---

---

Demetri helped them all out by binding them together. Being a son of the literal sun god, the shadows unnerved Ezekiel, but they were a part of Demetri, and Demi was trying to help them. Ezekiel looked at the shadow surrounding his wrist and hands, linking him to Demetri. At least they were holding hands.
Zeke looked up at Demetri, and his slim margin of happiness faltered. Demetri didn’t look good. He seemed very ill and positively grey. It reminded him of how Nancy looked these last few days, and Ezekiel was not happy. They had to move quickly.
He looked at Janelle and couldn’t help but smirk even though she was calling him a hypocrite like Kristin had. She was actually talking to him again. That was a good sign, right? ”I may seem like a hypocrite, but compulsion does not play favourites. And lotus eaters do love their compulsion. Come on, we need to get to Nancy and Cass.”
Alexios barged in, blocking Ezekiel from Demi, but Zeke still held tightly to Demetri’s hand. ”Hey, ass-butt, we got to get moving. Moon over Demetri when we are at the doors of death, alright?” Ezekiel tugged Demi and the others forward, heading in the direction Nancy ran off in.

---

---

Location: Atlantis

Skills: Hydrokinsis

---

---

Sera woke hours later, it was probably morning by now, she wouldn't know since they where deep in the sea and nowhere near the surface of the ocean. She grumbled tiredly while stretching a bit, rubbing her eyes with a yawn. Her sleep wasn't the best. At times she'd dream about the cave, wake up, toss around before sleeping again, then have another dream that'd just circle back to the monsters they fought against. The cave rumbling and stones crashing down. It wasn't fun having the recurring nightmare. She hoped that this wouldn't last long and she'd be free of the torment soon. The young demigod was sure that Kiera also didn't have a great night either. Probably worse than her own. Of course Sera was going to leave it alone and not ask. She didn't want to be bothersome. Instead the girl got out of bed, well... more so tripped over the blankets and crashed to the ground. "Urgh.... not how I wanted to start the morning." Whines in annoyance.

---

---

Demi felt the lightheadedness coming back. It made sense, a singular sandwich, no matter who it was conjured by, wasn't enough to undue days worth of neglect. Even now he hardly had an appetite, but there was the smallest pinprick of emptiness inside his stomach, a small sense of his hunger beginning to grow. But the shadows were taxing him, using Alexios and Zeke as more of a crutch as he held onto them. He regretted throwing away the apple now, wishing he had something portable to help him through it all. Zeke spoke up about Alexios interruption however, and all Demi could do was mouth the word “Assbutt” in confusion.

”Alexios, if you want to help, I need more to eat…this power is taking a toll on me and I can't have anything while in this hotel. Something portable yet filling.” He hated to use the god as a meal delivery service, but he needed his strength and it gave Alexios a way to help him without doing too much. Hopefully it could help keep the peace between the two stubborn goats who seemed to do nothing but butt heads when they were around each other. ”Maybe after this is all over we can take a tour of the city. Never been this far down, though I guess we're closer to my neck of the woods than yours.”

Cassian cocked a smile. Russian? Cool. The uncertainty of their origin made him wonder how many generations ago it was that their family had moved here to the states. Roots clearly lost to time as culture stopped getting passed down, only names remaining as a semblance of where they once came. It was nice running into others his age at this hotel, hopefully their parents didn't mind that they were gone for top long. Then again with an arcade this large it was hard to think your kids would come back quickly. Another waitress came by and Cassian absent-mindedly took the cookie, taking a bite as they discussed what to do next.

He chewed for a moment before swallowing it down, turning the ball in his hand a few times as he thought while he ate. Finally he spoke up, tossing the skeeball into the air before catching it and placing it back into the bin it came from. ”Laser tag sounds fun! I've never played it before but it seems simple enough. Get a gun, shoot the targets, and don't get got right?” He finished the rest of his cookie before wiping his hand on his pants. ”Lead the way. I assume it's every person for themselves? Since I don't have a partner to…team…with…” He shook his head for a moment, as if stumbling over the word ‘team’ but he couldn't guess why.

