A/N: Hi everybody. I'm writing this author's note on July 21, 2020, fully aware that the last time this fic was updated was in August, 2016. I know, I'm the worst. I'm so sorry. I have no excuses, other than that my life got crazy and I prioritized things that weren't writing fanfiction. But now I'm home and quarantined, so I've relapsed into my fourteen-year-old self, and thus, here we are. I want you all to know that I have the rest of this fic outlined (although I had it outlined four years ago, so clearly that doesn't mean much). This time, however, I also have the next chapter written already and I'm working on the one after that. I'm really hoping to update this fic every week or two and finish it by the end of the year at the latest. I told you I wasn't abandoning this fic, and I promise I'm not. It will get done, and I'm going to try my best to make that happen soon. I really am sorry it's been so long, and I hope this long chapter (about 12 pages) makes up for some of the time away.

This chapter is dedicated to the guest reviewer who reminded me that I promised not to abandon this fic. Here I am, keeping my promise :) I hope you all enjoy this chapter, please review, and I'll post the next chapter in a week or so.

Disclaimer: I don't own PJO. I do own my OCs Adrianne and Jeannine.

"This means something," Nico insisted, stalking through Central Park away from the Door of Orpheus without looking back to see if Jeannine was following. "It has to. Adrianne's dreams, the monsters— they all have to be related to the Great Prophecy." He suddenly stopped in his tracks, hearing a light yelp from behind him as Jeannine almost ran into his back.

"What? Why'd you stop?" she asked, annoyed as she came around to face him.

"Adrianne could see me on her fire escape," Nico remembered. "I was wrapped in shadows; I should've been invisible."

Jeannine tapped her foot impatiently. "So?"

"So, maybe that's what this is all about. Adrianne has powers that no mortal should have, not even one who was a demigod in her past life. But how many children of Hades do you think have made it to Elysium at all before, much less been reincarnated? Maybe— maybe she's different because she's Bianca."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying…" Nico took Jeannine's hand, already starting to summon shadows around them. "It's time we told Adrianne the truth. All of it."

Shadow-traveling was hard enough on its own, much less while taking a passenger along with him, and Nico had been doing it a lot today, but for some reason he didn't feel depleted of any energy when he and Jeannine emerged in the hallway outside Adrianne's door. If anything, he felt restored. Powerful. Maybe Jeannine had some kind of shadow powers too, being a daughter of Hades, and had somehow been able to share control of the shadows with him.

But he didn't have much time to dwell on that. As soon as he released the shadows around them, he could sense a retreating presence on the edge of his radar, a fading aura of bitterness and evil.

Jeannine grabbed his arm, her grip almost painfully tight. "Is that—?"

"Monsters," Nico confirmed and moved instinctually to kick the door down.

They ran inside, Nico smoothly unsheathing his sword while Jeannine pulled a bronze dagger seemingly out of nowhere. Nico skidded to a stop in the doorway of Adrianne's living room and stared in wide-eyed shock at the scene before him.

The apartment was trashed: furniture overturned, windows broken, glass littering the floor where the china cabinet had been knocked over and shattered. There were two mangled bodies lying in the middle of the floor, bleeding from impossibly-long claw marks— Nico recognized them with nauseating dread as Adrianne's mother and older sister Gigi. And standing above them, covered in bright yellow monster dust and holding a huge glowing cavalry sword, was Adrianne herself.

Nico thought maybe he blacked out for a second, even as he dimly registered Jeannine rushing to check Gigi's pulse, asking Adrianne what happened and if she was alright as she did so. All Nico could focus on was the sight of his sister with a sword in her hand, and though he'd never actually seen Bianca fight— and even in his nightmares, she'd used a bow— it made him flash back to an early memory of cowering in his sister's arms as Percy and Thalia faced off against Dr. Thorn.

"Nico. Nico!" He snapped back to reality; Jeannine was yelling his name. "We need to get her out of here; there could be more monsters coming."

She was right, and Nico's dumb confusing feelings didn't matter when Adrianne was probably traumatized and definitely in shock. He didn't bother asking Jeannine if she'd found a pulse; he could feel the remnants of two mortal souls finding their way to the Underworld, and he sent a quick prayer to his father asking for their safe passage.

"Come on," he said as Jeannine silently convinced her best friend to lower the sword and step away from her family's corpses. "I know somewhere that should be safe."

