They had a interesting trip to camp Half Blood during which Nico was reminded of how much he hated flying. He ended up in Toby's arms really quickly. Toby seemed to love the flying but he held Nico and let him bury his face in Toby's shirt. The wind whipped away Nico's mumbled noise, which he kept quiet enough not to bother anyone else.
Nico was annoyed when he found that they couldn't land directly at camp because of siege weapons. They circled back until Toby spotted a boat and suggested they could land there. Nico still wasn't looking down but even though he wasn't, he reached his consciousness down to the ship feeling for souls there. He found only two humans inside the ship. Reaching into the depths of his little remaining power, he seized the thread of Hypnosis -power there from his relation to the god of sleep- and used it to send dreams to the humans. The last thing they needed was to be interrupted by startled humans, plausibly with guns, this was America again after all.
When they were on deck Nico kept clinging to Toby, the boat wasn't much better than the air. He still wasn't on the ground, he was still at the mercy of a god who was not his father, and probably wanted him dead. He watch silently as Reyna had her moment with the king of horses with coach Hedge as a translator. Toby watched as well, his eyes were wide and amazed, even he must have heard stories about Pegasi. When the Pegasi left Reyna came back to the task at hand.
"Nico we should check the ship. If there's anyone aboard-"
"Way ahead of you." Nico cut in before she could get into her stride. He reached out to pet Blackjack, but withdrew his hand when Blackjack snorted nervously. Of course Nico smelt like death even more than usual now. "I sense two mortals asleep in the main cabin. Nobody else. I'm no child of Hypnos but I sent them some deep dreams. It'll keep them asleep until after sunrise." Everyone stared at him in shock for a minute.
"You keep casually revealing powers I had no idea you had." Toby murmured to Nico. "Is there no end to what you can do?" He said in a way Nico recognized to be flirty. Nico laughed and cuddled a little closer to Toby.
"We'll see. But right now lets focus on getting off this boat. I hate being off land, both Poseidon and Zeus want me dead, I'm not safe anywhere but my father's domain of earth."
"Ya!" Coach Hedge said enthusiastically "And my wife is waiting!"
"The legion has sent a welcoming committee." Reyna broke in staring intently out into the water. Nico followed her gaze and spotted a motorboat speeding towards them with the SPQR logo.
"I thought the Romans didn't have a navy?" Nico said. At his side Toby gave a soft snarl towards the ship which Nico ignored.
We didn't." Reyna said coldly. "Apparently Octavian has been busier than I realized." Now it was Nico's turn to snarl slightly, Octavian's name was starting to leave a bad taste in his mouth.
"So we attack! Cause nobody's standing in my way when I'm this close." Coach Hedge said. For once Nico agreed with him and he could tell Toby did too.
"We'll try to parlay." Reyna said which annoyed Nico a little, but he let it go. "That's one of Octavian's right hand men, but he's a good legionnaire. I may be able to reason with him.
The wind blew Nico's hair into his face but he let it stay there, it hid his annoyed expression. He was more eager for a fight than he'd like to admit. The darkness still inside him twisted violently, making him want to lash out. "But if you're wrong…" Nico stated blandly. Reyna didn't answer, and the people pulled up. Nico grabbed Toby's hand to stop him from attacking too soon.
"Reyna! I've got orders to arrest you and confiscate that statue. I'm coming adored with two other centurions."
Nico didn't pay attention to the rest of what he said. It would be the usual macho 'don't make me hurt you' bull. He just paid attention to Reyna telling them to be ready to fight if she was wrong. As if they weren't already, Toby had his celestial bronze hatchet in one hand, and Nico drew his sword. Nico only half paid attention to the back and forth between Reyna and the other Roman. He glanced up at Toby and noticed his eyes had sort of glazed over as well, he didn't understand or care. His attention was caught though when the Roman demigod said that Octavian was trying to heal the gods.
"You'd wipe out half of the demigods in the world, half of the gods' legacy, to HEAL them? You'll tear apart Olympus before Gaia even wakes up. And she is waking." Nico said horrified.
"Ambassador of Pluto, son of Hades… whatever you call yourself, you've been named an enemy spy. I've been ordered to take you in for execution." The big demigod said.
