PJO: The Age of Heroes | Chapter 14 - Aftermath & Implications
Woo, we are nearing the end! For reals! (Oh man, this thing is already over 50,000 words. In fact, it's nearly 60,000. I'm not sure if I should be proud or mortified, especially considering I'm already planning story 3...)
Anyway, chapter 14, rated PG or whatever. Nothing bad here~ Also, a bit more borrowing of concepts from The Last Olympian - if you've read it, you'll recognize what they are. Not really spoilery, though, I suppose.
“Oh my gods, he’s freezing - ”
“Shut up - he’ll be fine.”
“Percy - ”
“He’ll be fine. See? He’s breathing. Do you have any ambrosia?”
“Yeah, it’s right here - look, Michael’s on his way. Mrs. O’Leary would only carry me, but Chiron said he’d bring help himself as soon as he was sure that camp was secure. If you want to Iris message them agai- ”
“Mmmn,” I moaned.
“Nico? Nico! Are you awake?”
I supposed “awake” was one word for it, if you defined it somewhat loosely. I blinked my eyes open slowly. My eyelids felt like sandpaper, and I should point out that they felt about a hundred million times better than the rest of my body did. My head felt like someone had it in a vise that was more than a little too tight, and every part of me hurt more than I could remember ever hurting in the past. On top of that, I was pretty sure someone had filled my brain with maple syrup, because all my thoughts were taking twice as long to actually make sense.
At first all I could see was bright yellow light, so bright that it hurt my eyes and I had to squint, which also hurt. Then I began to make out shadows above me - two people, leaning over me and blocking the light so their faces were lost in the contrast. But one of those people was grasping my hand tightly in his, and the other had blonde hair tumbling over her shoulder.
“P-Percy?” I mumbled. My tongue felt thick and dry. “Annabeth?”
“Yeah - yeah, it’s us. Don’t move, Nico, okay?” Percy glanced at Annabeth and while I couldn’t really make out his features, I could tell from the way that his voice was tight that he was worried. Really worried. “Give me the ambrosia.”
Annabeth fumbled in a pocket for a minute before she came up with a ziplock baggie full of ambrosia cut into small, bite-sized squares like every half-blood carried with them when they went on a quest. She handed the bag to Percy, who let go of my hand to pull it open and fish out a few squares. “Here. Just eat this and lie still, okay?”
Despite his warning, I tried to get up - I didn’t want to chew lying down, after all - but that turned out to be a really bad idea. My neck and head shot through with pain the instant I tried to move, and it was so bad that my vision actually fuzzed out in a shower of white sparks for a second.
“No! I told you not to move.” Percy almost glared down at me from what I could tell, but it was clear that he was more worried than I could remember ever seeing him. “Annabeth, can you...?”
Beside me, Annabeth shifted so that she could get her hands under my shoulders and head, and she lifted me up as gently as possible so I could chew the chocolate chip cookie-flavored square. Even my mouth hurt, but the ambrosia seemed to melt over my tongue and run down my throat, coating it with warmth and taking at least a little bit of the shooting pain with it.
Percy fed me another three squares without stopping, but then Annabeth reached over and stopped him with one hand on his wrist. “You really should wait for Michael,” she said, looking nervously at the bag in his hand before she looked at me again. “Look at his eyes.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about with my eyes, but although the ambrosia was starting to help with the pain, I guessed I understood what she meant. I was starting to feel pretty good, but it was a weird sort of good - there was still a lot of pain, but overlaid with that was this warm, tingly feeling, like a million little arcs of electricity were tickling across my skin. It felt nice, but I knew that no one but the gods could eat more than just a few bites of ambrosia without burning up from the inside out. And I had absolutely no desire to do that. After all, it looked like we’d won.
I could just barely see the tall obelisk of the Bunker Hill Monument towering behind Percy. Between it and us lay a great hulking mass with fur and four paws - Mrs. O’Leary, the hellhound. She was curled up on the grass napping, her tail beating against the ground tiredly. I could feel the tremors from it crawling through my body.
But if Annabeth and Percy were here... if they had time to be worried about me and talk about waiting for Michael (Michael Yew? He was the only Michael I knew, the new head of the Apollo Cabin, which I guessed that made him as close to a chief medic as Camp Half-Blood had), then we’d won. The army of Kronos was no longer here, so he must have been defeated, right? The question was, “How...?”
Percy blinked at me dumbly. “What?” He frowned. “How what?”
“Kronos,” I croaked. “We stopped - ”
But Percy was shaking his head, his eyes wide. “Not ‘we’, Nico, You. You’re the one who stopped him. I don’t even know what you did, but... It all happened so fast. It was amazing, Nico.”
It must have been the maple syrup in my brain, but I wasn’t sure I remembered being amazing at all. Everything from the battle was kind of fuzzy, and before I’d really gotten the chance to process what Percy had said there was the sound of hoofbeats that echoed up through the ground and into my bones, and a new voice said, “I don’t care what it was, he’s my patient now so you’ll have to back off.”
Another shadow fell across my face, as Michael Yew inserted himself between Annabeth and Percy with an almost professional air. He just stared at me for a few seconds, but then his hands were on my face, feeling my temperature before sliding down the rest of my body as he peered into my eyes.
“How much ambrosia did you give him?” he asked, his head snapping up to Percy.
“Four squares.”
