A/N: Sorry for the wait, guys. Had to take a bit of a mental vacation. Here's an extra-long chapter to make up for it. Enjoy!
Content warning for graphic descriptions of panic attacks in this chapter.
Nico's first thought: that was the lamest pre-ass-kicking one-liner I've ever heard.
Nico's second thought: I'm going to punch Solace in the throat.
Drawing his sword in one hand, he reached behind him with the other to make sure Will was still there. He could hear the son of Apollo pulling an arrow from the quiver on his back, and he definitely felt the warmth radiating off of said son, so: time to try and think of a plan before they both get eaten by monsters.
"Can you see anything, Nico?" Will asked quietly as the pairs of glowing eyes that were circling the store left faint trails of light in their wake.
"A little," Nico replied, grasping at Will's shirt. "I think I can shadow-travel us out of here." Before Will could protest, Nico tapped into his powers, concentrating on nothing but returning them both to their campsite-
-only to slam into the store's glass doors the instant they slipped into the darkness.
Nico let out several curses in Italian as he reeled from his spot on the floor. He could hear Will groaning next to him, and once the stars faded from his vision, all he could see was that all-consuming blackness. "Son of a… they've got some kind of barrier on the place, I couldn't go through it…"
"You didn't think we would let you go that easily, did you, son of Hades?"
"It's so cute how you think your powers could help you, here!"
Nico couldn't even really tell the voices apart anymore; they'd both become so distorted because of the intercom. Which, unfortunately, made it tough to tell exactly which direction they were coming from.
As far as he could tell, neither of them had been attacked yet, which was good and bad - neither of them were hurt, but the fact that there weren't any attacks coming made him really anxious. Nico groaned and pulled himself to his feet, gripping his sword in his hand.
"Will," he whispered, "now would probably be a good time to see if your aim has improved at all."
He heard Will stand up a few feet away. "Yeah, that- that's a thing I should do."
Nico's gaze followed the glowing eyes of their enemies. "Listen. Try shooting at one of them and see if you can get them out of the air. I'll… think of something."
"Nice plan, di Angelo. You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"
"Shut up and try not to impale yourself on your own arrow."
He could hear Will start to fire off a retort, but whether or not he actually succeeded was unknown - Nico felt a powerful force slam into his back, and the next thing he knew he'd been slammed into the counter near the front registers. His ears rang as he felt his body topple over the counter and hit the ground on its other side; he could vaguely hear Will shouting his name as he gazed at the wall behind the counter.
Spots were dancing in Nico's vision. He had no idea what that force had been, but something about it was very different from what he was used to experiencing during monster attacks. It almost felt like…
He shook the thought out of his head. There wasn't time to analyze these things at the moment. As he took a second to regroup and forced his head to clear, he could hear the pulls of Will's bow throughout the dark store. He sounded like he was holding his own pretty well, at least…
Nico slowly pulled himself to his feet, leaning back against the counter for support. He was in quite a lot of pain from the blow to his back and the subsequent impact with said counter, but he wasn't bothered by that so much as the spots of bright light that were still clouding his vision. He hadn't hit his head that hard, had he?
His mind was shouting at him to suck it up and go help Will, but what help would he possibly be if he couldn't even get his bearings?
The spots weren't going away, but his head had finally stopped spinning long enough to focus. And in that very moment, a plan formulated in his head.
His eyes had had plenty of time to adjust to his pitch-black surroundings, so now he could see the faint outlines of the store's interior. And what he saw in front of him, on shelves lining the wall behind the counter…
Glowsticks. Hundreds of them.
Nico honestly should've been surprised. But after everything he had already seen, several boxes of glowsticks in a store that was already obnoxiously colored wasn't really that hard an idea to swallow.
He surged forward and grabbed a handful, cracking them between his fingers. The neon colors sprang to life, and he threw the handful out into the darkness.
"Whoa, what the heck?" Will called out from the opposite end of the store.
"No! What are you doing?!" a distorted voice cried out from the loudspeakers.
Nico smirked to himself in the darkness, cracking more and more of the glowsticks into action. The more he threw out over the counter, the more he could identify: the clothing racks, the store's support beams, Will - most importantly, he could now identify their assailants.
Physically, not much had changed about the shopkeepers, save for their glowing eyes and apparent ability to levitate.
The Glasgow smiles were pretty new, though.
