(A/N) Hello? Hello?! Anybody there? Review please :)

Disclaimer: No soy dueño de PJO (google translate)

"The only way to kill a demon is with another demon," Nico stated allowed, his brows furrowing. Though some of the other Romans were teary-eyed, he hadn't really known the man, and his expertly stowed away his sadness for another time, needing to remain strong for the sake of the others. "So now that Perseus has gone dark side the world's screwed."

"Well thanks for the uplifting speech," Will grouched, folding his arms over his chest. "Not reassuring if that's what you were aiming for." The tension in the air was so thick it could almost be cut with a knife, and Nico felt suffocated as he breathed it in and out. Hazel and Frank were whispering quietly to one another while Reyna was wearing a hole in the floor with her frantic pacing.

"Perhaps we can get Artemis to tell us what her secret was to kill demons?" she suggested, pausing and for a moment hope sparking in her eyes.

"No, she probably swore on the Styx or else we'd be slaying demons left and right by now," Frank snorted, shaking his head. "Unlike demons, they're actually bound to Styx promises."

"Shit," Reyna replied, resuming her pacing. You could see ideas whistling through her head, each one being eliminated in turn as another replaced it. "It's hopeless."

"Don't say that," Nico insisted, even though his entire body screamed to let him sit back and watch the apocalypse go on in silence. He'd already done his fair share of world saving, and yet it always managed to be thrust back into danger again and again. First the titans, where every single person and creature had said, "He's is impossible to defeat" but somehow Nico managed it, Kronos' weakness being those who he put his trust in. Then he defeated the giants, who everyone was like, "Oh, we're positive you can't beat these guys" and their weakness was teamwork on the opposing side. Then Gaea rose and everyone was like, "Holy fuck you can never, ever beat her" and yet Nico had done so, with great help from those close to him. Her weakness had been her newly rejuvenated self; the demigods had nipped it at the bud before she could grow any more powerful. Now it was the demons, and Nico was beginning to falter and crumble, because these demons didn't have any weaknesses aside from each other, and they were such a well-knit, killing machine that that wasn't in any way going to happen.

"Our biggest shot is finding Perseus and his friend and asking them nicely to stop killing the very delicious people and start killing their own brothers and sisters," Hazel told them, and even Nico's perky little sister sounded defeated. Nico wanted to reassure her, wanted to tell her that everything was going to be all right and that it would all end eventually, just like how the giants and Gaea and Kronos and all the other monsters fell, becoming nothing but dust and shadows, and the bitter memories that reminded them of the terrible experiences would soon crumble like the monsters and beasts they were about. But that wasn't the case. The option with even the slightest chance of survival revolved around a damn speculation, which was more of a hopeful fantasy, that a demon would drop everything and run to aid the very things that he hunted. And that only had the slightest chance for survival; the chance for success was practically nonexistent.

If facing one demon was suicide, facing an army of demons promised pure annihilation. They might as well offer themselves up as personal feeding troughs as of now, because even though they'd be treated only like sacks of blood that were easily expendable, at least there was the chance that they'd be able to bear it together. There was that word again. Chance. No, it certainly wasn't foolproof, it certainly wasn't probable, but there was a microscopic chance that they would be able to convince Perseus to convert to their side, and even then he was one demon against thousands, maybe even millions. Once he was struck down, there was hell to pay. A microscopic chance that if, when, they were captured and used as foodstuffs for hungry mouths, they would be able to suffer together. Only fools clung to those microscopic chances, and if that was the case then every demigod was a complete and total chump.

"Maybe we can get Ella to tell us more of the demon book?" Will asked, "She definitely knew a lot more than she was letting on."

"No," Nico replied almost immediately. "She was very determined to keep the words a secret. I don't think we'd be able to get anything else out of her; it was hard enough to get the demon killing information."

"But-"

"No means no, and we're not going to pester her or else Tyson will rip me a new one and I'll probably end up with a broken everything," the son of Hades interrupted flatly, and Will could only sigh and nod that he understood. In the back of his mind, ever since his mother and sister died and he'd lost every mortal family member to the world of gods and monsters, Nico had known that one day shit was going to hit the fan. Sure, he'd mistaken that moment for when he discovered Kronos' return, or when Porphyrion and the other giants emerged, or when Gaea finally opened her terrible eyes, but in that single moment shit was flying as the fan continued to spin, and the son of Hades felt his resolve crumble. There were no other options. Just a suicide mission that would almost undoubtedly end in failure, and that "almost" was what he was holding onto with all of his might, gripping it tightly lest he fall into the void of despair that awaited him if his hands slipped or if his palms became too sweaty.

Without a word, he shadow-travelled out of the room, ignoring Will's indignant cry, and plopped himself into the long, rolling fields that sprawled behind the aqueduct, which had been repaired since Polybotes had smashed through it. He kept those thoughts out of his head, preventing himself from becoming too rash and cocky. I defeated an army of huge giants! Doesn't that make me invincible? Demons don't stand a chance, the voice that was his pride gloated, and the son of Hades sighed and picked at the grass chutes to distract himself, relishing in the cool breeze that caused them to quiver and shake. He wished he had a friend, one that didn't talk back and just listened intently to what he was saying, and soon he realized that he did have one. Closing his eyes, he reached out for the mental bond that they shared, though it was far less complicated than he and Grover's link, and eventually he heard the flapping of wings and the sound of hooves touching down on the grass.

