Percy took an unconscious step away from the onyx bust. Keeping his flashlight trained on its creepily perfect, androgynous face, and ready to blast it with a torrent of pressurized water if it so much as blinked. Normally such a thing wouldn't bother him, but when some of the only things left undamaged in a room were two perfectly arranged rows of fragile busts on ridiculously narrow pedestals, his instincts were screaming that something was up. A something of the surprise attack variety.

And jumping statue heads would definitely be a first, he thought as he moved the beam of light to the next haughty, nubian face. I think?

"This would probably go a lot faster if you looked at something other than some crummy hotel art," Nico said as he slowly scanned his own flashlight across the width of the hall.

"Not going to argue that, but don't you think it's strange that..." He paused and gestured with his free hand at the casino hall's vigilant guardians. "None of these have been damaged? I mean, I keep expecting them to sprout bat wings from their ears and launch themselves at us."

Nico stopped his search and looked to the bust Percy was currently focused on. "Not really." He then strode over to the nearest pedestal, and before the son of Poseidon could ask what he was doing, Nico smacked the onyx decoration with the base of the Master Bolt- only for both the bust and its display to remain unmoved.

His eyes widened. "That's some strong magic..."

"That's some strong glue, Percy," Nico corrected with a laugh. "You got to remember that there were a lot of kids here, which means a lot of things got broken. A lot. Most of this crap probably heavily reinforced by the Mist after a few accidents." Nico shook his head. "I can kinda remember breaking a few things myself."

Percy looked at the busts once more, but was still not convinced they weren't suspicious.

"And I know that look," the son of Hades sighed. "But if it makes you feel better..."

Nico snapped his fingers, and instantly all across the hall, the shadows opened beneath the marble pedestals and swallowed them and the regal busts they held. Then, before the tops of the ancients kings' intricate pschents were devoured by the swirling shadows, the bases of all the pedestals emerged from the ceiling- where gravity immediately took hold and pulled them from the shadows. The decorations tumbled end-over-end as they fell, only to shatter into hundreds of shards when they slammed against the floor.

"There. No more statues," Nico chuckled before resuming his search.

He shined his light on the remains of the pharaonic bust and then quickly followed after the other eternal teenager. Sometimes, he forgot just how powerful they both had grown since the fall of their world. Nico could manipulate the shadows in ways they could have never dreamed of before, and could summon and control the dead just as easily as he could control the rage of the seas, create hurricanes, and dehydrate his enemies to dust. Any of which would have left them exhausted or on the verge of death, but they could now perform with hardly a thought.

Truthfully, (and Persephone had said as much) they had surpassed both their fathers in terms of skill centuries ago.

"Way to make me sound like a frightened-" his heart skipped a beat when his flashlight illuminated a staircase to his left, and a small, black object sitting in a pool of water. He nearly tripped over his own feet to turn, but before he collided with Nico, he managed to shout, "THERE!"

Nico yelped, more in surprise than in pain, as Percy's Celestial Bronze arm hit his ribs. Several lifetimes ago, an inexperienced son of Hades would have accidentally fired the Master Bolt, but now such misfires were a rarity. Now instead of falling on his face, Nico simply fell through the shadows only to reappear next to him. Looking as calm and collected as his father. "What-" The Heir of Hades fell silent when his eyes locked on the water logged tome.

Percy cracked a smile, thrilled that they were only a few feet away from finishing their quest in that nightmare of a reality. "Let's grab it and get out of here," he said, stepping onto the fallen Ramses' Tomb sign that once welcomed all visitors to the ancient Egyptian themed gambling hall. "We give it to Persephone to look over, and then we can relax for a-"

Just as he reached the base of the stairs, what he could only describe as agonized shrieking echoed throughout the hall. The shrill screaming forcing both him and Nico to cover their ears and resist the urge to collapse to their knees. He felt the pools of water that littered the hall begin to freeze as all warmth was sucked out of the air. The deafening screams were quickly overwhelmed by a tearing that originated from everywhere and nowhere, and it took all of his willpower to keep one eye open.

Not good! Not good!

At the top of the staircase, everything distorted around a single point of space no larger than a baseball. The stern, stone face of a pharaoh's guardian was stretched across the room, looking like something straight out of an old cartoon. The top stair was pulled to the ceiling and beyond, creating the illusion that the staircase stretched on to infinity. The golden handrails were pushed away from the origin of the distortion, which made his mind struggle to comprehend the depths and dimensions of the hall. It only got worse when everything began to swirl around the point on multiple axes, like multiple whirlpools overlaid and rotated atop one another.

Just as he managed to force his jaw open to scream at the mental assault, everything snapped back to normal and the world fell silent save for his and Nico's rapid breathing.

Save for a small, black orb that hovered in place at the top of the stairs.

Shit! Shit! Shit! Percy mentally screamed as he reached out for any moisture that would heed his call. The sheets of ice that had formed around the room shattered into razor-sharp segments and launched themselves at the dark sphere- only for them to absorbed.

