Chapter Text
“Dodge left,” Lorrie hisses somewhere ahead of him and he dodges to the left, smacking straight into a wall. “My left!”
Nico shakes his head, stumbles back and swings his sword to his right, her left, hitting something solid and slicing through it like butter. He sees a blur of green and yellow and brown in front of him, warped further by a haze of foggy blue. The blue shoots closer, yanking him to the side.
"I didn't say they were all gone!" she snaps, pushing him away from her. "Duck!"
He ducks and there's a whistling of air, something grasping right above his head. He shifts to the balls of his feet and rolls forward, stabbing straight ahead. Somewhere to his right, Lorrie is whistling heavily and he pulls back, a sickening squelch, while monster dust explodes over him. Her blue fog is unmarred by the yellow, wading right through it.
Her fingers are cold and he still jumps as they press against his face, sidling to the side of his neck, her other hand on his wrist. His pulse is racing and he takes a few meditative breaths to ease himself. It's been six months and everything still aches. Part of him silently wishes he was still at camp. Maybe he wouldn't have gone blind and wouldn't need a ghost to yell directions at him and help him fight.
"I'm going now," she murmurs, the coolness of her finger evaporating. "Don't get into any trouble."
"I never do," he lies effortlessly and she chuckles, the sound soft and fading.
If you asked him to note the day his vision started going, he'd roll his eyes and tell you point blank he didn't remember. He would be able to tell you that everything started going blurry right after he met that stupid Percy Jackson though, the same Percy Jackson who killed his sister. Clearly he was a curse and Nico was glad to be rid of him, even if he was stuck tap-tap-tapping his way down blurry streets with pickpockets scurrying to take advantage of the blind child without a guide.
Lorrie used to guide him for a while, back when he was still adjusting to his loss of sight and working poorly on cane travel, Minos standing off to the side, an air of sulk surrounding him, while she chided Nico on his poor technique and hyperfocus on the pointless things like raising the dead. She was an attendant for his father, she explained as she taught him about negative space, at his step-mother's behest. She was mortal and she'd died young, only 16, protecting one of Persephone's children. Like Nico, she was older than she looked but surprisingly still younger than him.
Once he'd adjusted to using his cane and getting around by himself, she'd left, kissing his cheek softly and vanishing until a monster showed up three seconds later to which she yelled loudly and threw a brick at it. Evidently fighting monsters was hard to do on your own when you couldn't see the damn things.
In the back of his head Bianca's voice chastised him, a teasing, "Language, Nico."
He shivered and stopped in front of a sweet-smelling cart, fingers reaching out and sliding over smooth petals. "Roses?"
The woman working the flower stand laughed. "No, no, dear. Tulips. The roses are over this way." She takes his hand, her fingers calloused and warm in his. There's a dusty smoothness he'd felt before, the earth caked into her palm. She rests his hand on the roses. "Right there."
She lets him fondle their petals, roll his fingers over their stems and doesn't say a word until he taps a few that felt the nicest. "These two. Please?"
There's a shifting, her colours rolling back and forth before she finally presses the wrapped flowers into his hand. His fingers curl around them tightly.
"For free, dear," she says swiftly, right before he can ask the price, and there's something fond in her voice. "I insist."
"Oh." He takes a step back, fiddling with the handle of his cane. "Um, thank you."
"You're very welcome," she says. "I'm sure she'll love them."
He smiles easily, the movement odd but pleasant on his face. He hasn't really smiled in a long time. "Thank you. Again."
He imagines she's smiling back at him as he bustles off. The feeling of death warps in and out of his steps, lingering buildings and alleyways but slowly grows stronger as he finds his way into the graveyard. He pauses at the gates for a moment, fiddling as though he's trying to remember something then steps his way in, moving down the way, the rocky touch of gravestones rolling over his fingers. Someone nearby gives a pitying whisper and he quickens his pace, turning into the lane and moving a few steps before loudly proclaiming, "Five!" and dropping to his knees.
He hopes the name is something that fits him and not Nakamura, like last time. He also hopes nobody decides to pop by and visit their grandmother or step-father like last time. Hard to lie his way out that when a) he didn't have any clue of the names in the general vicinity and b) he was, last he checked, very white.
