Hey guys! Happy New Year! It's 2013! This chapter is for everyone who keeps asking for some Nico action. In my opinion, he's pretty badass in this chapter.

Sorry for typos/OOCness! I hope you enjoy! I'm jamming out to Bitter Sweet Symphony by the Verve and I'm on a Dance Moms marathon! Woohoo! And I have school tomorrow... *Insert Heartbroken tears here*

Happy Reading!

Chapter 18

Nico

They were at the beach?

That's what it seemed like. It sure didn't seem like Tartarus, and for a second, Nico believed that they had somehow been taken to the Isles of the Blest, in Elysium. His shoulders fell with relief, and he brushed off some sand from his jeans.

But then he looked over at his friends. They all looked horrified, like the worst thing in the world had just happened to them. Okay, so it didn't look like they were at the House of Hades. But really, none of them had ever been inside of it. It very well could be the House of Hades on Extreme Makeover.

"Where the heck are we?" asked Frank, scooping up a handful of sand and letting it fall through his fingers.

"Well, this sure doesn't look like the House of Hades," Nico said. He was starting to realize just how hot it was. There was midday heat, probably in the 90's, and his jacket was not helping him at all. He kept it on anyway; it was the last thing that was his that he actually had with him.

"You think?" laughed Leo, kicking a puff of sand in the air. The sea breeze blew it back onto their clothes. "I don't remember hearing about any sandy beaches in anything that had a title with 'Hades' in it."

Nico scowled momentarily but wiped it off of his face. No need to get into fights now.

Instead, they all studied the surrounding areas. The waves were huge and lapped against the shore, and the water was the color of the sky, just bright blue but with a bit of sea green. There were a few surfers floating way out, waiting for the perfect wave to roll in. A few people were in beach chair, sun bathing, while a few little kids built sand castles and splashed in the water.

The vegetation behind them was a little thick, and mountains rose in a jagged form. They reminded Nico of different parts of the Fields of Asphodel. Amazingly giant resorts lined the area way down on the beach, where they could see huge crowds of people. Their roar was a faint echo and did not even disrupt the peace of their side of the beach. The entire scene looked photo-shopped, yet it was real.

Behind them directly were extravagant beach homes that Nico had always secretly dreamed he could live in. Palm trees were in their backyards along with crystal clear pools and patios with fire pits. They must've each cost over a million dollars.

"Hey, how do we get back?" asked Jason, pulling everyone out of their trance. "I mean, the gates aren't anywhere that I can see."

"How are supposed to get back them?" Hazel said, repeating Jason's question.

"We don't," Nico said matter-of-factly.

Everyone looked at him, and he shrank back. He said, "What? It's true. We can't get back now."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Frank.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the gate called 'Gate of No Return'? If my calculations are correct, I'm pretty sure we can't return," Nico answered sarcastically. He probably shouldn't have said that in that manner, considering how bad their situation was, but he couldn't help himself.

"Then what in the name of Jupiter are supposed to do? We don't know where we are, and we need to get back to Greece so that we can close the Doors of Death. Unless we're already in Greece."

Piper looked around some more and then said, "Hawaii."

"What?" They all stared at her.

"We're in Hawaii. Specifically Kauai, if I'm right." Nico had heard that name before. There were a lot of famous movies based there. But he had never been to Hawaii. When he was little, Hawaii wasn't even one of the fifty states.

"And how can you be so sure?"

"Because that's my dad's vacation house over there." They all turned around and looked at where she was pointing. One of the bigger beach homes was farther away from resort than most of them. It was super secluded by trees and foliage, but he could just make out the roof and side of the building.

"Let's go freshen up and get a plan together," she said. Since they didn't have anything better to do, everyone followed Piper down the beach towards the house.

"What a coincidence," mumbled Nico. "We landed next to Piper's vacation home." But there were never coincidences when you were a demigod. And he was still trying to not freak out over the fact that they were in Hawaii. Greece was halfway around the world now. How were they going to get back? Nico could see in their eyes that everyone else was thinking the same thing, but everyone kept quiet.

Leo ruined the silence, of course. "Guys, Nessie's gone," Leo suddenly said, stopping in his tracks.

