Thanks for the reviews and faves! Hope you enjoy this!

Chapter 2

"I'm here. And I'll never let you fade, di Angelo."

Those words kept echoing in his mind like a mantra, much to Nico's chagrin. Of course, the way the situation was, he couldn't help but feel like they had a connection, or maybe he was thinking too much and Will was being the weirdo he was, and just wanted to see Camp Jupiter.

He looked over to Will from his seat, the demigod had earphones in his ears and was nodding his head along with the music he was listening to. As if sensing his stare, he looked at him and gave him a lazy smile. Before Nico could react, Jason's face blocked his view, "Is something wrong?"

"Uh… no."

Giggles were suddenly heard from the front and Nico glared at Piper who was peeking at them. She immediately ducked back to her seat before whispering to Annabeth about something and just like that, they started snickering.

Nico couldn't understand why that didn't seem to bother Jason at all and settled on scowling instead. He suddenly remembered how before the road trip started, Nico had taken a seat at the back and Will immediately followed him and sat next to him, grinning like a fool all the while, and just as the son of Apollo was about to open his mouth to speak, Jason suddenly wedged himself between them, smiling innocently at the two. Too innocently.

Of course Nico wanted to ask him why he wasn't sitting with Piper instead. But looking at Piper who looked back at them with amusement, she didn't seem to mind. Rather, she looked like she was going to have a fun ride. It was worse when Annabeth decided to sit next to her, smiling like she knew what the other was thinking.

And Percy settled next to his girlfriend. However, after a couple of miles, he decided to transfer to the unoccupied seat behind them when the two girls started chatting too much.

"Hey, I brought some snacks!" Will's voice was a little too loud since he still had his earphones on. He held out a bag of chips to Jason, who politely declined before holding it out to Nico.

Nico hesitated but reached out to grab some (he started feeling hungry since he just skipped lunch), but he was surprised when Will grabbed his hand and tilted the bag to make the chips fall into his hand. Some almost fell to the ground but Nico quickly tried to catch them with his other hand, scowling at Will all the while as he added more chips to his other hand.

He tried to glare, but it was hard with the warm hand now holding both his.

Jason took that moment to clear his throat and Will let go. Now Nico wanted to scowl at Jason next but settled on leaning back on his seat to munch on his chips, muttering a small thanks. He looked at Will who was still smiling at him before turning to look back outside the window, eating on what's left of his chips, seeing that he must've given almost the entire content to him.

Then there came another round of giggles as Percy took that cue to ask if there were any chips left for him.

The traffic was now making him drowsy. Will yawned before turning to look over at Nico, who had promptly fallen asleep about an hour ago while leaning against the window. Will knew Nico would still be sleeping and eating a lot, thanks to the after effect of using too much of his dark powers.

It would probably take him a long time before he reached full-recovery, but at least he was heading there.

He stared at the peaceful look of the son of Hades. He truly was an entirely different person when he was asleep.

A hand suddenly waved in front of his face, snapping him out of his reverie, and he looked at Jason who seemed to be trying to talk to him, but he could only hear bits and pieces of his voices. He hastily took off one earphone, "Sorry, what was that?"

He almost forgot the dude was sitting next to him. Not.

He would be lying if he said he wasn't disappointed that he didn't get to sit next to Nico. He was really looking forward to talking to him about a lot of things (like what happened last night and why he was acting so grumpy… well, grumpier than usual) and share the food in his bag, because he really packed a lot and still had a lot… and it was hard to share with the blonde between them almost blocking him all the time.

"You're staring." Jason spoke with a frown.

"Uh… yeah, guess I am." He grinned, not really sure if he meant him or Nico.

The son of Jupiter shifted in his seat, still staring at him, "You didn't have to come to watch over Nico. We can do that just fine."

Will adjusted the volume of the song he was listening to and leaned back while shrugging, "Just wanted to make sure you know? And besides, I always wanted to find out what Camp Jupiter looked like. I heard it's awesome."

This seemed to have softened the stern look on Jason's face at the mention of his home turf. And just like that, they soon find themselves talking about Rome and their differences with the Greek.

He caught a glimpse of Piper smirking at him in approval, and decided to ignore this as he remembered their talk last night.

Flashback

"You're going to that Roman camp?" Will looked at her in surprise. Why was he not informed of this? But then again, what right did he have to know? It's not like Nico had to share that tiny, insignificant information with him.

"Yup, Jason wanted to see how things were going there and of course there were those shrines he still had to build." Piper informed as they kept walking towards the Aphrodite cabin, "So, I decided to tag along, as well as Percy and Annabeth. And suddenly Jason suggested that Nico should come too. Those two had been really close since—." And she suddenly stopped.

