got to the staged and ran the woman through, slicing her whip in half and thrusting his sword through her chest in one smooth motion. She collapsed, the veil falling off her face as she did. Nico barely had time to register who it was before rushing to Will, scooping him into his arms and casting a wave of fear over the monsters. He slipped away in the chaos and got back to Ever's secret room.

He lowered Will onto a pile of blankets turning him so his back was up. Nico swallowed. It was awful. Nico didn't dwell on it, acting instead in instinct. He found a water bottle of nectar in the cabinet, which Ever had left open, and poured a little over the slashes. The blood washed away and they healed, partially. They became thick, jagged, white scars. Nico swallowed the lump in his throat and turned Will over, trying to make him as comfortable as possible on the blankets.

Will was unconscious, probably had passed out from the pain, but Nico woke him up, tossing off his mist disguise and pouring nectar past Will's lips.

"Hey death boy," Will said with a smile, his voice hoarse and weak, "I knew you were coming,"

Nico fought back tears, "Of course I was stupid, I couldn't expect you to get out on your own,"

Will laughed, "You're late,"

Nico couldn't hold back the tears any longer, they spilled over his cheeks, "I should have saved you, I shouldn't have left, I shou-" Will cut him off, "You couldn't have done anything," He smiled weakly, "You found me, even I couldn't find me," Nico laughed through his tears, unable to conjure up a response.

Just then Ever burst through the passage and sealed it behind her, covered head to toe in blood and monster dust. She collapsed to the floor, breathing hard and incapable of speech. She dragged herself over to the boys and knelt next to Will.

"Is he okay?" She asked, her voice horas.

"He'll heal," Nico said sinking against the wall, exhausted.

"Good…" Ever trailed off as her eyes unfocused and she swaye, "that's...good…" she fell, her muscles giving out under her. Nico lurched toward her, gabbing the bottle of nectar and tipping it against her lips as gently as he could as he lifts her head. Her neck was sticky with blood and her hair was caked in monster dust, making Nico wonder, how was she still alive? He had been filled with rage and adrenaline, along with what he supposed was the blessing of Hades running through him. She might have been on an adrenaline rush and might have had her godly parents' blessing, which he doubted because of all her talk of him being a monster, but, regardless of all that, she should still be dead. One does not simply, walk into a room full of monsters and survive. If you were that outnumbered, you were dead, end of story.

Nico got her to swallow the nectar and watched as her smaller wounds healed. She looked awful. He couldn't see all of her injuries, but the deep gashes on her legs and arms were obvious. Her coat was torn up and there was an arrow stuck straight through her shoulder. Nico snapped off the point and pulled out the shaft, tossing them aside. He tore off pieces of the nearest blanket and used the pieces as bandages to stop the blood that poured from her wounds.

~oOo~

Will woke a while later to see Nico passed out on the floor once all of Will and Ever's wounds had been wrapped in the tattered remains of the blankets that cluttered the room. He pushed himself into a sitting position and put a hand on Nico's shoulder. Nico bolted upright, sword ready. Will didn't flinch.

"Good morning death breath," he croaked, blinking the sleep from his eyes. Relief flooded his boyfriend's face and Nico wrapped his arms around him. That caught Will off guard. Nico hated physical contact. He must have been really shaken up to make him act this out of character. Will returned the hug, burying his face in Nico's tangled mess of black hair.

"I love you," Will whispered softly.

"I love you too,"

~oOo~

It was days later when Ever woke up. Will treated her wounds, which he said covered her entire body, while Nico searched for hidden cabinets. He found plenty. Apparently Ever had stocked the place for the apocalypse, which, he supposed, this was pretty close.

He found rations and he and Will split them sparingly, not knowing how long they would have to wait in that room before Ever was strong enough to get them out. They split the room, hanging the blankets from the ceiling to create an isolated area for Will to work. He was there often, removing the pieces of snapped off swords, arrows, daggers, and spears that had gotten themselves lodged in her body. At one point Will had to rig up a makeshift transfusion to give her some of his blood when she needed some, he was O negative, the universal donor.

When she finally did wake up Nico was watching her. He and Will had taken to sleeping in shifts so she didn't die in the night when Will couldn't help her. Not that they could tell if it was day or night, but they made educated guesses, it was hard to tell with time travel.

"What happened?" She asked, not bothering to try moving.

"You survived, by some miracle," Nico responded, half hoping she would explain.

She laughed weakly, "Did I? Good for me," she coughed, covering her mouth with her hand. When she pulled it away it was splattered with blood, "Can I have some necatar or ambrosia?" She asked and Nico handed her the water bottle.

"How did you survive?" He asked, no longer able to keep himself from asking.

"I was wondering how long you'd be able to keep from asking questions," There was no accusation in her tone, just a weary statement. He thought he heard an undertone of defeat as well, and some small part of Nico wished he had. If she was defeated she would give up her secrets. He banished those thoughts. If people asked about his secrets he would never get any peace.

