They materialized a few feet away from the waters edge. Nico blinked around the land disbelievingly.

"I did it." He croaked going limp in his harness. "I got us across the ocean." He hadn't totally believed he could, but he had done it and now he was empty. His nerve endings seemed to have shut down but maybe he was just too cold to feel. "I did it."

"Of course you did, love." Toby said from somewhere beside Nico, though he couldn't lift his head to look. "You're the only one who doubted yourself. Well and maybe the goat." Toby half crooned as he untangled Nico from the ropes and picked him up. Nico's head dropped back and now he was looking into Toby's worried face. "Do you feel tired?"

"I don't think so." Nico mumbled finding it a little hard to move his lips. He smiled slightly. "I don't feel much of anything." Toby looked even more worried. He kneeled down and rested Nico on the ground still cradling his upper body.

"You were supposed to use my energy for the jump." Toby chided softly. "Take it now." He leaned down and kissed Nico and Nico accepted it. With a little more energy he started to shiver. He could feel the cold now and he didn't welcome it. He tried to cling to Toby but his fingers went through the cloth of Toby's shirt again.

"I'm scared." Nico admitted in a whisper so the others couldn't hear. "I'm scared." He couldn't think of anything else to say. How could he express everything he was scared about? He was scared for Hazel, he was scared for the camps that were at war, he was scared about Gaia, he was scared he would melt into darkness forever and loose himself, he was scared that if he died the statue would never get to the camps, he was scared the camps would destroy each other. But most of all he was scared of the future of his and Toby's relationship. Because they would both probably die young and when they did they wouldn't end up in the same place.

"You're going to be okay." Toby said. Promising Nico something he couldn't possibly know. Nico made himself curl up into a ball and Toby gathered Nico up, pressing Nico against his larger, warmer, body. Nico was to tired to cry so instead he went to sleep. When he woke up he insisted they move on quickly. He did not want to think, better to move. This time the jump was shorter, he got them to a small town near Reyna's home he thought. Then he passed out again.

Nico woke up alone and disoriented without quite knowing where he was or when. It wasn't long before Toby returned, seeing him calmed Nico down and centered him immediately. Nico blinked at the shirt Toby was wearing. That loud bird patterned shirt was definitely not what he had been wearing when Nico had gone to sleep.

"Nice." He said sarcastically eyeing the floral pattern.

"I know right." Toby said grinning. Nico was sure he had heard the sarcasm and was ignoring it. "I got one for you too." He held out the red floral shirt to Nico and Nico balked. "Look at your shirt Nico. It hardly counts as a shirt anymore, you need something else. We'll find you a new shirt, and a new jacket later I promise."

Nico looked down at himself and realized Toby was right. Both his shirt and jacket could be used for nothing but bandages now. He sighed regretfully but took the shirt anyway and changed into it. At least his black pants offset it a little so he looked less like a tourist and more like a hipster. Though neither was by any means ideal.

Suddenly there was a loud noise almost like an explosion. Nico leapt to his feet suddenly awake with adrenalin coursing through his veins. He looked around quickly and there was another loud noise.

"Where's Reyna?" He half yelled at Coach Hedge when he noticed she wasn't there. He had mostly assumed she had just gone for a walk but if there was trouble they needed to know where she was.

"The Hunters-" The coach started but he didn't get more out before Nico was drawing his sword with a snarl. Both Toby and the coach flinched back.

"I trust the hunters with the life of someone I cared about before. The results made me unlikely to do it again." Then there was shouting from out front of the building. Nico glanced out and spotted a man he assumed was Orion from the eyes.

"My death means nothing." He heard Reyna tell him, but she was wrong. Her death did mean something.

"Distraction." He hissed at Toby and the Coach and then bolted towards the stairs. He reached the balcony a second after he heard coach Hedge yelling his traditional "DIE!" Nico saw as the coach hit Orion on the back of the head with his club, and then catapulted himself over the railing of the balcony.

He twisted in midair and landed in front of Orion as he had planned and swung his sword, neatly severing Orion's taut bow string. He leapt back as it recoiled snapping against Orion's nose. Nico snarled in satisfaction. Had Orion not already lost his eyes that probably would have blinded him.

Nico spotted Thalia and a woman he didn't recognize trying to convince Reyna to leave. He went over to her, grabbing the coach by the back of his shirt and dragging him along. The coach didn't want to leave the fight as usual. Toby at least seemed to understand it was time to leave and jogged to catch up with them.

Ghosts. He could feel a lot of them nearby and he turned towards them. There they were, on the balcony, oh, a home. Many of them. He could hear their whispers but their attention wasn't focused on him but rather on… Reyna.