Will decided not to push and spoke, "Why are you telling me this?" He was a little relieved that Nico was only visiting. For a moment he thought he was going to stay there. He couldn't help but remember the demigod's words awhile ago;

"Right. I'd keep that in mind while I head back to Rome."

"Why shouldn't I? You're his friend, aren't you?" The smirk Piper gave him seemed to tell him otherwise.

He pretty much knew that she knew what he was thinking. She was the daughter of the goddess of love after all. She apparently has this skill where she can practically read people like an open book. And she could probably tell that his feelings for a certain child of the Underworld were a little different than just friends.

But even he was having a hard time figuring out what these feelings were.

Does he actually have feelings for Nico? Or was he just feeling like this because the kid was so small and he suddenly had this sense of over-protectiveness for him and he can't help but care… and look for him when he's not around and touch him and hold him and—

"Overthinking is never a good thing, Will." Piper snapped him out of his reverie, "It usually makes things more complicated."

Will shrugged one more time, though in the inside he was feeling pretty much frustrated.

She placed a hand on the troubled teen and smiled. Her multi-colored eyes seem to sparkle underneath the moonlight and Will was suddenly glad that Piper was one of those cool demigods despite being the daughter of love. Usually her siblings would be one of those giggling messes.

"Just go with the flow and eventually you'll find the answer. Trust me. It's easier that way." She grinned and the healer finds himself nodding in agreement.

"Yeah thanks."

Piper raised an eyebrow and kept staring at him as if waiting for something. He blinked and stared at her in confusion. She rolled her eyes and spoke, "So Will Solace… what do you plan on doing now?"

Then the message was clearly received as understanding dawned in his face.

Just go with the flow.

He hesitated before finally grinning, "You don't happen to have one more seat for the road trip now, do you?"

End of Flashback

Nico dreamed he was in a strange city. The buildings were dark and shadowy. He was surrounded by shadows that aimlessly walked around. It was as dark as night but no stars lit up the skies above. And Nico found it really creepy. But that didn't matter at the moment. He had something to do.

He goes through the shadows, ignoring the shuddering cold as he passed through them and entered one of the buildings. And before he knew it everything suddenly turned bright. He shut his eyes and hissed at the light and slowly opened them.

He finds himself in front of a familiar infirmary, and hastily headed to the windows looking for someone. He saw all the Apollo children but he wasn't there. He turned around and suddenly he was inside the Apollo cabin. Two or three kids were inside but none of them was the person he was looking for.

He rushed out of the cabin and was suddenly by the beach looking at the sun that was setting.

He looked around, and no Will Solace to be found.

He didn't know why… but he had to find him. And every moment he kept ending up in a place where Will wasn't in, his heart would grow heavier and heavier and dread would seem to consume him. But why?

Suddenly he finds himself deep into the woods and heard an all too familiar scream.

His feet moved on its own and Nico found himself running so fast that leaves and thin branches would slap him in the face. He took a sharp turn and dark eyes widened as he immediately halted in his tracks. The first thing he saw was the huge looming back of a giant… no a Cyclops.

And as if sensing him, the huge monster turned around and Nico froze. Not because of fear… but because of horror. In his hand was a certain blonde, who kept struggling against the deathly grip. He was covered in scratches and his head seemed to be bleeding.

The monster suddenly gave him an ugly grin and slowly he tightened his hold.

Nico screamed.

The sudden pain in his head woke the son of Hades up and instinctively he gripped his head and bent forward.

"OW! You really have a hard head!"

He tried to blink the stars out of his eyes as he looked up to see two pairs of blue eyes staring at him worriedly. One of the blurry figures seemed to be rubbing his head painfully and Nico realized that it was Will.

"Nico, are you alright?" Jason asked as he put a hand on his shoulder, "You were having a nightmare."

Nico blinked a couple of times and tried to look outside the window, it was dark. He paled as he remembered his dream, before immediately relaxing as he saw the stars outside.

"Nico?" He looked at Percy who was leaning forward against his seat, and saw Piper and Annabeth looking at him with worried looks as well. Their concern was apparent despite the dim light of the SUV.

"I'm fine, I'm fine… it was nothing." He blushed at the attention while unconsciously rubbing the sore spot on his head.

"You sure?" Annabeth spoke up, frowning all the while. Apparently, judging by the way her calculating gray eyes looked over him, she wanted to know what he dreamt of. Not that he could blame her curiosity, demigod dreams are often connected to important events that were mostly a warning.

And Nico really hoped it was no warning and was just one of those very strange but normal dreams.

He gulped, trying to push down the sudden urge to throw-up as he remembered when the Cyclops—

"You look green." Jason's frown deepened.

"Hold on! I think I have a remedy for that in here somewhere!" He finally got himself to look at Will who started rummaging through his backpack. He tried to assure himself that the demigod was definitely fine and okay.

