**heehee7, yes, yes he most definitely did. (︶︹︺) Thank-you for the review though :3

Re-reminder that this story is probs gonna be really dark, so I think I'll put some breaks before and after those parts (none in this chapter, though) so people can still read it

Also, Mrs. O'Leary's antics are inspired by my own dog, Spag-Bol (Maggie). It helps they're similar breeds (Bernese Mountain Dog/Rottweiler)**

How had so much happened in a week? Rachael asked herself as she hoisted her backpack up on her shoulder as she walked toward the outskirts of the cohort barracks, where she was meeting Nico, and she supposed, Percy. There'd been a sticky-note in Nico's scratchy handwriting left on her forehead when she woke up that morning, saying to meet "me" at he noted rendezvous.

Trudging along the gravelled path, she spotted Nico and Percy standing near where the barracks met the road. Nico was staring at the ground, scuffing his shoe into the dirt and clearly deep in thought, where Percy was gazing off into the distance, a blissfully empty expression on her face.

'Hey, guys…' Rachael greeted, with less pizzaz than she usually would. Percy muttered a small hi where Nico went in for a hug.

Oh dear.

'So, what are we doing? I brought my hairbrush and some good stuff since I knew it'd probably be a little bit, definitely life-threatening, but I would like to know.' She said with a smile, an attempt at humour to lighten the damp mood. What happened last night between these two?

'We're, um,' Nico stole a glance at Percy, who was checking his hair in Riptide's blade. 'We're going to see my dad. There's something wrong, I think he's mad at me, and I'd like some moral support.' That caught Percy's attention, and the taller demigod came over to place his arm around Nico's shoulders, who managed a small, thankful smile that Rachael didn't want to think looked forced.

There was a pause before Rachael spoke. 'All righty then, let's go!' She called, before stopping again.

'Missus O'Leary Express, I'm guessing?' She asked, to which Nico smiled, more genuinely this time.

'No, actually, I'm—' He was cut off by a warping in the nearby shadows and two tonnes of Rottweiler bowling him over. A few deafening barks and one slobber-slicked Nico later, Rachael laughed as the hellhound turned on Percy.

'Missus O'Leary! Hey girl!' He cried, spreading his arms to hug her. The dog(?) though, was less enthusiastic. She tilted her head like a confused puppy, then stepped back until her rear was in Nico's face, and promptly sat down. Nico made a noise of annoyance from the ground, and Rachael was choking with laughter.

'Ugh, Missus O'Leary, hey!' Nico yelled, trying to push the huge canine off of him. 'Girl, let me up!'

Chuckling slightly, Percy stepped forward seemingly to help his boyfriend, but kicked up dust as the huge Underworld beast growled at him. Growled. Mrs. O'Leary. Percy Jackson.

Rachael stopped laughing, and Nico stopped struggling from underneath Mrs. O'Leary. Percy frowned.

'Hey girl, you like me, remember?' Mrs. O'Leary stopped growling, but stared daggers at Percy as he stayed where he was. She let out a little huff of surprise when Nico was suddenly standing with Rachael and Percy, the feeling of someone shadow-travelling out from under your butt probably felt weird.

'Well, that was weird.' Nico mused as he brushed himself off. Percy relaxed visibly.

'Nah, I probably just smell weird or something.'

'From what?' Nico asked with a sideways glance. Percy shrugged easily.

'I dunno. From the hospital, or something.'

Rachael frowned. These two were acting so weird.

'Anyway, you were saying, Nico?' She asked. Everyone, including the dog, looked to Nico, who gave Mrs. O'Leary an apologetic look.

'Well, I was going to say I was taking us, but since our little guardian demon was obviously eavesdropping on us, I suppose she can come.' Nico smiled lovingly at Mrs. O'Leary, who began jumping around in anticipation. It reminded Rachael of a puppy who learned what "walk" means. They all chuckled at her antics.

'All right, girl, settle down. You know where we're going?' Nico asked as her grabbed the fur of her ruff. A bark signalled that their ride was ready. Rachael held onto the other side of Mrs. O'Leary's neck, and Percy slowly went behind Nico and put his hand on the hellhound's rump. Ignoring the way Mrs. O'Leary swatted Percy with her tail, Nico said for them to go.

