Sorry about the delay. There was a birthday party I had to attend. The Curse of Achilles is in this chapter. Thank you to Artemis Lovegood, QuillMist9674, ZoeyMarieSnape, sassiecassie218,percyjacksonfan135, Nymphadora Jackson, and the guest reviewer for your reviews. To percyjacksonfan135, Nina is a muggleborn like Hermione. In case anyone doesn't know, Mercury is Hermes' Roman form.
Chapter Fifty Four: The Curse
Percy and I went to the arena to see Mrs. O'Leary, the only friendly hellhound. We played fetch with her. We took the hellhound for a walk. She bounded far ahead of us. When we finally tracked her down, she was in the clearing where the Council of Cloven Elders had put Grover on trial. It looked downright dead. The grass was yellow and the thrones made of flowers had lost all their leaves. In the middle of the clearing stood, Juniper the wood nymph, Nico, and the satyr I recognized as Leneus. Mrs. O'Leary was sniffing Juniper. Juniper yelped and said, "Oh no, you mutt, I know what dogs do to trees like me!"
I'll admit, that sounded pretty funny. "I'll walk the dog," Nico offered. He whistled and Mrs. O'Leary followed him happily. Juniper and Leneus started to argue about Grover. He had disappeared. Why didn't anyone tell me? Percy yelled at Leneus a bit about leading the satyrs into battle instead of letting Grover do all the work. Wow, I never pictured sweet, little, innocent Grover as a war leader. Juniper and Leneus left as Mrs. O'Leary returned with Nico.
"Have you decided yet," my baby cousin asked.
"What do we need to do first?" I grinned.
"First, we need to ask your mom for permission." Percy and I stared at him, open-mouthed. Did an all powerful 12 year old son of Hades say we needed Sally's permission? "Only two people have been know to take the Curse and survive. Both had their mother's permission. Now do your Mage stuff and travel to Manhattan!" Nico faded into the shadows.
"What the Hades," sighed Percy before mist consumed him. I followed my brother. We appeared in our apartment with a loud clunk. Whoops. Sally and Paul rushed into the room. Paul was holding a baseball bat. He dropped it when he saw it was us and he and Sally plopped down on a couch. We told the adults about Typhon and they gasped. We also told them about the plan to take the curse.
"Percy, Christina, it's dangerous. Even for you two." Sally seemed genuinely worried about me for once. Over the past year, she had become a lot nicer to me. I still think she's trying to get something out of it.
"Mom," started Percy. "We know that we could die. Nico explained that. But if we don't try-"
"We'll all die," Nico carried on from there. "Mrs. Blofis, we don't stand a chance against an invasion and there will be an invasion. Percy and Nina need your blessing to do this. This has only been done successfully twice. Both times the mother had to be willing to allow her child, or in this case children, take the risk."
"You want me to bless this, Percy, Nina, please." I know, I know, I should be stressing out right about now, but I couldn't get over the fact that Sally Jackson had called me Nina, instead of girl or Christina like she's been doing lately. "This is crazy!"
"Sally, I mean Mom, please! We can't do this without you!" I thought maybe calling her mom instead of Sally or mother might help at least a little. Paul whispered something in her ear and she seemed to relent.
"Percy, Nina, I give you my blessing."
"It's time," said Nico anxiously.
Sally asked us to send her a sign that we survived. She actually said both of us. Wow, she really does care. She hugged Percy before turning to me. We stood there awkwardly, staring at the ground. "Nina," my mother broke the silence, "I know we've had our differences in the past, but you are my daughter and eldest child." Paul, Percy, and Nico turned around to give us some privacy. "And I'm sorry it's taken me this long to realize it, but Nina, I love you!" Sally launched herself at me and I awkwardly rubbed her back. I had been expecting her to have pretended to be nice to me all this time and then say that she wanted me to be extra sure to die."
"I can't say the same to you, Sal-I mean Mom. But, you are my mother and I definitely care about you, no matter what."
"Try not to die, Nina."
"I make no promises." Sal-Mom, I've got to remember that, slapped me on the back of my head and I grinned sheepishly at her. She rolled her eyes and told the boys they could turn back around. We all said our goodbyes and Nico told us where to travel to next, Central Park.
We landed in front of a pile of boulders. "Is this-" I started to say.
"The Door of Orpheus," Nico nodded. I ran a finger of the rough rocks. Someone needed to play some music. "Who wants to sing?" I stared at the door and was about to start singing when my voice abandoned me. I was a little too stressed about this. Percy and Nico looked at me and I shrugged. I tried to sing again, but my voice still wouldn't come to me. I had a feeling this was more than just stress levels, I think this was some god messing with us. Really? We're trying to save you and you delay us?
