3,000 reviews… Oh. My. Gods. I never, ever thought I'd reach this number. Not in a million years. Thank you all so much for the amazing support. Big shout out to horse-crazy girl13, who kept reviewing my story until I reached this wonderful number. Hope, you are so awesome! Thank you to all of my readers, because without you, I don't know what I would be doing.

Sorry for typos/OOCness. This is fast paced, so sorry. Also, school is out now! And… Happy Birthday Mom! Her birthday was yesterday, and she's in Banff, Canada right now on vacation. I'm staying with McKenzie (The girl I wrote Sixty Seconds with). She says, "Hey," to everyone.

Happy Reading!

Chapter 42

Nico

They were at Camp Half-Blood.

Immediately, a rush of memories flooded Nico's mind. He'd first arrived at the camp when he was ten years old, and his sister had chosen to stay with the Hunters. He had only stayed at the camp for a little while before leaving to be on his own, because the camp had never felt like home to him. After the Titan War he had built a cabin, but he only came to the camp sometimes, because at the time, no one knew that he was switching between the Greek and Roman camp.

Nico had only heard of Bunker 9 from his short visits to camp. Never had he been inside of it, but he knew it was one of the bunkers left from the Civil War, and it was where Leo had spent months building the Argo II, which was still in Greece.

"We need to find the new Gate," Hazel said. "Maybe it's somewhere at Camp Half-Blood. You guys show us the way." Unfortunately, this wasn't a sightseeing trip for Hazel and Frank.

"That may be a small problem," Jason told her, his shoulders falling down like he just felt down with everything.

"What do you mean?" Frank asked.

"He means that Camp Jupiter and Camp Half-Blood are currently at war with each other outside," Nico informed them. With everything going on, it was easy to forget that small little situation. "We have something just as important to do before finding the Gate."

"What's more important than closing the Doors of Death and rescuing Percy and Annabeth?" Piper asked.

"Keeping the Romans and Greeks from destroying each other," Nico said. "'At the End Of Battle's Foretold Strike, The Two Enemies Will Fight To Unite.' They've been fighting, but it's up to us to make a truce between them. We'll need both sides when we have to face Gaea and the Giants."

"'The Giant Stalks the Six Waiting For War'," Leo quoted. "That means Tityos has been watching us while we waited for the war… this war. Not the big big war. The war between the Romans and Greeks. He's probably here. Thalia and Taygete think this is a really big deal, and they were willing to risk their lives to make sure we got here. I bet the prophecy also means that he's getting stronger because of the war. The destruction probably helps him, like Bellona. He's going to rise if we don't stop this."

At the mention of Thalia and Taygete, Nico wondered what happened to them. Were they okay?

The six of them walked through the aisles and out of the bunker. Once outside, Nico immediately heard the sounds of a raging battle. He saw smoke rising from the camp and heard battles cries in Latin and Ancient Greek. Nothing was going on in the woods, but he could only imagine what the fight was like. It was sunset, and the sky was bleeding with colors. But clouds were drawing in. It was going to rain any minute.

They all prepared their weapons. Leo, thankfully, had little bottles of nectar in the bunker and bags of ambrosia, and they all divided it up equally among themselves. After they were ready, they all looked at each other, not sure what to say. What sides would they choose? They were all traitors of Rome, but for Jason, Hazel, and Frank, that was their home turf. They were Romans. They were supposed to be fighting with them. For Nico, Leo, and Piper, they were supposed to side with the Greeks.

"What do we do to stop them from killing each other?" Frank asked, shaking his head and running a hand through his short hair. His other hand was idly playing with a bow.

"I wish Grover were here to cause a Panic," Nico said unconsciously. Everyone looked at him, not knowing what he meant. He explained, "During the Battle of the Labyrinth, a friend named Grover did this thing called a Panic that made everyone stop fighting."

"I wish we could do that," they all started mumbling.

"Okay," Jason started. "We're going to half to split up. Since Frank, Hazel, and I are Roman, we will go to their side to try and speak to Reyna. I think she still trusts me, or at least I hope. They'll listen to her if she tells them to stop. We'll just need to convince her."

"What about Octavian?" asked Leo. "He'll definitely say no to whatever we say and try to kill us."

"We will just have to take care of him the hard way, I guess. I think he deserves a good knock to the head." Jason smiled wistfully. "And you guys will have to talk to Chiron or Clarisse or someone who's a good camp leader that they'll listen to."

