A/N: Hey, lookit that! I got another chapter of this fic! It's a miracle! I'm still rather amazed at the popularity of this fic...I mean, geeze, less than 4k words and already almost 50 followers. And this started out as my 4th-priority fic. Well, anyway, hope you guys like the continuation.
Fair warning, this chapter takes place at Brooklyn house, and I'll explain any bits of Kane Chronicles and/or Death God Alliance that might be needed for it in the end of chapter A/N.
Lil' Line O' Litiguous Lard: You have no idea how much I wish I owned even partial rights to these awesome series, but unfortunately, I have to work for a living.
*EDIT* A quick, eagle-eyed reviewer caught on to what I had not...for some reason the meat of the story got posted twice No idea how that managed to happen, so here it is fixed.
Chapter 3
The Truth Will Out
Sadie looked up expectantly towards the sleeping quarters when the lights around Brooklyn House gave the telltale ripple that announced Shadow-Travel. Nico'd only been gone twenty minutes, and with the way he'd torn out of the place she thought for certain he was going to spend at least an hour running excitedly around Camp Half-Blood. She smiled a little to herself; it wasn't often the man –her man she thought, smile deepening—got happy-excited, but when he did, it was a sight to see. It was like he was the little kid he'd barely ever had a chance to be; times like that she could truly believe that one of Nico's first questions upon learning that Percy was a son of Poseidon was, "Can you surf really well?"
"So, Death Boy, how'd Percy and Annabeth react when you told—," One look at Nico's rigid posture and dark expression broke off her teasing inquiry, "What is it? What happened? Are they alright?"
"Oh, they're just peachy," He groused, depositing himself next to her on the Great Room couch with a good deal of force. "They're just going to go get themselves involved in just another level of bullshit. Well, if they're stupid enough to go, it's their own damn fault." That bit of cryptic information being delivered, the son of Hades decided to blow off his frustration by cursing in multiple languages.
Sadie was confused, but didn't expect much additional information until Nico'd either calmed down or something came up to distract him.
"And what's worse is that the damned Air Force tried to Last Starfighter me into it, too! The cazzo di Air Force—," his voice took on a much calmer and somewhat more clipped tone, "I'm sorry, I don't think he's going to be very intelligible for a while, and I think you and he—when he's himself again—would rather the little ones didn't learn some of his more…colorful vocabulary." His hand gestured in his first acknowledgement of the half-dozen young Brooklyn House recruits watching the show.
Sadie didn't even blink, used to the dual-personality of her fiancée—she still felt great thinking that word—and her favorite Egyptian god that shared his consciousness. "Thanks, Anubis. I'll bet he's cussing up a storm at you right now, but I know he'll thank you later."
Anubis winced, "Yes, I know this as well, but that doesn't make the present any more enjoyable. Anyway, I think we need to have a calm discussion of the goings-on at the Jackson residence."
Sadie nodded, "Should we take this conversation somewhere else, or is it alright for the ankle-biters to hear?"
"As of yet, I see no reason why it should be restricted information." He then proceeded to fill Sadie in on what Nico had found at the Jackson house.
"Wait, you mean to say they monitored a friggin computer game to recruit for the United States Air Force? How the hell does that work? I know you said that Nico registered for his account with his real name, but come on."
"Um—," piped up the unexpected voice of Karen, one of the more recent recruits, following the path of Thoth, "no offense, but how did they know you didn't just get lucky or look up a cheat online? What made them think that he actually knew what he was doing?"
"Look up a cheat?" Sadie asked, a bit confused, not really being the gamer-type, "How do you mean?"
"You kidding?" Kaleb, Karen's twin brother said, "There's tons of game cheat and guide sites out there. Hell, half the time Penguin Boy's is on the computer, he's on gameFAQs. He even gets in on the discussion forums on the site."
Sadie froze, eyes popping wide in realization and she turned slowly to look into Nico's—she could tell it was Nico again now—equally wide eyes. "He didn't…he couldn't have…FELIX!" Nico bellowed the last word, adding magical volume to it to make it carry throughout the building.
"Yeah…I'm sure he's gonna want to come after hearing that, Death Boy." Sadie said snidely, "Please tell me Anubis isn't going to let you hurt him too much."
