The game of tag was short lived however as the tunnels began to split more and more frequently everyone was forced behind Hazel so she could lead. Now she was hesitating between choices. Nico knew better than to thin, there were too many options. Something was blocking her senses. He thought it might be blocking him a little too. The normally clear visions of spirits were a bit blurry around the edges, hard to distinguish fully, and he knew better than to think it was the dark stopping his sight.
'Why does she get to lead?" Habit grumbled grumpily. Jason scowled at him.
"When you can tell if a tunnel is safe and goes where we need to go by touching the stone, then you can go ahead." Hazel cut in coldly before Jason could say something even more rude.
"Maybe I can." Habit said sulkily. "You don't know anything about my powers."
"Ya, but I do." One of the tribe members, with glasses by the looks of it, snapped. "Stay in your hutch, rabbit." They started fighting and fell to the back of the group. Besides nervous looks shot their way by Leo and Frank they were ignored.
The other demigods bantered as they got used to the presences around them mentioning how odd it was that they hadn't run into any monsters yet. Nico knew it would happen sooner than later. Toby had stopped wandering off and instead walked close to Nico's side. Nico could tell he was uncomfortable. A combination of the feeling of the place and the enclosed space no doubt, but Toby was staying alert he would be ready to fight at any moment. They all would be when the time came.
Nico braced himself as another tremor came up through the earth. He could feel every time they opened. It came as a rush of power to him every time, a rush of power, but not a comfortable one. It felt cold and painful every time it pumped through his veins. This time the walls and ceiling cracked as well. Everyone flinched besides Nico and Hazel, they had known it wouldn't fall this time.
"That was close." Hazel muttered once it calmed down. She took Frank's hand, Nico guessed to calm him. "These passages won't take much more."
"The doors of death just opened again." Nico informed the group at large shaking his hand discreetly trying to get rid of the sting.
"It seems to happen every fifteen minutes." Piper commented.
"Every twelve." Nico corrected her automatically he didn't know how he knew he just knew, like "We'd better hurry. Percy and Annabeth are close. They're in danger, I can feel it." He didn't mention that the reason he could feel it was because they already had one foot in death. Much more and they wouldn't be able to make it back into the land of the living as anything more than ghosts. They hurried on in silence after that for quite a while.
"Offerings?" Piper guessed breaking the silence when they came to a chamber with coins littering the floor. They all ignored Habit as he stole some pretending they hadn't seen.
"Yes. If you wanted your ancestors to appear you had to make and offering." Nico agreed, nudging the skull of some long dead sacrificial animal and watching it crumble to dust.
"Let's not make an offering." Jason asserted, Habit and Firebrand laughed, nobody argued.
"The tunnel from here is unstable. The floor might… well just follow me. Step exactly where I step." Hazel ordered and everyone with any weight fell in behind her. Jane came last because her movements were done with perfect precision. She wouldn't fall prey to any game of movement broken telephone.
Frank seemed to be having some trouble. Not that Nico was surprised, he was just surprised that no one else seemed to be. Besides Toby that was, his hand had made it's way onto Nico's shoulder and Nico didn't have the heart to tell Toby to remove it. Nico didn't know what Toby was seeing if anything, but there was a strong possibility it was something frightening and he needed to keep contact with Nico to make sure it wasn't real. Hazel told them to wait and went on ahead, one of the Tribe didn't listen and went with her. Nico was glad they did incase there was trouble.
"Scary room ahead." Hazel warned when she came back, the member of the tribe was circling around her curiously. They seemed to have taken a particular interest in her. "Don't panic."
"Those are two things that don't go together." Leo mumbled as they followed Hazel into the room. It was made of bone architecture, Nico had seen and admired these before. He had often wondered if he could create one easily.
"Touch nothing." Hazel warned, glaring back at Habit who scowled and shoved his hands deep in his pockets.