"No." She whimpered, drawing back. Nico took her arm comfortingly.

"Reyna who are they? What do they-" He started but Reyna cut him off.

"I can't." She said softly. Nico blinked in surprise, he had never heard her sound so pleading. "I-I can't."

"That's alright." Nico soothed automatically. The creeps got like this sometimes when times in their pasts were mentioned. They were too painful to talk about so Nico had learned to tiptoe around them. "We'll get you out of here." He promised glancing back at the balcony. He couldn't see the ghosts there anymore but he could still feel them. "Let's move."

Toby took Reyna's other arm also recognizing this state and helped Nico lead her back to the restaurant as quickly as they could. She seemed dazed so they worked around her preparing quickly to leave with Thalia's help. It was only a minute before they were ready to go.

"Hold on to her." Nico directed Toby and he nodded. Holding Reyna tightly so she wouldn't slip away as they traveled. Nico slipped into the harness and coach Hedge clambered on with their bags. "Thank you." Nico directed at Thalia quickly.

"You're welcome." She snapped in a no-nonsense way. "Now go!" And Nico did. It was getting easier to slip into the shadows. Too easy, and harder to get out, but he managed it.

When they landed Nico slept again. He slept for a day and a half and woke up feeling okay. He stretched out his sore and stiff muscles. Chatting with Toby and coach Hedge as he did so. Toby had made sure Nico ate. Now Nico had been convinced to go with Toby and the coach on a store run because they wanted junk food. Reyna had been given a tent by the hunters, complete with a banquet table but it only provided healthy food.

That worked just fine for Nico because there were plenty of fruits and vegetables and other light things like that. So far those were still the only things that both his shrunken stomach and his burning throat would allow him to eat. Recently he had been eating a lot of slightly warm vegetable soup which the table was happy to provide for him. That had been working well as far as he was concerned.

The walk back was his favorite part of the trip. He lifted his face to the sun, letting Toby take his hand and lead him so he could close his eyes and let the sun chase away some of the shadows under his skin. After they had first landed, right after he had woken up when coach Hedge had been trying to convince him to come, Nico had been walking away shouting over his shoulder. He hadn't even noticed he walked through the tree at first, it was Toby's shocked expression that clued him in that something was wrong.

When he realized what had happened he had first collapsed in a miniature fit of despair. He had never been this bad before. His fingers, or entire hands might go through things, but never his entire body. Toby had rushed to him but Nico waved the concern away and agreed to come along. That was probably why he was feeling a bit better today if he was honest with himself. Like how people who were freezing started to feel warm before they died.

It was easy to find their way back to camp. Sometimes traveling with a overly large statue had advantages. They had been dumped at the site of some old battle that Nico didn't know very much about. Or want to for that matter. He knew there were a lot of dead under the ground here and he didn't want anything to do with them just now. The call of the underworld was already to strong for him.

When they got back they found Reyna sitting cross legged and quiet just outside her tent watching Aurum and Argentum play. It would have been pictures if it wasn't for how morose Reyna looked. Toby had told Nico she had been like that ever since they arrived.

"I figured it out?" Reyna said as they got closer.

"What historical site this is?" Toby asked and Reyna nodded.

"Good cause it's been bothering me." The coach huffed.

"The battle of Waxhaws." Reyna said.

"Ah right.." The coach said nodding. "Vicious little smack down." He seemed very certain about that but Nico was less sure. None of the dead he could feel were restless. Amongst those who died in battle there were always at least a few restless and angry ones.

"Are you sure?" Nico asked and it was reyna who answered.

"In 1780. The American revolution. Most of the Colonial leaders were Greek demigods. The British generals were Roman demigods." She seemed sure. Nico was even more confused.

"I'm always finding new ways demigods shaped human history." Toby commented, opening a bag of chips. "Aren't human's responsible for any of our own history?" Nico gave him a exasperated look but couldn't help but smile. He went to sit next to Reyna, leaving Toby to his chips.

"Because England was like Roma back then. A rising empire." Nico stated, watching Reyna pick up and start fiddling with a half dead bouquet of flowers.

"I think I know why we landed here. It's my fault." Reyna said softly.

"Oh come on." Hedge snorted. "The Buford Zippy Mart isn't anyone fault. Those things just happen." Nico had forgotten that's what the store was called, he hadn't been paying attention.

"During the Revolution, four hundred Americans got overtaken by the British cavalry. The Colonial troops tried to surrender, but the British were out for blood. They massacred the Americans even after they threw down their weapons. Only a few survived." Reyna rambled distractedly playing with the flowers.

