Just to clarify a few things, this story is set about 3 - 4 years after The Last Olympian. Although I enjoyed The Lost Hero, and have even pre-ordered The Son of Neptune, it's just too hard to guess where the end of the second series will leave Nico, and Camp Half-Blood. So no matter how much I love the Roman demigods and such, I'm just going to pretend they don't exist, for simplicity's sake.

So, onto the first actual chapter of our story!

If Nico could pick only one word to describe Camp Half-Blood, he'd have to chose "intense."

His dark brown eyes narrowed in concentration, Nico quickly analyzed his battle options. Barely pausing to suck in a breath, he fluidly slide his right foot out, lowered himself closer to the ground, and sprung upwards, swinging his double-handed stygian blade with him. His opponent barely had time to block the son of Hades' onslaught with his own sword. With a deft twist of his wrists, the dark haired boy cleanly knocked the younger boy's sword out of his hands. A quick side-step brought the two nose-to-nose, Nico's naked blade pressed gently against the other's neck.

For a second, they simply locked eyes, breathing heavily before Nico stepped away, slipping his black sword back into it's sheath. His defeated opponent gave a light laugh of resignation and went to gather his fallen weapon. Nico's lip twitched into a slight smile as the younger boy turned once again to face him.

"You're improving," he told the son of Hermes, who brightened immediately at the praise.

A few yards away, a snicker quickly wiped whatever pride the kid may have felt.

"Tch, really? I couldn't tell, it looked to me like you got your ass handed to you, Derek."

Derek's cheeks tinged pink and he turned to face his mocker.

"Shut up, Kyston, I'd like to see you do any better!" he huffed angrily at his half-sibling, who was lolling about with the rest of the Hermes' clan. The rest of the pointy-nosed kids chuckled good naturedly at the banter between their cabin-mates. Kyston rolled up his sleeves, a wide grin spreading over his face, the kind that would have him immediately pegged as a trouble maker, or, in the demigod world, a classic child of Hermes.

"Challenge accepted; give me the sword."

Willingly, Derek handed him the simple training sword he had lost moments ago. Nico rolled his eyes and groaned.

"You guys, this is supposed to be a lesson, not a competition," he complained, eyeing the eager Kyston, who was already in a battle stance.

"Yeah, I'm going to teach Derek how this is supposed to be done!"

Nico shook his head defiantly.

"I'm the teacher, you guys are the students," he reprimanded, stressing his point by pointing to himself, and the Hermes cabin.

"Come on, just a quick one! Or are you afraid to fight me?" Kyston challenged, quirking an eyebrow tauntingly. The assorted kids around them hooted and hollered at the pair, some encouraging Nico to beat some respect into him, other cheering Kyston on against their young trainer.

Nico huffed lightly, but was unable to keep the flicker of amusement off his face. He could only resist the temptation for so long, and really, where was the harm? Kyston noticed his change of expression and tightened his grip around the sword, suddenly seeming to realize that he'd gotten his way, for better or worse

"If that's the way it's gotta be…" Nico mumbled, before whipping his black blade back out and springing at his trainee. To his pride as a teacher, the less experienced boy jumped quickly out of the way and charged his back. His motions were a bit clumsy, and Nico could predict his next move by following his eyes, but nonetheless, it was a good effort. Their blades met with a sharp clang, exciting their audience who picked up the volume of their cheers.

Kyston's smirk faltered and Nico smiled his own twisted leer at him, pushing harder against his sword. Kyston's grip weakened and his sword slipped to the side. Nico continued shoving forward, planning to simply place the edge of his blade against the other's throat, like he had with Derek, but Kyston must have learned from his half-brother's mistake, and quickly ducked down, rolling away to the side and springing up again.

Nico's wicked smirk melted into a small smile of actual pleasure.

"Not bad," he admitted. Good to know at least someone was paying attention when he was demonstrating.

Kyston chuckled nervously, looking a little surprised himself, but the instant his guard had been lowered, Nico spun around in a sharp half circle, knocking the kid's feet from underneath him, landing him on his back, with Nico's blade tip gently poking the center of his chest.