"I guess I do owe you some explanation, you get one secret, but first, Will, is he okay?" She asked, her eyes were closed but the concern in her voice was strong, and baffling, until Nico remembered she was from his, and Will's, future.

Nico was about to decide on a secret when Will came into the sectioned off area.

"Hey, you're awake!" He exclaimed, rushing over to check her and Nico's bandages, "I gotta admit, I was worried for a while there," He shook his head and loosened a bandage on her left arm, which was above her banket. Will had removed her coat, and Nico had found six just like it in one of her hidden compartments.

"She offered to tell us one secret," Nico told Will, not meeting his eyes for fear of what he would find there. If Nico showed just how eger he was to hear the secret, he didn't want to know what Will would think of him. No one should want someone to expose himself as much as Nico wanted Ever to, especially not someone with secrets of their own.

"Okay," Will said absently, "which of her secrets is she planning on telling us?" He asked, directing the question at Ever.

"Your choice," she responded, glancing down at them, her eyes a mix of worry and fear. What could possibly scare someone like her this bad? Nico asked himself, knowing the answer. He was, after all, terrified of his own secrets, and he had claimed the title of 'ghost king' when he was ten.

Will considered her words for a minute before speaking in a soft tone, "How about your godly parent, it seems like that's a big deal," She visibly winced and he added quickly, "But you don't have to! You can tell us something else if you have to tell us anything,"

She shook her head, "It's called a silent oath, if I say I'll tell you what you want to hear I have to comply, it's part of the retribution I get for all the powers I've...acquired," she paused, taking a deep breath, "When I tell you, I need you to know a few things. First, I have to tell you everything, don't try to stop me, that includes the blessings I got from other deities and such. And second, I need you to promise not to kill me," Both Nico and will started at this, kill her? Why would they do that?

"I promise we won't kill you," Will said, still confused.

Ever noded and pushed herself up into a sitting position, despite Will's protests and look each of them over, "I'll miss your ignorance," She said before launching into her story, speaking quietly and not meeting their eyes as she spoke.

"I was born in ancient Greece," she started softly, "I didn't know who my father was at first, of when and where I was born. As it turns out, I developed my powers quickly and as a baby managed to travel myself to modern Manhattan. I grew up in a time loop of the second titan war, always ending with the battle of Manhattan and starting again three years earlier, so I learned early on what effects time travel has on people," She paused and took a shaky breath as if relieving a painful memory, "I found out later who had set the loop and why. It was my father, who wanted my help with his war,"

The realization dawned on the boys at the same time. No. Nico thought, Not him. But she confirmed it.

"Kronos is my father. That's why I can time travel, why I look the way I do, you know, the whole eye thing. It's a time glitch of sorts, my genetics are in constant flux, switching between timelines constantly. I have multiple mothers, see, Kronos was able to manifest himself into a physical body once before, in ancient Greece, as I said, and when he did he played tricks with time, testing the limits of his powers in the weak mortal form. In that time he, um, was with multiple women at the same moment in time, the result is me,"

Will and Nico digested this, slightly disgusted, but these were Greek deities, almost everything they did in ancient Greece was slightly disgusting.

"Anyway, as you could probably guess from the fact that you won, I didn't do as I was told. This got me a one way ticket to tartarus and the hatred of every monster and demigod to fight in that war, on either side. Though, to be fair, you guys didn't find out about me until after your second war, then you guys got to join in hating me. Except you two for some reason, you didn't try to kill me on sight once you knew who my father was,"

She looked at them curiously as they tried to process this new information. Nico seemed to understand faster than his boyfriend.

"It's because I was just like you," he spoke up, "I was, am, shunned by a lot of people for my powers and parentage, and Will's just the idiot who sees past that," Will put an arm around Nico's shoulders and squeezed, giving him a loving look.

"Well, none of that will happen now anyway, so I'll skip to the part where I got even you two to hate me," this got her varying looks from the boys but she ignored them and went on, "When I turned ten I decided I needed a more permanent family, other than the constant foster homes and avoiding my doppelgangers. So I found the one deity that remained neutral at all times, one that I found out later, you hate," Nico felt a pang of irrational anger, Eros, he knew that she was young and desperate at the time, but that love god had ruined his life more completely than anyone else, and he wasn't in the mood for forgiveness.

Ever avoided his eyes, suddenly finding the makeshift bandages covering her entire torso fascinating, "Yeah, I went to Euros. He raised me, taught me to fight, he and Psyche, they were my parents, they were the ones to give me my first godly blessing, and the reason I got any others after that," She shook her head as if to clear away a memory and continued, "I gained to power to wield Eros' bow and enchant his arrows, the same way he does," Nico had to force himself not to back away from her.

"That's why the gods fear me, right now half of them are madly in love with the furniture in the throne room, and the other half gave me formal apologies for Zeus's idiocy," This gotta laugh form Will, but Nico was still too stunned to recognize the humor.

