Last time:
"Good luck Nico" Butch said as he started to drift off, most likely waking up to tell Will before he forgot. "Take care of the leg"
"Will do"
Nico was yanked back over the sea and into someone else's dream.
He watched a plane crash, two people that looked similar to Alex laid on the ground in a bloody heap. A person shot them in the head just to make sure they were dead.
"Mum, dad" Nico swore it sound like Alex
He watched as a car swerved across several lanes and almost crash into a pole. A helicopter flew above him, a man hung from a ladder underneath. Bullets. He saw them rip out of the gun and scatter all over the car. The car slammed into a cement blocker.
"Ian" the whisper rang out again
He could see a car in the middle of nowhere, a fiery haired women and Alex. He looked over to see Alex with a helpless look on his face as he tried running towards the women but Nico could already tell that he won't be able to reach her before she got in the car.
"JACK!" He screamed, no longer a whisper, as she was getting in the car. The women looked up with a startled expression and reached out to Alex before the whole thing blew up. Nico winced.
Alex slumped to the floor. Nico went over behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"She's still alive" Nico said. He couldn't feel her soul down in the underworld.
Alex's head shot up to look at Nico.
"Devil?"
Nico just removed his hand and started walking away.
"Remember that. I'll help you find her if you let me." He looked back over his shoulder to see hope glimmer in Alex's eyes. He started walking around and almost missed the soft sound that was escaping Alex's mouth.
"Thank you" He whispered.
Nico just gave a jerk of his head and disappeared, waking up.
Nico breathe out slowly, feinting to sleep some more before allowing himself to look at the sleeping teen on the bed beside him. He was struck with how much Alex looked like Will. Ah Will, he had wished luck with Jake and proceeded to flee to the underworld when he told Nico that he was in love with Jake. He had the worst of luck, cupid was probably laughing at him when he shot Nico with another arrow.
Nico didn't know why he offered to help Alex, well he had a pretty big clue but nonetheless, he got out of bed to make a very special call. Sneaking out of the barracks, grabbing his prism and flashlight, he made his way to the forest. He walked along the muddy path with the moonlight barely lighting the way. Tomorrow was a new moon, he could already see him walking down this same path in pitch black darkness. He looked up to see Zoe's constellation very well, there wasn't light pollution way out here in the middle of nowhere. Nico bowed his head in respect for the fallen huntress that he didn't know before setting up his prism to call someone that could help him.
"Oh Iris, goddess of the Rainbow, please accept my offering. Show me Reyna Avila Ramirez Arellano in Camp Jupiter" Nico said while throwing a diamond into the miss. He had a pretty big supply of them from Hazel when he was trying to teach her how to launch them as missiles. He could touch them without getting curse and now that Hazel was in better control over her ferrokinesis, plus the son of Neptune dousing her in the water of Tibet, the curse was lifted off of her and the precious gems she does bring up didn't bring misfortune to the owner.
The rainbow shifted its colors and showed him the office of Reyna.
"Reyna" He said, she jumped, almost spilling her bowl of jelly beans. Nico could tell Percy was there recently as for all the blue ones were gone.
"Di Angelo! Where the fuck are you?" She yelled when she saw him in the dark forest.
"Wales, I believe. Hey, I need to ask you a favor"
Reyna was all business after that.
"What?"
"I need you to go find this woman for me."
She raised her eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"Look, I have a… friend that lost his whole family and she was the only one left. She "died" in a car explosion or something but I can't feel her ghost anywhere unlike his family."
Reyna bit the end of her pen before dragging a piece of paper closer.
"Name?"
"Jack"
"Last name?"
Nico paused. "I don't know."
"How am I suppose to find her then?"
"I can tell you know she looks like."
"Shoot for it, I'll try to find her."
Nico started describing the woman in Alex's dream, down to the last freckle on her nose.
"She might not look like that anymore, it was a pretty big explosion." Nico warned. Reyna nodded but she wasn't really listening to him, now preoccupied with the task at hand.
"I'll get back to you later."
"Thanks Reyna, you're the best."
"Take care okay? I got a meeting in 3"
"Okay, goodbye Reyna."
"Bye Nico"
Nico waved a hand through the rainbow and the image faded. He looked up to the sky to see the sky lightening a bit more. He figured he had time to shower before everyone else and put on his medicine. He shadow-travelled into the bathroom and grabbed a towel on the way in. He turned on the water, the ice cold liquid cascading down his body. He gave a sigh and groaned in pleasure as he rubbed the soap into his hair. He like cold showers, hot showers were too much like Tartarus for his comfort right now and the bills were cheaper.
