Sasha ran to the sound of her brother's voice, Nico following behind her, a blur of black. She heard Nico shouting something, and she was vaguely aware of the screams emitting from everyone in the theatre, but the majority of her focus was on finding Ryan. Abruptly, hands shoved against her back, sending her tumbling to the ground. Her head hit one of the plastic cup holders, and she felt a numbing pain on the right side of her head. Gingerly lifting up two fingers to stroke it lightly, she winced; it was definitely going to leave an ugly bruise. Nico was standing above her, a deadly look on his face. His sword was aimed straight ahead, and in the laid down position she was currently in, she saw that the tip was inches away from a vampire's throat. Well, she thought it was a vampire at first. As she looked down, she realized that one of her legs was that of a...was it a donkey? And the other a metal artificial leg. She bared her fangs, and Sasha's eyes widened. The woman seemed to shift and change form right before Sasha's eyes—one moment she had luscious jet black hair, falling down to her mid-back in gorgeous waves, and the next her head was aflame with tongues of blue-black fire. Her eyes morphed, too. One moment a sparkling blue, the next red-orange, as if her irises were alive with fire inside them. The woman pierced Ryan's skin between his shoulder and his neck with her fangs, and Ryan gasped, his eyes widening. Blood poured from the cut, and the monster licked it up generously, all the while keeping her gaze locked with Nico's and smiling viciously. Something was wrong with Nico, because he stared, eyes blank, back at the she-demon. Ryan seemed to be losing blood quickly, because soon his face was completely drained, his eyes rolled back into his head. Something snapped in Sasha, she wasn't sure if it was fury, or shock, or maybe just the fact that she didn't even fully believe any of any of this was actually happening, but she grabbed Nico's sword from out of his hand and lunged.
Sasha could tell you that she was just a badass swordfighter even though she'd never been trained once in her life, but, in truth, the only reason she even survived her attack on the monster was because she caught it off guard. The monster hadn't really seen her as a threat, and that was why Sasha was able to swing at it. The blade made a clean cut across the demons shoulder, and she howled in pain. Before Sasha could even blink, even process what was going on, the demon was on top of her, pinning her to the theatre's carpeted floor. Heart pounding, Sasha fought to release the monster's grasp, but it was too string for her. The demon bared her fangs…and shrieked as she turned to golden powder, scattering all over Sasha. Spitting out monster dust, Sasha sat up, and then winced in pain, her hands flying to her torso. When she removed them, they came back bloody. Light headed and nauseated, she turned away. The sight of blood had always made her feel sick, even her own. Nico held out a hand to her, which she gratefully took, standing up. She suddenly remembered Ryan, and her head buzzed. "Where's-" She began, but Nico cut her off. "He's all right, just knocked out. But we need to get him to camp fast, or that empousai poison will spread." Too drained to ask any questions, Sasha simply nodded. Her knees buckled, and she would have fallen to the ground had Nico not been so fast. He latched his arm around her back, his fingers barely brushing her cut, but Sasha gasped in pain. Confused, Nico sat her down in one of the theatre's seats. He pulled up her shirt, and at first Sasha shoved him away so hard he toppled backwards. He stood up, glaring at her. "I need to check your wound, stupid." He said, and Sasha blushed. 'DUH! Stupid!' She mentally scolded herself as Nico began to lift up her shirt again. He didn't lift it up too high, just enough that he could inspect the wound. Sasha kept her head aimed up at the ceiling, sure that if she saw the injury she'd become sick. Nico inhaled a sharp breath and moved away from her, over to where Ryan lay, unconscious, on the ground. "Well?" Sasha asked, her voice hoarse. Nico's face was grim, and she suddenly realized she didn't want to know the answer. "We need to get you two to camp. Fast." He swung one arm under Ryan and pulled him up, and grabbed Sasha's hand with the other. "Do you like rollercoasters?" He asked her, and Sasha stared at him incredulously. How could he seriously think of going to an amusement park right now? "Are you out of your mi-" She was silenced by the darkness, engulfing her like a curtain at the end of a play.
It seemed like a mere matter of minutes before the darkness evaporated. Now Sasha gazed over a hill at the ocean. Well, there were other things along with the ocean, but the sparkling blue was the first thing that caught her attention. Moving her gaze away from it, she could see strawberry fields, a large blue house, a forest, an amphitheater, a forge, and was that….a volcano? She also saw a cluster of what looked like cabins, and a horse stable. Suddenly there was pain in her side, a fiery, agonizing pain. She turned to look at it and saw Nico rubbing some odd type of golden liquid into her wound with a white cloth. Well, it must have originally been white; now it was stained with her blood. Shocks of pain ran through her side and she fell, gasping. The last thing she saw before she lost consciousness was the pale sky, not a single cloud to be seen.
