Nico

Nico di Angelo could have sworn that just a few days ago the world made sense.

Because a few days ago Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase were loyal demigods.

Because a few days ago he didn't have to help his Father search for a dead God before giving up.

Because just a few godsdamned days ago no one in Camp was asking him to approve scout picket assignments or ask his advice on defensive measures.

He hadn't had much sleep the past day, not when his father had told him to head back to camp. Not when Will had basically pushed him to play mediator. "You're a neutral party Neeks. You gotta do this."

And after a day of dealing with bullshit, he was woken after a few hours by horns.

Some Campers arranged themselves outside of their cabins, the U-shape serving as the Greeks' assembly point. The older ones expected a fight. The younger ones had been told not to get up.

"What is it" He said drowsily to the two campers who had been on the scout pickets.

"It's the Hunters sir! And Lady Artemis. Katie told us to get you." The boy seemed nervously excited. Not all campers were used to getting visits from the Gods.

Nico grimaced at being called sir. He was like, 16. He was pretty sure the kid in front of him was a year younger than him at most.

"Alright. Tell everyone to calm down and head back to bed."

"Oh, and they have wounded too!" the camper, a son of Hecate called as he ran off to do as Nico asked.

Nico flinched. There were many possibilities as to why they had injuries of course but…

"Run to Will and tell him to get emergency kits prepared. And ask the Ares and Nemesis cabins to double the perimeter pickets tonight. If they ask why, tell them I said so."

The Hunters were welcomed into camp by silent stares.

He watched as the girls marched through camp towards the medical tents that Will had set up outside his cabin. The stream of wounded seemed unending, and any with minor injuries were asked to just head back to Artemis's cabin and rest instead of filling up the space.

He watched in awe as a girl who looked about his age was covered with cuts that bled ichor, her limp evident as she was supported on each side by a Hunter. Despite the early hour, more than a few whispers had already started as soon as she was seen by campers. Lady Artemis was alive but bruised and battered.

"Nico." Thalia said as she passed. She looked haggard and pained, and not just physically. Her left arm lay limp at her side. "None of mine can stand guard. Can you…?"

"I can take care of it Thalia." He assured the daughter of Zeus. There were more than a few around who had realized what had happened.

The only explanation was them.

He watched as the girls walked to the medical tents, their heads hung in shame and defeat, their eyes brimming with rage. He followed the column, bringing up the rear, behind a girl who looked like she was barely old enough to be in High School, her elbow twisted at an unnatural angle.

There was no place to sit in the tents, not while the chairs and beds were filled with those who actually needed to be treated. His drowsiness threatening to rear its head but with Chiron on bedrest and Clarisse with broken legs, he was technically the unofficial head of Camp. He had to at least be there while a Goddess was getting treated by his boyfriend.

"You've got some cuts and Internal bleeding my lady. And you seem to have lost a lot of Ichor." Will said as he examined the Goddess in the best bed in the tent. Hunters watched him warily but most were too injured to do anything but glare warnings at him. It helped that he was technically her nephew. One of Will's sisters helped him, but it was clear he was the best medic in the Camp and no one else was ready to help an Immortal get back on their feet.

The Goddess nodded as she leaned back. "Perseus kept my wounds bleeding constantly during the battle. I almost didn't notice until halfway through. You father will be arriving at dawn to heal me, so you must do what you can until then nephew." She commanded with a trembling voice.

Nico flinched. To have done this much damage…

"Nico. Where's Chiron?" Thalia asked while one of Will's sisters checked on her arm and fed her some ambrosia.

"I've ordered him on bedrest. Percy and Annabeth did a number on him, but I could tell they didn't want to hurt him too badly. He's mostly recovered but… he's not… himself at the moment." Will answered for him as he cleaned the Ichor from Artemis's wounds.

She grimaced but recovered quickly. "How many campers do you have that are combat ready? My hunters might need a few hours to sleep but we can march at midday tomorrow, screening for your forces. We might be able to catch up to them."

The campers in the tent looked nervously at Nico before resuming their work. They knew the situation just as much as he did, he supposed. A hunter, Phoebe if he recalled her name correctly, stood beside Thalia and placed a hand on her shoulder and continued with a somber tone. "Lieutenant. We have marched all night to get here, and we must also ascertain our own losses."

