Nico opened his eyes to good news and bad news.
The good news that he wasn't back on Nightmare Knoll. He wasn't breathing in the blood-tinged air, feeling its complete stillness; he wasn't deafened by the heavy silence. He wasn't reminded of his past encounters there, of his dying friends, of the fight with Moros.
The bad news was that his surroundings were pitch-black, much like the recurring dream he'd had when all of this had started.
There was something different about it this time, though. He felt as if he were standing on solid ground, and the shadows weren't reacting to him, weren't dragging him into their depths. He could move freely, see his own form clearly, even walk - not that he could tell if he was actually going anywhere or not.
Also, this time he wasn't alone.
"Nico?" Lou Ellen's voice sounded out. "What the hell happened?"
He turned around, in the direction the voice had come from, and there she was, plain as day and looking very confused. "Weren't we just…?"
"Yeah," Nico finished for her. "We were in the Holiday Inn, with Hypnos and Endymion. The last thing I remember is sitting on the bed, but I guess I fell asleep..."
"I must have, too," she replied, scratching her head. "I mean, it's not surprising because Hypnos, but- are we having the same dream right now?"
Nico groaned and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I don't know. Maybe I'm dreaming that you're here, or- I really don't know."
He hoped not. Considering his track record with dreams as of late, the last thing he wanted was someone else listening in on him. There were too many terrifying notions, too many private thoughts. Too many secrets.
Maybe, if he were lucky, Clovis would float by and reassure him that yes, this was just a regular ol' run-of-the-mill dream, and that there definitely weren't any other demigods or godly presences sitting here watching his deepest fears play out in full high-definition 1080p or whatever they were calling televisions these days.
I wouldn't rule out godly presences, boy, a familiar voice sounded from within Nico's mind, in response to his thoughts.
"Oh no," he choked out, burying his face in his hands, "this is so not happening right now."
"What isn't happening?" Lou Ellen asked, moving closer to him. "What was that voice?"
Great, she had heard it, too. What was next? A god was going to show up and inform them that this new dream of Nico's was being broadcast all over Olympus TV, waiting for him to make a fool out of himself?
As much as Aeolus would love the ratings, you've been given a reprieve in that regard.
"Wow," Nico replied with another groan, "that's so kind of you!" Tugging at his hair again, he stomped forward and spread his arms wide, as if addressing the abyss in front of him. "Alright! Okay, let's get this over with! Tell me which child of Nyx is going to come out and inform me of our impending doom this time!"
"Uh, Nico?"
He didn't even hear Lou Ellen, didn't even feel her tap him on the shoulder. His rant had progressed enough to where he'd slipped into Italian without even realizing it. "Listen, okay, I get it. I've seen the pattern now. I fall asleep, I dream, some weird shit happens, the next thing I know is I've got a daimon on my ass that's either trying to kill me or tell me about how the universe is going to end, or maybe even both!"
Lou Ellen clasped a hand on his shoulder and gave him a strong shake. "Nico- is that Italian, what the heck- dude, look."
Once he snapped out of his tirade, Nico shrugged her hand off and looked to where she was pointing. He could make out a tall figure in a long, dark hooded cloak making its way toward them, their image flickering and shimmering as if it were a mirage. The figure, if not for the glittering stars and galaxies swirling through their cloak, would've been completely hidden within their pitch-black surroundings.
As it drew closer, the figure reached up to pull its hood back, and Nico immediately realized who stood before them.
"Morpheus," he addressed, more as a statement than a question.
You have a strong memory, son of Hades. The god's voice continued to resonate around them, as if it were coming from the blackness itself.
Nico took a defensive stance, giving Lou Ellen a slight push backwards. "Let me guess. You've been trying to contact me through my dreams, and since I've had nothing but shitty awfulnightmares lately, you've decided to suck it up and come to me in person."
Morpheus shrugged lazily, his face nothing but a blur that seemed to keep changing like a shifting dreamscape. Not in as many words, but yes, you are correct. Blame my fellow Oneiroi, Ikelos and Phantasos, for the nightmares. We are merely trying to warn you, but those two… tend to get carried away.
