Hey everyone! 66 reviews and 69 followers for ONE CHAPTER?! You guys are spoiling me:) You all are amazing sexy beasts! Thank you all so much! Ha... it's 10/11/12! Awesomesauce!

Sorry for typos and OOCness. I hope you enjoy!

Happy Reading!

Chapter 2

Nico

It was national 'Hate on Nico' week, wasn't it?

In the last week or two (Nico had lost track of time), he'd been tortured and deprived of most human needs, including oxygen. The giants had treated him like a science project, keeping him locked in a jar and studying as if he were a fascinating creature of some source.

But Nico had actually realized how stupid his idea had been before everything had gone completely wrong. He'd realized that when the voices had begun to invade his mind as he stood on the edge of the pit. The pit to Tartarus. They'd called for help and said things that had confused him.

"Save me," they'd hissed. "It's up to you, Ghost King. Only you can do it. You know the secrets to endless death." Endless death? He'd thought. Isn't that up to Thanatos?

And once he'd gotten too close, it had sucked him in.

Not like with a cord or anything. It was more like a vacuum, taking everything within a certain range into its tight grip, cutting him up and swirling him around until up and down had no meaning. Start and end were the same thing.

One choice. If he'd just ignored the voices, his entire life wouldn't have blown back into his face.

It honest to gods hurt to even think about his time in Tartarus. He was the first demigod to ever make it out of there alive, and that was only because a rogue earth goddess and a few giants and a couple thousand monsters had taken advantage of him when he was at his weakest.

And by weakest, it was both physically and mentally. Tartarus had nearly drove Nico insane. It was no place fit for living, or the living for that matter.

Once he'd been put in the glass jar, his mind had been at its weakest. In the jar, he had relived the entire experience a hundred time, each worse than the last.

And now, Percy and Annabeth were stuck down there too. And this was his entire fault.

He should've done more to try and save them. Instead, he'd practically just stood there and watched them fall to their possible deaths.

On the bright side, his senses told him that they weren't dead, which meant that they'd survived the fall. Or that they were still falling. Or maybe, just maybe, they'd been abducted by a few Pegasus and had flown away to Australia.

Yeah, that seemed like a good option.

And now, everyone blamed themselves, and Piper was using her charmspeak to calm them down, though she seemed a bit crazed herself. He had never met Piper or Leo, and he didn't know what to think of them. Piper, of course, was gorgeous, but Nico knew no girl like that would ever date him, especially since she was dating Jason, Mr. Perfect. He might as well tape the 'Forever Alone' head onto his chest to warn everyone.

And Leo freaked him out. Any guy who could shoot fire out of his fingertips was definitely crazy. He had that wild look in his eyes like he might burst at any moment. Someone needed to remove sugar of all kinds from his diet at start feeding him grain or something.

Jason had sparks coming off of his body. Frank looked like he wanted to turn into a pigeon and fly away. Hazel was fiddling with a ruby the size of her hand. Leo was staring at his feet, a small flame ignited in his palm. Piper was pacing the deck, worry written all over her face. She was muttering things to herself, stuff like, "It's okay," or, "They can do this."

Everyone felt like it was his or her fault. Nico knew Hazel was thinking the same thing he was. If they'd just been a little quicker, more proactive and observant, their friends would still be there. Frank and Jason felt suckish because they hadn't flown down there to help them. Even though Piper wouldn't have been able to do anything, she was still grieving. And Leo was beating himself up for being then one who'd opened up the fortune cookie (Nico was still waiting for someone to fully explain that) and sacrificed Percy and Annabeth, if that was what had really happened.

Since everyone else seemed distracted and terrified, Nico put on his big boy pants and said, "Okay guys, we can't just sit here and do nothing. We need to make plans on what to do now."

Leo looked up at him. "Dude, we're in the air on the route to Greece. Festus can take care of us. Why should we get up? There aren't any monsters attacking."

"Well, if Percy and Annabeth were here-"

"Please," barked Frank suddenly, standing up. "Don't bring Percy and Annabeth into this. They're gone right now, and it's our fault, no matter what anyone else says." He stormed away, and not even Hazel bothered to go after him. Nico watched as he stomped down the stairs like an angry Pooh Bear.

It was totally out of character. Nico had never seen Frank that mad. Frank wasn't even the kind of person that usually got mad. Most of the time, Frank kept his anger in.

"Don't take it personally," Piper said. "We all feel horrible about Percy and Annabeth, and we all realize that they're gone for now. But we are on this quest to save them, right?"

"Right," agreed Jason, taking Piper's hand. "Let's just not bring this up. We will find them at the Doors of Death, and we will save them." Nico could tell Jason was trying to keep it together himself.

"Okay," Nico sighed, flopping to the floor of the deck. He laid down on his back and stretched his arms over his head. So much for being the fearless leader. They all needed more time for this situation to sink in.

