Sam's feet hit the ground hard and his knees gave out. Even if they hadn't, the sudden brightness after the long moments in such complete darkness and the shock of suddenly being in the middle of some random forest rather than a rundown urban warehouse was enough to make him horrible dizzy and nauseous. He probably wouldn't have have been able to remain upright either way.
By the loud thud next to him, apparently Dean had suffered a similar fate.
"Sorry, shadow traveling can be rough the first time." Nico's voice came, and Sam rolled over to sit up. He glanced around, noting the complete change of scenery—and even climate maybe—but quickly decided it wasn't the weirdest thing he'd seen today. The king of hell and a son of the Greek god of death striking a deal like old business partners over souls like they were poker chips… that was weird.
"You didn't even look at that contract thing you signed." Dean said, ignoring Nico's comment. The brother was flat on his back on the forest floor, staring at the canopy with dizzy eyes. "Crowley could've put anything in there."
Nico snorted derisively. "I'm not worried about that toad of a cross roads demon. He knows full well what I could do to him for going against me just the same as I know what he could do if don't follow through either." He said simply, offering a hand to the brothers as they slowly regained their feet.
"Are you sure he didn't trick you or anything? That's sort of his job you know." Sam said in concern.
"Are you implying I should've read that thing? Because the answer is a definite hell no! Tried it for all of ten seconds the first time and it gave me a migraine. I'm severely dyslexic: Ancient Greek makes perfect sense, so does Italian sometimes, but English is like a foreign language. Literally. Plus, I hardly care." He deadpanned back to the taller brother, who was probably twice the kid's height and still leaned away from the fierceness and authority in Nico's tone and posture.
"Well that's just great, you probably went and sold your soul to him or something." Dead snapped. "Not much good to us if your soul's demon bait!"
"He can't, my dad's called dibs." Nico said offhandedly, checking the sky as if to figure out the time.
"Dibs to your soul?" Sam said in a slightly higher voice to show his stress.
"Look, what about being the son of a Greek god don't you get?" Nico said in exasperation, turning to stare at him with wide, accusing eyes, making Sam put his hands up in defense. "And the Greek god of Death to top it off. Different pantheon, different rules. Crowley thinks he's the only one with keys to Hell, but truth is he's only got the doors to one dimension. A large portion of Hell belongs to my father, though it's under the different title of The Underworld."
"And calling it something different makes it a different place?" Dean rolled his eyes.
"You'd be surprised." Nico said truthfully, ignoring his sarcasm and surprising both brothers, who hadn't been expecting an answer, much less that answer. "Names have power." He said simply.
He turned and checked the sky again, frowning slightly at what he saw.
He glanced up at them unhappily. "It really doesn't matter right now, what matters is that I need your help and am running out of time. I said I'd be back in forty minutes, and I'm on the clock ten down already."
"Help with what?" Sam said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Nico looked like he was considering how he should phrase his next few words. "I'm sure that angel friend of yours told you something along the lines of how pantheons sometimes have Apocolypses then don't tell the others until it's been averted?" He prompted carefully.
Dean didn't look very amused and Sam pinched the bridge of his nose in stress.
"Are you telling me the Greek world is having an Apocalypse?" Sam said tensely.
"Uh… more that the world itself is trying to eat up everything on its surface and the demigods are of no use because the Greek and Roman world is on the brink of crashing together pretty violently." Nico said quickly, shrugging slightly.
The brothers stared.
"Can't you call your father to help or anything?" Sam said weakly.
Nico actually dropped his eyes and shifted his weight a bit uncomfortably. "Yes, well, about that…" He said, rubbing the back of his neck slightly sheepishly. "I wasn't 100% truthful with Crowley, but it wasn't like we ever are." He rolled his eyes off-handedly. "But, the point of the matter is that I may have been exaggerating when I said my father wasn't crazy anymore."
Sam remembered Crowley mentioning something like that in passing, but he really didn't want to think too hard about it.
"You mean the Greek god of Death really is going insane?" Sam deadpanned as if he really didn't want to hear the answer to it—which he didn't.
"Not so much as going as already gone." Nico shrugged nonchalantly, ignoring Dean's slack-jawed stare or Sam's sharp face-palm. "Don't worry, we're working on it, and that's not why I need your help."
"Wait, who's we?" Sam demanded.
"My cousins and a bunch of other demigods." Nico said impatiently but not resisting, seeming to sense that Sam wasn't about to move forward without some answers and Dean still needed some time to get his head back on straight after hearing about a crazy death god.
