A/n: Welcome back and I hope you enjoy this chapter, RRF please.
Nico's POV;
There's a rumour spreading around camp that the four new campers; Jason, Piper, Leo and Xsel had got a new quest. Not that I wouldn't have heard it soon enough, with them boasting about it all the time. I haven't heard what the quest is though. That's the only thing they wouldn't tell me. It must be a very important quest if they didn't want to tell me, but maybe they're just excited about getting their first quest. I remember when I got my first quest, I was so excited. But, now, it's not a big deal. It's not like I ever had any good quests. The quests I received were completed without me even attempting to try them.
I felt bitter, why are they getting a better quest then I had ever gotten. But maybe it's not that good. I shouldn't indulge myself into this anymore; it would just make me feel worse. I stroked the side of my cabin; it reminded me of Percy, of how he got the gods to make all these cabins. I wish I had something to be proud of. I sat down on the hard wood floor that surrounded my cabin, leaning my back on the cabin wall. I rested my head on the wall and shut my eyes, hopefully drifting off to a happy, endless dream.
I woke up the loud mutterings of campers heading to the pavilion. I looked up at the sky and it passed sunset, the half-moon crescent slowly setting in the pitch black sky above me. My stomach rumbled, signalling that I was hungry. My stomach never was a happy camper. Enchanted by the muttering of campers and the smell of food across the grass, I skipped on the newly made flags set into the ground across to the pavilion. I collected my plate of food and slipped onto my table, placing the plate onto the table. I felt unusually happy, which I must say is unusual.
I then felt fingers creep up my back to my shoulder slowly, with a shock I spun and collided with someone's lips; Thalia. She broke apart from our kiss.
"You planned that, didn't you?" I grumbled, smirking. She winked with a grin and took a seat to my right.
"Can I share your food with you? I'm too lazy to get my own." She asked innocently.
"Of course you are too lazy." I rolled my eyes. She punched my arm and stole a chip from anyway. She threw it up and caught it inside her mouth. She swallowed it and smiled, full of pride. She then took another chip and threw it at me.
"That's for not giving it to me in the first place." She exclaimed, sticking her tongue out. I threw a chip back at her. She then threw it at me. I tried to throw another one before she could but we kept stopping each other's path. She then fell on top of me, I tried to keep my balance but she pushed me down. On the way down I hit something hard. I turned around and noticed Arobella sitting where I was about to land. She coughed.
"Hey Nico, am I interrupting something." She said cheerfully, looking a little hurt."Yeah, you are." Thalia snarled, glaring at her. Arobella grunted and stormed off back to her cabins bench. Thalia and I chuckled together and then I lay down on the bed with her on top of me, kissing me playfully.
"May I have all your attention, please?" A gruff deep voice from the podium asked through the microphone. Thalia and I got back up, blushing. Chiron was on the stage.
"Our four new campers has received a quest, and they would like to recite it so all the campers would understand why they chose the campers they do. Jason, if you would like to do the honours." Chiron bellowed. Jason from the Zeus cabin, my girlfriend's brother, stood up and recited the prophecy;
"Offspring of the sky, this would be referring to the children of Zeus; which would be me and Thalia. Offspring of the sea, this would be referring to the children of Poseidon; which would be Xsel. Offspring of knowledge, this line would be referring to a child of Athena, so I'm going to have to choose. Since I have known Annabeth better and that she also has decent combat skills, I choose her. Offspring of love, this line would be referring to a child of Aphrodite, so I choose Piper from that cabin. Six in all, All will climb hills and hedges, All shall travel through vast oceans, All will search what they're looking for, For soon all else will fall. All of has been chosen, please get ready for the journey ahead of us. Pack your things and get mentally stable. Thank you for listening." Jason spoke loudly, walking over to the Hephaestus cabin bench to talk to Leo.
Chiron clapped. "Thank you for your words Jason, since you were the individual to have received the prophecy, I declare you the leader of the quest. I hope you guide them will, but remember to take their advice. I wish you a good meal." Chiron than trotted off the stage towards the Big House.
"I wish I could go with you." I told Thalia. "But, someone has to stay here, to keep an eye on the campers."
"Oh, don't worry. You're going to come too." She smirked and walked back to her cabin bench.
Jason's POV;
I patted Leo's back, knowing that he's disappointed of not being able to go on the quest. He looked at me and smiled. "I'm sorry that you-"
"No, it's ok. If you had chosen me, I would've declined. I'm busy with all these wonderful mechanism things in the Hephaestus cabin; I just can't keep my hand off them." I looked down into his lap, and I see him playing with a screwdriver and a nail. "You wouldn't believe the things I could make with these two objects." I grinned and gave him a hug. The hug eventually became awkward and we let go quickly.
"I'm glad that you feel that way, I hope you make the best machine ever." I cheered him on.
"Oh, don't worry. I will. I've got something the others haven't." He quickly looked around, raised a finger in front of my face, and snapped his index finger and thumb together. Out of nowhere, a ball of fire rested on his open hand. He clapped both his hands together and then carried on playing with his toys. "Cool, right?"
"Yes! I wish I could do that." I exclaimed with wide eyes.
"You could. Try bursting a tree with lightning, watch what will happen." We chuckled.
Nico's POV;
After eating my dinner, I walked across the green to my cabin to finish my long awaited sleep. I grasped the knob of my cabin door to open it. On my right shoulder, I suddenly felt a light tap. I spun around to see a smiling Arobella, dim wittingly waving.
"Hi" She squealed.
"Hey" I replied, hoping to be able to get back to my cabin soon.
"How are things with you and Thalia?" She asked, raising her arm to pull back a hair behind her ear.
"Oh, things are-"Before I could finish she pushed me up against my cabin door.
