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Chapter 3

This was one of the reasons why Will Solace never liked fighting. After managing to distract all the hell-hounds with his ear-splitting whistle, he slashed and hacked his way through the monsters before finally reaching Argus. The guy was on the ground, barely conscious. There were slash marks across his chest, but other than that he was okay.

He looked back up to the monsters and they growled at him. He held up Nico's sword with trembling hands and pointed it to them. Some backed away as if threatened by the sword. They should be, Will had seen how the weapon would suck their essence as Nico would stab them with it.

Which was a little creepy…

Another growl resonated and before Will knew it, the monsters turned and ran off.

Stunned he watched them blend into the shadows and disappear.

"Y-Yeah! You better run!" He exclaimed lamely.

He sighed and dropped to the ground. All adrenaline rushing out and he turned to look at the spot where his friends had disappeared. He knew Nico would've come back for him… if he could. But he hasn't. Which only meant that the shadow-travel had taken its toll on his body.

Definitely not good.

He stood up again, with the sword gripped tightly in his hand. He had to get back to Nico as soon as possible. He had to make sure he was okay. That was the reason why he wanted to go with him in the first place. To make sure that when in need, he'll be there for the ghost boy.

He hastily turned around at the sudden movement he heard behind him. Argus was trying to stand up, all of his eyes were shut in pain.

Will was immediately on his side, pushing him up to his feet, "Come on, let's go back to the SUV. If we're lucky my bag would still be in one piece. And if we're luckier… so is the van."

There was a lot of movement around him. He could hear some shuffling and voices barking out orders. Nico tried to remember where he was and what had happened, and suddenly everything came crashing down.

Will.

His eyes snapped open and he quickly pushed himself off the bed he was lying on. There was a yelp and suddenly Nico was being held back. He scowled and struggled, "Let go!"

"You have to rest right now!" The demigod, apparently a medic, exclaimed as he tried to push him down along with other more healers, "You're in no condition—"

But Nico didn't bother to listen as he willed the shadows to surround him. All the hands immediately let go in surprise and the son of Hades quickly let himself be consumed by the darkness.

Once he opened his eyes, he realized he was crouched on top of a wooden table.

Before he could register where he was, he heard gasps and he looked up only to see his friends.

Reyna and Frank had stood up from their high-black chairs, and his sister along with his friends surrounded the table he was crouching on. They looked like they were in a middle of a discussion, which was obviously interrupted by him.

The first thing that came into his mind was that he was definitely glad that he was still wearing his clothes from earlier, except for his hooded-jacket that the healers must've taken off. He always had experiences of waking up only to find himself stripped down to his boxers.

"Nico!" Hazel was quickly on his side, trying to help him down on the table.

"Are you alright?"

"Dude, you just appeared out of nowhere!"

"Nico, weren't you supposed to be in the infirmary?"

"Did you shadow-travel again?"

Nico scowled at all the questions, "I'm fine! Where's Will?"

Then there was silence. The son of Hades already knew the answer but he was hoping that they had at least tried to retrieve the healer while he was out. Seeing that they didn't, he decided to ask another question,

"How long have I been out?"

He immediately noticed the tired looks on their faces as well as the scratches and closed wounds that decorated their body.

"Not too long." Piper bit her lower lip, "We've only arrived about half an hour ago."

Nico nodded his head. Good. He can still make it back to Cleveland and hopefully, Will and Argus would still be in one piece. He was about to walk out when Jason put a hand on his shoulder, "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm going back to get them. Isn't that obvious?"

Reyna approached him with a deep frown on her face. She snapped her fingers and Argentum and Aurum blocked the only exit Nico had. Fine. He'll just shadow-travel his way out.

"Oh no you're not." Piper spoke up, her voice filled with charm speak, "You are tired, Nico. And you have no energy to make that huge jump again."

And exhaustion suddenly came down on him so hard he almost stumbled to the ground and blacked out, but Percy was quick to grab him.

"You can't do this." He said through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry." Piper said in a stern manner.

"Nico, please. Get some rest first. Let the healers take care of you. You're no good like this." Hazel spoke up, her face was filled with pain seeing him like this.

