Apollo's sacred cattle of the sun! (To people who don't get it, that means 'holy cow' in my PJO language)
I now have 379 reviews, thanks mostly to ObsessedwReading, who went through and reviewed EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER.Thank you!
Oh, and to Colorsplash21: I didn't know that. Thanks for telling me, I'll make sure to start using all right instead of alright. And now I think I'm just going to have to try harder to make you cry, because I'm evil like that. Don't worry, though, it'll probably be happy crying as well as sad crying. Probably. And thanks bunches for giving me such a long review; not many take the time to write out stuff like that.
Icehawk54: Because I think they belong together. They've both been alone for years; ever since they separated from their older sisters. Even if one died and one just went a different way, they both lost their older siblings. And they both love someone they can't have. For Reyna, it's Jason, who's now in love with Piper; and for Nico, it's Percy, who's in love with Annabeth. Can't you see all the similarities?
ydshahid: No, I promise I didn't steal Rick's writing. I don't even live anywhere close to him. But I really liked that part too.
Okay, guys, new goal: Now that we have reached 350 reviews-over 350 reviews-long before our goal, let's now try for, say...600 reviews by May 3. It shouldn't be too hard; I'm getting around 25 new reviews every day, so even if it seems hard, it really isn't. Try your best, my lovelies!
And here is your next chapter, with your wonderful cliffhanger, and the beginning of some action.
Chapter XLVI
Nico
Nico and Reyna both stand in silence. Nico's the one who breaks it.
"Care to explain a bit more?" He asks, his voice cool, calm, emotionless.
"Well, kiddos, it looks to me like that blonde scarecrow-"
"Octavian-" Reyna interjects.
"Yeah, him-anyway, it looks like he's stirring up trouble again. Half the camp is awake and walking around in full armor, and they don't look like they're patrolling the camp."
Reyna rushes to the tent flap and pokes her head outside. Nico follows just behind her, anxious to know what's going on. When she pulls her face back inside, her expression is grim.
"You're, right, Coach, he's definitely up to no good. It looks like he's mobilized all of his followers-everyone that wants the Greeks dead. But he should know that what he's doing is stupid. I think he's hoping that once they start attacking the Greeks, the others will follow his lead. But that could easily backfire. And if it does, we could end up fighting each other."
"We need to leave as soon as we can." Nico winces as he says the words, he knows they sound insensitive. But it's what they need to do.
"No. We can't." Reyna protests, shaking her head. "If we do, we're leaving the camp for Octavian to control-and destroy. And I don't know about you, but I can't do that."
"Trust me, Reyna, it's the last thing I want to do, but if we don't leave now, something could happen to prevent us from returning the statue. Octavian could seize it, put his guards around it to keep us out-or he could destroy it. And I can't let that happen, not when we're so close." Nico explains.
Reyna looks frustrated, but Nico can see in her eyes that she understands and accepts what he's saying to be true, even if she doesn't like it. Her next words confirm that.
"You're right, Nico. But I don't like it; something's bound to go wrong." She says, her tone uneasy.
"I know, Reyna, but we have to. Otherwise, things really will go wrong, and it'll be a lot harder to put things right then, when the Greeks still think the Romans hate them and are out for blood. We have to return the statue, and soon. Tonight." He tells her.
She strides away from him, letting her frustration show in her actions. She keeps her right hand on the pommel of her sword, and runs the other through her tangled hair, which has long since fallen out of its braid. She paces along the tent's edge, then suddenly turns towards Nico, her face set, her dark eyes glowing fiercely.
"Fine." She says. "But you have to promise that you'll get me back here as soon as possible." Her gaze burns into Nico, waiting for his response.
He kind of wants to point out that if she really wanted to, she could just go ahead and walk back here after they've returned the statue. But that would be mean, and Nico knows that she's asking partially because she wants to be sure that she won't have to return alone.
"I will. I promise." He swears. She relaxes, fractionally, and strides purposefully to the tent flap. She pauses before going out, and turns, looking at them questioningly.
"Well? Are you coming, or not?"
Nico and Coach Hedge both rush after her, and Nico swears he sees her smile before she turns and walks out of the tent. Nico and Coach Hedge follow close behind her, but at a slight distance.
Watching her, Nico can't help but think about everything he's been feeling. He's so confused. He can still feel his love for Percy; it's like a constant dull ache in his chest. But there's that other thing there too, whenever he looks at Reyna, that warm glow.
He wrestles with his emotions, feeling overwhelmed and confused and utterly frustrated.
"What's wrong, cupcake?" Coach Hedge asks suddenly, his voice suprisingly soft. Nico looks at him in surprise before remembering that satyrs can read emotions. He quickly schools his expression into a neutral mask and pushes his emotions away.