"Hey, Blackjack," Nico said softly, patting the ground next to him. The pegasus tossed his head and pawed the ground as if in greeting and sunk down next to the demigod, his enormous black wings folding to the sides of his body. Nico laughed when he saw the stallion's wild-eyed expression and haphazard mane. "Still not used to shadow-travel, huh?" Nico had gained the ability to make other objects shadow-travel without him being there. Now, this would've been quite useful in the capturing of demons and Perseus; he could just make them fall into their own shadows and dump them all into a giant pentagram that lay deep in the depths of Tartarus, but sadly that wasn't possible. He needed consent first, like some sort of vampire entering a home, and couldn't make anyone or anything living shadow-travel without their say-so. It explains why Nico hadn't teleported Perseus to him in their time of search.

Nico told Blackjack everything there was to know about his current situation, voicing his worries and his doubts, and the pegasus simply nibbled at the grass and watched him with his big, round eyes. Blackjack was intelligent, and that Nico was sure of, but he obviously couldn't understand English all that well and was probably just paying attention because he wanted a sugar cube or something. He talked about Will and their relationship. He was nineteen now, almost twenty, and with no parents present for either of them, he felt ready to propose. He wasn't sure how to do it, though. Should he do the whole get-down-on-one-knee-in-a-place-of-value cliché, or should he stick with something more meaningful? Blackjack chuffed in what seemed to be agreement, so Nico supposed that the latter would be better for the two of them. Besides, where was he going to get a ring? The jewelers in New Rome would undoubtedly craft him one for no charge, considering the deeds he's done, but then it didn't seem special. He didn't want a favor, he wanted a ring. A simple wedding band would've sufficed, but Nico didn't really want to be plain like that.

The sun began to touch the horizon as Nico told Blackjack of all the things he wanted to do with or to Will. He wanted to do all those fluffy and sickening couple-y things like going on a trip cross-country and going to Paris. He wanted to make love to him with a view of the New York skyline. He wanted to hold him close and never let go, because Will was truly his everything. His sister came in a close second, but everyone else was just background noise. He cared for them dearly, but that was dwarfed by the way his heart swelled and his stomach still got butterflies when Will smiled or laughed or did something cute. Blackjack seemed a bit fed-up with Nico's honest-to-god swooning over Will, like a best friend that would kill someone if they heard one more word about so-and-so's eyes or so-and-so's lips. Nico didn't care, though, and it was already dark when the love of his life finally found him sitting with his pegasus, pointing out the constellations that the horse didn't care about, the constellations that even he never cared about until Will began to show them to him during a nice nighttime picnic on the beach at Camp Half-Blood.

"Let's get you back," the son of Apollo said softly, and Nico bid farewell to Blackjack, who swooped towards the unicorn stables to rest and in hopes of getting a pretty unicorn mare to go out with him, at least that's what Nico made up in his head. He nodded tiredly and allowed his caring boyfriend to lead him away, the night air beginning to become chilly as they finally flopped down onto Nico's bunk bed in the barracks. Neither of them bothered with changing into a more comfortable outfit and neither of them wanted to sleep in separate beds tonight. Nico didn't even have the energy to complain about being the little spoon.

-Ω-

It was late afternoon when Jason got the Iris message. He'd just finished teaching sword fighting to a group of new campers, who were more star-struck than anything to have the Jason Grace teaching them both Greek and Roman moves and which battles they would be good for. The Aphrodite kids payed little to no attention, and the girls were giggling and blushing when the son of Zeus looked their way. The children of Venus, on the other hand, were some of the best fighters out there, dominating almost all of the Greek campers, even those who had more powerful parents; the more war-like Venus dominating their fighting skills. Jason always got nostalgic when he taught younger campers, knowing that one time in his life he'd been the trainee.

Even though they were young, they still had boundless amounts of energy, and Jason had been shirtless and sweaty when they Iris message came. Reyna choked a bit on the water she'd been drinking and shielded her eyes as Jason scrambled to find one of the many shirts that were strewn around the Zeus cabin, which was a pigsty. Discarded pieces of clothing were scattered on the floor and the sheets of his bed were rumpled and unmade. A pair of boxers was dangling off of Zeus' lightning bolt. How that managed to get there, Jason had no idea. He finally returned, sporting a fresh, crisp Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and by then Hazel, Frank, Will, and Nico had all joined Reyna. Jason frowned; this was supposed to be the couple's vacation, and normally boyfriends didn't have that look on their faces when they were visiting family.

"We have a problem," Reyna told him. "A big problem."

"Giants big or world-threatening big?" Jason asked, his heart practically deflating. The Praetor's face darkened and the other demigods lowered their gazes to the ground.