"Your cousins." Sam frowned.
Nico gave a sharp huff. "A son of Poseidon is leading a quest in Greece and a daughter of Zeus is trying to straighten things out in New York and keep Olympus contained. Oh, and a son of Jupiter and daughter of Pluto are in the fight as well. Not to mention pretty much every other Greek and Roman demigod out there is caught up in it too."
Sam blinked rapidly. "Daughter of Pluto-?"
"My sister. Sort of." Nico snapped with a silent growl on his face. "Pluto and Hades are the same god with different forms, sort of like extreme multi personality disorder. Only, they physically change along with their personalities too. She's Roman, I'm Greek. We were both born in the 1930s."
Sam stared at him.
Dean gave up on trying to close his mouth.
"I don't want to know." Dean decided and Sam rolled his eyes.
"Whatever's going on must be big to get everyone involved." Sam narrowed his eyes suspiciously, and Nico shot him a mild glare.
"The Greeks and Romans are about to go to war." He said simply, gripping the handle of sword ominously. "Some of us have teamed up to help stop it, but we're in the minority. It's why the gods are losing their minds—the two sides of themselves are dueling it out for control and both are losing."
"Woah, woah, woah, I thought only Hades was insane!?" Sam cried out.
"No, all the gods are. Well, except Aphrodite for some reason, but she's no help." He growled suddenly looking murderously angry, making them drop the topic quickly. He took a steadying breath before continuing. "The point is that I don't feel like having to escort my friends to a broken, rioting Underworld, therefore those of us trying to stop the war have a laundry list of things to do. Defeat and army raised by an ancient earth goddess, not get eaten or trapped by any of the giants and titans trying to kill us, figure out a way to peacefully return the Athena Partheons to the Greek camp in New York-"
"The Athena Parthenos?!" Sam squeaked.
"The what?" Dean frowned.
Nico sighed. "A giant statue of Athena from Ancient Greece that used to be in the Parthenon but was carted off by the Romans and is the core reason why all Roman and Greek demigods hate each other but was recently found again in Arachne's webs under modern day Rome by a daughter of Athena. We're now trying to present it back to the Greeks to appease Athena and stop the war, but that's not the point right now!"
"Oh, right, you need our help?" Sam shook it off and got back on topic much to Nico's relief.
"There is a group of monsters called the Laeri-"
"What the hell kind of monster is the Larry?" Dean snorted.
Nico flushed red in indignation. "The Laeri! Luh-e-rye, Laeri!" He hissed venomously and making Dean take and involuntary step back. "They are descendants and disciples of Lamia, trained by the Furies." He said through clenched teeth.
"Lamia was a snake lady who liked to eat children and the Furies are the three servants of Hades and historically were called goddesses of pain." Sam supplied before Dean could ask to spare him some of Nico's wrath seeing as the boy's patience was running thin quickly.
"The Furies also happen to be my babysitters when my father thinks I'm being a brat—which is often apparently—so their students aren't typically problems for me." Nico explained in forced patience, ignoring the brothers' looks at that. "The problem is that Lamia has a certain type of hatred in her heart for me, and is making it really difficult to get anything done."
"What does she have against you?" Dean asked carefully.
"She tried to eat me." Nico deadpanned. "It didn't work." He said bluntly.
"What happened?"
"I killed her." He said simply and the brothers blinked. "And now she's back again thanks to Gaea, and her stupid sons also happened to have somehow obtained control over a large portion of the Shadow World, which is kind of detrimental to me seeing as I can't get too far in Northern America anymore without them sniffing me out and trying to kill me. I so don't have the time to deal with that crap, at least not while trying to carry a passenger and a forty foot statue across the globe." He ranted slightly.
"The Shadow World is how we got here…?" Same supplied, gesturing to the forest they were in now. "Shadow traveling you called it?"
"Yeah," Nico confirmed with a nod. "It's how I move from place to place, through a world that connect every shadow. It doesn't work like the material world and I can bend it to go far relatively quickly. I can still move some place without attracting their attention, but not where I need to go. I was using that to transport the Athena Partheons to the Greek Camp when the Laeri caught onto my trail. I lost them and have hidden the statue for now, but I need the Laeri gone, like, yesterday."
"That's where we come in," Dean put together.
Nico nodded rather grimly. "The Laeri are some of the only Greek monsters who actively harm mortals without provocation." They gawked at that. "When a demigod—and me especially—get too close to them they use human shields. It's… it's harder for me than most because I can hear those around me dying in a… different way than most. My sister got our father's powers of the wealth of the earth, and I got all of his powers over death, and that comes with the unfortunate side effect of being rather… effected when people die around me."