“Two would’ve been fine,” Michael said shortly, turning back to me. “Definitely a concussion, pupils are unevenly dilated... there’s nothing broken, that’s probably a miracle... arrow grazes...” He murmured to himself as he worked, while Percy and Annabeth stood to face Chiron, who had to be standing just out of my line of sight. Percy kept glancing back down at me though, and he tried to smile at me reassuringly.
“Well... this is not quite what I had expected,” I heard Chiron say with some trepidation. “When you said he raised the dead... I hadn’t quite envisioned so many of them.”
“Well, we didn’t know what we were facing,” Percy answered, duly sounding a bit chastised on my behalf. “It was a good idea.” I had to admit, it made my stomach feel warm and tingly to hear him defending me, even after I’d seen the look in his eyes when that army of corpses had first come marching up the street.
“Indeed not,” was all Chiron said for a moment, and there was silence as Michael continued checking me over.
“How many fingers?” Michael asked me, bringing my attention back to him as he held one hand up in front of my face.
I squinted painfully into the light. “Two - no, three...” It would’ve helped if his hand hadn’t kept blurring.
He sighed loudly, and reached over to his belt where he unclipped a waterbottle. He unscrewed the lid, holding it up to my lips. I almost expected it to be nectar, but it turned out to be just plain water. I realized that it tasted just as good to my parched throat as nectar ever had.
Then he pressed his fingers to my temples and began humming quietly in Ancient Greek - a healing prayer to Apollo, I realized. I’d already been tired, but I began to feel even drowsier until suddenly I opened my eyes again and realized that the world was a little less too bright and the ringing in my ears had gone quiet. Michael peered over my face, and I realized I must have passed out. I could’ve been out for seconds or minutes; I had no idea. There was a low murmur of voices in the background, telling me that Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron must still be talking.
“Pupils are equal,” he murmured to himself, and then he glanced over his shoulder to where Chiron was standing. “He’s okay to move now. But he should stay in bed when we get back to camp. He’s still got a concussion and some nasty cuts, not to mention exhaustion.” He looked down at me again. “Whatever it was you did that was so amazing, you used up every bit of energy you had doing it.”
“Very good,” Chiron said, coming into view as Michael pushed himself off the ground and made to help pull me to my feet.
Percy came over and offered a hand as well, and when I was finally upright (dizzy and nauseous, but upright), I realized how short Michael really was. For a minute I stared down at him, and he stared up at me, until he shook his head just slightly and turned to Chiron. “I really want to get him back - he shouldn’t stand for very long.”
The centaur nodded, looking at me and Percy. For a minute I had a decent view of the hill, and I realized just what kind of a mess we’d made - there were bodies strewn everywhere, even down the concrete steps and spilling out into the street. Some looked like they’d been hacked to bits and some had arrows sticking out of their flesh or bones, but some looked like intact (well, relatively) corpses that had simply been dropped to lie where they now rested. I couldn’t help but feel powerful and embarrassed all at once.
“Let’s get back to camp, then. We can discuss the matter further there,” Chiron finally said, flicking his tail as he looked around at the carnage littering the hillside. “I don’t think any of us want to be here when the police arrive and have to explain this to the papers.”
*
Percy woke Mrs. O’Leary, who was willing to carry the two of us back to camp via shadow travel. When we arrived she pretty much dropped where she’d stepped out of the shadows on the lawn of the Big House, dog-like snores already coming from her black snout. “Poor girl,” I murmured, patting her side as I slid down to the ground and Percy helped me stand a bit awkwardly, as he’d slid my sword through one of the beltloops on his jeans.
A moment later Chiron appeared, almost like a mirage - one minute there was nothing, and then the next it was like he shifted into focus and suddenly there he was, with Annabeth and Michael clinging to his back. The two of them slid down immediately, and Annabeth came over and took my other arm and together she and Percy helped me up the porch and into the sitting room of the Big House.
They deposited me in the biggest, fluffiest armchair in the room, the arms of which had doilies that looked like they might have been rescued at the last minute from one of Grover’s nervous chewing fits.
Michael followed us into the room with Chiron, but he stayed in the doorway and shifted from foot to foot. “Um... I can see if someone will give up their bed in the Hermes - ”
“I’m staying with Percy,” I said, my voice sounding as firm as I could make it. All the heads in the room swiveled to me; Percy’s face looked blank for a second before he began to smile, but Chiron didn’t look all that excited about what I’d just said.
“Nico,” he said slowly, like he was trying to explain to a small child why they couldn’t have a toy they wanted, “there is - ”
“Absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t stay with him,” I said, trying to sit up a little straighter in the recesses of the chair. “I’m not the son of Hermes and we all know that cabin is overcrowded.” Chiron didn’t look particularly convinced, and I sighed, feeling a little dizzy but holding his gaze nonetheless. “Look, we’re in no shape to do anything inappropriate or whatever you’re worried about, and Poseidon himself said he’s okay with us. I don’t think he’s going to strike me dead for sleeping in his cabin when I apparently got myself halfway there just fine earlier today.” Honestly, I’d already slept with Percy in that cabin once and Poseidon hadn’t seemed to care about that. I didn’t mention that part, though - I was pretty sure it wouldn’t help my argument any.
Percy coughed, but glanced at Chiron, who was looking unhappy, but not like he had a comeback to that. “He’s got a point...”
“There are plenty of free beds in Percy’s cabin,” Michael put in quietly, and when everyone turned to look at him, he just shrugged. “I’m just saying. He’s likely to get more rest there than he will in cabin eleven.”
