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Chapter 14

Nico

Once they reached the island of Ioannina, Nico jumped off of the boat first and landed in a bunch of salt water. He glared at Leo. "Are docks not good enough for you or something?"

Leo shrugged. "I don't know how to tie a boat off onto a dock without having it float away."

Nico raised an eyebrow. "Yet you can build and sail a giant Greek trireme?"

"Pretty much!"

"Great." Nico frowned at the water. From afar, it looked crystal clear and a beautiful shade of blue and green. But when you got up close, it was a murky brown. There were little creatures scurrying and disturbing the water. A little crab dug itself into the sand and sent a plume into the ocean.

Nico, like Hazel, wasn't really fond of the ocean. It was probably just a child of Hades/Pluto thing, but at least he didn't get sea sick like Hazel did. Her face was green as she sat on the boat. She had her head over the side and was groaning.

They were about twenty yards from the shore. The water was choppy and up to Nico's chest. He shivered and motioned the rest of them into the water.

"I think I'll pass," Jason said, smiling cleverly. He picked up Piper and flew over to the beach. Nico envied him briefly for not having to get it the stupid ocean. He tried his best not to complain as they swan and splashed to the beach. The others stayed away from him, probably because of the evil looked on his face.

Nico was thoroughly soaked when he rode a wave in and hobbled onto the sand, collapsing down. He spit out a mouthful of water like a fountain. His throat was dry from the salt. He was pretty sure he had seaweed in his hair, and it was confirmed by Piper when she reached down and pulled it out of his hair. "Seaweed really isn't your thing. Maybe for Percy, but not for you."

"Ha, ha." Frank helped him to his feet. He shook some sand off of his clothes. "So, where do we go now?"

Everyone just stared back at him. Someone coughed. Nico, confused, said, "What? Was it something I said?"

Jason shook his head. "No, it's just… aren't you the one that already came here? Don't you remember anything? How did you get to Tartarus in the first place?"

"Um," Nico said. "I never actually came here. I looked around Greece for a while, and finally it was just too aggravating. I shadow traveled into the Underworld and went to the edge of Tartarus, just to see if I could get any information on where the Doors of Death were, and I was sucked in."

"So, you don't know where the Doors of Death are?"

"Well, they're obviously in the House of Hades, as I've said a million times. But no, I don't know the exact location. I have seen the place in my dreams, though. And the other pair of Doors are in Tartarus, obviously."

The six trudged up the dunes. No one was on the island. It seemed as if the entire place had been abandoned. There were beach chairs and umbrellas turned over and ripped to pieces. Nico could see a little nest of birds hidden under one umbrella. They squawked when he walked past them.

There were three cars stranded on the road with no one inside of them. Dust and sand covered an old pickup truck, a really ugly blue thing from the 1960's. There was an old convertible with the top down, and water had ruined the inside of the car, which was a shame, considering how awesome it was. Then, there was a pretty new Trail Blazer, only a few years old. But the sides were dented and the back was completely crushed like it had been in a crash. There was gas leaking out of two of the cars and collecting on the ground.

"The owners of these cars clearly haven't been here lately," murmured Piper. Nico kicked a spare piece of metal across the road. "I doubt they even work," she continued.

"They probably all ran away when they realized that once dead creatures came off of the island," Leo said matter-of-factly.

"The House is somewhere around here." Nico observed what was around them, which was pretty much nothing. There were giant weeping willows and beautiful green hills, but no signs of a cave or temple. There was no passageway that would lead them underground. He shrugged. "Let's just keep walking."

It was kind of funny how fast the scenery changed from Jersey Shore to Going to the Chapel. Nico felt like he was in a wedding scene. The ironic part was how beautiful the island really was considering the powers it had.

"I swear, if Tulip was lying…" Jason mumbled, kicking a stone.

"I don't think so," Hazel said. "There was nothing for her to gain by lying. The giants want to enslave the nymphs." She stopped for a second, completely still. The others kept walking, but Nico stood next to her and arched an eyebrow.

"There's something underground," she said slowly. "Giant tunnels that stretch across the island."

Hazel's powers were a little bit different than Nico's, but he didn't know why. Perhaps it was the fact that she was Roman and he was Greek, but she was great at the underground things, and they were both great with the Underworld things.

"Hey!" Frank called from up ahead. He was staring intently at the ground. "I think I found something, You guys better come and check it out."

Everyone circled around him, and Nico saw what he was talking about. There was a little, stone circle. It wasn't too big, but only big enough for about three of them to stand on. Nico knocked his hand against it and put his ear down next to the stone. He heard the sound echo. "It's hollow," he announced, standing up.

All of a sudden, the ground shook. It rumbled. The little pebbles bounced up and down. Nico had been in earthquakes way too many times, and he fought the urge to get down and cover his head like he had been taught. This didn't seem like any normal earthquake, but he couldn't explain it. Nico gulped. "Earthquake?" asked Leo, who was trying to keep his balance. Nico shook his head and got ready to answer.

The ground underneath them opened up like a mouth, and with screams of shock and horror, they all fell into the darkness below.

The fall was so short that they didn't even have time to do anything. Within five seconds, they landed down on hard dirt. Nico gasped in pain as his shoulder connected first and his slid across the ground. He bumped into someone, but his eyes were closed so that he couldn't see. He gasped as his back hit hard rock.

Nico cracked his eyes open, but he only saw near darkness. He looked above, and the beautiful wedding scene was gone. There were torches on the wall, lit with normal fire, not the green Greek fire from his dream. The light created shadows in the little room they were in.

