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Just note that this was written prior to Rick's coming out party for Nico. He's written the way I perceived him and I'm not going to charge my plot around when he's not a vital character to this particular story. I'm sorry if that angers or offends some people. I think Nico's sexuality is cool and fine with me and totally better for Rick to portray since it's his character.

I don't know if I ever put i disclaimer, I don't remember, but obviously I don't own PJO characters, only Aria.

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Chapter Five

One of the Stoll’s lead me over to Percy’s table, after the glowing and the hailing. I didn’t like the whispers and I didn’t like the attention, so I ducked my head. Of course, it was no use, but the effort kept my mind off things for about three seconds.

I sat at the stone table across from Percy, who looked sort of pale. I ignored his gaze because I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say to him. ‘Cool, we’re siblings.’ didn’t seem fit for this situation. Chiron declared that we can eat and two dozen green skinned girls started bringing plates of food into the mess hall. One sets two large plates on our table and scurries off to wherever. It seemed to draw Percy back to the real world, though.

“I thought he was joking.” he mumbled and I looked up. We locked eyes and I immediately felt stupid. We looked alike. Same dark hair and features, but the eyes were a dead giveaway. Sea green like the Caribbean Sea. The ones that I had seen everyday in the mirror and I didn’t notice that my closest friend shared them.

“What?” I asked, looking down at the food. It all looked great, but the current situation had caused me to lose my appetite.

“Dad-” he cut off, “Poseidon said he’d had other demigod children, but I can swear on the River Styx that I thought he was kidding.”

I snorted before I could stop myself. I was a little pissed that Percy got to meet Daddy Dearest and I didn’t even know who he was until five minutes ago. “You talk to him?”

“Not since last summer.” he replied, his tone was off like he was angry about it. There was silence and I looked to see him loading his plate with food. I copied him, just to do something. He stood up from his seat and I peered at him in question. “Come on.” he said, grabbing his plate of food.

I stood up and noticed that almost everyone is up with their plate in their hands. They were all headed to a huge fire pit. As we both get closer, I realized that they were dropping a proportion of their meals into the flames. “Are you people crazy?” I muttered to Percy, but it was a little louder than I expected and a few campers turned to glare at me.

“Burnt offerings to the gods.” Percy explained while laughing. We approached the pit and he scraped food in. He mumbled a few words, I don’t catch. I figured it was a prayer, I mean I wasn’t dense.

I copied him, but since I couldn’t come up with some glorious speech, I just blurted out “Enjoy.” and hurried back to the table. Percy was already eating. “So, how does this work?” I asked him as he chewed.

“What do you mean?” he managed with a full mouth of food. I rolled my eyes at him.

“Should I start calling you my brother, now?” I began. “And where do I sleep? What’s with all the weapons? Why did everyone seem surprised that Poseidon’s my dad?”

He dropped his fork, clearly overwhelmed by my questions. Annabeth fell onto the seat next to him and answered, “Poseidon is one of the three elder gods.” she leveled. “Children of elder gods are dangerous and attract monsters more than any other demigod. Everyone is wondering why you’re alive.”

I gave her a puzzled look, while Percy glanced over at the head table, warily. “You’re saying that I should be dead?”

Annabeth shrugged, “I’m saying that they fact that you’re alive is miraculous. Most demigods can only make it to twelve.”

“You’re fifteen and a child of the Big Three. Those are very slim odds.” Percy finished for her. She seemed annoyed by it, but he nodded his head toward the head table and she sighed.

She stood up from the table, "I'll catch up with you guys later." she huffed and stomped towards her table. I decided not to ask, because I had about a thousand more important questions.

"So, are there any other children of the 'Big Three'?" I asked him, trying to avoid an awkward silence.

He nodded and swallowed the food he was chewing. "There's Thalia, she's a daughter of Zeus, but she's a hunter, now so she's almost never around and there's also Nico, son of Hades. He stops by from time to time." He then wrinkled his nose at what I figured was a memory. "Usually bad times."

"How was I supposed to know that you and Annabeth were making out?" A voice joked from behind me. I turn to see a kid, well he was maybe fourteen standing behind me. He had pale skin, but the rest of him was dark, from his hair to his wardrobe.

I turned back to Percy as he spoke, his face was unmistakably red. "What are you doing here, Di Angelo?" he questioned the kid.

"My dad was a little pissed when he heard the news about your dad breaking the pact twice." He explained. "Came here to see for myself."

I looked to Percy in confusion. "What pact?"

"One that no longer exists." Percy shot at the boy, he wasn't angry, but was clear on the point he was trying to make. "Uh, after World War II, the Big Three made a pact to never sire anymore demigods." he then said to me. "I made them get rid of it because it didn't work."

The kid snorted, "That's his nice way of saying you shouldn't exist."

I turned to the kid, once more. Ignoring the jibe. "Aren't you just a ray of sunshine?"

"It is his duty as a son of Hades to be perpetually depressing." Percy joked.

"You're Nico?" I said in shock. I mean, I had never met a son of Hades, at least to my knowledge, but I guess I never expected him to be a fourteen year old. I shook off the thought. "But aren't you not supposed to be alive too, then?"

Nico looked deep in thought, for a few seconds. "No, but I should be sixty or seventy."

I glanced at Percy and he was smirking, so I throw my hands up in defeat. "I don't wanna know, don't tell me."

He looked as if he was going to reply, but he is cut off by the sound of an explosion is the distance, or at least what I thought an explosion sounds like, I didn’t have a clue. It’s not like I was familiar with deadly explosion or something. The entire camp went silent then, several campers stand up from there tables. I looked to Percy, who has a mixed look of confusion and worry.

A girl with fiery red hair dashed into the mess hall, catching all of our attention. “Rachel?” I gasped. Rachel was my best friend at one point, well that was until she switched to that boring socialite school. We hadn’t really kept contact.

She didn't even glance at me and I would have been upset, but the words that came out of her mouth were a good enough explanation. "The Big House is burning." she announced, grimly.

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That's it for now, people. Sorry for the late updates. Thanks for reading. Love you guys a ton.

Notes