When MYTHS Become Real

It was one of those dreams where I knew I was asleep but I couldn't control my own body. I knew instantly where my mind or subconscious or whatever had taken me: Camp Half-Blood. The dining pavilion at dinnertime, to be exact. And nothing was right.
Most of the kids there looked We absolutely lost. Chiron, Clarisse, the Stoll brothers and a few others were doing their best to keep order, but with that many amnesiac kids it was virtually impossible.
Percy was over at the Poseidon table away from everyone else with Annabeth. He looked so worried and tired and my stomach dropped out. She, however, simply looked amused. She dropped her trusty dagger to the ground and giggled like a little girl. Percy sighed, bent to pick it up.
"No, Annabeth," he said patiently, "you need this. I'm going to show you how to use it so that you'll be able to protect yourself."
She giggled again."You're silly. Protect myself from what?"
Just then a loud roaring noise echoed out and the valley shook under my feet. All of the campers still trained for battle jumped into action and booked it up the hill to Thalia's tree. I followed them and stopped in my tracks when I reached the crest. I wasn't sure what I was seeing at first because it looked like the ground itself was moving in waves. Then one of the thick shapes untangled itself from the mass and reared up and I saw a giant acid colored snake, about the size of the one from the Anacondas movie and had spikes on its tail.
"What is that thing?" Percy shouted.
"Hey, I'm not the brainy one," Clarisse fired back. "For the first time ever I'll admit that we could use Wise-Girl."
"Well she's a little indisposed right now and there's no way in Hades I'm letting her near this mess in her state."
The hoard of snakes slithered closer to the Camp's border. One of them that seemed braver than the rest tried to break past the magic that kept the valley safe. The impact rattled the ground and I could actually see the chink it made in the camp's armor.
"Archers ready," Percy yelled. "Fire!"
Arrows from the Apollo cabin rained down in the slithering pile but only succeeded in turning one or two to dust. The hissing sound the snakes were making intensified and spikes shot out from their tasks and past the barriers, straight toward the campers. Each spike was as long as I was tall and one of the poisonous-looking things was heading right at my brother.
"Percy, look out!" I screeched.
My eyes popped open and I sat up in my cot so quickly that I gave myself whiplash. I was sweating and breathing hard and it took a moment to get my bearings back. Nico knelt at the edge of my bed looking worried. "You okay?"
"No... I mean, yeah," I added at his concerned look. "I mean, I'm fine, but Camp is under attack. Percy... Percy might be in trouble and Annabeth isn't there to help him."
"Ugh, what's with all the noise? Sleep was your guys' idea so why are you waking everyone up?" Kaya complained.
My bright eyes narrowed at her. "Camp Half-Blood is under attack Annabeth, the only one who would know how to stop those monsters, is useless thanks to you."
At least she had the decency to look ashamed. "If you remember correctly, it was supposed to be Percy Jackson to forget. Mnemosyne wanted him out of the way while I brought you here and she sent an army to last waste on your camp."
"Kaya!" Nico growled at her. He did not look happy but I doubted he was as pissed off as me.
"I'm sorry, Nico. It was the only way."
I yanked my barrette out, ripping a few strands of hair from my head in the process, and jabbed the icy tip of my sword to the base of her throat. If she even swallowed the sharp blade would poke her throat out. Her eyes widened and the snake hissed at me but it didn't attack when I had such an upper hand.
“Get up,” I snapped.
Slowly, with her hands defensively in the air she did as she was told. “Look, Naida, I don't want to fight you.”
“Obviously,” I snarled indicating to the sword still at her neck. “That'd be a bad idea.”
She licked her lips nervously. “Well, I'm not stupid. But I don't want to fight you. I believe in your cause but I'm not siding against Mnemosyne. Truth is, I know exactly where she's waiting for you. She made me agree to our deal. Nico's not the guide, I lied to both of you about that. The only reason that he's here is because I can't help you, but maybe he can.”
I bit my tongue to keep from lashing out at her. Was she trying to make me miserable? This quest sucked with him here. Hmm, maybe a little dip in the forgetfulness river didn't sound too bad right now. Then at least no one could bug me about this hero crap and I wouldn't be a heartbroken wreck.
Okay, enough. Time to get down to business. “How do I find her?”
She swallowed back a lump in her throat and a line of golden ichor, immortal blood, beaded on her pale white skin. “Naida...” I wasn't backing down. She sighed and continued. “She's in the Fields of Punishment. Once you pass the barbed wire, it's actually pretty easy to navigate through there. She wanted me to take you to the one place where your powers would never work.”
“Where's that?”
“She's with Ixion, hoping that the fire around him will weaken you or something.”
I lowered my blade and glared at her. “Look, I feel sorry for you, I really do, but I kept my end of the bargain. I let you bring me down here but I think that I can handle myself from now on.”
“Wait, what? You're going to get yourself killed you know.”
I shrugged. “Maybe, but you said yourself that you wouldn't help me. Besides, I trust myself on my own more than I trust you.” I grabbed my bag and hauled it over my shoulder and stormed out of the tent.
“Naida, wait up,” Nico called as he caught up with me. “If you think I'm letting you go out there alone, you're crazy.”
I almost smiled back at him but this wasn't the same boy that I'd fallen for last winter. He was different and didn't even know who I was. I wasn't going to make myself suffer through that if I could help it. “Well then I must be crazy. Look, Nico, I'm really sorry that Kaya dragged you into this and I really appreciate you wanting to help, but I'll be fine.”
His cool fingers tangled in mine and he gently tugged me to his side. A small gasp escaped my lips as I glanced down at our entwined hands. I let out a contented sigh and for just a second I could imagine us together like this on the beach back at Camp. It felt natural to be with Nico and I could admit to myself that I wanted him.
“I'm not letting you do this alone,” he all but whispered to me.
I had to swallow back a pleasured moan. Protective Nico was hot, I'll admit that.
“Nico, I think that I have to. But if you really want to help, Camp Half-Blood needs you more than I do right now. Please, go and make sure that nothing happens to my brother. Please?”
His pitch black eyes stared into mine for a long moment before he ran his free hand through his thick hair. “Be careful.”
I nodded once and pulled my hand free of his. We stood there for a long moment just looking at each other. There was so much that I wanted to say to him, maybe yell at him for forgetting me or not returning my calls or maybe just apologize for being so petty when none of my broken heart was really his fault anyway. But none of it matter because he didn't know me, didn't know our history.
So I wasn't sure which one of us was more surprised when he through is arms around my waist in a bone-crushing hug and whispered, “Come back to me.”
I bit my lower lip to keep from crying when I pulled back. With only a smile, I turned my back on Nico and started out toward the darkest depths of hell.

Notes

okay, 1. i'm really sorry that this chapter has taken me so long to get out. tbh, i haven't been to inspired to write this story, i know where i want it to go but i'm not sure how i want to get there. but here it is (finally)
2. thank you SO much tmcar1 for always commenting ;)