To Fight the Rising Odds

Nico

By the time the boys reach the bridge crossing the Little Tiber, Rachel disappears from view, escorted through the gates by the watchtower guards.

Nico follows the footpath ahead of his companions, finding the gates left unguarded. While it was rather irresponsible for both guards to leave their posts to escort Rachel without calling for backup, he's not complaining. The fewer interruptions they encounter, the faster they'll reach Hazel and Frank and the sooner they can get on with the quest. Will and Cecil chat in hushed tones behind Nico. While he isn't much in the mood to make small talk, he doesn't begrudge Will for wanting to catch up with his friend.

Camp Jupiter appears to be running the same as usual, the purple shades of the Lares intermingling with legionnaires outside the barracks; a muddy group of soldiers are rubbing their sore muscles with towels draped over their arms, making their way to the baths; another batch are hard at work repairing armor and sharpening swords at the forges; an entire cohort is running drills and practicing battle sequences in the field of Mars. Whatever event had caused the nearby freeway to crack in half and so many mortal car pile-ups doesn't seem to have interrupted the Roman sense of duty and discipline.

Nico turns back to make sure Will and Cecil are still following when a pair of high-pitched voices call out in excited unison: "Will!"

Will looks up, apparently just as surprised as Nico, and breaks into a huge grin. He turns, spreading his arms wide as two girls with long blond braided ponytails fly from the nearest barracks' porch and tackle him in a hug.

"Hey, Cassie. Sam," he says, hugging them back just as hard. He maneuvers the hug so he can see Nico. "You remember my sisters? The twins?"

Nico nods, his lips pulling into a smile at the exuberance on his boyfriend's face.

Cecil blinks a few times, seemingly frozen in shock, but then he comes back to life and grins. "I didn't know your sisters ended up at Camp Jupiter."

Will laughs as the girls finally let go of him and turn their attention to the new boy. "Yeah. I guess Apollo took turns between his Greek and Roman aspects when he visited my mom."

"Who's this, Will?" Sam asks.

"I like your hair," Cassie says to Cecil at the same time.

Nico clears his throat before he loses his chance to make himself heard. "I hate to break up this reunion, but we need to talk to Frank and Hazel and figure out what caused that huge crack in the freeway. We already lost track of Rachel.

"Oh!" Cassie says, marching up alongside Nico and hooking her arm through his. "We know all about that and we'll take you to see the praetors."

Sam nods, slotting herself between Will and Cecil and looping their arms with hers. "Yeah. It was crazy all day yesterday. Took about six or seven hours of chasing down the zombies climbing out of the hole, and then working out how to stop up the hole."

The news doesn't surprise Nico as much as it does Will.

"Zombies?" Will gasps, his eyebrows rising almost to his hairline.

"Yeah," Cecil says. "Rachel said that there was an earthquake right before she came to Camp Half-Blood. She said Nemesis showed up and said the dead weren't doing any harm before giving her a ride."

"They weren't doing any harm yet," Cassie amends. "Frank and Reyna came running back to report the damage and to organize the troops and when they sent a scouting party out, the zombies were like, changing, growing their flesh to look like mortals. Some of them just walked off and others were trying to hijack the mortals' cars. It got so bad, we had the Fauns use their nature magic to make the mortals sleep and forget what they'd seen while we cut down the most aggressive zombies. Hermes showed up after a while, I guess he'd been trying to rein in the ones that had wandered off but as long as the hole was open, more kept climbing out."

Nico frowns as they turn onto the via principalis. "How'd you finally get it closed?"

Sam answers behind him. "Hazel did some sort of meditation thing with Reyna guiding her and then, BAM! She opened a massive can of whoop-ass and slammed the sides of the hole back together."

"That was so cool," Cassie confirms. She releases Nico's arm. "Ahhh, here we are." They stop outside of the curtained doorway to the principia.

"Yeah," Sam says. "Be sure to stop and see us again when you get a chance, Will."

Nico can hear Rachel's voice through the slit in the curtain. He pushes it open. "We really need to get in there."

Sam gives Will a quick hug, releasing him so Cassie can have a turn. "We want to hear all about how Liz is doing at Camp Half-Blood."

"Wait, what?" Will says, but Hazel has spotted Nico and gestures for them to hurry up.

Nico grabs Will's elbow and pulls him inside, Cecil bringing up the rear.

"Shhh," Nico says as Will starts to protest. He crosses the room towards the long table on the other side, his boots thumping against the polished marble floor.

Rachel takes a deep breath and recites the new prophecy for the Romans, her voice sounding sharp with the acoustics of the building.

The child of Magic in limbo stretched thin.
Another of meek, unintentional sin.

Unite the siblings forgotten by time.
Heal the rift on the back of a dime.

Victory if the charge resonates from the West.
Eastern seeds sown will reap tears and new death.