Now Nico was even more confused by the lack of restless, angry, dead but it wasn't the most important thing right now. The most important thing was that Reyna was in pain. Maybe the link between them was beginning to run both ways, because he at least felt like he could feel her pain. Like he knew she did his every now and then.

"Reyna, how is this your fault?" He asked softly.

"The British commander was Banastre Tarleton." Reyna stated.

"I've heard of him. Crazy dude. They called him Benny the butcher." Hedge snorted. Nico glared at him.

"Sounds like he would have been one of my friends." Toby stated and Nico turned his glare on Toby when Reyna flinched. Toby shrunk a little and shrugged apologetically. Nico rolled his eyes.

"Yes…" Reyna said. "He was a son of Bellona." She said curling in on herself slightly.

"Oh." Toby sounded and suddenly he was on his feet grabbing Hedge's arm. "Come on let's go fight." He insisted and dragged the protesting coach away. Nico smiled appreciatively at the back of Toby's head and settled more comfortably next to Reyna.

"So you think you were drawn here because you have some sort of connection to the ghosts? Like what happened in San Juan?"

"I don't want to talk about San Juan." She said softly after a pause.

"You should." Nico told her softly. "The main thing about ghosts is- most of them have lost their voice. In Asphodel, millions of them wander aimlessly, trying to remember who they were. You know they end up like that? Because in life they never took a stand one way or another. They never spoke out, so they were never heard. Your voice is your identity. If you don't use it, you're halfway to Asphodel already."

"Is that your idea of a pep talk?" Reyna asked scowling at him. Nico blinked if shock, maybe it was. He didn't think it had worked but after a long silence Reyna did start talking again. "The ghosts in San Juan… they were my ancestors." Another pause, Nico waited.

"The Ramirez-Arellano family goes back a long way, I don't know the whole story." She continued. "My ancestors lived in Spain when it was a Roman province. My great-great-something-something-grandfather was a conquistador. He came over to Puorto Rico with Ponce de Leon."

"One of the ghosts on the bancony was wearing conquistador armor." Nico recalled.

"That's him." Reyna confirmed.

"So.. is your whole family descended from Bellona? I thought you and Hylla were her daughters, not legacies." He winced when he realized he had mentioned Hylla. A fleeting look of despair crossed Reyna's face but it was gone almost as quickly as it came.

"We are her daughters." Reyna confirmed. "We're the first actual children of Bellona in the Ramirez-Arellano family. And Ballona has always favoured our clan. Millennia ago she decreed that we would play pivotal roles in many battles."

Nico stayed quiet for the most part and let Reyna talk about her family. Until she declared that she couldn't do it anymore. A long silence stretched out between them and Nico realized he was going to have to be the one to break it.

"My father gave me a present once." Nico started. "It was a zombie."

"What?" Reyna asked blinking at him in confusion.

"His name was Jules-Albert. He's French."

"A… French Zombie?"

"Hades isn't the greatest dad, but occasionally, he has moments when he wants to get to know me. I guess he thought of the zombie as a peace offering. He said Jules-Albert could be my chauffeur." Nico explained, he could see Reyna starting to smile.

"A French zombie chauffeur." She asked and he smiled slightly without looking at her. He had picked this story to lighten the mood.

"Hades had this idea that I should, you know, try to act like a modern teenager. Make friends. Get to know the twenty-first century. He vaguely understood that mortal parents drive their kids around a lot. He couldn't do that. So his solution was a zombie."

"To take you to that mall. Or the drive though at In-And-Out Burger." Reyna said her smile becoming more obvious.

"I suppose." Nico said shrugging. "Because nothing helps you make friends faster than a rotting corpse with a French accent."

"I'm sorry I shouldn't make fun." Reyna said and Nico shrugged.

"The point is. I don't like talking about my father either. But sometimes you have to." He met Reyna's eyes squarely.

Reyna glared at him but she seemed to give in. Again she started talking and Nico started to put the pieces together. It was funny how much her story was like Toby's except that Reyna had still had her sister. Nico wondered how much would have had to be different it would have had to be for him to have met her through the creeps rather than the Romans.

...

"You didn't kill your father. The man was already dead, you dispelled a ghost." He assured Reyna. He had heard stories like this a few too many times but it never made it less painful.

"It doesn't matter!" Reyna sobbed. "If word of this got out at camp Jupiter-"

"You'd be executed." A strange voice sounded and Nico's head snapped up and around to see a roman teenage boy. "Thank you for your confession, Former praetor. You've made my job much easier." Toby and Hedge took the moment to come barging back in. Nico held up his hand to them Toby stopped and Hedge had the sense to stop as well. Hedge ate a paper airplane that was in his hand. Nico wasn't sure if that was stress related eating or concealing information.

