Author's Note: Wow, three chapters in one month! Not bad, by my standards. XD
I'm going to try to write more often during the summer. Hopefully I'll finish this fic by the middle of July.
Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson. All my fanfic writings are non-profit. Tis all for fun.
Rise of the Forgotten.
Chapter 14: Assault (Again)
The awkward atmosphere in the car didn't get any better for the rest of the day. Nico held to his original insistence that Alice should stay behind when they reached Alcatraz, and Jake continued to support him. The upshot of this was that by the time the sun had nearly set, Alice's mood was dark indeed.
They'd gone to a fast-food drive-thru, as they were running low on money. Nico was beginning to feel distinctly greasy from all the processed chips and burgers he'd been having over the last few days.
Now, Alice pulled over, for they had to decide whether to stay in a motel or drive on for the night.
"I think we should keep going," Nico said quietly. "If we drive on, it'll mean that we'll reach Alcatraz tomorrow. Judging by the way Hestia looked in my dream, I don't think we have any time to spare."
Jake nodded. "I agree. We can always sleep, but we only have one chance to get this right."
"Alice? What do you think?" Nico asked, for she had been silent heretofore.
She sighed irritably, and muttered, "Oh, I don't care. You two can decide what we do. What do I know?"
Nico ignored the first and third remarks, instead focussing on her second comment. "Alright then," he said. "We'll drive on. I'll take the wheel, Alice. You should get some rest: you look wrecked."
He opened the car door, and paused until Alice had gotten out. Then he hopped out of the car and made his way over to the driver's side. Alice got into the back, though she spared a moment to give Nico an angry glower. He made no reply, merely getting into the driver's seat and buckling up. Night had fallen by now, so Nico felt reasonably confident that he could drive for a number of hours without meeting any more unexpected trees or surprising corners. Hence, he started up the car, and rolled down the road.
He said nothing to Jake, and vice versa, for the night. He drove in silence, his brow furrowed as he contemplated the coming struggles. After a while, Jake made himself comfortable, and fell asleep.
But Nico drove on through the darkness, always watching, always seeing.
Much later on, around 3 AM, Nico stopped the car, and changed over with Jake, who took over driving. Nico settled down himself, and fell asleep, preparing for the day ahead.
He dreamed little, seeing no shadowy caves or Olympian thrones rooms, hearing neither whispered, dark voices nor resounding, godly declarations. He may have dreamt of a certain redheaded Oracle, though that was something which he preferred to keep to himself.
The morning sunlight helped to awaken him, as did the soft jolt which ran through the car when Jake brought it to a halt opposite a gas station.
He rose from his sleep gradually, carefully reassembling his awareness. Through his head he ran the usual questions of where he was, what was he doing next, and was he under any immediate attack from peckish monsters. As the memory of the previous day and the knowledge that they were nearly at Alcatraz came back to him, Nico felt a complex surge of emotions. He felt relieved at having made it this far, but he felt great unease at the prospect of the coming battle. This was crunch time for him and his quest: he'd screwed up more than once along the way, but everything had just about worked out. Now, though, he couldn't afford to put so much a toe wrong, never mind a foot.
He was disturbed in his thoughts by the sound of Jake whispering, "Nico? Psst. Wake up."
Nico opened his eyes, to find Jake peering at him, with a look of solemnity and resolve on his face.
"Hey," Nico mumbled, rubbing his bleary eyes.
Jake nodded, and glanced back at Alice with an air of unease. All was quiet at the back of the car, and Nico assumed Alice was still asleep.
"Listen, uh," Jake said, looking at Nico again. The son of Erebus had an air of someone about to perform a deeply unpleasant but wholly unavoidable task.
"Would you mind, um, going into the shop and getting us coffee or something?" he murmured, waving his hand towards the station. "I want to, ah. To have a talk with Alice."
Nico sighed, and straightened up. Several thoughts ran through his mind, none of which made him feel too happy, but he nodded.
"Alright," he said, reaching for the door handle. "Back in a…"
He paused, waiting for Jake to fill in the gap.
"A few minutes should be enough," he answered.
Nico nodded again, and got out of the car, making his way towards the gas station without a backward glance.
The forecourt was empty, for it was only around half past eight. Apart from the presence of a teenager with an air of such vagueness that the only definite thing about him was his complete disinterestedness in all existence, the shop was empty, too. As Nico strolled further into the shop, the only sounds to be heard were the humming of the fridges, the whispering of the radio, and the tapping of the teenager's fingers upon the countertop as he listened to something loosely related to music on his iPod.
Nico went about getting coffee from the machine at a leisurely pace, praying that he wouldn't get back to the car to find Alice and Jake in the middle of… ahem, something. He picked up a few pastries and a banana of dubious fruithood, before making his way to the checkout.
The interminably vague teenager took a suitable vague approach to serving Nico, by merely pulling out one earphone, and by not even bothering to ignore Nico specifically, never mind register his existence. He took the half-blood's money with a cursory glance, and passed over the change with one hand, whilst returning his earphone to its place with the other.