Recovering his sword, Nico leapt over the counter and ran over to where Will was. The boy had shoved himself between a rack of dresses to hide himself from the view of their attackers, his empty quiver on the floor beside him.
"Glowsticks, really?" Will asked quietly.
Nico smacked him in the middle of the chest. "Shut up, I don't see you doing anything productive. At least we can see, right?" He turned around to look over the floor. It looked like some of the glowsticks had been trampled, but all that had accomplished was releasing the luminescent fluids onto the floor.
The two salespeople seemed to be preoccupied with that for the time being, and he turned back to Will. "Are you hurt?"
Will met his eyes with a smirk. "Banged up here and there from running into stuff, but otherwise I'm good as gold. I'm out of arrows, though."
Nico cursed under his breath and pulled Will out of the clothing rack. "We'll have to make do with my sword, then. Keep a lookout for me."
He dashed into the fray with Will hot on his heels, slashing his Stygian iron sword at the first glowing-eyed figure that he could make out.
"Was that supposed to hurt?" the more masculine voice sounded. "I barely even felt that little love tap!"
Nico growled at the taunts and continued to slash at the creature in front of him. All he seemed to be getting in response were hideous cackling over the loudspeaker, a luminous slasher smile, and the faintest hints of a shimmering fluid on his blade.
Was that… ichor?
"No, no! These can't be gods that we're dealing with, here!" Nico shouted as he continued his assault.
"Oh, dear, you're so close, but I'm afraid you're not quite correct!" the feminine voice called out. "You of all demigods should have experience with daimons, Nico di Angelo!"
Daimons...
He'd met his fair share of them during his time in Tartarus, namely the terrible Arai. They had been the spirits of curses, daughters of Nyx.
Nico froze.
Children of Nyx.
"You… I know who you both really are," Nico choked out, locking gaze with the wounded creature in front of him.
The man in the yellow suit chuckled and grasped at his chest as Nico's attacks ceased. It was painfully obvious now that he was, indeed, gripping golden ichor - the blood of the gods. "You've figured it out, have you?" he bellowed, gripping the blade of Nico's sword on one hand and wrenching it from the demigod's grasp. "Then tell us, son of Hades! Reveal our true identities! "
"Dolos and Apate," Nico breathed, "the daimons of trickery and deceit."
"Absolutely correct!" Apate's voice shrieked from behind him. He barely had any time to react and counter before he was thrown - again, by the same force that he'd experienced before - into one of the store's support beams.
The back of his head roughly slammed into the beam, and he could feel the trickle of blood running down his neck as he slumped down to the floor, his vision fading completely.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he regained consciousness. At the moment, only three of his senses seemed to be working:
His body felt warm, so warm, as if the sun itself had wrapped him in its light. He could definitely hear the pained, dissonant screeches of daimons in the distance. There was something immensely bright lying just behind his eyelids.
Still in a daze, Nico slowly cracked his eyes open, and was met with the sun.
More specifically, he was pressed to a warm, orange-clad chest, and he could see a head of familiar blonde hair glowing like a halo against the dazzling light. Will was tightly clutching Nico's body against his own, one arm thrust out into what used to be the all-consuming darkness of A&D's.
Now, the entire store was illuminated with blinding white light, and Nico could hear the agonized shrieks of Dolos and Apate as they thrashed about, desperately trying to shield their eyes from the brightness.
Nico couldn't even tell where the light was coming from. Had someone arrived to help, or…
Will retracted his arm and hooked it underneath Nico's knees, lifting up off the ground. "Now," he whispered, "we can try and escape while they're distracted!" The
"Will," Nico protested quietly, still too disoriented to to try and escape from his companion's grasp. "What was…"
He didn't finish his sentence, as Will had already started running for the doors. But before they could get there, Apate slammed her body against the doors, blocking their exit. "You," she growled, "you think your little trick of the light would work on us, son of Apollo?!" The daimon looked absolutely enraged as she narrowed her eyes, sharp teeth glinting in the light. "Think again."
Fortunately, a miracle happened before Apate could launch her counterattack.
The glass doors behind her shattered, and her body flew past the two demigods before crashing into the form of the still-recovering Dolos. A vast number of silver arrows followed suit, building up around the two daimons until they formed a solid silver cage.