"To be honest, I don't really care. She'll be out of the picture soon anyway. I'm smarter, better looking, cute and sweeter than her; why won't you choose me?" She demanded rather then asked.
"I haven't, and won't choose you because I love Thalia. She may not be as smart, but she sure is better looking, and wonderful, and beautiful..." I rambled on.
"Maybe this will change your mind." She crashed her lips against mine, eyes closed; she kept trying to get deeper into the kiss. My eyes open, shocked. She felt like this towards me? I broke away from the kiss. I then heard footsteps running away and quite sobbing. Thalia. I pushed Arobella off me and ran to where I had heard the footsteps. Since she ran away, stomping on the ground, she left a trail behind her. I followed that trail through the forest all the way to Zeus' fist; where my love was couched down, head between her knees, sobbing. I quietly sneaked to the rock.
"Go away!" Thalia croaked.
"What did I do?" I asked even though I knew.
"You kissed that... that... thing!" She spat.
"No, she kissed me!" I responded. "Please believe me."
"You know what; I always knew you liked her. I always thought you were too dense to not notice she liked you. But I bet you were doing this all along; behind my back. Nico, I don't think I can be with you anymore." She cried, leaping off the rock and out of the forest, heading to her cabin.
What just happened? Did she... did she break up with me? I took the golden butterfly broche which was kept hidden in my pocket. I read the engraving on the base 'T+N'. This is where we found this broche together. This is where we broke up. Please, gods, tell me this is all a nightmare. I collapsed to my knees, weeping in my hands, my tears circling the broche.
Annabeth's POV;
"What's wrong Thalia?" I asked trailing her.
"Nothing, nothing fucking at all." She spat.
"I know there's something!" I spun her round towards me.
"I saw Nico kissing Arobella!" She replied, looking away from me.
"Are you sure she wasn't kissing him?"
"It doesn't matter, I broke up with him. I hope I don't see his pale face ever again."
I let go. "So, both our men left us?"
"Pfft, men." We said in unison. Thalia walked away back to her cabin. I followed her and entered her cabin with her.
"I'm sure everything will be ok." I said cheerfully while taking a seat on the edge of the bed with Thalia following suit.
"This is the first time that I haven't seen you depressed since..."
"Yeah, I guess. Because of that incident I fear spiders more now."
"As if you could fear them anymore than you do." We giggled. We stayed there talking for hours, talking about our ex-boyfriends. From time to time I would notice us both shedding a tear. It was a fun but hurtful few hours, but I'm happy I had let some things off my chest.
"Thalia, it's getting late so I'm going back to my cabin. Good night." I smiled and stood up and headed out the cabin.
"Um, Annabeth. Thanks." Thalia said.
I nodded and left the cabin to go back to my cabin. I looked at the sky to see it was dark, the moon up above. "I guess my prediction of it being night was right." I whispered to myself while opening my cabin door and crawling to my bed to sleep.
I woke up to my alarm clock. I slid out of my blankets and pulled my suitcase from underneath my bed. I lifted it up and rested it on my bed; time to start packing. It was the middle of the night when I was rudely woken up by Malcolm telling me that I should wake up early, the coach would arrive at noon.
I finished packing, still deprived of sleep; I collapsed onto my untidy bed and closed my eyes.
I got awoken by Malcolm.
"What?" I groaned.
"You've got five minutes to get to the coach!" Malcolm shouted into my ear, crap. I sprung up from the bed and heaved up my suitcase, dragging it out of the cabin. I ran to the top of half-blood hill where the others; Xsel, Jason, Piper and Thalia were waving at me. I stopped and panted when I caught up with them.
"So, where should we go head out first?" Thalia asked.
"We go where ever our heart takes us, where ever our feet lead us." Jason responded, walking down the hill.
"Weren't we going by coach?" I asked catching up with him.
"No, that wasn't in the plan." He grinned, still walking away. I walked by his side with the other three following.
"There's a question I've been meaning to ask." Thalia started. "In the prophecy, it said there were six of us. But, there are only 5. Who are we missing?"
"The person we are missing is the person we probably going to meet." Jason replied.
"Stop trying to talk wise Jason, it doesn't suit you." Piper grinned, scoffing.
"Hey guys, I think I know a place we could go." Xsel exclaimed, running down the road to the bus that was parked. He jumped into the bus and we followed suit, with one more person than walking on, the bus set off.
"Where are you taking us?" I asked curiously.
"It's a secret." Xsel replied. I trust him, so I'm sure we're not going anywhere stupid.
Nico's POV;
I'm on a bus with Thalia and the rest, hoping not to be caught. It was hard to get this far without being noticed; and I'm sure Annabeth noticed me being the last person on the bus. However, she may be smart, but she won't be able to see through my disguise. I was wearing a white Mickey Mouse top with white baggy jeans and pink Reebok sneakers. I accessorised with a white and pink striped beanie hat and pink rounded glasses, also with the added effect of a black scarf. Since I looked so different, I'm sure they would've never noticed me.
I took my seat at the back of the bus, hoping I would be able to hear what they were saying, but they were silent.
I glanced outside the window, and something caught my eye as we drove past. It was the three fate sisters sitting down on three different lawn chairs, knitting. If my eyes didn't deceive me, I'm sure I noticed one of them stretching a string, raised some scissors and snipped right through the middle.
What does this mean? Am I going to die? I could be wrong, it might not be them. I only have had seen them once and that was when I was in the underworld with my father when I was 15, getting ready to fight in the Titan war. But what if it really was them? Is my life in danger?
Or worse, is Thalia's life in danger? I coughed at the thought, attracting the five half-bloods to spin their heads round to see who had coughed. I raised my scarf over my nose and mouth so I won't be recognised. After a few seconds they turned back around.
That was close.