Almost made 3000 words. I hit 2638 before I just couldn't edit any more. And, sooo sorry... I posted the first chapter Wednesday, and I totally didn't realize a Thursday had passed until like three minutes ago. So sorry! By the way, this chapter and it's crappy fight scene is dedicated to the amazing redshark141, who both made me scream at the top of my lungs and bite my nails off editing the second one. Because no pressure, right? Haha, hope you like it, red.

Disclaimer: Δεν είμαι κύριος Percy Jackson.

If you want to know what that means, review! Or, you know, just translate it online.

Nico didn't know why he had decided to go back for a visit. The campers in Camp Half-Blood usually didn't appreciate it very much when he did, but Percy would be happy to see him, and maybe Annabeth. Now that Gaea was sleeping again, Camp Half-Blood had a lot of stuff to clean up and fix. Both camps had been torn up pretty bad.

Hazel had decided to stay in the Roman camp and help Camp Jupiter rebuild, as did Frank, whom Nico trusted to protect her. Jason moved to Camp Half-Blood to stay with Piper. The two camps were more or less united, now.

Camp Jupiter was paying for most of the damage for both camps, considering that most of it was their fault- well, mostly Octavian's fault, but he had died when Gaea attacked the camps. The roman camp apologized profusely for their folly, and offered to help rebuild the camps.

Nico sometimes helped with the reconstruction, but no matter how badass a demigod he could be, Nico was still only just barely fifteen, probably, and unfortunately was not even remotely helpful at doing anything but hammering nails. Even then, usually somebody else had to redo it.

However, Nico had spontaneously decided to visit, for some reason.

A dream had actually prompted him to visit. Not a scary, world-changing dream for once, but still a demigod dream.

In it, Nico had seen a single candle flame flickering.

That sounded like a really stupid dream, but he had left out the part about the screaming. All of one girl's voice, but different screams, different reasons to scream. And since a demigod either dreams something important or nothing, it was better to inform Percy or Chiron about it.

He shadow traveled to the center of the woods surrounding camp Half-Blood and walked, jumping over fallen trees, half hoping a monster would attack him along the way. He really needed more practice- there weren't any bad guys to fight, no worlds to save.

He brushed away a large leaf and crunched quietly over dead vegetation. He spotted a few mice and rabbits, even a raggedy old raccoon, but nothing monstrous attacked. He twisted his skull ring absently, thinking about melting wax and a struggling fire.

No monsters came. Nico was a little disappointed as he came to what he knew was almost the edge of the woods. Even the monsters were more passive lately- and there were less to fight now that they stayed dead. Creatures still roared in Half Blood woods, but none attacked.

A girl's piercing scream cut through the quiet.

… Usually.

Desperate for a challenge, Nico tore through the brush, ignoring whipping twigs and inconveniently placed roots, half running and half shadow-traveling to the source of a sudden vicious growl that sounded promising.

Nico ran a hundred different situations in his head: Hellhound. Dracaena. Cyclops. Probably attacking a girl who had wandered away from camp. He didn't recognize the screaming, but the Camp got new demigods every day.

He was expecting a hellhound, or something to that effect. Nico was not, however, expecting to fight his first Hydra that day.

The monster was huge, spraying poison and flames, with green shiny scales and multiple giant heads, more than it was supposed to have. Then Nico saw the girl waving a bloody steak knife at the monster threateningly.

The first thing he thought when he saw her was, how is that even possible?

Not because she was strong. Not because she looked like a street urchin, and not because she was standing up to a hydra with a kitchen knife. No, he thought that because she had the weirdest combination of genes Nico had ever seen.

Her waist-length hair was a bright, almost blinding orange that shimmered with a deep red sheen where it caught the light, so it looked like a flickering flame. The girl's skin was tanned and rough and scratched up, like she'd been in fights way worse that the hydra.

Her eyes, though, were the palest shade of green Nico had ever seen- so light the irises seemed almost transparent in the light of the flames.

The rest of it was fairly normal for an unclaimed demigod that probably lived on the streets: dirt, monster dust, and ragged clothes. Her face was a fright mask of fear and rage, and three hydra heads already lay limp around her. Her eyes were fierce, teeth bared.

In his split second of surprised hesitation, Nico saw two of the heads come down, snarling and foaming at the mouth. One she batted away with her knife, which seemed impossible, but in the millisecond it took her to do that the other head crunched down on her side.

