Chapter 5 part 1:

Sadie spent the next two periods chatting with Lex, both exchanging random tidbits about themselves. Lex wanted to know more about her life in England, and Sadie questioned him about his life in Alexandria. They also discovered that they both had a crazy obsession for bubble gum.

After they finished art class the two of them separated and planned to meet for lunch. Sadie then set out for math. She sat down in the back of the classroom and waited for Nico to enter. She was curious of what they were going to talk about today, or if he was going to open up more to her.

When she spotted Nico entering she smiled and waved for him to sit next to her. Nico ignored her and sat in the front seat. Confused, Sadie rose from her seat and approached where Nico was sitting. Then she took one of his books that was on his desk and slammed it down.

"Hello Nico, you there?" She questioned jokingly as he continued to ignore her. She waved her hands in front of his face, but he still pretended she wasn't there.

"Silent treatment, huh? Well I'll get you to speak to me," Sadie said grinning at the challenge.

Sadie leaned down and blew softly on his ear, she laughed when she saw him shudder. But he still didn't say anything, he wasn't even looking at her.

Sadie was growing annoyed, "Fine, I'll up the antics." Sadie then grabbed his head with both of her hands and leveled his face with hers glaring into his eyes, "Still nothing?"

Sadie then started moving slowly to his face as she puckered out her lips as if she were going to kiss him. That caught Nico's attention. Nico quickly jerked his face away from hers, "Woah! What are you doing?" He shouted in surprise, his normally pale face was bright pink.

Sadie straightened up in front of him and smirked, "Got you to talk to me," she said, sticking her tongue out at him.

Nico's shock quickly turned into anger, "That's not funny Sadie, shouldn't you not be trying to kiss other boys? With your boyfriend and all, isn't that considered cheating?" He was glaring at her but the pinkness remained on his face.

Sadie shifted uncomfortably, she understood why Nico would think she was going out with Lex. But at the same time both her and Lex weren't going out. It wasn't like she and Nico were a couple, why did he care? She thought angrily.

"What's it to you?" She asked peeved at the way he was treating her.

"Well you did just try to kiss me. I don't want to be another one of your boy toys."

Sadie gasped at the insinuation and punched him on his arm. Then she stomped back to her seat in the back. She was angry at Nico, how dare he infer that she was some kind of boy-crazy slut. The rest of the class Sadie glared holes into the back of Nico's neck. After math she quickly stormed out of the room avoiding Nico and went to the lunchroom. Before she entered she took a deep breath, she didn't want everyone to think she was some dangerous psycho.

Then she felt someone cover her eyes from behind her making her jump, "Wha-! Carter if that's you I'm gonna punch your brains out, which will probably only take one hit."

The person behind her laughed, she recognized him immediately, "Hey Lex, you can let go now."

Lex lowered his hands and stepped in front of her, "Hi. How was math?" He asked oblivious of her bad mood. She smiled back at him, at least someone was pissing her off.

"It was okay," Sadie said lying. They both hadn't brought their lunch to school that day and didn't like the strange choice that were being offered for hot lunch. Sadie grimaced as she looked at what can only be described as a casserole of everything the lunch ladies could find in the fridge, "Do you want to go out for lunch?" Sadie asked Lex eyeing him as he was also disgusted at the food choices.

Lex nodded, "I thought you'd never ask."

Luckily the Beacon School was open campus, allowing anyone to leave for their lunch period. The two set off for a little café that was a few streets down. Lex said one of his relatives worked there and could give them some free food.

As they were walking Lex suddenly grabbed her arm, bringing his finger up to his mouth to signal her to stay quiet.

"What?" Sadie whispered to him alarmed as she tried to see what he was looking at. Then she saw Nico talking to a dark figure in an alley. Sadie and Lex quickly moved behind the wall that separated them from the alley and peeked around it at Nico.

"What do you think he's doing?" Sadie whispered to Lex.

Lex shrugged as he maintained focus on Nico. Whatever Nico was talking about must not have been good, he was glaring at the man. Then suddenly he disappeared. Not like pop! He was gone. More like he became one with the shadows, sinking into it. It was definitely not something you'd see every day. "Woah! Did you see that?" Sadie asked Lex in surprise as they both ran to where Nico had just been standing.

