Yay, another long chapter for you guys. :-) I hope you enjoy.
Important thing to note... This will be yaoi (boy-boy). Don't like? You do not have to read.
Disclaimer- I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus series. (One can dream though) All rights go to the proper parties.
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Percy POV
I was in the medical bay with Nico.
We had gotten the ship moving in record time. As Frank and I carried Nico below deck, Ryan had used Apollo's compass to give Jason our heading.
Hazel was a wreck, she had sat with me in the medical bay for a few hours but I sent her back to her cabin around midnight. She didn't want to go but I convinced her that Nico would want her to sleep. She had no way to argue with me, she knew it was the truth. She headed to bed only after she made me swear on the River Styx that I would stay with him the whole night.
It was silly to make me promise, I had no intention of leaving, but I understood. Nico was getting progressively worse. Ryan was one of the few children of Apollo with almost no healing skills. If it hadn't been for the nectar and ambrosia, Nico would have been dead by now but we didn't dare give him any more for fear of it burning him up. It was enough to keep him alive for now but his wound was still slowly killing him. I was terrified.
As I watched his shallow breathing I began to think about the two of us. Seeing him like that was killing me. I couldn't believe it had taken me so long to figure out how I felt about him. I cared for him so much that it terrified me. No, that wasn't right; I loved him so much it terrified me... I shivered at the thought. I had never thought that I could love anyone else but then the son of Hades had come along and stolen my heart. I knew that he didn't feel the same way about me but I found myself making a plan to win him back. I had used him, hurt him, and thrown him away and he had every reason in the world to hate me for the rest of time but I wouldn't give him up without a fight. I couldn't lose him, not again. I would find a way to make that quiet, sweet, and beautiful son of Hades mine...
"Any change?" I turned around to see Ryan closing the door behind him.
I frowned and turned back to Nico, "None that are for the better." Ryan sighed and sat down beside me. He hadn't been himself since the cave. "How's your arm?"
Ryan looked at the extremity and frowned. "It hurts like Hades but I can feel the ambrosia working its magic."
I nodded as I checked Nico's forehead. He was beginning to develop a fever. I stood up and got a cloth. I poured a bowl of ice water and soaked the cloth. I wrung it out and rested it on his forehead.
"It seems so stupid you know?" I turned to the son of Apollo and raised my eyebrow. He glanced at me and turned his attention back to the injured boy. "Nico has done so much. Yet that was the quest that brought him down? It should have been easy..."
I sighed and turned to the boy beside me. I understood what was bothering him. "This isn't about him is it?" He looked at me like he was about to argue. I raised a hand to silence him. "I'm not saying that you're not worried about him, I can tell you are, but this is about the quest. Isn't it?"
Ryan bit his lip and looked down. "I just... don't understand. He... he's my father. I thought that," I watched as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "We nearly died."
I felt a stab of pity for him. It was a painful lesson to learn, one that all demigods eventually discovered. I was glad that he had come to me though; I had seen the outcome of what could happen if a demigod tried to hold all that pain and hatred inside. "Ryan, I know what you're thinking. But the gods can't show favoritism, especially not to their own children."
I could see Ryan was starting to get mad but I knew it wasn't at me. "They can't show favoritism? They do it all the time."
"Yes they do, but they have to be very careful where their children are concerned. The quest was more dangerous because you were part of it." The instant the words were out of my mouth I realized how poorly it could be taken.
"So you're saying this is my fault?"
I winced, "No, that's not what I meant. I meant that there are law that even the gods must obey. Our parents challenge us to bring out our best, the harder the quest the more faith they have in you. Your father sent you to fight a sea monster. Consider that his convoluted way of saying that he believes in you."
Ryan scoffed and looked at the wall in disgust. "If that's the case I think I would rather have nothing to do with them."
I looked at him with a serious expression on my face. "Don't go down that path. Hating the gods won't gain you anything."
I watched as Ryan's shoulders slumped down. "It's just not right."
