VII
NICO
"NO! NO!" Nico shouted, pulling himself out of the bunk. Leo Valdez? Could Hades be joking? Could Nico be imagining all that? No, the dream had felt too real. "I need to get back!" he shouted again. He ran across the cabin, looking for his sleeping pills. The bottle was empty.
He could go to the camp dispensary, but it was late at night. The harpies would eat him alive. 'NOOOOO!' he shouted internally. He looked up and saw the stone wall. He grimaced. But, desperate time, desperate measures...
Nico entered his dream again, Hades helping him up off the floor. His hands felt almost tender, a genuine look of concern over his generally passive face. "My, I must say, you are a strange boy." he said, a hint of mirth in his voice. Nico groaned and put his hand to his head, wincing at the angry lump that was forming on his head.
"I kinda regret it now." he groaned. "Running straight into a wall just to go to sleep? Is your head okay?" Hades asked. Nico nodded, remembering how hard the wall had felt when he had run into it. At least he knew he wasn't turning into shadow anymore.
They both turned back to the scene. "As I was saying, Nico," Hades continued. "Your friend, Valdez. I looked out especially for him at the gates of my domain. He was not there."
Nico's head reeled again, but he kept himself from falling and waking up. "You mean he's- he's..."
"Alive?" Hades suggested. "Very much so. But he's in danger. A lot of danger." Nico started thinking. Why had his father brought him here, of all places; if they were talking about Leo? What did Gaius have to do with this? The Celestial Bronze? The 'chips'?
It hit Nico just as hard as the stone wall had hit him. "Gaius is going to attack Leo. With those Celestial Bronze chips." he said, finally. Hades nodded, "Yes." "But, how could he know Leo would survive? Even I didn't know till 5 minutes ago." Nico exclaimed.
"Hecate, his mother, is the goddess of crossroads. His father's intellect enhanced this power and he is now able to predict the most likely outcome. My guess is that Gaius knew Leo would choose this path, and so had planned this from before." Hades finished gravely.
"But how do you know they're targeting Leo?" Nico asked, grasping at straws. Hades pointed to a table. Nico walked over to it and saw a picture of a scrawny Latino teen with curly black hair staring out at him. Leo. On the top corner of the picture, a note was scribbled. "6th August. 13:00." Beneath that, co-ordinates were written. Nico looked at the mounted wall-clock on his right. It read 1:07. "But, but. That's today!" Nico shouted. Hades nodded gravely behind him.
Nico whirled around. "How do I wake up?" he asked his father. "You can return to the world right after I give you this information." Hades replied. "One of the seven will die, and I'm not sure I'll be able to stop it."