And for something to ooze out.

It was just as black as the orb- no, hole he realized, with the consistency of old machine grease. The ooze fell from the hole and hit the ruined, red carpet with a sickening splat. The crack in reality closing as the last gooey tendril broke free.

He reached out with his powers with the intent to rip all moisture from the pulsing goo, but to his horror it contained none. The only water he could feel was in the carpeting beneath it. "NICO! NUKE IT!"

Before the final word past his lips, the world exploded in a blinding, white light. Such a blast would have killed or left both of them critically wounded from the extreme heat and force, but his subconscious created a cushioning barrier of ice and water around them. It had saved their butts more times than he could count, but he couldn't remember if he had learned that trick or if his trident-turned-arm did it on its own.

Percy blinked several times until his vision cleared, and he sighed in relief at the sight of the smoking crater before him. His relief only grew when he saw that the book had not been destroyed, only thrown further in the Egyptian themed hall with its cover slightly charred. "Thank the gods. Let's grab the book and-"

"What. The. Actual. FUCK?!" A shrill, nasally voice that was definitely not Nico's cried. Though he was quick to believe it was just his exhausted mind playing tricks on him.

"I'm on it!" Nico shouted, dropping to his knees and sticking his arm through the shadows swirling at his feet. His hand reappeared across the room, and grabbed the smoking book by its spine. He yanked his hand back-

Only for three whip-like, pitch-black tendrils to wrap around the book and more alarmingly: Nico's wrist.

Percy jumped the small distance between them and wrapped his arms around Nico's waist. He dug his heels into the waterlogged carpet and pulled the son of Hades with all his might, while simultaneously mentally commanding all the water and ice to converge at the damned book. "I got ya, babe!"

"I believe you, but pull harder!"

He looked up just in time to see dozens of jagged icicles erupt from the floor. Impaling or slashing the otherworldly limbs while completely avoiding Nico and the book. To his horror, more rubbery tendrils rose from the darkness, but he mustered up everything he had and with one last tug, pulled Nico free. Both of them fell to the floor, with Nico landing squarely in his lap, Necronomicon in hand.

Percy fixed his gaze on the flaying tendrils as pushed Nico to his feet, not daring to even blink with a creature of the void present. Especially when that something was a shoggoth...

The inky appendages that had been damaged by his assault liquidized and rejoined the unseen primary mass while those undamaged dragged itself forward. The corrupted servant of the Elder Things was no bigger than the baseball-seized hole it emerged from, though that did not mean it was any less of a threat than its whale-sized siblings. Four additional boneless tentacles sprouted from its gelatinous body as it doubled, and then tripled in size. The limbs glided to opposite ends of the swelling body, thickening and losing their flexibility as the traveled. Its back split open into a fang-filled maw that would intimidate even the biggest of sharks, only to immediately be swallowed up by the twisting flesh and replaced by one significantly smaller and far more human.

Percy had no idea what the creature was doing. Shoggoths were known for their ability to rapidly adapt to any situation (one of the reasons they needed to be quickly killed) but there was something different in the way its body shifted. It was slower, more deliberate in its actions, and smaller in size compared to the others.

Must be a runt. Or defective?

Whatever it was, it needed to be destroyed. He raised his Celestial Bronze arm at the amorphous blob and Nico raised the Master Bolt-

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" The same nasally voice growled from the shoggoth's human mouth.

Percy was stunned, and he was forced to blink. "Uh, Neeks? Did- did you hear that?" He asked, slightly lowering his arm.

"The nightmare blob swearing?" Nico asked in turn, the arcing electricity of his divine weapon dissipating. "Yeah, I heard it."

"Why couldn't I just be crazy?" He gulped.

Shoggoths were capable of a great many things. They could could adapt to nearly any environment, sprouting wings to soar through the skies, fins and flippers to dive to the inky depths, and even adjust their body chemistry to withstand extreme temperatures and pressures. In moments they could divide themselves into multiple separate but connected individuals or join together to create towering juggernauts. Any technological or magical obstacle (and the distinction between the two was growing blurrier by the day) the encountered would be disassembled in a matter of seconds, granting the amorphous beings complete understanding of how it worked and how it could be overcome or exploited.

They were nightmarish beings that washed over countless realities like a dark flood.

But for all their sophistication and tactics, the Elder Thing's janitors were incapable of speech. The only sounds they were capable of were their strange calls of "Tekeli-li."

"I never said you weren't," the son of Hades rebuffed. "And as interesting as this development is, let's kill it before it becomes a problem," he said, reigniting his Master Bolt.

Percy nodded and reestablished his control over the area's water; careful to exclude his and Nico's. Without a word, he willed five twisting torrents of water to blast the eloquent blob, while Nico did his thing and fired a bolt of lightning that would have deep fried a giant. The casino shook from the resulting blast, causing more of the ceiling to collapse and some of the weakened walls to buckle. The shields of water and ice that encased him and Nico evaporated sooner than expecting, sending them falling back, with undoubtedly singed eyebrows.