Nico tried to stand up but gasped and lowered his body back down. Something seriously hurt. "Is everyone okay," asked Jason from some place that Nico couldn't see.

Everyone's voices answered except for Nico's. He tried to say something, but instead coughed loudly. "Nico?" asked Hazel. "Where are you?"

He heard their feet scurrying around the room. "I'm over here," he managed with difficulty.

"Where is 'over here'?" asked Leo. "Wait! I got an idea! MARCO!"

Leo was such an idiot sometimes. "POLO," Nico called back, his voice shaky but dripping with sarcasm.

"There you are!" said Piper, and they came towards him. "What's wrong?" she asked. There were a couple things, and it took Nico a minute to exactly pinpoint where the pain was coming from.

"My shoulder," he decided. Jason knelt next to him and helped him sit up. Then, as if he had done it a thousand times before, which he probably had, Jason observed his left shoulder. He poked it, and Nico hissed in pain.

"You dislocated your shoulder," Jason concluded. "This will only take a second. It is going to hurt though." Great, Jason was probably just going to love doing this. Nico braced himself, and in a flash, Jason set his shoulder. He yelped and banged his head against the wall behind him.

"Done," Jason said. "It might throb for a little bit, but you should be fine." He helped Nico to his feet. Nico brushed himself off and leaned against the rock wall on his good shoulder.

"So, what just happened?" asked Frank. "Are we in Tartarus?"

Nico shook his head. "The fall to Tartarus is a lot longer, believe me. I think we're in the House of Hades."

"Do all underground temples have freaky stones that cause earthquakes to open up portals?" Leo joked, but Nico answered back seriously, "Usually they don't, but I bet all of the ones you'll have to see will."

Nico looked this way and that. He pointed to where there was a line of torches. "My guess is that we should head that way. It's our best bet and there isn't any other corridor."

Nico set off and listened to them fall into step behind him. Soon enough, when the corridor was wide enough, they all walked in a line. Nico grabbed one of the torches off of the wall and held it in front of them so that they could see more than a few feet ahead.

"So," Piper started off. "Nico…"

He turned to look at her. "Yes?"

"Well, you've been to Tartarus."

"Yes." There was no doubt about that. But he didn't really want to answer any questions about it. It still gave him a headache like it had about a day ago.

"I wanted to know-"

"Hey! Free weapons!" Leo interrupted. They all turned to look at him. The hallway had forked off, but the one way was a very short dead end. The end was stock piled full of weapons. Nico saw some that were Stygian Iron, like his old sword. They were celestial bronze, imperial gold, silver, wooden, just all different kinds.

He walked to where Leo was and picked up the Stygian Iron sword. It greatly resembled his old sword, but it was longer. The grip felt different, but he needed some type of weapon that he was used to. He shoved the torch into Leo's hand and rummaged through the pile. "Do you guys need anything?"

In the end, Frank got an extra quiver of bows, Hazel got a new spatha, and Jason got another javelin that he strapped onto his back. Also included in the pile was tons of ambrosia, nectar, and other supplies that Nico couldn't name.

"Why would this place have so many supplies just lying out in the middle of the hallway?" asked Frank.

"Maybe they were waiting here for us," guess Jason.

"Or maybe it's a trap," Nico said. "It's the more reasonable conclusion. The giants are probably trying to lure us down here to try and kill us at the Doors of Death so that we'll never get to close them."

On that happy note, they quickly left the dead end and continued through the hallways. "This is kind of like the Labyrinth," Nico murmured, as he observed the ceiling and walls.

"The what?" asked Hazel.

"Nothing."

Grass roots were dangling from the ceiling now. One of the longer ones brushed against his head. The torches were still made of normal fire, not the ghostly green type from his dreams. Really, this place wasn't at all like the one from his dreams.

"Um, Nico?" someone coughed.

He whirled. Piper was trying to talk to him again. "Yes?" he asked.

"So about Tartarus-"

"What do you want to know?" he asked. He was going to regret asking, he knew it. He could already feel the migraine forming.

"You must have some idea of what Percy and Annabeth are going through. Do you mind telling us? I just want to know. It would make me feel less worried." She smiled at him, and everyone else stared at him, inviting him to tell him everything that had happened.

The only person that wasn't making eye contact was Jason. He stared at his feet like he knew something they didn't. Nico's eyes narrowed, but he didn't confront Jason, even though he knew he should've.

Nico thought back to his time in Tartarus. He remembered the voices, the falling, screaming… and then nothing. His memory hit a blank wall. The next thing he remembered was getting saved by Percy, Jason, and Piper. The headache was worse than ever. He thought harder. What had he done? Where were the Doors of Death down there? He was positive he had seen them. He was completely sure he had been to Tartarus too. Why couldn't he remember?

"You can tell us anything," Hazel said gently. It was the same thing Piper had said to Jason only an hour before. And now, Nico was almost positive that Jason had been lying when he said that nothing was wrong.

He thought back to after the fall once more, but there was nothing. His head felt like it was going to explode, and he sighed with defeat.

"I can't remember," he realized, horror creeping into his body.

Well, ain't that great? Nico has amnesia, just like Percy and Jason did! Do you think I should write a PJO Christmas Oneshot? Tell me in a review!

Dear Genevieve: To make an account, just go to the top of the screen (top right hand corner) and click sign up! You can also click on my profile (above) and email me!

Reviews and ideas are loved! I'll try to update either before or on Christmas!

-BBH