To Kfromcabin6 - thanks, but you'll see about those two in time. By the way, your review made me cry. Happy tears.

Hope you like this impossibly short chapter... Enjoy!

Chapter 10

Nico

Nico found himself lying curled in a ball on the ground in the middle of the clearing.

His body ached and he was sure he was bruised in several places, and cut in many other spots, too.

He hadn't yet opened his eyes fully, so closed them again and breathed in deeply. His thought wandered to last night's events. He'd never felt so helpless in all his life. He could've summoned an army of skeleton warriors, or used the Scepter of Diocletion. He could've cracked the earth and let the hounds fall into Tartarus. He could have done so many things so differently, but he just couldn't muster enough strength to do anything. And now he felt his guilt and building up inside him. He couldn't afford to let the others know, but he should apologize nonetheless.

Opening his eyes again, wider this time, he blinked hard as his they accustomed to the bright light shining into them. Vaguely, he wondered what time it was.

Looking around, he saw Reyna, sitting cross-legged and tending a merrily crackling fire. On opposite sides of the fire, two sticks were embedded in the earth, and supported a third lying horizontally across the fire. Hanging from the stick was a small pot, although where it had come from, Nico had no idea.

Studying Reyna carefully, he saw dark bags under her eyes, which were heavy with exhaustion. She probably hadn't slept at all. Her lips were slightly parted and her face was scratched. Her one shoulder was bandaged, but Nico couldn't tell which - his senses had failed him and he couldn't tell which was left and which was right. The bandage wasn't doing much, though, and it was soaked with Crimson blood. That was why she was so pale. She might die of blood loss if it kept bleeding that heavily.

With that thought in mind, Nico stretched his arms and sat up. He slid his legs underneath him and stood up, but was quite unsteady at first.

Reyna looked up and smiled (almost drunkenly) at him. Then she looked back down and continued to watch the pot.

Nico staggered over to her, astounded at how weak he felt. He plopped down next to the girl and put his hands out to the fire, trying to imitate something thought would usually be done on a camping trip. He wouldn't have done it if it weren't for Reyna; he didn't like heat that much. Only as much as was needed to survive, but other than that, he had a thing for the cold.

"Cosy little fire you have here," he said to her in a singsong voice.

"You think so?" Reyna replied, her voice hoarse and so soft he barely heard her.

"Yeah. What you got there? And where'd you get the pot from?"

"Oh, it's just a little soup for us to eat. I got it from Coach's supplies. The pot, too. He seems to have nearly everything in his bags."

"Nearly everything?"

"Yeah, I even saw a bottle opener, a pair of reading glasses and a scrapbook. I wonder why he would need all that when we're on a life or death trip that decides the fate of the world. It's a bit strange, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Did you happen to find and nectar or ambrosia in there?"

"Yeah, there's plenty, it's right over there," Reyna replied, pointing at a pile of zip-seal packets on the other side of the fire.

Nico scooted over to the packets and opened one of them. Reaching his hand into the packet, he pulled out a squashed cube of ambrosia and started eating. It tasted like cookies his mom had baked all the time when he and Bianca were kids. Walnut cookies with a hint of sugar. He couldn't bare the taste as it reminded him too much of his childhood, his mother and his sister. They were all gone now, washed away in the incredible tide of events that had come out of nowhere. He quickly swallowed the rest of the ambrosia and felt a warm surge all over his body.

"Here, have some," he told Reyna, reaching his hand out to pass her the packet.

She shook her head. "I've already had way too much. I almost burned up, to be truthful."

Nico looked at her, his incredulity evident on his face. He didn't even try to hide it. "But-" he stammered, gaping wide eyed at her wound. "But it's still bleeding! And badly, too! Shouldn't it have at least lessened by now? You're going to die if doesn't stop bleeding."

Reyna took this very calmly. Almost too calmly. "I'm also going to die if I have any more ambrosia - or nectar, for that matter."

Nico couldn't believe this. How could she be so- how could her mind be so- peaceful? Even when she knew that she could die? Nico didn't know what it was, but he had a strong feeling about this strange Roman. There was something about her that just struck him as familiar. And he wanted to protect her. Keep her safe so he could learn what it was.

He looked her straight in the eyes and said, very seriously, "Reyna, you are not going to die! You aren't, okay? Do you hear me? I swear to all the gods that I will not let you die. I swear on the river Styx I won't let you die. So you're going to stop with all this about you dying, and focus on actually not dying. Because, whether you like it or not, I actually need you right now. I'm only 14. I've lost so many people, had to endure so many disappointments, more than a lot of people. I don't think I'd be able to deal with losing another person who I quite like and respect, too. I really don't. I'd pretty much be alone, again, fighting for my life and for those of others, but I'd feel so useless, so terrible - even more so than I already do - because I wasn't able to help any of the people I could actually count as friends. Please, Reyna, please, don't say things like that. I know you didn't see it before, but that's because I didn't want you to. I didn't want anyone to see that I was breaking. I had to look okay for everyone. I had to seem like the same, strong, down-to-earth person that I was thought to be before. So now that you know, and now that I've given my life to keeping you alive, don't agitate me like that because the results won't -and will never be- pretty. Just please, don't ever do that again. Never again."