"Whoa, did you bring the whole infirmary with you?" Percy exclaimed as he took a peek inside the healer's bag. Will was opening some tumblers, checking their content.

"Of course not." Will rolled his eyes as he finally took out a green tumbler and handed it to Nico who tentatively accepted it, "Just some first-aid stuff."

"Dude, you've got an injection inside their!"

"Just a precaution." He answered swiftly before zipping his bag close. He turned to Nico and nodded at him, "Drink that and you'll feel a whole lot better!"

He pulled the cover open and almost gagged at the smell. Was this really supposed to make his nausea go away?

"It's not as bad as it smells." Will insisted.

"That's what all doctors say."

"Well, trust me on this."

He was about to retort but he immediately saw the smirking faces of Annabeth and Piper. He bit back the retort and reluctantly drank the strange liquid whilst glaring at the two girls.

"That must've been one horrible dream for you to make the lights around us flicker." Jason suddenly spoke up as he stopped drinking.

Will was right, it wasn't so bad, it was mostly tasteless.

He turned his attention back to the son of Jupiter and raised an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

Piper pointed at the light above them, "While you seem to be struggling in your sleep, that light and our headlights and the headlights of the cars that surrounded and passed by us started to flicker on and off. One of the cars almost crashed ours."

He looked at them in disbelief. He was about to mutter an apology but Jason interrupted him as he grabbed the tumbler from his hands and handed it back to Will.

"It doesn't matter anyway. As long as we're all fine." Jason said as he kept glancing at him, as if trying to see if anything else was wrong. Finally he asked, "Do you wanna talk about it?"

Nico hesitated and couldn't help but glance at Will who looked at him with concern and confusion. He opened his mouth, about to tell him it was nothing, when suddenly the car veered sharply to the right— off to the road and everyone screamed in surprise.

He looked up to see Argus stepping hard on the breaks and finally, they managed to stop as the SUV titled sideways, about to fall, before gaining momentum and landing back on the ground.

Percy had shielded the girls and Jason seemed to have landed on Percy's seat, sprawled awkwardly… and Nico was suddenly very aware of a body on top of him. He looked up to see Will, who had his eyes shut tightly and his arms pressed protectively at his sides. He still had the decency to blush despite the situation.

Immediately he pushed Will off, who yelped in surprise and quickly asked everyone, "Is anyone hurt?!"

Jason groaned and pushed himself up. Percy did the same and Nico watched in relief as the two girls moved to sit up. Though it was dark, it was good to know everyone was alright.

"Argus?" Percy groaned while looking at the driver, "What happened?"

He knew it was stupid for Percy to ask, especially since Argus couldn't speak, but who else were they supposed to ask? Suddenly, Argus frantically unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door, anxiously pointing outside.

GET OUT! NOW!

They didn't need to be told twice as they hastily headed out of the SUV, in time to hear a howl. Nico's dark eyes grew wide as he recognized the howl. He looked around only to find an empty road surrounded by nothing but trees. This was definitely not good.

"We need to get out of here." Percy spoke as he took out his pen.

There were growls from behind them and they all turned to look at the trees. And immediately they saw glowing red eyes from behind them. Annabeth gasped as she unsheathed her dagger, "Those are hellhounds."

"What are they doing here?"

"They're not under my father's orders." Nico spoke as he backed up, the others did the same, "They're rouge hellhounds. Probably leftovers from the war."

"Can't you order them to calm down?" Jason asked, his eyes never leaving the monsters that were slowly advancing towards them.

"I-I can't." Nico tried to command them through his mind, only to be rebounded. He could sense their hunger and desperation for food as they continued moving towards them.

They must've smelled them which shouldn't have been a surprise especially since the big three's kids were gathered. He scowled and an idea formed in his mind. But it was definitely not good.

"Where are we?" He then asked as he gripped his sword.

"Most probably in Cleveland…" Annabeth automatically responded, her gray eyes flashed as she turned to him. She obviously found out what he was thinking, so he had no idea why she still bothered to ask, "Why?"

He bit his lip and grabbed Jason's hand, "Everybody, hold hands. Now."

"What?"

Will's eyes widened as he turned to him. He obviously found out what he was thinking too, "Nico, don't you dare—"

Fortunately for Will, no one had the time to react when the hellhounds took that moment to pounce and attack them. Jason quickly unsheathed his gladius and held it up just in time to shield himself from the razor sharp teeth.

Many more came out and they soon realized there were too many of them.

Nico held out his hands to the pack of hellhounds running towards him and forced the ground beneath them to crack open. He watched as the monsters fell through the holes while some tried to claw their way back up only for the ground to give away, causing them to fall back into the underworld.

He shut his eyes and willed the cracks to shut before he hastily unsheathed his dark blade to slash at the nearby hellhound that managed to escape him.

