Clocks


Chapter Two


I

Green plumes of smoke filled the unusually bright blue sky.

The display of the shades above may have actually kept Nico staring forever at the blending colors, however, he knew that this was obviously a dream. And any dream involving caves, green smoke, obnoxiously bright skies and a bright white ground always spelled bad news.

Unlike most of these visions, he found that he could move around quite easily. While he would be glued to the floor in most cases, Nico found that he could actually walk and process things completely normally. Flapping his arms around a bit to test the limits, he walked in a circle, looking at the strange trees and other flora. There was even a cave somewhere, looking like that typical, grey, dark one, like those in his picture books from when he was younger.

He went right up the the entrance of the cave and peered inside.

He couldn't see anything, so he stepped back a few steps and watched the green smoke for a few seconds, for he wanted to know where it was coming from. Perhaps there would be someone nearby that he was supposed to talk to.

Nico's thought process was suddenly shattered when he heard something.

"Help me."

It was a female, ghostly voice, yet somehow familiar. The helpless tone of it made him shudder violently even through it wasn't cold at all.

It sounded like one of those horror movies in which you hear the ghoul moaning and groaning and scaring away the inhabitants, until when some oblivious poor soul showed up again, and the ghoul decided it would be fun as hell to play with this soul by doing the unspeakable. Nico felt like the main protagonist. He stood on end, in a sort of battle stance.

He heard it again, closer this time. "Please," the voice rasped, "help." A series of sounds filled the air, the sort that you would hear in a way too silent house. The green mist shifted slightly, revealing an extremely white ball of light illuminating this world, nothing like the sun.

Nico knew what this was.

It was freaking creepy.

Suddenly, a flash of bright green caught Nico's eye. He turned back towards the entrance of the cave, staring at it intently.

Sure enough, a pale green light was pulsing inside, barely noticeable, but it was there. This seemed like the Oracle's cave anyway, so it was probably another prophecy. He sighed out loud, taking hesitant steps towards the entrance. Running a hand across the calloused rock, he looked up, eyes filled with some light that wasn't there before. Ignoring the slightly unnerving sounds, Nico walked into the cave.

"Help me, Nico."

The disembodied voice seemed to drawl out, each syllable echoing off the sides of the narrow passageway. He didn't question how the voice knew his name, instead choosing to ignore it and walk. He was getting closer to the source.

Besides, this was just a dream.

Right?

"Won't you help me?" The voice seemingly wailed, scratching figuratively against the walls. Nico flinched in the dark, trying to follow the pulses of green light. The ghoulish sounds were definitely louder now, if not before.

"You promised!"

He froze.

A loud, pained moan filled the passage again. "You promised you'd help me," the female ghost, now Nico could feel it was just that, chanted repeatedly. "You promised.

You promised.

You promised.

You promised.

You-"

"STOP!"

He clawed at his hair, sinking down to the floor. One of his hands flew up the the wall for support as he panted heavily, sweat pouring down his face. He'd do anything, anything to get out of this, anything for someone to tell him it wasn't her, anything, anything-

"You didn't help." Now the voice had taken on a dejected tone, anger rising in it almost naturally. "You didn't come."

Nico wanted to object. Say he'd been too young to have understood matters. Say that it wasn't his fault. Say that he would've if it had been some other way. Say that he wasn't responsible for it in any way.

Blamed the source for becoming the one with the arrows in the first place.

Blamed the only other person who had obviously failed to help and misused that one chance.

Blamed it on Fate itself, for being so capricious and determined to ruin his existence. Or on the gods for their idiocy and terrible reign.

However, the more he thought about it, the more his thoughts and pointless comebacks became nonsensical, even to him. Everyone was wrong. Percy was wrong.

It had been on him all along, hadn't it?

He was the brother, the one who was supposed to protect her.

"You didn't help me. Why?"

Nicos mouth felt dry. He stared down at the dark, noisy ground, his mouth partially open as an attempt to breathe. Eyes squeezed shut, a tightly balled fist placed right into the soil like a sword in its sheath. He didn't have an answer.

The voice realized that too probably, as it whispered it's next sentence with the most venom possible. "You didn't care."

His eyes snapped open in astonishment maybe, blinking away the inevitable. He didn't say anything.

"You didn't care," a low, feral sound. "You never cared." The moans and angry shouts began, filling him with even more dread, and the strange desire to dig himself his grave and stay down there.

He wanted to protest to that, so damn badly. He did care. She was always the one thing he'd never stop caring about. He loved her.

