I'm sorry for the delay. No, this isn't really one of my best works, I'll admit. But I hope it'll be better next time.
Chapter 14:
NICO:
He had been calmly munching on French fries when that hydra burst through the door.
Or through the wall on which the door had been.
The hydra was easily nine feet tall, with nine reptilian head. Each head had jagged shark-like teeth. And horrible breath, Nico unfortunately found out.
It's belly and feet were scaly and green. Also, very slimy. His tail was long and muscular. It probably picked up demigods and threw them across football fields.
As lithe as a cat, Nico had sprung to his feet and unsheathed his sword.
But the ugly thing seemed to get angrier to see the sword and decided to trample the furniture and spit acid.
Nico rolled under a table and tried to jab at the monster's belly, but the hydra shifted just then, one of his nine heads turned and turned the chair right next to Nico into a pool of goo.
Just then Percy and Jason stumbled out of the washroom, only the latter in a shirt. Nico tried not to notice Percy's very muscularly attractive chest and abdomen.
Percy's riptide and Jason's gladius were out in a second.
"Don't cut its heads off!", Jason shouted as he dodged a snap from one of the heads.
The three of them fought like one entity.
Jason was their sense of hearing, he could make out every move as of the air particles itself were warning him about each movement.
Percy was their arms. He slashed and jabbed and rolled and cut like every monster's nightmare. Nico and Jason's moves were coordinated with his like they were a part of something greater than themselves.
Nico was their eyes, anticipating every move, calculating each attack.
It was as if their consciousness was one. Whatever they did, they did as single hydra-destroying-machine. Each of them knew the other's next move. It was like they had enormous power at their disposal and had fought at each other's side numerous times before. They weren't even getting tired.
It wasn't like the last time when Nico had been hurt. This time they were more open, more frank towards each other and had unlocked the expanse of power that resided within each of them. Which, when combined, could do anything.
Their coordination was everything. Percy distracted the hydra by dancing around and jabbing at it, evey chance he got while Jason slashed around at his back. Nico butted the hydra's head every time it was about to spit poison, distracting it by cutting at his legs.
"I hate hydras", Percy complained, "Especially big ones like this"
"Fire, do we have fire?", Nico asked, slashing at the hydra's thick leg.
"Actually we do.", Jason told them as he fumbled with his hand in his jacket's pocket, "Leo gave me these weird tiny blob like things of Greek fi-"
Just then the hydra flicked its tail and a table went flying and hit Jason's head and he crumpled to the floor like paper.
"Yeah, that's more like Jason", Percy pointed out, "Getting knocked out straight on his butt"
Then the fighting became harder. They had lost their sense of hearing. Even though Nico could calculate and decide what the next move of the monster was going to be, he wouldn't know for sure. And anticipating attacks from behind was impossible with Jason down.
Nico skidded to Jason's side while Percy fended them from the hydra, muttering, "Should've know...McDonald's opens up nowhere...suddenly as soon as their hungry...how stupid, gods..."
Nico pulled out a Ziploc bag of tiny green marbles. A miniscule flame burnt at the centre.
"How do we use these?", he asked helplessly.
Percy growled, grabbing two of the tiny blobs, and jumped.
And landed on the hydra's back.
He seemed to struggle to find a steady foothold on the monster's slimy back.
Nico looked at him, utterly confounded.
"What do you think you're doing?", Nico asked.
"Can't", Percy said as the hydra tried to shake Percy off it's back, "Explain."
Nico didn't need another word. He slashed at the hydra heads so they wouldn't bite Percy like a burger, dislocating a few jaws and cutting off the forked tongue from a couple of heads.
Percy beheaded one of the necks and dropped the green blob on the stump which had already started to grow again.
At that moment, Percy jumped off the hydra's back and smashed at the blob with Riptide, midair.
Which was either something very heroic or something very very stupid.
The smash made the blob burst into a flame of Greek fire and the neck crumbled to dust.
Percy fell to the floor on a broken chair and groaned.
"I could do with a ballistae right about now", he groaned.
Nico grabbed the packet of the green blobs and slashed off one of the hydra heads that had been snarling at him.
He dropped the blob and smashed it with the tip of his sword and skidded between the hydra's legs to where Percy was staggering to his feet.
Nico sprang to his feet and supported Percy.
They looked at each other and nodded.
Nico handed Percy three green blobs and a mutual look of consent passed.
They each took two different sides and cut and burnt the heads of the hydra till only the middle immortal head remained.
Around them the debris burnt and the horrid smoke of burning monster was suffocating.
The immortal head bared it's fangs and spat at them. Percy and Nico jumped in opposite directions to avoid getting turned into a poisonous puddle.
