||PJatO||The Nightfall||PJatO||

Title: The Nightfall

Fandoms: Percy Jackson and the Olympians/the Heroes of Olympus

Disclaimer: All rights PJO/HOO related reserved for Rick Riordan. No money is made with this, though reviews are very welcome.

Warnings: Strong language, violence, death

Summary: Percy Jackson's gone for good. He's a traitor of Olympus, or at least that's what the world believes. But once you've killed, cheated and run away, can you ever be a hero again? And when a mysterious deity from Tartarus is influencing your innermost thoughts, how can you even trust yourself? A word of warning: the Apocalypse is closing in.

The Nightfall

Part 1:The End of an Era

Chapter 1: Dealing the Hands.

The boy in black dealt three hands of cards.

The players opposite him had their backs to the sun, and were glaring right into his nightmarishly black eyes.

'This a dark place, and I know you can feel it too.'

When neither of the players replied, the boy continued.

'People are happy here, but we're not those people! You understand.'

One of the players, a raven haired young man with a shock of aqua in his eyes, stared down at his growing pile of cards.

'We can't just leave here, Nico. The war is over! There's no reason to keep running. Why don't you come to college with us here in New Rome? Our lives could be… somewhat normal, maybe.'

The boy in black closed his eyes. 'A normal life, Percy? Three demigods fresh out of Tartarus living a normal life? Going to college? I wish it were that easy.'

The girl between them fingered a blonde ringlet behind her ear. 'We have to move on, Nico. You know that, don't you? The nightmares are obviously going to be intense at first, and yes, we might have these... panic attacks for a while. But time will change that.'

'Ah. But will it, though?'

Nico pulled a card from his deck and placed it on the grass between them.

'Or will it just get worse?'

She hesitated. 'How could it be worse?'

'It can always be worse!' He rolled his eyes. 'Most people don't live after Tartarus, let alone stay sane. To walk in there is the ultimate self-destruction. Don't think you'll forget it for a second, Annabeth. It will stay with us forever. It's a part of us now. And sooner or later, it will consume us.'

The green-eyed boy lifted his first card.

King of Hearts.

'If there's no way out, then what's the point of doing anything about it?'

Nico ran his palm over the shadows at his feet, tendrils of inky black mist slipping through his fingers.

'Giving up so soon, Percy? It's unlike you. Like I said, this is a dark place. No one here understands, and everyone thinks we're fine. But what happens when our schizophrenia starts up in the streets? When we believe we're back in Tartarus, and seeing things that aren't really there? What if we mistake an innocent kid for a monster and start swinging a sword around? This isn't about us getting better. We're dangerous. We won't get better. The best we can do is keep everyone else safe.'

A teasing grin lit up his features.

'And isn't that your specialty, Percy? You're loyal to a fault. Don't you want keep your precious followers safe?'

'Stop, Nico,' Annabeth's voice sounded stern, but she still dropped eye contact with him. The cards in her hand were useless. 'we have more control than that. We would never…'

'You're wrong. Tarturus owns our minds now. This is no sanctuary, just a cage for dying demigods. We're all going to rot in here.'

Annabeth put down a desperate hand.

'Nico, we can help eachother. This place isn't dark, it's full of people who believe in us, who trust us enough to never leave them. What would we look like if we ran away?'

'We get it, you've been alone for… a really long time.' Percy looked the son of Hades dead in the eyes.

'You went through the pit on your own, and I know I couldn't have done that. But you're here right now, alive, with people who care about you.'

He looked up as a cloud passed overhead, its shadow moving on past them. 'Look around, Nico, it's a beautiful day. There's no darkness around here.'

Nico also stared up at the blue, blue sky.

He looked at the people across the meadow, smiling and talking about normal things as they strolled through the dandelions, like what they were having for dinner, or what they wanted to study in college.

Their skin was bronzed from the Californian sun, and their smiles were bright around their fellow comrades. They were all glad the war was over.

Then he looked at Percy and Annabeth.

If their reddened eyes, tinged with the tell-tale signs of a restless sleep, meant anything, it was that for them everything was far from over.

And denial would only get them so far.

'You're right. There's no darkness around us.'

Nico set down his aces.

'But what we brought back from Tartarus: the haunted eyes, the messed-up minds and the scarred skin. That's the problem. The darkness inside of us isn't going anywhere.'

Percy managed a weak protest as he noticed a spare stash of cards poking through the unzipped pocket of Nico's hoodie.

'Nico. Have you... been cheating this whole time? Why would you…'

'I do what I can to get ahead, Perce.'

Scooping up the drachmas he'd just won, Nico didn't even manage a smile.

'When you crawl out of Hell you've got to keep running forever, before the demons catch up with you.'

Then the boy in black was enveloped by his own shadow, dispersing with the summer breeze into the blue, blue sky.

A/N: Next chapter: The Staining of the Sword- featuring the Praetor of New Rome. Feel free to follow/favourite or leave a review.
~cold clouds~