"That's Percy and Annabeth," Nico told Jason. "They were the camp leaders. Now they're both gone. I don't think they have a leader. I think they all just have a common goal, and that's to defend their home. Chiron doesn't like to fight that much, but they'll listen to him. We'll try to go get him."

"You guys, is splitting up really the best way to do this?" Piper interjected. "We're stronger together than we are apart. Splitting up never solves anything." And Nico was pretty sure every single one of them started thinking about Percy and Annabeth, still in Tartarus.

"It's the only way," Jason said. Nico rolled his eyes, because the Romans were so stubborn.

They began to say their farewells. Piper and Jason kissed and then got in a group hug with Leo. Frank and Hazel were exchanging hushed words with each other. Nico felt like the biggest loner in the entire world. He hung back from the rest of them, thinking about the fight. Some of them could die during this. He could die. Even the prophecy predicted it. But he couldn't let his fear get the best of him.

If he went down, he would do so fighting.

Hazel came up to him and gave him a big hug. "Good luck, Nico," she whispered. "We'll see each other after this. I know it."

But there was still that part of his mind that asked questions. What if one side overpowered the other? Then they would all be goners. How would they ever be able to get to the House of Hades if they never escaped this war? How would Percy and Annabeth ever be safe? How would the Doors of Death be closed?

Would Nico be able to keep his promise to Percy and lead them there?

Nico left before everyone else did. He started through the woods and didn't turn back around to look at any of his friends. No nature spirits or satyrs roamed around, which was different. He didn't even see a single monster. But the scary part was that he didn't see any Romans or Greeks, and he knew they were there.

Once he reached the edge of the woods, he saw the war.

The Romans, being Roman, we lined up in perfect lines, weapons poised to attack, and they were attacking. But the Greeks were attacking from all different directions using guerilla warfare. Nico saw some of the Apollo campers hiding in tight places shooting arrows at the enemy.

The numbers of people fighting was enormous. His jaw dropped as he saw how far back the lines of soldiers stood, disappearing into numerous buildings. The arena was practically overflowing with people, all of which were fighting. Camp Half-Blood was becoming the killing fields.

This was going to be a lot harder than any of them had thought.

Nico took off running, dodging people but never attacking, because he couldn't act like the enemy. He heard people cry out curses at him and some of them even tried to attack, but Nico was fast. He side stepped and weaved in and out of the hand to hand combat.

One of the Romans spotted him. Nico didn't recognize who the person was, but he held a lance in his hands and definitely wasn't afraid to use it. Fortunately, he wasn't that good, but did put up one big fight. Nico brandished his sword and it met the spear after the Roman made a battle cry.

The opposing person slashed at him viciously but with poor skill. Nico wasn't the best swordsman, not by far, but he had trained in the Underworld for a while and at both camps. Nico only blocked at first, because fighting was the right thing to do. This was all about making peace, not making enemies. And Nico was Greek.

But the Roman was unrelenting, with his continuous jabs and cuts that never landed on Nico but came darn close. Nico was sick of it. He had enough to do as it was. This one person was not on his priority list. Nico swiftly disarmed him with a twist in his weapons. The lance flew away from them both and into a bush. The Roman boy faced him. "You, Greek, have—"

"We have no reason to be fighting," Nico said as calmly as he could. "Find Reyna and tell her she needs to stand down. This has all been a misunderstanding."

He shook his head with rage. "Lies. All Lies. Octavian has told us what you savages do. You and your brothers will die for attacking New Rome."

Nico rolled his eyes and brought the hilt of the sword down on the boy. He fell to the ground, unconscious. He hadn't hit him hard enough to cause serious damage, but hard enough for him to be out for a while. It would definitely bruise. Nico shook his head and stepped over the fallen body as he continued to fight his way away from the woods.

There was a good chance that if Chiron wasn't doing archery some place, he was in the Big House. Nico was only at the very edge of the woods, and there was an entire army between him and the Big House. This was going to take a whole lot longer than he had hoped. And he was going to have to check every stupid building to make sure Chiron wasn't in any of them.

Nico ran into the arena, which was crumbling on one side. The foundation had been destroyed from battle. Nico caught a glimpse of some of the Venus and Mercury kids fighting in there. The Venus campers were way better fighters than any of the Aphrodite kids, that was for sure. They made perfume and curling irons into some serious weapons. One of the girls from the Fifth Cohort, a small girl named Lillian, was in a brutal fight with Katie from the Demeter Cabin.

