[Editing July 13, 2022]

True to his word, Bruce called Chiron later that night and arranged for Percy to come over for the weekend. Nico didn't know how Chiron made that seem like a normal affair but he wasn't about to question it. When you've been a mentor for demigods for three thousand years, you probably picked up a trick or two. Chiron said that he would be there sometime around noon the next day. 

Nico prepped his room for visitors, setting out a mattress he'd taken from one of the spare rooms and rearranging his furniture accordingly. Hopefully, it would be easy to put it all back afterward but Nico wasn't worried. Right then his biggest worry was the possibility of a monster attack. He hadn't been attacked yet, but putting two demigod children of the big three under one roof might be pushing his luck. Hopefully, this wouldn't come to bite him later, but if he did, at least he'd have Percy there as backup. There's no one else he'd rather have watching his back.

The Waynes and Nico sat together in the living room and watched a horror movie marathon after dinner, and ate junk food. Well, the other boys were watching the movie. Nico kept zoning out thinking about what would happen if monsters attacked the manor. He was imaging scenarios, picturing the Manor's layout, and making notes of places he Wouldnt want to get cornered. Ideally, he'd get the monster out into the orchard so it wouldn't destroy the house but if they did get stuck inside, he wanted to have some sort of plan.

While he wasn't really paying attention to the movies, he was partaking in the snacks. Soda was new to him and he really enjoyed it. The more sugar-- the better. Bruce had warned him that caffeine tended to make people with ADHD tired, since 'stimulants work as depressants and vice versa' (whatever that meant) so he had one that didn't have caffeine in it to be safe. He thought it was called Sprite but the label on the bottle was murder for his dyslexia.

 He had to be alert for when Percy got there to make up excuses if necessary and get a rundown on what had been happening at camp while he was gone. He wasn't the only one whose sodas were restricted. For some reason, all sodas and sugary drinks were strictly prohibited if your name was Richard Grayson. No one would let him have any sugar whatsoever, and no one would tell Nico why.

By the middle of the third movie, Dick and Damian had left to refill snacks, Tim was finishing off the last bit of the popcorn, and Jason had perched him on a recliner, cleaning one of his knives. Now that he officially knew the secret, they had lost all secrecy about their abilities and training. It was amazing to see what these mortals were capable of.

 Nico had gotten restless and was sitting upside down on the couch with his feet hanging over the back of the sofa. He wished they had chosen a different genre. Horror movies weren't really all that thrilling when you knew how unrealistic they truly were. In fact, it made the whole experience annoying for him and he was having trouble keeping himself occupied. It wasn't even scary.

Mrs. O' Leary was scarier than any of the jump-scares. Luke had been scarier than any of these possessions. Minos had been worse than any of these ghosts. The zombies that protected Hades palace were scarier than the ones in the movies. The grim reaper was a friend of his and was fair in his dealings. Someone being disemboweled was nothing he hadn't seen either in the war or in the fields of punishment. Cheap scares on a screen just didn't do it for him. He couldn't really see the appeal either. Maybe because for him, it had never been make-believe.

Nico watched, unconcerned, as the protagonist stepped into the room without turning on the lights. The malignant spirit's theme song started playing in the background. Nico sighed inwardly-- why did no one in these stories grab a knife or a weapon of some kind or at least turn on the lights first, though he guessed it wouldn't really help against a poltergeist or ghost. These idiots deserved to die. If he or Percy made these kinds of mistakes, they would undoubtedly have been dead years ago.

As it approached the end of the movie, the protagonist had finally done something right and completed the exorcism of her little brother. Nico rolled his eyes-- it wasn't scary to him. Hades' anger scared him. Percy, when he was the eye of a hurricane, scared him. Annabeth, in general, scared him. Spirits, ghouls, and ghosts didn't scare him anymore. It seemed to have some sway over the bat family, though. Nico doubted that they were very scared but it had definitely had an effect if their positions on the couches had anything to say about it.

"Whooo! Glad that's over. Scared Jay?" Dick stood and stretched, having a good time teasing Jason lightly. Jason had a blanket around his shoulders.

"Oh yeah, quaking in my boots." Jason's voice dripped in sarcasm as threw his pillow with accuracy that only a bat can achieve in Dick's face.

"That was sufficient, " Damian stretched.

"It wasn't really scary," Nico admitted-- twisting his skull ring.

"Probably because you weren't even watching" Dick looked at him knowingly. Nico frowned-- he had been watching. Mostly.

"What do you mean?"