He drops the roses in front of the grave and waits patiently for the sun to drop fully as people filter in and out around him. He tells vague and bland stories to the grave in front of him, mostly making things up from stories Bianca used to whisper to him at night. When the last bit of sunlight rolls from his skin, he stands and tap-taps his way to an empty spot of ground, hidden behind a towering tombstone and scuffs at the ground with his foot.
The dead rise quickly, ripping out of coffins and out of the earth like zombies from a horror movie he barely remembered, and they dig hurriedly, ripping at the already broken earth with desperate need.
"There are easier ways to get home," Lorrie says snidely.
Nico, to his credit, doesn't jump but he does let out a yell, throwing the balled up paper the roses came in at her.
"I don't have a home," he says plainly.
"To get to Hades, then," she corrects.
He pauses then stands as the dead stutter to a stop and work their way back into their cages.
"Show me," he says and she bops him on the nose. He frowns. He's much too old for nose bops.
"Oh stop frowning, grumpy pants," she soothes, taking his hand. "Anywho, I'm here because your father would like you to stop ripping the dead out of the ground."
"If he'd just let me-"
"No," Lorrie says. She bops his nose again. "Shush."
They step into something cold and haunting, a ripple of air flushing over his skin, leaving goosebumps in their wake. She guides him down a set of stairs, voices crying out in his head.
He'd only been in the Underworld once before, sometime after he ran away and went blind, Minos's whispering voice urging him into something cold and ripping before he passed out on a cold and unfamiliar ground, the sound of clinking jewels rustling in his head. He'd left after his father refused to both let him see his sister and give her back, even with Nico's soul offered up like a slab of useless meat.
He'd been having a hard time finding his way back, shadowtravel apparently working mostly on your ability to visualize the place, he'd realize after waking up in an old lady's house in fucking China. And he couldn't even get back into the damn maze again, the only entrance he knew of within the camp walls.
"Language," Bianca's voice teases again and he shivers as Lorrie pulls to a stop.
"Here's good," she says. "There's the Styx in front of you. Don't go near it. You'll never get out."
She kisses his cheek softly and darts off as he settles to the ground below him, a fire bursting into life ahead of him. The place, Hades, the Underworld, whatever, it brings back bad memories. Quietly he hopes Bianca will show up and whisper stories into his ear but she doesn't. The fire grows duller, the warmth sidling lower and lower and he tugs whatever he can from his jacket pocket. The smooth casing of the Mythomagic cards run under his fingers and he rips them out the box.
A useless game now.
He takes the one on top and puts it as close to his eyes as he possibly can as a ghost draws up, the feeling of death shrouding it as heavy as it does on Lorrie. It's a different death however, a familiar one and he leans back, chucking the card in the direction of the shifting blue heat.
"Minos?" he asks and the ghost whispers an affirmative back. He tugs his knees to his chest and tossed another card into the fire, hearing the crackling and burst of heat. "Useless," he mutters, fingering another card. "I can't believe I ever liked this stuff."
"Geryon, I won't wait forever," Nico snaps, walking out of the house. His fingers glide across the glass doors and his cane dips, hitting as he steps on to the porch. He pauses.
"Nico?"
Percy.
Nico yanks his cane outwards, feeling it morph heavier into a sword, and holds it in the direction of the voice, searching for a giveaway of shapes to pinpoint which one Percy is.
"Put that away, Mr. di Angelo," Geryon snarls. "I ain't gonna have my guests killin' each other."
Lorrie hasn't rolled beside him and Minos isn't there either so he shifts, rolls his thumb over the hilt of his sword and lets it morph back into a cane. "Fine," he says bitterly. "If you come near me, Percy, I'll summon help." His eyes narrowed. "You don't want to meet my helpers, I promise."
Percy's voice is not the exact same tone it was before, still familar though but deeper and handsomer. "I believe you," he says and Nico's tempted to chuck his cane at him anyway.
Geryon pats his shoulder. "There, we've all made nice. Now come along, folks. I want to give you a tour of the ranch."