"Please don't tell me that the Archimedes Sphere and Athena Parthenos are gone too," mumbled Nico, loud enough for everyone to hear.

For a second, Leo forgot about the little creature and checked his tool belt. "Nope, they're still there, but Nessie is gone!"

"Too bad, so sad." Hazel rolled her eyes, annoyed. "We have better things to worry about, Leo, like the fact that we're apparently stuck in Hawaii and cannot find a way out, while we need to try and close the Doors of Death and save our friends who are stuck in Tartarus."

That snapped Leo out of his mood. But Piper was leading them up the wooden steps and ramps. She pushed back a bunch of brown vines and palm leaves that were blocking their way, and said, "This is my vacation home."

Home didn't describe it. Half of the entire mansion was made of glass. It was probably three stories and was on a hill. The second story had a giant patio with a huge fire pit and grill, and a small tiki bar. On the bottom floor of the house, there was a pool that had a waterfall that dripped into another pool. A Jacuzzi was put off a little way from the pool, surrounded by trees. There was a giant widow's walk on the roof of the house with a telescope for people to look out of. The place was like a private resort, perfect for a weekend getaway.

"Gods, Piper, you call this a home?" asked Leo.

She blushed and looked self-conscious. "My dad bought this a few years ago. We would sometimes come down here and go surfing and stuff when he needed sometime away from his work." She smiled like she was remembering the good old days. "But I'm pretty sure he'd not here right now, so we're clear to go inside."

They went to the back door, where Piper reached underneath the dirt of a potted plant a brought out a rock. She slid open the slot on the rock, and a key spilled into her hand.

"So you just keep a key in the middle of a plant? Isn't that like the oldest trick in the book?" asked Frank.

"Sometimes, if you hide things in plain sight, people don't expect it." She opened the doors for them and they all stepped inside.

A little while later, they were all sitting around the kitchen island, eating Fruit Roll-Ups and drinking water. Piper said that they didn't have any good types of food because no one had been there recently. Nico had tried to ask Piper to use the Horn of Plenty, but she said they didn't need it.

Piper disappeared for a minute. "You guys," started Hazel. "What are we going to do?

Nico could barely wrap his head around Hazel question. He was still admiring the house. It was even more spectacular from the inside. Nico wondered how someone could ever get this much money. Every piece of furniture must've cost, like, a thousand dollars.

Jason snapped his fingers in Nico's face. "Focus. It was you who told us to go through the gates in the first place."

Nico popped his head in Jason's direction. He had to kidding. Nico had never really liked Jason, but blaming this crap on him was the last straw.

"Last I checked, you didn't have to do anything I said. I've done great on my own, and I don't need you or anyone else telling me what to do. It wasn't me who told you we had to go through that gate, but I didn't see anyone else coming up with any brilliant ideas."

He left all of them in silence, but Nico was done with Jason. The guy needed to quit acting like he had such a big head and was so important. Every one of them was equally important, and Nico was sick of it.

Sparks were coming off of Jason's clothes. Hazel gulped and slid away from them, trying to casually unwrap her Fruit Roll-Up. Leo looked back and forth between them, and Frank positioned himself so that he could help Hazel if anything got too crazy.

Jason narrowed his eyes and poked his finger in Nico's chest. "Then why don't you just-"

"Hello everyone, I come bearing clothes," called Piper. She walked into the room with a stack of men's and women's clothing in her arms for the rest of them. She kissed Jason on the cheek and jerked away immediately. "Ouch! You shocked me!"

Jason didn't acknowledge her. She shrugged her shoulders and then realized how quiet it was. "What happened while I was gone?" No one answered her. Glares were given to each other, and some of them still backed away from Nico and Jason.

Piper dropped the clothes on the counter. She mustered up her charmspeaking voice, but Nico didn't even feel compelled to do anything she was saying. "Okay, whatever is going on between you two, quit it. We don't need any fighting going on between us- Whoa, Nico, what are you doing?"

Nico didn't even care what he was doing. He felt weird. He only felt this mad on a few occasions. He remembered the first time he had ever been this mad. It was when Percy had told him that Bianca had died, all those years ago. And he remembered what had happened when he felt like that.

