Nico rushed over the camp grounds, making his way over to the agreed spot. Almost making it at the agreed time… He probably still could if he really put whatever was left of his heart and soul into it. 

He clicked his tongue in annoyance. Just what exactly had he let Chiron talk him into yesterday…? Nico'd tried to refuse so many times. Until Chiron had actually started begging and much worse, apologizing… Chiron had figured out one of his biggest weaknesses, the ability to set healthy fucking boundaries... He didn't have trouble saying no, it was doing no that was difficult. Chiron had assured him he was desperate, quickly running out of time, that Nico was the only one who could help… and explained fuck all else… 

Who was he kidding? This was his own fault… 

He paced up to the small group of people. He saw a short figure embrace a taller figure. As he got closer he could see there was a lot more warmth from one side than the other. The taller one, a young man he could see now, patted the shorter young woman on the back half heartedly. She released him from her grasp. It wasn’t much of a guess who was who. 

The short, stout looking girl adjusted her glasses slightly. She picked at her many colourful bracelets with her index finger. The many, many beads rattled as she did. Her heavy framed, square glasses made her angular, dark brown eyes look slightly further apart than they would be naturally. Farsighted, Nico guessed. Her black bobcut framed her pale, round face nicely. Despite her friendly appearance the way she dressed hinted at a slightly serious attitude. Her purple blouse was neatly tucked in and she wore bright yellow, smart looking shoes. 

Nico assumed she was the representative of the Apollo cabin joining this mission. 

She looked up nervously at the young man in front of her. 

Even if he hadn’t been tall, compared to her particularly short stature he still would have looked imposing. He stood up straight, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his camouflage print cargo pants. It could have come off as casual if it weren’t for his serious, almost angry looking expression. His slightly oversized biker jacket, with its lapels covered entirely in small metal spikes, didn’t do much to dispel the somewhat hostile aura he was giving off. His dark blonde hair looked messy, almost gravity defying, sticking up in spiky strands. The short undercut did little to tame it. An army dog tag hung prominently on his chest.

If Nico hadn’t been sure who was who before, he was now. There was no way this guy wasn’t the Ares cabin candidate. 

Clarisse gestured at Nico from behind them. “di Angelo! You're one minute late!” she declared. 

“I'm sorry!” he offered. He really was. For showing up at all. 

The other two looked at her, then at him. The reaction was mixed, but otherwise surprised. The short young woman widened her eyes but then smiled. He smiled back, putting up a hand. Not such a warm welcome from his other new friend. 

“Who the fuck are you?!” He got yelled at. Before Nico could react the young man turned to Clarisse “Who the fuck is this bloodsucker?! What's going on?! You said this was going to be a two man job” he spat. 

Great… So not only was Nico apparently a vampire, it seems he wasn't even one of the popular ones! What a perfect way to start this dream job. They hadn’t even started and at least half of his new colleagues already hated him… 

He took a deep breath. He wasn't exactly doing this for the brownie points, but a little appreciation would be nice. Just keeping his gaze straight ahead, trying to ignore the spark of annoyance he felt, seemed like the best strategy. Too bad he couldn’t. 

Nico threw up a hand in frustration. “What does it even matter who I am? We're not here to make friends. We're here because we've got a job to do” he said, shooting him an unimpressed look. 

This seemed to set the other young man off. He stepped in front of Nico, staring right into him. Nico noticed he was a little taller than him, probably only one or two inches. His rage added to the fiery intensity of his amber coloured eyes. Their upturned edge and the dark circles underneath only underlined the anger further. 

If he hadn’t pissed Nico off so much, he might have actually been intimidated. 

Whoever he was ripped into him. “You bet your ass we're not going to be fucking friends, you spooky looking dork! It matters exactly because we've got a job to do! I don't know if you realize, but this is going to be fucking dangerous! And I don't trust-”. 

“Shut it! Now!” Clarisse barked. She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, making him recoil. “Listen, I love you, but you need to seriously back down. Right now! I know what I said, but we’re running out of time here! So we needed to make some adjustments. I promise you that Nico here is more than capable enough for this mission! In fact, the whole thing depends on him! He is the one who is going to make sure you all get where you need to go in time. It's not him I'm worried about here. So behave yourself”. 

She pulled him closer. “Am I clear?” she added loudly in his ear.

“Yes, ma’am…” he replied with a clenched jaw. 

“Good!” she said happily, giving him a hard shove back to his spot. 

Nico couldn’t help feeling a little smug. 

“We’re behind schedule. Let's get on with it and talk objectives. You can get to know each other after. We’ve kept our lord waiting long enough” Clarisse hurried along. 

Our lord? Were they actually summoned by a God? She gestured to someone behind her. A very large figure slowly came into view. 

A huge man with long brown hair that seamlessly transitioned into an equally long beard came riding up in an electric wheelchair. Nico could only describe the machine as a small monster truck. Hephaestus unintentionally further strengthened the comparison by driving its large, textured wheels over a freshly fallen tree trunk in a straight line, completely unfazed. 

“Hello, youngsters. Good morning. I want to thank you for coming. And apologize for the inconvenience". Hephaestus spoke in a low, calming, naturally authoritarian voice. He ruined it pretty much right after.

“I will ‘be so for real with you’ as my children would say. The reason I call on you today is that sadly I am having some severe marital problems at the moment…”. 

Seriously…? 

