And We Are Back After A 4 Month Hiatus!

The sound of footsteps echoed throughout the darkness. Nico di Angelo wearily raised his head and studied his surroundings. It was pitch black, and smelled musty, as if the air itself was infused with the magical properties that held him like chains.

With a warm white glow, stepped forth a man. He had silver hair that shone like the stars on a dark night with eyes that were pure white, and shimmered with energy. A giant.

"Mr. Di Angelo."

Nico croaked in acknowledgement.

It was all he could do with the thick, heavy earthen rods piercing his body all over. Gaea had done this to him. Nico was foolish for lurking too deep in the earth, and now he was paying the price. The rods were essentially like a charger for a phone, they fed him energy to keep him going, but they also stopped him from moving. The horrible agony they kept him in was just a bonus. Nico knew that the rods were all that were keeping him alive, and if he attempted to break out, he would eventually grow weak and die.

In the giant's eyes, he saw an enemy that could become far more dangerous than either Percy Jackson or Jason Grace. Nico di Angelo's strength was not in his gifts of power, but of words. With the influence he wielded, he could turn all of the Underworld against the Giants and Gaea, even the beasts that slumbered in its deepest depths.

The giant cleared his throat, and tried for a smile. "Faring well?" he asked, knowing full well the child wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.

Nico tried to grin, but it came out as more of a scowl.

"Kinda hard to be well when you're hooked up to Mother Nature, during her period," Nico complianed, wincing as he twitched and the rods moved in him.

The giant chuckled, putting up the front he knew he had to for the boy. "You remind me of a boy that I knew once," he reminisced. "He was pure, untainted, not to mention powerful like you; and such cheek he used to give me when I would reprimind him."

With his index finger, the giant touched one of the rods that pierced Nico's stomach. Immediately, it felt as if a thousand nails were driven into his body. The air was sucked out of his lungs in an instant, leaving him unable to scream. The giant grimaced at his pain, but did not lower his hand.

" I tried my best to reason with Gaea, child, but she is growing impatient, no doubt the Concillium is causing all kinds of trouble for her.''

"Is... he... alive? Percy?" Nico felt cold hands trying to pull him under to Tartarus, he gazed into the darkness, and to his surprise he found Bianca, studying him with her eyes, a single tear rolling down the side of her face.

''I wish there was some other way...'' The giant, mused. '' I tried to protect your brother as best as I could, but in the end, he is an enemy.''

Nico glanced at the giant, and back at Bianca, he nodded once, and then...blackness.

Percy

Percy woke up feeling like his body was on fire. The face of Nico di Angelo, twisted by pain, was emblazoned in his mind, he saw Bianca too, in her ghostly form, and that made him wonder just how far the Doors of Death had opened.

One quiet blessed morning, when there wasn't a million weapons being thrown at them, Annabeth and Percy discussed the Doors, how dead people could be alive and walk around like regular people. Annabeth tried to hide it as best as she could, but Percy could see it in her eyes. She hoped that Luke escaped.

Percy walked over to his sink and splashed water on his face, until he noticed his clothes were soaked in sweat. Percy peeled off his clothes and jumped into the shower.

Moments later, drying his wet hair with a towel, he stepped out onto the cool night, feeling the ocean waves that cascaded underneath the Argo II. Standing under innumerable stars, he wondered whether he should tell Annabeth about what he saw, or gods forbid, one of the Concillium members.

"Little early to be out, isn't it?"

"Gah!" Percy nearly jumped out of his skin, and immediately all of the moisture in his towel evaporated. The training helped him control his powers a lot better now, but sometimes he would still have some relapses.

Chuckling with his lazy smile, Shapiro had made himself some sort of hammock and was lying down on it, happily eating what appeared to be a peach.

"Shapiro, we really need to uh... talk about scaring the Hades out of me whenever we meet." Percy shuddered.

Shapiro nodded. "Sit down Jackson."

Immediately, as he formed these words, a hammock similar to his weaved iself into place. "Oh... uh... thanks," Percy muttered.

Percy sat down. For a moment neither one of them said anything. Shapiro and Renati tended to space out randomly, either because they were bad at keeping track of the pasage of time or because they were telepathically talking with the other Concillium members.

" How many of you are there?" Percy had asked one day when they were cleaning up broken armor pieces and weapons.

"Well... I can't exactly tell myself Percy," Shapiro had answered, "all I know is that unless the individual is immensly powerful, due to the hazardous work we do, we work together in pairs of two. Renny and I were paired because we complement each other quite nicely, But, I hear that other members get into some nasty fights."

"Why is that?" Percy asked, perplexed.

"Well..." Shapiro scratched his chin. " If you would study each member, they all made a name for themselves in Greek or Roman mythological history, so they're not really keen to be taking orders from anyone."

From that day on, Percy carefully studied both Renati and Shapiro, and saw that they worked almost flawlessly as a team. Perhaps it was Shapiro's ability to accept and embrace the fact that he preferred Renati's guidance more than he trusted his own.

"The last time I made up my mind about anything, I lost a lot of people I cared about," Shapiro had said, almost to himself, "ever since I don't think I'll be doing any leading for a while, eh Percy?"

╰ ╮¤°.¸¸.·´¯`»® ®«´¯`·.¸¸.°¤

"So..." Shapiro slowly drew out the 'o' so that it woke Percy from his brooding. " What brings you out here while you should be sleeping like a little girl?"

"Wait, what?" Percy said indignantly, returning from his daydream."Why in Hades am I suddenly a little girl?"

Shapiro shook his head. "Forget it, I'm not going to get into the whole thing right now, what I want to know is: why are you awake right now? And don't make up any stupid lies, you are terrible at lying."

