A/N - This chapter was difficult to write, but I did it anyway! I hope you like it.
Twelve: Fish, Hope, Laughter and Dreams
"Nico… Nico…" mumbled Percy. He rolled over, still asleep. "…Nico…"
Hazel was sitting on a hammock across from Percy's. She watched him roll back over onto his other side. He seemed unable to find a comfortable position, as he had been changing position so much that he'd almost fallen out of his hammock several times.
"I know, little brother, I know," whispered another girl's voice. Hazel turned around and saw Reid standing there with a stuffed clownfish in her hand.
"Reid?" Hazel whispered. "Did you stow away or something?" Reid chuckled and shook her head. "Then how'd you get here? We're in the air right now, aren't we?"
"Yes we are, Hazel," replied Reid. "I'm just here because Percy hasn't had this in months," she showed Hazel the clownfish, "and he probably needs it right about now."
"What?"
"He sleeps with it every night at home. It's comforting for him," Reid explained. "And with Nico missing…"
"Right," Hazel said. Percy told us about his relationship with Nico while we were on the quest, she remembered. "That must be hard on him."
Reid sighed. "You don't know the half of it, Hazel." She walked over to Percy's hammock and tucked the stuffed fish under his arm. She whispered, "Nemo's here, little brother. And Nico will be soon."
The still-sleeping teenager squished his teddy-fish and smiled a little bit.
"Nemo?" Hazel repeated.
"It's a clownfish. Like the movie?" Reid said. "Wait … you probably haven't seen it, never mind." She smiled. "There's this movie called Finding Nemo – it's about these fish, and one gets fishnapped by divers (that's Nemo) and his dad goes on this big adventure to find him. It's one of Percy's favourites. I'm rather fond of it, too, and Nico just thinks it's cute how excited Percy gets when we watch it."
Hazel smiled. Reid played with the zipper of her black leather jacket. Hazel quietly said, "I think I'm going to go to sleep now, Reid."
"Good-bye, Hazel," replied Reid. Then she picked up a lone gemstone off of the ground. "Be careful with these, Hazel, dear. Although I see you're getting better about them."
"What?" Hazel asked as Reid tossed the gem to her.
Reid didn't respond. She adjusted the zipper on her black leather jacket and just… vanished.
It was dark and cold. Now, Nico was used to darkness and the chill that often accompanied it, but here he could see absolutely nothing, and the coldness penetrated Nico's jacket. He knew the others were looking for him. But he doubted that they could find him in this freezing, dark prison. Even though there was no light, Gaea's power prevented him from shadow travelling.
Gaea had whispered to him a couple of times.
They won't succeed. They'll never find you. They will all die before they even start to look for you. You will die here.
"I won't," Nico muttered. "I'll escape. Addi and Percy will find me. We'll survive. We'll win." He kept repeating it to himself. "We'll survive. We'll win. I'll get out." Every time he said it, though, he found himself feeling less and less confident that it was true. How long had he been here? Hours? Days? He didn't know anymore. He knew Percy and Addi wouldn't give up on him. But it was hard to imagine that they'd ever be successful, even if they did manage to defeat Gaea and the giants.
No, he thought, don't think that way, Nico. Percy saved Olympus. Adria is a goddess. They can do this. They can save you. He couldn't lose hope. They would find him. He'd escape. They would win.
Carter's first thought when the frazzled-looking black haired teenage girl appeared in his room was déjà vu. Before he had time for a second thought, however, she had run to him and thrown her arms around him. "Addi, is something wrong?" he asked.
She released him. "I'm sorry for just showing up like this, Carter, but I need your help," she replied.
"Sit down," Carter said, gesturing to the chair near the bed. She did as he suggested and he sat down on the bed. "Now, what can I do to help?"
"I know you and Sadie are busy with teaching your little trainees, but if you can, I need help looking for Nico," Addi said hesitantly. "I hate to ask, but the best from both camps – and really the only people who know him well enough to help me find him – are on this big save-the-world quest."