Kyston let out a grunt as he hit the ground, staring wide-eyed at the sword master above him. After a second, Nico pulled back his sword, and instead offered his hand to help his fellow camper up. The surrounding Hermes cabin exploded into laughter.

"Nice one, Nico!"

"Oh, burn, Kyston!"

"Haha, you got schooled, Ky!"

Kyston laughed it off sheepishly and accepted Nico's hand up.

"…but don't let your enemy distract you."

"Yeah, yeah…"

Just at that moment, chaos descended on the swordsmanship class in the form of the Stoll Brothers. The Cabin 11's head counselors whirled around the corner of the Arena, typical large grins on their faces and suspicious looking black dust on their faces that Nico deeply feared was explosive. The youngest Hermes campers screamed their delight at seeing their idols. Nico sheathed his sword and shoved his hands deep into his jean pockets, not sure what to expect from the ever unpredictable brothers.

"Hey guys! Hi Nico!" they chorused, coming to a screeching halt in the center of their little group.

"Mhm," he said softly. The brothers were undeniably his friends and had been for many years, but he'd learned much caution when dealing with them in this sort of destructively happy mood.

But if they noticed the wary look he was shooting them, they paid no heed.

"Can you guys read a clock or what? It's dinner time!" stated Travis matter-of-factly, motioning for his siblings to get up. Eagerly they did, rushing off to the dining pavilion, Conner and Travis turned to follow them, but when Nico made no immediate move to follow, they paused to give him an odd look.

"Ni-co," Conner prompted, "Dinner…ya know, food?"

The dark haired boy sighed in reassignment, put away the training sword they had been borrowing, and traipsed after his older friends.

"I know, I heard you the first time."

"Aw, come on, no pouty death glares, it's only the first week of camp!" declared Travis.

"No grumpy sword masters, scares away the 'wittle 'nes," Conner cooed teasingly.

"I'm not the sword master to begin with."

"We are running so low on teachers, you know you're gonna get upgraded from a substitute any time now."

Nico didn't respond, acknowledging the truth in Travis's answer. Ever since the flux in claimed demigods, Camp Half-Blood had been almost overwhelmed, and right now, in the peak summer, when they were ALL here, it was all they could do to keep a semblance of order.

By now the trio had reached the separation in the paths leading to the Dining Pavilion and the cabins. Nico veered away from the flow of hungry campers, heading against traffic to his black cabin.

"I'll catch up, just gonna put my sword away!" he called after the Stoll Brothers, who nodded and continued shepherding their charges to their table.

Grateful to escape the heat of the day and the endless noise of the other campers, Nico melted into the shadows of his cabin. Even on the hottest of summer days, the thick stone walls radiated a frigid chill. Most people would imagine hell and death as hot, fire, pain, but Nico would have to disagree. The true loneliness of death was in the separation, the cold, silent agony.

Nico propped his sheath and sword in the corner of his cabin, and face palmed himself. Thinking about things like that was exactly why people pegged him as a goth or an emo. His refusal to comply with the camp's obnoxiously bright orange shirt might help with that reputation. So what if he preferred black? Beggars couldn't be choosers, and they might as well have been begging for his help this summer with all the new campers. Camp Half-Blood needed all the experienced demigods it could get to help train and condition their new recruits.

Absentmindedly, he brushed his bangs out of his eyes and wandered quietly back out into the scorching sun, which was finally beginning to set. He headed off towards the babble of voices, quickly reaching the mingle of orange-clad kids.

"Hey Nico, how's it going?"

Annabeth's voice turned him around to face the blonde girl, who was offering a happy smile. She was already seated at Athena's table, food on her plate. Nico's stomach made an odd grumbling noise at the sight of the lean steak, secretly wishing it was a hamburger. Damn Camp Half-Blood, not even offering a choice to be unhealthy. Annabeth laughed, and he realized he had been eyeing her food quite strangely.

"Hungry?" she giggled and Nico shrugged guiltily.

