...  everybody dies ...

FIVE             YEARS          LATER

Nico di Angelo was a mess.

Five years after Will's death and his encounter with the broken mortal team that called themselves the 'Avengers', Nico was moping in the Hades cabin at Camp Half-Blood. The once joyful safe haven for demigods now looked so deserted. 

Annabeth busied herself by recruiting new campers.

Frank and Reyna tried to do the same with Camp Jupiter and New Rome. 

A portal had been established between the two camps for easy access.

But the son of Hades didn't care anymore. Half the camp was gone, half the gods were gone...

Half of Nico's heart was gone.

His mother... Bianca... Hazel... Percy... 

Will.

He was all alone.

It had been five whole years. Everyone had moved on. All except for Nico and Annabeth. The camp had lost it's best defenders, some to the dust, some to grief. 

Annabeth still wore Percy's engagement ring. 

Persephone ruled the Underworld on her own. 

Annabeth had considered going to join Percy in Elysium, but Nico told her it was no use.

The souls lost to the Blip were nowhere to be found. He had even gone to Tartarus again, desperate to reclaim the love of his life.

Gone.

Everybody dies.

Annabeth, Frank, Reyna, and Kayla had come and tracked him down a few months after he started trying to find the one responsible for the Blip. They had taken him to Camp Half-Blood.

They asked him not to leave. They didn't keep him there.

"You are not alone," they said.

But he was. One by one, Nico lost everyone he ever loved. 

He would never be happy.

Annabeth stayed strong for everyone, but she was just as affected as Nico was. 

Nico wondered how she did it.

"How do you keep a brave face?"  Nico had asked once.

Annabeth had looked at her engagement ring and smiled softly. "I'm dying inside. But if I show it, everyone goes down with me."  

Her words still echoed in Nico's mind, and he realized he needed to do the same. 

This was the same day a familiar face had stumbled into camp, one he thought he wouldn't see ever again.

One no one at camp had seen for years.

Clint Barton, son of Apollo.