Chapter Text
“Yeah, okay, karkat.”
The blonde man grinned and entered ‘his’ area of the meteor. Ever since Dave and Rose came onto the meteor they have had their own rooms that were before classified as ‘random storage’. It had a nice homey feel to it after the two personalized theirs, which meant posters decorating the walls, having an unmade bed in a corner, and dirty clothes all over the floor.
“DON’T ‘YEAH OKAY’ ME, NUMNUTS!”
That response only made Dave smile more as he made his way through his door.
Yet, as he rounded the corner, there was obviously something else inside. Abruptly, Dave’s small smile turned into a line and his eyes widened in puzzlement. As he walked closer, it did little to answer the questions buzzing in his head.
A ball of white lightning flashed in the middle of the room, outlining all of the piles of junk with sliver edges. Cautiously, the teen moved closer to the strange phenomenon and his eyes stung slightly as he neared. Softly, there were little voices coming from the ball, like whispers, that filled Dave with a sense of dread. Done with inspecting, the teen stepped back, but the lightning raced toward him.
The white energy felt prickly on his fingers and then in an instant the sensation traveled through his entire body feeling like there where thousands of needles poking him. It was bright, too much light for his eyes to be comfortable now. A sudden hard pound hit the back of his head and the pain blossomed in waves. He lost consciousness.
“I still don’t understand how he didn’t die, like it is very good that he is alive, but... He seemed fine with a little nectar down his throat, yet to survive such a big strike to the back of the head?” Will said, and worriedly looked at Annabeth. “Who even is he? He doesn’t look like anyone from around here.”
“Well, he is definitely older than thirteen,” Annabeth replied as she looked down at the patient.
“He could be from Camp Jupiter and maybe lost his way? But what is with his clothing? I don’t recognize the pattern at all,” She continued.
Will and Annabeth stood alongside the patient while in the background campers were still recovering from the last Battle with Gaea. Most of the Apollo children were still running around, trying to keep up with the aftermath. Woken by the commotion, Nico found himself near the two demigods. In front of them was an unconscious teen with pale skin and blonde-white hair. Blending with the patient’s hair was a white bandage sloppily wrapped around his head, making the straight hair stick up in odd angles. The only thing that wasn’t white on him was his red pajama-like outfit with a corny cape.
“Well, I just wanted to tell you about the kid that Jason found, in case you want to keep an eye on him or something,” Annabeth said and started to shuffle around the room, as if she was looking for something.
After a quick nod to the daughter of Athena and Will’s attention turned to Nico.
“Don’t think that I didn’t see you sneaking up, di Angelo. Three days of rest remember?”
“I am not going to lie in bed all day,” The demigod complained.
The bags under Nico's eyes had started to go away from the sleep that he caught up on, but the boy still looked very rusty with his hair sticking out in every direction.
“You don’t have to be lying in bed, but you at least have to sit down. Relax and find a seat.”
With that command, the son of Apollo smiled, patted a very old-looking red chair, and left to see other campers.
Nico grumbled, but as the other demigod left he stayed and just stood over the new patient. He felt a sense of death radiating from the unconscious boy. It made the demigod uncomfortable. Nico could feel the real deal of death on the battle field, but this was something much worse... what could possibly be beyond death?
Tick, tock, tick, tock…
The sound nearly made his mind turn to chaos with the redundancy of the annoying sound. It had been happening every since Jason had carried in the teenager, Nico could hardly focus and woke almost immediatly. But then Nico's attention turned to the thing on the stranger’s wrist.
“Annabeth, what do you think this is?”
It was a strange felt watch, almost like a custom of some sort yet there was no clock. Also, it was in the shape of a butt.
“Umm…,” Annabeth made her way over and made a puzzled face, “I don’t really know. Maybe you should ask Jake.”
Nico’s eyebrows furrowed. Why would I ask him? What about-oh. Leo is dead. I felt Leo’s death. It has only been a few days, but most of the campers are still having a hard time processing it. Even though Nico didn’t know much about the jokester, he couldn't help but feel down. Being cooped up in the infirmary, all of Nico's thoughts kept on going to was that it was somehow his fault. Maybe if he hadn’t let Octavian launch himself maybe-
“Nico,” Will suddenly said, his head peeped out from the door.
Interrupted from his thoughts, the demigod looked back at the blonde. Solace raised one of his eyebrows expectantly. Nico grudgingly walked only two steps to the big red chair and sat down, to which Will smirked.
Annabeth eye’s still scanned over the strange teen and his outfit.
“I am going to iris message Percy to make sure he is okay, tell me when this patient wakes up.”