---

---

Nancy still felt somewhat out of her body, as the cat was pestering her, weaving in and around her legs and nearly making her trip. Joanie at least had the good sense to never really get underfoot like that, the small dragon instead usually perching on her shoulder like a parrot. Zeke's cat seemed to want her to follow it - which made sense, given what Apo-her father had mentioned earlier. What didn't make too much sense was that as she glanced out into the casino proper, she didn't spot any of her companions. Guilt and dread bubbled together in her stomach.

But those emotions were soon displaced by surprise, as a grainy, staticky image of Niah appeared in front of her. Niah's voice was distant and out-of-focus, almost distorted really, but she could hear her. She didn't get enough detail to make out the expression on her face. "What's wrong?" Nancy asked instantly, the dread coming back with a vengeance. Instantly, her mind came up with a list of possible reasons Niah could be calling her, and telling her that she loved her, that - "I love you too" - that someone was dying or hurt. That something terrible had happened. That Mads or Niah was dying or hurt. That Mads was dead. That Niah was about to sacrifice herself. That her world was crumbling apart. "N-Niah, you're scaring me, what's the damage?"

---

---

Janelle didn't even notice much of Zeke's response towards her at all, instead she paid slightly more attention towards the voice that popped up in her mind instead. The voice she knew belonged to her father, and she wondered what he was wanting. "...Not well..." she managed to mumble under her breath in response to Hypnos' question, not talking too loudly with regards to that. Since she had no clue where he was or where to really direct her attention to.

One thing was for certain though. She could not stand being basically dragged around while attached to literally anyone else here, especially not being by Demetri and playing babysitter to everyone around them. Plus, confining her movement was probably the worst thing you could do, considering feeling was the only true way she could perfectly interact with her surroundings, especially when the sounds were overwhelming her, so being dragged around without being able to tell for herself where she was made it incredibly difficult for her. "I am naht goin to be a babysetter fahr you idiots, and restraints o' any sahrt without actually givin me a choice is de dumbest posseble din you could do when I rely ahn feelin a movement to get around places!" she snapped out loud, before after a moment she managed to get herself out of the little rope or whatever it was that Demi had done to attach them all together, and she took a step away, focusing on orienting herself the right way as she instantly went back to using her cane without that in general. "I'm just gettin tired o' people right now," she then added keeping her voice down when adding to her conversation with Hypnos.

---

---

Jason wasn't sure how things were going to go with the conversation between Nancy and Niah, and he basically was just sort of waiting for them to get moving again. He knew it would seemingly be a little bit before the others felt like heading off places. Not thinking much of it, his attention was quickly shifted to the one person that he didn't seemingly recognize from the other group. Definitely was a new person, and he had walked up and introduced himself, so Jason figured he'd do the same.

"I'm Jason," he said with a shrug, still not mentally alright with introducing himself with the name of his godly parent. It was still insanely weird to him. Though the guy seemed to agree with the keeping an eye out while everyone else was sort of dealing with things, he nodded his head. "Yeah, figured dat would be de smart din," he added with a shrug in response.

---

---

Mary gave Stella a smile when she introduced her new puppy to her, as well as the adventures that they've been having to get to the West Coast. "Sounds like you have had your hands full in order to get here. Cyclops are always fun to potentially deal with, and I'm glad you made a new little friend to take with you," she said, adding the last part as she looked at the puppy. She had a cat of her own that was currently back at camp though.

Her question being asked back at her caused her to glance slightly over at Andy, before turning her attention back towards Stella. "Things are never easy with regards to that... You never get used to it, no matter how many times things like that happen..." she said to her, before shaking her head slightly. "Aside from that, well, there were a lot of monsters down in the Labyrinth... Encountered a Sphinx when we got in there, and despite solving the riddle it decided to try and kill us anyone. And found Damon, who had been with a group of campers a while back who had gone to try and map the place out... So at least that was a good thing that happened..."

---

---

Andy pulled herself together. Stepping away from the goddess she had been ugly crying on. She dried her face off with her sleeve. "Uh, thanks. And sorry. I didn't...mean to cry like that." She said, while shifting, not quite looking Persephone in the face. "I want to send an Iris message too. I need to talk to Arthur." She didn't know what she would say, but she wanted to see him. Wanted his reassurance that he'd help.