He just hoped Percy was home.

For some reason, Nico felt the jump this time; he stumbled as he emerged from the shadows into the living room of Percy and Annabeth's apartment, towing Adrianne and Jeannine along with him. For a terrifying moment, Nico realized he'd never shadow-traveled with a mortal before, and he wasn't actually 100% sure Adrianne would be able to survive the trip. But she seemed fine— shaken and covered with monster dust, but fine— when he recovered enough to check, so he let himself relax.

"Nico? Is that you?" Percy called from down the hallway before appearing in the door. He froze when he caught sight of the three of them. "What's… going on?"

Jeannine put a protective arm around Adrianne's shoulders. "Is there somewhere I can help her clean up?"

"Oh— uh, yeah," Percy stammered, pointing down the hall. "Bathroom at the end of the hall; Annabeth's in the next room if you need anything."

Jeannine nodded her thanks and guided Adrianne out of the room. Percy kept his intense gaze locked on Nico as the girls passed. "Are you okay?" he asked when they were gone. "What happened? You weren't hurt, were you?"

"No," Nico promised, but he hesitated to offer any further information. "I don't want to drag you into this any more than I have to, Percy."

Percy's face immediately darkened with concern. "Nico… If you're in some kind of trouble, I want to help."

Nico shook his head, crossing his arms resolutely over his chest. "The gods promised. The next Great Prophecy would not be fulfilled in Percy Jackson's lifetime." He looked, guiltily, at the floor. "Well, the least I can do is make sure you stay out of it." He sensed Percy's protest before the son of Poseidon could even open his mouth and added, "Percy, I've hurt you too much over the last fifteen years. I can't risk letting you die because of me too."

After a moment of silence, Nico chanced a glance up at his cousin. Percy clearly didn't look happy about Nico's insistence against his involvement, but he also didn't look angry, which Nico just then realized he'd been afraid of.

"Maybe I shouldn't have brought them here," Nico apologized when Percy didn't say anything, glancing in the direction Jeannine and Adrianne had gone.

"No," Percy finally spoke up. "No, Nico. I… I appreciate you trying to keep me from getting wrapped up in your quest. And I understand… if you don't want to tell me everything that's going on… But if there's ever any way I can help, you know I'm going to."

Nico smirked. "Loyalty always was your fatal flaw."

"It hasn't killed me yet," Percy said, totally serious. "Now tell me what I can do."

Nico put Percy on guard duty, figuring that if monsters attacked, he wouldn't be able to keep the son of Poseidon from trying to attack them anyway. He found Jeannine and Adrianne in the back bedroom; Adrianne's hair was wet and her skin freshly scrubbed, but her clothes still glistened with the remnants of the monsters that had killed her family, and she sat on the bed with her knees hugged to her chest, staring absently into the middle distance.

Jeannine, sitting in a chair next to the bed, looked up when Nico entered. "Annabeth said we were welcome to stay as long as we needed, but I don't know how safe it'll be, this many demigods so close to…" She trailed off but inclined her head toward the bedroom window to indicate Adrianne's apartment building next door."

Nico nodded in agreement. "We can take her to Camp; I know how to invite a mortal past the borders."

"You don't think we should take her straight to Dad's?"

"I know this is your first anciently prophesied quest, Jeannine, but gods can't just help their kids whenever they feel like it. Even if the Underworld were the safest place for us to go, someone has been sending monsters after us, after keeping them at bay for weeks. All we know is, it's not Hades, and he might not be able to protect us from whoever it is. The last thing we want is for Adrianne— or worse, us— to get forcibly dragged into Tartarus by whatever vengeful god keeps trying to kill us."

"You mean kill me," Adrianne said suddenly, looking up at Nico with intense brown eyes glazed with tears.

"Adrianne." Nico started to rush to her side, then thought better of it and stopped, still a few feet away. "How are you feeling?"

"What the hell is going on, Nico?" Her voice was raw and broken, but there was an edge of heat underneath it: anger and betrayal. "Everything was normal before you showed up. And now…"

She didn't say, You ruined my life, but Nico could tell she wanted to.

