Chapter 10: Take Two

Percy had this strange dream about this stupid yarn-sized red shoelace that was raveled and knotted into his own personal hell.

He broke his fingernails and split his skin raw, desperately trying to pull apart the twisted knot, yelling with frustration as it seemed to be permanently stuck together with super glue.

It seemed to be a pretty normal and stupid dream at first, too, until he started pulling out shit like chainsaws and blowtorches trying to simply destroy the stupid impenetrable red shoelace into burnt pieces.

Frustration fueled his anger, and soon Percy was screaming like an insane child in his dream and throwing his stupid shoe and tangled shoelaces into the Goode High School bathroom toilet of all places.

In real life, Percy was guessing that his shoe wouldn't simply be sucked up by the toilet and zoomed through its pipes like some magical fucked-up Harry Potter wizard, but his dreams were pretty weird and his mind was really manifesting the idea of that stupid shoelace being gone.

And then once the shoelace was gone, his dream self just sighed with relief and returned to his English exam with a classroom full of Telkhines. The weird dog-faced monsters were all staring at him unblinkingly, slobber rolling down their faces and dripping on their exam papers in a way that probably wouldn't get them a good grade.

Percy tried to ignore them, facing his own bubble sheet paper to fill out all the multiple choice questions as 'B.'

"You really should stop doing this." a voice spoke to him, seeming to echo from a distance.

He looked up, blinking. He wondered if the voice was his teacher speaking, reprimanding him for his horrible testing tactics before sending him to detention. It wouldn't be his first.

Instead, Percy gazed blurredly at the pale ghosted face of Nico di Angelo.

"Do you know how much worry you've caused me?" Nico continued.

Percy squeezed his eyes shut, blocking the floating face of the son of Hades from above him, before opening them blearily again, feeling an oncoming migraine.

"What?" Percy asked, words stuck halfway up his dry throat as he could barely comprehend anything of the situation around him but the fact that Nico di Angelo, the kid who hated his very guts and believed Percy killed his sister, was apparently worried about him.

"I think I've felt your soul nearly leave your body more times this past month than a normal demigod would in a whole lifetime." Nico told Percy, his tone edged with some sort of strange exasperation.

Percy blinked, wondering if he was still dreaming. "Didn't I leave you with Euryton?"

"Really—"

"And aren't most demigod lifespans pretty short? My near-deaths can't be that impressive."

Nico groaned, sitting back beside Percy in the near darkness set around them, "How hard did you hit your head?"

"I've lost count."

"I—" Nico shook his head in disbelief, "That answer doesn't even correlate with my question!"

Percy frowned. Was that water he heard rushing behind him? "Huh, strange."

"Percy," Nico was looking over at him, concerned again (which Percy found a little off-putting if he was being honest), "Do you have any idea how long I've been looking for you? I was only even able to tell where you were when I felt your soul's presence enter the Underworld, and even after that, I only found you when you were half-dead on the banks of the River Styx, dry-heaving like an estranged person."

The events shuffled around in Percy's head for a few moments before clicking into sequence: Luke, Achilles, the River Styx, and Dry. Man, that had sucked.

"Did I really look like an estranged person?" he wondered.

Nico rubbed his temples, "That's the only thing you registered from all of that?"

"No, no," Percy disagreed as he slowly felt around his surroundings, feeling at the black, river bank sands he laid on, "I just found it important to address the idea that I looked like an estranged person after almost having my soul dissolved and eaten up like acid in a bloody river."

"I'm glad you find it necessary to clarify," Nico said drily, "Now, do you think you can sit up?"

"Er," Percy brought his hands to his sides and tried engaging his abs in order to sit up off of his lying position on the ground. His gut muscles immediately screamed in protest, though, as if he had been punched hard in the stomach, causing his head to fall back against the rough black sand once more.

"Ow," he mumbled in defeat.

"I tried giving you some nectar and ambrosia when I found you," Nico told him, "But I didn't want to chance you burning up. You were already on death's doorstep.

"Thanks," Percy muttered, feeling very weak and very stupid. He was the one who was supposed to look after Nico di Angelo, not the other way around.

"How'd you even know I was in trouble anyways?" the son of Poseidon asked the younger demigod.

Nico bit his lip, "I don't think you understand how bad you were, Percy. You were dying for days."

"I was?" Percy asked, feeling strangely apathetic towards the idea.

The other boy nodded, "I could ignore it for a bit, maybe just assume that you were badly injured and being treated by someone, but you just kept dying and your soul just kept fading. I didn't know where you were, but I knew that I had to help you."

"That had to have been over a week ago, Nico."

"No," the son of Hades disagreed, "It's almost been three weeks, actually."

Percy felt as if cold water had been dumped over his head, "Oh, no…"

Nico lifted up Percy's torn and tattered shirt, fried with holes from lava, and Percy made no move to stop the young demigod. "Like what you see?" he asked Nico almost teasingly.

To his surprise, Nico's pale cheeks actually blossomed pink.

"Kronos really did a number on you," Nico said, ignoring his question, focusing on Percy's likely bruised and beaten chest.

"Lovely."