"Nothing." He answers, looking away from the satyr.
"There's something that's been bothering you this entire time, kiddo, and while teenage problems tend to be boring, I'm all ears."
Nico glances swiftly down at the satyr, and then away again. "I told you, it's nothing. It doesn't matter."
"If it doesn't matter, why is it bothering you so much, huh, cupcake?" He barks back.
Now Nico's starting to get a little irritated. "I don't want to talk about it."
Coach Hedge looks at him shrewdly, then looks forward again, at Reyna. Without looking back at Nico, he says: "I see the way you look at Reyna. And I'd be a fool not to be able to read the way she makes you feel."
Nico almost falls down. He catches himself, just in time, and gapes at the satyr. "How-why-how I feel is none of your business!" He sputters.
"I also know that there's something else bothering you, and that it has something to do with Percy Jackson. I'm not a fool, boy, I'm over a hundred years old. And I'm pretty sure I know exactly what it is that makes you so angry at the son of Poseidon." The satyr looks up at him wisely, and Nico feels sure that he knows his secret.
His ears and cheeks burn, but inside, he's angry, and he doesn't bother trying to hide it. "If that was any of your business-" He threatens. "But it's not, so you can butt out."
Knowing Coach Hedge, he would've expected the satyr to retort angrily, but he only looks sad. "You'll regret it if you don't acknowledge your feelings. Stop pushing them away." Then he lopes forward to walk next to Reyna.
Nico stares after him, but doesn't hurry to join them. Instead, he hangs back, trying to sort out his feelings again.
What did he mean, I'll regret it? He thinks. If people knew my secret, I'd never be accepted. Not that I have much of a chance now. His hand tightens on the grip of his sword. Stupid old goat. What does he know about how I feel? So what if he can read emotions? He doesn't know anything.
And with that, he pushes the satyr's words away, trying his best to forget the conversation. He hurries to catch up with Reyna, and walks on her opposite side from Coach Hedge.
She looks at him curiously, obviously having realized that something had happened between him and the satyr, but she doesn't ask, for which Nico is grateful. He's not sure he'd be able to deal with that.
They walk quickly towards the edge of camp, where they can see the Athena Parthenos towering over the tents. The ivory and gold covering it shine in the starlight. It'd be kind of hard to miss.
When they break through the last line of tents, they all stop dead.
The place is swarming with Roman demigods, no doubt there under Octavian's orders. They appear to be guarding the statue, but there are more people facing the camp than the empty fields where monsters would attack from. Nico doubts that's a coincidence.
"Quick!" He hisses, pulling them back. "Behind here!" He crouches just behind one of the tents, and Reyna and Coach Hedge kneel next to him.
"Now what?" Reyna asks, obviously frustrated.
"Here's the plan: I'll attack and bash them all with my baseball bat while you stay here, and then we go." Coach Hedge barks. "Got it?"
"Um, Coach, no offense, but I don't think that's the best idea. It'd be best to get out of her undetected. We don't want to make a scene." Nico explains, trying to get the goat to understand. Really, when he wasn't trying to give Nico relationship advice, he seemed just like a really violent child.
"So what's the plan?" Reyna says, looking to Nico.
That warm feeling rushes into him again, seeing her looking to him for a plan. But he pushes it down, locks it away, and focuses on the task at hand. After a minute, a solution comes to him.
"Okay, here. Give me your hand." He takes Reyna's hand, trying not to think about it, and closes his eyes, concentrating as hard as he can.
For a few seconds, nothing happens. But then a cold feeling rushes through his fingers, and when he opens his eyes, shadows are winding their way up his and Reyna's arms, while Coach Hedge looks on in bewilderment.
When the feeling stops, Nico turns to Coach Hedge. "So, Coach, how do we look?"
"I don't know." He grumbles. "I can't see you."
"Perfect." Reyna grins. "But why didn't you turn Coach Hedge invisible too?"
"Well, I figured he could go ahead and distract the guards-not by fighting them!" He adds quickly as the satyr hefts his bat. "But he could say that he's supposed to guard the statue, on your orders, Reyna, or something like that, and that he wants to know what they're doing here. He'd give us some time to get past the guards and grab onto those ropes, and we might learn something about Octavian's intentions in the process."
"Can I bash one of them in the head?" The satyr whines.
"No." Nico and Reyna chorus firmly.
"Can I at least insult them?" He asks. Nico and Reyna share a look before shrugging.
"Fine. But don't provoke them too much, Coach, we'd really rather not get into a fight." Reyna tells him.
Coach Hedge nods and stands up, then trots through the tents towards the guards, who grasp their weapons at the sight of him.
