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The Loss of a Hero: Chapter Seventeen
Annabeth POV
When Jake disappeared into shadows, I'd felt a pang of loneliness. Jake had, strangely, made me feel nice inside. I thought about it a moment. I supposed… he had a presence similar to Percy's, but I could tell that it was different – He felt less …alive, I guess. His presence was a bit dismal and mechanoly. I sighed. There'll be time to think about that later.
I turned back to the others. Raven looked exhausted. Chloe was out like a light, snoring softly with her back against a large rock. Clarisse was putting a bandage on a few cuts. Will and Zoe were perfectly fine, they were running around, playing tag. But Nico… oh, Nico…
Nico was lying on a glowing, floating purple stretcher that Raven had conjured. He was paler than I'd ever seen him. He was barely breathing – you could only just see a slight rise and fall of his chest. Blood dripped onto the ground. It was seeping through the makeshift bandages, made from strips of Will's cotton shirt, that I'd carefully wrapped around his broken ribs. It looked like a rib or two had punctured his skin and one of his lungs. His torso, bare because I'd needed to bandage his wounds, was covered in slashes, all bleeding slowly through the bandages. There were cuts all down his arms and legs. I'd cut his pants just above the knees so I could bandage him, but still allowing him privacy. Even his face has a few cuts, luckily not too deep, but they'd scar for sure.
I sighed at the broken state of my friend. Nobody from the Apollo cabin had come, so we could only wait for either Jake to bring someone to help, or for Chloe to wake up and take us back to camp. Actually, I was glad that anyone had come. Before the whole problem, people didn't really get along too well with Nico anyway, when they were told that he had gone bezerk and was out of control, they got a lot less eager to help him.
Clarisse came, I think, mostly for the fight. Raven seemed to want to prove herself to everyone, that children of Hecate could do good things. Zoe wouldn't let Raven go without her. Chloe helped because I asked her to, and probably so things could be balanced so it would stop running about in her mind. Will, who had recently arrived at camp, had attached to me almost immediately, and I couldn't convince him to stay. To be honest, though, I was glad that he was there – It would have been much more awkward if one of the girls or myself had to use their shirt to bandage Nico.
And then there was Jake. I had never seen him before, but he knew Nico well, and was a good enough friend that he assembled a team to help him. Yet, Nico had never mentioned him during the time that we did spend together. I wondered briefly if Jake was really who he said he was.
I shook my head. It didn't matter who he was, he was the key force that saved Nico. He went head-on against Nico from the start, and I could tell that he was already weak, and he refused to give up until he was incapacitated. But, he also was the one who gathered us all in the first place. I guess we all owe him, bigtime, especially Nico. He'd looked dead on his feet when he shadow-traveled away, I hoped he was doing alright…
Percy POV
I woke up, and my head immediately started pounding. I groaned. I got up, looking around for my sword, before I realized that it was clipped to my back. Duh. I lightly whopped myself in the head. No wonder I was stiff all over. I stretched, and several joints popped. Ow.
As stiff and sore as I was, I was already alert. Good. I walked over to the fountain, gurgling happily in the corner, and pulled some water around me, cleaning me off and refreshing me. I bent the water into a mirror. I froze. Oops. I looked like myself. Hopefully, nobody had seen me. I quickly changed my form to look like "Jake" again. Riptide had stayed in the Final Fantasy VII form, which was honestly pretty cool.
I shook out my half-white, half-black hair. Awesome. I made sure my sword was clipped on, then reached out into the darkness.
A sudden thought made me stop. Better get an Apollo kid for Nico. I let go of the shadows and ran out the door.
It seemed to be lunchtime. I grinned. Barbeque. I ran to the dining pavilion, and whooped happily. All the campers there, which seemed to be most of them, gave me a funny look. I scratched the back of my head sheepishly.
I looked around as if I didn't know where the Apollo table was. "Um, sorry, but, could someone direct me to the Apollo campers?" I asked. I figured that a complete stranger knowing exactly who they were would look a bit suspicious.
"Over here," one of them called out. I walked over to the table.
"Hey, listen, I need your best healer. We managed to subdue Nico and cut him off from the dark force possessing him, but he's in really bad shape. I need your help, please."
One of the campers stood up, a boy about fifteen. "I'll help you," he said. He was sort of wiry, with a mess of blonde hair and well-tanned skin, but he stood at about six foot two.
"Awesome, thank you. Right, c'mere," I said, and the boy came over. "What's your name?" I asked.
"Steven," he replied.
"Nice to meet you, Steven. Now, I'm gonna do shadow-travel, so don't freak. Alright?"
He nodded. "Let me go get some things first."
"Go ahead," I said. He ran off towards his cabins. I turned and walked up to one of the nymphs that prepared the food for the campers. "Hey, could I get a few to-go boxes for my team? They've been out there all night and morning."
"Of course," she smiled.
When Steven came back, I was balancing six to-go boxes that were rather wobbly. "Here, take a few of these," I told him. A bag was slung over his shoulder, no doubt filled with all sorts of medical supplies, and lots of nectar and ambrosia. He held out his hands, and I gave him three boxes. "Thanks."
"Not a problem."
I balanced my boxes on one hand as best as I could, then grabbed his wrist. I reached out into the shadows, and we vanished.
End of Chapter 17
Hey guys.
To the guest that reviewed, as I've said before, Nico is off-limits for pairings. I'm sorry, but I already have a plan for how it's gonna go with him. I'll be introducing new characters throughout the story, and they are open to pairings. So, for example, Raven could be paired with a male in the story (not Percy or Nico), etc. However, people like Clarisse, campers or people from the books that aren't my main characters, I'm declaring most of them semi-off-limits. It can be too much if I have to work with a pre-made character. However, if you hit me with a good suggestion, I may consider it. Alright? Sound fair?
Keep doin' the pairing votes, reviews and poll alike! Remember to read the rules on my profile.
Read and review!
~Ben