I nodded. "I know it's not fair but it's how it is. We're demigods, things aren't perfect but they are getting better. If you never trust me on anything else trust me on this. You're father loves you, even if he doesn't always show it."
He closed his eyes but a tear still fell. "How do you know?"
He sounded so broken that I found myself wrapping an arm around his shoulders. He stiffened but he didn't pull away. "Easy, he came when you called. I thought you were an idiot. I had never known a god to answer when one of their children yelled for them, but he did. If he didn't care about you he would have ignored you."
Ryan wiped away his tear and looked at me, "I'm sure that your dad would answer. You're the Percy Jackson, twice hero of Olympus."
I laughed and shook my head, "I can tell you with absolute certainty that he would not. I know that he loves me but if I ever yelled at him like that I think he would probably turn me into a mackerel."
We both started to laugh. Ryan was actually an okay guy to hang out with when he wasn't being an egomaniac. It seemed foolish to me now that I used to hate him. Life was too short to bother with stupid emotions like jealousy.
I sighed and looked at Nico's unconscious form. I drew away from the son of the sun god and re-wet the son of Hades face cloth before returning it to his forehead. I had no idea how long it would take to reach Calypso's island but I sincerely hoped it would be soon, I couldn't bare the alternative if we weren't to reach it on time.
"You know, I can see why he likes you so much."
I frowned at Ryan in confusion, "Who?"
The son of Apollo smiled at me, "Nico. He really likes you. At the beginning I thought that it was just because of who you were. You are so famous and powerful. I thought that you would be a conceited jerk but now, I can understand. You are not at all what I would have expected you to be like."
I shrugged; I was a little uncomfortable with the compliments. "Uh, thanks. I'm not that powerful though. I've had help in everything I did. My friends have been with me every step of the way."
Ryan laughed and shook his head. "See? That's what I'm talking about. You're so humble. If I had done half of the stuff that you had I would probably be bragging about it but you always say how it wasn't just you. You make sure that everyone gets recognition. I respect you for that. I used to think that it was just an act but I don't think that anymore."
I smiled at him. "You're not so bad yourself Ryan. Once you get past your attitude you're a good guy."
Ryan smirked at me, "But not good enough for Nico right?"
I grimaced and looked at the son of Hades. "I don't know. What I do know is that, I may not good enough for him but that doesn't mean that I will let you have him without a fight."
We smiled at each other. We had come to an understanding with each other, but that didn't mean that either of us would be backing down.
Ryan held out a hand for me and I shook it. "I'm glad that you guys chose me to come on this quest. I've learned a lot more than I thought that I would."
ΩΩΩ
By the next night the compass had led us to an uninhabited part of the pacific. We had a few monster attacks but our crew fought them off with the ferocity of an army. None of us would allow anything to slow us down.
In the early hours of the morning I was forced to obey Hazel's command and go to sleep. I didn't want to leave him and Frank ended up having to threaten to physically remove me form the sick bay. I was far too tired to fight him off and so I left. I caught five hours before I was back at his side.
Nico had gotten progressively worse during the night. His fever had spiked and was now hovering at 102.4 degrees. Because of his wound we couldn't put him in an ice bath so we had to settle for putting ice packs all around him. We were trying everything to break the fever but nothing was working. All we had managed to do was keep the fever from getting any worse. His breathing was getting more and more labored.
It was not helping anything that the air was getting warmer as we moved closer and closer to the equator.
I was changing his ice packs when I saw something that made my heart go cold. My hands shook as I raised the edge of his shirt. I peeled away the bandages on his stomach and my worst fear was confirmed. I stared in horror at the deep red lines that were spreading on his skin in all directions from the wound. Nico had blood poisoning...
I fell back a step and ran into Jason.
He looked at Nico and his face went pale. He clearly recognized the symptoms. We both knew if he didn't get professional medical attention soon, he was dead. He rubbed his face and drew in a stuttering breath, "We seem to have reached the end of the line. The compass is just spinning in circles."
