When Nico first started crushing on Percy Jackson, he had imagined something like this.

Specifically, he'd imagined some sort of sunset ride on Blackjack, the pegasus not at all minding the smell of the dead the way other animals did. Nico would wrap his arms around Percy's waist, holding on tightly as they ascended above the camp. And in this magic fantasy world where he was Percy's out-and-proud boyfriend, the other campers would smile and wave as they saw him. And maybe Nico would enjoy the positive attention, too.

Those childish fantasies laid to rest long ago, Nico could spot how this was different.

The engine hummed with life and chaos underneath him. His hold on Leo was tight not out of affection, but fear-he'd trust this guy to get them out of the darkest depths of Tartarus with a last-minute device, but driving a motorcycle for the first time? Nico would have preferred to shadow travel, even if he couldn't really do that with himself and four other people.

Still, there was a sort of comfort knowing that Leo was in the driver's seat, and he seemed to know what he was doing. His curls tickled Nico's cheek, and he could spot a pattern in his breathing-how he would brace himself before muttering "right" or "left".

Right. That was something else you didn't have to do with a pegasus. With turns on a motorcycle, you had to lean right or left to assist the maneuver, but not too much or else the bike would topple over.

No pressure at all.

One of the pros, though, was how the pair weaved through traffic. Leo clearly wasn't up to speed on motorcycle driving laws, leaving behind a string of angry cars honking behind them, though at least they were fast.

Nico's death grip on Leo eased as time went on. He wasn't bad at the driving aspect, and it wasn't long before Nico could see the familiar restaurants and apartment buildings that lead to Camp Half-Blood. Perhaps it was the nature of his first quest, but for the first time, he was anxious to return to the comforting place.

"Don't worry, Neeks," Leo called. "I'll get you home soon!"

Nico scowled, ready to call him out, though a surging right turn had him burying his head between Leo's shoulder blades. It might have been the hum of the engine, though he could have sworn he'd heard Leo laugh slightly, which made Nico's face flush.

Home. Yeah, he really wanted to be home.

Pulling up to Half-Blood Hill, Farm Road 3.141, Leo parked the bike. Nico could feel the engine cut off underneath him, and he immediately pulled away from Leo, awkwardly hopping off the bike. The sports car seemed to still be a little ways away, unable to weave between cars the way they had.

About five seconds after they got off the bike, with a metallic clang like a hammer hitting metal, the motorcycle snapped out of existence.

Leo swore, kicking a rock. "Damn, I didn't expect Hephaestus to be that fast. Can't have shit in Long Island."

To his own surprise, Nico laughed, unable to cover it up as his breath fogged in the biting winter air. Leo looked at him incredulously, then started to smile himself.

"Aren't you glad I got you here in one piece?" He asked.

"I didn't doubt you for a second," Nico replied, smiling in spite of himself.

"Oh, sure," Leo rolled his eyes. "I think a couple bruises around my midsection would say otherwise."

"I'm serious," Nico said. "You should build a motorcycle-maybe study up on some of the driving laws while you're at it. I think..." he frowned. "If we could find that bunker I saw in my dream, that'd be the perfect place to build it, too."

"Yeah?" Leo started curiously. "When we get up there and get cleaned up and everything, we should go look for it-"

Just then, the sports car pulled up behind them recklessly, inches from where Nico and Leo were standing, sending a wave of grey slush their way. The car turned off, and the first one out was Hazel, clutching her stomach.

"I can't believe I should have taken the motorcycle," she gagged, looking green as she shook her head before looking over at Nico and Leo. "Wait-where did the motorcycle go?"

Just as Piper and Apollo got out of the car, the same metallic clang followed, and the sports car popped out of existence.

"That's where it went," Leo answered, as if that alone explained the physics behind Hephaestus's magic.

"No!" Apollo cried, gesturing to the space where the car once was. "My Maserati..." he sighed, running a hand through his hair, though it didn't seem to mess up its perfection. He turned to the demigods. "I believe I was mistaken when I told you two that my brother would surely let me keep the car once he saw how awesome I looked in it." He said to Piper and Hazel. "But no matter-like any tragedy, I will use this moment to make art."