Nico keeps as far away from them as possible, crawling into the very back of the trolley. Eurytion crawls in after him. He smelled like sweat and blood, skin radiating heavy warmth. Ever since Nico stumbled in the night before, he'd taken to wearing a bright yellow jacket, something easy for Nico to identify him with, he explained as he wiped the lingering shadows and dirt from Nico's cane. Decent guy. Much nicer than Percy.
He ignored most of the tour, frowning sourly. His frowning stopped pretty quickly as a putrid stench overtook him and he choked, gagging, quickly pressing a hand to his nose. "What is that?"
"My stables!" Geryon chirped and Nico had to wonder what kind of stables they were to smell so awful. "Well, actually they belong to aegease, but we watch over them for a small monthly fee. Aren't they lovely?"
"I can't see," Nico hisses just as Annabeth says, "They're disgusting!" and some other guy he doesn't know says, "Lots of poop!"
There's an awkward silence following his little proclamation but Grover swoops in, crying, "How can you keep animals like that?" He sounds highly outraged and if Nico cared enough (or could see what was going on), he'd probably feel the same. Animal abuse is horrible.
Geryon huffs and the image of giant horses with razor sharp teeth forms in Nico's head. For some reason they're green with bright blue stripes. Each image grows more and more elaborate as he thinks. He wakes up from his little trip in his imagination as the trolley pulls to a stop, storming out the back car and whapping his way over to Geryon, following the clunk of his stupid boots.
"I came here for business, Geryon," he hisses. "And you haven't answered me."
"Mmm." The scratch of fabric sounded. "Yes, you'll get a deal, all right."
That wasn't helpful. "My ghost told me you could help. He cais you could guide us to the soul we need."
Somewhere behind him, Percy makes an offended noise and says, "Wait a second. I thought I was the soul you wanted."
Fury bristles in Nico and he whirled on Percy, knowing he was probably looking at Eurytion or Annabeth but not caring as he spat "You? Why would I want you? Bianca's soul is worth a thousand of yours!" He visualizes Percy's face as hard as he can, picturing an affronted look on and tries his best not to smile at it as he turns back to Geryon. "Now can you help me, Geryon, or not?"
"Oh, I imagine I could," he says easily. "Your ghost friend, by the way, where is he?"
Unease settled on Nico's spine, making him go rigid. "He can't form in broad daylight. It's hard for him. Bust he's around somewhere."
A smile sat in Geryon's tone. "I'm sure. Minos likes to diapear when things get... difficult."
"Minos?" Percy says, sounding horrified and Nico wants to chuck something at him again. "You mean that evil king?" His footstep crunches the ground. the creak of the trolley, and instinctively Nico turns to the noise. "That's the ghost who's been giving you advice?"
"It's none of your business, Percy!" He tightens his fists. "And what do you mean about things getting difficult?"
Geryon sighs. "Well you see, Nico- can I call you Nico?"
"No."
"You see, Nico, Luke Castellan is offering very good money for half-bloods. Especially powerful half-bloods." A chill rolls down Nico's spine. "And I'm sure when he learns your little secret, who you really are, he'll pay very, very well indeed."
Before he can get his sword out, Eurytion knocks his cane out of his hands and he's trapped, stuck. There's a snarl and loud thump, the dog, Orthus, growling deeply.
"I would stay in the car all of you," Geryon warns and Nico wants to run. "Or Orthus will tear Mr. Jackson's throat out. Now, Eurtyion, if you would be so kind, secure Nico."
This is it. He's going to die, he thinks blankly as Eurytion whines but heaves an arm around Nico's waist and tugs him into the air.
"Pick up the- the thing too," Geryon snaps. "I don't want anything hiding Stygian iron on my property." Air flusters around Nico's head, the ground brushing his feet, as Eurytion bends and grabs the cane. Geryon claps, cheerful now. "Now, we've had the tour. Let's go back to the lodge, have some lunch and send an Iris-message to our friends in the Tian army."
"You fiend!" Annabeth cries and Nico vaguely wonders what century she came from. No one calls people fiends any more.
"Don't worry, my dear. Once I've delivered Mr. di Angelo, you and your party can go. I don't interfere with quests. Besides I've been paid well to give you safe passage, which does not, I'm afraid, include Mr. di Angelo."
