The Age of Heroes

Chapter 6: The Offer

"But... What…?"

I tried to come up with something – anything – to say. But the face I'd seen in the mirror just a moment ago, so familiar but so alien all at once, had thrown me totally off balance. For a minute I didn't even know what to think.

I mean, technically I'd been born way more than sixteen years ago, but Percy and I (and Chiron) had always figured that the big prophecy Kronos was relying on must mean biological age, not physical one. Besides, it was hard to figure out how old you were when time had flowed around you like a river that parted and rejoined itself once it had passed you by. But if the prophecy meant biological age like we thought it did, then...

Then that was what Medea had done. That was what Kronos wanted. Whatever had been in that vial of hers, it had made me sixteen in body if not in mind, and I suddenly wasn't sure that anyone was going to quibble with that. Well, any of the bad guys, anyway.

Because I knew for sure now that Medea was a very, very bad guy. Well, bad girl – you know what I mean. She was obviously planning to turn me over to Kronos with the expectation that they could blackmail me into helping him do… whatever the prophecied sixteen year-old half-blood was supposed to do.

I was now the one expected to make the decision that could save or destroy Olympus. And it suddenly seemed like too much to deal with. "What did you do?" I asked again, but by that point I wasn't sure there was much use in asking, anymore. I just didn't have anything else to say.

"I've done just what I said – you are now sixteen, and able to fulfill the prophecy as my master wishes. I've answered your question; now, come with me." She turned smartly as the door slid open, grabbing one of my arms in her too-tight grip to lead me out of the room.

I hate to admit it, but I probably couldn't have made it if she hadn't been holding onto me. Walking as fast as we were going was disorienting, and I felt clumsy and awkward and my legs still felt a lot like Jell-O. She led me down the hall past rows of doors – it was hard to tell what kind of building we were in or how big it was based on what I could see, and there weren't any windows in the hall, either. There were a couple of big metal canisters sitting against the walls here and there, but they all they had was warning labels and chemical formulas on them that I didn't understand. Honestly, most of my concentration was going into trying to stay upright in a body that didn't feel quite like mine.

We turned a couple of corners before Medea came to a door and stopped, pulling out a keycard and swiping it through the pad next to the handle. She punched some kind of code in and the door unlocked, and before I knew what was happening she had shoved me inside. The room was small and furnished only with a bed and a chair. Both looked pretty uncomfortable.

"You will wait here. I will be back when my master has arrived," Medea said, and closed the door in my face. I managed to take a few steps forward and bang on the door, even as a wave of nausea hit me from being upright so long.

"Hey!" I yelled, pounding the flat of my hand against the metal even as I heard her footsteps retreating down the hall. "At least tell me where Percy is! I want to see him!"

But she was gone. And I was angrier than ever.

I felt trapped, and I was scared, and I hated both of those feelings. I mean, I'd been a prisoner since I'd first woken up, strapped to that bed while Medea did gods-know-what to me. But now it was pretty clear that she was planning on delivering me to Kronos, just like that. I'm used to being in bad situations, but they had never been quite like this. Even when Percy had told me about his previous quests, they hadn't been like this. Even the Lotus Hotel hadn't been like this, though I guessed prisons did come in all shapes and sizes. But I was used to something I could fight my way out of, and this place wasn't it. I didn't know where my sword was, and I didn't know what I'd be up against even if I did have it. I didn't know where Percy was, and I had no way of contacting anyone. Hell, no one was even supposed to know we were gone in the first place.

About then my head started spinning again, and I had to stumble over to the wire-frame bed and collapse onto it before I ended up on the floor. I stared at my hands, my fingers grasping the knees of the black jeans Medea had given me, and tried to reconcile everything that had happened with what I knew and how it might get me out of here.

So I was sixteen – or, at least, my body was sixteen, and that was apparently all that mattered. That meant that I was taller and probably stronger, but I was also drugged and it was definitely making it hard to move or think straight. It was the only thing, I told myself, that had kept me from punching that witch's face in and breaking myself and Percy out of here. Wherever he was, if he was even okay.

I sighed and hit the mattress with one fist. Percy had to be okay – if they were planning to use him against me, he had to be alive. They had to let me see him. Right? Maybe I could refuse to do anything until I saw him. But either way, assuming Percy was all right, we still had to get out of here and away from wherever this was before Kronos arrived and made matters worse.