“I’ll make sure he gets some rest. I swear,” Percy said solemnly.
After a minute Chiron sighed, but turned to look at Michael once more. “Very well. Thank you, Michael.”
“Yeah, thanks,” I echoed sincerely; the head of the Apollo cabin smiled at me and nodded, slipping out the door and closing it behind him.
“Now, Nico,” Chiron said, turning back to me with the full weight of his attention upon me, “I’ve heard Percy’s side of the story, but it’s a bit incomplete. Could you please tell me what you remember?”
I blinked, opening my mouth slightly as I tried to answer his question. What did I remember? I remembered fighting, and I remembered hurting, and I remembered thinking I had to confront Kronos - thinking that if I could just get to Luke, pull the mortal soul that was keeping Kronos alive out of his body...
“I - wait, I did it?”
I didn’t have to clarify what it was; Percy was nodding at me, his eyes dark. “You did something. I don’t even know what it was - it just looked... weird. Amazing. I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair, still dusty and sweaty. “Do you remember?”
“I...” I swallowed, flexing my fingers slightly. They felt stiff and sore. Then I looked at Annabeth, who’d been very quiet ever since we’d gotten back. She was standing next to Percy, her face pale and her gray eyes locked on mine. I didn’t know what Percy had told her. I didn’t know if any of them realized what I’d done.
“I let Luke go,” I said quietly, watching Annabeth as I spoke. “I thought... I mean, every time I was near Kronos I could just feel it, the way Luke’s soul was dying. So I just... gave him what he wanted.” I tried to explain everything to Annabeth silently, but all I could say out loud, finally, was, “I gave him peace.”
Annabeth’s face had gone even paler, and she was blinking rapidly, like she was trying not to cry. I didn’t blame her - I mean, Percy had told me about Annabeth and Luke, about how she’d always looked up to him. I knew that Percy suspected she loved Luke, even if she could never admit it. Hearing that I’d pretty much killed him... well, I wouldn’t be surprised if she started yelling at me. In fact, I was almost expecting it.
Instead, she swallowed and blinked a few more times. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet I almost couldn’t hear the words. “So he’s... gone, now? It’s over?”
I started to nod, the beginnings of an immense relief starting to wash over me, but just then Chiron held up a finger and said, “Actually... I think not quite.”
The three of us turned to look at him, and Chiron tilted his chin toward Percy. “Percy, can you tell Nico what you saw? Including what happened after he lost consciousness.”
Percy nodded. “It was kind of hard to see, once you started heading down the hill - but your eyes, Nico,” he said, staring right at me, “they looked... I don’t know. Possessed, maybe. They looked almost green, glowing... But you just walked right down the hill and past the dracaenae, and then I saw you grappling with Kronos. Your hands just disappeared and then I saw you pull something... I thought I saw some kind of mist around your hands for a second, but then I couldn’t make it out anymore.”
I realized that Percy probably hadn’t been able to see the full manifestation of Luke’s soul. But he’d seen part of it, probably because of the abilities he now shared with me. I wasn’t sure regular people - well, regular, non-sons-of-Hades half-bloods - could sense souls the way I could. And honestly, I hadn’t known I could hold them until just a few hours ago. I hadn’t even been sure it would work.
“Then he threw you off and his scythe suddenly turned back into Backbiter.” Percy went on, frowning a bit. “He started swinging it around wildly and screaming... there was this kind of snap! that... well, it wasn’t out loud, more like in my head.” He frowned. “After that, you stopped moving and Kronos crawled back into Medea’s car and they took off. The rest of their troops either scattered or got confused, so the battle didn’t last much longer than that.” He cocked a wry grin at me. “Which was good, because as soon as you went down, most of the corpses did too, and I was really afraid you were going to join them.”
I gave Percy a small, reassuring smile, but I couldn’t stop going over what he’d just told me in my head. Kronos had gotten back up again. He’d crawled into Medea’s car and retreated. But if I had actually succeeded in setting Luke free, his body should have died on the spot - Kronos should be gone for good. But he wasn’t...
“He cut it,” I said suddenly, and Chiron was looking at me now and nodding.
“What?” Annabeth asked, looking between us, confused and obviously not liking it. Her ponytail whipped back and forth as she turned her head. “Cut what?”
“His soul,” I said, realizing just what had happened. “When I pulled it out... he somehow caught the end of it and cut it.” I looked at Chiron. “So that means Kronos still has part of Luke’s soul. It’s how his body is still alive.”
“Wait, you’re saying Luke’s soul has been cut in two?” Annabeth asked, her voice starting to sound almost shrill. “You can cut people’s souls?”
“I guess you can,” Percy said, his face thoughtful.
Chiron nodded. “I believe it might have been possible, thanks to Backbiter’s... unique composition.”
Backbiter was half celestial bronze, and half tempered steel. It was a blade made to injure both mortals and immortals, and somehow the combination had done something that no other sword, save mine and others like it, could do. It had severed Luke’s soul, so that I’d only set free a part of it. The other part was still connected to his mortal body, keeping it alive and buying Kronos the time he needed...
But it wasn’t very much time. When I looked at Chiron, I could see that he knew it, too. “He doesn’t have much time left,” I said, and both Percy and Annabeth looked back at me. “He’s got even less of Luke’s soul left than he did before - he’s going to have to switch bodies soon. A lot sooner,” I saw Chiron nod, “than we thought.”
“And now that there exists a sixteen year-old son of Hades,” Chiron finished for me, “the final battle may be upon us much sooner than any of us thought.”