"You can try." Nico and Toby said in sync. Toby's eyes had unglazed now and he was glowering fiercely at… what had Reyna said his name was? Michael? Michael looked uncomfortable.
"Um, Reyna… just come with us peacefully please? We can work this out." He said pleadingly.
"Alright, enough talk." Coach Hedge butted in. "Let me take this joker down. I've handled bigger." Toby snarled in agreement and Nico completely believed it.
"Kahale! What's taking so long?" An all too familiar voice yelled from somewhere. Nico turned towards it automatically and raised his weapon a little.
"Octavian?" Michael yelped flinching a little.
"Is he like the proxies?" Toby asked Nico softly. Nico blinked, he hadn't thought about it but yes. Maybe in Toby's world Michael would be considered Octavian's proxy. Nico nodded slightly, Toby relaxed just a little some of his rage ebbing. Now he understood why Michael was threatening them and it wasn't necessarily because he wanted to.
Nico jumped when a big person came barreling onto the deck followed by a feathery human. Toby lunged forward but Nico pulled him back recognizing the two monsters almost immediately.
"Strong." Ella cheeped proudly running her fingers through her feathers smugly. "Ella's boyfriend is stronger than Romans."
"Friends!" Tyson boomed scooping Reyna and Nico up in a hug. Nico half laughed when he saw how confused Toby looked. "We have come to save you! Hooray for us!"
"It's good to see you Tyson! Ella!" Nico greeted "Great timing." Nico said letting Reyna talk Tyson down from hurting the Romans. He didn't quite believe there story about planning to change sides but it didn't matter too much to him. Nico was amused when they mentioned the other 'allies' Octavian had called in.
"A little late for doubts. You're surrounded. As soon as Camp Half-Blood is destroyed, those allies will turn on you." Nico mocked laughing coldly. Nico half listened to the rest of the conversation doing his best to only pick up on the important things. The living could be so tiresome.
"I've got to get over there!" Coach said when Ella spouted some facts about pregnancy.
"Coach we'll get you to your wife." Reyna soothed. "But let's do it right. Tyson how did you and Ella get here?"
"Rainbow!" Tyson exclaimed.
"A hippocampus." Nico explained quickly which didn't clear anything up to Toby, but did for Reyna and Hedge. Toby was getting used to being constantly confused by the look of it. They decided that Tyson and Ella should escort Coach back to camp.
"Nico I need you to go with Dakota and Leila. While they're stirring up trouble in the ranks, trying to delay the attack, you find a way to sabotage those onagers."
"My pleasure." Nico said grinning wolfishly. "We'll buy you time to deliver the Athena Parthenos."
"What's a onager?" Toby asked Nico softly.
"It's like a catapult." Nico answered him. Reyna faced Nico again after a brief talk with the other Romans. There was a brief uncertainty in her eyes and then she reached her hand out to Nico.
"It's been a honor questing with you, son of Hades." Nico gripped her hand firmly.
"You're the most courageous demigod I've even met, Reyna. I won't let you down. See you on Half-Blood hill." He stepped back next to Toby. "Will you stay with Reyna please? I don't want to leave her to do this alone." Toby looked like he was about to object, so Nico hissed quickly. "I'll probably need to shadow travel between the ongar to get them all and at this point I'm to weak to take anyone else with me. I might be able to if you had anymore strength to give, but if you give me anymore you won't be able to fight and we need you to fight. You know that."
"Okay." Toby sighed. "Looks like I'm coming with you." He said grinning at Reyna. "You'd better meet us." He said to Nico and was about to lean in to kiss Nico, before his eyes flicked to the strangers who were watching and he hugged Nico instead. Nico appreciated that a lot.
Nico was glad when they got to the shore, he quickly summoned Jules to drive them. He relished the scream that triggered from the Roman boy when Jules crawled out of the ground. Nico may not love pain and death, but he really did love scaring people sometimes. He got in the driver's side and they took off towards camp. Nico had been furious with Octavian but the farther they got into the roman camp the angrier he became. Octavian had surrounded them all with monsters. Nico thought bitterly that he was calling on his own kind.
Then it was time for him to separate from the new Roman allies and destroy the onager. He thought he could do it. He had had help from Toby on the way and some time to rest. He had taken Toby's energy again before they started flying. With the lives of the two mortals that had been given to him by the creeps along the way he should have enough.
