t.. .

(Make sure to give this last chapter lots of love!)

:...

: You read ahead didn't You?

: I don't want to talk about it.

Although she wasn't looking at him; she could feel his cold gaze burning against the side of her neck. His dark eyes digging holes into her skin. He held out his hand, which hung small and limp in the sleeve of his sweatshirt. His eyes never left her face. He was making her uncomfortable, and he knew it.

She took his hand.

It was cold, like the boy had spent hours in the crystalized snow. She watched him shrink away, his hand falling loose against her own grip. She realized his fingers were trembling; shivering like they were just noticing their lack of warmth. Steve, who had taken his other hand, frowned in concern.

"Are you okay?"

Nico took an uneven hitch of air. His shoulders hunching with self defense. He lowered his gaze to the floor.

"Somethings wrong."

He didn't elaborate.

Clint, who was figiting nervously next to Steve, frowned with suspicion. "With your shadow travel thing?"

He made finger quotes around shadow travel, but the boy didn't seem to notice.

The boy shook his head

"Percy."

The name lingered painfully in the air, before it fell silently against their feet. And nobody dared to pick it up. They just shuffled themselves more quickly to grab somebodys hand. Their expressions anxious and rising with skeptisim.

Nico took a rattled breath. They stood facing the darkest corner of the room, Shadows creeping their way up the wall

"You will take us to the camp and no where else." She whispered sharply into the boy's ear.

He didn't give a sign that he heard her. But she could hear him whispering darkly in an unknown language. They moved toward the wall.

And they stepped through it.

Through it.

Through the WALL.

Natasha felt her body clenching, as the world rippled and morphed into shadows and darkness. Frozen air pulling at her skin, turning her stomach. She held her breath as her feet found solid ground. The warm air startling her; the sweet scent of berries wafting into her senses.

The boy beside her shriveled to the ground.

"Whoa kid!"

Steve lunged out to grab him before he hit the earth. The boy winced, his expression sick. His eyes fell out of focus as he struggled to stand.

"I'm sorry."

Clint was wonderingly watching the kid, the valley below him bathed in the warm sun. "How did you do that?"

Nico teetered in his stance, as he brushed the dirt off his knees with his sleeve. "Ask him."

He gestured to Tony who was staring out at the valley with an odd expression. The theory that the kids were half god, was suddenly becoming more realistic. The rest of the group tilted their heads to stare at the rolling fields of strawberries below them.

"Where did you take us?" Natasha bit back the bitter tone in her voice, as the boy rose a hand to block the glaring sun. The empty stretch of rode beside them, rising with dust.

"Camp half-blood."

__________

Nico

Nico couldn't ignore how welcoming the sight of camp was. The sweet scent of the strawberry fields, and the dull crackle of grass beneath his feet. He saw the sun fallen low in the orange sky; the hill bathed in its light.

But he was cold.

Shivering beneath his sweatshirt, the fleece lining soft against his shaking hands. In his stomach, lay the rising feeling of dread, overwhelming his senses like nausea. Someone was dying.

Someone he loved.

He raised his dark eyes to camp below the towering pine; obscurred to the rest by the mist. He was running out of time.

"Stay here for a moment-I swear-I will come back." He didn't leave enough time for the Avengers to answer. He disappeared past the pine. And found himself enveloped in silence.

He stopped dead in his tracks, the dry wind blowing his hair lightly in different directions. He frowned-his eyes trailing over the cabins. Something was wrong.

Silence.

Complete silence.

There was a moment where Nico stood up upon the hill, his figure silheuted against the sun. His eyes darting recklessesly around the valley below. But the second was gone in a heartbeat. And he started to run.

There was no noise except for the alarming thrashing sound of waves from the shore. His feet hit the ground with a rhythmic frantic beat. He ran into the ring of cabins, their shadows growing in the peak of dusk.

Nobody.

He turned slowly in a circle; each breath lingering on unsteadiness. His eyes darted up to the sky. Lightning flickering in the dull heat of the warm evening. His breathing grew more shaky as he took off again towards the beach. The sound of waves thundering upon the surf echoing off the hills.

There was a figure already crouching on the dunes. His head low, shielding his daughter against the sudden gusts of salty wind surrounding the ocean. Resting against the sand beside him lay his capped sword-in pen form.

Nico cautiously raised a hand against the wind, the sand around his feet drifting in the unnatural drafts. He took a shaky step towards the boy, squinting his eyes. Pulling the sleeves of the sweatshirt over his fists. The boy didn't make a noise.

But then again, he couldn't hear much over the obnoxious wind.

"P-percy?" Nico crouch down in front of his hooded friend. But the boy's face was still lowered-he didn't meet his eyes. Nico placed a shaking hand on his shoulder, the empty pain in his stomach building.