She stepped away and found a bit of rainbow. But the Iris message wasn't working. It should have. There was a rainbow. She frowned. "Chocolate," She leaned down and pet the dog. She wanted to ask him why he wasn't with Arthur. But the dog couldn't talk.

Andy sighed and rejoined the others. "Maybe Arbor can play with Chocolate." Andy suggested to the girl her age. She realized she did not remember her name, but that would be super embarrassing to say. Maybe she'd introduce herself to Damon and she'd be saved that embarrassment. To the others, she said, "I can't get an Iris to connect with Arthur." She frowned.




Niah wasn't a hundred percent sure where Nancy was, but she guessed likely already in the Lotus Hotel. She cursed at herself. Of course, she was. Here Niah had to tell her the worst news in the worst place.

"Mads fell. She's in Tarturs." Niah didn't know all the details, just that the stupid prophecy had come true. That one of her best friends was gone. Andy had said it, and Mary had given her the damn crystal, which was now carefully tucked into her backpack.

She wished she could reach through the Iris message and hug Nancy. The three of them getting split up was the worst thing. Together they could have handled anything. Anger at the gods flashed through her but was quickly squelched. They had a lot less say in fate than they acted like they did. They were stuck in their stories, dragging the rest of them along.

---

---

---

---

San Fransico, Sierra Trail:

Damon nodded he was glad for the company as he turned to look at the others who were there, they all had gone through a lot it seemed as he spoke up. "The two of us are gonna head out and patrol and make sure that things are clear for a little bit, we'll be back in a few minutes." Damon said to the ladies as he started to head off further along the trail, so far things seemed to be pretty clear he didn't notice any monsters or anything really now which was nice, and the rain slowly started to stop now as well. "So where are you from?" Damon asked Jason.

Persephone turned to look at Andy as she tried to make contact with Arthur, she remembered seeing him in the Underworld with her husband over something. "Arthur is visiting his father at the moment last I saw him he was safe with him doing some kind of training or something like that." Persephone told Andy hoping to reassure the girl on his whereabouts.

---

---

---

---

Kiera hadn't really gotten much sleep last night the events of the day before were still going through her head, thinking of ways that she could have been able to save her girlfriend. She slowly started to sit up and stretched slightly when she head a thud and looked to see her half-sister sprawled out on the floor. Kiera giggled slightly as she went over and offered Sera a hand and pulled her back up. [color="DeepSkyBlue]It's okay i've had that happen to be before a few times."[/color] Kiera said as she heard a knock on the door. Kiera turned to look at her sister before making her way over towards the door.

A mermaid was standing just outside of the door. "Lord Poseidon is down in the main hall he wants to offer you two some breakfast before you two are to head out back to the surface world." They said as Kiera looked at Sera for a moment and then nodded slightly. "Tell father that we'll be down in a few minutes." She said as the mermaid nodded and swam off down the hallway towards the dining hall. "Shall we get ready?" Kiera asked Sera as she went to grab her things.

---

---

---

---

Alexios started to think for a moment before snapping his finger getting an idea what to do as he conjured up a cornucopia that landed in Demi's hand. "Here you go love, it's a cornucopia just think whatever you want and any food you could ever desire will pop out of it." Alexios said, one of them was used by another demigod years ago by the name of Piper and it was pretty useful as well to. He then turned his attention to Zeke his eyes flashing slightly yellow, as Zeke had just insulted him. "Want me to turn you into an ant?" He asked the demigod who was getting on his nerves and it was never smart to insult a god at all.

Kristin rolled her eyes and groaned as she stepped in between Demi, Zeke and Alexios. "You two need to get along seriously." Kristin said, Demi's little makeshift shadow rope thing ended up failing and everyone was free now just as Janelle broke free from it. "Just have your hand on someone's shoulder so that they don't wonder off." Kristin suggested as she started to move forward. "You know you could always just make them fall asleep, they certainly wouldn't bother you then." Hypnos suggested to Janelle, only she would be able to see him now walking alongside her.

