Chapter 2: Miskatonic Studies

Nico POV:

Nico heard the door slam behind him as his feet carried him down the stairs and away from the infirmary. What was Will thinking? Why did he want to know so much about what had happened to Nico? He didn't need the full story. Just the bits that had happened to him-not the specifics. He probably needed to know he went to Tartartus, but everyone already knew that. The Apollo camper didn't need to know about what had happened to Nico in Tartartus.

He doesn't need to know. He just wants to control you.

Nico reached the door of his cabin, Greek fire torches burning in their holders despite the sunlight. The door opened on his touch and he entered. Hazel and, by extension, Frank were not in the cabin. Most likely they were off doing activities with the campers from Jupiter. All the better Nico thought.

Nico flung his jacket to the floor by the entrance and grabbed a chair from the one of the few tables in the cabin. He dragged it over and shoved the chair under the door handle. It wouldn't do much good against a persistent person, but it would give some warning that someone was trying to get in.

Nico went to the small side table by his coffin shaped bed. He thought the beds were funny. Hazel did not particularly like them but, then again, she was used to the bunkhouses in Camp Jupiter. Turning his attention back to his side table, he opened the drawer and pulled out a three inch blade. The handle was made of black mahogany, polished and shimmering. The steel was shining and clean, reflecting his brown eyes.

He took the blade over to the small shrine set up to his father. A pile of jewels and bones glittered in the corner, a small recessed pool the size of a bowl sunk into the floor before it. Nico stood over the pool and brought the knife up to his left arm, considering the pale skin on his bicep. There were multiple scars- thin pale lines and short red keloids. He moved the blade to his pristine forearm.

Do it. You'll feel better. And you'll get answers.

Slowly, he dragged the sharpened edge against the skin of his left forearm, blood dripping down into the small pool.

Nico closed his eyes as his blood slowly filled the bowl. He let the cool and calm familiar feeling settle over him. He had come a long way from McDonalds and Diet Coke. Drawing his own blood calmed him. It grounded him to the earth-to his life-while he pursued the task at hand. Chanting in Greek, Nico continued to hold his blood drenched arm over the collecting pool.

"Rise up spirit:

I call upon you. Break your final rest!

Come forth and answer my call.

Leonidas Valdez, answer my call!

I command you!"

Nico opened his eyes. The torches remained stolid in their holders, flames burning steadily around the room. Only silence. Nico's eyebrows drew down and he chanted again, his voice strong and compelling.

"Valdez!

Obey your king!

He calls you!

Answer your king!"

Ah. There we go.

The torches flickered and guttered out. A chill ran through the room and Nico opened his eyes. The color of the room was leached- muted grayscale painted the walls and an eerie blue glow emanated from the pool in front of the shrine.

"Why have you called me, Ghost King? I have been dead for many long years. It is not easy to wrest myself where I am. Why have you called me?"

Nico searched for the figure of the ghost. The voice did not sound like Leo, but oftentimes, the dead lost their voice when they had moved beyond the gates and had yet to be judged. More than likely, the spirit was confused. If it wasn't Leo's spirit, it was more than likely a spirit that had passed some time ago. Leo's spirit was likely to have been expedited after his heroic demise...if his demise he had met.

Ask. Ask what you need to know.

"Tell me spirit, are you the ghost of Leonidas Valdez?" Nico continued to stare hard at the pool, waiting for the figure to emerge.

"Leonidas Valdez? Leo? Mi hijo. ¿Qué hay de mijo?" The voice took on a distinctly female tone and the blue glow intensified. Nico watched as a hand covered in grotesquely burned ghostly flesh emerged from the pool. It grasped at the floor and pushed against it, pulling the rest of its body up and out of the cache of blood.

What Nico could only assume was a woman stood before him. Her ghostly corpse was horribly burned and Nico could smell the remnants of burning flesh in the air and taste it in his mouth. He refrained from covering his face, but did close his mouth. The spirit standing before him had no hair. Blackened skin littered with fissures of bright pink raw flesh covered the bones of the ghost. What might have once passed as a fleshy nose was a melted lump off center of the face. One eye oozed out of its socket and hardened, much like crisping cheese in a frying pan. The other eye shone bright, brown iris staring out at Nico in question.

"You know my son? Why do you ask for his spirit? I have been waiting for him."

"I…" Nico didn't know what to say. This was very obviously not Leo but Leo's mother. He hadn't meant to call her. He should have known better than to call out only the surname. He rubbed his face and let his hands drop to his sides.

"My name is Nico di Angelo. I am the son of Hades, Ghost King, and Ambassador to Pluto. I apologize, spirit, for bringing you here. I am looking for another. I am not sure he is where you are...where you have been." Nico studied the wavering figure and sighed. "Is there a way I can help you move on? There is no reason to linger. I believe I have my answer. You do not need to wait for your mijo. He is well loved and has many who care about him." He waited for the spirit to speak.