Well that confirmed it to Sadie, Nico was definitely not normal. Now she just had to figure out what he was. It was possible that he was a member of the House of Life, his shadow merging was like a kind of magic. But somehow Sadie wasn't convinced. She toyed with the idea that he was a magician in a rogue group.

"That definitely was not normal," Lex was frowning as he studied the wall intently at the spot where the shadow and Nico had been, running his fingers over it.

Sadie was silent as she stood there in shock. Although she was still angry at Nico from earlier, she was worried that he may be in danger. She didn't know what to do. "I think I should talk to my brother," Sadie said to Lex.

Lex nodded and they headed back towards the school. Suddenly they heard a scream. It sounded like someone running their nails down a chalkboard. Lex looked around nervously and screamed, "Run!" Sadie didn't need to be told twice after she saw three dark figures flying after them. They were only two blocks from the school but the figures were gaining. Sadie knew they weren't going to make it. She'd have to use her magic.

Sadie turned around suddenly and shouted, "Ha-di!" the spell appeared in blue hieroglyphics.

Lex noticed her absence and had already turned around. He was watching her intently. It was too bad her spell did absolutely nothing to the figures but enrage them. Sadie knew she was in trouble. She wished her brother was there to help her.

Suddenly she saw a blur run past her, it was Lex. Sadie screamed for him to stop, she didn't want him to get hurt. Then he pulled out two daggers. Sadie watched in amazement as he jumped up and sliced one of the figures quickly. The figure disappeared into cloud of ash. Lex dodged and jumped as the other two figures attacked him ruthlessly. He was truly amazing, he was moving so fast Sadie almost couldn't see him. He easily took down the two dark figures in no time.

A bit winded he housed his two daggers into his belt, which Sadie just noticed, and tucked his shirt over it. Then he turned around to look at her, his blue eyes anxious to see what she'd do next.

After a few moments of Sadie staring at him with her mouth slightly open she finally gained the ability to speak again, "What was that?" She asked dumbly.

"Furies, nasty buggers," He said as if that was answering her question. He looked back at where they had been flying/standing and sighed, "They don't respond to certain magic, that's why your spell didn't work."

Sadie stared dumbly at him wondering how he knew so much, and wondering who and what he was, "What are you?"

Lex smiled nervously but tensed suddenly, "We have to get back to school now, I'll tell you later okay?" Sadie nodded and they both ran back to their school. Once they reached the entrance Sadie wondered if he would tell her who he truly was.

Lex seemed to read her mind, "You said you'd go out with me today, are you still up for it?" Sadie shook her head enthusiastically, she was on the brink of determining who he really was, and wasn't going to miss this chance. Lex's face brightened, "Meet me here after school, we can go to my house. It'll be safe. I'll tell you as much as I can there."

Sadie nodded and the bell rang. They said their goodbyes and Sadie hurried to the gymnasium. She had to confront Nico.

Chapter 5 Part 2:

Nico was not having a good day. Lex had kissed the girl he liked and he didn't know what to do. Of course he thought about obviously asking her out, but he was already beaten to it. And besides if she had said no to Lex, then she was definitely going to reject him. It was definitely tough being a 15-year old guy. Especially a son of Hades who often preferred the company of the dead rather than most humans.

Nico decided to skip lunch, he didn't want to have to face Sadie or Lex. As he wondered down the street wondering why life was treating him so poorly he heard a man saying his name. He turned around to see one of his father's cronies standing in an alley.

Groaning Nico walked over to where the man was standing. "What do you want?" Nico asked angrily.

"You're wanted at Camp," the man said coldly.

Nico nodded, he knew that the Camp had been having problems with strange monsters lately. The man walked into the wall, disappearing into a shadow. Nico didn't necessarily like shadow traveling, it always left him a little tired. However he knew that the situation was probably urgent if he was being called from school. Nico slipped into the dark shadow of the alley and then popped out in the forests of Camp Half-Blood.

He could hear screaming and general commotion. Nico ran as fast as he could in the direction of the sound. He drew his sword and charged, summoning a few of undead soldiers. The monster was huge and scary. It had the arms and legs of a lion and the head and body of a crocodile. It was definitely a strange site.

"Hey Nico!" he heard his friend Percy yell to him as he was swinging his own sword.

A year had passed since he had set off to find Percy. That was when he discovered the secret of the Roman demigods. Camp Half-Blood had made contact with the Roman camp a few months back, then they "exchanged" Percy and Jason. The Romans decided to also go to Greece to fight the giants and Gaia but they decided to stay in California and prepare their own ship to send off some of their campers instead of using Argo II.