The Iris call started to get even more distorted but Nancy would be able to get the gist of Niah's message, it was still there for now if Nancy still wanted to continue with her conversation with Niah. The cat was still meowing insistently wanting her attention even going as far as to bite at Nancy's ankles.

Over where Cassian was Anya nodded towards him. "Yep it's usually always a free for all in there." She said as she gestured for the two boys to follow her, and headed into the laser tag arena there was already a group getting ready for a new game there was some spare laser tag equipment on a nearby rack as Anya and her brother grabbed theirs. "Are you ready?" They asked Cassian.

---

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---

---

The sadness seemed to cling to the air as Marygold told her it wasn't easy, and that it never got easier. Stella looked over at Andy, and she could tell that the two taking the loss hardest where the other young girl, and Niah. Niah, who was talking with her fellow Roman, and clearly needed this moment alone. Stella hadn't really experience loss like that before, so she didn't dare pretend she understand, and so she turned back to Marygold as her older sibling told her about what had happened in the Labyrinth.

"A real sphinx? Woah. And even when you solved its riddle it still attacked? That seems kinda mean and against the rules, doesn't it? And you found a lost camper? Do people get lost in the Labyrinth often?" Stella was now bristling with curiosity, so much so that she almost missed Andy's question, but thankfully, she caught it. "That sound like a good idea, since we're taking a small break. Go on boy, go ahead and play with Chocolate. Thanks." She gently nudged her puppy on, and watched as the wolf went off to go play with the other dog.

---

---

Ezekiel jumped when Janelle snapped. And he thought everything was going well, too. He glanced at the ground, falling silent for a moment before he swallowed. Then Alexios opened his annoying mouth. Ezekiel rolled his eyes.
”Don't be so dramatic.”
He looked round at the others when Kristin suggested one hand on the shoulder method. ”Just stick close,” he reminded everyone. He kept hold of Demetri’s hand and led the way to Nancy.
They found her and Sunshine on the floor outside a supply closet. ”Nanc? Um, is everything okay?” He knew that was a stupid question but he hadn't any other words to say. He rubbed the back of his neck. ”We managed to stick together --- aside from Cassian. I wanted to come find you first. Are…are you ready to keep going?” Gods Ezekiel hated himself so much for forcing his half-sister and best friend to go through this.

---

---

Nancy's ears began to ring, her head feeling stuffy as she struggled to process what Niah had just said - that the impossible had happened, that a part of their soul was missing, that what had been three was now just two. Somehow, she didn't even register the pain from the cat biting her - it was like it was happening to someone else. And she didn't hear the meows, the cries. She didn't hear anything, nothing beyond the ringing in her ears, as her world shattered. The most traumatic moments of her life had both happened within these walls. What resilience and courage she had managed to conjure up was gone.

Unknowingly to her, she had created a small bubble around herself - one that muffled out all sound, dissipating it into nothingness. So as she opened her mouth to speak, only silence reached Niah - and Nancy herself only heard silence, only heard the ringing, only felt the ruins of her world gather around her.

She was barely aware of Zeke as he came up - and his words were snuffed out in her bubble, dying before they could reach her ears.

She just wanted everything to stop.

She wanted to trade places with Mads.

She should have been the one who died.

---

---

Location: Atlantis

Skills: Hydrokinsis

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---

The girl stands and rubs her neck. "I'm usually a bit clumsy, so it'll probably happen more." Stumbling out of bed was normal for Sera, even a bit of tripping or sliding depending on if the ground was slick. Of course underwater she wasn't too much of a clutz. Probably since it felt rather natural being surrounded by the ocean. She looked towards the door and nodded towards her half-sister. Taking her own things, not wanting to leave anything behind, even if she did she'd probably get it returned to her somehow. "Okay I'm ready to head down for breakfast." Sera walked over to the door, exiting the room with Kiera, heading off to the dinning area. "I wonder what sort of food will be on the table. I hope for some waffles!"

---

---

Demi had no idea what had gotten into Janelle. Seemingly having snapped out of nowhere just because he was trying to make sure they all stayed together. The pull from the Hotel was clearly stronger than any of them had previously realized and he just wanted to minimize the time they were waiting each time someone fell for the tricks of the Casino. He felt as she snapped the shadow around her wrist, his control already wavering from fatigue and hunger. All it took was one break, and the shadows began to quickly unravel from everyone.