"Teaching is hard," he defended himself, "Talk to you later, gotta refuel."

Annabeth nodded and the teenage boy continued on with his dinner. Gingerly, he scraped a part of his meal into the fire.

"To Hades," he murmured softly, before doing a double-take in confusion. For a spilt second, he could have sworn he had seen a blurry white circle in the smoke of his burning food, but the moment he blinked, due to said smoke in his eye, it was gone. Nico stared intensely into the fire for another moment, when a sharp female "ahem," behind him made him turn.

He was greeted by the obnoxious scowl of Drew, Aphrodite's ex-head counselor. Nico glared surly back at her. She'd been quite the tyrant while she reigned, but eventually she had been brought down - hallelujah, not only for the Aphrodite campers.

"You're holding up the line, move it."

Nico's upper lip curled.

"You're stuck up, move it," he retorted in a falsetto valley-girl voice, mimicking Drew's over dramatic hand movements. The kid behind Drew burst into peals of laughter and Nico exchanged eye contact with the amused camper before moving off to avoid Drew's angry retort.

Languidly, he flopped onto the edge of Cabin 13's empty benches. He gobbled down his food with a speed and intensity only a growing teenage boy can exhibit, completely isolated in his little island of solitude in the babbling mass of campers. With a little pang of sadness, he looked around at the pavilion. Only four other tables of the twenty were emptier than his, with a population of zero.

Zeus's had been empty for ages, ever since Thaila joined the hunters years ago. Nico smiled sadly at the thought of his friend, wondering when he'd see her again - it'd been a while.

Hera's table is just for show. Thank the gods, because Nico didn't want to even imagine how nasty her children would be.

Poseidon's table was barren too, seeing as Tyson and Percy had been gone for a few weeks now, visiting their father's underwater castle. They should be coming back soon though, Nico mused, Chiron has undoubtedly ask for their help. That'll be good, Percy can maybe help me with some of the sword training around here.

And, Artemis's table was of course just for respect, or when the hunters came around, which was almost never. Camp Half-Blood and Artemis's followers didn't exactly mingle very well together, as was famously known.

Other than that, all the other tables were teeming with life, except for Hypnos, a minor god of sleep, who had only two kids, both of which had fallen asleep face-downward in their plate of food. Even Pollux, Mr. D's only surviving son, had a new little sister, almost a female replica of her elder half brother.

But that's ok, thought Nico desperately, trying to cheer himself up, I'm more of a loner anyway, what would I do if there was another child of Hades?

You mean a surviving child of Hades, whispered an dark voice in the back of his mind. Nico mentally winced, but refused succumb to his weak thoughts. He'd moved on, Bianca's death was tragic, but she wanted him to have a happy life…

His attention was distracted by a movement in the corner of his eye. He turned his head to see Chiron getting out of his fake wheelchair. Nico inwardly chuckled at the "eeps" and "ohs" from the younger campers who were still unaccustomed to seeing the centaur.

"Ahem," Chiron cleared his throat loudly, ensuring that he had everyone's focus. Silence descended upon the ranks, and their teacher smiled kindly down at them.

"Well, well, it seems we have reached our first summer Friday." The campers who had been here for longer than a year exploded into rowdy cheers, knowing what Chiron was getting to. He beamed happily down at the group, before finally revealing,

"Which of course means Capture the Flag!"

Excited chatter filled the air before Chiron stomped one of his hoofed feet, demanding respectful silence. Still grinning in anticipation, the campers complied.

"So, to stick with tradition, we will have Cabin 6 lead one team," Athena's cabin let out a cheer of approval. Nico noticed in particular the excited look on Annabeth's face.

"And the opposing team will be led by Cabin 5," Ares's children roared their appreciation. Clarisse was still the loudest and the biggest, punching the air and screaming something about making her enemies cry for their "mama's" Nico rolled his eyes. He'd come to appreciate Clarisse more after the events in New York, but they hadn't maintained a very friendly bond throughout the years.