"I'm not going to hurt him—much—," Nico responded, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "I just want him to answer a few questions…and then maybe we should have Carter have a little chat with him about security."
Silence reigned for a few minutes in the Great Room as they awaited the excitable young man's arrival.
"What I want to know," said Shelby, who'd studied at Brooklyn House since she was three, "is what possible reason the Air Force would need someone who could speak Ancient Greek and/or obscure dialects of Egyptian, especially since you said that the dude they had with them could clearly speak Egyptian perfectly well."
"Yes…but his accent was strange." Nico mused, "He had an odd way of pronouncing his vowels; not exactly the way we say things for our spells, and not exactly the scholarly-accepted pronunciations either."
"True, but I can't shake the feeling there was something familiar about his speech pattern." Anubis chipped in, "Something from millennia ago…I'll have to do some research, and consult Thoth." Nico's mouth twisted in mild distaste at that thought, neither he nor Anubis had completely forgiven the eccentric Ibis-headed chemistry-teacher for spiking Nico's lemonade with LSD when they'd first met.
"Yeah, best do that on your own in the Duat, Anubis. You know how much Nico hates old Ja-hooty." Sadie said snarkily, "But on a more serious note, we should also ask Carter and Cleo; you never know what one of those two might've picked up."
Nico nodded absently at her suggestion. While she was a bit nonplussed at his tepid response, Sadie was glad to see that Nico had been knocked out of his rage. His face had taken on the intensity she'd come to associate with him working out a particularly difficult puzzle; she usually teased him that she could see the gears turning in his head when he was like that.
It's funny, she mused, in the last ten minutes, he's demonstrated the exact qualities that made me fall for him. He can be enormously hot-headed, just like me, but has Batman-like analytical ability. Her lips curved into a soft smile looking at the man she loved. "Now where in the depths of the Duat is Felix?"
Shelby sighed heavily, "Probably scared to face the wrath of Shadow-Man. I'll go find him." She arose from her seat and headed up the stairs to the living quarters. "I'll also let Jaz know that she might have a new patient before long."
Shelby'd no sooner uttered those parting words than the inhabitants of the Great Room heard a loud "OOF!" followed by the girl's triumphant, "Well, that was easy!" and the sounds of someone being half-dragged down the marble stairway.
"Ow, ow, ow. Watch it, Shel!" They were treated to the tableaux of a dark-haired twenty-something being dragged into view by the ear by a very smug-looking teenager. Said teenager didn't release him until they were within ten feet of the pair on the couch, where he stayed, rubbing his ear and shooting her a bemused glare. "There was no call for that, Shel. You should treat your elders better."
"Bah, you're only five years older than me and we've been here the same amount of time, Penguin Boy."
"ANYWAY, back to the matter at hand." Sadie interjected, both impatient and amused at the pair's antics. "Nico has a few questions for you, Felix."
"So I'd gathered." Felix said in a deadpan, "These 'questions' won't be painful, will they?"
"Hmm—," Nico said, a pondering expression on his face, "Now that I've calmed down a bit, I don't think so. I can't honestly say that I won't get some payback later, though, depending on your answer." He flashed a wolfish grin at the younger man.
"Uhh…right." He gulped nervously. "What did you want to know?"
"Well, Felix." Said Sadie sweetly, "Kaleb and Karen here say you spend a lot of time on game guide websites. Is this the case?"
Felix squirmed like he was eight years old again and caught with his hand in the cookie-jar, "Yes."
"And you're not just looking up information on these, are you?" Nico said, his tone mild.
"Yes…I mean, usually that's all I'm doing, but sometimes…sometimes…"
"Sometimes you share things you've found or that someone else has given you a hint on with the rest of the internet, yes?"
"Yes." Felix was slowly shrinking in on himself. Sadie had to fight a bit of a chuckle at the sight. He was acting like a little kid under the wrath of an adult even though Nico was only a few years older than he.
Nico's gaze on the boy intensified. "Now, this part is very important. Did you share the Greek translation I gave you for Mythomagic, Online puzzle?"
"Um…not exactly. I went to post it, but someone else already had. He—he said some guy in his high school library'd translated it for him."
"I see…and did you respond to his post, possibly mentioning my name?"
