I really should know better by now than to start another story. However, it is summer vacation, and I'm feeling really optimistic about this one. This story will be strictly canon pairings, so please don't ask me to make it Percico or Pertimis or any other pairings you really love that aren't canon. You can like them all you want, but they won't be happening here. I hope you enjoy anyways!

By the way, a line break means a change in point of view. In this chapter it only has Nico's and Percy's, but I may include different one's in later chapters.

Disclaimer: Percy Jackson belongs to Rick Riordan. Nothing you recognize belongs to me.

Nico was pretty used to strange things happening to him. He was, after all, a demigod.

However, with this, he didn't know what to think.

He blinked once, twice, then just to be sure he was seeing what he was seeing, he blinked a third time. Nope, it was still there.

Extending out in front of him was complete and absolute darkness. Not like the underworld, where there were some seemingly bottomless pits, tortured screams, and a few billion souls milling around in addition to the darkness. Here, it was just... nothing. No sounds, no sights, nothing. Completely black.

Well, not completely, he mused, looking down at his pale hands, which almost seemed to glow against the dark background. He could see himself, at least, so he knew he wasn't blind. A small consolation, considering he was stuck in the middle of nowhere – literally.

A voice from behind him interrupted his thoughts. " Nico di Angelo."

He stiffened, then turned around, only to be faced with one of the oldest looking people he had ever seen. The man had a long, bristly white beard, and his skin was covered with wrinkles. He was wearing a long robe that fell below his feet, making him appear to be floating. Maybe he was, Nico couldn't see the floor anyways, so he wouldn't know. The strangest thing about the man were his eyes: they were a pale cream color that was almost white, and would alternate between seeming like they held all the wisdom in the world, and glazing over and becoming unreadable.

"Who are you?" Nico asked cautiously.

The old man's robes ruffled in the wind as if on cue. "I am Chronos," he said.

Nico tensed, and clenched his fist. "Kronos?"

The old man rolled his eyes, losing his dignified air. " No! I am tired of being mistaken for that old sadist! Do I seem like a titan to you, boy? My name is Chronos, C-H-R-O-N-O-S! Not Kronos, K-R-O-N-O-S."

Nico just stared blankly at him.

Chronos sighed. "You demigods and your dyslexia. It can be so inconvenient at times. I am Chronos, god of time. I have taken you to a pocket dimension where time is frozen, so I can relay my offer to you."

His form flickered, and Nico saw flashes of a small child, a teenage boy, and a middle aged man. "You see, things have been going terribly wrong in the world. You and your demigods are losing the war against Gaea."

Nico's eyes narrowed. "Wha-"

"Do not interrupt, boy, it is terribly rude. As I was saying, your world is going to be destroyed soon. However, I am giving you a chance to rectify this." Nico opened his mouth to speak, but Chronos kept talking without giving him room to do so. "How, you ask? Quite simple, really. I will send you back in time to change things."

Nico gaped like a guppy for a few seconds, before regaining his composure. "You can do that?"

Chronos waved his hand in the air. " Ah, I suppose there are a few laws against this, but what the gods don't know won't hurt them. As long as you follow my explicit instructions, they won't notice a thing out of place. Now, for the matter of when I will take you. After careful deliberation, I have decided that you will go straight to the beginning."

Nico's eyes widened slightly in panic, and Chronos, noticing this, quickly revised his statement. "Not the beginning beginning, boy, that would be a disaster! No, I will take you the beginning of a certain hero's story. One you may know: Percy Jackson."

Chronos pulled a folded up piece of parchment out of the folds of his robes and held it out for Nico to take, which he did hesitantly. "When you arrive, you may open this and do what it tells you. Much of it is already set up for you; it shouldn't be a hassle at all. Any questions before I send you?"

"What if I don't want to do this?" Nico asked.

Chronos rolled his eyes. "Then I suppose life as you know it will be destroyed. Any good questions?"

Nico frowned. He didn't know how to feel about this opportunity. For one, he was getting a chance to turn things around, make everything turn out better, keep the world from being destroyed. That was a plus. However, Nico didn't trust himself to not mess things up, and make everything worse.

"Why me?" he eventually asked.

Chronos smiled. "Because you fascinate me, Nico di Angelo. You know what it is like to have one small factor completely change your life. For you it was the death of your sister. Now, you will find out what it is like to change another's life." Nico noticed everything getting blurry. "Now go, child, and save your world."

Then Nico stopped thinking and everything turned to black.

Percy Jackson walked to class with a feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach.

Of course, this wasn't that unusual of an occurrence. Classes at Yancy Academy usually were pretty dread-worthy. The only exception was Mr. Brunner's Latin class, which was, in Percy's opinion, the only interesting one he'd ever had. All the rest were a bore.

