Secrecy begets tyranny - Robert A. Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
After Daedalus...
Grover dropped a sleeping bag on the ground next to Nico. The boy sniffled and wiped his face with his sleeve. "I killed him and now I can't..." He reached up and touched the barrier separating him from the camp. Still invisible but solid and unyielding.
"Hey! We can camp here though," Juniper said enthusiastically. She threw her own sleeping bag on the ground and smoothed it out.
Nico looked at Grover, who seemed a little embarrassed. "It's easier to just humor her," he said in a low voice.
"Chiron sent you to find me," Nico asked. They shared a look.
"Of course," Juniper said grinning at him.
"Yeah that's right," Grover added.
Nico raised his hand over the ground. Sand started rising and formed into a thin blade. He turned over his hand and showed them.
They shared another look but for longer this time. Finally Juniper said, "Nico, promise me you'll stay close to camp as long as you can."
Grover quickly jumped in and said, "Hey this is amazing." He grabbed the blade from Nico's hand. "Ouch. Well it's definitely real. But it's great. You can make a weapon out of anything."
"So I don't need Camp Half-blood?"
Juniper faltered. She gave Grover a desperate look. "Maybe not," he said cautiously, "But we'd like it if you would stay close anyway. Can you do that for us?"
Juniper swept a pile of sticks and dried leaves together and released a jarred salamander into them. A few minutes later and it was burning merrily. She opened a bag of marshmallows. "You remember the bonfire?"
"I didn't go. The others, they made me nervous."
"Good. That means I can make it up to you," she said cheerfully, jamming marshmallows onto sticks.
Grover shrugged and gave him a sympathetic look.
The outside was blackened to a crisp and he wasn't sure he even wanted it. But they were both staring at him in anticipation so he forced himself to try it.
It was amazing. The inside was soft and warm and sweet. One by one, Juniper fed him the entire bag.
Later when they thought he was asleep, they spoke of the war in hushed voices. They couldn't hide their fears.
"What is Luke up to?"
"I don't know but after Thalia and now him. He's planning something and they're both at the middle of it."
"The Child of the Prophecy might not be Percy."
"I know, Juniper! But we need in a strategy."
"Strategy," she repeated. A brief but tense silence followed.
"I didn't mean it like that."
"You did," she said in the same shocked tone.
"Juniper, please-"
"He's eleven!"
"A lot of them are. And some of Luke's." He waited but she didn't argue. "Besides like we already said, he brought them both into play."
"I hate this idea, Grover."
Nico tuned them both out. He fished the Hades statuette from his pocket. Hades was his father and Hades was bad. But Luke was worse and Nico was sure he never wanted to meet him.
As he stared at the figurine, something else drew his attention. The shadows had begun to move. They solidified and shifted. Nyx whispered words of Tartarus. They flowed like honey.
Nico wanted to sleep just hearing them. His mind railed in protest but he reached into them against his will.
The entire world changed. Nico blinked in disbelief but everything was blanketed in sentient shadow. He looked back but Juniper and Grover had become rotting corpses.
He got back to his feet, pieces of the now ancient sleeping bag crumbling to dust as they slid off him.
In front of him was a castle built of obsidian and stygian iron. The palace of Hades... but what choice did he have? He wiped his tears again, swearing they would be the last and started down the path laid before him.
"I hate myself," Nico sobbed in the present.
"It's not the end of the world. We're just a little late. We can meet your sister in the morning."
They were sitting on the prow wrapped in blankets and each other's arms. Nico sobbed as the past resurfaced, albeit diminished by Kronos himself and Will's warmth.
Even Hades seemed like a distant nightmare.
The LucyB glided through the waters surrounding this side of Camp Jupiter. Will and Nico headed below deck for the evening.
A small army of eldritch horrors waited on the bed in plushie form: Cthulhu, Shub-Niggurath and Ein the Welsh Corgi. Nico pushed them to the side when he collapsed onto it. The console had a shuffle feature and Will started a movie. "Jackie Chan and Jet Li, nice...," he said as it started to play on screen.
Percy and Annabeth met them at the docks the following day. They were climbing out of a dinghy. Percy glanced at the LucyB and told Nico, "Yours is bigger. I'll give you that."
Nico smiled in spite of the lingering sorrow and freely kissed Will in the open air. Annabeth shared the smile as she moved past.
The afternoon seemed endless. They spent time exploring the reefs before meeting up with Hazel and Frank.
The group met for dinner overlooking the bay. Nico never tired of looking out over clear water. He slowly remembered his place.
"I embarrassed you when you took me to Corpus Christi," he quietly mentioned to Will.
Will shrugged. "That was a long time ago. You were scared and struggling. Plus, you didn't really know anything besides the Underworld and Camp."
"You gave me a family Will."
Will cleared his throat before trusting himself to speak. "I mean, that's all any of us want. A place we belong and someone to share it with."
Their hands touched under the table. Nico grinned. "I'm so glad I broke up with you."
Will laughed softly.
Reyna met him at the shore as the sun rose. He couldn't remember how long he had been standing there or even leaving the LucyB.
He looked over at her but neither one spoke for more than an hour. It was just the wind and surf. and seagulls.
"I can see through the mist, Nico. I've noticed that Will stopped aging sometime ago." He felt the intensity of her gaze but his focus was on a pod of seals playing in the crystal bay.
"What are you going to do," she pressed him.
"We visit Camp every six months or so. We travel a lot and share with Chiron. We see Mr D. sometimes but mostly we just leave a gift for him."
"There hasn't been a demigod death in three years."
"So they kept Percy's oath after all."
"Artemis is concerned. She tries to not let us see but we're all kind of afraid anyway."
"I'm sorry."
"She's fading. Soon the Hunters will just be a story."
"They never actually die, Reyna. They just sleep sometimes. You were the only friend I had once. For what it's worth I'm glad you joined the Hunters."
"And Hazel?"
"Her gift comes from Frank not me. They are happy living in Palo Alto and helping the younger kids adjust to the legion."
"We're the new gods."
"Thanks to Percy."
"Gods, I kind of hate the guy."
"I know!"
They swore on the Styx to meet in the exact spot whenever possible.
Nico retired to the LucyB. Will was already stressed out. There was yellow powder all over the deck. "What happened?"
"Your new captain. I didn't know she was even a monster."
"Don't worry, Will. Jules-Albert is just vacationing in the Bahamas. He'll be back before the end of the month."
Will would have trouble falling asleep that evening unable to shake the image of Jules-Albert sunbathing on another beach.
"So she just follows me around asking me over if I think she's pretty or not. Like I can't really tell because she wouldn't take off the surgical mask."
"Sorry. I forgot to mention she's a Kuchisake-onna." Nico swept a pile of yellow dust out of the way with his foot. "Was."
"I have no idea what that means, Nico." He sounded annoyed.
"Outsourcing."
Will waited for more but Nico didn't oblige. "I guess that explains everything then. Anyway, she wouldn't stop and I didn't know what to say so I tried to ignore it but she just got more unhinged. So I asked her if she thought she was pretty and then she just exploded on her own."
"Well yeah, Will. Everyone knows that's how you kill one of them."
"Thanks Nico. Glad you were here to explain it."
Nico shrugged and swept her remains into the sea.