[Edited July 18, 2022]

Nico needed to check in with his friends and self-proclaimed mothers more often. Ivy wasn't even his real mother and she went ballistic when he knocked on her door. He knew that she felt protective over him to some extent, but he had underestimated the extent of her attachment. Would she start making him call her mom? Even though he may not have much memory of Maria, he didn't like the idea of calling anyone else by her title. Even in death, she was still his mother after all.

"You! Where have you been? Where is Hazel? Do you know how worried I have been?" She ranted for longer than he thought was necessary but he wasn't about to stop her either. She was pacing too, which made the demigod kind of nervous. Was he supposed to talk, or just let her be? When she had finished, she stopped in front of Nico and grabbed him in a bone-crushing hug. He could barely breathe until she let go. Maternal gestures were so far out of his realm of expectation that he had absolutely no idea how to react. Was this going to be their normal now? How did he feel about that? Ivy didn't give him long to ponder over it.

"Well?" She pressed.

"I'm sorry. Life has been a little hectic," he said lamely. He wasn't sure what else he could tell her without giving away too much. She may be protective of him, but he doubted those protections extended to the Waynes and they definitely didn't extend to Batman or the other heroes. Anything he told her could be used against the other people he cared about. She may be civil or ever motherly to him, but she was still crazy and still a villain. He needed to be careful.

"That's no excuse! Where's Hazel hmm? If she's hurt I swear on mother nature..." The son of Hades cut her off. No need to swear on Gaea if they didn't have to. Especially with this much vegetation around. Ivy's plants had probably grown at least 3 inches since the last time he had seen them and he couldn't help but wonder if that was their natural growth rate or not. If you had the ability to make plants grow at will, would you even bother to wait for them to grow naturally anymore? He knew that he wouldn't, but Ivy seemed to have more patience.

"She's fine, honest. She's probably safer than me right now."

"Oh? And just why, pray- tell, would that be?" Ivy eyed him suspiciously.

"It's not important, really. I was just wondering if I could stay here for a day or two." Nico asked, knowing she'd probably let him. He liked his odds with her being this protective over him. If she wouldn't let him, he could always seek out shelter in one of the safehouse or try to find Jason. Batman wouldn't like it, but it was a possibility.

"Oh very well, you know I can't turn you away if you need help. Won't Bruce be looking for you, though? I don't need him getting Batman on my case." She asked, leading Nico back to the room she had given him. The trainee vigilante had prepared a response for this, luckily, and was not caught off guard.

"Nah, he's on a business trip and won't know I'm missing for a little while. My brothers might, though, but they'll never think to look here. I have to call a couple of people and they don't need to know about it just yet." He admitted. Ivy gave him the disappointed mom look and Nico almost felt guilty.

"Fine, no more than two days without contacting your family. I'd like you to stay longer, but no need to worry your brothers." She pointed a pale, green-tinted finger at him for emphasis. He nodded, that was better than he had hoped. He wasn't planning on staying any longer than tomorrow afternoon. If he did need to stay longer then he would let his brothers know since there was no way he was going to disobey Ivy. Not at Toxic Acres. He didn't have a death wish, despite what the Joker thought.

"I'm going out to protest the construction of a new apartment complex that will cause acres of trees to be needlessly bulldozed. I'll be back in a while. If you go anywhere, leave a note-- are you bleeding!?" She asked in horror, staring at his leg. Nico had completely forgotten that the stupid sea demon had bitten him. The pain had dulled to a throb and it had basically stopped bleeding.

"It's nothing, really. I'm fine." The demigod assured her as she pushed him down into a kitchen chair. He didn't bother standing up knowing that she'd only push him back down again. She was too agitated for him to risk upsetting her further. It looked like he was going to be treated whether he wanted to be or not. He just hoped that she wouldn't ask him too many questions.

