Chapter Two – Dark shines I

"You have to remember, Nico," Percy said, worry in his voice. He needed answered and he didn't like the idea that someone bad had happened to Nico, yet they didn't know who or what did it. "You almost died, Nico, you said that there is going to be another war."

Silence followed Percy's words and Nico looked right at him, fear filling his eyes. "I don't," he said, he couldn't even remember getting back to camp. Flinching at the pain, he closed his eyes. "I don't remember anything."

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Looking at his reflection, he could not shake the feeling that he was looking at a stranger. His dark messy hair reached just above his shoulders, long limbs connecting and making him taller than he would have ever thought he'll be, it was almost like all signs of the fourteen years old he used to be had been stolen away from him in a blink of an eye. It didn't help that Nico knew that it had been three years, not as long as he couldn't remember those years, he simply felt awkward within his own body.

Spinning the skull ring around his finger, he continued to stare at the mirror, watching as the shadows traveled to create the form of the boy he had been next to him. Letting go of a loud sigh, he dropped his hands to the sides of his body, not paying attention as the shadows faded away, ironically leaving the empty space of his memories.

It had been a week since Nico had returned to camp and it had been three days since he was declared stable enough to move from the infirmary to the Hades cabin at camp. He was given strict orders to rest for at least a week more to make sure he healed completely, that's of course if his wound would heal at all. Carefully, Nico removed his shirt, tilting his head as he stared at his chest. The previously white bandages around his torso were once again tinted with red and if he removed them, he knew he would be looking at the raw flesh, almost as if it had only been cut through today.

"Nico?" a voice interrupted his line of thoughts and quickly, perhaps too quickly, he put on his shirt again. Clear pain showing on his face as the door open to reveal his sister. "Are you alright?" she asked, worry showing in her voice as she looked at him.

Since his return, Hazel had basically moved into the Hades cabin in camp Half Blood, she said that it was because she missed him and she was worried about him, but Nico knew that it was because none of them trusted him enough to leave him on his own. By the look he was given, it seemed like they expected him to shadow travel as far as he can once he gets the chance. Not that Nico could deny it, he did feel a strong urge to flee the camp.

"I'm fine, stop looking at me like I'm crippled," he answered, his tone colder than he intended, the hurt expression on Hazel's face made him sheepish. "I'm sorry, I know you're just worried," he said, moving to sit down on his bed as he buried his head in his palms. "It's just hard, I'm seventeen but as far as my brain is concerned I'm not," Nico felt the shift of weight on the bed as the girl sat down next to him. "It doesn't help that you all treat me like a baby either, you need to give me space to breath."

At first, Hazel didn't respond but Nico could hear her shallow breaths and he imagined her biting her lower lips and trying to figure out what she could possibly say to him in this situation. "I'm sorry," she eventually said and Nico looked up to see her warm eyes looking at him. "We're afraid that you'll just disappear again."

It was a relief to have one of them admit it as everyone seemed to have danced around the topic shamelessly, none willing to admit to what he already knew. "I swear on the rive of Styx that I would not go anywhere without telling one of you," thunder shook the sky as he looked at Hazel, hoping that it would be enough but if the look on her face was anything for him to go by, the answer was clear – it wasn't enough.

"Nico," she said as he got up, a disbelieving look on his face as he looked down at her.

"No, I'm done with you," he said before turning around and storming out of the cabin, not even surprise when she followed him out and ever so annoyed as he ran into Percy, Annabeth and Jason only a few meters away from the Hades cabin. "Unbelievable," he growled, coming to a stop as the three of them blocked his way.

Percy was the first one to step forward, allowing his hand to drop out of that of Annabeth and forcing Nico to bite the inside of his cheek in order to contain the jealousy that bubbled inside of him for seeing that. This was why he wanted to leave more than everything else, he couldn't stand it, being forced to watch their perfect relationship all of the time – a cruel reminder that he would never have something like that.

"What's going on?" he asked, it was such a naive question and so simple that he drove Nico insane.

"I don't know, why don't you tell me?" the anger was clear in his voice and he was glaring daggers at the young man, putting so much more to his glare than the feeling of a locked pet. The son of Hades knew that he was being unfair at that moment, but he couldn't even think about it, he was blinded. "One of you is always around, I can't possibly be trusted no matter what it is that I do, I feel like some sort of an enemy to you or worse, you make me into your own damn puppy," if Nico could have breathed fire, he would have probably done so.