Sunbeams break through Erebus
Fulfilling the Inheritance.

Nico, Will, and Cecil sit in three empty chairs next to Piper and Jason, opposite Reyna and Rachel. Five centurions, one from each cohort complete the group with Frank and Hazel at the head of the table in the praetors chairs. Nico rubs his forehead, inwardly cursing himself for wondering why Percy isn't there … Annabeth, too. He forces himself to focus on the proceedings, his eyes meeting Hazel's briefly as she addresses Rachel.

"So we have two prophecies that have yet to be fulfilled completely?"

Rachel blows an errant red curl out of her eyes. She looks tense, her posture stiff, her eyebrows drawn, her lips tight. Nico wonders what Apollo had done or said that has her so riled up.

"That's right. And while my patron …" she exaggerates the word as if to underline her frustration with Apollo, "… revealed some key insights about interpreting them, he's also forbidden me from sharing." She exhales harshly, her nostrils flaring as she taps her fingernails on the polished tabletop. "I can verify that the first part of the first prophecy was fulfilled by Nico, Will, and Lou Ellen's quest a couple of years ago, and by taming Python and freeing the Oracle, events were able to unfold to bring about the rest. Thing is, two prophecies means two quests, and uh, there's not a lot of time left. I sense it's all going to go down in less than a day."

Hazel exchanges a fearful gaze with Frank. He nods at her, then draws his eyebrows, his expression growing determined, focused. It's like seeing him turn from a scared little boy into a war-hardened man in the blink of an eye.

"Alright. The debriefing session can wait. If we have to launch two separate quests, we need to get organized right now. Pontifex, will you take the centurions back to the barracks to change and then call a Senate meeting to commence in 30 minutes?"

Nico looks down the table past Will and Piper. Jason had been so quiet, Nico had almost forgotten he was there.

Jason nods firmly at Frank as he gets to his feet, his hand held out for Piper to join him.

Piper opens her mouth to protest, but Frank beats her to it. His voice sounds both gentle and commanding. "I'm sorry, Piper. But as you're not currently a camper at Camp Half-Blood or a member of the legion, you'll have to sit this quest out."

She sighs wistfully before accepting Jason's hand up. She meets Reyna's gaze across the table. "Feels weird to be out of the loop."

Reyna smiles, chuckling under her breath. "Tell me about it. It's only been a couple of days for me and I feel like I have to sit on my hands and bite my tongue to keep myself from overstepping."

Rachel pats the back of Reyna's hand. "You're doing fine. And as soon as I'm finished with the Oracle part of these quests, we're going to get you settled in at Berkeley." Rachel winks at Piper before Jason leads her and the centurions out to roust the Senators.

Hazel brings the meeting back to order. "We need to discuss both prophecies quickly and devise what they most likely refer to. When we present them to the Senate to vote, I'd like to have teams already divided by those best suited to each task."

Rachel agrees, folding her hands on the table in front of her. "Right. So this newest quest."

"The child of Magic is Lou Ellen," Cecil blurts out, making heads turn. "And no matter what it takes, I'm going on the quest to rescue her. She's my … well … my really good friend. I owe it to her."

Rachel holds up her hand for quiet, silencing him. The heat rising off of Cecil is almost palpable. Nico is torn between thinking Cecil's emotions could either push the quest to victory or create a stumbling block.

"I hear you, Cecil. And," she says, addressing the praetors, "I agree that Lou Ellen is the person the prophecy refers to. Fortunately, we know where she is. Unfortunately, that place is the Lotus Casino. Whoever goes on this quest must be aware that the magic of the casino will make it hard to remember why you are there. It will tempt you to forget everything you mean to accomplish with the promise of instant gratification, and only a few hours inside translates to several days in the real world."

The room falls dead silent.

Nico's stomach sinks. He hates that place. Everything about a quest to the Lotus Casino screams WRONG to him. Still, if that is where Lou Ellen has been trapped, he figures it won't hurt to confirm that Rachel's warnings are valid. "It's true. I lost 70 years to that place, and not by choice. I will not go on that quest."

Will gives Nico's knee a squeeze and the simple gesture – a confirmation that Will won't try to force him to go – alleviates the weight on Nico's heart that the prospect of the Lotus burdened him with.

"The next part, the siblings forgotten by time," Will says, making Nico's skin break out in a cold sweat. "Does anybody know who that refers to? I thought it might be Nico and Hazel, but they're both here in this room. I just want to know if I'm crazy for wondering if Nico and Hazel need to be the ones who lead that quest."

Rachel presses her lips together, frowning while Hazel hums thoughtfully.

"That does make some sense, but I'm not feeling it deep down, you know? I'm not a prophet or anything of the sort, but I know magic, and it tends to be more subjective than obvious." Hazel nods subtly at Rachel, whose lips twitch upwards at the corners. "The next lines though … What rift exists on the back of a dime?"