He broke eye contact with Jason. He glanced at the ground. Shards of black volcanic rock were protruding from the hard wood ground. They were at least a yard tall behind him, jagged like stalagmites.

He swallowed a lump in his throat. Jason was backing away from him. The ground was shaking like they were having an earthquake. If Nico wasn't careful, a bunch of undead warriors were going to pop out of the ground next.

He exhaled softly and backed away from them with his hands in front of him. The ground stopped shaking, but there were still giant stones coming out of Piper's father's billion dollar floor.

"Sorry about the floor, Piper," he tried.

She shook her head. "Um… my dad will just think it was an earthquake or something. Don't worry about it." She didn't sound so sure about that.

"I need some fresh air." He turned away from them, his head to the ground, and walked as fast as he could out of that house. He shoved his hands in his pockets. He could hear a few very meek protests behind him, but no one really tried to stop him.

He wanted to slap himself. Now he really looked like a freak. They were probably going to kick him out of their group, and he'd be a loner all over again. He said it himself that he wouldn't care whether he was or not.

Why did I just totally diss them? he asked himself. I'm such a freaking loser. Why don't I just leave now and put them out of their misery?

He walked over to the pool and sat down next to it. He touched the water with his finger. Despite the really warm weather, the water was cold. It was probably just him.

Sons of Hades didn't belong anywhere. And it was kind of his fault that they were there. "Come on, Nico," he told himself. "You shouldn't be like this. Toughen up. You're your own person."

"Are you talking to yourself?" Nico stiffened and turned to the voice. Hazel was walking up to him with some clothes in her arms. "I'm just joking. Don't take it so seriously."

"I know," he sighed. "I just need some time alone, okay?"

Hazel nodded and set the clothes down, but she didn't leave. Instead, she sat down next to him. "These are for you. They're Piper's dad's clothes, so they aren't going to fit you perfectly, and they aren't your style, but it's better than nothing. And here's and backpack to keep everything in." She handed him an L.L. Bean hiking bag. "I found this in the hall closet, and Piper said to take anything."

"Thanks," he murmured.

"And we talked a little bit. We tried to Iris Message Coach Hedge, but the IM didn't go through. Now we're afraid something has happened to Iris and Fleecy."

"Who's Fleecy?"

"Never mind. The point is that we can't contact anyone. We're on our own, so we better hope that we find some very nice, Hawaiian demigods, or we're done for."

"Well, I might go walk down the beach, okay?" He needed to clear his mind. And it was the easiest way to change the subject.

Hazel laid a hand on his arm. "Nico, no one blames you for what happened in there. I think Jason feels guilty for being that mean. It's not your fault."

"Yeah, but I really just need to, okay Hazel?"

She sighed. "Fine, but make sure you have your weapons ready in case there's an attack." She stood up and looked down at him, then flipped her hair over her shoulder and strode back inside the house.

She said that all connections were cut off… but he actually wanted to be sure. He hopped up from the ground and looked for the longest shadow he could see. He walked over the steps and behind the curtain of leaves and vines. It was a perfect area.

Nico willed himself to become a shadow. He tried to detach himself from the world of the living and blend in with his surroundings. His stomach felt funny, but it always did when he tried to shadow travel. He closed his eyes and then opened them.

Nothing happened. He was still in Kauai, which meant that he couldn't shadow travel anymore. All connections really were gone for some reason. Nico blamed Gaea and that voice that he had heard in his dreams.

He began to walk down the beach, towards the crowd of people. He'd be the only one without a bathing suit, but things could be weirder.

Why was his memory of Tartarus gone? It wasn't right. That was valuable information that was now gone. He really was going to join the 'I Hate Hera' club if it was her fault.

"Well, well, look who made all the wrong choices," laughed a man's voice. There was something about it that Nico found really familiar. He, very carefully, turned around to face the new voice. Nico had his hand on his new sword that was sheathed at his side.

And he came face to face with Percy Jackson.

Ha, a cliffhanger... I'm a bad person! Sorry, but I had to!

Reviews and ideas are loved! Let's try to get to 1,000! (Holy crap, I'm almost at 1,000. Someone give me something to stop my heart attack!)

-BBH