"Oh no," Nico muttered, knowing where this was going, but the god was a runaway train of shitty poetry:

"I return to camp,
My car, ruthlessly stolen,
Still, I remain awesome."

"Wow," Leo clapped, slow and sarcastic. "That was-"

"Awesome," Piper cut him off, exasperated. "Your poetry is almost as awesome as you, Lord Apollo."

Even though Apollo's haiku had six syllables in the last line, Nico didn't want to bother correcting him-he was getting a strange sense of deja vu that he'd like to avoid.

"Thank you," Apollo did a little bow. "You know, it took these ladies quite a while to become accustomed to my art during the car ride, but then they grew to like it!" He said to Nico and Leo. "I'll have to make it up to you heroes sometime, perhaps some poetry over lunch?"

Nico couldn't imagine a worse outing, though he nodded. "It'd be an honor, Lord Apollo."

"Sure," Leo waved a dismissive hand. "But for now, I want nothing more than a shower and a change of clothes."

"Definitely," Piper agreed, and as the group started towards the camp's entrance, she grabbed Nico's arm. "That was the longest car ride I have ever been subjected to in my entire life." She whispered, and her eyes displayed the extent of her suffering. Nico, suppressing a laugh, allowed her to link her arm in his as they headed up the hill towards home.

---

The camp looked untouched, just as they'd left it in the early morning a few days prior. Nico's worries and nightmares had showed him the opposite so many times, it was hard to believe that everything was still intact.

His eyes swept over Camp Half-Blood, which was now coated in an inch of snow; Mr. D must have been in a good mood to allow snow to come in, Nico thought as he watched some Athena campers build an architecturally perfect snowman. Either that, or he wanted them all to suffer in the cold while the god stayed in with a mug of hot chocolate.

Just as Nico was about to start towards his own cabin, he bumped into Leo, who had stopped walking in front of him. He stood still like a deer in headlights, staring towards the basketball court. Following his gaze, Nico could see two figures in the distance-one of them a satyr, and one a girl.

"Leo, you okay?" Piper asked, but Leo didn't answer her, too wrapped up in whatever he was thinking. He took a hesitant step closer, shuffling in the slush on the ground, his expression a mixture of pain and disbelief.

"I..." Leo started, and it was only when they were about ten feet away that Leo called: "Sarah?"

The girl snapped up at that, looking up at Leo as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Leo?"

It was at the sound of her voice that Leo shot off like a rocket, dashing towards her with no sign of stopping. To Nico's surprise Leo tackled his sister into the snow, the pair hugging each other in the icy grass.

"Sarah?" Apollo asked behind them, working his way past the collected demigods. "Oh, thank-well, me! You're here! I hope the trip wasn't too stressful for you."

Leo pulled away from Sarah, though he still held her arm protectively as he looked up at Apollo. "What are you talking about, Lord Apollo? Are you doing a bit or something?"

"No," Apollo scoffed. "That's my daughter, why else would I care about her making it to camp?"

Nico felt a cozy little cold chill down his spine at the downright declaration of how he felt about demigods who weren't in his cabin, though he knew better than to call him on it.

"You're my dad?" Sarah asked, looking at him with furrowed brows. Nico could see the family resemblance-long, curly blonde hair, blue eyes, and a sun-kissed tan in the middle of winter. Against her light blue jeans, she wore a black medical brace on her knee. She fixed the sun god with skepticism fit for a child of Hades. "What, did you have me in pre-school?"

Yep, she seemed like Leo's sister, alright.

Apollo's cheeks flushed. "You insolent child-it'd be hard to look over four thousand years old and still be able to walk around, would it not?"

Sarah nodded, standing up and brushing the snow off herself, Leo doing the same. "I just..." she started. "I was having such a hard time believing that everything was really real, until that drachanae attacked me at school-"

"Those nuns were so horrible, it was hard to tell that they were actually monsters," Sarah's protector, the satyr, supplied. "The smell got mingled with wine and those communion crackers. But it all worked out!"