Of course it doesn't, Nico thinks bitterly as Annabeth says, "Paid by whom? What do you mean?"
"Never you mind, darlin'," Geryon chirps flippantly as his boots clunk back over to the trolley. "Let's be off shall we?"
"Wait!" Percy yells and Nico feels the intense urge to smack him as he spouted off some stupidity about cleaning the putrid stables.
"No!" Nico shouts, figdeting violently because so help him, he is gonna knock a fist into Percy's stupid pretty mouth. "Don't do me any favours, Percy. I don't want your help!"
Evidently Nico's words matter for naught because Geryon agrees and Percy leaves and Nico gets dumped into the backseat of the trolley, Eurytion's arms still tightly locked around him.
When they got back to the house, Nico gets tied up and dumped in a corner along with Annabeth, Grover and the other guy. The gag in his mouth doesn't make things any better. Very slowly, he begins cursing Percy Jackson, making each one as deliberate as the next, starting firstly with the twitching of the eye. Mostly because there is fly that keeps buzzing around his eyes and it is annoying.
Eventually Percy comes back, kills Geryon and makes everything worse.
In the morning, he blurts, "Nico, you could come with us" and this time Nico does hit him with his cane, making a deliberate shot to the legs. Bianca's words still echo in his ears and the overwhelming fact that she only came for him burns deep in his chest.
"I need time to think," he says, gazing down, unable and uncaring to keep the bitterness and anger out of his voice. Percy's breath hitches and he steps back once, feet scuffling against the ground.
"Nico," Annabeth tries. "Bianca just wants you to be okay."
Her hand touches his shoulder and he yanks away, stumbling back. He turns fully and tap-taps his way back to the house, finalizing each step with another curse on Percy Jackson.
He only regrets some of the ruder curses as he fiddles violently with his shackles, the sound of the fight running overhead. Lorrie hisses at him to stay still and freeze as she works the chains off.
"To me!" Minos yells somwhere to his left. "Spirits of the dead!"
The air hums and Nico jumps to his feet. "No!"
"You do not control me, young fool," Minos sneers as Lorrie keeps a steady grip on the back of Nico's shirt. "All this time I have been controlling you! A soul for a soul, yes. But it is not your sister who will return from the dead. It is I, as soon as I slay the inventor."
Nico can feel the pull rolling off of Minos, hear the whispers and cries of the ghosts as they begin to form steadily around him. But Lorrie's hand his tight on him and she shows no signs of wavering. "I am the son of Hades!" Nico yells. "Be gone!"
Minos laughs, a barking cruel sound that curdles like sour milk. "You have no power over me. I am the lord of spirits! The ghost king!"
Lorrie presses a kiss to Nico's cheek, words of encouragement whispered quickly in his ear as Minos finishes his declaration then vanishes from his side. A steady thrum builds in Nico's chest, a power he never knew he had, as he lets his sword morph out, gleaming dark and haunting.
"No," he says firmly. "I am."
Smoothly he stabs the ground and feels it give, like soft butter on a warm day.
"Never!" Minos screams. "I will not-"
He vanishes as the ground rumbles and the walls crack, the ground opening up and Nico watches blue shades disappear into blackness. A being lunges at him but his sword slices through her as though she was a mirage. She steadies him, yells something he can't quite hear and works something onto his back while simultaneously dragging him over to cracked area, bright blue glittering back at him.
"Jump!" the girl commands from his side, hands pushing against his back.
She tugs him out and finds himself falling, his voice screeching and dying into the wind. His arm fall out and he's caught in the air, descending much slower than he had been but still falling.
"Nico!" Annabeth yells nearby. "Keep yourself steady! When I say go, pull yourself in and I'll grab you!"
That does not sound safe but he hears the sizzling of something and doesn't want to wait to find out what it means. When she screams again, he tugs his arms inwards and lets himself plummet, only vaguely pleased that he would never be able to see the ground before he hit it. She catches him, a grunt escaping her mouth.
"Shit!" she hisses as they both fell, awkwardly looping in the air.
He slings his arms around her neck, legs around her waist, feet nudging and cane tapping against something solid, and she lets go of his back, arms extending outwards. "Wings?"
