(A/N) Having a bit of writer's block on this story so I apologize if this chapter sucks.

PLEASE REVIEW I NEED TO KNOW YOUR THOUGHTS

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN PJO

Even after several thousand years, Orion still woke up every day wondering what he'd done to deserve this miracle. Sure, the other heroes who'd managed to attain their status as an inhabitants of the Isles of the Blest avoided him like the plague, but he'd always cherished solitude. Every day he'd crawl out of his burrow in the lush forests, unlike the others who clung to the beautiful sandy beaches, and stroll about, exploring. There was always something new to be discovered, and even if Orion traveled for weeks and weeks the second he turned and began to walk back, his burrow was only a few yards away. The Isle seemed to understand Orion's loathing of the artificial sun in the Underworld, as well as people, so he neither emerged on the shores, nor ran into any other explorers.

The birds were singing and flitting through the trees on silent wings, and a cool breeze whispered through the woods and caused the branches to sway lazily along with it. On the Isles it was always the perfect temperature, never too hot or too cold, and Orion curled up even farther into his den, comfortable beyond anything he'd ever known. After much scouting and searching during his first few years there, Orion had lined the floor with the best mosses and leaves that he could find, ones that never turned brown and brittle and were always comfortable to lie on. Many of the others conjured beds and huge beachside estates, but Orion was a man of simplicity, he did run with the Hunters for a considerable amount of time after all, and was content with the home he'd dug into the ground, choosing a location under an overhang of rock that would provide perfect shelter from the much-hated sunlight that filtered through the foliage. He was comfy and glad that he didn't need sustenance, and on some days he'd lay in his burrow for weeks on end and just sleep, which was also unneeded but very satisfying all the same.

The luxury and splendor of the Isles of the Blest didn't stave off the loneliness, however rare it may be. Orion would sometimes drift off for hours, just reveling on the good old days when he was running side-by-side with the Hunters of Artemis. They'd been hesitant to trust him at first, but when they finally grew accustomed to his presence they'd become much like the sisters that he never had. Of course, he had many sisters, but they were deadbeat brutes that he had no attachment to whatsoever. This fraternal bond was much more than he could ever forge with his own flesh and blood. He recalled sprinting through the trees in pursuit of a particularly nasty fiend, moving together as a pack of wolves and working just as well. It was a team effort, and many of his days he spent missing being a part of that team.

Then there was Artemis.

Dear, intelligent, rough-and-tough Artemis.

Orion could bear to think about the hunts without getting homesick, but eventually his thoughts would stray to the leader of that band of ragtag maidens. He'd loved her so much, and when he woke up curled around her every morning he couldn't help but think of her as a mate of sorts. But no, that wasn't the case, no matter what Orion's basic biology had told him. To Artemis, that was just brotherly protection, a demonic sense of duty that all of his kind shared with their kin. That alone was enough of a reason not to tell her everything. Sure, she'd been suspicious and downright furious at times, but never in their immense amount of time together would Artemis hold a grudge. There were arguments, sure, but they always ended in embraces, and Orion didn't think he could stay angry at those glittering silver eyes that looked hard from the outside, but in reality held so many emotions that were believed that gods couldn't possibly feel.

The demon soured a bit when he thought about the one who'd torn him away from that world. He didn't give two shits about whether he'd changed his name or not; Orion would always think of him as Abaddon. The heartbroken and rage-filled kin of his that was too loyal to those he loved, even if those he loved were now among the dead. Orion had had to tear his twin to pieces, and even though he'd despised her and hadn't felt a twinge of empathy as he drove his knife in and out of her body, he'd still killed family. Sure, demons were all one big, happy, dysfunctional, and mildly homicidal family, but they'd actually been birthed from the same mother. Abaddon had had the unfortunate opportunity to truly bond with his twin, Alpheus, the young man who was identical to him but always chose to appear younger and more innocent (which, by the way, was how they lured unsuspecting bleeding hearts to slaughter with sob stories). They were a tag team, two demons who had fused into one, and when Orion had pounced on the boy while he was drinking from a stream, Abaddon had lost his other half. It was a dangerously codependent relationship that they'd shared, and tearing it apart had caused Orion his life.

He couldn't really blame the demon, though. What he and the hunters had had was probably a lot like the bond Abaddon and Alpheus had shared, and now that he'd been torn away from them, there was a gaping hole in his heart that would never be filled again. He sighed a bit, deciding that he was going to sleep for a few more centuries or so, when the snapping of a twig alerted him. Twigs didn't snap in this forest. Here, everything remained intact unless Orion physically altered it, and a snapping twig signaled that there was another presence nearby. By the scents that reached his nose, there were actually three presences. The sharp reek of anxiety stung Orion's nose, but despite this all of them seemed confident and didn't intend to do any sort of harm to the demon.

