Nico woke up with the strange feeling that he had been asleep too long and the knowledge that it only felt like minutes. Nothing hurt━there was no pain even though the stab wound covered the whole left side of his chest━and everything felt clear. He felt like, well, him. He didn't feel like he was sharing his body with anyone anymore.

Anubis?! Nico refused to open his eyes, scared with what would meet him. Anubis, what happened?!

There was no answer, just as if anyone else screamed to themselves.

Anubis, I'm scared... Nico laid in silence for another couple minutes before opening his eyes, frowning at the unfamiliar room around him. When he sat up, he could see the scale...no...it couldn't be...

"The Hall of Maat..." Nico breathed out in amazement, his eyes landing on Ammut and the scale. "So...I'm dead..."

"You're finally awake." Anubis' voice broke Nico out of his sense of awe. Looking behind him, Anubis was sitting on the ground, watching Nico. "It's been awhile."

"What...?" Nico blinked the confusion away. "What are you doing out of my head? What am I doing here? Why..."

"You're dead," Anubis replied bluntly. "Why the Egyptian afterlife? I'm not sure. Probably because my soul was entangled in yours."

Nico got to his feet, frowning at the absence of...everything. No pain, no feelings, no feeling of being alive. Nico tried to draw blood with his fingernails, but he simply didn't bleed.

"All your blood drained out about a minute after you were stabbed," Anubis explained. "There's no point in trying to get any more out."

"Shut up," Nico looked around helplessly. "There's no way my heart is going to be lighter than your stupid feather."

Anubis laughed softly. "I think we both know that, Nico."

"So, what do I do?" Nico ran his hands through his hair. "I don't want to be eaten by Ammut, no offense."

"I don't think anybody would take offense to that." Anubis shook his head. "Look, Nico, we don't have much time."

"Much time for what?"

"I'm the god of death. I know a soul that can go back when I see one."

One by one, they laid the burial shrouds on the white stretchers. An Athena kid here, an Ares kid there. The cabins made each of the shrouds separately, knowing every demigod deserved their own burial rights, despite the fact that so many had died in such a short period of time. In mortal wars, mass trenches would be dug and the bodies would be dumped. But a group of teenagers knew better than wars full of adults, again.

Will helped his cabin make theirs. Only three people from their cabin had died, but he still felt like they lost a good chunk of their siblings. Megan at age 16, Jordan at age 17, Mikey at age 12. They had been their best archers and had been right in the fight. Their very last fight.

Megan's shroud had Apollo's symbol loud and proud and was bright yellow, just like the colors she always wore. An optimist until her death. Jordan's was a deep purple despite her heritage. And little Mikey? His mom came in to help with his. Bows and arrows, Apollo's chariot, a sketch of his favorite toy. Despite his small frame, his stretcher was the heaviest.

Will watched the rest of the bodies be moved to their respected cabins, his heart sinking when he saw the only one left, the only one without a cabin to take him. Nico━no, his body. It wasn't Nico anymore━had grown as pale as the other corpses and his lips were tinted blue. His eyes, still open, stared blankly at the ceiling above him. A white sheet covered the rest of his body, but if you pulled it back you'd reveal one of the largest amounts of blood Will had ever seen from one person. That was what happened when you got stabbed right through the heart with an instrument bigger than the heart itself.

"Neeks," Will leaned against the wall for support, not even realizing he was crying until he couldn't see Nico anymore through the blurry tears. He wiped at his eyes once, twice, three times before giving up. There'd be no way to clear them now that the tears had started. "Nico...Nico..."

He broke down for a good ten minutes before his eyes went dry and his throat couldn't make another noise. He stared blankly at Nico's body, stared blankly at the boy he wanted to start a family with some day, wanted to get married to someday. He stared...

He started his shroud.

He didn't want to tell anybody, didn't want to worry Will more than he already was. He didn't want to cause pain to those already suffering.

But Almaji felt sicker than he ever had before.

Sharp pains lined his stomach and his energy seemed to have been stolen right from him. Every move, every breath, every twitch of the fingers took more out of him that he ever felt possible. When did even breathing take all of his efforts?

So he laid on Nico's old bed, stared at the bunk bed above him, and tried to fall asleep.