Okay, okay, maybe it was a cliffhanger... but look! I have a new update for you! So no one needs to kill me... Put the knife down...

The last time Poseidon dropped the Avengers off in Death Valley, it had been a smooth journey. It had only taken about a heartbeat to transport them from New York to California, and there had been no trouble with breathing and the like.

This time, however, Poseidon was severely injured, courtesy of Nico. The moment the sea mist enveloped them, they had no air, and those not half sea god or wearing waterproof armour felt like they were drowning. It took significantly longer to deliver them to their destination, and by the time they arrived, soaked and shocked, they were gasping for breath, having gone without air for the better part of thirty seconds.

The watery transportation spat them out, and they fell to their knees, the majority of them clutching their throats. Like the others, Percy was knocked down by the abruptness of the travel, but he could breath under water. He got to his feet and brushed of his still dry clothes, confused when he looked up to see his cousin's team lying on the ground and soaking wet. He hastily gestured, and the water removed itself from their clothing. He scratched his head sheepishly as they all began to get to their feet, still coughing.

"Sorry guys, Dad wasn't feeling the best," he said uncomfortably, before he brightened, "At least you're not all covered in blood now. Free bath!" The Avengers and Thalia, who were now standing, glared at him. Percy gulped nervously, and spotted Nico, who was still struggling to his feet. "Hey Nico, are you alright?" He walked over to his cousin and grabbed his arm, trying to pull him upright. Nico shook him off, and straightened, ignoring the concerned looks his friends were beginning to send him.

"I'm fine. Just not that fond of water, is all," he said in as strong a voice as he could manage. He locked the muscles in his legs, which were beginning to shake from the strain of holding his weight, and hoped no one noticed.

Percy didn't look too convinced, and was about to ask more when the ground shook beneath them, causing the others to wobble unsteadily, and Nico to almost faceplant into the sand.

"Gaea's still powerful enough to cause earthquakes?" Bruce asked incredulously.

"No," Percy replied, crouching down and burying his hand in the sand. "She wasn't controlling that quake. It felt like it was caused accidently, almost like her power is leaking out.

"She did just get blasted by god killing super powers," Tony pointed out, "We need to take advantage of this weakness before she heals herself. I don't see how we can defeat her otherwise."

"We're gonna need to destroy them first," Clint called down from where he was perched on one of the dunes. "She called up some reinforcements."

Steve cursed, and climbed the dune, peeking over the top. Unexpectedly, he laughed. "She really HAS been weakened. Look at the size of the Earthborn now."

The others scrambled to the top, Nico slower than the others, and saw what he meant immediately. These Earthborn, of which there were less than three hundred, were much smaller than the creatures they had been battling for most of the day. They also had only one set of strong arms, the other two sets being shrivelled and useless, as if Gaea hadn't had the energy to make them complete. Steve grinned at the sight of them, knowing they were even more unintelligent than the last batch, and that there would be no problem in destroying them.

"Alright," the Captain said, "From what I can see from here, Gaea has definitely been weakened. Her fortress is crumbling, and her soldiers don't look much better. Avengers, we'll stay here and deal with the dirt bags, Greek demigods head inside and deal with your grandmother. I'm assuming you'll be able to get rid of her permanently, Nico?"

Nico nodded, and kept his face blank of emotion. He was almost positive he was capable of finishing off Gaea since he had already injured her with his powers, but at what cost to himself? As he gazed down at Gaea's fortress, he could feel the almost unbearable pain of the cursed energy as they tried to sever his soul. He shuddered and winced, feeling relieved when no one else noticed. He wasn't sure how long he could last like this, but if he was going down, he was bringing Gaea with him.

"We'll be fine," Nico replied, and was proud that he could still keep up a normal conversation even as he felt the golden black light tearing away at his soul. His face drained of what little colour it had as a particularly painful internal attack almost brought him to his knees. "You'll know she's defeated once the sandcastle collapses."

Steve nodded at him, frowning faintly as he noticed Nico's slightly pained expression. He put it down to the stress of being possessed. Who wouldn't look a little pale?