"Um...I think I responded with, 'Yeah, my buddy Nico got the same thing.'"
"Mmhmm…and did you ever attribute anything else you posted on this website to my help?"
"Not…directly." The young man's voice was almost inaudible now. "I did say that a buddy of mine helped me with an Egyptian translation later in the game, but I didn't mention your name."
Nico dropped his head into his hand and massaged the bridge of his nose again. Released from the intense gaze, Felix slumped a bit in exhaustion.
"Well, that explains it, then." Said Nico with resignation, "Gods, it even helps explain how they found Percy." He looked back up at the apprehensive young man and sighed. "Felix…just…make sure you never mention real names online again, ok? Our lives are complicated enough."
Sadie nodded her wholehearted agreement at that sentiment.
"For now, I think we need to focus on figuring out what in the name of my dad is going on. We'll start with Thoth and Cleo, at least until I get an IM from Percy and Annabeth with more information." With that, he set off towards the library with determination in his stride.
Sadie smiled after him. The life of Egyptian Magicians and Greek Demigods were never boring.
A/N: Ha! And there you have it. I kind of have an idea of what I want to do next in this, but we'll see what happens.
So here's the bulletpoints of the additional necessary or helpful background info.
-I didn't explicitly say it before, but part of Nico hosting Anubis is that Anubis is able to take over control of his body. It's not something he does often, since he never wanted a host in the first place and likes and respects Nico, but he will do it in certain situations.
-Brooklyn House is the headquarters of the Twenty-first Nome (Egyptian division of the world-kind of like a district-that covers New York), which Sadie and her brother Carter have been in charge of since they were teenagers.
-Thoth is the Egyptian god of wisdom and knowledge, they've had encounters with him before, as referenced with the LSD above.
-the Duat is sort of the magical sub-realm of Egyptian mythology. It's the plane on which at least a piece of all of the gods exist, and through which the dead move to their final resting place.
-Felix has been training with the Kanes only a little longer than Nico has. He's an Egyptian magician who specializes in snow and ice. He used to summon a lot of penguins when he was an eight-year-old trainee. In Death God Alliance, Nico started teaching him Mythomagic, but he was abysmal at it.
-Shelby was the youngest trainee in the official Kane Chronicle books. She was referred to as an "ankle-biter" and took part in the massive battle at the First Nome when she was still small enough to weave between the legs of the other combatants.
-Cleo is one of Sadie and Carter's early trainees; she follows the path of Thoth and watches over the library at Brooklyn House.
-Kaleb and Karen are OC's of my own. They just sort of grew to fill a space in the conversation.
-For those only familiar with Nico as he appears in the official books and are wondering where this analytical side of little Mr. Hot-headed came from, it's actually character development from Death God Alliance.
I think that should about cover it. Let me know if you want any more info on that score.
Review response time!
Ithanny: Glad you're appreciating it. Hope this one works for you. It's an interesting question you pose, and I'm kicking around a few ideas on that score. I need to do some more research before I make a final decision.
kyuuo: 'sarite, sorry for the late update =P. Mitchell is a lot of fun to write, and while I really really like Jack, I don't trust myself to do him justice for long. He might show up for a short bit of time, but...yeah. As far as them getting cleared...I'm trying to think about how to address those hurdles. I've had basic clearance before and have a few friends who've earned higher clearance, and I know that the investigations for things like that can be in-depth and intense. I think you can see how that could be a bit of a hurdle for people who've essentially lived a large part of their lives in secret.
gascan90: thanks, I'm trying to keep a similar, or hopefully better as I get more experience, level of quality throughout.
Semperi Afendel: Um...hopefully you were able to bear it for another month and a half...=/
Fallen Maiar: you and me both...
ironyheartsap: Yeah, I was largely prompted to finally start writing this by the dearth of good PJO/SG-1 fics. The two universes (especially if you can throw Kane Chronicles in) are just begging to be crossed over. As for the rest, you'll just have to wait and see.
stephenopolos: Hehe, yeah...it's totally what crossed my mind on that first episode of SG-U. The flying car didn't bother me all that much. I mean, I realize it was the 80's.
Hope it was worth the wait, guys! I look forward to more reviews!
Tzapporah signing off!