He spotted the first of the catapult like weapons and stepped into the shadows. He felt the dead and shadows pulling at him but he ignored them. He was staying mostly in the shadows so he wouldn't be seen by romans. The shadows tried to make their way inside him and he batted them away before he got to work on the catapult. If only he could draw the life out of the wood and make it brittle and breakable but that wasn't how his power worked. Human life was very different than plant life.
But then again he could remember times he had taken plant life. His mind flashed back to Cupid, the entire field around him had gone brown and died. When he had had his fit after the first few shadow jumps too. Brown, dead, but most importantly brittle. That wasn't necessarily his powers, it was the darkness, his own and the stuff he pulled from the shadow whelmed when he went through it. He had plenty of darkness in him just then.
Mostly rage at Octavian. His rage increased a hundredfold when he realized what was waiting to be loaded into the catapults. A mix of explosives and imperial gold. Imperial gold in it's raw form and in that amount was incredibly volatile and just as deadly to demigods as to monsters. It would only take one of these to hit camp Halfblood and nothing would survive.
Nico growled deep in his throat, his anger summoned the darkness to him again and this time he invited it in. Placing his hand on the onagerand pulled the mist tighter around him as he channeled the darkness through himself and let it pour into the wood. By the time he drew his hand a way the wood was brittle and dry. He grinned savagely, whoever tried to pull that back to fire it would get shot through with wood splinters like shrapnel when it broke.
He let the darkness take him back in and fought free of it next to the next onager in the line, repeating the process. He glanced up at the sky as he did. The horizon was starting to grey, he didn't have much time. He worked his way though most of the onagers. On the last one though he was interrupted. He forgot to shield himself with the mist quite as affectively as he had before.
"Who's there?" Someone yelled and Nico cursed himself silently hoping that the darkness he put into the wood was enough as he stepped back into the shadows before he could get caught. He ended up back on Half Blood hill. Nearly collapsing from exhaustion he hugged Thalia's tree, noting absently that the golden fleece had been moved. Nico spotted Octavians tent and glared at it, licking his cracked lips slightly, he hissed through his teeth. If he could make one more jump into Octavian's tent and kill him now…
"Nico." Someone exclaimed and Nico turned quickly drawing his sword and nearly decapitating… Will Solace? "Put that down! What are you doing here?"
"Me?! What are you doing here? Getting yourself killed." Nico hissed, resisting the urge to laugh at how Will had painted his face black but apparently forgot about his bright gold hair which practically glowed in the dark. "You forgot your hair." Will blushed.
"Lou Ellen warped the mist around us." Will said gesturing to the girl next to him.
"Hi." She said waving. "You're Nico right, the son of Hades? I've heard about you. This is Cecil from Hermes Cabin."
"Yes I am." Nico said kneeling down next to them and nodding to Cecil. "How's the coach and Mellie?"
"They're fine, and so's their kid." Will reported shuddering slightly. "I helped deliver the healthy little satyr boy and my hands are still shaking! Feel." He grabbed Nico's hand and Nico retracted his quickly. He tried his best to ignore what just happened and looked back at Octavian's tent.
"What are you thinking about?" Lou Ellen asked.
"That's Octavians tent. If I could just shadow jump there I could-"
"Oh no!" Will interrupted Nico. "Coach Hedge told me the state you've been in from all your shadow jumping. No more underworld things."
"I just did it like eight times to sabotage the onager." Nico snapped impatiently. "I can do it once more."
"No you can't." Will argued "You've pushed way past your limits. You're pail, your fuzzy around the edges, and you look more dead than half of the corpses I've seen. No more underworld magic. If you got rid of the onagers, more than ever we can take the Romans." That reminded Nico of something.
"Oh my gods that's right and I called in some of my own allies. We have to get back to camp immediately I need to be there when they arrive and I need to find Toby. He's the link, I shouldn't have told him to stay with Reyna." Obviously none of this was making sense to the other demigods. Nico ran his hands through his hair. "Shit." He swore. If only the phone BEN had helped him to shield hadn't practically dissolved in the air of Tartarus. Then he took a deep breath.