But then the real problem was putting that idea into action. I still felt like crap and besides that I was alone and without a weapon. I scanned the room from my position on the bed, but I didn't see anything I could even use as a weapon. The chair was plastic and wouldn't break easily, let alone into anything usable. The walls were smooth concrete and there was an air vent in the ceiling but no way to get to it. Even though I was taller, the chair and bed were both too short for me to climb up to it even if I hadn't been dizzy. I realized belatedly that even if I had managed to get up high enough, while I might have been able to get through that vent while I was twelve, I wasn't anymore. I was probably too big to fit through there even if I wanted to.

There wasn't even a sink or a toilet in here, I realized – no water. Somehow they knew, or they'd guessed, that I might have been able to use that against them. And while I could probably cause an earthquake or something similar, I didn't want to do that while I was trapped wherever this was. At best I'd probably bring the building down on top of my head – or Percy's.

So much for that plan, then. But if there was no way out except the door, I would just have to wait. Medea would come back, Maybe I would feel better by then, and maybe I could get the drop on her and escape.

I didn't know how long I waited, sitting there in that tiny, spartan room, but I'd started to nod off by the time I heard sound outside the door. My head snapped up just as the door swung open and Medea appeared, beckoning to me with one hand. "My master has arrived and will see you now," she said.

My stomach felt like it went right through the floor. I admit that I was feeling better and I seriously thought about incapacitating her and escaping right then. But I realized as I stood that I still had no idea where we were or even how many of Kronos' people might be here with him. It was probably a bad idea to make a break for it without knowing anything about this place. I didn't like it, but for now I realized it would be better to play along. Maybe when she took me to see Kronos – because I assumed that's where we were going now – I might have an opportunity to end this stupid rapidly-building war once and for all. I would just have to take the risk. Maybe I could at least finally get some answers. If I could just buy some more time…

I stood sullenly and approached the door. Medea smiled at me and turned on her heel, beckoning again. "I know you must be feeling better, Nico, but it would be best if you came without a fuss." She stepped to the side and standing behind her was a telekhine, obviously meant to subdue me if I tried anything.

I still didn't like it, but she was right. "I want to see Percy," I demanded. "I want to know that he's okay before I go anywhere with you."

Medea crossed her arms over her chest and looked at me, but I looked right back at her, unflinching. If I was going to go with her and risk meeting Kronos, then she was going to give me something first. I had to know there was a reason to go through with this.

Finally, she sighed and said, "Very well. I will take you past his room."

"Fine." I scowled and followed Medea as she set off briskly down the hall. My sense of balance seemed much better than it had been before. I still felt weird, like I was walking through a dream, but I figured the only way to get used to this new body of mine was to use it. And the more used to it I was, the better my chances of escape later. Because I would escape.

This place was large and confusing – or, at least, it seemed like it. Each inch of the hall looked the same as the last, with grey walls and grey doors and more of those metal canisters I'd seen before. There was the occasional man or woman in a labcoat, and even a few telekhines like the one outside my door, but none of them seemed to take much notice of us as we passed. At least, I thought, there wasn't an overabundance of guards here. Not ones that I could see, anyway...

Medea stopped in front of a door like any other, but this one also had a telekhine guard outside of it. Nodding to the guard, Medea swiped her card and keyed in the code. The door clicked open, and there, sitting on a bed exactly like the one that had been in the room I was kept in, was Percy.

"As you can see, I haven't hurt him. Just as I promised," Medea said with a wave of her arm, stepping between me and the door. Over her shoulder, I saw Percy look up. Then he pushed himself off the bed, frowning at Medea.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he asked, looking at Medea as though he didn't even notice me standing behind her. "Where's Nico?"

Medea only smiled, ignoring Percy's questions and turning back to me. "Now that I've kept my word, you will come with me."

"Wait!" Percy said, taking a few steps toward the door as Medea began crowding me out of the room, but I didn't want to go. I wanted to talk to Percy – I wanted to let him know I was okay. I reached out a hand to him, opening my mouth just as the guard's hand clamped around my forearm.

"Percy!" I called, and then I was bodily pulled from the room and Medea closed the door behind us. The last thing I saw before the door swung shut was Percy's eyes, looking directly at me with no familiarity in them at all.

I felt my gut clench. Percy hadn't even recognized me. Would he even still like me like this? It would probably be really weird (to say the least) to have your younger boyfriend suddenly become older than you. I mean, it was weird enough on my end, realizing that Percy was now the one who was younger than me. What if this completely changed everything? But, I thought, it was only my body that had changed – my mind hadn't. I was still the same Nico. Percy would understand that. Right?

