Almaji looked down at the fuzzy gloves Will had gotten him, frowning at the black color of them. He looked around the Infirmary, watching as the overflow took up the entire room and some cots outside. Blood splattered the white floor, walls, and ceiling. Bodies laid here and there, some with a white sheet over them. He saw an arm being reattached, a stab wound being treated, a body being laid to the side so that there was room for someone living.

Nobody paid the kid any attention, nobody saw how scarred he was. He couldn't find Will, couldn't find Nico, couldn't find the Stolls or anyone he knew. Everyone was gone. The monsters had attacked when nobody was expecting it, when most of them were asleep. Many of them wouldn't wake up.

Fighting still raged outside, the sounds of swords clashing and bodies falling filling his ears. Almaji, needing to find someone he knew, went to the doors of the Infirmary and looked out. Some demigods still stood against the onslaught of monsters, but most either fell back or were in the Infirmary. Percy had summoned water and was using it to the best of his ability, Leo had hands of fire, and Chiron himself fought in the battle. Will and Nico weren't seen, nor was Annabeth.

Almaji had never seen so many monsters, even when he had been on the streets of New York City. It was like all the monsters decided to attack at once, giving the campers no breaks or warnings. There was blood, blood everywhere, and it made him sick.

Without thinking, he took off running.

Percy could feel his powers fading. He was exhausted, he was at his limit, he saw no end to the fight. For every monster he killed, two more took its place. He hadn't seen his friends in awhile but could smell Leo's fire. Annabeth was supposed to be invisible somewhere, but that only made him more nervous. What if she was knocked out and that baseball cap was still on her head? What if they never found her?

Leo couldn't find Calyspo, couldn't find any of the Seven. All he could think about was watching those monsters burn, saving who he could. His mother had died by fire, but he could also use it to save.

Annabeth dodged and attacked, dodged and attacked... She didn't know how her baseball cap stayed on, but it did. She stayed invisible enough to escape the most brute of the monster's attacks. But she couldn't get past everything.

She had been pushed back towards the Big House, able to hear the sobbing children inside. They had hidden their youngest, hoping they'd never have to see or get into the fight. But near the steps to the porch, it seemed to be too good to be true.

But Annabeth kept attacking, kept pushing them back with all her might. If Nico was fighting on their side, they'd win easily. That's just how powerful he had become. But why hadn't she seen any of his powers since the first minutes of the fight?

The sounds of swords clashing, the sounds of grunts and cries of victory, the sounds of pain and exhaustion. All reached Nico's ears, but he couldn't bring himself to even sit up. When he opened his weary eyes, he was looking above him to the canapy of forest trees. Nothing seemed to stir, only a light wind here and there. It almost looked peaceful, but the faded sounds made his heart race. Were they still fighting? He should have gotten rid of all the monsters with that attack.

Why'd he feel so...out of it? Nico had no energy, no remembrance of what had happened to him. One minute he was killing monsters, the next he was waking up on this forest floor. Anubis screamed in his mind, but he could barely hear him. It was like Anubis was slowly fading out of his subconscious, slowly breaking away...

The only thing that brought him to his feet that day was Almaji's scream. He was still confused, still dazed, but he managed to run over to the kid. He had to. He had to protect him.

Almaji hadn't meant to run into the woods, hadn't meant to go where he most usually feared. It was dark, away from the other campers, and said to host some monsters. But there he was, running from where he was usually safe to somewhere he had never been safe before. It was crazy how things turned out sometimes.

The tree he decided to hide in was a low branched, thick-trunked willow tree. He climbed the branches quickly, cutting his skin here and there as he climbed carelessly. The only thing he thought about was getting to the top, getting away from things that could harm him. He hadn't been that afraid for a while. What had changed so drastically in such a short period of time?

He hadn't noticed the branch wasn't there until he went to step on it, his foot falling through the thin air and his body following. He screamed on the way down, his body landing in a thick clump of twisted limbs at the base of the tree. A monster had just stepped into the clearing, just laid eyes on its prey...

It would have killed Almaji that day if Nico hadn't stepped in front of the killing blow, if he hadn't stepped in to take his place. For the last time, Nico found it his place to screw the Fates. Screw them for what they did to Bianca, screw them for what they had done to his mother. It was them that had written that story, them that had made Nico into who he was today. But now he could get back at them, make them reassemble their knitting once more. He wasn't going to let them kill Almaji, not yet.

He was writing his own path, even if it was at the end.