"Yeah," she says loudly.
"Oh." He tucks his face into the crook of her neck. "Cool."
They soar for a slight while longer before landing rockily to the ground. He gives a satisfied hum as he hears Percy fall flat on his face and Annabeth snorts in agreement.
The girl who pushed him stumbles forward. "Omigosh! I'm so sorry," she says. "I didn't realize-" She stops like she's not sure if she's supposed to mention it or not. "Well, good thing Annabeth caught you!" she chirps after a few seconds of awkward silence.
"Yes, it is," Annabeth sniffs, taking the wings out of Nico's hands.
The crinkle and screech as they're stuffed into trashcans and Percy, with a new grey smudge, says, "It's gone. There's just a hill now."
"The workshop moved," Annabeth surmises. "There's no telling where."
"So what do we do now? How do we get back in the mze?"
Annabeth shifts, her colours glittering in the sun. Nico presses a hand to shield his eyes. It's completely unfair, he thinks, that he's blind and also light sensitive. Clearly the Fates hate him.
"Maybe we can't. If Daedalus died..." Annabeth trails off, pausing for a moment. "He said his life force was tied to Labyrinth. The whole thing might've been destroyed. Maybe that will stop Luke's invasion."
An unsure tone sits in her voice.
Nico rolls his shoulders. "No. He isn't dead."
"How can you be sure?" Percy asks and Nico wants a sign that says SON OF HADES that he can point to whenever people ask him stupid questions like that.
"I know when people die. It's this feeling I get, like a buzzing in my ears." He doesn't say he learnt this by stumbling across a man having a heart ache, people trying to resuscitate him while a painful screech in Nico's ears sounded into a silent buzz, Lorrie there and pulling him away before he could have a fit.
"What about Tyson and Grover then?" Hopefullness curls around the question like a noose and Nico feels a little horrible when he shakes his head and says. "That's harder. They're not humans or half-bloods. They don't have mortal souls."
Percy's whole body seems to give out and Annabeth swiftly pulls them away from that side of the conversation. Nico scratches his side while they talk, Percy sounding hellbent on getting back into the Labyrinth, and he follows Annabeth as she goes to the gift shop under the guise of being hungry. He doesn't want to be alone with Percy or the girl, Rachel. It's only slightly worse than staying behind in that Annabeth seems to keep looking at him.
"I can feel you staring," he says.
"Sorry. I just..." She takes a deep breath, fiddling with the change in her pocket. "I've always been in camp so I've never really seen-" She stops and swallows audibly. "You want a bag of chips?"
He nods patiently and listens while she buys them a bag of chips and a prism. They meander to an empty area and Nico lingers off to the side, chewing quietly while she talked to Chiron. When she's done, she snags a few of chips and they eat the rest of the bag in silence before heading back. Rachel somehow manages to get them a ride which takes a good hour and half to get anywhere, Nico snapping awake from where he was dozing on Annabeth's arm as Rachel yells, "Get off the highway!"
He's not sure where they are but the sharp smell of coal burns in his nose and the earth is soft under his feet. He follows them in, walking with a surety even as Rachel stammers that he might feel better staying in the car, Robert can take him to a bus station if he'd prefer.
"No, I'm fine," Nico says easily, heading up a hill.
He can feel a slight pull of something urging him there. When they make it to the entrance, Percy kicks down a few boards and he heaves himself inside, listening to Rachel's footsteps as dirt turns to hard stone. She begins discussing architecture with Annabeth and Percy, evidently not a fan of architecture, hangs back a little. His hand keeps grazing Nico's arm like he wants to take it, show Nico the way himself, and finally Nico just hoists his cane to his side, grabbing the inside of Percy's elbow.
"Don't let me fall," he snaps.
Percy tenses. "I won't." He pauses for a few minutes before saying, "Thanks for coming after us."
Nico frowns, eyes narrowing. Percy sounds sincere. "I owed you for the ranch, Percy. Plus... I wanted to see Daedalus for myself. Minos was right, in a way." He rolls his shoulder."Daedalus should die. Nobody should be able to avoid death for that long. It's not natural."
