This chapter is a little shorter than the others and to make up for it, I will upload Chapter eight by tomorrow because I've already finished it.

And, and, and, it's full of Jason/Nico friendship and a little of Percico. And there's a bit of Luke too.

NICO:

Between Annabeth and Percy's moms, Nico would choose Sally any day. Not because she was Percy's mom but because she was way more pleasant that the goddess.

She went into the kitchen and motioned for Nico to follow.

"Paul's in the university", she told him, pouring milk and different berries into a blender, "He got a new job"

Nico listened to her talk about the last few months without Percy with the occasional nod and "hmm".

She poured the milkshake in a glass and added blue food colouring and stirred the mixture.

Then stopped abruptly.

"I'm sorry, Nico", she apologized hastily, "I always added blue food colouring to Percy's food and it became kind of a habit, I hope you don't mind"

Nico took the glass and took a sip, "I love blue"

He gave her a genuine smile and her eyes watered again, but she wiped them off with the back of her hand.

She pulled out other utensils and flour and chocolate and other ingredients and replied, "I hope you don't mind cookies"

"Oh, no, Sally!", Nico exclaimed, "I had breakfast"

Nico felt weird calling her Sally but he wasn't sure if it was Ms. Jackson or Mrs. Blowfis, so Sally was much easier.

"Oh, these are just cookies", Sally replied and got to work. "You're so thin, you could do with some extra food"

Nico was sure she was excited about cooking for a kid after so many months.

"So tell me everything", Sally coaxed, "From the beginning. And don't even think about editing it"

So Nico didn't. He told her everything in detail and not the way Percy always edited, leaving out the dangerous parts. He had a mother and he owed it to her, Nico thought.

He made Percy sound like a hero, which was true but Percy would've never had the story told this way.

Sally tried to keep the worry out of her face but she dropped the cookie stencils twice.

When Nico finished, Sally finished the second batch of cookies.

"I'm glad he has more people with him, this time", Sally said putting some cookies on a plate and handing them to Nico.

The cookies were blue too. Nico took a bite and nearly gasped out loud. They were chocolate chip with the chips still melting. They tasted so good that Nico almost forgot to breath.

"They're amazing", was all he managed to get out.

"I'm glad you like them", she replied, leading Nico out of the kitchen to the living room. They settled on the couch and she added, "They are Percy's favourite"

Nico nodded solemnly, the cookie melting slowly into his mouth, the amazing taste dancing on his taste buds.

"I wanted to Iris message him, but Chiron told me it wasn't working well", Sally replied sadly.

Nico looked at her empathetically.

"Tell me about you, Nico", Sally enquired and Nico told her as much as he could without giving away too many facts. He talked about Camp Jupiter and Hazel and the Doors of Death.

Then he had an idea.

He went to kitchen sink and opened the tap. He put a plate in the sink and the water bounced off the plate and created a fountain kind of thing. Little water droplets were slowly floating through the air. He opened the hot water tap and the kitchen became foggy.

Sally had followed Nico into the kitchen and was waiting intently.

Nico opened the window and sunlight filtered through the vapours and broke into different colours.

"O, Iris, goddess of the rainbow, please accept my offering", he said to the water vapours.

He fished out a drachma from his pocket and dropped it into the mist and the coin vanished.

"Percy Jackson", he said lightly, but he blushed like a seventh grader.

The screen mist flickered and it showed a dark image. The seven of them were standing in front a horrible giant who sat on a bronze throne in some kind of a cave, surrounded by different monsters.

They looked like they had spent their free time walking through drainage pipes.

Their hair and faces were caked with mud. Though Percy still somehow managed to look attractive.

Sally gasped and one of the monsters near their Iris window heard them.

Very quickly, Nico turned the tap off and the connection was cut.

Sally looked at him with worried eyes, "Nico, I know you're a kid too and nobody deserves this but promise me you'll take care of Percy? And the others."

Nico looked at her blankly.

"I know they're older and very capable", she went on, "But they might forget important things while on the quest to destroy Gaia. Like their mortal hearts.

"I remember what you did for him during the titan war. You're the reason he got the mark of Achilles. And even though it was dangerous, it's the reason he saved everybody and managed to not die"

She choked up on the last word.

Nico was about to argue but Sally interrupted him before he even said something.

"This quest is going to twist them", she said seriously, "change them into something they're not. You need to remind them who they are and not who they're meant to be"

Nico realized Percy and Annabeth had changed after coming back from Tartarus. Hazel had changed after Hecate had guided her to Pasiphae. Frank had changed after saving them from Triptolemus. Jason had changed over the course of travelling without Percy and Annabeth, the burden of leadership affected him worse than he let on. Piper's powers were stronger and harder to avoid after she had woken Festus up. And Leo had changed after coming back from his mysterious trip from an equally mysterious island.

Sally was right. All this was for nothing if they all forgot who they were and only knew what the gods wanted them to be. To fight Gaia, they couldn't lose themselves.

For the first time, Nico was glad he wasn't part of something. He had just found himself and he wasn't ready to lose himself over some crazy junkie earth mother. And he didn't want be a hero but he realized since he wasn't a part of this, he could save the ones who were a part of this. To some extent, change was probably necessary but not so much that it would change their identities. Change was good, when for the better, not when for the worse.

And he didn't have anything to lose so he might as well.

Sally handed him a plastic container. It was full of blue cookies. She had tears in her eyes. "Ask Percy to never forget home"

Nico paled and nodded and silently walked to the door.

"Take care, Nico", Sally replied and closed the door behind him.

PERCY:

He slid down the huge pipe and landed on a slippery ground. This seemed more and more like a drain with each passing second. If drains existed under beaches.

Percy tried to calm himself. Somehow he felt very angry. Like he had when Hades had taken his mother, when Chiron told him Zeus wanted to blame him for stealing the master bolt, when he thought his dad was using him as a pawn, when he thought Tyson was dead, when the manticore took Annabeth. He didn't know why all of a sudden he felt like this but he did.

Side effect of holiday in Tartarus, he guessed.

He looked around and saw the others dusting their clothed which were caked with mud. He looked down at himself and noticed that he didn't look any better.

But all that didn't matter. They were in a cave near the ocean. Percy could feel the tide come and go without even looking at the cave entrance towards which they had their backs turned.

The monsters fell through the pipe and Percy was more than ever convinced that it was like a drain full of disgusting things.

But that wasn't the problem. The problem was the giant in the room.

He was as huge and as ugly as all of his family.

Oops, maybe not all his family, since gods were related to them too and Percy didn't like to think of them as ugly. Or their kids which included Annabeth.

His hair was in weird dreadlocks. Maybe he liked Bob Marley.

His skin was like rust. The flaky kind that keeps falling off.

Yes, his skin was falling off in a very disgusting way, like dandruff and it made Percy's stomach want to throw out whatever he had eaten last.

His eyes were pale blue and he looked like somebody had hammered his face.

The others had their weapons out and without realizing it, Percy also had Riptide drawn to full length.

The giant laughed a horrible gurgling sound, like a huge toilet flushing.

"So you little heroes are here at last", he exclaimed, raising his arms.

He was fully armoured in gold and held a huge double sided axe. Which was blood stained. Percy didn't want to know whose blood that was or how long it had been there.

"Welcome to my humble abode", he rumbled and the scales on his serpentile legs reflected the light coming from the cave's mouth and the reflections dances around the cave wall.

Piece of cake, thought Percy.