"What are you cupcakes doing here?" He barks loudly. "I'm supposed to be guarding this statue. You kiddos don't have any right to be here."
One of the guards retorts angrily, but Nico doesn't listen to what he's saying. He stands up, pulling Reyna with him, and starts cautiously towards the statue, taking care not to make too much noise. His shadows don't make them silent, after all, just invisible.
Coach Hedge continues getting louder and his insults grow even more rude, and the angry raised voices of the guards he's yelling at draws the others over, leaving the way clear for Nico and Reyna. They walk quickly over to the statue, and Nico grabs two of the ropes attached to it in his free hand, tossing one over to Reyna. She catches it reflexively, and Nico turns to where the argument between Coach Hedge and Octavian's followers is getting more heated by the second, wishing he could somehow signal the satyr without alerting the others.
But the satyr, somehow, seems to understand that he's ready, because he breaks through the line of guards facing him and strides towards them, and then turns so his back is to the statue and continues his argument with the guards. Without their noticing, he continued shuffling backward, getting closer and closer to where Reyna and Nico are waiting, still invisible.
Coach Hedge turns around again, and Nico sees his nose wrinkle as he sniffs the air to find out exactly where Nico and Reyna are.
And then things start going wrong.
One of the guards draws his sword and thrusts towards Coach Hedge's exposed back, and Reyna, acting on pure instinct, steps forward, letting go of Nico's hand and drawing her sword. The clang of blade on blade rings through the night as Reyna parries the guard's strike, and he looks around in bewilderment, and then surprise as Reyna becomes visible again.
His shock is to Reyna's advantage, and his blade flies out of his hand and towards the tents, leaving him virtually defenseless. She pushes him back with her arm, and he falls onto the ground.
This seems to shake the other guards out of their reverie, and they all attack at once, advancing on Reyna with weapons drawn. If there was any doubt before that they were here under Octavian's orders, there definitely wasn't now.
There are about a dozen guards in all, not including the one who's now scrambling after his sword, but Reyna holds them off easily. She parries their strikes with the flick of her wrist, sending their swords skittering off to the side. One of them lunges for her, thrusting his blade towards her midsection, but she sidesteps and he stumbles, off balance. She takes the oppurtunity to hit him in the back of the head with the flat of her blade, knocking him unconscious. Then she turns just in time to stop another thrust from one of the other guards, and he soon joins his comrade on the ground.
Now Coach Hedge jumps into the fight, screaming his normal battle cry of "DIE! DIE, ROMAN WIMPS!" If Reyna takes offense to that, she doesn't show it. Soon, only three are left standing, and Nico's starting to think they might get away alright, but then more demigods rush through the tents and join the fight, and Nico knows they're going to be in trouble soon.
Then a howl splits the night, and Nico whirls around to see hellhounds pouring from the trees. His eyes widen, and he turns back to Reyna, who also turned to see them. Her face is grim as she looks directly at him, and he realizes that he's let his invisibility slip.
"Come on, Reyna, we have to go now!" He urges, gesturing for her to grab onto his hand.
"We can't leave Coach Hedge!" She yells back, gesturing to where the satyr is charging through the ranks of demigods, wildly swinging his baseball bat back and forth.
Then Nico sees something that makes his blood run cold. One of the demigods has snuck up behind Reyna-when is she going to learn to protect her back?-and is preparing to strike. His eyes widen, and instead of trying to warn her, he lunges forward and tackles her, a lot like she did when he almost got decapitated by a hellhound. They roll out of the way of his blade, but away from the statue.
Nico curses, and scrambles to his feet. Beside him, Reyna does the same.
"We have to get back to the statue!" Nico says.
Reyna turns towards Coach Hedge, still whacking people with his club.
"Coach! Come on, we have to go!" She calls to him.
"You go, I'll hold them off!" He yells back.
"Reyna, we have to go! Come on!" Nico shouts, pulling her towards the statue. Only three yards away, a wall of shadow leaps past Nico. He hears Reyna cry out, and her fingers slip from his grip.
He whirls around, already swinging his sword, and slices the hellhound into dust. Reyna coughs, and he pulls her up off the ground. Nico can sense more hellhounds charging right towards them, and he lunges forward, grabbing onto the ropes attached to the Athena Parthenos.
Cold slithers down his spine, and he closes his eyes as they fall into the statue's shadow.
CLIFFY! Don't you love me? And this chapter was another wonderfully super extra long chapter, so be happy!
I used to have a mounted fish that sang that song: Don't worry. Be happy. And it had a really weird accent, with a super deep voice.
Sorry, random tidbit of information.
Smileyfaces!