Nico felt Will's embrace tighten the slightest bit as the light slowly started to fade, but before he could say anything, a girl wearing punk-styled clothes entered the store, flanked by a young auburn-haired girl and a familiar girl in silver.
"Looks like we're late to the party," Thalia Grace said, briefly glancing over the damaged building. "You guys even brought glowsticks."
The Hunters' camp was decidedly nicer than their shoddy little setup in that back alley on the outskirts of D.C.
Not that Nico really cared. He, along with Will and Cecil, had been banished to a bench on the edge of the Hunters' camp, which suited him just fine: the less time they had to spend around those women, the better. Of course Mena was present among the Hunters, and she and Thalia had roped Lou Ellen into hanging out with them.
Needless to say, the three boys were bored.
"What are they even talking about?" Cecil moaned from his backwards position on the bench - he had draped his knees over the backrest, allowing his head to hang upside-down off of the front.
"Who knows, who cares," Nico replied flatly.
Thankfully, he was feeling much better. Once they'd left the store, leaving Dolos and Apate behind, he'd wriggled out of Will's arms and insisted on walking on his own. That had been a mistake on his part, as he'd almost fell flat onto his face; Will had grasped him around the waist and all but shoved a square of ambrosia down his throat.
The familiarity of the situation had not been lost on him.
The more pressing thing on his mind was that strange light that had filled the store after Nico's collision with the support beam. Apate had addressed Will directly, calling it a "trick of the light"...
He looked over at the blonde, who was seated between him and Cecil. Will was silently gazing down at his hand, flexing his fingers back and forth as if he'd never used them before. His expression perfectly mirrored the confusion that Nico felt.
Nico pursed his lips before speaking again. "It was you, wasn't it, Solace. You made that light."
It wasn't really a question so much as a statement.
Will glanced up at him and let out a sigh, dropping his hand into his lap. "Yeah, it was. Don't ask me how I did it, though, I really have no clue."
"I'm assuming it's just one of those 'Apollo things'?"
"No, actually." Will leaned forward in his seat and rested his elbows on his knees, staring straight ahead at the camp. "At least I don't think so. I've heard of Apollo's children inheriting photokinetic abilities, but it's extremely rare. Everyone else in my cabin thinks it's just a rumor, it's that rare."
"Dude, that'd be sweet if you actually had that," Cecil's strained voice came from below. He'd started pulling himself into sit-ups from his position on the bench. "It'd be hella handy with this whole endless night time thing."
"I guess so," Will replied, rubbing the back of his head, "if I could even figure out how I did it. I was kind of in desperation mode when it happened."
Nico regarded him with a blank stare. "Desperation?"
Will met his eyes, a sheepish expression on his face. "When Apate flung you into that support beam, I kind of panicked. You were completely out, and I couldn't find any of my arrows, so… I don't know. All I could really do was pray for help of some kind. I couldn't let you..." He trailed off, averting his eyes.
Nico blinked at him. There was a familiar and uncomfortable feeling in the pit of his stomach - a skeletal butterfly rising from its slumber, yelling at all of its friends to wake up. Nico squashed down that feeling the best that he could before looking away himself.
He'd opened his mouth to speak, only to be cut off by Will quietly murmuring, "I'm sorry."
He'd been prepared to give the son of Apollo an earful because of his prior actions, but instead he heaved a sigh and leaned back into the bench. "You've never been on a quest before, have you."
"Nope," Cecil answered for him, finally seating himself upright. "The infirmary keeps him pretty busy, I mean, he's the best healer in camp. Me and him and Lou have always said that one day, one of us would get a quest, and we'd all three go together. None of us have any experience with that, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?"
Will flashed a small smile in Cecil's direction, giving a short shrug. "I guess I have a lot to learn, don't I."
"You do," Nico scolded, fixing his eyes on Will's again. "Anything and everything could be a trap. You have to be on guard at all times, you have to be suspicious of everything, you can't wander blindly into things like we just did."
He silently gazed at Will for a moment. The other boy's expression was pained; Nico could almost feel the guilt radiating off of him. He exhaled slowly, softening his tone. "... But I know you were just trying to help me. I get it."
The corner of Will's mouth turned up in a smirk. "If nothing else, you got a new jacket out of it. Criminal."
Cecil peered over at him, letting out an appreciative whistle. "That's a rad hoodie, bro. Super appropriate."