Nico lingered in the shop a couple of minutes more, before opening the shop door. He stepped out slowly, a look of slight unease passing over his face as he glanced towards the car.
He paused.
Alice and Jake were standing by the car, talking. That wasn't what was giving Nico pause, though. He had frozen because he could hear a sound, a sound with which he had become all too familiar over the past few days.
The sound of hooves.
They were coming fast and strong - it sounded like Phaethon had his horses at full gallop. It occurred to Nico that the horses must have had magically enhanced hooves, for no mere mortal horse could make such a cacophony. He didn't have the time to dwell on that thought, however, for he heard a cry of annoyance coming from Alice. He glanced over, to find her pushing Jake away. By the looks of it, the son of Erebus had tried to kiss her, and Alice had summarily rejected him.
Nico stepped towards them, but stopped again as he felt a surge of alien energy approaching. It was the same energy he'd felt around Phaethon the last times they'd met, the energy that was keeping the son of Apollo tethered to the land of the living. It was the energy of a deity of some kind, and Nico was sure it wasn't that of an Olympian deity.
Alice and Jake were still arguing, and as Nico stared at them he felt a chill down his spine that he associated with coming mortal danger. With that on his mind, he shouted to his friends, "Get away from the car. Now!"
The two of them paused in their squabbling, and glanced over at him. Alice looked puzzled, while Jake had a dark look indeed upon his face.
Nico waved at them frantically, not daring to come nearer. "Come on," he roared. "Get the hell away from the car!"
The message finally got through, and they both unfroze and ran towards Nico. Just in the nick of time, too.
For a second later Phaethon, in his chariot, came galloping into view, and he stampeded into the SUNCAR II. He didn't so much as blink as his horses leapt up onto the car, dragging the chariot with it. They stomped across the car, smashing it with great thoroughness, before trotting over the hood and onto the ground. The wheels of Phaethon's chariot did no small amount of damage, and the man himself used one of his spears to add to the destruction.
Finally, he dropped the spear and snatched his bow from a side shelf. In the blink of an eye, he had shot three arrows clear through the hood of the car, no doubt damaging the engine greatly.
In less than a minute, Phaethon had completely trashed the demigods' transportation. The windows were all shattered, the roof was bent and battered, and the front end was a mangled mess.
It made industrial car crushers look positively inefficient.
Phaethon gave the car an approving, satisfied glance, rather like the one he'd given the freshly polished countertop back at the bar in the ghost town. Then, he turned towards Nico, and his friends, who were a few steps away from one another. With timing achieved only by those with great natural skill at villainy, he smiled menacingly.
To Nico's eternal gratitude, he didn't waste time with an evil monologue. If the son of Hades had to listen to one more speech about the end of the age of the gods and the beginning of a new era, he'd stab someone's eye out.
Instead, Phaethon took the straightforward approach, and charged the half-bloods head-on.
More particularly, he charged at Nico.
That gave Nico less than a second to decide what to do. He had his sword, but Alice's and Jake's weapons were somewhere in the wreckage of the car. He figured if he could get close enough to Phaethon to stab him, he'd be able to banish his spirit back to the Underworld.
It wasn't a thorough plan, but it was all he had.
He ran forward and to the right, trying to draw Phaethon away from his friends and away from the shop. If the horses went through the glass, it would attract a great deal more attention than Nico wanted.
He reached the road and turned, to find that Phaethon had made a pinpoint turn, and was charging Nico again. He took a deep breath, and drew his sword, the blade vibrating lightly as he took it from its sheath. He watched the approaching chariot carefully, getting ready to jump. As the son of Apollo drew nearer, Nico could see the fury in his eyes. To his surprise, he could also see pain and regret glaring dully out. For a moment, Nico wondered if Phaethon was really his enemy, or if he was just being used as a pawn by some greater, more cunning foe.
He didn't have time to explore that thought further, though, for the chariot was nearly upon him. He waited until the last second, until the horses were an inch away from trampling him, before making his move. Jumping as high as he could, he managed to grab onto the side of the basket, and he started to heave himself in. Phaethon, anticipating this move, was already bringing the horses to a stop, no doubt so that he could avoid the fate he met during his last battle with Nico.
The son of Hades dragged himself all the way into the chariot. He had a second to pause, and his ADHD took that moment to inform him that the basket was miraculously restored after the damage the lone gunman had wreaked. Then Phaethon drew his sword, and he was upon Nico, slashing and stabbing.
Nico fought back hard, and he was fighting with all he had, fighting for his life, fighting for his friends, fighting for the Flame. He ducked as Phaethon tried to make his head a separate entity, before lunging to return the favour. His opponent blocked the strike, and held Nico's blade for a moment, sneering. Nico pushed his weapon free, and took a step away, a step towards the edge of the chariot.
