A/N: *Dodges tomatoes and knives* Hey guys, sorry I took a day to update, I had a brief spell of writer's block yesterday and I was really tired. But I'm back with a brand-new very action-packed chapter! Does that make up for my absence? Anyway, even if you forgive me, you will probably want to come after me with your tomatoes and knifes again because I made a very dramatic cliffhanger again! Don't you guys just love those? I know I do! Alright, well enough chit-chit, I will let you guys read about the epic final battle, in the POV of our favorite son of Hades, Nico!

Chapter 11- Nico

Seeing Alcoyoneus' creepy grin was just plain terrifying to Nico, because he knew that by the evil glint in the giant's eyes, he had something cruel and painful planned for the son of his mortal enemy. Sure enough, not even a moment had gone by before the Bane of Hades, began flinging shadows at Nico, and commanded the skeletons to attack their previous master's son.

After the shadows had completely overwhelmed Nico so he could no longer fight back, they lifted him up 50 feet in the air, which meant that he could not use his powers over the earth to his advantage. Once he was secured in the shadows' grasps, Alcoyoneus ordered them to turn Nico around so he could witness every second of his cousins' tortures with their own enemies.

Nico saw that Thalia was chained to a boulder on the ground, just like her father, so all of her limbs were spread out, which made her an easy target. Porphyrion was currently blasting the daughter of Zeus with extreme amounts of lightning, turning her skin black with electrical burns. Thalia was normally as tough as stone, but right now, tears of pain were raining down her face, making Nico's heart slowly begin to break.

Sickened at the state that his cousin was reduced to, Nico turned to a scene that was even more horrifying, Percy's torture with Polybotes. The Bane of Poseidon thrust his hands in front of him, spraying the son of Poseidon with the blessed (cursed) water. Even while Polybotes was drenching Percy with the acidic water, he had clenched his hands into fists.

At first, Nico wondered what this meant for his cousin, but he quickly realized what was happening when Percy dropped to his knees and started screaming and sobbing in agony, another sight Nico had never seen before. The son of Hades saw the boils and blisters on his cousin's skin, that were slowly turning green, which meant Percy's blood had been turned to poison.

All of a sudden, jewels started raining from the sky, hitting Nico on his head and other parts of his body, making various sizes of bruises appear. After he recovered his wits from the sudden attack, Nico looked down again and saw that Thalia was barely conscious and the air burned with electricity.

However, Percy was much, much worse. Apparently, Polybotes got annoyed at Percy for his relentless screaming from the agony he was experiencing that came with having poison for blood; so the giant strode over to where Percy was writhing in pain, completely unaware of the new danger. Poseidon's bane seized the Sea God's son by his throat, and began squeezing, completely cutting off Percy's air supply.

Nico was horrified to watch all of this and not be able to do anything to help, but he was even more dismayed when he saw his cousin's face turn blue from lack of oxygen, and Nico knew he was about to pass out. Just then, Polybotes loosened his grip a little, allowing some air to reach Percy's brain, this way he could stay conscious longer.

However, Polybotes hadn't done that to be merciful, he just wanted to do his next act of torture, which was to slam Percy's head against a boulder, cracking his skull open. That was when the giant started laughing like a madman, watching the blood puddle grow around Percy's unmoving head.

This lasted a couple more moments, Thalia being barely conscious, Percy bleeding out from a cracked skull, and Nico watching helplessly from above. But suddenly, a huge bolt of lightning came down from the sky and struck the three giants, causing them to forget about their current victims.

Still trapped in the air by the shadows, Nico turned his head so quickly he got whiplash, to see what caused the sudden lightning strike. What he saw shocked Nico to the core, because it was Jason, the traitor.

"Gaea, Tartarus, I am done being your slave and hurting my friends! You took advantage of my emotions, especially my jealousy, and made me turn my back on all the things I've ever believed in! You caused my friends, my cousins, and my sister severe pain and heartbreak, and for that, I am finished!" exclaimed the ex-traitor.

Though Nico wasn't entirely convinced that Jason was now on their side again, the son of Hades didn't expect what happened next. Porphyrion, Jason's father's bane, marched to where Jason stood and with a swat of his hand, he sent Jason flying into a tree, where he lay too dazed to move.

However, Nico wasn't an idiot and he quickly realized that Jason knew that he wasn't going to kill the giants with that lightning strike, he just wanted to distract the giants from killing the demigods. So with Alcyoneus', Porphyrion's, and Polybotes' attention elsewhere, Nico was able to control the shadows enough to force them to deposit him on the ground, where he rushed to the boulder where Thalia was currently trapped.

