Will's PoV again (It's for medical reasons)

"What the Hades? She should be right here!"

I opened my eyes slowly at the sound of Nico's shouting and turned away slightly from the early morning sun's rays. It's not that I wanted to get out of the sunlight. It was just a little uncomfortable staring straight into the sun as soon as I woke up.

I finally opened my eyes fully and sat up. Nico was pacing back and forth in front of a tree while he ran his hand repeatedly through his hair.

"Nico, what's wrong? Who's supposed to be there?" I asked, my voice thick with sleep.

He turned to look at me, and a flash of gratefulness that I was awake went across his face before he scowled and continued pacing. "Ari. The last burst of energy came from here, but she isn't here. She couldn't have woken up that quickly. Maybe the second burst came from dad? If it was dad, then where is Ari? Did we misinterpret the situation last night? Maybe she isn't a daughter of Hades." Nico started rambling, getting more agitated by the second.

I stood up and hugged him tightly to my chest. I felt him stiffen then melt into my arms. "Maybe Ari didn't set off the second burst of magic. Maybe it was Hades, but we don't know for sure. One thing I do know, however, is that we are going to find them. Both of them. Hades trusts you to find whoever has been using underworld magic, and I have no doubt in my mind that you will. Also, you aren't doing this alone. I'm here to help you, Death Boy."

I felt Nico nod against my chest, and after a few a moments, we gently broke apart. "The residual energy is fading. Maybe we should-" Nico began, but he was cut off by a voice somewhere deeper in the forest yelling something I couldn't make out. Just then the temperature dropped, and three more voices started yelling. Nico grabbed my hand, and we ran toward the commotion.

We only ran for a few minutes when the yelling stopped, and the temperature rose back to normal. Nico turned around in a circle, debating which way to go. Then the same voice that started yelling earlier screamed, "Laestrygonian!" The screams became more panicked, and the sounds of battle came to us from the left. I dragged Nico towards the fight, and soon we were both sprinting around trees and under branches.

"It has to be Hades, but who is he with?" Nico panted.

"I have a feeling it isn't Hades, Nico," I wheezed back, but before I could explain myself, the sounds of the battle stopped abruptly. We stopped to gather our breath, and then we continued running. Someone could have gotten hurt.

"Will, I'm telling you there was a huge burst of underworld magic here, and there was another burst now! If Hades was anywhere, he would be here." Nico argued, breathily.

"I'm not arguing about that," I said, but it came out as a whisper. I gulped in air before continuing. "Nico, you said that about the house yesterday. The family had just lost their daughter for the gods' sakes!"

"Her family being her mom," Nico cut me off quietly before I could say anything else.

"Yeah-" I started saying, but it only came out as a breath of air.

"Besides," Nico took in a breath of air again, "I already apologized profusely." I smirked slightly as Nico's sarcastic tone. "I swear I felt a massive flare of underworld magic there. There was still residual energy too, and it was odd how the men had scrapes and bruises. Something had to have attacked them."

Yet again, before I could argue my original point that maybe we had found Ari instead of Hades just now, we stumbled to a halt in a new clearing. A girl was sitting in front of us, holding a knife with a shaky hand. She didn't look very surprised to see us, but she was still in shock and looked very frightened. She got shakily to her feet, and winced as she moved her arm that didn't have the hand with the knife. It was bent at an odd angle. Before I could try to help her or ask what her name was, I saw her eyes flicker to the side for a fraction of a second. I followed her gaze and...

"Oh my gods!" Three other teenagers were lying unconscious behind her. I ran to go help them, but the girl with the knife stepped in front of me and held the knife out in front of her, pointing it at me. Are you kidding me? I'm trying to help you! I knew she wouldn't know that's what I wanted to do. She just got attacked by a monster, and her friends were either knocked out and severely injured, or dead. I looked over at Nico to see if he could sense any deaths here, but if he did, he didn't let it show. He only rolled his eyes and walked forward. When did he take out his sword?

"Leave us alone. Don't-" The girl's shaky voice died when Nico easily disarmed her and dragged her off to the side. Nico, there were better ways of handling the situation than dragging her. I sighed inwardly then shrugged. She fought against him, but soon gave up. I turned and walked toward her friends.

