'Hey, Neeks?' Will put his hand on Nico's arm. They were laying on the grass on half-blood hill, just past curfew.
'Hm?'
'What would you do if you had a time machine?' Nico turned his head towards Will.
'What?'
'Like, if you had a way to jump through time. What would you see, or do, or try...'
'I don't know. I can hardly pick what I want for dinner, why are you asking something like this?'
Will shrugged. 'I... I think I would to travel back to the first Titan war, or something.' He heard Nico laugh. 'And then what? Tell Kronos what Zeus so that the gods die?' Will sighed.
'Anything but that, Nico. Literally anything but that.'
'So, you would rather go to Zeus and tell him that...'
'Neeks!'
'Alright, alright.' Nico grinned. Will Scoffed.
'I think I am going to bed.' Will got up.
'Will? Will, I didn't mean it!' Nico sat up and gave Will his biggest puppy dog eyes. Will sighed and kissed him on the head.
'See you tomorrow, Neeks.' He walked away. Nico stayed behind, on half blood hill. He fell back into the grass and looked up at the moon.
What Would I do if I could time travel? He thought. It was almost a full moon - only two days to go. Nico took a deep breath. He had to go back to his cabin soon - he didn't feel like getting eaten by the harpies that day. He took another deep breath, and closed his eyes for a small, short moment (Which, you know, famous last words in this book).
When Nico opened his eyes again, the space around him was dark. Nico blinked a few times. Nothing happened. The enviorement felt cold, and empty, like a huge nothing. Slowly, he tried to move his arms. He felt them going up and down, but couldn't see them. He also realised that he could move them around surprisingly quickly. He moved his hand close to his face. He couldn't make out the silhouette. 'Will?' he whispered. He heard his own voice, but it didn't go anywhere.
He noticed something in the corner of his eye. He tried to turn around, to see what it was. His body moved quickly, like he was spinning around in some kind of sick funfair ride (He had been on a really traumatic ride once. He knew what it felt like). He didn't see anything. He blinked.
Now, he saw a white speck, somewhere on the 'horizon' (He couldn't think of a better word, but it also wasn't a horizon). He narrowed his eyes. The white ball got bigger. Nico moved his arm slightly back. The speck expanded even more. The white light was blinding. Nico held his arms in front of his eyes and snapped them close, trying to shield himself from the blinding white nothingness.
When he opened his eyes again, he was still floating around in what felt like nothing. Yet, this time he could see things. He was floating over a giant, red orb. He blinked. He couldn't move his body, but he felt like he was being pulled towards the red orb. He felt something run down his cheek. It felt so weird that he shivered and closed his eyes again.
He kept them closed this time for a few minutes. Slowly, he opened one eye. He saw clouds and blue sky. He opened the other eye. He tried to move his fingers. He felt a wave of relief when he realised that he could move them all. He realised he was laying down on something soft. 'Must have been a bad dream,' he muttered.
Slowly, he tried to sit up straight. For a few seconds, he had a few sun specks in his eyes. Yet, he did not fall back down on the grass. When he got his eyesight back, he looked around. He had expected to see half blood hill, but instead he was sitting on a small patch of grass, close to the end of a cliff. Behind him was a forest. In the distance, he saw a mountain range.
He stood up, which caused more sun spots to fly in front of his eyes. After they were gone, he tried to look over the edge of the cliff. He had to bite his tongue to not scream. Down in the valley walked a family brontosauri.
Now, Nico had expected to see a lot of things. But a huge, alive dinosaur out of the jurassic period was not one of them. He shook his head, but made sure he didn't blink. He leaned over the edge again. He saw some other small dinosaurs walk around, seemingly trying not to get stepped on by the huge brontosaurusi.
He had to close his eyes - it was too much to take in. When he opened them again, the earth looked bare. It was raining a little. For some reason, the rain hurt the parts of his body that were not covered with clothes and it left marks on the parts that were. Nico didn't see a lot of dinosaurs anymore, even though he concluded that he was still standing on the same ledge.
Behind him, he heard something. He turned his head around. A giant boulder was barreling towards him. He screamed, put a few steps back and slipped of the edge.