He poked at something along Percy's rib cage that made the son of Poseidon hiss as he struggled not to yelp at the burst of pain.

"They branded you." Nico said, voice full of accusation and anger.

"Yeah," Percy agreed, "Felt really nice and cozy too. You know that feeling of warm gooiness that melts your insides as you smell your own flesh burning from a hot iron rod?"

"Stop being such a sarcastic asshole, Percy," Nico dropped the other demigod's shirt, "I'm probably the first person you've met in the last three weeks who hasn't tried to kill you."

Percy wrinkled his nose stubbornly. "My mom didn't try to kill me," he pointed out mildly, painfully remembering watching Sally Jackson being held at knifepoint in front of him in his own kitchen.

"Your mom?" Nico looked down at Percy incredulously.

"Luke kept saying something about needing your mother's blessing before taking a bath in the River Styx," Percy shrugged, "They wanted to use my body as Kronos's vessel or something, so I guess they needed me to bathe in the stupid river so I could become all invulnerable and stuff."

Nico pulled a knife into his hand from out of nowhere and poked Percy's finger with it before he could react.

"Ouch!" Percy yelped, bringing his finger to his mouth to suck on the blood beading along his fingertip. "What'd you do that for?"

Nico put his knife away, "You don't seem very invulnerable to me."

"No shit, Sherlock. That's because I didn't let the water touch me; I used my powers to stay dry."

The son of Hades frowned, "What about Luke, then?"

"What about Luke? I assume that traitor got his sorry soul disintegrated when I pulled him into the water."

"Actually," Nico said, "I saw Luke crawl out of the river on the other side of the banks only a little before you did."

Percy froze. Of course Luke was still alive. But that didn't make any sense. "I thought Luke said a mother's blessing was required in order to survive." he deliberated.

"Could he have already received his mom's blessing?"

Percy considered Nico's question. Was it possible? Did Luke plan on the possibility of himself becoming Kronos's vessel? There was that one comment when Luke had first visited Percy in his cell, of course, when he had told Percy with eyes full of relief that it was going to be him before they had captured Percy.

"It's possible," Percy admitted, "Luke was originally supposed to host Kronos before they decided to torment me with their politics."

"So now with Luke completely invulnerable and under the assumption that you sacrificed yourself like an idiot, we can only assume he's on his own merry way right now to become the Titan Lord's puppet," Nico sighed as he spoke, acting way older than a kid his age should be acting.

"Don't forget the army of monsters currently on their way to camp via the Labyrinth," Percy supplied helpfully.

"Oh, goody," Nico grumbled, "So now we're talking about a newly resurrected Titan Lord and the possibility of the decimation of all our demigods? Anything else you'd like to add?"

"Other than the fact that I don't even know if I could walk two feet without collapsing, no; I think you summed up the load of shit we're in rather well."

Nico apparised the son of Poseidon, a look that Percy could almost vaguely detect as pity crossing the younger demigod's face. "You need to rest," Nico told him, "You're still half-dead as it is and you probably completely drained all of your powers in order to keep yourself dry in the river."

Percy shook his head in protest, "How am I supposed to rest when I know camp is about to be marched on? We need to do something and stop Luke."

"We will," Nico assured him, "But you're not going to be help to anybody right now in the state you're in. Rest for a bit and let me think about our next moves."

The older demigod raised an eyebrow, "Who put you in charge of this operation?"

"Obviously not the invalid that can't walk."

Percy settled against the rough black sand around him, grudgingly admitting to the exhaustion seeping through his body. "Touche," he supposed.

The next time Percy woke up, he was far less confused and feeling relatively safe for the first time in weeks (which was pretty sad considering he was in the Underworld directly next to a river that would dissolve his soul like mentos in coke).

He groaned, grappling with his aching gut and silly putty muscles to push himself into a sitting position on the river bank.

"At least this time you can get up without falling over," Nico murmurmed beside him, making Percy's heart skip a beat as he was reminded of the son of Hades presence.

"How long was I out for?" Percy asked him.

"Long, but not long enough."

"What are you doing? Practicing for a job interview to be the next Oracle?"

Nico played with the black sand on the bank, letting the dark material trickle through his gaunt fingers, "Time is hard to tell in the Underworld, but we haven't much time to make our next move."

"That move being?" Percy quirked an eyebrow.

Nico turned from Percy's expectant gaze, "I think that you should bathe in the River Styx."

As expected, Percy shook his head immediately, "Yeah, no," his voice was hard, "Absolutely not happening."

"Percy—"

"Nope," the son of Poseidon even scooted himself further away from the river on the banks to make his point, "I don't know if you forgot my mentioning earlier, Nico, but that river would melt my soul quicker than Greek Fire on wood."

"Look," Nico argued reasonably, "Can you even imagine attempting to beat an invulnerable person like Luke in battle? And that's without even adding the fact that he'll be possessed by an ancient Titan Lord with power over time itself."

Percy cocked his head to the side, considering trying to fight someone like Luke possessed by Kronos. Even with powers over water, how could he possibly fight something like time? Somehow, a picture of a boot stomping on an ant seemed to keep popping up in his head.