Sasha gasped, snapping her eyes open and sitting up abruptly. With difficulty, she stood. She was in a field of green. Off to her right she saw a cluster of small villas, ranging from all ages in time. One was an ancient Roman villa, another was a modern family home. Off to her left, there was water, sparkling, clean water. "Where am I?" She wondered aloud. "This? These are the Isles of the Blest." Said a voice behind her. She jumped, turning to face the speaker. Nico. She raised an eyebrow. "What happened?" She asked, struggling to remember how she got here. Nico regarded her sadly. "Sasha, this is the Underworld." Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Why am I here?" "Sasha, you're dead."
Cold water trickled down her face, tickling her nose. Scrunching her face up, she begrudgingly opened her eyes. She was in what looked like a hospital. It definitely smelled like a hospital—sanitized, and reeking of medicine and blood and sickness. It was also oddly cold like hospitals usually were, despite the heat outside. She struggled to sit up, pain shooting up her veins. She gasped, clutching her side and letting her head fall back onto the pillow. Somewhere off to her right, someone chuckled. "Try not to move too much, trust me. Whatever they did to us, it kills." Sasha turned to face her brother, lying in the cot next to hers. He was holding a glass of water, and he must have splashed her, causing her to wake up. "Ryan," she breathed. "Are you-" "Okay? Yeah, I'm fine." He said, his tone relaxed. "So, do you have any idea what happened to me?" Sasha asked, truly curious. Everything after the black-void-travel was fuzzy. "Truthfully? Sheesh, I don't know. I'm told I passed out long before you did, but everyone keeps saying 'poison' and 'lethal' and 'dying', so I'm guessing you've just been resurrected or something." He joked at the end, trying to lighten the mood about what he'd just told his sister, but it didn't really work. "So they think I'm dying?" She asked, and he turned so he wasn't looking at her. "Your heart stopped. It wasn't beating for a whole five minutes. Then this girl walked in and you were electrocuted. Like, you were actually struck by lightning. Then your pulse came back." He said, and Sasha took a deep breath. She had been dead, or at least pretty close. Just then they heard the door open and Nico walked in. He smiled when he saw Sasha and went to sit next to her. "You're finally up." He said, bags under his eyes. "Took you long enough." Sasha smirked. "Well, considering that I was proclaimed 'dead', I guess it's better late than never, right?" She asked. "Not necessarily." Ryan muttered, and Sasha rolled her eyes. "Shut up." She told him, still looking at Nico. He'd winced when Sasha'd mentioned herself being dead, but other than that showed no emotion. His mouth was a thin line. "Apollo's cabin has been treating you. Thalia, the daughter of Zeus, came in and started your heart a week ago." He informed her, and Sasha raised an eyebrow. "Aren't those-" "Greek Gods?" He cut her off, sighing. "Yeah, they are. Welcome to Camp Half Blood."
Sasha glared at Nico once he'd finished with his explanation. "So, let me make sure I've got all this. You're the son of Hades, God of the Underworld, and you knew Ryan and I were demigods, so you were scouted to watch over us. Those…..things at the movies were some type of Greek monster-" "Empousai" He corrected her, and she glared daggers at him. He cleared his throat. "Sorry, continue" He said, and Ryan snickered. "So the EMPOUSAI," She said, exaggerating the word, "were after us and wanted us dead because we are demigods. On top of that, there was also a fury, one of the servants of Hades. May I ask you why the hell your dad wanted to kill me?" She asked, her tone icy, and Nico shrugged. "I don't know. I told you that already." He said, and Sasha sighed. "So then after we were injured you 'shadow travelled' us over here, where I promptly passed out." She said, and Nico nodded. "There was underworld poison in your system. Alecto must have stabbed you, because Ryan was poisoned differently. He'd been infected with empousai poison, which will, once it takes effect, turn you into one of the monsters, while underworld poison just kills you off, slowly and painfully. When we got here, I began to recognize it, so I tried treating it. That stuff I was using? Nectar, the drink of the gods. For demigods it can be used as a type of life-saving medicine. It helped, but if the Apollo kids hadn't gotten to you when they did, you'd most probably be dead right now." Sasha gulped. "I had a nightmare, that I was dead. I was in the Isles of the Blest. You were there too." Nico's eyes turned distant, and he didn't respond. Instead, he shook his head and left the room, without a glance back at either Ryan or Sasha. "Well," Ryan began, breaking the silence, "this ought to be interesting."