Nico had never been a morning person but lately he had been going to the Athena Parthenos before dawn. Today was no exception.

He rested against her shield and felt the flicker of energy from her depths. He closed his eyes and smiled, feeling more relaxed than he had in weeks. He reached in his pocket and ran the tiny gold cross between his fingers. He thought about Camp HalfBlood and whispered, "What am I supposed to do?"

He was startled out of his meditation by Rachel's voice. "There you are! Thank God, I was able to trust my instincts."

"What?"

She looked mildly embarrassed. "Sorry my grams has 'found religion' and trying to push it on me. My family keeps trying to 'save' me. From what I don't know." She smiled sadly and told him, "If they only knew the people I work for."

This wasn't a topic he was ready for. So he said, "You've been watching me."

She rolled her eyes. "You're more obvious than you think. People notice things. Patterns... cries for help..."

He recoiled internally. "I'm fine."

"I'm not saying you aren't. But it is fine if you need to keep coming here."

"I can fix her. She can keep Camp HalfBlood safe again."

"Until another Apollo statue twice her size appears to take her out again." She pulled her backpack off and unzipped it.

"Cafe D'orzo," she said, pulling a glass bottle from inside and tossing it to him. "Did I say that right?"

He smiled at her, surprising himself a little, and said, "Your pronunciation is good."

"I bet everyone would make fun of me if I tried that in Italy," she said, with a laugh.

"Maybe not." He turned the bottle in his hands. The letters scrambled and unscrambled themselves unable to settle on a language. They became a jumbled mess of Ancient Greek, Italian and Latin.

She was watching him, he realized. He opened the bottle and took a sip. It was cold and too sweet but it was close enough, he decided.

"It's brewed from barley," Rachel said, wrinkling her nose.

"Coffee is brewed from beans," he reminded her.

"Touche." She took a deep breath. "Chiron has business off property today. He asked me to handle your orientation this morning. That's why I'm here."

He took another sip to avoid saying anything.

"Emperor Nero found Camp HalfBlood because Meg told him its location," she said.

He almost spit out his drink. "Meg can't be the spy!"

"Meg was a spy. Its great that Apollo helped her find her own place but she won't be able to find us again."

"That's not fair. She was manipulated by Nero."

"She worked for the enemy. She put the lives of the most vulnerable campers at risk by giving up our location to our enemies."

He thought of the cross in his pocket and how if Meg was considered a threat. What would happen if they found out about him.

"Camp HalfBlood is safe, Nico. But Chiron and I and some of the others have noticed you haven't felt that way since."

"But-"

"Look around Nico, we're not being over run by monsters. It was an unfortunate thing that happened but the wards are intact. The statue only found us because it already knew where to find us."

He looked up into the face of the Athena Parthenos. It made sense, what Rachel was telling him. "She's coming back," he whispered.

"Then you're doing the right thing. Just let Chiron worry about the safety of the camp, okay?"

He nodded.

"As for your own safety, Chiron wanted me to remind you that Hades has funded your stay here indefinitely."

"Its hard to stay focused," he admitted.

"I'm sure," Rachel agreed. "Being here right now, complicates things even more, I bet."

"You have no idea."

"I know something about graven images and why you burned your Mythomagic cards with Minos."

Nico paled.

"Just because Percy could walk on water doesn't mean that he's that guy."

"Stop," he shouted at her.

"The son of Hades was born so corrupt already that there was absolutely nothing those priests could do to save you was there?"

Nico covered his ears. "Shut up. Shut up!"

"But if Percy isn't that guy than you can't the other one. And we," she said, pointing to him and then herself and finally the camp behind them, "Are friends."

"But the satyrs and fauns..."

"Yeah that can be uncomfortable," she agreed.

Nico ran the cross between his fingers again. "But He has to be real."

"I don't know. I can't say what I even believe. But I hope that there is something better than, you know."

He nodded.

"Can I get you to try two things for me?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "I want you to remember back when you were at Westover Hall."

"It was a military academy. There were rules about breathing too loud in the hallways and tons of pushups when you broke those rules."

"Focus. Forget about everything else we talked about. Chiron pulled your records. You were gifted with languages."

He almost laughed. "I can barely read English or Ancient Greek."

"Right... when you were there you used the text books that had Braille."

"Which the other kids wouldn't leave me alone about."

"But Bianca was the best older sister wasn't she?"

"She was." Nico stared at the label on his drink, as if he could force the letters to make sense. "But this isn't Braille. It's just different languages thrown together."

Rachel didn't say anything; she just watched him in anticipation.

"Like a military code," he finally said.

"A useful thing for a spy, you know. Linguistics, code breaking and writing. If that's the path someone chooses."

"A spy... I never thought about it like that."

"You're really smart, Nico. Your problem is too much knowledge not too little. It can hard to process all of it. What's real? What's the truth? And how do I cope?" Rachel paused and looked him in the eye. "Is this helping?"

"Yes," he admitted. He pulled out the cross, with its thin chain wrapped around his fingers. "She was shamed by everyone. My mother. Especially her own family. And that was just because she was an unwed mother. If the priests knew about Hades...

I once told Will we weren't practicing Catholics but it was everything to my family. So when we were excommunicated because I was- because of me, it was the last straw. Our family was completely disgraced."

"This might be blasphemy, I wouldn't know. But you can't really compare this," she said, touching the cross, now swinging from his open hand, "To the opinions of a few men who happened to be in power."

"They wanted to kill us. Not just me but my mother and sister too. Our neighbors, the friends we used to have, they all turned on us. And they said it was my fault. So we ran.

Hades was active in D.C. so that's where we went. But it wasn't much safer. It wasn't much different at all. People were still being taken from their homes and killed. Bianca went to school and my mom tried to provide for us but I wasn't allowed to leave the apartment."

"That must have been terrifying."

He nodded. "We were all afraid. Our fears were so real, so present all the time, that my father's warnings of Zeus's wrath seemed silly and unreal to my mother. She wouldn't listen. She was too preoccupied with the fact that we could be lynched at any time." He traced the letters on the label.

"I'm sorry, Nico." She briefly touched his shoulder. "You're one brave kid."

He sighed and slipped the chain back into his pocket. "It was disappointing when I found out that holy water didn't cause me to spontaneously combust."

"A joke? From Nico di Angelo? No one's going to believe me when I tell them about it later."

"Don't get used to it. Besides, what was the other thing?"

"Talk to Will."

Nico gave her a confused look. "I talk to him all the time."

"I know but you two have more in common than you know. Does he ever talk about his family?"

"He won't. So I stopped asking."

"Well, I didn't tell you this but while Texas isn't exactly facist Italy, his family sent him here believing this as a last resort. They think he's being cured of his 'demons'."

"My Will? But he's the best person I know."

"His family put him through a lot. Conversion therapy and Christian bootcamps, none of it worked. He's just as incurable as you.

But now, both of you are doing great. You're doing the right thing. You're reclaiming your past while overcoming the religious abuse. Regardless of what they have told you, Chiron and the rest of us would encourage you to keep that with you. And maybe, encourage Will to do the same."

Nico studied her face. It was natural for him to be suspicious, after all. "Your fingers didn't burn when you touched the cross either."

She shook her head. "Of course not. Guess I'm not a demon either." She slung her back pack over her shoulder. "Talk to Will."