"Stay!" Piper's voice magnified throughout the forest and it took all of Nico's will to not actually stand still as the hell hound in front of him almost cut off his head. It only worked for a few seconds as the hellhounds growled in confusion, but it was enough time for him to stab and kill it.

He looked around just in time to see Will running away from one of the hell hounds and Nico sinks into the darkness. He emerged in front of the monsters that had been chasing Will and slashed at them as they halted in surprise.

Will looked around, shocked as the hellhounds melt into shadows, before scowling at Nico, "What did I tell you about shadow-travelling?"

"That's not the issue right now Solace." He scowled back.

Will grabbed his arm, "Look Nico, I know about your plan—transporting us to that Camp. I don't think that's such a good idea."

"Yeah, well you've got better ideas?" Nico pulled his arm from him.

"You might start fading again! It's like two-thousand miles from here—"

"I managed to transport myself to China last time."

"But there are seven of us! And you're not fully-recovered yet!"

"It's the only chance we've got!" Nico snapped and he couldn't hold back the next words that came out, "It's bad enough that you don't know how to fight!"

Hurt flashed in Will's face, and the son of Hades immediately regretted what he said. He wanted to apologize but a pained yelp from afar immediately reminded him that they were in a middle of a battle. So he handed Will his most precious sword and spoke, "As soon as we get the chance, we regroup and get the heck out of here, got it?"

He did not wait for his respond as he quickly sunk into the shadows. He emerged behind Annabeth who almost maimed him with her dagger, "Gods! Don't do that!"

Nico stared at the long gash across her face and winced.

"I've been through worse." She spoke as if reading his mind. Her eyes then widened and immediately she yelled, "Duck!"

Nico did as he was told and Annabeth stabbed the monster at the stomach as it was in mid-pounce and immediately melted into shadows. He then summoned some skeletons and ordered them to attack the other hellhounds heading their way. He really didn't want to know how these people died in this area, but obviously, anywhere you go, there would always be buried skeletons beneath.

"You shouldn't be using your powers too much if you're planning to have us jump all the way to Camp Jupiter." Annabeth frowned.

"I don't really have much choice."

Before the other could respond her eyes widened as she saw from afar a certain demigod on the ground, trying to push back the hellhound that was trying to get a bite off his face, his sword, lying from afar.

"PERCY!"

Nico found himself sinking into the shadows once more before emerging next to Percy's fallen sword. He grabbed the weapon and shadow-travelled to where Percy was and stabbed the hell-hound at the back. There was a pained whimper and just like the other monsters, the hell hound melted into the shadows.

"Percy!" Annabeth knelt beside him.

Percy pushed himself off the ground coughing, "Man, those things have nasty breaths!" He told her.

He suddenly frowned as he turned to stare at him, "You okay? You don't look so good."

"I'm fine." He said through gritted teeth. Obviously, using his powers were starting to take a toll on him. Not to mention he had not eaten much for the day.

"You sure—?"

"I need a distraction." Nico spoke, "At least enough time for us to regroup. I'm getting us out of here."

"You mean shadow-travel?" Percy frowned while exchanging looks with Annabeth, and Nico couldn't help but wonder how many people had Coach Hedge shared about his Underworld-y problem. Great, now he was starting to sound like Will.

"Just do it."

Percy's frown deepened but he nodded his head either way.

Nico handed his sword back to him before running off to help the others. He also had to let Jason and Piper know about the plan.

No sooner did the ground start shaking just as he finished telling the two, and before he knew it, water rushed out of the ground sending the remaining hell hounds flying towards the forest.

"QUICK! GRAB HANDS NOW!" Nico looked around, trying to find Will. As soon as he found him, he ran towards him and grabbed his wrist (seeing that he was still holding his sword). They quickly ran towards the others and started regrouping.

Meanwhile, Argus hit a hellhound that managed to avoid the geyser with his club before heading towards them.

Everyone had grabbed hands by then. Nico was still holding Will's wrist( who looked very reluctant at this) and grabbed Annabeth, and started concentrating his thoughts to Camp Jupiter.

Will turned to Argus and held out his hand, "Come on!"

There came more howling, and more hellhounds came pouring out. Nico couldn't help but wonder how many more monsters out there managed to survive the war.

"Nico!" Piper screamed.

The son of Hades snapped out of his thoughts and they started to sink into the shadows, about to shadow-travel— when everything went wrong.

As Argus was inches away from grabbing Will's hand, a hell hound tackled their body-guard, sending him flying away. And before Nico could react, Will had pulled his hand from his grip and ran towards Argus screaming his name.

He watched in horror as the healer ran farther and before he could do anything, they had all melted in the shadows and everything went black. The last thing he saw was Will putting his fingers in his mouth before whistling so loudly that it reached through the shadow realm.

End of Chapter

Reviews? :)