Nico had to clasp a hand on his mouth to keep his expression in check. He carefully glanced over. His shorter new friend had a face like a statue, showing nothing other than a polite smile. Her eyes looked like they were made of glass. His taller new ‘friend’ seemed to be having a much harder time. He’d opened his mouth in exasperation, clearly about to mouth off again. Clarisse glared some daggers at him, all hitting dead centre. He visibly ground his teeth. 

Nico turned his attention back to Hephaestus. There better be a good story to back this up. 

“Who of you has heard of the myth of Harmonia’s necklace?” The God asked brightly. 

None of them reacted. His bright smile died down noticeably. 

“Truly? None of you…? It is quite a well known legend… One of my few…” he started complaining. 

Clarisse carefully gestured at him. “My lord, the crushing time pressure…”. 

He picked himself back up. “Of course! It all started one thousand seven hundred and thirty five years ago. Hermes flew into my workshop to enlighten me-”. 

Clarisse gestured again, a bit less carefully. 

“Apologies…” Hephaestus offered. He stroked his beard a few times pensively. “Wife found out about tryst with favourite mistress, thus intends to kill her with cursed necklace” he summarized. He looked at Clarisse for approval. 

“Perfect, my lord” she praised. 

He turned back to them, clearly encouraged. “Yes! Please, get it back to me. But, beware! The labyrinth I built to protect it is rife with traps and creatures beyond your wildest imagination! You must take every precaution, lest you perish! On this quest you may-!”. 

Clarisse coughed loudly. 

“Right… Right…”. He turned the small control on his arm rest, turning his wheelchair as if to drive away. He visibly remembered something. “Remember!” he exclaimed at them dramatically. He paused just long enough to make Nico believe that was going to be all, like some sort of senile self-affirmation. 

“When you find the necklace you must never wear it! In fact, do not handle it in any way that might even resemble wearing it! If you do, the nefarious critters protecting it will follow you to the very ends of the earth to retrieve it. Stopping at nothing! You would not survive! It is a terribly dangerous, highly sophisticated curse. You might even consider it a trap, depending on how you look-”. 

Clarisse straight up chopped the air with her hand.  “Thank you, my lord”. 

Hephaestus blinked at her. 

“No, thank you my dear! All of you have my gratitude! Best of luck to you!” he said happily, putting his wheelchair into gear. 

They watched as the God of industrialization drove away in another straight line, right into a tree. His machine tore it down like it was nothing but a speed bump, running two of its large wheels over it all along the length. The tree's branches bristled and broke like a horrifying death rattle as he made his way. 

The Gods were… Interesting people… 

They turned back to Clarisse, trying to ignore the occasional sound of falling trees in the background. Clarisse clapped her hands together. 

“So, we all got that? Good. Now, Nico here is going to use his Hades DNA to get you to the entrance of the cave system. Our lord has been so kind to offer up his personal vacation home right outside of it for you to stay at. Or well… as he called it, his mancave…” she paused a second to let her eye get some good twitches in, then instantly regrouped. “Point is, It’ll have everything you need. When you get there, you’re going to split tasks properly and get me that damn necklace from that damn cave! I will see you all here in thirty minutes sharp! Dismissed!”. She clapped her hands again. 

His new best friend grunted and walked off. The shorter girl stepped closer and stuck out her hand. Nico shook it. 

“Hi, I’m Yan, daughter of Apollo. Sorry about all that earlier… My friend there is Logan, son of Ares. He’s not usually… He’s… He, uh… ”. 

Nico held up a hand. “It’s not your fault. Don’t worry about it”. He gave her a reassuring smile. “I’m Nico, son of Hades. Nice to meet you”. 

Yan smiled. “I know, we've actually met before back at camp when you used to sit with us. It's been a while, though!”. 

Right. Of course. 

“How is Will?” he forced himself to ask. He twisted his ring nervously. 

Yan smiled brighter. “Good! He still works here actually, I can let him know you're here if you-”. 

Nico almost choked and waved wildly with his hands. “No!” he shouted desperately, making Yan lean away a bit. “I mean, no thank you... I don't think-”. 

Like a beefy guardian angel Clarisse interjected before he could finish stammering himself into a corner. “Nico, I’ll show you the location”. 

“Right!” he replied. “See you in half an hour" he told Yan, quickly turning away from her.

Clarisse wasted no time, drilling all the information into his ear loudly and efficiently, occasionally holding up a grainy picture. He tried to absorb as much of it as he could, nodding along. She dismissed him with a quick gesture, then shoved the small piece of paper with the coordinates in his hand. 

“Uh, thanks” he said to her back as he watched it walk off. 

He looked out over the camp grounds. Gods, he hadn't been here in years… For good reason… Suddenly, he was very aware of how visible the clearing was from most other parts of camp. Crap. He moved away from the opening in the treeline and waited out the rest of the time left. 

With how precise Clarisse had been, the wait was luckily not much longer. Even more luckily, she was the first to return. She dropped down three backpacks. 

Yan turned up next, walking up so quietly and carefully she almost seemed to appear out of thin air. 

Clarisse eyed her watch sternly, then found Logan, apparently exactly in time. Nico ignored the hint of nerves when their eyes met, Logan was clearly in no better mood than before. 

Clarisse broke the silence. “Get ready” she ordered. 

They each grabbed a back pack and lined up. Nico sighed out the dread inside him and offered up his hands. Yan took one without question. Logan looked taken aback, then ground his teeth and did the same. 

Nico took a deep breath. The shadows from the trees nearby reached out to them in long dark streaks. Everything went dark. Cold, quiet whispers flew past. He felt Yan’s grip tighten, her hand turned a little clammy. Poor thing. Not much longer, he mentally reassured her. Well, not just her, actually.