And we're done here. Sorry this chapter took so long to post. I had to try and tie up more things than I thought and it was a little complicated.

There are slight elements of Rico (Racio?) in this chapter. I can't believe how hard I ship the two of them and the more time I spend in the fandom the more intense it gets.

Thank you to everyone who read this, and special thanks to everyone who reviewed it. You have all been so, so kind.

Particular thanks to my friend Proud to Be Plug, to whom this fic essentially belongs. He has put up with a lot from me in order to get it finished. XD.

Over and officially out,

Mission to Marzipan.

Rachel stared into the middle distance, tapping the eraser of her pencil idly against a blank page of her sketchbook. She didn't even realise she was doing it, couldn't hear its rhythmic tapping. She was flat on her stomach on the bed in her room at the Big House, with her mind occupied with the events of the day. The whiteness of the paper yawned emptily at her, mocking her for her inability to even doodle idly.

Nico: the destroyer of the world. Nico, for the love of the gods. And yet… as much as she wanted to be incredulous and believe that it was ridiculous, she wasn't certain that she could be totally sure that it wouldn't come to pass. The things Nico had seen and done, the things he dealt with on a daily basis… was it any wonder that so many of Hades' kids lost it, all things considered?

"I can't believe you did that today," Annabeth said, leaning against the doorjamb of Rachel's room in the Big House.

Some form of prescience had told Rachel that Annabeth was going to appear and she didn't jump. Instead, she just closed her sketchbook. It flipped past rough outlines and sketches that seemed to be featuring Nico more and more often lately as it closed.

"What were you trying to achieve with that little Underworld Cribs show you had him put on for the counsellors?" Annabeth continued. "Having Nico show off his powerbase isn't going to make him less likely to flip and destroy the world. In fact, probably more so when he realises everything that he has under his command."

"It wasn't about that," Rachel said, letting the pencil fall from her grip. She swung around so that she was sitting on the edge of the bed and sighed heavily. "You should have seen him this morning, Annabeth, when they played that trick on him with his Cabin. He was angry, sure, but more than anything else he was just so sad. It was painful to see. I just thought that maybe if people understood him better they'd be less likely to pick on him, less likely to treat him as an outsider, an easy target. If he can feel included here at Camp then maybe that's the key to keeping him sane."

Annabeth digested that for a beat and then nodded and crossed the threshold, sinking down onto the end of the bed. "I guess that makes sense," she said. "He has always been kind of bummed out about how he gets treated around here." She paused, her fingers worrying at a hole in the knitted throw Rachel had on top of the comforter.

"How did you manage to look at him and not see a ticking time bomb?" she asked suddenly, looking up and locking on to Rachel's gaze. "When I saw him at breakfast… I don't know how I'm meant to spend the rest of my days if I'm always wondering if today will be the day he'll flip and destroy the world."

"I just looked at him like he was Nico," Rachel said. "The same as always. We can't treat him differently, Annabeth. What if that's what sets him off in the first place? And the prophecy said 'raise or raze'. It's one or the other. He could just easily save the world from destruction as be its destroyer. You have to remember that you're looking at someone who has the power to save the world if he makes the right choices. If we help him to make the right choices."

Annabeth sighed heavily. "Oh, sure. Sounds so simple. Do the dishes. Take out the trash. Help Nico not be all four Horsemen rolled into one. Clean the lint trap in the dryer. You know, the usual."

Rachel's forehead creased into a frown. "What's a lint trap?" she wondered.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "You know, just when I start to forget that you're filthy rich and never have to lift a finger…"

"Hey, I leave the domestic goddess stuff to the actual domestic goddesses," Rachel said. "Don't pick on me for that. The point, though, is that this whole thing doesn't have to be difficult. All you have to do is treat him like you did before you knew what might happen."

Annabeth tilted her had in accession. "Yeah. You're right. I'm not exactly acting very wise over this, am I? The whole thing is just throwing me off so bad. It's just… it's Nico, you know? I can't imagine Nico destroying the world without destroying himself. He'd a pain in the ass but I don't want that for him."

"No one does," Rachel said. "No one who cares about him does. We'll get through this, Annabeth."

Annabeth's breath hitched and the room dissolved into a watery blur for a self-indulgent moment before she sniffed and cuffed away the tears. "I just… Gods this is selfish, but it's Percy as well, not just Nico. You know what's going to happen if… if Nico does go off the deep end. That by itself is enough pull me apart, but Thalia and Percy are the only ones who are really a match for him and if Percy has to fight Nico, maybe even kill him… I just don't know what would happen. It would tear him to pieces, Rachel. Honestly, it would. The thought of Percy having to do that... I want it not to happen so badly for Nico and Percy that it feels like I can't look at it rationally."