Percy seemed to be taken aback by his sudden outburst, they had all been walking on eggshells around him lately but none of them could deny that they refused to leave the teenager on his own.

"We're doing this to help you, Nico," Annabeth spoke up, taking a step forward to stand next to her boyfriend as her stormy eyes focused on the boy in front of her. "You shouldn't be so ungrateful."

Nico's eyes widen at her words. Ungrateful? Oh, now that was just too much. He was already confused and lost about himself, but he should be grateful that they made him feel like a caged animal? He couldn't believe it and if the snort and bitter laugh that escaped his lips were a hint, he didn't bother to hide his disbelief.

"We really should not be fighting," Jason pipped in, electric blue eyes focused on Nico, but not on his face, lower at his torso where the black shirt stuck to his body and was slowly soaking in blood. "You're bleeding," he said, making the ghost king look down and once again register the pain that hit his body in waves.

"It's nothing," Nico said, refusing to show any sign of weakness on his face. He used to be horrible at that, but whatever had happened to him in the past three years had made it easier for him.

"It's not nothing," seethed Hazel as she moved in front of her brother.

Percy and Annabeth both nodded their heads at that, "it should have closed properly by now, especially with the amount of nectar you've been given," said the blonde. Nico didn't look at them, he knew that they were right but at the same time, he didn't think that he was ready to admit that something was seriously wrong.

OoOoOoO

"He wouldn't have come here," he insisted as he slowly walked up the hill, his brownish hair messy as it was continued to be ruffled by the wind. "He said he wouldn't."

"He would have if he didn't have another choice," added the girl as she walked beside him, her long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, tips colored in green. She was beautiful, tall and thin with a pale skin and enchanting blue eyes, almost like a porcelain doll but one look would be enough to say that she was not fragile, she had a powerful aura to her, crackling like fire. "The same as us, we are given no choice but to come here, to find him," she turned her eyes to the boy.

The boy, or perhaps more of a young man, was no less beautiful than she was, almost like a statue with his broad shoulders and defined chin. Like the girl, he had pale skin but his hair was of light brown and his eyes were far more unique than hers – one shone in the same enchanting blue and the other glittered like an emerald in the sinking sun. "We should not involve them in our affairs," he said, anger dripping into his voice as he continued walking. His aura, not unlike that of his companion, was powerful but it did not crackled like a burning fire, it flew and spiraled around him like a dangerous storm.

"Brother dear," she said as she came to a stop at the top of the hill, a little smirk playing on her lips as she shook her head at him. "They are already involved in our affairs," she chuckled, obviously amused by his anger. "The minute you involved him in our affairs, you brought the lot of them with him."

Looking at his sister with his mismatched eyes, he snorted and stopped next to her. "Then you're saying that it was written that we will have to work with their kind?" he raised an eyebrow at her and she chuckled once more.

"Declan," she said, turning her blue eyes to look at the view from the hill. "We were once their kind, or have you forgotten that? Father would not be pleased."

Rolling his eyes, Declan followed her gaze to look down from the hill. "I have not forgotten, Audrey," he said, some of the anger melting away from his voice. "But we cannot be both, we do not belong with them anymore and to deny it is to deny who we have become," there was something in his eyes as he said those words, but that glint had vanished before it could be noticed by his sister.

Sighing, she placed a hand over his shoulder, it was uncomfortable as he was taller but she did not seem to mind. "You are worried about him, aren't you?" she asked.

"He does no longer belong with them," he said quietly, not moving his gaze from the camp that stretched out beneath them. "They cannot help him, he needs guidance that they cannot provide," he was like stone as he spoke, a well oiled machine who had said those things before.

"I miss him too," Audrey said with a small smile as she looked at the camp as well. "We better go and provide him of that guidance then," she said and with inhuman speed she made her way down the hill and towards camp, her brother not far behind her.

Okay, so this one was shorter but I hope you still like it.
I'm sorry for the long update, it would hopefully be at least once a week from now on.

Please review and tell me your thoughts.