He hadn't expected for Alexios to take his request so seriously. A Cornucopia was the very definition of portable and filling. He slung the strap of it underneath his free arm as Zeke held onto his hand. Demi pulled a vine of table grapes from the device, holding it just above his mouth as he used his teeth to pluck one of the massive dark orbs off of it and began to eat. ”Thanks…Alexios. Kristin's right though, we need to get along, especially in here. There's no reason why you two have to fight all the time. Who knows maybe we can have a lovely triple date down one of the faux Italian rivers here with a gondola and food after this is all done.”

When they reached Nancy, Demi was riddled with concern. She wasn't doing well at all, and regardless of Zeke's wish to move forward, Demi wasn't sure she could. He wasn't even sure if she had heard him speak just now. He let go of Zeke's hand, gently placing what remained of the grapes in his palm before stepping away. Demi knelt down before Nancy, looking her in the eyes and giving her a silent question, an open invitation should she wish to take it, simply receive a hug and let out everything she was feeling in that moment. Normally he would've gone in, initiated it, and held them close. But Nancy had her boundaries, and he wanted to respect them while offering the choice.

Cassian followed Anya and Aron through the halls of the Casino Hotel until they reached the Laser Tag room. There was another group already gearing up, and as Anya explained to Cass how it all worked, he began to grab what was left on the wall. Placing the vest over himself and securing it tight, noticing how the pieces clipped before going over and grabbing his weapon. ”Battle Royal? How very Hunger Games.” He looked over the gun in his hand, searching for any extra buttons or things before finally responding. ”As I'll ever be.”

Cassian slunk into the arena, ducking behind covers as he tried to get the layout of the place. He could hear some noises from the group that came in before them, tailing them silently as he watched their movements long enough to get a read. He quickly popped around a corner, faking left as he went to shoot right and got one in his target. He continued this, targeting two more as he tried to dwindle the numbers down so in the end it would be a match up between Anya, Aron, and himself.

---

---

She didn't really have time to fully explain what was going through her head with regards to that. They didn't fully get it, so she didn't say anything else to them at all. "Well that would be so simple, but think about it, we're kind of in a not so great place right now and doing that probably would end up with someone dying or something horrible to happen right now... I do seriously wish that was actually the case though and I could just do that..." she said to her father, fully ignoring everyone else around her again.

Janelle had been honest at least, she didn't want to be anyone's babysitter, and that had literally been what she had been doing up until that point. And Demetri basically wanting her to stay stuck in that role almost at that point and drag her along everywhere with some weird rope thing against her will, that didn't help at all. She heard Zeke speak to Nancy, and she wasn't sure how things were going for her, but currently it didn't seem all too good from what she could tell, but that was about it.

---

---

Jason nodded a bit when Damon spoke to the others mentioning that they were going to go sort of keep watch and patrol the area a bit. He wasn't entirely sure that they should be in the area that they were for very long, but there wasn't much else that could be done about it. At least not until the others sort of regrouped their thoughts a bit with regards to the entire situation and all that had happened. And it seemed like that might take a little bit at this rate.

Jason walked along with Damon as the guy decided to ask him where he was from. "My lettle sester and I are initially frahm Galway in Ireland. But after our parents died we ended up mahvin in wit our uncle in New Yahrk, dat was ahnly about 2 ahr 3 years ago," he said to him with a bit of a shrug. He wasn't entirely sure what else to say with regards to it. He was only really half paying attention to the entire situation and looking out for monsters more then anything still.

---

---

Mary nodded her head a bit with a slight laugh, "Yeah, it was more of because of the fact that apparently it had been a while since it ran into anyone so it was hungry. Which made it decide to break all of those rules that are in place. So that was fine, it worked out and the monster died. Apparently we were too good at solving riddles for it to handle." that was the easiest explanation of that whole thing, it didn't super surprise her really, which was kind of a sad thing.