"We practically found you and your friends in the middle of camp." Reyna crossed her arms, "Fortunately your friends only suffered minor injuries. But you, on the other hand, were completely knocked out, not to mention the amount of darkness that you had expelled caused cracks on the ground you were lying on. Have you not learned from our travels?"

"I'm fine!" Nico repeated once more, although he seemed to shrink from the glare Reyna was directing to him, "Just let me—"

"No." Reyna scowled, looking very intimidating, "I'm sorry Nico, but if you don't follow orders right now, I will forcibly have you restrained and locked up."

There was a moment of silence as Nico didn't respond. Reyna sighed and continued, "We'll go and find Will Solace and Argus tomorrow morning—as soon as possible. But for now you need rest." She then gestured to the others, "We all need rest."

"Nico—" Jason was about to put a hand on his shoulder, but he only dodged him and pulled away from Percy's grip. He was angry at them because he thought they would understand. He thought they would understand what it felt like to have someone they care about to be in danger—especially if that someone was—

His bit his tongue at the sudden thought and quickly shook his head.

"No—" Piper started as she seemed to have found out what he was about to do. Unfortunately, she was too late as Nico swiftly sunk into the shadows once more, and the last thing he heard was everyone practically calling out his name.

Will winced as he saw the crushed SUV. He helped Argus sit under a nearby tree and quickly ran towards it. He crept inside the damaged vehicle and accidentally hit his head against the roof that had caved in. He crawled across the seats, trying to reach the back seat. He tried to squint through the darkness before finally finding what he was trying to look for.

He reached over and grabbed his backpack. He was greatly relieved to find all the items were still in one piece. He was about to go back out when he saw another bag lying under the back seat. With great difficulty he grabbed the item and pulled it out.

He soon realized it was Nico's and before he knew it, he brought it with him as well as he walked out.

"How you feeling?" Will smiled at Argus as he knelt down in front of him and took out some ambrosia, bandages, antiseptic and a candy bar (he really needed some food). The other just shut his eyes and shuddered.

"That bad, huh?" He started cleaning the slashes across his chest, swabbing the injury while making sure that the bleeding had stopped. He gives him a piece of ambrosia as big as his candy bar (seeing that the dude was a big guy and that he wasn't a demigod, he probably won't burn up) and continued working on his injury.

Another shudder made him halt his ministrations and look up.

"You cold?" Immediately, he starts rummaging through his pack before taking out his jacket, "Here!"

Argus looked like he didn't want it as he gave Will a look that seemed to say; What about you?

"I'll be fine. It's not that cold."

Argus didn't look like he still believed him, but the healer merely rolled his eyes and draped the jacket over his large shoulders. "I would make a fire… but I'm afraid that other monsters might find us and ambush us."

After a couple more minutes, he finished wrapping the bandage around the big guy's torso and gave him one last check-up before finally deeming he was okay. If they were lucky— by sunrise, the wound would've closed up enough for them to be able to hit the road once more and be able to hitch a ride.

He collapsed beside him and started unwrapping his candy bar.

Silence stretched between them, and Will couldn't help but wish that Argus would talk. It was just too silent. He wasn't used to it.

You talk too much, Solace.

He couldn't hold back the smile that formed as Nico's words from his second day in the infirmary echoed in his mind. He shut his eyes as he remembered the annoyed look the son of Hades (who was on one of the beds, leaning against the headboard with a novel in his hand) was giving him.

Yeah, well someone has to fill this awkward silence between us. He had retorted.

You're the only one that's making it awkward. Cue the eye-roll.

It only got awkward because you won't answer or make any comments when I tell you my awesome stories! He had actually pouted at this. He remembered how Nico's lips twitched as he looked at him, but didn't answer as he stared back at his book.

He remembered feeling a little disappointed and stupid for acting like a kid who seemed to always want everyone's (mostly Nico's) attention centered towards him.

And just as he was about to decide to just leave and check on the other patients, Nico suddenly spoke up.

Don't stop. He looked up at Nico who now had his face buried in his book, and he was suddenly aware that the cover was upside-down. He also noticed how the other's neck and ears seemed to be turning red.

I don't mind listening.