"Anyway, I have wings from Eros, the price of his powers, never being able to blend in with demigods, always being to odd one out, in exchange for my life. They would kill me you know, the gods, they would kill me if it didn't mean the wrath of Eros. but I don't suppose that matters now, considering I managed to wipe myself from existence when I went to warn you, Damion went back and prevented me from being born. But it didn't have the effect he hoped. I got blessings from a lot of gods, titans, a few giants and even the pit himself, as it turns out, this pretty much eradicated my mortal soul, and you can't just wipe and immortal from existence, Kronos tried it on the gods, it doesn't work,"

Will gave her a puzzled look, "Wait, so you're…"

"Immortal? No. I can take a lot more than a mortal or demigod could, but I'm only about three fourths immortal now, not fully, and I have a ton of weaknesses, those aren't part of the deal and I don't want to make killing me to easy for you later on," there she goes again, assuming she was sentencing herself to death, "In all I've been blessed by Zeus with immunity to most lightning, except the master bolt. Ares gave me endurance, Bores gave me the ability to turn my wings into a cold breeze,"

Will snapped his fingers, "So that's what that was!"

She nodded, "Her swore on the styx to leave me alone, Hephaestus gave me the coats, they serve as armor against most attacks, but they can only take so many hits before they wear down and, well, you saw what happened to the one I was wearing," She gestured to the heap of tattered, bloody fabric that had been tossed into a corner when Nico couldn't rip it into bandages.

"Anyway, Athena gave me useful crafts after flatly refusing to give me battle strategy and, well, she's one of the few goddesses I still respect. Dionysus made the same promise as Hera, which has been more helpful than you would think," She paused and took a breath, "Poseidon gives me protection at sea, except from his children, whom he seems to have a problem with dissing, I get it, I've got a kid hopping around through space and time someplace, cute boy, nice, a psychopath, but nice. Anyway," she went on, ignoring the looks she got from the boys, "I got Demeter to do me a favor, no I will not tell you about that, and Hermes helped stab;ize my powers. At that time I couldn't use them very well because I didn't have a good teacher, you know, with the only willing person at the time being with a completely separate set of powers. So the god of travel helped me learn,"

She opened her mouth to continue but blushed and hid her face instead. She worked up her courage and went on in a quiet voice, "And Aphrodite…" She trailed off, shaking her head and taking a shaky breath once again, "She...um...well she didn't give me the regular blessing. It wasn't until later that I learned what her usual blessing was, beauty or true love, but I didn't get either of those things. She decided to make me," she cringed, "Eros' adopted sister," Ever looked up to see the stunned expressions on Will and Nico's faces.

She looked away. She just knew that Nico would hate her now, especially when he learned what she did. She fidgeted with the bandages on her wrists and waited until the boys had digested her statements. She hated this. She was so used to keeping her past secret, and she had had an excuse to last time the boys saw her. But at the time she had been born, she had a past, or future, depending on how you looked at it. But now she had none of that, even her psychopathic son had been wiped from existence, which she was bummed about, she like him.

"Umm, so I did a few favors for her and Eros, including," she refused to look Nico in the eye, "firing an arrow into the heart of a ten year old boy,"

Realization dawned on Nico's face. His body shook with rage and Will had to physically restrain him to keep him from ripping her apart, "Do you have any idea," He said through gritted teeth, "What that arrow put me through,"

She cringed away from him, head down in shame, "I won't make excuses," She said quietly, "I didn't know who you were or what would happen, just that the man who raised me asked me to do something simple and that your kind tried to have me executed for being born," Nico relaxed slightly but his eyes hardened, no longer showing her the sympathy she had seen in them before.

"Apollo still owes me a favor, and Artemis offered me shelter with the hunters, though I suppose that only accounts for the specific group she's with, science the others would kill me on sight if they knew who I was," Will had the same hard look in his eyes as Nico. She didn't blame them. She deserved their hatred, especially for the things she didn't tell them.

"Hades was a...special case. Instead of threatening him, I befriended him. He doesn't get along with his siblings, and neither did I, so we had that in common. I have a room in his palace and a position judging souls, I took Minos's spot, you know, cause he was a horrible person when he was alive and should never have gotten the position in the first place," She finished with that, leaving out everything she could get away with.

Ever pushed herself into a standing position, receiving no help from the boys and offered her hand to help them. Will ignored it and got up, dragging Nico after him. Ever lost her last spark of hope and took Nico's shoulder, "Focus," was all she said before they disappeared, shimmering back into existence in the room of requirement.

Hey y'all sorry this one took so long, that last scene was difficult for me, because, you know, it's hard not to make that boring. Anyway, I'm sorry if I failed in making that last bit interesting for you, I did my best. Please review, I'm trying to improve as a writer and I depend on you guys to help with that. If you are afraid of offending me, I may have said this already, but I am not even close to being easily offended. It would be a different story with my older sister, but with me, you have to press some very specific buttons for me to get upset. But if your problem is that you don't find any fault with my work...pick up a book please.

Anyway, that's my bit for the day I hope you all had a better X-mas, or whatever holiday you celebrate, than I did. Have a great rest of your day, or evening, whenever you're reading this.