"No it's okay." He reassured himself, not really talking to the others. "While he's with Reyna he'll default to her for instructions and she'll tell him to keep the others away until after the civil conflict is resolved. It's fine." They were all staring at him he sighed. "The allies I've called in look like monsters but they aren't. I'm just worried that if they arrive before me and the members of the quest are there to explain the demigods will attack them."
"Oh." Will said obviously not understanding.
"Don't worry about it." Nico said waving it away and turning to Lou Ellen. "You can manipulate the mist?" She nodded. "The last onager, the one farthest away from us? I didn't manage to finish sabotaging that one because it got to bright for me to blend in. Do you think you could bend the mist around us and get me down there unseen so I can finish the job?"
The mist worked fairly well, though they were spotted once and it ended in a fight. Will distracted some, and Lou Ellen turned three into pigs which impressed Nico. Nico ended up fighting six on one to save Wills stupid ass which had made himself the center of attention. While no one was around who wasn't incapacitated, Lou Ellen wrapped the mist around them tightly again and they made it to the last onager.
Now the Romans were expecting a fight. Nico summoned five skeletons to give them one without realizing how weak he was. He was annoyed more than anything when Will had to catch him.
"I told you no Underworld magic." Will said rummaging in his pocket and pulling out a package of something. "Here eat one of these, it's medicine it'll keep you up a bit longer. You will not be doing that again."
"I'll do what I have to." Nico said taking the medication from Will and standing up straight again. It tasted terrible but he could feel it waking him up.
"Fine then death boy, if you want to get yourself killed-"
"Do not call me death boy, my title is the Ghost King." Nico snapped.
"Umm guys?" Lou Ellen broke in and Nico looked up to spot Octavian and his cohort approaching them. Nico's mouth twisted into a snarl as he saw Octavian. He had to resist the urge to run forward and stab him right then and there. The soldiers near Octavian weren't humans, their heads were like dogs, Nico's nose wrinkled in disgust.
"Tear them apart." Octavian ordered. Nico was trying to decide what to do when Will acted first, giving a piercing whistle that made all of the dogs cower. Nico felt triumphant when Octavian said they would watch their camp be destroyed. Nico had wanted to see them try to fire the onager anyway. He kept his face unreadable as the Romans hurried forward and loaded the catapults.
Nico was irritated when Octavian came closer to them while his Romans worked. Nico didn't want to be distracted by this disgusting worm. He was like a maggot and Nico had seen plenty of those to know.
"Tell me, son of Pluto, why are you helping the Greeks? What have they ever done for you?" Octavian asked.
"I'm helping both Greeks and Romans." Nico answered promptly without taking his eyes off the onager.
"Don't try to con me. What have they offered you? A place in their camp? They won't honor their agreement."
"I don't want a place in their camp." Nico responded blandly. "After this war is over I'm leaving both camps."
"Why would you do that?" Will asked, Nico ignored him.
"Di Angelo I can beat any offer the Greeks could make." Octavian wheedled, making Nico feel sick. "I always thought you would make a powerful ally. I see the ruthlessness in you, and I appreciate that-" Nico was looking at Octavian now.
"You know nothing of my ruthlessness." Nico said coldly. "But you will."
"Very well then." Octavian said trying to hide how much Nico had unsettled him. "Then we will destroy the Greeks!" That seemed to be the signal the Romans had been waiting for and they pulled back the onager.
"Cover your eyes." Nico hissed at the others, but he didn't. He wanted to see. Just as he knew they would, as they were bent the necks of the onager exploded into splinters. Roman's screamed as sharp pieces of wood pierced their skin. Nico did his diplomatic best not to laugh even though he wanted to. But he was happy to realize that only one person had died, that could have been a worse.
"NO NO NO." Octavian screamed. "We have back up onager somewhere get them!" But just then one of Reyna's romans arrived, trailing the fifth cohort.
"Octavian we have new orders." Dakota (Nico remembered his name now) barked. The fifth cohort falling into two lines behind him. Romans and there organization.
"From who!?" Octavian squawked.
"Reyna. She has ordered us to stand down." Dakota stated and Nico grinned. Well done Reyna.
A/N Sorry this took me so long to write I haven't been feeing well.