Percy could only choke on his own spittle as dozens of his first love pleaded for help to escape the sea of oozing, black flesh. He wanted to run forward and pull them free, flee in fear and disgust at the living monument to his failures, and drop to his knees and scream all at the same time.

"HELP ME!" The first Annabeth pleaded, before another pushed her beneath the inky surface and took her place in begging for salvation.

"HELP ME!"

"HELP ME!"

"HELP!"

"PERCY!"

"WHY WON'T YOU HELP ME?!"

"HELP!"

"SEAWEED-BRAIN!"

This can't be real, he told himself. This can't be real! He begged as he clamped his hands over his ears in a vain attempt to silence the terrified screams. "THIS ISN'T REAL!" The son of Poseidon screamed, violently shaking his head. But before he closed his eyes, he caught a glimpse of Nico with his head hung low. Tears leaking from the son of Hades' tightly shut eyes.

Confirming that this was no nightmare.

This is why he was sick, he realized as his knees buckled, arms dropping limp to his sides. He could feel her... He could feel every single one of her...

"Oh my, I didn't expect them to be this noisy," the dark god grinned. "Well, that's not true. I've been listening to the angelic chorus of screaming Chases for millennia now!" It cackled. "But I can see how this would be a little overwhelming for you two, so allow me to rectify that..."

Percy watched in horror as one-by-one the daughters of Athena were violently reabsorbed into the avatar's body. The pleading cries growing quieter and quieter.

No!

He jumped to his feet and leaped forward, hellbent on freeing at least one Annabeth-

Only to snap back into place as their fingers brushed.

"Easy there, lover boy. Wouldn't want to give your husband any wrong ideas would we?" Mocked Nyarlathotep, as one of its many shapeless tentacles wrapped around Annabeth's arm; stopping her from being devoured.

"You don't speak for me," Nico snapped. "I know Percy's feelings, and he knows mine! And Annabeth was my friend too!"

The dark avatar hummed in acknowledgment, seemingly unconcerned by the son of Hades' words. The god's many toothy mouths then smiled, and in a blur of motion, ripped Annabeth from its twisting, decaying body. The Daughter of Athena went limp in the shadowy appendages, her mouth open but silent, as it moved her through the air like a child carelessly playing with a ragdoll. Every muscle in Percy's body (as well as a few phantom limbs) tensed as he awaited whatever sick torture the god would inflict on his first love, but it simply dropped her at his feet while its numerous mouths snickered.

"It wouldn't be a fair offer if I didn't offer you a test drive," Nyarlathotep snickered as it retracted its limbs from the motionless blonde. "Go right ahead, Percy. See that I am a god of my word."

"Percy, it's a-"

His husband's voice faded away along with the avatar's antagonizing snickering, the creaking and groaning of the crumbling building, and the electronic bells and whistles of the remaining slot machines. The only thing he could hear was the beating of his own heart and Annabeth's shallow breathing.

"Annabeth..." His breath hitched as he took a step forward, discovering that he was free to move once more. His legs buckled and he dropped to his knees before lifting the naked Daughter of Athena with shaking arms; the former trident rattling with every tremor. She was soaking wet, her long golden hair plastered to her face, so he dried her off and pressed her tight against his chest; both to warm her up and to know what it felt like to have her in his embrace after so many lifetimes. Her beautiful eyes were closed and he tried to coax them open with a strangled sob. "Annabeth."

It was impossible to say how many times he had been tempted to find each universe's Annabeth and tell her how much he loved and missed her. To tell her about the unspeakable horrors waiting behind the curtain they called reality. To tell her and himself to never leave each other's side for even a split moment or waste precious seconds squabbling over something petty.

But... he couldn't.

Just knowing about the Outer Gods and their cruel machinations would change their entire world view. Shattering their blissful, ignorance born innocence, leaving them in a heightened state of constant guard and preparation. Their dreams cast aside to focus on the lurking threat while still dealing with the familiar.

And what was the point of fighting if there was nothing to protect? No hope that somewhere, Annabeth got the life she deserved.

"Come on, Wise Girl, look at me," Percy pleaded, gently tapping her pale cheeks. "I got you. You just need to open you eyes. You're safe. Open your eyes and see for yourself."

Pale eyelids slowly rose, revealing glassy, gray eyes that made his heart soar.

"Nico! She's awake!" He cheered, pulling the Daughter of Athena into a tight embrace. "It's okay, Wise Girl. We're going to get you-"

A shrill shriek filled the air before something sharp sank into the flesh of his shoulder. Something slammed into his stomach, then chest, legs, and arms in a violent flurry faster than he could process. The wild assault made him drop his first love.

And she hurriedly scurried away from him like a frightened animal.