Nico swallowed down a nauseating wave of guilt and looked to Jeannine for help. The worst thing about all this was that Adrianne was right. Maybe she hadn't been just like every other mortal before Nico left the Lotus Hotel, or even just like every other reincarnated demigod. But at least she'd been safe. And happy. Her father, mother, and sister had been alive. And then Nico had wormed his way into her life, telling lies and keeping secrets, all because he wanted his sister back. Nico had been selfish, and not only had he ruined Adrianne's life, but Percy's, and Hazel's, and Frank's.

Nico's selfishness and stupidity had destroyed the lives of every person he'd ever cared about. Now was his chance to make things right, and the first step was telling the truth for once.

Jeannine gave him a reassuring look, like she was leaving this up to him but trusted that he could do the right thing. She was wearing her necklace again, Nico noticed— the limiter that kept her aura off his and monsters' radars. He wasn't sure what good it would do with three other powerful demigods still in the vicinity, not to mention however monsters had found Adrianne the last time, but it made Nico feel a little bit better to know they had at least a small chance of protection.

Nico took a breath and forced himself to look Adrianne in the eye. And then he told her everything.

Well, maybe not everything. There were at least twenty years of backstory that might have been relevant and/or helpful for Adrianne to know, but they didn't exactly have all the time in the world. Instead, he told her everything that was most important— that Greek gods and monsters were real, that Nico and Jeannine's father was Hades, god of the dead; that there was an ancient prophecy that predicted Adrianne's connection to the world of demigods, despite her being a moral; that that prophecy was why some unknown entity had sent monsters after her and her family; and that it all had something to do with the fact that in a previous life, Adrianne had been Nico's older sister.

He hadn't been sure, at first, if he wanted to share that particular piece of information. But he found the truth flowing out of his mouth without his express permission, and then— despite his earlier decision not to— he ended up spilling his guts about Bianca and the wars and his stupid plan to be with his sister again.

When he was done, he stared down at his feet, not sure he wanted to see Adrianne's expression when she called him crazy, or worse.

But all she said was, "So Nicolas Angel is real… and I'm Bi."

Nico blinked. He hadn't thought of it like that. "Essentially, yes."

To her credit, Adrianne didn't look as upset, or even surprised, by this news as he'd expected. If anything, she almost looked… relieved, like Nico had just confirmed what she'd already thought she'd known.

Adrianne glanced over at her best friend before returning her gaze to Nico. "So what happens next? We find whatever's trying to kill me?"

"That's eventually the plan," Nico agreed, "but first… Do you think you could tell us what happened back at your place?" He saw Adrianne flinch and hastily added, "I'm sorry, I know it must be hard."

"No, it's okay," Adrianne insisted, sitting up a little straighter, but Nico noticed how her hands, clasped together in her lap, trembled slightly. "I was in my room, listening to the rehearsal tracks Father Collums gave us and trying to will myself to be a soprano because it would be so inconvenient for everything if I had to sing My White Knight in a lower key—"

"Get to the point, A," Jeannine cut in just as Nico was starting to zone out. He shot her a grateful look.

"Right, sorry," Adrianne muttered, then continued, "Anyway, I heard this weird growling sound outside my room, and I assumed it was Duchess, so I went to check it out. That's when I saw those… things."

"Hellhounds?" Jeannine guessed.

Adrianne looked up at her. "Is that what they were? Huge scary dog things?"

Nico was starting to get frustrated that his sister still hadn't gotten to the question he actually wanted answered. "A," he interrupted before Jeannine could get into a long-winded explanation about the categorization of Greek monsters. "How did you kill them?"

Adrianne blinked at him like she wasn't sure she understood the question. "I… stabbed them, and they exploded into that gross sand stuff."

"You stabbed them?" Jeannine repeated incredulously.

"Stabbed them with what?" Nico started to ask, but his voice trailed off as a memory resurfaced that he'd somehow repressed in all the excitement: Adrianne, standing over her dead family, holding a glowing bronze sword. "You had a sword," he said dumbly. "Where's your sword?"

Adrianne shrank back, embarrassed, and admitted, "I don't know what I did with it. It was in my hand when you guys showed up, but then…" She shook her head, helpless and ashamed.

Nico's jaw tensed, but he tried not to sound too annoyed as he said, "It's fine. You were in shock; don't— don't worry about it." He backed up a step and turned away from his sisters, running a hand through his hair. If he was being honest with himself, he had no idea what to do next. He didn't know who or what had targeted Adrianne, or how they were supposed to go about fighting it. He wasn't sure what he'd thought he'd have gained by finding out how Adrianne ended up with a sword, but it had at least seemed like a place to start. Now, they were back at square one again.

