Title: A Quest Without the Gods

Fandom: Percy Jackson and the Olympians

Pairing: Percabeth

Main Characters: Percy Jackson, Nico di Angelo, Thalia Grace, Hazel Levesque, Jason Grace, Annabeth Chase

Rated: T

Summary: It's a week after the Giant War and Percy wakes up at camp. But there's a slight problem, nobody seems to remember the gods. He tries to settle with the fact that they're not pranking him, meanwhile the others think Percy has gone crazy, and decide take him to the doctor. He panics and runs away, looking for the truth. The gods have to exist, right? You can vote for a pairing on my profile!

Disclaimer: Don't own anything except the plot.

AN: Yup, it was Nico. And this chapter is late, sorry for that.

Results of the poll so far:

Percabeth is without a doubt winning, so I'll go with that pairing. Unless one of the other pairings suddenly triples its amount of votes, it stays Percabeth. But if it's going to be Percabeth, the romance will have to wait a few chapters. I recently opened another poll, so I'll switch between which one of those two will be shown on my profile. You can also vote in a review.

Chapter 3

Nico had a crappy day. It started of good; he had slept far longer than usual and almost missed breakfast because of it. But at breakfast it started going wrong. He heard Percy mention the goblets not working when the rest dismissed it like it was nothing. Well, it was not nothing. It got him suspicious of the others, except for Percy. At the time, Nico didn't understand what was going on. He was only able to figure it out because he did what he did best. He hid in the shadows and watched the others. He hadn't disappeared much since Will all but forced him to be social, but he was still a pro at it.

He observed the whole camp and couldn't believe it when he discovered what was going on. Didn't want to believe it even. It was a relief to know that Percy was still a demigod, but he couldn't act on that knowledge because Percy blew his cover right after waking up. Thinking fast, he went to Will, predicting that Chiron or Annabeth would want to get Percy checked up on.

Nico waited for the others to leave him and Percy alone, but it never happened. And when Percy ran away, he couldn't shadow travel after him in plain sight. He told the others to split up, and when they did, he shadow travelled to Percy's house.

It was only a matter of time before Percy would visit his mom and Paul. It was surprising though, that when Percy came home Sally was also with him.

The feeling of cold sharp meal pressed against the back of his neck pulled him out of his thoughts. "Who are you?" Percy asked distrusting, his voice threatening.

So Riptide was still with Percy. Nico also had his sword, but no one at camp had said something about it. "I'm the mighty Ghost King, but you usually call me Nico. Get your sword away from me, Percy."

"Nico!" Before he knew it he got enveloped in a big hug. Just to be clear, Nico still didn't like hugs and tried to avoid them at all cost. They were awkward and too physical. 'Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if you just hugged him back,' a voice that sounded annoyingly much like Will suggested. With a slight groan and a roll of his eyes he complied with 'his inner Will'. Even more annoying, the voice was right. It still felt a bit weird, but less awkward than before.

He felt Percy relax before suddenly stiffening. He pushed Nico of. "I-I'm sorry. I know you don't like touching others. I just forgot for a moment cause we didn't speak that much since…" Percy trailed of.

Nico hid a grimace, "Let's not talk about… that right now."

Percy nodded, it was true, they didn't speak that much since Nico confessed his crush. They didn't really avoid each other, but they just hadn't been at the same place at the same time. Nico hid his crush for so long because he didn't want Percy to freak out and leave him, but now it had happened because of something else. Well, there was actually no reason for it. They just barely saw each other anymore.

"Nico… where are we?"

Nico looked around with a frown. He had mainly concentrated on getting away, but hadn't thought of a place to go. And yet, he recognized the place. "I used to live here. It's my old home in Washington."

"You mean, before the hotel?" Percy asked him.

"And after." Nico accidently blurted out, then silently cursed himself for letting that slip. "I still come here sometimes, to clear my head or if I want to get away from… people." He confessed. He had told no one of this house, not even Hazel. Of course his father knew, but Nico was the only one to ever come here. It wasn't for sell, so technically it was still his property. All the furniture was still there and it had three bedrooms. The first time he was here there was no electricity, but now he can even watch TV if he wanted to. Nico had suspicions that his father was behind that.

