**Warning: some violence later in this chapter, and it'll be very dark after that (in the next), and some pretty strong language

Nico felt himself start to breath faster and faster as images of blood mist and innumerable monsters and walking on glass came to his mind and refused to let him calm.

'Dad, I— Dad, no I-I can't—'

'Nico, Nico!' Hades tried shaking his son to grab his attention, but upon seeing it wasn't working, he tried channeling calming energy. Nico relaxed marginally as he mentally returned to the throne room, but then promptly began crying.

A vague, 'Why the fuck does this always happen?' could be made out between sobs, and Hades gently laid his hand on the back of his son's neck as consolation.

'I'll take you to a room. Rest, Nico, then we can talk and discuss… This.' Nico just kept crying while Hades transported them to a musty, never-used bedroom in the palace. Hades made sure Nico at least sat down, then left him to sleep.

Eventually, Nico caught his breath, but was feeling lightheaded from hyperventilating, so was grateful for the bed to lie own on. Now more calmed, the tears that rolled down his face to his ears itched, and Nico was suddenly furious. He scrubbed at his face in frustration before letting out a small scream, causing cracks of darkness to appear in the walls of the room. With a grunt of annoyance, he let his hands drop to the bed and tried to think.

I can't go back to Tartarus. I just can't, I nearly went insane the first —and last, he reminded himself— time. There has to be another way.

Perhaps send other demigods? A whole trained team would probably stand a better chance than just Nico… Though on seconds thoughts, that was probably untrue. So no, that was too cruel; Nico refused to be responsible for the almost certain death of anyone who tried to rescue Percy, if anyone he knew would even volunteer.

Knowing the gods, they probably weren't an option. Making excuses or procrastinating or recommending others to do it, that's just how the gods were with trips to Tartarus. Actually, that's pretty much how the gods were with anything that wouldn't directly benefit them.

So, Nico still felt numb to the realisation that he was going back to Tartarus.

I can't go back to Tartarus. But I will.

For Percy.

~ O ~

'Is this really all I'll need?' Nico asked as he hefted the very light backpack on his shoulder outside the main doors of Hades's palace.

'Well, you'll probably end up getting ambushed and lose them anyway, so—'

'Persephone, enough!' Hades growled. The goddess of the Underworld shut her trap, but not without a playful smirk on it, then disappeared, a small jewelled flower popping up where she was standing. 'Yes, Nico. You want to travel light, and hopefully not travel for too long. If things are as we suspect, the mania will find you anyway.'

Nico and Hades had discussed what was most likely going on, and Hades put forward that the mania was probably holding Rachael captive in Tartarus, just to extra make sure Nico would go there to save someone. In other words, a great big annoying trap.

'Remember, Nico. Tartarus is the monsters' home territory. It'll be much stronger there, and you won't be able to control it fully. Be smart, try to avoid everything but try to cover as much distance as possible, yes?'

Nico nodded, and it did nothing for Nico's nerves to see Hades looking a little nervous.

'Where… Which way should I go?' He asked, drawing his father's attention back. Hades gestured to their left, to a tangerine horizon.

'Follow the border between Punishment and the Fields… You'll fall before long.' Silence befell the two, and with one last quick hug and a tight smile, Hades was gone.

Nico took a deep breath. He was going to go to Tartarus. He was going to walk until he fell, get found by Percy, and… Somehow get them back and Percy unpossessed. Preferably not die before doing that.

He was prepared: he had ambrosia, along with a fresh stash of pomegranate seeds (begrudgingly given to him by Persephone), his sword and a jacket of Nemean lion fur glamoured to look like a normal, black flak jacket. Nico sighed and began walking.

There was a half-ruined black brick path that he followed that clearly marked the border between Punishment and the Fields of Asphodel. It was strange, walking on the border of two areas spoken of as never-ending. Still, the few souls he passed obviously couldn't see him, and it made Nico feel a little disappointed that they must've only been seeing never-ending horizon. Once someone clearly determined to not walk in circles walked straight into the barrier, and Nico was a little alarmed to see the young man just disappear. He assumed the spirit had just been sent back closer to the middle of the Fields, unharmed.