Percy charged at the hydra and cut off the last head with one swift stroke and it crumpled to monster dust.
They stood there for a while, without saying anything, not even looking at each other.
Then Jason stirred and they realized he was still there.
"Do you think he needs some nectar?", Nico asked Percy.
"Naah", Percy replied casually. "I'm sure he's used to getting knocked out"
Jason mumbled something but it was incoherent.
They pulled him into a sitting position.
He rubbed the side of his head and stood up gingerly. "I'm fine I think"
Percy rolled his eyes and Nico supported Jason.
There was a little whimpering sound and Percy pulled Riptide out.
The sound was coming from behind the counter.
They peeked over and saw Abraxas, the McDonald's employee, down on the floor with his palms over his ears.
His face flickered and instead of his two eyes, there was one big calf brown eye in the middle of his forehead.
"Aha!", Percy exclaimed, "I knew you were a Cyclops."
Abraxas whimpered again and whispered, "Please don't kill me. I don't know what you're talking about"
They stared at the Cyclops. He was very small in size, for a Cyclops. He was almost tiny. More humanlike.
"Could it be that he doesn't know he's a Cyclops?", Nico asked the other two boys in a low voice.
"But how-", Jason started but Percy cut him off.
"Not all Cyclops get claimed by Poseidon. Maybe nobody ever told him", he said thoughtfully.
Maybe Percy's vision was getting clouded because of his half brother Tyson who looked a lot like Abraxas, now that he only had one eye, but Nico didn't bring that up.
"Abraxas", Percy asked calmly, "Where are your parents?"
Abraxas looked at them with a very scared expression. Nico didn't blame him.
"I don't have parents", he whispered. "I'm an orphan. I was adopted by two very nice people"
Yes. They were in the middle nowhere discussing a Cyclops' background.
Nico wanted to run as fast as he could, maybe shadow travel somewhere before more monsters come at them. Three powerful demigods of the eldest three. They had to be sending a out a signal that said, "HEY. HERE WE ARE. PLEASE COME EAT US. WE'RE REALLY TASTY AND STUFF" even though Nico had protected them with as much dark magic as he could conjure.
But here Percy was, taking care of his half-brother.
Nico would've liked nothing better than to drag Percy's ass off to Pyrgos but he couldn't. Doing things like this was just what made Percy, Percy. And Nico appreciated that.
Putting it lightly, that is.
The other girl, Aurora was nowhere to be found. Percy suggested that Gaia had probably offered the hydras a more varied fast food chains to link too and that's why the McDonald's had appeared as soon as they got off their boat, starving.
Somehow thought had been a little funny. Gaia offering McDonald's to hydras, Nico knew not why. He was probably going crazy, which he probably already was.
After what seemed like an hour and a half, (Nico was actually good at this kinda stuff, calculations and plotting), they stood on the beach while Abraxas waved at them and walked in to the ocean.
"Dad", Percy said to the ocean with a very determined look, "Take him to your forges, please."
Nico detected a hint of, I'm saving the world, the least you could do is this, in Percy's voice.
Jason had become quiet since getting knocked out and looked abashed.
Before leaving, Abraxas had thanked them and given them his car keys. He had also had packed a lot of food and water and coke for their journey. Percy seemed very pleased with all that coke.
Now they wouldn't have to stop too much on their journey and attract monsters.
Another thing Abraxas gave them was a funny looking card. He said it would help at most food and fuel shops. Nico and Jason had no idea how to use it but apparently Percy did.
As the Cyclops vanished into the ocean, without wasting any time, they jumped into the old, blue hunchback car (it shudderedso much Nico thought it would break down in the middle of nowhere) Abraxas had left them and drove away, with Percy on the wheel.
Jason rode shotgun. Nico sat at the back fiddling with his iPod.
Jason had previously tried to bust the iPod with his gladius when they had woken up this morning but Nico had managed to convince him not to since the gadget was monster proof. Perks of being a son of Hades.
Nico was calmly listening to Bullet For My Valentine (As calmly as one could) when his earphones flew out along with his iPod and landed on Jason's lap.
"Hey!", Nico exclaimed in protest.
"Don't be antisocial", Jason scolded, almost. "We're all here"
Nico straightened up in mock interest, "Let's gossip, Grace."
Percy laughed, "Let's play a game"
Nico rolled his eyes. These guys would be the death of him.
"I spy with my metaphoric eye", Jason said proudly.
"I spy with my metaphoric eye", he continued, "Something huge"
Percy grinned wickedly and Nico blushed while Jason groaned at Percy's expression.
"Is it your ego, Grace?", Nico asked in an attempt to divert attention from Percy's smirk.
Percy laughed at that and Jason rolled his eyes.
