Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians.

Sorry for being dead for a while; AP tests, prom, SGA campaigns and elections, the works.

Okay, so I hoped you all liked the last chapter. If you are a bit confused about what happened, allow me to explain.

Nicole sort of went into a sleep trance where she will be having a continuous dream like the ones she was having before, only less sporadic. The books she received, each time she opens one it will induce this for whichever part of Nico's life that is. Nicole is basically "watching" a movie in her sleep based on Nico's life, which is what the next chapters will all be about up till the end of that part of his life. And then the next story in the series will pick up in the next part, etc.

Please, after reading this, go take a look at the new poll I have set up and take a vote.

So, that being said, please enjoy this chapter.

The sun peeked through the window and cast its beams in an array of light on the white sheets of the infirmary beds. Nico groaned as some loose strands of brightness hit his face and slunk further under the sheets. He inwardly sighed as he realized there was no going back to sleep and begrudgingly sat upright.

Every part of his body from his toes to the very fibers of his hair suddenly ached and he winced, surprised and somewhat irritated by the soreness he felt all over. He groggily brought a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose; though everywhere hurt, it was the unrelenting pain in his head and neck that reigned.

Ugh, what happened? Nico thought this as he tentatively massaged his neck with his fingers. He focused as best he could on the last few pieces of memory that he had. Okay, I remember the spar, and then the argument, and then...then...

All of his movements stopped, fingers pausing in mid-massage.

There was an earthquake, and things were collapsing, and people were screaming…did I do that? No, no, that's impossible…I'm not that strong…

He thought back to that moment, playing the scene leading up to the earthquake over and over again in his head. The only two people in the arena at the time it started leading up to when he blacked out were himself and Acacia. They were also the only two people Nico could think of who were capable of causing an earthquake. Percy's father was Poseidon, but he was only really capable with water, and Zeke's powers were the farthest thing from anything earth attributed, him having air and wind powers. And after watching Acacia for the past week, and seeing what she could do, he couldn't leave her out of the equation.

But he couldn't blame Acacia, not this time. He knew he'd caused it. He had felt the power and magic rolling off of him. Nico could deny it to himself all he wanted, but the truth was that this was getting out of hand. He was getting out of hand.

He needed help, which meant he had to find Acacia. She was the one to knock him out (in a surprisingly gentle way) and actually have some clue about what was happening to him. If there was anyone to go to it was her.

Nico lifted the covers and slowly swung his legs over the side of the bed. His body protested the whole time, but he didn't let a little pain stop him.

"Oh, you're awake!"

A cheerful and somewhat high-pitched voice caught his attention near the doorway. He looked up, and dark onyx eyes met bright green ones. She had a sideways grin on her somewhat familiar face as she approached his bed with a small glass in one hand and a bottle of something in the other. "It's nice to see you're up," she set the glass down on the bedside table that Nico was just now noticing and began to screw open the bottle, "people are falling all over each other, they want to see you so bad."

"Do they want to see me because they genuinely want to see me?" He questioned sardonically.

Her smile faltered and she blew a strand of dirty blonde hair out of her face. "Well…" she shook a few pills out of the bottle and handed them to him, "It's more like they want to see you to ask questions, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." Nico accepted the pills begrudgingly and eyed them warily, "What are these?"

She sniggered as she re-folded a blanket that had previously been on the bed next to his, "Relax, they're just vitamin supplements. Your blood sugar and stuff were really low, so we thought it would be a good to give you those."

He sneered at the vitamins and huffed but popped them into his mouth nonetheless. So, everyone's got questions, huh? I wonder if I can give them the answers they want, Nico thought as he chewed. The vitamins were gritty and didn't taste like anything. He grimaced as he swallowed; his throat was ridiculously sore, probably from all the stomach acid that was constantly rubbing against his throat because of the acid reflux and vomiting.

The girl offered the glass from before to him and he took it, downing the contents almost immediately. The sweet taste of cannoli (it was always cannoli) filled his mouth as warmth spread throughout his body and he felt more alert. One could never go wrong with Nectar.

He stood to leave, ready to ask his own questions and get some answers, when...

"Where are you going?"

Nico had barely taken four steps towards the door when Blondie blocked his path. "Outside," he answered.

"Why?" She asked innocently.

"There's someone I need to talk to." He tried to sidestep around her, but she just moved with him. He glared up at her from underneath the hair that fell over his eyes, "It's important."

She wagged a finger in his face, "Too bad. You've got a lot more than just one person to talk to. Chiron and Mr. D want a word with you, they told me to let you know the minute you got up."

"Great," Nico muttered. "Look, I'll talk to them soon, but I really gotta talk to this person first."

She gave him a once over before stepping to the side, "Alright, if you say so, but a word of advice before you leave." Nico watched as she began to take the sheets of the bed he was once in and waited for her to continue. "You scared a lot of people with that whole earthquake fiasco, and a lot of them are more scared of you than they were before."

"So?"

