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The Third Gate

Nico's POV:

Nico couldn't sleep. He was hungry, too. His headaches were getting worse, like his mental chain...link to Cynthia were...straining. Percy and the others must have reached the Doors if Cynthia was this distressed...

After uselessly talking to Jason, he had gone to check on Hazel, then gone to bed. Dinnertime had passed. It was early morning when he woke up.

Nico went down to the mess hall to get a few bites of food before breakfast. It was eerily dark inside. He didn't mind.

He was settling down to eat his Pizza and ice-cream, when a voice came rumbling from behind. "Nico di Angelo, you disappoint me."

Nico dropped his plate and whirled around. He recognized that voice. He automatically lowered his head. "Father..."

Hades appeared from the shadows, arms crossed and with a glare on his face. Somehow his father gave off a weary-and-tired aura. Nico automatically bowed his head. "What have you come here for, Father?"

Hades took no time in answering. He loomed over Nico, and answered, "Your little friends are almost at the Doors. What are you doing, making them wait?"

Nico bowed his head lower. "The Third Gate will be the hardest to pass. Jason may not be enough to fight the battle."

"What about that other demigod? The one that can turn into animals?," Hades asked, looking bored.

Nico grimaced. "They are the only two that can fly. Leo needs to recover. His mind is...damaged, and Piper...she's-"

"SILENCE." Hades's hissing loud voice cut him off. Nico winced. He was in for it.

"The Gods are all in your favor. They do not want to be 'destroyed', or whatever. I don't know what that foolish 'King of the Wind' thinks, but all Persephone's talking about these days is how 'nice' it is of him to send in some Storm spirit horses led by that Jared kid's little friend Tempest..."

Nico's eyes grew wide. A gift from the gods was what they needed to pass through the third Gate...

Hope started to spread through Nico's body again, and his mind grew more determined than ever to win the war.

"You must get to the Doors on time, boy," were Hades's last words before he melted back into the darkness.

Nico just stared for a while, then stood up shakily. He had lost his appetite, and threw his pizza away. His ice-cream was just a bowl of milky liquid now.

He went back to his cabin and got fully dressed, strapping his sword to his side. He had a feeling the third Gate was extremely close, after what Hades had told him.

He went up to the deck and looked around. It was freezing cold, and Nico's teeth were chattering after five seconds in the freezing air.

"Can't sleep, Nico?"

Hazel suddenly appeared beside him. Nico jumped. He wasn't used to getting snuck up on-he was usually the one who did the sneaking.

"Actually, Hades just came to visit me. I'm going to wake everyone. I have a feeling we're nearing the last Gate."

Hazel cringed. "Woah. Wait. Pluto visited you? That's so not fair!" Hazel snorted and pushed him playfully. "Yeah, right. Like I would want him to come creeping up on me." Hazel threw her head back and laughed.

Nico stood still. Was this sarcasm? Nico wasn't used to that... or much laughing while people were around him.

Hazel pressed the Wake-up call button, while Nico tried warming his hands as best he could. "Why were you awake, anyway?"

Hazel was opening her mouth to answer, when Piper came up to the deck, fully dressed, and using a hiking stick to help her walk. Somehow, she had changed into a new purple tank-top and white pants. Her hair was brushed, with a new eagle's feather woven into her braid. Jason was yawning as he came up, and stretched. Frank was breathing into his hands and rubbing them together, shivering.

"Why did you have to call us to the deck?," Jason grumbled, smoothing back his superman-blonde hair.

"Uh..." Nico started. "We're nearing the last Gate."

Frank groaned. "But we're in the sky. And the ship's damaged, right?"

Nico bowed his head. "But the Gates...we've got to pass them to get to Greece. It's just one more," Nico said. And after that, a swarm of monsters...

"Where's Leo?" Piper was being supported by Hazel, unable to stand by herself for more than twenty seconds. It was a mystery to Nico how she'd gotten dressed in her state. Maybe Aphrodite girls had super-skills when it came to dressing.

"Yeah, where's Leo?," Frank was crossing his arms, no longer aware of the cold. Hazel jumped in to Leo's defense. "He's probably still resting in his cabin. He needs it."

"But how are we-" Jason started, but was cut off by Piper's smoldering glare.

Nico hesitated before saying what he said next. He didn't want to start yet another fight. One which would most definitely cause the crew to disband completely. "Lord Hades visited me for a while, and said that Aeolus, the King of the Winds, is sending us some help."

Jason cocked his head. "I thought the gods weren't allowed to help us on our quest."