Nico quickly drew his black stygian sword from its scabbard and freed his cousin from her chains. Once Thalia was free, she bolted upright, scaring the Hades out of Nico, and now both of them were completely conscious and awake. Together, the son of Hades and the daughter of Zeus rushed to where their other cousin lay bleeding.

The two cousins knelt by Percy's side and was able to stop the bleeding from his cracked skull, and within a couple of moments, Percy's sea-green eyes fluttered open. While the son of Poseidon was still very disoriented and out of it, they all knew that he couldn't keep lying there, otherwise the giants were bound to come back and trap them again. So with the help of Thalia and Nico, Percy was able to get on his feet and also was coherent enough to have a conversation.

"Percy, Thalia, are you two ok?" Nico asked, clearly concerned for his cousins.

"I never knew that my body could be so drastically effected by electricity, but other than a couple of burns, I am fine," Thalia claimed.

"That was the most pain I've ever experienced in my life, worse than the River Styx and holding up the sky. But even now, it's hard to keep talking because my head is killing me, but I'm ok enough to fight," Percy admitted.

"I'm sorry that I couldn't help you guys, but Alcyoneus had complete control over the shadows that held me in the air. But I think we all know that we can't defeat the giants by ourselves, we need the gods help," stated Nico.

"Nico, in case you've forgotten, they are currently trapped by the earth right now," pointed out the son of Poseidon.

"So let's free them," suggested the son of Hades.

Just then though, they heard a roar almost right next to them, and the three demigods turned and saw that the giants had discovered that their prisoners had escaped their traps.

"Nico, go free the gods! Percy and I will do what we can to hold off Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, and Polybotes until the gods can help us," ordered the daughter of Zeus.

While Nico really didn't want to leave his cousins to deal with the giants, especially in their wounded conditions, he knew that they badly needed the gods' help. So Nico sprinted to the gathering of trees where all of his demigod friends and the gods were tied up.

Taking out his stygian sword again, Nico used it to slash through the earth chains that held Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite. He was just about to move on to free his father and uncles, but something made Nico turn around to see how his cousins were doing.

Thalia and Percy were barely able to hold their own against the giants, even though they had joined forces to start an immensely powerful lightning hurricane, which had winds so powerful they uprooted some trees on the spot. However, the three giants were using their own powers to deflect all the lightning strikes and turn all the forms of precipitation to acid, and forcing and bending the shadows to attack the two demigods, distracting them from their joint power.

So seeing that his cousins needed him way more than the Big Three did, and it didn't hurt knowing that Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite were doing all they could to free the three gods now, Nico took off at full speed to join the fight against the giants.

Just as Nico reached Thalia and Percy, whose hurricane was beginning to slowly lose power, Hazel, who Nico had also freed, feeling as if it was the right thing to do, and Jason, who had recovered from his rough impact against the tree, also reached the two powerful demigods. The three new demigods, placed their hands on Percy's and Thalia's shoulders and took their hands to put themselves into a battle formation known as the Big Three stance.

The stance had Jason and Thalia, children of Jupiter/Zeus, on the right, Hazel and Nico, children of Pluto/Hades, on the left, and Percy, the child of Poseidon and the most powerful and dangerous demigod, in the center of the formation. Although it didn't matter where each person was located, every demigod gave the fight their very best effort.

Jason and Thalia were floating in the air, a first for Thalia, but she didn't let her fear of heights stop her, so she took a deep breath and shook it off. Together they were creating a full blown lightning storm, complete with thunder and everything. The two children of the lightning god called down lightning strike after lightning strike against the giants, burning them wherever they made contact.

Hazel had summoned about 5 tons of precious metals from the Underworld, and was throwing all of the jewels at the giants, even getting a few lucky shots to their heads. Nico had called the shadows to him and made them completely engulf and surround the giants, obscuring their vision. Also Nico had the skeletons, who like the shadows, had no loyalty whatsoever, and the undead soldiers were repeatedly stabbing the giants with their swords and spears. Lastly, the two children of the god of the Underworld, were joining their powers so they created earth tremors, which threw everyone slightly off balance.