The sudden cold he felt snapped him out from his reverie. He automatically wrapped his arms around himself and turned to look at Argus, who in turn was staring at him with a frown. He looked like he was ready to give him back his jacket, but Will quickly shook his head.

"You need it more than I do." He grabbed his bag and hoped he had brought an extra jacket, "Don't worry." He assured when the bodyguard gave him a disbelieving look.

Finding no jacket he sighed. Then he remembered the others' bags. Maybe he could borrow Jason's instead. Surely the blonde had at least brought a jacket or even Percy. He quickly stood up, about to head back to the broken vehicle when he tripped on something.

"OW!"

He rubbed his nose as he practically face-planted on the ground. He looked back to check what he tripped on and realized it was Nico's bag. He forgot he brought it with him. He sat up and looked at it as if it were a ticking time bomb. He hesitated before grabbing it and unzipping the pack.

He couldn't help but chuckle at the messy clothes inside. He grabbed the clothing that was sticking out and was surprised as he pulled out a black jacket.

A cold breeze swept by and Will quickly put the jacket on. For some reason he felt a little conscious to be wearing Nico's clothes… but inexplicably happy at the same time. It was a little tight around his arms, but other than that, it fit him just fine.

He looked at Argus who seemed to be looking at him with a raised eyebrow. His face suddenly heat up as he asked, "What?"

He seemed to be smirking now and he couldn't help but feel a little more flustered, "G-go to sleep already! We still have a long way to go."

He only got a snort as a reply.

"Fine. I'll do the sleeping then." He scowled as Argus just gave him a deadpanned look before he buried himself further against the tree he was leaning on while pulling the jacket closer around his body.

It took him all his will not to sniff on the material and forced his eyes close. He couldn't help but wonder what Nico's expression would be if they meet up. For sure there would be a scowl and—

"It's bad enough that you don't know how to fight!"

He found himself opening his eyes in surprise and anger. He almost forgot about that. Then the hurt suddenly made itself painfully aware as he scowled. How could Nico say that to him? It wasn't his fault that he had solely focused his skills into healing rather than maiming people. He had saved a lot of lives choosing such a decision.

He gripped the jacket and was almost tempted to take it off when—

Crack!

He and Argus sat up at the sudden sound. Will turned to Argus who looked at him as well. The many-eyed bodyguard was about to stand up, obviously wanting to check it out, but Will held up a hand, stopping him.

"Don't." He picked up Nico's sword, "I'll go check it out. I'll be right back as soon as possible."

Argus looked like he was ready to put up a fight, but Will gave him a stern look, "Don't make me use my tranquilizer on you."

Unfortunately, the threat didn't seem to have worked as he soon found himself tied to a tree. "This was brand new!" He practically complained at his jacket that was used as the rope to tie him against the tree. Argus huffed before reaching up the tree and pulling off a thick looking branch.

He gave him one last look that seemed to say: Don't go anywhere.

And he had to roll his eyes at that. He watched as Argus went deeper into the woods and he tried to struggle against his binds, "Argus—! Come on!"

Finally, his companion disappeared through the darkness and he kept his eyes wide and ears open for any howling from the hellhounds. More silence surrounded him and Argus still didn't appear. He struggled harder against his binds as he started to feel panicked.

"Argus! ARGUS!"

His voice echoed uselessly throughout the woods and Will knew something was wrong here. He looked down and spotted a certain black sword and quickly tried to reach it with his foot. He managed to shorten the distance between him and the sword and was just about to plan on how he'd be able to pick it up when he heard heavy footsteps heading towards him.

He froze.

This was definitely not Argus.

The trees suddenly fell to the ground and one of them smashed the SUV from afar. A huge dark form—probably about ten feet tall— slowly emerged from the forest before him and he immediately knew he was dead.

He couldn't help but stare at the single eye in the center of its forehead and gulped.

The Cyclopes grinned at him, his teeth were crooked and yellow and Will definitely didn't want to get a whiff of his breath,

"Finally, dinner!"

Nico wasn't surprised that Hazel found him sitting on the roof of Pluto's shrine, eating some bread he had bought from the bakery. He heard a sigh of relief followed by footsteps approaching him.

