Jason noticed the Hellhound moving, and went over to wake Dawn.

"Hey," he said softly, shaking her shoulder. He was about to say something else, but ended up having to duck when she swung her bow at his head before she was awake. "Easy, just me. Come on, up and at 'em. How should I wake Nika without her killing me?"

"Poke her with a stick?" Dawn suggested as she stretched a bit.

"Hey!" Seth yelled from the doorway. "Wake up!"

Nika woke quietly, unlike Dawn. She sat up and gathered up her things. "You all ready to go?" She cocked an eyebrow.

Dawn ran her fingers through her hair and then pulled it back out of her eyes.

"As ready as I can be to face the end of the world," she said. Jason just rolled his eyes and nodded to Nika.

"This isn't the end of the world," Nika said grimly as she opened the door, letting the Hellhound out. "I'll see to that."

"She has a hero complex, doesn't she?" Seth muttered to Dawn, watching as Nika headed after the Hound.

"Only just now noticing?" Dawn murmured back. "Then again, don't we all? We don't have to save the world, we choose to." She followed Nika as her friend kept an eye on the Hellhound. Jason jogged to catch up to Nika.

"We are, in fact, here to help you, you know," he pointed out. "You're not the only one here who knows what they're doing."

"I know, Jason," Nika said quietly. "But I am the one who's a dead woman walking anyway, so I don't care if I get killed in the attempt. I do care if you get killed."

Seth considered that for a moment before he shrugged. "Yeah, I guess so. Never thought about it that way before."

"And maybe we care if you get killed," Jason pointed out. He grinned a bit. "Not that you'll stay in that state long if we have anything to say about it. Two of Apollo's kids have dragged people out of the Underworld before, what's one more?"

Dawn shrugged.

"It's why demigods are called heroes," she said. "We're capable of killing monsters and saving the world, so we do."

"Well, we'll see, I suppose," Nika said quietly. "First we need to actually get rid of the Void. That's my top priority right now."

"Yeah. Well, some of us do," Seth amended. "Some of never get the chance, but even so, I see your point."

"With good reason," Jason admitted. "But after that, we'll figure something out. Like I said, it's been done before, so it's not impossible."

"To be honest, I don't want my younger brothers going into battle," Dawn admitted. "Kevin, Jake... Even Alexander and the twins. I don't mind Jay and myself, so much, we can take care of ourselves, but... the others just still seem so young, and Kevin and Jake are still so young."

Nika chuckled. "Well, if anyone could be comfortable there, I think it would be me. Hades likes me enough to give me my own room, or something."

Seth nodded. "Yeah. My sister Sarah doesn't even know that I'm here. She's the head of our cabin. She is going to flip out when we get back, and probably verbally flay me alive."

"Yeah, that was kind of creepy, no offense," Jason replied. "Then again, it's just entirely not comfortable down there to begin with."

"I'm the head of my cabin," Dawn said. "Hence why I get to hit my brothers with sticks when they misbehave." To emphasize her point, she used her bow to jab Jason in the side. He jumped and turned to glare at her, but stopped when he noticed how close she and Seth were walking.

Nika laughed quietly. "Don't worry, that just means you're normal." She glanced over at the other two, just walking behind the Hellhound.

Seth laughed quietly and shook his head. "Yeah, that sounds about like Sarah. I think you'd like her. I'll introduce you to her once we get back."

"I think I know her," Dawn replied. "You know, head of the cabin, we all get to talk sometimes. She's the redhead, right? Usually wears blues and greens when we don't have to wear that hideous orange t-shirt?"

Jason glanced at them as well.

"He's getting awfully close to my sister," he muttered. It didn't matter that he was four months younger than Dawn, Aaron wasn't there to be the older brother, so Jason himself decided to be.

"Yeah," Seth said, amused. "The one who thought it would be funny to steal Chiron's wheelchair when he needed to go back into the city for something." He rolled his eyes at his older sister.

Nika snorted, amused. "It's this thing called chemistry," she said dryly. "It tends to happen between people. I've seen it numerous times."

Dawn snickered.

"I remember that," she said. "He was so annoyed. He came around to all the cabins to ask who took it." As if everyone didn't already know it had been a Hermes kid who stole it. Not that anyone had told.

"I'll shoot him if he tries anything with my sister," Jason said. "I can't miss point-blank."

Seth nodded with a grin. "Yeah, that was Sarah. Took Chiron a week to figure out it was her. But man did he ream her after that."

"You can't shoot him if she tries anything with him, though," Nika said with a grin. She was far too amused by this.

"He just can't appreciate a good joke when he gets hit with one," Dawn replied. She grinned. "My brothers thought it was epic."

"Watch me," Jason replied. She was his sister, darn it. And just like every brother since the dawn of time, he didn't think anyone was good enough for her.

"So did we," Seth said with a big grin. "Chiron didn't share our opinion, but oh well. That's okay."

Nika merely shrugged quietly and kept walking, keeping track of the Hound.

Dawn grinned.

"It's kind of like the time I pinned both Ben and Steve to a tree with a single arrow," she said. She shook her head fondly. "Neither of them could figure out how I did it till they realized I pinned them each by a corner of their shirts." She sighed a bit. "That was when I actually had to put effort into missing a target, rather than hitting one."

Jason just walked with Nika. The hound was bound to find something sooner or later.

"We're all a little off our games right now," Seth said with a shrug. "Don't feel too bad, you're not the only one."

Nika paused when the Hound stopped for a moment before taking off at an easy lope. She jogged after it, keeping a little behind it as it headed towards the shoreline again.

"I guess I'm just jumpy," Dawn replied. "I'm not used to being so... isolated. It's like I'm blind, deaf, and terminally clumsy at the same time. I've never been able to heal like my brothers, so it's not like I'm missing that, but I'm used to having visions. I hate not knowing what could happen." When she saw Nika speed up, her tension jumped a bit and she followed.

Jason kept up with Nika easily, and he noticed when his sister went silent behind him.

Seth nodded. "Yeah, I guess it is harder for you than for most of us. Or for me at least." He fell silent as well and sped up, keeping up with the rest of them.

The Hound stayed on the shoreline for a few minutes before leaping at something almost invisible, slashing at it before it had time to run away again. Nika followed suit, attacking it again.

Before he really realized what he was doing, Jason already had a regular arrow ready to go. He didn't want to waste his specialty arrows unless he had to. Dawn was about a second behind him, although he could see her hands shaking a bit.

Nika didn't get out of their way this time. This time, she jumped up, grabbing a handful of almost-flesh and slicing parts clear off until it threw her off, retreating again a little ways as another demi-god approached them. Nika groaned as she sat up, her vision still just a little blurry.

Jason didn't bother shooting the thing once it started to retreat. Putting his bow away again, he went over and helped Nika up.

"You alright?" he asked. He paused. "Well, relatively alright?"

Dawn didn't put away her bow and arrow just yet. Something was setting her on edge, and she was practically jumping out of her skin with tension.