**Author's Note: Ah, sorry I've been adding so many 'author's notes' to the beginnings of these things! I guess I must love talking to you guys~ Haha, anyway, someone in the reviews mentioned wanting to know about Hazel/Nico's secret mentioned in the last chapter? Thing is, I can't tell you what it is, because I don't know. It's canon that they share a (dangerous) secret in the one-chapter preview of the House of Hades. I figured I'd include that tidbit of information because it fit, but other than that I really don't have many guesses as to what Nico could be hiding this time (I mean, of course I have my guesses, but that's not what you came here to read). I don't want to make something up, because... well, when the book actually does come out, whatever I wrote would probably go against canon. So, unfortunately, I won't be including the 'secret' thing. ;_; That's for Rick to handle. Aaand if you read all that nonsense, I'm sorry for wasting your time. Read and enjoy!**

Nico stared at the view over the mountains blankly, with a look of terror in his eyes that refused to leave. Why was this happening? People were out to kill him all the time; he should've been used to it by now. 'Yeah, but those people usually aren't in the bodies of my closest friends,' his thoughts chimed in. Then, he realized he'd called Leo his closest friend, and felt embarrassed at himself.

Leo glanced at him, worry in his gaze. Overwhelming guilt tugged at his conscience, and his mind wandered back to what it felt like to have Percy yell at him after he'd fired on the Romans. The thought made him sad, and decided he'd rather receive a thousand lectures from Percy than have Annabeth and him be in Tartarus.

"Nico, I..." He wanted to apologize again, but Nico gave him a look that basically said to shut up. "It's kind of weird. Being possessed, I mean," he finally said, breaking the silence that had settled between them.

"Weird?" Nico almost cracked a smile. "You're body was taken over by one of the most aggressive spirits to come from the Underworld," he said, "and you're calling it weird?"

Leo chuckled in spite of himself. "You've got a better word?"

"Yes, actually," Nico answered. "I'm sure I could think of a thousand better words than just 'weird.'"

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but you've never actually been possessed by one of those guys. Me? Why, I'm practically an expert on having my body hijacked every now and then," he joked, but the thought weighed heavy on his heart. How many times would he have to put everyone on board in danger?

Nico was amazed to that Leo could treat the issue with such a light attitude. "An expert," he repeated, tempted to roll his eyes. He knew that wasn't true—that no one was an expert on eidola, nor were there any experts on other Underworld-ly things. The Underworld itself was a complete mystery, and would always be that way. Nico knew what happened when people tried to uncover those mysteries—after all, he was one of those people... and he didn't like what he saw.

"You're thinking of Tartarus," Leo guessed, but regretted as soon as he'd said it. No one ever brought up Tartarus on the ship—especially not in front of Nico.

Nico felt his hand clench into a fist at the name of the place, and he felt more terror build in his chest. He didn't want to answer Leo, mostly because... well, he was right. He took in a deep breath, trying to keep the images of that horrid place out of his mind.

"Sorry," Leo said quickly, but the fearful look in Nico's eyes concerned him. "You okay?"

"I don't know," Nico muttered. "Am I?"

Leo was hoping he wouldn't give an answer like that, because he honestly had no idea what to say. His immediate response would have been that of course he was okay, he was alive, wasn't he? But a look at Nico would tell anyone that this kid was slightly more dead than the average person. 'Can anyone be okay after coming out of Tartarus?' he wondered, hoping to all the gods that the answer was yes, because Percy and Annabeth were down there as they spoke.

Without answering Nico's question (he decided that at the moment, it was rhetorical), he met his gaze seriously. "Um, are Percy and Annabeth—"

"Yes," Nico interrupted, cutting his question off. "They're... They're alive." What he didn't say was that they may have been alive, but each day their life force grew fainter and fainter, and each day he woke up, terrified that one day he would get that feeling of dread he got whenever someone close to him died.

"Alive? Are you—"

"Yes, I'm sure." Nico finished, cutting him off again. He didn't really feel eager to talk about it, but it became clear that Leo wasn't going to back down.

"You don't sound very sure," Leo muttered. "There's something you're not telling me."

"Leo, can you stop asking questions?" Nico snapped, sounding a bit harsher than he'd intended to. He exhaled. "Look," he said in a softer voice, "there are some things I need to keep to myself."

"But Percy and Annabeth were my friends, too," Leo insisted, then bit back a curse for having accidentally said 'were.' Sure, he'd barely known Percy and Annabeth intimidated him since the day they'd met, but he liked to consider them his friends nonetheless.

He grimaced slightly when Leo referred to them in the past tense, but he let it go. "Fading," he finally answered. He didn't want to tell Leo or anyone else, for fear they would just worry even more. "They're definitely alive, but Tartarus is the kind of place that sucks the life out of you. There are a lot of... things down there."

"Oh," Leo murmured, suddenly regretting having asked. "Thanks, I guess. For telling me."

"Don't thank me." Nico scowled, but underneath his bitter mood was crippling worry and fear that made him want to run from this mission. He was leading all his friends to their deaths, and worst of all, Percy had made him promise to pull through with this. Wasn't it just a short while ago that he was the hopeful little kid forcing promises onto people who would never be able to keep them?