"Anna-"

"ST-STAY AWAY FROM ME!" The blonde screamed in pure terror. Her eyes wide as saucers, rapidly darting from side-to-side as she continued to distance herself from him.

"Annabeth... It's me. Percy. Don't you-"

"I S-SAID STAY A-AWAY FROM ME!" Annabeth shrieked, frantically scurrying back on all fours. "I KNOW TH-THIS IS JUST ANOTHER G-GAME! Her hand brushed against the rotting staircase and she nearly jumped out of her skin from fright. "THIS ISN'T REAL!"

Percy awkwardly jumped to his feet and threw himself next to Annabeth, not caring that it put him closer to the twisted pile of possessed flesh. She tried to hit him again, but he caught her wrists and began to utter reassurances. "Annabeth, this is real. I-"

"THIS ISN'T REAL!"

He let out a loud "oof" as a stray knee connected with his stomach, but he held tight. "I promise you, this is real. I'm here, Wise-"

Annabeth continued to struggle against his hold, tears flowing from her closed eyes. "THIS ISN'T REAL! THIS ISN'T R-REAL!"

"We're going to get you out of here," he promised the thrashing girl. Blood flowing down her left wrists from slicing the delicate flesh on the Celestial Bronze plates that made up his hand. "But you gotta-" he narrowly dodged a headbutt "-but you gotta calm down! Nico! I could use a hand here!"

"LET ME DIE!"

The Son of Hades didn't move from his spot, only looking up at Nyarlathotep's avatar with cold rage. "What did you do to her?" Nico hissed with enough venom to drop a shoggoth.

"Little old me? Nothing," The god cackled as an eye on its "thigh" popped, with a mix of glowing purple and black goo seeping from the empty socket. "The living boil on the other hand, well... to put it simply, he subjugates all those delightful legacies to every horror imaginable until their souls are spent. Right, Brian?"

The human boil was brought to the forefront of the mountain of mangled flesh as it slowly repeated the same two words in excruciating agony. "Kill... Me..."

"We really need to work on your vocabulary," Nyarlathotep said with a sigh, before it flicked the tumor of a man with one of its dwindling limbs. "That one right there is nearing the end of its run. The things she's seen... The things she's experienced... She could still be saved, which is why she's my initial offer, but I would gladly offer you a new one instead. I'd even throw in one of those little pine tree air fresheners. All I need you to do is hand over one. Silly. Little. Book."

It was a trap. He knew it in his bones that handing the Outer God even a single page of the book would be disastrous. It was damning countless realities and their versions of Nico, Annabeth, and everyone he loved to nonexistence or worse.

And yet...

The Necronomicon weighed heavily in his pocket as he cradled the Daughter of Athena in his arms. The crying girl and the eldritch tome seemingly repelling each other as a voice in the back of his mind whispered that only one would leave the Lotus with him and Nico.

Percy squeezed his eyes shut and whispered a quick prayer for forgiveness for what he was about to do. He could not let Annabeth return to whatever hell she had been through for a book. There was not a single scenario where he could make such a sacrifice.

Shaking, he removed one hand from his first love, and she jumped in terror. "It's okay," he whispered, pulling her tighter against his chest with his remaining arm. "You're not going back." He slipped his free hand into his pocket and-

"And what about me?" Nico hissed, snatching his wrist. "Percy gets Annabeth back, but what's in it for me?"

"Nico! It's-"

"Surely the return of your mutual friend is enough?" The Outer God's avatar asked- a hint of uncertainty echoing in its haunting chorus of voices. "To reunite with someone you thought lost forever is worth-"

"Sorry, but I'm a bit greedier than my husband," Nico snarled as he took a step forward. Nyarlathotep's twisted, decaying form leaning away from the Son of Hades as the shadows began to swirl around its trunk. "For a Necronomicon, the one thing you want, we should at the very least get our Annabeth back," Nico continued as one of the avatar's left arms fell off; decaying into ooze before it his the floor. "And our Jason! Our Demeter!" Nico swallowed hard as tears of rage prickled at the corners of his eyes. "And my father!" The lower half of Nyarlathotep's top most maw fell off. "That's my one and only offer," Nico spat.

"Nico! We can't just-" The Son of Hades clasped a hand over his mouth, muffling his protests.

"Take it or leave it," Nico growled.

The amalgamation of shoggoths many maws opened and closed as if at a loss for words. Many of its arms and tentacles growing hands that held their index fingers in the universal gesture to wait a second. The tower of dark flesh twisted from side-to-side before violently splitting laterally, transforming most of its being into a new fanged mouth.