"Show me, I'll decide if it's 'nothing' or not." She snarked. Nico rolled up his pant leg to reveal a fairly deep bite mark. It was much worse than he had originally thought and it actually was still bleeding. She glared at the boy who could only smile sheepishly in reply. She stormed off into her cupboard, loudly cursing him all the way. It would have been funny if she weren't mad at him.

"Macho teenage boys... 'its nothing'... don't even think that it might be infected!" Nico only caught bits of her rants here and there but he got the gist. Ivy returned with a bowl of what smelled like antiseptic, some bandages, and a damp cloth. She silently cleaned the dirt and monster dust away from the wound, not even asking why it glittered. Then she carefully applied the antiseptic to the wound and Nico hissed. Hydrogen Peroxide. It hissed and bubbled white on his skin and stung like a thousand papercuts at once. Granted, Nico hadn't had much experience with papercuts.

"Oh hush, you. Remember, you said it was nothing." She muttered frostily. The demigod thought she was more worried than angry, "What did this? Did you lose a fight with a pit bull or something?" She poured more peroxide on the wound until it wasn't bubbling quite so much.

"Or something." he agreed. Ivy shook her head and gently wrapped it up with cotton pads, gauze, and bandages. Thankfully, it wasn't too thickly bandaged and he couldn't hide it under his pants. It would look suspicious otherwise. He'd just pour some ambrosia and nectar on it once he got home and it would be all better. Until then, he would allow himself to be doctored.

"Alright, leave a note if you go out and be careful on that leg. This is going to be a peaceful protest, I should be back tonight." She said as she prepared to leave. Nico nodded his understanding. She kissed him on his forehead before she left-- something that he wasn't sure he would ever get used to. The son of Hades closed the door behind her and then wiped her 'forest green' lipstick off while he surveyed his room.

There wasn't much light, but there was enough to make a weak rainbow. The curtains were overgrown with actual poison Ivy so he didn't mess with it. There was part of the tree sticking up in the corner of the room as well. It had basically decided to grow up through the house. Nico had hung his jacket and backpack on the thickest limb as he did not want to hurt a plant at Ivy's house. tossed a coin into the poor excuse for a rainbow and asked for Annabeth. His IM popped up in Sally Blofi's apartment, right in front of the two women crying on the couch. He almost cut the call before Annabeth spotted him and it was too late.

"Nico!" She stood up off the couch and roughly wiped away her tears.

"I'm guessing you have bad news?" Nico asked timidly. He definitely wasn't in the mood to hear that Percy had died. He didn't think that he could hold himself together long enough to get back to the manor and he did not want to get into his complicated family with Ivy of all people. It would be nice if he could temporarily turn off his emotions until it was more convenient for him, but he wasn't so lucky.

"No, thank the gods, I'm just worried." She replied sniffling. Sally handed her a tissue, which she accepted. Nico felt like he had intruded on something private. He really should have ducked out while he had the chance.

"Well, that's good at least. He still isn't dead, that's good too. He still can't be found in the dream world either, though. It's like someone took him off the planet or something."

"What about if he ran into Morpheus. He made Grover sleep for months." She pointed out, but he could tell that she wasn't hopeful.

"Maybe, but then why hasn't he been killed in his sleep or something? Also, Morpheus has a long reforming period. It isn't likely that he would be back yet." he reasoned, Annabeth nodded along in reluctant agreement.

"Alright, I'll be headed back to camp in an hour or so. I'll IM you when I get there. I think Chiron wanted to ask you something." She said, settling back down on the couch. You could already see the toll that the stress was taking on her body. She was gaunt and there were dark lines under her eyes. Nico might have to ask the people in the Apollo cabin to look after her.

"Alright, you stay safe. Don't worry Sally, he's strong. He'll be ok." his words seemed hollow, even as he said them he felt like a liar. Nico had no idea if it would be ok or not. He just knew that Percy had to be alive, for all of their sakes.

"I know, Nico. Thank you for everything you're doing. Percy is lucky to have such great demigods watching his back." She smiled warmly, but there was a deep pain still in her eyes. Nico gave her a weak smile back before cutting the connection. Nico leaned back and wished that he had had better news to give them. Though in this situation, maybe no news was good news. Percy had been missing for several months already and there was no telling when he would resurface if ever.