Percy nodded, sensing that Nico didn't want to talk about it any further. "Alright, you got something to eat? I'm starving."

Nico walked over to the fridge, knowing that it would refill whatever he grabbed. "Can you cook?" He asked Percy who made himself comfortable on the couch.

"I'm not great at it, but I won't burn the house down." Percy admitted.

"Never mind, I found some doughnuts. We can have a real dinner later, first we have to talk." He closed the door to the fridge again and grabbed a box of doughnuts from the kitchen counter.

He sat down opposite of Percy and put the doughnuts on the small table between them. "I know you have a lot of questions, so ask away."

Having received the permission he was looking for Percy shot out question after question. "What the Hades is going on at camp? How did you find me? Why can you still shadow travel? Do the gods exist or not? Am I going crazy? Are we both going crazy? Is this all a big prank from the Stolls? Are you real? Do the others still have powers? Why did my mother lie to me? Did she lie to me? She did, didn't she? And how in Hades did the others get my mom to help out in a prank! Even that dude from the Empire State Building helped! Is Annabeth mad at me? Why are you here? How long have you been in that room? Do you even have the answers? Where are-", Percy's rambling suddenly stopped. "No, wait. Let's start with that question. Do you have the answers?"

Nico took a deep breath, careful to not start another rant. "Not all of them." Noticing Percy's impatient look he quickly continued. "But, I know that it is definitely not a prank."

"Then why do I have all those strange memories that don't match with the rest!"

Nico frowned. "Look, I know you're frustrated, but you're not the only one with questions here, Percy. So please, don't take your anger out on me."

"You're right… I'm sorry," Percy sank down on the chair in defeat. "I just expected you to have it all figured out already." Then his eyes widened. "Oh gods, that came out wrong. What I meant was, I thought you would have the answers because you were the one to suddenly take me away from my mom." Percy groaned. "I guess there's no way to say this without sounding like a jerk."

He chuckled drily. "Percy, you could never be a jerk to your friends. You're too damn loyal for that. And to be fair, I do have my reasons for kidnapping you."

Percy raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."

"Let's start at the beginning. I heard you at breakfast, so I got a little suspicious about the other demigods. After all, what you were saying made total sense to me, but not to the others. So I sneaked around camp, listening in on conversations. Don't give me that look, I'm not a stalker." Nico defended himself. "And even if I am, it came in handy. There were enough hints about the others not knowing a single thing about the gods. Chiron was in his wheelchair form, that doesn't happen often at camp, no one was using his powers, I saw no mythological creatures… the pegasi where just obvious, though."

Nico swore he saw Percy blush. "Why are the others being strange, then? As far as I know, we are the only ones who know all these things."

Nico was going to say he didn't know, but before he could he instinctively closed his eyes when something bright flashed before their eyes. Only when he knew it was safe to look again did he open his eyes, and honestly, he wasn't shocked all that much by what he saw. There was someone in the room, probably a god judging by the powerful glow and him teleporting inside the house. He had never met this god before, but he could guess who it was. The man had black hair and golden eyes, and not to forget, purple/blue wings. He looked a lot like his twin.

"Lord Hypnos," Nico acknowledged him with a quick bow. "Are you here to explain everything to us?" The question may have sounded a bit rude, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.

Percy followed his example and bowed, most likely confused about how similar he looked to Thanatos. His domain was pretty similar too. Death is just a more permanent form of sleep, some would say. Nico knew better.

"Yes, I did. So let's make this quick so I can go again." Hypnos grumped. "The gods ordered me to visit you, otherwise I would still be asleep. Where to start…"

"The gods, where are they?" Percy urged him. Nico shot him a look that told him to be cautious. In the myths Hypnos got portrayed as lazy and a big coward, but he was still a god.