"Warn us about what?" Nico countered, narrowing his eyes. "I've had my fill of end-of-the-world scenarios already, thanks."
The god of dreams turned around and brought up a pale hand, motioning for the two demigods to follow him. Nico and Lou Ellen exchanged a glance before shrugging and trailing after him.
They walked for what felt like days. No matter how far they seemed to move through this endless black abyss, nothing ever changed. Nico wasn't even sure that they were even goinganywhere. Though he had to admit that he definitely preferred the all-encompassing darkness to, say, the pulsing veins and other assorted horrors from his usual dreams.
Lou Ellen broke the silence. "Um, Morpheus, sir," she started politely, "I heard you sided with Kronos during the second Titan War. Shouldn't you be like… trying to fight us?"
If the daughter of Hecate were anyone else, Nico would've elbowed her for that one. "Don't give him ideas," he whispered bitterly.
Morpheus paused, turning to peer at them over his shoulder as if he were actively considering it. But, to their relief, he simply faced forward and kept walking. Even the gods make mistakes sometimes, he replied in a monotone voice.
"Finally, one of you admits it," Nico grumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets.
Before long, a flash of light loomed on the horizon (wherever it happened to be in this place). As they drew closer, Nico could tell that the light was coming from behind what looked like a door, of all things; Morpheus confirmed his suspicions soon enough when he reached forward and pushed it open, light flooding into the abyss.
They were suddenly back in the hotel room, watching themselves sleep alongside Hypnos and-
"They're gone, they're all gone," a mournful voice sounded throughout the room. Nico looked down to see Endymion with tears streaking down his handsome face, staring up at the ceiling with eyes completely devoid of anything - except for a very particular kind of sorrow, one that Nico understood all too well.
"You sent me that last dream," he whispered in realization. "Didn't you, Morpheus. It was Endymion crying out, and you're the one who told me to come to him."
The god regarded Nico with a short nod. In his dreams, Endymion endlessly weeps for his beloved, the titan-goddess Selene, as well as their fifty lost daughters. They have all faded from the minds of mankind, and Endymion can do nothing but sleep and silently mourn.
"He's the same as Tithonus and Memnon," Lou Ellen muttered, nudging Nico with her elbow. "Mortals who became immortal because of the will of a goddess…"
"Looks like it's a habit that runs in the family," Nico observed with a nod of his own. "Tithonus suffers the long-term effects of carelessly granted immortality in a physical way. But for Endymion, it's more mental…"
Unsurprisingly, he felt like he could sympathize with the eternal sleeper. Having lost a loved one just as Endymion had, Nico had long since come to terms with the fact that there was no end in sight to the pain and suffering that came along with it. Bianca had faded from his life just as Selene had from Endymion's, and there was nothing that could ever bring her back, not as he remembered her.
But then, it dawned on him: bring them back, Endymion had repeated in his dream. Bring back Selene, goddess of the moon, who was the sister of Helios, god of the sun - this was the "favor" Endymion had wanted to ask of him. They were already well into their quest to resurrect Helios and bring him back into the memories of all, so why not do the same for Selene, while they were at it?
From the corner of his eye, Nico could see a small portion of Morpheus' ever-shifting face settle into a smirk. Clever boy, Morpheus observed, you may just save us all yet.
"Right, okay," Nico murmured, focusing on Endymion. "We awaken Helios, we awaken Selene. We're already on our way to Eos. This… this might actually be doable."
Lou Ellen turned to him, brows knitting in confusion. "Huh? What's that all about?"
Nico ignored her in favor of turning to the god of dreams. "Thanks for your help." He wasn't expecting a response, but something important occurred to him before any reply came, anyway. "Wait a second. Gods aren't supposed to directly help demigods during their quests."
Exceptions must be made sometimes, Morpheus replied, because when faced with the threat of Chaos, even the gods themselves get desperate.