"Do you couldn't stop moving the whole time. It was obvious that you weren't paying attention," Jason elucidated. Nico blinked a few times. He hadn't realized that he had been moving enough to even catch their attention, much less annoy them.

"Sorry." He apologized uncomfortably. Dick shrugged easily.

"If you aren't into it, then you aren't into it. Don't worry about it. Next time you can pick the genre." Nico gave Dick a soft smile and nodded. That sounded nice.

"What are you planning on doing when Percy gets here?" Dick asked, changing the subject. Nico shrugged he hadn't put much thought into it. He had a feeling that there was going to be a lot that they needed to talk about-- though the bat boys didn't need to know about that.

"I don't know. We'll probably talk and I might show him the grounds or something. I want to know what's been happening at the camp while I've been gone," Nico replied. Dick nodded but Nico had a feeling that he was just accepting that answer so that he could ask something else.

"Is he dangerous? I know that all the manhunts were called off-- but still. He has caused a lot of trouble for one teen." Dick asked cautiously, obviously trying not to provoke the younger boy. They didn't want to know what Nico looked like when he was mad. If even Wonder Woman was trying to stay on his good side, then they probably should too.

"Only to people who threaten him or the people he cares about. He is the most loyal and selfless person I know. Also, he doesn't eat seafood." He mentioned it off-handedly. It popped into his brain and out of his mouth before he could even process it.

"Err... ok?" Richard replied in an unsure tone.

"How long have you known him?" Tim questioned.

"Since I was ten. I met him around the same time I met Diana." He replied-- leaving out the part about it being the exact same time and place.

"How did you meet Diana?" Jason broke his silence.

"Let's just say that she knew about Bianca's desire to go off and have he own life away from me. She was the one who introduced her to the leader of the gang that she ended up joining. If it weren't for her, Bianca never would have ended up in New Mexico or that damned construction site. I guess she knows that I've been known to hold grudges." Nico gritted his teeth to leave it at that. He was itching to tell them how mad he still was, but he knew that it wouldn't make sense for him to be mad at Wonder Woman.

It was clearly a touchy subject and they didn't think any of them were in the mood to get into anything heavy that night. They wanted Nico to be in a good mood the next day when Percy finally showed up. The subject of Wonder Woman and Nico's deceased sister was promptly dropped.

"Ok, bedtime, guys, we have to get up for patrol in a couple of hours since we can't do it while Percy is here." Dick reminded everyone to yawn again so that the words sounded a little garbled.

"Yes, mother!" Jason teased, his eyes twinkling with mischief. Nico headed off through the halls without bothering to find the light switches. He didn't need them anyway. Once he was a couple of feet down the hall, he shadow traveled to his room, changed into some comfortable PJs, and crashed on his bed. Nico had no idea that Dick had turned on the lights only moments after his jump. There was no way he should have been able to get through the hall before Dick had turned on the lights. That was when his secret finally started to unravel before them.

++Dick++

"Nico?" I called into the somehow empty hallway. Jason and Tim stopped arguing over who had to put the dishes away.

"Dick, what is it?" Damian asked, trying to mask his confusion with his uncaring tone. He couldn't stand sounding even slightly emotional or human.

"I don't believe it. He isn't in the hallway. He had just started walking down it. It couldn't have been 5 seconds between when he went into this hallway and when I turned on the lights, and he was already gone."

"That's impossible. Unless he has some form of teleportation or super speed?" Jason reasoned calmly, coming to stand by me in the doorway.

"Not super speed." Tim interjected, "he doesn't have the appetite." I nodded. Nico hardly ate enough to satisfy a normal person, much less a speedster with a high metabolism. We needed to keep an eye on that-- it was starting to get concerning.

"Ok, then he must have a form of teleportation. He has powers, then. That may have been the key to figuring out his big secret." I couldn't help but be suspicious that Nico was trying to mislead us.

"Doesn't this seem too easy to you?" The demon spoke up. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who thought this might be an attempt to distract us from the truth. He obviously couldn't fake teleportation, but who was to say that he was telling the truth about the rest of the hints he gave us?

"Well, Nico did seem to wish that he could tell us himself. Maybe he is purposely dropping hints for us to figure it out." Tim suggested, hopefully.

"Perhaps, just keep an eye out for strange behaviors. Maybe Percy has powers too." I warned before heading off to bed myself. I had some time before patrol so I decided to look through the list of every known metahuman on the bat computer. There were quite a few in our system, and I was sure that there were several more that we didn't even know about yet. Most of the ones that we knew about had only been documented because they had been arrested or recruited.

