In the immortal words of Albus Dumbledore: To our newcomers, welcome! To our old hands – welcome back!
I say 'our'. I mean my. But hey.
Thank you to Kirino Tsuki, shinbei21 and XxBreakingxxPointxX for adding this to your favourite story lists.
Also massive thank you to Soren Quill, becky199756 (again!), liliaeth (again!), and BetahimeTsukiko (again!) for reviewing + optional extra. *glows* You people are marvelous.
*THE MYTHS ARE TRUE*
Part 4/6
Dean sat in the hotel room, alone, wondering how this could have happened.
Wondering how he had let this happen.
Why had he challenged Sam to a 'rock-paper-scissors' match to decide who went to the Carlton's and who stayed behind to look through Percy's house?
There wasn't anything odd there anyway, he thought sulkily. There was some weird animal horn and a pair of what looked like a pair of mechanical wings, but nothing supernatural or anything that screamed 'evil' at him.
And Sam had taken the Impala. Against his better judgment, Dean had allowed his brother to take his baby, leaving him stranded in the middle of no-where.
So now he was left sitting in the hotel after hitching a ride back, on his own, and he couldn't even go on Sam's laptop because apparently he wasn't trusted enough to know the password.
Just as Dean was considering leaving to go get a coffee or some pie or both, he heard a key in the lock and Sam stalked in to the room.
"So, I think it's safe to say we can rule out Nessie." He sat down beside his brother as Dean asked,
"What do you mean?"
"The Carlton house." Sam said bitterly. "There was an ambulance there. Will Carlton is dead."
Damn. "He drowned?" Dean asked.
"Yep," Sam confirmed. "In the sink." He sounded almost sarcastic.
"What the hell?" Dean looked around the room, distracted while he thought. "So you're right, this isn't a creature; we're dealing with something else."
"Yeah, but what?"
"I don't know." Dean paused. "A water wraith maybe? Some kind of demon? I mean, something that controls water…" He trailed off as his brain put two and two together. "Water that comes from the same source."
Sam caught on fast. "The lake."
"Yeah."
"Which would explain why it's upping the body count..." Sam continued. "The lake is draining. It'll be dry in a few months. Whatever this thing is, whatever it wants, it's running out of time."
"And if it can get through the pipes, it can get to anyone, almost anywhere." Dean stood up and walked across the room as realization struck. "This is gonna happen again, soon." He sat down on the wooden chair beside the door.
Sam spoke up. "And we do know one other thing for sure. We know this has got something to do with Bill Carlton."
"Yeah, it took both his kids." Dean confirmed, starting to put on his boots.
"And I've been asking around." Sam carried on. "Lucas' dad, Chris?" He paused briefly. "Bill Carlton's godson." He finished, matter-of-factly.
"And we know it has something to do with Percy Jackson, maybe." Dean said.
Sam nodded. "Yeah. He definitely knew something, or at least his father did."
"We'll sort him out later." Dean stood up. "Let's go pay Mr. Carlton a visit."
Nico sat with Lucas, in the younger boy's bedroom. Percy had managed to keep him out of the case concerning Sophie's death, and the agents had yet to talk to him about Will.
But now, Nico sat in the corner watching as he played with his army figures.
"You know, I used to play when I was a kid." He said. Lucas looked up, and Nico pulled the Mythomagic figurine of his father from the cord around his neck, handing it to the younger boy to examine.
"Percy gave it to me from my sister. That's Hades. Coolest god out there." Nico explained, with a quick grin. Lucas gave a small smile and a nod, then handed the figurine back to Nico and looked back to his game. He held out a closed hand. Nico replaced the charm around his neck, and accepted what Lucas had passed him - a small green army man. "Thanks, Lucas."
He frowned. There were voices coming from another room.
"I'll be back in a minute, Lucas, okay?" Lucas nodded, and Nico stood and opened the door, carefully walking to where he could hear Andrea talking to two men.
"-But if you think there's even a possibility that something else could be going on here, please let me talk to your son." Came the voice.
Styx, Nico thought. It must be the men from the park. Just because they looked trustowrthy didn't mean he wanted them in a room with Lucas. They most likely wanted to see him, thought he could tell them something. Which he probably could. Nico and Percy had thought that there was something about Lucas, a feeling that reminded them of the current Oracle, Rachel. Before she had been 'possessed', she had had clairvoyant dreams, or intuitively known things that other people hadn't. And sometimes, in the midst of Lucas' drawings, was something that didn't look like something a kid that age would draw. Both Nico and Percy had come to the conclusion that the boy was slightly psychic.
Nico slipped back into the room, receiving a wave from Lucas before he sat down again. Lucas was drawing again.
Seconds later, the door opened and the man Nico had seen with Lucas at the park stood out in the hall, with a tall man and Andrea, who gave Nico a look that told him to keep an eye on Lucas before she left. Nico rolled his eyes, then stood up, walking forwards and holding out his hand.
Dean raised an eyebrow as Nico held out a hand for him to shake.