"Listen here you little shit!" It roared with enough volume that the ruins of the casino shook, and he was forced to hunch over the Daughter of Athena to protect her from falling debris. "I'm the one calling the shots here! Do you really think I'll let you leave here alive if you don't accept my offer?! You should be THANKING me for even giving you such an offer! I could've just let this wart kill you and-"

Oh... Though he had known the deal was a trap, hearing the Outer God indirectly admit to such made his heart sink. The minuscule spark of hope that the deal had no strings attached was extinguished with no hope of being relit. Still... He looked down at the quivering Daughter of Athena. We can take her back. There's got to be something at home that can remove his influence...

"-If you could have, then why didn't you?!" Nico snarled. His screaming match with Nyarlathotep only growing more tense with each uttered syllable. "Because you can't, that's why! For some reason, you can't kill us! Or..." Nico's eyes widened as he stared up at the melting mound of flesh. "You- you need us alive! You want us to take Annabeth!"

The tumblers of the lone working slot machine came to an abrupt halt as its lights flashed and an electronic melody filled the dead air. All three spinners displayed flashing, stylized dollar signs, and an excited, somewhat sultry, female voice proudly declared, "JACKPOT!"

"What?" The avatar of Nyarlathotep ceased its screaming at Nico and twisted its hulking mass towards the noisy machine, as all its disgusting eyes rolled in their oily sockets-

Only for it to be engulfed in an explosion of lightning, fire, and neon shrapnel as the machine detonated.

"SHI-!"

Before he could finish his exclamation, his arm sprang into action. All the water he could muster shot upward from the soaked carpets, forming a wall between Nico and the exploding slot machine. Freezing the water solid would not have been thick enough to withstand the concussive blast, so instead he unconsciously increased the water's surface tension to ridiculous levels. It would shield Nico from most of the heat and pressure, but there would still be damage.

And it left him and Annabeth wide open.

"-T!" He dove on top of his first love just as the wave of heat washed over them. Annabeth thrashed violently against his hold as the synthetic fibers of his hoodie melted and seared his back. The air was forcefully expelled from his lungs and his vision went white when he felt something pierce the tender flesh just above his hip, but he still focused on protecting Nico and Annabeth.

Finally, the heat dissipated and he allowed himself to slump forward. The only things he was aware of were the ringing in his ears, Annabeth's frantic attempts to push him off her, and the warm blood flowing down his abdomen.

I really hate being blown up. With a shallow breath, he allowed himself to be rolled off the blonde- but still held onto her wrist. But if it means keeping Nico and Annabeth safe, then it's worth it. He took a deeper breath, only to wince as a sharp pain ran up his right side. But let's try to not make this a common-

"Well now, That was certainly... Unexpected," Nyarlathotep's otherworldly voices cackled over the crackling of flames. "And that is not a word I use lightly," it added with a snarl that shook the casino to its foundation.

Fuck me... Percy pressed his hand against his throbbing side and slowly sat upright; searing pain blinding him as whatever was embedded in his flesh shifted. Once up, he blinked to clear his vision, and immediately his spirits were lifted considerably. "More like, fuck you," he smirked.

The towering avatar had been toppled in the blast, with most of its right side burnt to a crisp. Thick, glowing purple ooze bubbled up and leaked from numerous punctured eyes. Tentacles, arms, and pseudo-limbs hung limp and withered, all rapidly decaying to the point some were already turning to dust. Nyarlathotep's primary maw weakly opened and closed, while the monster that was Brian struggled to pull himself out from under his master's crushing weight.

"I'm willing if you are, lover boy," the dark god chuckled, instantly making Percy's stomach churn. "But unfortunately-" the flesh touching the destroyed staircase began to rapidly flake away "-I'm going to take a raincheck. That little stunt has rendered this form useless, so I must take my leave."

"Don't let us keep you," Nico growled as he raised the Master Bolt; arcs of electricity arcing from the ends of the cylinder. "In fact, let me help you!" The Son of Hades unleashed a powerful blast of lightning from the divine weapon that shook the Lotus' very foundation-

Only for it to once more dissipate before reaching its intended target.

"Two things before I go." The maw twisted into a mocking grin before dozens of its teeth fell to the ground. "First-" one of its remaining eyes looked right at him and his blood ran cold "Since negotiations broke down, I will be taking what's mine..."

Fear like none he had ever known gripped his heart as the words washed over him-

As Annabeth's wrist melted in his grasp, the once tan flesh falling from the bone as a gory slush only to hit the floor as a familiar black and purple sludge.

"NO!"

The Daughter of Athena's jaw stretched wide in a scream as she watched in horror as the flesh of her arms fell away like hot candle wax. But her screams never came as her jaw fell to the floor, leaving only her rapidly blackening wriggling tongue and her bulging gray eyes to convey her unimaginable terror. Her neck sank into her body as her shoulders collapsed inward, her torso momentarily bulging before her ribcage tore through the malleable flesh.