I looked through the list and found several with abilities that could mimic teleportation but none of them made sense for what I knew about Nico. He obviously wasn't a speedster. There hadn't been any lights or sounds that I had been able to distinguish either so it probably wasn't wormholes or portals. This also ruled out light and sound travel. He didn't have any of the indicators of being a metahuman such as mutations of the body or accidental power discharge that seemed to be common among metas who were just learning how to use or control their powers. He wasn't old enough to have had his powers for long if he had been a meta, whose powers usually arose in early to mid-teens. Nothing really fit. What was he missing?

Was he not a meta at all? Was Dick looking in the wrong place? Of course, there were several different ways that he had seen people come across amazing powers and abilities. There were aliens, magicians, Atlanteans, science experiments gone wrong, genetic mutations, and technological advancements that were so advanced that they looked like magic to the untrained eye. There was even a half-devil on the Teen Titans team. Virtually nothing was off the table. Was Nico even human? He seemed very human to me. Just like a very troubled boy-- nothing like the stories Damian told about Raven.

What are you hiding, little bro? A short while later, and no closer to the truth, I changed into my Nightwing suit and checked all my gear and coms. Everything was good to go.

++Percy++

For Percy, not everything was good to go. Blackjack wanted donuts upfront for flying into Gotham, and Percy didn't have any. So, he decided to take Mrs. O' Leary instead. Greedy pegasus. The son of Poseidon came out of a Shadow in an alley, feeling the sickness he always felt after a shadow jump. Nico had mentioned that monsters couldn't go into Gotham, but Percy hadn't realized that that applied to Mrs. O' Leary as well. Even though she was domesticated, Mrs. O' Leary still counted as a monster.

Percy dismounted, grabbing his backpack and slipping on his dark blue hoodie. It was at least ten degrees cooler in Gotham than it was in Manhattan. He sent Mrs. O' Leary back to camp, resolving to travel the rest of the way on foot. He wore jeans, and a pair of converse with Dr. Schols innersoles for added comfort when running from monsters (not sponsored). He also wore his camp shirt and his dark blue hoodie. His camp necklace was always there, and he never lost Riptide.

He had packed ambrosia and nectar, overnight clothes, a packet of drachmas, and some of Nico's only belongings from camp in his backpack. He had very little mortal currency on him, and, by Nico's insistence, he carried a steel knife that would work on mortals. It didn't bode well for the demigod that he had to protect himself against mortals here. Suddenly it was a whole lot harder to figure out who was going to try to kill you.

Percy walked the short distance across the city limits into Gotham. Nico was still halfway across the city from him, and it would be a long walk. Still, they weren't expecting him until that night anyway. He would have taken the car, but Paul still didn't let him drive it after the pegasus incident. He passed the time playing the game that he and his mom always played on the way to Montauk. You would try to complete the alphabet by finding the letters on signs and things you passed as you drove. He had liked to joke that his dyslexia meant that he was always on hard mode.

He completed the alphabet three times over before it got boring. It was about that time that Percy wished he had taken the car. Percy stopped at the entrance of a nearby alley to sit for a minute and drink some of the water he brought. After a lot more walking, Percy spotted the cemetery. It was the type of place only Nico could appreciate. The son of Poseidon found it ironic that Nico would give him a landmark like this but he wasn't going to mention it to him. he didn't know how the younger boy would take it.

It was about 4 O'clock by his watch, and he decided to head for Wayne manor. Time to meet the mortals who managed to pin Nico down for a little while-- a feat no other people alive had ever really been able to do.

++Nico++

The doorbell chimed right around 4:15, and Alfred got to the door and led an astonished-looking Percy into the house. He led him into the living room where the rest of us sat.

"Hey, Nico! This place is incredible!" Percy said as soon as he saw the son of Hades.

"I know! Err, Percy meets Bruce Wayne, Richard Grayson ("call me Dick"),  and Damian Wayne. You already met Alfred Pennyworth." Nico gestured to everyone in turn. It was interesting to see the bat boys sizing up Percy while Percy sized up the bat boys. Jason was still supposed to be dead so he wasn't going to be meeting Percy. Witness protection things.

"Hey, I'm Percy Jackson. I go to summer camp with Nico. Speaking of which. How could you leave without saying goodbye?! Dude, we almost sent Thalia out looking for you!" Percy directed at Nico-- who winced.