Phaethon followed, now trying to introduce Nico to a view of his own innards, and the son of Hades began to gradually draw him towards the end of the basket. He played possum, letting Phaethon batter at him, pretending to be weakened. A gleeful and more than slightly maniacal glint became obvious in the man's eyes as he seemed to gain the upper hand on Nico.
Finally, they reached the very edge. Nico slumped and let his sword go limp slightly, doing all he could to fool Phaethon. At this apparent sign of defeat, the son of Apollo took a step forward and, with one foot off the ground, made another attempt to divorce Nico's head from his neck.
That was when the son of Hades struck.
He swerved around Phaethon's blade, and grabbed the man's shoulder. Taking advantage of his opponent's imbalanced position, he pulled Phaethon sharply to one side, making him stumble. Then, Nico pushed Phaethon out of the chariot and onto the road.
He immediately tried to stand up, but Nico hopped out of the basket and stomped on his wrist. He dropped his sword, growling in pain. Nico put his sword-point on Phaethon's throat, and he froze.
They stayed like that for a moment, both catching their breath, before Phaethon said, "You don't have to do this. I can help you."
"Help me how? Help me help you to overthrow Olympus?" Nico retorted.
"No, no. I have friends, powerful friends. They could make you strong."
He paused, wetting his lips and looking Nico in the eye. "They could bring your sister back."
Nico resisted the urge to shove his sword up Phaethon's rear end and out through his mouth. He cleared his throat, and said, "That's impossible and you know it. My sister chose rebirth."
"But what if it isn't impossible? What if I can help you find her?" Phaethon whispered.
Nico swallowed mechanically, trying to maintain his grip on the sword as his hand grew sweaty. He heard footsteps behind him, approaching carefully, but he didn't look around. "I know how this works," he said. "You offer me something I can't refuse, and I help you win. I'm not stupid."
"But Nico," Phaethon murmured. "You don't even have to help me win. You just have to let me go."
That gave Nico pause. What if Phaethon was right? What if he did let him go?
"Nico?" said a voice in his ear.
He jumped, and turned to see Jake standing next to him.
That was his mistake.
Phaethon batted the sword to one side immediately after Nico had looked away. He sprang up from the ground, and snatched up his own sword. By the time Nico realised what was happening, Phaethon was already leaping into the chariot.
"Stop him!" Nico cried, a little redundantly. Alice was running towards them, and was only a few feet away when Phaethon turned, a long net in his hand. It looked similar to the ones used by gladiators in Rome, but it had apparently received some considerable technological upgrades. Phaethon called out a quick string of Greek, and threw the net in the air.
Instead of dropping, it hovered for a second, before shooting towards Alice. She dodged it, but it turned mid-air and tried to catch her again. As Nico stared at it, he realised that it was made up of incredibly fine threads of celestial bronze, and on the corners were tiny beetle-like devices, which were projecting the net through the air.
One corner of it latched onto Alice's sleeve. Jake let out a cry of, "No!" and yanked the device away.
After that, everything happened very quickly.
Seconds after Jake touched the net, it began to target him instead. It expanded rapidly, the four corner devices dragging the now rather large net into the air around Jake. Before he could even blink, he was surrounded by bronze wire. Nico desperately tried to find a spot to slash it open, but it was happening too fast and suddenly Jake was completely entrapped in the wire and if he slashed at it he'd injure Jake and…
Phaethon snapped his fingers and called out another few words in Greek. A strand of bronze shot out from one, then two, then all of the beetle-like devices. Phaethon caught them all, briskly, and secured them to a spear holder on one side of the chariot. Then, the corner beetles began to suck the strands back in, but because the strands were secured, the result was that Jake got hurriedly dragged into the chariot.
All this happened very quickly, and as hard as Nico tried to find an opening in the net, his efforts came to no avail. Phaethon turned and shook the reins of the horses, and they took off at a brisk trot, then a canter, then a gallop, and then they were gone.
Nico turned to Alice, to see the tears clouding her eyes.
"Alice—" he began, but she cut him off with an angry retort.
"I don't want to hear it!" she snapped. "If you and Jake had just listened to me, we could have avoided this…" she began to break down more. Nico stared at her awkwardly, unsure what to do.
Then he said, "Look, Alice. That's not how it is."
She didn't reply, now sobbing more. Nico rubbed his brow, and glanced over at the shop. The languid teenager was staring out at them with an expression filled with frozen fear. They didn't have long before the police were called. Nico hurried over to the battered car, and managed to dig out Alice's weapons.
He turned back to Alice and said, "Please. Come on. I can explain it all. Let's just find a quiet spot so we can talk."
She looked him in the eyes, and shrugged, though not without anger.
He brought her to a small park a little down the road. They found a bench in a shaded spot, as far away from the road as they could get, and sat down.
"Now," Alice sniffed. "Explain whatever it is you have to explain."
Nico took a breath, and, over the course of the following fifteen minutes, explained it all.