"Which way now?" Jason asked looking at Nico and Hazel. Hazel seemed uncertain and looked at Nico but Nico wasn't sure either. He was now experiencing the same fogging of his senses that Hazel had been. He should have been able to sense this many bodies, even this old from far away but he hadn't.
"This should be the room where the priests invoked the most powerful spirits. One of these passages leads deeper into the temple, to the third level and the altar of Hades himself. But which-"
"That one." Frank interrupted pointing at one of them. Both Hazel and Nico stared at him in shock. Why would he know?
"Why that one?" Hazel asked.
"Can't you see the ghost?" Frank asked.
"Ghost." Nico said blankly, he could see a ton of ghosts but not one by that door.
"I can." Jane said suddenly, the first time she had spoken since they entered the tunnels. "There isn't much I can't see."
"Okay anyway we need to go now!" Frank exclaimed suddenly. Nico could feel the tremor coming to but Hazel stopped Frank.
"I need to scout the path!" She insisted.
"Hurry then!" he insisted and Nico knew that she tried but when they were halfway across the room began to echo with roars. Well there were the monsters they had been wondering about.
"Hazel don't stop." Nico encouraged drawing the scepter from his belt. He wasn't sure he would be able to control the dead he summoned with this thing, but at the very least they would get in the way.
"Go go go!" Frank yelled after only a few more seconds tackling Leo and Hazel down as a spear flew overhead. They rushed to the other side of the cave into the tunnel. The others followed quickly but it was too late. Half of the floor caved in finally showing them where all of the monsters had been hiding.
"Finally the fight has showed up." Habit laughed happily drawing his knife and grinning widely. They were surrounded quickly .
"Nico the scepter!" Frank yelled. Nico resisted the urge to roll his eyes. As if he wasn't going to do that already. He raised the scepter and was finally able to channel the power from the doors of death back out of himself through the scepter, summoning more dead than he had ever summoned before. He could feel the many threads stretching out from himself but he could feel the difference.
They were taking less of his energy, which was good. The bad was that because of this the threads between him and the dead were too thin for him to properly manipulate. He did his best but it wasn't working. Meanwhile the Tribe, Habit, Sally, and Jane had all rushed into the fight. Habit's blade was working just fine but.
"Jane catch." Nico yelled drawing the bronze blade and tossing it to her. She turned and caught it's handle expertly, staring at him. "It works better against this kind of monster, regular metals will go right through them unless specially blessed!" Nico snapped. She nodded, turning around and immediately severed one of the monster's head from it's neck. She tore through the flesh and it disintegrated into dust, she didn't even bat an eye before she was on to the next one.
Habit was laughing as he fought many monsters at once, holding one with claws in a headlock as he stabbed at another. The one under his arm clawed at him but Habit didn't seem to care even when it drew blood. Nico ignored it, Habit didn't look like he needed help and there was every possibility that Habit couldn't die. It was Sally who really surprised him as she seemed to reach inside monsters and rip out their hearts or other organs. Her hands and dress were already covered in blood. When they attacked her they went right through, so Nico let his attention slip away from her too and focused on trying to control the dead as Toby defended him. It wasn't working at all.
"Stupid Ghosts!" Nico shouted angrily. "I know I'm a Greek but this is not the time for old grudges!"
"They won't listen!" Jason agreed, angrily cutting through some kind of monster that charged him. They were all starting to blend together.
"Cohorts! Lock shields!" Frank barked and to Nico's surprise some of the dead actually moved to obey him.
"Frank, how did you do that?" Jason shouted, they had to be shout now to be heard over the noise the monsters were making.
"I'm a ranking Roman officer." Frank shouted back sounding surprised. "They don't recognize you, sorry."
"How can we help?" Jason asked, he didn't sound surprised. Nico wasn't either, Jason had always seemed more Greek than Roman to him too.
"Orbem formate!" Frank ordered switching to Latin. Only the same amount of dead responded sluggishly. "My rank!" Frank exclaimed.