I hoped so.

The telekhine was still holding my arm as I scowled at Medea. "You will come with me," she said again. I was angry – I wanted to talk to Percy, I wanted to make sure everything was still okay with us. I wanted to get out of here. But I couldn't do that – not right now. And Medea had kept her word.

When I didn't struggle, she nodded again to the guard. He released my arm slowly. And I followed her as she led me down the hall once more. Not long after, we turned one last corner and there, at the end of the hall, was a single metal door, guarded by two dracaenae with vicious-looking swords. The guards held their swords aside and Medea opened the door, leading me inside.

And there he was: he looked like the half-blood Luke Castellan, but behind that scarred human face he was the titan, Kronos. He was sitting on a chair that he must have brought with him, because it didn't fit the décor (or, well, lack thereof) of this place at all. It was large, throne-like and made of bronze and carved with intricate patterns all over it. It almost reminded me of the sarcophagus Percy had found him in back on Mount Othrys. He had Luke's half-celestial bronze, half-steel sword, Backbiter, in his hand. He appeared to be engrossed in it, his eyes fixed on the sword as he tested the balance of the blade in his palm even after Medea had shut the door behind us. She then stepped to one side so that I was front and center.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

Kronos ignored me for a minute before he raised his eyes, raking them up and down my body. It made me feel dirty and I wanted to squirm but I held my ground; I didn't want him to even think that I was uncomfortable. I wasn't going to show any weakness in front of him.

And then he finally spoke. "This is the boy, Nico di Angelo?" His voice sounded like Luke's, but there was something underneath it, something that was like metal scraping against rock. It was hard not to cringe at the sound of it.

"Yes," Medea said from behind me. I wasn't looking at her but I could practically hear her pleased expression in her voice. "This is Nico."

"Hm." Kronos looked me over again. "And he is sixteen?"

"Yes," Medea answered again, and this time I couldn't help but scowl. This whole thing was unnatural, and I hated it, and I wanted nothing more than to be back in my own body again.

But that was the worst thing about it – I already was.

"Good," Kronos said, his gaze turning back to me. "Good. You have done a fine job, Medea."

"Thank you, my lord." She sounded like someone had just given her the answer to life. It made me sick.

"Nico," Kronos said, finally addressing me, and suddenly I didn't want those eyes on me anymore. "I have much I want to talk about with you."

"Like what?" I asked flatly, looking right back at him.

He only smiled. "Like your future."

I snorted. Probably not the most polite thing to do, but I was beginning to not really care. I didn't take kindly to being kidnapped and experimented on, or whatever Medea had done. "What do you know about my future?"

The titan seemed unfazed by my rudeness. "Much, I think," he said, finally setting his sword down at his side and steepling his fingers over his knees. It looked like an odd gesture for such a young man, but the thing looking out from behind those eyes was old. Very, very old. "As much as I know about your past, in fact."

I said nothing, just waited for him to go on.

"I know why you are here, Nico di Angelo. Your father seeks to become powerful, more powerful than his brothers and sisters. You were to be his chance – his champion, Nico. You see, your father tried to put you into a position of power when he asked Percy Jackson to trade his life for yours. In doing so, he wanted to ensure that you would be the half-blood of which the prophecy spoke. But where he has failed, I have succeeded."

"By ruining my body!" I burst out. "By having her," I motioned to Medea, "experiment on me! And why should I listen to you, anyway?" I asked. "If you know anything about me, you know I'm not on really good terms with my father," I told him, glaring. I hated the thought of being my father's puppet, and I wasn't going to be Kronos' puppet either. Let them conquer heaven and earth on their own, and leave me out of it.

Kronos laughed, the sound coming from deep within him so that it sounded inhuman and wrong coming out of Luke Castellan's mouth. But it wasn't Luke Castellan's mouth any more. It was Kronos' mouth now. I guess it was pretty easy for me to think that – I mean, I hadn't really known Luke before he'd joined Kronos' side or become the vessel for the titan. I admit, I didn't have a hard time thinking about him only as Kronos; whatever there was left of Luke, it was fading fast. I could feel the life force in him dying.

"Because I can make you a better offer than he ever could. Soon I will have power greater than your father or any other god. I can offer you so much more," Kronos said. But if he was trying to impress me, it wasn't working. I didn't care about his boasts or his power, and I definitely didn't care about his lies. Because I knew the truth. He wasn't powerful. He was dying.