He washed out the soap and turned off the water sadly. He reached for the bare threaded towel and dried off his body before ruffling his hair with it to get it to stop dripping so heavily. He snuck out and grabbed his bag where he stuck an outfit and his medicine in before going back in and locking his stall door. The only stall with a door nonetheless a working lock.
He rubbed the mixture on his scars and bruises. He watched it fade a bit more, getting one step closer to his pale skin color but he knew it would never completely disappear. He pulled on his clothes and got out. He settled on his bed and pulled out the gift given to him from Hazel before he had left. He read the familiar Greek words, the curves and lines quelling some of his homesickness as he fell into a story about a boy having his life turned around because of a dragon egg.
He didn't realize how long he was reading until he heard stirring from the other members. He looked over to see Alex getting up and throwing his pillow onto Fox who was still sleeping. Nico snicker quietly and returned back to his book. He had languages today and he was pretty sure of his ability to speak Greek, Latin and Italian. He doubt that they would test on that though so he needed to touch up on his other. Over the year since the war, he picked up on Chinese (from the accidental trips there and the trips after because their tea was good. He still liked stuff), Spanish (because it was similar to Italian), Russian (he like Russia, it was cold and there were a lot of bad people who he had to bring back), German (Father didn't want him too because he said it was too much like Hitler but Nico did anyways) and French (Piper was teaching Hazel in the hades cabin and Nico was forced to join because Hazel wanted him to learn with her.)
"What are you reading?" Eagle said after he woke up and changed. He was hanging over Nico's headboard and peering at the weird letters. Nico looked up to see the man and went back to reading.
"Is that Greek?" Cub said from toweling his hair. He had saw the cover where in big bold letters, spelt εραζον, Eragon.
"Yes"
"You speak it?"
"Mhmm" Nico wasn't really listening, he was at a very crucial point in the book, Eragon was about to go into Saphira's memories, and nothing was going to stop him from reading it. That is until Wolf stormed over.
"What the fuck are you doing!? We have breakfast. Get your sorry asses down there before you don't get any!" Wolf yelled before storming out. Man that guy needs a shot of oxcarbazepine or maybe a diazepam injection. Either or works, preferable the second so they don't have to deal with an awake Wolf.
Nico grinned at the thought and carefully place the book cover into the spot he was at to mark it before getting off the cot and stretching.
"Lets go" Snake said from the door. Nico shadow-travelled the short distance to the door when the rest had filed out. Ahh, Will would kill him if he knew but he doesn't.
Nico made his way to the mess hall, opening the book that was tuck safely under his arm as he walked. He kept reading as they marched along the well-trodden path to the food, if you could call it food. When he got there, the chefs had whipped up mush. Lovely.
Nico frowned at the food but he was quite glad that it wasn't going to be too painful swallowing, nectar could only do so much. While he was eating, he mused on how he had already did things that he shouldn't be allowed to without passing the selection yet. Oh wait, he hadn't even completed the evaluations either. He propped his book on the table and ate the food without tasting it. Selections were tomorrow, he had wasted 3 days in the infirmary… once again. Damn it, he hated those places. Too much white and people fussing over the dying or injured.
"Hey you!"
Nico looked back to see a guy walking up to him. He gave an almost bored look.
"Name's Panther, what is a little boy like you doing here with us men?"
Nico's eye twitched. "I'm not a little boy"
Laughter. K-Unit was watching this a bit fearful, remembering what happened with Bear.
"Sure you're not."
Another eye twitch.
"Why are you talking to me?" Nico allowed that 'I-am-better-than-you-peasant' tone to bleed into his words. The other person noticed.
"You think you're so high and mighty, beating that assault course and Bear."
"Not to mention RTI!" Someone piped from the back.
"No, he landed himself in the infirmary with that one. What did you do? Trip and hit the doorknob?" He sneered. Nico sighed and closed his book regretfully only to have it snatched.
"What is this?" Panther said as he flipped through the pages. "Do you not know how to write?"
Nico almost lost his temper right there. The idiot was touching his book, the one that Hazel had painstakingly handwritten in Greek, not Latin, Greek, for him.
"It's called Greek, now give it back"
He laughed. K-Unit was getting very anxious right now. They seen how Nico's temper never rose but they knew everyone had a limit. They didn't know where Nico's was.