The same could not be said for those on the other side of Nico's path. The Ghost King was grateful to notice the worst of the punishment he could see was closer to the palace, and though the really bad stuff was still close to the palace, it wasn't so close to the border. Eventually things tapered out into souls chained up and hanging from trees, to the occasional being forced to walk on hot coals.

Not to mean Nico wasn't disturbed, he definitely kept from letting his eyes stray, but he couldn't stop himself from thinking.

Was that how Percy felt right now? Trapped and tortured beyond his control? The look in Percy's eyes for that one lucid moment while walking to Hades's palace made Nico begin to believe that.

What if Percy was in pain right now? Nico cringed, and began walking a little faster, not noticing the environment around him darkening slightly.

Thoughts of Percy trapped in his own mind by a spirit of insanity, possibly hurting Rachael— one of the few good friends Nico had, consumed his time walking.

Right until he went and walked into nothingness.

It seemed that Nico's negative thoughts were enough to attract the dark gravity of Tartarus, so one moment Nico was walking in eternal twilight, the next he's falling through the earth (can you call the ground of the Underworld "earth"?) into the realm of monsters since time immemorial, even for the gods.

~ O ~

Shit, shitshitshitshit fuck!

Oh, this was so not a good start.

Nico grimaced as he ran his fingers along his ankle, which currently felt like it was being crushed by a tonne of stone. He could move his toes, and nothing felt broken, but he'd definitely strained something, his Achilles tendon perhaps. How ironic he'd be brought down by literally the most famous weak spot in history. Taking a deep breath, he slipped off his bag, hissing in pain as the movement rubbed his rear into the broken-glass ground.

Falling had taken a shorter amount of time than he'd presumed, so before Nico could get his bearings and prepare to fall right —hopefully, he'd landed painfully half-on his feet, and half-on his side. Nico had run a hand past his face once he'd cleared his head and knew there was many small cuts down his face and neck from landing on the glass, but chose to ignore them for now, focusing on his ankle.

'Shit,' He swore quietly once he saw his ambrosia had turned to ash. Godsdamn friggin' stupid unholy Tartarus. Brushing out his backpack, then just delegating to discard it completely, Nico attempted standing up.

Yeah, that was a bad idea.

Nico forced himself to not fall over for fear of putting a hand out to stop the fall and stab himself more on the glass. Still, he wasn't going to get far with a foot he could put no weight on whatsoever.

Sighing, Nico drew his sword and, grimacing at how much the glass would be hurting the blade, began using it as a crutch.

Of course, he didn't have to suffer long, because after a few minutes growls and snarls not too far off had him frozen in his tracks.

There was silence where Nico listened carefully while glancing around him for the disturbance. There was a rocky outcropping of huge boulders ahead, and, well, not much else. It seemed a bank of blood fog had swept in, and Nico could barely see a few metres more in any direction.

There was the faint cracking of glass, clearly footsteps of more than a few beings, coming from behind Nico. Then silence.

'Well, well,' Was hissed in an inhuman voice that gave Nico shivers. Shitshitshit. He turned so his back was facing the boulders, and strained his eyes to see past the mist.

'Where are you, little demigod?' The voice called in a singsong voice. Female, Nico could tell. Whatever female monster was homing in on Nico's scent was speaking softly, and Nico realised it was because she didn't want any other monsters come and steal part of her prey. It was a little worrying, noticing the enemy that was closing in on you wasn't some stupid beast.

As quietly as he could while walking on broken glass with a sprained ankle, Nico tried to back toward the boulders. He had no doubt he'd have to fight this creature, by the speed of which it was coming toward him, but some height on those boulders would be a good advantage.

Still swearing silently at how slow he was moving and how much pain shot up from his ankle, Nico inched his way toward the boulders, the acid air stinging his nostrils as he tried to breathe quietly.