And for the first time, Nico really did allow it to sink in. Percy and Annabeth were gone. His two friends, the ones that had saved his life on multiple occasions and helped him figure out his true identity, just thrown away as a sacrifice. It was sick.

Nico heard the sound of breaking glass from below deck, followed by, "Yeah, you see that? You ain't got NOTHING on me!" That was definitely the voice of their crazy chaperone, the satyr Gleeson Hedge.

Nico glanced at the faces of the other demigods. They seemed oblivious to what had happened. All except for Jason, who had perked up a bit and cocked his head to one side. He raised an eyebrow at Nico. "You want me to check on him?"

"No, I can do it," Nico said, standing up again. He went down to the cabins and scanned each one. Nico ended up finding Coach Hedge in his own room, baseball bat in one hand. He was glaring at the broken porthole window, the shards of it at his hooves.

"Do you want to tell me what the scary window did to you?" Nico asked sarcastically.

The five foot satyr walked straight up to Nico. Everyone else pretty much towered over Coach, but Nico was only five foot four inches. He was taller, but not by much. He poked his finger in Nico's face. "Don't cross me, boy."

"Look, I understand if you're angry, but there's no reason to be breaking windows."

"Maybe I wanted fresh air," he retorted stubbornly, jutting up his chin and whacking a pillow off the bed.

"Then you could've opened it," Nico said slowly, using big hand gestures.

"Hey, I'm just upset. Normal people would be," shot Coach Hedge, swinging his bat back and forth. Nico backed up. "But maybe you don't even have any emotions. You children of Hades are weird."

"Of course I'm upset," growled Nico, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "They were my friends. But sitting around, vandalizing the ship is not going to help us at all. We need to work at getting somewhere, or they're going to die."

Coach Hedge glared at him for another minute, then huffed loudly and pushed past him and out of the room, vanishing from his sight. Nico sighed and pivoted on his heel and also exited the room.

When Nico returned to the deck, the only one who was still up there was Hazel. She was gazing out at the see below them, churning restlessly like Percy would be. Nico knew that if they were on the ground, diamonds would be sprouting around her feet.

Nico hadn't had the chance to talk to her yet. Truth be told, even after knowing Hazel for almost a year, he still wanted to believe that she was Bianca, that his real, biological sister had never died. Her death had led to resentment to gods and demigods, and most of all, Percy. For a while, he'd blamed everyone for her death and had strived for a way to bring her back to life.

Looking back on that moment, Nico felt stupid. He should've known that there was no way to bring the dead back to life.

But now, there was. And, as proof, there was Hazel.

Sadly, all of his hope for that alternative was gone, because Bianca was gone now too. She was off to be reborn, and Nico was never going to see her again.

"Hey," he said, leaning over the ledge next to her.

"Hey," she answered without looking at him.

"What are you thinking about?" he asked, trying to make a conversation.

"What do you think?" she whispered. Nico opened his mouth to reply, but she held up a hand to stop him. "That was rhetorical, Nico. I'm obviously disturbed about Percy and Annabeth. Everyone here is, except for you."

Nico groaned, and Hazel looked at him. "What is it?"

"First of all, 'disturbed' is a weird way to put this situation. But don't take how I'm acting in the wrong manner. I've known Percy and Annabeth longer than anyone else here. They are two of my best friends… my only friends. If I could go back to that time and put me in their place, I'd do it."

"Don't say that," she told him sternly, tears coming into her eyes. "Percy and Annabeth are gone. How do you think I would feel if you…" She didn't have finish.

"Hazel, I don't plan on leaving you or the others anytime soon."

"I'm sure you thought the same thing before you got trapped in Tartarus."

Nico wasn't sure how to respond, because she was right. He changed the subject back to what it had previously been. "I wasn't lying when I said that Percy was the most powerful demigod I know. Anything that comes in his way should be scared out of its mind. I know I am sometimes. And when Percy and Annabeth are together, it's pretty scary. They're as great fighting partners as they are a couple. They'll be fine, there's no doubt about it."

"How can you say that?" asked Hazel miserably, wiping away her tears.

"Because I know them. They can do this. I know it."

"But what if you're wrong?" she mumbled. "I want to be optimistic, but what if something happens? What if Annabeth can't walk? What if they get hurt from the fall? Nico, you've been to Tartarus. What is going to happen to them?"

And it wasn't the first time that Nico didn't have an answer to any of those.

Sorry about how boring, OOC, and short it was. But I think the next chapter is going to have a bit of action and romance in it for all you PJO nerds!

I recently made a FanFiction email for you guys to contact me with. To reach it, just go to my profile. It should be on there highlighted in blue! Or you can PM me! Your choice!

Here's a little random question. What's the weirdest question someone's ever asked you? For me, it's when my Grandma asked me if a couple of her porcelain dolls turned me on... it was weird...

Reviews and ideas are loved! Nerdfist!

-BBH