"All these monsters are rank!" Piper shouted, Nico glowered at her. He dodged in front of Toby who had just been knocked down, slaying the monster he had been fighting while Toby picked himself up. The bandage on his face had been torn off reveling the hole in the flesh of his cheek and he glowered at the monsters, his tongue lolling out of it. A few of the monsters recoiled and Toby laughed.
"He means he can't control a whole legion. He's not a high enough rank." Jason explained. Nico had the feeling Frank might have said something but he hadn't heard it.
"Then promote him!" Nico shouted in annoyance before lowering his voice so Toby could hear. "Where are your mouth guard and goggles? You need to protect your eyes at least."
"Oh right!" Toby said and pulled his goggles out of his pocket and slipping them on with practiced hands before lunging back into the fight. Whatever Jason and Frank had done must have worked because the next thing he knew the ties of the dead were being pulled by someone else besides him and they were listening.
Nico watched in awe as the hundreds of dead formed legions and attacked, joining the creeps in the whirlwind of fighting. Nico looked over and saw Toby grappling with a monster and laughing. He was having fun, so was Sally and Habit and they were winning. Nico raised the scepter and summoned even more dead, a laugh bubbling up inside of himself as well. He didn't even try to suppress it laughing out loudly, and grinning widely.
"That's more like it!" Nico cheered. "Let's turn this tide!" Frank shouted orders and Nico rushed in to fight alongside Toby. They turned it into almost a dance, laughing together as they half played, to the great disadvantage of all those monsters who faced them.
"Nico keep trying to raise the dead!" Frank shouted across the horde at him. "We need more numbers!"
"On it!" Nico laughed. Toby reached out to take Nico's hand in one of his so Nico could draw on a bit of his energy too, pouring it directly into summoning more. He would make this army into a hydra, for every soldier the monsters cut down he would summon two more.
After that Nico lost track of what was happening. He noticed when Frank started to glow but other then that there was only fighting. Sometimes with Toby, sometimes with Jane who he fought back to back with. Sometimes with Sally, that turned into a game where Nico would lure monsters into attacking him, then dodge out of the way so that they would run through Sally and leave their insides behind in her hands, disintegrating into dust as they tried to figure out what had just happened. Then back to Toby because Habit was a lone fighter.
Nico, Toby, and Habit where the last ones fighting. Cutting through the last of the earthborn and then it was over. All of them were laughing and giddy from adrenalin. Sally charged Nico and he scooped her up spinning her around as she laughed.
"That was fun!" She giggled happily, giggling to the ground and starting to play with the clay that had been the earth born.
"Hell ya it was!" Habit cheered. "Ghost, you're not bad at at all that was the best fight I've had in decades! Even better than since I got a whole a entire police squad down on me! Humans are too easily manipulated."
"Thanks." Nico said smiling at Habit a little before wading back towards his fellow demigods, leaving Habit and Sally to play in the clay and Jane to check a very annoyed Toby for injuries.
"Frank, you're on fire." Jason commented and Frank seemed to notice for the first time, quickly putting out the flames on his clothes.
"Umm you also have an arrow sticking out of your arm." Nico pointed out. It looked like the blessing of Mars took a form a lot like the disorder Toby had all the time.
"I know." Frank said snapping off the shaft of the arrow. "I'll be fine."
"Frank you were amazing!" Piper praised him. Nico couldn't help but catch the slight charm speak she added to making him feel better no doubt. "Completely terrifying but amazing. So were all of you." She said to Sally, Habit and the others.
"The dead won't stay much longer now that the battle is over." Nico cut in. He could feel their annoyance, they were already starting to draw on him more heavily. He would have to let them go soon.
"Legion!" Frank shouted and they all turned to face him. "You have fought well. Now you may rest. Dismissed." They crumbled into piles of bones and Nico sighed in relief as the pull on his life diminished. "Hazel and Leo. We need to find them." Frank said to the group even though he looked like he could pass out any minute now that the blessing had warn off.