Suddenly Nico saw out of the corner of his eye, Percy join hands with everyone, he hadn't already because he had to call upon all his remaining blessings, and everything suddenly grew that much more powerful. Thalia and Jason's lightning storm turned into the most powerful hurricane ever, complete with ice, hail, sleet, rain, snow, wind, and of course, lightning. Nico's and Hazel's earth tremors suddenly turned into a terrible earthquake that threw the giants off their feet, and it would have done the same to the demigods, if Thalia and Jason had been on the ground and if Hazel, Nico, and Percy hadn't had earth manipulation powers, which included perfect balance.

Finally, to add something that used only his own powers, Percy created a wave of ice-cold water, solidified it to pure ice, and slammed the wave on the three giants, almost killing them. In fact, if Percy had been at full strength and not about to pass out from the effort it took, the wave would have killed Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, and Polybotes all at once. But unfortunately, that sadly didn't happen.

Just then though, Nico heard in the distance three shouts of joy that he recognized that came from Poseidon, Zeus, and his own father. Immediately, Nico realized that Athena, Hephaestus, Ares, and Aphrodite had been able to release the Big Three from their chains, allowing them to race forward and join the formation with their children.

A surge of happiness went through Nico as he felt his father grab his hand, and he knew that Thalia and Percy must have felt the same way when their fathers took their hands and added their own power to stance. Knowing his father was ok and was with them, helping them, made all the difference to Nico.

So together, heroes and Olympians united, they created a ginormous wave that contained lightning, air (wind), ice, hail, snow, everything else that was in the hurricane, jewels, earth, shadows, and death; this was all the powers of the Big Three and their children put in one wave of power.

In one quick flick of everyone's wrists, demigods and gods in unison, flung this wave of doom toward Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, and Polybotes. Immediately, the three giants crumbled to ash, for they were destroyed by gods and heroes working together.

However, while this was happening, Nico had begun to feel an uneasy feeling in his gut and he heard an unusual ringing in his ears, only it was three times worse than it had ever been in the past. Also, his vision had started to swirl, so the only colors Nico soon begun to see were blacks, blues, and greens. His brain had started to lose focus, so it took Nico a moment to figure out what was causing this very bad feeling, and that's when the realization hit him.

Nico was feeling his own, Thalia's, and Percy's life forces fading, which explained why he could only see black, blue, and green; blue for Thalia's life force, green for Percy, and black for his own. The last piece of the puzzle fell into place for the son of Hades, which was realizing that they had taken too big of a risk by using so much energy and power in such a short amount of time, and they were now dying, nearly dead, because of that.

Right after Alcyoneus, Porphyrion, and Polybotes had crumbled to nothing, Nico saw out of the corner of his fuzzy vision, Thalia and Percy collapse and fall into unconsciousness, their life auras down to almost nothing. While Nico was barely conscious, he was coherent enough to recognize that the gods were barely fazed by their use of power and Jason and Hazel were tired, but not in any danger of dying, which couldn't be said for three particular demigods at the moment.

"Nico!"

"Thalia!"

"Percy!"

Their names were repeatedly shouted by their parents and siblings, until Hades suddenly stood up straight, stunned realization dawning in his normally cold black eyes.

"These three demigods have used so much of their powers, they are dying and are currently barely alive. We have to get them back to Olympus right now and use our combined godly powers to heal them, or they will be dead for sure," stated Hades, very concerned for his son and his nephew and niece.

This proclamation was the last thing Nico heard before he turned his head to the side to see his unconscious and battered cousins, and let darkness completely overcome him.

Disclaimer:

Nico, Thalia, and Percy: "Really?! We are almost, possibly already, dead, and you end the chapter! What's up with that?!"

Me: "I told you in the Author's Note in the beginning that there was a very dramatic cliffhanger at the end of this chapter, didn't I?"

Nico, Thalia, and Percy: "Yeah, but why did you make it so we are dying?"

Me: "I can't have just Percy always be the one dying all the time, I have to change it up a bit or my story gets too predictable, and my readers lose interest."

Nico, Thalia, and Percy: "You surely achieved the twist, but can you make it so we don't die and make us heal for once?"

Me: "Possibly, if you convince Rick Riordan to let me own Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Heroes of Olympus series and characters, then I'll consider letting everyone live."

Nico, Thalia, and Percy: "No way! Can you guys imagine what it would be like if she owned us and could do whatever she wanted?"

*Nico, Thalia, and Percy shiver in horror*

Me: "Hey! If you guys don't let me have the rights, then I will kill you off!"

Nico, Thalia, and Percy: Grins in victory, "Not if you don't want your fans to come after you with more tomatoes and knives.

Me: Pouts, realizing that they are right, and stomps away in defeat.