I guess the story isn't that bad, huh?
Soo, NICO IS BACK.
Thank you for the reviews!
ANNABETH:
"But this isn't your humble abode", she replied sweetly, "Is it?"
Deep inside she was scared as hell but she wouldn't let those feeling show. She was a hardened daughter of Athena.
"What, they aren't letting you enter Greece?", Piper asked and Hazel tsk-ed.
"A pity, huh?", Hazel asked with fake sympathy, "Porphyrion always gets the fame"
The giant growled.
Annabeth was glad that the girls were weaving up a story alongside her even though they didn't have the slightest idea who this giant was.
Or maybe Piper did, but Annabeth was glad anyway.
"What are you doing here, anyway?", she enquired, a little curious and the rest of it all taunt, " You're supposed to be in Procida"
"Buried under Procida", Piper added.
So Piper did know.
"Then you get sent to an even degraded place", Hazel pointed out.
The giant roared so loudly that the cave shook and water dropped from the ceiling.
"This island was named after my mother, dedicated to her in the ancient times", he said.
"And the ancient times are gone and so will you be, in a few minutes", Annabeth replied sharply.
"And what in name of Hades did you do to my eff-ing ship?", Leo roared, loudly enough but it was still meek compared the giant's roar.
"Just a little bit of magic", the giant laughed, "You see, I'm Mimas"
The demigods waited.
Mimas waited for some recognition.
And Annabeth stifled a laugh. This wasn't the time to laugh. She was going crazy.
"Are you saying you don't know who I am?", Mimas demanded.
Piper laughed. All the monsters seemed to be starstruck at hearing the musical tune.
"You're not that important, flaky face", she stated and laughed again.
"I'M THE BANE OF HEPHAESTUS", Mimas roared.
"I don't care, you're going back to Tartarus", Leo shouted and that moment, all Hades broke loose.
Percy, Jason and Leo went for Mimas.
They attacked him, slashing at his feet and dodging his clumsy attempt to slay them with his giant axe.
"What, did they make you as physically challenged as my father?", Leo shouted and jumped on his leg.
"Get his armour!", Annabeth shouted but only Jason heard her, who nodded in acknowledgement.
Just then, she felt something slimy fall on her feet. It was the head of a telekhine. Which had been sliced off clean by Piper.
She smiled, "Behind you", and Annabeth turned and sliced a dracaenae in half.
Frank and Hazel were doing really good on their own and the amount of monsters already looked less. They fought like they'd been born to fight alongside each other.
Maybe there was hope for them after all. This looked like a piece of cake. With an ugly giant for a side dish.
She looked at the sword in her hand and her stomach churned at the lack of her dagger. She wanted to throw up.
She heard a cry and noticed that Hazel had managed to kill a Cyclops who was about to attack Annabeth.
She swore. She had been saved too many times today.
Trying not think of Luke, Thalia or her precious dagger, she slashed through monsters like a routine until nothing remained except the giant.
Percy was rolling between the giants legs, slashing and cutting like mad man.
That Percy, scared, Annabeth. He was angsty and dangerous. And maybe a little unstable.
Leo had climbed up to the giants shoulder and was cutting his breastplate free while Jason distracted the giant.
Frank shot arrows at Mimas and golden ichor dropped from his wounds but he slapped away most of the arrows.
The girls looked at each other and nodded.
Together, they ran in to help the guys.
Piper was charmspeaking and distracting the giant, while Hazel tried not to faint as she sent the giant's heavy armoury into the ocean. Annabeth fought alongside Percy, as she had, so many times before.
"Call on your father", she screamed at Leo. "We can't kill him without a god"
The breastplate fell to the ground and Hazel made it fly straight into the ocean with such strength that she collapsed.
"What do we need?", Leo screamed as he jumped off Mimas's shoulder and Jason flew him to the ground.
"In the old days, they did with a volley of molten iron", Annabeth replied, dodging Mimas's axe.
"The gods will never help you", Mimas laughed maniacally and stood up, swinging his axe and making Piper and Frank jump around. "They're too puny and scared"
"You spoke too soon", Leo said, his tone deadly, "You evil son of a-"
Just then the drain pipe they had come through rattled.
Annabeth dragged Hazel away just in time when the pipe shot out iron balls with spikes.
As if he had always known it, Leo set each one of them on fire and hurled them at Mimas in a fiery inferno.
Minas roared and dodged a few but he couldn't anymore. He was overwhelmed by the hot iron canons which seemed to weaken him with each blow.
"What happened to her?!", somebody exclaimed beside Annabeth and she nearly slit his throat but he blocked it with easy as if he had anticipated it already.
"Nico, what are you doing here?", Annabeth asked as she stuffed ambrosia down Hazel's throat. Her eyelids flickered.
Nico looked at the growling giant who was blazing now while Frank shot arrows at him and Percy and Jason stood beside Leo as he fired flaming canons one after another.
"Everyone get away", He said but motioned Annabeth to stay with Hazel in one place.
Annabeth had no idea what he was going to do but she hoped he better did something good enough.
Everybody stepped back and the giant was shouted in ancient Greek.
Nico stuck his sword in the ground and the ground cracked open.
The crack widened and Mimas fell in the crack, screaming, cursing them in Greek.
Leo stood breathing heavily, still in flames.
"That's how thickheaded knuckleheads pay for messing my ship up", he muttered, smoking dramatically.
