Nico

Pitch snarled at me and lunged for the key which I held tightly in my hand, following his act before, I shadow traveled behind him.

"Pitch Black, has your mother never taught you any manners? You don't just lock people up like that," I scolded.

Pitch raised his arms and a dozen nightmares came stampeding towards me, cloning Pitch's mood. Hurriedly, I put the key inside of my jacket poker and zipped it up.

One of those sandy creatures took the moment of me putting the key away to whack me in the face with it's tail forcefully. (A/N: I have been wracked in the face like that by a cow who was calmly flicking it's tail. It was painful. Imagine poor Nico...)

I pulled out my sword and started slashing at the nightmares, turning them to grains of inky darkness. Only three now remained.

One of the nightmares ran at me, dodging my aimed attacks. Obviously this one was a smarter one.

It sank it's teeth into my arm, sticking little black sand particles into it's newly driven blood.

I ignored the pain and kept battling. The nightmare pushed me down onto my back, leaving my legs flailing in the air. It sank it's teeth into the flesh of my leg as well.

The other two nightmares (cowards) came up at the time where I was practically defenceless.

They trampled all over me.

A hoof mark was now engraved on my face, adding to the red mark of the swish of the tail that began the battle.

I took a risk and threw my sword at the nightmare that had brought up my blood. It crumpled satisfyingly into a mound of black sand along with it's other dead comrades.

With my sword now lying on the floor, I got up with a new sense of determination. Mostly determination to get my sword back, but determination none the less.

I stood up on my two feet and ignored the pain from my bitten leg on my quest for my sword.

Unfortunately, a nightmare pushed me onto my face, letting the concrete scrape my face just deep enough to draw even more blood. Horray.

I wiped my face with the sleeve of my leather jacket, not doing any mercy to the pain that was already there.

I used my one good arm to slide myself towards my sword, clutching it's handle and hauling it off the floor, using it as a walking stick to pull myself up again.

The two cowardly nightmares started backing away again, but not before I got close enough to destroy the little pests.

"I was hoping they would kill you."

I turned to face Pitch, catching my breath.

"Could they? Really, if they tried, is it possible?" I asked.

Pitch chuckled menacingly as he watched blood trickle down from my face, a hole in my sleeve and an almost identical rip in my pant leg.

"I wonder if your pain would amuse me," I asked, eying him carefully.

He gave me a sinister smile while mimicking my tone, "I wonder if you could get to me."

I put my hand into the pocket with the key in it, gingerly taking it out, as if it would explode if I handled it too forcefully.

"Well Nico. I suppose that you have done horribly. Tonight very eerie felling. I could get a few good soldiers out of this."

As Pitch too conveniently melted into his shadow, I jabbed the key into the lock of Jamie's cell, turning it until it clicked, opening.

I limped over to Jamie, who had awoken due to the loudness of the battle. It seemed that he had seen most of it. Though it must of been weird for him, because he couldn't see me.

"Did Pitch say it was you, Nico?" Jaime asked, scanning the room for a solid version of me. "Did you open my cell?"

I nodded, though I realised he couldn't see me, so I stood and went towards Jack's cell.

"Hello? Jack? Wake up, icy brain!" I shouted.

"What? Oh! Nico! It's you!" Jack exclaimed, "do you have your freedom?"

I nodded once more. This time thankful that Jack could see me.

"It's almost a good thing that Jaime got trapped here. He helped me break through. Though two days of sleeping on concrete did not make me feel that good."

"Jack," I started, biting the inside of my cheek, "Jaime can't see me."

"What? Why not?"

"I'm a spirit. It's embarrassing how long it took me to figure that out. Seriously."

"I could tell him. It's amazing how powerfully he believes in things."

"Thanks Jack," I smiled, "that would be nice."

Jack got up and walked to his cell door. "Can you open it?"

I put the key into the lock, cranking it open, "sorry"

Jack stepped out of his cell, taking in the horrible views of Pitch's hideout that he had seen from inside his small box.

He walked into Jaime's cell and leaned against a steel bar. I was tempted to lock them both in, just for their reaction, but I decided not to.

"Jaime," Jack began, as if he was going to tell a fairy tale to a four year old, "you met Nico before, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's standing right there," Jack explained bluntly, gesturing to where I was standing.

"Ok."

Jack dumped some snow on me and turned me into the world's first snow-Nico Di Angelo.

"Hey!" I protested, shaking the snow off me.

"I can see you Nico!" Jaime exclaimed, jumping onto his bed, making about thirty cockroaches swarm the cell.

Jaime scratched the back of his neck, "time to go home then?" He asked, stifling a laugh.

"Yeah," Jack answered, "let's go home, Jaime."

I wondered where home was. Is camp half-blood home? Is home just where my family is? Even if they don't see me?

"Home," I muttered wistfully, echoing Jack, "let's go home."

My friends will see me again. I will somehow make them. Even if it's the last thing I do.

~~~~~

Thank you for reading! Thanks again to dauntless_smirk and Sparrow-_-2020  for helping me and stuff. I should probably stop tagging them before it gets annoying. The next chapter will be up soon (hopefully)!