Percy hums in a patient agreement. "That's what you were after all along. Trading Daedalus's soul for your sisters's."
They walk a long way before Nico finally brings himself to respond. "It hasn't been easy, you know. Having only the dead for company. Knowing that I'll never be accepted by the living. Only the dead respect me and they only do that out of fear."
Lorrie's voice snickers at the back of his mind. Most of the dead, he rephrases mentally as Percy guides him around a dip in the path.
"You could be accepted," he says as thought it's that simple. "You could have friends."
Nico's grip on Percy's elbow tightens and he tries not to let the hope bleed through his voice. "Do you really believe that, Percy?"
He doesn't get a chance to respond, pulling up sudden and short. Nico's can swings loosely, bumping into something and he frowns about ready to ask why they've stopped when a slow whistling of wind echoes down the tunnel, the smell of death riding on it.
"Luke's entrance," Annabeth assumes, sounding uneasy. "The one to Mouth Othrys. The Titan's palace."
"I have to check it out," Percy says almost immediately, like he has a death wish.
He and Annabeth hiss at each other but finally Annabeth presses something into his hand and he's gone.
"He's an idiot," Nico says easily once Percy's footsteps die off.
"Yeah," Annabeth agrees. Her voice is muffled but the affection still bleeds through.
They mingle about in a slow patience, Annabeth and Rachel muttering about going after Percy just in case, when something familar tugs in Nico's gut. Lorrie had guided him to a hospital once and he had felt it, the same tug. Life blooms ahead of him, a soul that had not been there before but unlike the small babies being birthed, this soul rolls with an intense power that makes him want to run. He freezes in abject horror as he searches, as Lorrie had patiently taught him to, for Percy's soul among the crowd.
"We have to get him," he hisses, latching on to and letting it drag him along.
"What?" Nico's already down the tunnel, tap-tap-tapping like his life depends on it. Annabeth chases after him, snagging the back of his shirt. "What?"
"Kronos is awake," he whispers and the air around them warps colder.
Annabeth doesn't freeze. She doesn't tense or demand anything. She simply shouts at Rachel and grabs Nico's hand, pulling him along as she races down the tunnel, Rachel surging ahead.
"PERCY!" she screams and there's a thunk, a voice yelling, "OW!"
Percy's blur collides forward, snatching at Annabeth whose frozen, her voice confused as she says, "Luke? What-"
Percy hauls her away, his free hand snagging Nico's arm and they run back to the entrance, almost there, when an odd voice, wrecked and hoarse and cold as night bellows, "AFTER THEM!"
Nico stops sudden, planted, Percy stumbling ahead of him as he releases Nico's arm. His focus reorients behind him and he yells, "NO!", clapping his hands together. The earth rips out of the ground, walls shaking as the front of the building crashed down. Percy swore, moving forward and heaving Nico into him as they started off again. They kept running until they were all exhausted, Nico rolling into himself as he settled on the ground, trying his best to focus on his own heavy breathing instead of Annabeth's sobs.
"That. Sucked," he said as Percy plopped beside him.
"You saved our lives," Percy said. Nico shrugged, wiping dust from his face. What did a person say to that? It'd be easier if the girls had just dragged him along. Prcy pants a little more. "Nico... you, uh, kind of gave yourself away."
"What do you mean?"
"The wall of black stone? That was pretty impressive but if Kronos didn't know who you were before, he does now." He coughs a bit. "A child of the Underworld."
Nico shrugs. "Big deal." He highly doubts Kronos wants a blind child who argues with ghosts and can barely use the one cool aspect of his powers because it requires visualization.
Annabeth sniffles some more and Nico goes back to focusing on his breathing, trying his best to tune out the resulting argument between her and Percy. He decides it best not mention how anchored Kronos's soul was to Luke's body, how stuck and in control he was. How he could sense the little bit of Luke's soul that lingered growing weaker as they ran down the tunnel.
He waits until they're done and instead says, "We have to keep moving. He'll send monsters after us."
Percy agrees and they're about ready to move when Percy freezes. "Grover," he mumbles. "Tyson. We have to follow them. They went that way. It must have been recently."