Nico had been planning on meeting Reyna, but he figured that he'd have to wait until after Annabeth IMed him so that she didn't accidentally meet Reyna. Iris Messages would be hard to explain to the Romans. Especially since they didn't believe in Iris. He lay on the bed and stared at the fortified ceiling, waiting for Annabeth to IM him. The ceiling was covered in thick foliage from the tree and branches spread out under the plaster, supporting the sagging roof. Without the tree, Nico was sure that this house would have collapsed by now. His mind wandered as he imagined what it must be like for a tree to undertake such accelerated growth. Did their cells multiply faster? If so, what would look like under a microscope?

After a while Annabeth finally Iris Messaged him but something was wrong. She looked to be in a state of shock-- her face pale and slack. There were tears in her eyes but they remained unshed as if she hadn't yet decided whether or not to cry. Nico stood up to get closer to the IM to get a better look at her. He was concerned that she had gotten herself hurt and she was going into shock from the pain. Paleness was never good from a medical standpoint.

"Annabeth? Are you ok? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not hurt. What do you know about the Mark of Athena?" She jumped straight to the point. The son of Hades paused, hoping she didn't mean what he thought she did.

"Annabeth, why do you need to know?" The son of Hades knew very little about the Mark of Athena and none of it was good. Demigod children of Athena muttered about it in clusters in Elysium. They had all died trying to find it. She held up a shiny silver coin and he felt his heart drop. Being assigned to the mark was almost always a death sentence. Some of the chosen turned back and survived, but no one had ever completed the quest alive. Several had gone mad and were never the same again.

"Nico? What is it? Is it bad?" She pleaded.

"Athena gave you that coin, didn't she?" Annabeth nodded reluctantly. It didn't look like it had been a pleasant meeting.

"There's a... quest that special children of Athena are chosen to go on. So far, almost none have survived and none have completed it. That's basically all I know." Nico explained, hoping she'd have the sense to stay away from it. Annabeth was pretty sensible, unless it became a matter of pride-- her fatal flaw. If Athena issued the quest, he was worried that she had pushed all the right buttons to get Annabeth riled. No one could get under your skin quite as badly as your family.

"Look, can you not tell anyone about this for now? I want to learn more about it first." She looked a little calmer now, the tears were gone from her eyes.

"Yeah, alright. I'll ask around, see what I can find out." Nico promised. Annabeth nodded her thanks and cut the connection. He just hoped that she would have the sense to stay away from it all. If they had any chance of finding Percy, they needed her to be focused. Nico briefly considered misleading her in order to keep her from following the mark, or at least buy them a little time before she left them for a suicide mission. He dismissed that idea almost immediately-- he didn't want to tamper with the hands of fate or possibly put Annabeth in more danger by accident. No more secrets and no more lies.

The sun was going down and the room was getting darker. In a couple of minutes, it'd be perfect for shadow travel and there were some things he still needed to do before he rested for the night. Nico went out into the kitchen and left a note for Ivy telling her he was leaving and would be back late. No need to scare her any more than he already had. Nico grabbed his pack and his jacket and prepared to shadow travel. Or, he would have, had he not heard voices outside.

The demigod peeked out the window and saw the young justice team outside with gas masks and suits that covered their exposed skin-- presumably to keep it from coming into contact with Ivy's more dangerous children. Nightwing was crouched on the porch, looking back towards superboy who was crouched behind him. They hadn't seemed to notice Nico yet so he slowly backed up to where the note was and tore off the area where he had signed his name in case they came inside. Then he shadow traveled away before they could come to search the house. They might find his things, but he hadn't left anything that would lead them back to him. He just hoped that they hadn't tracked him there somehow.