"Nico di Angelo." The kid stated. Remembering that Nico didn't actually know him, Dean cautiously shook his hand and suppressed a shiver. The kid was as cold as ice. Upon closer inspection, Dean noticed that Nico was wearing a string of beads around his neck as well, just like Percy Jackson. Nico's had fewer beads on it, though.
"Agent Ford." He said. "This is Agent Hamill." He gestured to Sam behind him. "U.S. Wildlife Service."
"You're agents?" Nico said in a tone of pure disbelief, wide smile on his face. He wasn't buying it. Dean fought the urge to kick him.
"Yes." Sam said after a minute, clearly noticing that Dean was incapable of saying anything polite at that moment. "We're here to find out what killed Sophie and Will Carlton."
"Can I see your ID?" Nico asked, still looking unconvinced. Dean snorted, but said;
"Sure," as he and Sam held out their 'badges.'
The teen took them, then examined them closely, shutting the door behind him and leaning on it. After a minute, he handed the IDs back and commented, "Those are good. Actually, they're the best I've seen in a while." The hunters froze. "Where did you get them done?"
"What do you mean?" Sam tried to deter him, but Nico wasn't having any of it.
"The IDs are fake."
Sam frowned in worry and looked around to check they were alone, but Nico just grinned.
"Don't worry. Your secret is safe with me." He paused, then the smile widened. "I'll take it to the grave," he laughed, before becoming serious again. "So, you aren't agents, but you are here about the thing in the lake." He commented, but received no reply. Undaunted, he continued any way. "Also, judging from the amount of complaining Percy has been doing about the questions you asked him, I'd say you think we have something to do with it." Nico walked across to Lucas and whispered something in the boy's ear.
"Well, that depends." Dean asked coldly, all charade of the professional 'agent' gone. Nico stood up again. "Do you have something to do with it?"
Nico didn't seem to be bothered by the dark glare he was receiving as he shrugged. "Well, we are involved in it. But so are you, if you think about it. And we aren't involved in this the way you obviously think we are."
The kid ducked around them, then walked a few paces down the hall, calling over his shoulder at Dean. "If you do anything that upsets Lucas, be very afraid, because I will hurt you."
Then he slid down the wall and sat there, keeping Lucas' door in view as he gestured for Dean to go ahead.
Dean and Sam looked at each other with matching expressions of bemused confusion.
"Well that was odd." Sam whispered. Dean grunted, looking after Nico as he watched them carefully.
"Dude, were we just threatened by a 15 year old?" He murmured. Problem was, the way he'd said it, neither of them thought that Nico would have any trouble in following through with said threat. Dean frowned, then pulled himself back together and slowly opened the door to Lucas' bedroom, walking in.
Nico stepped out of the shadows he'd travelled through and into the, thankfully large, cupboard in Percy's hallway. He glanced quickly around to get his bearings, and huffed. No doorknob. Excellent. He could break the door down, sure, but that probably wouldn't make Percy very happy. Maybe he was home?
"Percy!" He shouted, banging on the door. If Percy didn't show up, then he'd break the door. "Percy, let me out!"
No response. Nico shrugged, then reached out and prepared to blast the door. Then he paused as he heard soft footsteps coming closer, and the door opened. Nico blinked owlishly in the sudden light, looking at the silhouette of his cousin.
"Nico?" Percy sounded incredulous. "What are you doing?"
"It's not my fault you have so many windows. This is one of the only places in your house I'm guaranteed shadows!" Nico grumbled, pushing past a grinning Percy and into the hall.
He made his way to the kitchen and pulled open the fridge, hoping desperately that Percy wasn't a healthy eater. He needed quick energy after shadow travelling to avoid being slightly out of it for the rest of the day, and nothing provided that like junk food. He got a good look, and almost wilted in relief. There was half a lettuce, but that seemed to be the only vegetable in there. Nico grabbed the remains of a cold pizza, then backed out and sat on the counter, kicking the fridge shut behind him.
"Sure, help yourself," Percy said with a smile, gesturing to the pizza that Nico was already devouring.
"So how did things go at Andrea's when the agents went over there?"
Nico rolled his eyes. "Percy, they're not agents." He said thickly around a mouthful of pizza. Percy looked surprised. "The badges are fakes."
"What are they doing then?" Percy wondered, pulling a blue glass from a shelf and filling it with water.
"They know there's something in the lake." Nico relayed the conversation he'd had with the pair earlier, and Percy frowned.
"So… they're good guys. Trying to find out what's in the lake." He said dubiously. Nico, now on his third slice of pizza, nodded in agreement. "But they're mortals. How do they think they're going to –" He cut off, dropping the glass, head shooting around to look out across the lake. Still sitting on the counter, Nico flinched, forgotten pizza falling onto its box, and Percy glanced at him, eyes wide.
"You feel it?"
Nico nodded, and they sprinted towards the shoreline. Whatever was in the lake was on the move.
They skidded to a halt at the edge of the water, squinting to where they could sense the presence. Their newly improved eyesight helped, even over the distance. Despite that…
"Is that a boat?" Nico asked, horrified.