"Hey, wait," Jeannine suddenly said, making Nico turn back around to see what was up. She'd stood from her chair, looking excited like a brilliant thought had just occurred to her. "A, check your pockets."

Adrianne frowned, but obediently reached a hand into the pocket of her jeans. Nico shot Jeannine an equally confused look. He only realized what she was thinking when Adrianne pulled out a seemingly innocuous ballpoint pen and stared at it like she'd never seen a pen before in her life.

Nico's eyes widened. His first thought was that his sister had managed to get a hold of Riptide, somehow. But only a second later, he realized that couldn't be right. The pen was clearly a different brand, and the cap was a dusty shade of gold. But Nico got the same eminence of power off it as he felt near Percy's sword. Wherever Adrianne's pen had come from, it definitely wasn't just a regular pen.

"I'm right, right?" Jeannine asked, glancing from the pen in Adrianne's hand to Nico and then back again. "That's what I think it is?"

Nico carefully held a hand out, vaguely aware that it was shaking. "Adrianne… Can I… see that, please?"

Adrianne handed over the pen, looking like she didn't know exactly what was going on but was relieved to have passed Nico control over the situation. Nico stared down at the pen with a sort of terrified reverence, like he was holding a very beautiful, very expensive bomb. His own sword, hanging at his belt, felt suddenly too heavy, like it was dragging him down through the floor.

Slowly, with all the care and determination he usually reserved for raising the dead, Nico uncapped the pen.

For a moment, nothing happened, and Nico started feeling really stupid. But then the pen in his hand grew long and heavy, until he was wielding a glowing cavalry sword of Celestial Bronze.

Adrianne's mouth dropped open. "How— what— but— that was a pen!"

"Welcome to Greek Mythology," Nico murmured without taking his eyes off the impressive sword. "Adrianne, where did you get this? The pen, I mean?"

"It was left to me," Adrianne said in a quiet, distant voice. Nico finally dragged his gaze away from the sword, only to see that Adrianne was just as mesmerized by it, her eyes wide and glistening in the light reflected off the bronze blade. "By my dad…"

Nico exchanged a glance with Jeannine. He didn't know how the mild-mannered, aggressively mortal, man he'd met in Adrianne's apartment and visited in the Fields of Asphodel could have gotten his hands on a Celestial Bronze sword, much less gotten away with putting it in his will.

There was a crash from somewhere down the hall, then a shout of surprise or pain and something like a roar. Nico spun around, hefting Adrianne's sword out of instinct even as his own swung around with him and thumped painfully against his leg. The bedroom door was already ajar, but Nico flung it open the rest of the way, shouting, "Percy?" as his heart rate skyrocketed.

"I've got it!" his cousin called, despite the clear effort in his voice and the sound of his sword slamming against flesh. "Help Annabeth!"

Nico's demigod instincts took over, adrenaline clearing his brain of its panic-induced fog. He spun back around to face his sisters. "Adrianne, go in the other room with Annabeth, lock the door, and don't come out until I tell you it's safe, understand?"

She nodded, eyes wide with fear but her expression determined. She stood from the bed and hurried past Nico out the door and into the hallway. He locked eyes with Jeannine next, who was still standing by the bed; she looked even more terrified, her face ghostly pale and her hands visibly shaking. Only then did it occur to Nico that this girl— a daughter of Hades who'd never been to Camp Half-Blood and had spent most of her teenage years wearing a necklace that hid her from monsters— might never have actually fought one before.

Well, there was a first time for everything.

Nico crossed the room and took Jeannine's arm, pressing the hilt of Adrianne's sword into her hand. "Are you with me?" he asked, staring intensely into Jeannine's eyes.

She blinked at him, then at the sword in her hand. Her voice shook: "Sh-shouldn't we… can't we just shadow-travel away again?"

Nico shook his head. "The time for running is over, Jeannine." He stepped back and drew his own sword, the Stygian Iron blade sliding out of its sheath with a dramatic whistle. "We're demigods. We fight."

A/N: Next chapter's a little shorter, so I'll try to get it posted sooner rather than later. Hope you liked this one, and please review!