"Fair enough, but you're a son of Nyx. You're not taking her side on this?"
My siblings are all a bit divided in the matter. Some wish to aid our mother in her plans, such as Dolos, Apate, and the Keres. But there are just as many of us who do not wish to be consumed by the Void, like myself and Moros.
"Wait, wait, hold on a second," Lou Ellen interrupted, making a time-out gesture with her hands. "What is he talking about, Nico? What have you been keeping from us?"
Mentally cursing himself, Nico briefly turned to glance at her. "I'll explain everything later," he replied softly in an attempt to placate her, then turned back to Morpheus. "You can't be serious. All Moros could talk about was fate and destiny and Chaos consuming everything. Don't tell me he was actually trying to help!"
You'd be surprised, Nico di Angelo. Truthfully, he is a bit of a wildcard. The dream god lifted a hand, pointing at Nico's right shoulder. But know that he did not stab you entirely out of malice. Remember his words.
Nico could hear Lou Ellen demanding answers, but her voice sounded distant as he remembered the fight with Moros atop Nightmare Knoll. He recalled how the daimon's black blade protruded from his shoulder, how the inky shadows had dripped from the wound like blood.
He recalled what Moros had said to him while he grit his teeth through the pain.
The deeper the pain, the closer the fate.
He clutched at his shoulder as it began to throb with the same jabbing pain that he felt when the invisible wound was first inflicted on him. Nico bit back a hiss as he felt himself topple forward into the bed where their real-world selves still slumbered, burying his face in the soft, shimmering sheets.
Somewhere between his agonized gasps and Lou Ellen's frantic cries of concern, the meaning of Moros' words became painstakingly clear to him.
They had been given a deadline, and Nico's shoulder was the timer.
The more pain he felt, the closer they were to Chaos emerging.
Shit.
Nico's entire body shook as he struggled to tough out the aching throb. There were two conclusions he could draw from this, if it already hurt this much: a) they were in more immediate danger than he'd thought, or b) the pain was only going to get worse and worse as time went on.
Neither option was really in his favor.
To his relief, it finally faded just as quickly as it came, much like the time he'd felt it while they were still in Texas. With a shuddering sigh, Nico pushed himself into a sitting position, drawing heavy, ragged breaths.
Lou Ellen crouched down in front of him, a worried look on her face. "Nico, are you okay? What just happened…?"
"My shoulder," he heard himself say, "I… it-"
Before he could explain any further, he was interrupted by Endymion suddenly springing up from where he lay, eyes blazing with the purest white light. Nico and Lou Ellen cautiously watched as streaks of gold spiraled their way up through Endymion's glossy black ringlets.
They glanced at each other, knowing what was about to happen.
The full moon fades, her dying light
Relinquished to the Eternal Night
The light abruptly faded, and Endymion dropped back down onto the bed, his head falling back in Hypnos' lap. Eos had spoken again, this time through her sister's lover.
Finally, Morpheus muttered tiredly. I was beginning to think that she was never going to speak up.
"You knew this was going to happen?" Nico asked incredulously, staring up at the god.
I told you that Endymion had a message for you, did I not?
Nico groaned and buried his face in his hands.
Morpheus let out a short chuckle. In any case, I should be sending you back now. Your friends may be in trouble.
"Great, just what we need," Nico grumbled, turning to Lou Ellen. "We should just go back to Texas. It was safe there."
"I'll say. We at least had some time to relax. It was nice."
Their tongue-in-cheek conversation was cut off when Morpheus nudged them both, directing them to intersect with their sleeping selves.
"This is weird," Lou Ellen said as she watched her two bodies join together.
"No kidding," Nico replied. He paused, sticking halfway out of his physical body, and pointed at Morpheus. "Tell your other Oneiroi to cool it with the nightmares. I'm getting pretty sick of them."
A smirk solidified on the dream god's face. I can't make any promises.
Nico stifled a yawn as he and Lou Ellen exited the hotel.