"Hello?" a voice called. "Hello!" Something was definitely wrong here. The souls that resided in the Isles of the Blest spoke in that odd chatter and wandered aimlessly as their memories faded into nothing, however Orion, as a demon, didn't deteriorate as the others did. He almost wished that was the case as another sharp stab of longing plunged into his gut. Orion slunk out of his burrow warily, and he heard the sharp intake of breath from the…he paused, taking in the smell of god that was only barely there. Demigods, then, and he wondered why he was surprised. He huffed a bit, not wanting to assist them in their misadventures, for he'd heard stories of souls being sought out to solve problems and it never ended well for the soul, though he'd be lying if he said he wasn't burning with curiosity. This was the most exciting thing that'd happened to him since he'd been killed, and in the back of his mind he wondered how they'd gotten here in the first place, though the lingering scent of Hades and death that clung to the scrawniest one explained it.

He was just turning to retreat back into his den when the scrawny one spoke up, "Are you Orion? The demon?" He froze. No one was supposed to know that. I'd just been a secret, a secret between him and the Hunters and the gods. To everyone else he'd been a son of Poseidon and Euryale, King Minos' daughter, and that's how it was supposed to stay. Now he was listening. "We need your help."

-Ω-

It hadn't taken much for Nico to slip the three of them to the Isles of the Blest, considering the fact that shadow-travel came much more easily when the destination was located in the underworld. Despite this information, which the son of Hades eagerly relayed to the other two questers, Will wasn't at all happy. Jason, wanting to support Nico, told the son of Apollo that it'd been such a long time since Nico overused his abilities that there was nothing to worry about. The normally sunny boy gave him such a withering glare that it rivaled Annabeth's "Look of Doom", as Leo had called it. Secretly, Jason had been ecstatic to go to the Underworld, being the only one of the three to have never visited, but what he hadn't expected was to be trudging through a boring tropical island that looked like every other tropical island he'd been too. With Nico's shadow-travel, they'd skipped all the fun stuff like Cerberus and Charon and the River Styx and Hades' palace, which he was kind of glad about because he'd been a bit scared of an accidental encounter with the death god, but nevertheless it was still awesome.

Now he was stuck maneuvering through a huge forest that Nico seemed to know like the back of his hand, not even hesitating as he wove through the enormous boughs and leaving him and Will struggling to keep pace. At least it was a nice forest, with the singing birds and the beautiful flora and the lack of mosquitos, but it was still a forest all the same. Jason had been to a lot of forests and this one was no more interesting than the others in the mortal world. At least there would be some pizzazz, with this being the Isle of the Blest and all, but it remained plain and uninteresting. Trees? Seen plenty of em'. Tropical birds? Sorta cool, but they were just birds. Bushes? There were a lot of bushes on Earth. Jason was so very, very bored, and if Will's expression was anything to go by, their thoughts were mirrored.

It began to get at least mildly interesting when Nico stopped in a seemingly insignificant hole. It was a pretty big hole, so big that no small animal could've accomplished such a thing. A bear, maybe, but there wasn't anything dangerous in the Isle on the Blest. Okay, very interesting. It was pretty deep and curved under an overhang of rock so that Jason couldn't see what lay at the end, and it was lined with mosses and leaves that looked comfortable enough to sleep on. Will and Nico exchanged a look and the son of Hades nodded at his boyfriend, taking his hand, which Jason thought was very cute. He turned back to the hole, eying it with distain. So this was Orion's lair, then. For the slayer of all…most, demons who was also a demon himself, Jason expected something more dramatic. The ground littered with the bones of enemies, deep claw marks in the rock, a sharpened stake with a severed head on it; all Jason wanted was a little something that clearly screamed 'demon', but there was nothing of the sort to be found.

The son of Zeus' heart was slamming against his ribcage and anxiety was practically seeping off of him, and his companions looked a little uneasy, too. He froze when he heard rustling coming from inside the den, and he was pretty sure that his heart would beat out of his chest in anticipation and, he admits, fear. What if Orion was spiteful? What if he'd gone dark side like Perseus had? Nico had assured them that there was no reason for the demon to hold a grudge against demigods, but he might not be happy for his paradise to be disturbed. They should be prepared to get rejected, though, because many souls were touchy about their afterlife and wouldn't want it ruined. Nico had also told them that, unlike other souls, who were mortal, Orion would've retained his memory and his speech. They shouldn't have a problem communicating with him, but Jason was still afraid that he'd mess up his Ancient Greek and make a death threat of some sort. At least he, Nico, and Will wouldn't have to travel very far if they were slaughtered where they stood.

He was yanked out of his musings by a sharp intake of breath from his friends, and when he saw why he nearly jumped out of his skin. A young man was sitting on top of the rocks that hung over the cave, his shoulders tense as he watched the assembled demigods with glittering gold eyes. Jason was pretty sure he would've seen him come out of the burrow or at least heard him climbing the rock, but that hadn't been the case. If he wasn't Orion and had come from the forest, then he would've heard his footsteps, and Jason really, really hoped that this young man wasn't Orion, because then his dreams would've been ruined.