"You do know you made everyone panic?"

"They should be." He couldn't help but retort bitterly.

He felt Hazel settle next to him and he turned to look at his sister who commented, "I see you're really hungry."

He brought his attention back to the bread he was eating, "Aren't you going to tell them where I am?"

"I would, but I'm afraid once I leave to alert them, you'd be gone." She sighed, "I know you enough to know you would do that."

His only reply was taking another bite from his food.

"You're really planning to get them back aren't you?"

"I'm shocked you guys aren't."

"We are. Actually, after you guys had been transported here, Percy and Piper immediately told us about Will and Argus." Hazel smirked, "And as we speak, Leila and Dakota along with Reyna are now on their way to get them. She told us to find you before heading off. She knew you would just be around camp."

"What?!" Nico turned to look at her in shock, "Then what was all that "tomorrow morning stuff" about? Why didn't she tell me—"

"Because you really needed your rest!" Hazel huffed as she looked at him disapprovingly, "You practically freaked her out when she saw your state. She seemed to have encountered this problem before and apparently, if that scared her, then we all have the reason to be scared about it too."

The son of Hades scowled as he practically ripped the bread off as he took another bite.

"And also because she knew you would try and go with them." Hazel continued before picking up a gem.

He didn't speak, making her sigh and change the topic, "Tell me about this Will Solace."

He almost dropped his bread at the sudden request and he tried to hold back the sudden urge to blush, "Why'd you suddenly ask?"

Hazel almost looked amused, "Because you may be worried for both him and Argus, but I'm pretty sure it's mostly because of him." She raised an eyebrow as she added, "I mean you wouldn't have said 'Where's Will?' if not, am I right?"

His face was practically on fire now and he quickly looked away. He did not dare answer her sister who continued prodding him about the healer as he kept eating the remaining food he still had.

"Just tell me. Please? Do you like—"

"NO!" He answered a little too quickly and he couldn't help but curse in Greek. Hazel had gone silent. He turned away from her, unsure of what to actually say. More silence settled between them and Nico knew she was still waiting for him to speak.

He pulled his legs to his chest and rested his chin on his knees, he tried to keep his face neutral as he carefully spoke, "He's just… a friend."

"And?"

Nico wasn't stupid. He was very much aware of his feelings for the son of Apollo and would only reject them when needed to. He had learned his lesson when it came to expecting and how hard and painful it will be when he finds out that what he had been expecting was just nothing but his usual pathetic illusions of finding happiness.

So he looked at Hazel with steely dark eyes and spoke,

"And I want to save him."

He tried to emphasize the finality of his words. Letting her know that no matter what she say or what she do, he would shadow travel back to Cleveland, get the annoyingly stupid son of Apollo (and Argus too of course) and transport him back to Camp Jupiter, where he can be safer.

He didn't care if he would have to fight Jason and Percy for it.

The hand on his arm snapped him out of his reverie. Hazel's expression was soft but her eyes were as stern as his, and for a moment Nico thought she was going to actually fight him when she spoke, "I'm coming with you."

He stood up and stared at her in shock, "Wha—No! You can't!"

Hazel also stood up as she crossed her arms stubbornly, "You either let me come with you or I'll have to use my magic to stop you."

Nico groaned as he rubbed a hand over his face. This wasn't what he was definitely expecting.

"Let me go with you." Hazel insisted, "For starters I'd be able to help with your shadow-travel. It would be easier for you to get to Cleveland and there's a higher chance that you'd land on the exact spot you left."

True, when shadow-travelling with her sister, it was definitely easier to get to the place he wanted to go. Somehow, he would land to exactly where he wanted to be and frankly, he wasn't sure if he would actually end up directly in Cleveland with his state.

"Alright." He gave in, and he watched as her sister grinned at him. He let a small smile escape before finally walking off, "Come on. We don't have much time to lose."

"W-wait, you just ate!" Hazel tried to follow after him, "Shouldn't you at least wait for five minutes?"

"I thought we had a deal." Nico scowled as he looked at his sister then back to Frank, who stiffened when he turned to him.

"You always need three people to go on a quest." Hazel pointed out as she rummaged through her room, getting the stuff she needed before they leave.

