Chapter 24: Lazarus steals from Set

I slowly woke up after passing out in the middle of the Hall of ages, all I could remember was that Desjardins guy insulting us before I gave him what for, then everything went black.

My eyes fluttered open as I noticed my head was on something soft, or rather two somethings. I turned and I was met with a very familiar looking smooth and toned story which was covered by a purple Camp Jupiter shirt. I then looked up and saw Reyna looking over me as she stroked my hair. Gods I loved it when she did that.

"Urg." I groaned as I sat up, my whole body still aching. "How long was I out?" She sighed as she rubbed my back before smacking me in the back of my head. "Ow! What was that for?!" I yelped as I clutched my head.

"That was for over exerting yourself, again! And you were out for two days." She snapped at me. She then sighed as she facepalmed. "Gods what am I going to do with you Nigel?"

I looked at her in surprise, two days? How'd that happen? I then looked at her then at my hands. "I need to push myself, it's the only way I can get stronger." Reyna looked at me in understanding as she gripped my hand, I laid my head on her chest as I listened to her heartbeat. "Ah, this is nice…"

We stayed like this for awhile before something came to me that I had wanted to ask her when we had first kissed. "Hey Reyna?" I asked. She looked at me as I continued. "When did you actually start liking me? I knew I liked you pretty late in the game, as hard as that is to admit."

Reyna was quiet for a second. "I'd say it was after our heart to heart conversations during our first quest together." She then continued. "Before then I had considered you a friend, but after we both managed to exchange our secrets with each other, I guess that's when the seeds of a crush were planted in me."

I took this in, so we were both pretty slow, good to know. I laid back on her lap and noticed we were in my bunk at the Poseidon cabin. I thought back to when I told my foster parents about the camp and how I liked living here, of course I'd be going back to see them when Camp was on break, but they understood why I decided to spend more time here, I mean I do have some great friends.

Our quiet moment was pretty much ruined When Percy and Annabeth came barging in. I tell you their timing is impeccable when it comes to that. They came in and I sat up from Reyna's lap.

"Guys we got a problem." Percy said.

"What?" I asked. They told us to follow them and we soon found that there was a weird animal of some sort surrounded by the other campers and two very familiar looking kids. "Is that the Kanes?"

"Yeah, apparently they had ended up in DC and were about to get on a plane to Memphis but were chased by that thing." Percy explained. "The girl said that when they were running she took out the compass that Reyna gave her and it lead them to one of the instant entrances and ended up here."

"Wait we have those?" I asked as I put on my Tartarus silver knuckle dusters.

"They're usually only for emergencies." Annabeth nodded. We all looked at what had chased the Kanes here and it was really ugly. The creature looked like a cross between a jackal, a snake and a big wolf.

I clenched my fists and let my darkness surround them and charged at the beast, sliding in while pivoting on my left foot while slamming my fist in the creature's face in a downward punch and sending it to the ground.

The animal shook its head as it got up wobbly and tried to stay up. I took this opportunity to keep punching it over and over again, then I gave it a good uppercut to the lower jaw, which caused it to rear up and fall flat on its back.

I jumped back and turned towards Percy as it was starting to get back up. "Okay Perc, Let's give Fido here a bath!" The Son of Poseidon nodded as he conjured up some water from the stream next to the cave and washed the animal with it, making it fall on its stomach as it lost its footing again.

I jumped back again as I landed next to Clarisse, who had her electric spear Maimer with her. "Alright La Rue, light em up." I told her as she smirked and twirled her spear as it sparked and crackled with electricity.

She threw the spear right at the animal as it rose itself up, which allowed the spear to go dead center into its chest and then-ZAP-the animal was soon being electrocuted as if it had been hooked up to a generator by some jumper cables. The beasts skin sizzled and burned until pretty soon it's charred skeleton was all that was left, standing there jaw agape as it then crumbled into ash.

I stretched out my hand as I made it into another stone. I looked at it and it also had a red core. What was with that? I shrugged and just put the stone in my bag and tied it shut. Everyone went over to the Kane kids and they were both pretty shaken. Especially Sadie, she seemed shaken because she had temporarily turned herself into a Kite earlier.

We brought them and Bast to Chiron and Mr. D, apparently while I was out Artemis and the Hunters had left. We all sat in the councilor office while Carter and Sadie explained the situation. I was pretty glad that they were able to get here, but then I decided to ask.

"So my guess is you need to get to Memphis right? To meet this Toth guy?" I asked.

"Yeah." Carter nodded.

"Well okay then, looks like we're going to DC." I got up and turned to Chiron. "Say Chiron." He turned to me expectantly. "Do those transport caves work two ways by any chance?"

(Meanwhile in Phoenix Arizona, Lazarus POV)

I skid back in the sand of the desert floor and my Stygian iron short sword dug into the ground to stop my movement. I looked up as I saw Set's fiery apparition being distracted by the Demigods who had been chasing me. I spat in the sand as I stood up.

"Now look what you idiots did." I said as I walked forward. "If you hadn't gotten in my way, this wouldn't have happened."

"Why Don't you do us all a favor and just shut and fight then?!" The Son of Jupiter, Jason yelled.

I rolled my eyes. Not that I could argue with his logic, as the old saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I charged forward and leaped on Set's back, darkness coating my body as I started siphoning off his godly essence as I felt myself grow stronger as he grew weaker.

Set roared as he threw me off, but it was all for naught, the damage was already done, his flaming body started to flicker and fizzle out as he tried to keep himself together.

"This host is starting to reject me? Now? Impossible!" He roared as he was suddenly slowly separated from his physical form. "Noooo!" He roared as he disappeared, leaving the charred remains of a man behind.

I could feel his essence empower me as I faced the three Demigods. "He'll be back once he finds his perfect host." I said. "We should get moving."

"Why should we listen to you?" The scrawny Latino boy asked.

"Because you dolt." I said. "I want the same thing you want." Jason looked at me in question as he stepped towards me.

"And what's that?" He asked.

"The destruction of Set and the Egyptian gods." I told them.