"As for the people getting lost in the Labyrinth question well... That's a bit more complicated. Not sure how many people actually end up down there... But there aren't a lot of people who tend to get out of there so easily. Which is kind of a common sort of thing when you think about it. The Labyrinth stretches forever, across the world really, for instance we got in back in New York, and we ended up here on the west coast of the country... And people tend to die there and not exactly make it out because of all of the monsters there..."

---

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San Fransico, Sierra Trail:

Everything around their little rest area seemed to still be clear for now Chocolate and Arbor were both having a blast as the two of them played and wrestled with each other. Persephone found a nearby wooden bench to sit down on, Niah was still on her Iris Call with Nancy for Niah she wasn't able to hear anything on the other end aside from seeing brief glances of Nancy freaking out by the looks of it.

"I've been to Ireland only once myself actually but that was way before I actually came to camp." Damon said as he continued to look around everything was clear for now still which was good. Though he didn't want to stray to far from the rest of the group they were his ticket back to camp after all he just needed to help them finish their quest first. "Things seem to be clear, did you want to continue on or head back?" Damon asked him.

---

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---

---

"I'm sometimes a bit clumsy myself as well to actually." Kiera said with a slight laugh as she started to head down back towards the dining room where the two of them had dinner the night before. "And if I had to guess they made some seafood or something like that for breakfast." Kiera said it was pretty logical to her anyway since they were under the ocean and at Atlantis seafood was all around them. But that was just her opinion anyway.

Once they made it to the dining room food was already set up for the three of them, it was a mix of the standard breakfast and mixed with a bit of seafood as well to. Poseidon was in the room sitting at the head of the table, his attention quickly turned towards his two daughters and smiled at the two of them.

"Good morning how did you two sleep?" He asked both Kiera and Sera as Kiera went over and sat down on one of the chairs closest to her father. "I didn't get much sleep honestly." Kiera said she wasn't sure if she would get any good sleep for a long time. Kiera started to grab and make herself a plate putting some scrambled eggs onto her plate as well as some bacon to and quickly started to eat.

---

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---

"Fine i'll play nice for now, but if he annoys me to much i'm turning him into an ant." Alexios said as he crossed his arms over his chest and watched as both Zeke and Demi went to try and comfort Nancy. Whenever the two of them got close to Nancy the two of them were in her bubble of silence. When Zeke spoke to Nancy he wouldn't be able to hear himself speak at all, and everything sounded very muffled, same thing would happen for Demi as well to. Kristin stood there as she tried to think of a way to try and help her, but Zeke and Demi seemed to be there for her she didn't want to overwhelm the girl either. "You could use your power on her, she seems to be having a mental breakdown right now, or at least put her into a tired state might calm her down." Hypnos suggested to Janelle.

Over where Cassian was he still wouldn't be able to hear anything from Aron or Anya he would then feel a tap on his back as a barrel of the laser gun was pointed at his face when Cassian turned around. Then she quickly moved the gun to his chest and pressed the trigger indicating that he had been shot. "Looks like you are dead." Anya said teasingly.

---

---

Andy's lip turned up slightly watching the two dogs play. It didn't make her feel better, but it was cute. She looked at Persephone, blinking in surprise at her explanation of Arthur's location. She didn't like that. She hadn't seen what had happened to Ash, but it had scared Arthur. He had become so scarred by Ash and then later Des' deaths. She didn't imagine he would appreciate being in his father's realm all that much. It also meant he had been taken from his quest group which meant they were down a person. Had they found a third?

Andy didn't say anything she was thinking. She finally settled on, "Oh, thank you for telling me. Uh, if you see him soon can you tell him that Mads fell." He'd know what that meant. He had promised to help get her back. She glanced over seeing Naih screaming Nancy's name.




Tears fell down Niah's face. She hated this moment. Hated it all. She wanted to curse the gods for tearing apart her little family. Her friends were her world. Her sister was most likely dead. And now the sister of her heart had fallen. She knew that once Nancy was out of the hell hole she was in they'd go together, probably with little Andy, to find Mads. They'd get her back.

"We'll get her back, Nancy. We knew this was going to happen, we will get her back." But as she spoke she realized no sound was coming through. Nancy was quiet though obviously crying. She should be getting the sounds of her cries, but there was nothing. The silence was all-encompassing. "Nancy!" She called out, yelling, hoping her friend could hear her. But there was no reaction from her. Nancy was lost in her own grief, and Niah's screams could not penetrate. Into view came Zeke.