"Okay," Steve continued, "We'll clear a path to the door for you. Once inside you need to take her down as fast as you can. This place is sinking down, and I don't know how long the ground will remain stable. Time is of the essence, people, let's go!"

With that, they attacked. The Earthborn were obviously expecting them, but they were incapable of doing much about it. They tried to defend, but the combined might of the Avengers would eventually overwhelm them. While the others fought, Nico, Percy and Thalia sprinted towards the stone door, Nico lagging behind the others, struggling to keep up. When they reached the door, Thalia blasted them apart with lightning, charging on through before waiting for the dust to settle.

Upon entering, they saw the fortress for what it truly was without being distorted by Gaea. It was a huge, plain room, bare of objects but for the huge pillars that supported the fortress' structure, and it ended with deep chasm that led down to the subterranean cave system below at the back. The huge room also housed a number of Earthborn, who after seeing the intruding demigods, attacked with all their might.

Nico, Percy and Thalia made quick work of the beasts, and all too soon, piles of dirt were all that remained. It was pitiful how weak Gaea's creations had become. Still, after the exertion, Nico was forced to lean against one of the pillars as he painfully coughed into his hand. When he pulled it away from his face, he saw it was covered in blood. He hastily wiped his hand on his leg, and looked up at his cousins. They were staring back at him in concern, and through the pain of the cursed power within him, his heart ached for what he was about to do.

"I'm sorry, cousins, but I can't risk your lives. That was the whole point of me taking this job, wasn't it?"

Thalia and Percy stared at him in confusion, failing to understand. "Nico, what do you-"

Nico's arm swung up into the air, and with a flick of his wrist, shadows encased his cousin's feet. He was sure Loki wouldn't mind him stealing his tricks.

"Nico!" Percy yelled, his eyes furious as he tried to escape from the shadows that halted all movement, "What the Hades do you think you're doing! You can't beat her alone! You'll die!"

Nico shrugged, "Death is natural, Kelp Head, it comes to all eventually. Perhaps my time has come."

"Don't be stupid, Death Breath," Thalia growled, "This is our fight too. You can't stop us."

"I can stop her by myself," Nico snarled, his old temper making an appearance through the curtain of pain that was clouding his thoughts, "Why risk your lives when I need only risk my own?" He fell silent, realising he had said too much.

"Nico," Percy whispered, horrified, "You can't sacrifice yourself for this. If we work together, we can stop her. No one else but Gaea has to die today. You don't have to do this alone. Don't be stupid," he reasoned.

Nico stared at them both before closing his eyes. "I don't have much of a choice when it comes to the dying thing. I'm not dragging you down with me. I'm going to end this, once and for all."

Percy and Thalia tried to protest, but Nico sent them away through his shadows. He sent them to Los Angeles, the closest place to his current position that he had previously been to. He collapsed fully against the pillar, and would have fallen to the ground without its support. Guilt began to eat at his pain wracked heart, but Nico dismissed it. If they survived, he honestly couldn't care about their opinions on the matter. He had already lost too much family in this lifetime, perhaps it was time to join them. With that thought, Nico pushed himself upright, using his meagre strength to stagger over to the ladder that would lead him down to his doom.

Nico arrived at the bottom, and began his journey through the tunnels. All too soon, it was too dark for his eyes to see naturally, so he activated his Aura Vision. The tunnel was dimmer than it should have been, and he frowned. Everything had life, so even a tunnel as empty as this one should be slightly illuminated in his mind. Even as he stared at the tunnel, the life force grew darker. He swore as he figured it out.

Gaea was sucking the energy from the earth in her attempt to replenish the life force she had lost courtesy of Nico. He growled, and his anger gave him strength. This was wrong, and he needed to end it quickly. He began to run towards the golden light that shone in the distance.

As he rounded corner after corner in order to reach his destination, Nico marvelled at Gaea's life force. It was so bright and strong, the most powerful he had ever seen, including his father, even in its weakened state, but it was tainted. He wondered at how such a life force could be so evil.