"SO!" shouted Chiron. After he had regained control, he repeated himself , in a more normal volume, "So, you all have half an hour to prepare your alliances and draw up battle strategies. Off you go. Oh, except the Iris cabin, you have clean up duty tonight so I'd shake a leg if I were you."

Chiron briefly glanced down at his horsy haunches, before correcting himself. "Or a hoof, you could shake that too."

Grumbling, Butch led the small Iris cabin into the kitchen to clean the dishes at top speed. Everyone else stormed out of the Dining Pavilion, Annabeth and Clarisse exchanging a few taunts as they retreated.

Nico followed the pack, but at a more slow pace, deciding to watch and see how the sides were panning out before jumping into a rash decision simply because he preferred Annabeth over Clarisse. They were both good captains, and had strengths and weaknesses - as always, it was going to be a good match.

He chuckled to himself, realizing how much thought and strategy he was putting into a mere game. Oh well, it's to be expected if I hang out in this looney town for any extended period of time.

He observed with a nod of approval as Annabeth's first move was to convince the Apollo cabin to join her ranks. A wise choice - Cabin 7 was composed of nimble archers. Long range attacks were useful in stealth and defense. Then again, on the down side, their bows and arrows aren't the best weapons to have in the thick foliage the game is played in.

He turned his head just in time to see Clarisse shake hands with Lou Ellen, head of the Hectate Cabin. Nico's eyes widened in appreciation of Clarisse's choice. Cabin 20 possessed powerful magic, mostly explosive, spelling out bad news for Annabeth. Of course Clarisse would go for the raw power - it fit her fighting style.

Next, Annabeth collected Demeter's cabin - yet another very strategic option that perhaps covered slightly for the Apollo Cabin's weakness. Children of the goddess of the harvest had abilities with plants, a few of them quite powerful, and the foliage and natural surroundings during the game would be to their advantage.

Here, his observations were disturbed by noting Clarisse advance towards him. Nico could plainly read her intentions - she wanted to recruit him. Despite his misgivings on being against the combined forces of Ares and Hectate, Nico made a split second decision and turned to find Annabeth. He didn't want to be dragged along for Clarisse's glory ride simply because he was powerful.

It took him only a few moments to locate the blonde girl, who was just sealing an alliance with the Hephaestus cabin. Nico tapped her shoulder briefly to get her attention. The grey-eyed girl turned and smiled broadly up at him. Despite being several years younger, Nico had hit a growth spurt a while back and now had a good foot on his friend.

"Athena and Hades?" she asked cheerily, never happier than while planning a great battle. Nico gave a brief nod and Percy's girlfriend looked pleased.

"Excellent. Hurry and grab your sword and come back to help."

Bossy as always, Nico thought, although not bitterly. Annabeth was a wise and confident leader - a worthy daughter of Athena.

He did as she said and when he came back, found Cabin 6's head counselor explaining her plan of action to the heads of her allied cabins. Nico slid into place quietly, crouching down with the others to see the little diagram Annabeth had hastily drawn in the dirt.

"…and Connor, Travis, you led a band of your stealthiest into enemy territory to scout out their flag. Don't get to close unless you are POSITIVE you can nab it, ok? The rest of you Hermes kids will stay on defense," she looked up Nico, now with his black sword in hand.

"Oh ok good, yes, Nico you are going to be defense as well. Uh, I think Chiron banned shadow travel because apparently it doesn't make for a fair game, but earth manipulation and undead soldiers are a go, ok?"

Nico nodded, feeling a bit put out that his powers were being restricted. Suddenly, in an odd sort of epiphany, he realized he was the only child of the Big Three currently at camp. Was that why? Did Percy have water privileges taken away in the games too?

"Five minutes!" warned Chiron as he galloped by, off into the woods where he would observe the game as usual.

"Right," Annabeth responded, before standing up, dusting the dirt of her knees, scuffing out the plans she'd drawn, and leading her team after the centaur. Clarisse broke up her huddle and her brigade quickly tagged along behind.

Following orders, Nico found himself a spot next to the predetermined border and settled himself in the shadows, feeling reassured in his power as the dark silhouettes reached out towards his still figure, covering him in a shield of darkness. The sun would set in perhaps twenty minutes, strengthening his shadow manipulation powers even more, if the game even lasted that long.