But the lump in his throat that seemed to spreading around his voice box didn't spare him a word. The ghost seemed closer than ever at that moment, as Nico felt the mist rise near him. Goosebumps appeared on his forearm, and the sweat trickled down his pained face, as if on cue.

The mist materialized into a figure. One that Nico recognized very well.

"Why?" Bianca did Angelo asked, a sort of melancholy in her distorted voice, but a hidden anger there as well. "Why didn't you come?" He face was a mixture of sadness, disappointment, and Nico knew that there was fury as well. It was masked, but still apparent, at least to him. Her face swirled a bit, eyes sharp as they always had been. She wore her Hunter's attire; he could see the quiver of arrows sling on her shoulders, the braided hair with a tinge of brown on the most. He suddenly felt like a small child all over again; that ten year old boy he was all those years ago.

So he lowered his head. Regret and guilt flooded through his very being, leaving him weak. He held onto the wall for support, yet again. He was so damn drained.

"You don't care," she snarled suddenly, any hint of niceness or sadness suddenly vaporizing into the air.

"I-I," Nico wheezed as he slumped back down. "I c-care about you." He couldn't say more. It felt like an umbrella had been shoved down his throat, then opened up inside. A tight feeling crawled up, like the anticipating, occasional spider. If Bianca noticed, she didn't seem to care either. She shouldn't, for him anyway.

He'd let her down.

He'd let everybody down.

Bianca stayed silent. Then she towered over his cowering figure. "Prove it!" She glared, her eyes narrowing to slits. "Prove that you care. Prove that you miss me," she ground out.

"H-How?"

He wanted it to end.

He needed to do this. He'd do anything for her anyway.

Her figure flickered red for a millisecond, before she fixed a level glare at her cowering brother's head. "Save me," she rasped, "come and save me."

"How-"

"Save ME!" Greek fire began to line the end of the cave, headed towards him. Nico couldn't form a coherent thought in his clouded head, but he couldn't understand how he was supposed to do something to an event that had happened before.

An event in the past. That wasn't meant to be disrupted.

Bianca didn't really seem to help him get a grip on it all. She just said something that made absolutely no sense to his already clogged up mind.

"Find the Seer."

Then the fire engulfed everything around him, and all he saw next was the familiar shade of black.


II

"-ico, wake up! Nico! Earth to Ghost King!"

He shot up, gasping for air. When he felt the wet splotches on his cheeks, still pouring down, and the comforting hand on his shoulder, he knew his secret was out.

Perch say next to him, a reassuring expression of some sort on his face and eyes filled with concern. Despite everything, Nico couldn't understand how this boy was who he was, and why he stayed.

"You alright?" Percy asked, then immediately facepalmed at the stupid question. "I mean," he hesitated, trying to put his thoughts in a sentence, "was it bad?"

They both knew what he was talking about.

Nico raised an eyebrow. "What do you think?" He rubbed his swollen eyes and glanced at the son of Poseidon. "Was I-"

"You were screaming," Percy said bluntly, tilting his head a bit. "What did you see?"

He knew Percy was trying to be helpful, but he felt nauseous even thinking about it. "I don't want to talk about it," he said, staring at the blue blankets on Percy's bed, draped around him. Percy sat on the other end in his striped pajamas, legs folded, and arms resting on the surface of the unusually huge bed. He nodded in understanding, yet he kept the eye contact.

Percy shuffled closer to him. Suddenly, Nico felt two arms wrap around his figure. He flinched in surprise, but melted right into the hug, placing his hands on Percy's back.

"You are not sleeping in your cabin alone," Percy mumbled into his shoulder, pulling him in closer.

"I'm not alone," Percy looked at him in surprise, "there's the dark. And that sparrow outside my window who loves waking me up at three." He received a playful punch to his gut as they pulled apart. "Not like that, dumbass. Humans. You sit in that place like a freaking beaver hugging its wood. Get out a bit. And no," Percy interrupted Nico's protest, "no hanging around graves and no Happy Meals."

The son of Hades groaned loudly, making the older boy smile stupidly, his grin as lopsided as always. He met his gaze, the smile still prevalent on his face, "Come for breakfast?"

And that was when Nico steeled himself, wearing a neutral expression. Percy seemed to notice the change on the atmosphere, but before he could say anything the younger boy held up a hand. "What are we?" He asked.

"Huh?" He tilted his head yet again, frowning at Nico. "What do you mean?" He wanted to smack his head at Percy's obliviousness, but smile at the same time. Not the time, di Angelo.

"As in," he gestured between them, "What are we?" Percy's mouth formed a small 'o', but he stayed silent.