Let's see you survive that!

Eyes and lungs stinging from the dust in the air (gods, I hope this isn't asbestos), he collected the moisture in the air to both clean their faces and drag the cloud of debris down. When the air cleared, he was proud to see that a huge section of wall had been blown to bits along with much of the floor, revealing rows upon rows of Egyptian-themed slot machines (one of which, was somehow still running, though absent a little old lady with a bucket of quarters). But best of all, the shoggoth was no more. More than likely vaporized by their combined assault.

"That takes care of that," Nico groaned as he hopped to his feet, careful maintain his hold on both the book and weapon. "My face feels hot and tight, and my ears are ringing, but this world shouldn't have to worry about shoggoths anymore."

Percy let out a satisfied snort. Mostly from knowing the threat was over, but also from biting back a comment about what else Nico had that was hot and tight. "Yup," he replied, his lips twisting into a sly grin. "All we have to do is get out of here. Then how 'bout we take a much needed break?"

Besides gaining some new insight into their enemy and the god-like race that first imprisoned them, there was another perk to recovering copies of the Necronomicon. One that made him sleep a little easier at night, in that once they removed the book, incursions from the void ceased. Whether it was because the book was what allowed them in, or the void simply only cared about worlds that still possessed a copy. He didn't care what the truth was, just that it meant another version of him and everyone he cared about would never know the horrors that lurked just behind the shadows.

"I can practically read your dirty mind, Percy," Nico said with a roll of his eyes and a sly grin of his own.

"It's no dirtier than yours," he purred, leaning in close to the smaller demigod. Though it was hard to tell with his face already red from the explosion, his close proximity was rewarded with a deep blush, wide eyes, and a trembling lower lip. "Isn't it?"

That was the great thing about ceasing to age as teenagers: hormones still wreaked havoc on their bodies. It kept them easily susceptible to the other's advances and eager to jump in bed (or just about anywhere) with the slightest stimulation. In his mind their eternal youth was one of the secrets that made their relationship last throughout the eons, which in turn helped them retain their sanity.

He lowered his head to the crook of his lover's neck, who in turn tilted his head to further bare the delicate olive flesh as his breath hitched. He brushed his lips against Nico's neck, earning a small, ecstasy filled mewl that drove him mad with want.

And then he yanked the Necronomicon from Nico's hands and spun around. And I just guaranteed tonight's going to be amazing, he thought with a satisfied smirk.

"Huh? Wha- ?" The son of Hades exclaimed at the sudden denial of physical intimacy. "You- You- PERCY, YOU ASSHOLE!"

Percy laughed deeply as he deposited the arcane tome in his hoodie's pocket. "Oh, you know you love it, Neeks," he grinned, zipping the pocket closed (Not making the same mistake again). He patted the pocket twice, and content that their precious cargo wasn't going anywhere, he stood up to continue his favorite pastime of teasing his husband- only for his blood to run cold.

For churning before him was the shoggoth they just destroyed.

Its four tentacles doubled in girth before lying flat on ground. With a snap like a rubber band, it rose up on two of its appendages that continued to mutate. The ends growing longer and wider, while joints formed near the halfway point, and the inky, rubbery flesh took on an almost fabric-like appearance. The main body twisted and elongated, creating flaps of skin that dropped to the knees of its pseudo-legs. Another glob of flesh rose from the top as the body and the two remaining appendages transitioned from black to paper-white.

"What in the name of the gods..." Nico muttered in awe at the disturbing transformation.

The newly emerged glob ripped in two, where hundreds of needle-like teeth grew from each half before receding and losing their points. The flesh at the ends of the upper appendages turned gray like that of a corpse before splitting in five with a sickening crack. Dozens of glowing, purple, painfilled eyes blinked open across the entirety of its being, frantically scanning their surroundings before all but two on the top mass sank back into the shifting flesh. Thousands of spindly tendrils erupted from the top mass, squirming like Medusa's hair before turning a vivid red and growing still. A series of rapid, painful snaps filled the air as the shoggoth contorted and its body solidified. It buckled over and placed its newly formed hands on its knees as its head became more defined. Its eyes losing their glow and its mouth drawing in its first shaky breath.

In a matter of seconds, the shoggoth had transformed into a man with a shock of red hair and a battered lab coat.

"Are- Are you okay?" Percy asked the stranger. The son of Poseidon at a complete loss on how to handle the situation. Do we kill it? Is it some kind of Elder Thing tech? Did he somehow merge with a shoggoth? Is he on our side?

Still panting heavily, the stranger held out his left hand with his index finger raised.

Nico clutched the Master Bolt tighter. His olive skin turning as pale as it had been during the first and second wars. "Percy... There's something horrifically off about this-" The son of Hades slammed his hand to his mouth as his stomach started to heave.

He went to grab Nico when the stranger finally lifted his head. Allowing him to make eye contact with a pair of blue eyes that radiated a paralyzing, seething hatred. "Do I fucking look alright?!"