"Bryce Lawrence," Reyna stated suddenly calm as mountains before a avalanche. "Octavian's new attack dog."

"The augur has many attack dogs." The man said smiling viciously. Nico found it odd that he didn't deny the comparison. "I'm just the lucky one who found you. Your Graecus friend here," He waved at Nico. Nico snarled, when would they stop using his ancestry as a insult? "he was easy to track. He stinks of the Underworld."

"You know the underworld?" Nico shot back in fake friendship, drawing his black sword. "Would you like me to arrange a visit?" He could feel Toby's eyes on him intently but he ignored it. Reyna kept talking trying to talk the stranger down, but Nico was only getting angrier. Bryce would not be reasoned with and when he summoned some of the dead that had somehow been hiding themselves from Nico he was done.

He attacked the dead, his sword didn't work. He tried his power but the dead didn't respond. The situation looked like it was out of Nico's control but he knew it wasn't. He just hoped it didn't come down to his anger.

"Nico get out of here! Reyna yelled. Get the statue and leave." Reyna shouted.

"Yes off you go!" Bryce laughed. "Of course, you realize that your next shadow-jump will be your last."

"Shut up!" Nico yelled at Bryce. He had just spotted Toby fighting a little distance away. Three against one and even though Toby was a good fighter he was being overwhelmed. There was blood on his arm and it obviously didn't belong to the dead. "Stop this!" But of course Bryce didn't. Instead he started taunting coach Hedge about his pain tolerance.

"What about you?" Bryce asked Toby, and Toby snarled wordlessly at him.

"I can't feel pain at all asshole, you're out of luck."

"Leave them alone." Nico hissed at Bryce. But he didn't stop and he kept taunting Nico. He seemed to believe that Nico was too weak to stop him. But anger could fuel Nico better than anything else and it was building.

He held it as long as he could but then he was screaming, releasing all his rage in the form of power. The air dropped to freezing, all the grass around him died, turning black with frost. Just then he didn't care that the others were now practically inside his head.

"You want secrets!?" He snarled at Bryce though his power more than anything else. "Here." All of the dead crumpled to dust around him, Toby tried to intercept him, but one warning look and he dropped back again.

Bryce had fallen, his nose was bleeding and he was clutching his head. Nico spotted the tablets that Bryce had been so proud of and ripped it off his neck, tossing it away.

"You aren't worthy of this." He snarled. He stomped his foot and the ground under Bryce's feet started swallowing him up to his waist.

"Stop!" Bryce shouted but Nico didn't stop, Bryce kept sinking.

"You took an oath to the legion." Nico continued as if he hadn't heard. "You broke its rules. You inflicted pain. You killed your own centurion."

"I-I didn't! I-"

"You should have died for your crimes." Nico continued speaking over Bryce, his voice booming with the power of the underworlds judgment. "That was the punishment. Instead you got exile. You should have stayed away. Your father Orcus may not approve of broken oaths. But my father, Hades, REALLY does not approve of those who escape punishment."

"Please!" Bryce begged. Nico blinked down at him and scowled.

"The underworld has no mercy." Nico stated blandly. "Only justice. Besides you're already dead." Nico stated crouching down in front of Bryce and covering his mouth with his hand. Nico pulled energy out with the other man's breath and took it into himself through his palm, also quieting his words. Nico looked directly into his eyes. "You're a ghost with no tongue, no memory. You won't be sharing anyone's secrets." Nico uncovered Bryce's mouth.

"No!" Bryce yelped, his body already turning dark and to smoke without the life force holding it together and Nico's will tearing it apart. "No, I am Bryce Lawrence! I'm Alive." Bryce sobbed

"Who are you?" Nico asked cocking his head to the side. Bryce opened his mouth but this time nothing came out but a chattering whisper. Nico laughed. 'Bryce' was just another spirit now, just one amongst millions of undefined ex-humans. "Begone." Nico commanded and the spirit sunk into the earth like water. The crack closed and the air became warm again.

Nico stood again and turned to his friends. Reyna and Hedge looked afraid. Toby looked delighted. What had just happened caught up with Nico and he collapsed. Toby was the one that caught him.

"That was amazing." Toby exclaimed enthusiastically. "I wish I carried a camera like Hoody!" Then his voice got softer realizing Nico was already half asleep. Toby's slightly chapped lips pressed against Nico's forehead. "You put any of us to shame. Sleep well."

A/N Hello friends I have returned! writing from Nico's perspective is hard when he spends so much time asleep! I think I might go back to Toby for a while after this.

P.S. I have changed my tumblr to too-much-slender-stuff so it you try to find too-much-tea-stuff now you're out of luck. :P