With the ease of practice, Nico slowed his heart rate with slow, deep breaths. Faithfully, the shadows clenched their grip around him, and even if one had inferred vision, they would now have a difficult time locating the young demigod. The dark power coursing through his veins gave him a rush of energy and he couldn't keep the devilish smirk from sneaking across his face. Although he'd come to grip with his abilities in a emotionally painful manner, he'd quickly learn to relish his finally unburied potential.

Gently, he rolled his head to the side, willing his shield of blackness to mute the movement, testing his "cloak of invisibility" as Percy had teasingly nick-named this particular skill of his.

A deep melodic horn echoed through the woods, announcing the start of the game. Nico lightly fingered the hilt of his Stygian iron sword, eager for the first, unsuspecting enemy to wander into his sight.

A few still minutes passed before Nico's silent patience was rewarded as a son of Aphrodite and a girl Nico recognized to be from the Tyche cabin, goddess of fortune. The son of Hades's squinted in concentration as the pair slipped closer and closer to the border, until they had crossed the invisible line dividing the territories.

At that instant, Nico surged forward out of the shadows, earning a startled gasp from the trespassers. With a swift, sharp thrust of his left arm, the ground groaned, and cracked into a massive gap, stranding the two from returning to their side.

"AAHH!" squealed the Tyche girl while the boy from Aphrodite nearly dropped the short sword he was shakily holding.

"Hello there," murmured the black-clad teen, smugly watching his quivering opponents.

"Aw, hydra shit, of course we would run into the one-man-death-band," groaned the boy, before wheeling around on his younger female companion.

"Aren't you supposed to be lucky or something?" he demanded of the girl, who had at least enough wits about her to shoot him a nasty glare, before drawing a small dagger out of her sleeve.

"I said no guarantees," she squeaked in a high pitched voice, taking up a standard defensive position.

Nico quirked an eyebrow at the pathetic pair, before deciding to take pity and simply raise a few undead soldiers to deal with them. Accordingly, he focused his energy on the welt in the earth he had created, reaching with his mind, down…far down, until he could almost even hear the wails of pained souls coming from his father's realm…

The skeletons responded to their prince's call and accordingly four or five chattering warriors heaved themselves out of the crevices, and Nico leapt lightly away into some more shadows, confident that it would take them sufficient time to be defeated. Not that those two were much of a threat to his side to begin with.

He ran several hundred yards away from his first location, until he found another suitable spot to wrap himself in the shadows. Now, he barely had time to settle himself before an ugly redheaded Ares camper, one of their more senior fighters, charged recklessly across the border, a bloodthirsty grin plastered on his face.

Again, Nico released himself from the shadows' clasp, this time swinging his short black blade up to deliver a strong blow directed to dent the kid's red plumed helmet. Not surprisingly, the boy's well-trained reflexes kicked in and he instinctively blocked Nico's strike with his spear.

Nico grit his teeth, knowing he had found a much stronger rival than his last two, and he turned quickly, releasing them from a pressure battle, making a quick swipe at the other's unprotected legs, but the ugly guy just jumped above the black tip.

A challenge, interesting…Nico mused as he quarried against oncoming blows, searching for another option. If he could just get a second to concentrate, perhaps he could knock him off balance with a pit or two in the ground…

But his enemy wasn't giving him the chance to focus on ripping open the soil. They continued their dance of spear vs. sword, neither really gaining the upper hand.

But after a while, the kid's concentration begin to slip as he grew more and more frustrated with his slippery target. With snarl of rage, he made a desperate plunge of his spear which Nico not only had no trouble avoiding, but had enough to time to give the shaft a mighty whack from his sword, causing the handle to splinter. For a brief moment, the Ares kid stared at his now useless spear, before shocking Nico by turning back and leaping bare-handed onto dark haired boy.