"You didn't? Right?" He asked hopefully. Percy shook his head. The smaller boy sighed in relief.

"Who is this, Thalia?" Damian asked suspiciously.

"Another one of our friends from camp. She has a short temper and is really overprotective." Nico explained. Percy nodded in agreement.

"Well, welcome to the manor Percy. Nico, dinner will be at 5:00. Don't worry Percy, Nico told us about your dislike of seafood. I believe pasta is on the menu for tonight?" Bruce looked at Alfred for confirmation.

"Yes, Master Bruce."

Nico led Percy up the stairs to his bedroom-- an air mattress has been set out since his bed is a little too small for two boys. He stashed the godly foods and the extra drachmas that Percy had brought in his secret compartment, and Percy brought him up to speed about the latest goings-on at camp. There wasn't all that much going on. Just the usual drama between the cabins and such. A few new campers had been brought in-- all children of minor gods like Hebe or Iris. there hadn't been as many new demigods being claimed recently. Whether that was because the gods had slowed down or because they were going back on their oaths, it was hard to say. Percy seemed disturbed by it.

"I thought this oath would last a century at least before they broke it," Percy complained. This oath meant a lot to him-- to the demigods at camp. There were so many full-timers at camp that wouldn't have had anywhere else to go if it hadn't been for camp. He had saved lives with his wish. Nico could definitely understand why he was upset.

"I don't know, Percy. It doesn't make sense that they would have just stopped all of a sudden. There has to be something else going on." Nico insisted. Percy nodded but he didn't seem convinced. Nico wished that he had the confidence to reassure the older boy but he couldn't. The conversation moved onto other things like capture the flag and before they knew it, it was just about time for dinner, so they began to head down. Nico briefly showed him where the other boy's rooms were before they got downstairs.

When they got to the dining room, there was an extra place set next to Nico's at the table, and they took their places with the rest of the boys being close behind. Dinner went rather uneventfully, except for the fact that the bat fam insisted on asking Percy all sorts of questions. Percy seemed uncomfortable with all the attention on him, but there wasn't much that Nico could do to help. The Waynes were curious and persistent.

"So, Percy, what do you like to do at camp. Nico hasn't told us much about it." Bruce asked from his place at the head of the table. Nico picked at his food and tried to seem busy. He prayed that Percy wouldn't say anything too revealing. That wouldn't end well.

"Uhh... I like capture the flag mostly, kayaking, fencing-- or horseback riding." Percy replied with a hint of secret humor in his voice. Nico smirked.

"Oh yes, Percy is quite gifted with horses." He chuckled lightly. Percy scratched the back of his neck, thinking back to Blackjack, no doubt.

" Capture the flag? Isn't the game where that kid stabbed you with a pocket knife?" Tim directed at Nico.

"Hmm? Capture the flag? Yes, still a fun game, though." Nico agreed. 

"People can get a little too into it sometimes. Some kids tend to take losing personally." Percy didn't mention that he happened to be one of the people who maybe took it a little too seriously. 

"Apparently, " Bruce said. The table lapsed into an awkward silence.

"So, Percy. You say you're good with horses?" Tim pried.

"I'm pretty good, I guess," Percy admitted with a noncommittal shrug.

"He's being modest." Nico cut in, "He's one of the best in camp. The horses seem to like him."

"And they don't like you?" Damian raised an eyebrow.

"Not really, no." he admitted, "Though I'm not really too fond of them either." Dinner finished up not too long afterward and they were dismissed. Dick invited us to watch some more scary movies again and the two demigods agreed and joined the rest of the boys in the living room. Nico was just curious to see how Percy would react. He had seen some horrible things too-- was he desensitized like Nico was?

Percy was a bit creeped out by the possessions, probably remembering Luke, but he wasn't all that scared like the mortals were. The pair exchanged hushed commentary throughout the duration of the movie. Percy mainly kept asking the son of Hades whether things in the movie were possible or not and he explained death concepts to him. In the end, he and Percy were laughing at the stupidity of some of the characters.

"I know! She should have totally died in that accident. Airbags are good, but not that good." Nico agreed to something Percy had said.

"Yeah, and that falls into the creek? They should have at least broken something." Percy pointed out.

"Imagine if Annabeth was here. She'd probably gawk over the bridge." Nico mused.

"Or explain the mathematics behind the stunts and such." Percy looked thoughtful.

"Whose, Annabeth?"

[Might edit again later, I'm not sure I'm happy with this chapter yet. If you have any suggestions, I'm willing to hear them!]