"So, just keep your head low for a while, or do something helpful around camp," she said while pulling off the last of the sheets before starting to make the bed with a fresh set. "Make it seem like you didn't do this to scare them on purpose."

Nico scoffed and looked towards the door, "Trust me, if I really wanted to scare them, I would have done something a bit more creative." He looked around for his sword belt, which he found looped around the lower bedpost, all he while trying to mask the sadness he felt at the thought of being even more feared than he already was, but the girl standing across from him could see it clearly on his face.

"Zeke talks about you a lot, mostly about how your bark is worse than your bite," she began in an attempt to cheer him up. Nico glanced back at the girl and saw a wistful smile on her face, "He would never admit it outright, but he cares about you a lot, like you're his younger brother or something."

He felt a small grin spread across his face: that definitely sounded like Zeke, and it was nice to know that someone cared a little – Wait, how did she know Zeke? Most people did know Zeke, or at least knew about him, but the way she talked about him and smiled it was as if she... Nico took a good long look at her face before it all clicked.

"You're Kat, aren't you? Katarina Lyn?"

Kat smiled before flopping onto the bed she just made (which Nico thought totally defeated the purpose of making the bed in the first place) and spreading her arms out wide in a dramatic gesture, "The one and only!"

"I thought you looked familiar," he said as he put his sword back in its rightful place by his side, "Zeke couldn't stop talking about you the whole mission. He even showed us your picture."

His words caused Kat to blush to the roots of her hair and glance at the floor with a sheepish grin. Nico saw and smirked slightly. It had really been more like pictures, as in multiples upon multiples. He had never seen so many couple pictures on one person's photo stream before.

"He really likes you, ya know."

If Kat wasn't blushing before she most certainly was now. She looked over at him with big surprised eyes. "Really?"

"Yeah," he answered flatly, "I don't think I've ever seen him so happy."

Her blush faded slightly as she grabbed the pillow on the bed behind her and hugged it to her chest, "Well, you know, we're not serious yet or anything." Kat rested her chin on the pillow, "We've been dating for almost 4 months now but nothing's really official. Life's short, especially for us, and I want something serious, like really serious, you know?"

Nico really didn't have time for this. He'd already been there long enough, and considering Acacia could apparently teleport, there was no telling where she could be.

Plus, Nico di Angelo was the farthest thing from a "love/relationship" expert. The daughters of Aphrodite took love seriously and he didn't know the first thing about it, which made this situation all the more dangerous. If Zeke found out that he might have had a hand in potentially ending his relationship with Kat, he'd be in for a world of hurt and humiliation. The only thing he could really do right now was be honest…

"Well," he started hesitantly while slowly inching towards the door, "Zeke's always had a hard time expressing how he feels…like me…he really does like you and I bet if you just give him some time he'll tell you how he truly feels." He was halfway to the door. Almost there, he thought.

"Give him some time," Kat repeated quietly.

Nico stopped in his escape and looked Kat directly in the eye, "Yeah, I mean, that's what I would want."

Kat nodded, and Nico couldn't tell if she was nodding to herself or at him, "Thanks, that's actually really good advice."

"No problem," he said while making a beeline for the exit. Hopefully, none of this would end up blowing up in his face later.

"Oh, hey, wait!" Kat sat more upright and that seemingly immortal smile appeared on her face again, "There was one other person who came to see you."

He turned back around, a somewhat surprised expression on his usually emotionless face, "Really? Who was it?"

"Um, it was that new girl, she was really nice, with black hair and bluish eyes. The daughter of Hecate, I think."

"Seriously?"

"Yep, she seemed pretty worried, asked how you were doing, didn't stay very long though. She said you probably wouldn't want to see her and you would want your space."

Well, that wasn't true anymore. Nico turned back around to leave, "Do you know where she is?"

…

…

"Go away."

Nico blinked. Guess I deserve it, he thought.

When Kat had told him where Acacia was, he didn't believe her at first. But she had been telling the truth; Acacia was exactly where Kat had said she would be.

Sitting on the ground, in the grass amongst dandelions he had never noticed before, in the space directly next to his cabin, sketchpad and pencil in hand, sketching away furiously was Acacia.

Go figure.

He shoved his hands into his pockets as he awkwardly stood behind Acacia, who had her back to him, "Listen, I just want to talk."

She stopped sketching long enough to aim her pencil skywards, as if pointing at something in the air, "Well, gee, that only makes one of us."

Nico scowled in frustration, "Hey, I'm tryin' to be civil here."

"And I've been trying to be civil from the moment we met," the scratching sound of pencil on paper became more agitated.

Okay, one point for Acacia. "Yeah, yeah, you're right. Could you just, I don't know, hear me out?"

The sketching stopped, but Acacia didn't turn around to look at him. Nico decided to take that as a green light.

"I know I've kind of been a jerk…okay, a real jerk. I've been cranky and rude, but that's because I've been feeling like Hades for a while now." He uncomfortably shifted his weight from one leg to the other and glanced around, "But that's a pretty sucky excuse for treating you bad, especially since you've only wanted to help me from the start. Look, I guess what I'm trying to say is…what I want to say is…" The words caught in his throat, he'd never been good at apologies, didn't like them either. But he had to do this, so he kept going.