"Yeah," Sarah agreed. "If it wasn't for Phillip, here, I couldn't imagine what would have happened. Oh, look what he gave me!" She pulled a ring off her finger. It was obsidian, with a red ruby resting in it. She spun it on her palm, and the group watched as it started to shift. Sarah took a step back, and a moment later she was holding a long, black curved bow. Slung across her back was a quiver full of matching black arrows with red fletching at the ends.

"Isn't this cool?" Sarah asked. "It kinda sucks that I have to, like, actually fight monsters with it, but that's a small price to pay to get it." She faltered, taking the quiver off her back. She flipped the quiver upside down, unceremoniously dumping the arrows on the snow before tapping a rhythm into the bottom of the quiver. With that, the weapon shrank back into ring form, and she slipped the jewel back on her finger.

"But it doesn't matter," Sarah continued. "I would have fought an army of monsters to see you again, Leo..."

"Me too," Leo nodded, wiping his eyes again as he went in for another hug.

Sarah gladly returned the hug, then looked awkwardly over Leo's shoulder. "I guess it's good to see you, too, Apollo-er, dad..." she gestured for him to join in the hug, and the god gladly complied.

It was just when Nico was beginning to feel a tad out of place in this family reunion that he heard the familiar sound of horse hooves clomping in the snow. Turning around, he saw Chiron approaching them, his white coat blending in with the iciness of camp.

"Nico, Leo, and Piper," he started, "I'm glad to see you've made it safely back to camp with Lord Apollo," he kneeled for the god, who returned a respectful nod. "-and you've met one of our newest campers." He nodded to Sarah, who waved with a shy smile; there was evidently still a level of shock at the sight of the centaur.

"I'm sure you all would like to get cleaned up and have dinner-and you may, though I need to borrow Nico for just a moment." Chiron said. Immediately, Nico felt his stomach drop-he hadn't had a lot of experience in the public schooling system, though what he had told him that this was the danger zone: he was in trouble for something, even if he didn't know what yet.

"Well, you and Miss Hazel Levesque." Chiron added. "Please, come with me to the Big House."

"Oh," Hazel started, sharing a panicked look with Nico, reaching for his hand. She started to pull away, though Nico closed the gap and held her hand in his. He might have not been the biggest fan of physical contact, though he found it more bearable, even more wanted, when it came to his friends.

"We can go with you," Piper offered. "Whatever it is-we can go together."

"I'm afraid I was asked for these two alone, Miss McLean," Chiron shook his head gravely before turning to Nico. "It is your father, Nico."

"My..." Nico started, his heart skipping a beat, ice coursing through his veins. "He's not..." he gestured vaguely towards the Big House, unable to believe that his father, Lord of the Underworld, could simply be waiting in there. He had to be too large, too powerful for the space. Things were getting better between him and Hades, but this...

Leo's warm fingers brushed against Nico's free hand, bringing him back down to earth. Nico found his face flushing, his whole body filling with warmth in the biting cold at the sight of the son of Hephaestus.

"We'll be right outside the door," Leo said softly. "If he even thinks about giving you a hard time, we'll come storming in, alright?"

Nico nodded, short of breath on every side-the emptiness of love on the inside of the Big House, the overwhelming amount of love on the outside. Exhaustion pulled on him more than ever before-he just wanted to be here, at home, left alone to rest and be with his friends.

But he should have known better.

Besides, it was Hazel he should be worried about, not himself. Giving her hand a gentle squeeze, Nico started towards the Big House with Hazel.

---

Nico could see Hazel looking around the Big House curiously. He couldn't blame her, of course-weekly meetings in the place only made a dent in his viewing of all the oddities the haven had to offer. A collection of crystals on strings spun leisurely circles, the reflected lights forming images of goddesses and nymphs. A double-bladed axe the size of a garbage can hung proudly on the wall, labeled: Marcus Brown, son of Ares, defeated an army of haywire Hephaestus Hedgehogs ™ with this axe, 1988. A jar resting on a shelf contained actual flickering green Greek fire, with a label reading: For emergency use only. NOT when a meeting is going poorly.

Hades was sitting in the living room, well past the ping-pong table in the dining room, so far into the house that Nico felt as if he were intruding on an intimate space. The floorboards creaked under his every step-until they softened over a red rug, so worn and dirty that it appeared maroon.