"This isn't a quest."

"Come on Nico," Hazel said in exasperation, "We both know we need back-up. Percy told me about the hellhounds you faced."

"I promise I won't be in your way." Frank spoke up.

Nico wanted to make a retort (What? He was in a bad mood.), but Hazel shot him a warning look, "You won't be." She assured her boyfriend who gave her an uneasy smile. Nico appreciated though, that despite the change of appearance, Frank Zang was still the same kid he met back then. Many people often change a lot, and sometimes, it was always for the worst.

Like him.

"Alright, I'm good to go." Hazel grabbed her sword and shouldered her bag. Then she looked over to her brother as if finally noticing something as she frowned,

"Where's your sword?"

At the same time, Frank asked, "Are you sure we shouldn't tell the others?"

And Nico grabbed both their hands as his patience finally reached its limit.

"There's no time."

Before the couple could react, Nico surrounded them in shadows.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he was relieved to find himself in Cleveland. Beside him, Hazel and Frank looked a little surprise and wary. He looked around the abandoned road and noticed the pavement was still wet from Percy's little distraction.

"Where are they?" Frank asked as he scanned the area as well. He kept looking down at the huge claw marks on the ground. Hazel had headed towards the direction where Nico last saw Will and picked something up.

"Is this a club?" She asked as she carried it with great difficulty.

"That's Argus'…" Nico said through gritted teeth. He was starting to feel a slight exhaustion and the extra stress was not helping him at all. Will and Argus should be nearby, but he knew better.

They had waited for too long. Who knows what had happened to them already. Nico shook his head, trying not to think about it.

"Come on! This way!" He then said as he spotted the SUV through the thick trees. How did that end up there?

They quickly followed him as they saw the vehicle as well.

As they got nearer, he realized the vehicle was a wreck. He was about to check inside if the two were there—when Hazel called.

"Nico! Over here!"

Hazel seemed to be holding up a torn clothing and Frank was rummaging through what seemed like a backpack. He then went pale as he recognized the clothing in his sister's hands. He had seen that jacket being worn during camp fire nights as well as those times in the infirmary when a certain demigod would visit him from his cabin in the middle of the night, just to check up on him if he was doing alright.

"Will…"

He didn't have to look at the bag Frank was rummaging through to know that it was Will's as well. His dark eyes then landed to another bag from afar and recognized it as his. He quickly ran for it and almost tripped as he hastily knelt down to look inside its content. He took out the clothes he had stuffed in and tried to check the pockets.

"Frank! Get all the ambrosia in that bag. We might need them!" He took out a squashed ambrosia from the pockets of his clothes. He always had this habit of stuffing those pieces of godly food in his pocket just in case, and would often forget that they were still in there (which sometimes got him a laundry full of ants).

He turned to look at Frank stuffing a lot of ambrosia in his own bag and Nico couldn't help but roll his eyes. Percy was right, he must have brought the whole infirmary with him.

"Come on, let's go." He started running through the forest without waiting to see if they were following.

"Nico! Wait up!"

He looked back about to yell to them to speed up when he suddenly tripped on something big and landed painfully on the ground. His head hit a thick branch lying on the forest floor and his vision was immediately filled with stars. Just what did he trip on?

"Nico!" He heard his sister getting closer. He was about to tell her he was fine when a horrified gasp interrupted him. He tried to blink the blurriness away and pushed himself up. He looked down to his feet and felt the air around him drop into freezing.

"I-is that…?" Frank's eyes were wide as he stared at the body on the ground.

The eyes all over the body were shut and the person was suspiciously still. The bandage around his torso was stained in red and he seemed to have broken an arm. Nico didn't know if he was alive or not— the dread and panic he felt made it hard for him to use his death radar.

"Argus…"

He looked around towards the deeper part of the forest before finally noticing how most of the trees were all on the ground… almost like they had been pushed by giants. The air around him grew colder and colder that his breath could be seen now. Fear ran through him for the first time in a long time as a certain dream resurfaced in his mind;

A certain demigod struggling in a death grip… and a Cyclopes, grinning at him manically.

Will Solace was in grave danger.

End of Chapter

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