Unlike the strong, powerful son of Poseidon in the myths, who had bulging muscles and a manly beard, this Orion was probably the exact opposite or at least close to the exact opposite. He was clean shaven and was pretty young-looking, about Jason's age, and his disheveled hair was a very dark brown, almost black, which greatly contrasted his 24 karat eyes. His skin was very pale, a lot like Perseus', and spider webs of blue veins could be seen slithering up his arms and legs, though for some reason it looked a lot less revolting on Orion than on the other demon. His fingernails were long and mildly pointed at the ends, as if he'd filed them to look like that, but if the son of Zeus had learned anything from his encounter with Perseus, they could easily morph into inky black claws that were specifically made to rip and tear human flesh. How lovely. At first glance he was tall and gangly, but when Jason looked closer he saw that it was actually litheness. Orion was built like a runner, with long limbs and rippling muscles that were hidden beneath soft skin. Jason decided that he would be pretty okay if this was Orion, after all.

"Why are you here?" the demon asked, sniffing the air as if to confirm his suspicions about them. "You are of the living." Will and Jason looked to Nico, who was supposed to be the one that was good at talking with dead people, though the son of Hades was looking a bit paler than normal. He stepped forwards, keeping a tight grip on Will's hand by the way his knuckles were turning white, and swallowed hard.

"Are you Orion?" he asked, and Jason wanted to face-palm. No shit. He can speak, in English, even, and he doesn't look all that confused. Best of all, he didn't have that vacant look of all the other souls, who were just letting their days breeze by without actually processing what was going on. On top of that, he had claws. So yeah, this was Orion, and the demon confirmed it by smirking and giving a little bow.

"In the flesh," he told them, though his eyes still searched theirs with a wariness that could only be acquainted with a cautious predator. "I'll ask again: What are you doing here?"

Nico worried at his bottom lip with his teeth and shuffled from foot to foot before saying, "We need your help. The demons have been let out of Hell." Orion's muscles seemed to seize all at once and his eyes went wide, which Nico took as a cue to continue. "A demon named Perseus set them loose, and you're the only one that can help us kill them all again." There was a long pause where the demon just stared at them, intelligence that was far greater than any child of Athena's glinting in his eyes, an intelligence that might even surpass Athena herself.

"You're bluffing," he concluded, his expression growing hard as he leapt off of the rock with the grace of a panther pouncing on its prey. The demigods leapt back as he began to pace in front of his den, his brows knitting as his hands worried at the furs wrapped around his waist. "What do you really want? Directions? Guidance? A signature? I'll do anything just to get you three out of my hair."

"I'm serious," Nico insisted, which pulled a very menacing snarl from the demon, but the brave hero continued on, "Chiron told us that you were Artemis' weapon, and that you were the only demon with good in him. Please, we need your help, or this place is going to start getting a hell of a lot more crowded."

"Okay, let's say I believe you. Why would I go and slaughter my own brothers and sisters again? After killing them once before? They weren't close to me, but they still were my kin, and I had to kill them all." Orion's shoulders were heaving and his eyes became wild, his face contorted into a nasty grimace that showed off his serrated canines.

"Because the world is in trouble," Jason cut in, and he felt his heart stutter as the demon whirled to face him, though he soldiered on, "Demons are out for revenge now, and they're willing to topple the balance in order to get what they want. I'm talking the entirety of the human race either dead or used as personal blood bags. Men, women, and children alike all forced to serve under a higher species, and Perseus managed to make the gods swear on the Styx not to intervene. There's no safety net now." Orion swallowed hard and continued his pacing.

"But Hades will never let me leave!" he growled, though he sounded as if he couldn't care less what the god thought. It was more of an excuse than anything else, really.

"He's my dad. I can pull a few strings," Nico replied seriously, "And when it comes to saving the world, he's willing to lose a few souls if it means the underworld doesn't become overcrowded. He hates when he has more responsibilities."

"But I need the Hunters of Artemis by my side! I can't hunt without them!" Orion insisted, becoming a bit more worried by the second; the loopholes and excuses were becoming scarcer and scarcer by the moment.

Jason felt a glow of smug pride when he piped up, "My sister is the leader of the Hunters. I can get them over here, and they'll want to kick some demon ass after Perseus captured Artemis and used her as a bargaining chip." Orion's eyes suddenly ignited with rage, and he let out a low sound that was a much softer version of a bellow, but it still shook the ground underneath the demigod's feet. After a long moment of consideration, the demon turned to them, and suddenly he looked so much smaller, so much more…human.

"I'll do it," he said, straightening. "Where do I start?"