~Chapter 5~

~Leo's POV~

"WAIT! Nico!" I flailed around crazily like a chicken trying to get his attention.

I ran towards him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Nico, please. It isn't what it looks like. We aren't like that. It's just that-" It was too late. He dissolved into a cloud of black smoke as he shadow traveled somewhere.

But I went with him.

If you have ever shadow traveled, you know what it feels like.

Puke. It feels like puke.

I tried to steady myself in the darkness, but every position I changed to made me dizzy. Ugh, I thought. As we came out of the what-seemed-like-endless wormhole, I fell to the ground. I looked around. We were on a mountain and the sky was a beautiful sunset. We were ABOVE the clouds.

"Where are we?" I said between coughs.

Nico whipped around, obviously surprised I was there.

"Why are you here? You are the last person I want to see at this moment."

"Look, I know what you thought you saw, but it's not like that. Please believe me, little dude. Come on… please?" I flashed my best get-out-of-time-out puppy face at him.

He looked over at me with uncertainty, and-

WAIT. WAS THAT DISGUST ON HIS FACE?!

"EXCUSE ME! I'M ADORABLE!"
He looked at me accusingly.

"I don't believe you," he said. He took a step forward his back turned, and I felt a sudden spark of anger. He was one of my best friends, and here we were fighting over a girl I didn't like in THAT WAY. I shouldn't have let my emotions control me, but anger filled me up. So….I kinda, sorta, MAYBE…..shot a fireball at him.

It hit him right in the back.

I stood in anger, waiting to throw another as he fell to the ground.

But then the anger left me. Instead I felt regret.

"Nico!" I started to run towards him, but he tried to inch away from me.

"You-You're a monster! Why would you do that? I'm your friend! I-you know what, just get away from me."

I couldn't believe what I had just heard, but Nico was right. I was a monster. I had power over fire, the element that killed my mother. I would never be able to get over that.

I looked onto him with surprise, but my thoughts clouded my judgement. I started down the mountain.

As I finally got to flat ground, I looked around me. I was in Camp Half Blood. But how? There were no mountains near CHB. That was strange. I looked behind me and the mountain was gone. It was all just a forest.

I started off to my cabin in regret and sadness. On the way, I bumped into Percy.

"Hey! So there's this cool trick I wanted to try out with you and…what's wrong?" he asked quickly.

"Nothing," I said as I walked away with my head down. I just wanted to be alone.

But then I had a thought. I didn't want to go to the noisy Hephaestus cabin full of kids to be alone. I started off to the lake.

As I finally got there, I slumped against a tree.

I heard a branch snap. I whipped around to see Ariana.

"This is my spot," she said sarcastically.

"Sorry," I tried to sound okay. I really tried. I'm normally not the depressed one around the camp, but when something big happens, I fall apart.

"So…what happened with Nico?"

"Listen…I need to know, do you like like me? Nico got the wrong idea I think and…"

She interrupted me. "No way! No offense, but you're a little too…ummm….hyper sometimes. And we're just friends. Trust me."

That lifted some of the burden off my shoulders. At least I had proof. But what Nico called me-a monster. I never tried to use my powers for something like that. Nico was my friend and I would have never done that kind of thing. I wondered what made me do it. I focused in on the moment.

Ariana was staring at me. "I need to know…what happened? What did Nico do? Why are you so depressed looking?"

"To be honest, I don't even know," I started, "I followed him when he shadow traveled, and I tried to talk to him but he wouldn't listen. I guess I got really angry and I…" I grimaced at the thought of having to tell her I threw a fireball at him.

"You what Leo? What did you do?"

"I threw a fireball at him?" I laughed nervously.

Ariana stood there with her mouth and eyes wide open.

"Why?!"

"I already said that! I don't know!" My voice got louder and louder until we were both shouting.

I didn't want this to happen again. I took a deep breath, and calmed down.

"Look, Ariana, I don't know what happened. It was just like every othertime I got mad, just…more extreme with some…uh…severe consequences. Yeah, that's it!"

She shrugged her shoulders. I wondered what she was thinking.

I didn't know what had happened, but that kind of thing always meant trouble. And I didn't know how to get out of it.

~Nico's POV~

I doubled over in pain after Leo left. Why would he do that? He was my friend and I trusted him.

I also thought of Ariana. I couldn't believe her.

I had never in my life felt so betrayed, and if you knew what I had gone through, that would mean a lot.

I thought when I met her that she wasn't some shallow, normal, overrated girl. But then she turned. I wondered what caused that.

My mind went wandering back to the flaming (literally) pain in my stomach and back. I curled into a ball clutching my stomach. It felt like a thousand boiling drops coming into me. I knew no one would ever come here. I had gotten a...friend to create this virtual world for me. At first sight, it looked like where you were before you came.

But I was wrong. I heard footsteps crunching on the dirt.

I looked up to see Lou Ellen. The creator.

"Guess you got stuck in your own daydream, huh? I told you!" Yet she helped me back to camp.

She took me to the infirmary, where I reluctantly lay down in a bed.

I must've fallen asleep, because the first thing that I heard was a collection of concerned voices, but the image was black.

I opened my eyes, and saw Percy, Annabeth, Lou Ellen, and Leo looking down on me. Percy had never looked so worried. Annabeth was trying to tell them all to remain calm. Lou acted as if this were an ordinary thing, but from the sound of their voices, I could tell it was not even close.

I saw Leo. His face read as regretful, but I knew it wasn't regret if he would do that in the first place.

"Nico? Are you okay? Are you awake? Can you hear me?" Annabeth asked slowly.

I weakly sat up. "I will be okay, when you get him out of here." I pointed to Leo.

"What? I never got the story. Everyone just got here. What happened?" she asked a billion questions at a time.

Leo blushed and tried to shrink away from the circle. Percy turned his head.

"Leo, what's going on? I know that you know, after what happened earlier. Something happened. You can tell us," he said.

"I-I uh...I didn't mean to... I didn't know..." he stammered nervously.

"He shot a fireball at me." I explained for him. No more excuses.

"What?!"

"Leo, Why?!"

"I can't believe this!"

The voices echoed across the room where another patient was sleeping whose attendant told us to shush.

"I-I don't know...I didn't even know that I was going to do that! I promise! I would never hurt you guys!" Leo tried to explain.

The voices of anger came towards Leo. He started to back away as they started forward, until Leo started to yell.

"Alright! That's enough!" he looked so hurt, I wondered if he was maybe telling the truth. "I'm leaving," he said in anger.

Annabeth was the only one who stayed calm. "Leo, please don't leave. We can resolve this. I can help-"

She was interrupted when he slammed the door and left.

He was gone.