"Oh, gods…" Percy gasped. "That's Bill Carlton's bo–"
The rest of the sentence caught in his throat as the 'spidey-sense' flared. There was a muffled shockwave of energy, and the boat was blasted into the air, easily ten metres up. It crashed back down, sinking from sight, and Percy moved to sprint into the water. He could easily be there in seconds, maybe Mr. Carlton or whoever it was…
Nico grabbed his arm. "Don't."
Percy shook his arm free. "What's it going to do?" He asked. "Drown me?" But he didn't move.
"We don't know what it is." Nico said distractedly, still looking at where the boat had vanished. "But it's dead, and has a surprising amount of power considering. It wouldn't listen to me. You can't just jump in after it."
"I did when it got Sophie." Percy muttered. Nico rounded on him.
"What?"
"It didn't do a thing to me."
Nico glared at him. "What if it had? You can't just jump in after an unknown monster!"
"It took Sophie." Percy reminded him, and Nico immediately backed down
"Ok. I'm sorry. Let's just… let's go to the Carlton's house to…" He trailed off as Percy's eyes tightened. "We're going to get this thing, Percy." He promised.
"Yeah."
Percy and Nico walked up to the Carlton house. The door was ajar.
"Mr. Carlton?" Percy shouted hopefully. The only sound was the wind in the trees, and Percy drooped. "Worth a shot." He mumbled, then walked into the house.
It was dark, late at night and the roads were almost empty. Small towns didn't have the same constant flow of traffic at all hours of the day and night as most cities did. An Impala pulled up to a stop light as the driver contemplated the sign directing them to the highway.
In the passenger seat, Sam Winchester glanced out the window.
"Green."
Dean sat at the wheel, still looking distractedly ahead. "What?"
"The light's green."
There was a pause, then the car started moving. Dean turned right down the dark road, and Sam frowned.
"Ah… interstate's the other way." He pointed out.
"I know."
"So, the Sheriff kicked the two 'agents' out of town," Percy called as the door shut behind him. He walked into the living room and dropped down onto a blue sofa, opposite Nico, who looked up as he came in.
"He did?"
"Yeah. He knew they were fakes."
After a quick and fruitless search of the Carlton's house, Nico had gone back to Percy's, and Percy had gone to see Andrea. She was shocked, to say the least, but she seemed to be catching on to the fact that there was something going on in the lake. He'd also seen Lucas. The kid had been white as a sheet and shaking, and although he was comfortable around Percy, he hadn't acknowledged his presence in any way. Percy wasn't Nico.
Percy had waited until Andrea had left to make dinner for her and her son, then knelt down next to Lucas. He'd written his phone number on the corner of one of Lucas' sheets of paper and told him, in no uncertain terms that, if he needed either him or Nico, he could call that number. They'd be there in seconds. Quite literally. Obviously he hadn't told Lucas about Nico's ability to shadow travel, but that didn't mean Percy couldn't promise they'd be there.
"So what do we do now?" Nico asked. Percy sighed.
"I don't know. But I can't help but think that this is going to happen again. And if it can get through the pipes like it did to Will…"
"It could get anywhere." Nico finished.
"Yeah. I gave Lucas the number for the mobile because he looked so freaked."
Nico nodded. "And if he can feel it, he can call us if it comes anywhere near him."
"Or he could just call you." Percy pointed out. "You are the only one he responds to, you know."
Percy stood up. "I'm going to IM Chiron." Nico looked surprised.
"I thought you were trying to avoid anyone at camp for the year."
"Yeah, well." Percy shrugged. "You're here, aren't you? And he might know what this is." He left the room, grabbing one of the drachmas from the bowl in the hall. Nico heard the back door shut. Percy had obviously gone down to the water, where he could use it to make a rainbow. Nico sank back onto the chair he was sitting on.
He wasn't usually good at the whole 'domestic' thing, after living in the Underworld where the choice of home furniture was decidedly different, but it was different at Percy's house. Percy had been the first person, apart from Bianca, who had properly accepted him. Freaky aura of death and all. Even when Nico had blamed him for Bianca's death, Percy had forgiven him, reassured him that the campers would accept him too. So Nico was much more comfortable about being himself around Percy than he was about everyone else.
He pulled the skull ring off his finger, fidgeting while he thought. The phone rang, shattering the silence, and Nico's ADHD had him on his feet and tensed for a fight just a millisecond later. He leant over and glanced through the doorway – Percy was still outside, talking with Chiron.
Nico picked the phone up. He didn't recognize the number, but that was hardly unexpected. He didn't know anyone's numbers. He pressed the 'Receive' button, holding the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
The only response was quick, desperate breathing on the other end of the line. No one spoke.
"Lucas?" He asked sharply. It had to be him. Anyone else would have spoken, he was sure. Lucas sounded terrified. Or hurt… "Lucas, I'm coming, alright?"
He flicked the lights off and sprinted into the corner, wrapping the shadows around him as he concentrated on Andrea's house.
So, things are getting exciting! Or at least, I hope it is, because that's the approach I'm going for.
Randomfact: did you know that the kid who plays Lucas in this episode is called 'Nico'? I didn't. It made me grin though.
Thanks for reading!
