The Loss Of A Hero
Chapter Twenty-five
Percy POV
We emerged in the Council room, and I stumbled. Shadow-traveling so much after I'd just given up some of my life force... No wonder I was tired.
"Everyone good?" I asked, looking over at the others. My gaze rested on Nico and I flinched. The shadows that we'd just come out of we're sort of... clinging to him. "Uh, Chloe? Got a magic barrier handy?" I'd seen this happen to him before, when he was exhausted and yet still shadow-traveled. I wasn't sure what might happen here, in a land made completely of shadows.
"Eh? Why? What's-" she stopped when she saw Nico. "Oh, geez, that's not good." She put a hand out, and the shadows retreated, falling back where they were meant to be.
Nico, thankfully, was too busy looking around to notice. He looked around the room, taking in the silvery-black shimmer that I'd grown so used to, then his gaze found the Council, and he took a few steps back, bumping into Eve.
She put a hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's okay, I got you. Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you. Do you trust me?" she asked Nico, and he nodded slowly. Eve smiled. "Thank you."
I looked up at the Council. "Permission for me and my friends to address the Council?"
The Council member in the center sighed. "Let's do away with the formalities, for now, shall we? I think we all are weary."
"Oh, thank the gods!" Chloe said, then covered her mouth and turned pink. "I didn't quite mean to say that out loud..."
The Council members laughed quietly. "It's quite all right," said the Council member. "Now, are we ready to begin?"
I looked at Nico, who was quite obviously panicking, but Eve rested her hand on his back, and he stopped shaking, then nodded. The Council member snapped, and out of the shadows came a familiar face. I grinned. "Pence, man. How's it going?" I said.
"Hey, Percy." He walked up to us, wearing a long, white lab jacket. "Alright, I suppose, except that Sierra is still missing..." He sighed
I blinked. "Um, actually, about that... She kind of isn't." I told him all that I'd seen and heard from her. "We've got her back at Camp Half-Blood, in the infirmary. I'll show you later, once the probe thing is done, if we get a moment."
"Oh, yeah, right, the probe." He pulled his usual silver-black tablet out of nowhere, and tapped it a few times. A pleasant chime sounded, and he smiled. "Brilliant, the system is up and running smoothly." He dug in his pocket, pulling out what looked like a black pill, and handed it to Nico. "Here, swallow this."
Nico looked at it apprehensively as he held it in his palm. Kairi looked at it closely. "What is it?" she asked.
"Sort of a scanner, I designed it myself. It should tap into Nico's energy and isolate where the presence came from."
"Should?" Chloe asked skeptically.
"Haven't exactly gotten anything to test it with 'til now," Pence replied.
He tapped several times, then nodded. "Alright, you ready?"
Nico, who'd swallowed the device, nodded hesitantly, holding tightly to Eve's hand.
"Well, then, let's see what happens!"
End of Chapter 25
Hi, guys.
Had a kind of depressing day today. To be honest, I have no idea how I keep going, my stress levels keep going through the roof. No idea how I'm still sane, neither. I've been mostly alone this summer - my parents don't let me hang out with my best friends, and the one that they probably would be cool with, well, he seems to have lost my phone number... Again. He's kind of a dumbnut like that. The people I want to see most, I cannot. Bleh.
Anyway, sorry for the short chapter. Still trying to get back into the writing loop, plus I am really kinda tired.
Well, I think I'll submit this, then head to sleep. G'night!
~Ben