They had probably just gotten wind of her little protest and had to come to Gotham to stop her since Batman wasn't around. Hopefully, they hadn't tracked him there somehow because that would be hard for him to explain. Especially since he was the newest Wayne kid and he was apparently spending his free time with a known Supervillain. Even if he somehow had time to switch to his ghost uniform, he would have a lot of explaining to do since Nightwing and Red Robin knew who Ghost really was.

Nico emerged from the shadows in California, right outside Hades' shrine and he was surprised to see that Reyna was there waiting for him. She didn't speak at first, letting Nico give her his report unprompted. It would have been daunting if Nico hadn't already prepared what he was going to say. Luckily, she didn't have her hounds with her.

"He's still not dead, and I still haven't had any luck locating him," The self-appointed ambassador of Pluto reported. She nodded as if she expected as much, though her shoulders were more slumped than usual. Her partner's sudden disappearance was taking a less visible toll on her than it did on Annabeth. Nico vaguely wondered if this was because she wasn't as attached to Jason or if Reyna was just that good at putting up a front.

"How did you like the eagle messenger?" Reyna smiled thinly. Nico could tell that she had sent it just for laughs. He couldn't fault her-- it had been pretty funny and it looked like she needed the laugh. They could all do with something to help them relax with everything that was going on n the world right now.

"It scared the crap out of the mortals I was staying with," Nico replied honestly, chuckling lightly. He fiddled with his skull ring absentmindedly-- thinking about the look on Bruce's face that night the Eagle landed on their windowsill.

"Oh gods, I apologize. I was not aware that you were living with mortals?" She looked at him curiously but didn't press him for details. She probably understood that family was complicated when it came to demigods. She gestured for him to follow her into the bustling city.

"I have a family that I stay with from time to time. It is refreshing to forget demigod life for a short while. I took care of it, they saw a carrier pigeon or something." He felt the need to explain a little bit to start to build trust with the suspicious praetor.

"Effective." Reyna praised. Nico shrugged, uncomfortably as he wasn't used to being praised. Thinking back on it, he figured that the proper response would have been to thank her, but it hadn't occurred to him at the time.

"Have your people had any luck finding him?" he asked curiously.

"None. I was rather hoping that you had some good news."

"Nope, fresh out of that, it would seem." Nico sighed. That seemed to be the trend as of late.

"Will you stay for dinner? We can discuss this further." Reyna questioned as they reached the edge of the town.

"I would like to, but no, I have people back home expecting me. I've been staying with the mortals, recently. They think I'm at a party." He smirked. It was a plausible lie, or it would have been if he had been anything like your typical teen. Hopefully, Reyna couldn't tell just how out of character that would be for him.

"I see. You are rather busy, jumping all over the place." Reyna noted. The son of Hades knew she was trying to figure out what on Earth could possibly be taking up all his time if it wasn't Camp Jupiter. He couldn't very well tell her that he had two other lives that he had to work at to keep mostly separate. Having three roles and identities took a lot of effort.

"Yes, I make myself busier than I need to be." Nico agreed, trying to lead her off the scent. It seemed to work, for now.

"Don't we all. Here, you must try this hot chocolate. My treat." She said walking up to a stand. He tried to tell her that she didn't need to buy anything for him but she handed him a cup anyway.
Nico couldn't refuse, not wanting to be rude.

"Thank you," The son of Hades said politely and took a sip. It really was a wonderful cup of hot chocolate, "this is really good!" he said, taking another sip. It had been quite a while since he had hot chocolate last.

"Yes, it is my favorite." She agreed.

"I'll keep a lookout for Jason, with all of us looking, we should be able to find him." He reasoned as they made their way deeper into the city. The house ghosts popped in and out of existence as he passed. The people seemed to notice something strange about that, but they didn't seem to have linked it to his presence yet.

"I hope you are right, son of Pluto." She sighed. We walked for a short while after that before he decided that it was time to head back. The pair parted company at a dark corner where he promised to bring her news as soon as he got any. Nico shadow traveled back to Toxic Acres and carefully made his way to Ivy's house. The team shouldn't still be there, but that doesn't mean that they weren't staking out the place or that they hadn't left behind something else that could monitor her activities. Nico did a soul search, and the only one there was Pamela so he guessed that she didn't get arrested then.