"Look at me," Nico's voice cracked as he tightened his grip threatningly on Percy shoulders. "Please..."

Percy's body shuddered under his touch. Unervingly, the wind stilled where they knelt-despite the rough drafts picking up the sand in the dunes around them. Almost as if they stood in the eye of a raging storm. The sun's warm light was fading, filtering lower in the sky. The darker colors of night ebbing away at the light of day. Nico shivered, as the warm evening shriveled down. His body aching dangerously as he stared at the lowered head of the boy in front of him. The light of the sinking sun bouncing off his dark hair.

Slowly, Nico raised a shaking hand to the boy's face, resting it under his chin so he could lift the boy's head. His face was shadowed in the dim light. His eyes squeezed shut, his forehead creased as if he was in pain. Nico kept his hand warily on one of his shoulders. Unwilling to let go, thinking if he did, he would lose him forever.

"Percy...look at me." Nico stared at the boy's scrunched face. Searching for some recognation that he had heard him. "Please Perc-."

He broke off as the boy opened his eyes, the pained expression filtering off into emptiness. His eyes, clinging onto Nico's with a harsh uneasyness, were empty and haunting. Their dark depths fading and pulling away like the tide of the ocean. Swirling and crashing, but slowly sinking into the sand and disappearing forever.

Nico felt sick.

"Percy-don't do whatever you' re thinking-please don't ....P-please."

Nico wasn't sure what he expected, but he didn't expect Percy to stare him straight in the eye and smile. A broken, empty ghost of a smile-that pierced Nico straight in the heart. He rose a hand to grab Nico's wrist, the heat of his touch filling him with unease.

Percy slowly pulled Nico's hand from under his chin, and folded it into a cradle position. Nico breath hitched as he stared down at his own arm. "No-Percy-don't...."

But the boy didn't listen, instead he stared at the bundle in his lap. At the beautiful eyes of his daughter, which stared at him under their long lashes. Percy let out a shaky breath. Holding her to his chest one last time. He bit his lip and closed his eyes, than dropped the girl into the crook of Nico's arm. Drawing away quickly, his eyes flickering open to latch threatningly onto Nico.

"Don't drop her, just give her to my uncle."

Nico let out a choked laugh. "Don't trust me cousin?"

Percy stared at him. "Not really"

Nico scoffed half heartidely, folding his hands around the child. He stared at his cousin for a long aching moment-knowing that there was nothing he could do. Nothing he could do to stop him.

"Where is everyone?" The question broke into the silence-as Percy slouched back on his heels.

"Looking for me." Percy rose a hand to his collar and pulled the hood down; raising his head to stare at the twilight sky. The first glitter of stars spraying across the open heavens. Nico bit back his stinging tears.

"Say hi to Hazel for me? Okay?" Nico could feel his shoulders shaking with each intake of breath. Percy smiled, a real smile this time, and closed his eyes.

"I will."

"And Jason, and Frank, and Pipe-" Nico was crying for real now, as Percy breathed out deeply.

"Nico....you have to go now. Please-you don't want to see this. Bring kalliope to Tony, promise me you will do that."

Nico stared at him, the tear streaks glittering against his hollow cheeks.

"I-I promise."

He clutched kalliope tighter to his chest and scrambled backwards. Kicking up the sand around his feet. Stumbling back into the tree line, his shoulders hunched in pain.

As Percy fell to his knees behind him.

He didn't even make a sound.

×××××××××××××××××

It was almost an hour later when Nico came into view. The night sky, already soaking up the warmth of the evening. Leaving them shivering in their t-shirts. Clint had suggested leaving, but Tony refused to budge. Plopping himself onto the ground, only scrambling to his feet when Nico's small frame rose over the crest of the hill.

He was holding Kalliope in his shaking arms. His eyes ringed red and puffy. Tony cursed and ran to meet him. Suprised to find himself overcome with anxiety. The boy didn't speak, but instead handed kalliope over to him.

"Where's Percy?" Tony suddenly felt dizzy, like the air was sucked from his lungs.

But Nico didn't answer.

He didn't have to.

×××××××××××××××××××

~1969 words~

.

(Also can we take a moment to appreciate my change in music tastes (in the videos I added to chapters) over the past two years? Ignoring the prologue one since I changed that pretty recently. (And this chapter) Like honestly I went from generic pop, to alternative, to Emo, to a kpoppin hoe....LIKE HONESTLY.)

I'm not sure if I want to do an epilogue, but if you guys really want it.... than please comment and tell me. And MAYBE I will write one.

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

×

AND I'M OUT!

For good.