"30 of my Hunters will be paying Charon's fare." Artemis said quietly and with a somber tone. She looked to Will and asked, "What of our wounded?"

His boyfriend grimaced but soldiered on, wiping down some of the Ichor. "You've got maybe 20 or so seriously injured, with chances of survival being moderate. The rest are moderately injured or minor enough that one of my siblings decided to just send them back to Cabin 8 to rest. I don't know if you'll be able to march off to war tomorrow." He directed that last part at Thalia, who seemed to scowl.

"Fine. But I still need to know how much manpower Camp can contribute if we need it, Nico?" Jason's sister looked at him with an inquisitive gaze.

Nico hesitated and Will gave him a brief look of reassurance before continuing to dress the Goddess's wounds.

"That's difficult to say." He started. He was not scared of Zeus's daughter.

Thalia narrowed her eyes at him.

"Seems easy enough. How many campers are here?" She asked with a glare, as if daring him not to answer.

Will butted in. "Thalia, Nico's barely keeping Camp Half-Blood from imploding as it is. If you want him to order a ma-"

"Will." He stopped his boyfriend with a word and a look. He reacted with a huff before turning back to Artemis.

"He's right. The Camp is in no shape to march against Percy and Annabeth."

"And if Olympus asked you to defend it, would you have the campers stay in bed son of Hades?" Artemis asked with a pointed glare.

An Olympian glare was not easy thing to just brush off for most demigods, but Nico wasn't most demigods.

"Your father may be King of the Gods, both of you, but if I announced that we'd be marching against Percy and Annabeth, half of the campers would desert and go home or worse, join them. You'll have a good number joining you, I'm sure, but more than a few would be young kids with no experience fighting dracenae, let alone fighting demigods as powerful as them." He explained. "The Ares cabin might be your best bet, and Clarisse has good pull. But she's the strongest demigod camper by far, with the exception of myself, and Percy beat her in seconds. Everyone here listened as they forced Mr. D to his knees and killed him. Despite the fact that he was an alcoholic who drank Diet Coke and continually messed with us, he was still an Olympian, one of the 12. And you want them to fight against the duo who put him on his knees and made him beg? Most would be too scared to raise a sword against them. You'd get maybe 20 campers at most who can fight."

"And do you include yourself in that number Mr. di Angelo?" Artemis asked with pointed curiosity.

Nico stilled before taking a breath, and he noticed Will and several Apollo campers were looking his way, before he answered the Goddess with a neutral tone. "I'm needed at camp. I can barely gather enough people for perimeter pickets that I trust won't just let them through if they asked. Half of the counsellors are friends who I trust with my life but would rather fight with Percy and Annabeth than against them, and the camp boundaries won't keep them out because they're demigods."

There was tension in the tent before Thalia cursed in ancient greek. "This was Annabeth's plan, of course. She knew we'd march through the night to reach Camp to get medical treatment considering our losses. We're professionals, most of our best fighters have decades, if not centuries, of experience, and we're trained by a Goddess." She snorted. "Most of the campers come in the summer and don't have experience fighting in real battles. And we just marched into this camp and showed everyone here that we lost almost a quarter of our sisters to the two of them, and our patron Goddess is heavily injured." She finished with a pained tone.

"Nico's right. We won't be getting much help when we've just helpfully given a visual demonstration of just how powerful they are." Thalia finished before she brough her head back up to look at her Godly sister.

Phoebe's faced turned in thought before she let out a quiet curse as well, huffing as she did so. The Apollo camper treating her shoulder gave her a glare.

"The girl takes after Athena well. I did not think of it this way." Artemis let the point stand. "But perhaps we may not need Camp Half-Blood to march. My father is taking a personal interest in this matter, and I believe several on the Council will be acting directly to eliminate them."

"The Gods are going to fight their own battle for once?" Nico regretted the words after they came out.

Half the Hunters in the tent put a hand on their bow or other weapon, Thalia's fingers crackled.

"Watch your tongue boy." Artemis snarled. The Maiden Goddess gave him a pointed glare, but with Will working on her, it was not as effective as she likely thought it was.

He apologized, not so sincerely that Artemis believed him, but it was polite enough to be acceptable, before excusing himself.

