House of Hades Chapter 3

Nico

They had been flying for a day now, and everyone was getting impatient about getting to camp half blood. If camp Jupiter attacked before they got there, then who knows how many half bloods would die, and they themselves may even be attacked, after all the Romans now viewed Jason, Hazel and Frank as traitors. Nico knew that camp half blood was strong; he had after all witnessed and fought in the Battle for the Labyrinth a couple of years ago, when camp half blood had held of hordes of Kronos's minions. He had also seen the sheer power of the Roman legion though, and knew that if the two camps did go to war, it could only end badly.

He was standing up on deck, watching the clouds. Jason stood across the deck, blasting monsters away from the ship every now and then. Nico hadn't explored much of the ship yet, for after being held prisoner in a jar for five days he preferred to remain up deck in the fresh air, even though he was nearly back to full strength after the Nectar and Ambrosia he had been consuming. The mood had not been happy the last couple of days, what with everyone still pondering on the loss of Percy and Annabeth. The first day hadn't been as bad, for Leo had everyone working as the ship needed repairs before it could make the journey, but now everyone was pretty much doing nothing, and so unpleasant thoughts crept back into their heads. He toyed with his skull ring, thinking about what would happen if Percy and Annabeth didn't manage to get to the doors of death on their side. Even if they managed to get to the House of Hades, it would all be for nothing if Percy and Annabeth failed.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned round to see hazel standing behind him. "How are you" she asked. He smiled at her, after he lost his other sister, Bianca, he was determined to keep Hazel close. "I'm fine, just a bit tired." he replied. She laughed, "Tired, how can you be tired, you was asleep for five days!" "yer, well when you're as awesome as me you need a lot of sleep." She smiled at him and she moved up to stand by his side, just to be close to him. Nobody said anything, they didn't need to, they were merely enjoying each other's company. Finally Hazel said "what was it like, I mean Tartarus?" Nico shuddered. "Imagine your worst nightmare, now multiply that by a thousand, and you still won't be close to knowing what Tartarus is like." Hazel nodded, like she expected such an answer.

He was about to say something to cheer her up when Frank came bounding up the stairs to say that Coach Hedge wanted a meeting to discuss the worst case scenario of turning up at Camp Half Blood to already find the two camps fighting. They both sighed and went down below deck for the meeting where everyone else was already sitting. They discussed what needed to be discussed, and that if the two camps were already fighting hopefully the presence of the Argo ll would temporarily stop them, giving them enough time to unveil the Athena Parthenos. Nico thought that the Argo ll would more likely encourage the fighting then end it, but he didn't say that out loud. Everyone, including him, really just needed to stay positive right now. Unfortunately as a child of Hades that was sometimes hard. He was also concerned about this statue of Athena, I mean he knew he wasn't the brightest guy in the world but he didn't see how some forty foot statue could stop the two camps from fighting. He wondered whether Annabeth had known how the stature would work, or if she was as clueless as him. He shrugged and guessed they would just have to find out.

After the meeting, (which ended with Coach Hedge slamming his club on the table and shouting something like "For Enchiladas!") everyone decided that it was probably best to get a good night's sleep, for Leo informed them that they were on course to arrive at Camp Half Blood tomorrow afternoon, so long as nothing disastrous happened like a horrific monster attacking the ship, which didn't seem to unlikely to Nico.

It didn't take him long to fall asleep, but when he did the nightmares found him once again.

He was looking down at a battle scene, demigods were fighting everywhere he looked, and the dead littered the floor. He couldn't see how many were lying, but it was well over a hundred. He looked to his left, and to his horror there was Chiron, lying dead by the porch of the Big House, two arrows sticking out from under his chest. He didn't know where Dionysus was, but he definitely wasn't there. He couldn't tell who was winning the battle, but the Romans had pushed right up into the center of Camp Half Blood, one of the cabins was on fire, and another was being slashed at by the Romans. A voice whispered to Nico "This is what will happen If you do not get to Camp Half Blood in time, the Two camps will destroy each other, and your quest will fail. You must hurry hero, you must hurry!"

Nico awoke with a start, and it was only then that he recognized the voice as Hera's, the queen of the Gods herself. He really did hate demigod dreams, and that one had been one of the worst he'd had in a long while. He looked over at the clock on his bedside, and saw it was 3:30 in the morning. He decided to tell the others about his dream in the morning. He rolled over and said a quick prayer to the Gods for Percy and Annabeth, knowing they'd need it, before falling back to sleep, clutching the handle of his sword.

Alright guy, so how do you like it? It's a bit longer than the other two chapters, like I said. By the way if you ever think I get out of character just tell me, cos I know how annoying it can be and ill try and make the characters as close to the book as possible, (but hey, im not Rick Riordan!) Also, not many people have reviewed this story so far, so can all of you readers please write a quick review, it really does help! Next chapter will be up soon!