Nico's shuffling was stopped by something thin, long, dark and fucking terrifying emerging from the mist ahead of him.

Oh, Hades no, he thought to himself as one, two, three more spindly legs made their way straight toward Nico. Eventually, the demigod was looking up into the beautiful yet horrifying face of—

'Arachne,' He tried to say sternly, but it came out as more of a scared whimper. Pain shot up his leg, like a heads up of what was about to come. Yeah, fighting Arachne would be a bitch.

She took a few steps (which with that many legs, didn't get her so far) toward Nico, licking saliva from her fangs, her clawed fingers twitching in anticipation.

'Little demigod, it's been a while.' Godsdamn, that spidery lisp she had on the s's was terrifying, but not like he'd let her know that. Nico slapped a smug smile onto his face and tried to not let the pain he was in show.

'Yes, I recall the last time we met me and my team threw you down your own trap. Good times.' Nico greeted with a smile, which was returned with a snarl.

'Make jokes now, little demigod, for we won't meet twice.' She began forward, multiple legs flicking glass shards everywhere, and with that threatening last sentence, Nico was saved.

'Hey! He's mine, bitch!'

There was a time not so long ago that Nico would've positively swooned at Percy Jackson appearing out of nowhere to save him from a monster (or at least help him beat it, he wasn't completely hopeless), but the overly-smug voice of the mania-possessed Percy was just painful. Arachne seemed to think so too.

'You had me exited, mania. I thought I could get two for one.' Nico would've shrivelled under the death glare the mother of spiders was shooting Percy, who was presumably standing on the boulders behind Nico.

'Yeah, well, I called dibs.' Percy replied smoothly, not sounding threatened in the least. Glass clacking alerted Nico to Percy dropping down from the boulders and striding up to Nico.

The son of Hades didn't want to see Percy in Tartarus, not when he was like this. Screwing his eyes shut, Nico tried not to flinch too much when the mania's arm snaked around his middle in a mockery of a loving hold, and a kiss was placed on his cheek which left the side of his face stinging like he'd been splashed with acid.

'Hey babe, am I interrupting?' Nico could hear the smirk in the mania's voice, and he really didn't like it. Fingers tensing around the hilt of his sword, he quickly took a step back and drew the blade to Percy's throat. Of course, that meant he had to open his eyes, and the sight was worse than he could've imagined.

It looked just like Percy. Yes, it. This was the mania, but now, no matter how hard Nico tried, he couldn't see the beast underneath. There was only Percy's gorgeous, black, windswept hair, his vibrant green eyes and pink lips turned upward in a smile. His hands with those beautiful slender fingers Nico loved so much were raised in a sign of defence, but after a moment, the look on the mania's face turned to one of pure contempt.

Nico felt his arm go weak from the strain of holding up the heavy sword, and despite his best efforts, the sword drooped, then fell from his hand.

'Disgusting,' Was muttered as Arachne shuffled away into the mist, the faint swishing of broken glass her exit theme.

The mania walked right up to Nico, and gods was it creepy to have a monster this close to you without a shred of fear in its eyes. The mania was looking at Nico, as if evaluating how he'd want to slice up the fresh cut of meat he just got.

Suddenly, the mania's face softened into a loving smile, and before Nico could swat him away, Percy's hands rose to cup his cheeks, forcing Nico to look right into the eyes of madness.

'Let's go home, love.' it said, and gave Nico a soft peck on the lips. "Peck" was definitely the word for it, as it nibbled Nico's lips painfully after the initial kiss.

Then the mania promptly sank it's fangs into Nico's neck, and before the son of Hades could remember how most monster saliva had instant anaesthetising toxins in it, he was unconscious.

**Wow, so, it's Friday night and I've decided to just get this story DONE. I know I want four separate stories in this series, and I know what'll be in the fourth one, but I need to figure out a third one! If y'all have any ideas based on perhaps characters you want to see, or places you want to visit, please shoot me your ideas because it all helps :))) Love,

TJ**