Waking up from the dream had been… weird. For one thing, it had literally happened in the blink of an eye - they had settled themselves down with their dreamselves and the second that Nico had blinked, Morpheus was gone and he'd felt a lot more corporeal.
He'd taken a moment to just stare at Lou Ellen, as if silently asking her if that was a thing that had actually happened. She'd shrugged in response, and then the two had made their way back toward the elevator as quickly as possible in order to give the slumbering Hypnos and Endymion some privacy.
They now stood outside, taking some time to regain their bearings - and, in Nico's case, process the information they'd been given.
He didn't even know what to mull over first: the two lines of prophecy that Endymion had spouted in Eos' voice, the realization that they now had two fallen titan-gods that needed to be awakened, the thought that his own body was being used as a countdown to doomsday…
"Nico?" Lou Ellen suddenly spoke up. "You are going to explain everything, right? Like, where you found time to meet Moros and apparently get stabbed in the shoulder?"
Nico heaved a sigh and leaned against the building. "Yeah, yeah, I will when we get back on the road. When we're all in one place."
She watched him with a look of intense concern on her face. She opened her mouth to speak again, but before she could, the air above the city suddenly exploded into light, golden beams cutting through the night sky like search lamps.
"Shit. That's got to be Will," Nico hissed, reaching for Lou Ellen's wrist again. "Come on!"
As they'd done before when running from who they'd initially thought was Thanatos, Lou Ellen shrouded them in Mist while Nico made short shadow leaps from block to block. Though this time, Nico felt that he couldn't make them in such rapid succession as he'd been able to before.
His shoulder was hurting again: a dull throb that pulsated in time with his heartbeat. He could feel his chest constrict under the pressure, and he took in long, hoarse breaths as his sprint slowed to a stop.
Nico leaned against a brick wall as he tried to block out the ringing in his ears. He could feel his entire body palpitating - a feeling he was intimately familiar with, and one he had hoped to never feel again.
Become the shadows.
You are one of us, son of Hades.
Come to us.
Give in.
No. No, no, no, no.
His vision swam as he squeezed his eyes shut, desperately trying to put the voices of the lost souls out of his mind. No. Go away. I refused to submit to the lot of you during the war, and I still refuse now! I control the shadows, not-
Nico felt a pair of hands push him against the wall, followed by something cool and metallic pressing into his mouth. He very nearly reached for his sword to run it through his assailant, but he stopped himself when the taste of sweet, creamy cannoli filling registered in his mind. Nectar.
Instantly, the fog over his mind began to lift, and his pulse began to slow to normal. The pain in his shoulder faded, and he opened his eyes to see Lou Ellen lowering the canteen from his mouth.
"Gods, di Angelo, you flickered on me. Does Will know you're still doing this?" she asked, letting go of him to put the canteen away.
Nico wiped his mouth on the sleeve of his hoodie. "No, and I plan on keeping it that way. Now come on." He gripped her arm again, fully intending on hopping back into the shadows; however, he felt everything swirl around him with the very first step.
Lou Ellen pulled him back upright, tugging his arm around her shoulders to support him. "Whoa there, Zombie Boy, you sure you know which way is up?"
"I'm fine," he growled as he tried to shrug his way off of her. "Let's just go. Will needs help."
She raised an eyebrow at him as he continued to tug himself away. "Okay, yeah, I know. Calm your thirst, dude."
Nico looked up at her in confusion - what did that have to do with anything, really - just as a flash of silver above them caught his eye. "Hey. Is that…?"
Sure enough, the two of them could make out Mena's glowing form running along the rooftops of the buildings across the street from them, effortlessly jumping from one surface to another, tucking herself into rolls, bouncing between walls.
Nico's eyes followed her until she disappeared around a corner. He finally freed himself from Lou Ellen's grip, only to have her heave him over her shoulders again. "What the hell!"
"You can barely walk without falling on your face, and you're definitely not doing anymore shadow traveling - Will would throttle me if he knew I'd let you do it this much. So, I'm carrying you. Get on my back."
"Uh, no way. I'm not letting anyone carry me when I'm perfectly capable of running myself."