Nico kept dodge the blows, the monster was tough, and everyone's swords weren't as effective as they were to the familiar monsters. The Hephaestus campers had created different versions of Festus and the dragons were currently attacking the monster. But even they were getting thrown around.

Nico saw Annabeth talking to some other campers in the distance, he was wondering how long they had been attacking the monster since they all look winded.

After a gruesome half hour of fighting, the monster finally disappeared in a puff of ash. Nico was exhausted. He almost felt the same level of exhaustion during the Battle of the Labyrinth that had occurred a few years ago leaving him close to death.

"Nice fighting," Percy said to Nico as he was trying to catch his breath.

Nico nodded, "You were really good too. I'm afraid my undead soldiers are pretty much useless against these things. Has Chiron found out what they are yet?"

"Me and Annabeth think he knows but he won't tell us for some reason. I think this has something to do with him swearing upon the River Stixs."

The two of them found Annabeth and Grover. Nico looked away from them as Annabeth and Percy kissed, only reminding him of his earlier situation. Although Percy had forgotten all about Annabeth in the Roman camp, like some kind of sappy love story they found their way back together. But Nico was happy for them, every time he saw them together they were cuddling or kissing or making out. That's normally when he left.

"How was school Nico?" Annabeth asked as they walked to the Big House for an emergency meeting about the recent attack.

"Terrible," Nico said hoping they'd drop the conversation. Nico had been forced by his father and step-mother to go to school. He had protested but they were only looking out for his future. And because he wasn't one of the 7 in the prophecy he was stuck in New York anyways.

Annabeth patted him on his back trying to comfort him, "I'm sure it'll get better."

They met in the familiar meeting room in the Big House, sitting around the usual Ping Pong table. A few cabin leaders were missing due to injury. Luckily during the last battle no one had died. However the past few attacks on the camp had led to the death of Kayla from the Apollo cabin, Isaac from the Hephaestus cabin and a few others. It pained Nico whenever someone died, the camp had become his new family, and after Bianca's death he was determined to protect it.

"What are we going to do after Percy, Annabeth, Leo and Piper leave?" asked Katie Gardner once everyone was sitting, "They're some of our best fighters, we're doomed if we don't have them."

"We don't need them!" Clarisse said glaring at Katie, "We can still fight them off without them, you have me remember."

No one wanted to get into a fight with Clarisse while they were already exhausted, so they didn't question her.

"Has anyone found out what these monsters are?" Nico asked quietly.

They shook their heads, "We should just force Chiron to tell us!" Travis said suddenly. He had blood dripping from a cut on his cheek.

"Yea, it's not fair that we have to sit back getting our butts kicked every week. It's almost daily now! We aren't safe here, and our weapons are basically useless," Connor added in. He also looked worst for where, his face was bruised and he had dried blood on his orange shirt.

A few of them glared at Chiron who sighed. He was unable to help them even though he knew what those monsters were. Nico thought the gods were again being very selfish in not allowing them information.

"Chiron if you can't tell us, can we ask the gods?" Percy said breaking the tension that was directed towards their activities director.

"Honestly, I think it's important you are told. I will ask the gods if it is okay for them to explain everything," Chiron said compromising with them.

A few campers still looked angry but for the most part everyone thought it was a good idea.

After the meeting was over Nico decided to stick around camp. Not seeing the point in going back to school. He guessed he would at camp for the weekend. They could probably use all the help they could get. And he didn't really feel like making the trip to the Underworld, he was dead tired.

"Hey Piper," he said to the daughter of Aphrodite as he was heading to his cabin to sleep. He didn't know Piper too well. She mostly stayed with Leo after Jason returned to the camp. Nico was skeptical of her at first due to her being a child of Aphrodite. He thought most of them were shallow. However she proved herself, she managed to save Hera and she had supposedly brought Jason back from a semi-dead state.

Piper looked at him sadly, he suddenly felt understanding for her. "I'm tired," she said smiling weakly at him.

"Me too, I feel like I could sleep for days," Nico said smiling slightly at her.

Piper laughed. Then they separated as she reached her own cabin. Nico walked up the obsidian cabin that he had built the summer before. He walked in and welcomed the darkness, and then he collapsed onto his dark bed covers and fell asleep.