"Let's start with Gaea." Hypnos said, ignoring Percy completely. "She did this to you. Just before she died, she possessed someone with the last bit of power she had left, to poison you."

"How could she possibly poison us?" Nico asked confused. She can't slip poison into their food or something, right?

"I'm not sure. Wait, maybe it wasn't poison…" Hypnos yawned carelessly, making Nico and Percy almost fall asleep. "It could've also been a spell or something. Cast by a demigod of Hecate? Yeah, that sounds about right. But it doesn't matter how she did it. The point is, you're sleeping."

Beside him, Percy pinched himself. "Nope, I'm feeling pretty awake."

"Well, you're not. Trust me kid, I'm the god of sleep. Don't you think I would know the difference between awake and asleep?" Hypnos raised an eyebrow, more awake than before, which was probably a bad sign.

"But why would she put us to sleep, what is there to gain for her?" Nico diverted his attention from Percy; worried that Percy might actually answer,

Hypnos narrowed his eyes at Percy one last time before responding. "Power. It's always about power, shouldn't you two know that already? From what I heard, you finished a quest, once."

Fortunately, the son of the sea didn't correct him on the number of quests they'd succeeded in. "How is she able to steal our power away from us? I didn't even know that there was a spell for that. Or was it poison?"

"She is tapping it away from you with some freakish power. Or it was part of a complicated spell that only she knows. That's what you get from making enemies with a primordial goddess. Especially when she is technically this planet. So if you don't wake up soon, you won't have the power to wake up anymore. Oh, and she will rise once again, which won't be good either."

"Okay, so then we'll just wake up. Problem solved, right?" Nico asked, fearing it wasn't so simple.

Hypnos shrugged carelessly, as if Gaea destroying the gods wouldn't affect him. "Good luck with that."

"What do you mean?" Percy asked suspiciously.

"If you really thought she was just going to let you wake up again, you're too naive for this life. She made sure that there was someone stopping you from getting out. Someone she trusts with the job." Even when in a hurry, gods still manage to be cryptic about everything, and it annoyed the son of Hades to no end.

"Who is it?" Nico asked the obvious question.

"Tartarus," Both Nico and Percy paled visibly. "I don't think you've met him," Hypnos went on, "but he's strong and big. And I think I heard someone saying he was dating Gaea. I'm not sure if the gods meant Tartarus himself, or just Tartarus. Very confusing, if you ask me."

"Wait, are you saying we have to go to Tartarus?" Percy asked, his voice surprisingly calm.

"I'm not saying that, I'm telling you it might be smart to do so if you want to wake up, and not cause a… second? A second Giant war." The god looked thoughtful before continuing. "There's something else that you must know, and I'm only telling you because I'd rather not wake up to Gaea destroying civilization. You're not the only ones trapped in here. Gaea chose the demigods who hold the most power of all."

"Children of the big three." Nico realized. He knew all too well how powerful they could be, he was one of them after all. And at the moment, there were four others. "Oh gods, Hazel, Thalia and Jason!"

He looked over at Percy who this time wasn't even trying to hide his concern. They both knew first-hand what Tartarus was like and didn't wish for anyone to have to experience it, especially not their friends/half-sister/cousins.

"Where are they? Is another god explaining everything to them, right now?" Percy asked.

"No. I'm the only god capable of being here, Gaea made sure of that. I'm not even supposed to be here, but she can't keep me out forever since I'm the god of dreams. Speaking of that, I can't come here whenever I please, so don't contact me unless it's really important."

"Where are Thalia, Jason and Hazel?" Percy asked once again, this time more firmly. "Or as you may know them, the other children of the big three."

The god sighed, "I do not know. They should be at the same place as where they fell asleep, but no one told me where that might be."

"So we're trapped in a dream with no other way out except for Tartarus, you are the only god who can occasionally drop by, and our cousins are also here." Percy summed up. "Is that all?"

Hypnos coughed a bit awkwardly. "Er… you forgot the part about causing another war."