"Well we can't go that way." Nico comment gesturing at the collapsed tunnel before looking down into the pit. "Maybe." Suddenly a wave of the same painful power hit him more powerful than before. During the battle he hadn't noticed it had stopped but it had started again, double what it had been. He would have fallen if Jason hadn't caught him. Nico didn't try to push Jason away leaning on him heavily.
"Nico what is it?!" Piper exclaimed worriedly.
"The Doors." Nico almost whispered, he felt like the power was strangling him. "Something's happening. Percy and Annabeth… we need to go now."
"But how? The tunnel is gone!" Jason asked and Nico shrugged helplessly.
"It won't be fun." Frank cut in suddenly and they all looked at him. Somewhere during the fight he had replaced Jason as their leader for now. "But there is another way."
They had to climb down the tunnel and Frank had been right, it wasn't fun or easy. Along the way Nico was able to open cracks in the side to provide easy foot and hand holds, but he couldn't do it often for fear that the tunnel would collapse. Nevertheless they made it, and just in time it seemed, at least everyone was still alive.
"Sorry we're late." Jason spoke for them as they all glared at the giant shrouded in darkness. Besides Habit, who was watching the witch with interest. "Is this the guy who needs killing?" After that the fight seemed to be in their favor even though the giant was more powerful than all of them. They were more numerous and every time he was about to engage one of them, another would distract him with an attack from a different direction.
Half way through the fight Toby sprinted away sheathing his axes. He grabbed Percy, hoisting him over his shoulder before grabbing Annabeth under his arm too from the place where they had collapsed.
"What are you doing?" Percy asked weakly, to weak to move.
"You two are too close to the fighting, too weak to join and as far as I can tell too important to get stepped on." Toby snapped running with them to a place near the exit and out of the way. "So I'm moving you duh!"
Finally the cloud of black surrounding the giant fell and Hazel's patron goddess stepped in to end things. "And so it ends." She commented as she raised her torch to light the giant on fire. He made some sort of speech as he melted but Nico blocked it out in favor of taking stock of damages.
"You should go now Hazel Lévesque. Lead your friends out of this place."
"Just like that? No 'thank yous'? No 'good works'?" Hazel snapped. Nico could have laughed. He had a feeling that if any of the gods ever showed gratitude they would immediately be disowned. Hecate made a bit of a speech about how it was yet to be seen if Hazel had done well, which Nico thought was bullshit and then vanished. They all seemed to agree to pretend it hadn't happened and instead the demigods rushed over to Percy and Annabeth to great them. Nico stayed back with the creeps. Habit asked if the fighting was over and then vanished abruptly when the answer was yes. Nico didn't question it.
"Hey." Hazel called to Nico beckoning him over to her. He went over to her hesitantly, skirting around Percy as if there was an invisible force field around him. When he reached Hazel he leaned down slightly and kissed her forehead, he was just so glad to see she was okay.
"I'm glad you're alright." He half whispered. "The dead were right. Only one of us made it to the Doors of Death. You… you would have made dad proud." She smiled up at him fondly and cupped his face in her hands affectionately.
"We couldn't have defeated Clytius without you." She promised. Softly she ran her thumb under his eyes as if she was checking if he was crying, and not even he was sure if the answer was yes or no. He might have thought about it more if at that moment there hadn't been a loud cracking noise from the ceiling that made them all flinch. Including Hazel and Nico this time because they knew the cave really could come down at any time.
"We need to get out of here." Jason said. Nico resisted the urge to say no duh. "Uhh Frank?"
"I think one favor from the dead is all I can manage today." Frank said. Ya me too Nico thought, he wouldn't be able to do another summoning of that size until he'd had a nap.
"Wait, what?" Hazel asked, though Nico didn't think it was the time. Piper explained anyway.
"We'll have to shadow travel then!" Hazel declared. Nico flinched, if he couldn't do a summoning right now he certainly couldn't shadow travel a group this size and Toby was already looking tired. Even though Nico could see his unspoken offer he couldn't take more power from Toby.