The demigod slowly walked down the street towards the house and he had his hood up, to hide his identity from potential stalkers. He quickly slipped into the house, pulling his hood down once the door had closed behind him. Ivy looked up from where she sat at the counter, reading a book on botany.

"There you are, I was wondering where you got off to." She smiled warmly. Nico hadn't realized it, but he had spent quite a bit of time with Reyna and it was already 11 o'clock on this side of the country.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I lost track of time."

"No, you're alright. I just wanted to make sure you got back ok. Have you eaten? There's fruit and vegetables in the fridge in case you want anything. There are bread and things like that in the pantry. I'm headed off to bed so I'll see you in the morning." She bid him goodnight.

"Thank you so much, Ivy. I'm really grateful for the help." He said sincerely. She had helped him out more than she could realize.

"Don't mention it, what are moms for?" She winked and he couldn't help but smile.

"Hey Ivy..." Nico started, a theory forming in his mind. She paused her retreat at the bottom of the staircase.

"What is it?" Her voice was calming for some reason.

"My cousin, Percy Jackson, recently went missing. He still hasn't been found. I was wondering If you could listen for any news about him?"

"Oh Nico, I'm so sorry. I'll try and help however I can. Can you get a picture for me? I'll ask around." She promised. Nico nodded, relieved that there was someone that could get even some of the villains to help them. The more people looking, the better. At this rate, someone was bound to find Percy sooner or later.

"I'll have one by tomorrow."

"Alright, go get some sleep." She shooed the demigod towards his bedroom.

"Ok, ok. I'm going." Nico went back to his room, though he had no intention of sleeping just yet. He pulled out his sketchbook and started on that sketch of Percy. It took him several hours to get it right. His hair and his trouble-maker smile were the hardest. The son of Hades worked all night and into the early hours of the morning. It wasn't his most elegant piece, but it got all of Percy's distinguishing features, which is the important part.

It was probably around 4 in the morning before he collapsed onto his bed. He fell asleep fully clothed, which was ok because the room was a bit chilly. October was almost up, and November weather had set in early. He fell asleep thinking about Percy's symmetrical face, but he still had no luck seeing him in his dreams. He couldn't find Jason there either, for that matter. Nico did manage to find Hazel, however. Their dream worlds connected and her figure appeared.

"Hazel! How are you? Are you ok? Explain everything." Nico asked quickly.

"Slow down, Nico. I'm fine. I'm in Sonoma with Lupa. She's been training Demigods here for centuries. We pass her tests and then we can travel the rest of the way to the camp." She explained. It made sense, Lupa had reared Romulus and Remus, so it seems fitting that she would keep up the role.

"Are you close to finishing the training?"

"Lupa thinks that I will be ready to move on in a day or two. Will the camp accept me?" She sounded worried.

"Yeah, as long as you get a sponsor, you'll be in on probation. Just follow the rules and you'll be fine." Nico assured her. They let Octavian in, after all.

"Thanks, Nico. Have you found your friend?"

"No, not yet, though we have a lot of people looking for him."

"I hope you find him soon. Be safe alright? Lupa says that there are bad things stirring. It doesn't sound good." She warned. Nico didn't like the sound of that but he was grateful for her warning nonetheless.

"I'll try, sis. You be careful too, I just got my sister back, I don't want to lose you again." Nico couldn't look her in the eye. He wasn't really a touchy-feely kind of person. Hazel seemed to understand because she didn't mention it.

"I will, promise. I have to go, pack life starts early." Hazel smiled, somewhat wolfishly. It was honestly a little disturbing, and toothy.

"Alright, I'll see you again soon," He promised, some to myself than to her. Hazel faded out as she woke up and his own dream faded into blackness and he woke up.

[Pretty sure I found a discrepancy that I'll have to fix later. Oof. I'm leaving this reminder here for myself.]