"I have an idea," said Percy.
"Run for the hills," I said sarcastically.
Percy rolled his eyes and shouted, "Grover!" Nothing happened. Nico and I looked at my brother with cocked eyebrows. He blushed and closed his eyes. He was using his empathy link! Amazing, an intelligent plan thought up by my brother. Percy concentrated for a few minutes and then almost fell over.
Nico caught him. "What happened?"
"I got through," Percy gasped. "He's...yeah. He's on his way."
A minute later, Grover fell out of the trees. "You okay, capra?"
"Oh, I'm fine and what did you just call me?"
"A goat, my dear satiro, a goat. Satiro means satyr by the way. You got your reed pipes on you by any chance?"
"Yup, never go anywhere without them"
We asked Grover where he'd been. He started rambling about some guy who knocked him out. Grover said the man's aura was powerful and that he was probably a minor god. Nico sighed. "You're lucky you ever woke up. Grover, you met Morpheus, the god of dreams." Grover then began to ramble about how he had been missing for two months.
Percy interrupted Grover's mini monologue and told him about our plan. Grover agreed, albeit reluctantly, to open the Door of Orpheus. He played some Nirvana tune that split the rocks. Grover ran off to rally the nature spirits and I.M. his girlfriend. Percy, Nico, and I walked slowly down the path that the door had opened up.
The path let us off on the banks of the River Styx. Percy and I walked up to the water's edge. "So we just jump in?" asked Percy.
"No," Nico shook his head. "First you need to prepare your bodies. Otherwise the river will rip you apart. There is only one way to stay anchored to your mortal part. You need to..." He was interrupted by a zombie dressed in Ancient Greek armor. At first, I didn't recognize the hero, but then I saw his heel. An arrow was sticking out the back.
"Achilles," Percy and I whispered together.
Zombie-Achilles nodded. "I warned the other not to follow in my path. Now I shall warn you." Makes sense, we were about to take the Curse of Achilles. Our skin would become as hard as diamond except for one spot of our choosing. "Do not do this, heroes. You shall gain an arrogance that will get you killed."
"If I die, I die," I said. "It's either me or the entire world. I'll risk dying if it means everyone else gets a chance at a happy life."
"Let the gods witness I tried," Achilles sighed. He told us how to prepare ourselves. First, we had to chose a mortal point. I chose a spot right underneath my right ear. No one would think to cut me there. The tiniest scratch there, and I'm dead. Achilles vanished. I looked at Percy and grabbed his hand. I imagined a strong rope connected to the bank, keeping me anchored to the shoreline. Percy nodded to show he was ready and we jumped together.
It was a thousand times worse than the cruciatus. I couldn't sense anything but pain. I felt myself being pulled apart by the water. I wanted to scream, but I couldn't. I focused on my mortal point. "You aren't getting away from me that easily, Sparkles," said a familiar voice. I looked up and saw Apollo grinning down at me. He offered me his hand and I took it. He pulled me up out of the water. I landed on the shore, coughing and spluttering.
Percy appeared on the shore next to me. His skin was bright red as if it had been burnt. I figured mine looked like that too. "Are you okay?" Nico stammered. "Oh, gods, your skin. You two are hurt!"
"We're fine, I think," I replied to my baby cousin. Nico pulled us both to our feet. "Is your dad out helping with Typhon?" I asked.
Nico shook his head. "No, he, Demeter, and Persephone are all cooped up down here in the Underworld. Zeus said he didn't want or need my dad's help. That is a total lie. Lady Artemis, Lord Apollo, Lady Aphrodite, and Lord Hermes have all I. him and begged for help. He would, but he can't go directly against Zeus' orders."
"Wait, Zeus said they couldn't help the gods, right?" Nico nodded, looking very confused. "Well, convince him to help the demigods then. That wouldn't be directly going against Zeus' orders because Zeus didn't say Uncle couldn't help us in Manhattan, only that he couldn't be with the gods fighting Typhon."
"Yeah, yeah I'll talk to him. He might listen. You never can tell with gods."
I laughed. "Well," said Percy, "let's go start a war." I grabbed Percy's hand and together we Mist travelled to the Empire State Building. Percy pulled out our mom's phone and called Annabeth, asking her to get the camp to Olympus. Thirty minutes later, we had an army of 40 demigods. Let's go kick some titan culo.