"Oh, thank goodness. Zeke! Mads is gone. I had to tell Nancy and now..." She trailed off. It was obvious what the now was. And she wasn't sure if he could hear her.

---

---

As Ezekiel spoke, everything seemed muffled. Ezekiel opened and closed his jaw, feeling like his ears needed to pop or something. He spoke again, saying not much of anything, but once again, Ezekiel got nothing but muffled sounds. He glanced at Demetri, trying to get his attention with words, and then he saw something flash. Ezekiel turned to see Niah on the other side of an Iris message. It looked like she was yelling. Ezekiel looked back at Nancy and the utter despair on her face. He looked back at Niah, back to Nancy, back to Niah and fell back on his heels. Something happened. Why else would Niah be in an Iris message and Nancy in a bubble of silent oblivion? He looked down at Sunshine and thought about what he could do.
Growing up, Ezekiel always felt insignificant. His mother loved him and sacrificed everything for him, but it didn’t help this deep feeling Ezekiel had about not being good enough. He remembered staying up at night, watching the moon's glow or turning on a light source just to bring in a little bit of comfort and warmth. Ironic that his power would be the manipulation of sunlight.
Ezekiel shut his eyes and held his hands slightly apart. His hands curved to create an open circle as he focused his energies. There wasn’t much natural light here, but Ezekiel had power within. They all did. It took Ezekiel some time, time he knew they didn’t have, but he didn’t care. He would give Nancy all his time.
Eventually, Ezekiel created a small light orb that emitted some heat. At first, his light was small and shaky, but after another push, Ezekiel expanded the light to be bright enough and warm enough to keep a little boy warm on a cold, lonely night. Or a little girl.
Ezekiel held the light in his hands, presenting the orb to Nancy. He looked at her, looked at Niah, Demi, and then Nancy once more. He couldn’t say anything, but he could do this. He could sit here and give Nancy some light at the end of the tunnel.

---

---

Something inside of her had broken - or maybe it had broken a long time ago.

It was like she was a ghost, hovering outside of her own body, watching things transpire from a third person perspective. Some of the Greeks were there - not all, but some. Her brother. His boyfriend. Janelle. Kristin. Niah's staticky image, conveyed across space by the rainbow goddess. And then her, kneeling on the ground, her face cracked with pain, grief pouring out from her silently as she enforced a bubble, removing every single bit of sound. The gift her father had sent her was already forgotten. All she knew, all she felt was pain. She saw the light that Zeke offered her - saw the gaze in Demetri's eyes - and she turned away from them.

What light could exist in a world without Mads?

What light would Nancy want to have exist in a world without Mads?

She rejected that world. She rejected its gods.

The bubble snapped, a shockwave of pure sound rushing outwards from her, slamming into the other demigods and knocking them back. Images from her life happened all at once - the assault, near death moments on quests, her mother's abuse. It all swirled together in a confusing cacophony of pain and violence. Nancy wanted nothing more than to burn it all down - to hurt others the way she had been hurt.

She rejected this reality.

"Pedicabo deos," Nancy whispered, reverting to Latin even as her eyes were unseeing, her soul clearly detached from her actual surroundings.

---

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Stella looked over at Chocolate and Arbor playing together for a moment and smiled softly, thankful for the moment of peace that she was able to witness. Despite the chaos that was going on around them, and she could tell that it was getting worse, this one moment was nice. Being out among nature, with two of her older sisters there, and her dog being able to be a dog for a bit. No monsters, no worries, no giants or titans just yet.

She turned back to Marygold, listening to her as the older girl told her about why the Sphinx had attacked, which made sense to Stella now that it was laid out, and then giggled as she said they were just too good at solving riddles. She was proud for her for that moment before she turned back to talking about people getting lost again.

"It stretches forever? Across the whole world? Woah. So... it's not like how it is in just the story anymore, huh? Wow." Stella looked up as she heard Damon ask if they should continue their quest, but then another sound rang out. It seemed to be coming from the call Niah was making... and it caused Stella to put her hands over her ears and wince. Arbor dropped to the ground as well and put his paws over his ears and wined a bit at that point.