*
But the final battle wasn’t going to happen today - of that, at least, we could be sure. Kronos’ troops had not only been routed in Massachusetts, but also here, after they’d attacked the campers as they prepared to leave in order to help us.
Annabeth told us about how she’d just barely gotten everyone mobilized when the monsters had started to attack. The campers had gotten only a few miles north of the camp’s magically-protected borders when they’d been ambushed by a legion of monsters that sounded like it was at least twice the size of the attack force Kronos had brought to Bunker Hill.
“I don’t know how he knew, but he sent them to exactly where we were,” Annabeth finished, shaking her head. “It’s a wonder we didn’t lose anybody - I mean, not that I’m complaining,” she said quickly, “but the attack was just so precise... so...” She trailed off, her eyes going wide.
“A spy,” Percy said suddenly, and even as he said it, it made perfect sense. I felt my stomach go cold, but it might very well be the best - the only - explanation. “He’s got a spy in camp.”
Chiron’s mouth was set in a grim line, and he suddenly looked a lot older than he usually did. “I think Percy may be right,” he said quietly, after a pause.
“But who?” Annabeth demanded. “We know everyone here - I mean, sure, Kronos has recruited half-bloods to his cause,” she said, and cast a quick glance at me before looking back at Chiron, “but everyone here... I’d trust them with my life.”
“Except maybe Clarisse,” Percy muttered, but that only made Annabeth round on him.
“Clarisse may be a lot of things, but she’s not a spy!” she said.
Chiron took a step forward, placing his hands on Percy and Annabeth’s shoulders. “It won’t do to start accusing people just because they are sullen or hard to get along with,” he said, and that seemed to make Annabeth calm down a little. “I believe it would be wisest if this information never left this room.” He looked around at all of us, taking a step back as he did so. “We must proceed with the utmost caution. Blindly accusing others will get us nowhere.”
Percy finally nodded, and Annabeth’s jaw was set. Chiron looked to me, and I gave him a small nod as well. He was right, after all - I didn’t like Clarisse either, but I wasn’t ready to assume that she was working for Kronos. We couldn’t know what anybody was thinking, and going around pointing fingers would just do more harm than good. The only thing we could do for now was to operate with the utmost caution, and watch what we said.
“Now,” Chiron said, flicking his tail, “Nico looks about ready to collapse, and I think we all could do with some sleep as well.” He looked around the room at the three of us once more, and turned toward the door. “I will call a meeting of the heads of all the cabins tomorrow morning. This,” he said slowly, “includes Nico, even though there is no official Hades cabin.” He cast a glance over his shoulder that was hard to read - it might have been pride, or it might have been apology. It might even have been worry.
“Right,” I said, thinking that if I looked like I was ready to collapse, I felt like it was long overdue. I had a headache that had started to pulse with my heartbeat, and I suddenly wasn’t so sure, as I moved to try and get myself up off the chair, that I would even really be able to stand.
Percy seemed to get that, though, and he moved to my side, helping me up and supporting at least half my weight as he slung one of my arms around his shoulders. “Chiron’s right,” he said quietly, as the centaur opened the door and stepped out of the room. “You do look about ready to keel over.”
“I feel like it, too,” I told him, and he only nodded and started helping me out the door. Annabeth brought up the rear; the expression on her face made it clear that she was thinking, and hard, about this spy business. Or maybe she was thinking about Luke - about how his soul had been cut in two. I suddenly hoped she was thinking about the former.
She did step past us to hold the porch door open, however, and she helped Percy get me down the stairs. “Thanks,” I told her, and she just looked at me with those stormy gray eyes for a minute.
“Nico,” she said quietly, as we started down the path toward the cabins, “I want you to know that I think you did the right thing.”
I blinked. “What?”
“With - I mean, with Luke. Trying to set him free... I think you did the right thing.”
“Oh.” I watched her carefully, but she really did seem sincere. I thought about it for a minute, trying to imagine what it would be like if Percy was suffering like that. Would I really have been able to thank someone who had done - or tried to do - what I had?
After a minute, I could only think that yes, I could. If Percy had been suffering, with no way to save him... then how could I condemn someone who had tried to end that pain?
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say, as we neared the U-shape of cabins. “I wish there was more I could have done.”
But Annabeth only shook her head, and started walking a little faster. “It’s not your fault.” She looked from me to Percy and back again. “Either of you.” Her mouth curved upwards into a small smile, though it looked a bit watery, and she cocked her head in the direction of Percy’s cabin. “Now get some sleep, you two. I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” Percy and I echoed, before we trudged slowly towards the Poseidon cabin, our shoes scuffing along the path and kicking up small clouds of dirt. Most of the camp seemed eerily deserted - I wondered how much of it was because it was still early in the day, and how much of it was because every camper here had already been through an arduous battle before the sun had really cleared the horizon.
All I knew was that I’d be glad to get some sleep, knowing that we were safe - well, relatively safe, for now - and that I could spend the entire day in cabin three with Percy, and there was nothing anyone was going to do about it. Suddenly having a concussion didn’t seem all that bad. Well, except for the pain, the vertigo, and the nausea...
As cabin number three loomed up in front of us with its low, gray walls made of sea stone, the breeze made something flutter at the base of the door. Percy stopped, leaning down to pick up whatever it was off the doorstep. As he lifted it, I realized he was grasping a small envelope that looked like it was made from aged, crumbling parchment. On the back it read, in curling black script that it took my brain at least half a minute to decipher, Nico di Angelo.