The light is too dim for Nico to see anything properly so he has no idea what's going on and says, "What about Camp Half-Blood? There's no time."
Annabeth's voice rings out stronger now, determine. "We have to find them. They're our friends."
And Nico has no choice but to follow as Rachel patters after them. They find Grover and Tyson and move on ahead, wading through an underground river. Nico clamps on to Percy's offered arm again as they move and Percy doesn't bother dropping it as they move out of the water, instead bustling a little quicker as though to keep Nico as latched on as possible. An awkward feeling rolls in Nico's chest and he squashes it immediately and easily as they step into a room that invigorates him like a good night's sleep. The smell of flowers wafted in the air and the world around him felt warm.
Grover talks to Pan while Nico and the other kneel. Everyone sounds so awed and amazed but all Nico can see is intense brightness that burns his eyes. Jealousy bakes in his chest then rolls out as Pan begins to address them all individually. He skips over Nico and then dies, his soul fading away like the light, shedding them into darkness. There is a click of a flashlight but Nico ignores it, eyes squeezed shut to blink back the tears burning in his eyes, thinking back to what Percy had said earlier about acceptance.
If a dying god couldn't accept him, who was?
Evidently not a bunch of pegasus, who keep shying away from him. Fed up and tired, he snaps, "Go without me! I don't want to go back to that camp anyway."
"Nico," Percy whines, "we need your help."
Nico just crosses his arms and scowles, trying to remember what the old Chinese lady's name was. He should go visit her, maybe water her plants and get a home cooked meal again. Annabeth presses her hand to his shoulder.
"Nico. Please."
He sighs, feeling bitter. "All right," he says, quickly adding, "For you" so Percy won't get any ideas that Nico is doing this in any slightest for him. "But I'm not staying."
Annabeth helps him onto the back of a pegasus who whines and recoils and Nico just grumbles as he wraps his arms around it's neck so he won't fall off. When they reach camp the fighting has yet to truly begin but everyone is in battle mode. Chiron seems a bit surprised to see Nico but Nico's pretty sure it's the blind thing as he heads off to get himself fitted with armor. The boy helping people seems a bit bothered at the idea of arming a blind kid but Nico calmly states that he will fight with or without armor and then begins to walk off again. The boy ushers him back, gets him fitted and sends him on his way.
"Nico?" Travis's voice sounds close to his left and Nico reaches out for him instinctively.
"Travis."
"You- you're-" He seems a bit stunned and ready to say something else when the earth trembles and Chiron yells, "Lock sheilds!"
There's an explosion and everything dives into chaos. Travis tries to tug Nico from surging forward but he is the Ghost King. He can do this.
"Attaboy!" Lorrie cheers from his side as he sidesteps the forces of life blooming around him.
He dives into a roll, shifts to the side and slashes at the monsters. It's all he can truly focus on, human enemy blurring into human friend so he pays attention to the souls of the telekhines and stabs, Lorrie yelling out before he can be caught off-guard by anything or anyone. He manuevers to the side and stabs another telekhine just as Percy calls out to him.
Lorrie hisses, "Your left!"
His vision slips, blurring more as he swirls, the pulsing souls of monsters easing past and to his left. He stills and holds out his sword, focused. "Serve me," he calls and the dead rip out of the earth.
He crumbles, exhausted to his knees and then to his side. Lorrie pressed a cool hand to his face.
"Good boy," she whispers. "Don't move. It'll be okay."
"So this is what death feels like," he slurs and Lorrie swats at him.
"Shush, it'll be ok-"
She's cut off by an inhuman noise and sound of a thousand fleeing soldiers. Well, Nico thinks it's a thousand. It's too many to count and he's too tired and sleepy and his eyes fall shut, the sound of Lorrie hissing at him to keep his eyes open fading out. Just as everything starts to fade into nothing, something wet hits his mouth and he chokes on it, coughing and spluttering.
"Nico, what happened?" Percy asks, sounding worried and scared and terrified. "Can you talk?"
He nods weakly, pulling himself out the pulsing of souls. "Never tried to summon so many before." He coughs. "I-I'll be fine."