"I…I-I'm sorry."

Nico glanced back at Acacia only to find her looking back over her shoulder at him. "Is that all?" She asked him pointblank.

He scratched his head, "Well, no, I still need your help. My powers are going kind of crazy, and I denied it at first but you knew from the start, just by looking at me. And I think you and I both know that it's getting worse." Nico looked Acacia right in the eye, "I thought I could take care of whatever this is by myself, but after what happened yesterday, I know that this has gotten way out of my hands. I need help; I want help, and you said you could give it. I've been wrong to you, and you have no reason to help me, but do you think you could? Please?"

It was silent for a few seconds, before she finally answered, "Sure, I'll help."

It felt like a weight had been lifted from his chest and he breathed a sigh of relief. Thank the gods, he thought, one point for Nico and one point for Acacia.

"You really want my help?" Acacia readjusted herself to where she was sitting crisscross facing Nico.

"I'll do anything," he responded quickly.

An impish smile made its way across her face and her blue eyes glinted mischievously as she rested her elbows on her legs, "Anything?"

Uh oh.

"In that case, I want something. Actually, two somethings"

"Are you serious?" Nico glared at her and crossed his arms, "Look, I'm desperate here!"

Acacia shrugged, that Cheshire Cat grin still on her lips, "Which means you'll definitely give me what I want. Besides, you're the one who'd said you'd do anything."

One point for Nico, two points for Acacia. "Alright, fine! What is it you want?"

"Number one: I want four green gems from the Underworld, freshly picked right out of Persephone's garden."

"Are you crazy?!" His eyes went wide and he took a step back as if Acacia had suddenly burst into flames, "Are you trying to get me killed?!"

Acacia narrowed her eyes, "Listen, I need something, you need something. It's a win-win situation."

Nico thought it over; he really didn't have many options here so… "Okay, okay. But you're only getting one."

"Make it two."

"Done."

"And they gotta be green and right off the tree, don't forget."

"Whatever," he seethed, "now what's the second thing?"

The sly grin became more gentle and genuine as Acacia stretched out her hand to Nico, "Number two: we both have to promise to be civil from here on out."

That was going to be harder for him to do than stealing from his stepmother. But, he still had few to no options.

"Okay…Deal."

No sooner had he accepted her outstretched hand was he pulled downward with Acacia's foot on his chest as the world suddenly turned upside-down for a split second before Nico found himself lying with his back on the ground with the wind knocked out of him, staring up at the sky as dandelion seeds and their puffs floated around above him.

He was vaguely aware that Acacia was lying on the ground in the same position mirroring his to where the tops of their heads were barely touching. She was laughing heartfelt, genuine laughter that seemed to stir up the wind and warm the hard ground they were both lying on.

Nico blinked, and then blinked again, and then –

"What the Hades!?" He exclaimed, still stunned and dazed as he tried to process what had just happened. "What was that for?!"

Acacia reigned her laughter long enough to clarify. "You just looked so tense and sour!" She said between giggles, "I thought this would loosen you up a bit."

"Didn't we just agree to be civil?"

"This is more than just being civil, this is being friends."

It was such a simple statement but it really struck Nico in the core. He was speechless for a good few seconds and he stupidly stumbled in his brain, looking for the right words to say. All he could manage in the end was, "You're crazy, ya know that?"

"The feeling's mutual," she countered with a sigh.

Nico scoffed, having run out of things to say for the moment, and couldn't help but wonder how silly the both of them must look right now: the son of Hades with the daughter of Hecate, lying amongst dandelions while watching the sky. It was a ridiculous thought, and if someone had told Nico that morning that he would be doing this later that day he wouldn't have believed them.

Yet, he made no effort to get up and decided to enjoy this. Just this once. He'd forgotten how nice it could be just to enjoy the presence of another living person. And then he realized how mushy and happy he felt right now and became slightly disgusted with himself. With that in mind, he decided to tell Acacia something.

As the last of the dandelion seeds floated off and out of their sight he said, "You want to know something, Acacia?"

"Hmm?"

"I would have gotten you four gems in exchange for your help," he admitted with a smirk.

Acacia was silent for a bit and Nico's smirk grew. Hah, he thought, two points for Nico and two points for Acacia.

"Really? You would have done it for four?"

"Yep?"

"Well, then, you want to know something, Nico?"

"…Sure?"

He could practically feel her smiling, "I would have helped you for free."

Nico scowled, two points for Nico and three points for Acacia. Match point: Acacia.

Damn it all…

"Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything." – Muhammad Ali

Okay, so we're all wrapped up here, can't wait for feedback. I hoped you liked it and please remember to vote, vote, vote! I really will try to be more consistent with updates from here on out, and with summer just around the corner it'll be more doable and give me more time to focus on my stories.

Till next time,

Night Enchanted