Guys, I am so so soooooo sorry. Our wi-fi went wacko and we had to turn it off for a while. But don't worry, I got a bunch of chapters written. I had a really weird dream and my imagination struck gold. Hopefully you'll like what I've come up with. In case you didn't know, dreams are where I generally get my really good ideas from. Kinda strange, but I'm proud of that fact. I love being abnormal. ;)

So, this chapter is a little shorter than usual, but after this, they start getting longer. So, yeah.

Chapter VI

Nico

Nico groans. His head is one huge knot of pain. He tries to sit up, but his head spins dizzily, and he collapses back onto the ground. He decides to just lie there for a while, until he regains some of his strength.

He can hear people whispering close by, and assumes that Reyna and Coach Hedge are being quiet so they don't wake him, since they don't know he's awake. He doesn't mind that they haven't noticed. It gives him a few extra minutes of peace.

It isn't long before his energy starts to flood back, and he's once again capable of sitting up. He rests his elbows on his knees and holds his head in his hands. It's been a while since he's felt this drained. He'd forgotten how terrible it felt. If this is anything like a hangover, he thinks to himself, I'm never going to drink. His mouth is dry and cottony and feels like something has been using it for a nest.

Reyna finally notices that he's awake, and walks over to him where he rests in the shadows.

"How are you feeling?" She asks, kneeling next to him. Nico doesn't want her pity. But he knows that they'll have to get along if this trip is going to be anything better than absolutely miserable.

"Fine, thanks." He says, the edge in his voice unmistakeable even to himself. His hostility doesn't seem to faze Reyna, though.

"Good. You should probably eat something, but then we need to get going. The satyr smells monsters." With that, she walks away. Nico feels a bit faint at the idea of shadow-traveling again so soon, but he knows it's necessary. He grabs a pomegranate from among the supplies he brought from the Argo II, and eats it quickly before joining the others.

Coach Hedge seems a bit tense. His grip on his baseball bat is so tight that his knuckles have turned white, and his nose keeps twitching. Reyna, on the other hand, seems pretty relaxed. Her sword is sheathed, and she's leaning back against the statue's base, eyes closed, as if she's taking a quick nap. Nico can see her eyes moving beneath her eyelids, though, and knows that she's completely focused on her surroundings.

"What do you guys want to do?" He asks. Reyna's eyes pop open, and she looks at him, a bit confused.

"What do you mean?" She says. Nico sighs inwardly. He doesn't want to be stuck here talking for ages. But he answers.

"Right now, as far as I can tell, we're somewhere in France, close to the coast. We have two options on how we get to camp." He explains. "One, we can go in a series of short jumps from here to the U.K., and then from the U.K. to Iceland, and so on. It'd be a bit cold, especially once we got to Greenland, but it'd probably be the safer route, although not faster."

Reyna thinks about this. He can see the wheels turning in her head. "What's the second option?"

"The second option would be faster, although definitely a bit more dangerous. We could go ahead and go from here to North America, crossing the ocean in one big jump. We'd probably end up in either Newfoundland or Nova Scotia, which are both close enough to New York that we could most likely get there in only one more jump."

Reyna looks wary. "Why would that be more dangerous?"

"The short jumps are hard enough. If I crossed the Atlantic in one big jump like that, I'd be incapable of shadow-traveling, or even just traveling, for several days." It's hard for Nico to admit his own shortcomings, but he knows it's true. He might pass out for a week, like he did when he took that accidental trip to China. Especially since this time, he's transporting two other people and a giant statue as well as himself. But that's the shorter route.

He can see Reyna's reluctance, and works to convince her. "It really would be shorter in the long run. And I could probably get away with only resting for one extra day than usual, although that might be dangerous. And we really need to hurry. Otherwise the Romans might attack before we have the chance to return the statue."

Reyna's expression hardens when he mentions the Romans. She is one of them, after all. But that doesn't seem to matter to them, considering the fact that they all followed Octavian, even when she gave them direct orders not to attack until she came back.

"You're right. I don't like it, but you're right. We need to get to Camp Half-Blood as soon as possible. So I suppose we'll go with the second option. Are you sure you'll be alright?" She looks at Nico, her gaze questioning, probing, as if she can sense he's not telling her something.

She's right, he's not. He's not telling her just how difficult it will be to get them there without them ending up either in the ocean or somewhere far away from their destination. He's not telling her that using that much energy is very, very dangerous, and that it could incapacitate him for a lot longer than just a few days. But he doesn't really care about the difficulty. He knows he's being reckless, but he really doesn't care. He has to keep moving, or else thoughts of Percy will take over his mind.

"Yeah, I'm sure." He meets her eyes without difficulty, daring her to question him. She looks away first, although Nico is pretty sure it's not because she's particularly scared of him. She looks up at the Athena Parthenos, blinking at the brightness of the sun, and sighs deeply.

"Then I guess we'd better be going." She says. Coach Hedge hadn't really been paying much attention to the conversation, but at that, he springs to his feet so quickly that his baseball bat nearly hits Reyna in the face.

"Then what are we waiting for?" He bellows. "Let's go!" Nico wonders at his sudden enthusiasm, but decides not to dwell on it. He waits until Reyna has climbed to her feet and gotten a good hold on the ropes attached to the statue before grabbing on to them himself. By that time, Coach Hedge is stamping his hoof impatiently, one hand holding tight to his baseball bat, the other gripping the statue.

Nico takes a deep breath, summoning his strength. Then he smiles grimly.

"Here we go." He mutters under his breath. Then he closes his eyes and passes into the shadows. The familiar chill traces its way down his spine, and then they are on their way.

He miscalculates, just a bit, and they land in the shallow water just off the coast, in the shadows of the trees. But that's all Nico has the chance to register before he passes out.

Okay, so this was kind of a filler chapter too, but next up is Leo, and then it's back to Percy for some super-exciting action. I'm just going to do a random order of POVs, in case you haven't noticed. Again, review, review, review! Constructive criticism is welcome, and encouragement is never ignored.