They help him sit up and ease more nectar into his mouth. Daedalus steps forward and Nico can feel his soul pulsing. He relaxes into Percy's arm and waits. The old inventor understands that it's his time, he realizes. His soul is relaxed and unguarded.
"Your time has long since come," Nico murmurs once Daedalus is done. "Be released and rest."
The beast beside him howls as his body fell away, his soul fading off into a blue fog. Lorrie steps forward and takes his hand, giving Nico a short wave before vanishing, taking the inventor with her. Nico slumps.
Dear gods, he is tired.
Percy catches him as he sneaks away, walking in as Bianca whispers, her hand caressing his face, "I will always love you."
She fades away and Nico curls into himself. He can't remember what she looks like he realizes and his voice is hoarse as he says to Percy, "Saying good-bye."
"We missed you at dinner," Percy says. "You could've sat with me." He sounds pleading, desperate, like he knows exactly what Nico plans to do and hopes for the exact opposite.
"No."
"Nico, you can't miss every meal," Percy laughs sadly. "If you don't want to stay with Hermes, maybe they can make an exception and put you in the Big House. They've got plenty of rooms."
"I'm not staying, Percy," Nico whispers and Percy steps closer.
Nico shies away and he stops, sighing. "You can't leave. It's too dangerous out there for a lone half-blood. You need to train."
"I train with the dead," Nico says, thinking of Lorrie and her whispered guidance, Minos and his teaching and the skeletons he'd summoned on occassion to fight against. "This camp isn't for me. There's a reason they didn't put a cabin to Hades here, Percy. He's not welcome, any more than he is on Olympus. I don't belong." His voice drops and goes hoarse again. "I have to go."
Percy stays quiet before shifting a little closer. Nico doesn't shy away and lets him come. "When will you go?" he finally asks.
"Right away," Nico says, fiddling with his cane handle. "I've got tons of questions. Like who was my mother? Who paid for Bianca and me to go to school? Who was that lawyer guy who gout us out the Lotus Hotel?" He gives a short laugh. "I know nothing about my past. I need to find out."
"Makes sense," Percy says. "But I hope we don't have to be enemies."
Nico flushes a little. "I'm sorry I was a brat. I should've listened to you about Bianca."
Percy snorts and there's a shifting. "By the way, Tyson found this while we were cleaning the cabin. Thought you might want it." He holds out his hand and Nico reaches to take it.
"What is it?" he asks.
"The figurine Bianca took. The one you dropped when you..." Percy trails off and Nico swallows, pushing it into his pocket.
"Thanks for the gesture, Percy, but it's a visual game. I can't play it anymore. Besides-" He scuffs at the ground. "-it's for kids."
"Right," Percy says, sounding guilty and sad. "I-" He stops. Inhales deeply. "How?"
"I don't know. Might be a genetic thing," Nico says, rubbing his cheek. "I just started waking up and everything was growing darker and blurrier until everything was a massive blur."
"So you can still see?"
"Some colours," Nico allows, "and sometimes shapes but nothing looks... normal. And everything stops here." He puts his hands on the sides of his eyes trying to line up the side of his hands with where his vision cuts off the peripheral.
"Oh," Percy says, sounding slightly surprised. "I always thought it was darkness."
"Me too," Nico says. "But it's not." He shifts awkwardly. "Um, could I-" He reached up into the general direction what he assumed was Percy's face, fingertips brushing his chin. Percy doesn't say anything and Nico's not quite sure how to finish his request, swallowing and going through with it anyway.
He'd always had a vague assumption that touching faces was a myth and now he knows it definitely is. But he doesn't pull back, part of himwanting, sliding his fingers up Percy's skin to the edge of his hairline. Percy makes a surprised noise but leans into the touch, bending slightly to accomdate the difference in their heights. His eyes flutter shut, lashes brushing Nico's thumb as he curves his hands down. When he's done, he pulls back.
"Like you remember?" Percy asks.
A calm before the storm, Nico thinks. Tensed but relaxed. He nods. "Yeah." He steps back. "Um, if I learn anything useful, I'll let you know."
Percy hums and then stutters, "I'm nodding." He shifts. "Keep in touch, Nico."
Nico nods back and turns, letting the beckoning shadows pull him in.