Nico simply rolled his eyes at them. Like the daimon shopkeepers were really going to miss one skeleton hoodie. It hadn't even had a price tag on it! Besides, Will had said it looked good on him.
The very thought would've brought the blush back to his face, were it not for the three women from before finally approaching them.
"So, fellas," Thalia greeted, her hands stuffed in her pockets, "we've got some business to discuss."
"You," the auburn-haired girl - Artemis herself - said, pointing a finger at Nico, "tell us everything you know about the two daimons you faced off with."
Nico briefly blinked at them. Why him, he'd been indisposed for half the battle. But, considering he was in the presence of a goddess who could very easily vaporize him, he sighed and recounted what he'd heard from the daimons: Dolos, the daimon of trickery, and Apate, daimon of deceit and fraud. Daimons generally tended to be the offspring of protogenoi, as they represented more abstract concepts - much how Helios was the personification of the sun, Dolos was that of trickery and cunning. And in Nico's experience, much of said offspring were that of one primordial deity in particular.
"Dolos and Apate," he continued, "are the children of Nyx, aren't they."
"Correct, Nico di Angelo," Artemis replied. "And, if I am not mistaken, your father has mentioned that name to you recently, has he not?"
Nico frowned, breaking his gaze from the goddess. Will, Cecil, and Lou Ellen were all regarding him with curious expressions, Mena was blank as usual, and Thalia just looked more sadthan anything.
"He has," Nico spat, "not that I was planning on telling anyone about this. It's probably not even true."
"What 'isn't true', Nico?" Will asked, concerned.
Nico took a moment to bury his face in his hands and just breathe. "My father came to me in a dream," he started, locking eyes with Artemis', "and said that he thinks Nyx is behind all of this. That she's taking advantage of Apollo's punishment. With the lack of an active solar deity, then Night has free reign."
The response was instantaneous. Nico found himself with a volley of murmurs and questions aimed toward him, and all he could really do to block out the onslaught was to pull his hood up over his head.
Artemis waved a commanding hand at the group. "Silence, all of you." She stepped closer to Nico and reached under his chin - the touch was so gentle that he didn't have the heart to shrink away from it. "You realize, then, why it is imperative that Helios is awakened as soon as possible, don't you."
Nico swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and nodded slowly, feeling panic begin to stir within him. "B-Because…"
"Because, Nico di Angelo: if the situation continues, then our very existence will be in grave danger."
He felt like throwing up.
The silence that hung over the seven of them was deafening. "Wh…" Lou Ellen broke in, so quietly that she could barely be heard, "what do you mean, Lady Artemis?"
Artemis retracted her hand, turning her gaze toward her. "I cannot say. The very notion would crumple your subconscious until there's nothing left."
But Nico knew. He wished he didn't.
He curled his knees up to his chest, hugging them closely as he struggled to regain his voice.
The agony that you hold in your heart…
His heart was racing.
I have never felt such intense sorrow from a human before…
He wanted to cry.
You know where we are, don't you?
He knew.
You are in the territory of my mother, Nyx.
Nyx. Nyx. NyxNyxNyx.
This is the edge of all existence.
The final death.
Can you feel it, Nico di Angelo?
He could. He felt. He knew. He felt he knew he felt he didn't want to feel didn't want to know didn't want to be.
Nico.
His body was shaking he was cold so cold he couldn't speak couldn't breathe couldn't think couldn't feel.
Nico!
He felt hands.
"Nico!"
He forced his eyes open. Six concerned faces surrounded him.
"Give the boy some breathing room," one of the faces snapped, urging the others to back off. They complied, moving until only two were remaining.
Nico finally managed to stabilize his breathing enough for him to focus. Will had scooted closer to him, rubbing warm circles into his back; Artemis had taken his face between her soft hands, her aura as calm as the moon.
"You were having a panic attack," Will murmured. "Are you alright…?"
"I…" Nico gulped, finally finding his words. "I. Yeah. I'm fine."
"You sure?"
"Yeah." Nico shrank away from Will's touch, waved off Artemis' hands.
He definitely wasn't.
"Try not to think about it, child," Artemis said softly. "You will succeed in your mission, all of you."
"With all due respect, Lady Artemis, how do you know this?" Cecil asked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.
"Because you will have help." She pointed at Lou Ellen, beckoning her to step forward. "Come, child of Hecate."