"Hazel I can barely manage that with only myself. With this many people."
"I'll help you." She said. Nico stared at her for a moment then nodded.
"So will I." Jane offered. Nico had almost forgotten she was there. "I've seen the way Toby does it." Nico took a deep breath and nodded.
"Everyone grab hands." He shouted grabbing Jane's hand with one of his and Hazel's with the other. All the others joined hands as well and Nico pulled them all through the shadows onto the hill above the temple. This time it was Toby who caught Nico when he fell. They sat down together hard. Nico knew he wouldn't be able to get up for a little while. It didn't seem to matter though. Everyone else was sitting down too and beginning to exchange stories. Splenderman came half way through and took Sally and Jane away again. The tribe having already left on their own like Habit. They all thanked them.
"It's nice to meet you, I don't think Nico's mentioned you." Percy said holding out his hand to shake to Toby, the only one of the creeps left now. Toby took it but Nico could tell he was squeezing too hard. Percy refused to flinch, they both let go quickly.
"No, I get the impression he doesn't mention many things to you." Toby said his lip curling. "He's mentioned you to me though, extensively, and not a lot of it has been good." Toby commented staring challengingly at Percy. Percy looked behind Toby at Nico.
"Oh is that so." Percy asked scowling. Nico ignored them both stubbornly.
"Don't blame him for doing something we all know you do. As far as I know you have no 'high horse' to look down from." Toby snapped bringing Percy's attention back to him.
"And you do." Percy challenged.
"Hell no." Toby laughed harshly. "But at least I admit it. You seem to think you're a hero."
"I've saved the world." Percy snapped, he looked like he was about ready to fight Toby.
If they did fight Nico wasn't going to break it up. Like cats it would be better to let them sort this out themselves. Nico took a juice box from the picnic Piper had summoned from her horn of plenty and sat back to watch.
"Heroes don't forget their 'friends' until they need something from them." Toby half shouted and Percy swung at him. Toby let Percy hit him and at first Percy seemed pleased, but then Toby laughed and Percy looked even angrier. "God job asshole I can't feel pain." Toby laughed and punched Percy back. Percy dodged but not as effectively as he normally would have, he was tired after all.
No one intervened even when the fighting escalated to weapons. Even Annabeth just watched curiously as the two of them fought. Neither of them were at their best, but it was still an impressive show. Nico half expected it to end in a tie but what he did not expect was for Toby to win until suddenly it happened. Toby knocked Percy's sword out of his hand and pushed him down.
Everyone moved to stop the fight now, but it was Nico who got there first simply stepping into the line of Toby's killing blow. Toby stopped immediately the blade of his ax centimeters from Nico's neck. Nico glared at him coldly. His eyes almost black, they stayed frozen like that for a long minute before Toby skipped back.
"I'm sorry Nico. I'm sorry, I know you gave me this weapon I shouldn't use it against your allies."
"And?" Nico asked coldly.
"And I should only be fighting when you tell me to anyway. I'm here to help you." Nico didn't say anything, raising one eyebrow and another silent and? "And it won't happen again I promise." Toby supplied instantly and Nico sighed relaxing a little.
"Good." He acknowledged. "Now the fact that it's dark mean you've already missed one dose of your medications. You should go get them and don't run, you've already strained your body enough." Toby looked down and nodded, holstering his axe before he turned and walked back towards the ship shoving his hands deep into his pockets. Nico watched him go and then turned back to see that everyone was staring at him. He shrugged and reached out his hand to help Percy up.
"Sorry about him I think it was just the adrenalin getting the best of him. He's not usually like that. He'll have calmed down by the time he gets back and we can forget this ever happened." Percy accepted Nico's hand. Nico helped him up before letting go quickly, going back to sit in the circle with the other demigods. "Now we have some more catching up and planning to do before Reyna arrives don't we?"