"Panther" Spider called out cautiously. "Maybe you should give that back to him before someone got hurt." everyone but Panther could hear the underlying message of 'you, ya idiot'.
"Yeah, we wouldn't want the little baby to get back in the infirmary." He said in a childish voice. Rage bubbled under Nico's skin but he didn't show it. It grew even more when Panther threw the book to the ground, mud covering the cover. Fox hissed, this was not good.
Nico face was blank as he looked on, his eyes like a doll's, glassy and creepy. Panther feel quite pleased until a smile crept onto Nico's face. It started slowly, growing until a creepy chuckle rumble.
"I'll give you one chance, Gods know you don't deserve it. Pick it up" He spoke with all the authority of a king. Panther had half a mind to pick up the book but his pride got in the way.
"Or what?"
Nico stood up and took a step towards the soldier, the shadows thickening around the two as the older man stared down in fear to the teen.
"Hey, hey, no need for anything." Raven said from beside Spider. He quickly ran over and picked up the book. He gently rubbed the mud off the cover, surprised to find it slipping off quickly and not leaving a stain on the expensive leather. Nico cocked his head and nodded at Raven.
"Thank you but some people just need to be taught a lesson"
A blur of black crossed the distance between the two, the other didn't even have time to notice that Nico was gone until he felt a cold hand grip his wrist in a very painful manner. His arm was wrenched behind his back and he was shoved to the ground. Nico's black combat boot stepped on the sand camouflaged jacket as he leaned down to whisper into Panther's ear.
"I'm not a little boy, got it? Don't mess with me." He shoved the man away and marched over to take the book out of Raven's hand. His face lit up like a child, the murderous look no longer marring his face.
"Thank you for picking it up, you didn't have too."
Raven was taken back by the whole 180 change in Nico's personality but he still returned the smile.
"No worries, I'll just go back to my table, yeah?" He practically fled from the dark haired boy. Nico threw back his head and laughed before sitting back down again, shoving a spoon of mush in his mouth while trying to find his page again.
"ηλίθιος" (idiot) Nico mumbled before settling down. Cub's eyebrow raised but Nico didn't pay any mind to it as he was back into the world of magic and mythical creatures.
~ Just a line, whatcha looking at? ~
"Okay Devil. Phase 1 of selection. You have a 64 kilometer (40 mile for all you Americans) trek. They others will be with you because it's a part of the refresher course. They join you at checkpoint 2 out of 4. Here, try lifting this" Dragon threw a 55 pound bag at him. Nico had half a mind to pretend he couldn't lift it but when he reached for it, it miss his hand and hit him in the chest.
"Ooofff"
Nico collapse on the ground in pain when the air was push out his lungs. The others rushed towards him but he waved it off as he rolled over clutching at the scar on his heart. He received a sword to the chest a little while ago, gave Will a heart attack before Apollo came down to heal the both of them. It was still quite sore.
"Are you okay Devil?" Snake asked worriedly.
"Just peachy" Nico hissed out while shoving the bag off his chest. Standing up with the help of his sword, he reached down and swung the bag onto his shoulder, the straps cutting into his shoulder the moment it settle its weight down.
'Nothing compared to the statue' Nico thought before turning to face the other candidates who were sneering at the boy who couldn't even carry his own pack. Nico gave a grin back to his worried unit. "I'll be fine, meet you there."
He took off and quickly covered ground, his rifle hanging from his pack whacked against his sheath as he ran. When he could feel when no one was looking at his so he shadow travelled a short distance and kept running when they were looking. It was still faster than the other. He knew his legs were shorter than the others so he had to make up for the distance. Uphill, downhill, it was all the same. He kept up with the other men quite well. He stayed hydrated on the one bottle water (and maybe that pill in his mouth) and reached the first checkpoint a lit bit before the last soldier. No need to waste his energy yet. He had enough endurance to last the last 30 miles speed walking from the harsh training he put himself through to disregard Will's concern about pushing himself too much.
He caught someone who fainted from overheat halfway to the second checkmark, the man slumping down to the ground. He caught up with the fallen person and bent down to feel for a pulse on his wrist while his other hand reaching for the other man's pocket blindly. Fingers fumbling along the hem of the emergency pocket, he found the flare and shot it up high into the air. The flame burned bright red before it turned green and arched downwards to hit the ground. Using some of his not-so precious water, he trickle the liquid down the other's throat along with a couple drops of unicorn draught to dilute it some more. Not lethal in small doses to mortals but leaving it at its concentrated state would be like injecting a huge amount of narcotics into the blood. If it reaches the heart, it would kill the person off.