NICO:
They got back to the ship with everybody supporting each other.
Nico, as usually walked back alone. But he was trying not to be bitter. He was powerful, he wasn't one of the chosen and his immortal father loved him and was proud of him.
Not to mention he had seen Percy after SUCH a long while.
Okay, he was exaggerating. He mentally asked himself to shut up.
They got to the ship and Leo whistled as the engines hummed under his commands.
"Can we take the sea?", Percy asked and nobody objected. Leo showed him a thumbs up.
Annabeth kissed Percy and Nico looked away.
"I'll go get cleaned up", she told him softly but Nico heard her. She sounded inviting.
"You can go first", Percy replied shuffling her hair and Nico almost audibly sighed at Percy's thickheadedness.
Hazel and Piper went back to the cabins too and Frank took up the first watch. Jason decided to accompany him by not going into his cabin yet but sat down on the deck.
He looked at Nico expectantly and Nico made a mental note to go talk to Jason afterwards.
If he was going to be a better person he better start with the people who showed him kindness.
Just then Percy took off his half burnt tattered tshirt and stood near the railing feeling the salty spray of water.
Seeing Percy standing only in his jeans made Nico turn red and he felt hot all of a sudden.
He turned his back towards him and ended up facing Jason who was sitting under the foremast and trying not to laugh, a stupid grin on his face.
Nico rolled his eyes and decided it was best if he just sat down away from Percy unless he wanted Percy to wonder why he was getting so red.
Maybe he would think that he was getting a sunburn and offer to apply some sun screen lotion on him.
He mentally slapped himself. Enough.
Maybe he should try jumping off the ship.
Percy would probably try to save him, though, right?
Groaning out loud, he walked to the foremast.
He sat down beside Jason who wasn't smiling anymore.
"I'm sorry", he said seriously, "It's just that you looked funny"
Nico scowled and Jason really looked apologetic, even worried.
"Hey, look", Nico started, "I appreciate you understanding but I don't think you can do anything more"
"Look", Jason said, "You could still talk to me. You don't have to run away from company. Talking will make you feel better"
Nico's scowl deepened. "What are you, a son of Aphrodite?"
Jason was about to laugh but he stopped and studied Nico.
"Oh, you can laugh, you idiot", Nico muttered and Jason laughed softly.
"How are things back there?", Jason asked.
"Reyna reconciled the gods. Octavian's army will be reaching Camp Halfblood in a day", Nico replied fiddling with his skull ring.
"I know this might not be the best time for all this but I suggest you should do what you have to do", Jason said quietly, motioning towards Percy's back muscular back. "Before..."
Nico looked away quickly. He knew what he meant. Before they all died trying to stop Gaia.
It could also end well but that hardly ever happened to Halfbloods.
Nico just laughed though, "Are you sure you aren't related to Piper?"
Jason just stared at Nico with a surprised smile on his face.
Nico realized nobody had actually heard him laugh before. His face changed back to his all-time favourite: moody.
"Dude, he's looking", Jason murmured and before he could stop himself, Nico turned.
Percy was looking at them with a strange look, his dark curly hair windswept. His mouth hung open in a silly but cute way, his head tilted.
Nico turned back towards Jason as quickly as he could without making it obvious.
Enough niceness for today, he thought and got up.
"Later, Grace", he said to Jason.
"See you later, Di Angelo", Jason smiled and he looked his age again for a minute. Then his face creased with worry lines again.
Nico climbed on top of the foremast and sat on the yardarm and hummed an old Italian tune to himself that he faintly remembered his mother singing to him.
ANNABETH:
"Do you make me sleepy every time you want to talk to me?", Annabeth asked Luke as they sat down on the porch of the big house.
"Yeah, kinda", Luke smiled.
He looked like the version of him in the vision the Sirens had showed Annabeth ages ago. Handsome and full of energy.
He wore a tshirt that said, "I'm your ride to Elysium" in Greek.
Her heart skipped a few beats.
"You can't do that", she said, playfully smacking his arm.
"You and Thalia were my family", Luke said so bluntly, Annabeth almost fell off the porch. "You both were my family and I betrayed you. And my father. He didn't give up on me, I did."
Annabeth saw the pain in his face; the face so many girls fawned upon.
"I cannot go back", Luke said sadly, "Until I mend whatever I did wrong"
"But you did mend your relationships", Annabeth said soothingly, though her heart broke, "You did the right thing in the end"
"That's not the same Annabeth", he said in a voice which made Annabeth feel like she was seven years old again and Luke was her guardian and savior.
"I mended my relationship with my father and made his two forms reconcile long enough for him to help you guys out. But it's not so easy with you and Thalia"
"We'll do what you have to do", Annabeth replied instantly. She remembered the line of the prophecy the Oracle had said Annabeth when she was leading the quest into the labyrinth. To lose a love to worse than death.
This was the chance to save Him.
Her heart suddenly turned cold. Love?
She loved Percy. She was more than sure of that.
Luke looked at her like he knew exactly what she was thinking. "Everything is not always so simple", he said softly.
She nodded still in doubt.
"What do we do?", she asked in a hurry to get out everything once and for all.
"All in good time", Luke said soothingly, "Now tell what's been up?"
So Annabeth talked. Just the way they used.
For a moment, Annabeth could almost imagine being back at camp Halfblood.
Before Luke became bitter.
Before Kronos.
Before Percy.