I felt my eyebrows draw together in confusion, "If we've found the island that's a good thing, right?"
Jason looked at me with sadness in his eyes. "There is no island here. There's nothing but ocean as far as the eye can see."
I felt my heart drop through my feet. No, we could not have done all that for nothing. I cannot lose Nico like this. We have to be missing something...
I didn't realize that I was shaking until Jason grabbed my shoulder. "Listen, we're not giving up. We're turning the ship around and we're going to try again. We will save Nico. Apollo said only Calypso could heal him, we won't rest until we find her."
I felt my breathing spike. I, we, needed to find her but in order to do that we had to find the place where the sun is risen. Wait a second, where the sun is risen...
I felt my jaw drop. "Don't turn the ship around! I've got it!"
Jason stepped back and looked at me in confusion. "What is it? What have you got?"
I smiled and grabbed his arm, "Think about it Jason, we are going 'where the sun is risen', how much you willing to bet that you can only get there during the sun rise."
Jason's eyes widened, "Oh my gods! That would make perfect sense. Stay with Nico." He looked at his watch and ran back on deck.
I looked at the clock on the wall. We only had an hour till sunrise. I prayed that I was right.
ΩΩΩ
Hazel and Frank came to the infirmary just as I finished re-bandaging Nico's wound. I nodded to them and left to go on deck. I didn't want to be apart from Nico but I needed to see if I was correct.
Ryan, Jason, Piper, and I stood on the deck of the Argo, waiting for the first sign of sunrise. We watched in silence as the first beams of light began to dance on the horizon.
As one we looked to Ryan who looked at his compass but he frowned and shook his head. We all started looking around but there was no sign of any island.
Jason looked at me and broke eye contact, "I'm sorry Percy, it..."
"There!"
We looked to where Ryan was pointing but I couldn't see anything. I thought that I was the only one until Piper spoke, "Where Ryan, there's nothing there."
"What are you talking about? It's right there like ten miles from us. How can you not see it?"
The three of us looked at each other and looked back out to the ocean. I bit my lip, "I don't see anything. Then again, this is Apollo's island. Maybe only his bloodline can find it?"
Jason nodded, "That would make sense. Ryan you are going to have to help guide us in."
Ryan nodded and stood next to Jason correcting his course whenever he began to drift one way or the other. It seemed like the island had powerful charms protecting it from anyone finding it.
After five minutes I could begin to see a misty fog that made me a little dizzy whenever I tried to try and stare at. Finally after a few nauseous minutes, we broke through and an island spread out before us.
I am not entirely certain what I had been expecting, maybe a deserted island, or a tropical paradise, or some kind of garage that he could keep his car in... But I was way off. His island looked like a five star resort. Complete with a golden hotel, pools, and an amphitheater. I shook my head and tried not to laugh. I felt like I should have known to expect something ostentatious, it belonged to Apollo after all.
I shook my head and came back to myself. I looked around to see my friend's were still lost in the view. I tried calling them but they didn't seem to hear me. I put my fingers in my mouth and let out my best taxi cab whistle. They dropped their heads and covered their ears.
Piper winced and glared at me, "What was that for?"
I shrugged, "I was calling you guys but you didn't seem to hear me."
Jason frowned, "Really?"
I nodded.
Ryan looked at the three of us, "So now that we're here, what next?"
We looked at each other. I took a deep breath and walked over to Leo's astrolabe. My hands were shaking as I went to lift the lid. If this didn't work, then we had no hope of saving Nico.
I closed my eyes and flipped the lid.
The astrolabe exploded into the sky in a ball of light. The Ryan, Jason, and I looked at each other in despair.
Before we could comment on it, we heard Piper shout. "Look! There!"
The three of us looked over the bow of the ship and our mouths dropped. Floating five hundred feet in the air was a doorway.
Through it we could see an ocean and in the distance a small island. I had only seen it once but there was no mistaking the distant shore.
"Ogygia..."