The other's element of surprise gave him an advantage; he was able to actually knock him flat onto his back. In the small pause while the redhead had been gaping at the damage done to his weapon, Nico had been trying to raise a wall of stone to hurl at him, but hadn't been giving sufficient time, now resulting the an alarmingly large pothole next to them.

If the Ares kid noticed, he didn't care. Nico immediately began writhing under him, freeing one leg and trying to use it to twist himself out from underneath the much larger guy sitting on him. Apparently unbothered by Nico's efforts, the redhead wound his fist back to deliver what would have been an painful punch to the face, when he finally was able to wrap his knee around the larger boy's torso, and with grunt, knocked him off.

The opposing camper smacked hard into the ground, the side of his head crashing roughly into the accidental ditch Nico had created. To the redhead's credit, he began immediately to get up, despite the blood trickling down the side of his face, but he stood no chance against Nico now.

The raven haired teen flexed his left arm in front of him, tensing his muscles, and with a powerful sweep, the earth opened up and swallowed his downed opponent up to his neck, just barely leaving his face above ground. Obviously, the Ares kid was not pleased with turn of events and began screaming and cursing before Nico locked him in a death glare and growled,

"Shut up."

Alas, Ares's offspring are not the sharpest tool in the shed - he ignored Nico's command - and he now had to breathe through his nose while spitting out clumps of dirt and rocks.

Wild whoops of joy interrupted the victor and his furious, although mostly silent, defeated adversary.

"Win for Cabin 6!" bellowed Chiron's voice from over the treetops, and Nico smiled gently at the direction of the rejoicing.

Well done, Annabeth, a speedy victory, per usual.

He turned back to stare at the enraged Ares boy. He'd spat out the biggest chunks, but when he snarled, Nico could still see mud coating his teeth. Nico chuckled.

"You're beat. Admit it, and I'll get you out,"

The response was foul enough to make him raise an eyebrow, impressed.

"Have a nice mud bath."

And without another word, he jogged towards the clamor of his celebrating team. It wasn't hard to locate his loud, victorious team, gathered on the outskirts of the forest. A few hundred feet over, Clarisse and her teammates were slowly trickling out of the woods. Nico caught a glimpse of the boy from Aphrodite and the Tyche girl tossing him resentful glances.

Nico gazed evenly back, before finally deciding that perhaps he wouldn't particularly want to be banned from camp for letting a fellow camper die/get injured in the woods on his account. He caught Clarisse's attention with a sharp whistle.

"Hey, Clarisse! You might want to fetch a shovel and dig Ugly Red up. It seems he's grown fond of the Dryads and is trying to grow roots."

Clarisse scowled furiously. Nico shrugged with feigned innocence.

"Couldn't convince him otherwise."

Suddenly, the person next to him let out a yelp of surprise. Nico turned quickly to see Derek from sword training, pointing up the hill to the border and entrance to camp.

"Uh, who's that?"

Confused, Nico followed his outstretched finger to see a silhouette between the columns of the entrance to Camp Half-Blood, imposed over the molten setting sun. Short and feminine, and strangely, as still as a statue. She held her shoulder at an odd angle that Nico didn't think was normal.

A blur of orange sped past the corner of Nico's vision, speeding towards the mysterious figure. A tall blond tossed a confused look over his shoulder at them.

"She's hurt! Come on!" he encouraged, continuing his sprint up the hill.

Nico dropped his sword and sheath to the ground and chased after the first guy. He heard several other campers drop their weapons and follow in pursuit, but he didn't bother to see who, as the girl they were approaching suddenly wavered, before collapsing heavily to the ground.

To Nico's horror, he felt the all-too-familiar buzzing in his ears begin to slowly invade the back of his subconscious. He grit his teeth and put on an extra burst of speed, fearing the worst.

The blond who had led the charge skidded to halt, throwing himself at the ground next to the girl's head. Nico arrived mere seconds after, dropping to a crouch to examine her as well. In wordless understanding, the two boys rolled her over onto to her back as gently as possibly.