"We'll save them," Leo reassured him. "We're demigods, aren't we? Always finding a way to do the impossible." And when he said that, he realized that he was saying it would be impossible to save Percy and Annabeth. Because it was, really—this entire quest was impossible, and they knew it from the start. Wonderful.

"Yeah, sure." Nico looked back at Leo, eyes a little sad, and still a whole lot scared. "I... I hate doing that thing," he muttered, changing the topic. "Manipulating fear, using an aura of death to intimidate enemies."

"No offense, but I hate it, too," Leo agreed with a shrug. "I mean, it's a great power and all, I just..." He didn't want to say he was scared. He was supposed to be brave, not scared of a pale, scrawny kid who was a year younger than he was.

"I'm scared of it, too," Nico admitted, which made both of them feel a little better. "But I have to use it, I had to, otherwise the eidolon would have..."

"Don't worry," Leo told him, trying to be the loyal protector he knew Sammy Valdez would have been. "It's a gift and a curse—isn't everything in our stinking lives?" He let out a bitter sounding laugh. "But really, thanks for sending that thing back to the Underworld... You're right, being possessed isn't just weird, it's... it's terrifying."

Nico nodded, and for some reason, Leo's words were somewhat reassuring. "No problem."

"If only you'd been here when I..." Leo didn't really feel like talking about the fact that he was responsible for starting a civil war that might just end the world, but it was the kind of thing he'd been needing to tell someone about for a while. "You know, blew up Camp Jupiter."

Again, Leo's oh-so-eloquent choice of words made Nico nearly smile. Blew up Camp Jupiter? A little blunt, Nico thought. "That wasn't you, Leo," he insisted, "You can't go on taking responsibility for Gaea's actions. I know you're not that much of an idiot... well, not usually."

"Yeah, but Nico..." Leo's voice faltered. "It was my hands, on my weapons, and Octavian... I don't even blame the guy for wanting to kill me."

"Octavian?" Nico almost laughed, because he'd forgotten about the plushie-murderer for a while. Back at Camp Jupiter, not many of the campers trusted Nico other than Frank and Hazel, but Octavian was especially opposed to the idea of an Ambassador of Pluto. "That guy wants to kill a lot of people, me included, so you're not the first."

"Well then, I must be real special, because I'm pretty sure I jumped to the top of his list pretty quickly," Leo commented, and they both laughed, maybe because Leo was funny, or maybe because they were both so frightened and emotionally strung out from the night that it was all they could think to do. The sound of laughter was surprising to them both—how could they laugh, considering where they were?

Nico regained his composure and stopped laughing, then shivered. The entire time, he was too wrapped up in his thoughts pounding in his mind, he didn't realize that Leo was still wearing his coat. He reached up, pressing his fingers to his face, and they felt like ice cubes. "Leo?"

"Yeah?" he asked, still oblivious to the fact that Nico was shaking in his own skin. His own body temperature had returned to normal—the chill had left him, a familiar feeling of warm spreading across his body, instead.

Nico hesitated, vaguely embarrassed at the idea of asking for his own coat back. He shouldn't need it, right? It wasn't that cold outside, was it? "...Nothing, actually."

Leo just frowned, and after a few moments of silence, with his ADHD getting the better of him, he reached into his pocket to pull out something to busy himself with. He dug around for the slingshot he knew he'd put into his toolbelt, when he realized he hadn't reached into his toolbelt pocket at all. He glanced at Nico, and realized the kid was still in a loose black t-shirt, sitting out in the cold nighttime air. "Your jacket!"

"Um, c-can I have it?" he asked, trying to rub his hands together to return the warmth to them.

Leo immediately pulled the coat off, wrapping it around Nico's shoulders. He didn't even bother to help him slip his arms through the sleeves before pulling him into a tight hug, channeling heat through his skin.

Nico felt himself relax in Leo's embrace, remembering what it felt like to be warm. "Thanks," he managed, but his still felt his hands trembling. In a last resort attempt to defrost his fingers, he reached up and pressed his hands to Leo's cheeks, which were hot to the touch.

"Nico, what are you... Oh." He looked confused for a second, when he realized what was going on. He almost flinched—that's how cold Nico's fingers had gotten. "Here," he murmured, pulling Nico's hands down and holding them in his own. He took a deep breath, feeling heat surge through his palms. "Better?"

"Yeah, thanks," he answered, pulling his now warm hands away from Leo's, slipping them into the sleeves of his coat. "I'll be fine, now that I've got my jacket."

"Sorry 'bout that, heh." Leo smiled sheepishly. "Kinda forgot I had it on." He didn't mention how safe he felt wearing the old, worn aviator jacket. "Geez, and I'm the one who said I'd protect you and Hazel..." he muttered, kind of upset at himself for his mistake.

"It's okay," Nico told him. "Eidola always suck the warmth out of their victims, so you needed the coat at first, anyway."

"Thanks," Leo said with a nod. He was a bit puzzled, because he was Leo Valdez, the fire kid—always warm. Yet Nico still put a blanket around his shoulders while he slept, even going so far as to give up his jacket for him. Those things really had warmed his heart, more than it could've ever warmed his body.