No one had noticed him yet, and he wanted it to stay that way. He watched Katie and Lillian's fight out of the corner of his eye. Katie was making flowers grow to trip Lillian and vines appear to tie her up. Lillian, being a daughter of Mercury, however, was fast and agile. It was an equal fight.

He scanned the crowd once again, but there was no Chiron. Sighing, he turned and ran off.

He stopped when he heard laughter just as the first drops of rain began to fall. A face formed from the water in front of him, and Tityos was there, taunting him as he had many times before. Even in the rain, he looked civilized. He was rising; that was why he was happy. Nico slashed his sword, and the image was gone, but Tityos wasn't. His spirit was lurking around the camp, and Nico could feel it.

A majority of the fighters were in the cabin area, so Nico headed over there first. As he ran, he saw two Pegasus blur past him. Reyna was riding on her own, and Jason was going after her. Nico wondered where briefly where he had gotten the ride from. Jason was trying to explain everything to her, but she was taking none of it.

Off in one direction, Nico saw mounds of dead people. Probably around a hundred. They all were bleeding and creating streams of their blood. Bones popped out in all different directions, and people just ran over the bodies like they didn't even care. He was disgusted. Being a son of Hades, he believed in honoring the dead, especially the fallen soldiers. They were just being ignored now.

Once he reached the cabins, he was astonished to see what he saw.

The Romans had a catapult. They clearly hadn't shot anything out of it yet, because it was being set up, but it was huge. It had to be big enough to take out a large cabin or part of the Strawberry Fields. Around the catapult, the Greeks and Romans fought on. Nico had a feeling that most of them didn't even know what they were fighting for, which made the war pointless.

The catapult was being loaded after a minute, and Nico's jaw dropped when he saw their ammo.

The explosive boulders from the Hecate cabin.

NOT GOOD AT ALL! Those things, if launched could destroyed the entire camp, but the Romans had no idea, and they sure wouldn't listen to Nico if he told them that. They were like mini magical nuclear bombs. They'd probably think it was a good thing.

And then, he saw people launching Greek Fire at each other. That stuff would spread and not stop, but they were getting desperate. Reyna's Pegasus had landed and she was fighting head on with Jason just a few yards away. There was still no Chiron in sight. Nico saw smoke rising from the fields covered in the dead soldiers. So many had already died. He heard screams as the entire arena caved in, right in front of his eyes. There were so many people in there.

Leo was running by, trying to fight off three people all around him by shooting flames in different directions. Piper was using Katoptris as best as she could, and using a lot of charmspeak, but that only went so far. People only stopped fighting for a short period before doing so again. Frank was shooting arrows in all different directions, nailing people to walls and to the ground but not hurting them. Hazel rode by on a horse that he had never seen before, and it went so fast that one minute it was there and the next it was gone to the other side of the cabins.

The Greeks battled the Romans. People died. Tityos was only getting stronger.

This was all in a minute or less.

The rain started to pour even harder, and the winds came off of Jason as he held back the swarms of people that tried to attack him. Hazel rode around on her horse, but with so many people it was hard. Soon enough, the campers, both Roman and Greek, were attack the horse and pulling it to the ground. Frank had changed into a Rhino and was mowing down people as gently as he could. People launched flaming arrows at him. Piper's charmspeak was becoming futile. Leo was running out of stamina, and the flames that licked over his body were getting weaker.

Two people attacked Nico, both of them unrecognizable. He didn't know if they were Greek of Roman, but they clearly both just wanted to attack him. He kicked out and swept out the girl's legs from underneath her. From the ground, she shot an arrow at him, but it only grazed the side of his shoulder. With all of the adrenaline, he barely felt a thing.

The guy did a ninja flip and his feet met Nico's stomach, and he flew backwards. He landed on his back and the air left his stomach. He rolled over on his good shoulder and hit the guy in the knee with his sword. He cried out, and Nico disarmed the guy quickly as he could no longer stand. But those two were going to recover swiftly and they weren't the only ones after him.

"We must stop fighting!" he tried to tell them. "I'm on your side!"

The catapult was getting ready to fly. People were dropping down dead. The two armies had swarmed into the cabin area now. Hardly any of them fought anywhere else. Everything was going on here, and it would all have to stop there. There was no Chiron anywhere to stop anything. Even if Reyna decided to believe them, how would she be able to stop the entire army? Half of them were loyal to Octavian and wouldn't stop until someone forcefully made them. His friends were trying to stay alive. And only Nico would be able to stop it.