Anyway, chapter 14, rated PG or whatever. Nothing bad here~ Also, a bit more borrowing of concepts from The Last Olympian - if you've read it, you'll recognize what they are. Not really spoilery, though, I suppose.
“Oh my gods, he’s freezing - ”
“Shut up - he’ll be fine.”
“Percy - ”
“He’ll be fine. See? He’s breathing. Do you have any ambrosia?”
“Yeah, it’s right here - look, Michael’s on his way. Mrs. O’Leary would only carry me, but Chiron said he’d bring help himself as soon as he was sure that camp was secure. If you want to Iris message them agai- ”
“Mmmn,” I moaned.
“Nico? Nico! Are you awake?”
I supposed “awake” was one word for it, if you defined it somewhat loosely. I blinked my eyes open slowly. My eyelids felt like sandpaper, and I should point out that they felt about a hundred million times better than the rest of my body did. My head felt like someone had it in a vise that was more than a little too tight, and every part of me hurt more than I could remember ever hurting in the past. On top of that, I was pretty sure someone had filled my brain with maple syrup, because all my thoughts were taking twice as long to actually make sense.
At first all I could see was bright yellow light, so bright that it hurt my eyes and I had to squint, which also hurt. Then I began to make out shadows above me - two people, leaning over me and blocking the light so their faces were lost in the contrast. But one of those people was grasping my hand tightly in his, and the other had blonde hair tumbling over her shoulder.
“P-Percy?” I mumbled. My tongue felt thick and dry. “Annabeth?”
“Yeah - yeah, it’s us. Don’t move, Nico, okay?” Percy glanced at Annabeth and while I couldn’t really make out his features, I could tell from the way that his voice was tight that he was worried. Really worried. “Give me the ambrosia.”
Annabeth fumbled in a pocket for a minute before she came up with a ziplock baggie full of ambrosia cut into small, bite-sized squares like every half-blood carried with them when they went on a quest. She handed the bag to Percy, who let go of my hand to pull it open and fish out a few squares. “Here. Just eat this and lie still, okay?”
Despite his warning, I tried to get up - I didn’t want to chew lying down, after all - but that turned out to be a really bad idea. My neck and head shot through with pain the instant I tried to move, and it was so bad that my vision actually fuzzed out in a shower of white sparks for a second.
“No! I told you not to move.” Percy almost glared down at me from what I could tell, but it was clear that he was more worried than I could remember ever seeing him. “Annabeth, can you...?”
Beside me, Annabeth shifted so that she could get her hands under my shoulders and head, and she lifted me up as gently as possible so I could chew the chocolate chip cookie-flavored square. Even my mouth hurt, but the ambrosia seemed to melt over my tongue and run down my throat, coating it with warmth and taking at least a little bit of the shooting pain with it.
Percy fed me another three squares without stopping, but then Annabeth reached over and stopped him with one hand on his wrist. “You really should wait for Michael,” she said, looking nervously at the bag in his hand before she looked at me again. “Look at his eyes.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about with my eyes, but although the ambrosia was starting to help with the pain, I guessed I understood what she meant. I was starting to feel pretty good, but it was a weird sort of good - there was still a lot of pain, but overlaid with that was this warm, tingly feeling, like a million little arcs of electricity were tickling across my skin. It felt nice, but I knew that no one but the gods could eat more than just a few bites of ambrosia without burning up from the inside out. And I had absolutely no desire to do that. After all, it looked like we’d won.
I could just barely see the tall obelisk of the Bunker Hill Monument towering behind Percy. Between it and us lay a great hulking mass with fur and four paws - Mrs. O’Leary, the hellhound. She was curled up on the grass napping, her tail beating against the ground tiredly. I could feel the tremors from it crawling through my body.
But if Annabeth and Percy were here... if they had time to be worried about me and talk about waiting for Michael (Michael Yew? He was the only Michael I knew, the new head of the Apollo Cabin, which I guessed that made him as close to a chief medic as Camp Half-Blood had), then we’d won. The army of Kronos was no longer here, so he must have been defeated, right? The question was, “How...?”
Percy blinked at me dumbly. “What?” He frowned. “How what?”
“Kronos,” I croaked. “We stopped - ”
But Percy was shaking his head, his eyes wide. “Not ‘we’, Nico, You. You’re the one who stopped him. I don’t even know what you did, but... It all happened so fast. It was amazing, Nico.”
It must have been the maple syrup in my brain, but I wasn’t sure I remembered being amazing at all. Everything from the battle was kind of fuzzy, and before I’d really gotten the chance to process what Percy had said there was the sound of hoofbeats that echoed up through the ground and into my bones, and a new voice said, “I don’t care what it was, he’s my patient now so you’ll have to back off.”
Another shadow fell across my face, as Michael Yew inserted himself between Annabeth and Percy with an almost professional air. He just stared at me for a few seconds, but then his hands were on my face, feeling my temperature before sliding down the rest of my body as he peered into my eyes.
“How much ambrosia did you give him?” he asked, his head snapping up to Percy.
“Four squares.”
“Two would’ve been fine,” Michael said shortly, turning back to me. “Definitely a concussion, pupils are unevenly dilated... there’s nothing broken, that’s probably a miracle... arrow grazes...” He murmured to himself as he worked, while Percy and Annabeth stood to face Chiron, who had to be standing just out of my line of sight. Percy kept glancing back down at me though, and he tried to smile at me reassuringly.
