Hey, you sexy beasts! Thanks for the reviews. I will probably update once every week, just so some of you will know.
Sorry of typos and OOCness!
Happy Reading!
Chapter 6
Nico
Sleep was the best medicine, right? Wrong.
After the fight against Nessie, Leo had tried to shrink the Athena Parthenos, and surprisingly, he'd succeeded. Now, the giant statue looked more like a Mythomagic action figure. Leo had picked it up only by its head, positive that it was going to blow him up if anything went wrong.
Now, the Athena Parthenos was with Leo 24/7, never leaving his sight. Nico had even caught Leo going to the bathroom with Nessie crawling on his head, the statue between his fingers, and the Archimedes Sphere at his feet like a soccer ball.
Nico, like the others, was exhausted from the fight, but he didn't want to go to sleep. Since he had nearly died from asphyxiation in his deep sleep, while being trapped in an overly large jar, he had promised himself that he would never sleep again.
So he went to his room, sat down on his bed, and stared at the wall.
For one entire hour.
After 65 minutes had passed, there was a knock on his door. Hazel popped her head inside. Half of her curly hair was frizzed up in the air, while the other side was straight and flat. She yawned. "Hey, have you slept any?"
"Yeah," Nico lied. He hated lying to her, but he didn't want her to worry.
Hazel glared at him. "I know your lying."
Nico rolled his eyes and groaned. "Fine, I'll go to sleep. What time is it?"
"About eight, and everyone else is already asleep except for Leo."
"Why don't you go annoy him, then?"
"Because I care more about you, and I was getting ready to go to him right after I made sure you were asleep, which you aren't!" She left without another word.
Nico threw his hands into the air and fell back onto the bed. He rubbed his face. Sometimes that girl was so annoying for her age. But Nico reckoned he could be just as annoying at time. He just wasn't the kind of person to show it.
Before Nico knew it, he'd fallen asleep.
That's when the dreams started.
At first, Nico was five years old, walking down the street holding his mother's hand. Bianca was skipping ahead of them in a skirt. Her hair tumbled down her shoulders, and her smile was wide. Nico wanted to cry. His sister had been so beautiful.
"Slow down, Bianca tesoro," Mother told her, her Italian accent thick. Bianca stopped skipping and waited for them to catch up. Maria di Angelo walked up to her and brushed some hair off of her forehead.
"You're all sweaty now," their mother complained. Bianca huffed, clearly annoyed, and Nico stifled a laugh.
His mom eyed him. "So you think that's funny?" Nico zipped his lips, trying to think about dead puppies, but his mother had already seen him. She bent down and started tickling him on the stomach. Nico was soon in a fit of giggles, and Bianca was laughing right alongside him.
Nico tumbled out of his mothers grasp and ran away. Bianca was next to him, shouting with pure glee. Their mother's laugh could be heard from thirty feet away.
When Nico turned around, Maria was smiling and fast walking after them. It wasn't ladylike to run down the streets. She clutched her bag in both hands and shook her head back and forth.
"Come on, Nico!" Bianca said, and he took off again.
The dream changed, and Nico was back as his thirteen almost fourteen self. This time, he was standing near a wrought iron gate, twenty feet tall and the deepest black imaginable.
The ceiling of the room he was in was so high that it seemed like they were under the nighttime sky. But Nico knew better. He had been here in his dreams before.
The House of Hades.
It never changed. Torches lined the walls, and Greek fire illuminated the walls green. Nico shivered in his shade form.
Nico knew that once he past the gates, there would be no return. Or that's what he guessed. Also written in iron at the top of the gate, the words Porta Nouita Reditum hung. It was Latin for Gate of No Return.
Ominous, but intriguing. The worst kind of thing for a demigod to find.
Somewhere beyond that Gate were the Doors of Death, and beyond that were Percy and Annabeth. Nico's hand fumbled with the lock on the gate, to which there was no key. And there was no way they could even climb over it. Maybe once they arrived, Jason could fly them over.
A deep voice chuckled throughout the cavern, a voice that Nico had never heard before. It rumbled and shook the ground so much that he was brought to his knees. It was like an earthquake was occurring.
Nico immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was Gaea. But the voice… it had been male.
It was another giant that they would have to take care of, but Nico had no clue who it was or what he could do. And this giant was inside the Gate of No Return, guarding the Doors of Death.
The cavern seemed to drop in temperature, and Nico watch his breath some out in big white puffs.
The ground shook again, and Nico stood on wobbly knees. He looked around, but he was the only soul in the room.
When he looked at the ceiling, it began to change color. A light erupted like the midnight sun, and coated the roof. Pictures formed. Nico saw the glowing blade of Riptide, the bright lights of a car, and most of all-blood.
The camera or whatever seemed to zoom in on the pools of blood on the ground. Then it moved up and showed a white faced terror-stricken Annabeth in the passenger seat of the car. She was in pain, obviously, and Nico would've bet his life that the pools of blood at come from her wounds.
But the camera didn't show any sign of Percy. Not a hint or a trace of the son of Poseidon. That wasn't good.
He heard the neigh of a horse, and then the hissing, sleepy voice of Gaea. Will die in your wake, she was saying.
The camera focused on Percy finally. He was staring down at a Pegasus in horror.
And then Nico woke up, cold sweat on his back. He blinked a few times and tried to clear his mind.
There was a knock on his door that scared him so much that he jumped to his feet while standing on the bed. He hit the ceiling.
Jason was staring at him, clearly tired. "Hey dude. I don't mean to wake you, but I've been guarding the ship since Leo went to sleep. Do you think you could take over for a little while?"
Nico jumped down and pretended it had never happened. "Yeah, sure. I can't sleep now anyway." He thought about telling Jason his dream. Annabeth would have been a better person to go to, since she would've known exactly what to do and who the giant was, but Jason was cool too.
But he couldn't. There was something about the way Jason looked at Nico that confused him. It was a look of distrust, like Jason thought Nico was spying the giants or Gaea. It aggravated him, but he didn't ask Jason why or why not. He would wait until the guy actually had the nerve to tell him that to his face.
He came to the conclusion that he would tell everyone at the same time once they were awake.
Jason's shoulders fell with relief. "Oh, thank the gods. I thought you were going to say no for a minute."
"Why would you think that?" grumbled Nico defensively.
"Um, no reason," Jason answered, and then he left Nico by himself.
Nico shrugged on his aviator jacket and stumbled out onto the deck. Stars were still out in the sky. It was really early morning.
He walked across the deck and slumped against the mast. More than anything, Nico wanted to be back at one of the camps, on dry land in a place he knew. He wanted his sword back with him. He wanted someone that he'd known longer than Jason or Hazel.
He needed Percy and Annabeth.
Running a hand through his dark hair, he thought back to when Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover had rescued him and his sister so long ago that it seemed as if it had never even happened.
He remembered the Titan War, and how he had betrayed Percy to get information about Maria.
Nico wouldn't let down these five demigods like he had let down so many others. He just wouldn't do something like that again.
Sorry about the fact that it was short. I wanted to have some of Nico's inner thoughts and whatnot so you guys could understand how I'm portraying him.
So, a few little things. 1. Check out my other account with ChildOfWisdom, CodeName-Athena! 2. I just posted two new stories. One for the book, The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. The other for the popular horror game, SLENDER! Check them out. 3. You guys who've known me for a while have been wondering about my ankle. Thanks for asking! I get my cast off tomorrow! No sports for another month though:( and 4. Thank for getting my Mark of Athena 300 favs and 2800 reviews!
Reviews and ideas are loved!
-BBH