"Get Chiron and the rest of the Seven. And Rachel and Annabeth, if you can."

"Okay, the gang's all here," Leo announced, though his humor fell flat when no laughter ensued. Chiron stepped forwards, his hooves making a hollow clopping sound on the marble floor. His brows were knit and his eyes sparkled with both anxiety and confusion, on top of curiosity.

"Why have you called us, Reyna?" he asked, stroking his beard absently. "I don't suppose it's for a chat." At this, the Praetor laughs all too bitterly, in response raising a screen to the Iris message. A video plays, and that's how Jason found out that the piolet that had shepherded Nico, Frank, and Hazel off the Zhang family estate had been torn to shreds.

"Turn it off," he said hoarsely as Perseus ripped into the piolet's flesh, and for once he was glad that security cameras had no sound. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the rest of the assembled demigods and the oracle blanch considerably as Perseus' counterpart tore an arm out of the corpse's socket. Reyna did as she was told and set the tablet somewhere out of the Iris message's line of sight, and Jason finally felt like he could breathe again. His head was ponding, blood roaring in his ears; Perseus had broken his oath, and had done so without any consequences. Demons weren't bound by the Styx promise, and that was clear when Perseus had eaten an innocent; he'd both killed and taken without consent, which was obvious since nobody would really consent to being eaten, but thankfully Perseus and his friend had the mercy to not dig in before the piolet was dead.

"So what do you want?" Annabeth asked, crossing her arms, though her voice was shaking from the aftereffects of the video. Even the stoic daughter of Athena couldn't shield herself from such horrors.

"We want Jason," Nico replied. "Regrouping. You, me, and Will again. It's a pathetic plan, but it has the best chance of survival; we have to try to convince Perseus to…come back to our side." Chiron's gaze was distant as he mulled over this, as well as

"That's suicide," Jason whispered, and Piper clutched his arm protectively. Nico ran a hand down his face, looking exhausted beyond belief, and just as scared as the rest of them.

"I know," he replied. Softer, he repeated, "I know."

"Is there anything else? Any other options?" Rachel questioned. Mostly to herself, she added, "The oracle is silent. She probably only deals with Greek problems."

"No, there are no other solutions. We need a demon on our side to kill other demons, and we don't have a demon at our disposal."

"Maybe you do," Chiron replied suddenly, returning to the real world. All eyes shot to him, staring expectantly and with slight hope, slight hope that they'll live through all of this. There was a long pause, where the centaur opened his mouth to speak but then closed it again, hesitant to say the least. Then he took a deep breath and all but whispered, "Orion."

"Orion?" Leo asked. "Isn't that the dude that tried to hit on Artemis and got killed?"

"No, he didn't hit on Artemis." Annabeth gave him a confused look, and every single demigod assembled was reeling with confusion. But that's what all of the myths said, and in their fucked-up world, all myths were true. He'd either died at the hand of a giant scorpion, died at Artemis' hand, or died at the hand of a giant scorpion that Artemis had conjured. "He was a demon." There was silence. Complete and utter silence.

"You're joking," Annabeth stated, though she sounded unsure of herself. "Stop joking. That's not funny." Chiron just gazed at her balefully, and in that moment they saw the eons-old centaur who'd trained all the great heroes instead of their guide, friend, and camp manager.

"I wish I was. I'm risking my life now, telling you this, for the gods needed to keep it quiet as not to tarnish their image; in order to kill all of the demons, Artemis and her hunters worked in tandem to slay every last one. Only…Orion didn't. He sensed that one was left, that one was alone and angry and upset, and he decided to grant him a mercy. He was too kind for his own good, didn't want to commit genocide and most of all didn't want to be the last of his kind. It's a terrifying thing, being one of the last of a dying breed, as centaurs have been hunted to near extinction over the centuries, and Orion couldn't handle the responsibility. He went to meet this demon in secret and his name was…" a pause, and everyone sucked in a sharp breath, "Abaddon." Everyone was in the middle of breathing out a sigh of relief when Chiron continued, "But he went by the name of Perseus." The temperature in the air seemed to drop several degrees at the uttering of the demon's name, and Jason seriously expected some Harry Potter Voldemort taboo shit to go down and they'd have an armful of furious, human-eating demon as of that moment, but nothing happened.

"What does it have to do with us? Orion died even before you were born," Will asked, his brows knitting together. "It's not like we can raise him from the dead…" A sharp pause. All eyes slid to Nico, whose face had become as expressionless and as ashen as a statue's, having long since figured out the answer to the problem.

"Orion went directly to the Isle of the Blessed for his deeds, despite the fact that most demons go to Hell and he hadn't been rebirthed, but Hades had made an exception for him. It is possible to bring him back to the mortal world." With that sentence left dangling in the air, Chiron quickly galloped out of the cabin, as if to run away from the topic altogether. The demigods were left alone with their thoughts and the knowledge that it was possible that they could win. It was possible for them to survive without becoming a demon's personal blood bag. Slowly, as any elite team would do, they began to devise a plan.