He entered the cavern in which Percy had been imprisoned, and crept forward. Gaea's presence permeated the room so it was impossible to tell where she was exactly. If he wanted to kill her, he would need a direct hit. That meant he had to wait until she appeared. He moved forward silently, waiting for her to make the first move. She did not disappoint.

With a screech, a huge earthen hand shot out of the floor and made to grab Nico. He leapt into the air, and landed on the limb as it smashed into the ground. As it pulled itself out, Nico used the movement to propel himself upwards. He flipped off the hand and landed on the ground in a roll. As he came to a stop, he clutched his chest in pain. This was going to be difficult.

The hand shot towards him again, and this time he merely dived out of the way, having no energy to do anything more. He panted heavily, and a cough erupted from his chest, causing blood to splatter his lips. Upon hearing this, the hand froze. Nico straightened out, and crouched, wary.

"It seems you are injured as much as I am," came her voice.

Nico scoffed, "I'm human. What's your excuse?"

He could tell his words had pissed her off, as the floor began to tremble from her suppressed rage, but her next words were calm. "I do not wish to die, and I doubt you do either, my dear Nico. I admit it was a little cruel of me to force you to do my bidding, but I granted you the powers of a god!"

"You forced the powers to kill a god on me," he retorted, "I'm not your puppet, Gaea, and following orders was never my strong point. The moment you threatened my friends was the moment I became your enemy. I will never join you. You're evil, and I will destroy you."

"That is your final decision?"

In response, Nico gave her the finger.

"So be it."

With that, Gaea's true form erupted out of the ground. Nico closed his eyes, and dispelled his Aura Vision, knowing that if he opened them, he would be immediately incinerated. He was extremely thankful that she had been weakened, otherwise merely being in her presence would have caused him to explode into flames. He raised a hand to his face to block the light that was burning through his eyelids, and in that second of distraction, she was on him.

A burning hand latched onto his upper arm, and he was thrown across the cavern where he collided with the rocky wall. He felt his collarbone snap, and swore loudly.

Gaea cackled. "Destroy ME? Did you really believe that you, a puny demigod, could possible destroy the Earth Mother? How quaint. And I thought you to be intelligent, dear Nico." Nico snarled in response, his eyes still tightly closed, and flicked his hand in the direction of her voice. Untainted black shadows shot from his palm, and stuck the wall across from him.

"Did you think that would hit me?" Gaea said condescendingly from right beside him. Nico spun around and summoned his sword from the shadows, slashing at her. His sword connected with air, and once again a burning hand latched onto him, this time the back of his neck. He was thrown back across the room, colliding with ANOTHER wall, and this time he felt a few ribs, and his ankle snap. He wanted to howl with pain, but stopped himself. He would not give the bitch the satisfaction.

"Poor Nico," she crooned sadly, "You could have been so powerful. A god among gods. There would have been none that could stop you. But you had to choose free will." Her hand fastened around his neck, and hoisted him off the floor, slamming his back against the wall with his feet dandling half a metre above the ground. His sword fell from his grip. "Pity. You would have been rewarded greatly."

Nico started to make a gurgling noise, possibly because of the pressure on his neck. What was it with her strangling him? Gaea, however, knew that Nico was trying to speak.

"Yes, little fool?" she asked, loosening her hold so she could hear what he wanted to say, but increasing the heat coming from the hand wrapped around his neck so it began to burn his skin.

"... I said... your rewards... are shit..."

Gaea snarled, and she slammed him back again with even more force. Nico's head collided with the rock, and all he could feel was pain."

"Ungrateful child," she hissed, her voice as cruel and sharp as knives, "I gave you the power to destroy gods! And you squandered it. You lost those powers the moment you dared evict me from your mind. What comes next is your own doing. Any last words before I kill you, little Prince?"

"... Yeah..." Nico swallowed as best he could before continuing, "... who said... I lost... powers? ... Fuck... that..."

He then stabbed the dagger of gold tainted shadows and hellfire he had managed to manifest during her rant, directly into her chest. Gaea screamed, and staggered backwards. Nico, whose eyes were still closed, slumped to the ground, and curled up around his injuries, covering his ears with his hands. Jesus, she was making a racket.