Nico then broke his eye contact with Reyna, turned around, and sprinted into the nearby trees, wanting to lose himself in the endless trunks and branches.

Just as he reached the edge of the forest, he whirled around, and saw Reyna staring at him, her eyes no longer blank, hiding emotion, but filled with something else. Was it compassion? Pain, maybe? Nico didn't have long enough to say for sure. He spun around again and dashed off into the forest.

As he crashed through the forest, giving himself more cuts and bruises, he pondered what had just happened. He had never -never- done anything remotely like that before. It was frightening to see how much his feelings had actually built up inside him. When they were released in that brief moment of panic, only a tiny bit of them had been released. And Nico knew this because h could still fell them churning inside him, trying to break him, struggling to get through the barrier that he had erected.

Nico let out a strangled cry, unable to hold it in. He bit his lip to stop himself opening his mouth to let out the horrid sounds of despair and hatred. He bit it so hard he heard a faint crunch, and started to taste blood. He ignored it and kept his teeth firmly clamped on his bottom lip.

Just a little bit further, he thought to himself. Then I'll stop.

So he went on a little bit further, and with each step he found that he was weighed down even more than the last. When at last he came to a little clearing, about 3 meters in diameter, he dropped to his knees and slumped forward, banging his head on the ground. He rolled onto his back and lay, convulsing. His jerky movements pained him, but it was the only thing holding back the torrent of emotions.

No, he thought, this can't be it. This can't be me breaking. I can't afford to break now. I've given my life to her. He couldn't bear to even think of her name. But he had to protect her. How could he do that if he was scared of himself?

All of a sudden, he felt like he was choking, being strangled, and he couldn't breathe properly. He tried to suck in air, but he couldn't; his throat was blocked. In desperation he tore off his shirt, flinging it away from him, as if it was the one that had been strangling him. But the choking continued.

Nico dug his fingers into the skin at his throat. It hurt, but it seemed to be stopping his being unable to breathe. He clawed at his skin, which was now slick with sweat caused by the exertion of struggling with his emotions and now not being able to respirate.

His eyes burned, and slowly, inevitably, a tear rolled down his cheek. It was hot, and it brunt it's way through the thin layer of perspiration on his face, and it dropped into his open mouth. It tasted salty, and the sensation made him cringe. He had never tasted his tears before. And he sure as Hades didn't like it. He didn't like suffocating to death, either.

But, gradually, his throat began to unclog, his respiratory system starting to work once again.

When he could finally breathe properly, he lay, stiffly, on his back, staring up at the unrelenting sun. It's rays beat down on him, making his skin hot and sticky. He still had one hand on his neck, gently massaging it, trying to rid himself of the sickening feeling. He was going to rub his skin raw if he kept at it, but he couldn't stop thinking about that degrading feeling of nearly dying. Yes, he might know tons about death, but in actual fact, he didn't know enough to know what death actually felt like. And he didn't want to know either.

"Nico," he heard his name spoken softly by a girl he couldn't see. It wasn't Reyna -he shuddered at her name- it was a younger girl, with a more motherly voice. One he was all too familiar with.

"Bi- Bianca?" he asked haltingly.

"Yes, it's me, Nico. You've grown. You really have."

Nico gasped in astonishment and disbelief. "I thought you'd been born again, into a new life! How come you're here?" Nico's voice was filled with anguish. He had looked for his dead sister everywhere, but hadn't found her. He'd been told she'd chosen to be reborn. This wasn't right.

"I did want to. But..." Bianca di Angelo's voice trailed off.

"But what?" Nico asked softly, gently. He couldn't bear his sister sounding so forlorn.

"I- well, it's just that- Nico, it's never happened before, I don't know why it happened with me, but it just did!"

"What happened, Bianca?"

"The body I was supposed to be transferred to rejected my spirit." Bianca said it so quietly a Nico had to strain to hear her.

"What do you mean by 'rejected'?"

"It wouldn't accept my spirit. The baby was dead when it was born because it had no spirit. And the funny thing is, I actually saw it. I saw the mother -the woman who was going to be my mother- holding the baby, sobbing, calling out her name. 'Lydia! Lydia, my baby! No... Lydia, darling, wake up!' It's still ringing in my head. The baby should have still lived, even without a spirit. But it couldn't. So I watched my future body lying, cold and still, being cradled by my future mother, after the doctors couldn't get it to breathe. I haven't known what to do with myself ever since then. So when I felt your spirit being pulled towards Elysium, I came to you. I can't let you die. Not now, after all you've been through to survive, all the friends you've made. You don't deserve to die..." Bianca's voice trailed off into the silence.

Nico had been staring at her ghostly apparition dazedly while she had been speaking. Now he sat, still staring, with the silence so intense that it was pressing down on his eardrums.

"But, Bianca... How?"

"I don't know, little brother. All I know is I'm back to being a ghost. And I'm not going to try for another life. Ever again."

Nico tried to lighten the mood, "Hey, technically, my physical age is older than you, so I'm the-"

"Yeah, well, you keep dreaming! I'll always be your big sister, no matter how old you are."

Nico smiled then, a sad smile, filled with longing, but it was a smile nonetheless.

Impossibly short, isn't it? Well, I didn't have much inspiration, but the next chapter will come in 2 or 3 days. Hope you enjoyed, and please review!