"Whatever you want us to be," he finally said, meeting Nico's eyes.

He wanted to reply, but just then, a series of knocks began on the door of the Poseidon cabin, far too loud for his liking. He saw Percy wince at the sudden sound, so he stood up and walked towards the door, unlocking it and pulling it open. "What's going on?"

There were three people at the door. Leading the other two was none other than Leo Valdez.

The Latino elf wasn't smiling. A dark, forlorn expression had somehow twisted his face into something that Nico was sure didn't even belong there in the first place. "We need Percy," he said gravely.

"Campers are going missing. It's been two of them this week."

Percy pushed past Nico's short figure and gave Leo an unreadable look from the door. Sometimes he was surprised Percy was the taller and older one. "Tell me everything. I'll be there at the Big House in a bit."


III

She'd seen Clovis enter that room, hands tied, half asleep, panicked and everything else that went along with the theme. They even made Alabaster walk in there from his prison dome next to her new one. All he had done was look at her sadly as he was dragged out of the room, the door slammed and bolted for good measure.

It had been almost three days now, she felt like it was. There weren't even any damn windows in this place so she could look outside instead of sit and stare at unmoving walls in a seeming dungeon.

Lou had given up trying to get out. It wasn't working anyway.

Clovis had just appeared the day before, in slippers and pajamas. He was put in the dome next to Alabaster's, asleep in the most weird ways possible - although that wasn't a surprise, he was the most experienced son of Sleep himself. Alabaster was out cold as well, hands and legs tied since he was the most powerful magician there. So then that raised the question - why the hell was she here?

Her magic wasn't even that strong to get out of a repellent dome. And if these people had Alabaster, they might as well may have a huge advantage on their side against whatever side they were up against. Why two children of Hecate then?

Just as she was about to sigh and try to sleep again, the sound of crunching metal heat again filled the room. It annoyed her to no end as her sense prickled with the need to slap that moron holiding the lever for the door. Even the lights were way too bright, Lou noted uncaringly as she stared at the open door, waiting for the other two to come back.

And true that thought was.

Clovis got thrown in first. The dome just formed around him, like some sort of translucent green goo caging him in. Lou saw his lower lip tremble, hands raised as if he was surrendering. He seemed horrified, afraid, guilty; every single negative emotion coupled into one. What had they made him do?

Next, Alabaster flew in from ten feet right behind Clovis, another dome forming around him as well, but this one was translucent purple. Possibly a stronger prison, she thought. He groaned out loud.

"Al?" She decided to whisper, but the hysteria could be heard in her voice loud and clear.

He looked at her. Then he smiled tiredly, if a twitch of the lips was considered a smile. "Hey Lou."

"Man, you two know each other? Who is this guy, Ellen?" Clovis buried his head in his hands. "These guys outside are freaking insane. What the hell do they want from us?"

"He's Alabster Torrington. The lost demigod. And my brother." Then suddenly Lou felt a spark go through her.

The came the anger, like a flood of realization.

"Where were you? I thought you were dead! You had all of us worried, Al, all of us! And Chiron wouldn't even let us go out to find you-" She was breathing hard, anger twisting her features into what Alabaster had hoped he'd never have to see. He tried to talk, but he was cut off with another bout of anger.

"Lou-"

"-and the worst part?" When she looked up, unshed tears had gathered in her eyes. "We thought you were gone. Never coming back. I always believed you'd come back. And then I find you here-"

"Lou, please-"

"-so you never missed us? You never came to visit. And don't 'Lou' me," she spat, glaring, "we all had the Alabaster memorial every year for no reason, right? You were just out there, weren't you, thinking you were a freaking outcast and a joke? News flash, no one thinks that! If they did, then not anymore. Things are different now. And then you have the nerve to 'Lou' me after four years? Alabaster, four freaking years?"

Alabaster looked down, slightly guilty. Lou thought he deserved it.

"You wanna know why I didn't come back? I mean, yeah, I did help an old man on the way and embark on some quests, but that was my coping. You remember what you told me when I ran off to join that stupid titan?" He looked up at her, obviously trying to be calm but anxious even then.

Lou swallowed. She remembered all too well.

"You told me I should be the one to help all our brothers and sisters. You told me I should catch you all when you all flew out of the nest with all those new powers. Heck, I remember promising you I'd catch you if you flew." Alabaster looked drained, but he continued, "I was afraid, Lou. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to catch you this time."

Nobody dared say anything for the next few seconds. The two were avoiding each other's gaze as much as possible. Nothing was to be said, anyway.