"It was only a heads up," Rachel said. "The Oracle just wanted to warn us to keep a closer eye on him. There was nothing definite about the prophecy. There's no reason for any of that to happen, okay?"

"Yeah," Annabeth said. "Yes. Okay. Tomorrow I am going to march into that cabin of his at six a.m. and tell him to get his skinny ass out of bed and get a haircut."

Rachel smiled. "Just like every morning?"

"Damn straight just like every morning," Annabeth confirmed. She exhaled heavily, seemingly feeling lighter, and then said, "I've got to go. Percy's waiting for me. I've got to tell him about what the Oracle said. I just… needed to talk first."

"Are you sure you want to tell Percy?" Rachel asked, wincing.

"Why wouldn't I?" Annabeth said. "He needs to know. Like I said, if Nico goes rouge, and I mean if, Percy is going to have to be there to pick up the pieces."

Rachel sighed and ran a hand across her face. "Okay," she said slowly. "Okay. I just hope he can keep it from Nico."

"What, you don't trust Percy? Percy, of all people?" Annabeth demanded.

"It's not that," Rachel said. "It's just that when it comes to keeping secrets… Percy could use a better poker face."

"Well, we still don't know if we're going to keep it a secret," Annabeth said stiffly. "I mean, in the short run it was probably a good thing, but…"

"If we don't tell him, he might destroy the world," Rachel said tiredly. "Yup, I hear you. But the same is true if we do tell him. We've already had this argument."

"So what do we do, then?" Annabeth demanded, and there was a definite bite to her voice. Rachel didn't take it personally. This was something with too many maybes, something which, in many cases, flew in the face of her usual form of thinking. She was never comfortable without definite inputs that could be factored in.

Rachel shrugged. She was more comfortable in dealing with such fluidities. "Not everything has to be tied up in a neat little bow all the time," she said gently. "Especially not so far in advance."

Annabeth wrinkled her nose, like she'd just got a bad taste in her mouth. "Doesn't it?" she asked dryly.

Rachel smiled fondly. "Okay, how about this," she said. "You tell Percy and he is the deciding vote on whether we tell Nico or not. I vote no. You're obviously leaning more towards yes. Let's wait and see what Percy thinks."

Annabeth nodded, biting her lip. "Okay," she said eventually. "Thank you."

"No problem," Rachel said. "We're in this together, okay?"

"Got it," Annabeth said, standing up and walking to the door.

"Although whatever we decide, Annabeth, it doesn't really change anything either way," Rachel said, catching Annabeth just as she was about to leave. "You know that, right? We don't treat him differently whatever happens. The outcome is the same: we just are there for him. I— we love Nico. He'll get through this. We all will. No matter what. If we decide whether or not to tell him now, or not for a week, or in a month, the plan of action is the same. I'll see you later, okay?"

"Yup," Annabeth said. "Bye."

Annabeth's footsteps retreated down the hall, leaving Rachel chewing on her lip. Despite what she had said to Annabeth she was still worried. It just didn't pay to have a flustered Oracle, though. She was who demigods came to for advice; therefore, she wasn't allowedto let worries get to her. That wouldn't exactly be a confidence booster for those who sought her out. The warning from the Oracle about Nico was a Big Deal, though, whether she liked it or not. She'd be crazy not to be worried about it.

Still, like she said to Annabeth: one step at a time, she guessed. Take it slow. See how things turned out and if it started to look bad then do something about it. But most of all she had had to be there.

Nico had been there for her in the past and she could be there for him to remind him of who he was and what he and Olympus stood for. To grab him by the scruff of the neck and drag his scrawny ass, kicking and screaming if necessary, back to where he belonged.

In the light. With her.

The pencil was back in her hand almost without her thinking about it. She turned to the sketch of Nico that had been marred by the Oracle's prophecy. She drew intently, trying her best to blot out the words with her drawing. As she fixed Nico forever in graphite the way he had been yesterday afternoon, she vowed with every stroke of her pencil that this was the way he would stay as long as she had breath left in her body.

The world was just going to have to find itself a different way to end because by the gods themselves she wasn't going to let Nico do it, not now or ever.

And that was the way it would always be.