~ O ~

'Rachael, get back!' Nico's voice sounded strained and panicked, with a bunch of other unpleasant emotions mixed in, but Rachael was still too blinded to focus.

'What?' She managed, still blinking darkness out of her vision. Nico didn't answer. The silence made her force herself up from where she'd retched on the dusty soil of the Fields of Asphodel, and saw Nico in a staring contest with Percy. Mrs. O'Leary was no where to be seen.

'Nico? What's—'

'Rachael, where's my bag?' Nico asked, his voice wavering. Rachael glanced at Percy, who was standing as still as one of Medusa's statues. He was smiling, but it was made disturbing by not only him not moving, not even breathing, but by the look in his eyes.

He looked like he wanted to skin Nico alive.

Looking closer, peering through the Mist, Rachael's blood went cold.

A shock of unruly hair, like Percy's, but white gold. Gaunt cheeks, pale skin. Pointed ears, fangs dripping with saliva and poison, and twitching talons extended from bloodied fingers. A manic look in eyes that constantly changed colour.

'Mania,' Rachael whispered, taking an involuntary step back. The illusion of Percy returned as she blinked in shock, and Nico called out again.

'Rachael, please, my bag. Is it here? You need to grab it for me.' Rachael didn't even notice Nico brought a bag, but peering around, she spotted the small canvas backpack by Nico's feet.

'It's just behind you,' she choked out, 'to your right.'

Nico slowly knelt down, keeping eye contact with Percy— the mania the whole time. As he grasped the dirt and grabbed his bag and began digging around, Percy was obviously fighting Nico's control. Nico began breathing faster but stood up and advanced toward Percy, a long golden chain in his hand. Rachael realised it must be imperial gold, and relaxed marginally as Nico wound the scarily thin chain around Percy's torso a few times, then tightly secured his wrists at the back, leaving a length which he twisted into a small loop at the end, the magical chain fusing into itself.

Percy hissed and Rachael cringed to see his skin begin to burn where the chain rubbed against it, but her sympathy soon dissipated. Nico breathed a sigh of relief as the mania was secure, and dropped his hold against it. Percy instantly turned on the son of Hades, bared his fangs like a trapped beast in an animalistic hiss and spat at him. Even though the mania was on its home ground and rushed Nico, the demigod had his sword against Percy's throat in a millisecond.

'Don't, for one second, think—' Nico spoke slowly, his voice so dark it gave Rachael shivers, 'that you are going to make it out of this place in one piece. My father will have you torn apart for eternity in Punishment. Now start walking.'

The mania simply backed up, smiled as if he and Nico had just shared a private joke, turned and started walking to Hades's palace in the distance. Nico quickly passed the end of the chain to Rachael, and the two started walking. Rachael grabbed Nico's hand and saw he looked even more pale than ever, obviously from shock.

'I'm sorry, we'll figure this out.' She whispered to him, and Nico sobered up instantly. He shook his head at her, then jutted his chin toward their prisoner in front of them, who was whistling a merry little tune as if they were off to have a picnic on a Sunday afternoon.

They walked for a minute in silence before a very foreign sound disrupted them and nearly made Nico fall on his face in surprise. Rachael bit back a laugh from how jumpy he was as Nico dug out a no-longer monster-attracting cell phone from his bag.

'Huh, really good service,' He mumbled as he answered. 'Hello?'

Sally Jackson's voice came through loud and clear. 'Hello dears! I was just wondering when you two will be back, I've back a whole bunch of goodies for you two, but don't worry if you can't eat them all, because you can take them to school tomorrow.'

Oh, right. It was a Sunday afternoon. Recovering from surprise, Nico glanced up to see Percy had turned around and was smirking at him.

'Um, Missus Jackson—'

'Oh please, dear, Sally is fi—'

'Hey Mom! Nico chained me up and it's pretty hot to be honest, turns out he's a bit of a kinky bastard, eh?!' Percy yelled from in front of them, and Nico's jaw dropped even further. Great.