Di Angelo replied with a weak goodbye as she exited the room and then he slouched deeper into the chair. Finally, Nico closed his eyes.
The seat was comfy, sure, but the style was definitely older than he was. By that it he means his actual birth date, which was before World War ll. The demigod could smell the mothballs and dust while sitting on it and still all he can hear is ticking, and ticking… Gods it was annoying! But there wasn’t a clock in that stuffy room, so what was making it?!
Then suddenly the repetitive noise stopped.
And the stranger started to wiggle.
“uh.. Will…Annabeth?”
“What Nico? Is there something wrong?” Only the son of Apollo responded from outside of the room.
“The guy’s moving right now.”
In fact, not only was the pale boy moving, but he was mumbling and his hands reached over his eyes. Finally Will came in equipped with a bottle of nectar and a small piece of ambrosia.
“Fuck… it’s sooo bright. I…I... have shades…Where… where are my shades? Karkat?” the stranger started to mumble.
“You don’t need shades in buildings,” Nico muttered back. Besides, what kind of idiot wears shades inside?
Before the demigod could react the stranger was on top the bed and a sword appeared in his hand with the tip pointed right at Nico’s face. The demigod’s face froze with surprise, his eyes focusing on the sharp white sword. Not only was the stranger already propped on the infirmary bed in a few seconds, but his stance was perfect.
After the getting over the surprise he finally noticed looked the patient's appearance. His pale face was restricted to a stern and emotionless façade. His eyes were unnaturally bright red, where the pupils still struggled against the new found light. Now Nico was certain that the stranger was albino.
Then, in an instant, the boy’s position fell as he cupped his face. The sword dropped to his side and he let out a groan of pain. Will moved in front of Nico and cautiously took the sword from the bed. If the boy saw that his weapon was moved, he didn’t do anything about it, he just stayed kneeling on the bed.
“Why-why am I hurtin’ so much?” The stranger complained... with a strong Texan accent.
He still hunched over himself, his face getting closer and closer to his knees and the white cloth on the bed.
“You receive a major blow to the back of the head, so you’ll need a few weeks in the infirmary,” Will replied, unfazed by the sudden event from before, “You need to drink this.”
The son of Apollo held a bottle out in his hand, which was only filled less than half a cup with nector. Yet, the kid didn’t raise his head; he just stayed in fetal position. Now Nico can clearly see the bandage on his head was still bloody in the back.
“I-I shouldn’t hurt. It doesn’t make any sense,” The boy mumbled.
“You have to drink this if you want to not hurt then.”
“No…” He whined.
Nico rolled his eyes at the scene. After seeming otherworldly, the stranger is just acting like a spoiled kid. Plus, he should listen to Will since the son of Apollo knows what he is doing.
“Okay, then I guess you’ll have to take a few weeks in here to heal,” Will said, knowingly.
Wow, Solace really learned how to do that guilt trip thing really well.
“Fuck. Okay, fine.”
The albino unfolded and once more relaxed in the infirmary bed. Though, his red eyes still had trouble adjusting to the light. He took the nectar offered from the medic and sipped. When he was done he just looked at Will, his face remained rather stoic.
“Why am I here? What is this place?”
“You are in Camp-Half Blood, in New York.”
He made another face, much more puzzled than the last one.
“Earth? That doesn’t make any sense,” the pale boy stated.
“Yes, where else would we be?”
The teenage looked like he was going to say something, but decided against it; instead he just asked for the boy's names and why he was here.
“I am Will Solace, this is Nico di Angelo. You are here most likely because you are a demigod,” He answered.
“What, a demigod? A shitty half god like Hercules? So what, are one of you guys the son of fuckin’ Apollo? Dang, son of the sun. That might be hella awesome if that sound awful. Just to think that those assholes can actually exist.”
“Well, actually, I am a son of Apollo, and uh-”
“I am the son of Hades,” Nico finished.
The little smile that was on the boy’s face vanished.
“Fuck, you guys are serious. This-this can’t be real.”
In an instant, the teenager got off the bed, his movements a little wobbly with his hands still on his head, but he was still much faster than he should be. Both Will and Nico made a move to get in front of him, but the other had already made it too close to the door to stop him. Solace called after the escapee.
“What is your name?!”
As the two reached the door they found him in the threshold, looking a Chiron. The centaur was out of his wheelchair; his white sleek horse body simmered slightly in the sun. On the camp director’s face had an unsure look as he saw the new boy stumble out. Probably thinking that patients shouldn't escape from the infirmary.
“That is a horse. A horse man,” The newbie mumbled and then fainted against the two demigods.