Thanks to 77WiseGirl77, AstridEH, and Amphitrite82 for reviewing!

The Loss of a Hero: Chapter Nineteen

Percy POV

Nico coughed, gasping for air. His eyes were frantic and scared. "Steven!" I yelled, "Get him some relaxants and painkillers!"

"O-on it!" Trembling, Steven dug through his bag for the medicine. I supposed it was a bit scary that I'd just brought Nico from pretty much dead to absolutely alive. But I really didn't care at that point. I was focused on one thing: making sure Nico would live. Yes, I brought him back, but that doesn't mean that he won't die, again, from his wounds. I really hoped he would live, partly because I'd just given up a bit of my life force.

"Got them!" Steven rushed back to Nico with his hands full of fun needles and bottles of medicine. He loaded a few syringes and carefully stuck them in Nico, depressing the plunger, one by one. Soon Nico started to calm down a bit, but Steven kept running at full blast. He quickly and skillfully cut off the old, bloodsoaked, makeshift bandages, and started replacing them with some sterile ones from his bag. Once the roll ran out, he ran back to his bag and swore.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Out of bandages, I didn't expect this many wounds!"

I added a few swears of my own. "Can you manage without any more?"

"No, I need more to patch him up so he won't bleed to death!"

I sighed, then took my shirt off and offered it to Steven. "Cut this up, I just put it on an hour or two ago."

"Perfect!" he said, then snatched it and grabbed a pair of scissors from his bag, skillfully cutting it into even strips.

"Oh… um…"

I turned. Raven was staring at me, quite entranced. I raised an eyebrow. A few seconds later, she noticed that I was looking back at her, and she looked away, her face pink. I chuckled. "Like it?

"No!"

"You sure?"

"Shut up! Go away, Jake!"

I laughed. "Sure, for now."

I turned back to Nico. Steven had finished patching up most of the most serious wounds. Nico was looking around, taking in his surroundings, but not saying a word. I sighed. I hope he'll be okay, I thought.

"Well, hot dang, that's a perfect sight to wake up to."

I looked back. Chloe was walking sleepily towards us. I grinned at her. "Good to see you up."

"Mmm. Don'tcha think I'm right, Raven?"

Raven went a few shades darker pink. Chloe burst into giggles, and I chuckled, which of course made Raven even pinker. "Alright, Chloe, stop teasin' Raven."

"Hah, okay." She walked over and stood next to me, watching Steven work as he began stitching Nico up. "Nobody else will wake up for a while, they've been sleeping an odd schedule, watching Nico and also keeping an eye out for monsters."

"How do you know? You were out the whole time."

Chloe chuckled. "Not telling." She looked over at my bare chest. "So, what happened to your shirt?" she asked.

"It's over there on Nico," I replied.

"Ah."

We stood there in silence a moment.

"That was pretty cool, what you did to revitalize Nico."

I raised an eyebrow. "You gotta tell me how you saw that during your impression of a corpse back there."

"Nope!"

I groaned. "Well, anyway. Yeah, I took a piece of my life force and put it into him. I figured that whatever possessed him was taking in every drop of energy, and that Nico probably used almost all the rest of his own up in his fight against us. So I gave him some of mine."

"That's a pretty noble thing to do."

"Nico's a great guy, one of my best friends. I'd give half my soul at any time if he needed to be saved."

"Who else would you do that for?" Chloe asked.

I thought about it briefly. "Well, first off, Annabeth, of course, then-" I stopped short. Crud.

"…Why do you say Annabeth? You've only known her for a few hours, not counting the time you were asleep."

"Um…" I thought frantically, my mind racing.

Chloe leaned in close to me. "What's wrong, Percy," she whispered, "Can't you think of an excuse?"

My blood went cold as ice. I had to stop myself from reaching for my sword – My natural defense instincts.

Chloe chuckled. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

I looked at her warily for a few moments, then sighed. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it."

We were quiet for a few minutes. Raven had left after Chloe's teasing, probably to hide her blushing. I'd never expected Raven to be the kind of girl that'd go pink from seeing a guy's well-muscled chest. I guess I wasn't the only one that didn't look quite the way I really was. Raven was a little scary when she wasn't smiling. I got the feeling that she didn't usually socialize with others, and yet she'd come on this mission. To prove herself? Maybe. But maybe it might have been a step towards reaching out and connecting with others.

There weren't too many Hecate kids in Camp Half-blood, partly because a good number of them either fell in the Titan War. Also because of the war, having faced us on the field of battle, many just plain wanted to stay as far away from us as possible. I figured that Raven had come at first probably because she wanted Zoe safe. Younger siblings are sometimes the reason that kids come to Camp Half-Blood.

Raven had probably come in, scared about everyone else. She seemed to be warming up, though, now that she was part of a team that just beat the odds. I was glad for that.

Steven sighed as he stopped stitching. "Well, that takes care of most of the worst of them. I need a minute, want to open up that barbeque?"

"Sure," I replied. I looked at Nico. He'd been awake the whole time, the pain muted by a load of painkillers. Now that Steven was done, he was sitting on the edge of the stretcher. He still hadn't said a word. I felt bad for him. Being possessed so violently like that… that'd be traumatizing.

"Hey, Nico," I called. His head snapped up, his eyes startled. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you. Do you want some barbeque?"

He was silent a few seconds, then tentatively nodded.

"C'mon, then, come have some." I walked over. "Need a hand? I can help you walk if you want."

Nico nodded again. He got off the stretcher, then stumbled. I caught him. "You alright? Here, put an arm around my shoulder, to put some of the weight on me."

He looked up at me, and I realized that I was a bit tall. I leaned down a bit, making myself a bit shorter. He put an arm around me, and I did the same, trying to take as much weight off him as I could. Slowly we walked over to where the others were sitting. Raven had made a glowing purple picnic table with benches on either side. I set Nico down on one of the benches, then sat down beside him. "Alright, Steven, open up four for us, leave the other two for the others when they wake up."

"Got it," he said, and pulled up four of the boxes.

We all sat back, enjoying the barbeque, the beautiful day, and the fact that we were alive and happy.

End of Chapter 19

Hey, guys!

Sorry if this is an odd chapter, I wrote it while being a bit tired. But, hey! Three cheers for Nico living!

Though, of course, I may kill him later. Bwahaha!

Nah, I love Nico. I'm glad that everyone voted to keep him alive ^-^

So, this bit of the story is coming to a close. Nico has been saved. But! Who or what possessed him? And will it strike again?

There's a definite long-term conflict that I have in my mind that'll be the base of this story for a long while. In between, though, there's a bunch of little stories that all tie together through the main baseline. Now, I want to make this story as long as I can possibly go. That'll be a problem, however, when I start getting writers block. I've got a bit of a small one right now as I'm still thinking about what the next bit of the story will be.

So, you guys, please, post ideas and suggestions whenever you like, either in a review, or private message me if you have a great idea! I'd be happy to chat with you and possibly include your ideas in the story~ I want my story to make all my readers happy, that's why I try to include you all as often as I can.

Anyway, I've blathered on long enough. Keep posting pairings (as one or two will start coming in pretty soon) and Read and Review!

~Ben