Nico: Chapter 21

Nico was asleep when it was going on. He'd taken a break from homework to sleep. Will kept doing his, not Nico's problem. But then, Will woke him up.

"5 more minutes..." Nico said sleepily. Will kept shaking him.

"No, now. This is serious." Will said urgently. Nico wished he'd stayed asleep. Then a clap of thunder brought him to his senses.

"What's going on?" He said. He jumped out of bed and walked towards the window. And there it was.

Practically every demigod was down there fighting against waves of monsters. At the front lines he saw Percy and Jason fighting and making the storm.

"I have to get down there." Nico said. No time to worry about how this happened.

"Me too." Will said.

"I thought you were a healer!" Nico argued.

"There's demigods down there who need help." Will stayed stubborn.

"Whatever." Nico said as he grabbed his Stygian Iron sword from his closet. Will tried the door.

"Hurry up!" Nico called.

"I can't open it!" Will said. Nico walked over to the door. He tried as hard as he could. Either there was something blocking the door, or it was just jammed somehow. Great, Nico thought, they were trapped.

What do we do now?" Will asked, "We're, like, 5 stories up. We can't jump down." Nico looked out the window. They seemed to be doing fine but more and more monsters kept coming. Nico tried to figure out from where. But they just kept appearing. What was wrong with the border line? He looked out into the distance to find it. It was too stormy to see. Alright, if someone were to be doing this, Nico thought, who would? Gaea was done for. Kronos was gone. Of course! The Labyrinth. In the House of Hades some magic lady brought the Labyrinth back, even more deadly then last time. But then, who would guiding the monsters through? No one in their right mind would do this though, unless they really hated demigods.

"Nico!" Will called urgently. He snapped out of his thoughts. He joined Will at the window. Demigods were getting struck down. Wether they were injured or dead, Nico had to get down there. There was one possible way...

"Will, what if I shadow traveled us down there?" Nico suggested.

"No way. We still don't know about that." Will argued.

"Demigods are getting hurt down there! They need you!" Nico shouted back.

"What about you?" Will said, "You're one of the most powerful demigods here. If you shadow travel down there, you might become useless. And you'd get hurt."

"Will. Don't argue with me. Let me shadow travel you down there. At least to the gates." Nico said. He wasn't giving up with Will.

"No." Will said.

"Will, this isn't the time to be stubborn! You're getting down there wether you like it or not!" Nico said. He was losing his patience.

"Fine." Will has gave in. Nico took him by the hand and they shadow traveled to the gates of the school. It was too much for Nico. He passed out.

Nico woke up. He found Bianca staring down at him.

"You're awake!" She said and hugged Nico. Nico pushed away. He had questions.

"What happened?" He asked, "Where is everyone?" Nico looked around. They were at the school hospital. Nico could see countless demigods, but no Will.

"The battle ended." Bianca recounted, "They came from Labyrinth and, the Minotaur was leading them." So Nico was right.

"Where's Will?" He asked.

"We found you at the front gates. Will wouldn't leave you. Finally I convinced him to go out and help." Bianca said.

"Right, so where is he now?"

"Treating others."

Nico felt miserable and tired.

"Go back to sleep. I'll come around later." Bianca suggested. With that Nico fell asleep. When he awoke again, he heard someone. It was Will! With someone else, Jason.

"Jason, I respect you, but let me do my job." Will was saying. Nico pretended to be asleep. Yes, he was eavsedropping but it was for a good cause.

"I don't care. You can't keep secrets from Nico." Jason said. Well, Nico thought, you got that right.

"If I tell him, he'll do it again." Will said.

"So?" Jason asked.

"Nico could leave this place at will."

"Fine. But I'm warning you, he'll find out anyways." Jason said. Nico heard footsteps. Jason has left. Or Will. Nico went back to sleep.

Nico opened his eyes, "Will?"

"What's up?" He asked, sitting on a stool next to Nico.

"Oh, not much." He said, "When do I get to leave?"

"Tomorrow." Will said.

"Great. And ummmm." Nico started, "I may or may not have overheard your conversation with Jason."

"So, You eavesdropped on us." Will stated.

"What was that all about?" Nico asked.

"Guess there's no point in hiding it from you." Will said, "Your free to shadow travel wherever you want."

"That's-" Nico started.

"But only if you take regular breaks from it and don't push yourself." Will said.

"Then why were you so worried?" Nico asked.

"Because it means you could leave without anyone knowing." Will said. He could? Not that Nico was considering it.

"Trust me. I'm not leaving." Nico said. "I've still got like what? A couple more years here?"

"Great."

"Can I leave the hospital though?"

"Not yet."

Just great, Nico thought.

Nico left the next day. To be free again, Nico thought. Will was still stuck in the hospital. He wondered what Chiron was going to do about the Labyrinth. Everyone was worried. Would more monsters be coming back? How was New Rome holding up? What should they do? New Rome!, Nico thought, I hope Hazel's doing alright. He should probably check. Probably. Probably later. Hazel didn't need to be worrying about Nico right now. She was probably busy fixing up New Rome. A thought kept coming back to Nico. Should he go and investigate the Labyrinth himself? What would Will think. He'd never let him leave. Unless if he never found out. He could shadow travel wherever now. He could just leave and come back, no problem. He'd been on plenty of unofficial quests before? So, what's stopping me? Nico asked himself over and over again. The same answer kept coming back, Will.

School was on a break. Some kids were helping around fixing things up. Most damage to the school had actually come from Percy and Jason's storm. They were exhausted. Annabeth and Piper were around fixing and helping demigods. Other kids were in the infirmary. No casualties. Thank the gods for that.

"Hey Nico!" someone called from behind him. Nico turned around, it was Will.

"Don't even think about it." he said.

"Don't think about what?" Nico asked.

"I know all about your unofficial quests." Will said, "You are not going in the Labyrinth on my watch."

"How did you know?" Nico asked.

"Your sister." Will stated. Bianca! Nico thought.

"I wasn't planning to go. No more unofficial quests for me." Nico lied.

"Great. Okay I have to go know. See you around." Will said. He turned back to the infirmary. That was fast. Nico had been thinking about the Labyrinth but Nico was done with quests, unofficial or not. Someone else could go in there. Or perhaps no one at all.

Author's Note

I realized that my chapters were unusually short. So I spent some time actually creating a hopefully long one. So if you guys want longer chapters, then I won't be able to update 2 times a day. Maybe once a day in the afternoon for longer chapters. So it's up to you! Hope you enjoyed it! Helpful feedback is appreciated! Till next time!