"Nico," his father nodded curtly. His voice was still as grave and oily as Nico remembered from a few months prior; how he looked at Nico, as if he were an inconvenient item on his to-do list, remained the same as well. "I see you've made it out of Tartarus. It is...convenient that things turned out that way."

Nico's brows furrowed, and he held out a subtle, protective arm in front of Hazel. "Are you trying to say you're glad I didn't die?" He asked sharply.

"I did not say that," Hades snapped with a huff, before hesitantly settling back in his seat. "But I also did not not say that. So..."

Hazel stepped up to Nico's side, sharing a look with him. If they weren't so close to the god that could send them to the Fields of Punishment in the blink of an eye, Nico would graciously explain a thing or two to Hazel. Like how his dad had the emotional maturity of a six year old at times, and how he was more than a bit nutty.

"Thanks," Nico replied awkwardly, stewing in the ensuing silence.

"Sit," Hades ordered, and as much as Nico despised it, he felt the mortal side of him writhe with compulsion, quite literally folding with the need to please this powerful figure. He found himself sitting on the couch stiffly, Hazel joining on the other side.

"Don't get me wrong, I am not pleased with all the details of this little quest you went on," Hades waved a dismissive hand. "I'm going to craft a special punishment for the Furies for aiding you as well, as that went well beyond what I would have allowed. So not only did you and your friends step into my domain without calling upon me, used my Furies to get into Tartarus, and used the Doors of Death to leave, the results of which could have been disastrous, but-"

"You were worried about Nico," Hazel offered.

Nico tensed at the sincerity of her voice. He had a feeling she was right, there was a chance his father actually was worried about him and his quest. But that didn't mean he was about to voice his thoughts. And he would not interrupt an angry tirade from a god, either.

"I was-" Hades faltered, his form beginning to flicker with uncertainty. His robes melted into a dark suit with a black and platinum striped tie. His face appeared more sallow, as well as clean shaven, his skin so pale it almost glowed blue. His hand clenched as his gaze switched between the pair of them. Nico noticed, then, that he had a silver ring on his finger that he'd never seen his father wear before. After a moment, he switched back to his robes.

Nico's heart jumped up into his throat; he'd never seen anything like that from the god. He could change his appearance easily, sure, but he didn't appear to be willing to.

"Don't-don't speak to me, girl." Hades ordered, appearing subtly unsettled by the switch. "You're making it hard to...save face, if you will."

"I won't," Hazel countered. "What was that? Why did you ask me to be here?" She paused. "Is this about my quest? The one from Python...?"

"We don't know-" Nico started, urging her to dismiss that prophecy, at least until he knew for sure it was Oracle-bound. In the meantime, he would have to figure out what his father wanted.

"It is not," Hades halted Nico with his hand held up as if impatient with a particularly energetic dog. "At least, not completely. Nico, I need you to know just the amount of damage you have done. You see, you cannot just...remove spirits from the Underworld-there is a system, like a..."

He looked at the coffee table, where Chiron had set up a Jenga tower that he must have been playing with Mr. D. "Ah, like this. You see, there is a system. Sometimes, if someone inconsequential is removed-think Eurydice, even if that didn't really work out-" he picked a side piece towards the top of the tower, then stacked it on top of the tower with no structural damage. "She wasn't meant to do anything of any high value, so no harm done. Hazel Levesque, however," Hades picked a middle piece at the bottom of the tower, and at the first poke of the game piece, the entire structure came crumbling down. Nico's heart skipped a beat, and he looked over at Hazel, who picked up a wooden piece off of her shoe.

"I don't understand," Hazel said distantly, rolling the edges of the piece between her fingers. "What does this mean? Am I...am I going to hurt a lot of people? Because if I am, well..." she glanced over at Nico, then focused her attention to Hades. "Then you can take me with you, back to the Underworld."

Hades's form flickered again, and he groaned, holding his forehead as if experiencing a splitting migraine. He was then back in the suit, and once he took a look at the spilled Jenga set, he waved a hand to pick them up. The wooden pieces stacked back into a perfect tower, this time with each piece sporting an embedded gleaming ruby.