He said a silent prayer to his father. Don't fail me now.

He sunk to his knees and shoved his hands in the ground, Gaea's territory, the ground from which Tityos was trying to rise. He felt this build up of power inside of him, ready to burst at any moment. He just needed to know where to send it to, and he sent it into the ground.

Energy shook the ground and sent tremors through it. And earthquake began. People screamed and cried, but he blocked those sounds out because they all needed to stop fighting and this was the only way. The earthquake caused the people to fall to the ground because they weren't stable enough on their feet. Other buildings fell to the ground. People covered their bodies with fear. The two different types of campers no longer cared who was next to them. They just wanted to stay safe.

It wasn't only the earth power that scared the campers, but it was the other power that Nico had released. He had released dark energy, the kind that radiated off of the dead. It was the kind of power that kept people away from graveyards and made them cry at funerals. It was why horror movies scared people and why death was such a terrible subject.

Not only had Nico released an earthquake, but he had released a Panic of his own, a power that he had never used before.

He called it Terror.

Nico didn't really know what he was doing. He was acting on some instinct that ran deep in his bones. A small voice in his head was telling him what to do. Maybe it was his father, Hades. He could only imagine what people were seeing. Their worst nightmares were probably coming to life as if Phobos were standing right in front of them. He tried to send out a message to the people with the images.

He showed them their fighting, and then what would happen if they kept on fighting. He showed them a terrible giant rising from the ground and killing them all. He showed them Percy and Annabeth, fighting their way through Tartarus. He showed them his own memories from his time in Tartarus, or at least the few parts he could remember. The images were horrifying, because if they did keep on fighting, it was going to be the exact same way. That was Terror.

No one was fighting anymore. There was no screaming. And so Nico pulled away from the ground, and his power stopped. Immediately, he felt woozy, but he stood up anyway. None of the people had recovered, but that was okay. They would all need a minute. So Nico leaned against a nearby column and tried to get his head to stop spinning.

When some of the people started to stand up, Nico raised his voice loud enough for the many people to hear. "I have shown you what will happen if this fighting continues. To defeat Gaea and the Giants, we must join our forces. We will be stronger that way. A rivalry between the Greeks and Romans is out of the question right now. Here I am, Nico di Angelo. I have lived in both camps and have been accepted in both camps. We must except each other and try to not destroy each other. You must all join together and prepare to head to Greece. There is a giant battle ahead, and we will need all of our fighters. We cannot afford for another person to die."

Nico could feel the power behind his own words. Maybe he had developed some sort of charmspeak like Piper.

"We must work together and sort out our differences, just for a short time. If we don't, then they have already won. Gaea will rise and some really bad stuff will happen to all of us, which isn't cool. Stop fighting, just for a little while, and let us explain what has happened."

He looked at all of the people. Thankfully, none of them had been too hurt by the earthquake that he had caused. Besides scrapes and cuts and a few broken bones, Nico couldn't see any really bad injuries. But they were all kind of jumpy from the Terror he had just released. They would probably be that way for a while.

The campers began to stand up, and thankfully, none of them were fighting. They all looked tired. He wondered how long they had been fighting each other. Probably a couple of days, and they probably hadn't rested that much during that time. Then, they moved to sides. Greeks on one side, and Romans on another. They faced each other. Reyna stood in the middle of them, and so did all of his friends. Nico went to join them.

Once he got there, they all looked shaken and a little... he couldn't place what they felt. But they backed away from him when he got close. He brushed it off because he had no reason to try and make them feel any better. That wasn't his job.

"Reyna," he started. "You have already lost so many of yours fighters. We have lost many of ours. Let's call a truce. It is the most noble thing for both of us to do right now."

He watched Reyna consider what he was saying. She looked like she didn't want to believe it but was slowly understanding how dire the situation was. But before she could even say anything, one person started running towards them, screaming not to attack. Bright red hair clashed with an orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirt, and she was wearing paint-splattered jean shorts.

Rachel Elizabeth Dare.

She ran right up to Nico and grabbed his arm urgently. "Hello Romans. My name is Rachel. Don't kill the messenger, please. I have an announcement to make," she said loudly. She was lucky that no one was attacking her.