"NO! NO! NO! I GOT YOU!" Percy cried as desperately tried to hold her together in every he could. "YOU'RE GONNA BE FINE! I-"

Annabeth's calves exploded into ooze under the weight of her body as the flesh on her face began to fall away. Her arms completely fell away with a sickening 'snap' and the Son of Poseidon quickly lunged forward to catch her- only for her back to snap in two at his touch. The girl's upper body fell to the floor, the impact stripping most of the remaining flesh from the right side of her face.

"NO! NO! NO! NO!" He shouted, collapsing into the pile of rapidly decomposing flesh to cup what remained of his first love. "DON'T LEAVE ME!" He pleaded to the softening skull clenched tightly in his hands, staring into the glazed over gray eyes that had been so cruelly spared. "DON'T LEAVE ME!" Annabeth's eyes rolled back, and the last remaining trace of her poured through his fingers.

"That was quite dramatic," Nyarlathotep said with a rasping chuckle. Little more than Brian's upper body all that remained of the once titanic avatar. "And also avoidable," the decaying being added as the redhead's arm began to spasm. "Which leads me to my second item. I am always ready make a deal. Be it one of your copies for a dear sweet Annabeth Chase, or better yet, joining the winning side, I am always open. Always listening. Always watching. All you need do is stare into the void, and-"

The taunting jaw that was the left half of the former Avalon minion's body exploded like a water balloon as Percy poured every ounce of moisture he could scrounge up into the thing with a primal, painfilled scream. He rose to his feet and stormed up the ruined stairs as he continued his assault; filling each piece of decaying tissue with water until they burst, only to collect the moisture again and direct to the ever shrinking portions. The attacks were conducting purely by feel and his abilities, as he was blinded by tears and the terrified gray eyes seared into his retinas.

He screamed until his throat was raw and bloody, yet still he fused to relent his blind attack. Every trace of the Outer God needed to wiped off the face of the Earth before he would even considering stopping. Every-

A nasally guffaw pierced through the roar of raging water. The sound strange and insulting enough to cause him to cease his lashing out and turn to its source.

"Oh, that was worth it," the redhead smirked before bursting into a coughing fit. With his remaining arm, Brian propped what remained of his body up. "Worth every second of agony to see you fucking suffer." A torrent of water rose up beside Percy but the shoggoth-hybrid's smirk only grew- the flesh from his lips to his ears ripping to reveal a set of jaws that were far from human. "Because now I know how to hurt you," Brian chuckled, the whites of his eyes turning jet black as the torn flesh of his waist began to retake human characteristics. "And all I have to do is keep doing what I've been doing all along! Taking that little blonde cunt-"

Whatever the deranged man was going to say was silenced by a torrent of water slamming into his deformed face; the sheer force of the spinning liquid tearing his monstrous jaw off. The redhead's remaining eye burst from its socket as every drop of water was forced into what remained of his body. The water whipped itself into tempestuous whirlpool within the monster's head and chest, sharp needles of ice forming and shredding him from within like a buzz-saw. In a matter of seconds, the redhead was reduced to a spinning black slurry of water, ice, and gore.

Yet it didn't make him feel better in the slightest.

Annabeth...

The floor beneath the rotating ooze collapsed as the Daughter of Athena's name echoed in his head. Despite everything he had done in the eons after the fall of his own world, it still wasn't enough to save one single soul. All the intense training, the excruciating alterations to his body, the years retrieving and studying every scrap of arcane knowledge, all of it amounting to nothing before but a shadow of an Outer God.

Is winning even an option? Percy asked himself as he dropped to his knees and released his hold on the swirling liquid. Can we- A strong hand gripped his shoulder, and he looked up to see Nico standing over him, skin as white as a ghost and eyes bloodshot from silent tears.

"I am so sorry, Percy," his husband said with a shaky whisper as he knelt down beside him, his body trembling as much as his voice. "I- I tried to hold her here. Tried to t-tether her soul here." The Son of Hades wiped his eyes with his sleeve. "But..." He sniffled and turned his gaze to the floor. "You have every right to hate me... I just-"

"She was a trap," he interrupted, his words just as fragile as Nico's. "I- I know that... And I know you tried, Nico. I know that."

"Doesn't make it any easier."

He dried his tears with a thought and did the same for his husband before collapsing onto his back. There was so much he wanted to say, but every time he opened his mouth all that came out was a strangled croak. Nico's mouth opened and closed a few times, but he too was unable to speak a single word. So, they reached for each other's hands and stared at the stained floor where Annabeth had been only moments ago. Both reaching out with their powers in a futile attempt to bring the Daughter of Athena back.