Nico's pov
I woke up to knocking on the door at 11:45. Schist,did I really sleep that long? I remembered collapsing onto my bed at seven the night before. I yawned and rubbed my eyes tiredly. Who had been knocking?

I opened the door and came face to face with Raven. My heart was pounding erratically. I groaned inwardly. Why does she do this to me? She glanced at me uncertainly. "You do realize that you're only in boxers,right?"

Oh schist! I glanced down at my bare chest,going into full panic mode. Gods, why didn't I realize that before I opened the door? She took off her glasses. "Raven? What are you doing?"

"I'm doing you a favor. You don't want me to see you only in your underpants, do you? My vision is blurry enough so I can't really see anything right now. "Was she blushing? Raven was blushing! It was just barely visible against her dark skin. "Um,thanks. I'll be ready in ten minutes." A tiny crooked smile appeared on her usually scowling face. I loved it when she smiled because she smiled so rarely,unless she was using her creepy smile when fighting. Her true smile was beautiful,dazzling, heartbreaking, and hauntingly sad. I'd only seen it once during all the years I had known her,and I wished that I could see it again. To see her so happy,that would be amazing.

I rushed around the cabin,trying to get ready as fast as possible. Panting from running around,I opened the door again. "It's safe to put your glasses on."

Raven blinked as her eyes readjusted. "We're playing capture the flag today, remember?" I thought I saw her smile, but only for a second. "You should wear your black armor,"there was definitely the ghost of a grin on her face,"you look good in it." Her usually sad,kind of empty black eyes had a spark of mischief in them. Wait. Did she seriously just say that to me?

Before I could ask her,she had disappeared back into the nearby woods where she spent most of her time, leaving me unable to decide if she had been serious or not. I was pretty sure that she was being serious, she usually was. But why would she say something like that to me of all people? I mean,it's not like she was capable of liking someone,much less the death-radiating son of Hades. And by death-radiating son of Hades,I mean me obviously. Raven just got me more confused everytime we talked.

Okay,something you have to know: Raven takes sparring and war games very seriously. It's fun for her,she enjoys fighting. In fact,she had been the one to train me after I ran away from Camp Half Blood. I met her again after the boarding school in a New Orleans graveyard. When I later decided to stay in the underworld as an advisor to my father, I found out that Raven actually lived there. She trained me and became my best friend,the only person who truly understood my past and my struggle after Bianca's death. When everything came crashing down during the war, she taught me how to shadow travel and control my powers. I owed her so much. She was always there,she was the first person to know about my crush on Percy,and she never tried to change my mind. She accepted who I was,the only one who truly did and wasn't ever freaked out by my abilities.

But anyways,since Raven takes capture the flag so seriously,she was probably out scouting for hiding places for the flag so she could take advantage of them during tonight's game. I shook my head and smiled inwardly at the memories I had from our games in the underworld. Those were the happiest memories I had from that time in my life.

Raven came back a couple of hours later. I was right,she had been scouting out the woods. I'm pretty sure she already even had a plan for tonight's game. All throughout the rest of the day,I could sense how she was tense with anticipation.

In the end ,our team consisted of the Hermes cabin,Poseidon cabin,Athena cabin, and the Hades cabin of course. The opposite side had the Ares,Zeus, Demeter,Aphrodite,and Hecate cabin. We were outnumbered,but I knew something the others didn't. We had the vampire half-bloods on our side, and that gave us the advantage.

They would be our secret weapon. Even though they didn't have super strength,super senses,or superspeed, they were still some of our team's greatest assets. Raven and her brothers had an extremely powerful mix of godly blood in their veins,even though Raven was the only one that experienced the full effects of all the different abilities possible. And besides, we had Percy Jackson. Raven and Percy were the best of the best, when swords are involved at least,at Camp Half Blood. Elijah is a pretty good archer,Noah uses a scimitar,and Hae-Joon tends to enjoy using lots of explosives. If Leo was still alive,they'd be best buddies. Raven is excellent with any type of weapon,she just likes using her swords and trident the most.