Rachel rummages in her jeans pocket and plonks a handful of change on the tabletop. She sifts several dimes out with her index finger and then slides them across the surface, pushing one to each of them to examine.

Nico picks his up and studies it. "There's an olive branch, a torch, and an oak branch."

The table is quiet for a moment until Frank speaks up. "Oh! The olive tree is sacred to Athena, right?"

"Ye-es," Hazel says hesitantly. She rolls the dime back and forth between the pads of her forefinger and thumb, then closes her fist over it. "And the oak is sacred to Zeus. So, is the rift between them or did they, together, cause some sort of rift with other people or gods?"

Nico and several of the others shrug. Reyna remains strangely silent. Rachel does too. Nico suspects Rachel's silence is related to Apollo forbidding her from sharing, but …

"What do you think, Reyna?" he asks.

She raises an eyebrow and tilts her head, considering. "I think Minerva and Jupiter both have plenty of history backing up the potential for creating rifts but to be honest, I think we're wasting time. You've got the basics figured out, some questions raised. Now, I think it'd be wise to decide which of you should go on each quest."

Frank hums lowly. "I agree. I think we should revisit the other prophecy real quick, just in case an idea pops out at us, then we should split the teams."

"Agreed," Hazel says. "Also, only one of the praetors can leave for a quest. We can't leave Camp Jupiter without a leader."

Reyna smirks, her eyes twinkling. Nico suspects she might be enjoying watching somebody else have to grapple with the very struggles of balancing leadership and adventure that she had to for so long. It can't be easy. "Good call," she says. "Rachel? The first prophecy?"

Rachel collects the dimes and slips them back into her pocket. She clears her throat and recites:

The fall of the sun, the final verse
Inoculate the source, to fate – reverse.

The wretched one must make a stand,
topple the head, draw a line in the sand

When a lion crows and the vortex spews
forth the daughter he never knew

Then lethe ease a fallen pride,
and truth unveil a broken bride

The early three will join no more
And two in one reset the score.

When she finishes, Nico dives in headfirst.

"I think the 'wretched one' refers to my father. I had a dream last night where he said he was going to Olympus to make Zeus see reason. If he did it, then there's that part fulfilled, right?"

Hazel's lower lip trembles, but she steadies herself with her fists on the table. "Really? He's gonna call him out?"

Nico meets and holds her gaze. "He was ready to jump into Tartarus and take the pit on head to head, but Hermes reminded him that Olympus holds more power to succeed over the pit, and that he wanted to convince Apollo and Dionysus to join him to confront their father. Hades insisted that it should be himself that talked sense into Zeus because he's the eldest brother of the gods, and because Zeus wouldn't listen to anybody not comparable in power." Nico bobs his head as he finishes, his evil grin slipping into place. "I think Hades has finally found his voice."

Hazel's smile matches Nico's, and it isn't until Frank interrupts that Nico realizes they're probably creeping everybody out. He chuckles under his breath.

"Uh, Hazel?" Frank says. "I don't know about the middle parts of the prophecy, but the last lines, the one about the 'early three'. You think it refers to Tartarus? Like, how Saturn and Gaea got neutralized?"

Hazel stops short, her eyes growing round. "Oh goodness. Oh my gosh. I think you might be onto something, Frank. What do you think, Nico?"

"I – yeah." The concept of defeating Tartarus in the same manner as Gaea and Ouranos blows his mind. How in Hades did Frank Zhang get to be so insightful? Then he remembers Frank has been a praetor for more than two years and that, likely, contributed to his maturity.

Will squeezes Nico's knee again. "You remember, Nico… When you started to raise the Underworld as a backup plan on our last quest, and then realized that it made Tartarus start to rise and you couldn't stop it?"

Nico scowls. Of course he remembers. He doesn't need Will reminding him about his mistakes in front of their friends.

Will shakes his head, smiling as if trying to convince Nico he's not being a butthead. "No. Nico, think about it. If Tartarus is rising to the surface of the earth, he's no longer invincible; he's out of his own turf. He really could be subdued."

"Wow," Franks says, sounding very much wowed. "That's amazing, Nico. You set the fulfillment of the prophecy in motion."

Nico glares at Frank, trying to decide whether or not the big guy is making fun of him or not. He finds complete Canadian honesty staring back at him. It kind of feels good. "Uh, yeah. Thanks."

"Okay," Hazel interjects. "Teams. I think Cecil and I should be the ones to go to the Lotus Casino. And Nico and Will should take on the other quest. You two started it after all, you should finish it."

Jason returns, all decked out in his white pontifex bedsheet of doom. He pushes the mantle off his head and ruffles his hair. "You guys ready? The Senate is assembling."