But this feeling wasn't the same as his usual on-my-way-to-class,-hope-the-teacher-doesn't-kill-me feeling. Something was going to happen today, he knew it.

"Percy? You okay?" Asked his best friend, Grover, who was hobbling alongside him with crutches.

"... Yeah," Percy lied. "Yeah, I'm fine." Grover frowned like he didn't believe him, but dropped the subject, thankfully.

They walked into his first class to be met with the usual sight; boys wrestling and spitting at each other, girls giggling and gossiping, and the teacher desperately trying to wrangle the group under his control to no avail. Percy and Grover sat in their usual seats: right in the middle of the class, where they wouldn't be labeled as nerds or slackers.

Of course, it didn't stop them from being picked on by people such as Nancy Bobofit, who was heading over to them right then with a wide smirk on her face. "Hey, losers!" she said, making Percy frown in annoyance and Grover sigh in exasperation.

Luckily, she didn't get much farther than that, because right then the bell rang, signaling the start of homeroom. All the students reluctantly filed into their seats, not bothering to lower their voices enough for the teacher to at least be heard.

"Today-" the teacher called out over the talking, cut off by a flying sandwich he had to duck to avoid. "Today we have a new student!"

The talking slowly diminished, turning into a bunch of hushed whispers. A new student was not as common an occurrence here, since parents usually were reluctant to have their kids go to a school known for juvenile delinquents. When it did happen, it was a noteworthy occasion.

"He should be here in a few minutes," the teacher told them. "I expect you all give him a warm welcome." A few of the kids grinned, as if the teacher just handed them a new toy, or in this case victim, and said, Have fun!

Percy saw Grover give a start, his eyes wide. He frowned, then appeared to sniff the air.

Percy nudged him. "Hey, Grover, what's wrong?"

Grover ignored him in favor of muttering to himself. "... Can't be... … didn't notice before... strong scent..."

Before Percy could wonder if his buddy had finally lost it, the teacher spoke up. "Ah, here he is now!"

All eyes turned to the form of a young boy standing in the doorway. He was fairly short, and his scraggly black hair fell into his obsidian eyes. He had dark circles underneath them, revealing either a lack of sleep or an overall stressful life. He wore jeans and a black t-shirt, and an aviator's jacket over it. He was watching them all with a paranoid look in his eyes.

In other words, he fit right in at a school like Yancy.

"So," he drawled. "Am I supposed to introduce myself or something?" He didn't wait for an answer. "Nicholas Morson, Nick for short. 12 years old. Lived in L.A. for a while, before my family got tired of me and shipped me out here. Nice to meet you."

The teacher nodded, as if pleased. "You may sit in the empty seat in the back."

Nick nodded, and weaved through the desks, casually stepping over a foot someone stuck out to try and trip him. As he passed Percy, he could have sworn the new kid paused for a second and glanced at him. Then he passed him as if nothing happened, and sat at his designated seat in the back of the class.

Based on his first impression, Percy Jackson had no clue what to think of Nicholas Morson.

Class dragged by all too slowly for Nico, who squirmed in his seat practically the whole time. It had been forever since he had been in a school, and he was not accustomed to having to sit down for hours on end. And his ADHD definitely didn't help any. He didn't seem to be the only one distracted, though; every once in a while, a classmate would turn their heads and glance at him, some seeming more curious than anything, while others held a mischievous look in their eyes Nico knew all too well. He resolved to be especially wary of his surroundings for the next week or so.

One boy he recognized as Grover the satyr seemed to stare at him more than any of the others. He'd turn away if he saw Nico had noticed him, the tips of his ears pink, but would just look back at him a few minutes later. Nico guessed he probably was pretty smelly, him being a son of Hades and aware of his status as a demigod, so he wasn't too surprised or unnerved by it. But he still didn't like it very much, so the next time he saw Grover turn to look at him once again, he shot him a well-practiced glare of intimidation. Grover didn't bother him after that.

Another thing that he thought was pretty odd was seeing Percy this young. He was always used to having Percy be a few years older than he was, so it was strange having him be the same age as him, at least physically. Mentally, Nico was actually a year older. However, Chronos had taken a year off his life (as he so happily explained in the letter he gave Nico) in order to keep them in the same grade. Nico was not happy about this at all, but there really wasn't anything he could do about it, so he kept the grumbling in his head to a minimum.

When the bell did ring, Nico followed Percy and Grover out of the classroom. Chronos had given him all the same classes as Percy, and it seemed that Grover coincidentally (or maybe not so coincidentally) had the same ones too, so he figured that he could avoid being lost by following them everywhere. And he also had the chance to listen in on interesting conversations, one of which was happening at the moment. And the topic of said conversation happened to be Nico himself.

"So, why were you staring at the new kid like that?" Percy asked Grover nonchalantly. Grover jumped slightly, caught off guard by the question.

