Chapter 9: Will, I shadow traveled again. Please don't punch me. (Nico)

I knew from his first appearance that the man in the suit was bad news. Not the threatening kind, not the terrifying kind, heck he wasn't physically intimidating in the slightest. But the way he carried himself communicated that what he said carried weight here. We followed him down to the briefing room, and Mitchell kindly filled us in on the way.

"Who is this guy?" I asked

"Richard Woolsey, he's the IOA's representative"

"What's the IOA?"

"The international committee that oversees us"

A committee, great. I wasn't sure if the fates had any power over us in this universe, but the timing of this felt almost too cruel. We get our first actual lead in days and before we can move out this guy pops up. I just hoped that whatever the IOA had to say it would just be a speed bump, a delay we could deal with.

I was wrong.

"You're locking us down?" Sam exclaimed

"Until we can further verify their story, the IOA is prohibiting any operations based on their information," Woolsey replied

"What? How much more proof do you need?" Thalia questioned

"You have to understand their point of view. You appear from an ancient device that the Ori activated, claiming to be from a universe where the gods from our mythology are real, and possessing powers we can neither explain nor control"

"With all due respect, they've been nothing but straight with us, and they're our best shot at understanding what the Ori are planning with…" Mitchell explained but was cut off

"With the souls of their dead friends and other demigods you mean" Woolsey replied

"The demigods have had numerous opportunities to harm or deceive us. Their actions do not indicate an ulterior motive. Nor do I suspect any deception in information they have shared" Teal'c reasoned.

"I understand that, but you have to think about the situation from our point of view. You have only been able to verify small parts of their story. Until their origin and abilities can be better understood, they must be considered a potential threat" Woolsey countered.

I was fuming, and I knew I wasn't the only one. I could smell ozone in the air. Landry and SG-1 looked genuinely sorry. "Is there nothing you can do?" Reyna asked them. Before they could respond, a voice from outside the room replied "There might be something if the shuttle wasn't late,". We turned to see a tall man with gray hair and green fatigues enter the room with a bemused expression on his face. "Sir! You made it," Sam exclaimed. Woolsey looked mildly annoyed. "General O'Neill, nice of you to join us," he said.

O'Neill, the name sounded familiar but I couldn't place it. He quickly continued "So the IOA's first instinct upon finding new allies is to lock them up…seems a bit much don't you think,". Woolsey replied "General, I'm sure you can appreciate their position,". "Oh I can. I'm sure they're fine with us sending a team to investigate while we wait, right?" Woolsey was silent. "No?" O'Neill questioned, and SG-1 nodded. "Cool, so we're just going to let Adria run around converting a bunch of undead kids. I don't see a problem here." O'Neill replied. I couldn't help but smile a little, Most people with O'Neil's type of position were at best stern, so his sarcasm was refreshing. It was also just funny to see someone Woolsey couldn't ignore saying what we wanted to say.

"So the IOA wants us to do nothing,"

"For now"

"Where do they expect this magical verification to come from"

"Well…" Woolsey trailed off. "The demigods are to be kept under observation until such time that their power can be fully understood,"

"What?" I exclaimed.

Thalia and Reyna surged forward out of their chairs, with SG-1 doing their best to restrain them from throttling Woolsey. The rest of us stood up, and I could feel the anger in the room. Woolsey stood up and backpedaled and Thalia cursed him out. "You shifty bastard! You all promised to help us get them back. We agreed to help you!". SG-1 looked disgusted, and Woolsey apologized. ""I'm sorry, it wasn't my decision,". O'Neill quickly replied "Then help me do something about it,". Woolsey looked confused, and O'Neill elaborated. "Do you think the IOA might change their minds if you and I lobby on the demigod's behalf?"

"I…It's possible, but it will take time"

"HOW long?"

"Another few days, at minimum"

Thalia and Reyna finally relented. "Until then, the demigods are to be confined to quarters, and any off-world missions based on their intelligence are suspended for further notice" Woolsey declared. I looked to the shadow behind me, then back to the group. I caught Annabeth's eyes, and she quickly mouthed not yet. Percy, Leo, and Piper all looked simultaneously worried but determined. She's got a plan I thought. I walked forward and grabbed Reyna on the shoulder. She whipped around, but read my expression and understood. Percy and Annabeth managed to convince Thalia to stand down as well. Landry, with a bitter expression, then concluded the meeting "You heard him, head back to your quarters"

As we were escorted back to our quarters, the tension in the air seemed to build. While I didn't know exactly how yet, one thing was clear. We couldn't wait for O'Neill and Woolsey to try to convince the IOA to let us go. I almost wished I hadn't convinced Will to stay behind. Even though it could be, well, annoying, his optimism was infectious. I'm sure he would've found some upside to the whole situation, but without him, my mind fell to the most likely outcome. Things might be about to get ugly.