Percy rolled his eyes. "Of course, a time limit. Well, I guess we just received another quest, Nico."

"Jason, I must speak to you." Reyna said when he was just about to head back to Camp Half-Blood. He was supposed to stay at camp for a while longer, but a meeting he had about a new temple got canceled. Well actually, nobody showed up so he assumed that it got canceled without his knowledge.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Not here, somewhere more… private." Reyna turned around and walked away, silently telling him to follow.

They were silent until Reyna opened the door to the praetors' office. When she motioned for him to go first, Jason became a little nervous. The fact that she wanted to speak to him here either meant that she didn't trust him to tell the truth, or that it something was seriously wrong. Sure, it wasn't the first time they had talked here, but that was when Jason was still a praetor. Maybe he was just becoming a little paranoid, but he hoped that it wasn't the latter. The war had just ended a week ago, and he wasn't looking forward to another huge disaster.

But that would mean that it was his first theory. They both knew that it was impossible for him to lie here, if not for her two dogs, then because of Reyna's black eyes that could probably see right trough every lie of his.

What he didn't expect to happen was for the door to slam shut behind him as soon as he stepped inside. "Reyna? Did you just lock me up?" He asked turning around, unsure of what was happening. Jason was mildly surprise by how calm he sounded; maybe it was because he trusted her?

"Yes, I did. I'm sorry Jason, but it's for your own safety, probably." Her muffled reply didn't clear it up the slightest.

"What do you mean?" Jason felt stupid for talking to a closed door. "What's wrong?"

It was silent for a moment. He guessed that Reyna was considering the consequences of informing him on the situation. Finally, she spoke. "I just got a message from the Greek camp. They said that Percy was acting weird and ran away, soon followed by Nico. Annabeth is really concerned, so she asked me to make sure that you were okay. She thinks that something happened to a family relative."

"A… a family relative? I don't see how I'm involved in this."

"Don't be stupid, Jason. I know you know what she's talking about. Family. You're their cousin, and therefore it is highly possible that you are running of too. At least, that's what Annabeth says. I'm not that convinced myself, but a few hours won't matter."

"Cousin? Are you really going to bring up how we're all related to each other? Seriously, I thought we agreed long ago that our family tree was messed up? If I'm part of Nico and Percy's family, then so are you." Jason rolled his eyes, though a bit concerned for Annabeth. Reyna already admitted that she thought it was stupid, but Annabeth isn't supposed to come up with something like this. She must be really out of it.

He couldn't really blame her, the last time Percy went missing he was gone for six months. Oh god, Percy was gone. And so was Nico this time. He suppressed the panic bubbling up inside of him, he shouldn't think about that now. Jason should focus on how to escape, he can't be of any use as long as he is locked up in here.

"Maybe Annabeth was right. And even if she isn't you're not exactly thinking straight, Jason." Jason couldn't be sure because of the stupid door in between them, but Reyna sounded a bit… worried. "Did something happen to your family?"

"Reyna, you're family too." Jason deadpanned.

"You're making no sense, you know that, right? Anyway, I have to go. Aurum and Argentum are there too keep you company."

"Wait, Reyna!" Jason shouted after her, grabbing the door handle. He of course already knew that it was locked, but that didn't keep him from trying to open the door.

With a sigh he turned around and searched the room for anything he could use to pick the lock. The door was the only way out since he wasn't going to destroy a window; the dogs would kill him. Speaking of the dogs, he hadn't seen them yet. He searched the room but couldn't see them, he walked over to a slightly darker corner of the room that had been out of view and saw something very surprising. Two dogs. Real dogs. Not two automatons, but furry, slightly less scary dogs. One of them was white, and the other one blonde.

He carefully approached them, half expecting them to suddenly turn into what he was used to seeing, when the door opened. Jason spun around, reaching for his gladius. His relaxed a bit when he saw who it was.

"Hazel?"

Please vote for a pairing. Next chapter will have Percy and Nico searching for the others, and we get to know where Thalia is.