Nico shrugged. What did he know about the gods and their ways? "Well, it's not direct. Maybe that counts for something...But it's good news. We need all the help that we need." Nico took a breath. "Listen. The next gate...It's in the sky."

Piper and Hazel gawked. "In...like, the air?," Piper made out, shakily.

Nico nodded. "But King Aeolus is sending us...storm spirits. So those of us who can't fly..." he acknowledged Hazel and Piper, "can fight as well."

Hazel raised her hand, which Nico thought unnecessary, but at Nico's nod, spoke. "But aren't storm spirits...Like, unreliable? They're... spirits, after all, and could disappear right underneath us or something...right?" She broke off uncertainly.

Jason's eyes brightened. "I could call Tempest. She's the storm spirit I befriended when we released Hera from her cage. She'll come if I call."

Nico nodded. "We need all the help we can get." And more, he said to himself.

A few hours later, Nico was standing right next to Hazel and Piper, Hazel riding Arion, and Piper riding a grey misty storm spirit in the form of a horse with a fish's tail. "You sure about this?," he asked Hazel. He still wasn't sure Arion could 'walk on clouds'. "I mean, clouds are vapor, and vapor..."

"Don't worry, Nico," Hazel snorted softly. "I'll be alright. I'm more worried about you, staying here with coach Hedge."

Nico forced out a faint laugh, and walked back belowdecks.

The ship lurched, and threw Nico across the hall. He had to crawl on his hands and knees to his cabin, and barely made it into his room. How am I supposed to just stay here and let everyone risk their lives?, he wondered. It had been chosen that two children of Hades was too dangerous to go up in the sky together at the same time. He had been chosen to stay, and Hazel to go...

Mostly because horses hated Nico.

And it had to be me to stay... Nico thought bitterly. I could've ridden a storm spirit..., but he knew it was no exception. He was just about to get back above deck to see how the 'battle' was going, when there was a knock at his door.

"Nico? You there?" It was Leo.

"Yeah. Come in," Nico answered gloomily.

Leo came in, walking fairly straight for a person who had been crazy enough to jump overboard just a day ago. "How're you feeling?"

Leo leaned against the wall, but seemed to think better as the ship almost threw him into Nico's empty bookshelf. He settled down on a chair.

"Better, I guess. With some ambrosia." Leo was grinning, but he still looked pale. His curls looked bleached, and his presence all fainter.

"Where is everyone, anyway?" Leo's eyes were eerily bright, and his fingers were twitching strangely.

"Uh...fighting. With storm spirits. At the third Gate. I'm not...supposed to join. Because of the Son-of-Hades thing."

"Oh." Leo nodded, and walked out the door.

Nico stared as the door slammed shut, and raced out after him. "Leo!"

Leo was on deck. He stared around him. Nico stopped and stared too. The wind whistled deafeningly by his ears, and he had trouble seeing, with all the snow and sleet flying around. Slowly, blinking fiercely, he took in what was around them.

Clouds.

Below, above, all around. It was like they were incased in a cloud...bubble. But it wasn't all white and fluffy. It was hardly 'Cloud City'. The clouds surrounding the ship and the demigods were grey, and dark. Lightning flashed, but it was a purple flare, not golden, like Jason's. This was dark power.

Two giant grey cloud pillars buzzed with lightning at the very end of the cloud-bubble, revealing an opening. Nico could see the clear blue of the sky. All they needed to do was get across the bubble and go through the pillars... So simple, yet so hard...

Leo ran to the control panel, where coach Hedge was. The little fat satyr was jumping around, yelling insults at anything that got 'too close'. The ship was barely moving forwards.

"You're not making any progress, Hedge! Get out of my way!," Leo took control of the Wii handle set and flicked some buttons on the panel. The ship lurched, and Nico skidded to the side of the ship, nearly getting thrust off the deck.

He clung to the rails, and looked around. Hazel and Piper were fighting some dark misty monsters. Their knives and swords did nothing to harm them, and more and more were coming. Nico thrust his head around wildly and saw Jason. It seemed that only Jason's lightning bolts were effective on the monsters. The 'good' storm spirits were circling him, throwing in lightning bolts of their own, just as powerful and deadly as Jason's.

Nico looked around in despair. It wouldn't be enough. But there had to be a way out. There had to.

Nico closed his eyes and thought. He wasn't that great of a thinker, but he tried to think up a plan.

His mind wandered around the ship. The decks, the roof... Nothing. Then his mind wandered to the Athena Parthenos.

The Athena Parthenos.

That was it. The Athena Parthenos would get them through this last Gate.

I'm sorry I've only been posting once a week. Extremely busy. Test week.