Kole's POV
Chiron called everyone to the amphitheater around ten one morning. This never happened, so all of the campers were automatically apprehensive.
"It has come to our attention that there is a half blood in North Dakota somewhere, in a high school, and we need to send an extraction team of heroes as soon as possible. Unfortunately, we have almost no resources available at the moment." Chiron paused. "Because of this, I was wondering if Nico would be willing to make the trip, with a companion. What do you think of that, Mr. di Angelo?" Chiron fixed Nico with a questioning look.
"Uh, sure, I can do that." Nico shrugged.
"Good. Now today is October 1, and the school this half blood attends is having a dance on October 3, which gives you a three days to get to the school, locate the demigod, and explain to him what is going on. At the dance, you can nab the kid and get out of there." Chiron explained. "Now just pick your companion and you can be on your way this afternoon. Personally, I would suggest Miss Evans, as you two work quite well together, and she is very capable with most weapons."'
"Miss Evans? You mean like Kloe Evans from that movie?" A kid from the Apollo cabin called out. "And that other movie?" another kid asked.
Nico spotted Kole, across the amphitheater, blush and hide her face. "Yeah, sure. Kole, you wanna go to the dance with me?" Nico asked, grinning.
Kole looked up. "If you really need me too…" She laughed. "I'll bring my arsenal and a dress. That is, if I had one."
"Ooh! You can borrow one of mine!" A girl from Aphrodite cried, shooting to her feet. "Come with me, you can pick one out!"
"And Nico, you're gonna need a suit! If I have to wear a dress, you have to wear a suit." Kole called over her shoulder. Nico groaned as he got pushed away by a horde of Aphrodite boys.
Three hours later, they were standing on Half Blood Hill, backpacks slung over shoulders. Chiron came toward them with bags of ambrosia. "Take these, just in case. There's a possibility you'll run into monsters."
"That's the understatement of the year. Of course we'll run into monsters. Kole made sure she had her gun, bow, extra arrows, and sword. "That's the only reason I agreed to come."
"Anyway, good luck, and be careful." Chiron said.
"May the gods be ever in your favor." Kole said, grinning at her joke. Chiron didn't get it, but Nico smiled and gave her a fist bump.
"Hang on to me and brace yourself." Nico commanded, holding out his arm. Kole grabbed his arm, then saluted Chiron as they stepped into the shadow of Thalia's tree.
Shadow traveling was weird. Kole felt like she was being squished, tickled, and hosed down all at once. It was over fast, and they landed in a different forest after that. She let go of Nico's arm and looked around. It was a forest a lot like the one at camp; rocks everywhere, trees so tall you had to look straight up to see the top.
"Do you know where we are?" Kole glanced at Nico. He looked a little nauseous and dizzy. "You okay?"
"Wisconsin. Ever since-war-shadow travel-really hard-" Nico stumbled forward and almost collapsed, but Kole grabbed him.
"My turn to catch you now?" Kole grunted. Nico nodded, totally limp in her arms.
Kole dragged him over to a tree. "Gods, you're heavy." She leaned him against the trunk. "Why didn't you say something about that? That's why Chiron picked you."
"I can still do it, I just have to rest." Nico told her. Then he curled up and fell asleep.
Nico's POV
Nico understood why Kole was embarrassed about having to get caught now. Although, it had to be worse for him, because he was supposed to be a tough guy.
His dreams were weird. Bianca's spirit, telling him to move on. His friends, telling him that he was accepted now. And strange reliving of the past few days.
When he finally woke up, it was almost dark. Kole was up in a tree across the clearing, maybe forty feet in the air, looking around. She was leaning away from the tree, hanging over open air, hanging on with one hand. The cold wind whipped through her hair, tangling it, and the setting sun shone behind her. Nico just sat there, watching her for a moment. Kole glanced down and saw him, and started clambering down. Nico winced when a branch broke under her foot, but she caught herself easily and was down in a few minutes.
"The zombie lives!" Kole teased, stopping a few feet away from him. "So what's the plan?" she put a hand on her hip.
"Well we have a two days to get there, so I say we just walk until it's too dark to see, then make camp." Nico shrugged, pulling himself to his feet.
"Sounds like a plan." Kole shoved something into her pocket. "So do we like, have any idea whatsoever where we're going?"
"West?" Nico said.
"Oh that's just great."
They only ended up walking for twenty minutes before it was too dark. They could tell it was too dark because Kole tripped over a rock, ran into a tree, and tripped into Nico.
"How can you still see where you're going?!" she asked, hopping on one foot.
"Guess it's a Hades thing." Nico didn't really know. Kole slung off her backpack and pulled out a bedroll. She rolled it out right up next to a huge boulder, then started gathering armloads of wood. Nico just sat there awkwardly. Kole had obviously done this before, and he didn't really know what to do.
Kole started a fire and pulled out a huge bag of barbecue chips. She gestured for Nico to come closer to the fire and sit next to her. He grudgingly obliged. Kole tilted the bag of chips toward him, and he grabbed a handful.
"McDonalds is way better." Nico said through a mouthful.
"Eew!" Kole wrinkled her nose.
"Excuse me?! McDonalds is the best! I disown you!" Nico exclaimed.
"Disown me from what? That doesn't even make sense!"
"Neither does your face!"
"Wow. I'm not talking to you anymore." Kole stuck her nose in the air. "And you don't get any more of my chips." She moved the bag to her other side.
"Fine."
"Fine."
Five minutes later, Kole was crushing chips into Nico's hair while he tickled her. The whole time, he was wondering, why am I doing this? I don't like people! But it was drowned out by how much fun he was having.
Nico had to convince Kole to sleep and let him take first watch, but after she let out a huge yawn, she finally gave in.
She'd been asleep for barely an hour when she started whimpering in her sleep. Nico automatically moved to wake her up, because he knew firsthand what nightmares did to a person.
"Hey, hey wake up." He shook her shoulders gently. Kole's eyes flew open and she grabbed Nico's arms for support. "It's okay, it was just a dream, you're fine."
"Sorry." Kole let go of him, taking a deep breath.
"Try to go back to sleep, I can wake you up if it gets bad." Nico said. She nodded and curled up into a tiny ball. Nico sat beside her, watching over her for the rest of the night.