"Of course we will," replied Carter almost instantly.
Addi's eyes filled with tears, but instead of crying, she smiled and sighed with relief. "Thank the gods. All of 'em. Greek, Egyptian, Norse – even Apollo!"
"Norse?"
"Damn."
"Am I to assume they're real too?"
"Forget I said it, Carter. Just forget it."
"Are you friends with them?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"Louis would get a kick out of this, I wish I could tell him."
"Well, you can't."
"So you're admitting there's something to tell!"
"That is not what I said."
"Hey, I could be commenting on the Apollo thing…"
"No you could not! You'd be having your heart weighed and talking to your daddy before you even got the words out."
"You wouldn't kill me."
"Oh just you watch me, Carter Kane."
"So has Apollo violated that restraining order recently?"
And with that, he got her laughing. Carter had barely seen her smile since December. But now her black eyes sparkled with laughter and she had a genuine grin on her face. Then there was a soft knocking on the door. Before Carter could say anything, the door opened and Sadie burst into the room followed by Jaz and Walt.
"What's going on in here?" she said loudly. Then she spotted Addi. "Oh, hi Ads."
"How did you get in?" asked Jaz.
"Who are you?" asked Walt at the same time.
"Addi di Angelo, I climbed through the window," Addi replied, holding out her hand to Walt. "I don't think we've met, Walt. Although I'm fairly certain you've heard of me."
"Through the window," repeated Sadie. Addi smiled at her.
"Would you expect me to have just waltzed through the door? The last time I did that, I was distraught. No, climbing in through Carter's window to ask a favour and laugh a bit with a good friend is certainly the way to go," Addi said.
"You guys can go back downstairs," Sadie told Jaz and Walt. They did as they were told, and as soon as the door clicked shut, Sadie sat down next to Addi. "So, what was the favour?"
"I need help looking for Nico," answered Addi.
"He said we'll help you, of course," Sadie said.
"Naturally," replied Carter.
Addi threw her arms around the Kanes. "Thank you. Thank you so much."
Demigod dreams suck, Percy thought. He looked around the dark cave that his dream had brought him to. Near the wall was a smallish person, curled up and wrapped in an aviator jacket to protect himself from the cold. Percy could feel the cold, even though he wasn't really there. There was barely any light, and Percy figured that if it wasn't for the small, silver masquerade mask pinned to his shirt that was giving off a faint silvery light, he wouldn't be able to see anything.
"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…" the boy mumbled weakly. "We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"
"Nico," whispered Percy, realizing who was in front of him. He ran to the smaller boy and dropped to his knees beside him. "Nico, can you hear me?"
Nico pulled his jacket closer to him. "They'll find me… Percy and Adria will find me… We'll survive this… We'll beat you…"
"Nico, I'm here. I'm right here," Percy said. He tried to put his hand on Nico's shoulder, but his hand passed right through him. He wasn't really there, after all. "Please hear me, Nico. I'm right here."
"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…" repeated Nico. "We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"
"Nico," Percy mumbled. He felt a familiar stinging in his eyes as they filled with tears. "Nico, I'm here. Please, Nico, if anyone should be able to see and hear me, it's you. You're the Ghost King. Aren't I kind of a ghost right now?"
"We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out… They'll find me…" Nico muttered. "Please find me, Percy."
Percy was actually crying now, he couldn't stop himself. "Nico, I'm right here!"
"He'll never be found, Perseus Jackson," Gaea's voice whispered to him. "And you and your friends will all die on your pointless quest."
"Why are you doing this?" Percy asked, practically shouting. "Why are you keeping him here?"
Gaea didn't respond. As the cave went dark and Percy felt himself waking up, all he heard was Nico's continued whispering. "We'll survive… We'll win… I'll get out…"
A/N- So many emotions! AND THE RETURN OF NICO! The next chapter will pick up with Percy waking up, so I'll try to get it up ASAP. Well, I always do, it's just that often times it takes me a while to write.