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Demetri wanted to retort, to say some witty remark back at Alexios to tell him to at least make Zeke into a cat or a dog so he wouldn't have full blown depression from the sudden loss. But he didn't, he focused on what was at hand, and as he saw the Iris message and Zeke, he could tell that his words wouldn't of reached Alexios anyways. No sound was escaping their mouths, nothing came through from the shimmering rainbow save for images. Out of the corner of his eye he saw something faint, like candle light, flickering into existence. When he looked, it was Zeke, offering Nancy some form of comfort. Or so he imagined. Perhaps it was an Apollo thing? He didn't know, but as he watched Nancy he thought for a moment they could connect.

Suddenly the bubble burst, Demi was flung back hard as he crashed against the closet wall hitting his head. A wave of sounds suddenly springing to life as the cacophony bombarded his ears and he quickly went to cover them up. Trying to ease himself back into the sounds of the Hotel after having been surrounded by pure silence. ”Fuck me. Z you ok?” Demetri asked as he looked over towards his boyfriend.

Cassian was scoping out the last of his targets, wondering where the twins had gone. It was silent in the room, no footsteps could be heard as he skulked around the corner of a wall only to find nothing. He let out a sigh before he felt something press against the back of his head. He wondered if the gentle tap had come from Aron, but as he turned around he was met with Anya, shooting his plate before teasing him. ”Actual Ninjas. No way you were that silent the whole game.” He said laughing along.

He spun the gun around his finger before holstering it on his side. ”Wanna go again? Or maybe we could try out one of the other games around here. You seem to know the layout better than me so I'll differ to your judgment.” Cassian said as he crossed his arms with a smile. Full glad to have found the twins in this massive hotel.

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Things weren't going all too well with regards to Nancy, that much she could easily tell. However everything else immediately went even more downhill with the loud shockwave that knocked her backwards. That wasn't the thing that concerned her though, it was the volume of the sound that messed with her and she instantly took a few steps back, hands covering her ears as the ringing started. This was bad, this was really really bad. Now she very much was a sitting duck with no idea of where she was compared to the others or anything like that. Getting knocked back was one thing, messing with her hearing so she couldn't orient herself back around in addition to that wasn't going to work out.

She was taking a few steps around, having no idea where in comparison with the others that she was, she took a few steps, but she wasn't even sure where she was or what direction she was facing. At the moment she was truly completely blind to everything around her. "Maybe, but right now I dahn't know where anyone is," she said to Hypnos, not even really able to focus or hear her own voice.

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"Yeah, ahnly been 'ere a few years and dis country is stell sahmewhat confusin to me at times... My sister and I 'aven't been at de camp fahr too lahng, so stell naht super used to everythin goin ahn wit all o' dis sahrt o' din," he said, adding the last part with a bit of a shrug. Yeah, he still was having a hard time wrapping around the whole being a demigod thing at times, and the idea of quests too.

With regards to the question about whether or not they should keep wandering or head back, he just shrugged a little. "I mean, we 'aven't run into anyone else, ahr seen anythin, so 'eadin back now wooehld make sahme sense."

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"...I mean, that's just it, no one actually knows how far it goes or how big it is. Since no one has ever really been able to map it out, plus it is kind of always changing. So you can't really know how big it is... It's a little weird that way, but just think, as mentioned we basically traveled across the country wandering through it, so it might not fully stretch around the world, but I think it does considering how big it is and how hard it is for things to get through it successfully... We just so happened to find a book with a magic compass that pointed an arrow wherever you wanted to go for it," she said to Stella with a bit of a shrug. This group was still in the middle of their own quest though, so who knew how things would go here.

Her attention instantly shifted towards Niah, who was yelling out Nancy's name, and she winced a bit. She knew that conversation was about Madalyne, that she knew, but it clearly wasn't going well. Mary wasn't entirely sure what to say to Niah or to ask, or even if she should say something. So at the moment she just chose to not say anything, just keeping an eye a bit on what was going on with Niah, though the sound through the portal wasn't exactly a good thing she was pretty sure.