A/N. On a completely unrelated note, I have never shoplifted or stolen anything from any store, so the contents in the first part of this chapter will probably seem very unbelievable. Also, the picture above is the kind of daggers Lia has, just the way they they are described in the story with the different material and additions and stuff. That's all. Enjoy! -Anna

~Lia's POV~

I woke up before Nico. When I looked over at him, he was sleeping so peacefully and looked so relaxed. The kid must've not hd a decent sleep in a while. After I got up, I stretched and looked inside my bag for something to eat. Guess Nico and I would have to settle for some granola bars and the last of my water bottles. As I got the supplies out of my bag, I heard Nico yawn and sit up.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty," I said while I smirked.

Nico scowled, but then looked down shyly when his stomach growled. "Uh, got anything to eat?"

I chuckled and tossed him a bar and one of the water bottles. He looked at them weirdly, but started to eat anyway.

"You good to move?" I asked. Nico nodded. "Good. 'Cause I need a new lighter and batteries. Also some more food. You're gonna help me get them."

"How?" Nico asked.

I stood up. "I'll show you how. May take you a while to get it right, but you'll get it eventually."

Nico nodded and finished the last of his breakfast.

I shouldered my backpack. "Ready to go?"

Nico and I walked to the nearest grocery store from the warehouse.

As we walked I explained to him what we needed to do. "Okay, so, what we're gonna do is go in there and get the stuff we need. Once we do, we'll meet up somewhere and run out as fast as we can."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? We're just going to shoplift and run out of there?"

I shrugged. "That's what I usually do. Unless you have a better idea."

"I could probably shadow travel us out."

"You can shadow travel?" I asked.

"Yeah. Can't you?"

I facepalmed. "Right. Son of an Underworld deity. I forgot. And I can. It's just...I don't like to do it a lot. It leaves me drained, and I don't like that. It's not the way I travel."

"I know the feeling," Nico said. "First time I shadow traveled, I passed out for a week."

I cracked a small smile. "Really? First time I shadow traveled it was accidental, and I passed out for days. Woke up in a dumpster in the back of a diner."

Nico snorted. I could tell he was trying to hold back a laugh.

We arrived at the store just a few moments later. Upon entering, we could see the store had quiet a lot of people inside. Getting out might be hard, but we could deal with that when the time came.

"Okay, grab what you can carry and meet me by the bathrooms," I told Nico.

He nodded and we split up.

Trying to look as casual as I could, I walked around the store and found a new lighter and batteries. Plus, some water bottles, protein bars, and a few apples. I put everything into one of the store baskets customers could carry around the store to make me look like a regular shopper. Quickly, I snuck around the aisles of the store to get to the bathrooms. Nico was there already with some energy drinks and granola bars.

"Ready to get out of here?" I asked.

Nico nodded, and I let him put the stuff he got into by backpack, as well as my own goodies from my basket.

"Hold on," Nico said and grabbed my hands.

I gasped and quickly yanked my hands away.

Nico frowned. "What's wro-"

He got cut off by people screaming. Near the entrance of the store, three huge dog like seals- telkhines- were stalking toward where Nico and I were. They were all six-feet tall with sharp teeth showing through their snarls, and eyes that looked around hungrily. Mortals screamed and I wondered what they saw since the Mist covered up what the monsters really looked like.

"Rabid dogs!" one woman screamed.

"I'm calling animal control!" a man yelled.

Apparently that's what they all saw.

One of the telkhines eyed Nico and me, and gestured to us with his snout to his friends. All three of them growled and started to slowly creep toward us.

"What...what are those?" Nico asked as we slowly backed up.

"Telkhines," I answered, my eyes still trained on the monsters. "Sea demons. They made Posiedon's trident and Kronos' scythe. Zeues threw them into Tartarus after he found out they were practicing magic."

"How-how do you know all of this?"

"You know, just because I- look out!"

One of the demons leaped at us, and Nico and I quickly jumped to the side. Nico shakily took out his sword while I pressed my rings together, my daggers appearing in my hands. The telkhines flinched at the sight of the Stygian iron blades, but inched forward still.

"I'll take two and you get the last one?" I asked.

Nico nodded.

"Okay, go."

I sprinted toward the monsters. The three demons froze, probably not expecting me to charge right at them. I slashed both of my daggers near two of the monsters, and ran off with two of the telkhines after me. With a good space between me and the monsters, I turned to face them.