Rachel gripped Nico's arm, even though he was trying to shake her off. She needed to get out of there. She was no fighter, and she wasn't even wearing any sort of armor. But her large eyes were insistent. "What is it Rachel? We're kind of busy right now."

"Everything has changed!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air. "I was in my cave, and I had this vision of Tityos, standing in this camp. I could only see his head, but slowly he was rising out of the earth, while we all fought around him. We must stop the fighting before he does rise." Before Nico could even explain to the Romans who Tityos was, Rachel began to. She told them all about the giant and explained how wars only made him stronger, and if they joined together and stopped fighting, he would never rise.

When she was done, Reyna shook her head. "We have no reason to believe anything you say. You are a Greek, therefore you are an enemy to New Rome." But she looked really nervous, and her voice had been shaking. She seemed like she wanted to believe Rachel, but she wanted what was best for her people, and she had no idea what that was anymore.

Rachel put up one finger, as if to explain, and collapsed.

It was out of nowhere, and Nico barely caught her before she connected with the ground. "What is wrong with her?" asked Reyna. The Roman campers began to look a little freaked out, but none of them attacked. The Greek campers all knew what was going, because they had seen it before.

The red-head shot to her feet and out of Nico's arms, but green mist started to poor out of her mouth and cocoon her body. Everyone, even Nico, backed away. "Rachel is the Oracle," Nico explained. It was all that needed to be said. The Roman's didn't fight the knowledge because it was clear. Even Rachel's eyes were glowing as she started to speak.

But she didn't speak a prophecy. She spoke with the knowledge of the past Oracles. There were multiple Rachel's talking at the same time. "The place you seek shall not be found. The House of Hades will end the bloody battle, but start a new one soon after. 'The House of Hades Holds the Key, To Destroying the World and Restoring Peace.' The House of Hades is gone. It is a monster."

"Rachel, what do you mean?" asked Piper. Nico hinted some charmspeak. "We must find the House of Hades. It is in Epirus, like Nico told us."

"NO!" The scream the tore through Rachel sent shivers down Nico's back. "The House of Hades comes with a curse. There must be a sacrifice made, and the one to die will never even reach the House of Hades, for it is in no mortal land. No person who walks this land shall reach the House of Hades. The Doors of Death lie in the ancient tombs of Epirus, not in the cursed House of Hades."

"But wasn't that part of the prophecy?" What was she saying? Nico was so confused, but every memory from his time in Tartarus seemed to be on the tip of his tongue. He just couldn't find them. "Rachel, where is the House of Hades?"

"Wait!" Reyna said. "What prophecy? The Prophecy of Seven?"

And so, before Rachel answered Reyna's question, for the Roman camp had never heard the prophecy.

"The House of Hades Holds the Key
To Destroying the World and Restoring Peace.
At the End of Battle's Foretold Strike
The Two Enemies will Fight to Unite.
The Giant Stalks the Six Waiting for War
The Earth Mother Haunts at the Doors."

"For Though the Eight May Stay
There Is One too Many for Giant's Decay
Fire and Ice will Oppose the Threats
Made By Man Who Conquers All Death
Lost in the Wind as Whisper's Tell
The Ghost King Will Forever Reign in Hell."

Then, she turned and faced Nico. "It is not in Epirus," she hissed. "The House remains in—"

But Rachel was cut off. One minute the Oracle was in her body, and the green smoke swirled around her. Nico blinked, and in a millisecond, the Oracle wasn't in her body. Instead, a sharp, metal arrow was.

Someone had shot Rachel, right in her stomach.

Everyone gasped. Nico knew no Greek would dare try and kill the Oracle, so he immediately turned to the Romans. None of them had their weapons raised. They seemed to be in just has much shock. None of them even held bows. But he searched the entire area until his eyes landed on the one person with stringy blonde hair and too big clothes. His bow was still raised from the recently made shot.

Octavian smirked down at the bleeding body of Rachel, his victim.

This chapter took me a while to write (4000+ words). I hope you all liked it, and that it is worthy of 3,000 reviews. I tried my best. Review Challenge: Who are your favorite Youtubers? Mine are PewDiePie, NigaHiga, Smosh, JennaMarbles, HowToBasic, ShaneDawsonTV, ERB, BadLipReading, and many others (listed on profile).

Reviews and ideas are loved. They help me out so much, more than you'll ever know. Plus this story is probably going to end soon.

-BBH