The girl screamed, and Nico realized the foam was tinged an odd color and there was poison in their mouths.

She collapsed, gasping and jerking, to the dirt, still managing to raise her knife to hold back the teeth flashing for her throat. It was then Nico got his bearings and joined the fight.

He knew he needed to burn the stupid thing, even as he charged it and stabbed one of its giant legs. There was fire everywhere, lighting up the trees from the monster's wild shots, but how in Hades was he supposed to burn it with that?

His stygian iron sword grew in his hand and he cut off a snout- not a head- and the jaw came crashing down, almost crushing him in the process. It bellowed and poison dripped out of the hole, and Nico had to spring away as the grass curdled and turned black.

When the hydra head that the nameless girl had batted away lunged at him, Nico ducked and brought his sword up, severing the head and diving out of the way in time for the speeding stump of a neck to slam into a burning tree. The other heads screamed while the skin melted and sizzled.

No heads regrew. The stump just flailed like a chicken without a head.

Nico ran without falter, dashing under the heads lashing at him like toothy, poisonous whips, cutting wherever he could that wasn't a head. He picked up a flaming stick about as long and as thick as his arm, cursed, turned, and sliced off a head, sealing it with the burning torch. Then he dropped it, shaking out his charred hand with a yell.

The girl wailed in pain suddenly, and Nico whipped around from his battle with a third head to see that another had its teeth in the girl's shoulder and neck and was worrying her in its mouth. Blood trickled through the grass.

Nico ran, dragging his sword through a patch of flames, uncertain if this would even work. When his sword caught fire, he was probably just as surprised as the Hydra was as he lopped off its head, cauterizing it instantly.

Four down and six to go.

But before he could engage again, he had to pull off the head that still had its teeth in the girl's collarbone. The sharp, curved fangs were still pumping poison into her body. He managed to remove it and she whimpered throughout the process.

When he got it off, Nico struggled to move it because dang, that thing was heavy- but he shoved it toward the hydra with a grunt, and it rolled like a bowling ball into the thing's feet. Momentarily distracted, the monster roared in confusion, stomping around the new obstacle.

Nico turned and knelt down to the injured demigod, because that's what she had to be. She was bleeding, and there were still teeth in her body. Two large wounds that looked like shark bites punctured her collarbone and her hip, and she stared dazedly up at him.

"Are you okay?" he said urgently, lightly tapping her cheek to get her to focus on him.

"Eh? Oh… Alicia…" she mumbled.

"Who?"

…..

His face was dark, his eyes were dark. He blurred for a minute before he tapped my face. Then everything came into a wobbly, dizzy focus. He squinted down at me, sweating, and I could hear the creature bellowing.

When I'd tried to kill it, I had cut off three of the heads before they started bulging and splitting into two new ones each. By the time I realized that, the monster had ten writhing heads that hissed and spat poison and fire.

It pulled a fake out and tore into my side. I had only barely managed to jab into its throat with my knife when it tried to bite my head off.

I took in everything when he looked down at me. He smelled good somehow, like Alicia after she'd died, like my family and freshly overturned earth. His eyes were brown like dark chocolate and his skin was colored like coffee.

"Are you okay?" he asked, and I tried to say yes, but I think I said something completely different. I was almost on top of Alicia's grave.

"Who?"

I focused on the blurring shape above his head.

"Lookout."

He turned faster than lightning, and slammed the lizard's head with enough force to slam it to the side, and I marveled at his strength. There was blood on his face and it was twisted in concentration as he swung his sword, yelling a battle cry, like a ferocious fallen angel.

….

"Lookout," she slurred.

Nico twisted around in time to smack the oncoming head with the flat of his blade to whack it away, and cast one more glance at the demigod before leaping back into battle.

The girl was too injured. If he wanted any chance of getting her help in time, he couldn't engage each and every head. But if he didn't kill it, it would come back, possibly hurt someone else. Nico set his blade afire again. It showed no signs of melting or even heating up, Nico realized briefly.

He dove like a baseball player sliding into first base and slid on his hip underneath the hydra, and shoved the flaming sword into the monster's stomach all the way up to the hilt. He skidded out on the other side of the hydra, breathing hard, just as its surprisingly flammable skin caught fire.