“Well... this is not quite what I had expected,” I heard Chiron say with some trepidation. “When you said he raised the dead... I hadn’t quite envisioned so many of them.”
“Well, we didn’t know what we were facing,” Percy answered, duly sounding a bit chastised on my behalf. “It was a good idea.” I had to admit, it made my stomach feel warm and tingly to hear him defending me, even after I’d seen the look in his eyes when that army of corpses had first come marching up the street.
“Indeed not,” was all Chiron said for a moment, and there was silence as Michael continued checking me over.
“How many fingers?” Michael asked me, bringing my attention back to him as he held one hand up in front of my face.
I squinted painfully into the light. “Two - no, three...” It would’ve helped if his hand hadn’t kept blurring.
He sighed loudly, and reached over to his belt where he unclipped a waterbottle. He unscrewed the lid, holding it up to my lips. I almost expected it to be nectar, but it turned out to be just plain water. I realized that it tasted just as good to my parched throat as nectar ever had.
Then he pressed his fingers to my temples and began humming quietly in Ancient Greek - a healing prayer to Apollo, I realized. I’d already been tired, but I began to feel even drowsier until suddenly I opened my eyes again and realized that the world was a little less too bright and the ringing in my ears had gone quiet. Michael peered over my face, and I realized I must have passed out. I could’ve been out for seconds or minutes; I had no idea. There was a low murmur of voices in the background, telling me that Percy, Annabeth, and Chiron must still be talking.
“Pupils are equal,” he murmured to himself, and then he glanced over his shoulder to where Chiron was standing. “He’s okay to move now. But he should stay in bed when we get back to camp. He’s still got a concussion and some nasty cuts, not to mention exhaustion.” He looked down at me again. “Whatever it was you did that was so amazing, you used up every bit of energy you had doing it.”
“Very good,” Chiron said, coming into view as Michael pushed himself off the ground and made to help pull me to my feet.
Percy came over and offered a hand as well, and when I was finally upright (dizzy and nauseous, but upright), I realized how short Michael really was. For a minute I stared down at him, and he stared up at me, until he shook his head just slightly and turned to Chiron. “I really want to get him back - he shouldn’t stand for very long.”
The centaur nodded, looking at me and Percy. For a minute I had a decent view of the hill, and I realized just what kind of a mess we’d made - there were bodies strewn everywhere, even down the concrete steps and spilling out into the street. Some looked like they’d been hacked to bits and some had arrows sticking out of their flesh or bones, but some looked like intact (well, relatively) corpses that had simply been dropped to lie where they now rested. I couldn’t help but feel powerful and embarrassed all at once.
“Let’s get back to camp, then. We can discuss the matter further there,” Chiron finally said, flicking his tail as he looked around at the carnage littering the hillside. “I don’t think any of us want to be here when the police arrive and have to explain this to the papers.”
*
Percy woke Mrs. O’Leary, who was willing to carry the two of us back to camp via shadow travel. When we arrived she pretty much dropped where she’d stepped out of the shadows on the lawn of the Big House, dog-like snores already coming from her black snout. “Poor girl,” I murmured, patting her side as I slid down to the ground and Percy helped me stand a bit awkwardly, as he’d slid my sword through one of the beltloops on his jeans.
A moment later Chiron appeared, almost like a mirage - one minute there was nothing, and then the next it was like he shifted into focus and suddenly there he was, with Annabeth and Michael clinging to his back. The two of them slid down immediately, and Annabeth came over and took my other arm and together she and Percy helped me up the porch and into the sitting room of the Big House.
They deposited me in the biggest, fluffiest armchair in the room, the arms of which had doilies that looked like they might have been rescued at the last minute from one of Grover’s nervous chewing fits.
Michael followed us into the room with Chiron, but he stayed in the doorway and shifted from foot to foot. “Um... I can see if someone will give up their bed in the Hermes - ”
“I’m staying with Percy,” I said, my voice sounding as firm as I could make it. All the heads in the room swiveled to me; Percy’s face looked blank for a second before he began to smile, but Chiron didn’t look all that excited about what I’d just said.
“Nico,” he said slowly, like he was trying to explain to a small child why they couldn’t have a toy they wanted, “there is - ”
“Absolutely no reason why I shouldn’t stay with him,” I said, trying to sit up a little straighter in the recesses of the chair. “I’m not the son of Hermes and we all know that cabin is overcrowded.” Chiron didn’t look particularly convinced, and I sighed, feeling a little dizzy but holding his gaze nonetheless. “Look, we’re in no shape to do anything inappropriate or whatever you’re worried about, and Poseidon himself said he’s okay with us. I don’t think he’s going to strike me dead for sleeping in his cabin when I apparently got myself halfway there just fine earlier today.” Honestly, I’d already slept with Percy in that cabin once and Poseidon hadn’t seemed to care about that. I didn’t mention that part, though - I was pretty sure it wouldn’t help my argument any.
Percy coughed, but glanced at Chiron, who was looking unhappy, but not like he had a comeback to that. “He’s got a point...”
“There are plenty of free beds in Percy’s cabin,” Michael put in quietly, and when everyone turned to look at him, he just shrugged. “I’m just saying. He’s likely to get more rest there than he will in cabin eleven.”
“I’ll make sure he gets some rest. I swear,” Percy said solemnly.
After a minute Chiron sighed, but turned to look at Michael once more. “Very well. Thank you, Michael.”