"Why do I get the feeling that happens often?" Dean muttered quietly, but Nico only stared blankly at him, not responding to that.
"They're not terribly skilled fighters, not against a demigod, but a decent match for a mortal who knows what they're doing. On top of that, their main weakness is Mist blindness, meaning for as much as their appearance is hidden from mortals, they in turn can't see mortals too clearly either and it confuses them." He relayed blankly. "I need to focus on the war and my mission, I can't let the Laeri mess with my head—and I know they will if they get a second chance."
"You're asking us to take them out so you can complete your quest?" Sam concluded, and Nico nodded carefully.
"I… I ask as a favor. Logically there is no reason to resort to dragging mortals into all this, but… I really do need the help." He said, almost in a defeated way if his eyes hadn't been burning with a determined black fire.
"You just saved us from being torn apart by Crowley, I think we can call it even." Sam said simply and Dean huffed in agreement.
Nico seemed to relax slightly in relief. "Great. Thank you."
"Yeah, yeah, we're helping, but I'd just like to point out that we're not exactly qualified to be fighting Greek monsters." Dean pointed out. "I think both of you once said it would've work out well if we tried to cross over!"
"But you can handle a knife, right?" He demanded, slipping two daggers from inside his coat and handing one to them each. It was a light-weight metal, gleaming bronze and humming with a subtle thrum of life. "Laeri fight like mirrors, paralleling the skill and fighting style of their opponent so fighting like you do should work. These are celestial bronze, and normally the gods would be pissed mortals have it, but they're really not paying attention right now. The point is that, like that dagger you guys have that can kill demons, celestial bronze can kill Greek monsters. It can't hurt mortals though, only demigods and monsters. Try it," He offered uncaringly.
Sam smiled wryly, "Thanks, but we're not about to stab each-"
He froze slowly looked at his brother, who had tried to poke the blade into his younger brother's side, only for it to pass right through Sam harmlessly.
"Seriously?!" The younger Winchester hissed at him. "Are you five!?"
"Hey, but this is cool!" Dead insisted, waving the blade through his hand harmlessly. He started getting cocky with it until the point Nico had to duck to avoid being stabbed in the eye.
"Watch it!" He growled furiously. "It's still a knife to demigods!" He reminded him aggressively, but also as if he was trying to remain calm seeing as they were helping him in a moment of weakness.
"As for the actual game plan… basically I just planned to bring you with me on my next jump and when the Laeri catch up…"
"We'll help." Dean nodded firmly, looking pumped for the fight as he spun the new knife in his hand and admired its balance and unique properties from the enchanted metal.
"Won't they still be able to mess with you if you're there to help?" Sam pointed out, getting this calculating look as he figured out the logistics in his head.
"Yes, and no." Nico said carefully, and before they could ask he elaborated, "We started in Greece, and are heading to New York. Up until this point, I've been shadow traveling with the Athena Partheons and a passenger in increments of a couple hundred miles. The increments because doing that much shadow traveling with such a load drains me near completely every time and the passenger because once I've passed out from the exertion I'm pretty much helpless. If she hadn't been the fighter she was, we'd've died from the Laeri the first time they found us. This next jump we do can be short, only half way, and once the Laeri catch up I jump again with whatever I have left."
"That way you're out of the way of the Laeri and we can take them out." Sam figured, smiling at the clever plan.
"Yeah, and leave us stranded with a bunch of monsters!" Dean pointed out.
"That's not exactly new for us, if you haven't noticed." Sam shot right back. Dean thought that one over for a moment then shrugged noncommittally.
"Which is why I needed you two." Nico said, looking satisfied with his choice.
"How will we contact you to tell you if we've succeeded and it's safe to jump again?" Dean frowned.
"We could give you our number-"
"Phones broadcast demigods' voices to every monster in the area, like ringing a dinner bell." Nico said with an annoyed eye roll. "I'll leave a messenger with you to contact me on the turn of events." He decided, glancing up at the sky. "Good, we still have some daylight." He said in satisfaction.
The boys glanced up at the sky in confusion too.
"Daylight? What are you talking about? It's only ten in the morning!" Sam pointed out.
Nico grinned evilly. "Yeah, but that means it's 4pm in Paris."
"Paris? What-!"
But Dean wasn't able to finish that thought before Nico's fists closed around their wrists once more and the world went dark.