The monster screamed and Nico panted, bent over with his hands on his knees. He supposed he'd asked for it, walking through a monster infested forest and practically daring something to fight him. But seriously, what was a hydra doing out here?

When he could breathe again he stepped around the oily, writhing bonfire to make sure the demigod was still alive. She glanced at the fire and sighed out of the corner of her mouth.

"Is Alicia…" she muttered. "Oh. Um. Um."

She passed out.

He puffed out a breath of air. Nico picked his way through the flames, singing his clothes, and found his sword, which was still as cold as ever. He twisted it back into a skull ring and made his way back to the injured demigod.

He struggled to pick her up, which was a little embarrassing, but he managed to heft her over his shoulder in a fireman's hold. He didn't want to try and shadow travel with a passenger as tired as he was, so he just staggered to where he knew the camp was.

When he reached Thalia's tree, a camper on watch scrambled down the hill to meet him halfway. The boy- probably an Athena camper, judging by his grey eyes- gasped when he saw the girl. Nico's breath came in gasps and he passed her over to the boy.

He yelled for help and hefted the girl up, tottering. Nico stumbled to the Poseidon cabin to find Percy.

….

When Percy opened the door, he wasn't expecting a tottering, singed, slightly smoking demigod. Still, he expected Nico to be the tottering, singed, slightly smoking demigod even less.

"Nico!" he said, flinging the door all the way open. Annabeth and Piper jumped and watched with surprise as Nico stumbled in.

"What happened?" Percy asked.

"Look for a smoldering pile of ash about a half mile out from Thalia's tree," he said with a smug but tired grin. "It used to be a Hydra. Oh… and the forest is a little bit on fire."

"A Hydra!" Annabeth exclaimed. "What was a hydra doing in the woods?"

"I don't know." He shrugged. "But I killed it. And there was a girl demigod there. I passed her off to an Athena boy to get her to the infirmary."

"Gods!" Percy said, and the two girls on the bed leapt up.

"We'll have to finish this later, Annabeth," Piper said.

"Right," Annabeth agreed. The three of them raced out the door toward the infirmary.

….

The three of them raced out the door toward the infirmary, leaving Nico still swaying slightly in the cabin. He muttered darkly to himself.

"No, no, I'm perfectly fine, don't worry. Yeah, I did take down a hydra with ten heads on my own, isn't that cool?"

When Nico dug around the cabin for a bit, he managed to fine a metal canteen of nectar. Gulping down a few sips, he felt the cut and burn marks fade away. He felt better, but was still tired, so he flopped down on Percy's bed.

…

When he woke up again, Nico felt revitalized. Percy still wasn't back, and Nico had probably been sleeping for a good three hours, dreamless. So he grunted, pulled himself up out of the bed, and shuffled into the corner of the room where it was darkest.

When he showed up in the infirmary, nobody noticed, and Nico dispelled the shadows around him.

They were swarmed around her bed on the far wall. They shouted orders at each other, administering salves and bandages, and stitched her bites with bloody hands. One girl, who might have been Aphrodite because she looked pretty and confused, kept spooning ambrosia into the girl's mouth every couple of minutes.

Percy and Annabeth looked on, while Piper talked an Apollo boy into telling them what was going on with their patient. From what Nico could catch, they were trying to flush the poison out of her blood, and control blood loss. After that, they would worry about the burns and possible broken collarbone.

Nico watched them scuttle around, relighting candles, administering sleeping herbs and painkillers, washing the sweat off her face, and yelling at each other to not let her die.

Hours later, the poison was mostly gone, the blood was all wiped off, and she was sleeping peacefully. A few curious campers had heard the news and come to make sure the possible new camper was okay, including three Hermes kids, a child of Hecate, the Athena boy who had carried her here, and Pollux.

Percy spotted Nico about a half hour later and smacked his forehead before crossing the room to speak to him. His smile was apologetic and his eyes were cringing.

"Nico, man, I'm sorry. Are you-"

"I used some of your nectar."

"Oh- okay."

They stood there in an awkward silence for a while until Annabeth pulled Percy away to talk about who the new camper might be. Percy flashed Nico another apologetic half-grin before allowing himself to be tugged away.

Nico stood still like a statue, bored out of his mind, but he didn't have anything better to do than wait and see if the life he tried to save survived. And, okay, he might have been a little curious to who in Hades Alicia was.