Lou Ellen pursed her lips. With an unexpected amount of strength, she managed to haul Nico up onto her back piggyback-style, and he had no choice but to wrap his legs around her hips to ensure that he wouldn't fall off, as she was a good few inches taller than him.
"Okay, okay, you made your point," he commented, holding onto her shoulders. "But I don't have to like it."
He could hear her snort as she started jogging down the sidewalk. "Everybody likes piggyback rides, di Angelo, don't deny it. What the heck do you weigh, anyway? A hundred pounds soaking wet?"
"I don't know, probably."
Twenty minutes of running and a twisted ankle later, they rounded a corner, only to face an empty lot that was absolutely packed with empousai.
"Really? Really?" Lou Ellen groaned as she set Nico back onto his feet. He took a moment to scan the area; there didn't seem to be any sign of Will or Cecil - or Mena, for that matter - and the empousai looked like they were getting restless.
Nico brandished his sword, speaking in a hurried whisper. "Go see if you can find the others. I'll take care of the monsters."
"Are you kidding? There's gotta be at least twenty of them!"
"Just go! I can deal with a few bloodthirsty vampire girls!"
He watched Lou Ellen as she ducked into a nearby alleyway, then stepped into the lot, idly twirling his sword around.
"Hello, ladies, I don't suppose you've seen a tall, dorky blond around here, have you?" Nico raised his free arm, slicing through the air with a flat hand. "About this high, blue eyes, can't aim an arrow to save his life?"
The empousai quietly watched him as he spoke, sneers slowly breaking out onto their faces in a contagion. "Well, well, what is this?" one of them purred, stepping toward him. "Another lonely, lost little boy, walking straight into our den? You know, I believe we have seen your friend, why don't you come a little closer and we'll tell you where he is?"
Nico could feel her charmspeak attempting to probe into his mind. "I'd rather keep my distance, if it makes any difference to you," he replied, easily shrugging off the spell. "I don't feel like getting bitten tonight."
"Ah, but you want to know about your friend, don't you?" Another one crooned, suddenly sidling herself up to him. "He was rather handsome, wasn't he, girls?"
A chorus of voices followed. "Oh, yes. I could've eaten him all up."
"He was awfully rude, shoving that light into our faces!"
"I got a taste of his friend! But he got away, those crafty Hermes children."
Nico clenched his teeth. "Uh huh. So I'm assuming they ran off when that big, shiny light happened, right? Hypothetically, if you were in that situation, where would you guys have gone?"
"Oh, um, probably into the alley-"
"Tell you what, why don't we forget about your friend and focus on you?" the first empousa cut in, hovering near Nico's other side. "It's not often that we come across such an adorableson of Hades," she trilled, "why don't we get to know each other?"
She leaned in toward Nico's neck, baring her fangs.
A second later, she and the other empousa that had approached him were crumbling into dust.
"I'm not interested in girls," Nico replied flatly, pointing his sword at the rest of the group. "Sorry for your bad luck."
The remaining empousai shrieked and flew at him in rage.
He felt his lips curl into a smirk. "Twenty against one? I like those odds."
Nico leapt into the fray, his Stygian iron blade cutting through vampiric flesh like butter. He dodged flaming hair and sharp claws, left celestial bronze peglegs colliding with the concrete below, absorbed the monsters' very essences into his sword. Empousai dropped like flies around him.
His winning streak didn't last for long.
He'd thinned out the herd by about half when he tripped on an abandoned pegleg and fell to the ground, his sword clattering down several feet away.
With the wind knocked out of his lungs, he barely had it in him to scream as the empousai pounced upon him.
Or, they would have, were it not for the thin rays of golden light suddenly cutting through them.
The empousai screeched at the top of their lungs as they backed away from him, clutching at their burning wounds.
Nico scrambled to his feet while the monsters were distracted, hastily retrieving his sword. He made a mad dash for the alleyway that Lou Ellen had disappeared into, very nearly barrelling someone over in the process.