"W-wha? I wasn't-"

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Sure you weren't."

Grover glanced back at Nico, who quickly looked out the window, faking distraction. He turned back to Percy and lowered his voice, so Nico had to strain to hear what he was saying. "Listen, Perce, I wasn't- I wasn't trying to be creepy or anything! I was just... just curious, okay? I was curious. I mean, he is kind of weird, and-"

Percy still looked dubious. Grover must have sensed this, because he coughed awkwardly and quickly changed the subject. "I've got to go see Mr. Brunner. There was this... homework assignment. Yeah, a homework assignment I had a question on, and I need to talk to him about it. I'll see you in class, okay?" And with this, he scrambled off, barely remembering to use his crutches.

Nico walked up to where Percy was standing. "Interesting guy," he said casually.

Percy jumped about a foot in the air, and Nico snickered at his reaction. "Wh- wha? Who is?"

"Your friend." Nico cocked an eyebrow at him. "You know, the one who just ran down the corner?"

Percy stared at Nico for a few seconds, before asking, "Are you doing that on purpose?"

"Doing what?"

"The thing with your eyebrow." Percy made an attempt to mimic it, which looked rather comical.

"What thing?" Nico kept his eyebrow up while saying this, hiding his amusement.

"... Never mind," Percy said. "My name's Percy."

Nico was so tempted to say something like, We know who you are, Perseus Jackson, but he figured that wouldn't help him make friends with him. It would probably disturb the guy more than anything, especially since he wasn't familiar with monsters and their uncanny knowledge of his full name yet. "I'm Nick," he said instead. "Do you have English next? With Mrs. Bard?"

Percy nodded. "Yeah. Want me to take you there?"

Nico grinned at him. "Yeah, I'd hate to be late on my first day. That can wait until the second day. Any suggestions on how to survive Yancy Academy?"

Percy smiled back as they started to walk. "Okay, if you see a girl with orange hair and a nasty smirk, avoid her at all costs..."

From then on, Nick became a frequent companion to Percy and Grover. Grover had seemed somewhat uncertain of him at first, but accepted him as a part of their little group fairly quickly. Percy, meanwhile, was liking Nick more and more the more he got to know him. He had a sarcastic personality, and was slightly pessimistic and paranoid, but had a great sense of humor and an air of confidence Percy wished he could mimic. Not to mention he did a good job keeping the bullies away. His glare could be scary when he wanted it to be!

Another interesting thing about him was his relationship with the teachers. Well, two teachers specifically: Mr. Brunner and Mrs. Dodds. Mr. Brunner seemed to view him similarly as he did Percy; someone he expected a lot out of. However, while with Percy it was like a mentor who wanted him to succeed, with Nick, it was less hopeful, and more... 'wary' was the best word Percy could come up with to describe it. He wasn't obvious about it, but it was still slightly noticeable.

On the other hand, Mrs. Dodds was unbelievably obvious about her feelings of him. She completely avoided looking at him, and not in the I'm pretending you don't exist way. It was more like she was scared to look at him. Or talk to him. Or acknowledge his presence in any way, shape or form, other than her palpable fear. On the plus side, Nick appeared to be highly amused by this, if the way he took the time to raise his hand for every question when he never bothered in all the other classes was any indication. Or how he commented on every single sentence she spoke. Or the smirk on his face that never left it while he was in that classroom.

Yup, he was definitely amused.

It didn't stop Mrs. Dodds from picking on Percy, though. She still seemed to hate him as much as before, if not more so. Percy wasn't exactly sure what he did to offend her in a past life, but it can't have been so bad as to deserve twenty pages of notes assigned to him alone. It was especially annoying when at the same time, Nick didn't have to do anything. He seemed to enjoy tormenting Percy by watching TV at the same time he was trying to do his homework. Once again, Percy cursed his ADHD and the allure of distractions.

At least he wasn't alone in this factor. As it turned out, Nick was both ADHD and dyslexic also. It was a strange coincidence, but Percy wasn't complaining. It was nice to have someone understand what it was like.

Although that didn't help with the note taking. Honestly, it would be a miracle if he even managed to finish one page of notes.

When it was revealed in May that the sixth-grade class would take a field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Percy wasn't sure whether to look forward to it or dread it. Field trips never turned out well for him. It seemed that whenever he went out anywhere, something happened that got him either in detention or expelled. He didn't plan any of it; trouble seemed to make a living of following him around. And museums never really were his thing. He found them terribly boring.

On the plus side, Mr. Brunner would be chaperoning the trip. He always managed to make things interesting, whether it was mock sword fights in class, or, well, field trips to stuffy museums. So, Percy was starting to think that maybe this time, it wouldn't turn out so bad.

He should have learned by now not to get his hopes up.