Kronos looked up and into my eyes for the first time, and his gaze seemed to burn me from the inside out. It was like drowning in a pit of fire, and I couldn't climb out. "I want you, Nico di Angelo," he said evenly. "I want to make you my new body."

What? I barely kept my mouth from falling open in shock. No way. No way in hell. "I know your secret," I said. "I know you're dying. And I'm just a half-blood, the same as Luke. What good would my body do you? You'd just burn out inside of me, like you're burning out inside of him. And I'd go first. That's not a deal, that's suicide."

Kronos narrowed his eyes, "You are a half-blood, true. But you are powerful, Nico. You have no idea, but I do. You possess a power over life and death that Luke does not. In your body, I could weave our powers together so that death cannot touch us. You will not be like Luke. You will be invincible."

"You mean you'd be invincible," I said. I didn't even know if any of Luke's mind was still in there anymore, and it wasn't like Kronos would have let him go even if he was. No, the second I let Kronos into my body, that was it. Game over. And I was not going to go out like that.

"You're passing up the chance of a lifetime. Think about it," the titan chided, lifting one finger. But I didn't change my expression, and I definitely wasn't going to change my mind. Why should I trust him?

Then he sighed. "If you will not help me, then there is Percy Jackson. The same can be done with him as was done to you. I do not have to wait even a year for him to make his choice."

I shook my head. "Percy's powers over death are only an echo of mine. He can't do you any good," I said, frowning. I mean, we'd talked a little about it, and it seemed that he'd picked up about as much of my power as I had of his. We could do little things, and some big things briefly, but we were hardly equals in each other's domains. And Percy would never help Kronos, death powers or not. We both knew that.

Kronos raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps not, but what would you do to save him from the fate that Luke suffers now?"

"... Fuck you," I spat, but he was right. He could use Percy against me like that and I couldn't, wouldn't let him die again. I didn't know what would happen when Percy became a subject of my father's realm again, but I intended to put that day off for as absolutely long as possible.

My stomach felt cold. Kronos just smiled. "I want to make this easy, Nico. I want you to want this. I am asking this of you and not Percy because I know you hold no love for your father, nor for the gods on Olympus. Neither do I. We are not so different, you see. We understand each other." He stood, pushing himself up off of his throne and walking toward me, his eyes almost glowing.

"You owe them nothing, Nico. Your father abandoned you and your sister from birth, and he has only ever tried to use you to gain power. But you deserve that power for yourself. I am only trying to give you the means by which to grasp it." Kronos stopped only a few inches away, reaching out with one hand to touch my face. I wanted to move away, to turn aside, but somehow I couldn't. Somehow I couldn't stop looking into his eyes.

"You've never fit in anywhere, have you?" he asked, and his voice was almost gentle. "Always an outcast, always on the run... It's a hard life. It's a life you don't deserve. I want to give you something better, and I know you want to take it."

"But –"

"When this is done, "Kronos continued, "when we have succeeded, together with Medea I will use the power of Olympus to fashion a new body for myself. With Hephastus' tools, she can do this," he said with a nod of his head, and when I finally managed to pull away from his eyes and glance back Medea was nodding too, emphatically. "I will let you go, Nico," Kronos continued, and I was pulled back into his eyes for a second time. "I will have need of loyal servants in my new regime, and you could be a powerful ruler. You and Percy both. It is the only way you will ever be free of a fate you do not want." He paused. "I do not wish to kill you. Can you say the same for any other god?"

His eyes were still so bright, so hard to look away from. His voice was insidious, working its way into my mind and even though I knew with every part of my body that he was utterly and completely evil, I had to admit… for a moment I considered it. For a minute I was tempted. He was right, after all – I didn't care for my father, and I didn't care for the gods. I didn't care who was in charge as long as I could live my own life, and Percy could live his. Maybe this would be easier… maybe we could just…

I shook my head, almost more to get those thoughts away from me than to tell the titan lord my answer. "No," I said firmly, my gut roiling. "I won't do it. I don't trust you." After all, how did I know he'd let me go, even if I did agree to his plan? And Percy would never forgive me.

And even though I'd just rejected his offer, Kronos smiled down at me. He took a step back, his hand falling from my face. "You say that now, little half-blood," he murmured, "but will you say it again?" He glanced behind me to Medea, who stepped forward and took my arm, turning me toward the door. I was too preoccupied with the thoughts swirling around in my head to resist.