Once we were all inside, the soldiers closed and locked the door. We all sat in silence for a moment.

"So, escape?" Leo suggested.

"Escape," Percy replied.

"Annie I sincerely hope you have a plan" Thalia asked hopefully

"I do, kind of. But it depends on a few things" Annabeth replied

"Such as?" Reyna asked

"Whether we can figure out the dialing system for one, and how fast their security is, but the main one comes down to you Nico," Annabeth explained

"Me?" I replied

"We need to get out of this room undetected"

I was afraid of that. All children of Hades/Pluto have the power to shadow travel, and while it was perfect for our situation, I was a little hesitant. After nearly dying in the process of shadow traveling the Athena Parthenos halfway across the globe (don't ask) I'd never been as comfortable with it as I had once been. I tired out faster, and overdoing it just a little tended to lead to long periods of unconsciousness. I'd even made a promise to Will (who also happens to be my doctor, the charming overachiever that he is) to avoid it whenever possible. But now, it really was our best option, and I wasn't about to let our chance to save Jason go just because I might pass out. "I'll do it," I said.

With that, Annabeth launched into her plan so far. "Ok, we need 3 things. Access to the gate and control room, our stuff from the armory, and a way to stop us from getting swarmed by soldiers the second we make a move. I figure the control room probably has a way to lock down the base, so we'll need to secure that first. The armory is on the same level as the gate room, so once everyone is down there we'll seal it off from the rest of the base, grab our stuff, and dial out,". "They also have some stuff in the armory we might want to grab, just in case," Leo added. Annabeth pulled out her Yankee's Cap. "Nico, if you can get me out of here I'll do some recon and make sure we're clear. After 5 minutes, take Piper to the control room,". After a brief second, Piper nodded, "It'll be easier to have them dial out than trying to figure it out ourselves,".

Annabeth continued "Once the control room is secure, Nico and I will travel back and break the rest of you out, and we'll move as a unit down to the armory. Then we lock down the base, grab our stuff, and gate out. Everyone clear?". Everyone nodded. I didn't think about it at the time, but this was the first time I'd been on a "quest" with her. Years ago, Percy had bragged about her plans and quick thinking to me, but even still her command of the situation was impressive.

"Are you ready?" she asked me.

"As I'll ever be, where do you want to go?"

"Anywhere not behind a locked door or in front of people"

"I'll do my best"

While controlling the location was easy underground, there was no way of knowing if we'd slip into reality right in front of some poor airman on his lunch break, but we didn't exactly have much choice. Annabeth stood next to me, donned her cap, and we slipped through the shadows. Much to our relief, we appeared in a small storage room. I put my ear up to the door "Seems clear"

"Good. Remember, 5 minutes"

"5 minutes, be careful"

"Right back-atcha"

Invisible Annabeth opened the door, saw it was clear, and quietly took off as I traveled back. The next 5 minutes were aggravating. Demigod ADHD, combined with the fact we would have no way of knowing if Annabeth got discovered, didn't help the worrying. Our door was still locked and guarded, and Percy looked downright restless. I looked at my watch, 3:47, 4 minutes had passed. "Time to go" I said, and Piper quickly readied herself

"Wait, I've never done this before, what's it like?"

"Cold and a little intense, but you'll be fine"

"You sure?"

My watch ticked over to 3:48, and I concentrated on the mental image and rough location of the control room before slipping into the darkness again. When we reappeared, Piper stumbled forward, then glared at me with an expression that read no warning? Rude! Before she could say anything, we realized we were surrounded by no less than 7 people working the control room. I covered my ears (just in case) as Piper said "Everyone stop. Who knows how to operate the gate?". A bald man sitting at the front of the room, whose ID tag red Master Sergeant Harriman raised his hand. Piper quickly continued "Is it possible to lock down the base from here?". "Yes, from this console over here," Harriman responded. "Can you bring up surveillance footage from the rest of the base?" a voice asked from seemingly nowhere. Harriman looked confused, but Piper insisted that he answer. "Yes," he responded.

The source of the voice was revealed when Annabeth appeared next to us, cap in hand. She nodded to us, and Piper instructed the remaining personnel to hide in the nearest maintenance closet, but not before surrendering 2 of their radios. "Nico, Piper, stay here and watch our progress, we'll call if we need help," I nodded as Annabeth turned invisible and headed quickly back to everyone else.