He needed the air.

He didn't know long he stood in the dark, just letting the shadows give him some well needed energy.

The camp was already starting to stir. The Harpies were pretty much just making sure that no one was gallivanting around camp at night, as he had already cleared it with the local dryads and the other nature spirits to let the patrolling campers be. Not that anyone would be doing anything stupid at night. Too many campers were restless, and a few of the younger ones had asked if they could be sent home instead of remaining at camp. Nico did not have a clue how to get them home, so he had sent a few of the Aphrodite and Demeter kids to keep them cheerful. The Ares kids were preparing for war, and most of the children of Minor Gods were starting to have hushed discussions among themselves.

Half of the cabins were just trying to get by with normal camp things, which he was grateful for. The more campers who were worried about training and climbing the lava wall were less campers raising tension. The Stoll brothers were his biggest allies in that area. Their pranks were usually annoying, but they had toned it down to being more on the entertaining side. Travis and Katie seemed to be spending more and more time together, and while he hated the Aphrodite cabin's penchant for gossip sometimes, it seemed to help some people relax. Mealtimes were mostly quiet now, with the absence of both Chiron and Dionysus at the Hall, the scraping of utensils on plates filled the air as no one really knew what to talk about.

He tried not to stare too obviously when some campers neglected to get up and offer up part of the food to the Gods.

He sighed as he thought of Chiron. He wasn't beat up too badly, just shaken up mostly. Will had told him that the damage was mostly psychological. It was possible that Mr. D had hit him with a bout of madness inadvertently before his own feelings regarding even more of his students turning on the gods just exacerbated the situation.

His head hurt. It just seemed like there was too much on his mind these days.

"Nico." He heard his boyfriend call him softly as he walked up behind him. "It'll be dawn in a few minutes, so my dad's probably on his way already. I've done what I can for Artemis and she recommended I rest for a bit." Nico looked at the sunny boy in his life and saw he looked pretty haggard, whatever healing spells he had used must have taken a lot out of him.

He just nodded and felt a rush of pleasure as the son of Apollo embraced him from behind, their fingers intertwining as they looked over the camp.

"We need some alone time today Neeks. Or you're going to end up exploding due to stress." He whispered in his ear. "Doctor's Orders."

Nico couldn't help but give him a faint smile. "Oh? Do Doctor's Orders include sex now?"

His lover softly slapped him, and they both let out a few relaxing sighs. Will said he kept the camp from imploding, but Nico honestly would have been lost without him.

The sun shone brightly over the camp, before the Sun Chariot descended from the heavens, making a beeline to land outside Cabin 7. He watched as a golden figure ran out of the chariot and entered the medical tents at speed. Even Gods rushed when their siblings were at stake it seemed.

"Might as well greet another God. Wouldn't want to be impolite." He finally said, the sarcasm evident.

"Especially not your boyfriend's dad." Will added with a raised eyebrow, the words made Nico inwardly groan. As if some of his best friends turning traitor wasn't enough, he had to deal with the usual teenage drama too. Demigods had the worst luck.

Looking eastwards, the first rays of the sun seemed to stretch infinitely across the sky, rising faster than it should. Apollo must have rushed his chariot a little.

The God was hunched over his sister, with a look of concentration on his face that reminded him of Will when he was busy studying to enter one of those pre-med courses he wanted to get into.

The God had likely already gone through his usual greeting of bad poetry, from the grimaces of some of the hunters in the tent.

"He did quite a number on you sis." He heard the low voice. "Like he was really serious about fighting you."

Artemis just nodded as her wounds were starting to close faster. "I fear what would have happened had my lieutenant been more injured than she was." The words were shocking in their truthfulness. "I might have shared Dionysus's fate last night, had I not been so fortunate in our sister being as powerful as she is."

Apollo's face screwed in concentration for a few seconds before he caught sight of the son of Hades and gave him a small smile. "Well, there's the little hero doing his best to keep Camp Half-Blood together huh. You and Will better be doing it safely kid."

He couldn't stop the blood from rushing to his face and he doubted that Will's was any less red.

Artemis raised her eyebrow questioningly. "Oh? I did not realize."