It was funny, Lou thought. Funny how four years worth of pent up emotions and rage could all be extinguished by a single sentence.

Funny how much that one sentence meant.

It was Clovis who cleared his throat, startling both siblings. "Um... guys? This reunion was nice and all, I'd hate to interrupt it, but we are in a situation at the moment, and I have no idea about what to do."

Both were momentarily stunned. Then her brother seemed to snap back to reality, meeting Clovis' worried gaze.

He nodded slowly. "Yes, of course. What happened there was strange. Why did I have to make those Mist images?"

"And why did I make a person enter the nightmare realm?" Lou didn't understand about what they meant, but before she could even open her mouth to ask-

"And why are you questioning something that you'll never get an answer to?" A voice cut in darkly. The three immediately looked in the direction of the voice.

There was another jail-dome about a couple of feef away from Lou's, which had alerts on sitting inside, arms folded and an incredulous expression on their face. The person had the same hair that Alabaster had, but it was obvious that it wasn't their gender. The person seemed to roll their eyes at their staring.

"I'm non-binary, twerps. Cut the staring. The name's Avi."

Clovis' jaw comically dropped. "Holy shit," his eyes widened, "like the kid of Morpheus? I've seen you before, I know I have!"

Avi nodded nonchalantly. "I entered a dream of yours. To warn you about this hellhole without actually mentioning it," they coughed into their hand, "although you didn't catch up on it at all. All you were interested in was turnips."

"Turnips?" Clovis looked confused, but Alabaster didn't wait for him to reply and interjected. "So Magic, Sleep And Dreams? What the hell do they want with us?" It wasn't necessarily talking to Avi, but they must have thought otherwise.

The child of Morpheus shrugged lightly. "Dunno. I've been here for three- I think- weeks now. Got abducted on my way to camp, y'know," he waved it off, "regular happenings. The whole thing was such a big secret apparently that no one noticed. Luckily, my mom was a demigod too, so she knew what was going on, but I think she wasn't looking forward to camp. Monsters outnumbered us, I got brought here, blah blah blah-"

Lou decided that would be a nice time to interrupt. "Wait," she frowned before saying, "so you've never been to camp, your mom is a child of some Greek god, you can use your powers well enough, you got brought here, you somehow know Clovis, and you have no idea about what's going on and why we're here in the first place."

Avi shrugged and said, "Pretty much."

"We are talking like we've known each other before. This is hilarious," Alabaster muttered, before looking at Clovis and then at Avi. "How did you know him?" He asked Avi, pointing to the son of Hypnos.

"Heard some idiot in this huge place say something like 'we will attack Clovis next' or something, and then I invaded their dreams at some point since they still didn't know the extent of my powers. Then I made them confess most things in their dreams."

"Wow," Lou deadpanned.

"I know."

Alabaster didn't seem to be affected by the comment. "What did you find out?"

"They didn't tell me much. And if I acted suspicious they'd find out I was there, so I didn't make it very obvious that I was interrogating them. Just pretended to chat with them as the robed King I-Am-An-Ass and got some info from them in exactly thirty seconds before someone caught me." Avi seemed partly annoyed at that. "All I know is that their leader hates someone so they're all trying to catch him and punish him. With what, I don't know."

"Well I might," Alabaster said slowly. He pointed at each of them. "Hypnos," that was Clovis, "Hecate," he gestured to both he and Lou, "and Morpheus," he pointed to Avi.

When he recieved nothing but blank looks, he groaned.

"Don't you see? We are all different parts of a huge plan. Imagine magic coupled with dreams while you sleep. And with what Avi said, add a punishment to the list of clues."

Lou realized what he was hinting at. "A punishment. In a virtual way of some sorts.." She looked at all three of them questioningly. What had happened when they were gone?

She didn't get to ask. Yet again.

"Correct." Alabaster rubbed his forehead, "but for what?"


IV

Nico didn't follow Percy to the Big House.

He sat outside in front of the huge lake, staring at the horizon. It seemed unreachable, far away; impossible to reach or see we'll enough.

Exactly like what he was asked to do.

Who was the 'Seer', and why did Bianca mention that? If Nico knew better, he'd say it was a mode of false advertising. He was mad about the fact that someone had exploited his weaknesses quite badly from the minute he'd started thinking about it, but the more he did, he realized something.

The person who had made him go through this experience evidently knew about about what they were doing. If going back and changing it, rewriting the books, bringing her back was possible...

He stood up, a fire burning in his eyes.


(Author's Note) - A huge thanks and a welcome to the first three readers to join this bumpy ride. Thoughts?