The man jolted up and collided painfully with Nico's collarbone. Nico scrambled back while rubbing the bruise that was forming. The other looked around confused as to where he was.
When the sleek silver helicopter came into view, Nico caught sight of Bear sneering from the back seat while, what Nico guessed was their communication specialist, drove the hovering vehicle closer. The rest of the candidates looked back on the two, confused on who had fired the flare. Most likely the boy as for the fact that the other was holding Nico for support but making it look like Nico was holding onto him.
"Look at the brat. Done already?" Bear shouted over the beating of the blades. Nico glared back and shoved the fallen soldier to the medic of the group, Possum.
"Dehydration, heat stroke, pretty sure has a concussion from hitting my collarbone. Ow by the way" Nico directed the last part to the confused man leaning on Possum shoulder. He rubbed the bone a bit while rotating his shoulder. The responding groan was most likely an agreement to his pain.
"And how about you? Ready to leave?" Possum was the most polite to him but still a bit apprehensive that a little boy was training with the best in most of the eastern hemisphere. Nico scoffed.
"Like if, now if you excuse me, I got 25 miles left."
"You're American?"
"Yeah" He took off before he could hear the following question.
He wanted to get out of the sun, he didn't like the fact that Apollo was probably watching him make a fool of himself.
'Gods, can't you shine less bright Apollo. I'll crash your car on day into the ocean.' He thought as he jogged the dusty path. It was a nice change from the mud, more mud, and even more mud that Brecon's was having, if only it was less bright. Apollo must have heard Nico's grumbling because he quickly retreated behind a cloud. 'Thanks'
He looked around at the vast, vast endless hills and felt a sense of worthlessness.
'Am I seriously doing this? Oh my gods I need to get a life." He shook his head slightly and bent down to pick a blade of sparse grass. Bringing it to his nose, he sniffed it, the sharp scent of the dying plant cleared the smell of blood out of his head. He looked at the stain on his collar with distaste before deciding nothing could be done. As much as he love blood, it was a bitch to get out of clothing.
Checkpoint two and K-Unit (plus the other units) joined the recruits, spitting insults and pushing them faster.
"Is that blood?" Snake asked Nico when he caught sight of his heck. Nico's hand flew up to cover the stain even though it wasn't his.
"Yes…" Nico started edging away when he saw the look Snake was giving him… then he ran. "HELP ME!" Nico screamed as a joke as he ran away from the demonic medic. Funny because he was Devil not Snake. He ran circles around the unit and almost avoided being caught until he tripped on Fox's foot. He face planted on the ground as snickers flew around. Lifting his face out of the dirt he glared at Fox who was looking everywhere besides the glaring demigod. Nico spat out a mixture of dirt, saliva and rocks.
"Fuck you"
Cub fake gasp and clutched his ears. "LANGUAGE! Bloody children now a days, cursing. Like fuck them!"
Eagle started laughing from a combination of Nico looking like a kitten trying to be scary and Cub joking around.
"Now" Snake said before yanking Nico to his feet.
"Not mine" Nico said immediately. Snake scoffed.
"Yeah? What happen then? Someone rubbed their bloody face on your neck after falling?"
Nico was quite surprise. "Yea, how did you know?"
Snake's face was full of disbelief. "Then you wouldn't mind a physical. That reminds me, you haven't gotten one yet."
Nico bolted for it, over taking the lead in his effort to get away again. He quickly lost sight of them and slowed down to a jog while he kept a keen eye for the fair hair Scotty. He took a sip of water and frown at the taste. He had just refilled it at the checkpoint and the flavor was a bit bitter. He stood on the road waiting for the others to come with the bottle at his side. Something was wrong.. really wrong. As K-Unit and J-Unit came into view, Nico had realized that his bottle was spiked. He pressed a heel to his temple and his vision started spinning. He could kinda see his teammate's concerned faces.
"Water… bitter… drug-" He couldn't make complete sentences, he couldn't even finish his last word before the ground slipped from his feet. He held tight to the bottle though. It was his evidence. He vision slowly blacked out but before it completely disappeared, he saw a man standing behind Snake, who was shaking his body, grinning evilly. He couldn't feel the shaking but he could feel the rage burning in his mind at the random person.
But who?
