oh my gods! sorry(i always say that, right!) for not updating, and the short chapter. there's a poll on my profile, and please tell friends, enemies, famly, teachers, bullies, strangers(except not the last one) about my stories! i' getting barely any reviews! :(

"What is that?" Nico asked, though he pretty much already knew.

"'That' is a cell, designed for you to tell us as much as you know about your precious camp."

"Okay - why?" He tried to stall her from putting him in there as much as possible.

The girl sighed, as if she were talking to an idiot. Just Nico's luck, that was sure to be him. Typical. "So that we can attack, and take over, ditto. Have you learnt nothing?"

Nico frowned. Ditto? The old person who used to be fun to hang out with never used that word…he shuddered. What had Gaia done to her? "Umm…so, err, why did you choose to help Gaia?"

Nazish scowled. "I can see what game you are playing - the stalling game. Well, let me tell you; it's not gunna' work." She shoved him in, and tapped a code into the wall.

Nico attempted to watch, but a green mist shielded her from eyesight. It then thickened around her, curling around her arms. When the fog cleared, she was gone.

He sat down on the bed, and waited for something bad to happen.

Hours later, Nazish appeared, from the mist again.

"I gotta' learn how to do that!" Nico cried.

Nazish raised an eyebrow. "A son of Hades, right?" He nodded. "You can shadow-travel, then."

"Okay, good point. Even so-"

"Enough!" Nazish snapped her fingers, and a earth-born came out of the ground.

On instinct, Nico made for his sword. It charged at him, but they weren't very smart. Nico easily side-stepped and cut it in half. He then turned to face the girl. "Okay, why?" He said again.

She shrugged. "The fighting wears you out, and then it's easier to get information from you."

Another earth-born appeared, but before it had even fully risen, its head fell off. "Hmm, really wearing me out," he said sarcastically. She scowled.

"They'll get harder." Was all she said, before walking down a corridor.

Nico sat back down on the bed, every so often killing an earth-born. He didn't dare think that it was boring - more monsters would come. Instead, he just thought; Oh no! Oh my gods! This is so-ahh! Help! Let the demigodly powers of my soul help me! Of course, nothing happened. That would've been creepy.

After around half an hour, a different monster appeared(finally); an empousa, servant of Hecate. Nico couldn't help but notice her mis-matched legs - a bronze human leg, and a donkey leg.

She threw her net, but he side-stepped it, and thrust his sword. The iron found a chink in her armour, and the empousa vaporised.

Then, all at once, three empousai came out - all fully armed, and carrying spears of a mix of Celestial bronze and Imperial gold. This meant that Nico was doubly venerable.

The she-demons circled him. The first lunged, but didn't think about what would happen if Nico simply ducked. The shaft of her spear caught on another empousa, and she vaporised. One down, two to go - and Nico hadn't even done anything.

The second monster turned on him. Her form shimmered, and she became a hot girl, with curly blonde hair, dazzling chocolate eyes, perfect make-up…Nico shook his head. It was just magic; she was hiding chalky skin, red eyes, and vampire teeth.

He thrust his sword of Stygian iron at her, grazing her arm. She snarled. Duck, lunge, clash!, roll, slash, kick! They battled on, not stopping. This she-demon was good - but not good enough.

She finally made her mistake; jabbing her spear at him. Nico dodged, and pulled on the spear, snatching it out of her hands. Defenceless, she looked at the first empousa, but before either could react, Nico drove his sword through her, and she dissolved.

"No!" The first cried. Man, these demon's weren't very well trained - Nico cut her head off while she was crying, and she didn't even notice him.

Nico was just about to congratulate himself, when a demigod came forward. He looked about eighteen or nineteen, and had a knife. Nothing else. No armour, no shield, no sword; nothing. This half-blood was either very brave, and a good fighter, or very brave, and stupid.

"Adam Basedon, son of Venus, descendant of Aeneas, founder of Rome."

"Yeah? Well I'm Nico di Angelo, son of Hades, King of the Ghosts, summoner of the Dead, descender of the Labyrinth, meeter of Minos, and shadow-traveller."

Adam raised his eyebrows, impressed. Nico had made up some of the words; there was no other way of saying it. Still, if it impressed the enemy, he wasn't complaining. Much. (Annabeth, her siblings and Athena would've been miffed with him, at making up words, and using grammar incorrectly.)

Adam drew his knife, and immediately threw himself on Nico. Literally. They landed, sprawled on the floor. A spider crawled over Nico's fingers. Eww! He thought.

Adam stabbed at him, Nico rolling out of the way. Nico's sword cut Adam's face. "Ow!" His grip loosened on the knife.

Nico saw his chance, and used a disarming move that Percy had taught him. With all his power(well, not all of it, but a lot), he pushed down on the blade.

It clattered to the floor. Nico's black sword was pressed against Adam's neck. Nico breathed heavily, out of breath - despite the fact that they'd only battled for a few minutes.

Behind him, Nico heard a gasp, but he didn't look around.

Adam held his hands up in surrender. Nico picked up the knife - a heavy weapon, with SPQR etched into the hilt. It was as cold as ice.

The son of Venus stood beside the wall, and faded into the darkness.

Nico turned, to where the gasp had come from. Just as he suspected, the mysterious girl was standing there, shocked. She came forward. "No one has ever beaten Adam Basedon in a fight before." She opened her mouth to say more, but decided not to.

Nico stared at her, through her helmet, which she seemed to never take off. "Look, I know who you are. I just don't understand why, or how, or…"

Nazish shook her head, as if she wanted him to stop, or as if her plan had failed. Possibly both. She glanced around, then whispered, "Look, hang on in there. Okay? I can almost guarantee that help - for both of us - is coming." Footsteps echoed in the corridor. "I'll tell you more later. Just act normal!" She changed her tone of voice, and said, "Oh, yeah, killing an empousa. Great work - not! Fight harder, or your next opponent will make you." She walked off.

Now, Nico knew for sure that this girl was who he thought. She knew what to do. Nazish was gunna' get him outta' there.

ooh! so she knows that he knows that she's gunna get him outta of there. question is; who is she? have you figured it out? review via the button down hthere! V mention who you think it is in thw review! i won't update until i have 40-50 reviews! so thats 10-20 more! c'mon people! please!