The spirit lost focus and became blurry, wavering in and out of existence. "Where...where am I? Where is mijo? Has he-has he burned too? I cannot find him! I cannot see him!"

The air turned frigid. Nico's breath issued forth as mist. His eyelashes began to stick to each other as frost covered them. His lungs seized as ice snaked its way down his throat.

"Please, Ms. Valdez, I can help-" Nico's words came out as croak before being cut off by the spirit. A steam like shriek issued from the pool.

"I am lost! Where are you mijo? I cannot find you! Where are you? Please, no! The flames- they're-they are too high. Leo! Where are you?" The ghostly figure stepped from the pool, icy flames licking her heels. She stepped closer and closer to Nico, arm extended, reaching toward the demigod.

Nico stumbled backward. "Ms. Valdez! Please! Leo isn't here. You died! You're dead!" The back of Nico's knees hit the chair blocking the entrance to Cabin 13. He fell onto the chair and slipped sideways onto the floor. The black knife he had held onto after summoning the spirit fell from his grasp and skittered across the floor. "Please! Stop!"

The spirit screamed. "Mijo! It burns! Help me mijo! Where are you mijo? ¡Ayuadame! ¡AYUADAME!" Nico could hear the desperate pain and finality of the tone. He closed his eyes as the spirit of Leo's mother reached toward him. He felt something grasp him and he screamed, flinging his right hand out before him as pain enveloped the arm in the grasp of Leo's mother.

Protect yourself!

Nico could feel the flames spreading up his arm, eating the flesh on his arm. He opened his eyes but all he could see were blue flames.

You need to protect yourself, NOW!

"Enough! I release you! I RELEASE YOU!" The Greek words ripped from Nico's mouth in a desperate pleading command and black mist enveloped the room. Then there was nothing.

Silence and stillness.

Nico scanned the cabin. The room was dark. No glow came from the pool in front of the shrine. She was gone.

Nico vaguely became aware of a pounding on the door where the chair still blocked entry. Apparently, the chair had worked better than he believed.

"Nico di Angelo. You open this door or so help me, I will get the entire population of Camp Half Blood and Jupiter to break it down!" Three more knocks. "Nico? Nico! Do you hear me?"

Nico turned over on the floor and pushed himself to his knees. He took a deep breath, got his feet under him, and shoved himself upwards. His arms throbbed. Looking down, he saw a blistering handprint on his right arm where Leo's mother had grabbed him. Tendrils of burned flesh branched out from the handprint. His left arm slowly oozed blood from the slash across his forearm made for the summoning.

"Nico!" The voice of Will Solace sounded on the other side of the door.

You need to open the door.

Nico tried to call out, but his voice was little more than a hollow whisper. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm here. It's fine. Give me a second." Nico took a deep breath to collect himself and moved the chair away from the door.

Will pushed open the door and stepped partially inside. He gazed around the room. His eyes lingered on the shrine with the dark pool of blood in front of it and then landed on the knife lying on the floor several feet away from Nico. Then he moved his gaze toward Nico. He looked Nico up and down before stepping the rest of the way in and closing the door shut.

"Explain." Will crossed his arms over his chest much like Nico had done earlier in the infirmary.

Nico looked over to the pool, sighed, and looked back to Will.

Tell him. It won't do any harm. Tell him.

"So, you know kids of Hades can summon the dead, right?" Nico searched Will's face. He found no surprise there. "Yeah, so, anyway, I summoned a spirit. That's all." He half-heartedly smiled at the son of Apollo. Will studied him but his expression didn't change.

"So," began Will. "You're telling me that you summoned a spirit. And that's why, walking over here, I heard a high-pitched scream and then your voice screaming out, 'Enough!' and 'I release you.'?"

Nico brought his right hand up to grab the back of his neck. "Yep. That's what you heard."

Will narrowed his eyes. Nico saw Will's eyes flicker to Nico's arm. Will's eyes were filled with concern.

"What in the gods happened to your arm?" Will uncrossed his arms and moved forward to Nico. Before the son of Hades could move, Will had gently grasped his arm and pulled it forward, examining the burn.

"Do you have dry ice in here or something? This is a pretty serious burn." Still holding Nico's arm, Will looked up to the young demigod. "What spirit did you summon, Nico?"

Nico violently pulled his arm from Will's grasp. "It's none of your concern, Solace. Seriously. Back off." He glared at the other camper. "Didn't you swear you wouldn't ask questions that didn't matter or something?" Nico turned his back to Will, cradling his injured arms in front of him.