Gaea grasped the dagger imbedded in her chest, and tried to pull it out. The moment her golden hands came into contact with it, they burst into black flames, which proceeded to eat away at her skin, reducing it to ash.

Gaea screamed in agony, and began to pour energy into her now handless arms in an attempt to grow them back. Instead of healing her arm, however, it just began to speed up the progress. She sank to her knees, still screaming as her arms disappeared, and the air began to fill with her gold energy. She continued to pump it into her limbs in the hope that they would re-grow, but the energy just leaked out, unable to remain contained in her body. The fire erupted from the dagger, and began to consume her torso. The whole while, her screams filled the cavern, and Nico's ears began to bleed from the loud, high pitched noise. He remained curled up, not seeing what was happening before him, and in too much pain to really care.

"NO!" she shrieked, as the fire began licking at her neck, her head now floating in a mass of golden light, "I AM NOT DEFEATED! I AM THE EARTH MOTHER! I AM GAEA! HE WILL NOT STEAL MY-" her voice cut off, because she now had no mouth. The flames continued up, and then, she was gone.

Nico lay on the ground in the deafening silence...

Then, the ground began to shake, Gaea's power no longer keeping the place together. He slowly opened his eyes, and observed what was filling the shaking room with a soft, golden light. Gaea had to be gone, he had stabbed her with her own god killing energy that he had taken from the other god's wounds, so what the fuck was this floating crap?

A mass of golden light was hovering in the air before him. Nico tried to scramble away from it, but that attempt of movement alone managed to use up his last reserves of strength. He hissed at the pain. He could feel his soul beginning to fail, see it in his mind's eye as its bright light began to disappear into the evil Gaea's power had created within him. His eyesight began to fail him, and he slumped limply against the ground. He could not turn his head away from the golden light, and he deduced that it must be Gaea's pure, uncorrupted power that had poured out of her as she tried to heal. He resigned himself to the fact that the last thing he would ever see was the undulating golden mass. His eyes began to close, and he slowly allowed himself to fall into deaths embrace. He felt his heart as it stuttered its last beat, and then-

An explosion of life.

The light shot towards him, and he was enveloped in its golden glow. His eyes shot open, and he gave a yell of surprise. The golden light zoomed through his body, healing his wounds as it went. He grunted in pain as his broken bones were melted back together, and the internal damage caused by the evil gold tainted darkness was repaired. When it reached his soul, it flooded it with light, dispelling the last of the corrupt power. Nico sighed in relief as he felt the last dredges of Gaea's malicious energy leave his body. That sigh quickly morphed into a grunt of panic. The light had healed him, and Nico had thought that once it finished, it would leave his body. But the golden light appeared to have other ideas.

Instead of vacating his body, it began to make itself at home. It had decided Nico was to become its new host.

The light seeped into him, bonding itself to his own power, and Nico knew immediately that this light was the power of the earth itself. The power of a god. A power Nico didn't want.

He began to frantically block the energy from him, trying desperately to halt the process. He didn't want to become a god! Forced to live forever, yet unable to directly influence or help the world as that could interfere with the demigods and mortals? Unable to save his friends?

The power slowly came to a halt. Nico's brow was furrowed in concentration, the stress of blocking the light almost too much for him. He was all alone in the cavern as the quakes began to fade, a new master having come into existence, his presence causing them to calm. He faintly heard the shouts of his team, and was momentarily distracted. He felt his control begin to slip, and he redoubled his efforts. In his opinion, there was no worse fate than what was to become of him should he lose this internal battle. Death would be preferable to this.

For this, this was Immortality.

Hmmm... I appear to have become overly dramatic in my chapter endings. My apologies. Last one ended with him dying, this one ending with forced immortality. Ah well, next, and last chapter will be out on Sunday. Fear not, there WILL be a sequel, and I already kinda know what it will be about. I'll start it in a few weeks. Thanks for reading, reviews are welcome but if anyone wishes to murder me because another cliffhanger, ummm, I'm really really really really uber sorry, but scroll up! I wrote you and insanely long chapter as payment. Forgive me? :3