I know what you're thinking about the trident part. Is she a daughter of Poseidon? To be honest,I don't really know. I mean,I'm closer to Raven than most,she didn't mind the aura of death that always surrounded me,but she's still pretty reclusive and mysterious. Like I'm said to be. But I do know that she was a legacy of Poseidon at the very least because of her powers.

The game began. Everyone raced to their positions. Raven and I were on a mission to get the red team's flag (Percy had insisted that we had to be the blue team). Raven always allied with me. We had been working together for years and we knew each other's style of fighting so we were able to have the other's back at all times. Raven usually fought with twin katanas,one was Stygian iron with silver inlay,the other was chaos silver with celestial bronze inlay. They both had jeweled hilts and balanced perfectly in her grasp. I,of course,had my Stygian iron sword. Raven and I made a formidable team with a great offense and defense. After all,like I said,we knew each other's fighting styles and we both had weapons that could be wielded by no one else.

All we had to do was get past the Ares kids and find the flag,taking out any opposition we came across. Simple, right? Yeah,as usual,it didn't end up as simple as hoped. Well,as simple as I hoped. Raven probably loved the fact that there was more fighting. Literally, fighting,training,and experimenting were among her favorite things to do.

The Ares kids were the ones that were watching the border. And of course Raven had to get Clarisse mad a couple of days before. It's a good thing she has a lot of hidden or more subtle abilities. Did I forget to mention that she radiates death and terror like my father's helm of darkness? Combine that with her normal fierce gaze and potent death glare,and that's a pretty powerful asset right there.

Anyways,it was enough to make the Ares kids hesitate. And that was their downfall. The brief time they were dazed gave Raven the opportunity to create a thin layer of water that covered the ground up to our ankles. I got out of range because I knew what she was about to do. Five seconds later,a blinding bolt of lightning struck Raven and ran through her body,traveling through the water layer and electrocuting everyone in the vincity but me.

Only Raven was left standing,a look of obvious satisfaction on her face as she walked over to my sheltered vantage point. "How's that for a shocking surprise?"

I rolled my eyes. Honestly,Raven and her puns. It was amazhang. Hah hah, now I'm doing it too. Moving on.

The biggest problem was Jason and the children of Hecate. Of course, there was also the Aphrodite kids. Those guys were like style obsessed makeup caked feral zombies when they were mad.

Raven pulled me to the side to avoid the patrolling children of Hecate. We entered another clearing and came face to face with Jason Grace. A sinister smile slowly spread across her face and I saw Jason falter the slightest bit,flinching at the powerful feeling of terror that radiated from the young vampire,washing over him and dissolving his resolve. I could tell that she was enjoying herself. Fighting a son of Zeus would be a thrilling experience for Raven.

Jason shook his head,his eyes clearing like he was coming out of a trance. In a split second,his imperial gold sword was in his hand. I suppose that I could have intervened at that point,tipping the balance of power,you know, something like that. But I didn't want to deprive Raven of her fun. So instead I just watched,keeping a lookout for other opposition.

Their blades clashed. It was a fight between two of the three most powerful demigods I knew. Raven had already defeated one of them,but now that they were using their powers, what would happen? The son of the god of the sky against the ice queen.

Yes, I know that calling Raven the Ice Queen,made her sound like Elsa,but it's literally one of her official titles so just deal with it. Besides,she was a totally badass ice queen. You know, I think I'm just going to stick to calling Raven the Queen of Ice and Shadows. After all,it sounded better and 'Shadow Queen' was another one of her titles anyways.

If I keep getting sidetracked like that, blame it on my ADHD. I sat back and watched the fight. Some popcorn to go with the show would have been good too. Because I was watching the two polar opposites strike against each other,I almost didn't notice Piper until it was too late.

Luckily I saw her before it got to that part. I lost track of the fight between Jason and Raven as my own battle began.