“Yeah, thanks,” I echoed sincerely; the head of the Apollo cabin smiled at me and nodded, slipping out the door and closing it behind him.
“Now, Nico,” Chiron said, turning back to me with the full weight of his attention upon me, “I’ve heard Percy’s side of the story, but it’s a bit incomplete. Could you please tell me what you remember?”
I blinked, opening my mouth slightly as I tried to answer his question. What did I remember? I remembered fighting, and I remembered hurting, and I remembered thinking I had to confront Kronos - thinking that if I could just get to Luke, pull the mortal soul that was keeping Kronos alive out of his body...
“I - wait, I did it?”
I didn’t have to clarify what it was; Percy was nodding at me, his eyes dark. “You did something. I don’t even know what it was - it just looked... weird. Amazing. I don’t know.” He ran a hand through his hair, still dusty and sweaty. “Do you remember?”
“I...” I swallowed, flexing my fingers slightly. They felt stiff and sore. Then I looked at Annabeth, who’d been very quiet ever since we’d gotten back. She was standing next to Percy, her face pale and her gray eyes locked on mine. I didn’t know what Percy had told her. I didn’t know if any of them realized what I’d done.
“I let Luke go,” I said quietly, watching Annabeth as I spoke. “I thought... I mean, every time I was near Kronos I could just feel it, the way Luke’s soul was dying. So I just... gave him what he wanted.” I tried to explain everything to Annabeth silently, but all I could say out loud, finally, was, “I gave him peace.”
Annabeth’s face had gone even paler, and she was blinking rapidly, like she was trying not to cry. I didn’t blame her - I mean, Percy had told me about Annabeth and Luke, about how she’d always looked up to him. I knew that Percy suspected she loved Luke, even if she could never admit it. Hearing that I’d pretty much killed him... well, I wouldn’t be surprised if she started yelling at me. In fact, I was almost expecting it.
Instead, she swallowed and blinked a few more times. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet I almost couldn’t hear the words. “So he’s... gone, now? It’s over?”
I started to nod, the beginnings of an immense relief starting to wash over me, but just then Chiron held up a finger and said, “Actually... I think not quite.”
The three of us turned to look at him, and Chiron tilted his chin toward Percy. “Percy, can you tell Nico what you saw? Including what happened after he lost consciousness.”
Percy nodded. “It was kind of hard to see, once you started heading down the hill - but your eyes, Nico,” he said, staring right at me, “they looked... I don’t know. Possessed, maybe. They looked almost green, glowing... But you just walked right down the hill and past the dracaenae, and then I saw you grappling with Kronos. Your hands just disappeared and then I saw you pull something... I thought I saw some kind of mist around your hands for a second, but then I couldn’t make it out anymore.”
I realized that Percy probably hadn’t been able to see the full manifestation of Luke’s soul. But he’d seen part of it, probably because of the abilities he now shared with me. I wasn’t sure regular people - well, regular, non-sons-of-Hades half-bloods - could sense souls the way I could. And honestly, I hadn’t known I could hold them until just a few hours ago. I hadn’t even been sure it would work.
“Then he threw you off and his scythe suddenly turned back into Backbiter.” Percy went on, frowning a bit. “He started swinging it around wildly and screaming... there was this kind of snap! that... well, it wasn’t out loud, more like in my head.” He frowned. “After that, you stopped moving and Kronos crawled back into Medea’s car and they took off. The rest of their troops either scattered or got confused, so the battle didn’t last much longer than that.” He cocked a wry grin at me. “Which was good, because as soon as you went down, most of the corpses did too, and I was really afraid you were going to join them.”
I gave Percy a small, reassuring smile, but I couldn’t stop going over what he’d just told me in my head. Kronos had gotten back up again. He’d crawled into Medea’s car and retreated. But if I had actually succeeded in setting Luke free, his body should have died on the spot - Kronos should be gone for good. But he wasn’t...
“He cut it,” I said suddenly, and Chiron was looking at me now and nodding.
“What?” Annabeth asked, looking between us, confused and obviously not liking it. Her ponytail whipped back and forth as she turned her head. “Cut what?”
“His soul,” I said, realizing just what had happened. “When I pulled it out... he somehow caught the end of it and cut it.” I looked at Chiron. “So that means Kronos still has part of Luke’s soul. It’s how his body is still alive.”
“Wait, you’re saying Luke’s soul has been cut in two?” Annabeth asked, her voice starting to sound almost shrill. “You can cut people’s souls?”
“I guess you can,” Percy said, his face thoughtful.
Chiron nodded. “I believe it might have been possible, thanks to Backbiter’s... unique composition.”
Backbiter was half celestial bronze, and half tempered steel. It was a blade made to injure both mortals and immortals, and somehow the combination had done something that no other sword, save mine and others like it, could do. It had severed Luke’s soul, so that I’d only set free a part of it. The other part was still connected to his mortal body, keeping it alive and buying Kronos the time he needed...
But it wasn’t very much time. When I looked at Chiron, I could see that he knew it, too. “He doesn’t have much time left,” I said, and both Percy and Annabeth looked back at me. “He’s got even less of Luke’s soul left than he did before - he’s going to have to switch bodies soon. A lot sooner,” I saw Chiron nod, “than we thought.”
“And now that there exists a sixteen year-old son of Hades,” Chiron finished for me, “the final battle may be upon us much sooner than any of us thought.”