Will sighed and shoved his hands into his pocket. "I did swear on the River Styx that whatever I asked you would not be without reason. I have a reason, Nico." Nico kept staring at the wall, his back to Will. He didn't understand why the son of Apollo would not back off.

"Listen, Nico. I'm not trying to be a busybody. I genuinely want to know what happened. I followed you after you left. I wanted to apologize and explain." Will moved closer to stand next to Nico and rested his hand on the Ghost King's shoulder. Nico tensed but didn't shrug him off.

"I don't hold with gossip. I know that people make up rumors or embellish facts for lots of different reasons. I want to hear from you. I want to know you." Will tugged on Nico's shoulder. "Can you help me out here? Because, I said it before and I'll keep saying it until you tell me to fuck off. I want to be your friend. I really want you to be mine." Nico stayed silent but the tension left his shoulders. "So, I am asking, as a friend who will not spill your personal secrets: what spirit did you summon?"

It doesn't matter. Tell him. Let him help you. For now.

Nico kept silent for a moment before letting his breath whoosh out in a heavy sigh. His hands came up to rub at his eyes and Will saw him wince as he jostled the cut on his left arm. "And what the hell is that? Where did you get the cut from?"

Nico glowered at Will. "Do you want to know about the spirit or not? Stop asking so many damn questions."

Will stopped talking and looked pointedly at Nico.

"I tried to summon Leo's spirit." Nico finally looked over to Will, his eyes confused and heavy with misery. "He's not dead, Will. I saw the explosion. I felt it just like everyone else. But," Nico shook his head. "I didn't feel him die. I always feel them die. Always. I can feel every single demigod as their life force leaves their body. I can feel it enter the Underworld." Nico looked up at Will. "He's alive, Will. He's alive."

Will held his hand up and took a deep breath. "So, wait. I'm confused. You tried to summon Leo? But,what spirit did you get then if Leo's not dead?" Will gazed expectantly at Nico.

"I think," Nico started. "I think I got Leo's mom. I'm sure of it. Hazel told me a bit about Leo. His mom died in a fire." Hazel had told Nico more than that, but Nico was not going to share more than the facts with Will. It wasn't his business to tell. It hadn't been Hazel's either, but when her nightmares bled over on the Argo, Nico had had to help her settle them. Hazel's nightmares were now mixed up in the garish landscape of his own nightmares. "She died in a fire. She lost track of where she was when I summoned her and started to relive her last moments." Nico fell silent and stared at his arm, remembering the panicked screams from Ms. Valdez as she tried to locate her young son in the fire.

What's done is done. She is gone and Leo is alive. Move on to the next step.

Will gently grabbed Nico's arm again and brought it toward him. "Alright. So, Leo's not dead. That's great news! Right?" Nico nodded.

"He's alive and I'm going to find him. Camp Half-Blood loves Leo. If he's out there, we need him."

"Well," Will started. "We need you too, Death Boy. So, just be careful, would ya?" Will barely ran his hand over Nico's injured arm, skin ghosting against the son of Hades. He whispered a short chant- blisters receded and skin knit anew. "I want you to stick around, remember?"

Nico studied Will, a confused look on his face.

Let him care for you. Let him heal you. Your strength is needed.

Nico shook his head. "Thanks. I'll try to keep that in mind." He looked at the son of Apollo and furrowed his brows. "You really don't need to waste your energy on me, you know."

Will let Nico's right arm drop and reached for his left arm. He repeated the chant, trailing his fingers gently down Nico's skin. The slash Nico had made earlier shrank until unblemished skin gleamed up at the two boys.

Will smiled down at Nico. "It's not a waste, Sunshine." The son of Apollo smoothed his thumb over Nico's forearm before releasing his grip. "Now, care to join me for dinner?"

A/N: I struggled long and hard debating whether or not to put Nico's chants in Greek or English or exclude them altogether. I finally decided to go with English because a.) I wanted the chant there and b.) if I had them in Greek, my feeling is that people either skip over them entirely, or they go down to the A/N to find the translation anyway (thus breaking the story narrative and flow). So, that's what I decided to do. If you guys don't like it, let me know! I do take time to read reviews and absolutely love getting them-even if the review talks about how much they absolutely despise my story!

Anyway, kept with the Spanish in there because, in my experience, most people know a teensy tiny bit of Spanish and can garner what is being said a bit given the appropriate context.

Thank you guys so much for reading (and possibly reviewing?)!

(Spanish)

My son. What of my son?

(Spanish)

Help me! HELP ME!

A/N 2: ALSO! Miskatonic is in reference to H.P. Lovecraft's fictional Miskatonic University where beings would go to study all sorts of interesting things including Necromancy.