"That-that is not how this works, dear girl," the god continued. "You see, Nico has already taken you through the Doors of Death, meaning for all intents and purposes, you have a right to be alive. Of course, I could simply kill you to send you back the traditional way, but I am not about to soil this rug more than it already is. Besides," he faltered, "I don't suppose that would make me father of the year."

"Father...?" Hazel started. "I'm-I'm a child of Hades?"

"No," the god sneered. "That man would be of no interest to a woman like your mother. I am Pluto, god of riches. You see, the trouble you bring lies well beyond simply being a resurrected demigod."

Nico felt his heart stop as he swallowed, every small noise in the thick silence increasing tenfold. Had the refrigerator always been that loud? This god in front of him, switching from Hades to Pluto...

"You're Roman," Nico said, his gaze locked on Pluto in his suit, then slowly turning to Hazel. "But...this is a camp for Greek demigods." At the hurt look that flashed in Hazel's eyes, Nico quickly added: "Not that I mind-we don't have to tell anyone. You might be different from me, but you can stay in the Hades cabin-"

"It is not that simple, boy," the god, now back in his Hades form, countered. "I cannot simply blame the previous events on you, of course, Hazel. There has been much unrest amongst the gods following the events of the Titan war. I almost wish I was not accepted by my brothers for how much bickering I must now put up with."

Outside the Big House, thunder rolled across the hills, and Nico could almost feel the cool wind beating against the old structure from outside. Hades looked up, shoulders tense before leaning forward. His elbows on his knees, his eyes meeting Nico's-he almost looked like a man who could actually be his father. But Nico could still see the souls rustling within his robes, their suffering heard in faint whispers and groans. Hades's eyes were still the same as they were at his height of power-an all-encompassing black, full of strength and potentially mad ideas.

"All that to say," Hades continued, more tense and quicker than before, his eyes shifting between the pair of them. "I cannot say for sure what to make of Python's prophecy-as you said, you cannot be for certain if his magic will impact the Oracle until the monster reforms. Let us hope, for your sake, it will be quite a while. As for what is happening on Olympus, well...this splitting act isn't favorable for any of us." His gaze shifted to Hazel, and his robes traded in for the suit once more, his control utterly slipping in the face of the two opposite demigods. "There has been debate on...on how to go about remedying the issue. The two sides have never managed to meet without bloodshed, but if we could manage to unite the fronts, well...it is definitely easier said than done. And while we figure things out...we gods might not always be around-"

A rattling clap of thunder cut Pluto off, and he swore under his breath. "I have already said too much. I should be going now, but..." the god stood, brushing off his already flawless suit. He waved a hand in the air, summoning a drawing pad and a large assorted pack of colored pencils. He offered them to Hazel. "If I remember right, you liked to draw in your previous life?"

Hazel nodded, hesitantly taking the drawing pad and colored pencils as if they were prone to catching on fire. "Thank you," she started, opening the box to look at all the colors. "Thank you...father..."

"You're welcome," Pluto said dismissively. "I would suggest you stay here for the time being. Train as much as you can, and when the time comes...well, you may just stand a chance, Hazel."

Nico's heart sank at his words, and it skipped a beat when he looked over at him. The god's form flickered back to Hades. "And you...don't go getting into any trouble, Nico. I might not be there to bail you out of it." With that, the god snapped his fingers, disappearing into a plume of black flames.

The two demigods sat for a moment, frozen in the face of their father's words. The gods were always onto something, their words vague and actions nonsensical until the last possible moment. But of course, his father's warning seemed particularly dire. The splitting act...the two sides and bloodshed...Hazel being a Roman demigod...

It wasn't until the magical fire's less magical smoke activated the smoke alarm that Nico finally found himself grounded back to reality. Hazel had stood and started out of the cabin, Nico following her. He wanted to say something, anything to comfort her-or to apologize; the words died in his mouth as Hazel opened the front door to face the cold wind and their friends.

"Well?" Piper asked skeptically. "How'd it go?"

"As well as could be expected," Hazel started. "I've been claimed. I..." she faltered, glancing back at Nico before turning her gaze back on her friends. "I am a daughter of Hades. Nico is my brother."