*
But the final battle wasn’t going to happen today - of that, at least, we could be sure. Kronos’ troops had not only been routed in Massachusetts, but also here, after they’d attacked the campers as they prepared to leave in order to help us.
Annabeth told us about how she’d just barely gotten everyone mobilized when the monsters had started to attack. The campers had gotten only a few miles north of the camp’s magically-protected borders when they’d been ambushed by a legion of monsters that sounded like it was at least twice the size of the attack force Kronos had brought to Bunker Hill.
“I don’t know how he knew, but he sent them to exactly where we were,” Annabeth finished, shaking her head. “It’s a wonder we didn’t lose anybody - I mean, not that I’m complaining,” she said quickly, “but the attack was just so precise... so...” She trailed off, her eyes going wide.
“A spy,” Percy said suddenly, and even as he said it, it made perfect sense. I felt my stomach go cold, but it might very well be the best - the only - explanation. “He’s got a spy in camp.”
Chiron’s mouth was set in a grim line, and he suddenly looked a lot older than he usually did. “I think Percy may be right,” he said quietly, after a pause.
“But who?” Annabeth demanded. “We know everyone here - I mean, sure, Kronos has recruited half-bloods to his cause,” she said, and cast a quick glance at me before looking back at Chiron, “but everyone here... I’d trust them with my life.”
“Except maybe Clarisse,” Percy muttered, but that only made Annabeth round on him.
“Clarisse may be a lot of things, but she’s not a spy!” she said.
Chiron took a step forward, placing his hands on Percy and Annabeth’s shoulders. “It won’t do to start accusing people just because they are sullen or hard to get along with,” he said, and that seemed to make Annabeth calm down a little. “I believe it would be wisest if this information never left this room.” He looked around at all of us, taking a step back as he did so. “We must proceed with the utmost caution. Blindly accusing others will get us nowhere.”
Percy finally nodded, and Annabeth’s jaw was set. Chiron looked to me, and I gave him a small nod as well. He was right, after all - I didn’t like Clarisse either, but I wasn’t ready to assume that she was working for Kronos. We couldn’t know what anybody was thinking, and going around pointing fingers would just do more harm than good. The only thing we could do for now was to operate with the utmost caution, and watch what we said.
“Now,” Chiron said, flicking his tail, “Nico looks about ready to collapse, and I think we all could do with some sleep as well.” He looked around the room at the three of us once more, and turned toward the door. “I will call a meeting of the heads of all the cabins tomorrow morning. This,” he said slowly, “includes Nico, even though there is no official Hades cabin.” He cast a glance over his shoulder that was hard to read - it might have been pride, or it might have been apology. It might even have been worry.
“Right,” I said, thinking that if I looked like I was ready to collapse, I felt like it was long overdue. I had a headache that had started to pulse with my heartbeat, and I suddenly wasn’t so sure, as I moved to try and get myself up off the chair, that I would even really be able to stand.
Percy seemed to get that, though, and he moved to my side, helping me up and supporting at least half my weight as he slung one of my arms around his shoulders. “Chiron’s right,” he said quietly, as the centaur opened the door and stepped out of the room. “You do look about ready to keel over.”
“I feel like it, too,” I told him, and he only nodded and started helping me out the door. Annabeth brought up the rear; the expression on her face made it clear that she was thinking, and hard, about this spy business. Or maybe she was thinking about Luke - about how his soul had been cut in two. I suddenly hoped she was thinking about the former.
She did step past us to hold the porch door open, however, and she helped Percy get me down the stairs. “Thanks,” I told her, and she just looked at me with those stormy gray eyes for a minute.
“Nico,” she said quietly, as we started down the path toward the cabins, “I want you to know that I think you did the right thing.”
I blinked. “What?”
“With - I mean, with Luke. Trying to set him free... I think you did the right thing.”
“Oh.” I watched her carefully, but she really did seem sincere. I thought about it for a minute, trying to imagine what it would be like if Percy was suffering like that. Would I really have been able to thank someone who had done - or tried to do - what I had?
After a minute, I could only think that yes, I could. If Percy had been suffering, with no way to save him... then how could I condemn someone who had tried to end that pain?
“I’m sorry,” was all I could say, as we neared the U-shape of cabins. “I wish there was more I could have done.”
But Annabeth only shook her head, and started walking a little faster. “It’s not your fault.” She looked from me to Percy and back again. “Either of you.” Her mouth curved upwards into a small smile, though it looked a bit watery, and she cocked her head in the direction of Percy’s cabin. “Now get some sleep, you two. I’ll see you later.”
“Later,” Percy and I echoed, before we trudged slowly towards the Poseidon cabin, our shoes scuffing along the path and kicking up small clouds of dirt. Most of the camp seemed eerily deserted - I wondered how much of it was because it was still early in the day, and how much of it was because every camper here had already been through an arduous battle before the sun had really cleared the horizon.
All I knew was that I’d be glad to get some sleep, knowing that we were safe - well, relatively safe, for now - and that I could spend the entire day in cabin three with Percy, and there was nothing anyone was going to do about it. Suddenly having a concussion didn’t seem all that bad. Well, except for the pain, the vertigo, and the nausea...
As cabin number three loomed up in front of us with its low, gray walls made of sea stone, the breeze made something flutter at the base of the door. Percy stopped, leaning down to pick up whatever it was off the doorstep. As he lifted it, I realized he was grasping a small envelope that looked like it was made from aged, crumbling parchment. On the back it read, in curling black script that it took my brain at least half a minute to decipher, Nico di Angelo.