"He does have a pretty big ego considering that he gets knocked out during each fight", Percy added.
"Guys", Jason said with as much seriousness as he could muster up, "I was talking about the great battle on mount Olympus."
"Not a big deal", Percy said waving his left hand.
"Dude keep your hands on the wheel please", Jason warned.
"I'm sure everyone's great grandmother tries to kill them and stuff", Nico pointed out.
"Dude, I can drive really well", Percy insisted.
"Ever wonder how we got stuck in this family?", Jason asked.
"I'm hungry", Percy interjected.
"When did you even get a driver's license?", Nico asked Percy.
"All the time. I never did anything so bad as to be related to Kronos and Gaia", Percy added.
"Where did we keep the food", Jason asked.
"In New York, when I was sixteen, after defeating Kronos", Percy replied.
"DUDE", Nico exclaimed a bit too strongly, "For three people who fought together really well a few hours ago, we sure have a lot of problems coordinating our conversations"
"We fought really well till Jason got knocked on his ass", Percy added.
"Dude, let that go", Jason complained.
Nico buried his face in his hands.
"I'm going to sleep", he announced.
He lay down on the backseat but he hardly fitted.
He curled up, pulling his knees to his chest, just like he had in the bronze jar in which Gaia had captured him.
It probably was a mistake because it triggered off one of his worst nightmares.
He was walking through a dark reddish land, a forest of tall grass on his left and a river of flame on his right.
He was holding his dark sword in his right hand as his left bicep bled through the piece of tshirt he had tied over the wound.
He dragged his right leg behind him. It had been bit by an enormous wolf-like creature he had never heard about or ever seen before.
That is, before he landed in Tartarus. But since landing here, the wolf-like thing had become his best friend, following him since he arrived and attacking him every opportunity it got.
Nico had defeated it but he doubted he would make far with all his injuries. He dug out the last piece of ambrosia he had in his pocket which was squished in an odd shape.
He had been saving it up for when the pain and the injuries would become unbearable, drinking from the Phlegothon to keep himself going, but the time was here now.
Nico swallowed the ambrosia whole. It tasted metallic.
The ambrosia seemed to scream as it entered his body. It couldn't decide what to heal first. His back had been slashed open by talons of some creatures he didn't remember, his leg had been bitten, his arm had almost been cut off, his sternum still bled from a wound he had acquired days ago. The ambrosia burnt like a bright flame inside him but diminishing quickly due to so many wounds.
A sob built up in Nico's chest but it came out as a dry rasping sound. His hair was matted on his scalp. He probably fitted right with all these monstrous creatures in Tartarus.
He had been considered killing himself off right here, with his very faithful sword. End the torture.
But he wouldn't disappoint his father. Or Percy. Or Hazel. He could do this.
But for how much longer?
Nico thought of his mother and Bianca, unable to stop himself. He had never been this alone all his life. Nobody was there, nothing was there. It was him and him alone in the world of endless torture.
Too late. While he was thinking about all this, a hideous grey dragon had slipped from the dark swaying forest that lay on Nico's left.
Its scale were slimy and its wings were triple its size, like translucent gift wrapping paper over bones. It's tail flicked from side to side like a cat getting ready to pounce. It's thick leather mouth pulled back in a snarl, baring crooked, disgustingly dirty teeth.
The dragon roared and let out a blazing inferno as Nico screamed so loud that it echoed throughout Tartarus.
He woke up screaming, cold with sweat.
Jason was asleep in the passenger's seat and Percy peeking at him from the driver's seat, his eyes full of horror.
Nico sat up quickly, almost falling.
"Hey", Percy said softly, holding Nico's arm.
His arm burnt but this time it wasn't from pain.
"It's okay", Percy said softly, "You're not alone anymore. You're here. With us. We're here. Don't forget that"
Nico wanted to jerk his arm away and snarl at Percy and pretend to sleep.
But he didn't because that's what he would've done a few years ago. He wasn't that person anymore.
"I didn't wake Jason up?", he asked in an attempt to change the topic.
"No", Percy replied. Then he blushed. "Actually I started singing like Britney Spears so he blocked his ears with some air plug thing and went to sleep"
Nico smiled, but it was strained.
"You go to sleep", Percy told him, "If you can. Then I'll wake you up for the next watch. Promise"
Nico nodded and looked at Percy.
His eyes twinkled and his lips were slightly parted. He was leaning towards Nico, talking softly.
A part of him wanted to lean in and kiss him.
He growled at himself but it came out loud.
Percy looked startled, like a baby seal.
Embarrassed, Nico slowly went to a dreamless sleep, wondering if he had imagined a soft sea breeze blowing over his head while he slept.