That someone gripped his shoulders with warm hands, holding him stable as he reeled from the sudden dizziness. "Hey, Neeks. Where's the fire?"
Nico looked up and was met with blue eyes.
He could've hugged Will right then and there.
Instead, he shook his head and brushed his bangs out of his face. "On the empousais' heads," he breathed, lips cracking a small grin at his joke. "What the- was that light you, Solace?"
Will looked like he was scrutinizing every inch of him. "Yeah. Light arrows. I ran out of regular ones, but then I found I could just make them with my light powers," he replied, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Nico felt his cheeks warm up under his gaze, and he shrugged Will's hands off his shoulders.
"Anyway, Cecil got bit, so Lou's taking care of him," the son of Apollo continued. "Have you seen Mena anywhere?"
"We saw her," Nico confirmed, bracing himself against a wall. "No clue where she is, though. It looked like she was headed this way."
"Damn. Looks like we'll have to-"
A choir of enraged shrieking filled the air, and the two boys were painfully reminded that they had company.
Nico turned to face the empousai, keeping in front of Will as he lifted his sword again.
"How dare you!" the lead empousa wailed, one of her eye sockets steaming from where she'd been pierced by the light. "You're going to pay for that, blondie!"
The monsters slowly advanced on them, and Nico backed up until he was pressed to Will's chest. They were completely cornered.
The son of Hades gripped his sword with shaking hands, sweat running down his face. He was so tired. Between being put to sleep by Hypnos (or maybe it was Morpheus? He couldn't tell), using his shadow powers, and the amount of running he'd done to even get this far in Albuquerque, a nap sounded really good.
He felt Will grip his shoulders again, the taller boy's hands even warmer than they'd been before.
All thoughts of sleep left his mind as wide shafts of soft silver light suddenly fell from the sky, surrounding each empousa; the light dissipated as each and every one of them dropped to the ground, completely out.
Nico heard what sounded like someone clambering down a drainpipe, and before he could make any sense of what had just happened, Mena stood before them, silver bow in hand.
"You looked like you could use a little backup," she addressed them, seemingly unharmed.
Nico rolled his eyes and opened his mouth to reply when Lou Ellen, Cecil on her back the same way she'd carried Nico before, emerged from the alleyway.
"We all good? Empousai down? Let's get out of here before they wake up," she panted, her chest heaving with every breath.
In lieu of spitting out the comeback on the tip of his tongue, Nico simply nodded and summoned Jules-Albert. The chauffeur was quick to pull up next to them, and the group piled into the limo as fast as they could.
Once Jules-Albert had received word of their destination, he sped off down the road, leaving the five teenagers inside to catch their breath.
"Ugh, that was the worst," Cecil complained, patting the bandage on his neck. "You could say it… sucked."
Lou Ellen smacked him upside the head.
"So, what's the news?" Will asked, stretching his arms out along the back of his seat. "Did we find what we were looking for?"
"We found Endymion," Nico replied, laying face-down in the elongated seat near the front of the car. "And some other shit happened."
"Gee, thanks for all the details, Death Boy."
"Shut your face. I'm exhausted."
"Speaking of details," Lou Ellen chirped, "I believe di Angelo has a lot of explaining to do. Don't you, Nico?"
He loudly groaned into the plush cushion below him.
A/N: Holy shit you guys I am SO SORRY this took so long to get out. I've not been in the best mental state in the past month, but I'm better now. Life kind of happened, etc.
It seems like every time I write a new chapter I say that it was going to be longer. This time is no exception, as I had to cut my original plans for it in half because my narrative got away from me again and before I knew it I was at 4500 words OTL Also, depending on who you ask, Morpheus (and, by extension, the other Oneiroi) is stated as either a child of Hypnos or a child of Nyx. I went with the latter for obvious reasons.
So yeah, enjoy. I promise it won't take a month for the next chapter to come out.
(By the way, was anyone at A-Kon in Dallas last weekend? Because I cosplayed Nico on the Saturday and had a blast. :D)
