**So, epilogue, what have you got in store for us now?

— Read me, and find out, d*ckhead!

Whoah, dude.

Kids read this.

Language.

Nah but yeah, the name for the third of this "quadrology"(?) will be posted on my page as soon as this chapter has been posted. Check it out. Clues in title. (Though I'm kind of OCD, so to keep this series in alphabetical order in the right order when you see them on my page, the third one had to start with "You Can't Love U/V/W/X" So my choices were limited, bear with me, I think I've managed.)**

~ Three Months Later, New York ~

Nico took a deep breath and rounded the corner into the Jackson's/Blofis' living room, where an unruly menagerie of demigods were waiting for their popcorn.

Percy threw him a bright smile, and once Nico had divided two bowls of popcorn between Reyna, Leo and Malcolm, and Rachael, Octavian and Jason (the last two very obligatorily invited), he cautiously settled in beside Percy, who gently lay his arm around Nico's shoulders to reach the last bowl of popcorn the two would share.

Nico smiled up at Percy to tell him the action was okay, and after smiling back (and multiple catcalls and Come on!'s from everyone else), Percy began the movie.

Finding Nemo began to play, and it was just after everyone had settled into silence at seeing Nemo's mum brutally murdered that Nico reached for the remote and paused the film.

'What? No!' Leo cried, tossing popcorn over everyone in an effort to find who'd paused the movie.

'You okay, Nico?' Reyna turned and asked the in-deep-thought demigod, the beginnings of amusement on her face. 'We can pick another movie.'

'What?!' Leo squealed, much to the bemusement of Rachael and Malcolm. 'No way José, we gotta see what happens!'

After calmly reassuring Leo that they weren't going to change movies, Nico turned to Jason, who promptly blanched and began to study his popcorn bowl in depth which Octavian kept munching on handfuls taken from it.

'Jason,' Nico began, trying his best not to sound standoffish. Nico was looking intently at the son of Zeus until the blond —obviously sensing his stare— looked up and matched his gaze. Nico looked hurriedly around the room, anywhere except Jason's oblivious and punchable face, adding: 'I'm sorry if this kind of ruins the mood, but, um… It's kind of something I've been wondering for a while…'

Supportive and understanding nods and hums were interrupted by the obnoxious sound of the last of a smoothie being sucked up through a straw. One by one, almost scarily peeved gazes turned to Octavian, who was simply chilling with his glass, straw still in his mouth. After looking around, innocently at everyone, the augur saw he may've ruined some kind of moment, got up to refill his cup.

'Um,' Nico began again, frowning at the interruption and drawing everyone's attention back except that of the aloof augur. 'Well, Jason, I was kind of thinking… How did you… Find us? In… Tartarus, I mean.' Nico stammered out, silently relieved as the room turned to Jason in stead of him. Nico felt a hand (unmistakably Percy's) intertwine itself into his hands that had been fiddling nervously in his lap the whole time.

'Oh!' Jason exclaimed, surprisingly not as put out by the question as Nico thought he'd be. 'Well, it's actually not me you should be asking.' Jason stated, turning a pointed gaze on Octavian, who'd just reentered the room, water-filled cup in hand; he stopped abruptly, sensing he'd just been told on for doing something bad. Nico couldn't help but feel that by the tone of Jason's confession, the other demigod had been wondering that, too.

'O—Octavian?' Nico said, suddenly quite fearful of what he could be about to hear. For weeks he'd been preparing himself for an explanation from Jason, but this was unexpected, and unexpected events tended to set off Nico's anxiety and panic attacks.

'What? What'd I do?' Octavian asked while gingerly resuming his place at the foot of the main couch, still looking at everyone with a clueless look on his face.

'You opened up a portal into Tartarus.' Jason casually declared, and Nico was glad no one was looking at him so they didn't see him flinch. 'Right where Nico and Percy were. How was that?'

Octavian's face paled in… Not exactly fear, but the look of someone being caught out on a lie, for a moment, before he cleared his throat.

'Well, I used a quite frankly unhealthy amount of power from Phoebus Apollo, which none of you have thanked me for yet, to open the portal using a few other tricks.' Octavian stated, his air of calm nonchalance having returned.

'Tricks like what?' Leo said before anyone else could speak, frowning intently, as curious as the rest of them. For a mere demigod to pull off something most major deities struggled with… One could understand the curiosity.

'… Blood magic.' Octavian said quietly before quickly taking a sip of his water, clearly trying to avoid questions.

Quite a few voices called out in disbelief and anger, among other things, but it was Nico who wanted answers the most, so his voice rang out above everyone else's.

'How would you have done that?' He questioned, not letting his voice waver an inch, and it seemed to do the trick. Everyone stopped their bickering, even Octavian raised a brow at his assertiveness.

'When you… When you bled on the floor of the temple that day… I…' Nico began to cringe in preparation for whatever weird (at best) thing Octavian was struggling to get out, but Rachael beat the augur to it.

'You collected it.' She said while visibly shivering through the statement. Everyone except Octavian seemed to share her sentiment as he burst out in his own defence.

'Well you— you... You questing meatheads are always getting into trouble! I thought I'd— it'd come in handy some time.'

Nico was surprised to hear no real venom behind the words Octavian spat, and was even more surprised to see the other demigod fixing his gaze on him while he spoke.

Once again, the room filled with noise as the "questing meatheads" jumped to their own defence.

'Wait, wait, why would you even do that?' Nico demanded, possibly asking about the attempted stabbing, or the locator spell, though not really expecting a proper response from the I'll-do-as-I-want-I'm-an-augur demigod.

In an expression Nico couldn't place, Octavian frowned.

'... No one gets to kill you 'cept me.' The blond said quietly, but filled with a vehemence that shocked Nico greatly. After a moment, Rachael laughed out loud, clearly trying to break the slightly awkward silence that had come over everyone.

'Careful, Tavy, we might think you're in love with Nico, or something.' She joked, reaching for more popcorn.

There was a round of amused chuckles from almost everyone, them having deemed that topic dealt with. Still, Nico was dumbstruck staring at Octavian, who'd blushed vividly at the suggestion and took a clearly nervous sip of water. At the action, everyone looked at him again and the intention was clearly seen by all.

'Oh, COME ON.'

**Heh, so, yeah. I liked that ending. If you were wondering, it was Percy who said that last part. Hey, just watched Antman, and since I'll be doing a few other fandoms before "*check my page for the third story's name that will be published as soon as this chapter will be*", an Antman one might be on the list. Who knows, check my page for the updated list of Working-On fics.

Thank you everyone so much for reading this story, I know my updating schedule has been spotty at best, but it really means a lot to hear what you're thinking about what I write. Thank you again, see you soon.

- TJ**