"I'd probably get annihilated," he admitted to the son of Hades.

Nico nodded, "You'd definitely get annihilated."

"What a great vote of confidence," he said drily. "So what would bathing in the River Styx do for me exactly?"

"It'd give you a fighting chance," the younger demigod told him, "At least if you're invulnerable too, then Luke can't stab you either."

"Who's to say Luke will even attack camp with Kronos anyways? He told me he already had an army moving towards camp when we were on our way to this stupid river."

Nico shrugged, "Either way, it's inevitable that you two will cross paths eventually; it's only a matter of if you'll be prepared to fight Kronos when you do. Besides," he added, "your invulnerability alone could very well be the difference between victory and defeat at camp just based on the huge advantage it would give us."

"Or I could die," Percy supplied, "and be no help at all in defending the camp."

"I'm the only person that would miss you anyways," Nico grinned darkly, "Everyone else is already fully convinced that you're already dead."

"Which I would like to not be the truth, so I'm gonna say swimming in the River Styx is probably going to do nothing for my health."

Nico stood up, brushing sand off of his black jeans before lending a hand to the son of Poseidon still on the ground, "Let's get this over with, Percy."

Percy glared at Nico, feeling like a cornered animal with no other ways to turn. "For the record," he said, taking the son of Hades' hand and allowing Nico to pull him off the ground, "If I die doing this, I'm going to kill you."

"That might be a bit difficult without a soul," Nico frowned in contemplation.

The older demigod rolled his eyes. Leave it to some kid from the thirties to completely miss his sarcasm.

"Let's get this over with," Percy said, limping as he approached the edge of the river bank. The Styx waters roared below him, daring him to join the flow.

What had Achilles spoken about again? Preparing himself? A weak spot?

Well, Percy wasn't about to choose something as easily unprotected as his heel, and he definitely wasn't about to make one of his fingers a weak spot. Or his head—Percy banged his head way too often from walking into things for that to be safe.

No, Percy wanted it to be somewhere dignified and well-covered. Somewhere that meant something to him.

He focused on the space right between his breastbone and heart. It felt familiar. Close to home and close to family by being right next to his beating heart. Someone would have to completely beat his defenses in a fight to attack that weak spot, which would then also be covered by armor. It would feel almost like stabbing someone else he cared for if someone stabbed him there.

Percy focused on that spot with all his consciousness, feeling the blood pumping through his ears from his heart as sped up in adrenaline. It was the only part of his body that mattered right now, and the only one that would matter if he made it out of the river alive.

"Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself, taking one last breath before stepping into the river.

—he was grabbing her hand.

Percy began to gasp and sputter, blinking away his reverie of Annabeth to realize that he was still in the Underworld. He was no longer in the lake at camp with the daughter of Athena, but coughing water out of his lungs on the beach of the River Styx.

Nico watched as the son of Poseidon anchored himself to the world around them again, tossing a jagged black stone back and forth in his hands as he sat on the river bank.

The older demigod slowly began to gather control of himself again, though, stumbling over to the son of Hades and dropping down next to him with haggard breaths.

"Do you…feel different?" Nico asked.

Percy frowned, considering the pinkness of his skin and the overall raw feeling that he got whenever he knew he was about to get seriously sunburnt. He didn't feel any different, though. Was he expected to feel like he could start benching an elephant now like Captain America?

"I don't feel any stronger," he admitted to Nico.

"How about indestructible?" the son of Hades suggested.

Percy shook his head, "None of that either. Same old Percy here."

"Hmm," Nico hummed thoughtfully, "Are you sure you bathed in it this time around? Maybe you just willed yourself dry again."

"No, this felt different…like I was definitely feeling the water's effects. Plus it fucking hurt," he added.

Nico pulled out his knife again and Percy offered him his hand.

The cold blade slid across his palm before Nico pierced the tip of the blade into Percy's skin. Percy winced slightly, anticipating the crimson that would blood into his soft flesh, but no pain or blood ever came.

Nico began to tighten his grip on Percy's wrist, pushing the blade harder against Percy's palm in an attempt to cause any effect on the son of Poseidon, but the knife failed to create even a single dent on Percy's skin.

He sighed and dropped Percy's hand in defeat, "I guess maybe you're not supposed to feel any different."

Percy examined his scratch-free hand in awe, "I guess not."

The son of Hades stood up, "How do you feel? Are you ready?"

Despite his new found indestructibleness, Percy was still feeling very much so beat up and under the weather. He supposed while the Curse of Achilles could cover him from any harm that would come to him, it could do nothing about the injuries he had already experienced beforehand.

Nevertheless, Percy pulled himself from the black sandy shores to his feet, "I've never been more ready in my life. Now what's the plan?"

As far as he knew, the only way through the Labyrinth was with the red string Luke had, so how would he and Nico catch up to the titan forces already marching their way to Camp Half-Blood?

Nico smirked mysteriously, "Have you ever heard of shadow travel before?"

As a matter of fact, Percy had not.

Author's Note: Yeah, this chapter ain't edited, so sorry. I also totally forgot to add it to , so it's a few days late. But, Percy's with Nico now, and we only got five chapters left.