"We aren't going to hurt you or your friends. We can help." I said calmly. I glanced back and thankfully Nico had loosened his grip on the girl. She relaxed slightly but was still shaking. Unfortunately, that was the best comfort I could give her for now since I had to use most of my concentration on treating the others. I didn't know who needed my help first. I was about to turn back to Nico to ask if he could sense anyone who was close to death when I saw it. The girl closest to me let out a shuddering sigh, and a circle of dead grass coming from right under her started spreading out toward the rest if us. "Nico, I think we found who you were tracking, and it's not Hades."

Nico followed my gaze, and his practiced almost expressionless face he had since we saw the girl with the knife turned to surprise and shock. "How... Is that... But she should have still been asleep from last night's events. Is she really..." He stuttered.

I turned to the girl who used to have the kinfe. "What's your name, and who is this girl?" I asked gently. She stared at her friend in shock for a few moments longer. I bent down and checked the girl's pulse. It was steady, but the patch if dead grass was growing. "My name is Annie." The girl who had had the knife finally spoke. She stumbled a few steps toward me and knelt down beside her friend and I. "Her name is Ari."

Nico seemed to come out of his shock at the name, and he ran forward. He picked up Ari's head, and Annie made a small whimper of protest. "It's okay. We can help." I assured her. I pulled out the second flask of unicorn draught and handed it to Nico. While he poured a little bit of it at a time down Ari's throat, I dug out a square of ambrosia from my first aid kit. "Here," I handed the godly food to Annie. "This will help with your broken arm." She looked at it suspiciously, then up at me. Finally her eyes settled on Nico force feeding medicine to Ari. Annie sighed and shoved the square in her mouth.

Her eyes widened in shock, and she quickly swallowed the ambrosia. I turned around to examine the other two. They both equally looked like they had been through... Well... Maybe not Tartarus, but through the Underworld and back. "Nico, are any of them close to dying?"

Nico shook his head. "No, I don't think so. Both of their lives are more fragile right now than they should be, but they aren't currently-" he abruptly stopped talking, and I turned quickly to see what he was staring at. A moan of discomfort escaped from the lips of the boy closest to me. I ran to his side and checked his pulse. It was slowing considerably as the seconds went by. I grabbed my stethoscope and went to check if there was anything in his lungs, but as soon as I tried to bring the cool metal to his chest, he flinched away. Oh my gods this kid was still semiconscious! I put my hands gently on his ribs and gasped in shock. All of them were broken. Most of them seemed to have been broken for at least a day, and his abdomine felt hard. He was bleeding internally.

"Nico! I need you to shadow travel this one to the infirmary now!" Nico nodded and sprinted to my side. He grabbed onto the boy's shoulders and melted into the shadows of a nearby tree. Annie gasped, but I ignored it for now. I ran toward the other boy and checked his pulse. Now that I was closer, however, I noticed that his hair was a little longer than usual for a boy. Well maybe he liked it like that, who knows. The good thing was, his pulse was steady. He had quite a few nasty bruises, and I would have to check him for a mild concussion. However, he seemed alright for now.

Nico arrived back and I turned to Annie. "I promise we'll explain everything later, but right now we need to get you guys somewhere safe and treat your friends for their injuries. What are the others' names?"

Annie looked like she was having a hard time digesting everything that was happening, but I guess that was to be expected. "The one your friend took is named Nelson, and zeir name is Gab," she said gesturing to the boy next to me. I would have to ask her, or hopefully Gab, about the pronoun Annie used later. For now, I settled on nodding my head and grabbing hold of Gab's arm and Nico's hand. Nico grabbed on to Ari's arm.

"Annie, grab a hold of Ari and Gab. I'm going to do something called shadow travel. It's what I did earlier with Nelson. I'll take you guys to where I took him okay? You're going to have to trust me." Nico's eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of a challenge in his voice. Annie hesitated for a second, then did as she was told. I looked up at the sunlight of the forest one more time, and then everything was consumed by darkness.

Well, that was a really long and messed up chapter. I cringed while writing this, but I don't really know how else to write this to fix some of the loop holes I noticed I accidentally made. Hopefully the next chapters won't be as cringe worthy. Anyway, I hope you have a great afternoon!