Some people were recording on their phones, while others looked like they wanted to help Nico and me, but were too scared to get close to the 'rabid dogs'. Sirens could be heard getting closer to the store.

I kept my eyes on the telkhines, doing my best to block out everything else to focus on the monsters' movements. One of the monsters leaped straight at me with its teeth bared. I ducked, and quickly turned around to stab the monster. My dagger absorbed its essence until there was only dust. I heard the other monster behind me growl, and I turned to face it. The telkhine jumped and I stabbed it in the chest, its teeth inches away from my face.

Looking at where Nico was, I saw he was having some trouble with his monster. He kept jumping back from the telkhine and putting his sword out in front of him for protection, but wasn't attacking in any way. I ran over to him, and stood in front of him just as the telkhine jumped. With both of my daggers, I stabbed its chest and it turned to dust.

Panting, I turned to look at Nico, who looked like he was glad he wasn't demon chow.

"You have a sword, but you can't fight with it?" I asked.

He looked offended. "Of course I can fight with it! I just...I've never faced a monster really."

"You're a child of one of the most powerful gods, and you've never encountered a monster until now?"

"I have, but I always just run or shadow travel away."

I opened my mouth to say more, but sirens could be head getting closer. People were still running out of the store. I pressed my thumbs on the onyx gems on my daggers, and they turned back into rings on my fingers.

"We need to get out of here. I do not feel like getting put into juvie today," I said.

Nico and I sprinted out of the store, following the already panicked crowd to get to the streets. Once we were sure we weren't being followed, we ran to the warehouse to rest. Luckily, we still had all of our supplies from the store still.

"I'm going to teach you how to fight," I said once I stopped gasping for air.

"What?" Nico asked.

"I'm going to teach you how to fight from what I've learned. I've got more experience than you do with fighting, and you obviously need some training if you don't want to become a monster's meal."

Nico looked like he wanted to protest, but he nodded in agreement instead.

I smiled a little in satisfaction. "Alright then. Let's get started."

~Nico's POV~

First, Lia had me practice swinging at some of the old stacked boxes in the warehouse. She said that I have some good arm strength, and just needed to work on slashing at the right areas. After slashing at the boxes for a bit, Lia wanted to see how I could do against a live opponent. The two of us faced each other with our weapons ready about six feet apart. We went slow at first as Lia taught me how to block, feint, and strike. As she taught me what she knew and continued to combat, we slowly got faster and faster with our moves, until we were at a full on duel.

"Use your powers to your advantage," Lia said as I jumped away from her daggers. "Just don't overdo it or you won't have any strength to fight after."

I nodded as I met her daggers with my sword. As we continued to fight, I could tell Lia was winning. Even though she was teaching me how to fight, she wasn't going to go easy or lose to me.

As a last resort, I gathered all of my strength, and summoned an undead warrior from a small fissure in the ground in front of Lia. She gasped and backed away as the zombie drew his own sword. I fell to my knees from summoning, and watched as Lia was backing away from the approaching zombie.

Why wasn't she fighting back?

When her back hit the wall and the warrior came close, Lia swept the zombie's feet out from under it, and stabbed one of her daggers in its chest. The zombie disintegrated. Lia panted from exhaustion, and looked at me in...fear? Her face quickly turned into concern, and rushed over to me.

"I told you to not overdo it," she scolded and handed me a water bottle.

"Sorry," I muttered and sipped some of the water.

Lia smiled a little, but it looked forced. "Well, you are getting better. At least you'll be able to fight a monster now."

I nodded and noticed it was a lot darker in the warehouse than it was when we first started training.

Lia noticed the darkness creeping into the warehouse too, and frowned a bit. "Time passed faster than I thought it would. But I did enjoy training with you. We should get some shut eye. Tomorrow we're moving somewhere else."

I just nodded again, the exhaustion catching up to me from the training. I curled up on the floor where I was, and started to fall asleep. Before I drifted off to sleep completely, I felt something warm and soft cover my body, and a soft whisper.

A/N. Ok, so my reasoning for the fighting lesson was that Nico really didn't get much training I think at Camp before he ran away, so during the Battle of the Labyrinth, he had to have gotten at least some training to be able to hold his own during the entirety of it. I know Nico was on his own for a while, but he was still pretty young and new to the whole demigod thing. I don't think he would be super violent or anything until later obviously. I don't know why I'm explaining this. Just enjoy the fighting scene. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you all think! -Anna