Percy started telling him about his dream, how Nico had been strung up with these... bars that seemed to be sapping his life. Shapiro didn't say anything, he looked surprised when Percy told him what the giant looked like, but other than that, he had a complete poker face.

"Percy, do you have any idea who this giant might be?" Shapiro asked seriously.

Percy had asked everyone, Annabeth, Reyna, Jason, even Poseidon, and they had all had no answers.

"No...Not even my dad knew."

"There's only one person that knows who that man really is," Shapiro said quietly. "I only have guesses, myself, but...no it can't be."

" Who do you think he is?"

Shapiro opened his mouth to answer, when a hand touched his shoulder. It was Renati, and he did not look good. " We have a serious problem." He said grimly.

Renati guided them towards the engine room, when Percy heard a yell and a wrench flew out of the door.

''Gah!'' Percy jumped out of the way, and heard more frustrated grumbles and swearing. Leo was underneath the master control, sweat covering more than half of his small body, with little bits of scrap metal scattered around him like a snowglobe.

''Leo! What's going on!?''

Leo jumped out from underneath the system, his face messy with sweat and grease, and his eyes looking a little wild. ''Nothing is going on! That's the problem!''

Renati wordlessly handed Leo a towel. Still huffing, Leo stood up and cleaned up his face. ''The radar system isn't picking up any dangerous lifeform within 50 miles, but I could swear- and Renati said he heard it too- I- we heard this noise coming from behind the ship.''

''I'm pretty sure it wasn't anything Leo,'' Shapiro said amicably. ''it must have been a long night for you two, and I think that if you-''

The Argo II lurched sideways, so sharply that Percy stumbled and fell. Leo gave a moan and dashed back under the controls, trying to desperately figure out what was amiss.

5 demigods in pajamas all staggered into the room, some of them sporting some crazy hairstyles.

''I was sleeping and I felt-''

''Tumbled straight out of my bed-''

''Scared the Hades out of me!''

Renati held up his hand for silence. ''We do not need you all to panic, but I feel that there may be a battle coming, and I suggest you all prepare for it.''

Jason looked ashamed, probably since he was the son of Zeus, and he had been sleeping while all of this commotion was going on. He silently took Piper by the shoulders and left the room.

Annabeth gave Percy a quick hug and went over to Leo, immediately asking questions about the ship.

Frank and Hazel spoke a quick hello and then went out to prepare themselves.

Everything went by so quickly that Percy could barely process what was going on.

''Do you really think it could be-'' Renati started, turning to Shapiro.

Shapiro shook his head. ''There's only a few possibilities, based on the cry you heard-''

''It wasn't just one cry,'' Renati said, ''it was many, atleast ten of them.''

Percy walked up to them and cleared his throat. ''What are you guys talking about?''

''Dragons,'' said Shapiro grimly. ''A lot of them.''

Leo shot up and looked alarmed. ''What did you say?''

''Dragons,'' Shapiro repeated, looking puzzled. ''A lot of them.''

Dread filled Leo's eyes. ''Oh no... I never should have...''

''Should have what?'' Annabethe looked up from under the controls.

Leo gave an uneasy laugh and looked at the atmosphere of the group. '' Well... when I was building Festus, I was a little sad because he never really had like a lady friend y'know? So, I built him this thing that detects potential love interests for him so he wouldn't be so lonely and maybe make a friend.''

Annabeth looked bewildered. ''You gave a ship hormones!?''

Leo raised his hands up to his head. ''I thought it was a good idea for him. And it's not exactly hormones, it's more along the lines of...a soft spot. I was just being a good wingman!''

Despite the situation, Percy found himself laughing. '' You made Festus into a womanizer?''

''So then these dragons are all female?'' Renati asked.

''I don't know,'' Said Leo. '' but if it was a dude, then he would have sounded the alarm a long time ago.''

''Then we are in serious trouble,'' Shapiro headed for the door. '' female dragons are bigger and more ferocious than male dragons. Like way bigger and angrier. I'll notify everyone.''

Renati remained standing, the only difference was a sword hanging from his belt. ''I will be on the look out for these dragons, but in the meantime, you three should go and get prepared, dragons are very hard to kill.''

JayKayy's A/N

It's been 4 months of waiting fans, and I am sorry about the hiatus but NG and I have been busy with life and had no time for writing. It was only after I saw all of the reviews and a quiet evening pondering the fate of this book did I decide to start writing again. I may be a little rusty in the writing, but basically some time has passed between 34 and 35, and there will be a little surprise for you guys next chapter. Special thanks especially to nevergivein since I emailed him about a week ago and he said, '' cool, I'm all for it.''

I thank Constellapeia for Pming me time to time so I don't forget about FanFiction; I'm still waiting on the chapter Skye!

And PerfectMarySueKiller... you have made me want to start writing again. Thank you.

Okay, so hopefully the next chapter will be much quicker to write and I will start pouring more time into writing chapters, some interesting Greek monsters that have not been mentioned yet would be helpful.

Alrighty, I think that's all I have to say for now. Hope you guys enjoyed 35 with many more to come!

NG's A/N

So...what should I say here? I guess sorry is the first thing that comes to mind. This is what, the hundreth time this story has gone on one of these breaks? Well, we're back so that's good, and we'll try to make it to the end of this story, and maybe even beyond! Thank you for all of your reviews, and to PerfectMarySueKiller, I appreciate your offer, but I think Jay and I have got this. I think we might actually be able to finish this story. Oh, and thank you all for actually continuing to deal with my and Jay's crap. We may not be punctual, but at least we eventually listen to you guys. So yeah, that's all I've got to say, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter.

P.S: We're still after you Riordan! We will get the rights to PJO and HoO!

JayKayy: ^^^ this above comment; yes. Just yes.