"Think on what I've said," Kronos said as we left the room. "You will see that I'm right. I will ask you again, Nico di Angelo. And I think I know what your answer will be."

His voice made me sick. It was like he'd seen what I was thinking in my eyes, and he knew that for an instant I'd considered it. I could barely get one foot in front of the other as I followed Medea out of the room, the dracaenae guards shutting the door behind us with a hollow metal clang.

But then, as Medea led me back down the hall and presumably back to my cell of a room, I felt something brush my arm. I turned my head to look but there was nothing there – just thin air. There dracaenae guarding the door were still exactly where they had been. There was no one else in the hall, and Medea was still striding ahead purposefully. I must have imagined it –

Something brushed my arm again, and this time something flat was pressed into my hand. I tried not to show any outward sign that anything had happened while I tried to figure out what I had just been handed. It felt like a neatly-folded piece of paper. I had no idea what that meant or where it had come from (other than thin air, but that wasn't possible), but as we rounded the corner I shoved whatever it was into the pocket of my jeans just as Medea looked back at me.

"You'd do well to listen to him," she said, giving no indication that she knew anything about my receiving pieces of paper from thin air. "He's offering you your wildest dreams."

"If I'm willing to give up everything for them," I said, and shook my head again. "No."

"Hm," Medea said, and looked forward again as we rounded a second corner. "We'll see." She sounded the same as Kronos had, and it made my stomach shift uncomfortably. I tried to concentrate on just walking and remembering how many corners we'd turned and which doors we'd passed.

But once I'd been shoved back into the room, I had something else to concentrate on. I waited until Medea's footsteps had retreated down the hall. Then I waited a couple of minutes after that, just to make sure. Then, sitting on the bed and trying to ignore the way my legs folded up a lot differently when they were longer, I pulled the piece of paper out of my pocket and looked at it.

It was a piece of yellow legal paper, I realized, folded neatly into eighths so that it fit into the palm of my hand. Trying not to rustle the paper too much, I opened it and saw that it was a handwritten note. It took a minute to make the letters make sense, but that's how it goes when you're dyslexic. In slightly slanted printing the note said:

I don't know who you are, but I know you're like me – a half-blood. If you want to get out of here, I can help you. Please don't tell anyone about this note. Don't let them find it. And don't do anything they want. If you want my help, tear off a corner of this note and slide it under the door. I'll see it.

I stared at the writing, reading it over a few times as my brain processed what it meant. Someone was here – someone who could help. At least, that was assuming I believed them, but the way they'd slipped me the note in secret…

But wait, how had they given me the note? Someone had pressed it into my hand, or at least that's what it had felt like. But there hadn't been anyone there. At least, not that I had seen

And suddenly it hit me: Annabeth! She had the power to turn invisible. At least, with the help of a handy (and not-so-usual) New York Yankees cap. Could it be...?

I sat up straighter, staring at the note with a renewed interest, trying to remember if I had ever seen her handwriting. I wasn't sure, but I guessed the letters did look kind of girly… or at least precise, like I imagined a daughter of Athena and aspiring architect might write. Plus, there was the fact that the person who'd given me the note had been invisible, and the only half-blood I knew of who could do that was Annabeth Chase. And that actually made sense, I supposed, because she was the only person who knew we were gone and, more importantly, where we'd gone. I had to admit that I didn't know if we were still in Rockville anymore – or even Maryland, for that matter – but she'd known where to start and maybe it had been enough.

So this was good – great, even. This meant that someone did know where we were, and that she could get us out. But then there was the fact that Annabeth hadn't realized that I was Nico – based on the note she thought I was someone else, which I guessed made sense because the Nico she knew was twelve, not sixteen. If she hadn't gotten a good look at my face, then it would be easy to mistake me for a stranger. Hell, I thought, even if she had gotten a good look at my face, she might not have reached the right conclusion. I admit that I probably wouldn't have.

But I was stuck this way now – possibly for good. Probably, for all I knew – I mean, why would the process be reversible? Kronos didn't need a way to make anyone young. But maybe, I thought, there was still some kind of antidote. Maybe Medea would have it. But, I thought with a sinking feeling in my stomach, I didn't know if I would be around here long enough to find out. Most of me wanted to get out, and get out now. I could cut my losses later. I just hoped they wouldn't be too great.

Creeping over to the door and pressing my ear to it to make sure there was no one passing by outside, I tore off a scrap of paper from the corner of the note and slid it under the door. And then I waited again.