She was petite and unkempt, dirt and sweat covered her face, tears having carved a few salty tracks down her cheeks. Her braid was full of twigs and matted clumps of blood, and her upper torso was soaked. The kids behind them finally arrived onto the scene, twittering in surprise. Annabeth dropped to her knees beside Nico.

"Is - " she started, but Nico interrupted with the answer.

"She's dying," he growled, slowly prying her cold fingers from her twisted shoulder, the source of the massive bleeding. The blond on her other side made a worried noise through his teeth as Nico revealed the full extent of the damage.

Nico was no healer but he knew that amount of blood-loss wasn't a good sign. The blond slide his tanned and calloused fingers across the injured shoulder, softly poking and prodding with obvious expertise. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Nico realized that he was probably one of Apollo's kids, but the dangerous buzzing, which was growing louder, was of more concern to him at the moment.

"Someone hurry and do something, she's fading!" he snapped, panic creeping into his voice.

"Someone have ambrosia? Anyone?" Annabeth demanded shrilly of the other campers, who quickly patted their emtpy pockets, all replying with distressed "no's."

Nico inwardly floundered, helpless. Sure, he could feel her fading grip on life, but he had no clue how to help in the least. His stomach clenched as the hum in his ears purred at an increasing volume.

"Her arm is dislocated and has been for a while, the wounds are deep, she has lost way too much blood, and is still bleeding" the blond informed them rapid fire, his palms evenly pressed against the ruin of shredded skin that used to be the girl's right shoulder, trying to stop the trickle of fresh blood.

Galloping hooves approached their little cluster, and Nico tore his eyes away form the hideous wounds to see Chiron arriving at full speed, a grim look on his face, and a small bag in his hands.

He tossed the bag at Annabeth, who caught it on reflex.

"Ambrosia, nectar, bandages. and by the looks of her, I'd say quickly."

Annabeth tore open the leather pouch. A Ziploc baggie of ambrosia and a miniature canteen of nectar. Without hesitation, she uncapped the little container and dripped a cautious amount of the precious liquid into her mouth, careful not to drown her. The blond frantically snatched up the bandages with blood-soaked hands. Nico was all eyes, waiting for a sign of life from the still figure on the grass. He let out a soft breath as the buzzing faded.

"She's coming back…" he murmured, leaning back onto his ankles, watching as Annabeth crumbled some ambrosia into her mouth and the blond finished placing the temporary wrappings around her right shoulder.

With a choking gulp, the girl suddenly came to, eyes open wide in alarm, and breathing in heavy irregular gasps. The blond now sat back too, letting out a gusty sigh of relief.

"Thanks, Apollo," he murmured.

Annabeth smiled, but placed a resisting hand on the girl's good shoulder to keep her from trying to get up.

"Hey, whoa there, let's take it easy," she said brightly, retracting her hand as the younger girl slowly lay back onto the grass, moaning in pain.

Even if the buzzing was gone now, but that only meant she wasn't dying. She was still going to be in a world of hurt.

"I - ah, curses!" the still nameless girl hissed through her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut tightly before opening them with another gasp. Hazel, with a spattering of freckles across her nose.

"Hello... Do you know where you are? What's your name?" asked Chiron gently, bending down the best he could.

Still grimacing, the girl rolled her eyes up to look Chiron in the eye. She blinked, momentarily taken aback by having a centaur looming over her, but she took it all in stride and responded the next second.

"Erin."

Dun dun dun, cliffhanger! Ha, haven't had one of those for a while, it's kinda refreshing :D

NOTE ON DREW: I know I said I was currently ignoring books published after TLO, but I feel that Drew would have gotten kicked out eventually, even without Piper.

KINDA IMPORTANT EXPLINATION: Yes, Nico mostly refers to the other campers by their cabin, godly parent, and distinctive qualities. Not because I'm too lazy to think of names for all these people, but because HE doesn't know them. I got the impression that Nico spent most of his time on the road, on his own little quests, with Hades, and, only when he got the chance/felt inclined - at Camp Half-Blood. As a result, the only ones he really knows by name are his friends from the last Great Prophecy. Don't worry though, he'll learn the important ones quick :)