Ben watched impassively as Luke exited the big house building. He wondered why the son of Hades had begged for the traitor to be revived, but he understood now. The youngest Di Angelo knew what he was trying to accomplish, and was trying to stall him. Ben almost laughed at the thought. He stuck his hands in the pockets of his dusty grey jeans and started down towards the Hades cabin.

Reviving Luke was actually more of a help than a hindrance, the traitor was helping the plan evolve much more smoothly. Ben loped easily down the dirt path, whistling to himself a tune that hadn`t been played or sang for centuries.

He stopped at the large black cabin of Hades, and knocked on the door casually. Nico answered, opening the door and rubbing his wide dark eyes against the light outside. Nico was dressed in a crumpled black tee shirt with his signature skull pattern on it, as well as a pair of gray sweatpants, it was obvious by the teen's messed black hair that he had been sleeping.

"Di Angelo." Ben's voice was curt, emotionless, clean.

"Oneiroi." Nico spit his last name out like a dirty word.

Ben raised an eyebrow, and chuckled, "am I invited in?"

Nico's mouth twitched into a smile, which looked almost threatening on him, "Nah, I think you're good there."

Ben sighed as he pushed passed the boy, into the dark cabin. The air in the room was weighted, held down by a cloying smell of something that smelled like incense and cigarettes. The room was dimly lit by twin green torches at either sides of the room, and the inside was decorated like the inside of a black rock cave. Nico shut the door and turned around with crossed arms.

Nico's grin twisted up, his tone was sharp, almost viscous, "what are you doing here Ben?"

"Why are you trying to stop me?" Ben countered, still emotionless, clasping his hands behind his back. He was pleased to see Nico scowl angrily, "is it because of Thalia? Is this some kind of desperate, unrequited love conquest?"

Nico looked like he was being strangled, he glared at Ben, before answering in a tight, insulted voice, "for Thalia? Yeah, I can totally see that working out," He rolled his eyes and waved a hand off at the question, "No Ben, I'm trying to stop you, because you have no right to follow through with this."

Ben's composure cracked a little, "No right? I have every right! And so would you if you grew a spine and joined me!"

"We've already been through this; did you miss the whole freaking war we just had?" Nico exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air, "This has all been done before, why not pick up on a little originality?"

"Luke didn't know what he was doing, he was a pawn for a much larger force than he understood," Ben stepped closer to the son of hades, his voice dropping into a low tone, "You don't seem to understand the chance I'm giving you, why you would not take it?"

"Because the outcome isn't what you think it will be." Nico spat, they were nose to nose now, Ben could feel the open hostility rolling off the younger demigod.

"It's not the outcome I look forward to." Ben replied monotonously. He walked over to the cabin's door, before turning around one last time, "You could be so much more than you are, but you choose to be the dog they kick instead, don't think that you'll be spared for your loyalty."

Then he was gone.

…

When Ben was little, he used to imagine himself into the very best of the Greek wars, but unlike the other boys his age who were playing the hero and waving around wooden toy swords, Ben would imagine himself as the mastermind behind the battles. At the end of the game he would always be the one to kill Zeus or Hades.

Then he grew older, and the games that he played as a toddler became tactics and references. At around twelve, Ben was expelled from seven different schools, the last one for manipulating one of the students into killing a faculty member that had given him a bad review. The others were of similar history.

Not many people could say that they really knew who Ben was, his personality could change within a blink of the eye to suit his purpose. His motives were his own, and for no one else's benefit, usually the opposite, and he had a casual, persuasive way to getting what he wanted. He turned a corner into the forest, mulling over the possibilities of what needed to be done.

The conceiving of ideas, the subtle flicks of the imagination, the subconscious desires in dreams; that was what Ben was after. He would never admit this to anyone, but Ben never dreamed when he slept. Ben had no mindset other than this cold, uncompassionate one; he didn't seem to have the ability to care about anything or anyone past his own plans. His mother had taken him to a specialist once when he was younger, when this sort of thing was a new discovery, and he had been labeled as a sociopath, a phsyco. But Ben had known, he had known since birth who he was, who he had to become.

As for his interest with Thalia, he just happened to know what she was capable of, more so than herself. Ben knew exactly what the daughter of Zeus was, and what she could do for him.

MEH!

um... i have very little excuse for poor updating other than the fact that i was not in the right mindset to work on this... :3

so. um. this is kinda filler-ish, and actually very few of the chapters I have up are the ones i'm excited for, but whatevs, for those who stick with me to the end i promise good things :P

i just got some new inspirations for how i want this to end up, so hopefully i can get motivated to write,

THANK YOU TO MY REVIEWERS 3

there are scarce few of you, but i appreciate you guyses *virtually tries to hug you, fails and creeps most of you out*

and um... i hope to get more up soon to make up for my loathsome work ethic :$

so KEEP THE REVIEWS COMING! MOTIVATION AND CRITISIZATIONS ARE ECOURAGED, POINTLESS FLAMERS ARE BEHEADED AND BEATEN WITH A STICK :D