Before he plummeted to his death, he closed his eyes again. After a few seconds, he was lying down again, somewhere in a forest. He coughed. Behind him, he heard a giggle. He turned his head to the side. Next to him sat a dryad. She had a small basket of fruit next to her. 'Oh! You're here!' She blushed. Nico swallowed.
'Eh... yeah. How... What year is it?' Nico asked.
The nymph blinked. 'The year? Did lord Zeus announce something about a year? What is that?' Nico shook his head. 'No, I don't think that was Zeus. Eh...' Nico bit his nail. The girl tilted her head, seemingly waiting on him to say something.
'Are humans already a thing?' He decided to ask. The dryad laid her hand on her fruit.
'Humans? What are those? Where they a thing Kronos had? I thought that were dinosaurs...' Nico turned his head towards the sky again. He was confused. 'Hey, is everything alright?' he heard the nymph ask. 'Do you want some fruit?' Nico didn't answer. Instead, he closed his eyes again.
He opened them again when he heard voices. He jolted up and looked around to see if there were actual humans around. Behind him, he did see two humans, with bows, baskets and wearing animal hides. So, two humans who were clearly hunter-gatherers. Nico rolled his eyes. One of the hunters yelled something at him in an ancient language that was unknown to a modern boy like Nico (And, lets be real, everyone in our time). Nico dropped back down on the ground and closed his eyes again, before one of the men could shoot hi.
This time, he waited until he heard so many voices that he was sure the humans weren't still in the hunter-gatherer period. When he dramatically opened his eyes again, The first thing he saw was a building in the style of the Big House, but smaller. A young woman was looking at him. When she realised he was looking back, she quickly pulled her head scarf around her head and padded back into her house. Nico swiftly jumped up.
Alright, this looks like the ancient greek period, he thought. Nico realised he hadn't tried walking around in the weird places yet. He still didn't understand what in the name of the gods was going on, but he had gotten used to situations like that and exploring the area for a bit had never worked out wrong (Except for that one time, a little while ago, when Clarisse got trapped after Annabeth had tried to look around. She told that story every single time she got the chance).
From the five minutes he spend walking around, he concluded that he was in Olympia. He had been there once, and Chiron had a big map of . The city wasn't very big, he thought, but it was so… clean and neat. Nico leaned against a pilar in the middle of the square. In the back of his mind, he started to realise what was going on. He sighed. For a few seconds, he closed his eyes.
He heard someone scream behind him. Nico smelled smoke. The world around him was hot. He wasn't lying down anymore - he was standing up straight. He felt the adrealine flow through his body. He opened his eyes. The world around him was on fire. He saw people run around with buckets of water. Whatever it was, Nico didn't want to be there. The great fire of London, he thought, before closing his eyes again.
He kept them closed until the sounds around him started to fade. He opened one eye again. The sun was big and red. He saw a weird type of creature running around by his feet. He sighed - his breath shivered. He dropped back on the ground and kept his eyes closed until he became unconcious.
He woke up in the sick bay of camp Half blood. Will was sitting next to his bed. He looked tired. When he saw that Nico's eyes were open, he shot up straight. 'Neeks! Thank the gods, you are awake! Why didn't you go to bed last night? We found you on half blood hill, unconcious, with the harpies around you...' Will shook his head. 'I love you, Neeks. Just, tell me what happened.' Nico didn't answer right away. He felt groggy.
'Remember a few weeks ago? When I got stuck in the underworld with the elder gods?' Will nodded. 'Yes, of course.'
'Something like that, but... like, it was time travel. I saw Olympia, the old city, the time of Kronos I guess… The great fire of London... I don't know, Will.' Will sighed. He sat down on Nico's bed and put his hand on Nico's forehead.
'Nico, how sure are you that there isn't some god toying with you?'
'So it wasn't a fever dream?'
'I was thinking that too.' Nico sighed deeply. So did Will. 'So, Neeks, anything interesting in the past?'
'I think that the earth was inhabited by the dinosaurs during the Titan age. The Meteor was probably rocks thrown by the hekatonkheires.' Will couldn't help it; he laughed.
'You should get some more rest, Nico. And no more adventurous trips through time, alright?' Nico smiled. 'Yeah, good idea. Also, Will?'
'Hm?'
Nico reached up and kissed Will on the cheek. 'I love you too.'