Rachael flicked the chain so it hit Percy in the face, and he turned around and kept on walking, laughing like a child the whole time.

Nico cringed at the silence on the phone.

'… Yeah,' He said slowly, 'that's not true.' Relief flooded through him as Sally Jackson laughed all the way from the world of the living.

'Oh, it's all right Nico, that's my Percy… So what time will you guys be here? And I have nothing against Blackjack, but please pass it on that Paul would appreciate it if you didn't land on his car this time; if that's how you're going to get here…' And on she went. It brought tears to Nico's eyes listening to her prattle on, love and pride in her voice as she talked about their supernatural exploits and having dinner with them and going to school the next day all in the same sentence. He sniffed and blinked quickly as he waited for a moment to interrupt her.

'So really, Paul's very happy that you and Percy can go to school together, and so am I, but I think he's just looking forward to being able to hassle two of his students about homework twenty-four-seven—'

'Um, Miss— Sally.' Sally stopped speaking, and Nico could tell she knew what he was going to say. Demigod business. He took a deep breath, but stuttered when he noticed Percy had turned back around and was staring at him with a passion, a strange expression on his face. 'Percy and I won't be able to get back tonight, and— I'm really sorry —but probably not for a few days.'

Silence.

'Oh, well, that's okay, the other mums at school say soup and pasta are even better when you leave them for a few days.' Nico bit his lip as he could almost hear the smile Sally was forcing for their sakes. 'So what are you two rascals up to?'

Nico glanced at Percy before answering, not really knowing how to phrase this certain situation so as to not panic Sally. Percy seemed to be staring at Nico's feet, but Percy's face showed that he was deep in thought.

'Percy?' Nico said quietly, forgetting he had a phone to his ear. Percy quickly glanced up at Nico but tripped over his own feet in doing so, landing hard on his butt on the dirt.

'Nico? Are you two okay?'

Nico didn't even think about what he answered with.

'I'm with Percy, Sally, we'll always be okay. Sorry, gotta go now, I'll call you to tell you when we'll be there.' He hung up, hearing Sally nervously bid them goodbye on the other end. He and Rachael stopped walking as Percy slowly managed to get his feet under him. It pained Nico to see Percy like this, chained up and… In pain? He was breathing faster now, and shuddering slightly. He looked up, clear ocean-green eyes looking at Nico in panic.

'Nico?' Nico couldn't respond before Percy let out a groan and bent over in pain. He shuddered, shook his head, muttered a few illegible words, then went still.

Looking at the ground, Percy stood and the small piece of hope inside Nico shrivelled a little more as he sensed the mania was back in control.

The mania looked up at them, surveying them as if nothing happened.

'Well?' It said curtly, and in Percy's voice. 'We have a shitty father to see.'

Percy turned and the three resumed walking.

Nico swore to himself.

~ O ~

The rest of the walk was quiet, even into Hades's palace. The guards didn't try to stop them as Nico, Rachael and mania-Percy headed to Hades's throne room, where he always seemed to be.

Of course, Nico having the di Angelo-luck, Hades wasn't. Since wandering the castle seemed like a pretty unwise idea, Nico told Rachael to get comfortable, but it turned out they didn't have to wait long. Within a minute of awkward silence, Nico sensed his father coming down the corridor they entered from, accompanied by someone else, Persephone most likely. Great.

Less great, turns out it was Jason Grace.

**So, I kept on writing into the next chapter before I looked at my notes and saw I originally planned to end it here :P I feel like my chapter are getting shorter, are they?

Also, oh my gods, I love Sally. She's gonna be in the sequels to this story, I don't even care if it's set in Tartarus.

Actually, I don't wanna put Sally in Tartarus, and I'm pretty sure cell reception can only go so far. All right then, no Tartarus. :P

Anyway, reviews please, I love to know what you guys are thinking, are there any questions about characters or stuff that you're wondering about, because I might forget to re-mention something and I'd hate to leave any plot holes, so please gimme a shout :)**