Apollo just shrugged. "I'm just glad one of my kids is getting it on with a kid of the Big Three. Those are rare catches. I'm pretty sure Hermes and I had a bet a long time ago on who would get one first." He said with a shit-eating grin as he placed a hand over his sister's legs to heal them, the bruises seemed to pale almost instantly.

"Hello Lord Apollo." Nico managed to squeak out with some difficulty. "Be welcome to Camp." His tone was far from welcoming, but Will put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

The God gave him another knowing smile before he went back to focusing on his twin. "Arty. I think you'll have to stay at Olympus for a bit. Get into your true form to rest better."

"I shall leave my hunters here for a while. We may proceed with funerary rights today when I return later." Artemis ordered to her lieutenant. "And have our hunters take over the perimeter patrols as soon as some of them are ready." Thalia just nodded.

Nico wasn't quite sure why, but he decided to speak up. "Thalia, you're not taking campers off patrols."

Artemis ignored him, but Thalia and the hunters bore holes into him with their eyes.

"I do as my lady commands Nico. Give the campers some re-"

"I'm not letting you and yours take over camp Grace." He said coldly. "This is Camp Half-Blood, not the personal vacation home of Artemis's Hunters."

"Watch your tone boy." Artemis chimed in with authority.

"This camp must be defended by its campers. I won't allow you to take over patrols entirely." He said, knowing how rebellious he must seem. He paused, knowing that another kid of the Big Three antagonizing a loyal Olympian must not be a good look, especially right now. "But I'll allow a compromise. Half campers and half hunters."

Artemis said nothing, clearly allowing Thalia to be the one to speak. "Fine. But don't complain when your guys get arrows in their butts di Angelo." She said after a few moments of hesitation, and with obvious forced humor in her voice. She eyed him with care.

Nico loved Jason like a brother, and he thought of Thalia as a good friend. He wondered if that was going to change too.

"You should head to Olympus. Dad's drafted me in his latest plan I'm afraid." Apollo said to his sister, ignoring the Half-bloods in the room. "I'll be hitting em' with high velocity arrows from the Chariot. I doubt they'll survive long after today." He explained the plan matter-of-factly, but Will tensed beside him. Apollo was trying to keep his emotions from leaking out, but his son could sense the uneasiness, most likely.

Nico's blood went cold. The Gods were going to deal with Percy and Annabeth. Either he was going to see them in the Underworld, or things were going to get further out of hand.

"May Tyche favor you." Artemis said solemnly before she instructed them to look away. Everyone in the tent complied quickly and with a bright silver light her true form was revealed. As the light died down and the powerful presence stopped, he turned to see that she had disappeared.

Nico turned and left the tent, his black cloak swished in the wind and he idly wondered what he looked like as he walked around the camp, campers already rising to face the new day. Many turned their eyes onto him as he walked, and he just hoped that he could be what Percy was to so many of them.

"Can I really do this Will?" He asked, his voice a whisper on the wind. "Lead Camp? Be what Percy was?"

Will's answer was hesitant, like the sun rising slowly after a long winter night. "I think… in his own way, Percy wouldn't have left without making sure you were ready for this. And you are ready for this Death Boy. Not just because you've got no choice, but because you are the best choice for this."

Nico was reminded then that Will had been made Head Counsellor at Manhattan, after two of his brothers had given their lives believing with all their might that Percy Jackson was going to be their savior. Will had been there at the Battle of the Labryinth, when Lee Fletcher fought for the two of them, he had watched as Michael Yew gave his life for the son of the sea.

And Will chose Nico.

"I love you."

"I love you too."

They would have to break apart soon, separating in order to get the campers ready for another day in this crazy new world that Percy and Annabeth had forced them to live in.

But as they held each other, the hundred-and-one thoughts plaguing his mind seemed to disappear into the bright sun that was his boyfriend.

Notes:

I wanted to give off the impression that, while Nico doesn't agree with Percy and Annabeth, he doesn't think it's worth fighting them. The fact is that Nico is in a good place in Canon. He's more respected and well-known in camp, he's got Hazel, his friends and a boyfriend, and he gets along with his dad and step-mom. He doesn't necessarily want to throw all that away just to side with the guy he used to have a crush on, even if Percy is one of his closest friends.

Sidenote: I do think Rick sorta rushed Solangelo, but it is a nice ship anyway.

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