XXXII

Nico

(A/N: Well, Chapter 32! Woo! I got this far last year- really hope this time I can finish the entire story, unlike last time *cough, cough*. Anyways, hope you enjoy this new Nico chapter. I did run out of inspiration on the last chapter, and this chapter is a direct result of that. Luckily, in about 7 Nico chapters, this arc will be over and I will be able to focus on the epic stuff. Remember to review! It means a lot to me when people give suggestions on how to improve my writing.)

Where was the Nike statue?

Well, he had other things to worry about, so Nico decided to forget it for now. It was connected to the Athena Parthenos, so it couldn't just have been ripped off the statue and melted in advance. Besides, there wasn't any need for the Gegenees to do that at all.

The Gegenees grinned and laughed, high-fiving each other with all their arms.

"Well, we'd better hurry." Reyna said, pointing at the statue. It was already being hoisted up above the pit of lava. Cinders flew into it.

This seems a tad familiar, he thought. The ghost had helped them the first time, so it didn't seem like too bad of an idea to prove themselves to him. But the ghost was definitely not Greek, or whatever. He'd never listened to Nico, and he could do cool magic-y things with stuff. Greek ghosts didn't do any of that stuff. Plus, they rarely changed clothes.

"Well, you got a plan?" Reyna whispered.

Nico was slightly stumped. The only way to stop the statue was to cover the lava in a sheet of rock, but that would just break the Athena Parthenos to pieces. He could dash out and challenge the Gegenees, but that wouldn't stop the Earthborn from pulling the rope and melting it.

Suddenly, he got a brainwave. "Alright." He muttered. "Here's what we're going to do…"

Coach Hedge slowly edged his way around the cavern, trying to keep out of sight until the right moment. Well, unfortunately, he didn't even get halfway before he was spotted. One of the Earthborn looked straight at him, eyes narrowed, and immediately raised a fist to punch him.

So much for that plan. Maybe next time, Nico should delegate the sneaking to Reyna. Hooves didn't exactly help trying to stay silent.

Luckily, Coach Hedge had *great* improvisation skills. He immediately raised his cudgel, put on his sunglasses, and charged straight at the Gegenees, shouting (pretty obviously), "DIEEEEE!"

All the Earthborn charged at him. It would have been awesome to say that Coach Hedge miraculously took down all of them, but nope. He was hopelessly outnumbered, and went down in an instant. Nico and Reyna moved quickly, though, and they managed to sneak behind all of them. They weren't exactly the brightest monsters. However, the one Earthborn that was in charge of the rope hadn't budged an inch. Which was probably good, because if he had let go of the rope, the Athena Parthenos would have been shattered into a million pieces. He was stationed on a wooden platform, about twenty feet off the ground.

They ran straight up the ladder. The Earthborn at the top of the structure looked at them nervously, but didn't dare release the rope. Nico and Reyna launched themselves right at him, swinging their weapons wildly. Reyna's dagger got caught in his body, and it was sucked straight in. She let go of the handle, thankfully, but what was weird was that the monster didn't just turn to clay. It turned to mud, which wrapped around them like a giant rope.

"Gaia!" Reyna yelled. "She's doing this!" the rope loosened, and the statue plummeted to the ground.

As Reyna yelled in shock, time slowed down. Nico, with a huge burst of power, managed to momentarily free himself from the mud. He made a crazy leap towards the statue, willing all the shadows under it to collect into a giant passageway. And cleverly enough, he imagined that passageway leading right above the giant cloud of mud.

The Athena Parthenos fell like a brick. Nico's only hope was that the wooden platform would be enough to break the fall.

A shadow appeared over Reyna's head- she was smart enough to roll out of harm's way as the statue crashed right into the mud and splattered it all over the wall. The wooden tower came down like a tower of dominoes, Reyna going along with it.

Nico saw the ground approaching fast, and managed to avoid becoming a tiny puddle on the ground. He looked back, and saw Reyna falling through the remains of the tower. He braced himself, and jumped into the shadows.

He appeared right next to her. He grabbed her by the waist, jumped back into the shadows, and then they appeared right above the throng of Gegenees that was busy beating up Coach Hedge. Nico stabbed the back of one and it exploded into sand. Apparently, Reyna's shoes had imperial gold soles, because as soon as she kicked one of them, it turned to dust.

Pretty soon, they had cleared away all the Gegenees, and Coach Hedge was left cowering, his face covered in all sorts of welts and bruises.

Reyna gave him a square of ambrosia, and pretty soon, he was all better, although he did eye Reyna's shoes with interest. Nico was going to have to stop him doing that someday. Reyna hated people borrowing her clothes.

Anyways, they all gathered around the statue. Nico imagined a city- he had no clue what it was, but anyways- and they dropped into the darkness.

Nico found himself in Camp Half Blood. Luckily, it didn't seem too destroyed, but every single cabin was empty. All the warriors were stationed somewhere else. Nico drifted past the 'O' shape, and instinctively went to the Camp border. There, practically every camper was staring at the magical boundary. It was rippling, as if something- or someone- was trying to get in.

Nico was beyond relieved to know that Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter hadn't started to kill each other yet, and that the Romans were still struggling to get into the Camp. But then again, they weren't going to hold the Romans out forever. When will they break through? And when they do, will we have made it back yet?

When Nico woke up with a jolt from his post-shadow-travel nap, he immediately realized that he was at the base of the Athena Parthenos, which was probably not the most comfortable place to be sleeping. His entire body ached.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes. The sun was just starting to come out over the horizon. July 27. Just five days left until the Apocalypse. Great. But then he felt the rumbling in the ground. And he realized that he hadn't just woken up- his natural defenses had kicked in. Something was coming towards them.

Then, he saw the giant herd of red bulls charging straight at them. And no, this time, it wasn't the 2-lifer packaging version.

(A/N: Also, a little bit of hype for the next chapter: SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT IS GOING TO BE REVEALED. So stick around. Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Remember, to post a review, just click the box maybe 1 or 2 lines of text below this one.)