Lou Ellen nodded obediently and stepped closer until she was standing right in front of Nico and Will. "I'm gonna need a hand, you guys."
Nico raised an eyebrow and exchanged glances with Will, before putting a hand forward.
"So, you know my mom Hecate, right? Goddess of magic, sorcery, witchcraft, all that? She's part of the Triple Goddess, you know, along with Artemis and Selene."
"Where are you going with this?" Nico asked flatly.
"The Triple Goddess, ghost boy," Lou Ellen continued, regarding him with an unamused stare, "is one of two divine beings worshipped in the practice of Wicca. So you can see how my mom's connected to all of that! Anyway, there are a lot of powerful symbols that the Pagans and Wiccans use to help empower themselves." She grinned and extended her hands to grip Nico's hand in one and Will's in the other. "So I, as a daughter of Hecate, can mark you guys with them!"
Nico retracted his hand. "Wait, time out. What."
Mena stepped forward, crossing her arms. "What she's trying to say is that you two are awful at controlling your powers, so she and Lady Artemis have agreed that branding you with Hecate's sacred sigils or whatever would help you with that."
"Uh… yeah, what she said," Lou Ellen replied, her smile faltering slightly.
"Dude." Will turned to Mena, looking pretty offended. "What do you mean, we're awful at controlling our powers? I'm a healer. I've been doing it for years."
"Not that power, buttass, you're awesome at that." Lou Ellen smacked his hand. "That new light bending thing you can do. You know that's the only reason we found you, right?"
"We could see it from miles away," Thalia added. "It was like a damn beacon."
Will looked between the three girls, a skeptical look in his eyes. "Alright, I guess. Do the thing, Lou."
Lou Ellen grinned and placed her other hand atop Will's, sandwiching his hand between her own. She closed her eyes, and before long, a surge of light began to pour from between their clasped hands. Nico watched quietly, mesmerised by the golden glow.
Eventually, she let Will's hand go, revealing a round, wheel-like symbol etched on it. The lines held the golden light for a few moments before fading away entirely.
"So this will help me with that light thing?" Will asked, examining his hand more closely.
"In theory, yes!" Lou Ellen turned to Nico, reaching for his hand again. "And now, your turn."
"... What powers am I 'awful' at controlling?" he asked, shooting a glare in Mena's direction. He hesitantly placed his hand in Lou Ellen's. "I'd like to think that I'm pretty experienced with them."
"Weeeelllll," she trilled, "a little birdie told me that someone almost died from overusing their Underworld-y powers, so this should help contain them better."
Nico hung his head. "Damnit, Solace…"
"What?" Will shrugged. "It's true!"
"Whatever." Nico focused on his own hand, which had started releasing black smoke. "Is this how it's supposed to go?"
"Um, duh," Lou Ellen replied, releasing his hand. "You have shadow powers, so yeah?"
Nico looked down at his hand once it was free from her grasp. Etched on top, in steaming black, was- Oh no. Oh gods.
"A pentacle," he growled, "really . Are you serious right now. This has to be a joke."
"It is a symbol of protection, Nico di Angelo," Artemis cut in. "Which is something you desperately need, lest you become consumed by your own shadows."
He sighed and flexed his hand as the symbol faded, melding into his skin. "Fan-fucking-tastic."
"Dude…" Cecil glanced between Nico and Will. "That's cool as hell. I want a cool symbol, can you do me too, Lou?" He turned to Mena and Thalia. "Do you guys have them?"
Thalia rolled her eyes. "Anyway, that's all we needed to do here, right?" she asked, looking toward Mena and Artemis. "We found the daimons, they got the sigils, so now what?"
"We move on," Mena replied. "We've still got a long way to go before we reach New Rome."
"Oh yeah, speaking of which." Thalia turned her gaze to Will. "That Oracle of your dad's, isn't she in New Rome right now?"
"Rachel? Yeah, she's there. Last I heard, she and Ella were trying to recreate the Sibylline Books," he replied. "Maybe we should Iris-message them, see if there's anything they can tell us…"
"Good call. You guys should probably get a move on, then?"
"Whaaaat, kicking us out so soon?" Lou Ellen teased.
"She is correct," Artemis responded. "There is no time to waste." She looked pointedly at Nico, who immediately understood why.
It still made him sick to think about. But as long as they got to where they were going and completed their mission, there was nothing to worry about, right…?
