Hey readers, just so you know the poll i mentioned last chapter is up so please go vote. also i should state that Son of Tartarus takes place before Trials of
Apollo. also I am also holding a Fan art contest as of right now, for anyone who can make the best artwork of Nigel, him wi his weapons, ship art of him and Reyna or a scene from the story. the winner or winners will have their art linked to in a future chapter. to enter send me a link to the artwork via PM
Chapter 10: Nico pushes my buttons, I get an idea.
Nico Di Angelo, Son of Hades, pushes all the wrong buttons for me. And not in a good way, I mean like in a 'I wanna rip his little head off of his scrawny shoulders' kinda way.
Reason why? He's an annoying little punk who either refuses to be at least hospitable for the sake of pissing me off, or just weirds me out with all his 'demigod of death' mojo. I still have nightmares about the time he brought a cat skeleton back to life, which he now keeps as a pet!
Yeah, let that pretty picture sink in. But that's not the worst of it, the kid also shadow traveled me to the middle of a graveyard, at night (at midnight!), in the middle of a rainstorm! Knowing damn well that I'm terrified of graveyards.
But besides all that he just generally creeps me out. The reason why, I have no idea, he just does for some reason. And of course I'd say that the feeling of resentment is mutual on his end because he does exactly go out of his way to make things any better (well neither do I, but hey frickin details am I right?)
This all of course came to a head today in the most explosive way possible, so much so that I'm still trying to piece together what exactly happened to lead up to it. Now, let me set the scene for you.
A couple of days had passed since the whole fiasco with my duel with Reyna and me losing control and everyone was pretty scared at first (but honestly why wouldn't they be?) but then they actually started going out of their way to be nice to me. I honestly don't know why, but something told me it was probably because of how I had cried afterwards and how terrible I felt.
All I know is that I was both flattered and confused, though I didn't want anyone to pity me so I told them I was fine. But of course the more persistent ones saw right through that play, like for example.,.
"I told you already! I'm fine, I don't need your pity or want it!" I snapped at Percy and Annabeth, who were trying for the millionth time to try and get me to open up to them.
Annabeth, true to form, was having none of that. How could I tell? Simple, Athena kids showed what they were thinking with their facial expressions than their mouths ever could.
"Oh get over yourself. Us trying to be good and considerate friends is not the same as pitying you." She stated, crossing her arms.
Percy meanwhile, nodded in agreement with what his girlfriend was saying and put a hand on my shoulder. "Annabeth's right Nigel, we're just trying to help, you're our friend, and when a friend's in trouble, it's our job to help."
This caused me to bury my face in my hands. "You guys really want to know what's bothering me?" I asked.
"That's exactly it." Jason chimed. "Trust me, it helps."
I looked at the sun of Jupiter and sighed. "I almost killed Reyna, and I could've really hurt everyone else. All because I wasn't keeping my powers in check. Do you even know how that kind of guilt feels?" I said.
I saw Piper give Jason a look I couldn't understand, then he nodded and looked back at me.
"Yes, I do actually." Jason said.
I looked at him in confusion. "What?"
"We had a friend, Leo Valdez, he was a Son of hephaestus who had the gift of Fire." Jason explained.
"Only it soon proved to be more of a curse." Piper added. "When he was little he lost control of his fire, and burned his house down, with his mom inside. Or at least that's what he thought."
"Huh?" I asked.
"Turns out it was caused by one of Gaea, he was only trying to defend him and it went wrong, but that didn't stop Leo from feeling immense guilt for something that wasn't even his fault. But he eventually got over it and by doing that, he actually became one of the strongest demigods ever." Jason said.
I sat back as this sank in. I had heard a lot about this Leo guy from kids from the Hephaestus cabin, but every time I asked where he was, I always got the same answer, cold hard silence, like it was a touchy subject or something.
"I've heard about that guy. Do you guys know where he is?" I asked Piper.
She looked away. "Well…"
"We're not sure, he disappeared after the final battle with the Giants, and no one's seen or heard from him since." Jason interjected.
"A lot of people think he's dead." Nico said finally, having been dead silent the entire time (heh, see what I did there?). "But I know for a fact he's not."
"And you know this, how?" I asked, getting pretty aggravated at the guys tone, doesn't he know how to read the room?
"I'm a Son of Hades, I'm able to sense when someone's dead, dying, or about to die. And Leo, he's none of those things." He said, I couldn't tell if he was being smug about it or not.
"And you neglected to tell the people who thought he was dead this, why?" I said, glaring at him.
"I didn't 'neglect' to tell them. Some just prefer to think he's dead, rather than have to wonder where he could be, I dunno, must be part of their grieving process." The Son of hades shrugged.
I kinda saw where he was coming from, I had known a few people who had done that as part of their grieving process. I could understand that, even if I couldn't stand Nico, but at least he did understand how people were when grieving that is.
Things were quiet for a few minutes, until something came floating around us in the air (which was noticed by Jason), it was dirty a slightly burnt envelope, which blew through the air until it came to our face levels. Which then lead to it blowing into my face, causing me to nearly fall over.
"Gah! Son of a-" I said as I pulled the envelope off my face as I looked at the address. My eyes nearly went out of my skull when I saw who had sent it.
"G-g-g-guys, th-thi-this letter it's-it's from.." I tried to say as I shakily handed it to Percy, who took it and looked, looking just as surprised as I was.
"Its from Leo." Percy finally stated. The others all became just as shocked as I was as Percy opened up the letter, which turned out to be a holographic one.
The hologram showed an image of a guy around our age who looked like a Latino Santa's elf (is that racist? Seems racist). He was around 5'6, about the same height as Piper, with a diminutive stature, and a slim and relatively scrawny build. He also had curly black hair, dark brown eyes, pointy ears, a cheerful, elf-like face.
The message started to play as the guy, who turned out to definitely be Leo, told us that he was alive and was traveling back to Camp Half Blood with someone named calypso and said to have tacos ready for him when he got back, there was also some spots that were full of static.
As the message ended everyone seemed to be a mixture of annoyed, mad as hell, happy, and at the verge of tears as they all hugged each other.
I couldn't help but smile, I couldn't put my finger on why, but it made me happy to see them happy. Then that's when I had an idea, a wonderful, awesome idea.
"Guys. I think I just had an idea." I said.
Everyone looked at me. "What?"
"What if I went on a quest to help Leo get back to Camp?" I asked.
The others all looked at each other, then back at me, looking at me like I lobsters crawling out of my ears when I mentioned the word 'quest'. I got the feeling that quests weren't like what I heard about.
"You sure?" Percy asked. "I mean, going on your first quest is a pretty big step."
I smirked as pumped my fist in the air. "Oh I'm sure."
That's when I heard Nico scoff. "You must have a Death wish."
That was the last straw for me, I growled and vaulted over the picnic table and jumped at him. "Why you little-come here!"
"There they go again." Annabeth sighed.
."I'll get the first aid." Percy said as he left.
"How many times is that this week? Three?" Piper asked.
Jason shrugged. "I don't know, I stopped counting."
Little did I know, though, that my first quest would start a domino effect that would cause a lot more trouble than any of us could have anticipated.