Chapter Text
Chapter 1
Percy Jackson is dead. He's been dead for weeks. Percy is dead, and even I can't do anything about it. All I could do was fight to avenge him, even though I knew he was never mine to avenge. I should be sad, devastated, but all I am is angry. Angry and bitter, like always.
Hey, at least I'm consistent.
Everything went off without a hitch when we brought the fight to Gaia. Reyna kicked ass, I must say. She hated me at first, but now I think we have something like grudging respect for each other. The fact that we were both hiding certain things from people definitely helped. I won't say what kind of things they are, but you can probably guess.
Annabeth still hasn't spoken a complete sentence since then, and it's starting to worry me. When she does speak, it's one or two words of Greek or occasionally Latin. She barely eats. She either sleeps all day or not at all. I feel like I owe her something. An apology, maybe.
If I focus, really focus, I can almost feel Percy's ghost in the Underworld. It might work better if I were on the ground, but we're still playing it safe after, you know, Gaia. We're somewhere over the Pacific ocean right now, on the Argo II. I stare at the ocean hundreds of feet below, trying to ignore everything around me, but a voice jolts me back to reality.
"What are you thinking about?" It's Jason, leaning against the railing next to me.
As if he has to ask. "I just wish I could have done more to help."
Jason puts his arm around my shoulders. I should be pissed off, and I would be if it was anyone else. But somehow, maybe because it's him, this gesture is oddly comforting. I know he doesn't expect anything from me in return. It's easy to like him, even despite my better judgment.
"You've done more than enough, Nico. No one else could have done what you did."
"If I had gotten there five minutes earlier..."
Jason puts his hands on my shoulders and physically turns me around. He looks me in the eye. "You are not gonna hold a grudge against yourself for this."
I laugh. "Why not? I've made worse decisions."
"Nico." Jason's voice is as hard as flint.
I sigh. "Fine." I can't help the bitter smile that rises to my lips. Call it a defense mechanism. "'Cause it's not what Percy would have wanted, right?"
All the steel goes out of Jason's expression. He drops his hands to his sides. "That's not what I said."
"No, but it's what I heard."
Jason leans against the railing again and stares at the ocean.
I don't care if I pissed him off. No one else on this ship is carrying the same burden as me right now. No one else can possibly know what it feels like. Even Annabeth's grief is different from mine. She's struggling with her memories of Percy: at least she has them.
Miles of ocean fly by beneath us before I figure it out. I feel like the millionth-and-first customer, the second person to fly solo around the world, the Monday to a perfect weekend. If I had shadow traveled to the battlefield five minutes earlier, I could have saved Percy. The Athena Parthenos could have been his weapon. As it was, it was only his by proxy. And he didn't get to celebrate with the rest of us.
"What's stopping you?" Jason asks.
"What?" I turn to look at him.
"What's stopping you from bringing Percy back? You brought Hazel back."
It's a really good question to ask... if you don't know shit about the Underworld. But I can't even stay mad at him. It's like he's exempt from my fatal flaw. I'm just glad he didn't ask about Bianca. Maybe it's because he's only barely heard about her, but either way. Still glad.
"It's not that simple. My dad pretends not to know about Hazel."
"How do you do it, anyway?" he asks. "Bring someone back."
I laugh. "Ever heard of Orpheus?"
He looks at me and shakes his head. "I still don't know a lot about Greek stuff."
"Well, he was a poet. His wife Eurydice died of a snakebite. He was so grief-stricken that he fought his way through my father's kingdom and pleaded for the right to bring her back. He played the lyre for nine days, telling stories about Eurydice."
"So what did your dad do?"
"Well, at first he was a jerk, as usual." I laugh. "But Persephone begged him to reconsider, because the songs were so heartbreaking. So my dad gave him a chance."
"A chance? He didn't just let Orpehus take Eurydice back?"
"This is Hades we're talking about."
Jason shrugs. "Good point. What next?"
"Well, my father agreed to let Orpheus lead Eurydice back to the world of the living, on one condition. Orpheus had to trust that my father would let Eurydice leave. He couldn't look back to check that she was still following him, he just had to listen to the sound of her voice. But my dad is notorious for tricking people, and... Y'know. Orpheus kinda didn't trust him."
Jason looks pained. I can tell he's trying to guess what happens before I say what it is, because it looks like he's pretty much got it. "Oh, no. No, no. Don't tell me."
"Orpheus looked back as soon as he set foot outside the cave that led to the world of the living. Eurydice was still inside. He was cursed to live the rest of his mortal life without her." I hold my hands out, palms up, and shrug. Dads, right?
I leave out the part where Orpheus decided to, uh, forsake the love of women after he lost Eurydice. Basically, he got around. Women threw sticks and stones at him because they were so jealous of his boyfriends. But we can have that particular conversation at a later date. Preferably never.
Jason looks at me like I just told him his dog died. "That's sad as hell," he says, after a moment of quiet reflection.
"Ain't no tragedy like an ancient Greek tragedy, 'cause an ancient Greek tragedy is horribly depressing and ends with most of the participants dead or maimed."
He laughs, then goes back to staring at the ocean. "Y'know, I wonder..."
"Oh, gods. Woe betide anyone who's standing nearby when Jason Grace has an idea."
Jason punches my shoulder. I want to say the gesture is affectionate, but I also don't want to think Jason and affection at the same time. Let's call it friendly, bro affection and save the earth-shattering realization for later.
"But really, though. What if you go talk to Orpheus about Percy?" Jason says.
Jason is two for two with the good questions today. It's seriously feasible; not like the greatest poet in history makes a point of hiding out. He has a condo in Elysium. Smugglers have been bringing snippets of his work topside for centuries, probably longer. Ever heard of Beowulf?
But I couldn't just go talk to him, could I? Not with the fact that Orpheus had a ton of boyfriends hanging over my head. That would require forcing myself to deal with my personal issues about Percy, and I'm content to stay as far away from my personal issues as I possibly can. It's practically a life skill at this point. Nico di Angelo: Professional Avoider.
"It would have to be a quest," I say, because I'm not willing to even think about undertaking something like that without at least one half-blood enclave on my side.
"Frank can get New Rome to back you. They love Percy," Jason says. "SoCal is, like, right over there anyway, right?" I can practically see the plan falling together in his mind. "And no offense, but you're practically a celebrity at camp. Chiron would be thrilled to have Percy back. Especially if you brought him."
"Grace..."
My tone is a warning to back off, but he's right. He's totally right. Even Dionysus would be excited to see Percy's face again. The campers might finally get the stick out of their collective ass about children of Hades if I returned their prodigal hero. And Annabeth... I owe this to Annabeth, even if she hates me now. Especially if she hates me.
The only thing holding me back is myself. And my dad, but... y'know. Priorities.