Harriman, who preferred to be called Walter, was very good at his job. He had the appropriate security feeds up in moments, and we watched the guards standing motionless outside the locked door that contained the rest of our group. While we waited I closed and locked all of the doors into the operations room, better safe than sorry. A couple of minutes later, the guards were stirred by something down the hall. They seemed a little uneasy, but one started to move away from the door. I checked the neighboring cameras, they're alone, perfect! Almost in sync with my thoughts, the guard still in front of the door was quietly choked out by something unseen, and just as the second one noticed he was quickly taken down. Annabeth appeared out of thin air and waved at the camera, before quickly unlocking the door.

I shadow traveled again, and set about guiding the group down to the armory with Piper and Walter's help to avoid detection. While she was very responsible in how she used her charmspeak (yes, Drew, I'm looking at you) I had to admit it was a heck of a party trick. As we ducked down a corridor to avoid being seen, Reyna grabbed my attention. "Nico, you look a little pale…er than usual, you alright?". "Fine, why would I not be…" I hadn't realized, but now that she pointed it out, I felt ever so slightly light-headed. "Be careful, ok?" she commanded, and I nodded. Piper signaled the coast was clear, and we continued.

We quickly reached the elevator, but ran into a snag. 4 people in lab coats were having a very lengthy conversation between us and the door. Annabeth offered to lead them away, and quickly disappeared from sight. Sure enough, the people were lured away by a strange noise, and the down button on the elevator lit up. Moments later the light lit up and the doors slid open. Praying the coast was clear, we darted across the corridor and into the elevator to see a lone airmen looking decidedly frightened. His eyes darted between all of us in the awkward silence. Annabeth then appeared and entered, and as the doors closed he tried to make a break for it. Fortunately, Thalia had him in a choke hold before he could react, and the elevator began to descend to the correct level. "Alright! We made it!" Leo said.

He should have known better than to celebrate early.

Piper spoke frantically over the radio "Guys they found the guards! They're about to…" We lurched as the elevator came to a sudden stop. The white lighting turned alarm red, and a klaxon could be heard outside. "Can you override the lockdown?" Leo asked. "Walter's trying but we're not sure, how close are you?". "1 floor above," I replied. Percy and Annabeth set about prying the door open. The elevator was about 1/3rd of the way below a floor. Percy went to climb out, but looked to the side and abruptly stopped.

"Problem?" I asked.

"Company, and lots of em" Percy replied.

"Is the shaft climbable?" Reyna asked

I quickly felt the space around us. I shook my head "No. There's a small ladder, but it looks like the lockdown sealed off the shaft above and below us,".

"I just love being underground!" Thalia joked.

We needed a way out, and fast. Fortunately, we had one. Unfortunately, I could hear my boyfriend's voice in my head screaming at me not to try it. Percy and Reyna looked at me, and after a moment I nodded. "Nico, are you sure about this?" Reyna asked.

"No, but we don't have a choice," I replied.

The group silently agreed, and just as the approaching footsteps reached the elevator door, everyone grabbed on to me and we fell into the shadows. A millisecond later, we emerged into a hallway. Annabeth quickly verified that we were on the correct floor and flashed the group a thumbs up. "Nice work dude!" Leo complimented, and I promptly collapsed.

I faded in and out of consciousness as I was carried through the base. I felt someone feed me a small chunk of Ambrosia, the healing substance providing a shot of energy to my whole body, but it wasn't quite enough. Reyna kept saying my name, trying to keep me conscious. I tried to acknowledge, but at best I could only muster a few grunts and moans. We arrived at the armory, and I could hear Leo directing the group to grab a few choice items before making for the gate room. By the time we reached the door I had managed to barely stay conscious. I made eye contact with Reyna and Percy, trying to communicate that I was ok. As I looked around I noticed they were the ones carrying me, and that I must've been very pale.

The door to the gate room opened and I could hear the sound of the stargate dialing. We waited at the bottom of the ramp for what felt like an eternity before the gate finally activated with the familiar kawoosh. Piper ran out of the control room and joined us as we walked up the ramp toward the liquid portal.

"Wait! Stop!"

Just before we entered the gate the group wheeled around to see SG-1 at the entrance to the gate room with their guns aimed right at us. Reyna and Thalia respond in kind with their bows, as did Leo with a strange snake shaped device (probably from the armory). "We have to go after them, I know you understand," Piper explained.

"We know," Colonel Mitchel responded. "Which is why we're coming with you".

Even in my barely conscious state I was shocked. Were they really risking their lives and careers to help us? Disobeying their superiors just to help a bunch of strangers. Fortunately, with the sound of more footsteps approaching, my friends didn't stop to ponder this, and Percy ran through the gate with me over his shoulder. As we hurled through the tunnel of blue energy at impossible speed, any grip I had on consciousness fell away.